My hands ghosted over Rei's bruised and swollen face. Her breath came raggedly, and from a few small cuts, she bled quickly.

In my previous life, I'd heard that facial wounds bled the most; I'd seen it enough to be accustomed to it.

That somewhat sickened me.

When had I grown so callous about seeing my friends broken like this?

Despite the vector of my thoughts I clinically swept my eyes over Rei's form for anything that was more serious.

They'd beaten her badly but not done much else. Perhaps in the future… I didn't want to consider what people like that might do. What man might do when they raised the worst of us in the worst of ways.

I reached down and squeezed Rei's hand. She shot me a smile. "Gob du—" I put a soft finger on her lips.

"Ssh, I can wait." I lifted the finger. "Don't worry about reporting, for now, it can wait," I said as I continued to heal her. It took an hour of effort and slow, methodical care, but I had her almost as good as she'd been this morning.

She smiled at me and grimaced slightly. "Still a bit of soreness?" I asked. She nodded, and I sighed. "The body is still going to be tender and reeling from the abuse. Even with everything healed up as best as I can, there is still a lot of stress and tenderness." I ran my finger over said point. "Take it easy for the next few days where you can, yeah?"

"Yah! Thanks!" She shot straight into a sitting position, and I gave her a stern look that she ignored. "So! I got to the new kids after their first class and got to talk to them all like you wanted! Some of them have agreed to meet us tomorrow!"

"Good." I rubbed my chin. "That's good, It should take a bit longer than that to have the clans gobble them up, so we've got some time to work with the non-clan kids." I gestured to her face. "And then you ran into the Kaguya kids?"

"And then I ran into the Kaguya kids… I wasn't able to get away this time."

"Did you throw any punches?"

"... a few," Rei said quietly like that was some personal failing.

I sighed. "We need to keep working on how to get you out of situations like that." I patted her on the shoulder gently. "It's a good thing we had Sharkbait and two others backing you up."

Rei nodded and glanced at the kids in question that she'd had with her. "Thanks for getting me out of there before they could hurt me worse!"

The kids all smiled weakly at her. They'd been slow in reacting to the aggression that the Kaguya kids had unleashed.

The Kaguya, depending on their mood, might fight you or ignore you. It was tough to judge the Kaguya, almost as bad as the Hozuki kids. The Hozuki were more mercurial, they'd help and hinder or sometimes do nothing for any host of reasons.

I glanced at Kizan who nodded himself. "I was just as successful with the kids I caught up with… but I didn't get into any fights." Shoto nodded from behind Kizan to confirm his words.

I grunted and looked to the others I had assigned the task. All of them nodded, and I exhaled. "Alright, that's one part of the mission done. From here what I want to set up with them is—"

I didn't have great hopes for the year below us. There would need to be a leader who could keep them strong to have anything like what we had. I knew that our group was an outlier, and the chances of it repeating in lower years was much lower.

Unless I intervened.

I'd need to hold their hands a lot, I suspected, but an extra feather in my cap for further intelligence gains would be worth it if I could manage it. They'd have further chances to collect jutsu or information. A stronger intelligence network didn't just mean wider, but also deeper and more robust, with fail-safes if possible.

I had three years in the academy to get me and mine into as strong a position as possible. I also needed to solve the graduation dilemma. Something I had a vague idea of. I'd been toying with the issue since I'd first realised where and when I was. And now, with some understanding of the ocean and its depths with some of the players I was starting to form an idea of what I could do.

The trick would be to cause a wave. A wave big enough that I could stop everything, much like Zabuza would in canon. But I wanted my wave to be very different in nature.

The trick would be getting everyone to follow my lead.

Soemthing easier said than done. For that, I'd need to lock down the Hozuki-Terumi conflict. Have both agreed to follow my lead. Then I'd also need to have the Kaguya, the kids who'd see the graduation ceremony as further validation of their mindset of might making right.

There was an opportunity there. I had the Terumi group thinking favourably of me, which was something. Sadly, it came at the expense of the Hozuki. I wanted to be able to discard the Hozuki but that wasn't a mindset I could afford to have. Not now, and perhaps not ever.

