Stronger Than The Sannin

[Acksiom]

The smallest of changes can have consequences of the greatest proportions. One footman's misstep, and the battle is turned; one horseshoe nail is missing, and the war is lost; one less drop of soy sauce, and a single sodium ion does not reach the brain. . .

. . .and a neuron does not fire when it should, and Hiruzen Sarutobi, third Hokage of Konoha, nods off at his desk after another long night of stress and worry; the kind of night where even his 'retired' ANBU assistant, at her desk outside his office, is subtly easing her stinging eyestrain with a concealed trickle of healing chakra from her fingertips.

The Sandaime blinked. Did I just. . .?

Yes. I did.

He drew a long breath in through his nose, then exhaled, his lips puffing out slightly. That was it, then. He'd fallen asleep while working twice now in less than six months.

There was no room for that kind of error when you were Kage. Years ago, when he'd taken up the position again, he'd set a standard for himself: two such losses of control in six months or less meant it was time to retire. He'd already fallen asleep when he hadn't meant to less than three months earlier. It didn't matter if his lapse tonight had more to do with his personal relief at the improvement in Naruto's fortunes than his larger concerns as Hokage of Konoha; the result was the same.

It was time to choose his second successor, and step down again.

Long past time, in honesty, he thought.

He rose from his seat and went to face the wide bank of windows behind his desk, clasping his hands in the small of his back. There was – of course – no sign in the village below of the furor among the leading clans at the night's events. Using his crystal scrying ball, he'd already seen most of it, including Iruka-sensei's decision to graduate Naruto, and had agreed with the instructor's choice. The boy had more than earned his hitai-ite. . .or rather, his final test.

The question before the Sandaime now was who would administer it. There was still only one serious candidate available for his own replacement, but it would take careful maneuvering to arrange the necessary acceptance of the responsibility on all sides. . .he smiled. Yes. That would do nicely. And he had a horrifically believable threat immediately available if his worse distraction balked.

"Suzume," the Hokage said quietly. A sparrow-masked ANBU emerged from the shadows and knelt behind him, whispering "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Direct ANBU control to recall Maneki-neko, triple urgent, single speed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." The ANBU faded silently into the shadows again.

The Hokage turned to his desk and picked up his still-smoldering pipe. "Time to debrief Iruka-sensei," he told the rest of his personal guard detail, and left his office for the hospital.

# # #

Iruka smiled contentedly at the ceiling of his private room. It was a little forced, but still more genuine than not. Even in Konoha, med-nin treatment was a premium service, and under normal circumstances, it would have put a noticeable dent in his savings. Since Mizuki had turned traitor, however, and Iruka had caught him literally in the act, the costs for healing the wounds he'd taken while doing so were being covered by the village's Defense fund. And best of all, Naruto-kun had finally shown his real potential! All in all, it had been a good night. He'd grieve for Mizuki later. . .when his rage at his former friend's betrayal had subsided enough.

There was a tap at his door, the kind of light, brisk hospital knock that said This is just a courtesy warning; we're coming in whether you like it or not. Iruka composed himself, putting on his usual professionally mild expression. A moment later, it was jolted back off again, briefly replaced by surprise as the Hokage ambled in, hat and all.

"Hokage-sama! Please forgive my incapacity-" Iruka said.

"No, no," the Sandaime interrupted him, smiling fondly. "Don't bother yourself over the courtesies, Iruka-sensei; you've served Konoha better than well tonight."

Two of the Hokage's guard detail slipped through the door, the second closing it behind them as the first began placing security seals on the walls. Once the room was warded, they both disappeared into the shadows.

Seals? What's this now? Iruka thought as the Hokage came to his bedside, still smiling.

"Hmm, hmm, Iruka-sensei. . .that said, perhaps not well enough, just yet. While I do agree with your decision to graduate Naruto, by doing so you've given me a bit of a conundrum with the team assignments. Since it's ultimately your fault, and therefore responsibility, as his sensei, I think it's only appropriate that you should solve it for me."

Ohh. . .crap, Iruka thought. Despite his increasing dismay, he somehow managed to produce an obediently attentive look as the Hokage continued.

"We will of course be maintaining the Academy tradition of pairing the lowest and highest ranked students," the Hokage said, "but now the intra-team dynamics I had anticipated no longer apply. . .which means I must reconsider the choice of the third member. While the Haruno girl would have been most appropriate for the original composition, I now find myself insufficiently informed to decide whether she should remain on Team 7 with both Naruto and Sasuke-kun, or be switched with another student. . .and if so, whom.

"Tell me, Iruka-sensei. . .what would you do in my position?"

Crap, double-crap, and bijuu-crap, Iruka thought, and then his brain caught up with the not-so-subtle hints in the Hokage's words and started working properly again. "I. . .Hokage-sama, as their sensei, I would. . .I recommend against placing Sakura-chan on Team 7. It would be. . ." he swallowed, steeling himself, then plowed forward, "it would result in fundamentally dysfunctional interactions for all three children. Naruto would continue to pursue Sakura-chan's affection and be rejected; Sakura-chan would continue to pursue Sasuke-kun's likewise, and Sasuke-kun, as a result, would withdraw even further from normal socialization. The team's emotional. . .circuitry. . .would remain unconnected, rendering its foundation unstable."

The Hokage nodded once, then continued to stare down at him, letting the silence underscore the point that Iruka had yet to suggest a solution.

Iruka allowed his gaze to drift up to the ceiling again as he mentally sorted through the possibilities. Breaking up the next generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio didn't seem worth it; putting a Hyuuga together with an Uchiha was. . .not exactly taboo, but usually avoided, due to the potential rivalries. However, on the striking hand, the personalities in this case were. . .ah.

Iruka couldn't help it; a strangled snort of amusement escaped him at the thought. And the Haruno girl, with her low chakra reserves but incredible control and intelligence, under Konoha's Genjutsu Mistress? Yes. That would work; the interpersonal dynamics with both the sons of the Pride of Aburame and the Inuzuka Clan Leader were solidly promising. Even the politics were sensible; both the civilians and the nin-clans would be still be satisfied with the relative respects shown to all involved.

There really wasn't a better option.

Iruka turned his gaze back to his superior. "Hokage-sama, I would switch Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan's team assignments. Not only would the team's foundation be superior, but. . ."

As he explained his reasoning, Iruka had the familiar feeling that the Hokage was already more than a few steps ahead of him. So why is he asking me? he wondered. There must be something else. . .what's underneath the underneath?

Later that night, after the Hokage had left, a possibility occurred to him: Wait, could it be!? If Hokage-sama's changing the team assignments. . .he wouldn't change that, too. . .would he?

No; he might. But who could replace that person? And more importantly. . .why?

# # #

Tenzo hunched over his braced forearms on the bar and stared blearily at the insect buzzing above the shot glass before him. It dived down at his drink three times, landed on the rim, and walked along it for a bit before rising again. A moment later it returned and repeated the pattern. He swatted at it half-heartedly until it got the message and buzzed away. He picked up his glass, eyed it with suspicion, shrugged, and downed the last mouthful of the cheap swill remaining with a slurp.

"'Nother," he slurred at the bartender as he rose, then held up a finger, ". . .when I get back."

The bartender nodded.

Tenzo slid off his barstool and shuffled down the hallway leading to the toilet. Once inside, he locked the door and straightened up. The recall order he'd just received through Tsuru-san's kikaichu meant he'd have to leave a Wood Clone behind to maintain his cover until his ANBU replacement arrived.

Someone in the area had been turning Konoha's intelligence agents for weeks now, but it wasn't his problem any longer. He'd do a final assessment at the safe house when he returned for his gear, but first came the clone. As he slowly formed the seals and released his chakra in an undetectable trickle, he began plotting out the logic matrix for his report. First off, they were still waiting for cross-confirmation that the bartender, their entry contact to the town, hadn't been turned. . .he froze.

The bartender, whose girlfriend had been dropping by at the end of the man's shift to meet him for the past few weeks. The girlfriend, who had been vetted by the previous agent on site presumably before that person had been turned.

But what if the girlfriend wasn't really the girlfriend after all?

Tenzo's mind raced through the deductive chains. It all fit. If the bartender had been turned first. . . .

His clone nodded and left the bathroom. Tenzo brought his hands together again, activating the Hiding in Surface jutsu, and disappeared into the floor.

