Chapter 9

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"And once again, Danzo, you come to me with nothing but failure," I sighed at the man sitting in front of me, taking a sip of my tea. My agents at Root had reported the mission to me the moment it was authorized, but I had turned a blind eye, hoping to see my friend's impetuousness finally achieve something useful for the village he was sworn to serve. Of course, it hadn't yielded any real results.

"I would hesitate to use that word," the man said, pretending to take a sip of his own tea. Danzo was far too paranoid to drink anything he did not prepare himself. Even watching my secretary as she made the tea in our presence was not enough to assuage his constant fear for his life. Others might have been offended by his lack of trust, but not me. I found it cute – cute that he believed I would resort to poison if I wanted him dead. No, I would crush his skull between my hands and watch his life drain away on the ground. Every day, I fought the temptation, waiting for him to outlive his usefulness or for his audacity to overshadow it.

"What word would you use, then?" I asked, playing his game.

"A success, but with a different goal. Yes, I did not secure the Ichibi for Konoha, but we now have a much better understanding of the Jinchuriki's strength compared to the other villages."

"Yes, strong enough to kill three of your operatives."

"They were hardly frontline combatants. They were nothing but skilled spies, at best Chunin level," he said, trying to dismiss the accomplishment.

"Yes, three Chunin at the age of six. Even Itachi cannot boast such a feat." His scowl at the mention of the infamous nuke nin almost brought a smile to my face. The young man's threat still lingered in his mind. The fact that I knew Danzo had wanted to recruit the boy into Root after the massacre made it all the more satisfying to me.

"And why did you terminate the mission there?" I asked, addressing the question that had been bothering me.

"Seven agents already lay dead. The Jounin was much stronger than anyone could have reasonably expected, and the boy was also more impressive. He had yet to unleash the true power of his Bijuu and was capable of keeping up with two Chunin of the same rank."

"I see. And the sand? I recall previous Jinchuriki of the Ichibi demonstrating that ability."

"Yes, that's why my agents waited until they were sure he was unable to use it. Despite catching him far outside Kaze no Kuni, he was still able to summon an extraordinary amount of sand. Reports from my scouts indicate that with the sand, he goes from Chunin level to Jounin. Apparently, the sand alone was enough for him to kill the two agents he was barely staying ahead of."

I hmmed and took another sip of my tea, contemplating the situation. It was evident that Suna was in possession of the next prodigy of their generation. Gaara of the Desert would become a threat if allowed to fulfill his potential. The thought of another ninja with the raw talent of Itachi but with the added power of a tailed beast unsettled me.

"Another Jinchuriki stronger than ours," Danzo stated, and I resisted the urge to bare my teeth at him. Those who didn't know him well would fail to detect the subtle nuance in his tone, but it was crystal clear to me. He wanted Naruto. Again.

"Naruto is off-limits, Danzo. Do not test me. I only tolerate your impudence due to your loyalty to Konoha."

"You know of my loyalty. You are the Kage, Hiruzen. You know that to make the great tree flourish, a few branches must be sacrificed. The Nine-Tails is one such branch. The attack from its jinchuriki put us in this situation, and now, with over a third of our shinobi force unable to fight in a war, and no jinchuriki to speak of, we might be the weakest among the five." I didn't point out how he was clearly leaving Mizu out of his assessment. He was right. I felt the weight every day. During the last war, we had Minato, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya running interference, and we just barely made it out intact. By the time the other villages sued for peace, we were on our last legs, barely able to maintain the facade of invincibility. Now, without most of those S-ranks and with our forces nearly cut in half, if war were to break out today, we would be the victims, not the victors. Despite that, Naruto was off-limits. I made a promise to Minato years ago. His son would know the dream Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei gave their lives for.

"No. Not Naruto," I said, shutting down the idea.

"Then the Uchiha," he said, and I resisted the urge to laugh. Itachi would kill both of us before letting Sasuke anywhere near Root. Danzo also reconsidered the idea and quietly sat.

"Increased funding and recruitment for Root, then?" he asked. I saw where he had been leading. Danzo was perfectly capable of playing the fool when he wanted to get his way, and now, he was going to. I reevaluated and analyzed our entire conversation in my head once again. I could see how he maneuvered me into canceling out all the other options on my own, making me realize that we had virtually no chance of surviving the next war without drastic action. And then he showed that the only drastic action I would even be willing to consider was the one that ended with him getting his way.

These days, I didn't particularly like Danzo, but I could tolerate him, and restoring his army to its former glory was a distasteful but necessary sacrifice. I knew Danzo. I could trust Danzo. Danzo was my friend.