The Kaguya were battle-crazed, with so much of their culture focusing on fighting. Himeko despite her own skill, was an oddity. She was good at fighting and liked winning, but she didn't place it above everything else like her clansmen.

I looked around at my motley crew of civilian-born academy kids. We were second-years now. No longer the lowest on the totem pole but still so very precariously set up.

In Kirigakure we were nothing, forget the rest of the Elemental Nations.

Still, we were getting better. Hanahime Terumi had come through with the Henge, the replacement jutsu, a lightning hand jutsu— the Lightning zap jutsu— and a wind jutsu — the Gale palm jutsu— for saving Chichi's life. That alongside the jutsu we'd observed from around the academy and from the expeditions made for a wonderful arsenal.

It made a wonderful carrot for the first-year civilian-born students to sign on with us and our method. The promise of scraps compared to the tangible benefits we gave resulted in a much greater shift in dynamics for the year below us. I had Kizan take over the first years. I made sure to make a great display of entrusting it to him. He'd puffed up like a peacock at the praise I'd laid on him while Shoto rolled his eyes behind Kizan's back.

I'd had to temper him. Make it so that the new kids earnt what they were given, lest they think themselves entitled to it.

As though our hard work hadn't made it possible for them. Thankfully, the brutality of the academy made teaching them rather easy. The Academy was great for beating them down. Being the ones to point out the lessons and offer something to support them made us like angels to them even as we explained what we wanted in return to them.

I think after the second and third years returned to class properly and began the time-honoured tradition of beating downwards. The first years fell into our waiting arms, more than happy to sign themselves to us.

Tenpora and the other instructors we'd had previously remained the same. Apparently, it was something of an tradition to keep the same instructors to the same batch of students. He looked terribly amused with us on the first day. When the first lecture was done a genjutsu brush past my ear.

"Watch out for the first-year instructors kid. You're not just messing with the clan children but also some of the instructors by doing what you're doing. It won't take them long to work out what's going on," Tenpora whispered from the other side of the room to me.

I gave a faint nod and crushed the genjutsu before covering my hands as I ran throug the seals for the genjutsu he'd given me at the end of last year. The whisper genjutsu, a wonderfully versatile jutsu i'd found.

"I'll keep that in mind," I sent back to him. He merely smiled before announcing to the class it was time to spar.

"First up! Matsu and Himeko! Let's see if your streak continues Himeko!" he announced.

A frisson of tension went through the rest of the class, for them it had been a few weeks since the last match. In truth we'd paused for a month. Two of those weeks were for the intake of new students, while the rest was for the Academy to work through paperwork and assigning instructors.

I knew from my continual spars with Himeko during the break that I would have my work cut out for me. While I was pulled in many different directions for my training, Himeko practised taijutsu with a single minded focus that paid off.

My group knew that, but the others didn't, so they broke into whispers about who'd win and if I'd get beaten faster. Shoto loudly reminded the entire class that while Himeko was number one, I was number two in the rankings.

They all shot him hate-filled looks for that, but he just grinned.

When we reached the sparring area, we formed up across from each other. Tenpora considered us before nodding once. "Weapons allowed."

I grimaced as Himeko instantly formed up blades along her forearms while her legs gained small protrusions that would make her deadly to close with. I merely hefted my cheap wooden staff and loosened up as much as I could.

My body and mind relaxed. all extraneous information was ignored. I knew the kids were there but that they weren't part of the fight… right now. They encircled us like usual and if we got too close they would strike. It made the fights much more intense, but prevented many bad habits from forming.

I exhaled right as Tenpora dropped his hand.

Himeko exploded into action. Her first move was to leap forward while lashing out with a double haymaker.

I spun my staff and sent her punches spinning away before trying to kick her in the neck and claim the win.

She snapped a leg up, and I had to grip the ground with my other leg and twist. My muscles clenched at the demands I was putting them under, but I avoided the strike.

I dug the tip of my staff into the ground and flicked it up as fast as I could to throw dirt in her eyes, only for her to kneel and go to all fours to charge.

