Chapter 56

Konoha was preparing for the Crush. It was an obvious assumption, I knew, but a week before the Exams, I started seeing it. I could see Chuunins' eyes darting around, occasionally they would look tense. Jounin were much better at hiding it, but I was looking for it, so I could see how they were always ready for whatever might happen at a moment's notice.

The most obvious clue, however, came from Anko. Not because I saw any tell on her, but, ironically, because I saw very little of her to begin with. A few weeks before the finals she started missing our training sessions. Granted, she brought up good excuses, telling me that I could basically train by myself unless there was anything that I thought I would need her for. At that point, she was more of a supervisor than an actual teacher.

Another, more inconspicuous tell was the fact that there was an increasingly high number of Mist and Stone ninja roaming through the city. It was, honestly, very concerning to see them. Kiri might have been our allies, even if it wasn't a formal arrangement, but people were used to bringing their guard up in the face of foreign shinobi. And that wasn't even mentioning Iwa, the tension whenever a group of those walked by could have been cut with a kunai.

I had relayed to the higher ups as much information as I could gather, slipping some of my foreknowledge in my reports with the excuse that I had managed to piece something together with Shade or that he had managed to remember some small piece that lead to that. I had also written to both Hiruzen and, during my nightly activities, Danzo about everything that my little Mind-Council had managed to strategize. What we thought Orochimaru might do, what we thought would be a good way to prepare, everything. I didn't know how much they would listen to me, but I had done my absolute best to contribute to the effort that was being made.

I had half expected the Finals to be cancelled or something. However, I knew that wouldn't happen. Not only would it have made the Leaf look weak in the eyes of basically everyone, but it would also mean ignoring a clear situation where we had the upper hand against Orochimaru. At least as far as everyone was aware. I was, despite all my dread and fear of the Crush, kind of glad that the Exams were still being held. After all, I wanted the snake bastard out of the way as soon as possible and this was our best bet for that.

All that was done while I also prepared for the event myself. I was glad that the higher ups knew that I knew what was up, since I was the one that interrogated Kabuto. Otherwise, I would have worried about what they might have thought of how much I trained, and how driven I was. That time made all my years of training look like warm up.

It was a pity that my time of relaxation after the aforementioned interrogation didn't last more than a few days. I hadn't been able to keep that up, unfortunately. Despite the changes, despite all that I had done, it wasn't enough for me. It would never be enough until things had already happened.

Due to this, I dived into my training for the Finals, preparing myself, grinding skills and stats, working on my new original techniques. I had even started to think about how to apply my already Maxed skills and jutsu in new ways. I had done my own strategizing about what to do in case something unexpected happened too.

Expecting the unexpected was sound advice but much more difficult to actually do than one would think.

After all, if you didn't expect it, how did you prepare for it? I had already thought of everything I could, interrogated Shade and Hachi as much as I could, Hiruzen and Danzo probably doing the same and with much more success. So… what was there to prepare for? Well… I had some ideas.

I might not remember much from my last life anymore, but I did remember the gist of many things. Like, for example, I did remember that many fanfics dealt with the butterfly effect in certain ways. One that stuck to my mind, mainly, was the one in which things ended progressively worse as changes piled on top of one another. It had always been a fear of mine, so it was very present in my mind.

Thus, I prepared for things to go bat shit crazy. I planned for every villain I could remember, assuming, even if it didn't make sense, that they would join Orochimaru's side. What if Akatsuki joined him, sending some members to try and get their hands on Naruto or Gaara or both? What if all of them came? I had notes on a certain Guren being Orochimaru's ally and using Crystal Release. She might join in too. There was Kumo too, it was very possible that they would join if only to show that they weren't as bad as they had shown in the Exams.

Hell, I had started making plans in case Orochimaru went overboard with that Jutsu he used to bring back the dead. After all, what was stopping the mad bastard from bringing a whole lot of people, like I remembered seeing during the Fourth Shinobi World War. I didn't know if there was a limit or something, but I couldn't count on it.

So, I had to plan for every dead person that I knew about… which weren't many, honestly. The ones I remembered the most were the ones that were already all but confirmed to be there. Hashirama, Tobirama and that was about it. There were also the Swordsmen of the Mist, but without their swords, I didn't know what their capabilities would be and I knew that at least three of the swords were out of Orochimaru's reach.

One night I had to force myself to go to sleep because I had started theorizing about crossovers.

"Eiji," Shirakumo said, standing on my shoulder. I could almost feel the roll of her eyes when my head perked up, snapping from my thoughts. "Can you stop training for five minutes?" She asked with mock seriousness. "I know it's difficult for you, but I promise it won't take long."

