18 Chapter 18: Old teamwork, Birth of teamwork

3 September- year 12 AK

TEAM 10

A pair of tigers was stalking their prey, prowling silently and slowly through the undergrowth. The forest was silent like it always was, but there was a scent in the air that had lead the two great predators in the clearing.

Or at least, there had been a scent, since it vanished once the tigers had entered the clearing.

Slowly the bigger of the two tigers closed in on the other, without looking directly at it. They were both staring and walking toward a particular patch of moss that looked out of place.

Suddenly, the bigger tiger pounced the smaller one, its maw finding the throat of the other with ease. The split second of surprise had been enough for the smaller tiger to lose its life, she trashed violently, its claws opening deep gnaws on the fur of the attacker.

Three minutes later, the bigger tiger trashed around the smaller one until the sharp crack of its neck breaking could be heard.

Dropping the carcass, the bigger tiger ignored the pain of the deep wounds and tiredly climbed the nearest tree, her claws finding a steady grip on the bark.

When it reached a height of roughly ten meters, it eyed the patch of moss that looked out of place, and jumped on it.

Ino violently broke her mind transfer technique and placed her hands over her ears, trying to dull the sounds of the tiger being skewered over her hidden trap.

She failed. The memory of biting the neck of the other tiger suddenly came up, and with it, bile rose from her stomach.

She forced it down. If she had managed to eat anything in the last two days, she probably would have puked it too.

Tiredly, she brought her hands into a ram seal and dispersed her camouflage technique.

Ino did not understand how it actually worked, but it felt almost like a Henge, only with a twist brought forward by two dragon hand seals in the technique. The only thing she knew was that the technique stayed active until either she ran out of chakra or she forcefully dispelled it.

And it ate away her reserves very fast. But at least she could activate it and use another technique at the same time.

It took her a week to learn it. A week during which she found herself eating roots and berries that gave her a stomach-ache, she had thought to have poisoned herself, but she woke up in the morning feeling well, and after the pattern repeated itself with a few different berries, she stuck to the first ones, which no longer caused her any problem.

She left her hiding spot and set up a fire pit with the wood she had previously collected, before walking toward the smaller tiger and bringing out a kunai. She truly hated this part.

With a sigh, she started gutting the beast, but not before repeating to herself her mantra: "I hate you, Daiki-sensei."

Somewhere else in the forest Shikamaru was waiting patiently over a tree stump in the middle of a clearing. Only, the clearing was strange. There wasn't a single blade of grass, not a patch of moss, there wasn't even a pebble.

When the silence around him changed, he knew they were there. First, it was less than a flicker, a single streak of gray bolting through the undergrowth without making a sound.

After a while, he spotted others, and he recognized the deep growl that signaled to the pack of wolves to surround him.

Once again, Shikamaru objected that there was no way wolves actually had hunting tactics that answered to the alpha's commands.

And yet, the pack of wolves surrounded his clearing, and closed in, sniffing cautiously at every single mound of dirt, wondering why there was so much that smelled of their prey's blood while said prey was just waiting for them to pounce.

Still, Shikamaru had led them through a merry chase for the past two days, and he had only wounded them, staying a few meters beyond their maws, enraging them enough to make them careless.

Once more, Shikamaru realized that he shouldn't think the wolves capable of such a ...human... thought pattern, but they were there, so he had all the evidence he needed.

They slowly crossed the barren ground, fourteen wolves, with colors that ranged from dark gray to brown streaked with black. And they stilled in a circle, closing his possible escape routes. The alpha came forward, he was recognizable because he was bigger than the others, which were already of the unreasonable size of ponies, and because he had a glistening wound on his nose, courtesy of Shikamaru.

When he was ready to pounce, Shikamaru brought his hands together in a ram seal: "Kai!" he flared his chakra violently before Molding it more familiarly: "Ninpō: Kagemane no Jutsu!"

And for a single second, he froze in place the pack of wolves.

Then the paper bombs he littered the clearing with went off, and he felt the shadows that collected him to the wolves vanished in a flash of light, while the barrage of explosions tore the pack of wolves to shreds.

Utterly spent, Shikamaru fell on his back on the large tree stump, breathing heavily to recover from the effort.

