Behind the curtain of mystery

This sunny and warm day continued. A quiet breeze stirred the green foliage on the trees on the border of the forest and the training ground where the training battle began. The test participants were so engrossed in trying to take away the bells tied to his belt on a rope from their new sensei that they did not notice how they had an observer.

An old man in a black and white robe with half of his face bandaged leaned back against a tree trunk, fixing a thoughtful look at three genins jumping out of the ambush and attacking their teacher in turn. He knew almost everything about Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, but the third in their team, a mysterious girl from the Uchiha clan, about whom there was not a single mention in Konoha, deserved special attention. Especially if we assume that she will have a strong influence on Naruto, for whom Shimura had his own plans.

— Hmm, — the old man raised his palm to his face and, hooking the bandages with his finger, for a moment freed the second eye from them, which, it turns out, was unharmed. When Danzo opened it, it became clear that this eye was not his own, but a transplanted Sharingan. The red iris with three tomoes around the pupil spun, allowing Shimura to get the information he needed. — This chakra... I could swear I've seen her somewhere before.

The old man held his gaze at Mikoto, who was dancing around Kakashi with two kunai in her hands, but the Copying Ninja deftly beat off all the blows with one hand, without even looking at the girl.

There was a clang, and when weapons collided, sheaves of bright sparks were periodically carved. Hatake's gaze was turned to the book he was holding in his free hand from kunai. It seems that this was a new part of the novel "Come, come paradise". Uchiha went on the attack so diligently that she didn't even have time to stop her own blow when Hatake disappeared, leaving a log that fell to the ground instead, and accidentally cut herself, slightly touching her knee.

She looked around, expecting Kakashi to attack from the side or from behind, but he appeared right out of the ground and knocked the weapon out of the brunette's hands with two precise blows of his fist. The first kunai plunged into the ground, just falling out of Mikoto's palm, and the second flew towards Danzo, sticking into a tree, behind which the old man instantly disappeared.

"We need to do a DNA analysis and figure out who this girl is," the old man decided, quietly pulling the kunai out of the tree and putting it in his cloak. However, he could not deny himself what he had come for — to admire Naruto in action. And now it was just the turn of his appearance.

***

When the disarmed Uchiha has left alone with Kakashi, who put a kunai to her throat, expecting her to surrender, a card flew out of nowhere. Out of the corner of his eye, Hatake managed to notice that it was a six of diamonds. When the card was between Sensei and the defeated student, Naruto's voice was heard.

— Element of Fire: A curtain of smoke! he exclaimed.

Before Kakashi tried to cut the card in two, a technique was printed out of it. Hot black smoke spread for meters around in the form of a curtain, in which nothing was visible and it was very difficult to breathe.

Mikoto coughed from the acrid smoke, and at that moment Uzumaki himself appeared somewhere in the black smoke, flying into the veil at the right moment. Grabbing Mikoto, he jumped out of the black cloud with her, leaving Kakashi coughing through the mask inside.

However, Kakashi didn't have to think long to escape. Pushing off from the ground with his feet, he soared high into the air, armed with shurikens and kunai, after which he launched them at Naruto and Mikoto, obviously not at all afraid to hit them.

"Sasuke, it's time for you to show up!" Naruto thought.

As soon as the test began, Kurama contacted him, who, as soon as Naruto saw the bells demonstrated by the teacher, remembered the whole essence of the test.

"Naruto, if you don't want to fail, cooperate with Mikoto and Sasuke. This is a test of teamwork, not a demonstration of personal skills," the Nine-Tailed growled.

"What? But there are only two bells. And he said that the one who remains without a bell will say goodbye to his Shinobi career forever!" — Uzumaki was taken aback, beginning to suspect that Kurama wants him to fail the test.

"This is a distraction, you fool! Have you heard of such? Anyway, this test is as old as the world. The third Hokage used such bells to train his students. Then one of them used them, coaching a team that included a Fourth. And then your father conducted the same test in his team, which included Kakashi. I remember, believe me," Kyubi explained.

"Kakashi-sensei is my father's disciple?! Jinchuriki was surprised, but now it was not up to that. When Kakashi gave them five minutes to hide, preparing for the test, Naruto informed his teammates about his "guess". Mikoto nodded, immediately agreeing to work together, and Uchiha, looking at Naruto as an idiot, refrained from participating in their plan, saying that he would act on his own.

And so, when kunai and Mikoto were already flying into them, Uzumaki was about to escape again with his teammate, quickly picking her up, light as a feather, in his arms, but she reacted faster. Her fingers quickly folded the necessary seals.

— The Element of Lightning. A chain reaction! The dark-haired girl said, looking straight at the cloud of cold weapons approaching them.

Naruto stared in fascination at the lightning that flashed on the tip of the first kunai flying at them. In the next moment, the lightning expanded sharply, striking in all directions, hitting other cold weapons, and changing the trajectory of its flight. As a result, half of the kunai and shurikens immediately fell on the grass, and the second half, reflected by lightning to the sides, flew off in opposite directions from the two genins.