It was my turn to roll my eyes at her.

"What do you need, Shira? You know why I train so much," I told her, taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly as I calmed myself. A smirk formed on my face as the loud sound of a tree falling reached my ears. 'Yeah, the Jutsu is going well,' I thought to myself.

"My mother wants to speak with you."

My back straightened.

"What is it?" I asked, turning to regard the white spider with my full attention. I couldn't just ignore the Chief Spider, one just doesn't do that. Especially not when I had several plans depending on my Summoning Contract.

"It's not my place to say," Shirakumo told me with a huff. "I just told you that my mother wanted to talk to you. Just summon her already," She said, her voice haughty as usual.

"Don't make me put a Genjutsu on you," I threatened lightly, making her huff once more. She did remain silent though. After all, she knew that her mother wouldn't do much about it. The boss spider even encouraged me, since she wanted her daughter to prepare herself against her one weakness.

With a deep breath in, I ran through the hand seals and finished the technique.

[Summoning Technique: Spiders has gone up a level.]

'That's nice,' I thought, feeling the strain of summoning the boss spider, especially after practicing my new technique, which was pretty chakra consuming too. Then, I paused for a second, as I always did when summoning Kumohoshi. I couldn't help it, she was just… majestic. I had to take a moment to appreciate that.

"Oh, so my daughter finally decided to tell you that I wanted to talk?" The gigantic spider asked, and I could almost imagine her side-eyeing Shirakumo, who I felt tense up on my shoulder. I had to suppress a smile at that.

"Yeah, she said something about that," I replied with a nod. "What's the matter, boss lady?" Now, my mind gave me a picture of the spider rolling her eight eyes at me and my lips twitched up.

"The matter is that you've been telling us about your… situation with the Snake Contractor," She explained slowly. I blinked slowly at that. I hadn't seen that coming. This was about Orochimaru? "I just wanted to tell you this, Eiji Satou," The way she said my full name told me all I needed to know about this conversation. It was Important, with capital I. "You have the full support of all the Spider Clan in your fight against him. He made an enemy of our clan and thus, we will fight him."

"That's great," I replied, not sure where she was going with this. If they didn't like Orochimaru, that was fine. However, I was pretty sure they would fight any of my enemies. Hell, they had told me as much.

"That means something, Contractor," She declared, leaning forward towards me. "During that day, we will help your summoning, making it much less chakra expensive for you, Eiji. That's what this means. And if we should deal a good enough hit to the Snake Contractor, or better yet, kill him, the Clan will be in your debt."

"Well… that's…" I struggled for a moment. Questions formed in my head though, like how much they would reduce the cost, or how it was even possible at all. Ultimately, that didn't matter though. This was a very welcome thing. As much as the Mark could help, nine thousand Chakra Points fell kind of short if I wanted to, maybe, summon a small army of spiders, including Boss level ones. "That would be a great help, Chief," I said in the end, giving her a nod that she returned.

"And," Kumohoshi continued and I made sure to pay attention to her every word. "If you ever come across a human named Kidomaru, or a spider named Kyodaigumo… make sure to rain our wrath on them."

'Kidomaru? The one with four arms from the Sound Four?... He had a spider summon?' I wondered with a frown. I didn't remember any of that from my notes. Had I forgotten about that even back when I had written it all down? 'What's the story there?'

"Noted," I nodded again. They were both, Kidomaru and Orochimaru, enemies of mine, so it wasn't like I would have to go out of my way to do this for the Spiders. 'I'll have to ask Shade and Hachi if they remember why the Spiders hate Orochimaru so much,' I added as a side note too.

"I must say however..." The gigantic spider turned her head/body to the side, looking over the destroyed piece of forest that laid there. "That your new jutsu seems to be coming out as well as you planned it to, despite its unfortunate inspiration," I rolled my eyes at that. 'Like mother like daughter.' "With that said," I felt her red eyes lock on me again as she turned. "Do take care of yourself, Eiji. You seem to be working yourself too hard."

I grimaced at that. 'Why does everyone I know keep saying that?' I thought to myself. It wasn't a real question though. I knew that I pushed myself too hard. I just couldn't stop doing it. Everytime I tried I felt like I was wasting time, like I wasn't preparing properly for what was to come.

