Chapter 15: The War of Peace

It was one beautiful morning, the worst of the summer heat had gone, chased away by the gentle cool breeze that herald the coming of Autumn. The whole village woke up with the warm rays of the sun and bright smiles on their faces, kids jumping from their beds and running around the house in the excitement of a new day which promised fun with friends. The mothers were all busy making breakfasts while the fathers were getting ready for work. It was the middle of August, the kids wanted to enjoy their remaining summer and not even the Hokage could stop them from spending the whole day in the sun and dragging their muddy feet through the house at night… well, except their mothers but that's a different thing entirely.

On this wonderful morning, on a street where fresh bread and the sweet aroma of rice cakes is what wakes up its residents, a small house held 4 occupants. Two lay cuddled in bed while two busied themselves in the kitchen, "Atsuki-kun can you go wake up Shin?" The kind woman requested as she smeared toasted bread with jam and butter, "Ofcourse." Replied the smiling boy as he flipped the eggs onto a plate before walking up the stairs. The boy never knew what to call the woman, so he mostly found a way to avoid calling her anything at all. The woman had insisted that he called her aunt and the boy did, but something inside him always shifted inside him as he did; a figure of another woman overlapping with this one. In the end the boy used words that would allow him to circumvent any use of titles or nouns and kept his sentences short.

Atsuki shook his head and entered his bedroom, the room had changed since he first came here. The bed that once resided here had been removed; instead the place was used for two futons, one of which had been neatly packed and stored in the cupboard while the other was still in use. Atsuki moved closer to the purring futon, thinking of a creative way to wake up its sleeping occupants before deciding on a classic; he moved back a bit and threw a shuriken at the futon. The blanket exploded outwards as the shuriken struck the wall behind. Atsuki grinned as he looked to the roof where a boy hung while holding an upside down cat from its foot, "I hate you." the upside down boy spoke while letting go of the struggling cat. Atsuki simply grinned further, "heh, breakfast is ready."he said before leaving the room.

This was a training exercise that the duo had devised in order to train their response to an attack during rest or sleep. Shin had been the one to suggest this but also the one who fell victim to it most of the time. "Let's go Pineapple." The boy dropped down from the ceiling as the cat said "Meow -_-" "No, you can't spit a hairball on his breakfast, you can scratch him in his sleep though." the boy replied as they entered the bathroom.

After breakfast, Shin got ready to head out to the hospital. He was at the door before his mother stopped him, "Shin, where are you going? We have to get groceries, remember?" "Ah… That was today?" Shin asked in embarrassment, "I am sorry mom, I forgot. I am assisting with a procedure today. It's fine I'll just come back after letting them know. ok?" Shin apologized when Atsuki spoke up, "I can go with you." "Really? You don't have to cover for him everytime Atsuki-kun."Ryouka said but in the end she agreed and let Shin go. She had been very supportive of Shin becoming a medical ninja, even telling Shin about his grandmother who was a medical ninja as well. She had hoped that the boy would choose this over becoming a mission ninja which had the highest mortality rate. Sadly her hopes were unfounded when Shin expressed his disinterest in becoming a fulltime medical ninja but at least she found solace that his chances of survival were higher with medical ninjutsu.

It had been more than 7 months since his graduation and the team had been on 3 more B-rank missions since their time at Winter Lake. 1 was in Suna, an information gathering mission that took 2 weeks, one was to get an important scroll from a spy close to Kiri which surprisingly went without a hitch and finally the last one was an assassination mission of a noble in the capital of the land of fire. The last one was the hardest since no one could know it was them but it was also the weirdest since such a mission would never be given to genins and would mostly be carried out by the Anbu or a single Jonin.

Shin didn't think much about this, as long as he could gain more experience then it didn't matter what sort of mission it was. The results showed for themselves. His team was well known and had a 98% success rate. Shin and Atsuki were hailed as prodigies and according to hearsay, even the elders had taken notice of their ability along with many Jonins.

As for their personal improvements, Atsuki had reached Level 25 while Shin had reached level 31. He had the stats of an Official Chunin;

 [Name: The Overlord of Chaos (Shin Hirano)

Level: 31

Title: Genin of Konoha

Age: 7

Stats:

Strength: 24

Vitality: 23

Agility: 27

Sense: 34

Chakra: 42

Control: 39]

'My Chakra is almost double my vitality, this doesn't make much sense since Chakra is both spiritual and physical. Whatever, I am sure it will figure itself out somehow.' Shin thought as he looked at the black furry cat that *Meow OwO* at him.

 [Name: Pineapple

Level: 15

Title: Servant of The Overlord of Chaos

Age: 2

Stats:

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Agility: 35

Sense: 40

Chakra: 5

Control: 5]

Shin was very surprised when he saw this, according to Assal this was because both himself and Pineapple were far too weak before so Pineapple's stats never showed up. Another thing that happened when he reached level 31 was that he could sacrifice his entire being to get enough energy to return to his dimension but if he did then he would be left with no energy and have no chance to choose his potential and have to randomly reincarnate which, according to Assal, could be even be as a dog or a tree with the great potential of a street dog or a garden tree. Shin didn't wish for all his hard work to go to waste so he decided to continue and only return after realizing potential. Even if he now had the stats of a Chunin, he didn't have the experience of one and not to mention that he was at the same level as those genins that participated in Chunin exams would be at. He had seen genins having a level of 38 once, a chunin that had the level of 69 and a Jonin at level 62; hence the promotions were not exactly strength based and required more than simple stats.

As Shin was making his way towards the Konoha hospital, in a secret room only known to a select number of ninjas. All the Jonin senseis, academy teachers, village elders and even the Hokage himself were gathered. "Since everyone has gathered, let's begin." Spoke an old man while smoking a long pipe. "This year's Chunin exam is being held in Iwa. Which of you would like to enter your teams in the competition?"

A few of the standing ninjas stepped forward and suggested their teams be allowed to enter, a discussion was then held regarding each of them. One of the elders that were seated at the table, holding a pile of papers that depicted the detailed analysis of each team, looked towards a purple haired woman and spoke, "And what of your team Fujio sensei? I heard they have been doing exceptionally well in the missions lately. One of them even killed two Chunin, didn't he?" The Woman in question stepped forth and after a glance at the Hokage spoke up, "It's true but they are far too young and inexperienced. Not to mention that they are lacking a team member, so I think they should enter next year."

"Kakashi was younger. Age has nothing to do with this, if they are able then they should be doing more to serve the village." The elder retorted. "It was war time Danzo!" another elder spoke, a woman.Danzo's expression twisted as spoke louder than usual, "This IS war!" The woman didn't back away, "Kumo has already agreed to the peace treaty! We finally have peace! We cannot jeopardize it to satisfy your ego Danzo!" Her words caused a silence in the room as most of the jonin didn't know how to react while others had already chosen. The other elderly man broke the silence in a calm tone, "Be as it may, I believe they are still too young to bear such heavy responsibility. Isn't this why we haven't allowed Itachi to take the Chunin exams yet?" The elder woman nodded before continuing, "Not to mention the exams are held in Iwa, what's to stop them from secretly plotting against them because they might become a threat!"

Danzo stared them down, unwilling to back out of an argument he opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off by Hiruzen, "I agree with Fujio sensei. They are still young and will have many opportunities in the future. Let's move on, next…"

The meeting continued on as Danzo silently cursed his ex-teammates for their cowardice, 'We should be letting them know that our village is still the strongest! We should fight them head-on! Instead they hide, fooled by the illusion of peace! They are too weak to do what is necessary!'