22 Peace or Armistice (1)

Yoshiko was… ecstatic.

No, she was amused more than else. I doubted she wanted to be this close to the frontline, but she was definitely enjoying the fact she was around me and keeping close to make sure that no 'issue' was currently threatening my existence. Poor Reira was quickly targeted and challenged with a couple of stares from the redhead as she was the only one around our age group that was female and particularly close to me. Sadly for the Uzumaki girl, months of war weren't lost within the fellow child, with this one actually caring little about what was happening with the slightly younger individual.

The one thing that prevented some real escalation as Yoshiko quickly took this personal and wanted to war her way into my heart rather than sit, understand and plot efficiently without murdering anyone proved to be the cat that enjoyed way too much her belly-rubbing sessions. Matatabi was giddy to have recruited another 'follower' to give her 'sacrifice in the form of massages'. Everyone knew the truth, even the cat, but the cat itself didn't care.

It was a win for her regardless of the truth being told or being embellished to elevate the action to something she found more 'fitting' for someone as legendary than her. A little bit of ego, I could tell it was mostly a fake one to just relief herself of the stress she was put in. Bijuu or not, Matatabi was still an intelligent being that could easily grow bored of things. The kind of intelligent being that, if bored for too long, could potentially try out something 'cool' within her capacities. Which wasn't good since her Chakra, if not controlled, could easily kill human beings. And I was the one that spent the most time around here.

Not the brightest outlook, but definitely something to keep my eye on until I was out of that 'danger zone' or even in the battlefield. She definitely liked burning the bacon of those tied to the pricks behind the disturbance of her slumbering. I didn't mind the aggression, and I definitely liked the way her mind worked. Maybe I was actually developing a switch for this kind of thing. A trigger.

Kind of like Prisma Illya's thing for maids, but mine was more tied to war, activated in the middle of a battle, and centered about being terribly creative when it came to murdering people. I could still remember how upsetting it was to kill enemies, but since I started to get more vicious about it, it proved to be easy to ignore the feeling until I was sure I could break my composure. I wouldn't cry, but I would be in a neutral mood for a while as I recollected my thoughts.

...

Now, skipping beyond the crazy shenanigans of a new burden that I had to keep track of during my stay in this war, I found myself standing in front of quite the massive revelation the day after Madara's arrival. A discussion had unfolded between the Uchiha Clan Leader and Tobirama, with something coming out of it. Something that, albeit ominous-sounding at first hearing, proved to be more of a… unexpected news to receive out of the blue.

"A ceasefire?" I inquired with a confused frown, staring at both Tobirama and Madara as they concluded their explanation regarding the sudden change of pace in our stance against Kumo. "Isn't that… too soon?"

"In a normal war before this one, this offer would have been considered a sudden move worthy of some serious scrutiny… but since the situation is shifting terribly against Kumogakure, there have been a couple of efforts already to bring an end to hostilities," The youngest of the Senju Brothers answered with a serious look. "I understand the skeptical approach to this, but the numerous tools we employed to see if their reasoning was genuine allowed us to gauge a strong sense of genuineness in their willingness to stop."

Still, it didn't make much sense to me. While it was clear they were losing the war, why was this happening now of all times? One could easily say that it was tied to the presence of the large reinforcement coming from the former Iwa front, but Kumo had shown no sign of actually planning to draw peace plans when they lost a good part of their elite troops. They had stuck with the same ideals as Iwa when it came to fight to the very bitter end and… it was clear that something had changed. Something so big that had forced the mindset of entire village

"What changed?" I asked calmly, hiding no doubt that something had to have switched for Kumo to consider a peace now. I had a couple of theories, with one pressing the most but… I had to get some confirmation. If this proved to be the case, then there were a couple of matters that needed to be addressed as soon as possible.

Madara nodded, ignoring Tobirama's surprised look as he didn't expect me to keep track of Kumogakure's leadership. I didn't blame him since I knew no good soldier would actually pause and think about the morons that are really leading the enemies stacked against them. Still, I was educated enough on the matter to know that the First Raikage was a stubborn and prideful sob that would have never considered defeat until he was close to death or worse.

"The request was forwarded by the Second Raikage," The Uchiha Clan Leader revealed.

I blinked in surprise at that. "What?"

"It was shocking, but it would seem like the First Raikage and his successor had a fight over what decision to take about the war," Tobirama confirmed. "But yes, the First Raikage has been killed in that fight. His successor took over as his replacement."

And that is Canon screaming from the deepest pit of hell, right where I had left it.

"So for the next few weeks, until we can style a proper treaty, there shall be a ceasefire," The Senju Commander repeated. "Missions shall be limited to mere scouting and efforts to further improve logistic lines."