# # #

A little less than two days later, exactly on schedule, Tenzo was back in Konoha and completing his private report to the Sandaime in the Hokage's office: ". . .which I have therefore presently labeled the Poisoned Tenketsu Seed jutsu, Hokage-sama."

The Sandaime nodded. "Ingenious. . .the tiniest of doton justsu inserted into the victim's Gate of Life. Upon any internal usage or external input of chakra beyond the minimum necessary for survival, it shatters and dissolves, releasing a traceless cardiac poison."

"Hai, Hokage-sama. The Iwa-nin were hiding in the girlfriend's apartment building, running the operation remotely. Tsuru-san's specially developed kikkaichu saved the lives of all eight dependents that were being used as hostages, and I expect to have the jutsu reverse-engineered by the end of the month."

"Despite the rookie failure to not double-check all contacts within a day of arrival," the Sandaime murmured, while Yamato repressed a wince, "well done, as always. I must reward you appropriately."

Here it comes, Tenzo thought. The traditional reward for a successful mission – a worse, harder, nastier mission.

"ANBU Captain Tenzo!" barked Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Tenzo stiffened to attention in response.

"Effective immediately, you are removed from ANBU duty! You are now assigned to the Department of Instruction as a Jounin-sensei, in charge of Team Seven! Here are your genin's dossiers! Your new code-name is. . .Yamato."

Being the consummate professional that he was, Yamato-the-now merely bowed, even though his heart was overflowing with joy.

Yamato at last!

Wait, wait, what -- Jounin-sensei!?

# # #

It had taken some hustling, but Yamato was ready for his students by noon. He'd gathered his supplies and prepped his private training grounds. All that was left was the first briefing from the agent-in-place – no, his students' Academy-sensei, he corrected himself; this wasn't a mission. This was. . .not 'real life'; life didn't get much more real than ANBU service, but it was. . .public life. Genuine life; not a cover identity; not a covert operation. Social life.

He was about to have a. . .personal life. For the first time ever. It was an exciting and terrifying prospect. And now that it was here at last, he found that he had no idea where to start. So he did the first thing he usually did in such circumstances: ask himself what his senpai would do.

Unfortunately, in these particular circumstances, 'be late' wasn't much help.

Or. . .was it?

Yamato – Yamato! - smiled.

 

[Acksiom]

Hinata Hyuuga watched the last genin team other than her own follow their jounin-sensei out of the classroom. She was still in shock. Naruto-san was her teammate -

- Naruto-san was her teammate.

- Naruto-san was her teammate.

- Naruto-san was her teammate!

'Ne, ne, Iruka-sensei, where's this Yamato guy?" Naruto asked eagerly, almost vibrating in place with excitement. "Is he super strong? What's he good at?"

"I don't know, Naruto-kun. I've never even heard of him," Iruka replied, smiling. "But when he does show up, treat him with respect, will you? You're an Academy graduate now. Please act like it. How you behave going forward will reflect on me, as your instructor. Anyways, I'm sure he'll be here soon enough, so you stay here! I have to go file this paperwork."

"You got it, Iruka-sensei!"

Hinata slowly brought herself under control. It seemed a little. . .odd, that their sensei wasn't here yet. All the others had been on time, and while she disliked using it, she was far from unaware of her social status, let alone that of Uchiha-san. Their class was full of the other leading clans' heirs, too, so for a sole unknown Jounin to not be there on schedule to pick them up at assignment was definitely a bit off.

She pressed her fingers together, with her head tilted down, eyeing the clock on the wall from under her bangs. Should she. . .say something? Or wait? For how long? She looked at her fingers again. Maybe. . .fifteen minutes? It had almost been five already. . . .

She looked up again to see Naruto's grinning face right in front of her! Staring!

She eeep!ed and jerked backwards.

"Secret!" she blurted.

"Eh? What's a secret, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked. "Oh wait! Our new sensei? Do you know about him?"

"N-no," Hinata stuttered, flushing. "My. . .my father. I mean, um, Y-Yamato-sensei, not my father, is late, which is a little strange? And, and, s-sometimes my father lays. . ." traps ". . .tests for me, I, that is, secret tests? That I don't know about until, until afterwards?"

Below them, to the left, Uchiha-san turned to stare at her, his eyes narrowed.

"You think he's here already? Or observing us remotely somehow?" the black-haired boy asked.

She shrank back from his piercing gaze. ". . . maybe?" she said faintly.

"Cool!" Naruto-kun said. "How do we find him?"

Uchiha-san's expression shifted slightly, just enough to clearly say, Well, get on with it, then. Hinata nodded unconsciously and began forming the hand signs. They weren't technically necessary, but they made her Byakugan activation much easier.

"Oooh ooh whatcha doing, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Dobe!" Uchiha-san barked. "Don't interrupt her! She's using her family's dojutsu to look for this Yamato person. Get out of her face already."

"Don't tell me what to do, teme!" Naruto shouted back.

"Byakugan!" Hinata said, completing the process. She scanned the nearby area. . .there was Iruka-sensei in the teachers' office, along with Kuna-sensei and Maboto-sensei from the other classes. . .clerks above them and to the side in the Hokage tower, and the blurry, fuzzy walls that were its secure rooms, sealed with concealment and privacy barriers.

She could recognize all the jounin-level shinobi within her range; none of them were likely to be their new sensei. She deactivated her dojutsu and shook her head.

"I, I don't see anybody whom he could be. Or watching us. I'm s-sorry," she apologized.

"Hn," Uchiha-san, turning to stare at the blackboard again, with his chin propped on his folded hands.

"Sorry for what?" Naruto-kun asked "So you can't see the guy, so what? Maybe he's just hiding really, really good. Or in disguise! Or both!"

Uchiha-san scoffed without even turning to look. "Nobody hides from the Byakugan, moron," he said. "It sees through almost everything -"

"I'm not a moron, you're the moron!" Naruto-chan interrupted

"- earth, stone, metal, and genjutsu included," Uchiha-san rolled on, ignoring him, "and it can even identify people by their chakra networks. It's called the All-Seeing Eye for reasons. . .moron."

"I'll moron you, ya double moron!"

"Shut up, Uzumaki. Even though she didn't see anyone watching us, I think Hyuuga-san might still be right. Unlike you, the two of us are important enough that no competent Jounin would be late like this, or not without sending a message -"

"You are not more important than I am! I'm gonna be Hokage!"

"- only in your dreams, loser -"

"You just wait and see, Sasu-jerk-e! I'm gonna be Hokage someday, and then I'll order you around! And make it stick, dattebayo! Yeah, I'll make you do my laundry missions!"

Uchiha-san pfehhed in dismissal, and continued, "What matters right now, dobe, is figuring out where our Jounin-sensei is. Or would you rather keep sitting here and wasting time? Not that you could help, even if you were trying."

"Oh, it's on, teme! I can totally find our sensei faster that you can!"

"How?"

Naruto opened his mouth and then his face went blank. "I. . ." he said, trailing off. Hinata's heart went out to him. I believe in you, Naruto-kun! she thought.

Uchiha-san smirked at him. "Well? Go on, dobe, how?"

"I'll. . .I'll ask the Old Man! Yeah! Haha! Take that, teme!"

"Without leaving the room? Or are you going to disobey Iruka-sensei? Maybe not even be here, if this Yamato shows up in the meantime?"

"I'll. . ." Naruto-kun trailed off again, but then his face creased in a broad, foxy grin, and his eyes slitted. "Oh, right. Heheheheh! Prepare to be amazed, teme!"

Uchiha-san pfehhed again, as Naruto-kun bounded down to the bottom level of the classroom, turned to face them both, and crossed his index fingers in a plus symbol.

"Behold! In awe! My totally awesome true power! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Chakra smoke billowed up around him, fading to reveal a half-dozen clones, with folded arms and superior looks on their faces. Uchiha-san straightened up slightly.

"Shadow clones? What new idiocy are you -"

"Okay!" Naruto-kun overrode him. "You, you, and you! Get upstairs and ask the Old Man about our sensei, two of you be distractions if needed! You! Go prank Iruka-sensei, pretend you're -

"- not a clone, I got it!" the clone answered.

"Right!"

"What about us?" the last two asked.

Naruto-kun turned to look at Uchiha-san. His grin changed from foxy to feral.

