Chapter 5: Chapter Five
XXXX- SAKUMO HATAKE
When he had said that he would beat teamwork into them, he had not expected that they would make him have to actually do it. He'd thought that their first experience against a completely superior opponent would teach them that they had to work together, but he had clearly been mistaken. Now, they tried their best to work around each other, with the Uchiha girl unwilling to stomach even the thought of relying on any of her teammates and the Senju being too consumed with his amusement at very unamusing situations to spend time thinking on working with his teammate.
He would never have expected that the Civilian would turn out to be his favourite student, but it had happened. He caught the kick aimed at his leg and then stretched the limb before moving to snap it in two. The boy dissolved in mud immediately after. The Senju family knew what he was trying to teach, but they were also perfectly willing to encourage their scion's foolhardy quest to overcome him on his lonesome. Hokage-sama probably saw it as a win. The boy they'd struggled to make focus on his n inna arts as a priority was now growing by leaps and bounds as he struggled to get strong enough to beat his Jounin sensei.
He body flickered backwards as a massive fire missile tore through the air where he'd once been. Working together, the two of them would have been able to make any regular jounin sweat. But with the way, they ignored each other and seemed dead set on getting the other caught up as collateral damage from their attacks, even a chunin could dispatch them with careful planning.
He flexed his chakra coils and broke from the genjutsu that the third member of the team tried to put him under. Takehada Toshiro could work well with Shorirama Senju, but he'd learned to look out for it, and now the boy was determined to harmonise his attacks with that of the Uchiha girl as well. He was the glue that gave the entire arrangement some semblance of teamwork. Senju followed him in his shunshin and appeared with a kick aimed for his head again. The same attack twice told him something was wrong, and he was proven accurate as the boss tore to shreds as seven different air bullets shot through it, heading for him.
He surrounded himself with chakra, leaning on his trained wind release affinity, and nullified the jutsu before it hit him. At least, the constant spars had been just as useful for training his skills as it had for training theirs. Jutsu nullification was quickly transforming from a cool idea in the cradle to a working technique that could turn aside even B-ranked offensive techniques with the right forewarning.
"Alright. My turn" He said, as he prepared to jump at them.
XXXXXX- TWO MONTHS LATER (THREE MONTHS SINCE THE FORMATION OF TEAM FOUR)
"You will cease this illogical sidelining" An elder from the side spoke up. This was his first time in a meeting like this, and now he found that he did not enjoy it at all. Especially considering how he had been summoned with no warning while in the middle of a training session. He'd just been forced to contend with a unique chain of earth and water release jutsu from his own Senju genius. Taught by the man sitting at the centre, undoubtedly.
"I will not send the team on any missions until I am satisfied with their ability to work together." He said, feeling like a broken record as he was forced to reiterate his points over and over again.
"And yet, the Anbu have seen them execute tactical formations and arrangements as a unit" Another elder spoke out. It was clear that the hokage did not want to be seen unnecessarily interfering with the activities of the team that contained his heir, and was allowing the Council of Clan Heads to bring up the concerns instead.
"Yes, they have. But almost always unknowingly. Both standouts of the team- Shorirama Senju and Uzume Uchiha- are uninterested in cooperating with one another, and so are being directed by their third member, Takehada Toshiro, to complete attack patterns that bear similarities to existing formations. It is an impressive feat of tactical and strategic acumen, but it still fails to show the same results as true teamwork. In their first clash with a skilled enough opponent, all three of them will be taken apart and killed with little fanfare." He said, trying to impress the severity of the situation on the Council.
The Uchiha Clan head, Uzume's father, took a breath. That sound alone put the room on edge. He sat at the opposite end of the large table from the Hokage, and it was clear even from the feeling of his chakra that he was not a man to be underestimated.
"My daughter is a shinobi of the Uchiha Clan. It is unacceptable that she has been held back from missions for this long. I killed my first man at the age of Seven. Hokage-sama did it even younger. Team Four must be sent out. They will learn to work together, or they will die." Sakumo did not flinch at the words said. Even though the fact that the girl's own father would display such a callous attitude did take him aback. He buried the instinctive flash back to his upbringing. No. Konoha would be different. It had to be.
