บท 10: Chapter 9: Training and the Chuunin Exams…and More Training
The next few months went by quickly, and there wasn't a whole lot that changed for Ikari and his loved ones. The few changes that did occur were major ones, and they were one right after another.
First was when Haku had arrived to fulfill Kiri's part of the Blood Alliance, and she had brought with her a good portion of her clan's scrolls, weapons and other things that had been discovered to have been kept in the Kage's vault after most of the Yuki clan had been slain. After all involved parties had accepted, they had spent the better part of the next month getting to know each other better, and Ikari had even marked her as his, just the same as he had done with Setsuki.
The next major event that had happened was a falling out between Kushina and Minato, and it had led to massive fallout between several of the Clans with the Uchiha, Sōjin and Uzumaki on one side and the Namikaze on the other. After a couple of months of being able to get to know her former son, she and her daughters had come home to overhear Minato and Jiraiya planning an ambush utilizing some of Konoha's enemies, just so they could wipe away his memories and abilities and start over with a blank slate. Hitting the roof, she immediately left with her two girls in tow, dropped them off at the Uchiha compound, and then left for the Hokage's office. Twenty minutes later she had walked out of there a single woman, the Hokage having managed to expedite the divorce paperwork, based on the fact that her former husband was plotting to commit treason.
That was when the fit had truly hit the shan, and once Minato had found out, he was furious, as all the sealing techniques he'd learned had belonged to the Uzumaki clan, and now that the Heiress of the clan had divorced him, he was forbidden from using any of their seal techniques on pain of death. Then there was also the fact that even though they had the testimony of Kushina against him, the evidence was circumstantial, and thus they were put under watch by the ANBU, as there wasn't a whole lot that they could do without solid proof of treason.
The final thing that had a major impact on his life was the thought of leaving ANBU behind and becoming a sensei. He had had his eyes on several younger students, and one in particular had caught his eye: Higurashi Matsuri, the daughter of a weaponsmith and sister to one of Maito Gai's students. Having debated whether or not to take a team, or request a student to apprentice under him, he was as yet undecided but had recently started leaning towards taking the apprentice route as far as teaching was concerned.
One of the few things that caught his eye was that she not only had her elder sister's dedication to training, but she was more interested in kenjutsu then her sister's patented 'Throw everything including the kitchen sink and the toilet' approach to combat. Combine her interest in the art of the sword with her natural flexibility, and she was perfect for learning his sword style.
Smirking in the mirror as he went through his morning rituals, he decided that he would approach her father and the Hokage about it later today before going to train with his two fiancées, as he had promised a few days ago. Humming softly as he greeted his two fiancées, they all sat down for breakfast together since he still had a couple more days of down time from his last mission. Waiting for Mika-san to join them at the table, he spoke with Suki-chan and Haku-chan about his decision and received their input about whether they approved of his decision. After expressing their gratitude for the food, they turned their thoughts to the things that they had going on today, and silence ruled the table from that point on.
Higurashi Weapons Shop
Having a ready-made reason to be at the store was a wonderful benefit to his cause, as he had been selling all sorts of seals to the man for years, replacing the ones that had been mass-produced by lesser fuinjutsu users as they weren't as efficient and didn't hold up as well. Approaching the counter, Ikari patiently waited as he could see that the man was busy with another customer.
Within minutes, the customer had finished what he was doing and left the store, leaving him with some privacy. Walking up to the older man, he greeted him with a smile and a wave. "Ohayo, Temujin, how has business been?"
Smiling in return at the young Jonin, the shop owner nodded. "It's been great, I'm guessing that you are here for another drop off of seals then, yes?"
Nodding as he handed over two scrolls, he paused as he heard the bell over the door ring and the quiet footsteps of who he figured was the Hokage. Turning his head slightly, Ikari confirmed that it was indeed the other person he had wanted to talk to. Bowing to Itachi alongside Temujin, who was a retired shinobi, they rose and greeted him. "Ikari-kun, I am guessing that there is a reason you requested me to come here?"