I let my chakra in my leg violently erupt, so I was launched up and over her at the same time as I lumped with one leg. I soared for a second, twisting through the air as my staff stabbed at Himeko's exposed back, only for her to twist and knock my attack away.

I landed facing her; our positions had changed from the start of the fight, with her now in my place and me in hers.

She broke off sections of bone and hurled them forward like kunai. I swept them out of the air, my staff flicking and batting away the threat as people around the circle suddenly had to protect themselves from becoming collateral.

With my staff forced out of position, she advanced carefully, choking me out of room as she continued the throw bone weapons at me that she had an unlimited supply of.

I'd been forced into this situation enough times to know it never worked well for me. Sadly, there wasn't much I could do against her. Her protruding bones worked as wonderful weapons as well as pseudo armour that blocked me from striking weaker points of her body, such as joints or her organs.

I swatted away a final bone only to duck low and try to riposte my staff into a single point of her chest that was just—

Himeko stomped down on my staff, and I released it. It wouldn't help me any more and I moved in only for her to fire off a barrage of punches that I blocked, endured, or was knocked back from. I kept my guard up and while my arms became a wall of pain from her punches then I heard bones sliding out of her knuckles, so I stopped blocking and started dodging.

I regretted ever helping her with her bone weapons. Bone claws like Wolverine had and talons from her feet were way too dangerous!

She swept her hands, and I leaned back before throwing myself to the side to avoid being gutted only for her to stab me through the thigh and backhand me.

Her bones ripped part of my face open and I slammed into the ground and groaned in pain.

Himeko advanced on me and for a single moment, I thought she was going to carry through and try to end me.

I started preparing myself to use ninjutsu only for Himeko to stand over me with a claw extended. "Yield?"

"Yeah," I groaned out. "Why the face?"

"You're too pretty," she said before sucking the protruding bone back into her body and stalking off. I lay there only for Tenpora to appear above me.

"Hmmmm, still can't match her huh Matsu? Well lets get you to the medic and cleaned up," he said pointedly.

I considered pointing out that I could heal myself before shrugging it off. I wasn't going to pass up more of a chance to gather information from a medic that must have had more experience than me. As I was lifted up by Mizuna the Hozuki tittered among themselves.

"Heh, Matsu always coming second to her. Must sting!" they joked. I grimaced. I had a lot of demands on my time but I couldn't deny that not seeing the gap close between myself and Himeko in taijutsu matches did sting.

I knew I was getting stronger, it just wasn't showing itself in this instance.

As I was carried to the medic I considered the only known people in the Naruto series to have handily defeated a Kaguya on screen. Even that had been a dubious victory in the end. Rock Lee had done it with his highly unpredictable and dangerous Drunken fist style. This was backed up by Taijutsu being his strongest ability.

He'd still almost died.

Then Gaara had basically had to flood the field Kimimaro was in with sand and that too had almost not been enough.

Kaguya, if they were skilled and determined enough, were dangerous. Himeko easily achieved that classification.

And she was still only the third strongest Kaguya in our year.

She followed my suggestions probably only due to being able to force her to fight properly at this point. She was too much for others. Perhaps the other reason she followed my suggestions with our group and when we linked up during the expeditions was due to that first interaction we had where I knocked her out?

I liked to think she didn't cling too strongly to the might is right philosophy these days, but I couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

The medic healed me up in record time and I barely got to ask about how to restore a person's hearing from ruptured ears before being tossed outside and having to return to the academy. The other matches were still underway and I arrived in time to watch Kizan struggle against a Hozuki kid that could make part of his body into water.

Kizan was able to keep wearing him down and eventually, he claimed the victory due to the Hozuki boy being exhausted. I clapped him on the shoulder when Tenpora announced his win while the Hozuki boy glared at Kizan's back.

Kizan rose up to seventh with that victory. The Hozuki kid scowled even more as his name dropped down the leaderboard. "Tch! Not like it matters when we get to use ninjutsu you're all fucked!"

