Chapter 46 -> Part 46

"I know you use kunai, but is there anything else?" I asked Nagato as I quickly located two standard pouches of kunai and attached them to the back of his uniform.

"Senbon, like you, but I'm not very good."

"Do you use them while fighting?"

"Distractions, mostly."

"Okay, I'm assuming you still use the long metal style instead of my small ones, right?"

"Yeah."

I pulled the correct pouch down and attached it to his thigh. "Anything else?"

"I don't use a lot of Taijutsu, mostly Ninjutsu."

"Front lines Ninjutsu or support?"

"Sensei says my reserves aren't big enough for front line Ninjutsu yet."

"Any elemental stuff yet?"

"Just one water jutsu."

"What level of Fūinjutsu are you at?"

"Level eight."

"Have you gone over joint sealing yet?"

He nodded.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do…"

(-_-)

Nagato and I only had five minutes to figure out our strategy before Toad managed to trap Kyo between two walls of earth, forcing her to yield with several cuts and bruises to show for it. Her sensei came on the field to bandage the cuts before leaving her and her sister to face me and Nagato, shoved onto the field by Sakumo.

"Nii-san, are you sure it's going to work?"

"If all else fails, it'll be impossible for them to counter."

"But I've never tried this before!"

"That's why it's the fourth backup plan."

"Backup plans are for if the original plan doesn't work, not for counting on the original plan to fail!"

"I tell this to Minato all the time: if you don't believe it's going to work, it's never going to work."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm absolutely positive."

"Okay."

"Kichiro, you are not allowed to use the Kyuubi and no one is allowed to kill. Whenever you're ready, begin." Sakumo announced.

Nagato hovered just off my left elbow and out of my sight as I settled into my starting stance.

Kyo lunged towards me. I ducked under her first strike and Nagato jumped onto my shoulders. I launched him as high as I could into the air, careful to keep my feet planted on the ground. Nagato spun uncontrollably on the way up. I waited until Kyo's sister leapt after him. Nagato stabilized his flight enough to block several kunai chasing him and retaliate with a dozen of his own, interspersed with nearly invisible senbon. She blocked them all, but missed my senbon flying in from her blind spot.

"Mai!" Kyo shouted a warning. I cursed under my breath as she managed to block all my senbon chasing after her.

"Suiton: Mizurappa!" Nagato shouted, dousing the entire area with a giant mass of water, knocking Mai out of the air.

I swore. Nagato used far too much chakra in that jutsu. Coming down, he was not in good shape.

"Sakumo is going to kill me for trying this," I muttered to myself before I slammed my hands into the ground, sucking the twins up to their necks. I flashed through the hand seals for a jutsu I had seen Sakumo use once. It was supposed to skewer an enemy, but I used a sloppy, half-formed version on myself to launch me into the air to intercept an unconscious Nagato. I grabbed him and hit the wall about twenty yards above the ground. The twins managed to escape, at least one of them, and helped the other out, while throwing at least thirty kunai at me. I jumped up to avoid them. "I yield!" I shouted and slid back down the wall. The second my feet hit the ground, I noticed the twins running towards me. "What the hell?" I growled. "He's out, I yield!" I shunshined across the training field, nearly slamming into a wall, still unable to control the damn jutsu. The twins just turned around and sprinted towards me. I laid Nagato on the ground and stood up. When they didn't stop, I pulled out the Kyuubi's chakra in full force. "Stand down!" I ordered, my voice deeper and louder with the Kyuubi's influence.

"Stand down!" Nagato's sensei and Sakumo echoed me, quickly followed by several others.

They stopped in their tracks. The second I was sure they wouldn't attack, I tamped down the Biju chakra and knelt beside Nagato, my hands glowing with healing chakra.

I knelt there for nearly an hour treating Nagato for chakra exhaustion. The majority of my efforts went towards keeping his organs functioning until his body could replenish enough chakra to stabilize him by itself. Chakra exhaustion was, in my opinion, the most dangerous part of being a shinobi. It was the primary reason training alone was frowned upon, and solo missions were rare. For a medic, it was one of the most difficult treatments to administer. Normally, life support consisted of keeping the heart beating and the lungs breathing. With chakra exhaustion, it meant that there wasn't any chakra to keep any of the organs functioning. Depending on the severity, a medic had to not only keep the patient's heart beating and them breathing, but they needed to keep the very cells of their patient functioning. Chakra kept the entire world alive. Luckily, Nagato hadn't used up so much chakra that I had to keep his cells alive, but I had to make sure his organs didn't accidentally shut down. It took all my concentration.