"GET HIM!"

All seven Naruto-kuns crouched to leap, either away or towards Uchiha-san, and then suddenly six exploded into more chakra smoke with a whistling flute-like sound. When it cleared, Naruto-kun was hanging by his jumpsuit's collar and underarms, the back of his jacket twisted up in the grip of a tall, almond-eyed shinobi in a Jounin uniform, wearing a non-standard hitae-ite with cheek and jaw bars.

"Aaand we'll call it there, I think," the newcomer said. "Not too badly done, all of you; I'm almost impressed."

"Hey, lemme go!" Naruto-kun shouted. The Jounin gave him a little shake, then dropped him on his butt.

"Ow! Rude! What was that for? Who the heck are you?"

"I'm your new Jounin-sensei Yamato, obviously. Yes, Hinata-chan -" he smiled at her approvingly "- you were correct. Now, all of you; stand up and grab your things. We're going to see Hokage-sama, right away. Hup hup, genin; get moving!"

"Why are we going to see the Old Man?" Naruto-kun asked, running over to his former seat.

"That. . is a surprise. You'll like it, though; I guarantee that," Yamato replied.

Uchiha-san ambled down the steps towards the tall man, his hands in his pockets to underscore his display of independent attitude.

"So. Was it remote viewing? Or did you evade the Byakugan somehow?" he asked.

Yamato-sensei shook his head. "Not here. We'll be going somewhere secure after we meet with Hokage-sama. I'll tell you then."

# # #

"Yes, Yamato-sensei?" the Sandaime asked. Team 7 were lined up in his office to their new sensei's right – Naruto first, grinning with his hands cockily linked behind his head, then Hinata, smiling a little with her fingers pressed together and her eyes occasionally darting up towards the older man. And last, Sasuke, hands disrespectfully in his pockets before his Hokage, but at least looking more interested and involved than his usual blank, unapproachable facade.

"Reporting early passage of Team 7's Jounin-sensei final acceptance test, Hokage-sama," Yamato said, from behind Hinata.

"Wait, our what!?" Naruto screeched, and Yamato hammered a fist onto the boy's head.

"Silence! Do not interrupt!" he bellowed. Naruto crouched down, moaning in pain. Hinata twitched towards him, then recovered herself and came back to something like proper attention.

Sasuke smirked.

"This seems a bit precipitous, Yamato-sensei," the Sandaime said.

"My standard would have been a sufficient amount of teamwork at a minimum, sir, and I observed not only that but intermediate Genin-level analysis and initiative as well. I see little point in testing them further; I would like to move forward immediately," Yamato explained.

"Hrmmm," the Sandaime said, drawing it out. Yamato had very deliberately not looked at the clock since entering, but they both knew it was ticking away, and that the Sandaime's delay was blatant teasing.

"Very well," he finally sighed, with less than half a minute left. "I accept the formation of Konoha Genin Team 7, year 120, under Jounin-sensei Yamato."

Yamato positively beamed at him, almost as if his soul had been switched on like a spotlight. "Thank you very much, Hokage-sama!" he said, bowing deeply. Then he turned to his Genin. "Congratulations, you three! You have just set a new peacetime record for fastest acceptance as a graduating Genin team - under fifteen minutes. Thank your leader!"

Sasuke was still smirking, but he had taken his hands out of his pockets and made a proper bow alongside Hinata. "Arigato, Hokage-sama," they chorused. Naruto, of course - still rubbing his head – instead said "Thanks, old man! Heh-heh, we're just that awesome!"

"For their initial assessment, Hokage-sama, I would like to begin by simulating an overt breach with heavy carry against TG 43," Yamato continued. He looked down at his genin. "Pay attention to this, you three: I'm asking Hokage-sama about that explicitly because your training starts now, and one of my responsibilities in that area is officer command training.

"Two of you are on-track for Clan leadership and the third is aiming for the Big Hat. Among the fundamentals I'm supposed to teach you in that area is distinguishing between legal and illegal orders. If I were to just hurry you downstairs and throw you at this task, I would have failed in that duty. That is because even just a simulated assault on an internal high-security location is a highly suspicious order, and as genin on-track for command, you would be expected to doubt it, at the very least privately. And therefore," he finished, "I identify our next actions to Hokage-sama so that he may confirm their legality and set the proper precedent going forward."

"Well-put, Jounin-sensei," the Sandaime said. "To be explicit: your sensei has long held primary authority over the facility in question by my direct order, and has my complete confidence. You may trust him as you trust me."

"You honor me beyond my merits, Hokage-sama," Yamato said, bowing deeply. "With your permission?" he asked.

The Sandaime nodded. "Dismissed," he said.

# # #

"Follow me and stay quiet, and I mean stay quiet, Naruto-kun," Yamato told them in the Hokage's office waiting area. "No questions, no comments, nothing until I say so. Understand?" He cut his eyes over towards Sasuke-kun. Wait for it. . . .

"You got it, Yamato-sensITAAIII," Naruto chirped, then howled as Yamato's Fist of Loving Discipline hammered his head again.

Sasuke-kun's gaze met his own, then turned away, the boy pressing his lips flat to hide his amusement.

"What part of Stay quiet, nothing until I say so did you not understand, Genin?"

"But you askeITAAIII!" Yamato put him in a headlock and began scrubbing his knuckles through the blonde's hair. "Itai itai itai!"

Yamato released him, going down on one knee to look him straight on. He picked up one of Naruto's hands and put its palm across the boy's mouth.

"Naruto, your Genin training has already begun. From here, we're going directly to a highly secure location, and your behavior from this point onwards will reflect not just on me, as your Sensei, but on your teammates as well. Do not give my colleagues reason to think less of any of us. The best professionalism you can show right now is silent obedience. Nod if you understand."

Naruto nodded, his eyes wide.

"I know you're a bundle of excitable energy, kiddo. We - not just I, we - need you to discipline that energy and channel it properly. I want you to focus on following Hinata-chan's example from earlier, when she took my lateness so seriously – observe first, analyze second, decide third. Nod-"

Naruto nodded before he could finish asking again.

"Good. And just because I made things explicit for you all in front of Hokage-sama about one matter does not mean I won't use deception and trickery when training you otherwise. Questions don't require verbal -"

Naruto nodded furiously.

"Very good. Now, all of you follow me."

 

[trashtaker]

Look at that. He actually made him shut up

 

[Acksiom]

Yes. Best Yamato is very aware of how horribly touch-deprived Naruto is, and how it's almost certainly better to start with the rougher treatment the boy's already used to before slowly pivoting to the kinder and more gentle over time.

 

[Acksiom]

Sasuke followed his new sensei on a winding path back down the Hokage Tower, into its basement, and then through a revolving secret door in the wall under the stairs they had just descended. Behind it was another, longer flight below that one, leading to a dark corridor.

Instead of heading down, Yamato turned to the opposite side, placing one hand on the wooden panel there and clasping Sasuke's shoulder with the other. A shiver of chakra ran through Sasuke's body, and he experienced some of the strangest, most disturbing sensations a jutsu had ever given him as the two of them melted into and through the wall.

The small square room on the other side had a wooden floor like those outside, but three walls and a ceiling of concrete instead of the basement's dark, black-painted paneling.

"Make a light, Sasuke-kun," Yamato ordered. Sasuke popped a tiny flame out of his index finger, the basic Candle jutsu being one of the early Uchiha fire training exercises that he had mastered years ago. The underglow gave Yamato's face a grave, forbidding cast that was barely ameliorated by his approving nod before he melted back through the wall again.

That's no trivial jutsu, Sasuke thought with a little spark of interest. Furthermore, Yamato had done it without seals or incantation. Observe, Analyze, Decide. He tried to recall and memorize the foreign chakra flow through his own system.

A few moments later Yamato returned, hand-in-hand at shoulder level with Hyuuga-san and the Dobe, both of them wide-eyed.

"Hands on the wall, genin," Yamato ordered, pointing. Once they had obeyed, he reached out and palmed the concrete himself, and horizontal doton handlebars grew out of it where the three of them were touching.

"Hang on tight," Yamato said, just before the entire hinged floor dropped out from under them all, leaving them dangling from a single hold over a deep, dark pit.

