Chapter 13 -> Part 13

"You ready?" I asked Minato.

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Absolutely sure?"

"Would you stop whatever you're doing and just start already?"

"I don't think you're ready."

"Shut it, Kichiro."

"Half the fight is in your head, Minato, so get your head on straight, then we'll start."

He rolled his eyes at Kushina, only to find she wasn't there. "Kai!" He shouted, dispelling the Genjutsu.

"Now, are you actually ready to focus?" I asked.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that? You keep messing with my head so how do I know when I'm ready?" Minato gave up and threw his kunai into the ground in frustration. I winced. I had gone a bit too far in trying to psych him out. Sakumo, in his ANBU getup appeared out of sight from everyone but me.

Sound familiar? He signed. I threw a senbon at him. Minato turned to follow my gaze, confused when he didn't see anyone.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing, someone was just trying to mess with me." I released the Genjutsu layers I had woven around Minato. "Okay, close your eyes." Minato huffed, but did so and I repeated Sakumo's lesson from a year previously, almost word-for-word. "First, you have to know exactly what you are capable of, every single tool you have at your disposal." I laid my hand flat against the center of his chest. "You have to balance your ego with your humility to get the most accurate picture of your capabilities as you can. Know where you're strong and where you're weak. For example, you're extremely smart and fast, but you don't have very much chakra to work with. I'm sure you can go into more detail by yourself."

I moved my hand to press two fingers against his forehead.

"Second, you have to always know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you can win. You have to believe you can beat me and keep believing no matter how many times you get beaten back. There is no substitute for absolute confidence."

"You're a Chuunin, I'm a Genin!" Minato's eyes flew open. "You've fought in a war! You're in the Bingo Book! How am I supposed to win?"

"Less than two days after I became a Genin I beat a Tokubetsu Jōnin who'd been a ninja for as long as I've been alive. There's always a way to win if you think hard enough, but you absolutely cannot win if you don't believe you can, got it?"

"I-I think so?"

"Good, close your eyes." When his eyes closed, I put the kunai back in Minato's hand and wrapped my own hands around both of his. "The last thing you have to do is actually win. It might take a while, but trust me, one day, you'll be able to kick my ass across the village and back. Alright? Now, keep all that in mind and focus. Go all out. Don't worry about hurting me, the ANBU are here to make sure nothing gets out of hand. Now, are you ready?"

After a second, Minato nodded. I backed away and settled into a ready stance as he opened his eyes.

"Begin."

He flew towards me, weaving his blades in an almost untraceable pattern, for someone who didn't have a sensei terrified they wouldn't be able to keep up on the battlefield they would be forced onto. I simply blocked with one of the sticks and ducked under his other swing, tripping him. He turned the fall into a handspring and we squared off again.

"You're getting better, Minato, but I'm pretty sure Academy students could do better than you." Yes, I was goading him. To my annoyance, it was working. Kushina may have fought better when riled up, but Minato tended to make stupid mistakes, like charging me with an angry shout. I substituted myself for a water clone and crouched in one of the trees, pulling out my slacklining rope from a storage seal sewn inside of one of the pockets of my Chuunin vest. I quickly strung it across the clearing, hidden by a simple and effective Genjutsu. Sakumo had nearly fallen for it once, and he helped me learn it.

Minato cursed as the water clone dissolved just before it nearly knocked him out, soaking him with water. I dropped silently to the ground and slid underneath it while the boy spun around, frantically searching for me.

"Headhunter no Jutsu!" I responded happily, but quickly jumped out of the way because I knew both he and Kushina could get out of the trap even though I wasn't sure exactly how they managed it. I concealed myself with another Genjutsu and gave him another water clone to fight while I figured out some new, creative way to win. I dashed around the clearing and slipped into Sakumo's hiding spot.

"No," he said immediately.

"Come on! Some Suna nin nearly got you with this trick and you wouldn't want him to fall for it on an actual mission!"

I may have been better, simply because I had a single teacher focusing on me and tailoring what I learned to my strengths and weaknesses while Minato had to vie for attention among several dozen other students. After a few weeks with Kushina, he figured out how to never fall for any trick more than once and that carried over to fighting, thankfully. I wanted to know how he did it, because Kushina and I had probably played thousands of tricks on him and not one worked twice.

Sakumo just glared at me. "Fine, I'll stand there and look scary. My shift ends soon, so don't wear yourself out too much, I want to see how far you've gotten on your pet project."