Distantly, someone tried to get my attention several times, but I determinedly ignored them. I also determinedly ignored my hands which were definitely trembling from the adrenaline and the difficulty of the treatment. Not for the first time, I wished I had Naruto's ability to bullshit the rules of the world.

Only the most highly-trained medics were able to share chakra with another person, but even then, they could only share chakra with a parent, sibling, or child without poisoning their patient, even that was only in a limited amount. I could give Kushina a chakra transfusion, but since I had to go back eight generations in the Uzumaki family tree to find a connection between mine and Nagato's genetics, it was nowhere near close enough, even though any full-blooded Uzumaki had compatible chakra for sealing projects.

Needless to say, the Uzumaki clan was impossibly huge before it's destruction. If the clan records were accurate, there was nearly two thousand people inside of Uzu at the time of its destruction, almost all of them were Uzumaki, maybe one or two hundred people who married into the clan, worked jobs the Uzumaki didn't care to or couldn't fill, or were travelling through the village. The Uchiha clan, the largest clan in Konoha, possibly the largest clan in the shinobi nations excluding the Uzumaki, had less than five hundred members at its peak, which was just before the Second Shinobi World War began.

I estimated there was about a hundred thousand people living in Konoha and only about half of those belonged to a clan. About a quarter of the population belonged to a shinobi clan, that is, a clan with more than seventy percent of their population active, in-training, or retired shinobi. The average civilian clan had about five percent of their members in the shinobi corps. Before the war, there was about fifteen thousand shinobi ranked Chuunin and above. I doubted half of that number were still alive. It was impossible to tell how many people were projected to join the shinobi corps, since the Academy was only for kids who were either part of their clan's leading families and attending as a formality to place the clan's future leaders in the public eye, or had no family to train them to the point where they could pass the Genin test. In peacetime, almost two hundred kids passed the Genin test every year. In wartime, it was less than half of that, even with the relaxed standards. The group of Genin I had briefly led was probably the most recent batch of graduates, with the clan Genin held back for political purposes.

When Nagato somewhat regained consciousness, I finally finished the treatment by knocking him unconscious. My head ached as I glanced over the rest of the training ground. Senseis and their students had broken off for individual training. There was a total of eight ANBU members present under the age of fifteen, not including Nagato and myself. I was sure only Roach, the twins, and one other were younger than fourteen.

Nagato's sensei and Sakumo were discussing something in undertones a few feet away. Sakumo was first to notice I had finished healing. They each grabbed one of my arms and set me with my back against the wall. Sakumo crouched in front of me, frowning. "How are you feeling?"

"Nagato will be awake in a few hours and he should be back to normal by tonight, if tired."

"I didn't ask about Nagato, I asked about you."

"Headache. A really bad headache. That technique was supposed to be done with three people minimum, but I can handle the chakra cost."

"Can you fix the headache?"

"Not really supposed to treat my own head. I just need to rest for a little while, too much medic jutsu."

"Fine then, I'll take it easy on you. Exactly how many times, total, have you attempted Doton: Ganchūsō?"

"You know I can't remember jutsu names for shit."

"The jutsu you used to help launch yourself into the air." Sakumo clarified.

"Um, once."

"I see. I've seen you manipulate wind like a genius, for the most part, you know what you're doing and I don't have a legitimate complaint since I doubt you would hurt yourself. Straight manipulation of your elemental affinity is one thing, straight manipulation of any element, I can let slide. Attempting extremely lethal jutsu on yourself in a spar for a non-lethal purpose, especially when it's not your natural affinity could quite possibly be the stupidest thing I've seen or heard of you doing."

"Enough, I know it was stupid, but it was the only thing with hand seals I could think of. It takes too long to try and manipulate an element without hand seals, especially when I've never done it before."

Sakumo considered my answer. "Think of something better, and quick."