Deciding to just grin at his sempai, he turned so that he could face both men. "I have come to a decision that will need both your input, as well as approval. I have been a member of ANBU for going on three years now, and have decided that sense I will be taking on the mantle of clan head in just a few short years, that it is time for me to put away the mask and take on the role of sensei." Sighing as he gathered his thoughts, he frowned as he thought about what he wanted to say.
"Normally one would take on a team of Genin, but I would prefer to take on an apprentice, maybe two tops, because I will take them and teach them, and by the time I am done with them they will be true shinobi, bearers of the Will of Fire. That is part of why I asked you here, Hokage-sama, because I have been watching the Academy closely for the last couple of years, and Temujin's youngest daughter has impressed me with her drive and thirst to not only learn but to excel, and I believe that I have what she will need not just to survive and become a Genin, but to excel and become the very best of her age group."
Nodding in agreement, Itachi smiled as he turned to Temujin. "He is right, you know. I have the utmost confidence in his skills, he's been a solid and reliable nin for as long as I have known him, and," here he smirked just a tiny bit, "how many people here in Konoha can honestly claim to have been taught and/or mentored by an S-rank, borderline SS-rank ninja?"
Chuckling softly as he took in the Hokage's last statement, the older man simply nodded his agreement. "True, on that we are agreed. I will agree, with a couple of conditions."
Here he turned to Ikari and smiled at him. "First is that while I can understand wanting to teach a single apprentice, if my youngest is the one you want to teach, I would ask that you break her of any fangirl habits. I don't think she is in need of it, but there are times when I have seen the beginnings of such behavior. And second, when you take your first couple of C-rank missions, I would ask you to take along her older sister's team as backup."
Waving his hands to cut off any retort, he sighed and wiped his face before resuming his requests. "I do not doubt you, but my two daughters are all I have left in this world and I want them to survive me, not the other way around. I know there are no guarantees, but still…"
Turning his head towards the Hokage, who was silently nodding his head in agreement, Ikari turned back towards Temujin and smiled. "Agreed, and I will be taking charge of her when she graduates from the Academy then, in two years, right?"
Three Months Later, Chuunin Exams
Due to the fact that he had found the spy for Orochimaru in the first place, Ikari was kept in the loop as to the information that was found out about his plans, as well as having input as far as the disinformation that they fed Kabuto so as to keep ahead of what the Hebi Sennin had planned. It was after finding out that he was planning on targeting the Uchiha Genin was what had the Sōjin clan head requesting to be a Proctor of one of the stages.
As it turned out, he was tasked to Proctor the second stage alongside Mitarashi Anko, the Hebi Sennin's former apprentice, someone that he knew quite well due to the fact that he'd recently discovered a method of removing the Curse Seal. The only downside was that they had to wait until after the Chuunin Exams were over to do so, since Orochimaru discovering that someone could remove his seal would more than likely cause him to change his plans.
At the moment, the two of them were sitting in the Hokage's Office viewing the classroom in the Academy where the first stage was taking place. Both of them chuckled at Ibiki's way of scaring the Genin, and were amazed at the lack of testicular fortitude that there were in a majority of the applicants this time. Getting the signal to proceed with the next stage, the two mischievous Jonin popped away in a cloud of smoke.
Entrance to Training Ground 44, the Shi no Mori
After their momentary stop at the classroom to issue instructions, they immediately headed out for the entrance gates of the arena for the stage that they were proctoring. Having explained the situation to Anko, she was fully onboard with taking him out if they could before he was able to fully realize his plans to destroy Konoha.
Summoning up a pair of five-tailed foxes and giving them their instructions, they quickly disappeared into the forest to hide so that they could follow Kabuto, who should lead them to their true quarry, Orochimaru the Hebi Sennin.
Listening to Anko as she had her fun, he smirked as he looked through the group before them. Shaking his head in disappointment at the Akimichi's question, he dropped down from the tree he had been hiding in, to the surprise of everyone there, as he had been completely suppressing his chakra beneath one of his clan's genjutsu. Walking forward, he looked disappointed as he took in the team that Asuma had been training: one Akimichi who was a powerhouse, one Yamanaka fangirl, and a Nara who was lazier than a sloth. "There are plenty of plants and animals that can be used as food, but surely you would know that," he shifted his eyes to the girl, who was drooling at the sight of him, "Yamanaka, you disgust me, and you." Here he shifted to the last member of this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho trio, "I wonder if you would be so lazy and apathetic if it got your friends, your family, or everything that you care for destroyed?"
