Kapitel 26: Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Sasuke had trouble moving as arrows flew at him. They hit him with their blunt arrowheads, knocking him back. It was getting harder and harder for him to stand up. The seals put on his body made him feel heavy. The traps in the field made Sasuke hesitant to move fast, as he had to be careful not to step on them.
Kaen didn't make it easy to dodge his arrows. Sasuke had to twist his body to avoid the arrows. He tried to move as little as possible. After a few hours of being hit by arrows, he was sore that he could only curl up on the ground and not think about the pain. His muscles screamed in pain.
"Is that all for today, Sasuke?" Kaen asked, landing next to him.
"I can continue," Both knew it was a lie, but Kaen only smiled.
"Then we will continue tomorrow," Kaen replied before leaving.
After a while, Sasuke got up and strolled home. After washing up, he rubbed the oil Kaen gave him some time ago where it hurt. It helped to soothe the pain and healed his bruised skin. After eating his dinner and feeding Ash, Kaen crashed into his bed. It wasn't hard to fall asleep with his tired body, even when many things ran through his head.
…
In the morning, Sasuke's body would get significantly better. Even if he was still sore, he could generally move without discomfort. In the academy, Sasuke would rest his body and think about the training that Kaen put him through. It helped him somehow, he could tell that he was getting stronger and faster, and he had gotten used to pain, but he felt his growth wasn't fast enough.
He started to think he lacked the talent or potential, no matter how others would praise him. The academy lacked students good enough to par with him, but he felt it was mostly because they lacked the will to work harder. He thought that Shikamaru was brilliant but was very lazy too. Choji's body was strong, even if he was fat, but he was too kind.
Kiba's fighting style was very unpredictable but effective. Too bad Kiba himself was pretty stupid, and he was too prideful. The only other student Sasuke acknowledged, even if he didn't like it, was Naruto. Even though he was a bloke, Naruto possessed immersive stamina that he consistently underestimated.
Sasuke thought they possessed one kind of talent but didn't have enough motivation to work on them. That is why Sasuke didn't like them, nobody could understand him, nor he felt like he could relate to them. He felt angry at them for them to waste their talent. Either way, Sasuke didn't have anyone equal to him to compare himself to, so he couldn't tell if he was growing stronger fast enough.
…
It took much work to infiltrate the base of the ROOT. Even with all his experience and skills, Kaen had to be careful. Only after months of observing the ROOT members did he find the base. There were too many fake ones, and at some point, he was almost caught, but he persevered and finally found the base where Danzo operated.
Kaen had worked hard to learn the layout of the base. He only had one chance to infiltrate it and extract the information he needed to continue the war he had with Danzo. Kaen needed information about his dealings with outside powers and ROOT members. It wouldn't be bad to find concrete evidence of Danzo working with Orochimaru, even if Kaen didn't expect there to be any.
It took time to watch the base. He knew it would be heavily guarded, so he memorized the guards and patrol routes. The only way to get inside was to disguise himself as one of the ROOT members. To do so, Kaen needed to find a member he could disguise himself as. He had to be able to move freely in the base but also had little presence.
Kaen moved only when he knew that Danzo was in a meeting with the Hokage. Once he found a perfect member to disguise himself as he made a move and captured him first. Using his seal, he restrained the ROOT member and then used genjutsu to make him feel like nothing was wrong. With his chakra sealed, the ROOT member couldn't escape the genjutsu.
After Kaen got inside without anyone's notice, he avoided the alarms and started his search. He knew he didn't have much time, so he quickly moved from one floor to another in search of an archive. When Kaen found it, he felt like a massive pressure was lifted from him. He quickly moved through the documents.
He found information about many things. The observations of various clans and information about their members. The village's council members and other higher-ups' strengths and weaknesses, and personalities. Kaen used his sharingan to memorize all the information, and there was a lot.
Still, no matter how many documents he read, he didn't find what he wanted. He moved to the other rooms looking for Danzo's office or something like that. What Kaen found was a research room. From the sealing jutsu plastered everywhere, Kaen deducted it was very important.
To Kaen, the seals didn't give any trouble. He didn't need to break the seals. He just got over them without triggering them. Kaen went through the research papers, finding disturbing experiments detailed inside. Kaen didn't see the list of ROOT members, but he found a list of those that were experimented on or candidates to undergo them.
Digging up a little more, Kaen found samples of the Senju and Uchiha DNA. Reading through Danzo's experiments with Orochimaru, at some point, Kaen felt sick. The list of children that Danzo provided to Orochiramu was sickening long. Kaen had found everything he needed for Danzo to be condemned by everyone in Konoha.
"Yosuke, what are you doing here?"