I thought for a minute. "Of the elemental jutsu you've taught me, how many did I actually manage to create in a shape that resembled what it was supposed to look like on the first try, or even the hundredth try? None of them. The water jet thing that I do is supposed to be in the shape of a dragon and I still haven't gotten it, because I spent so much time on making wind blades. I just suck at shape manipulation, so the deadly spiky part of the earth jutsu would be far beyond my proven capabilities."

"Better. How's your stamina?"

"I spent most of my time on strength and stamina while I was in Iwa. I need to work on skill more than anything in order to catch up since I couldn't exactly work on jutsus in an enclosed space."

"At least you learned something. Up, it's past time to start."

I stood up without complaint and Sakumo led me to the center of the training ground. The entire place was as big as a football field, which made it ideal for practicing larger jutsu.

"Make a tornado."

"I'm sorry, what?" I gaped at him. I had never even considered attempting something like that.

"Make a tornado. Not a full-size one, obviously, not even the Hokage can control the weather, but one just big enough to leave you in the center. Try not to make it taller than the buildings. There's no need to risk catching anyone in it."

I studied Sakumo for a minute to make sure he was actually serious before closing my eyes.

"Hatake, are you sure the newbie can—" Nagato's sensei said apprehensively.

"He can, it's just a matter of actually trying." Sakumo sent the last two words pointedly my way.

"I'm going, I'm going!" I insisted. I started at my feet and slowly started to swirl the air, before expanding it upwards.

"Even with the Kyuubi, there's no way the kid has enough chakra to sustain—"

"Just watch."

Anything else was drowned out by the roaring of the wind in my ears as the air swirled around me. Once I got it spinning fast enough, it was almost self-sustaining. Unfortunately, it made me extremely dizzy. When I started to stagger to one side, I immediately cut the chakra to the miniature, ten-foot-tall tornado. I staggered out of the jutsu feeling like I had six too many drinks.

Luckily, I didn't puke as Sakumo collected what had to amount to a lot of money from the other sensei.

"I ought to get some of that," I grumbled, as my equilibrium refused to return and I fell into one of the people who had been watching. They put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"Holy shit, kid. How can you do that and still lose to Kyo?" I couldn't identify the man I had fallen against.

"It was a no-Ninjutsu spar, remember? It's hard to bullshit something I'm not allowed to use."

A few seconds later, I was swarmed by a bunch of preteen ninja demanding details.

"What hand seals did you use?"

"Can you do it again?"

"You have to teach me how to do that!"

"What's the name of that jutsu?"

"Can you do anything else like that?"

"That is the biggest jutsu I've ever seen!"

"Did Hatake teach you?"

"You look really green."

"How do you control that much at once?"

"You have to show us again."

"How long did it take you to learn that?"

"What's your affinity?"

"Seriously, what's the name of the jutsu?"

"Alright, alright, give him space, something like that isn't exactly easy." Sakumo finally finished collecting his winnings and rescued me, holding me upright against his side. "First, who can tell me what Kichiro did? Toad, go ahead."

"It was definitely a wind jutsu. It has to be A-rank at the very least considering how big it was. It definitely looked like a tornado, but there's no way I was gonna get close enough to be sure."

"You're right, it was a tornado. What are the effects and purpose of the jutsu on an enemy or the surroundings? Thing Two."

"It tore up the ground and sprayed dirt everywhere, so it could be used to blind an enemy, and considering the speed the air was spinning, I doubt any projectile weapons could have made it through, so it's defensive in that aspect. It could be a power deterrent to avoid further confrontation, but jutsus like that tend to have more flash and less power. Presumably, it would send an enemy flying if they got in contact, just like it did with the ground."

"Good job. Roach, what are the effects on Kichiro?"

"Dizziness, primarily. Chakra cost seemed negligible, but I can't be sure if he just has impossible reserves or the jutsu didn't cost much."

"How do you know, Roach?"

"He's standing crooked, well, more crooked than usual."

"I do not stand crooked!" I protested, straightening and withdrawing from Sakumo's support.

"Yeah you do, you always slouch."

"That's not—"

"Kichiro, shut up. Roach, continue."