"Thanks."

I dispelled my water clone. Minato was getting increasingly frustrated by the fact he was spending more time fighting, and losing to, clones than the real me.

"I'd say you were doing well, but for someone who wants to be Hokage, you really suck, Minato." I cocked my head to the side and started to circle him. My two shadow clones, which had taken far too much chakra to create than I was comfortable with crouched in their respective hiding places, one on my slackline near the tree and the other a few steps behind me. "You know, those kunai aren't magical, I know you have more in your arsenal than that. I'm not sure this is worth my time since you're so outmatched and not even giving it your all." I waved my hand dismissively and turned around, replacing myself with the clone behind me. Minato lunged forward and slapped an exploding tag onto my clone's back. The clone exploded and I took a step into the explosion then replaced myself with Sakumo then with my clone on the slackline.

"Holy shit!" Minato exclaimed and leapt backwards from the unexpected appearance of an ANBU from the smoke.

His back hit the rope just as I jumped and landed on it, making the rope sink a good three feet. We slid together and I slid off, but Minato didn't fall for the slingshot trick, he grabbed the rope and grinned at me. I barely managed to leap clear before he somehow channeled a giant lightning bolt into the rope. Sakumo disappeared into thin air as Minato swung down and landed in front of me. We were back where we started.

"Clever, but not clever enough," I told him and tapped my chest. He looked down at his own chest and froze as he noticed the explosive note. It was set to detonate the next time he channeled chakra, or moved more than a few inches. I didn't dare activate it, mostly because I wasn't exactly sure how to safely deactivate it yet.

Minato was not happy. "When?" He demanded.

I pulled the note off him and stuck it in my pocket, grinning. "When you landed on the slackline," I told him.

"That thing is evil, Sakumo-sensei is a sadistic bastard for making you do all those things on that damn rope."

"I take offense to that!" I retorted. "Slacklining is the best part of training with Sakumo!" It had been over a year since I last legitimately lost my balance, so the training had completely paid off. "Anyway, Minato, good job, but don't get riled up when you're taunted, it ruins your concentration. I have to go to training. Will you be alright getting back on your own with Nagato?"

"I want to come!" Nagato ran up and tugged on my haori.

I crouched down. "I'm sorry, Nagato, but you're going to have to stay with Kushina and Minato for a few hours, maybe days, okay?"

"But they're boring!"

"I'll tell you a secret, they can be really fun if you give them another chance, alright?"

"But Nii-san!"

"I'll see you soon, Nagato, goodbye!" I left before he could say anything more.

(-_-)

I waited for about an hour on the training ground I usually met Sakumo on. Most of the time, I sat and meditated. I hovered in a state where I could hear Kurama lecturing me on going easy on Minato and not destroying him right out of the gate, which I ignored, while remaining perfectly aware of my surroundings, at least from a chakra perspective. Chakra was the lifeblood of this world. Without it, nothing could live, which was why chakra exhaustion could be so dangerous. Out of nowhere, someone touched my shoulder.

I knocked the hand away and stumbled out if reach, not that it would have done me much good against an enemy. When I recognized Sakumo wearing his Jōnin uniform, I scowled.

"You're in ANBU," I greeted.

"You aren't supposed to know that."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to be the person to tell me they finally had a proper guard."

"You would have attacked anyone else."

"Not if they could prove their identity first or one of them vouched for whoever it was."

Sakumo rolled his eyes.

"Why do you want me here?"

"The Hokage wants me to talk you out of forming any kind of relationship with the Kyuubi."

"It's not going to work."

"He knows. I also want to know why you're doing this."

"Is that a question or a statement."

"For now, a statement."

"But you still want me to answer it."

He didn't answer. "No. I don't want you to be making a mistake."

"I'm not the one making a mistake! The Kazekage ordered the torture of two eight-year-old children!"

"They're shinobi, Kichiro. They understood what they signed up for. I made sure the entire team knew they would end up targeted because of you, me, Jiraiya, and possibly Shimizu."

"They're eight! They're Genin! They were tortured for no reason!"

"So, you're going to wage a war."

"If they go after her and Minato, how long will it be before they go after Nagato?"

"Kichiro, you're plotting murder! Who knows how many innocents will die once you start that battle? This isn't you, Kichiro, this isn't a mission you're being told to complete, this is entirely your plan."

"I know."

