19 Chapter 19: A Shinobi Story

30 September- 12 years AK

TEAM 10

Three exhausted and worse for wear genin walked into the Hokage's large office, dragging their limbs towards the table where Iruka was sitting, ready to hand out missions the lower-ranked missions.

"Daiki-kun." the Sandaime spoke, his eyes running over the recently healed wounds on the young ninja' bodies. "What happened to your team?"

The smiling sensei tilted his head, painting an honestly confused expression on his face: "Whatever you mean, Hokage-sama? You reminded me that they had to start contributing to the village's welfare with D-ranks, and here we are, even if I had to cut their trial period shorter than I would have liked." He turned his head toward his students, who were almost too tired to whimper. Almost.

The Hokage recognized a lost cause when he saw one, so he nodded slowly, holding back laugh when he saw that both the Nara and the Yamanaka had fallen asleep, their third teammate mounting guard. He nodded slowly, recognizing the effectiveness of Daiki's training method, and almost losing it when he recognized the dismay on Iruka's face.

"Well a D-rank for team 10 please, Iruka-san. Oh, and since my cute little genins forgot to make themselves presentable, team 10 might as well tackle garbage cleaning or manure loading." Daiki said with a cheery tone.

07 November-12 years AK

DAIKI

After a week of two D-ranks every day, I had determined they had suffered enough that there would never be complaints of the whiny kind through the months I had left to teach them. However, the survival training I pushed them through forced them to familiarize with the Forest of Death in preparation of the chunin exams, to think about how to adapt what they knew to several different situations, to rely on each other, and to realize that the more they knew or were capable to do the less likely they were to die.

I had left them a day to gather their bearing, even going so far as to allow them to return to their homes. It was more to keep their parents off the Sandaime's back than anything else, but I wouldn't deny them the comfort of their families.

During the previous week, I let them set up camp on training ground 10, and for the first three days, they only got the most disgusting tasks, since there wasn't time for them to do their two D-ranks, eat, sleep, spar with me and also properly wash themselves. If the teppodamas that had hit them were any weaker, I suspect they would have jumped into them to clean themselves from the grime and dirt.

When my cute three genins made their way to the training ground 11 were understandably wary of their surroundings, and each of them had a small backpack, likely filled with all the necessary for another three months of survival. How cute.

I was sitting cross-legged on one of the larger ponds and waited for them to reach me. The water around Choji's feet wobbled way more than I liked, but I couldn't fault them since my only explanation had been a scribbled note on the back of a paper bomb.

They were looking at me with almost dead eyes, but nobody ever voiced out loud that they wanted to give up. Or at least, never with me. With each other? More than likely, but that was only another sign of their teamwork, so I was happy enough.

"Relax, the three months trial period is over." I started, "You are still alive, so we can do the presentation thing. I'll go first. My name is Daiki, I like to understand the workings of chakra, my team, and teaching. I dislike sadists and wasting time. My hobbies are playing music, eating stuff at the Pizzeria, and poetry. My dream... is that in this world wouldn't be necessary for children to be taught to kill."

Looking to Choji, I gestured him to start: "My name Akimichi Choji... I like my team and Yakiniku BBQ... I dislike leeches and the training ground 44." His expression turning serious. "I... don't have time for a hobby, and... I don't know my dream I guess."

I nodded with a smile and turned towards Ino, who didn't wait and went ahead: "My name is Yamanaka Ino, I like my team too, and my clan flower shop. I dislike D-ranks and tigers that eat scrolls." Here her two teammates exchanged a confused glance but wisely chose not to ask.

"My hobbies... were..." She shot a venomous look at me.

Then she stopped, likely thinking about the hobbies she had before my hellish training and realizing how abysmally stupid painting nails and seducing Sasuke sounded.

"Well, as Choji said, it's not like we have time for hobbies. And well... I'll find a better dream too."