I watched the others and considered my problems going forward. The Hozuki were duplicitous and loved to screw with people. Getting them on board would be a task in and of itself. I needed a reason to make our interests align.

It suited the clans all too much for the graduation to continue as it was.

I ran a hand over my thankfully scarless face as I flicked my eyes to Himeko, who was now standing with a small pocket of space around her. After she'd thrashed me, the other civy kids obviously hadn't wanted to include her. I huffed and made a mental note to remind them that her going that rough on me in training was a good thing. She was doing me a kindness in this moment… as messed up as that line of logic was, it still held true.

Himeko, however, was a part of the larger Kaguya problem. They'd love the current graduation.

It'd be us all turning on each other at the behest of our instructors at that special site. The one all the kids in the know talked about but never visited until their final expedition.

The Skull cliffs.

I could almost picture it in my mind, even though I'd never been there before. I marked that down as something I needed to change. Knowing the battle would prove too valuable. Perhaps I could fake a sickness and sneak aboard with the older kids?

Zabuza had to have done something similar. He hadn't been part of the academy according to his tragic backstory. I'd already been able to ghost the minders we had placed on us in the expeditions. Perhaps I could do the same but instead witness the next graduation ceremony at the end of the year?

It was something to consider at least.

It'd most likely be all of our year, in a sort of recession while the instructors stood over us.

I blinked and leaned out of the way as Shoto's fist slammed a Terumi girl into the space I'd just been. I tripped her and shoved her backwards, my body merely reacting as I played that thought back through my mind.

We'd be there. All of us in our year. With the instructors… most likely standing over us.

I considered Tenpora. He'd helped me out a lot, he'd helped all of us out. But in the end wasn't he just like a farmer, raising lambs to the slaughter right now? Would he stand and watch us devolve into beasts?

No, that was an unfair metaphor. He was giving us the best chance he could. There was obviously a ban on telling people about the graduation ceremony after all.

But would anything ever truly be enough if my friends died?

Didn't I owe my friends to try every chance at improving their odds of survival?

Yes, yes I did.

I rubbed my chin as a plan for graduation began to form.

I'd need more intel than we currently had.

Only this time instead of turning it against our fellow students. I was going to start plotting against the instructors.

They'd give the order at the graduation to kill each other. I needed to be ready to have my group disobeying that… constructively. It'd be a huge gamble, but what's more impressive? A group of kids that killed other kids? Or a group of kids that took down their instructors?

It was daring, perhaps too daring.

But I couldn't see another way of getting everyone I cared for out.

"Matsu? You alright?" said Rei as she jogged my elbow on the way back into class.

I smiled at her. "Yeah, I just realised something."

"Something good?"

I sighed, my feelings mixed as I watched Tenpora dismiss us for lunch. "It's more like a bag of worms right now… but I know what I need to do with them if I want to get that fish."

Rei nodded; as a Kiri resident, everyone knew that you didn't regret the worm for the fish would hope to catch. Sometimes you lost the worm and the fish.

So, I just needed to have enough people to follow me in a… small rebellion against the instructors. I had a less than two years to get the Hozuki, Terumi and Kaguya groups to follow me.

Right…

Yeah, right…

I rubbed my eyes. How the hell was I going to do that?


With my probably suicidal plan tempting me, I switched things up. Now, instead of just gathering random pieces of information, I had my group start probing for specific information. Such as how the instructors fought. Did they favour tai, nin, or genjutsu? How skilled were they? Did we even have a chance against them if it came down to a fight?

I posed it as a theoretical situation, and only Shoto gave me a lingering look. The others started slipping after our instructors, a task that was much harder than it had been against our classmates.

When Geta caught people, he beat them.

Mizuna was slippery enough that only Shoto and I could keep close to her with her habits of winding, circuitous routes to where she wanted to go.

Tenpora was actually the easiest. He went directly to where he wanted to and his training exercises, were all structured and done in the same places. He didn't care if he caught people watching him.

