Sleight Advantage [Naruto SI] (Old version)

[RogueDruid]

Heres another chapter!

---

I savored the taste of ramen as I pointedly ignored the stares of my two teammates and the bewildered look on my sensei's face.

"But… How did…" Yumi muttered from my side.

"Psychology, and hero worship," I said with a grin as I took another bite of ramen.

"Is that even allowed?" she pressed.

"I checked, and yes, it is allowed. The Konoha Nin Lawbook states that using available civilian resources in a non-dangerous non-combat manner is acceptable as long as they are rewarded appropriately for both effort and productivity. They haven't graduated yet, that makes them civilian." I pointed out, before sipping at the broth.

Ah, good ramen.

"You… are correct." Sensei added, having obviously made the leaps that the civilian children fell under 'civilian non-lethal mission assets'. "But wait, how did you… ah, you played it backward. The act was the reward in their eyes. And your words all but pushed them to it."

"Yep."

Team 17 sat in silence as they finished their meals.

"Toru?" Kohaku spoke softly.

"Yes, Kohaku."

"You are disturbingly manipulative." she deadpanned.

"Thank you, Kohaku."

----

I stretched as we walked back towards the mission office.

It's been a week since the now standard D-rank mission started. Most of them have been grunt work, and aside from my fun time playing Tom Sawyer, most of them went about how'd you expect. Walking the partnerless dogs for the Inuzuka, a few missions for general maintenance around town, clearing a field for an older farmer on the edge of town. The standard.

Beyond that, Sensei started adding modifiers. Like for instance, I could only walk the dogs while using my still developing chakra sliding, which was a pain in the ass until I got the dogs to work together with me. Kohaku had to use a careful fire to clear out a bunch of dead brush at the farm (the ash made for good fertilizer, apparently) without setting a shed or the other crops on fire.,Yumi had to use her shadows to mark out sections of wood or material instead of using a pencil, and then cut them. Things that weren't particularly hard, but definitely pushed us to develop precision and reflexes.

We stepped up to the desk and handed over the signed mission scroll. Sensei looked down and back at us, before looking back. And suddenly I was tense and on guard. My teammates stiffening at the same time.

"Is there a Tora mission available?" Sensei asked nonchalantly.

'Oh. Fuck.' I mentally ran through my arsenal. I needed to swing by the pet store and grab some stuff.

"Yes, there is. Tora mission: D-rank." The mission chunin nodded, pulling a scroll from the pile.

"Perfect! Let's go, team, we have a cat to cat-… You okay Toru?"

Both Yumi and Kohaku looked at me, confusion on their faces, and I blinked before noticing a deck of cards frozen mid shuffle in my hands.

"No. I know about Tora. This is going to suck." I said, deadpanning as I flipped the cards into a complicated three loop shuffle, before folding them, noting with a twist of glee how I had landed the deck in New Deck Order. Cool.

I stashed them in a pocket and pulled out a small wallet.

"Sensei. Are we allowed prep for this mission?"

Both Kohaku and Yumi were now really looking confused. They glanced at each other and back to me.

Sensei nodded. "Sure, if you think it'll help."

"Cool. Go ahead guys, I'll meet up in a few minutes."

"We'll come with." Yumi declared, turning to follow me.

"Yeah, Toru, fill us in."

"Fine, but we gotta talk and walk. If what I know is right, Tora's is already on the run."

As we moved through the market I started explaining the basics, (which is all I really knew).

Tora is known as 'The Demon Cat' and is the pet of Madam Shijimi, who is the wife of the Fire Daimyo. From what the rumors say, she;s also overbearingly affectionate to her Cat, often crushing it in uncomfortable hugs and refusing to let it wander. As such, it gets fed up and makes a break for it.

And because it's such a relatively high profile mission, it's our job to find and return it.

"But what's the issue, it's just a cat, right?" Yumi asked as I walked through the aisles of a pet store, finding a simple collapsible cat carrier, a bag of catnip, and, at the final consideration, a leash.

"No, Its a cat that for the last three years since Madam Shijimi has gotten it has made a daily attempt to escape from her clutches and has been regularly facing young ninjas for escape. As such, it's gotten damn good at evasion. It also will act half feral and lash out with intent to injure if we catch it." I paid the shopkeeper and sealed the supplies in an empty card (Queen of hearts) I had on hand, stashing it up to my sleeve.

"So what do we do, since you're so well informed."

"Well, Taicho, we go hunting," I said, grinning as I spooled a line of ninja wire and cloth into my hands, wrapping the end of the wire in the cloth and then forming a loose loop in the end.

-----

"Toru, Cut it off! Kohaku Keep on it!" Yumi called from her position running on the roof tops above me.

"Got it! Make it go left ahead!" I called back, before flowing chakra through my legs as I jumped and slid under a low hanging street sign to the left of the street, sliding along the dirt into the first few feet of a fenced up back alley between buildings before pushing off the ground and mantling over the fence into the alley proper.

This alley angled to the right, the same direction the cat was now going. If Kohaku and Yumi made it turn, It would put me right in front of it. I pulled the queen from my sleeve as I ran, and just before the fence at the end, I heard a shout.

"Toru. Target Inbound!" I paused and focused, forming a half snake as I closed one eye.

Send the chakra out, focus, feel the pull of the life around me, the pulse of chakra from...

Figure on the roof. Dark chakra focused.

Figure on the ground, running, flickering feelings of flame.

Animal, anxious, angry, instinctive.

A faint echo from… somewhere, reminiscent of Sensei.

And then I moved, lunging from the alley with wire already flying from my hand, a small weighed net woven of ribbon and ninja wire.

The cat saw it and leaped, only for the second wire, this one cloth wrapped and glowing faintly with chakra, struck, looping several times around its back legs. The tug of it sent the cat off balance, and suddenly a spear of shadow struck towards it, holding the cat in place.

I was quick to hold the catnip in its face, rubbing the leaves to help release its chemical scent. I waited until the cat seemed to relax, and then pulled the cage around and placed Tora in. I also was careful to remove the wire and check to makes the cat was fine.

"Red ribbon confirmed, markings confirmed. Yep, this Tora." I called out, as Yumi dropped her jutsu, and Kohaku came to rest beside me. The now drugged out the cat was mewling softly from the carrier.

"So, back to the Hokage's office?"

"Yeah."

----

Ten minutes of watching in sympathy and some level of vindication as the cat got held tight by the overbearing noble, though in its drugged out state it actually seemed rather relaxed, Team 17 departed for the day.

"Oh, yeah, before I go," I hung back to sensei, "Permission to begin learning explosive tags, sensei? I'll need someone to observe testing on occasion."

"Theory only for now. Once I find someone who can watch your testing, you can do practical work."

"Hai, Sensei."

 

[RogueDruid]

Toru sits in a comfortable recliner in a dark room, face lit by an old style smoking pipe. in his hand is an old leather bound book.

"Ah, Tom Sawyer, a classic." He looks up, "That link will take you to the relevant chapter on Project Gutenberg if you wish to follow the explanation."

He cracks the book open, flipping the pages "Now, today we want to focus on chapter 2, it has the relevant events to clarify my little... con, at the academy in the last chapter." he clears his voice and points the left half of the room shimmering to show the scene. "its a Beautiful Saturday morning. Sun shining, birds singing. very Disney. Tom can;t enjoy that though. he's got to whitewash, which means paint white, the fence. And considering this is in the south, along side the Mississippi river, and before the Civil war, that means a fence along the property line is fairly large."

he points, and the scene resolves to show Tom staring at the fence and a look of absolute loathing cross his features. if he looks like a Nara... well, coincidence?

"Now, Tom barely starts, before the family servant come out the house with a bucket. this is Old Joe. he has to head to the water pump and fill the pail. Tom decides that that is a far more palatable chore, considering there's always other kids at the watering hole and could provide conversation and distraction. Joe says he can't. Toms aunt made it clear he was to refuse. Tom tries to persuade him. The aunt makes her presence know, sending Joe off with a hit of her slipper, and scaring Tom into working with the threat of the same. Eventually, that wears. off."

"Tom is slowing down, and the look of how little he's done compared to how much he must do feel soul breaking. he thumbs through his pockets counting the assembled loose treasure of a young 12-year-old in t eh south, he realizes he down;t even have enough to pay a friend off to help! ... but wait. oh, he has a thought, a brainstorm!"

"Tom keeps an eye out, and continues on, however when he finally hears one of the other kids in the neighbor hood appear, he focuses, acts as if he;s doing a great work of art! naturally, the other kid, Ben Rogers, a bit of a prideful rooster, is coming along acting as if he was a steamboat. " Toru nods and the kid is shown rolling up, dressed in a gray hoodie and with red marks under his eyes, with an apple in hand. "the young pompous kid draws his 'steamboat' to a stop, planning to laugh at Sawyer at his misfortune. Saywet ignores his first attempt. it isn;t until he gets tapped on the shoulder that he responds, blinking as if from a trance."

"Ben inquires about Sawyers mood. it's a brilliant day, he should be out playing, why, Ben is going swimming! but Toms stuck doing work. Torespondsds that he actually quite enjoys it, leaving Ben flabbergasted. But how could Tom like Whitewashing a fence? Tom measures his reply, stating that it's a very important job. its the front fence! it's seen by the whole town! And his aunt just can't let anybody white wash it now, can she? why Tom states he doubts there's more than one person in a thousand, no, two thousand, who could paint the fence right!" Toru gives a sharp smile, winking.