Turning away from them, he watched as each of the teams gathered their scroll and stood by a gate, assessing each of them and seeing just who he thought would make it through the forest. There were a number of teams that got his attention, including one in particular from Kusa that had a kunoichi with the signature red hair of his mother's clan. The fact that there didn't seem to be any major threats aside from the redhead from Suna who was their own jinchuriki, seemed to be telling all on its own, especially considering that the information that they had gotten from Kabuto about the traitor's plans and when he was going to attack.
Then the Genin were gone, having left at the signal, and that left Ikari with Anko and a handful of Chuunin who were there to aid them in their jobs today. About the same time as an investigative team showed up, three hours into the exam, was when one of the foxes reverse summoned Ikari to their position. Swearing under her breath, Anko took in the report from the team before summoning one of her snakes and following the trail left by the foxes.
Shi no Mori – Team Kakashi
'Fuuton: Daitoppa!' thought Orochimaru as he finished with the hand seals. 'I've got the two Uchiha, that's even better than I had planned for Hehehe…'
Just before the wind blast could launch Kiba and Akamaru into the distance, the Kitsune duo had found the Sennin, and had cast a genjutsu over him and taken off with the Copy Ninja's team.
Mere minutes later, when the traitorous snake got suspicious, and finally caught on to the fact that he had been duped, he dispelled the illusion and angrily looked around, attempting to track the Genin team. Dodging to the left as he felt the faintest of chakra spikes behind him, he immediately pulled off a kawarimi and observed from where his Doton: doro bunshin had been.
Having felt his targets chakra flare, and seeing the distinct difference in the elemental makeup if his current targets chakra, Ikari knew that it had been a close call, with him almost missing the shot at Orochimaru with his chakra tag; however, he had succeeded and would now drive the snake away or kill him if possible.
Drawing his sword from its sheath, the young Jonin assumed a stance with the Hi to Kōri in a low ready position, before challenging his foe; "So, Orochimaru, how about you dissolve the clone and face me yourself?"
Without a word of response the clone attacked him and was swiftly destroyed and Ikari turned directly towards Orochimaru and smirked. "This is all the great and powerful Hebi Sennin has? I'm sorely disappointed, as here I was thinking I was going up against the most powerful nukenin that Konoha has ever produced, and all I get is a clone…"
Tilting his head for a moment, the older man chuckled in a sinister manner, before nodding and appearing before the young Jonin. "You have quite the arrogance thinking that you can take me down, gaki. Tell me, what is your name so when I think back on this that I know just who I am laughing at?"
Smirking at the Sennin before responding, Ikari was pleased to have gotten the opportunity to truly test his strength. "Sōjin Ikari, the Chi no Akuma Kitsune, I have also been referred to as the Ryūketsu no Akuma no Arashi."
The only sign of shock was in the slight widening of his eyes, which immediately after flaring open narrowed as he judged whether he was being lied to. Looking at his breathing, seeing if he was sweating, no…this young man was indeed who he had said he was. "Kukuku, indeed…since you already know who I am, I suppose I should show you my true face…" as he removed the skin of the Kusa kunoichi that he was hiding inside.
Suppressing his disgust at the sight, he readied himself as he watched the older shinobi crack his neck and assume a stance in his summon taught taijutsu, before sheathing his blade and following suit as he flooded his body with water-natured chakra. The two shinobi waited until a floating leaf flew by on the wind, watching it twirl and fall, and once it had hit the ground commenced the fight.
The water elemental aspect was equally as fluid as the Snake Style, which allowed him to keep up with the traitor, and even land a few hits. The majority of the next ten minutes was spent in attempting to land a decisive blow by each of them, but the Sennin had had enough as he flipped backwards and raced through hand seals and exhaled, loosing yet another Daitoppa.