Sasuke barely had a moment to expect a ladder of more Doton handles to appear before Yamato exceeded his imagination again. Instead, the bars they were already holding simply slid down the wall as they hung from them, while Yamato fell like a stone into the darkness below.

A couple of breaths of descent later, Sasuke's jutsu revealed a concrete floor below, with a passageway leading away to the side and Yamato looking up at them. Just before their feet reached his height, the bars melted out of their grips and they dropped down, Naruto fumbling the landing a bit, perhaps because he still had his other hand clasped over his mouth.

"Good," Yamato said. He pointed down the corridor. "That leads to one of Konoha's primary Secure Sensing facilities, which is referred to in the records as Training Ground 43 as a cover. Publicly, as Team 7, our assigned Training Ground is number 7; TG 43 is our secret, private Training Grounds. It was constructed by the Shodai at the founding of Konoha to serve as the village's primary underground detection network. Because I have been given direct authority over it by Hokage-sama, I am allowed to use it as an actual Training Ground.

"Currently, your classmates are doing introductions with their senseis, receiving hints about facing another test tomorrow or soon after, and being dismissed to personal time. You now have permission to verbally answer my questions, starting with you, Sasuke-kun. Here's a technically easy one: what should the most competent and professional of your classmates be doing with that personal time?"

O-A-D, Sasuke thought. Observation: 'technically' was used. Analysis: the combination with easy implied that for him in specific, the correct answer was not the obvious one, i.e. training.

'I required teamwork,' Yamato had said.

"Training together," Sasuke decided. He disliked being led to a correct answer like a child, but based on Yamato's performance so far, he'd give the man the benefit of the doubt.

"Yes," Yamato said. "Teamwork is essential for any serving shinobi. But for this team, it's far more than that. The combination of your particular skills and aptitudes has the potential for ultra-elite performance. The kind of power and skill that makes legends.

"Now, on to training, beginning with your initial assessment. Sasuke-kun, as we proceed further, I want you to hit the available targets with your Phoenix Flower jutsu. Hinata-chan, I want you to warn your teammates about the upcoming traps and targets revealed by your Byakugan. Naruto-kun, I want you to repeatedly build up your chakra, like you did at the end of the night of the exam, then reabsorb it. You know what I mean, right?

Through his muffling hand, Naruto said "Hai, 'amato-sensei!" and Sasuke had to press his lips flat again to hide his smirk. Complete and utter Dobe!

"Good. In mission terms, think of this as an openly aggressive entrance to a high-security opposing force location, with Sasuke-kun as lead offense, clearing the way, and Hinata-chan as lead defense, both of you protecting Naruto-kun as the heavy jutsu specialist who needs to power up and trigger as soon as the final area is breached. You have permission to improve your jutsu focus through chanting. Say 'Hai' if you understand."

"Hai."

"H-hai."

"'uoi!"

"Good," Yamato said. "And now I'm going to show you one of Konoha's even bigger secrets so you're not unfairly surprised during the exercise." He sped through several hand seals before growling, "Mokuton!"

Over a dozen squared beams of wood erupted sequentially out of the corridor's walls away from them, growing standard round kunai targets at their tips.

Wood release!? Sasuke thought in shock. He glanced at the Hyuuga heir beside him. Her eyes had widened and her jaw had dropped a little in amazement. Well, it's understandable, he thought. But damn, this is a day for surprises. And I'd bet there's more to come.

He actually found himself feeling a little eager to meet them.

# # #

Mokuton! Hinata thought, and immediately activated her Byakugan. The opportunity to study the Shodai's legendary kekkei genkei could not be missed.

Suiton and doton chakra, fused as a medium. . .yang chakra fueling the explosive growth. . .wait, is he converting his own flesh for the material base!? Madness! But - that's healing chakra – no, something like it, but also different, repairing the cell damage – fascinating!

Simultaneously, her Byakugan perceptual gestalt noticed more wooden pillars lurking behind the walls, floor, and ceiling farther down the corridor – along with grids of spears, and springy wooden axes under tension; dart throwers, false floors with spikes, suiton-infused water jets, loops of vines -

- and she also immediately felt guilty for thinking -

- oh come on Sensei! This is ridiculous! -

- while pointing past Uchiha-san, sketching out the first pillars' striking paths -

- non-verbally, because Yamato-sensei had said they could only speak to answer questions, which presumably meant gestures were acceptable, going by his previous comments and actions -

- and noticing how Naruto-kun -

- she was on Naruto-kun's team! She was on Naruto-kun's team! -

- was beginning to flex his chakra -

- massive, brilliant, blazing, sunlike, and I the flower to his rays -

- Improper thoughts! Wicked! But -

# # #

In one particular way, Hinata Hyuuga was very like her crush. More than a few of her difficulties in life came not from any lack on her part, but rather from one excessive talent in general.

In her case, it was her particular aptitude with the Byakugan mental gestalt.

The All-Seeing White Eye was far greater than a mere expansion and extension of the user's perceptual field. Like its sibling dojutsu, the Sharingan, it enhanced the mind as well, granting not only faster thinking, but more thinking.

However, in contrast to the Byakugan, the Sharingan gained the memorization and assimilation of observed abilities, a native facility with enhanced genjutsu, the suppressed potential of the Mangekyou, and other characteristics in exchange for. . .not as much 'more thinking'.

In truth, the greatest power of the Byakugan was arguably not its expanse, or keenness, or clarity, or even its capacity to enhance the martial art of the Gentle Fist.

It was its ability to provide the user with a massive gestalt of multiple, simultaneous lines of thought.

And in that regard, Hinata Hyuuga, by the history and standards of her clan, was an almost unprecedented genius.

A normal, beginning-genin-level Hyuuga could be - and usually was - expected to be able to track several dozen targets within a twenty-meter sphere of perception, and maintain at least four lines of thought, for at least five continuous minutes.

After a year of training with Maito Gai's Team 8, the known prodigy Neji Hyuuga could track hundreds of targets – admittedly something of a necessity, considering his teammate Tenten's proclivities – within a fifty-meter sphere, and maintain a dozen simultaneous lines of thought for roughly twenty minutes, without rest.

At the beginning of her ranked career, the genin shinobi and supposed 'failure of an heiress' Hinata Hyuuga could already track thousands of targets within a two hundred meter radius, and worst of all - for being best of all - had difficulty with restricting herself to less than sixty-four simultaneous lines of thought.

In fact, when utilizing her Byakugan, she actually required more mental effort and expenditure of chakra to not think about over five dozen different things at once than otherwise.

She was indeed naturally shy and reticent. She indeed lacked self-confidence.

And those issues were routinely, and compoundingly, exaggerated and exacerbated by the enormous natural size and capacity of her Byakugan gestalt. They tended to consume a disproportionate majority of her mental resources regardless of whether she had activated her dojutsu.

But not a plurality of them. They were neither the fundamental nor even the majority source of her troubles and performative failings.

Hinata Hyuuga was, in short, the Elemental Nations' greatest living paradigm of analysis paralysis.

# # #

Sasuke, as much as he disliked admitting it, even just to himself, had to conclude that he might have underestimated the Dobe.

Slightly. A bit.

Alright, no; that was a lie. Two bits.

Maybe three.

He'd known that the orange eye-and-ear-sore had absurd stamina and capacity for recovery, but apparently the amount of raw chakra the little pest could generate was freakish. The peaks of his build-ups were so high that they repeatedly caused visual manifestations of excess leakage. That was high jounin-level capacity, something he'd only ever seen up close before as an example in his training by one of his murdered clan's elders.

Aside his internal musing, and warned by the Hyuuga's downward-upward/forward gesture, he dropped into a partial split to avoid a horizontal wooden axe trap at mid-height, then did a forward roll over another trying to sweep his lower legs. Behind him, the Hyuuga tapped each weapon's haft once, shattering them with a single touch and clearing the path for their distracted third.

Who still had his idiot hand clapped over his idiot mouth! Dobe of dobes! Daimyo-dobe!

He'd been aware that some among the Hyuuga clan could cause that kind of physical damage with their Gentle Fist; like everyone else, the Uchiha had extensive files on their rivals. He hadn't seen Hinata Hyuuga do it before, though.

But considering how the test's difficulty kept increasing, those were all thoughts for another time.