"Ben pauses. Seeing Tom so... passionate about this means now he wants to try it! what if it's as fun and important as Tom lets on? Why Tom wouldn't mind if he painted a bit, would he? Tom refuses, saying he can't just let anyone paint the fence! not for no good reason. Ben pauses and offers part of his apple. then his whole apple. tom seems to struggle, torn... and then gives. in. Ben hands over the apple and starts painting, while Tom takes a seat in the nearby shade." Toru nods, showing a relaxed Nara with an apple in hand cloud watching and a working Kiba at the fence.

"Of course, it's not long before another mark comes down the street, and this time, with a.. worker, already present, he convinces them to buy into the job. in fact, he gets a line of kids, so even when Ben tires and moves on, he gets quickly replaced. By the time Tom runs out of whitewash, the fence has three coats and he;s sitting on what might as well be the local dragon's hoard! if he hadn't run out, he may well have bankrupt the entire Children economy for weeks!"

Toru closes the book, the scene refocuses on him.

"Now, for a Ninja Village, this works almost as well. particularly on the younger Academy kids, the ones in their first or second year. Now, you have to convince them. 'Painting the fence! it's brilliant!' 'Only the greatest of Ninja could paint a whole fence like this' 'Why i doubt a brat like you could even do a six foot stretch!' Get two rivals going at it as a competition, and watch them go. make it something insulting for the prideful, and you can get them doing it out of spite. but you just need to keep them focused. part of it is that you're playing on pride. part of it is making them view the act as a reward. you can say you should keep them from helping, I mean, it's awfully important work..." Toru grins and starts shuffling.

"That's all for tonight folks. I might show up and teach you about stuff like this again. If you have a topic you'd like clarification on from the story, by all means, maybe I'll return. feel free to comment to that regard. Alright. I gotta get out of here. The fourth wall can only take so much at once."

He waves one more before exploding into a flurry of Joker cards.

 

[RogueDruid]

WHOO NEW CHAPTER WHOO!

---

I breathed slowly as I ran my hands through a cycle of one-handed seals. The scroll detailing them sitting on the desk in front of me. The issue would be controlled when learning this. The better my understanding of how it shaped my chakra, the greater it would become. I needed to focus.

I kept running my hands through the seal's, eyes closing as I focused inwards.As I slowed the sequences, I began to breathe, focusing on my chakra, wanting it to calm to move like the tide. To pulse slowly out, and in.

I breathed out once more, and suddenly I could feel… something, a shape, a design. I tensed slightly, loosing it, and forced myself to relax once more.

In.

Out.

The tide, rushing in, the beach vanishing.

The water retreating into the sea, leaving sand and stone in its wake.

And then… I could feel it.

My hand flipped from one seal to the next, each one making a flowing shape, an impressionist artist depiction of constellations, form in my mind. I focused, feeling each one, feeling it trace itself as I held each hand sign. it reminded me of rubbing your eyes and keeping them closed, repeating ever-shifting images that slowly began to form definite shapes and patterns...

Without breaking my breathing, I started the academy 12 hand signs, feeling each flow each conduit open as the meanings became slowly more clear.

And then, as easily as I had gained it, I lost the zen, the faint sound of a crashing plate all that was needed to wake me from my trance.

I blinked and looked at my hands. Reaching for the clarity.

I tried to remember how each sign felt, only to curse as the half felt memories seemed to slip through my fingers.

Great.

Let's try this again.

In…

Out…

---------------


I looked at the piece of paper held out for me, Sensei holding them fanned out for the three of us.

"Chakra paper?" Kohaku tilted her head. "But I know my affinity."

"Still good to check it Kohaku, you could always be developing a secondary affinity."

She considered that and nodded, before reaching out and pulling a paper, me and Yumi did the same.

"Wonderful. Now all you do is channel chakra to the paper and…" the piece of paper in his hand seemed to crumple before igniting, "As you can see I have a Raiton and Katon affinity. Most of my clan has Raiton as a primary or secondary at some point."

Yumi channeled her next, and her paper also crumpled. "Guess I also have Raiton?"

Kohaku did as well, and her paper simply turned to ash. "As usual, I have a strong Katon."

I paused and did the same, watching intently. The paper seemed to start breaking and crumbling before the crumbled paper seemed to drip off my hand, splattering as a clump of paper mache on the ground.

"Ah, a Suiton and Doton dual affinity You are surprisingly defensive and utility oriented, Toru. The most famous person with that affinity I can think of is the Shodaime, who had access to the Mokuton." I nodded slowly, already considering what I could remember about earth and water techniques. Earth has solid defenses and battlefield manipulation. Something about gravity, so potentially how to orient myself. I should look that up.

For water, it was easier. I did remember the Wave Arc details fairly clearly, due to the sheer multitude of ways it was done. Water has a fairly fluid and easy to control shape, so that implies versatility. It also specializes in swift attacks, whereas earth is more decisive, water was supposed to be fluid, adapting.

I could work with that.

"So what now sensei?" Kohaku spoke up, and sensei smiled.

He pulled three scrolls from his pouch and handed one to each of us. "As you know, I'm a Yamanaka, my clan specializes in mental jutsu. My clan head, my cousin Inochi, Has a fairly large library of mental jutsu he's more than willing to hand out. They aren't clan specific, and none of them are either dangerous, or particularly complex. I chose one for each of you, and I'll help you with developing them."

"For Kohaku, I have a technique that is a twist on a basic mind art, it's to help develop a 'Mental Library'. It's one of the preludes to developing a 'Mind Palace', but it should help with improving reflexes and memory."

"For Yumi, I have a technique that should help with spitting focus, one of the things that I know you'll need to use some of the higher stage Shadow jutsu. Your Clan head actually suggested it."

"Shikaku-san?" Yumi asked, blinking in surprise.

"Indeed. He has a list of Inochi's extra jutsu for his clan to learn if they have the aptitude. If you had been in a Ino-Shika-Cho Combination, like the clan heads, you would have learned these over time." Santa-sensei grinned. "He recommends you apply these to your shadow bind, being able to fire two independent links at once is your current milestone." Yumi nodded, And from her expression was already going over the use of multiple bindings.

Sensei turned towards me now. "Toru, for you I have something a bit more difficult. I mentioned you were starting with both genjutsu and sensing, and i was given this. Its one of the things I was taught to do, commonly called the 'Haunted perception'. It's a mental perception filter, designed to help you with integrating the chakra sensor aspect of your mind into your other senses. It should allow you to alter how you perceive your chakra sensing, allowing things that you sense with chakra to be interpreted in your other senses. It's difficult, but with your role as a genjutsu and tool specialist, it will help you."

I nodded, and looked at the scroll as the girls were doing. The basic exercise seemed to be focusing on a single signature and shifting how you perceive it from an active search to a passive effect. Some of the examples of how you could do this was using chakra levels as glowing halo's, seeing chakra types as a variety of colors, smelling past uses of chakra by their natures, and hearing sounds or music when chakra is being used. Interesting stuff.

Santa helped walk us through the first stages of each technique for the rest of the morning. Mine was the aforementioned first step, and i was using Sensei as the focus. Kohaku was meditation, with orders to imagine writing a page of a book or scroll on a random subject, and then putting it on a shelf. She was to do this three times for each technique, and then at the end of the morning sensei would have her quote it. Yumi was told to meditate as well, with her trying to imagine a river, that split in two directions. She was to follow each one as far as she could while thinking of both. If she stopped thinking of one, she was to start over.

At lunch, we were all feeling a bit stressed out. Yumi had barely gotten any further than what she equated to a few meters, Kohaku was gotten less than a paragraph of each of her pages memorized, and even then, she had issues with it. And I thought I could see a faint blue tint to Sensei's silhouette to my eyes, but it vanished every time I blinked, so I may just be hallucinating.

So when sensei gave us the afternoon off, with a suggestion to hang out to 'Increase team cohesion' we all decided to hit a cheap but tasty sushi bar in my neighborhood.

As we crowded into the booth, I pulled out a deck of cards and started cutting and shuffling the deck one-handed, my face buried in the sleeve of my arm, trying to rest my eyes. "I think I'm hallucinating blue marks. That or I've kept my eyes open way too long."

"Ouch," Yumi chuckled. "I personally, have a splitting headache. What about you Kohaku."

"I have a sentence of words that sort of rhyme stuck in my head. On repeat," she muttered, before sipping her tea. Speaking of, I have tea! should drink that when my vision clears up.

I and Yumi hissed in consolation.

"That sucks," I muttered, hand flipping what I was sure was a Joker from the deck and holding up it with my fingers. I tilted my head to see it to check… fuck. That was the 3 of clubs. Wrong card.

I sighed and flipped it back in. If that was the 3C, where was the Joker? I probably fucked a shuffle up. Damn.

We chatted on the tasks we and how far we were at so far, until food came. We had pooled together to get a variety platter, and I instantly narrowed in on the crab and avocado (which were apparently native to the Land of Rivers). As we talked I was at this point i was just shuffling the cards aimlessly. I had already screwed up my mental image of the deck as it is.
Yumi started talking to Kohaku about updating their outfits since they were now genin. Kohaku suggested Yumi get dark blues and blacks, accented with brighter blue. Kohaku was planning on greys and reds. I mentioned they should pay attention to the tightness of sleeves, and suggested Kohaku wear a longer waistline but shorter sleeves, play off the nobility look. This seemed to signal that they should include me in the fashion discussion, and they both slowly worked me into the conversation. Suggesting a brighter shirt under the black button-up and jacket. I actually agreed, and started talking colors.

And before I knew it, I had been tagged to go shopping with them.