Xxxxx - Gamer

I looked around as we jumped through the trees. From the moment we set off, we hadn't slowed down for a second, except for a brief pause for me to create a gourd at the end of the desert, marking the boundary between the Land of Wind and the Land of Rivers. I felt it floating behind me as I jumped. I had declined to tie it to my back like Gaara from the anime, not just because I was too short to have the one I made tied to me (it was taller than I was!), but also because I didn't feel like sacrificing my flexibility. Baki had commented that having it like that would give away my abilities, but I couldn't care less, and it seemed he didn't either.

After all, everyone already knew who I was. The villagers of Suna could recognize me on sight, and only a fool would assume their hidden village didn't have spies. I mean, I had obtained a complete list of all the participants from the major villages, along with a list of their known abilities. The standouts I noticed were Kurotsuchi, the nine-year-old granddaughter of the Tsuchikage, and Hana Inuzuka, an average genin from Konohagakure, and a member of the Yotsuki clan from Kumo.

I looked straight at the back of Baki's head as he increased his speed, and I began pushing myself to match him. - HANA INUZUKA

Sensei flipped the chair in front of him around and plopped down on the seat. I looked from him to my roommates and shook my head as neither of them seemed to be bothered by the present setting or Sensei's recent antics.

"So... You've read the files, I trust?" We nodded, and he continued, "Thoughts?"

"Iwa and Suna," Isagi said, and said no more. The Aburame was prone to being reticent like this, but his constant silences were beginning to grate on me. There was something going on here, and the fact that I couldn't see it was driving me mad, slowly but surely.

"Yes, Iwa and Suna," Sensei confirmed and then turned to Rin. "What about Iwa and Suna?" he asked with a smile.

"They both sent family of their Kage. Young family," Rin said, and I was beginning to catch the drift. Gaara of the Desert was only six, and Kurotsuchi wasn't much older either. I was older than both of them, and I was still the youngest ninja from Konoha.

"Yes. Reports from both villages show that they're prodigies of a unique caliber. Both Gaara of the Desert and Kurotsuchi of Iwa are said to be strong enough to be strong contenders for these exams," he said, and then gave me a look, silently asking me to ask the question on my mind. That was one of the things I hated about Bachira-sensei. He could read us like open books with those eyes of his. The Byakugan wasn't active, but even without them, those pupil-less eyes of his always saw more than I ever wanted to show.

"But why? Why are they here, and why does it matter to us?" I asked, and instead of Sensei, it was Rin who answered me.

"They sent prodigies to the Chunin exams. Remember the speech Hokage-sama gave before we left? These exams are a substitute for war, and two of the great five sent their most promising ninja here..."

"Three," Sensei corrected absently. When we all turned to him, he just shrugged and pulled out a file from his own folder. When he flipped it over to me, I could see a name underlined. Noel Yotsuki from Kumo. "I'll take over from here, Rin. Thank you. The truth of it is this. The other villages have sent their strongest genin here in the hopes of making a statement and also getting a feel for the other villages. Suna sent only a single ninja, but reports show that he's at least as strong as a Jounin." I felt my jaw drop at that statement, and even high and mighty Isagi was shocked. A Jounin? The same as Sensei at just six years old? Half our age and more than thrice as strong as us?

"Yes, I see your shock. I'll teach you a simple lesson. There are ninja younger than you but stronger than me. Gaara of the desert might even be one of them. He isn't the only threat here, though. Kurotsuchi of Iwa is another threat. She's the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage and has been trained from before she could walk to be the next leader of her village. Whispers in the wind say the Tsuchikage himself announced her as his successor a few months ago, and these exams are going to be her debut to the wider world."

The more Sense

i spoke, the more I could see I didn't belong here. A genin as strong as a Jounin? The next Tsuchikage? "And the third one?" Rin asked, pulling me out of my thoughts, and I noticed that Sensei had taken a pause. He just smiled widely and showed the name once more.

"Noel Yotsuki has been a genin for ten years. He was promoted at the age of seven, and since then only attempted the Chunin exams once when he was your age. Back then, he had dominated the competition and beaten all the competitors before becoming the winner of the exams. Somehow, that wasn't enough to get him a promotion from his village, but reports show that his strength has continued to grow since then, and he's clearly been going on missions far beyond the genin level."

Of course, the last one had to be another monster. Three monsters, and we were going to be fighting them?