After the first left turn in the corridor, the targets had started moving, weaving around on whippy branches, and he'd had to step up his Phoenix Flower game. Up until then, it had been almost trivial. But with no idea how many more he'd have to fire off, he'd started reducing each missile's power, making them just strong enough to break each target into several pieces rather than exploding in the usual blossoms of delicious fiery area denial yum!

Then the number of targets had started increasing, and he'd had to get innovative like the Hyuuga, sneaking her way past the no-speech restriction with her hand signals. Hiding shuriken within the phoenix flowers was justifiably SOP, and the extra damage they added gave him the edge in chakra conservation he was expecting to need.

[rising sawblade center floor] tumble left / curve missiles 3, 4, 7 / [spikes in floor and wall] wallrun left high 3 meters / [interlocking spears from ceiling and walls] drop flat and roll forward 2 meters / targets 1, 2, 5, 8 down / twist missiles 3, 4, 6, 7, targets down! / can't beat me that easily sensei! / what's this gesture mean- oh! / [multiple pillar thrust from facing wall of next corner] dammit! / pull back / phoenix flower down center gap / no uh wood color darker? / five flowers then / center plus midway to corners / baboom baby / haha I was right! / kickpunch shrapnel into right wall ricochet around corner / advance / aaah shooting back now!? / substitution large pillar fragment! / sensei you bastard / fine then / overcharge / blind corner fire MASS PHOENIX FLOWER BARRAGE! / take that! / advance / ooooohsplosion! / pretty! / identical third corridor / double door midway left wall! / mission target! / chakra reserves=one-third=go / ALL-IN ASSAULT!

Entry! Sasuke almost shouted, and blitzed his way down the corridor like a boy possessed, his nerves singing like koto strings. This; he was made for this. The point of the spear. The avenger.

The blasts from his overcharged mass flower barrage had not only scorched the walls, floor, and ceiling black, but blown gaping holes in them as well. Bits of burning wood from the destroyed traps littered the floor, adding to the smoky haze filling the air. Past the door, more targets emerged from all sides, this time actual wooden mannequins equipped with a wide variety of simulated weapons.

The Hyuuga slid up beside him on his right, pointing at a position just past the door then holding out both hands, palms forward and fingers up. [We make a wall], Sasuke deduced, sending another reduced-power set of flowers combined with a quarter of his remaining shuriken down the hall towards the puppets.

The Hyuuga wove a shielding net of parries and deflections for them both, allowing him to concentrate on attacks. Enemy fire decreased in response, and she tapped his shoulder, indicating the closed door to his left. He scanned behind them; the Dobe was properly stacked against the wall for a breach, just beyond the doorframe.

And his chakra flare-off had gotten even worse. Wisps and flurries of blue energy rotated around him in a sphere wider than his limbs' reach, and he gave Sasuke a fierce, bright smile as their eyes met. Sasuke nodded minutely, moving to take out the door.

"And stop," Yamato said, with a single clap of his hands, loud as a firecracker. Farther down the corridor, the remaining mannequins froze in place.

"Not bad, genin," he continued. "Not bad at all. Sensei is pleased. Take a breather; calm down. Naruto-kun, stand ready; you'll still get to show off in a moment. I'm ending this phase here because I want all of us to watch that with our full attention."

 

[Acksiom]

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hiya folks. Regarding tomorrow evening's Chapter 5 post, I'm asking for a couple of volunteers to give me beta feedback on whether I should warnings and/or spoiler it first. It upsets me personally enough to consider the possibility, but, y'know, it's also my own writing; it's supposed to affect me strongly.

On to the story!

---

Sasuke did a quick mental reset exercise as Yamato slid the double doors into the walls to either side, then melted the concrete barrier behind them, leaving behind a tangled net of roots like organic rebar. Those withdrew as well, shrinking into themselves to reveal a massive cube-ish room, about 50 meters long on each edge, with eggshell-white plaster walls. In its center was the trunk of a huge, leafless Hashirama tree, ringed with a shimenawa rope hung with shide, and surrounded by freestanding cabinets. Its crown and roots were hidden behind the ceiling and floor respectively, and dozens of branches from its upper half penetrated the walls above them.

A line of wooden cubicles, similar in design to the ring of cabinets at the tree's base, was set in the center of each wall at floor level, topped by more wooden pillars extending out from the walls in staggered rows above them and to their sides, these wider and flatter like steps.

"All right, Naruto-kun, there's your stage," Yamato said, apparently unfazed by his own display of power. "Use the wall platforms, stay off the tree, and. . .show me the jutsu," he added, his voice dropping to a harsh rasp. There was something almost greedy about his tone, and Sasuke took note of it as the first possible flaw he'd seen in Yamato's public facade.

"Hrrughh. . ." the Dobe grunted, his fingers crossed in a plus symbol. Oh for the love of. . .is that even a real hand sign? Sasuke thought.

The sphere of flaring chakra circulation reappeared, then intensified even further.

And then tiny fragments of the concrete floor began to flake off, and levitate, and Sasuke felt, for the first time in all of his interactions with the Dobe, a small but definite amount of caution towards him.

"TAJU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSUUU!" the Dobe screamed.

The world turned white.

# # #

Yamato laughed maniacally as the chakra smoke evaporated. Hundreds of shadow clones. Hundreds! No; counting the crowd through the pressure on his wall-mounted mokuton platforms gave him a quick estimate of over a thousand!

Ohhhh, the things he could do with this!

He glanced at his other two students. Hinata-chan looked like she was about to melt in place from sheer astonished joy, while Sasuke-kun was giving him the wary side-eye. Yamato doubled down on his exultation and showed the boy one of his most intimidatingly psychotic smiles. The Uchiha didn't quite flinch, but his body did tense minutely in response.

"And there is the mission's combined heavy jutsu delivery plus exit cover," Yamato said, putting his hands on his hips and nodding slowly. "Good job, Naruto-kun. Iruka's report put it at somewhere around two-hundred-and-fifty clones that night, and I'm counting over a thousand now. Sensei is pleased, and verbal discipline is ended for all of you.

"Mokuton!" he continued, raising a four-person horigotatsu midway between the doorway and the Hashirama tree. "Genin, take a seat; clones, hold position and keep quiet - we'll start testing certain aspects of the Kage Bunshin in a moment."

While his students removed their sandals, stepped up to the table, and slid their legs into the well underneath it – except for Hinata-chan, who, like a proper maiden heiress, chose a seiza position – Yamato walked over to one of the cabinets, and took out a thermos, a basket of senbei, and a tray holding teacups, brushes, ink, and several sheets of paper and blank wall scrolls.

"Clones! One to each cubicle, one to each cabinet!" he said, as he carried the items back to the table. "Cabinet clones, take the stacks of paper, brushes, and ink inside to the cubicle clones. One ream of paper, brush, and ink per cubicle. The rest of you, form single-file lines at the cubicles after delivery and wait."

He slipped out of his own sandals and sat down with his back to the trunk, setting the tray on the table and the thermos and basket to the side while the clones bumbled around, getting themselves organized.

"Naruto-kun," he said, "I already know your ambition. You're going to be Hokage."

"Yep, that's right!" the blonde answered.

"After we talk a bit, we're all going to write our ambitions on these scrolls and hang them in here. But before that," Yamato said, sliding a sheet, brush, and inkwell across the table, "I want you to write 'Hokage' on this paper."

"You got it, sensei!" Naruto replied, picking them up and obeying.

Yamato took the sheet back and examined the boy's calligraphy. As he expected, it was poor.

"Naruto-kun, this isn't a criticism, just an observation - your penmanship is below average."

The boy rubbed the back of his head, laughing nervously. "Heh-heh. . .uh, sorry, Yamato-sensei," he apologized.

"Let's see if we can do something about that," Yamato said. "Close your eyes. Just you; not the clones."

Naruto obeyed.

"Clones at the front of the lines - take a sheet off the stack, and put a small '1' at its top center." Yamato said. He narrowed his own eyes, sent his chakra through the mokuton flooring beneath to the cubicles' back walls, and formed identical characters for 'Hokage' there himself on each of them, right in front of the clone lines.

"Clones at the front, copy that as carefully and as exactly as you can on your sheets, once, and big enough to mostly fill them up. Do it slowly, and pay as much attention as you can to your sensory experience of the physical action itself. You're not aiming for speed; we want to maximize your self-awareness of what you're doing – the weight of the brush in your hands, how the friction against the paper changes as the amount of ink on it decreases, how that affects your ability to make the lines you want; things like that - then dispel yourselves."