"He's standing crooked, but he's tense and moving at a normal speed, so he's not tired or intoxicated, just disoriented. Since the jutsu was basically spinning wind at a high speed, dizzy is the obvious conclusion."

When he stopped there, Sakumo prompted, "How did you figure chakra cost?"

"He's obviously not tired, so it can't have been too exhausting."

"How do you know he's not faking?"

"Because he sucks at acting."

"Why do you think the chakra cost of the jutsu is so low? Anyone?"

When no one else answered, I spoke up. "An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. So, physics. Once I started the jutsu, it created a system that limited the interference of outside forces so it was nearly self-sustaining. I don't know how or why, it just worked."

"Thank you. Roach, partner with Thing Two. Ankle Biter, partner with Mai. Toad, partner with Kyo. Thing One, Kichiro, and Gopher, you already have at least the basics of your affinity down. Everyone find their group!" The kids gathered around me paired off. A tall boy about fifteen with black hair and a plain face and missing the littlest finger on his left hand appeared beside me with a scowl, closely followed by a shorter boy with a thick scar across his right cheek from the bridge of his nose to his jaw, which was partially covered by lank blond hair.

The boy with the scar held out his hand. "I'm Bat, or Thing one, as everyone insists on calling me."

"Kichiro. Let me guess, is Roach responsible for the nickname?"

"How'd you know?"

I shrugged, finally able to stand without swaying, even though my head was still pounding. "Roach told me his father used to tell him a lot of stories, and I know a lot of the same ones. Thing One and Two are characters in one of them."

"What kind of characters?"

"Professional troublemakers and whirlwinds of destruction."

"I see. Thank you for that bit of insight. I will make sure you are spared from the trouble and destruction I am about to cause for a certain little bug."

"My pleasure, and your consideration is greatly appreciated."

"Everyone shut your traps if you know what's good for you! Thank you!" Hatake shouted over the talking that had erupted. "All senseis are free to go. Duck, Mole, and Rooster: General has missions for you to pick up this evening."

All the adults except Sakumo and Nagato's sensei, who was sitting beside Nagato, vanished in a hurry.

"Now, I don't know how you all got away with it, but most of you don't know more than the basics of your affinity. Kyo, you're only going to hurt yourself more if you keep trying to splint that hand with senbon and ninja wire. Use the proper materials or see our new resident medic. As for the rest of you with fire affinities, I want you to take a kunai and set it on fire for three minutes without burning it or heating up the metal. Take off your gloves and the armor on your arms, it's easier. Fair warning, you better get it quick, there will be incentives, and no slacking. You have partners to help you, so use them. Now hop to! Kyo, medic, now. Toad, stop poking at that cut or I'll make it bigger."

Kyo pushed her way through the dispersing group and held out her injured hand to me. "Sit down," I murmured, and knelt with her, pressing my hand against her forehead for diagnostics. She was beat up, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Now that I took a second look, everyone was at least a little bloodied and definitely bruised. I healed her broken hand and barely managed to grab her ponytail and yank her back down so I could heal her sprained knee. She tried to get up again, but I already had a firm grip on her wrist so I could reverse the damage done to her shoulder when I assumed someone had thrown her. By that point, she looked as if she was about to murder me, so I let her go without insisting on healing the bruises.

I stood back up and Sakumo launched into his instructions. "Kichiro is wind-natured and both of you are fire natured. Fortunately, or unfortunately, whichever you prefer, he has twice your skill in elemental Ninjutsu as well as probably three times as much chakra as the two of you combined, as well as medic-level control. Kichiro, fortunately, or unfortunately, whichever you prefer, you have a quarter of their experience in using said Ninjutsu in a fight and while you have the rare ability to manipulate your element without hand seals, your speed at doing so sucks. So, the three of you are going to spar, Thing One and Gopher against Kichiro. Gopher and Thing One, you can only use fire, keep it at half-speed attacks until I say otherwise, and Kichiro, you can only use wind. Begin." I barely had time to dodge as two not-very-impressive fireballs shot towards me.

I sliced one in half and dodged the other. Wind blades were almost easy, considering how much I practiced with them, but I was limited to one at a time. Outlasting them wouldn't be a problem, I was probably on par in stamina as Sakumo due to a combination of the loosened Kyuubi seal and Uzumaki heritage. Even if I did get burned, I would be able to heal it and continue far longer than they would be able to. What worried me was what Sakumo had planned afterwards.

