12 Chapter 12

I escorted Tsunade to her training field. Jiraiya was not yet present but Orochimaru was. He must still have his parents, it was Sarutobi who helped him with their funeral. He greeted me with a polite bow that I returned, before sitting Tsunade down and going over to him.

I stopped in front of him and gave him a prepared envelope. "Orochimaru-san, could you give this your Sensei? Something happened yesterday and Tsunade might not be at her best today. And also, keep Jiraiya from speaking to her. If needed, warn him that she is not well and tell him that I will hunt him down if he makes her cry." I left unsaid that I would hurt him too if he does something, but he was intelligent enough to know. He also knew that I am the stronger one of us.

"Of course, Senju-san, may I know what happened? Just so that I don't put my foot in my own mouth?" He questioned after taking the letter.

"A close family member died on a mission," I answered.

"My condolence," he replied while not showing any of it. Not that I cared, Orochimaru was still on my to decide list. I don't know if I am going to kill him, he might change with the right influence.

I nodded and left the field, my own team will be waiting for me.

I was the last to arrive, Sakumo was going through kata for his sword style, while Ariha was doing practices for her flexibility. Kagami-sensei was overlooking their training and correcting Sakumo whenever he did something wrong.

"You are late Kenshiro-san," reprimanded Ariha the moment she saw me.

"I know, sorry. I had to bring Tsunade to her team," I answered while coming closer and stopping next to them.

"She is a Genin now as well, you can't pamper her forever," she said. It was a well-known fact in the academy that I was very protective of Tsunade.

"It's not that, we got bad news yesterday," I replied and began my own stretches.

Ariha now looked a bit worried and Sakumo stopped his kata to listen. "Something we can help with?" Asked Kagami-sensei.

I shook my head. "No, you can't do anything."

"We can always listen, sometimes it helps," offered Sakumo.

I am not sure why, but I kind of want to tell them, even if it's just for them to know and not behave differently towards me. "After yesterday's training I went home and learned that my father died in his last mission. He sacrificed himself to save his team and the mission. Mom and Tsunade are devastated."

Ariha has sucked in a shocked breath and had placed a hand on my shoulder in comfort. I still don't feel what I think I should. "And you?" Asked Kagami-sensei, he has noticed that I didn't include myself.

"I don't know. I know that I should feel devastated or angry. I loved my father, he was always there and helping me. But I.., somehow, I don't feel his loss as strongly as I should. I can't stop myself and rationalize his death as a logical chance consequence that happens during the life of a Ninja. Statistically speaking it is more likely to not survive your Ninja career. And even those who do are almost always crippled."

Ariha squeezed my shoulder in either worry or comfort. "Morbid but accurate. Us Ninja rarely survive our career. But if we only look at this side then we will fall into depression. You'll have to see the other side," said Kagami-sensei after gathering his thoughts. It was clear that he was on unknown territory with this counselling.

"Yes, it is true that your father died, but at the same time, he saved three others. These three will continue to live and remember his sacrifice. He will continue to live through their and your memory of him." I almost scoffed. Ha, shallow worthless words. Meant to be nice but without any consistency. He wouldn't have died if there wasn't a need for the mission.

Thankfully I know that it wasn't a suicide mission and that it had importance. Tobirama told me the content, maybe for me to have a reason for his death, giving it meaning.

I choose not to reply to Kagami-sensei's words. There's nothing I could say that isn't against Konoha or the current system.

"Can we help?" questioned Ariha again.

"No, I don't think you can. I'd like to train, normality might help to get over it," I replied and stepped out of Ariha's reach. She looked as if she wanted to give me a hug, but decided against it.

"Very well, today I'll want to see your skills. We will have Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Bukijutsu fights. I'll test each of you after another. In the meantime, the other two can train something of their choosing."

"I'd like to train my flexibility some more," spoke Ariha up. She was back doing stretches and poses.

"I'll continue with my kata", decided Sakumo, he hasn't yet started again, waiting for Kagami-sensei to decide who will be first.

"I will do some physical training and Chakra control practice," I answered. Kagami-sensei raised an eyebrow at my double goal but said nothing.

"Good, Sakumo-kun, you'll be first. We start with Taijutsu, then Ninjutsu, followed by Genjutsu and finally Bukijutsu. The same will be for you two as well." Sakumo nodded and put his sword back, before following Kagami-sensei a few meters away from us.

I gathered my Chakra and created three clones, they silently began with Chakra training. While I started to do push-ups, crunches and other exercises for strength.

It didn't take long and I already gained my first strength point. These resistance seals are great. Even if moving is a bitch.

Sakumo's test took half an hour and he was dead tired at the end. Kagami-sensei has run him through every skill, Jutsu and trick he knew and took them apart with ease.