He had done a lot of thinking to be able to set up that trap with himself as bait.

Copying paper bombs with his blood, since the ink didn't survive his first numerous failed attempts, and placing them under the ground had been easy enough with the D-rank Doton: Fuanteina Jimen (Unsteady Ground), which simply let him seep his chakra into the ground to make it more malleable, had been easy enough.

Coming up with a way to hold still multiple targets, had been another kettle of fish.

He had to ponder about his family technique for a while. With the Kagemane no Jutsu, the user manipulated their shadow across a surface to merge it with a target or targets' shadow. The user could stretch their shadow however they wished to accomplish this goal, but they are limited by their shadow's surface area. But there were ways around that: the user's shadow can freely move within other shadows, extending its range; if Shikamaru knew how, he would have used flash bombs, either to briefly extend his own shadow or to extend his targets'. Once a user managed to merge their shadow with a target's, the target couldn't move on their own other than to talk. The only movements they can make are those that the user makes: if the user walks forward, the target walks forward; if the user raises their right hand, the target raises their right hand. The anatomical differences between himself and the wolves had forced him to think about how it worked. Shikamaru knew that keeping a target restrained requires a great deal of chakra, making it difficult to maintain the Shadow Imitation for long periods.

But it wasn't exactly like that. Shikamaru could hold still a butterfly for hours, and managed it on his father without issues for several minutes. Sure, Shikaku didn't try to oppose it, but it still was a good indicator wasn't it? With a willing subject, he could only maintain it for five-minute intervals. The thought of using it on multiple targets had been laughable until he had reflected upon the willing aspect of his target.

What impact did the will have on the technique? Then he had made a connection with the explanation of Daiki-sensei: the Shadow Imitation Technique, in the same way as genjutsu and the Mind transfer Technique is a Yin manipulation, while the Multi-Size Technique instead, plays with Yang chakra. Medical ninjutsu works with both. There is Yin Release(陰遁, Inton), based on the imagination and spiritual energy of a shinobi.

That had led him to ponder what exactly spiritual energy was. And what had imagination had to do with it? Following that trail of thought, he wondered about Yang chakra was, since they defined each other as opposites.

Where Yin was imagination, Yang was vitality, where Yin was control, Yang was power, where Yin was the mind, Yang was the body.

That led him to the gamble that his trap had been. Holding multiple human targets would be a laughable idea. Even if it would be a lot easier with civilians than other ninjas. But wolves were not humans, they weren't even ninkens, with active chakra flowing through their pathways. Meaning that their body was undoubtedly weaker than one enforced with chakra, but more importantly, their Yin chakra would be nothing in comparison to his own. Which dreams did the predators have beyond the next meal, the next mating season? Which sens of identity did they actually have outside of their pack?

His patting on his own shoulder moment ended when the guts of the blown-up wolves landed on his face, breaking him out of his reverie.

He sighed tiredly: "I hate you, Daiki-sensei."

The forest was not silent. "Ninpō: Baika no Jutsu!"

The enlarged arm crashed down on the giant leech, splattering it against the trunk it was falling off from.

With an enraged yell, Choji whirled on himself, directing his family technique to enlarge his other arm to swipe away another one which tried to jump on his back. He was left painting while his body returned to his normal size.

He sat down heavily on the ground, panting and making a disgusted face at the grime on his arms, he was so tired that he simply drifted into sleep, he had been fighting the leeches for two days straight, and with his technique, he was exhausted.

He awoke because of his difficulties in breathing. When his sleep-addled eyes focused on the cause of his current problem, he groaned. A snake was constricting him, slowly cutting him out of breath. He no longer had the energies to perform the Baika no Jutsu, slowly, he brought his hands together under the ever-tightening coils of the reptile. He gritted his teeth, preparing himself for the pain. Dog, Boar, Ox, Hare: "Raiton: Shokku no Jutsu." He whispered with his last whisper of breath.

An electrical current painfully ran through his body, shocking the constrictor reptile into numbness. Choji climbed out of the loosening coils and with a scream he plunged a kunai in the reptile's head, finally allowing himself to freak out.

He kept screaming: "I hate you Daiki-sensei! Giant spiders! Giant leeches! What now?" He started laughing maniacally while he kept plunging his kunai in the carcass.