I nodded, seeing the rest of the officers sharing the same polite and calm disposition as we were all redirected out of the tent and back to the field. I took a moment to consolidate what I just learned and walked up to my tent. I almost paused when I realized that Yoshiko had waited outside for me and was now following me. Then I remembered that Madara had made her my assistant or something along these lines. She was to remain by my side and… that also meant no happy strolls along the battlefield without endangering the redhead in the process.

Huffing, I entered inside my tent with a calm look. Three individuals were already standing inside, one of which was Hirotada. They had been alerted of the fact it was an important meeting, so I didn't hesitate to lay it out as I knew the situation was.

"For the time being, missions shall be limited to just scouting and improving the supply lines," I curtly announced. "As of now, we have entered a ceasefire with Kumo."

The news drew relief from two of the three officers, with the young Hyuuga remaining the only one with a composed frame as I offered this development. It didn't take long for him to give out the question that would have broadened the circumstance as to why it wasn't complete good news.

"But?"

I smiled. "But it's a ceasefire. This means that while we are expected to behave nicely and so Kumo troops are, there is no full guarantee some will actually respect it. Either revenge, zealotism and other dumb stuff that can make some morons poison the interest in peace. I know you and your respective groups will be good but I also expect you to be 'kind' enough to return the favor just to the offending group rather than exaggerating," I explained with a calm but quiet tone. "And I think we're done for now. I will hand out papers for the next missions in an hour and I'll be delivering those myself."

A combined nod from the three was followed by them leaving me alone with Yoshiko and Matatabi. The chibi Bijuu sat by the table, staring once more at the maps as she seemed really interested in seeing how the world had changed since her isolation. It wasn't the first time she saw the maps, but she seemed to really like wasting time staring at those for some reason. Still, right in that moment my attention was aimed at the young Uzumaki girl.

I would have expected the child to quickly bring up the paperwork that we were meant to go through. Or rather, the one I had to go through with Yoshiko handling the less important and easier to understand things. Nothing too troublesome, but that still irritated the redhead to no end when it came to utter boredom. I guess hard work of that kind could easily be correlated to homework within the minds of some children. I wasn't even mad at her hesitation right now, in fact I was more perplexed and confused by other issues. Like the fact that she was staring fairly intensely at the table.

"Yoshi-chan, I suppose you know that paperwork isn't going to get done until we start going through it. The quicker we start, the more time you will have to check the camp around."

…

"How strong are you really?"

A blink. "What?"

"How… how strong did you get since you were last in Konoha?"

That wasn't exactly something that caught me off-guard since I had paid much attention to it. Not that I didn't care about improving myself, but rather I never had the chance to have someone asking me about this after I reached Kumo. I guess the lack of Madara's constant hounding me to show him progress on what I've learned turned my interest elsewhere. I improved, but it was somewhat 'slower' than before due to how little attention I paid to this bit of my schedule.

"I guess I'm… twice as strong? I can't exactly say for certain without a spar but… there has never been much of a chance for that. Maybe now that peace is coming, I might find the time to handle that," I replied with a nod. "Which… makes me think. How good did you get with seals?"

It was the girl's turn to appear surprised. "Uh, what?"

"Seals. I suppose you studied a lot with Mito while you were back in Konoha. At least as much as you could before she had to focus more on Kazuhiko and Orime."

Yoshiko hummed as she pondered about it. "Well, it was still focusing on the basics. Why, do you have something that you want to show me?"

"It's a little variation of the storage seals. One that I've developed after testing a couple of limits about the normal one," I started to explain while showing one of the emergency scrolls that I had on myself. "This one is a Water Storage one. While it's pretty simple to store a container filled with water, it's also true that the storage can cause damage to the container if the scroll itself is damaged. Right now, the content of the scroll is normal water, and even a single damage to the paper wouldn't create any major issues with its content."

The girl nodded at my words, but sported a skeptical look as she stared at the seal array I had written there. It took her a while but… she nodded, still giving me a confused look.

"I thought that it was already possible to store water created with a Suiton Ninjutsu. So, where is the difference between this one?"

"The water created by Ninjutsu it's one originating from Chakra. While it's similar-looking to normal water, and it has the same elements tied to it, there are three issues in using Suiton-based water in a scroll," I replied with a little grin. "First, the main function of sealing Suiton techniques is that the water is storming and thus not releasable in a stable environment. It would destroy any means to contain it and become more of a hindrance if it's needed for a farm or something that generally requires water. Two, it's more unstable to keep within a scroll. One small bump and its content would end up being released. Third, the scroll can contain more normal water than chakra-based one."

The girl could only nod as her interest for this specific item grew the more important bits were brought for. It was like I was giving her an in-depth explanation of a new recipe for Ramen from the way she was drooling over the news and it was enough to gain her attention.