—Wow,— the blond muttered in surprise, not expecting Mikoto to know such techniques.

— Lion strike! Sasuke exclaimed, who had been waiting for the right moment to attack all this time.

Naruto and Mikoto looked up to where Sensei was and saw that Uchiha appeared like a shadow behind Kakashi's back and sent him back to earth with a vertically lowered leg, where a cloud of black smoke had already dissipated, leaving behind a barely noticeable trembling of the air. However, our heroes were disappointed again, because the Copying ninja turned into a log again.

Landing near Naruto and Mikoto, Sasuke grinned.

— Well, here's another trap. That's what you'd expect from an experienced jonin," he muttered.

— Behind you! Naruto exclaimed, pointing his finger at the shadow that flew out of the forest. It was Hatake, who had put away the book and was running towards them with a kunai in his hand with an extremely intimidating look.

Turning around one hundred and eighty degrees, Sasuke instantly folded the seals and said:

— The Element of Fire: The Great Fireball!

A huge fiery sphere crashed into the teacher at the very last moment, and he disappeared in a white cloud of smoke. There was a black trail of fire on the grass, and Naruto and Mikoto realized that their teammate had a very powerful technique for genin.

— Replacement technique again? Mikoto asked quickly.

— No, it's a shadow clone, — said Naruto.

Mikoto shuddered. Now she noticed the teacher, because he suddenly jumped right out of the river and, once again armed with a kunai, ran to the genins, not noticing that water was pouring from him like a stream. That's the focus on the goal! This could only be envied.

Now it was Naruto's turn to react to the danger. He abruptly turned to meet the enemy on one leg and threw several cards soaked in chakra at sensei so that their edges glowed purple, grinding. Why purple? Because these were cards made of a chakra-conductive material, the combustion of which under the influence of the chakra was controlled and occurred in a completely different way.

The cards, thin and sharp as razors and, by the way, deadly as well-thrown shurikens, did not touch Kakashi, because he deftly beat them off. But it wasn't over yet. When the cards poked into the ground around Hatake, Naruto folded the seal of concentration, after which they exploded, playing the role of explosive seals.

Once again, Hatake turned into white smoke, which indicated that he was not defeated at all. Naruto, Mikoto, and Sasuke stood in a circle with their backs inside. Now none of them doubted that it was much easier to work in a team than to try to defeat a Shinobi of this level alone. Despite their numerical advantage, they were at a disadvantage, being in open terrain and being vulnerable to attack from either flank. Kakashi, on the other hand, could be absolutely anywhere, since he had a lot of shelters.

"Does anyone see him?" Naruto asked.

- yes... Wait, this... Uchiha muttered uncertainly. — Dogs?!

Indeed, a whole pack of dogs were heading towards them from the forest, barking menacingly and baring their teeth.

— Are we running? Uzumaki suggested.

— No, he's just waiting for that, — Sasuke objected, but also backed away.

Mikoto didn't say anything, she froze, trembling and looking at the approaching animals.

And so, when the team was as disunited as possible, Kakashi reappeared from the ground, scattering the genins with one circular blow. When they came to their senses and noticed that the dogs had stopped, they jumped up, taking the teacher into a vicious circle.

Hatake grinned, intercepting the kunai with a reverse grip, and the next moment the students pounced on him. A card with instantly sharpened edges appeared in Naruto's hand. Sasuke also armed himself with a kunai. And Mikoto attacked hand-to-hand.

Deciding to deal with Naruto first, Kakashi rushed to him, striking him crosswise. However, Uzumaki was very agile and, jumping back, deftly dodged him. He rushed forward, intending to use the card as a melee weapon.

"What stupidity and genius. It looks like the cards are replacing this kid with all the Shinobi equipment. And shurikens, and kunai, and bombs, and explosive seals. Even the technicians!" — Kakashi was so impressed by this fact that he only noticed Sasuke at the very last moment, who did not wait until his teammate was dealt with, but attacked right away. Uchiha's fist flew straight at Hatake's face. At the last moment, the ninja managed to stop the blow with his palm, but because of this, he was completely distracted from Mikoto attacking from behind.

"The element of Lightning: The sharp claw of a panther," the girl whispered. The technique was very similar to the chakra scalpel jutsu, which was so popular among iryenins, but Mikoto's palm did not just glow with chakra. Lightning danced across it.

"Another Lightning Element technique? Despite the fact that she lost her memory? Yes, she will be cooler than Sasuke and me! Naruto managed to think.

Instead of attacking Sensei from behind, Uchiha deftly cut the rope on which the bells attached to her belt hung, and the next moment the bells that flew into the air fell into the girl's palm.

Hatake sighed, putting the kunai in his pouch. Sasuke and Naruto, realizing that the test was over, stopped the attack.

— You passed. All three of them," he said.

Mikoto beamed.

Even the always sullen Sasuke smiled a little.

— Great! So we're going on our first mission tomorrow? To the land of Birds?! Naruto was delighted.

Kakashi smiled under the mask and scratched his head, realizing that he was put in an awkward position.