"She is a shinobi of Konohagakure, you mean" The Hokage said, pinning the Uchiha Clan head to his seat with a stare until the proud man conceded the point with a nod.
"Beyond that, I agree with your words. My brother created this village so that children would not be forced to die in senseless war, but these are not children. They are shinobi. Blade over heart. They will overcome their foolish and childish rivalries in the fires of conflict. Team four will leave for its first mission tomorrow." He wanted to object. To argue. They weren't ready. Not for the kind of missions he took, at least. But he was a loyal ninja, and his Kage had spoken.
"Yes, Hokage-sama"
"Dismissed"
XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
Gather the chakra, spin it to create rotation, add density to create power, and then contain it all in a stable shell. The rasengan that formed in his palm was perfect. Of course, it was. He'd "invented" the jutsu while still in the academy. He never got the chance to even consider hiding the discovery or his training. Chakra training was dangerous, and the heir to the Senju clan wasn't even allowed to dream of training on his own without some sort of supervision. Even worse, his supervision ended up being a member of the Hyuga clan more often than not, and if you managed to hide anything from the Byakugan, then you'd need an award of some sort.
He'd decided that it was better to just come clean with it and practice it in plain sight. That also meant that he had to engineer a lot of unnecessary trial and error into the jutsu creation project, but that had ended up being for the best. He probably understood the rasengan better than everyone not named Minato Namikaze. Considering he hadn't even joined the academy yet, Shorirama was the uncontested master of all things rasengan. It was worth it because the sphere in his hand began to shift in shape, blades shooting out from the edges as he manipulated the shape and form of the jutsu. He lifted it above his head as it took the form of a spinning shuriken the size of a windmill shuriken above his head. No wind release — yet. But he'd been able to prove his theory that the rasengan could be made throwable as a pure shape transformation technique. Anything else would be subordinate. It also meant that he was one step closer to completing Project Quincy.
He tossed the technique into the mini forest that he trained in, and it mowed through a few trees before it lost its consistency and disappeared. It would kill a man just as good as any technique, but it did lack a lot of the more explosive properties of a proper Wind Release: Rasenshurinken. "So what are you going to call that one, young master" He heard the voice from behind him, and he forced a smile on his face before he turned to look at the Hyuga branch member that had been sent to follow him today. The same person that was sent with him on most days, he knew. If only he could ever manage to remember the man's name. He was certain he'd never been told, but also not completely certain. It wasn't impossible that he'd forgotten the man's name. It would also be highly embarrassing if he asked and found that he'd already been told.
"Rasenshurinken, Hyuga-san" He said, not for the first time being thankful for how much the Hyuga clan remained sticklers for traditions and old-fashioned etiquette.
"A fitting name, young master" The man replied, and it was all Shori could do not to gag at the blatant arsekissing. Sure, he knew that that was probably the man's nature. That didn't stop him from feeling awkward whenever the man began going on and on about how skilled Shori was, or how much of a prodigy his superior Hyuga genes made him. The man seemed intent on ignoring Shori's conspicuously brown eyes and their very noticeable pupils. He'd been tested multiple times across his childhood, and everyone had finally been forced to accept that he would never get the Byakugan after he turned 8.
"Thank you. But we have to leave. I have a mission to get ready for, after all" He said, and began making his way back to the clan compound. Perhaps his teammates had failed to see it, but he was certain that there was something else behind their Sensei's sudden switch in tactics. Everything he'd seen from Hatake Sakumo so far had told him that the man was not the type to give up merely because something was hard. He'd made the decision not to go on any missions with them until they mastered teamwork, and Shorirama was certain that he would live up to the threat.