I felt like a heel as he continued to feed us information. Some of it would likely not be accurate, but even small insights into his fighting style would pay off next year. After the first expedition of the year, I felt confident enough to send my group of kids after other instructors in our year to further test ourselves.

I was already having to ghost away from instructors from the year below me. Thankfully none of them had made a scene at the Okiya. These days I only spent a night a week there and that was to offer the girls free healing.

The madam still lamented that I needed to shave my head each time I visited.

Warm meals left out for me like I was a stray cat let me know she cared.

During the expedition, more fights between the clan kids continued with my group ghosting around and completing the exercise to the best of our ability. With the fighting, injuries occurred and so Hanahime brought them to me.

"I'll heal them, but instead of jutsu I want a favour," I had said to her.

"A favour? What sort of favour?" she said, tensing up.

She was probably taught how dangerous open-ended favours could end up being if not nailed down.

I continued to heal the kid that had a broken arm. "The favour is that you, and yours will follow my lead once before we graduate. Just once"

I finished healing the boy's arm and gestured for him to move aside so I could heal the next kid, this one had a rather nasty cut. I sighed. I really needed to teach these kids triage importance. The loud kid complaining about his broken arm could have waited.

I started healing the kid that had been bleeding out and continued talking with Hanahime Terumi. " It will most likely be on an expedition," I said casually. "If it all goes well, everyone will look very impressive. Perhaps the most impressive any group of graduates have ever been."

Hanahime frowned. "Will it endanger my group?"

"Yes," I said without hesitation. She frowned at me and I shrugged, closing up the cut. "Everything is bound to have risk associated with it."

She stared at me. "..." She eventually sniffed. "If you're going to keep healing my clan free of charge, I think I can tolerate a single favour!" I nodded, pleased that she hadn't pushed. She leaned in. "If you want more though, then I will expect more!"

"Alright, I'll hold onto it. Hopefully by the end of this, you will have made off better than I from it," I said honestly.

"Hmpf!" she said. "Well, when you need more you know who to talk to!" she said while puffing out her chest proudly. I smiled and nodded.

Yes, now I just needed to get a similar agreement from the Hozuki and the Kaguya. Perfect, juuuuuuuuust bloody perfect!


"How would you get an agreement from a weasel?" I posed to my group one day. I had considered it for a while but sadly Gin Hozuki was a slippery character.

All the intelligence we'd gathered of him painted a picture of a wonderful little sociopath in the making. He was tightly controlled until given half a chance to slip his leash. He also liked to toy with people he fought. It turned out that most of the injuries that other kids encountered from Hozuki was at least half the time from him.

At least it had initially been half the injuries.

When he'd learnt that Hanahime had access to a healer, he'd stopped wounding and tried to kill two kids only for my group to rescue them. Gin had become a much greater threat in our minds resulting in the detailed reconnaissance. Sadly, he was the highest-ranking member of the Hozuki clan in our year, and thus the others followed him.

I half considered having him murdered to install a more… agreeable leader. Sadly, that hadn't been an option. I'd almost thrown up when I'd realised how casually I'd considered having a kid murdered.

I'd seriously considered it.

What slippery slopes I found myself on.

So, if murder was out. In reality, it never should have been an option… I needed to get his agreement. A binding agreement, from a kid that would notably most likely betray me given the chance.

So… how did I do it? I decided to workshop it.

"A weasel?" said Rei with a tilt of her head.

"You don't," Himeko said from where she sat slightly off to the side of our group. I shot her a look to tell her she wasn't helping. She rolled her eyes as the others considered it.

Shoto rubbed his chin. "Well, weasels respect trickery, so maybe trick him into agreeing to something!"

"Yeah, you trick him!" Kizan agreed gleefully shooting Shoto a thumbs up. "Weasels respect slyness!"

"You want me to cheat a cheater?" I said dubiously. I shook my head. "That… I don't think that would make him amenable to the deal."

"Hmmmm," Rei said while tilting her head. "Why do you want to make a deal with a weasel?" she said. "Sounds kind of risky."

"It's not a weasel… I was speaking metaphorically." Rei nodded seriously while her gaze turned vacant. She had no idea what I meant. I rubbed my forehead. "It means the weasel represents someone else. In this case Gin Hozuki, aka the weasel."

