Chapter 7

Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.

I stared up at Baki as we covered the ground to the village in a blur. I wondered if I should ask. If I even could ask. I know Baki had had several conversations with Lord Chigiri before we'd dropped the shaken man at the capital. I'd not been allowed into those conversations and what was discussed there was anyone's guess. If I was a gambling man, I'd wager that they'd at least discussed the attackers. Baki hadn't even broached the subject with me. Beyond giving me the duty of sealing up the bodies for return to Suna, he hadn't even acted like the attack had happened at all.

"Uhmmmm" I led with, trying to get his attention, but remaining hesitant as to how to raise the topic exactly.

"Use your words, boy. You should at least be capable of that much" He said in reply, ticking me off and making me blurt out my next words with much less care than I would have liked.

"Who were those ninja, and what did they want?" I asked bluntly. Perhaps too bluntly, because The Bastard just turned to me with a raised eyebrow. The face curtain covering half his face swayed a bit in the wind letting me make out the scarred visage that lay beneath. I didn't flinch. I'd seen his scars before, and the first time I'd caught a glimpse of them in sparring and frozen up for a second or two, I'd had my head rung like a bed, and the rest of my body pushed to the limit of their regeneration. He broke no bones, but he was in love with the idea of hairline fractures, and small bits of damage that would not be visible, but would hurt like hell in all likeliness. It was actually impressive to me how no one in Suna had offed the bastard yet. Surely his psychopathy had to extend far beyond me.

"None of your business, weapon. You did your job, albeit haphazardly. That is all you should concern yourself with." He said, and that was all for the matter.

XXXXXX- THE FOURTH KAZEKAGE

"You maintain your suspicion that the anbu were from Konoha?" I asked Baki, trying to get his read on the matter.

"Yes. As I said in my letter, they used a wide selection of techniques, from lightning chakra conduction to mud clones to even water style jutsu. It's difficult to place them as belonging to just one of the five, but our location and the fact that both Konoha and Mizu would have been able to find out about our trip means they're the most likely suspects. Given that Mizu can't do much of anything right now, it has to be Konoha. But that could also be taken advantage of by another one of the five, seeking to rupture our alliance." He said, not lifting his head from where it remained, looking down on the floor.

I just nodded along to his words. Many saw the rough demeanour and scarred visage and took that for a summation of what he was. Even for ninja, who were supposed to be masters of deception, very few could see the keen intellect that laid behind that curtain he covered his face with.

"Indeed. My thoughts have moved in similar directions. What would you suggest we do about it?" I asked, testing the intellect even further.

"There's not much we can do, can we? Konoha is never going to admit to it, and apart from the interesting fuinjutsu on their tongues, there's nothing notable about any of their bodies. Their chakra systems show signs of training consistent with all five great nations, and even a few minor ones. We can't get any actual evidence against Konoha, so I suggest we learn what secrets we can, and burn the bodies."

There was a reason I wanted him to succeed me as Kage. He thought just as I did. If he was just a bit stronger, just a bit more polished as a shinobi, I'd have named him my successor and been done with it. Now, the village remained in limbo, the succession unclear, and the future shadowy.

"Those are my thoughts exactly. My next question is about Gaara. How was he? The report said he killed three of them." I asked the question I'd been really itching to ask. It had taken all I had in me to not personally seek him out once they had returned to the village, accepting the reports that he was unscathed at face value. It would not be becoming of the village leader to run around checking the wellbeing of just one shinobi when there were over a thousand actively in the hospital at any given moment.

"Yes, he did. His taijutsu was superb and he employed his ninjutsu expertly. The ANBU agents weren't much to write home about, clearly more suited to stealth missions than direct combat. Each of them must have been just a cut above the level of the average Chunin," he said, not going into the detail I needed from him.

"I see. Three Chunin is still quite a feat. Do you think he was the target of the attack?" I asked, prodding for more detail.

"It is possible. From what I could see, none of the enemy ninja were truly aiming to kill until they were pushed and near death. Even then, they still held back from true attempts to put him down, even at the cost of their own lives. Their mission might have been to kidnap him, but I fail to see why they just didn't kill him when it became clear that the mission was impossible to complete. It's what any ninja with a brain would have done in that situation."

"And what about his sand? You said he made a breakthrough," I asked again. Getting Baki to talk about Gaara was beginning to feel like pulling teeth. I'd have reassigned the boy to an instructor with less reason to hate him, but Baki was producing results - impressive results. Three Chunin-level kills at six years old. Even the Leaf's disgusting prodigies could never compare to that kind of feat. We'd have our own Hatake Kakashi soon, and I'd love to see how Sarutobi would still be able to view himself as superior in the face of the Sand's rise. Sand covers all.