Shorirama had even banked on it. Constant sparring sessions against an opponent far above his level had taken his skills to new heights at speeds that felt frankly unfair. He'd have got a big head about how much progress he was making if he couldn't see that Toshiro was gaining just as much, and that Uchiha Uzume and her cheating eyes were learning even faster than he was. She'd already used a few of Shorirama's own jutsu against their sensei and while he wasn't offended since he hadn't invented those jutsu himself, he was a bit peeved at her progress outstripping his. Only the fact that the original gap between them had been so large had kept him still ahead of her.
Hopefully, the equalisers he was working on would be enough to widen the gap when necessary and ensure he was ready for what he knew would come in ten years.
"Yes, young master. I have taken the liberty in ensuring that your equipment would be packed and prepared" He said.
"And my bow?"
"It is assumed that Young Master would not intend in taking the instrument with him on a mission outside the village's walls" Shori smiled wryly.
"Please have it included. It is a key piece of equipment, after all. I'd hate to not have it and need it" He replied. He'd found it funny how virtually every adult shinobi tried to get him to give up on the bow. It was his bit of rebellion against the establishment. And bows were cool af.
XXXXXX- TOSHIRO TAKEHADA- NINE YEARS UNTIL THE OUTBREAK OF THE SECOND GREAT SHINOBI WAR
"Don't forget the plan" Their sensei said, and then disappeared. He resisted the urge to gulp. How could he ever forget the plan? It was his plan, after all. They stood in the treelike, watching the bandit encampment through fuinjutsu enhanced binoculars. Having a Senju on the team was such a hack. They got the best stuff. His mother even said that these binoculars weren't cleared for issue to Jounin yet. And yet, Shorirama had just fished out four of them from the bag like it was nothing. It probably was. Toshiro had seen the kind of ballpark Senju wealth existed in.
"I trust you" his friend said, and then clapped him on the shoulder. It was a classic example of bad intelligence. On their seventh mission in as many months, they'd been sent to root out and destroy a bandit camp. He noticed a theme. Unlike virtually every other team in their graduating class, they'd only been sent on one type of mission. The kind where direct combat was probable. Nay, it was expected. They were expected to seek out opponents and fight them. His best guess was that the administrative arm of the village thought his team wouldn't be good for much else. He couldn't disagree, he thought, looking at his teammates. Uzume had fished out a gunbai of all weapons a few months ago, and now she was giving the gigantic and unusual weapon a few anticipatory swings. She was deadly with the thing, he knew. Shori already had an easy smile on his face. The kind of smile that was a harbinger of mischief. That was what he was taking advantage of with this plan, Shori's natural skill at deception.
Like he could sense his thoughts, Shori smiled at him and then dropped out of the tree they'd been standing in. As he landed, his appearance shifted with an application of chakra so precise that the telltale puff of smoke that marked the transformation jutsu was nowhere to be found. A medical ninja for a cousin meant Shori had the best chakra control of them all. Even better than Sensei if the man was to be believed. Toshiro had since learned that Sakumo Hatake rarely ever spoke the truth. And in the few instances he did, there was always an extra layer of subtext only available to those who bothered to look 'underneath the underneath'.
Shori's gait shifted, becoming more panicked and hurried. He always found it fascinating just how many messages humans could pass with nothing but body language. It fascinated him, but people like Shori and Kizuru- they obsessed over it. Years ago, he'd found it quirky how they played games where they took on different personas and kept poking at each other to get the other to break character. Now, he could see how useful that had become. Observant as he thought himself to be, he couldn't see a single sign that Shori was anything more than what he presented himself as. A scared child running into a group of bandits, unknowing of the fate that awaited him.
"Help, help" He shouted, voice sounding higher pitched than usual, and also much louder than the whisper he preferred these days. Wind release training had a habit of straining the vocal cords, he'd explained. Toshiro looked to his side and noted Uzume watching everything with her bright red eyes. Ten months as a genin had - between training with a jounin and missions where combat was guaranteed-developed her Sharingan to the perfect state. Three tomoe in each eye. His reading told him that most Uchiha didn't get to that level until they were well into adulthood. Uzume was just eleven. They all were.