Great. Fuck you and your fashion savvy past me, I know I didn't pick that up in this life.

And I did remember helping the girls past me knew with shopping. I know it's not the worst thing in the world...

 

[RogueDruid]

@RBomber @TotallyNotEvil

Hmm.... good points you two. Since we need some numbers, let work this out.

For our Shinobi forces in the grand scheme of things, Let's say that Konoha has about 13,000 active and serving shinobi. that breaks down to about 4,000 genin, 6,000 Chunin, 1,000 special jonin, 2,000 Jonin. only a 10 percent come from Konohagakure, the rest are recruited as an apprentice or in smaller groups outside, trained, and come to join Konoha forces in the late teens the early twenties. the Konoha academy (and its various counterparts) are orient more towards training future Jonin and officers. Your average 'Shuriken throwing nobody' is ranked maybe genin to lower end chuunin. Those who rise above that usually become Special Jonin, no higher. Prodigys, rare as they are outside Konohagakure, do happen though, and they end up in the ranks of Jonin.

Of that 13,000, about 500 (Chuunin Plus) are permanently assigned in Administrative roles in Konoha (running the Library, the Archives, the History, and the Hokage office.) Another 1000 or so are Anbu/Hunter/T&I/Intelligence operatives, many of whom also work out of Konoha but embark on long ops that can take months/ years. there's another 1,500 (roughly equal parts Genin and Chuunin) who are also regularly stationed in Konoha as both standing army and defense force. another 3,000 (Chuunin teams lead by Jonin)on a regular border patrol and watch and another 2,000 (Mostly genin squads led by Chunin officers) as a police/national guard style force (Acting more as detectives and SWAT-style support then day to day policing). Remember, Konoha is fairly large, and centrally placed. Border patrols, in general, are fairly small, but there's a lot of them.

Beyond that, there are also various other bases throughout the land of fire, some of them mere bunkers, others listening posts or supply depots, you know, infrastructure. let's say that's another 1000 or so each of genin and Chunnin, with a handful of Jonin in charge just to keep things nice and even.

The Last 3000 or so unaccounted for ninja are the ones you see. they take missions, deal with customers, guard transports and are hired out. They are scattered across the elemental continent at any one time, with roughly half in the actual and of fire for any moment, either just off a mission or about to go on one. about a third of that (a good 1K) is based out of Konohagakure, under the Hokage's direct command, though only about a 5th are regular in town at any one time. Toru and most of the Jonin/Genin squads are part of that. simply because they are one of the most visible parts of the system.

The reasons for why things like Orochimaru's Sand/Sound attack were so devastating is that is was designed to be multiple large targets, surrounded by squads of skirmishers. Orochimaru used multiple Summons, surprise attacks, and sabotage, and a fair amount of collateral damage to cause as big of a hassle as he did while taking advantage fo the fact that Konoha was spread thinly on the ground during the exams.



Now for affinity part of this. In this story, Fire affinities are either the primary element or the only element in about 40 % of the Konoha forces, a little over 5,000 ninjas.

Earth is dominant for about 15%

and Lighting is around the same at 15%

Water is a bit more common at 20%

Wind is the dominant affinity in only about 5%, or roughly 600, of the ninja. of those 600, only about 40 are jonin, and of those 40, only 10 could be called Wind Ninjutsu masters. only 3 of those ten are in Konoha. Danzo, Asuma, and (eventually) Naruto. The other seven are posted elsewhere in the land of fire. So When Kakashi Talks about Asuma being the only Wind user in Konoha, it can be taken as Asuma is the only Wind user who can teach you in the village. Danzo is untrustworthy, the rest aren't skilled/strong enough. Wind does pop up as a secondary or gets developed to help support Fire users, but sole wind affinity in Konoha is rare.

Another 5% have stranger natural primary affinities more in line with Either Yang, or Yin, or some bloodline effect. Of these, only about 1% currently focus and develop these (medic, Genjutsu specialists, so on) though they do get developed from secondary affinities as well, boosting the number of those who specialize in such.

Make sense? did i fuck up a number somewhere? let me know!

 

[RogueDruid]

So, chakra synesthesia. Neat.

Click to shrink...

That is the Idea. Also.
Also. OH, MY GOD! It's THE LEGENDARY @Pax_Empyrean! I started reading SV/SB through Ryuugis TGWP, You are an awesome man.

This is one of those things that canon is just wildly inconsistent on. How many people actually live in Konoha? How many ninja are there? In the last arc, there are thousands of them running around, but Naruto's class at the academy graduated 27 students and only nine of them passed their jonin tests to continue on rather than go back to the academy. Zabuza was said to have killed a hundred, a whole year's worth of students, but they would have been expected to cut that number by half with their "everybody fights a duel to the death to graduate" policy anyway, plus the high attrition rate of Mist in general.

Fanon tries to resolve this with things like a "genin corps" where there are a ton of less promising characters graduating in the background who never get a jonin sensei and just get the ninja equivalent of dead-end office jobs for their whole careers. It certainly makes more sense than Kishimoto's approach, which never explained where all of these thousands of random ninja come from when the total annual output the biggest village's academy is in the single digits and nobody is mentioned graduating more than a few dozen.

Click to shrink...

Yep, as the Infor dump the page before your post broke down, I needed some way to justify the Numbers you see later on.

hmm....Mud clones might be useful?
with a muddy battlefield that they can absorb to heal from....
potentially being deep enough to burrow around in...

Click to shrink...

*Hides Notes* SHHHHHHH

It was such a big honking deal that it was rare, though, that it'd feel pretty contrived I think. I mean, technically there ought to be some Sharingan scattered around because people fuck, but that doesn't make random Sharingan powers for random characters any less bs.

Click to shrink...

See, thus my issue with McGuffins. They are everywhere, and acquisition of one tilts the entire story to be 'HAHAHA MY MCGUFFIN IS STRONGEST' ITs bad writing man.

Afaik the wood release was a bloodline ability that the first Hokage had, so unless Toru is secretly a descendant of Hashirama and it skipped a few generations he wont ever get it.

Click to shrink...

NO WOOD RELEASE FOR TORU! NO BLOODLINES! NO! TORU BE LIKE VANILLA! (Smooth and classic)

On bloodlines: This is my favourite explanation of how they work.

Click to shrink...

I do like that... but with the foundations I've already laid in the story, it just doesn't fit.

Hmm, just read the whole story and I have to ask, where the hell is Tenten? I expected some adorkable interactions, dammit!

Click to shrink...

YOu know! You're right-

Still in the academy for another year, I believe. Maybe two; it's been a little while, so I'm slightly fuzzy on the timeline of how this relates to canon and whether the SI graduated two years or three years before Team 7.

Click to shrink...

-Toru and Chibi Tenten need to be a thing....

Oh, Here we go, I just so happen to have something just for this....

---

Empress- 4

---

I sat at the workbench after training one day, about three weeks into my tenure as a Genin, inspecting the designs for my next project. More specifically, I looked at the dimensions I was gonna be working at for the early forging, and looked around. I had the fine detail tools and a small forge in the Jewelry workshop, but for this project….

Fuck. I need to head out. I looked at the sun out the window. I had about three hours till dark, and old man Hagane would still be open right now. I slipped out the window and ran up the outer wall of the alley and mantled into my room, grabbing a light jacket, my forge gear, and the notebook on the project, before vaulting back out the window, sliding down to the still open window to the workshop. It took but a minute to gather what I needed. A few sheets of metal, a hunk of carbon, fresh Whetstone. and the tools I needed. I locked up the window, before heading to the front door, shouldering the jacket on as I walked.

"Hey Mom, I'm heading out to visit the forge!" I called out, hanging the duffle bag of supplies off my shoulder.

"Be careful!" I heard her call out "Dinners at 10, I'll save some for you if you run late!"

'Will do, thanks, Mom." I pushed out the door and walked into the market.

It was late afternoon, more than half the stalls, mostly the more tool and material oriented vendors, were either closing up for the night or catering to the after-work crowds. Those people who just got off work grabbing food and items as they headed home. I took off north, taking a familiar path (Windowsill, doorframe, cornerstone. Signpost, roof) and passing above the madness, skipping along the taunt banners and rope lines that crisscrossed the square.

It was the work of fewer than three minutes before my destination came into sight, a large building, made of heavy stone for walls and soot-covered tiles for a roof, with a full half lot cleared to either side and an empty fenced-in lot behind it.

While the most famous Konoha blacksmith for ninja gear is generally agreed to be Higurashi's Weapons and Armor if you want something strange and with weird requirements, This is where you go. He never named his shop, but everyone who goes here knows it by the owner.

Old man Hagane.

I slipped up to the door and pushed in, waving at the counter, where the grizzled old man was sitting with eyes closed and arms crossed. Hagane is not the broad-shouldered monster you'd expect. No, Hagane is tall, fairly lean looking, and seems almost as if he was chiseled from his namesake metal. He's covered in faint scars from burns and with slight signs of age, skin is tanned by years of fire. And when he tenses, it looks like someone is drawing muscles and veins across his skin. His hair, still mostly black, is tied back into a samurai-style topknot. He wears only a loose brown tunic and black hakama, feet covered in boots.

When I was younger, even before the memories came, I liked to hang out in the forge. The heat would bother me, but watching the old man work, hearing the hammer ringing, the rasp of metal across metal.

I liked this place.

"Hey, old man!" I called "Is the forge open?"

The man cracks his eyes, the dark brown glinting in the low light.

"Hmm… For a brat like you? I suppose." he nodded, "If you sharpen my tools-"

"As per our agreement. Yeah, I know." I nodded.