"Yes. Yes, he did. As you told me, one of the reasons for this mission was increasing his loyalty to the village by showing him how different the rest of the world was, but somehow, he managed to produce his own sand in the middle of the Land of Rivers."

"Produce his own sand?" I asked. "No Jinchuriki of the Ichibi has managed such a feat before. Are you sure he didn't just call the sand over from Kaze no Kuni itself?" I asked, astounded by the feat.

"No. We were much too far for that to be possible. As you are fond of saying, once you rule out the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Calling sand over across dozens of kilometers has to be impossible. Besides, the sand had come rushing out of the ground, not from the skies as it would have if he'd summoned it from a distance away." I nodded at his quotation of my predecessor's favorite saying. Attributing it to me was a bit misplaced, but I wasn't going to bother correcting him.

"I see. I will ask him about it personally when we meet up for training. Beyond that, what do you have to report on his progress?"

"There is nothing of note to mention. He continues to improve in all the areas we've worked on. His Earth-style ninjutsu is coming along nicely, and his wind release has become something most jounin would be proud of. His progress remains nice and steady. He will be ready for the next Chunin exams."

I nodded in agreement with the previous statement. The Chunin exams in Kusa were a significant factor in my decision to push for intensified training for the boy. I needed him to be strong and visible to show the world that Suna was still a formidable force. I also needed him to demonstrate to the Daimyo that we were not inferior to the tree huggers.

"And what about our ally in the court?" I asked.

"Lord Chigiri remains steadfast in his support. The attack shook him, but it may have worked in our favor. I made him believe that the Anbu had been targeting him, and he was grateful that we saved him from what he saw as certain death."

"But he still terminated the mission."

"As a side effect of making him believe that assassins were sent after him, his paranoia has increased. He somehow believes that the 'hired killers' were sent by his cousin from the Land of Water. I don't mind him thinking that because it does not harm us in any way and may make him more reliant on our protection in the future."

This time, I didn't nod, but I hummed in agreement. If he wasn't going to be strong enough to become the Kage, then I would need to reassign him to train Kankuro and Temari after Gaara becomes a Jounin in his own right. A mind like his must be involved in the training of our village's future, and I preferred the idea of Temari succeeding me. She had the temperament, pedigree, and I would ensure she had the strength. It was almost perfect.

"What about the mission pay?" he asked, causing my lips to turn downward. I fought the urge and returned to my placid expression. Money had been scarce in the village, and any payment would have to come from our own coffers. However, I still could not refuse to pay Baki his due. A Kage who did not pay his people did not remain Kage for long.

"You will receive the standard A-rank pay. Gaara will not," I said, and he nodded without questioning me on the matter. Of course he didn't. His disdain for the boy blinded him even more than the scars that prevented him from fully opening his eyes. It would have been sad if it weren't so pathetic.

XXXXXXX - Gaara

I scowled at the man. He was saying something, but I wasn't really listening. His first sentence had completely ruined my mood. I should have expected it, but the sheer audacity of it was a shock to me.

I wasn't going to get paid for protecting Lord Chigiri because he didn't actually make it to his destination. It's not like I had risked my life to save the perverted idiot or anything. Fucking hell.

"The Kazekage has authorized me to offer you some sort of reward, though. I don't see why, but he believes you deserve some incentive to ensure future good behavior," he said, after he was sure I was done glaring at him.

I scowled at the Bastard. After months under his tutelage, I had gotten used to his methods. He had waited until the last minute to mention that to ensure I spent as much time with him angry as possible. He enjoyed getting under my nerves for some reason, and I found it nearly impossible to resist falling for his tricks. I guess that was the thing about being a jounin: he would always be leaps better at deception and deception-related things than me.

"What do you want, boy? I don't have all day to spend staring at your ugly mug." My scowl returned as I wracked my head, trying to figure out what I actually wanted. It had to be training of some sort. Money was good, but definitely not something I'd use a favor like this for. Well, I had already decided what kind of training I wanted to pursue.

"Fuinjutsu training," I said after a minute's thought, just making sure there wasn't anything else more pressing that I might have desired. The Bastard had the stones to burst out laughing. Not even a chuckle. Just full-bellied laughter. Overwhelming laughter. The kind that wracked his entire body and had tears building up in his lone visible eye.

"No," he said, and then proceeded to fall into laughter once again. When he finally straightened up, he looked at me and fell into laughter again. My scowl grew and grew until I found myself lashing out with my sand unconsciously. The jounin sobered up and dodged the attack before he swept me off my feet in a movement I could barely keep track of. At least I could see him move now. That's an improvement.