"Hey. It's a kid" One of the bandits said, looking down from the wall of the encampment they occupied to get a good look at Shori. Encampment was a hell of an understatement. Somehow, the bandits had managed to find and take possession of an old fortress from the warring states period that had been abandoned by the Clan after they'd moved to Konoha. He couldn't quite tell which clan it had been, but he would make sure to ask Shorirama after they'd taken the place.
"What do you want, kid?" Another asked as Shori kept shouting for help.
"M-my fat-fat-father. He's in trou-trouble" Were those tears? Shori's commitment to the act was commendable. The bandits on the wall wasted no time in dropping their guards.
"What happened?" One asked.
"Our ca-caravan. A wheel broke and when da-dad was try-trying to fix it, his leg. It br-bro" He collapsed into further tears. "Please help us" He finally screamed out through the tears.
Toshiro knew that if he could look at the bandits' eyes, there'd be ryo signs floating in them. Free money. They were unlikely to say no. They were also very likely to do the stupid thing and abandon their posts at the gate without waking up the others. They'd be keen on keeping as much of the loot for themselves as possible. Their intel said that the leader of this particular group was a greedy man who did little if any sharing of the loot with the subordinates.
His gamble paid off as the men whispered to themselves before one of them spoke, "We'll help you, kid. Stop crying. Just take us to the caravan". Toshiro's heart skipped a beat as it seemed like only half of them were going to follow Shori. But after a short argument, the half that had been supposed to wait behind joined in with the half that were going to follow Shori. All thirteen of them trooped out of the gate, greedy smiles on their faces and weapons clutched in their hands.
"Take us there, Gaki" One of them said in the kind of tone that made Toshiro itch to put a kunai through his head.
Shori did his job and began to lead them away, making him release a breath he hadn't even known that he'd been holding.
"Okay, it's our time to shine" He whispered at his teammate. She did nothing but grunt at him, but it was a meaningful improvement. At least, she no longer just blatantly ignored him and his plans. He hated how she acted like he was beneath her, but that was a matter for another day. They flew through the tree line at top speed, jumping into thew fortress at opposite ends. He had faith in her to carry out her path. The only genin more skilled than Uzume was Shori, and he was incomparable to anyone else.
He weaved seals, spreading a genjutsu through his part of the building. Shori had taught him this one from the Senju library. It did nothing but make the victims fall asleep. It was more useful than most others because it wasn't designed to affect only a single target like most other genjutsu. It was Area of Effect. That made it slightly weaker than if it had been used against only a single target, but they were civilian bandits with no ninja training. They had virtually no genjutsu resistance. He felt the genjutsu take hold, and he began to make his way from room to room, careful to step on only the balls of his foot. The first room was empty. The first four he checked were empty. It was only in the fifth room that he found a single bandit sleeping. His snores bounced against the walls of the room.
Toshiro made sure to creep silently and applied some chakra to his feet to ensure that the room remained silent. He leaned over the man on the futon and closed his eyes to steel himself. Blade over heart. His lunatic flashed for a second as he sliced through the carotid artery as he'd been taught. He stood up after being sure the man was dead and moved on to the next room. It was a butcher's job, what he did. But he was a shinobi. These men threatened the people of Konoha. His mother. He had to fulfil his duty. Part of him wondered if Shori and Uzume ever had second thoughts about things like this. He forced himself to stifle the chuckle. The idea was ludicrous. They'd been raised to be shinobi from the day their lives began. Things like this would be easy for them.
He walked further into the fortress. Six. He'd eliminated six people so far. That meant that there were closer to nine people on Uzume's half of the fortress. He opened the last room and almost stepped backwards at seeing two men in this room. Unlike the others, they were naked. He blocked the thoughts that rose in his mind. He knew what sex was. It wasn't surprising that two men in a stressful situation would lean on each other. He walked inside the room and made his decision to do his job. Both men were so entwined that it was difficult to get at one's neck. It was fine. He eliminated the first with a slice along the carotid like routine. With the second, he rolled his body over, and somehow he managed to break out of the genjutsu. On seeing the shinobi over him, the man let loose an impressive scream. Toshiro stabbed his kunai through the man's open mouth and into his brain, silencing him.