As Kaen was going to gather all the documents, someone entered the room. Turning to the voice, he found a man Kaen's age, with grey hair and round glasses. Kaen identified the person as Kabuto Yakushi. Kaen thought for a moment of killing him, eliminating a present and a future headache, but in the end, he couldn't do it.
"I have no reason to answer you," Kaen said before leaving without taking anything.
Kabuto wasn't a member of the ROOT anymore. He worked for Orochimaru now. Even though Kabuto had made some deal with Danzo, letting him use his resources, he was an outsider now to ROOT. Through observation and his knowledge Kaen learned that nobody trusted nor was willing to work with Kabuto, so there wasn't a reason to engage him.
Killing him was too risky. He was in an enemy base with dozens of shinobi. Even if he killed everyone, it would only give Danzo a chance to kill him as he broke into the ROOT base without authorization. The evidence would be disregarded as Danzo would claim they were false and put by Kaen. By the time an investigation is done, Danzo would erase his tracks.
Kaen had to be patient. Now that he knows the evidence, he will have to work to steal them and present them to the Hokage first. Deciding that, Kaen retreated, not letting Kabuto question him anymore as the more he spoke, the bigger the chance Kaen had to slip something up and reveal his disguise.
…
At eighteen years old, Kaen finally had achieved enough to be proposed to become a jonin. With his stellar reputation with the village, he only needed Hokage to accept it. But before that, his skills needed to be tested by the Jonin commander. Jonin were elites of shinobi forces, so no matter the reputation, one needed enough skills and power to hold such a position.
Shikaku Nara was well respected, not for his strength, but for his intelligence. Nobody doubted he could hold on by himself against any jonin, but every village in the Elemental lands revered and feared his intelligence. Kaen knew very well what kind of person was the Jonin commander, even though he didn't interact with him too much.
Those black eyes were carefully watching Kaen. They were sharp as his sharingan. So, Kaen knew that he couldn't act mindlessly before him. The calm demeanor that Shikaku Nara possessed was intimidating. Yet, Kaen was happy that such a person existed in the village, as he would be instrumental once he became the Fifth Hokage.
Firstly, Kaen was presented with a written test. It wasn't complicated, as any experienced and somehow intelligent shinobi could answer all the questions. The test was not to test shinobi's knowledge but his personality. The questions were about how you would tackle one or another scenario. The Jonin commander could easily find out about your personality with a detailed answer. That way, he could give you missions that would cater to your personality.
After Kaen was done with the written test, next he was taken to the training field, where he had to demonstrate his skills. Taijutsu came first. Kaen had to fight a Hyuga clan member to show off his skills. Kaen wasn't an expert in Taijutsu, but he had his own style. While using his sharingan, Kaen would find a weakness in his opponent. He would use it and defeat his opponent quickly without expending too much of his stamina.
Afterward, Kaen had to demonstrate his ninjutsu. A jonin had to have at least basic knowledge of all five chakra natures. A jonin should be at an advanced level with at least three chakra natures, even if he couldn't use it freely and mastered at least one. Kaen has mastered fire nature and was very good at wind and lighting, but he struggled with water and earth nature.
And lastly, it was genjutsu time. It was the least important part of a jonin, as only a few had the talent to master it. But even then, a jonin had to have at least basic capabilities to use genjutsu. The least a jonin had to do was to identify when he was in genjutsu and be able to dispel it. Kaen's sharingan could see through most of the genjutsu, and he had learned a few in the years he worked with Jiraiya. So, he passed the last test too.
…
"Congratulations on getting a promotion, Kaen-kun," The Third Hokage said as he put documents with my information inside. "Too bad. If you had been promoted a few weeks before, I would have given you a genin team to work under you."
"A good joke, Hokage-sama," Kaen laughed nervously.
"Anyway, you passed all tests with flying colors. Well done," Hokage said. "You are one step closer to your goal, but from now on, you will be watched by the village higher-ups and me and the other villages too."
"What do you mean by other villages?" Kaen asked.
"Aside from Konoha, I had managed to suppress most information about you. Few outsiders knew about your identity and skills, but now that you are jonin, the nobility of the Land of the Fire will know about you. If they know, the other countries will learn about you soon enough."
"Thank you for your consideration, but it matters little to me," Kaen responded. "I shall be a Hokage soon anyway, so publicity will only help me."
"Confident as always. Still, I would reminiscent not tell you to be careful outside the village from now on," Hokage said. "There will be many who will be after your eyes and life from now on."
To Kaen, it meant nothing. He was hunted by Danzo for some time now, and he learned a lot from Jiraiya, how to be unnoticed in foreign lands and how to escape unfavorable situations. From lady Tsunade, Kaen learned a lot of medical ninjutsu, and his chakra control was at a level that his low chakra reserves didn't hold him down. It was time to carve his name to the other villages too.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein