Chapter 3: Expertise on Death

"Oi, oi…" Gemma started. "Think about this logically Gai, he choked out our jonin instructor."

"So?" asked Gai question marks floating around his head and Gemma face-slapped himself, he then turned to Choza. "Sensei?"

"It'll be fine I suppose," said Choza with a small smile as he grabbed a packet of chips from inside his shirt, how the packet still retained its air Gemma could not tell but it appeared fresh.

Ebisu cracked his neck and squared up against Gai, letting his arms hang limply in front of him, it was not a stance per se, just a position from which he could react quickly. He would not underestimate Gai as he once did, the boy worked hard, his training would put most grown men to shame and it didn't matter he was not capable in ninjutsu, that merely meant that he did not have to focus on multiple facets and could solely develop his taijutsu, he could specialise without worry. They both took a deep breath and Gai suddenly charged as Ebisu narrowed his eyes as a reverse sweep came at his legs. He left the ground pouncing on Gai's open head which he proceeded to grab and slam it with strength into the ground, splintering the rocks beneath. Both Choza and Gemma watched wide eyed as Ebisu picked Gai back up holding him in air by his face. The fires in his fellow genin's eyes seemed to have dimmed a little Ebisu noted. He clicked his tongue as he dropped the boy who crumbled to the floor. Fully expecting the fight to be finished Ebisu turned around to leave when he heard the sound of struggles behind him. He turned around to see a shaky Gai getting to his feet slowly.

"Where do you think you're going?" mumbled Gai, having lost nearly all his earlier energy, he still held his steely determination. "I'm not finished yet."

"Gai, I thin-." Choza started forward but was met with a steely gaze from Gai.

"Sensei, I will finish this fight!"

He looked back to his opponent, to find that his opponent was gone. Noting the shock Choza too turned to gaze at Ebisu to see the boy was no longer there.

"How!?" Choza whipped his head around looking. "Genma did you see where he went."

"No sensei!" As the boy in the bandanna too tried to make sense of what was going on.

Ebisu slowly walked forwards the back of his target still facing him as his tried to look around for him. This must have been what his master felt whenever the man snuck up on him. Here he was, out in the open, able to see everything and yet no one could see him. Was it just ignorance or was there something more to this technique, he hadn't figured it out yet but he slinked his arm around Gai who froze. Anyhow Ebisu had learned one thing about the fight, brutal force would not cut it against Gai, he would stand back every time he was beaten down, every time he was battered. It was something he had seen when they fought against that swordsman from the mist. He had understood this and yet still he underestimated the steel in the boy, penance was required for this but this fight came first.

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Ebisu tightened his arm around the boy's neck, constricting down and stopping the passage of air and for an instant Gai's eyes bulged before he bucked and went violent trying to shake him off. Hearing the noise both Choza and Genma turned back to see Gai struggling to loosen Ebisu's arms but Choza just sighed and looked away. Even he couldn't free himself from those arms, how would Gai. The boy was good at taijutsu had excellent speed and great battle awareness but the strength he could exert still belonged to that of a boy. Choza would normally say the same for Ebisu but the strength he had felt during his struggle with the boy, that was not human, it was akin to a hangman's noose, the harder you struggled, the tighter it would become and sure enough the same was happening here. At first there was choking sounds but slowly that dimmed and finally after several more seconds silence followed and as Choza turned, Gai hung limply in the chokehold which was eased up. Setting Gai down Ebisu stood back and bowed towards his sensei.

"I will leave now," said Ebisu under the shocked gaze of Genma and curious gaze of Choza he walked off.

After watching Ebisu leave Choza walked over to check up on Gai who blearily opened his eyes.

"Gai, do you feel fine?" Choza asked.

"I…I lost," he said, with some tears in his eyes.

He had of course lost before, but never like this, never had it felt so hopeless, like a chasm which spanned beyond his eyes.

"That you did my boy," said Choza picking up the crestfallen boy. "I did as well."

"How, how did he get so strong?" Genma suddenly asked.

Choza let out a helpless smile. "I'd like to know the answer to that myself."

Out of the corner of his eyes Choza saw dust pick up in the distance.

"THANK YOU FOR YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT!!"

The boisterous voice sounded from the dust as it came towards them.

"Dad?" Gai voiced out and he quickly wiped away his tears.

"Sensei, I think I'll leave," said Genma with a hint of panic as he noted the gathering of dust getting closer.

Genma still remembered the painful lesson last time when he joined Gai and father on a supposedly small training session. If there was one definite thing Genma admired about the duo despite their tight green spandexes it was that they went completely in on training. There was training, there was torture, then two levels above that was what happened to him and never again would he make that mistake. He stepped back and an without waiting for any replies and Choza merely shook his head. The cloud of suddenly stopped in front of them and Choza waved his hand in front of his face batting the dust particles away. As the dust itself cleared he first noticed the pair of orange leg warmers.

"Running around the village on your hands again Dai?" Choza asked.

"Yes Akimichi-san!" Dai exclaimed, he flipped to his feet and let out a hearty laugh. "I am strengthening my spirit and my body!"

"I…see…" said Choza.

"Dad!" Gai suddenly cried out.

"Gai!" Dai repeated in kind.

"Dad!"

"Gai!!"

Forgetting what happened minutes ago Gai hugged his dad.

"Gai, I will do my two thousand push ups while you do your two-hundred laps around the village!" Dai exclaimed with a thumbs-up.

"Yes dad!" Gai proclaimed with two thumbs-up.

"Well…that's that, I think I'll leave you to it," said Choza with a wry smile.

"Do you wish to join us Akimichi-san?" Dai asked and Choza sweatdropped.

"I…think not Dai-san, lots of work to do at home," he replied. "I'll see you at the exam tomorrow Gai."

"Yes sensei, when tomorrow arrives I will have become stronger!"

Choza smiled kindly and turned to walk off, thinking about his upcoming meeting with the hokage along with other jonin instructors, then he thought back to Ebisu. He had a good measure on the boy when last he saw him but now everything had gone out the window, the boy was completely different, stronger, faster…far more frightening, he had his doubts as to whether the boy was an impostor, perhaps a spy from another village. Things were tense between the villages, especially now, a spy from another village wasn't entirely out of the question, perhaps he should voice his concerns to the lord hokage.

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Ebisu walked through the village, past the many shops, taking note of the minute changes, nothing of too much, new people, certainly people here had increased, mostly civilians coming in from Kusagakure, the village that was slowly being annexed by Iwa. As he walked his senses sharpened, his felt the hairs on the back of neck stand, anticipation for something. There were people following him, two…no three people. He managed to catch their reflections from puddles of water, roadside reflections from the glass windows etc. and they were up on the roof, following him from what they perceived to be a safe distance. If this was his master right now then all three would have been killed without a peep, his master did not like disrespect in any shape or form, there was an order he kept and if that order was not present then he would massacre everyone. Nevertheless, he was not his master, primarily he was not as good as his master at the fine talent of assassination, he was improving but he still has a chasm and bit to make before he could even reach the tail end of his master's cloak. Keeping the three in view he kept moving slowly towards his apartment, he had suspected something of this sort would happen. He had after all left for close to a year with nary a word, he was an orphan so there was no need to write letters or exchange words with anyone, he could come and go as pleased but that in itself presented a problem like this where he would now need to prove his innocence with actions, never mind, this was a shinobi village after all, at least this much was expected, he would be deeply disappointed if it didn't come to this. This thought however did not help the slight feeling of annoyance in being followed by three anbu. He unlocked his apartment and went in, noticing the layers of dust over the clothes he had used to cover his desk, bed and other utilities. He sighed as he gently pulled them off and folded it, being careful not to let the dust float and he heard footsteps above his apartment, one on the tree next to it as well and fingers twitched. Surely if you're following someone unseen, one of the criteria should be to make sure you are not noticed by the person that you are following. He calmed himself down as he took off his sword and put it down on the desk, the weight of the sword made the desk creak every so slightly, the desk itself was made terribly of even worse wood but that did not however discount the weight of the sword which itself was considerable. If it was him a year ago, he'd be struggling to lift this blade. He remembered back to his training with his master when he had first received this blade. When he swung it around, he went along with the blade, it was more accurate to say that the blade was swinging him but several months of strength training, body conditioning and modifications and he stood here now at a superhuman level of physical capability without usage of chakra or any other external factor, whether he had the skill to back it up his strength was another matter as he was still growing into it.

"Cosy little place, you have here my boy," said a wraith like figure sat upon his chair and he turned and bowed.

"Master."

"Not as good as my shrine but for a place to sleep, it is as good as any," the wraith like figure continued, even sitting the figure was large, his face was obscured by a white skull like mask and his cloak bore chains bloody and brown. His greaves were of the darkest color reflecting no light and they too held blood on it but above all this the temperature of the room itself dropped several degrees when his presence was made known.

"I thought you had left master, no longer of this world?"

"I am no longer present boy but I left a presence here, an imprint if you will, on you," said the old man of the mountain. "Not here to guide but merely to witness, remember my words boy."

"If I ever am to use the skills given to me for blasphemous actions then once again you will appear in front of me, for my head," said Ebisu nodding.

"Yes, at that time I can only hope you would be strong enough, for that is all that determines life and death," said the old man of the mountain and he let out a breathe, with it misting in front of him.

"So it is a surety that I would blaspheme?" he asked.

"No," the wraith replied. "Simply, you have yet to understood what constitutes to a blasphemous action and until you do, there is always a possibility."