From the floor, I could barely make out his next words. "You are a Jinchuriki. There is no way we would ever let you get close to learning about fuinjutsu. Pick something else." His words brought an interesting sobriety to my life. I mean, sure, I never forgot what I was. That would have been impossible with how many reminders there were in the village. But I'd also never really been bothered by it. I had no interest in making friends or even socializing, so being a Jinchuriki had helped rather than hindered. But now? It was actively preventing me from learning the things I needed to grow.

"Pick something else before the offer expires," his words drew me back to reality, and I just blurted out my next words without even thinking.

"Medical training," I said, shocking both of us. He just nodded and disappeared with a blur, perhaps to set it up. I sat up and began to think about the fallout of my actions. Would asking to learn fuinjutsu make them think of me as more of a threat? Were they going to tighten my leash? And medical ninjutsu? Where did that even come from? I mean, now that I thought about it, it seemed to be a good idea, but I hadn't felt in control of myself when I said it.

"I mean, if I couldn't learn fuinjutsu and I had to pick something I would not normally be able to learn in my regular training, it might as well be medical training. I had the chakra for it, and I could already imagine how badass I would be if I could just heal myself no matter what happened and keep on fighting. A strength of a hundred seal wouldn't hurt either. I mean, I couldn't learn fuinjutsu, but I already had a seal practically designed for storing chakra and feeding it back into my body as needed. That couldn't be too hard, could it?

I walked into the hospital with a bounce in my step. Not through the main entrance, of course. That would have caused a riot. I walked in through a side entrance and followed the instructions Baki had given me as I searched the place for the med nin that had been 'requested' to take me under her wing. Considering I was who I was, I was sure that the request had been nothing less than a direct order with very direct consequences for disobedience. No one in Suna would willingly spend time with me for such long periods without some serious incentive.

I waited patiently in front of the office door after I knocked. There was no name on the door, just a title. 'Visiting Specialist,' it read. When I was finally asked to come in, I opened the door and was met with the face of the oldest woman I'd ever seen. Her skin was pale, paler than mine by quite a margin. It was Orochimaru-levels of pale, and not just pale, it was wrinkled, almost like she didn't have a straight stretch of skin on her entire body. Her black hair was tied in a bun, and she was dressed like every other person in Suna, wearing a dark loose-fitting outfit with a poncho above it.

"Are you just going to stare, boy? Or will you sit?" she asked in her croaky voice, and I felt my face blush of its own accord. She was right. I'd been staring, and not politely either, considering I was just managing to close my mouth for the first time since I entered the office.

"I am sorry," I said with a bow as I took a seat opposite hers. Doing my best to ignore her eyes that seemed like they were staring their way through my soul, I focused on the office instead. It was white, very white, the kind of white you'd see in all those interior design Instagram pages. Beautiful to look at, but not all livable. It was also sparse. Apart from the desk separating us and the chairs we sat on, the only other piece of furniture in the office was a small examination bed.

"I've been asked, not asked, ordered really, to give you a chance to become my apprentice," she said, beginning the conversation after either finding or failing to find what she was looking for on my face.

"A chance?" I asked the question she clearly wanted me to. People like her were simple to figure out.

"Yes. A chance. I will test you now, and that will determine your suitability to become my apprentice" She said, fishing out a scroll from somewhere I couldn't quite see. I looked at her in shock as I opened it and saw it was filled with examination questions. Medical examination questions, to be precise.

"I have no medical training, Sensei." I said, unsure as to whether the woman had gone senile, or was just misinformed as to my capabilities.

"I do not care. Answer the questions or fail the test" was all she said and I scowled as I turned to the scroll again. Like I said, people like her were easy to figure out. Complaining about the test or being obstinate was only going to tick her off and make her fail me out of hand. I just had to make a few guesses here and there and try to use the knowledge of high school biology I had from my previous life to pass the exam.

I read through the first question and almost put my head in my hands. Fuck. I moved from that one without even scrawling down an answer.

I finished the test in two hours, according to the hourglass on the table. She'd produced one from somewhere I couldn't see when I started the test and chose to use it to time me. When I turned it in, she just smiled at me and then took out her own quill and began to grade it right in front of me. I guess no delayed punishment here. Everyone said the waiting was half the pain, so maybe just being told I failed here would be much better for me in the long run.

When she finally looked up from the scroll, I expected her to be scowling or even disappointed, but she was neither. She was actually smiling. "Your grasp of anatomy is basic, but serviceable. Everything else is complete trash. Very good" She said.