Curious how hunger, pain and all-around helplessness make one realize what his priorities should actually be. I thought with a grin.

"My name is Shikamaru Nara... I like my team." He started with a roll of his eyes. "I like not to be about to die, being able to sleep without being awakened by sudden threats to my life, and shōgi. I dislike that I now feel restless when I try to do some sane cloud watching... and so I am without a hobby... My dream... is to live a long and happy life, and that my children could do the same."

I rose from my seat, clapping my hands happily, "I am happy of how you are growing so far. Since I don't have a couple of years to teach you a proper taijutsu style, we'll be doing a lot of sparring. You three versus me, or two of you against your third teammate, and a battle royale with you three. That will teach all that you're able to pick up."

I had dedicated a lot of thought to how to make them strong, and the experience was the best alternative to what I had endured with Guy's tutelage. Before I actually got them started on ninjutsu, I had to work so e more on their chakra reserves and control.

I started skating around them on the water, my chakra control so refined that I still didn't cause the barest ripple: "Walking on water is used to gain better chakra control. To do this, the user has to be emitting a constant stream of chakra from the bottom of their feet and using the repellent force to walk across the water's surface. This technique is more difficult to master than three Climbing Practice, because the amount of chakra that needs to be emitted changes constanttly. If you mold it skillfully enough, like I am doing now, you'll skate, basically moving faster." I reached the end of the pond and started skating towards them.

"However you can 'explode' a certain amount of chakra to suddenly change direction." I told them and Ino brought her hands forward in the moment she understood what I was saying. When I was less than fifty centimeters from them, I turned sharply on my right, dousing them with a small waterfall.

"The sooner you understand it, the sooner you get your sweet revenge."

While Choji kept focusing on making his steps steadier, the other two started to experiment.

Ino was the most reckless of the two, and managed to fall underwater, having to climb back on. And, as noted by Jiraiya, the more one trains this technique the more they reach a state where they stand on water without even noticing it or basically even trying.

I kept teaching: "It doesn't have to just be at the feet. A user under water can focus chakra on their hands or any other body part that makes contact with the surface of the water. If they were submerged, they can climb atop the water as if they were climbing out of a pool."

I reached behind Shikamaru and swept his legs away from under him. He fell on his side and went halfway underwater before managing to climb out.

"Find a high tree and tie your team backpacks there Ino." I ordered when I spotted her blowing me a raspberry. It's nice that she manages to have fun when it's possible.

When she was back I made them leave the pond and placed myself in front of them. "From today, team 10 will be taking three D-ranks every week, in the mornings, there will be a break for lunch in the village proper, then I'll be waiting you here, where I'll train you. You'll go home for dinner and come back here at 09:00 pm, don't worry, only on the D-rank day. The following night you'll sleep in your homes and we'll meet at the Hokage Tower at 07:00 am the following morning. I'll leave you one... free day a week. During which you'll learn whatever your family deems you ready to master."

I watched them waiting for questions, but luckily, they had picked up quickly how to retain information suddenly relied.

Well, since I warned them of the holes in their defenses only once before hitting it's not surprising.

After they had nodded I kept going: "And I want each of you to find a hobby, something that you can do with little or no equipment, you could do between a battle and the next."

Everyone was still surprised by the generous amount of human rights in their schedule, so the news of a hobby hit them even harder. The first to ask was Choji: "...just... a hobby? Why sensei?"

I sighed and sat down gesturing for them to do the same: "What do you know about the sannin?"

They looked even more confused by the non sequitur, but after a brief moment Ino took the lead: "They were Hokage-sama's team, Jiraya-sama can summon toads and taught to the yondaime, Tsunade-sama is the best med nin to ever walk the Elemental Nations as well as the strongest woman in the world and..."

"Orochimaru has signed the snake contract and betrayed Konoha." Shikamaru closed the answer, clearly having picked up by his parents how much the topic was disliked.

