Chapter 11 - Meeting Uchiha Kagami and Team Battle

September, 25 AV

It had been a month since Shinjo started his personal training in the earth element. Keeping to himself most of the time. The few other times when he was not training, he spent them within the secure walls of his bedroom, sometimes visiting Kanae, his childhood companion and sometimes going to the Senju compound to touch base on his earth elemental theories with the god of shinobi.

Last month, the granddaughter of the first hokage, Senju Tsunade was born, shrouding Konoha in an atmosphere of joy and jubilation. The village was alight with candles and firecrackers the whole night. The villagers were extremely enthusiastic about the news, treating her as their own granddaughter/daughter and celebrating her birthday.

After all, she was konoha's one and only princess. Shinjo, along with his entire family and clan members went to the Senju compound, bringing various gifts in congratulations. He got to see the fabled disciples of the second hokage too. Namely, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Uchiha Kagami, Shimura Danzo, Akimichi Torifu, Mitokodo Homura and Utatane Koharu. Though he saw them from a distance, them none the wiser about him, he could feel the confidence and pride oozing from their very beings.

His mother was 5 months into her own pregnancy, raising the expectations of the whole clan. His grandfather, the fabled Hattori Hanzo, whose name would induce visceral fear in those who heard it, turned into an overly zealous grandfather, constantly fussing over his daughter-in-law. Truly, sons and daughters were always treated differently, he experienced it first hand.

While all that was happening, Shinjo fell into his own routine, following his self-created training regime. He would wake up in the wee hours, do his strength training to maintain his physical fitness, then have a bath and breakfast. Afterwards, he would head into the deep forest and train his earth affinity for a few hours by decomposing rocks into even and fine pieces. He would train his chakra control by using larger rocks in his training. After a light rest, he would start practising the D and C class earth attribute ninjutsus, trying to reduce or totally eliminate the hand signs.

At noon, he would come back, have a heavy lunch and then proceed to read up on various battle tactics and strategies used against opponents, as a form of rest. For example, one could judge what nature of jutsu his opponent was going to use, by looking at the first and last hand seals. One could then judge which hidden village they likely belonged to and the array of jutsus typical to their village, likely already mastered and take appropriate actions, even going as far as to form strategies against them. Hence it's a must to learn all the hand seals and what element they represent and add those to tactics and strategies in a fight.

Although battle IQ was gained from years of duels against opponents in life and death situation, it helped if one was already attuned with the knowledge before hand.

Then at night, he would have mock battles with his father, in the art of stealth and assasination. Though he was training in his secondary element, he never let up his main affinity and his family heritage, an astounding mastery over the yin element.

He wondered why he wasn't assigned to a squad of genins and a guiding jonin yet. But the answer came sooner than expected.

.....

A few days later, Shinjo was summoned to the hokage office in the morning. So he promptly reached the hokage building , climbing to the highest floor, where the hokage took office. It only had a single room and adjacent shelves and a couple hidden rooms inside. He entered after getting permission and came face to face with who he assumed would be his future teammates and the guiding jonin in charge. Among them, he recognized his father at a glance, standing behind the hokage, in his anbu uniform and an owl mask. He managed to look menacing with the comical get up, Shinjo mused with a smirk.

The hokage cleared his throat and ordered,

"Hattori Shinjo, these will be your teammates in the future, pointing to a silver haired kid his age wearing a smile and a kind expression, a brown haired, tall guy with a foolish look and a curly haired adult, who sported a fan shaped emblem on his left hand sleeve and an encouraging smile.

"Kagami, I expect your team get started on your missions asap. They are already late as it is. Get them acquainted with the Shinobi profession early. They are all exceptional genins" while throwing a glance at Sakumo, Tobirama, ever the stoic, ordered "And I have planned for them to be a forward assualt team. Alright, dismissed."

Kagami saluted to the hokage while giving an imperceptible nod to the anbu standing behind and left the office with the kids in tow.

.....

At the training ground, Uchiha Kagami stood infront of the genins, who were sufficiently alert and were inspecting him with curiosity instead.

"Alright, kids, lets start with self introduction, your name, hobby, your likes and disliked and your dream, in that order. I will start. My name is Uchiha Kagami, 17 years old, a disciple of the second hokage and a konoha jonin. My hobby is to raise crows. I like my village and dislike anyone who threatens its safety. My dream is to do my part for the village and pass on my responsibilities to the next generation. Next let's start with Sakumo."