"Then go about your business." he said, eyes closing.

I headed into the back, already pulling the whetstone form my bag, and heading towards the bin at the side of the shop. A pair of slightly dull chisels sitting in it.

I pulled them out, hopped on a stool, and got to work. It was only about half an hours work, all told. Finished, I hung the tools back up and started blowing the bellow to the forge, heating the fire. When it was a nice glowing yellow, I pulled out the sheet of copper I had picked up, and slowly fed it in with tongs.

Now to get to work.

---

I was more than halfway done when I heard the loud voice of a girl out in the shop, making me pause with the hot metal wrapped around a steel bar, hammer in hand. I signed at hearing the voice chat with Haganes gruff tenor and looked back down. A chalkboard (borrowed from a corner when Hagane kept it) was tilted to the side and in clear view, reminding me of the dimensions I needed and the angles I was looking for (all copied from my notebook before I shoved it with my jacket in the corner. I glanced at it as I shoved the metal back in the forge to heat up again.

I looked up a moment later as the door opened, the voices becoming clear.

"-n't know you had an apprentice Hagane-sam-" Tenten stopped as she looked at me, meeting my eyes as I looked at her. I figured I was a sight, wearing a black tank top, and jeans. Hands in thick leather gloves and hair swept back and unruly. I knew I was also covered in dark black or grey ash from messing with restocking the coal for the forge.

"..."

"...'

"....Hey forge girl," I called out after an awkward moment, hand coming up in a wave.

Tenten blushed a furious red. "Y-You! What are- You? Why? HOW?"

"You're…. Gonna have to be more specific." I replied, before glancing at the copper. "Actually, hold that thought."

I turned and pulled the sheet from the forge, before I began shaping it around the metal dowel once more, hammering the sheet so it went from flat to a stretched and wavy cylinder. Putting Tenten's confusion out of my mind for a moment. I was almost done with this stage anyway, and once it was done then came the hard part.

The seal.

But that could wait. I had the tools for that at home. My forge at home just wasn't big enough to heat the plating.

I spent the next ten minutes hammering and shifting the metal, pulling it off the dowel and shifting it to curve it, in the end, I had a copper cylinder that just about met its own beginning, and took the shape of three cylinders that flowed together.

Done with that, I tossed it in the quench to cool. After that was the pickle and then when I got home I had to-

"What are you making." Came Tenten's voice from right next to me!

"Gah!" I'll admit. I jumped like a bitch.

"What?" I asked, trying to drop my pulse back to a reasonable rate.

"What," she pointed at the quench, "are you making?"

"...a scroll case for travel." came my slow reply. Yeah, it would be a bit overworked, but having a scroll case that could hold my scrolls for seals and not let them get A) Wet, B)Burned, C)Cut in fucking half or D) dirty, was useful. I had plans to make it hinged at home, and then seal the gaps with a gasket, solder or weld in a bottom and top to the pipes, and engrave a seal based lock (From Security Fuinjutsu Volume 2: Doorways and locks) before hooking it to a few straps so I can carry it, probably around my left leg, or maybe inside my jacket.

I wasn't decided.

"Scroll case?" she asked, head tilted. "Umm… no offense, but why would you need one? You're a Ninja, right?"

Wait. Did she… Not know this? I mean, Really? I

I broke my sudden silence, noticing Tenten's expression shifting from curious to… annoyance? "...Fuinjutsu. It's... for Fuinjutsu. You know. Sealing scrolls? Stuff like that?"

"I thought that was just for carrying stuff? That's what Higurashi-sama always uses it for." She frowned slightly, crossing her arms.

I looked at her and then up to the ceiling. Eyes closing as I took a breath.

"Alright, I can see how you would think that." I looked down, reached over, pulling the shell from the quench, and setting it on the counter. "Let's talk fuinjutsu then."

I pushed the chalkboard away from the forge, and tilted I so she could see, before wiping it clear.

"Fuinjutsu has three major popular uses. The first and the most well-known is sealing." I drew a (slightly wobbly) image of a stick figure with a scroll in hand and a pile of stuff by their side. "Alongside the standard use of sealing weapons, or supplies, seals can also be used in combat, though to do so is… difficult. I know some people can use a scroll to seal an attack jutsu, and then release it later, but that's high-end stuff. Regardless, sealing is taking something and storing it in a scroll."

"The second most common is Summoning. It's sort of considered the opposite of sealing. Instead of hiding in an object in a seal, you use a seal to pull an object or being from another location to you. Summoning contracts are essentially a permanent link between the summons and the summoners, allowing them to instantly lock on." I sketched a simple image of a stick figure with a scroll who had a hand on the ground, and a giant frog next to them. "Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya, as well as their most famous foe, The Salamander Hanzo, all had summons. Tsunade has slugs, Jiraiya has Toads, and Orochimaru has snakes. Hanzo is self-explanatory"

I cleared the board off and started on the last one. "The most varied, and least common of the big three fuinjutsu, is called a Seal Channel. It applies to quite a lot of fuinjutsu, but what is references is that the seal makes a defined effect when fueled with chakra. Some examples are things like weight or resistance seals, Using a scroll to cast a jutsu, Security seals, and barrier seals. All of them, and much more, count as Channel's."

I turned and looked back at a nodding Tenten who was clearly processing. "Now. questions?"

"Are seals hard?" came her question, head tilted.

"Uh… tough question. The best way of putting it is a quote I remember. 'Sealing is simple, Sealing isn't easy.' It means that seals make sense, they are logical progressions, they have results. The issue is that the art of sealing is… Harder. The patience, the control. That is Hard. I've studied seals for three years now? I'd barely call myself greater than beginner skill. I do use it for a lot of smaller things, but my sealing is strange." I explained.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense. I wanna try and learn to seal, and I bet I'm gonna be better than you at it! Senbon-Senpai!" She yelled, pointing at me, while I adopted a nonplussed expression.

"Senbon… Senpai….?" I drawled, calling on the late memory of Alan Rickman.

Tenten flushed and clasped her hands looking away shyly. "Uh, Well… I may have forgotten your name…. So…," she mumbled off.

"Why so Kawaii," I muttered facepalming. "Toru Shusho. Call me Toru-san, senpai if you must."

I looked at the clock on the wall, Cringing at the sight. It was close to midnight and had to get up in 8 hours as it was for training

"It's late. I need to head home to sleep, and you-" at this, I yanked Tenten up by the collar. While I wasn't much broader at the shoulder or much bigger than her, I was actually quite a bit taller, which meant longer arms. I was easily able to keep her held up by one hand."-are gonna tell me where you need to go so I can drop you off."

Tenten grumbled at that.

 

[RogueDruid]

Another! This time with an actual sorta intro to Kabuto! Whoo! also, Consequences of not having Naruto's healing? accidents happen, and hospital visits are a thing.

---

"This sucks," I muttered, rubbing my eyes as I tried to ignore the soft sound of the hospital around me. I had been fine, until an hour ago. Then on a Tora mission, I just had to get tripped by the fucking demon cat. It had twisted my ankle something fierce, and the medics had declared It was a nasty sprain. They would have it cleared up by tomorrow afternoon, but they had to let the swelling go down before hey could finish healing it. Great. And the Painkillers I was on were making me antsy.

My team had left to head home with their regards just a few minutes ago, while Sensei had headed out to inform my parents. So here I was stuck with my leg in a sling with some ice while waiting for my parents to get here. I sighed and pulled a scroll from my bag, a copied breakdown on chakra string control. Might as well do something while I was stuck here.

I held out my hands and focused, taking a few seconds to imagine how the thread should be, before pulling my fingers slowly apart, the wires appearing as a faint blue thread that wrapped my fingertips. There we are, a cat's cradle of chakra string.

I grinned and started playing an old game. Pull here, flip there, twist there, loosen here, tighten there. The pattern folded in on itself as I focused on maintaining the shape and structure. Finally, I moved to the more interesting stuff, biting one cord and drawing it from my finger, focusing a slight amount of chakra to my teeth to act as a stable anchor.

Now, how to make this work...

---

A silver-haired young man, glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, wandered through the halls of the low-security section of the hospital, a file he was taking to the archives in hand. He was still working to finish his Medical Ninja training, and much to his dismay, part of that was several hundred hours of on-site experience.

He was probably gonna have to skip out or fail on yet another Genin exam. Joy. Stuck playing a Genin even longer. He glanced in a room window as he passed, and had to stop and do a double take.

The patient inside was currently half wrapped in an intricate web of shivering blue strings, which were anchored from his body in the bed to several ceiling supports, the window rod, the lamp fixture, and the medical grade support harness hanging over his bed. The one rated to carry a full person weight if need be. And he was currently using several wires from each hand to the roof as an anchor to do what seemed to be a series of horizontal pull-ups. Interesting.

'Chakra Strings?' he mused, 'creative use for them.' eying the pattern and taking note of how the wires were anchored against more than just fingers, no from what he could tell they were being sustained by more tenketsu then just the young genin's hands. He glanced to the side, sharp eyes behind the glasses picking up the name on the clipboard stuck next to the wall.

'Shusho Toru… never heard of him.'

He looked back to see, that the kid was now supported by a single bundle of strings in his hands, holding him up in a sitting position as he reached to hold the wire and keep himself up. The wires slowly vanishing one by one 'He's testing the hold. How many stings it takes to-' there, one wire to short and the others snapped, sending him jolting back lightly to the bed, an annoyed scowl on his lips as he reached up, lines reaching for the ceiling again.