I was also holding back a couple of interesting details that were important to only me for the time being. While testing out the capacity of this modified scroll, I also learned of how to use the 'regulative' seals that were meant to stop the seal from acquiring more than enough material than they could be used for. It was the best way to gauge how much water could be contained in a scroll before it can break, but it also introduced something fairly fascinating. The regulation required numbers. And these numbers, in theory, could be defined as part of a completely new measure unit.

I knew it wasn't liters as I had tried out the container's capacity and it stopped at '67' when I didn't take more than a liter or two of water. It was baffling how Seals were just giving me this interesting insight over the natural physics of this world. Things were definitely different because of chakra but… damn, I was so going to pull a Nobel-worthy move once I was back home.

'The Father of Modern Fuuinjutsu'. A nice title to put beside 'Scourge of Konoha' from Iwa and 'Little Runt of Pure Destruction' from Kumo.

"So, here is the deal. We go through the paperwork, and with the little time we get after we're done with the paperwork, I will teach you how to create the proper seal," I offered to the girl. "But that is if we have time and that you don't rush me in the job. Okay?"

…

"Fine," The redhead replied after a moment of pondering. Matatabi hummed quietly as I took this time to also rub her belly while I was busy with the paperwork. It was a rough situation for her as boredom was terrible, but for now the belly-rubbing would have to do for her.

If only I had known that someone else was feeling bored and in need to do something interesting other than leading people around.

"You want me to do… what?"

"Considering the sudden drop of missions, it would be best to finally check and see how the war has favored you with your training," Madara explained as he had me standing in one of the sparring areas within the camp. "Plus, it's been months since I gauged your skills, and I would be foolish to assume you didn't slack off somehow."

Did Yoshiko rat me out or what?

I doubted that was the case, but it definitely felt like that. Despite that reasoning, I still had to face Madara in a fight from the looks of it and that wasn't fresh in my humble opinion. In fact, it was really uncool from the looks of it. It was just him and me. Sensei against padawan. I was nowhere close to challenging someone like him and I knew he wasn't going to give me any opening to use in close combat.

Some of the soldiers that had returned from their missions had walked up to see what was going on and some looked interested to see how a fight like the one that was soon to happen was going to develop in these current circumstances. I knew I was going to lose, badly even, and that I would have preferred to be sent straight to Kumo in a suicidal mission than handling a serious spar with Madara.

At least I would have a higher chance of survival if I handled Kumo troops there...

Despite my empty hopes, I braced myself as I saw the man take his guard up and prepare to wage a real war against me. First thing he did was to use one of his strongest Jutsus against me. I quickly recognized the hand seals to unleash Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation, the technique being one of those I had to learn while away from Madara's watchful eyes back in Iwa. Much to my surprise, the pace behind the hand seals was… slower than mine. I doubted the man was holding back purposely to gloat over me, and I knew the only reason why he would hold back that much was because he thought I hadn't trained long enough about it. Which was partly true.

While I didn't use the technique frequently due to how expensive it was on my reserves, that didn't mean I didn't exercise my hand seals to be fast in unleashing such a taxing and yet powerful jutsu in my arsenal. Not much of a choice I had when it came to Mr. Kage-tier reserves going for that as an opening move. Dodging wasn't in the list of possible things to do knowing how AoE the attack was, and I wasn't definitely hoping to hide underground without still having some fire following me there.

Sometimes to fight fire you have to use fire. And I could do that just barely. Once I had it going, I would have to use the distraction created by the fire to think of a better move instead of wasting all my chakra on it. So, as soon as I felt the embers lit up behind my throat, forcing me to unleash a majestic flame out of my mouth to clash onto the one coming from Madara, I started to look around and think of what I had on myself.

No Matatabi, nothing that was powerful enough to clash and delay the horrible fiery death clashing onto my pitiful but strong enough to hold fire block, and… I could feel my lungs hurting at how much stress I had to put those through. I wasn't having a blast with this, and I could feel the heat only increasing uncomfortably. I wasn't giving the situation enough calm due to how unfair the match up was but…

Then I realized something. 'What if I did something that required my technique to not require a definite focus'? That was the first step, but I needed ten more before I would feel confident this was going to work. And… I got something actually.

Timing some chakra by my feet, I suddenly turned the stream of fire down as soon as I forced an immediate jump. The fire further propelled my ascension to the sky, giving me the time needed to avoid the flow of the fire and pull me away from the first issue. Now it was the good moment to do something to not be shot down while still mid-air. Using a couple of shurikens, I threw those through the residue of the chakra-fueled fire to enchant those while sending them to Madara.

I already knew that the man was going to reply to this attack with a simple strike from his gunbai, which is why I quickly brought my arms up and tilted my own body in a way that the gust of wind coming from it to stop the projectiles' approach didn't strike me down too. I was relieved when I was spared from that problem but as I returned to the ground I knew I wasn't going to do much if I allowed him to play me around in this 'fair' battleground. I always played by unfair rules, rules that I created by setting up ambushes.