"Well, I'll come up with some training for you tomorrow. But for now, you should focus on increasing your Chakra. I know that your clan always hasn't had much, but training will still increase it," summed Kagami-sensei up at the end. Sakumo was too tired to reply, he only grunted and kept laying where he was.

"Next is Kenshiro-kun, remember Taijutsu only," continued Kagami-sensei without pause. He picked Sakumo up and threw him over to Ariha, who hastily caught him. Sakumo was too tired to react even then.

I chuckled, released my three clones, who gave me half a level in Chakra Control and stood up. My seals lower my strength down to 25, slightly above the normal academy student. And my reflex is even lower than normal academy student now. I'm wearing gloves to hide the seals, but a Seal Kai would even then be visible.

I could only shrug and attack. Needless to say, I got my ass handed to me. I may be stronger than Ariha, even now, but I am slow as fuck.

"Something wrong Kenshiro-kun? You weren't this slow yesterday," asked Kagami-sensei mid spar.

"Haven't slept very good," I replied. He winced, remembering that my father died just yesterday. It's the perfect excuse for me, even if not correct.

He raised a hand in the universal gesture for stop and I managed to halt in the middle of the attack. "Very well, your Taijutsu is passable for a new Genin. Even if you are slower and weaker than what your evaluation states. Something that might be because of...recent happenings.

Next is Ninjutsu, what kind of Jutsu do you know and how good are you at them?"

"I know a couple. The standard academy Jutsu. Vacuum Projectile, Wind Blade, Gust of Wind and Shadow Clones," I answered. He nodded at each of them.

"These Shadow Clones, a new Jutsu of Lord Second wasn't it?" I nodded, "you've used them for Chakra Control training today, why is that?"

"The clones give me their memories once they dispel. Tobirama-jii has invented them for infiltration and scouting, but I thought that they could also be used for training." I answered. They will get suspicious of my clones if I don't tell them.

"Impressive, very well, show me all of the Jutsu you know," he requested and I showed him each one in fast succession. Once the dust has settled he hummed in agreement but did not comment. "Okay, next Genjutsu, do you know any?"

I shook my head, Genjutsu was not something I practised. While I can understand its use, the fact that I am immune to them makes them a none threat to me.

"We will have to work on them then, what about Bukijutsu?"

Again, I shook my head, weapons were also something I haven't focused on. My main focus was on Chakra control, sensing and seals. There are a lot of Ninja arts I could have put more time into.

"That's okay, you are a new Genin, it's not expected of you to know all of it. But you'll have to choose which of them you want to specialize in. It's okay to not do any Genjutsu, but escaping and finding them is a must. Bukijutsu is also not for everyone, yet knowing how to fight a user is necessary. The same with Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Think about it and tell me your answer at the end of the day." I nodded and walked back to Ariha and Sakumo.

My body allows me to regain my breath quickly. My Chakra was already back up to full capacity, and my stamina was filling itself quickly.

I wished Ariha good luck, before recreating my three clones. They began their work, as did I with my physical training. Ariha's test took half an hour as well. She had some Genjutsu, the Great Fireball Jutsu. Her Taijutsu was the Interceptor Style of the Uchiha, she was okay for a Genin but not great, not enough strength. She also lacked any skill in Bukijutsu, the same as me.

After dismissing my clones, I noted that I gained the rest of the level and was a third into the next level. It starts to become harder to increase the level. Luckily, I will soon be able to create more than three clones. The use of the Shadow Clones increases the level of the Jutsu, which lowers the costs and increases the time my clones can stay active. And their constant training increases my control and my own training increases my Chakra.

Once Ariha regained her breath Kagami-sensei gathered us together and told us that we will eat something and then go and get our first mission.

We ate at a small stand, the fried chicken there was brilliant, and then found ourselves inside the Hokage Tower's mission office. Contrary to the beliefs of most Naruto fan fiction authors, it wasn't the Hokage who gave Genin their missions. That only happens with high ranking missions. Every S-Ranked and most A-Ranked, as well as any mission of true importance to the village.

It was a career Chunin that gave us our very first mission. A D-Rank mission of high importance. We were ordered to head out to the outskirts of Konoha and paint a fence.

"Paint a fence? Really? I mean we are Genin, I know more than three dozen ways to kill a human and they order us to paint fences?" Groused Ariha on our way. The civilians on the street made a wide arch around us and were giving us strange looks.

"Ariha-chan, these missions are important as well," scolded Kagami-sensei mildly. "Can you tell me why they are important to the village and for you?" He further asked.

She thought about it for a moment. "Is it because of the money? All these D-Ranks must give the village some pretty good penny," she suggested.

"D-Ranks are supplemented by the village they cost almost nothing for the villagers," I said, denying her reason.