The silver haired kid, standing at 120cm replied respectfully,

"Hai sensei, my name is Hatake Sakumo. I am 7. My hobby is to practise my clan's sword skills. I like ninja dogs and dislike perverts. I want to be the best swordsman in the world" Everyone raised an eyebrow at his peculiarities, who looked more like a samurai than a ninja, but otherwise kept silent.

The brown haired kid picked up the baton and cexlaimed in a loud voice, "I am Sarutobi Ryuga. 9 years old. My hobby is to train in fire release. I like to spend time with my family and dislike eating vegetables. My dream is to become an excellent ninja like my uncle."

Kagami smiles encouragingly and eyed the black haired taciturn kid, waiting for his answers.

Shinjo, taking this as his cue, cleared his throat and uttered calmly, "My name is Hattori Shinjo, 7 years old, my hobby is to watch the ant colony I have in my backyard. I like my family and friends in the clan and I don't particularly dislike anything. Yet. I don't have a dream either. Maybe I will realize it in the coming years. Or not."

Listening to somewhat neutral, bordering on pessimistic answers, Ryuga shouted loudly with astonishment on his face,

"What? Why don't you have a dream? Everybody has a dream!!" To which Sakumo nodded and looked at him curiously.

"Alright, it's okay to not have any dreams now, Shinjo's kun will figure out it soon." Kagami interupted ,"I hear that you are all good seedlings. Lets have a mock battle now, to figure out our team configuration and build up team work"

.....

As soon as Kagami gave the go ahead, the three budding ninjas dispersed into the woods, doing their best to mask their presence. Though they knew that it would be futile in front of an Uchiha Jonin, it was a mock battle afterall. They were entitled to some leeway.

The three youngsters emerged from darkness about 100 meters in the woods. Sitting around calmly, they began to discuss and divide tasks, no nonsense.

"Since we don't know each other's fighting style, we won't choose a captain yet. I am more of a front end fighter, good at lightning and earth release and kenjutsu(swordmanship)." Sakumo, in a few succinct words summarised his expertises and looked at his comrades.

Shinjo nodded and intoned, "I excel in speed, stealth and assasination arts and good in earth release. I am also decent in taijutsu and know some genjutsu. I can act as a sensor for the team, since our clan is proficient in Yin release"

Ryuga then finished with, "I am good at fire release and bojutsu(staff as a weapon). Then I will be the distraction and try to create opportunities for you two. Sakumo, you take on the frontal confrontation and defenses while Shinjo, you will lurk in the shadows and look for opportunities to strike. Also Sensei is an uchiha, I doubt any traps will work on him, even as a surprise. So let's omit that. Anything else?"

For a kid who always had a airy expression on, he proved himself to be useful at the moment. Noone was a pushover in this post-warring states era.

After finishing their impromptu meeting, they each left in different directions towards the curly haired uchiha, who was keeping an eye on the ongoings. So far, he was extremely satisfied with his pupils' performance.

Ryuga, acting as a bait, headed straight for the uchiha, while weaving hand seals to prepare his jutsus.

"Shuriken kage bunshin no Jutsu"

"Fire release : Phoenix Immortal Fire technique"

Overlapping the jutsus, he released a fast moving fire salvos towards his sensei. Then he used

"Shunshin no jutsu" to teleport to his back, now directly behind his sensei and sent out another jutsu as a cover.

"Fire release : Ash pile burning" It managed to cover the sky reaching the uchiha faster, acting as a diversion for his fire salvo shurikens which were 2/3rds of the way.

Then he unsealed an iron staff and headed into the ash that covered the area.

While he was doing so, Sakumo, who was headed for the open ground from another direction, unsheathed his short sword and flowed lightning through it. Channeling lightning through his limbs to increase his short bursts speed, he shunshined towards the ash pile covering the sky. He arrived at the uchiha's left, at the same time as the fire salvos thrown by sarutobi touched ground.

In the ash cloud, he vaguely saw his sensei seemed to have dodged the staff attack from Sarutobi, which forced the uchiha in the way of the fire salvos heading for him, cutting off his retreat in that direction. Coincidentally the uchiha had dodged towards his side.

Seeing an opportunity, he dove forward in the same movement, sending a swift and accurate swipe of his sword. He was mid-strike when he froze suddenly and a red glow flashed. He saw Kagami moving to him to finish the job, while trying to undo the genjutsu paralysis. In an instant the ash cloud was ignited, also covering the uchiha in a fire cloud. Sakumo quickly broke the paralysis and shunshined out of there, dodging a vertical sword strike from behind.