Kabuto grinned slightly and left to continue his rounds, reaching up to adjust his glasses

"How interesting..."

---

Santa-sensei opened the door, almost startling me, and making me have to clamp down on my control, to keep the already strained threads from dissipating.

"-M's M's't 'ht 'ooks ike?" I bit out around the few dozen threads spewing from my mouth, anchored on the slightly stronger tenketsu there.

He looked slowly over me, as I hung with my left arm pulled and bound to my chest, a dozen wires anchoring my unbound foot to the ceiling and another fifty, at least, holding me up with one arm splayed back behind me back.

Turned out trying to pull off a Spiderman style upside down pose with a sprained ankle sucks.

But I'm also Really fucking bored right now.

I mean, yeah, I had a bit of a breakthrough on how to make the strings connect and anchor to things that aren't me, but I still need time to set up the link to them. If I could get it just a little faster…. Well. Having magical Ninja-energy web shooters would be mighty useful…

Sensei gave me a Look and sighed, before pulling out an unopened deck of cards.

"If you undo your horrific attempts at a shibari-" And there was the heat rushing to my cheeks, and my mouth almost gaping "-I could give you this. To keep your mind occupied, perhaps?" He mused, and I sheepishly grinned back before biting down hard and with a sharp click. The wires around me started snapped in sequences, letting me fall gracefully on the bed.

"Yes please sensei," I replied, catching as he tossed me the deck, as well as another two he tossed my way. It was with practiced fingers that I used the edge of a thumbnail (and a faint reinforcement to keep it from breaking) to slit the seal, the familiar and reassuring weight of fresh cards as I performed a simple slide to start out. Sensei sat in a chair in the corner, arms crossed and stance relaxed, as I began flickering through some basic shuffles.

"You can practice your sensory overlay while you recover for a few hours, and I'll talk about your jutsu and various tricks you can use."

"Hai Sensei."

---

Yumi stretched slowly and languidly, twisting as she popped her back, hands far above her head the feeling of her back and stomach stretching. 'Hmmm, almost as good as an afternoon catnap.'

She was walking next to Kohaku, who was still perfectly composed. Even if earlier they had both been quite red at the sight of Toru-san sitting on the ground letting out a string of invectives at a caged Tora that almost made sensei blush. He had been particularly creative near the end.

"So, we got the evening off, and tomorrow's our free day. Any plans for when we get Toru out of his lockdown?"

"I fully expect him to check himself out of sheer boredom," Khaku muttered with a faint grin. "Did you see how fidgety he was getting when sensei had to take his stuff home, on doctors orders?"

"Security measures. He was able to keep his scrolls, nothing more. And no sealing scrolls."

"Makes sense. Some of the doctors aren't combat medics, and if someone gets a bad reaction, or is dealing with some sort of trauma, leaving weapons would only exacerbate the situation."

"True."

Yumi and Kohaku meandered with a comfortable silence for a while, before Kohaku broke it.

"Any ideas for the combinations we were working on?"

"Aside from the obvious 'Torchlight' combination, and the whole idea of snag and tag we've been using? A few. My question is, how far can you model your smaller 'ember salamander' you were working on before it triggers?"

Koahky grinned. "Quite far."

Yumi grinned right back. "Excellent! So here's what I was thinking…"

Yumi and Kohaku spent a long afternoon working out some of the kinks in their plans, before heading to their training ground for some practical testing. Next time they were paired against Toru in spars, it would be interesting.

If the fact they were together kept Yumi away from her overbearing mother, and Kohaku from the depressing loneliness, they didn't say. But they appreciated the effort nonetheless.

---

I sighed, looking at the ceiling where a deck of cards was now embedded in the loose plaster boards.

"Fucking Bored."

Oh well. Good use for chakra strings. I flicked my hand up, using a string to lash up, snag a card, and yank it back down. I'm not great at that yet. Chakra strings take very little chakra to maintain, and only slightly more to form, but my accuracy at controlling a string without moving my hand sucks. A flick or wave helps me form it in motion.

I still miss grabbing the cards like half the time.

Well. I can practice for a while at least.

Nothing better to do.

"God I'm so bored."

Flick and throw, Embed cards, Conjure Chakra strings.

This is gonna get old fast.

 

[RogueDruid]

Here's something I expect you've been waiting for. The second part of "RenegadeShsusho's" Adventures with the Missing-Nin Squad. Reminder, this Toru has some great changes compared to his counterparts. Not all he knows is the same as what Tor will know. this is a good way for me to work on getting some of the more 'Trained Ninja' Scenes out, without a time skip hitting.
That said, Enjoy.

---

I stood, leaning against the wall as the shadow cast by the late afternoon sun hid me in its embrace. In my offhand, I slowly shuffled a deck of cards, the other pressed fingertip flat to the wall. I listened, and I waited. The rest of my missing-Nin team was currently clearing out a long forgotten ruin for use, a remnant of the second great shinobi war.

I, on the other hand, had to gather some reports.

I tapped the wall slowly, focusing on my chakra and slowly feeding a strand of it through, my fingertips, the shadow darkening and wrapping around me, faint script on the ground helping me fade, while chakra filled the shadow, casting an illusion bound to a rune inside the stone itself.

Confident I was to be unobserved, I reached out and felt for the echo of my chakra.

And then I grinned and gave the signal.

The air around me was filled with a rapid humming, several small streaks of color flickering around me. I held up an arm and the streaks materialized on my arm, a line of small colorful birds, with long needle-like noses.

"Greetings, my colorful eyes, and ears." I murmured and listened as they all buzzed a symphony of greetings. "Tell me of the news you carry."

They began, one at a time, they buzzed, the high pitched nearly unhearable voices of my hummingbirds echoing through my heightened senses. A minor self-hypnosis unraveled the words in my head.

In Konoha, they were rebuilding, led by the tired old professor. Jiraiya had been seen, and the Snake had run, arms wounded. In Ame, silence in the rain, with only the echo of the words of Pein. in Suna, Rage and Fear and Regret, a demon contemplative. In Iwa, murmuring of openings in the enemy, alongside murmurs from the fence sitter of patience and peace. In Mist, the sound of war, of a mad demons host, and a wave of lava and steam preceding the rebellions advance. Its civil war was drawing to a conclusion.

In Grass, there were whispers of raids in the dark, of twisted beings and facilities filled with death hidden among the rice farms, of those facilities being engulfed in flame. In the tree of the waterfall, a lone girl sulks, while her guardians bicker. In the mountains atop the clouds, a pair of demons have been seen, each greater than the other in some way, one with great strength and calm the other with the voices of the dead in her ears, and the words of a kage sending her forth to scour her nation.

However, the true news came from two. One, a bird colored like fire and ash, the other a deep cobalt shot with yellow.

"Silent Isles of swirling tides. Quiet. No-man, no-hunter, no caretaker. Stone decayed, shimmer lost among gloom, Dead waters, dead pools. Stone stained red."

"See the man that is not a man, dress strangely in black an red cloud, found the lair. He clanks, moves slow, tastes of painful death. Sounds of Wood on clay, of steel on stone. Workshop silent now."

Well well well. Seems the scouts for Uzushiogakure were worth it. And as for the other… that sounds like Sasori of the red sand. And if that's a workshop, well. I did like the ideas of puppets.

I thanked the birds, before drawing a fingernail across the palm of my hand, cupping it to feed the hummingbirds. They each took a sip, beaks stained red as I rewarded and renewed their service for now.

Bloodthirsty, were the small ones. Blood shed and blood consumed would give them strength, blood from a willing summoner, with chakra coursing through it, was a treat to them unlike any other. Once I had let them drink their fill, I lifted my arm, and the birds seemed to blur into streaks before the blur's seemed to vanish altogether. Each of them was wrapped in illusions of speed and color, hiding them from sight, beyond what even some dojutsu could see. The birds simply moved too fast, were too small to track.

Sighing I dabbed a fingertip in the last of the blood in my palm, before pulling up my sleeve to reveal an innocuous hummingbird silhouette dipping its beak into a flower around my forearm, before tapping it with chakra and blood. The summoning variant activated, and another bird, this one a deep maroon color so deep it was almost black, and nearly three times larger than the 'eyes and ears' appeared on my arm.

"Summoner, what can I assist you with" the high pitched buzz echoed through my head.

"I need you to scout a way, find me a quiet and subtle path to the land of the swirling tide. Find me the lost roads to Uzushio." The bird nodded sharply.

"I shall drink deeply of your nectar as my payment, my summoner." It mused in response.

"I offer it freely for the completion of your task."

The bird nodded and seemed to simply vanish, only the faint passing of the air let me know of its departure.

I broke from the concealment of the wall, tapping a pulse of earth chakra into the ground to shift and remove any trace of my seals.

I had changed my look, no longer in the chunin vest and tight black clothes of my Konoha outfit, I had shifted to one of my less common disguises. Hair once black was now a sandy blond/brunette, eyes of blue now a dull brown. My outfit was replaced with a simple tan workman's jacket, over stretchy and loose jean like material for pants, and a long tunic. I had on sturdy work boots, and a belt with many pouches, and pulled on fingerless dark grey gloves as I left the alley.

I took two steps into the crowd, before I relaxed and let myself become the crowd, following along with the river of people as they walked along the streets. I slowly navigated to the walls of the small township, before relaxing and taking a step into yet another alley, before sinking into the earth.

Time to go check on the others, who knows. They may have even cleared out the base by now.