"Oh! Gotcha!" she said.

Kizan tilted his head. "Why do we need a deal with them?

Shoto considered me. "We've already got a favour from the Terumi clan easily enough…"

The other kids tilted their heads before stiffening. "Wait!? The weasel you're trying to make a deal with is Gin?"

I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose. "Urgh! Yes! I need him and the Kitoma Kaguya, the Kaguya leader for our year, to follow us on something coming up."

Himeko huffed. "Kitoma's easy. Just beat Kitoma in a straight taijutsu match and he'll follow you until he thinks he's stronger than you."

I frowned at her. "... seriously?"

She raised an eyebrow at me and nodded. "The strong lead the weak."

"I just have to do it through Taijutsu?" I said incredulously. That could work. I just needed to beat him.

Himeko gave me a look, and I realised she didn't rate my chances very highly. I grumbled before coughing. "How good is he?"

"I've never beaten him," Himeko said easily. I cursed mentally. Shit. Alright, so not a fight I can win straight up… unless I could open the gates and overpower a bloodline known for their endurance and battle hunger…

I groaned and ran my hands down my face. "Urgh!"I turned my head. "What if we tricked the weas—" I shook my head as people started making wiggling hands while others snatched at them. Urgh. Sometimes it was hard to remember that we were children for all that we beat each other up, stabbed, and sometimes tried to kill others in our year. I stared at the kids as a feeling of being disconnected swept through me.

"Matsu?" Rei said, leaning in and jolting me out of my thoughts. "You alright?" I stared into her doe-like brown eyes. So young, so innocent.

I sighed. "I'm good just… bit lost on how to deal with this kid and make sure he doesn't…" I trailed off. Maybe I was overthinking it? Gin was a kid right now, not some mastermind trickster. I was applying his clan's reputation to him and buying into the hype. I only needed him to commit enough that he couldn't back out. I just needed to get him to owe me.

"I need to have Gin publicly agree to giving me the favour," I said, feeling firmer in my idea now, a path forward presenting itself.

"How would you do that? He's not going to hold much interest in it. We don't have any leverage on him after all," Kizan said reasonably.

I rubbed my chin before shrugging and deciding to double down. "What if we tricked that into him? Played a long con on him?" Now I was most definitely overcomplicating it, but I could achieve a lot more this way so why not?

Everyone blinked and tilted their heads. I nodded slowly. "Yeah, what if we introduced a weakness to him we could exploit like social pressure to follow the deal?"

"Social pressure, how?" Shoto said dubiously.

I shrugged, "Silly names, people shunning them visibly, people went out of their way to trip him up if he welched on the agreement? Create an expectation that there are consequences to weaselling out of it." I sat up, I rather liked this angle. In a way, it would also let him get away with less if there was the nebulous understanding that consequences could happen to him as well.

"How would you introduce this weakness?" Rei asked innocently.

I grinned. "We're going to introduce gambling to the Academy," I said as the plan took shape.

"Get the first years, I've got a mission for them!" I announced. If they set it up there would be less resistance to it and a greater spread through all the classes. Then I'd have it filtered up. It'd seem innocent for its inclusion, a simple game.

A game I'd take as far as I could.

From there, I had the first years— in every class they took part in— start betting each other and having them set up childish rules around welching on bets. They bet on the fights and secured small things to start with before we had them escalate. Then they traded favours, homework, and intelligence. I sold it to the year below us as training for risk management and assessing opponents.

When it started up in our own class, we kept it innocent enough.

Here was where our intel gathering on the instructors came in clutch. We started learning their patterns of behaviour as to when they would have us fight certain individuals.

It wasn't perfect, but we got a good enough read of them over the next year that I could tell when I would face Himeko or face someone like Rei.

As all of this was developing we kept up our training. I could only see improvement in our group. We grew steadily but with a surety that had everyone feeling good about the overall mission I was assigning them. I knew that they'd be tested. Things couldn't always be good.