Which was why I knew I had to turn this field in an explosive one if I wanted to even out the problem I was currently dealing with. Taking this brief bout of inspiration for good, I quickly went underground and used my little predicament to start laying explosive seals underneath some of the openings within the floor. I could only place five, but those were going to be important if I wanted to succeed. Once I was done with that little hopeful attempt, I got up from my little hiding situation and tried to fake it more as an effort to hit Madara's blind spots. Using some kunais, I distracted him with the need of moving his gunbai again, giving me the chance to further press his defense with a mere Great Fireball Jutsu.

In theory, it was meant to keep him pressed on the same spot while I relocated to a better position to strike me from the distance. What my tired brain didn't realize was that the bastard could move forward with the gunbai despite the pressure he was going through. And that meant I couldn't dodge the sudden assault aimed at me. Only positive thing was that he was trying to use the blasted fan to swat me away, which gave me great and ample chances of dodging his attacks and pissing him off in the process. I couldn't land much of a strike on him without the attack either landed on the resilient armor of his or it failed to reach the exposed spots within his defense.

By pushing him around while he pushed me back in return, I tried to 'lead' the dance into where I had laid a few of the bombs I had placed underneath our feet. It was a deadly tango that ensued, one that left me particularly bruised on some spots of my upper body and almost knocked me unconscious when he managed to sneak a sudden jab onto the side of my head. It wasn't even the power that put me out of commission, but the speed and the spot he hit. It was easy to get concussions if a foe knew where and when to strike, which was why I generally avoided meleeing anyone that had a mastery in Taijutsu.

I managed to eventually bring him to a nice spot where to activate two explosive tags at once. I jumped up in a 'desperate' effort to avoid his assault, forcing him to follow swiftly and… allowing me to detonate the explosive. The charges weren't that strong, yet they did their job by sending dirt and stones flying upward and striking at Madara's legs. The man flinched at the pain, but it wasn't enough to stop his pursuit. No, it was just enough to give me an opening. One that set for the grand finale of that devastating match.

A kick struck Madara just under the chin, pushing his head upward and giving him a little bit of a sight problem. He tried to prepare for a punch since that would have been a good way to deliver more damage… but I felt the need to go for something riskier and more expensive. He looked surprised when the left side of his head was struck by another kick, this one sending him crashing down and giving him a light concussion.

It was still far from beating him, but he was distracted, confused. I rushed towards him, merely having the window of opportunity to kick away the gunbai off his hands and… stare at his eyes as he rewarded me with a Sharingan. I didn't expect to win, I wasn't hoping to. I might be strong but… a single fall from the sky wasn't going to kill someone like Madara. And I had known this from the very beginning. The very moment he used his eyes… Well, it was game over for me. And instead of pressing an advantage that no longer existed, I held my hands up in a surrender manner and released just two words to him.

"I yield."

Surprise, annoyance but ultimately submission to the fact I had to give up the match in order to not worsen our current shapes. I would have received quite the beating in a continuation of that brawl. My reserves were running low, my body was sore, and I really needed to lie down and catch a rest after the little intense spar I had with the bastard.

But what I hadn't really predicted was Madara laughing at my words. My eyes widened in surprise at the sound, so strange and yet so familiar. He accepted my offer to help him stand up and I pulled him up from his right hand moments later.

"I suppose we both slacked off in our own way. You have yet to increase your chakra reserves to acceptable levels and… I underestimated you. The war did change your fighting style."

I nodded, scratching the back of my head at that. "And you still rely a lot on that big fan of yours."

He shook his head at my response, but before I could move and go retrieve the other seals from the ground, he stopped me and pulled out a scroll out of his back-pouch. My eyes were instantly aimed at the unknown object, and so I carefully studied it as he gave it to me. It was big, fairly big, and it had a single seal on it. It wasn't a storage one, that I knew a lot about. It wasn't even a containing seal… and I just didn't recognize the pattern from anywhere I've seen before. As I started to read the kanji within it, I understood what it was and… my jaw hit the floor.

"A-A summoning contract? It's… what?"

"Your ninth birthday is going to happen in a little more than a week," Madara answered. "This is my gift in advance and also a new element I wish for you to study from as soon as you're back in Konoha."

I nodded at his response, still unsure how to react to the fact this was actually a 'blank' contract from the looks of it. Still, as I was distracted by the gift, I barely noticed Madara going for the real win of this match. I tensed up and my eyes widened once more as he patted my head and… just left.

… He patted my head. I was the one that patted heads here! I-I this wasn't going to stand! I refused then and even now I refuse that!

I gave him too much strength, now he was claiming rights that weren't rightfully his. Even though it felt nice, I refused to concede more 'fun' to that idea. It was going to be a real war once we were back in Konoha!