Not far, Daiki patted lovingly a bear on his head, the genjutsu working its magic on the mind of the giant predator, underlining how water-mouthing the kid running around could be.

5 September- year 12 AK

evening

TWO OLD MEN

The cane clicked loudly on the floor of the roof of the Hokage Tower with a regular rhythm that alerted the Hokage of the presence of its wielder.

Danzō Shimura appeared as a frail, old man, despite his age he had black, shaggy hair, and the right side of his face was covered in pristine white bandages. The x-shaped scar on his chin was still clearly visible, even if he gained it in his youth. He wore a white shirt, with a dark grey robe over the top of it covering from his feet, to just over his right shoulder.

The Sandaime flicked his wrist, dismissing his Anbu guard while he turned to face the other equally old shinobi.

"So," the Man with the Hat started, cutting the pleasantries "What do you think of him?"

Danzō reached the Hokage and looked with him over the village. "That he is dangerous." he flatly answered.

The other shinobi chuckled: "Every shinobi is dangerous, let's try another path: what do we know of him?"

"Nothing that would raise suspicion." Danzō answered, "He is always been either in Konoha or with Konoha jonins, until his service as one of the Twelve, of course."

"You don't trust him." smiled Hiruzen, knowing their running joke.

Danzō's lips twitched: "I don't trust anyone."

"But he owns the chain food 'pizzeria', the company which is producing all these uncommon table games, the one ever-growing in popularity which deals with those new musical instruments, and a publishing house." The bandaged man tonelessly reported, "To build one of them in three years is unheard of. But all four? That puts me at... unease."

Sarutobi puffed on his pipe for a while. "So are you sure that they are all his?" He insisted.

"Under several different names, but yes, and I still don't know how, but he managed to get the Daimyo seal of approval for each of them, legally, only the Lord of Fire can issue an investigation on those companies." Danzō replied.

"I had a student once, who loved his secrets, as all shinobi do, who kept growing stronger as all great shinobi do." The Sandaime stated, uttering the name Orochimaru was unnecessary.

"I had another student, who kept growing stronger, and kept dreaming of a better world." he went on, referring to Jiraya.

Danzō scoffed: "Another pacifist."

"So you've noticed? The only constant in his behavior is his general dislike for violence, disgust for killing, and despise for every form of torture." Hiruzen questioned.

"A trick?" Danzō retorted.

"The company which builds and sells his musical instruments is called 'A kind of magic', the one which deals in table games is named 'The more the merrier.' While his publisher's house is 'The Publishing House of the Rising Sun' and this...Pizzeria Mamma Mia." The old shinobi struggled to properly utter the unfamiliar words, "Besides the last nonsense, the names he gave to the companies are consistent with his dislike for violence. He is a creator who despises destruction, and nevertheless is skilled at it. An artist with boundless creativity, I often wonder what kind of minds Inoichi would find if he were to look."

"Why not ordering it?" Danzō frowned heavily.

"Because when Kakashi proposed it to call him on his bluff he promised to kill himself before they could manage it. He said, and I quote 'I dislike killing. But I do it for the village. I dislike having to fight. But I do it for the village. I like being alive. But I put it at risk for the village. My life belongs to the Hokage, I accept it. I'll follow his orders, but my thoughts are mine'." Hiruzen gave Danzō a penetrating gaze, before adding: "And my favorite part: 'I am my mind, if someone but me is in it I'd rather die. How would I know after that if my thoughts are still mine? If I am still me?' what do you do of it?"

Danzō frowned some more: "Being paranoid at his age? Maybe he betrayed us then?" His mind shifted gears, clearly thinking how to deal with the threat in the most lucrative way for Konoha.

"I think." The Hokage spoke with a tone that caught Danzō flat-footed, while the Kami no Shinobi's chakra stirred like a leviathan rising from the depths "That you do not wish to act without proof. Daiki-kun is a curious young shinobi, but he has done nothing to harm Konohagakure."

Danzō stared defiantly at his superior for a few seconds, testing how far his determination on the topic went, before nodding and taking a small step back, indicating that he backed down from his intention if dealing with the dangerous shinobi on his own.