I rolled my eyes: "Vague but correct, remind me to get you a bingo book from Kumo or Iwa, they tend to be the more finicky about the details."

I lit a cigarette and started playing with the smoke, trying to find a way to explain what I had in mind.

"Jiraya is the best seller author of the Icha Icha series." I said.

Noticing their confused expressions, I chose my favorite tactic when dealing with a delicate conversation: barreling through.

"It's smut. You know about sex don't you? Please tell me I don't have to explain to three pre-teens how penises and vaginas work..." I enjoyed immensely their turning redder than the Hokage's Hat and stammering out a plead 'to not explain'.

"Ok," I resumed "Smut, or erotica, is a text that describes in detail a sexual intercourse..."

Seeing them keeping up with the red, I nodded, they got the idea.

"And Jiraya's hobby is to spy on women. From what I heard he favors onsens."

"What!" Ino was conflicted between being scandalized and being incensed. I could understand her, I truly did, but I couldn't be bothered to deal with her indignation, so I snapped my fingers twice to get their attention once more before Ino could go on a rampage.

"Tsunade instead is an alcoholic and a gambler, she is so bad at the latter that she is also known as the Legendary Sucker." I continued, seeing them widen their eyes.

"Now they may very well be vices, but I promise you, they started as hobbies." I continued before their minds imploded under the weight of the new information.

"Do you know who never had a hobby?" I asked, and I saw Shikamaru coming to the conclusion I was leading them to.

"Orochimaru." And that froze them "Food for thought."

07 December- 12 years AK

TEAM 10

The sizzling was their only warning.

'boom'

The hillside went up in flames, forcing the three genins to run away.

"C'mon motherfuckers!" they could hear their sensei maniacal shouts.

"When did he have the time to litter paper bombs everywhere?" Ino shouted over the chaos.

Neither of her teammates answered since it was a pointless question.

boom The treeline they were dashing towards went up in a wall of a white-hot fire, they could feel the air tugging them toward the flames that created a vacuum since they had burned so suddenly.

"If I see one of you blush again or falter because he or she hears cursing during a fight, I'll shove his or her head so far up the arse of a horse that you'll slam your head against his fucking teeth!" Their sensei voice could be heard thundering over the training ground 32.

"If you maggots survive today's training ... you will no longer blush or embarrass me or Konoha because a curse offends your delicate pampered ears!" he continued, fireballs and lightning herding his genins towards the next trap.

"You said that he had turned a new leaf!" Ino accused Choji.

Shikamaru was acutely aware that crossing a booby-trapped training ground while being chased by a vastly superior shinobi was, while not exactly safe, and effective kind of training. He even recognized that it forced them to somehow keep their heads level in the middle of the chaos.

It didn't matter though, because Ino would always whine, and never to their sensei. The contrast was too much, and Shikamaru snorted. Poor Choji, it's your turn today.

Somehow, Daiki-sensei heard his snort: "What's the fucking matter, do you find funny, while you were trying to discern whether I was being serious or not your teammate got a spike through his ass!"

Shikamaru eyes glanced at the shrapnel embedded into Choji's tight, just before having the back of his head smacked. He kept running, knowing that looking for their sensei would be pointless, and only distracting him from spotting tripwire. There! He saw it almost too late, but he quickly molded his chakra: "Ninpō: Kagemane no Jutsu!"

His shadow reached the ones of his teammates and made them copy his jump over the tripwire. Both Ino and Choji had learned to smother their natural reaction of shrugging off their teammate's control.

"Maybe one day you'll find it in yourself to not be a complete disgrace and cross this training ground without triggering traps any five years old could spot!" Their sensei's voice was a battering ram over their heads, and as one, the three genins disrupted their chakra flow breaking the genjutsu he tried to place on them.

"But until that day you are pukes! You're the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human fucking beings! You are nothing but unorganized parasitic pieces of amphibian shit! And you'll better learn how to trash-talk after today! Because I'm fucking tired of coming up with new clever insults to you and your families!"