Whistling poofs of chakra dispersal filled the edges of the room as the clones obeyed.

Yamato relaxed, baring his teeth in anticipation. "Naruto, what did you just experience?" he asked.

"I. . .huh? Why do I remember – but I didn't -" the boy's eyes flew open.

"Answer the question, genin!" Yamato barked.

"Copying 'Hokage' over and over again, Sensei!" Naruto blurted.

"Yes," Yamato confirmed. "When Shadow Clones are dispelled, a portion of the chakra used to create them returns to the maker, along with some of their sensory experience." In his peripheral vision, he watched Sasuke-kun's jaw clench and his eyes bulge uncontrollably at the implications. That's right, little Uchiha, he thought. Your 'Dobe' teammate has the potential for comparatively exponential growth.

"Clones second in line - take a sheet off the stack, put a small '2' at the top center, make the best slow and deliberate copy you can, and dispel. Then third, fourth, and so on. Cubicle clones, as the ink dries, stack the pages face-down, normal–order – that means oldest on the bottom, latest on top. When all the other clones have dispelled, wait patiently for the next step. And on the count of 'zero', I want to hear a 'Hai, Sensei!' from all of you! Three! Two! One!"

"HAI, SENSEI!" thundered almost a thousand clones in concert.

Yamato smiled beatifically, poured four cups of green tea out of the thermos, and passed them around the table. He put the basket of crackers in its center and took a nori-flavored one for himself.

"Sensei is pleased," he said, and bit into it.

# # #

"Next," Yamato said, after everyone had sipped their tea at least once, "we move on to proper introductions. Since you all know each other already, I'll tell you about myself first. No, I'm not a natural-born Senju; I'm technically a monster, specifically a chimera, which is a proper term for a monster made up of other beasts' parts. I'm the only known survivor of an extremely criminal research experiment that was done in secret by a Konoha rogue-nin, the former Sannin Orochimaru. Sixty of us, as children, were kidnapped or bought by him, imprisoned, and given a variety of injections made from the cells of the Shodai's corpse, along with other experimental substances."

He paused to take a slurp of tea and give his students a few moments to recover from their shock. Sasuke's only reaction was a slight widening of the eyes, but both Naruto and Hinata had paled significantly at his blunt self-description.

"My existence has been kept secret ever since his illegal research was discovered and he was forced to flee Konoha or be killed by Hokage-sama, his Genin-team sensei," Yamato continued. "Knowledge of my abilities has been tightly controlled for my entire career, and held in reserve as one of Konoha's most hidden assets.

"Speaking of secrets - while the existence of Konoha's ANBU is an open one, it's forbidden to share further information about it. For example, one may not legally assert, even in private, that transfers from active ANBU service to other duties formally require at least two continuous weeks of personal time between assignments for mental recovery and readjustment purposes."

He paused to look at Naruto, then leaned forward and gave the boy a blatant caricature of an exaggerated wink before returning to his previous upright posture and emotionally detached expression.

"Likewise, one cannot legally assert that the Hokage, in bypassing that requirement by, say, transferring someone immediately from ANBU to the jounin-sensei ranks, and without addressing the issue of the required leave, is almost explicitly hinting that, as a result of the absence of that standard reacclimation period, any accidental knowledge about ANBU that might mistakenly be given to unauthorized persons through purely theoretical discussions about the topic would be entirely excusable."

Naruto, who had first looked annoyed at being singled out as the dummy, was now smirking at him. Hinata was modestly covering her smile, and Sasuke appeared torn between eagerness to learn more, and exasperation at his sensei's circumlocutions.

"So if someone were to suggest they'd known of a member of Konoha's ANBU, serving from around. . ." Yamato tilted his gaze upward, watching with his peripheral vision for Naruto to begin taking a sip, ". . .oh, say, the age of 6, following their direct promotion from Academy student straight to Chunin -"

Naruto did a picture-perfect spit-take, while Hinata gasped softly in shock.

"Manners, Genin!" Yamato said mock-sternly.

"You did that on purpose!" Naruto fired back.

" - it would be a serious crime," Yamato concluded. He pulled a cloth from one of his jacket pockets and set down near the central teapot, leaving a pinky fingertip on the table's surface. The Genin watched as the splattered tea coalesced into a single snakelike rivulet that slithered its way into the towel.

"Wipe, please, Naruto-kun," Yamato said pushing the towel across the surface to him, then "No, your mouth first, please, Genin, and using the dry section; the table second. Naruto-kun -" he continued, more gently, as the boy flinched at the correction, "the way much of Konoha treats you is also a serious crime, and that's not just my opinion. I can't promise you that they will come to respect you, but I can and do promise you that long before the time you make Chunin, you will absolutely deserve their respect."

"Hai, sensei!" Naruto said, firming up again.

"That goes for you two as well. Yes, Naruto-kun, I know the Village in general already respects Sasuke-kun, not only for his potential, but for his demonstrated aptitude and work ethic -" he gave the Uchiha scion a nod of acknowledgment - which the prideful little brat couldn't even be bothered to return - "but what I'm talking about includes certain kinds of professional regard beyond that. For example, an automatic feeling of relief should all or any of you arrive in another shinobi or team's theater of operations, rather than increased concern or resentment.

"And yes, Hinata-chan, I do mean you too. You're not the first Hyuuga with whom I've worked, and I can already see how the usual Gentle Fist training may not be as suited to your individual nature as certain alternatives that can be provided. Based upon your performance so far, I have complete confidence in your future as a kunoichi of extraordinary merit. Your contributions today have been integral to my good opinion of all of you as a team, and to my plans to significantly advance the normal Genin training schedule.

Speaking of which," he said, glancing around the room, "I see the first batch of clones have finished up. Naruto, back away and start flexing again. Cubicle clones, start folding the tops back to show the upside-down numbers on the other side. Raise your hands when you're done, and those who finish early, help the rest."

He picked up his teacup and took a happy slurp. So far, so good, he thought. When the last clone raised his hand, those near him scrambling back to their own stations, he gave Naruto-kun a nod and said, "Kick it, kiddo!"

"TAJU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

. . .fweeeefweeefweeeffweefweeee. . . .

"Oh yeah," Yamato said, through a vicious grin, dropping into informal slang, "that's what sensei's talkin' about. Okay, new clones - same as before, form lines. This time, start by putting a 100 in the top center, and increase that by one each time – 101, 102, you get the idea."

"HAI, SENSEI!" came back the thunderous roar.

"I tell you right now, you kids are gonna be terrifying long before I'm done with you," Yamato said. "Sleeper team nothin'; by the time we start C-ranks, you gonna be strollin' nightmares."

"Sleeper team?" Naruto asked.

"You take that one, Hina-hime," Yamato said, waving his teacup in her direction.

The Hyuuga girl eeeped in surprise, and ducked her head. "Ah, ah, a -" she began, pressing her fingers together as she stared at the table, "- a sleeper team has a much lower rank a-and reputation than they, they technically should. This is usually d-deliberate, for, ah, strategic over tactical purposes, but some-sometimes shinobi also progress that much faster than their v-village's rank assessment and reputation can, can keep up with?"

"Just so," Yamato said, edging back up into more polite speech. "All right, moving on. Pay attention, Genin. I'm going to tell you a little more about my background. Keep in mind that these aren't just very private, very personal secrets. It's also very high security intelligence about Konoha itself.

"Simply put, I grew up in a hell on earth. . . ."

 

[Wivk]

This story has a really big problem that I demand the author fix immediately... there isn't 100k more words of it.

 

[Hadrian.Caeser]

Could Naruto learn Mokuton in the future? His previous incarnation could and he has the clones to master earth and water to an incredible degree.

 

[Acksiom]

Could Naruto learn Mokuton in the future? His previous incarnation could and he has the clones to master earth and water to an incredible degree.

Click to shrink...

Hadn't considered it yet, probably because my first reaction was rejection on the Doylist grounds that it's narratively bad for Yamato.

And then of course I have to try to figure out a way to do it anyways, because oooh! skill challenge!, with the Chakra theorying I have in mind. Aaaand. . .it's not impossible, but my initial framing of the proposition starts with the presumption that Mokuton is so closely tied to genetics that the obvious first step would be more chimerazation, and, well, Chapter 5.