"No, you probably won't have to fight any of them. I'm sure you noticed something off about Konoha's role in these exams. We have no prodigy genin on the level of the monsters I just mentioned, so the Higher-ups chose a different strategy. There are twenty teams of genin from Konoha here. More than twice the number of teams from even the host nation, Kusa, and also much more than the number of Ninja from any of the other villages. Konoha's strategy here is simple. Instead of competing on quality, we'll use quantity. The village plans to flood the exams with genin and at least ensure we have a majority of the ninja that make it to the finals so we can share the stage." I was confused. What was Sensei saying?

"You're lying. What you're saying. You're saying they don't care about us. That they're just going to throw numbers at the situation and hope that solves the problem. That's not possible. This isn't war," I said, and at the end, I was well out of the normal vocal range for speaking. I didn't care. It wasn't possible. Not Konoha. Konoha would never do that. The Hokage would never do that to us. We're not Mizu.

"Hana, you're wrong. This is war. I see it now. The Hokage's speech. The Chunin exam fulfills two purposes. One, they let us fight each other without going to war, and two, they let the villages advertise the strength of their ninja. I don't have the data, but I suspect whichever village performs best at the exams gets a huge flood of clients," Rin said, and Sensei nodded before speaking.

"At least a 70% boost in clients in the first year after the exams." Rin nodded back at Sensei and continued right from where he stopped.

"If whichever village does best gets a huge economic boost, and three of the other villages are showing up with strong ninja, we have to do something to fight that. Tousan told me something a year ago. There are no new clients in the Shinobi world. When one village gains, another loses. We can't afford that in Konoha right now. We have to be the ones to win the exams."

"Or at least not lose as badly as the others," Sensei interrupted with a bright smile.

"And this is the best way to do that. I guess the reason Sensei is making sure we know this is that he wants us to cooperate with the other teams to make sure as many Konoha ninja make it to the finals as possible." Sensei just started clapping then. Slow and slightly mocking, before flipping off his chair and landing in front of us on his feet.

"

Rin is right. Your mission is this: Make sure as many Konoha shinobi make it to the finals as possible. You must not fail, no matter what."

XXXXX- Gamer

When we finally arrived at Kusa, we'd done a quick registration at the gate and were then assigned a shinobi escort to take us to the hotel that had been set aside for the visiting shinobi. It was quite a ways away from all the important centers I could make out with my eyes, so they were being logical and separating us from the truly valuable spots. On our way there, our guide chatted our ears off with information about the sleeping arrangements.

There were two hotels chosen for the visiting teams, and we were to be using the same hotel as the ninja from Konoha, Taki, and a few more minor villages. I guess they expected that we'd be less likely to stab each other to death if we were kept away from the truly problematic ones.

When she finally left, after showing us to our rooms, I went into mine and swept through it with my sand. After I was sure every nook and cranny was clean and that I wasn't being spied on from within the room itself, I walked to the curtains and took in the view of Kusagakure from here. The hotel was quite a few floors high, so I could get a good view of most of the village. It was definitely much more active at night than Suna was. I could see figures moving across the streets, shambling from place to place. When I had my fill of people-watching, I shut the curtain and went to bed. Not to sleep, but to train. My meditation skill had slowed down its growth quite a bit, but I still worked on it whenever I could get a second of free time to myself. One day, Senjutsu would be open to me.

XXXX

"The first task is simple: There are twenty clues hidden in this hall, apart from the one each team has been given. The clues spell out a message. Five clues will be enough to get the message. Use any means possible to get the clues, the message, and make your way out of the hall. The first twenty teams to make their way out will advance to the next stage," the proctor said, running his eyes across the large hall we were in. I was impressed that Kusa had an indoor hall more than large enough to hold over a hundred hostile ninja and trusted it not to fall apart once conflict inevitably erupted.

I looked to my left and right and noticed the ninja around me shifting towards me subtly. They probably planned to get my clue the moment the task started. I couldn't fault the strategy. It was much easier to get clues from other participants than it would be to waste time searching the large hall, and the clear child was obviously their first target. Of course, I had the same idea they did, and they all looked like easy pickings to me.

"Begin," the proctor shouted and disappeared from the hall in a shunshin. Everyone seemed to freeze for a moment, and then they all exploded into motion. I just stared at the team of ninja rushing at me with a smile that made them hesitate for a second. That second was all I needed to appear between them and punch the first one into instant unconsciousness. 'Let's fucking go,' I thought to myself with a smile.

A/N;Chapter complete. How does it look? Thanks for reading. We've got the next two chapters of this story, along with the first chapter of another Naruto insert I haven't uploaded yet (It's an Itachi SI) and 59 chapters of my other fic, all available on , and you can read all of that right now just by heading to the link on my profile or searching for my username up there. Feel free to have a look.