Then they saw it, a white cloth signaling the end of their course. They passed it squeezing every ounce of energy they had left and didn't stop running.

"I'll see you tomorrow at the Hokage Tower!" Their sensei's voice had lost all of its bites and turned back into his usual cheerful one.

Still, they kept running, since the time that they had stopped their sensei had kept them training until four am because they had shown such a 'youthful spirit' by choosing to remain on the training grounds.

15 January - year 13 AK

DAIKI

I flickered over a wooden post, looking critically at Sasuke's performing his clan kata. I couldn't know how it would work with an active Sharingan, but it didn't seem like much.

"You're angry." I accused him.

He turned towards me with a kunai in his hand, I had startled him.

Decent reaction speed for a chunin. I evaluated.

"It's you." he accused me with a more relaxed voice, lowering his guard.

I raised an eyebrow at his obvious statement. He just shrugged.

Wow, non-verbal communication at his finest. I sarcastically thought.

"What's eating you?" I offered.

The angsty pre-teen threw his kunai, with a precise flick of his wrist, I noted, against a target, bullseye.

"What's eating me! What's eating me? What'sating me is that instead of training, I waste my time chasing around cats, walking dogs and painting fences! What's eating me is having to be on time when my sensei arrives two hours late! ..."

I tuned out his ranting and let him shout himself hoarse, at least he wasn't bottling everything inside, and I didn't have to force him to talk about his feelings. Those were two good things. Even if I was less than at ease with what his opening up to me implied.

"Do you know why teams are made with three genins?" I asked him when he was done.

He looked at me tiredly while he went to recover the kunais embedded in the targets around him. I'll take that as a no.

"No genin is competent in each field. Usually, a genin specializes in close combat, one in support, and the third plays the middle role. In this way, they can cover each other weaknesses. In your team, for example, the Haruno would end up as support, the Uzumaki as ninjutsu specialist, so a long-range fighter, and you with close combat." I explained.

"But our sensei doesn't teach us anything!" He shouted.

"I can hear you just fine, Sasuke, do not yell. Calm yourself, breath. I won't talk with who is unwilling to listen." I chided him.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, he followed my request and calmed down, even if the frown on his forehead was not going anywhere anytime soon.

"A sensei teaches to a team. Why should Hatake-san teach any of you a thing? You're not a team, from what I heard, you rarely manage to complete a mission without almost killing each other." I drawled, making sue that my tone expressed how obvious the whole thing was.

At least I hope it's like this and not because Kakashi is simply all kinds of bat-shit crazy. I thought.

"But..." He started to object only to be cut off.

"You're more capable than your teammates," I said for him, hopping down from my perch.

"And I am more capable than you. Should I ignore you in the same way you ignore your teammates?" Seeing that I wasn't getting to him, I tried another way.

"Do you know why I set up camp here?" I asked, gesturing with my head in the direction where my yurt was.

"I was broke, and camping on training grounds is dangerous while it is against the law doing so in parks." I simply said "And you helped me by not whining too much.

"Then when I saw you doing... that abhorrent attempt of taijutsu..." And I enjoyed seeing him scrunching his nose in distaste at the reminder, "I helped you with it."

I stretched and walked again towards my yurt, Sasuke following me: "When I went away, you helped me by taking care of the greenhouse."

I took out a cigarette without lighting it up. I turned this shape manipulation exercise into a vice. I realized. Then shrugged, it wasn't like I smoked more than one or two each day, and I was protecting myself from the nocive effects. So, what was the harm? I wonder if I can learn how to breathe underwater. How hard can it be extracting air from water?

"So, since I helped you, do you think you could help your teammates?" I asked.

Sasuke frowned heavily: "I won't waste my time with them, and I never asked you to... help... me"

"Did our spars feel like wasted time to you? That's not the point." I sighed.