But he didn't get a moment of respite, whereever he dodged, the uchiha would follow. The attacks came in quick succession, overwhelming his senses, the collisions nearly melding into a single constant sound. After a fast strike which he managed to parry, the uchiha suddenly disappeared from his sight, then he felt his legs leaving the ground. His sensei had sent a sweeping kick to his legs, he momentarily lost his sense of balance. Not one to miss a chance, Kagami sent a stab to his torso, while he was mid-air, still trying to balance his body. When he thought it was too late, Sarutobi popped out from behind the uchiha and sent a horizontal strike at him. Kagami sensing him, interrupted his sword mid-stab and summersaulted backward to get out of the way, his attention now focused on two foes in front, while still trying to locate the third one, because he couldn't sense him at all.

Just when the uchiha was about to land, preparing to exert force in his legs to burst forward and continue the onslaught, slightly relaxing his guard, a shadow flashed and a kunai seemingly materialized out of thin air behind his back, aiming to slash his neck. Its holder hadn't given away nothing at all until the extremly short moment when he was at his most vulnerable. It might not even be a blink, even shorter. It was so eerie, the surrounding brightness dimmed slightly. If it was an actual battle, he would have died, no doubt about it.

The two students already in a stance to defend, stood up and gaped at the sudden presence behind their sensei. They didn't even register him until the final moment.

Kagami broke out in cold sweat. He felt a deja vû from the sudden attack. Inexplicably reminding him of the fabled flying thunder god art, developed by his sensei, the second hokage. He slowly turned around and saw a pair of eyes that could suck the soul out of him, he knew it was spiritual pressure and he was losing. The kid had the largest spiritual energy he had ever witnessed. How was it possible? The kid wasn't even trying. It was automatic.

To mask his embarrassment, he coughed, faced his students and said in a dignified smile, "Alright, you rascals, you have won. Great teamwork by the way. Sakumo, I am impressed by how far you have mastered your kenjutsu. Though you have a long way to go, good job, kiddo."

Sakumo, shyly scratched his head, "Thank you, sensei."

"Ryuga, your sense of timing is very good. You managed to save your teammate on multiple occasions. That's your strong suit. Make sure to build on that. You will be a menance to deal with in battle."

"Hai, sensei." Ryuga burned with pride and shyness as he exclaimed at his teacher's praise.

Lastly, Kagami turned to Shinjo, thought for a moment and asked, "Shinjo, you got me there. Your stealth and assasination skills are top notch, the best I have seen. And the patience and foresight to grab an opportunity in a fraction of a second is commendable. Did your clan teach you on that?" Asked curiously.

To the question, Shinjo didn't elaborate anything, calmly accepted the compliment and responded, "Hai, sensei. I was taught by my father."

Kagami, noticing the reluctance, didn't continue asking, instead laughed out loud, "Alright, you brats you managed to defeat me, a bina-fide konoha jonin in an utter display of team work and it was your first time too. We are going to be a great team. As a reward, its my treat at all-you-can-eat akimichi BBQ."

Ryuga loudly pumped his fists, "Yahhhhh!!!!"

Sakumo smiled in joy and Shinjo sported a smirk. Looking at the obviously different personalities of his students, he felt gratified. With a big grin, they headed towards their destination.

.....

Meanwhile, in the Hokage tower.

It was silent all around. Tobirama intently looked into a crystal ball and surprisingly the scene in it, was of Ryuga pumping his fists in excitement and rushing towards the village center, while the rest followed after.

"You have trained him well, Kaemon. He is only 7 and already quite proficient in your family arts. Is there anything I should know?" Tobirama exhaled lightly and kept his eyes trained on the Anbu standing in front him.

The man slowly removed his mask, a smile distorting his face. He felt like a winner in life. Getting his smirk under control, which rubbed the hokage the wrong way, he explained half-heartedly,

"Tobirama, while my son displayed strenth beyond his age, others are not far behind. Don't forget Kagami didn't use his sharingan and only used taijutsu. He is a damn jonin even without his sharingan. And he has a pair of 3 tomoes to boot and he wasn't that serious in battle either. Otherwise they couldn't even touch him, much less defeat him, as they are now." Saying that, he sighed in mock-envy and looked at the crystal once again.

While Tobirama was no fool, could sense the reluctance from his long time friend, he let it be and sat in silent contemplation on how put this diamond in rough to better use.

.....