He just hoped that the noise hadn't ruined Uzume's part in the mission. He opened the door and was met with the Uchiha girl wiping off blood from her gunbai. It wasn't the blunt instrument he'd expected on the first time he'd seen it. The edges were deceptively sharp.
"That was sloppy" She commented with a scoff.
"I didn't ask for your opinion" He replied tersely.
"Are you done with your end of the fortress?" He asked her.
"Yes I am. Now we head to the leader of this mostly crew" She said, and he nodded. He was almost surprised that she'd made the effort to wait for him before moving ahead. It was the plan, but he was proud that she'd stuck to it.
They moved up the stairs as one unit, walking in step. Both their steps were silent, and when they finally arrived at the door, it was to find it open.
Uzume pushed it inwards, and it moved with no resistance. They found their target sitting on a wooden chair, waiting for them. It was shaped like a throne, all things considered. Given this was the great hall of the fortress, it wasn't much a surprise.
"So it was Konoha. My bet would have been on Iwa" He said, looking at them with a smile on his face. The darkness parted to reveal a tall man. Taller than sensei. With long black hair in a ponytail and coal-black eyes.
"I've let you kill those useless fools with no resistance. I gain nothing in killing children. Turn around and count yourselves lucky" He said, not even standing to address them.
It took a second for Uzume to cross the distance between them. Her gunbai cut through the throne as their target bent downwards to dodge out of the way of the attack. His hands slammed against the ground, and Toshiro was sure that it was only months of sparring with Shori that gave her the instinct to retreat. Where she'd previously stood was a single spike of gleaning stone.
She weaved through seals of her own, but her fireball was denied by a massive wall of stone with a snarling tiger imprinted on it. Toshiro weaved seals and reached for their opponent's chakra network with his genjutsu. It took hold for only a second before snapping. The wall in front of them shifted, having spikes form along its surface. To deter them from climbing, maybe.
His deduction was disproven. "Dodge" He screamed as the wall came apart, and the spikes were sent hurtling at them. He dove to the side while he heard Uzume do the same on the other side.
"I won't give you another chance to retreat"
Uzume scoffed across from him, and he almost chuckled at her reaction. Retreat? They were shinobi of Konohagakure. They did not retreat. Besides, they had the upper hand here. He just didn't know it yet. Uzume weaved five seals and he jumped pet backwards. He knew what was coming. "Katon: Hosenka no jutsu" She said, executing her own unique flavour of the phoenix flower jutsu. She spewed out several missiles of flame that fanned out in a wide angle, spreading across the hall before converging in on a single target. Their opponent. His hands remained on the ground and instead of a single wall, a giant dome of earth formed, surrounding him from all angles. The flames attacks hit the dome and exploded.
The spoke parted to reveal that the stone was unharmed. A few scuff marks were all that could be shown from the attack. Before the smoke had completely parted, a single blur dropped from the ceiling. Shori landed on the dome. He wanted to shout out a warning that the guy could manipulate the dome from the inside, but that was moot point as Shori placed his hands on the dome and visible exerted his massive reserves to do….something.
He dropped from the dome with a chuckle. "I didn't think that would work so easily" He said, looking at both of them, with a smile on his face.
"What did you do?" Uzume asked, asking the question on both their minds. The dome fell apart behind him, revealing their opponent with several holes through his body. The body fell to the ground, limp, without the dome holding it up.
"The same thing he did with the earth wall he hit you guys with. I figured that if I overpowered the chakra he had in the jutsu, then I could manipulate his jutsu like it was mine instead. Bastard never even saw it coming" He said with an easy smile on his face.
"You stole my kill" was Uzume's reply as she released a grunt.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Shori fell in as he was buried up to his neck. Their opponent appeared right above him with a hammer in his hand. Toshiro felt himself frozen in place. Uzume was in motion. Everyone looked like they were moving through jello. Each step Uzume took was slow. Too slow. The hammer arced down, aimed right for Shori's head. And then everything snapped back into reality. Their opponent's body was pinned to the wall. Sensei stood in front of him with both hands on the hilt of his chakra sabre. The same sabre that was doing the job of pinning their opponent to the wall.