I was proven right on the second last expedition of the year. I had a lot of my attention on the date of the last expedition, perhaps too much attention. I sensed the Kaguya coming only to be trapped by a patrolling group of Hozuki kids that we had to break through.

A skirmish started with Shoto taking a water bullet to the shoulder. Rei swept him up and got him out of there only for the Kaguya to be drawn in to the fighting; like sharks to the scent of blood.

The fight grew from there, with the battle becoming a proper melee.

Our very own early glimpse of what the graduation ceremony could be.

The Terumi smashed into the Kaguya and Hozuki as I was trying to extract my group. I saw one kid get stabbed through the chest and for a moment everyone stopped.

Then the kid dissolved into water with a cackle while the Kaguya roared in fury at his missed chance.

"Break off!" I cried at my group, forcing them to fall back.

A few kids tried to pursue, only for us to turn as one and fire a barrage of gale palms to knock them back. It made them stop, as though a line had been drawn in the sand. One of the Hozuki sneered at us as we got enough clearance to steer ourselves away from the fighting.

I swung us around to link back up with Rei and Shoto, who I quickly went to work on.

"Try not to block those with your body next time, yeah? You have your staff for a reason," I said jokingly.

Shoto grunted and pointed to his staff which was broken in two. "I did try blocking with my staff. Damn water bullet went straight through it."

I grimaced. "Well in that case, good job." Internally, I marked it down as a sign that the other kids weren't sitting on their backsides. Just as we were getting stronger, so were they. "See who did it?"

"Fucking Gin," Shoto said as I cleaned out any bone fragments I could detect in his shoulder. I groaned. Because of course it was him.

I finished up and nodded back to the fight. "Let's go see what tricks we can pick up yeah?" I said leading our group back into positions to observe the battle. A tougher ask on the barren landscape where the fight was taking place. We got close enough to catch some water jutsu before everyone broke apart. Three kids remained behind, unmoving.

When the clans broke away properly, they left the kids behind with barely a look.

I approached the kids and sighed.

I closed their eyes, clapped my hands together, and offered a farewell for their spirits before looting the battlefield.

Kiri really did bring out the worst in us.


When we progressed to the third year, I had the kids the year below run their own collection operation on the civilians when the year began for the new first years. I turned most of the operations over to them and Kizan, as I turned all my attention towards setting us up for our graduation.

We kept betting on fights during our taijutsu matches. When I fought Himeko, I tried to hold back to keep something in reserve but her pride refused to do the same against me. She also got angry when I tried to keep how strong I was a secret.

It didn't matter that I was fighting her more in our group away from spies, to her a fight was a fight. I had to match her during the spars and throughout all of them I never won once.

But I did get very used to how Kaguya's fought. How the bones slid from their bodies. How they could launch their bones, how they could use them defensively like thorns for anyone attacking them head-on.

And I made sure that everyone knew I was working hard to overcome her. I endured jeers and taunts from others in my year. I was considered 'almost-first' by my year compared to the other classes who had standout performers that were first in every part of the class.

Invariably, it was a Terumi, Hozuki, or Kaguya kid. I was the only one close to the position in our class with my scores. All of them but the Taijutsu rankings.

When we were taunted about it I made sure my group choked down their feelings as though the words stung more than they really did.

It crafted a wonderful idea of my raging against my placing to a girl that wasn't even the strongest Kaguya around.

With the mythos well spread around, all the pieces were in place.

During a lunch break, my group walked out of class to grab a meal from a stall that we'd discovered close to the academy. As third-year students, we didn't need to stay on the grounds the entire time for lunch. We got our meal and made a spectacle of ourselves marching back.

We happened to do so by walking through the middle of the space that divided the Terumi and the Hozuki.

Such an occurrence, of course, couldn't be left unremarked on. Some of the Hozuki kids stepped forward with sneers and taunts. "What'cha got there shitty civy brats!" one said, using the taunt they'd come up with all on their own.

Rei made a show of considering the bag of food. "Lunch? Why did you want some?"

"Yeah give it!"