"I just..." I struggled for a moment. Looking for an excuse or something to tell the Spider Chief… Then I paused and looked at her and at Shirakumo. "Fine… I'll take a break. Say… Could I make a drawing of you two?" I asked, feeling my chest close up a bit. A familiar feeling of dread formed in me at the idea of not training, of not preparing for the terrible future that I knew awaited me. However, I pushed through it. Everyone was worried, not only the spiders. I had seen the looks I got from Anko and my friends when we met. Maybe I could afford a little relaxing just like that time after the interrogation…

"I would be agreeable to that," Kumohoshi nodded.

"Hmph, at least you acknowledge my beauty," Shirakumo grumbled, although I picked the smallest bit of pride in her voice. I kept to myself the fact that I hadn't actually said anything of the sort.

[}-o-{]

The sound of lightning chirping around me was almost all that my ears could pick up. Faintly, in the background, I could hear the sound of trees falling to the ground, drowned by the noise made by the technique. I cackled like a low-rate villain, spinning slowly to watch the destruction that I had unleashed in the Forest of Death. The fact that I had the Cursed Mark active and my whole body was covered in lightning-like lines certainly didn't help me look less like a maniac.

It was just… after almost completely getting rid of the pain, I had to admit that the rush of power that the Seal gave was very nice. I had to pause several times to make sure that I wasn't being affected by the thing, just for that. However, I just seemed to be someone that really enjoyed power. I would have to be careful in case I ended up becoming another Orochimaru or something of the sort. The fact that I had two copies of the guy in my head didn't help my case much though.

As I slowly felt even the humongous amount of Cursed Chakra subside, I called off the Jutsu. Slowly the flashes and sounds stopped until the clearing I had been standing on fell silent. I looked at the fallen trees, the craters on the ground, the smoke still rising from everything within sight.

[Skill Maxed: Cursed Seal: First Stage]

[New Perk Acquired: Iron Will]

'Oh?' I blinked, mentally calling for the perk.

[Iron Will

The user can ignore pain at will.]

'I like it but...' I thought holding back a grimace. 'I really think I should be annoyed by this… Still, it'll be useful-'

[New Skill Acquired: Cursed Seal: Second Stage]

'Oh, now that's gonna be something,' I thought, this time holding back a grin.

[Cursed Seal: Second Stage – Lvl 1

Sacrificing their own chakra, the user can access a physical transformation given by the Seal at the cost of their own mind.

Increases physical stats by 1.

Consumption – 29 Chakra Points every second.]

'Same deal from the First Stage, huh?' I noticed, pleased. 'That Iron Will Perk will come in very handy with this, because I'm sure this'll hurt more than the First Stage. I can bet on that.'

"You get more and more ridiculous the more I know you, brat," Anko commented, appearing next to me the second there wasn't any more danger and breaking me from my thoughts. "I really, really don't want to face you in a real fight."

"You could still kick my ass, I'm pretty sure," I shrugged, still pleased with the praise.

"Not really," Anko admitted, making me stumble forward and turn to her with wide eyes. My sensei looked at me with a bitter smile. "Without the Mark, maybe. However, you have full mastery of the thing and now this?" She waved her hand, signaling our surroundings. "I don't believe I can fight you if you go all out. Maybe if I ever reach a point where I can use my own Mark…" She voiced, her volume lowering as she said that last part. "But that'll take time and I don't even know if I want to do it. I don't want to have anything to do with that man."

I felt… weird, after her little monologue. After all, she was my sensei, my teacher. She was a Tokubetsu Jounin that was basically a full Jounin in all but name as far as I knew. She was one of those people that felt so far away from my level.

"For someone so smart, you can be quite stupid," Anko said, smiling midway between amused and melancholy. "Not everyone's the same in this world, Eiji. There's people that are stuck as Genin for a good bit of their lives. There's people that never get past Chuunin. However, there's also people like you," She poked my chest with her finger at that, her smile widening. "I doubt you'll even stop at Jounin, kiddo."

"I mean, yeah, I could but-" I tried, only to be interrupted with a huff.

"No, you'll do it. I'm sure of it, kiddo. And that dream of yours? Being the new God of Shinobi? If you don't manage it, you'll be pretty damn close. That's what I think," Anko said, as if she was absolutely sure of what she was saying. It was damn high praise, that much I knew. "I, on the other hand, am not going to reach higher than what I am now. I learned that in the past few months."

Was that because of me? Had I killed her determination with my progress? I wouldn't exactly regret it, bad as that sounded. I couldn't regret it. I needed all the power I was getting. However, it made me see my own actions in a different light. How did my friends see my progress? Was I destroying their determination to improve too?