— Er... yes, on the first one, — he nodded. "But we'll have to wait a little bit until we get to the land of Birds. First, you will have some ordinary missions inside the village, which you can handle without me.

His hand slipped into his pouch and took out several scrolls, which he threw to the students.

— Catching a cat? Mikoto frowned as she unfolded the scroll.

— Help with the housework? — Naruto was next.

— Scare them away... moles? Sasuke read, staring at his scroll in bewilderment.

— Here are your assignments for the rest of the week. And then the Third Hokage will decide how ready you are for such a long journey," the Copying Ninja said. — Well, when you're done, I'll contact you.

The next moment, Hatake disappeared, jumping onto the nearest branch with a smudged shadow, and then galloping off somewhere along the treetops.

— Three missions, three days. Everything is fair," Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. — Well, shall we start tomorrow?

Naruto grinned.

— I think after what we did today with Kakashi-sensei, we are good for something more important. Catching a cat and other bullshit are trivial matters that can be dealt with at one time. If we complete these missions today, perhaps old Man Three will think that it's time for us to go on a real mission," suggested Naruto.

"I like the way you think," Mikoto supported him. "Then I'm going to catch this cat."

"Great," Sasuke muttered. "Then I'll go scare the moles away."

"It seems that you have been brazenly framed, you fool," Kurama grinned. — "You will dig beds, and chop wood."

"It won't take long with shadow clones," Naruto reminded him, remembering the seven of the cross in his deck.

— Okay, then we'll meet at the residence of the old man of the Third, — suggested Naruto. Mikoto and Sasuke nodded.

***

"Did you find me a new body?" — the long-haired Shinobi asked as soon as Danzo entered his laboratory.

It was a gloomy room in the underground Root base, where Orochimaru could work without fear that he, nukenin, would be disturbed by anyone. Shimura took care of that. The laboratory was furnished with new electronic devices, tables with some flasks and test tubes, a bookshelf like those that stood in the basement of the library in the Hokage Residence.

— Uchiha Sasuke, in my opinion, is an excellent candidate, — said the old man and, leaning on a cane, approached the scientist, who was bending over the corpse, whose chest was opened and from which the student of the Third for some reason extracted internal organs. "There's something else. Your rejuvenation technique that you've worked on in the past. I think I know who it worked on.

Orochimaru looked up from his work, putting down his tools, and looked at Danzo. Surprise flashed in his snake eyes.

"Impossible,— he hissed. — Besides, it's not a rejuvenation technique. The user's body should irrevocably return to the state in which it was in the distant past, but all experience, all knowledge and memories between the present and this point are erased.

Danzo tapped his cane on the floor and nodded, understanding the principle of the technique. It all fit together.

— Why is it impossible? - he asked.

Orochimaru hesitated with his answer.

— There was a mistake in my technique. All the test subjects died. I don't think anyone could fix it or finish it," said snake sannin.

"I think Naruto Uzumaki was able to," Danzo muttered, taking out a burnt map from his cloak, picked up at the place where Uchiha Itachi committed the massacre of his parents, and handing it to his colleague. "I had my doubts, but after seeing him in action, I'm pretty sure it was him.

He accepted it, thoughtfully examining the seal preserved on the surviving piece of chakroproductive paper. Orochimaru couldn't believe his ears. Jinchuriki, who was a complete incompetent in ninjutsu and genjutsu, was able to pull off such a thing at such an age? This technique was one of the first attempts of nukenin to get immortality, even when he was grimacing at the thought of moving into another body. If he had figured out then how to finish it, then maybe he would have found a way to his own rejuvenation without losing his memory.

— I need proof that the technique worked.

— You have it. Mikoto Uchiha, Sasuke's mother. The girl, the third member of Kakashi's team, which includes Naruto and Sasuke, is who she is. I compared the girl's blood sample with all the blood samples in the Uchiha clan. One matched it perfectly.

Orochimaru nodded.

"Technically, she's not Sasuke's mother anymore," he muttered. — For her body, the boy never grew up in her womb. This is the body of a girl torn from her own past. Interesting... I will need to study it.

Danzo didn't mind.

"I've more than fulfilled my end of the bargain," he said coldly.

— And I won't forget about mine. Sharingans for your new hand will be ready for transplant very soon. I need to dig a little more into the genes of the First and Shin, and when everything is ready, I will not leave you in the fools," Orochimaru replied.

He coughed loudly, covering his mouth with his palm, winced. When the snake sannin looked at the gloved hand, he realized that not only the corpse's blood was on it, but also his own.

"It's time for me to return to the Village of Hidden Sound," he hissed, pushing away the table with the mutilated corpse and bloody tools. Taking off his gloves, he casually tossed them there as well. — Tell your people that you can start cleaning.

— Okay, Orochimaru. Don't forget about who you serve," Danzo nodded and, turning around, headed for the exit. — Otherwise, Hiruzen and everyone else will find out very quickly where you spend most of your experiments.

A look full of annoyance shot him in the back. Snake sannin did not like such phrases very much. He served only himself. And Danzo was just a caring sponsor, for whose sake it is not a pity to periodically dirty your hands.

— I won't forget.