"I think he refused to let his mind be read at the time because of the true extent of his dislike of violence." Hiruzen quietly said, his chakra settling down like a storm being bottled in a jar.

"Why not ordering him to have his mind read now?" Danzō insisted.

"Because I don't think the consequences of me forcing the matter would in any way benefit Konoha." the Sandaime mysteriously answered.

"So why calling me here?" the bandaged man questioned.

"To think together, like we used to. Frankly, I needed someone informed to bounce my thoughts on." the Sandaime replied taking a deep drag from his pipe.

"Do you know how he advertised his musical instruments?" the Man with the Hat asked.

When Danzō remained quiet, he explained: "He took several children from the akasen under 6 years old under his wing as soon as he reached the capital, taught them how to access their chakra, then how to play his instruments. Thanks to the superior reflexes they picked it up quite fast, and started playing on the side of the streets asking for a few ryos of offering. Many have gladly done so."

"He trained shinobi loyal only to him? This is..."

"Not what happened." the Sandaime cut him off. "A few orphans with slightly better reflexes can at most pickpocket better the drunks in the akasen, but even then, I heard he broke and healed the fingers of every child he found out stealing. He taught only to the honest, or that is what Jiraya has reported."

He took a deep drag. "The kids playing made people notice the instruments, that all in all have been selling well. I believe he managed to make the Daymō see that the Capital of Hi no Kuni would become the cultural center of all the Elemental Nations. And seeing what kind of trade his companies have so far set up, I can't say he was wrong. That's another reason I have nothing that set him as someone who wishes harm to the village, he had made the Capital richer, and us by proxy."

Danzō pondered on what he had just heard: "I don't get why you called me here if you don't suspect him of betraying us. Unless you wanted to know if I had helped him? I didn't, you could simply have asked. I wouldn't help an endeavor that relies on the fickle passions of the masses, and most certainly not someone who I suspect is in any way subversive."

The Sandaime let out a deep laugh waving his pipe through the cloud of smoke that had left his mouth.

"You clearly have not read any of his books." the Man with The Hat pointed out.

The only visible eyebrow of the bandaged man climbed higher on his forehead: "Please tell me he didn't follow that fool Jiraya's embarrassing example."

After a chuckle the Hokage shook his head: "More than writing, I suspect he simply published stuff he had been writing for all his life, if nothing else for the sheer number of publications and difference in topics."

"I would have known if he was a published author... ah, another name?" Danzō said.

"Several others." the Hokage replied with a nod, I found recurring patterns in many of the books from the Publishing House of the Rising Sun, or at least, the cryptanalysis department did. I have read personally only a few of his works. I found his poetry... unusual, but incisive, if nothing else."

From his robes, he fished out a white book with a simple black title 'Words Beyond War' and offered it to the other man.

"On the last page the author introduces himself. The photo is no doubt a Henge, but his words are what explains the whole collection of poems." the Sandaime said.

Flicking through the book, Danzō saw that every few pages there was a new title, followed by a new poem, some were a line long, others lasted several pages. "The last paragraph of his self written introduction." The Hokage reminded him.

"...as a writer or an artist, even though I run no state and command no power, I am entitled to feel that I am my brother's keeper, and my brother is the whole of mankind. And this is the relevance to me of both peace and freedom. But out of this vast brotherhood, the nearest to me and dearest are the insulted and the humiliated, the homeless and the disinherited, the poor, the hungry and the sick at heart." Danzō read out loud.

He raised an eyebrow questioningly and looked at smirking Kage.

"You see why I do not think him a traitor? What he writes as... Ahmad Faiz... another strange name is almost radical, but clearly against war, and its a cluster of different styles, almost if he didn't know which to choose, or..."

"Or if he had many others working with him?" the bandaged man logically pointed out.

"I would have thought the same, but that book was published almost three years ago. Meaning that he had been in the Capital for less than a year, rallying together people, each of them using a new and different form of poetry? That's even less likely than Daiki being some kind of writing prodigy." the Hokage countered.

"He modified the Kage bunshin for his chunin exam, his file says that Hatake had shown it to him once, and he licked it up. Two months before the death of the jinchuriki, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities that he found a way to modify it in a way that reduced the impact of the memories in the six months that he spent doing almost exclusively D-ranks." His lone eye narrowed.