"What did I say about dropping your guard?" He was shouting at Shori. He'd never heard Sensei shout before. Never even seen any of the irritation that they'd caused him on his face. Now? He looked apoplectic. His normally flaccid easygoing expression was nowhere to be found. He looked an Asura from Naraka itself. And Shori was the subject of all that attention.
"I'm sorry, Sensei. I really thought I'd got him. That's one hell of a clone jutsu" He said, trying to change the subject with the smoothness that came so naturally to him, but their Sensei was having none of it today.
XXXXXX
"So we've been genin for a year now" Izuku was the one who spoke. The rest of the gathering were spread out across the Senju lawn like usual. These gatherings had become monthly things instead of weekly engagements, but Toshiro was impressed with the effort Shori went made to keep up with his friends. After graduation, the circle had widened to include everyone in their graduating class. Some people came more often than others, but even Uzume could be found calmly drinking a cup of tomato juice in a quiet corner of her own.
"Yes we have" Shori said.
"Did your Sensei tell you about the thing?" Kizuru was the one who asked now. In a whisper that had no chance of going unnoticed by the entire gathering.
"I'm willing to bet all our sensei did," Shori replied, not bothering with the whisper.
"I assume the thing you speak of is the exhibition to take place in the Village next month" Uraume said with her customary formal tone and low-pitched voice. He'd have mistaken her for a boy, with how deep her voice could get every so often. Of course, those thoughts were never expressed. Stupid thoughts were best left in the head before they infected the air.
"Yes it is." Kizuru said, not even turning to her. He kept his attention on Shori, who was moving around Choni as the larger boy worked on the grill. Shori hadn't given up on figuring out how the Akimichi pulled off their food related sorcery, and Choni was amused enough to let him observe the whole process every single time. Nine months of effort had yielded nothing so far, as Shori's food was always found wanting.
"What do you think about it, Shori?" Omoikane asked, putting words to the question his teammate was obviously itching to ask.
"I think it's going to be fun. Just imagine how much we'll learn from fighting against shinobi from Kumo and Kusa, and even Taki. There's going to be a lot of foreign shinobi here for us to learn from" He said.
"No one said anything about fighting" Shikahime pointed out with narrowed eyes, but Shori just waved her point away.
"We're shinobi. The only thing we can do that will entertain the civilians is fight. Considering the size of the stadium being built for this, I'm willing to bet that Uncle is expecting a massive audience. Wouldn't do to bore them all, would it?" He said with his trademark smile and winked at her.
"Is it even safe to have so many foreigners in the village all at once?" Inoken asked, flipping his long ponytail to get some hair out of his bright blue eyes.
"It has to be. Hokage-sama has been working on this for a while. Besides, the war ended over a decade ago. The Shinobi nations are at peace. This kind of thing is just supposed to be more cooperation to help strengthen that peace. This exhibition is going to be a substitute for war, that's what my Uncle said. If we children fight it out, then the adults won't have to." Was Omoikane's response. He spoke with the tone of someone repeating something he'd been told, but Toshiro found no reason to disagree with him.
None of the other villages would be bold enough to attack them here. They'd be surrounded and cut down. The sizzling of the meat on the grill was the only sound to be heard for a while until Shori sighed in disappointment and went to pick up his bow. China's chuckles followed his path.
A/N; What's a Naruto fanfic without Chunin Exams? Nothing. In this AU, missions will work differently. I'm going to assume (with no evidence) that D-ranks were invented by Hiruzen and that at this stage, the only missions Genin with Jounin sensei took were the ones that the Jounin would ordinarily have been sent on. Yes, it's not the most efficient system and has numerous obvious flaws, but it's my story and I can do as I wish. Thank you for reading. The next three chapters are up on the place of pa –trons- same username as up here so feel free to check it out if you want to support my journey, but don't stress if you can't. Everything will come up here in its own time.
Weekly Power Status
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