"You don't have to help others, Sasuke, but wouldn't it be better if everyone helped someone else because they wanted to?"

15 February- year 13 AK

DAIKI

I had prepared them as best as I could, but I knew very well that nothing truly readies you for your first kill. I would have spared them the gruesome task, if not for the mess that the chunin exams were going to be. In the manga Konoha hosted only Suna and Oto, the first an ally, and the second a newborn village, and there weren't many chunin hopefuls. However I had kept track of the person of interest in the future. As one of the Twelve I had access to the records of the chunin exams, and were expected to point out a Guardian candidate if I spotted one.

Kurotsuchi still had to attend a single exam, likewise Samui, Omoi and their redhead teammate. I had no doubt they would be brought in Konoha, the last years had been lackluster on every side, Kumo had to show that despite its loss of the jinchuriki it was still strong, and for whatever reason Onoki had kept his cards close to the chest.

I watched carefully from the branches as my genins steeled themselves and poured death over the group of bandits I had selected this mission for. It was a C-rank like many others, and I had to stare down Iruka to have it. It was a sweeping mission, nothing more, nothing less. Find and kill, simple. And still, I was saddened by the inevitability of the whole thing. I did not doubt that even in the manga their team had faced a similar mission. Hell, from what I know, the only one who never killed was Naruto. I realized.

Faster than anyone could see, I flickered inro the fray, knocked one man out and returned to my position with him on my shoulder.

I observed their technique and their expressions. Choji wore his determination on his face while he broke bones a made organs implode, Ino looked almost feral in the way she whirled through the three men who circled her, stupidly believing her the easy target. Shikamaru's face was blank, while he used with the least effort necessary his shadow to make the four he was dealing with falter at the right moment before plunging kunais in vital points. I nodded, they had learned well. I gave them the same suggestion my sensei had given me: 'You'll want to freeze. Don't.'

It wasn't helpful, but again, nothing really was.

I had let them come up with a plan, Ino scouted ahead entering the mind of a bird, and they choose to attack just before dawn, when the men slept sounder and so that they could see if any of the targets awoke and tried to either escape or jump them from the dark.

"The wheel turns..." I muttered to myself when they finished. My genins were just standing there, either looking at their own hands or staring with hollow eyes in front of themselves.

I hopped down the tree and stared at my genins, snapping my fingers to gain their attention: "Clean yourselves at the stream and go back to the camp, I'll clean up here."

I looked at them go before turning my attention to the battlefield. My genins had started well, but one of the bandits awoke and raised the alarm, forcing them to actually fight. One less thing to worry about.

In a single mission, each of my genins experienced both silent assassination and open butchering.

I looted the bodies for what little they were worth, but I didn't find encrypted messages or anything worthy of mention.

I grabbed my still alive bandit and flickered with it to our camp. Now the hard part.

"You've been adequate." I started. "You should be proud to have served your village." and I didn't miss the way their heads trembled, unsure between nodding and refusing my praise.

"There are several ways to deal with killing humans." I started speaking noticing the curious gazes sent at my prisoner.

"Many think nothing of it, is to kill or be killed. Others simply focus on the fact that somehow it protects the village, and as such, killing bandits or nuke nin makes you some sort of hero."

I sat down and started a campfire with a single tiger seal and a flare of fire natured chakra, gesturing to the kids to settle down. Storytime.

"There were once two brothers." I started.

"They were orphans you see, but that didn't matter, because at the orphanage they had all they needed. And growing up with the stories of their heroic Kages, they choose to become ninja too and protect their village from the rest of the world.

When they started attending the academy, they no longer were required to do menial tasks in the orphanage, and they were even fed more food, after all children that train to become ninja need a lot of energy.

The older brother however was used to take care of his younger sibling, and as such he willingly shared his extra food with the other orphans, and kept washing the dishes after dinner, or helping the younger children around.

The younger brother instead was determined to become strong enough to protect the village, and so, he ate all he was offered, and spent his free time training, learning, improving.