"Hmmmm, nope! Bet you I can beat you in a race to that tree for it?" she said, offering another option to win the meal easily.

"Heh!" the kid sprinted away without even thinking it over. Rei handed her meal off and sprinted after him. She made it back to claim her meal with a sizeable lead. Our group cheered her in and when she reached into the bag and claimed her spring roll to crunch, we laughed as a group.

Kizan pulled down his eyelid. "Heck yeah! Civy style! Strongest around!" he crowed obnoxiously.

I hid a smile, he really was good at riling up other people. The Hozuki bristled while the Terumi laughed at him like he'd told a great joke. Kizan grinned. "We've got the fastest around—" he nodded to Rei who blushed at the praise and ducked her head.

"The sneakiest around!" He jerked a thumb at a space where Shoto should have been only for him to grunt from a nearby wall and force everyone to snap their heads around as they realised he'd gotten up there without them noticing.

Kizan coughed. "We've got the best swordsman!" he pointed at himself.

"And the all round strongest and everyone knows it!" He then clapped me on the shoulder and jutted his chin forward obnoxiously.

He was begging to be answered. The Hozuki kids hissed at him and a few postured with their own blades.

I made a show of rolling my eyes at the entire affair and waving our group to continue on. "Come on gang, let's just eat. I bet I could take the strongest clan kid easy," I said. I held in a smile, as more than a few bristled only for Gin, who'd been standing two kids deep and slightly off-centre of his group to narrow his eyes.

"Is that really what you think Matsu?" He drawled lazily. His voice cut through the Hozuki and made them fall quiet as they waited for what their leader had to say. "That you can beat the best clan kid?"

"I should think so." I locked eyes with him in challenge.

"Oh? Care to make a wager then?"

"Hmmm alright, let's make it interesting. I beat the strongest clan kid and you owe me a favour I can call due before we officially graduate," I said casually like I hadn't been building towards this moment for almost two years now.

I didn't lick my lips or break eye contact, despite the hammering of my heart that threatened to give me away. I controlled my breathing and my chakra and gained control of myself.

"Before we graduate?" Gin said, noting the distinction. I shrugged, and he considered it carefully before smiling innocently. "Very well, you beat the strongest clan kid in our year at their best, and I'll acknowledge you as strongest."

"I think you mean you'll owe me a favour," I said, pretending I hadn't heard the other addition he'd slipped in. Hook.

"Oh, my apology, strongest clan kid, our year, at what they're best in? Then I owe you a favour before the end of the year." Line.

"Deal," I said.

"Deal," he said, his smile showing teeth. "I'll look forward to your fight with Kitoma Kaguya in taijutsu Matsu."

"Oooooooh!" crowed the surrounding kids.

I narrowed my eyes before smiling right back at him. My teeth now on display to let him know I wasn't put off. "Alright." Sinker.

"Next expedition—" which just so happened to be the second last expedition of the year. The last before our graduation and trip to the Skull cliffs. "I'll fight Kitamo. No restrictions like on academy grounds."

I stared Gin down. "I win, you owe me a favour for me to call in before we graduate."

Gin frowned unsure that I wasn't as put off as I should have been. Kitamo was a monster even if I was to use ninjutsu or genjutsu against him. But I wasn't reacting like he expected. He could feel the trap closing around him. Yes, it was a trap I'd stepped into as well, but in doing so he'd joined me.

He nodded, and I returned the gesture before flicking my fingers. "Let's go gang."

This time we left unmolested. The stares of the clan kids followed me. The rumour mill would have my bet sweep around the academy. Kitamo would know before the end of the day.

Everything was lined up like I wanted.

Now I just had to beat one of the strongest kid's in my year at his best. Do that? And I was a step away from achieving my true goal of sparing all my friends from the Bloody Mist's graduation ceremony.

I had put myself in a position that I had no choice.

Victory or death were my only options.


A.N. Not going to lie this wasn't something I was super confident in completing. With everything going on it has been hard to get time to sit down and write properly. Feels good though and I still enjoyed putting he words down.

Hope this makes for an enjoyable read!