---

Kabuto wiped adjusted his glasses as he looked up, the well concealed gateway to the underground fortress before him. The outer walls and structures had been dismantled a long time ago, and the materials reclaimed, but the seal work on the massive wood and steel gateway kept the underground base intact and undisturbed. The cliff face was tall, and the seal extensive.

Kabuto was impressed by the seals he had encountered. This base, as close to the sea as it was here in the west of Konoha, had been sealed since the age of the Second Hokage. Where before it was an outpost for the local ninja contingent, now it was abandoned. Newer compounds to both the north and south, both close enough to cover the land around this one, had been erected. But this base had been locked up tight. The sealing work was tight, concise, and definitely showed the markings of the second Hokage's hand and the Uzumaki influence of his step-sister.

As Sai sat drawing, sitting in the alcove of the entryway, and Shin kept watch from a tree in range of the entrance, Kabuto was tasked with the slow unraveling and deciphering of the seals.

He was surprisingly happy with that too. Years of dealing with Orochimaru's experiments had given him a broad understanding of a variety of fields, Seals included.

He finally found what he was looking for, a seal that controlled and supplied chakra to the others. A few minutes of study and he was able to shift it slightly off-kilter, drawing the energy out of the array with a stream of medical chakra, unsealing the entry and defenses of the fortress.

With it unsealed, he opened the gateway into the fortress, the others shifting to follow his lead inside. The three of them took time to conduct a quick walkthrough of the base, looking for traps and surprises.

The inside was fairly utilitarian. A wide entry hall with several well-designed chokepoints. A deeper series of branching tunnel that ran off to a dozen rooms. A war room, a pair of barracks, a mess hall, an all but empty armory, a basic workshop, and a small set of officer style suites. The library was empty, the halls caked with faint layers of dust that settled over the years.

Once they were confident the traps were deactivated and the buildings table, Shin headed back out to wait for Shusho. Sai took to the library, and Kabuto headed for the kitchen. If he could get it all warmed up and ready, they could have a nice dinner.

 

[RogueDruid]

Alright! time to wander and talk to some of the other characters. I know people want to see what Asako is up too and you will!... next chapter.

For now, Toru needs the advice of team 13. more precisely, he needs one member's eyes.

---

I sat on the bed, twisting my ankle and nodding at the lack of pain or stiffness before hopping to my feet. "Anything else to do before I can check out?" I had my own clothes on once again, jacket sitting on the edge of my bed.

The medic, a Dr. Shinawa, shook his head. "Nothing on your side, we'll mark you as ready for combat and check you out. You can head out. We'll send a note to add to your file that you've been healed, and to have you come back for a checkup in a month."

"Got it." I nodded, tapping my fingers on the deck of cards in my hands.

He gave me an unimpressed look and waved. "Get going."

"Oh thank fuck," I muttered, dashing and all but leaping out the window.

FREEDOM!

And now I'm bored again. I don't know where Kohaku or Yumi are, or where to look for them. I haven't seen their houses, and while I know where the Nara compound is, I don't feel like swinging by and getting through the house guards.

Joy.

I could go and work on breaking down explosive tags… but I'm about at that point I need a supervisor. And Sensei hasn't dug one up yet. I did finish a sealing design and tested it on paper a few times recently, let see how it works...

I popped a deck from my pocket and pulled an inkwell and brush I had swiped from the hospital staff in another. Biting my thumb, I dropped some blood to mix with the ash based ink, and swirled it. A few minutes of focus and careful movements, and my left hand was covered with ink, a containment seal across the back of the hand and several lines down my index and middle finger and thumb, and a fourth wrapping the spice between my thumb and finger to a small activation seal on my palm.

A few careful half-seals for a quick drying jutsu (which was drawing moisture from the ink, cause water nature) and it was dry. I flexed my hand and checked for cracking, finding none. Satisfied, I placed the deck on the back of my hand, over the seal, and snapped two fingers, thumb and middle, with a burst of chakra.

With a faint puff of smoke, the cards were gone.

Perfect.

I was still working out the kinks of this seal setup. It was still fairly crude, and the safeties a bit too extensive, after all. The sealing work was uncompressed, and the design not as efficient or versatile as I'd like.

I snapped my forefinger and thumb, and twisted my hand, the deck of cards landing in my grasp.

"Cool. The first Array works right." I murmured, snapping my hands and twisting my fingers again, the deck vanishing in a slightly smaller haze of smoke.

I focused, visualizing how I wanted it to work, before feeding the chakra through the seal, trying to draw a single card.

With a puff of smoke, I found myself holding a torn in half section of the deck.
Fuck, that didn't work from the palm. great. I released the rest of the cards, the torn to pieces paper falling from my hand into a nearby dumpster,

Back to the drawing board. I'm gonna need to break that seal down again and work out kinks in my journal.

I focused, pooling chakra under the ink and then slowly pushing it out and causing the ink to crack and then crumble as it fell off my skin. A shake and my skin was clear.

Now to revise and edit, but… not right now. I doodle a seal, simple and easy, on my shirt sleeve and dried it, before I focused and pushed the ink and chakra, twisting it tightly with my chakra. The seal, the size of my palm originally, quickly seemed to collapse, leaving only a small yen coin-sized circle of dark reddish black, with the kanji for "Sketch" on it. I pushed the ink jar and brush into it, and they vanished in a haze.

"Now… I wonder how some old friends are doing?" I mused.

Checking my bearings I took off across the roofs, taking it easy at first to keep my recent injury in mind, before speeding up.

---

In training ground 13, two figures stood at the ready. The first was a tall slim boy, with closely cut sleeveless white robes, and shoulder-length black hair held back by the Konoha hitaite. Across from him, dressed in jeans with rips and tears, a mesh shirt and a vest with a fuzzy collar, stood a girl about his age, long hair pulled back in an unruly ponytail, and her face marked with two long and thin fang like red marks.

Hyuuga Tsuru was sparring with Inuzuka Kegawa, again.

Oh, why oh why did he have to get stuck with the battle crazed girl as his partner? Kaito-san was currently with Hamaki Sensei in the nearby forest, getting a refresher course on some skills. Tsuru ducked low, flowing forwards as his hands came around and shoved Kegawa to the side, breaking her stance and letting him push her back before he had to roll back, seeing the small blonde and tan bundle of claws and fur known as Haruto, Kagawa's nin-dog Jump and almost maul his face.

As he got to his feet, he saw that Kagawa was already going again, stance and chakra drawing back for a Gatsūga, though she refrained from using it. This was a taijutsu only fight, after all.And there is a familiar flicker of chakra to his Byakugan, a card flying through the air, flowing by his left hand.

Well then, if Shusho wanted to play, then who was he to begrudge him. A flick, the card spinning as it embedded in the ground just behind Kagawa's form. The Byakugan picked up a flicker, a line of chakra that resolved itself into a blurred but familiar form, dressed in green and black sliding across the ground, leg already taking the back of Kagawa's knee, making her face shift from aggressive to surprised as she when from vertical to horizontal, though she righted herself before she landed.

"Two on one? That's not sporting at all. Hey Tsuru, want a hand?" The calm and mocking voice of one only real friends Tsuru had from the academy was a comfort he didn't expect. Afterall, he had been sparring one on one, or more recently, one on one-with-a-Nin-dog almost daily for the better part of two months now. Having the tables turn was quite enjoyable. Kagawa was already getting back to her feet, savage-looking grin on her face as Tsuru fell into the low horse stance he favored, and Shusho into a loose upright stance, feet planted but ready to move, arms held up in a loose guard and stance shifted forwards, ready to lean in and rush, to get in close.

Tsuru grinned; this would be fun.

And then it was on.

---

Kegawa and Haruto had fought together far longer than the boys, and their movements were in sync in a way that the Hyuuga and Illusionist just weren't a match for. Don't get her wrong, they worked together well for people who had never teamed up, each picking a target and going in a staggered path. However, she wasn't expecting how fast things turned against her.

Tsuru went straight in, leading with a rapid-fire series of strikes and jabs, pushing her back a half step, then two. Hotaru came to her rescue, but even as Tsuru had to step back, the ball of fur heading at his chest, Toru was just there. She almost lost it in the first five seconds, seeing a series of kicks and a half flip cartwheel twisty… thing, that almost swept her off her feet.

She only barely made it back another step before Toru was there, again, coming out of his flip and lunging past her, hand on her shoulder and knee coming up. She rolled back, and Toru went flipping, foot planing on the ground and him immediately kicking off, her lunging clawed hands barely touching the dark green cloth of his jacket. She spun around to see him place both hands on the ground and twist, one leg lashing out to, wrap around the ankle she had just set back down, chakra tingling as it flowed across her leg, his body straightening and pulling back and sending her twisting and staggering forward half a step as from the corner of her eye she saw Tsuru grab Hotaru by the stomach and all but throw the dog at her, the familiar ball of fur slamming into her stomach and then a foot sweeping her legs. Again.

As she slammed down she felt a push of cool cloth at her throat. Toru had a knee on the hollow of her collar, Tsuru with a hand at her stomach.

"Yield?"

She sighed and nodded, the knee on her throat coming off, had Toru and Tsuru putting hands down for her to grab and pull her to her feet.

"So, Toru-san, what brings you to our neck of the woods?" she began, grinning as she took in the figure in green and black. His hair was pulled back and held in a short ponytail, though the bangs were cut short enough to stay from his eyes. He had picked up a few changes in the last two months: a slightly deeper tan, a bit of height (how was he so damn tall? She barely came up to his eyes!), and he carried more weapons. She saw several daggers he hadn't had before, and if the leather harness under his jacket said anything, that wasn't all he had new.