"Master, I have something I wish to speak about then," said Ebisu as he thought back to the fight with Gai.

"I am…listening."

"In a spar against one of my colleagues, I let down my guard, I underestimated his will."

"A common occurrence," the wraith replied. "He is after all your teammate."

"You saw then?"

"I did, and it is not something you should aim to fix," stated the wraith.

"A spar allows you to learn, to improve, to build, I did not have the liberty of such banality, I learned on the field of death, you however can learn this way, it is a better way to learn and understand so whilst I understand your mindset, forgive yourself a little and understand no matter how hard you plan or estimate, somethings are beyond what you control."

"Yes master."

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Hiruzen Sarutobi stood in front of his jonin instructors smoking his pipe, his hat next to him on a table. His advisory council sat nearby on a couch, consisting of Danzo Shimura, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado. Normally a chunin exam would consist of jonin instructors and Hiruzen himself but with the prospect of a possible war with Iwa close by he had called forth his advisory council as well. The only jonin instructor that was missing was his very own student Orochimaru, on a quest to Kusagakure to find out what was happening there.

"This meeting is to discuss our future chunin prospects," Hiruzen started looking at all the jonin instructors. "I will not mince words here, there is a possible war on the horizon, Iwa has been moving against us in a very suspicious manner with the annexation of Kusa, we're surrounded on all sides by hostile but Iwa taking over Kusa has opened us up to a fight on our north-western front and no doubt if we deploy forces to right this mistake, the other villages will utilize this opportunity."

Danzo suddenly stood up, "This chunin exam is just a formality-."

Hiruzen glanced at him and then shook his head, Danzo's face twitched as he sat down.

"What Danzo wanted to say is, it doesn't matter whether they are a chunin or a genin, if required we will sent them to the battlefield, we don't have the option of being picky in this matter but at the same time I also want to ask all of you, do you believe your genin are truly ready for this exam?"

"Hokage, if a possible war is on the horizon why would we hold the chunin exams now with possibilities of injury, we would be lowering our manpower," Inoichi stated.

"The possibility of a war should not deter the regular operations of our village," said Hiruzen and in that moment the jonin instructors as well as his advisors truly caught the full brunt of the man that protected their village and lead it, the man who had perfectly mastered all shinobi arts and earned the title 'God of Shinobi'.

"We are only ever as weak as we allow ourselves to be," Hiruzen continued. "We will not be bullied by any village, if war comes then let it but until I say we are at war, we will continue our regular operations so I ask you…all of you, are your genin ready!"

Murmurs rose up amongst the jonin instructors as they chatted amongst themselves and Hiruzen glanced over all of them keeping his eyes on the promising few, Minato Namikaze, his team included Kakashi Hatake, the genius that graduated the academy at the age of 5. Inoichi Yamanaka, his team contained Shizune, a capable shinobi and niece to Dan Kato, a sore spot on his mind, his death ruined one of his best shinobi, a medical-nin without equal. Then there was Shikaku Nara, his team contained his own son, maybe it was his fatherly instincts talking but he was proud of his son, a strong and capable shinobi. He would have let his eyes stop there but as he passed Choza who was now chatting with Inoichi and Shikaku, he thought back to that strange boy…Ebisu and the encounter they had. He had set a group of trainee anbu on the boy, he could risk no oversight with things the way they were and Hiashi had spotted something strange with the boy's chakra pathways. Moving away from these thoughts he cleared his throat. The noises slowly quieted down as the attention was turned back on Hiruzen.

"Since no one has come forward to raise any objections then I am assuming all of your teams are ready and willing?" said Hiruzen and as he looked around. "This is the chunin exams, this is not just a test of their bodies but also of their minds, we are testing their bottom lines, it is not just a test of endurance and will but also intelligence and capability, at the end of this we may have a few chunin, or we may have none but the point is we understand our young ones, we understand exactly where they stand and what they are capable of, you may have been their instructor for their better years but you will not be allowed to assist them in these exams, it does not matter how dangerous it gets, you only get my assurance that they will come out…alive."

The jonin instructors once again started to chat among themselves but Hiruzen lightly rapped his desk.

"That is all I wished to say, if none of you have any further questions or points to make, you may leave, tomorrow we will commence the exam."

Hiruzen turned to eye his advisory council who all gave him firm nods of acknowledgement. He looked back as he saw the jonin instructors slowly file out, continuing their chatting. It was good to see them friendly, this was the peace that he had hoped to keep, perhaps it might still be a possibility.

"Choza," Hiruzen called out, he had almost forgot.

The gentle giant turned to meet Hiruzen from his huddle of three.

"Stay back, I need to talk with you about something."

Choza nodded under the curious gazes of the rest of jonin instructors who filed out, leaving just the giant, the hokage and his advisory council in the room.