Thank you, this is a really productive suggestion. Because now I'm also considering whether the Uzumaki native recovery factor might strongly mitigate against such things, which seems really obvious in retrospect, and I'm one of the people who like experiencing that.

 

[Acksiom]

Naruto swallowed as his incredibly awesome new sensei told them about his childhood. And he'd thought he'd had it bad! What Orochimaru had put Yamato-sensei through was so much worse that it almost made him start crying. In front of the teme!

". . .so most of us could see each other. We didn't have names, just code numbers. I remember when the kid they called UD-03 died – they injected something into one of his canister's feed-lines, and a few minutes later, the Mokuton just exploded him, filling up his jar, except he was still alive. What remained of his face was pressed up against the glass on my side, with these coiled roots coming out of his eyes, but I think he'd gained a sensory ability, because he oriented on me. . . ."

The teme's hands were under the table's edge but Naruto could tell he was squeezing them into fists, because of how tensed his shoulders were. Yeah, Sasuke might be a huge massive jerk with a totally – ok, mostly – baseless towering pride and all the snide snottiness to go with it, but. . .he was still human. The way Yamato-sensei's story was getting to him, too, proved that.

". . .they called her Little Silver, by then, because of her hair, so that was how I thought of her too. When we were sure they weren't around, we'd push our hands up against the insides of our tubes, facing each other, and try to communicate with our facial expressions. Pretending that we – well, I was pretending this anyway – that the glass was her hands, and we were touching each other. I think the others were too scared to try, or too broken in other ways, so that was only for the two of us. . . ."

On Naruto's other side, Hinata's breathing was getting a little ragged. You couldn't tell she was bothered from her posture or anything, but the ends of her exhales and starts of her inhales had that fluttery hitch to them they sometimes got when she was sparring.

". . .and then one day those of us left started to realize that they weren't just late, but that they were never coming back again. That we'd been abandoned, to either starve to death when the reserves for our feed-lines ran out, like BG-04. . .his face, his ribs. . .at the end, I could see his whole skeleton through his skin. Or be poisoned by our own recirculated wastes when the filters went bad and weren't replaced – EF-01 went that way, and I couldn't keep watching – I couldn't keep meeting her eyes, it hurt too much. I suppose it was worse for her, to know she was dying, drowning in her own filth, and that someone just across from her couldn't even – ah, never mind. Or pass away from slow exposure when the heating elements lost power and the fluids we were suspended in went cold, or some other way. . . ."

Naruto's own breathing was getting pretty darn harsh now. How could Yamato-sensei stay so calm, telling them all this? Orochimaru was beyond monstrous. He didn't know a word bad enough to describe how awful the guy was, and he'd heard a lot of curses over the years. It was evil - to use other people, use children that way, and then just. . .leave them, to suffer and die like that!?

". . .until only the two of us were left, staring into each other's eyes, when we were awake. And then one day I woke up, and Little Silver was. . .gone. Not just her; her tank, the cabling, all of it. There weren't even any marks on the floor where she'd been, and the rest of the room was the same it had been when I dozed off. Her absence was the single difference. I'm. . .still not sure how to describe my feelings at that moment. Had someone come back to save her? But if they did, why didn't they take me? Was she still alive? Was she free? I wanted her to be, I wanted her to be alright; but I was angry at her, too, because I was still stuck there and she wasn't.

"After everything we'd been through together, the horrors we'd seen, everything we'd survived, together, she'd. . .left me. I loved her – I knew the feeling then; I learned the word later - and she was gone and I wanted to be happy for her and but I resented her at the same time. But I couldn't wish she was stuck back there with me, because I knew that was wrong, and. . .it all built up inside me until – bam.

"My best guess is that the stress was enough to trigger my Mokuton, and that's how I broke out. It wasn't until much later - years later - that I realized she could have been a genjutsu, that our. . .relationship, such as it seemed, might have merely been part of my own experimental protocol, to find a usable trigger for the Shodai's power. So to this day I don't know for sure if she was even real or not. And I still have bad dreams, sometimes, where I'm back in my tank, and I watch people come and remove hers, and she's pounding on the glass, looking at them and pointing at me, screaming in the life-support fluid, and they ignore her. And then she's gone with them.

"And other times, worse dreams, she just. . .smiles at them. Like she recognizes them. And they disconnect her tank, and carry her off in it, and she gives me a happy little wave goodbye – and I realize that we never felt the same things at all. That the connection I thought we had, the togetherness, despite the space and glass and fluid between us, was only my own -"

# # #

"Stop," Sasuke said thickly. "Just. . .shut up! Stop talking!"

He hadn't felt like this since that night. The pain, the rage, the sense of injustice, of a fundamental wrongness in the world – like reality had gone liquid around him, beneath him, and he was sinking deeper and deeper into the pool of insanity revealed below – and his eyes hurt, they hurt so much, and he could see everything at once, the glow of Yamato-sensei's chakra laced through the table, and through the raised floor – he looked up to see the dobe's mouth opening before it happened, and then-but-simultaneously after it had, like one of those illustrated flip-books, forward then backwards, repeating a dozen times, a hundred, millions of times, infinitely, forever – like he could see through time, the way the Byakugan saw through matter - Yamato-sensei leaning towards him, hands outstretched, he could see it about to happen/happening/having happened, again and again and again but he couldn't move fast enough to -

Yamato-sensei's right hand clapped over his eyes, while the left pinned the back of his head between them. The agonizing, frantically spinning-twisting-whirling sensation in his eyesockets faded away, as if it was being drained into the man's right hand, while a rush of strange comfort flowed through his head from the left, in replacement. He drew a convulsive, sobbing breath at the relief, and felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment.

Not in front of the dobe! he thought desperately.

"I did not anticipate this, Sasuke-kun," Yamato said. "I had something else entirely in mind. I apologize for the distress. On the positive side, though," he added, "you've awakened your Sharingan. Straight to two tomoe in each eye, too. Not unprecedented, but also prodigious."

"Worth. . .it," Sasuke managed to croak out.

"Sasuke," the dobe said, his own voice shaky, "I think your eyes are bleeding."

"Worth - it!"

# # #

After the brief blood-trickle had been staunched and stopped, Yamato-sensei had wiped his face clean for him with another piece of the bandage he'd been using. "We don't have a mirror in here, Genin," he'd said firmly when Sasuke had protested that he could do it himself, and tried to push his hand away, "and one of the things you will learn from me is to become better accustomed to accepting the assistance of your teammates.

"Also, I'll let your disrespectful outburst earlier pass without discipline, on the grounds of excessive emotional distress directly caused by your superior officer, but open insubordination is something else entirely. If I give you an order, Genin, you will carry it out, with no 'or else' involved. And I am ordering you to lie down on your back, keep this damp compress over your closed eyes, and take a few minutes to savor your accomplishment."

Sasuke obeyed without protest, not even a displeased look. The man had earned that much.

"Celebrate this, Sasuke-kun. For professional reasons, because wins like this will only become more and more rare as your career progresses, and it's important to practice the deliberate emotional control involved in handling them properly. The moments when you think you've triumphed, and lower your guard as a result, are some of the most dangerous moments you'll experience as a shinobi. As the skill of your opponents increases, more and more often they will plan for that, try to deceive you, and take advantage of your resulting lapse of attention. Right now, you can afford to discharge that emotional buildup safely, so you should. Deliberate and measured release is an integral part of professional self-control, and the degree to which you fail to exercise it is a degree to which your self-control is flawed."

On his back, slowly breathing through his nose, Sasuke nodded automatically. As he so consistently had already, Yamato-sensei made good sense. The man wasn't just a planner, or a plotter; he was a strategist. He clearly had good, well-reasoned purposes for not only everything he did, but the order in which he did them. Sasuke didn't like admitting it, but the man had just pointed out a personal failing he'd never once considered, a blind spot in his personal self-assessment.

Ha! Sharingan! Two tomoe! Yesss! he thought obediently, reminded by the visual reference. And a big step closer to the day. The day when he falls to my hand, when my family, my clan are finally avenged -

Sasuke paused. Oh. That's exactly what Yamato-sensei means. That moment – he's preparing me for that fight, already. From the very beginning. How. . .far ahead has he planned our training?

Farther than I still can see, he realized. Even with two tomoe!