"I was wondering If our resident Hyuuga would help me check something," he said, looking at Tsuru.

Tsuru popped an eyebrow and without a word flared his Byakugan. "Alright, what am I looking for?"

"Well, I've been studying Chakra flow techniques…" Toru began, his hand glowing with a faint blue aura.

 

[RogueDruid]

Cause my muse got distracted. Nest SA main canon will be posted sometime in the next few hours. for now, be gifted the story of Toru in the warring states (known as Takumi.)

As always, Not main canon. Though this is as close to a Naruto Fix it fic as I'm likely to get. I just wanted to write Madara and Izuna for a bit.

---

"Who are you." came the voice behind me. With a jolt, I turned blade coming up in a deceptively loose guard. I paused at seeing another teenager my age, long spiky black hair, red eyes, red and black outfit. He stood back on the new small cliff behind me, looking over the new clearing. The result of me using several Earth and Water techniques. The ground around the edge of the clearing dropped fifteen feet in an unnatural ring, leaving only several shorter wide stone pillars standing in the clearing, and a knee-deep pool of mud and low hanging mist around them. He was taking in the five dead bodies that were visible as they littered the ground and then moved to take in my bloodied arms and side, the Katana in my hands coated with water and dull red stains.

"Who asks?" I replied, voice cracked and worn with exhaustion. I felt out my chakra, trying to conceal a wince as I felt the painful absence of my comforting soul. I had been drained dry. First by the fighting at my camp, then the four day long running battle, pushing me from the islands of Mist to what seemed to be the borders of Fire. I could maybe cast a Kawarimi, but not much else.

The man raised an eyebrow. "I am Madara, of the Uchiha Clan." he called, stepping closer to the gap between us. I almost let the tip of my blade drop, partly in surprise, partly in exhaustion. Uchiha? Madara? I wasn't that crazy then? Living in mist, i couldn't tell what was true but… This changed things.

I slowly lowered my blade, going from blatantly prepared for a fight to passively prepared. "I am Takumi, one of the Last of the Maruboshi Clan. I seek shelter." I called out, hoping beyond hope for him to accept.

He raised an eyebrow. Three tomoe eyes taking in my appearance. I was wearing ragged clothes, a long cloak hung loosely off my left side, my long grey and blue shirt and black hakama beneath it, with makeshift bandoleers and pouches slung across my outfit in a variety of ways, wrapped around legs, waists, chest, hanging from my belt. I also had quite a few bandages crudely applied to stay alive around my side and arms. My right side also held a sheathed blade and a second, empty sheath, belong to the sword I held in hand.

"And what are your intentions for shelter," he called back. I winced as I opened my abused chakra to his to feel his soul and mind, the faint echo of emotion in his tightly held chakra.

Holy shit did he have a lot of chakra.

'Focus Takumi' i blinked, trying to keep my exhaustion from influencing my thoughts, as much as I could. "I seek only rest and recovery. A moment to catch my breath, and to repay my debt when I am healed."

Madara looked at me for a moment longer then nodded.

"Then you are welcome to our fire, Maruboshi-san."

'Thank y-" I blinked as the world began to shift. I focused and cursed. A numb feeling was coming from my side, making my skin and muscles feel itchy.

Poison.

"Oh, fu-" I blinked and the world went dark as I felt everything tilt.

The last thing I saw was Madara rushing to my side, eyes wide in surprise.

Two years later.

I gritted my teeth, turning Tobirama's rush of water into flickering and insubstantial mist, and pushing it away, focusing as I stomped the ground and sent stone spire twisting between us. To my side, Izuna ushed at Tobirama and I glanced over, twisting and pulling the mist into a long arcing stream to deflect a spear made of stone, sending it past me even as I pushed my chakra into it.

The stone spear that had been sent our way from the clash between Taijima-sama and the Senju Patriarch flickered and twisted into a long dragon, thin and vicious, surface covered in muddied streaks, even as i sent it to begin twisting, as a guard I joined it with three more dragins, two of water, and one of muddied stone fragments that all swirled around me. Given the semblence of life by the flow of my chakra. I could feel them in my senses, parts of me now. I reached for the river that had been dragged through the clearing by Tobirama, and drew forth a cloud of mist that wreathed my form, and threw it like a shroud between me and a sudden wave of flame, a stray blast from the elders duel to my side.
.
For fuck's sake, all we wanted was to find Madara and get him to come back to camp for dinner! And now the fucking Senju were fighting us!

I flickered my chakra, sending it in a surge, chakra is drawn into the earth as the Dragons fused and dug into the bank of the river, a large Hydra of stone shards, muscles of mud, and skin of dark water crawled around me, taking the brunt of yet another spear of stone. I glanced over and saw the Senju clan head twist and throw another attack at Izuna!

"Fuck!" I twisted, pushing across the field with chakra enhancing my speed, hoping to push Izuna out of its way, when it was intercepted, the familiar form of Madara appearing to reflect it. Across from him, the Senju disengaged as another man Madara's age appearing.

There were words I couldn't make out, far away and distracted by the emotion and chakra pulsing in the clearing as I was. Soon, both clans were retreating, but felt the echoes of dreams through the bonds. A form of regret, and endless determination passing between the two teens who had appeared.

It was hours later when we were safely entrenched back in the camp that I pondered my mad dreams once more. The idea of the two working together, of forming a village. It was a dream, my madness, wasn't it? Regardless,

7 years later

I stood in the shelter of the trees. Watching with a relaxed and emotionless expression as Madara and Hashirama spoke to each other. To my side was Izuna, wounds still bandaged from the close call he had, where i was only barely able to pull him from the path of Hashirama's attack. The following few hours were touch and go, and after a stupid amount of luck, Both he and an exhausted Madara had woken, both with bandages over their eyes from the, frankly stupid fucking eye transfer they had done. I had finally convinced Madara to call off the conflict and retreat. Now, a week later, he and Hashirama were speaking in the clearing between the two clan territories. Izuna, was tense and focused on the conversation before us. Across the clearing I kept getting echoes of emotion from another's chakra, along with the faint impression of Water and Force that I associated with other Suiton users.

That was likely Tobirama

Izuna took a slow breath as Hashirama and Madara talked lowly to each other. Working out the preliminary details of the partnership.

"Izuna, calm down. Even if we do end up joining the Senju, we need to look out for each other."

My words concealed my emotions, the thrill in my veins at seeing things I had dreamed of slowly click and twist into place. I glanced at the tense form of Izuna. There were changes. I could remember, a dying wish, a grieving brother. Rage and mistrust.

I had stuck by his side and barely managed to change the course.

Now to keep it from falling apart.

5 years later

"Sup Tobi-kun." I teased as Tobirama entered his office. He twitched, and I was already a foot to the side as the massive spiraling spear of water slammed through the open window of the Governers office.

"What do you want, Maruboshi," he called out, eyes narrowed.

"Ah, my lord! Keeper of the Tree! Why do you not love me!" I melodramatically called out, clutching my chest and turning away, stepping back in front of the open window.

When the second splash of water came my way, I was already at his side, the flicker of chakra echoing through the room as my illusion vanished in the force of his wave.

"What. Do. You. Want?!" Tobirama growled as he looked at me.

"Oh, I wanted to inform you my dearest friend, my adopted brother, The Hokage, the savior of the southern wall-"

"GET ON WITH IT" Tobirama Senju all but growled as he twitched, apparently eager to strike at me, but unwilling to destroy the cabinet of paperwork behind me.

Huh. He's learning.

"He is coming back to town later tonight from with some of his guards. I suggest you ask him about what he found regarding the southwestern Border, he has a very interesting report."

"What! What did Madara find?" he asked looking angrily at me.

"His story to tell, Governer-sama. But I expect he'll want to get a hunting squad together. Besides that, your Brother is settling in as the northern fortress is finishing up. His forces guard the Northern border well, no problems recently "

I stepped to the side and twisted out the window as Tobirama growled at me, a splash of water following a bunshin out as it jumped away.

Ah, he's far too uptight.

Hey, I bet Izuna is in town!

I focused and spread out my senses, the young village around me flickering in my mind as i let my chakra move outward and flow across my skin, misting in the air around me like fog. I felt a dip from my reserves, but thirty years of training has increased my capacity far beyond what it once was. Though it still paled in compared to either Madara or the Senju Brothers. I had learned how to make use of it better then them for what i use though. Whereas they have overwhelming power, I've been forced to focus on getting the most out of anything i use.

As for Konoha itself. Since the founding, Tobirama had taken the headship of the Senju Clan, and position as the governor of the city. His head for numbers and organization making him an efficient and stable choice for the development and planning. Izuna had taken the Uchiha headship, and a position as head of the police force. His desire for Justice, and his normally kind nature (Particularly compared to Madara) helping greatly with the integration of the Uchiha in the village. Both had originally objected to it when I had suggested that Madara and Hashirama share leadership as heads of Konoha as a whole. The Fire and the Leaves. The All-Consuming Flame, the Ever-Growing Tree.

Anyway, I focused and incanted under my breath the name of the Psuedo-jutsu I was using.

"Touchstone: Perceive"

The cloud of chakra I had formed flickered and then shot out, forming a thin to my senses mist that spread through the village like the tide, flowing out and around houses as it searched for a certain signature.

In minutes I found Izuna, who was in the nearby Uchiha compound working at his desk. Nodding to myself, i slowly twisted my palm, and felt the wave of chakra turn and crest back towards me. As it came to rest against me, i could see it momentarily, a thin glove made of chakra, turning my hand the dark blue I recognized as me, before it was reabsorbed into my body. As always, it tingled slightly, but now I knew where I was going so….