"It would explain how he managed to attend his duties as one of the Twelve and still have time for other things. It also says something about his actual chakra capacity, surely more than what we have been able to gleam by his spar with Kakashi. I had believed him to be talented and hungry for power, but without ambition, and a dislike for violence." The Hokage summed up "A lot of paradoxes for a shinobi not yet 20 years old."

"The first question that comes to mind is why setting up such trade if he was going to live in a yurt on the Uchiha grounds." Danzō pointed out.

"I believe he genuinely cares about Sasuke-kun." Hiruzen puffed on his pipe.

"Why would he? Itachi's reports didn't picture him as a bleeding heart." Danzō retorted.

"And yet, Daiki taught him how to play the... guitar.." the Sandaime once more wondered how he picked up such a strange name "when he had no idea it would work, and tasked him with the upkeeping of the greenhouse, giving him something in exchange of some extra training, but that simply became a responsibility when Daiki went to the Capital. And that made sure young Sasuke had other things to focus on instead of the death of his clan. Two little things, but I feel they have done a lot of good to the boy."

"Carpentry, music, cooking, writing, gardening, table games making, and the keen insight of an experienced merchant. An eclectic shinobi, that's for sure." Danzō summed up.

"Yes, it seems that his creativity bled over to the training regime he has set for his team, I had to beat back with a stick their concerned parents. His students have not left the training grounds since July. Alas, it's time for team 10 to attend its duties and perform its D-ranks." the Man with the Hat grinned evilly.

Danzō expression didn't give anything away, but if he were a less experienced shinobi, he would have cringed.

16 September- year 12 AK

DAIKI

I stalked my cute little genin from above. Ino had been unòucky enough to get her scroll on tree walking eaten by a tiger. Why a predator would choose to destroy a piece of paper instead of focusing on hunting the much more interesting living prey was something my student needn't to concern herself with. I smiled sadistically, maybe I was being a bit extreme, but I needed to knock Shikamaru down a peg or two, to make Choji believe in himself, and to force her to see her teammates at least as her equals.

That was why she was running from a bunch of beasts that I had cornered her against one of the may unclimbable walls that littered the area, no doubt leftovers from doton techniques. And like I had hoped, like a prince in shining armor, Choji barreled (literally) over the pack of wolves that had been chasing Ino over the last three days. Many of them jumped back and managed to avoid him, but he didn't expect to get them all, only to buy Ino enough time to gather her wits to start walking on the wall where the wolves couldn't reach her. Unluckily, she didn't know how.

Choji exited from his move and jumped on a trunk, his momentum denting the wood, but his feet glued him to the bark. He raised his head to look at his teammate, who was looking at him with an admiration that had immediately turned into a confused expression. Likely believing her simply too exhausted to copy him, Choji jumped from a tree to another and on the earth wall behind Ino, enlarging his arm and scooping her up from the ground.

I nodded to myself, he would be teaching her how to walk on trees, and I was free to go prod Shikamaru, I had been herding bears for the past week on that purpose.

The camouflage jutsu I had Ino learn was chakra intensive for a genin, that she immediately picked up that she was supposed to use it in conjunction with her family technique had been a welcome surprise. Anyway, the camouflage jutsu had more than likely shook awake her atrophied chakra coils, while entering the mind of an animal and mimicking its mannerism enough to not startle the other predators or giving up her game had been an alternative but nonetheless effective way to improve her control.

I reached the system of caves in which I had herded the bears, making them all fall asleep without attacking each other hadn't been a joke, but that gave me enough time to tinker with the animal conditioning genjutsu I had recently learned. It would unravel in a few days, but for a while, they would mostly behave like a pack of wolves. Paper bombs or not, the pack of bears would barrel over the traps Shikamaru had set up around his lair, while the leeches I had thrown over the branches of the area would wake soon.

A week later

I hopped from a branch to the other, following the wave of mouth-frothing enraged bears that was sweeping through the undergrowth. my kage bunshin dispelled, letting me know that my other two cute little genins were on their way. Shikamaru only had to survive for n hour or two. Then I thought again about the pace Ino was keeping with her newly learned tree walking skill and grimaced. Well, Shikamaru is a genius, I'm sure he will find a way to survive for a day or two.