"Honestly," Anko rolled her eyes before smacking me on the back of my head. "Not everything has to do with you, brat. This, for example, has nothing to do with you. You know," She turned to look at the forest as she started explaining. "The goal I had set for myself was to beat Orochimaru, maybe even kill the bastard. However, that's just not something I can do, I've finally realized. It was… difficult to accept, but at least I'm already seeing Yamanaka for the Mark, they've been helping me with this too."

I stayed silent at her revelation, unsure what to say to it. She might say that it had nothing to do with me, but I knew she wasn't right. Perhaps she thought that was true. I knew the future though, and thus, knew that this was completely because of me. I didn't know, however, what to think of all this. After all, Anko going after Orochimaru could, most probably, lead to bad things for her. It was her decision to make though, and I had dissuaded her of that…

"So, the Yamanaka have told me to set a new goal for myself, even if it's one that is short term, and go from there," My sensei continued. "For now, super short term, is helping you get to Chuunin. You should be honored."

"I am," I replied, half joking with her and half being serious.

"Good," She nodded with a smirk on her face. "With that in mind. I've got a present for you, kiddo," She exaggeratedly made a presentation pose with her arms to one side. I blinked at the absolute nothing that laid there, before a cloud of smoke appeared there.

"Show off," I muttered to myself, even though my lips twitched up.

"These, my dear student," Anko continued as the smoke cleared and a pile of books and scrolls greeted me. "Are the books and scrolls that Orochimaru gave me when I was his student," She explained, the grin on her face disappearing slowly. "A bastard he might be, but he is one of the most feared ninja in the world for a reason."

My eyes widened and I looked at the little mountain of information in front of me. Not only was I sure that they would be very useful, but I also knew that there was much more to this than just that. This was Anko giving me the things Orochimaru had given her when he was grooming her. This was much more than a sensei giving their student books to study.

"Good. You get it," Anko said, and I turned to look at her. Her expression almost surprised me more than her gift. After all, I didn't remember the last time she had given me such a soft smile, if ever. "You aren't a monster, Eiji. I know that, and you should too."

My eyes looked at the books and scrolls, as I blinked rapidly. This wasn't her just giving stuff to me. No. This was Anko telling me that she trusted me not to become like her teacher.

Then she clapped loudly.

"Ok," She announced loudly. "We are done with that. I really don't like emotional stuff. Now, you, my prodigious and very annoying student," Anko said, pointing at me. I felt my eyebrow twitch at her calling me annoying. "You are still a long way from being God of Shinobi and thus, I'll do my best to train you from little shit all the way up to that."

'I take back all the good things I was thinking about you, Anko,' I grumbled in my mind. 'You suck.'

"Now, as I told you, I can't beat you going all out," She complained, clicking her tongue at the end of the sentence. I gave her a smirk that earned me a roll of her eyes. "I can, however, kick your sorry ass if you don't use the Cheat Mark, and that's what you'll do. And, for your Mark training, I'll be calling in some of my friends."

"Yes!" She all but shouted when I opened my mouth to talk. "I have friends. You've done that joke already, brat. Don't make me smack you."

"I was going to say that it's pretty dumb to call it Cheat Mark. Ninja don't fight fair," I commented, looking innocently to the side only to groan as she fulfilled her threat with a slap to the back of my head. "No wonder you are single. Can you be less violent, woman?"

"God, you are annoying," She grumbled.

"I learned from the best," I shot back with an annoyed expression.

"Anyway," She shook her head, putting on an expression like she was pulling the mature card and ignoring something childish. As if someone would believe that. "You'll train against me when you are not using the Mark. When you are, I'll arrange for some of my friends to help out. I'm sure they'll enjoy it."

I really didn't like the smile on her face as she said that last part.

"Maybe Cat can bring some of her own friends too," She added and I paled considerably. Facing several ANBU? Cat already was a nightmare to fight against by herself. Granted, we never went all out since she was here mostly to train my Kenjutsu, but still. 'Huh, I wonder how it would go if we both used all our repertoires.'

"Great, now you are a battle maniac on top of a training maniac," Anko pointed out, poking my cheek and snapping me out of my thoughts. "Honestly, kiddo, maybe you should have gotten a hobby that was more energy consuming than drawing."

"I mean, I do go free running around the village from time to time," I pointed out, only for her to scoff. "What? I know it counts as training, but I like it."

"Why was I the one that ended up with the weirdo as a student." She put the back of her hand against her forehead, as if dismayed. 'If only you knew,' I thought to myself. 'There wasn't a normal student for you to have in the first place.'