"Do you? You barely have a handful of kills, Kichiro, all of which were in self-defense. You can't even beat me, what makes you think you can win against the most powerful Kage in Suna's history?"

"He uses the Iron Sand, it's in the Bingo Book. He controls metal. My primary weapons are wooden sticks, which are made of Hashirama wood and reinforced with seals. My senbon are made of glass, similarly reinforced. I just don't carry any metal for him to use against me with his magnet release. Not to mention, I'll have the Kyuubi helping me."

"If it doesn't try and escape."

"He won't."

"How do you know you can trust a creature of hatred?"

"He's not a 'creature of hatred' any more than you or I!"

Sakumo shook his head. "It will take you a long time to convince anyone of that."

Scowling, I fell onto my back and glared up at the rainclouds.

"I'm not here to debate with you. The Hokage came up with a potential plan that might just lure out the Kazekage without as much collateral damage as it would for you to just march into Suna and commit suicide."

"Fine, what is it?"

"No, you need to be updated first."

"On what?"

"Somehow, the Ame leader, Hanzō, caught wind of your little stunt with the Uzumaki family."

"What? Was he upset I stole his quarry? He's an idiot for targeting humanitarians."

"No, somehow he knew of the boy's dormant Rinnegan."

"The hell? How?"

"Unknown."

"That throws a wrench in everything."

"It does. The Sandaime suspects that Ame will join forces with Iwa, which provides an ideal opportunity on two fronts. Suna and Kiri made an alliance against Konoha. Publicly shifting our attention to Iwa and Ame will invite Suna and Kiri to attack. Once they commit to an action, the Hokage himself plans to join the fighting."

"About time."

"This is the last time I am going to warn you, Kichiro." Sakumo's voice gained an edge I had only heard a handful of times. "You will be civil when speaking of and with him or there will be consequences."

I huffed.

"He plans on decimating the Kiri lines and forcing them out of the war, but in order to do that, he needs to make sure the Suna line will hold in the meantime."

"Clever. What about Kumo?"

"The second they hear there is a Kage on the front lines, they'll calm down and most likely take advantage of the opening against Kiri."

"Right, but won't it make Konoha look desperate to have Kage on the front lines? It might make the other countries paranoid enough for their own Kage to come out."

"None of the other Kage are a match for our Sandaime."

I shrugged. "The Kazekage could give him a run for his money."

"I doubt that, but considering Suna's penchant for poison, it could become a close match, which is why his advisors refuse to let him attend the Suna front as well."

"So, the plan is to stack the Iwa front, lure Suna and Kiri into an attack and attack Kiri in return? What about Suna?"

"That's my next deployment. In case you've forgotten, I've gained quite the reputation in the past few years and I have the skills to back it up."

"How's the Iwa front going to appear stacked if one of Konoha's prominent Jōnin are headed to Suna?"

"The Sandaime's students, as well as a handful of other prominent Jōnin are headed to Iwa."

"Village defenses?"

"The Hokage's old teammates are remaining to run and defend the village."

"Good for them."

"I want to see what you can do, whether you're ready to actually fight on the front lines or not. Shimizu and Inuzuka are already out on their next mission and if you pass, you'll head out with me to Suna."

"Fine, what's the test?"

"I already know your raw Ninjutsu and Genjutsu capabilities inside and out, but your Taijutsu is constantly evolving. I want to test that."

"With or without weapons?"

"Your chakra must stay inside your body. No other rules."

"You're a Jōnin, this isn't fair."

"Yet you want to face down a Kage?"

"With the Kyuubi and all of my tricks."

"Ah, yes, your tricks. I want to see how good you've gotten without them." Sakumo stood up and held out a hand to help me up.

"So I'm assuming I can't use the Kyuubi."

"Most certainly not. We don't need a village emergency." Apparently he didn't want to wait for me to get up on my own and grabbed the front of my vest to pull me to my feet.

"Whatever." I pulled out my sticks and he drew a bokken. It was a testament to my skill that he needed to limit himself for fear of causing permanent injury to me. "On your mark."

"Begin."

There was a moment of absolute stillness. I took a deep breath.

Sakumo leapt forward and swung his bokken at my head. I ducked and retaliated with a strike to the knee, but the bokken appeared like magic and blocked it, nearly knocking it out of my hand with the strength of the strike. Luckily, I learned a long time ago to hold on to my sticks with chakra instead, which somehow reduced the strength of the impact. It didn't make sense but I did it anyways. The next few seconds I spent blocking what felt like a hundreds attacks at a time. Sakumo was fast and I was barely fast enough to defend. I was quite good at multitasking. Between foiling a clever trip and sending a wild punch at Sakumo's nose to hide an attempt to break a rib or two, I noticed several ANBU surrounding the Hokage and his advisors.