When the time came the younger brother made genin, the older failed, and instead of entering the genin corps, he chose to keep an eye on the other orphans that didn't find it in them to become ninjas. To gain some ryo and help those too old to live in the orphanage and maybe saving something for himself for when he would turn an adult, the older brother worked as a helper in the market district. When the new caravans came in, he helped them with moving the merchandise, and when they needed to go, he helped them loading the carriages.

In the meantime the younger brother kept working hard as a genin, and since genins are legally adults he moved out of the orphanage. While the two brothers loved each other dearly, like often happens, they drifted apart, both staying loyal to their dream of protecting the village. One with missions as a shinobi, the other with the self-imposed mission of helping others like him.

After some time, the older brother was offered a job in one of the caravans. He could travel with the merchant, keeping up his good job of moving the merchandise, since he had grown so skilled at it. And since the older brother knew a lot of trustworthy children in the village, the merchant was more than happy to return to that village more often. After all, trustworthy well-meaning people, young or old, are difficult to come by.

And while his younger brother became chunin, taking higher-paying missions which earned more prestige and money to the village, the older brother started working with the merchant, making sure that the merchant felt safe and welcome in the village, and that he would spread the word. So both brothers brought prestige and money to the village, that so had more and better resources to take care of his citizens. The older brother soon grew strong and respected, and the merchant accepted other young children from the village who the older brother had convinced to work with him. After all, trustworthy well-meaning people, young or old, were difficult to come by.

One day, the caravan was attacked by a group of bandits along the way, the merchant killed. The kids that the older brother had convinced to work with him, decided to join the bandits instead of dying. And so, to protect those kids from the evil bandits, the older brother too joined them, since he had grown big and strong from the years spent loading cargos, and he would make sure the kids would not be treated unfairly.

He wouldn't steal or harm anyone, only make sure that the younger kids would not be mistreated.

And while the younger brother was promoted to jonin, the bandits noticed that none of the people from the village ever killed or stole. Since they were not stupid, as a rule, only those who earned it could eat the fruits of their work. So, the older brother stole from the caravans, since from working for so long with them he knew their favorite routes.

Some of the merchants would not give up their merchandize even under the threat of death, and so, since otherwise, the responsibility of it would have fallen on the younger children that he brought with himself from the village, the older brother killed the merchants. So they managed to eat and stay alive.

One day the attacked a caravan, like they had grown accustomed to. But the merchant leading that caravan had purchased the services of a recently promoted jonin to protect himself and his caravan.

The younger brother tore through the bandits like a knife through wet paper. And neither of the two brothers recognized the other."

I rose from my seated position and grabbed the still unconscious form of my prisoner. I wrapped an illusion around him, turning his hair as blonde as mine and lightly twisting his features so that he would look almost like my twin. With a sharp twist, a crack filled the clearing, the bandit with a broken neck falling to the ground was the only sound that could be heard. The horror and disgust covering my team's faces.

"When you kill a human, you kill a human. Nothing more, nothing less. The ones you killed today had mothers somewhere, each of the men you butchered today had dreams, hopes, even friends. Maybe someone who depended on them." I looked at them sternly.

"You, as my students, will not hide behind pretty and empty words or titles. You killed them, not because I ordered you to, not because the mission required it, not because fate forced you to. You chose. And I want you to remember this moment, I want you to remember the story of the two brothers every time you kill."

I kicked away the dead body, sending it hurling beyond the clearing and through the undergrowth, before sitting down again.

"And every time you kill, you'll know that is because you willingly choose to do so. Even when the mission requires it, you'll be aware of what exactly are you taking away, and you'll feel like you feel now. But you'll do it anyway. Because as I already told you, your life is yours, and so are the choices you make and their consequences." I spoke.

I took out a cigarette, eager to soothe my nervousness with some random chakra manipulation. "Now tell me, are you proud to be a shinobi?"