Shunshin.

I flickered, leaving the illusion of my silhouette made of mist behind, letting the world blur as i made a three-point travel, from my position to a roof, from the roof to a tall building near the newly built Uchiha compound, and then to the front porch of Izuna's place.

I stepped out of the shunshin without missing a step.

Around me were the curving and wavy border between Senju and Uchiha compounds. they were located at the base of the cliff to the back of the village, each curving out from where they touched like the horns of a bull, the Center of the village in their grasp. The academy and the administration for the village had been established between the two, raised by the Mokuton, carved and designed by the Uchiha minds for security and safety.

I made my way through a well-kept yard to the Clan head of the Uchiha's house and picked the lock to the door with a thread of chakra. Before stepping in.

"IZUNA!" I shouted and grinned as I heard a thud and then a muffled curse.

"Takumi, For fucks sake. How often do I tell you to knock!" Izuna's voice became clearer as he cleared the corner, his pair of Sharingan already spinning as he checked for my illusions. The ring with the Three-pronged axel spinning inside, the counter to his brothers three prongs coming off the wheel.

"Not often enough Izuna," I whined, the grin twitching my lips. "I seem to forget!"

He blinked and deadpanned at me. "Maruboshi Takumi, The Spymaster, The Silent Tide, The Subtle Quake, the Knowing Demon, Forgot?" He grinned. "Why, Whatever would your fans say!"

"Mah, they'd never believe you! My publicity is unhindered by such things as truth and accuracy." I grinned. "I made sure of it."

He sighed and looked at my outfit. The look of a worn mercenary was evident, the act I played as I scouted the continent for the village. I wore worn grey hakama and a leather jacket, along with worn greaves and a dented breastplate. the only obvious weapons I wore were the two katana at my side. while if ought with one, each was special to me, to my dead clan. I didn't use them too often anyway, preferring subtle means. Spymaster was more than just boasting, after all.

"Your room is undisturbed, go clean up while I finish off the paperwork, then I'll debrief you."

"Got it. Talk to you later, chief."

I grinned as I walked off. My dreams may still be there, but for now… For now, I'm content with the dreams I have helped craft.

Now, how to tell Izuna about the fact Madara got hurt by an assassin recently without pissing him off.

 

[RogueDruid]

Ladies and Gentlemen, and silhouetted audience! I Know I promised Asako this chapter! I'm sorry to say I must break that promise. she just hasn't popped up yet.

---

I relaxed as Sensei nodded and stood down, ending today's sparring session. The girls also relaxed, Yumi panting slightly, and Kohaku leaning back and drenched in sweat.

Today it had mostly been us against him, Taijutsu and tree walking only. We had gone through a few scenarios over the last few hours, including ambush, evasion, and location guarding. It was the last one that had been the toughest. Even with Jutsu, none of us were really oriented towards the defense of a location. Kohaku could send out flares and mount an offensive, but collateral quickly became an issue. Fire techniques aren't exactly safe or precise.

Yumi and I had a much harder time. My usual style of drawing a fighter into a running fight and forcing them to overextend themselves did not work when up against a wall. Yumi wasn't much better, being able to hold one (or potentially more) enemies only left her open for another to attack her. Neither of us was happy with our performance. Though sensei did mention teaching me another earth jutsu, Doton: Doryūheki, The Earth-style Wall. He explained the basis and mentioned getting a scroll for me to research sooner or later. Being able to manipulate the battlefield is one of the hallmarks of the Earth Jutsu user, after all. For yumi, he had suggested the Electromagnetic Murder technique as a good crowd control measure.

I had been working on crumbling leaves in my spare time, thanks to a suggestion from Sensei. When I asked for an explanation of why he brought up it taught to use an Elemental Chakra and that it would also boost control.

That worked for me, especially since I had already started trying that exercise a few times, though with no real progress yet. So far I had gotten leaves to start to crack around the edges, but not yet crumbling. I knew Yumi had a similar exercise, while Kohaku was much more advanced due to her family training. Apparently, her current training from her family was to make a wooden log burn from the inside out. Which, by the way, was metal as it sounded.

Let me tell you, seeing her place a hand on a log as big as she is, and then see smoke start coming from the top was cool as fuck.

Anyway. Sensei walked me through the first step of using the Earth-Wall, which consists of forcing dirt to lift up in small pillars with your hand. and taught Yumi how to start channeling sparks between her hands, Adam's ladder style before we got back to sparring.

"Alright, that's it for today. Tomorrow is your day off, enjoy it. Yumi, Toru, I'll have your scrolls next time we meet. Kohaku, your progress is going fine, I hope to see you move to the next step in a week or two. Have a good weekend."

He waved as the three of us started heading out, me to Yumi's left, Kohaku to the right.

"We have any set plans for tomorrow? Preferably not shopping?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at them as they both tried, and failed, to look innocent.

Two weeks of shopping on our free days in a row were not my idea of a fun time. Even if I had gotten some good deals on metals and raw materials from a merchant or two. Tomorrow I just wanted to go and relax. See a movie, go read a book that isn't a technical manual, or something. Hell, I was keeping an eye out for performers this morning when I passed through the market.

"Nothing on my end," Kohaku replied, before glancing at Yumi.

The Nara let loose 'Hmm' and crossed her arms behind her head. "Nothing planned. Perhaps a day resting would be nice? It's been some time since I went cloud gazing."

"I'd be good with that" I nodded, hands slipping into my pockets and coming out with a long spool of red stained string. A moment of focus and it began to move, the chakra channeled into making it bend to my will as I twisted and formed it, making a long loop that was slowly spinning and twisting around my hands. "Gives me a chance to get some reading in."

Kohaku simply made a noise of agreement, though her mind seems to have wandered off.

Soon we departed, spiting up with plans to meet at the Nara compound tomorrow.

I wrapped the bloodstained string up and headed for home. I had a new idea to try and needed a few deck of charged cards to use it.

---

I sighed, looking around the back alley at the several piles of dust that used to be a dozen decks of charged cards.

"Alright, one more time, this time with two decks. We have chakra, we have material, now we just need to put them together." I muttered, sighing and flexing my hands, two decks of charged cards in my hands

"Form, focus, visualize." I recited, hands coming together with the decks absently palmed up my sleeves.

'Hare, for hold, Rat, for form, Dragon, for power, Monkey, for freedom, Clone, for shape' I recited mentally hands flowing carefully through the seals.

"Kado Bushin no Jutsu" I called out, hands thrusting forwards as cards flew from my sleeves, being drawn into a shape, first it was just a torso, then slowly, legs, arms, neck, heads and hands, and then with a shimmer, I grinned.

A successful clone stood before me, and it grinned back.

"Now we're making progress." I ran it through a series of test. First was seeing how solid it was, having it lift things. It turned out that physically, it was weak, barely strong enough to move a 5-pound weight. However, it moved like me, twisted and turned like me, cast a shadow like me. Though it fell a bit slower, it could move and climb walls like me. It couldn't talk, sadly, but I wasn't expecting that. But what was interesting was when I tried to damage it, it tried to reform. First, was just me punching it, and as my fist passed through it, the cards were disturbed. the moment my hand left its space, however, it quickly refolded and seemed to henge back to what it was supposed to look like.

Subsequent attempts to hurt it slowly caused parts of it to fall apart and begin to turn to dust, the cards making up its form falling apart as they drained of chakra. Eventually the last of it just seemed to collapse, leaving crumbled and destroyed paper shreds.

Wait.

I reached down and grabbed a half-dissolved card.

Crumbled.

Like earth chakra… I focused and channeled earth chakra through the card, seeing it slowly begin to crumble and break apart into dust in my hands. Was my affinity causing a problem? If my chakra naturally applied a low-level amount of earth chakra, but my jutsu generally needed unaligned chakra. That could be the source of some of my problems. Too much element to successfully use a technique.

I need to look into this in the future.

I pulled my notebook and made notes on the jutsu and my new discoveries, before heading inside to grab a broom and sweep and burn the remains of the cards.

Leave no trace and all that.

---

Yumi sighed as she left the house, her mother had been… not so silently disapproving of her plan to laze about with her team for tomorrow. She fully expected that when her dad got home it was likely that he would take her side. She was planning to go and get permission from Shikaku-sama before her parents got the bright idea of making a fuss about it to the clan. She knocked on the door of the clan head and waited politely before Yoshino-sama opened the door.

"Good afternoon Yumi-kohai, how are you today."

"Greetings Yoshino-sama, I am doing well. I was planning to invite my genin teammates to join me in relaxing tomorrow, would you be averse to letting the guards put them on the list of allowed guests?"

"Of course Yumi, that's Toru Shusho and Kohaku Shimo, correct?" at Yumi's confirmation Yoshino smiled. "Now, why don't you come in, talk to me and my family about how being a Genin is coming along."

Yumi felt a spark of relief in her at not having to go back to her mother yet. "Of course, Yoshino-sama."

She happily spent the next few hours chatting with Yoshino, and for a while at one point Shikaku, over tea, feeling the stress and anxiety being around her mother an father caused loosen and drain from her shoulders.

Behind watchful eyes, Yoshino felt her heart cry out for the members of her husband's clan. She wished she could help more then she did. perhaps meeting her young step-cousins Genin team could give her options...

She had heard that Kohaku and Toru were both observant... Yes, if Toru Shusho was anything like his grandfather in temperament, all she had to do was... introduce them to Yumi's family and prod them to explore.

That protective streak would do the rest.