Utilizing the kawarimi, Ikari swapped places with a leaf that was behind Orochimaru and drew his sword and attacked him, forcing him to dodge. It was a few minutes later that the older man was able to retrieve his own sword, the Kusanagi, and defend himself. The one thing that was almost immediately apparent to both of them was that just as the Hebi Sennin was slightly superior in taijutsu, so too was Ikari the superior fighter when it came to kenjutsu.
Shocked beyond belief that his blade hadn't cut through the younger man's katana, Orochimaru was on the receiving end of several attacks that got through his defenses and actually wounded him. Snarling in anger at the perceived insult that this whelp was giving him, he disengaged once again and pulled up his sleeve and ran some blood over his summoning tattoo, only to be intrigued at seeing the Konoha shinobi do something similar. Running this piece of information through his head, Orochimaru almost immediately came to the conclusion that this was a new summon animal, as none of the other Konoha summons would authorize a summoning tattoo like the snakes had for him.
Feeling just how much chakra had been thrown into the summoning tattoo; Ikari had done the same thing, and summoned a six-tail Kitsune. Seeing the look of surprise on his enemies face was worth it in his mind. Looking down at his furry companion, he recognized her as the oldest daughter of Shinibana, Yukidama. Giving her one of his signature foxy smiles, no other directions were needed, and he refocused on the battle at hand.
Once again, they were at a standoff; Orochimaru because he was calculating, thinking about whether it was time to retreat while he still had workable plans, or attempt to see this through and then flee.
Ikari on the other hand, was waiting to see if any assistance was en route, as he knew that this could very well turn into a battle of attrition, as the two of them were almost evenly matched.
Shi no Mori, Five Days Later
Team Kakashi had gotten away unscathed from the confrontation with Orochimaru, and had managed to get the Heaven scroll that they needed to advance, and all that was completed by the end of day two in the forest. They had also picked up a stray, as one of the teams from Kusa had been all but destroyed, and the only survivor looked like she was going to defect to Konoha since she was an Uzumaki. Karin had stuck by their side and utilized her skills as a sensor to help them avoid any other confrontations after giving them her Heaven scroll, and had been to see the Hokage as soon as they made it to the tower where the third and final stage was to be held.
During the next three days, the three of them had trained both as a team and as individuals, which oddly enough, made them one of the only teams that were doing what they could to keep their edge. All too soon though, it was time to head to the arena, and as it turned out, they were one of the very few teams to make it to the tower so early. Every single one of the other teams that had made it that were from Konoha, except for two others besides theirs, had made it in during the wee hours of the morning for most of them, and one or two that had made it just before the deadline.
While they were thinking about all this, they were walking to the arena and making small talk amongst their small group, laughing and joking as they moved along. Upon their arrival, they found a seat and waited for the Hokage to start the final stage. A few minutes before the third stage was to begin, Haku showed up briefly and wished them luck, before leaving as swiftly as she had arrived.
All the Genin turned their attention to the arena floor as they heard someone clearing their throat, and saw that it was a rather young Jonin, and those who knew him smiled as they recognized the man standing there.
Ikari calmed his nerves as he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Greetings to all who have made it this far, and well done to each of you, as five days in the Forest of Death is no walk in the park, especially when there are beasts in there that can give even someone of Jonin level a challenge. Due to the fact that there are so many of you here, we will be having a preliminary, as there are too many of you here to be able to perform for your respective Daimyo and Kage." Turning and bowing, he turned the group over to the Hokage for his part in announcing this stage in the Chuunin exams.
Tuning out the speech for the moment, he contemplated the reasons that he had been given for taking the place of Gekkou Hayate, who had originally been slated for this slot. At least until Tsunade-sama had been informed of his condition, which had originally been deemed incurable, and she had informed him of a technique that she had been taught that should clear it up, but it would take quite some time.
By the time he had finished his musings, he noticed the Hokage give him the nod to go ahead. "To those of you who know me, my name is Jonin Sōjin Ikari, but for those of you who don't," here he leveled a feral grin at the Genin, "I am referred to as the Ryūketsu no Akuma no Arashi. I am in charge when you are down here, and if I tell you to stop, you will do so. If you disobey my orders when you are in my arena, you will be disqualified, and you will NOT like the way that I do so."