"Uh, then... oh right. Teamwork isn't it? They are there to help grow our teamwork," she then said.

"We can do the same with team practice during training. It would even be more effective, as we would use our fighting skills and train combo attacks," I followed up.

She gave me a mild glare in return. "Muu, must you shoot down all my answers Kenshiro-san?"

"Sakumo-kun, what do you think?" Asked Kagami-sensei, amused at Ariha and my back and forth.

"We have to hand in a report, they can be used to learn how to do that correctly. Once we do harder missions we would then already know what to write and what is important in them," he offered. This time I said nothing, it was a valid reason, even if not the main one.

"Why aren't you destroying his reasoning?" Questioned Ariha with arms thrown up in the air.

"He's right, even if not completely," I simply said with a grin.

Kagami-sensei chuckled. "Then Kenshiro-kun tell us why we have new Genin do D-Rank missions? Academy students should be able to do as well."

"Hmm, well I can think off of a few reasons. First, while teamwork can be better trained during real training, Ariha wasn't completely wrong. These D-Ranks are mundane housework most of the time. They usually are easy as fuck and leave us with enough time to speak. We can use them to get to know each of us better. Speaking about our life, hobbies and so on. That wouldn't be possible while training where you need to concentrate.

Secondly, these D-Ranks are also the same as any other mission. True, babysitting is a lot easier than protecting your client on a mission, but both are basically the same. We have to protect the client. And both clients are more often than not civilians, this way we learn how to work with them. They are not used to Ninja. And as Sakumo-san said, we learn how to write reports.

Which brings me to my third reason. Presence and humanizing. We show the people of Konoha that we too are only humans. True, for them we can do feats of wonder, but those are rarely for them to witness. But when they see a bunch of kids painting a fence or helping a grandma with her groceries, that is when they see and realize that we too are humans and not some unknown monsters or gods.

Without the civilians, we would have no food, clothing, tools and missions. I think we would become one big clan and quickly return back into the state of the warring clans. Only that this time we have more Ninja at our disposal and civilians would suffer more.

There is a fourth reason, but it's more one for Konoha than for other villages. Hashirama-jii and Madara have created the village because they don't want to see children dying on the battlefield.

Now you could reason how good that turned out when we graduate with six, but by doing D-Ranks we have additional time to grow into being a Ninja, learn from our Sensei to better protect ourselves and get used to the working schedule of a Ninja.

Which is waking up early, training, training, missions, training, and some training. We have more time to learn and then, once we went out into the world, hopefully, have better chances at surviving. Hashirama-jii has told me that his youngest brother died in a battle when he was not older than four.

I don't know about the other villages, if they see it the same or if they do it because their Genin are stronger if they do it like us, but we do it because we don't want to have our children helplessly unprepared. A moral reason, at least for us.

Still, it can also be seen differently. It has the effect of having more Genin alive, both weak and strong. Those who would have survived the early fight would be the strongest. It's a middle thing between quality and quantity.

For now, these are the main reasons in my opinion. There might be more," I finished my lengthy explanation and looked at my starring team.

"How did you come up with this many?" Shouted Ariha loudly. She wasn't behaving like the typical Uchiha, at least not like I imagined they would. She was loud and expressive, not stoic and arrogant like the rest of her family. She still had the Uchiha patented grunt, however.

"Is Kenshiro-san right, Sensei?" asked Sakumo in his normal tone.

"He is, the first three are exactly as he said. And the fourth is basically correct. We don't give our fresh Genin C-Rank missions because we don't want them to die early. Having them doing D-Rank missions and training prepares them for the world. I wouldn't have said it exactly like he did, especially the last part, but he is right.

Say Kenshiro-kun, did you speak with someone about this before?" Answered Kagami-sensei. Is he thinking that I just repeated something I have once heard?

"Not really, but Hashirama-jii, when he was still alive, has told me and my sister why he founded the village. That's the reason for my fourth point. The rest is only logical.

You can't expect someone to do something if he has no training in it or make two people work together without any connections. It's possible, but the results would always be subpar in comparison to teams trained as that from the start.

And for the civilians, we must look like demi-gods. We can make it rain, spit fire, some of us can fly. Gods and demons are revered and feared and you want to get rid of something you fear. It's hard to resent or fear someone you know is like you. That he is the same, only that he or she learned something different.

That's also why a lot of Genin teams have at least one civilian with a clan kid. These civilian children will tell their parents about their team and make them more human. I can imagine that for many people the clans are royalty. I am only addressed as Senju-sama whenever I go out for shopping. It's bothersome, heck a lot of Ninja do it," I finished my rant by throwing my hands in the air and shaking my head.

"You've put a lot of thought into this haven't you?", mused Kagami-sensei. I said nothing, it wasn't a question.

The mission itself was easy.