"Good?" I repeated after her, sure the woman was cracked in the head.

"Yes. Good. It means you have nothing in your head I'll need to take out. Your cup, as they say, is empty, so I just have to fill it up with the right knowledge"

I just stared at her, still unsure what to make of her assessment. I mean, it was a good thing she was going to train me, but I still couldn't completely figure out her motives. If the test hadn't been about my knowledge, then what was she trying to test? I couldn't buy the bullshit about empty cups. She wouldn't have needed a test for that. I'm only six. There was literally nothing I had in my head that she couldn't get out of it.

"Now, I will introduce myself. Be honored, boy, for you sit in the presence of Chiyo of the Hidden Sand, famed Kunoichi, leader of Sunagakure's legendary puppet brigade, and medic-nin," she said. I fought the urge to gape at her. That must have been what had been niggling at me since I entered the office. This was Sasori's grandmother, a legendary shinobi in her own right. She actually brought Gaara back to life in the anime and fought against Sasori even after being weakened by age. She was a relic of a bygone era, yes, but she was living history. I couldn't actually believe that a woman like this would be teaching me.

"I am honored to meet you, Chiyo-sama," I said, recalling the manners Yashamaru had instilled in me. I stood up and bowed to the woman. "A boy with manners, Rasa's boy at that. The world must be coming to an end," the woman said sardonically, silently gesturing for me to return to my seat. I obliged her, feeling embarrassed for the second time today. I knew she was savage in the anime, but this was something else. "Let's discuss your training, boy, before you make even more of a fool of yourself," she said. I nodded, not trusting myself to reply. Why were all my sensei such bastards? There was the Head Bastard himself, and now this old lady who would kill me with embarrassment if the Head Bastard didn't manage to off me with his training. "You requested to learn medical ninjutsu, and that is what we will focus on. I will require your presence here every other day. Traditionally, medical nin training is not something one embarks on part-time, and it definitely isn't something you see many six-year-olds trying, but I've been assured of your intelligence and determination, so we shall be putting both of these things to the test." She fished out two thick books from a place I, once again, could not see. This was getting ridiculous. I chanced a glance at the titles of both books and felt my eyebrows lift of their own accord. "Secrets of The Body" and "Production of Medical Chakra: A Guide" were the names of the books, and I could already tell what each of them was for. "You can read, I am told. You will have to have finished both of these books by the time you return to me the day after tomorrow. Do not skim them, for I will know. Digest the knowledge and return to me with a few drops in your cup." She dismissed me with a wave of her hand.

XXXXXXX

I stretched my chakra through my sand as I moved it around me in a spinning tornado. The goal of today's training? Nothing. Just perfecting various movements with the sand. My high level of sand control meant I had no real difficulty doing whatever I wanted with it, but things I'd done before were also much faster and smoother to execute. This probably had something to do with chakra memory. The book on producing medical chakra had mentioned it offhandedly in one of the chapters. Speaking of the books, I turned to my clone, who was sitting cross-legged in the shade of a sand umbrella, reading through the one on anatomy for the second time. I was able to get the first read of the thick book down by essentially making a clone to stay up all night reading it while I went to bed. It was one of the freakiest things I'd ever done. I could actually feel myself both sleeping and awake at the same time. I couldn't even describe it without sounding like a complete and total nutcase. Just take my word for it that it was strange.

Still, I had finished each book once, and only had one more read to go before I felt totally confident in my knowledge of the text. My intelligence stat made it so understanding the material was as easy as just reading it. I could also virtually recall 40% of it word for word. The second read was just to cement what I learned and raise that number up to 90%. I had no idea how I knew that would be the most efficient way to study the text. I couldn't even chalk it up to my intelligence stat since intelligence didn't give knowledge. It just made reading and understanding things much easier, and basically improved everything to do with learning, prediction, or comprehension.

At my present level, I doubted I'd compare to someone like Shikamaru, but I gave myself good odds against any of the Chunin in the village. The sand stopped moving as I arrested the momentum of the tornado and forced the sand I was standing on to turn into a raised platform and take me up into the sky. Higher and higher, I went until I had to actively circulate chakra in my body to prevent myself from freezing in my light clothes, and the village was little more than a speck.

A/N; Chapter complete. How does it look? Thanks for reading. We've got the next two chapters of this story, along with the first chapter of another Naruto insert I haven't uploaded yet (It's an Itachi SI) and 58 chapters of my other fic, all available on pa-treon, and you can read all of that right now just by heading to the link on my profile or searching for my username up there. Feel free to have a look