Turning to the board and explaining its purpose, the slats started to spin, and came to a stop on the names Haruno Sakura vs. Sai, "Haruno, Sai report to the center of the arena."
A minute or two later both of the Genin were standing in front of the Jonin, who, having confirmed that they were both ready, announced the start of the match, "HAJIME!"
The match was over less than a minute later, and shaking his head, Ikari announced the victor before summoning the medics. "Shōsha, Sai! Next up is Akimichi Choji against Sabaku Kankurou, both of you front and center!"
This one ended up being slightly longer, as the Suna shinobi just had to go and piss Choji off by calling him fat. If there is one thing you NEVER do, its' call an Akimichi fat. It was over though once Kankurou got a few poisoned senbon into Choji though, and Ikari called it once more, "Shōsha, Sabaku Kankurou; Tsuchi Kin and Nara Shikamaru Come down here!"
The next few matches were just as unimpressive, with Shikamaru winning his match with ease, much to his dissatisfaction. Then were the matchups that followed, which resulted in the matches ending as follows:
Haruno Sakura vs Sai – Winner: Sai
Akimichi Choji vs Sabaku Kankurou – Winner: Sabaku Kankurou
Tsuchi Kin vs Nara Shikamaru – Winner: Nara Shikamaru
Sabaku Temari vs Higurashi Tenten – Winner: Sabaku Temari
Inuzuka Kiba vs Uchiha Setsuki – Winner: Uchiha Setsuki
Rock Lee vs Sabaku Gaara – Winner: Sabaku Gaara
Kabuto vs Uchiha Sasuke – Winner: Uchiha Sasuke
Yamanaka Ino vs Dosu – Winner: Dosu
Hyuuga Neji vs Hyuuga Hinata – Winner: Hyuuga Neji
Aburame Shino vs Abumi Zaku – Winner: Aburame Shino
Uzumaki Natsuko vs Akadou Yoroi – Winner: Uzumaki Natsuko
Uzumaki Natsumi vs Tsurugi Misumi – Winner: Uzumaki Natsumi
Once they had had everyone who was there fight once, the Hokage spoke to the proctor via a headset, letting him know that they had whittled down the field enough and to have them all draw numbers for the matches in the finals. Turning his head and nodding, Ikari looked back up to the Genin and smiled. "To those of you who won, good job and get your butts down here to the arena; for those of you who lost, train harder and fix the flaws that you and your sensei's find and then try again next time."
The winners of the preliminaries filed down onto the floor of the arena, and formed a single line in front of the Proctor, who held out a small box to the first person in line, who happened to be Hyuuga Neji. Instructing them to select a piece of paper and pass the box along, Neji complied with his instructions and before Ikari knew it, they had all pulled a number. The matchups for the finals looked like this:
Match 1 – Uzumaki Natsumi vs Hyuuga Neji
Match 2 – Uchiha Setsuki vs Dosu
Match 3 – Aburame Shino vs Sabaku Kankurou
Match 4 – Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku Temari
Match 5 – Sai vs Uzumaki Natsuko
Match 6 – Sabaku Gaara vs Uchiha Sasuke
"Alright, all of you know who you are initially facing off against, so you now have a month to prepare. Meet up with your Jonin Sensei to arrange your training, and I will see you all here in a month's time." Catching Setsuki's eye, he got her to stay for a moment, along with her cousin Sasuke.
Smiling at each of them, he spoke with them quietly for a moment. "Sasuke, you will be training with Kakashi, but I want you to remember something very important that I want you to consider carefully. I don't want your answer right now, but when you feel that you truly have the answer I want you to come and find me." Getting an eager nod from the Genin, he chuckled as he asked his question. "Which is more important: the shinobi or his tools?"
Leaving the young Uchiha there for a moment, he walked a short distance away to speak with one of his betrothed. "Suki-koi, I will be training you, Haku, and myself for this next month. We are the only ones who can really train each other to the fullest, simply because we don't truly rely on one aspect of the ninja arts. The way that I went about having Miyuki kaa-chan work our Kekkei Genkai was so that we would be more balanced, which means…?"