He let a wide smile spread across his face. I can learn from this man, he thought. More than just tai- and buki- and ninjutsu. Much more.

Yamato-sensei was right. Repressing, discarding everything that didn't lead directly to that man's death would make him, had made him. . .brittle. His loss of control in response to Yamato-sensei's story proved it. Weak, vulnerable to certain tactics, unacceptable!

Not enough! More training! he thought.

"Permission to continue, please, Sensei," Sasuke said.

"Granted."

Sasuke re-rolled the strip of bandage as he sat up. Yamato-sensei was already holding out a hand for it, and Sasuke gave it to him. The man tucked it away in one of the back pockets of his jounin vest.

"How do you feel?" Yamato-sensei asked. "Good enough for a short usage?"

"Eager and yes, Sensei," Sasuke said. Yamato-sensei gave him a brief, pleased nod.

"Excellent. Cubicle clones, lay out the first and last pages of your stacks in separate pairs on the flooring over there, then dispel. Sasuke, when the clones are gone, activate your Sharingan, and analyze the differences between each character of the pairs. Give us an estimate of any improvement by. . .say, tens of percentage."

Sasuke nodded and stood up. When the last of the clones was gone, he visualized. . .Itachi; he should get used to using that man's name, because refusing to do so was limiting himself, as Yamato-sensei had just shown him. . .in his family home, on that night, standing over his parents' bodies, stalking towards him, his Sharingan spinning. . .

. . .rage flickered through him, and the world evolved before his eyes.

"That pair," he said, pointing. "Just over ten percent improvement. That pair, and that, close to ten percent, but less." He didn't need to think, to analyze; the differences were obvious. The smoothness of the strokes, their size, their relative weight of ink, how all those factors balanced against each other to increase the clarity of the character. . .no wonder they call us arrogant, he thought, with another sudden insight. We are, and it is not undeserved. The pride of the Uchiha is not mere conceit. To see, and to instinctively know, to comprehend, without effort. . .I understand now.

No. Now I understand better.

Unconsciously, his hand rose to his forehead, and he found himself rubbing the spot that ma- which Itachi had so often poked. Was he telling me. . .I lacked the knowledge, the necessary experience, until this moment? Until I awakened this capacity? No wonder he always seemed so far beyond me, so distant. . .he was.

A dozen, a hundred moments in his past flashed through his mind. Little things and large ones; comments in passing from Uchiha at every social level across the clan, twitches and blank faces from shinobi, whether in service or retired; his parents, communicating with even less than a glance, just the tiniest shift of posture. . .all because of the Sharingan.

"Sasuke-kun, does your head hurt?" Yamato-sensei asked, breaking his chain of thought. Sasuke realized what he was doing, and snatched his hand away.

"No, sensei, just. . .old memories."

"Good," Yamato-sensei said. "Nevertheless, turn them off for now, and come have a seat. There's a lot more on our agenda for today they can help with, and it's too soon for stress testing. We want a better baseline before that."

"Hai, sensei," Sasuke said, obeying.

As he returned to the table, Yamato-sensei passed the hangable scrolls out to them, holding a palm towards the grabby, excited Dobe. "Not yet, Naruto-kun. I have a few more things to clarify beforehand.

"First, my name. I don't know what my original name was. My current one, Yamato, was given me by Hokage-sama. It's actually a code instruction he arranged secretly with me years ago. Beginning from the day he addressed me by it, I was to cease concealing my abilities and identity, at my own discretion. It is now up to me to reveal whatever I wish; my Mokuton, my background, anything. I may remain in the shadows, or come forward into public life.

"Now, if you had asked me what my ambition was a day or two ago, I would have given you the standard loyal answer; to be a good shinobi, protect my village and my comrades, obey my superiors, etc. Which would have been true, but not honest. Because I did want something else, something more. I wanted a bigger ambition itself, a personal one, something beyond the dictates of duty.

"And then. . .Hokage-sama swapped me out of my previous assignment - which may or may not have been Senior Captain of ANBU Team Ro, I couldn't say, it would be illegal and stop rolling your eyes at me, Naruto-kun, the insolence! - into this one. And I read your files, and BAM!" Yamato suddenly slapped his cupped hands together, producing an ear-hurting bang! of a clap, "just like that, I had it.

"I want to exceed the Sandaime. Not as a Kage, not as a God of Shinobi, but as a sensei.

"I want to make you three stronger than the Sannin. I want to raise up a team that puts those titans in a clear, and unmistakable, and inarguable second place. That is my ambition. I knew it was possible from the moment I saw this team's composition. I can do something utterly incomparable with these shinobi, I thought. And since I began observing you directly earlier today, I have seen not a single thing to contradict that."

As he listened, Sasuke noticed the other two sitting straighter in response to sensei's declarations – the Dobe more obviously, obviously; but the reticent Hyuuga heiress's spine had stiffened as well. He'd long ago concluded that her shy, retiring demeanor was mostly her true character, rather than a facade like that of the Nara slacker, or the big face Kiba constantly put on to cover his insecurities. This is primarily directed at her, he thought. Sensei knows – everybody knows – what Naruto's target is, and he either knows or has guessed what mine is. But hers? Apart from marrying Naruto, which she's absolutely not going to reveal here and now, what could she say?

"So, Hinata-chan, it's entirely acceptable to write Find my own ambition, or some variation on that, if you so prefer. How can I say otherwise? Until a few days ago, it would have been my answer as well."

Oh, Sasuke thought. Yes. And he's put all this together in just a few days.

'Can'? I must learn from this man.

 

[trashtaker]

Peak shit my man.

This shit is so peak that i can feel something dripping my pants

 

[Acksiom]

Peak shit my man.

Click to shrink...

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

This shit is so peak that i can feel something dripping my pants

Click to shrink...

Ah, QQ. Never change.

Except to become even more so.

 

[Felius]

Yamato, all that is great, but could you wait to trauma dump so hard Sasuke triggered the Sharingan until at least more than a couple days of knowing each other?

That said, promising, I'm just worried that the fic is going to go the route "powering the genin as fast as possible and team work, maturity and general non-combat will sort itself out of their innate talent and maybe one or two mostly-offscreen lectures".

Or rather, even canonically they have some understanding at least that "getting them as strong as possible as fast as possible" and "getting them as strong as possible as fast as possible while keeping them as mentally healthy and properly functional as possible" are vastly different things. And so long they think they are in peace time, they likely won't believe they need to go for the first one.

 

[Akuma-Heika]

Little Silver

Click to shrink...

Will we get any info on her?

 

[Acksiom]

Yamato, all that is great, but could you wait to trauma dump so hard Sasuke triggered the Sharingan until at least more than a couple days of knowing each other?

Click to shrink...

nah brah
nah brah
uh uh
say nah
no rest
he best
yama
hi test

now you better beware
yama jutsu down there
the girlies be scared
until they get dared
but yama don care
he got wood to spare
yeah they pay the fare
his attention is rare

nah brah
nah brah
uh uh
say nah
no rest
he best
yama
hi test

look out for that riflin
cause yama aint triflin
his tower be eifflin
his dunder be m

uh
never mind

What were we talking about?

That said, promising, I'm just worried that the fic is going to go the route "powering the genin as fast as possible and team work, maturity and general non-combat will sort itself out of their innate talent and maybe one or two mostly-offscreen lectures".

Click to shrink...

I really don't think that's going to happen. It doesn't sound at all like what I like to like about my work. Also particularly so in terms of teamwork and this fic. And there's a lot more non-combat than combat planned forward in my head.

Or rather, even canonically they have some understanding at least that "getting them as strong as possible as fast as possible" and "getting them as strong as possible as fast as possible while keeping them as mentally healthy and properly functional as possible" are vastly different things. And so long they think they are in peace time, they likely won't believe they need to go for the first one.

Click to shrink...

Oh yes, Yamato being explicit about command track training right from the beginning is definitely directed at that reader concern. No one sensible wants broken officers. And in character, Best Yamato obviously has numerous personal reasons to ensure his students grow into moral and ethical giants as well.

Will we get any info on her?

Click to shrink...

Sorry, but Yamato's current apprehension is right. She was always just a genjutsu. The most important person in his world was a lie created to drive him to become a bioweaponization template for the mad scientist torturing him.

Fortunately, these genius kids are now teaching him what real happiness is like.