While I was thinking, I ducked under a whip of fire, and barely managed to roll out of the way when the ground underneath me caught fire. Sakumo left us when I blew out Gopher's fire-gloved fist with a gust of wind from my mouth and twisted out of the way of his momentum to find myself in Thing One's trap, which consisted of an impressive array of fireballs raining down from above. I leapt upwards and slipped between two of them and blew the fire towards an empty section of the field.

When they started to regroup, I glanced around the training field. All the others had taken off the uniform gloves and the armor on their forearms. "I got it!" Roach exclaimed. Faster than I could track, Sakumo was in front of him and pressing the flat of the kunai against the inside of the boy's wrist. He made a strangled noise of pain. When Sakumo pulled it away, I could see the blister it left from across the field.

I didn't have any more time to think about it as Gopher and Thing One silently decided on a strategy and were started to flank me. I wasn't, by any means, and offensive or aggressive fighter. If at all possible, I stayed on the defensive, waiting for the opportunity to take down my opponent in a way that would cause the least amount of damage. My opponents had most likely figured that out, if the way they weren't as careful about keeping their guards up as they should have been during the next exchange of ninjutsu. Unfortunately for them, Sakumo was still watching the match while he tested the progress of the others by laying the kunai against their skin. I wanted to protest, but Gopher and Thing One never gave me a chance.

I did find it odd that all the other young ANBU members had a fire affinity. Sure, it was the most common in Konoha, but I expected at least one person to have a different affinity.

The lapse in attention nearly got me burned that time. Fortunately, it was missed when Sakumo tossed three kunai at us. Gopher earned a gash in his arm and Thing One got stabbed in the calf. I barely managed to bend backwards and avoid the one flying towards my head, both hands occupied with holding the other two off. "Keep your guard up. Just because you can get away with it, doesn't mean you're allowed to form bad habits. Kichiro, if you don't start attacking back. I will encase your feet in stone until you do."

I knew when Sakumo was kidding and when he wasn't. I started counter-attacking. Ten minutes later, Sakumo told my opponents to up their speed to the point where I could barely keep up. I earned several burns in the process of adjusting. Somehow, I wasn't entirely sure how, I managed to catch Thing One in the wind prison. It only lasted a few seconds before Gopher forced me to release him or get incinerated, but the lucky hit surprised me.

"Everyone, break!" Sakumo announced sometime later. It was good timing too, because there was no way I would have been able to avoid or counter Gopher's next attack while I was engaged with Thing One's. "Over here, Kichiro." Sakumo corrected as I was about to take the opportunity to check on Nagato. I hesitated, torn between following orders, I was already in hot water with Sakumo, and being a medic. I met his gaze for a moment then continued towards Nagato. Luckily, the boy was awake and sitting up, even if his sensei had a hand on his shoulder to stop him from tipping to one side.

"How are you feeling?" I asked softly, holding a hand to Nagato's forehead.

"Tired, really tired. I'm sorry I messed up, Nii-san. You could have won if it wasn't for me."

"I don't care about the match."

"But I do."

"Well, we can try again when you get better, okay?"

He nodded. "You're really good with wind ninjutsu. Can you show me how to do that?"

"Of course, but not until you've recovered. I don't think I need to say this, but no using chakra until later, okay?"

Nagato nodded.

"Good, I have to get back to the others before Sakumo gets fed up with me. Are you going to be okay here?"

"Can I stay with you?"

I shrugged. "Can he?" I asked Nagato's sensei.

"I think you'd be better off sitting here with me, Nagato. Just because you can't train, doesn't mean you can't keep learning."

"You'll train with me later, right, Nii-san?"

"Promise."

"Hatake-sensei looks really angry."

"I suppose that's my cue." I jumped to my feet and hurried over to where the others were meeting.

"If it wasn't for Tsunade's direct orders on the contrary, you wouldn't be getting this," Sakumo slapped a ration bar against my chest. It only took me a few seconds to inhale the entire thing. "Now that Kichiro has finally decided we are worth his time, let's get to work."