Taking a moment to consider her intended's words, the answer struck her rather quickly, as she smiled and answered him. "It means that as long as we are well-rounded we give our opponents and enemies fewer weaknesses to exploit, and give ourselves more avenues of attack." She then gave him a blinding smile as he kissed her forehead.
"Very well done, but I do believe that it is time to go home, as I feel that there will be a few people who will want to celebrate all of you getting this far, especially since you are all rookies and got an exemption to the age restriction."
Training Ground, Uchiha Compound, Next Day
Early the next morning saw the members of the Sōjin clan up before dawn, in order to eat breakfast and stretch before starting off with laps around Konoha as their first task of the day. They finished up at the Uchiha clan training grounds, with both the girls breathing hard and sweating; while Ikari was barely sweating and was still breathing mostly normally.
While envious of his prowess and skills, both of the girls knew that he had worked very hard for years to get to the level he was at, and from their conversation last night, that he was at or almost above the skill level of Orochimaru, the S-rank traitor from Konoha. Thus, when he trained with them, they didn't complain, mostly because he would train even harder than they did even while he was training them into the ground.
The first week of training was a grab bag of the basics, mostly things that were easily accomplished simultaneously. Things like strength and endurance training, hand seal speed, weapons throwing and accuracy, and chakra control exercises. There was of course a slight difference in how quickly they were able to strengthen themselves, and that was due to the modified gravity seals that Ikari had come up with.
In the normal ones, you had to manually adjust the level of the seals after a certain point. The ones that Ikari had modified had a medical diagnostic portion to see what their bodies were capable of handling and slowly adjusted the strength of the seal as their bodies improved and were better able to handle the stress. So instead of hitting a plateau and needing to adjust the level, and slowly start back up again, the seal was able to adjust itself, thus allowing a constant rate of improvement which was far better for them.
It was only when they hit the second week that the hell the Ikari considered training began for the ladies in his life. The first thing that he taught them was the Kage Bunshin, which they found out that due to the change in their Kekkei Genkai, that their infusion with a small portion of Miyuki's youkai had forcefully expanded their chakra coils by about half of what they'd had previously, and also the gradual expansion of their coils was accelerated to an extent, thus allowing them to form between ten and fifteen shadow clones; allowing them to accelerate their learning curve.
That second week, he'd taken half their shadow clones and had them performing chakra control exercises while the other half were learning fuinjutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. In the meantime, he was spending the mornings working with the real two on their taijutsu and kenjutsu, since those two skills were far more about actual muscle memory than they were about normal memory.
Week three was much the same, though with their chakra control being much better, they were each able to produce twenty clones this time, which meant that their clones were divvied up a little differently: five went to do the chakra control exercises, while five went to work on fuinjutsu, five were sent to work on ninjutsu and genjutsu, with the remaining five working on summoning.
Since Haku had signed the Kitsune contract and Setsuki the Washi, they had both summoned a number of each clan both to familiarize themselves with the clan and vice versa, but also to get used to working with them.
The fourth week was spent refining what they had learned during the previous three, which meant that once again their clones were reassigned. This time they only had three working on chakra control, five working on fuinjutsu, while the rest of them were tasked with working on their ninjutsu and genjutsu. The real individuals spent this last week working out the kinks with their summons, toiling hard to get their collaboration attacks down to a T.
Then there were the last couple of days before the Finals, and Ikari had decided that they had both improved greatly, so he decided to reward them both with a small vacation as well as pass along some information to his allies. Once they had all their supplies ready Ikari smirked and had them hold his arms as he slapped a sandaled foot down on a sealing tag and they disappeared in a plume of smoke.
Summon Realm, Kitsune's Glade
When the smoke cleared, all three of them gazed around in wonder as they had arrived somewhere that none but the Kitsune had ever been. They were interrupted by a high pitched giggle and they turned around to see a very familiar fox, only she now had two tails instead of one. "Yuri-chan, is that you?"
Giggling even louder she yipped at him. "Hai, it's me Ikari-sama, we have been expecting you. Are you all ready for some fun?"
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