I couldn't touch Sakumo, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I took full advantage of my size and flexibility, as well as juicing up my strength enough that any hit would count, not that any landed, not even the senbon I threw with my foot, hid in my shadow, and came from a direction Sakumo couldn't possibly have seen. He only threw the senbon back at me with a smirk and it landed in my arm. That led to a nasty list of invectives. They were mostly in English, which was lucky for me because of the growing audience. I was beginning to suspect Minato, and possibly Kushina had a hand in it, had the brilliant idea of bringing Nagato to watch me get my ass kicked.

When I noticed an unfamiliar woman emerge from the shadows of the trees, I began to suspect. When two Jōnin appeared between two trees to stop me from using them as cover, I knew. For some reason, a number of people wanted to see Sakumo fight. Or me, but I was betting on the former. During one of the pauses where Sakumo and I just circled each other, I asked.

"How many people did you invite to watch?"

"Pretty much every shinobi in the village. The Chuunin exams were cancelled and since it was partially your fault, everyone needed to see a good fight without the future of the village hanging in the balance."

"Asshole. You could've told me."

"Then you wouldn't've shown up. You could have known if you bothered to stop by the Chuunin base."

"I don't even know where the Chuunin base is."

"Your loss."

Yeah, he was going down hard. The Kyuubi turned on a rolling stream of advice, most of which I adopted, allowing myself to shift into katas I shouldn't have had any way of knowing. Under the influence of the Kyuubi's chakra, my vision shifted slightly and my ability to sense increased a hundredfold.

Sakumo disengaged and swapped his bokken for his actual blade.

"Calm down, Kichiro," he warned, circling. "I told you no using the Kyuubi."

"Come on, it's the only chance I have!" I complained. My voice was a bit deeper and harsher than normal, which was probably part of the problem.

"Your little sister is here; she might get hurt."

I caught a glimpse of myself in Sakumo's blade. The irises of my eyes had changed from bright green to burning red and the pupils narrowed into feral slits. "I'm in control, Sakumo, the Kyuubi is just giving a little friendly advice."

I'd call this a bit more than advice, little rat, the Kyuubi commented.

"Okay, fine, it's a bit of a strength and speed boost as well, but I promise I'm still me, just a little better."

"This isn't funny, Kichiro."

"Scared of a little Chuunin?" I taunted.

"I'm concerned about this 'friendly advice.'"

I opened my mouth to respond when said 'friendly advice' turned up something not-so-friendly. "Shit!" I screamed. The Kyuubi's chakra turned up several hostile ninjas beneath our feet. The sudden appearance of the Kyuubi's chakra had spooked them into action.

Kushina screamed. I turned and used every ounce of speed I could dredge up. At my shout, Minato had managed to throw Nagato at the nearest Jōnin, then Kushina barreled him out of the way, only to be caught by a wicked-looking kunoichi. I recognized her as the daughter of the woman who occasionally gave me free dango.

"Don't you dare move a muscle, Uzumaki, or I'll rip your precious sister's throat out. That goes for everyone else here!"

I put on my best act, hoping the consequences wouldn't be too severe, and laughed. "You think some pathetic little child would be able force me, the Kyuubi no Yōko, to bend to your will?" To my surprise, everyone bought the act. Except Kushina. She knew my acting skills inside and out and had seen my best Kyuubi imitation dozens of times, albeit before he was sealed inside of me.

The kunoichi paled.

I slowly drew one of my sticks and used the Kyuubi's chakra, with a bit of his help, to mold a blade onto it. I pointed it at the kunoichi. The kunoichi lifted Kushina into the air to cover her vitals. Unfortunately for the kunoichi, I was a medic. Sliding a blade between organs was simple, especially when Kushina was discreetly pointing at exactly the right place. Faster than the kunoichi could track, I lunged forward. The blade slid through Kushina's body, then through the kunoichi's. The Kyuubi yanked his chakra away from me. Any longer and I would probably have done myself serious damage. I jerked my stick out of their bodies, knocked the kunoichi out, and caught Kushina before she collapsed. The moment all three of us hit the ground, chaos erupted.