Chapter 47 -> Part 47

"Roach, what was the first jutsu Gopher used against Kichiro?" Sakumo began without missing a beat.

I frowned, not quite sure why the 'oh shit' expression was on everyone's face.

"Katon?" Roach winced as if he knew something bad was going to happen. Sakumo made hand seals so quickly that I nearly missed them, and fire blistered the palm of Roach's hand, even as he tried to dodge.

"What the hell—" I started to protest, but Gopher pinched me in warning. I found myself wondering exactly how good Sakumo was, considering everyone seemed to think Roach was untouchable. Aside from the injuries Sakumo had given him, he actually was, and everyone else was practically black-and-blue in comparison.

"Thing Two, what was your brother's thirty-second jutsu?"

A blond boy, who was very obviously Thing One's younger brother, paled. "Katon: Karyūdan?"

"Do you know, or are you guessing because that's your brother's favorite jutsu?"

"Guess?"

"You guessed wrong." Thing Two cringed back as Sakumo burned the boy's hand as well. "Kyo, what was the only jutsu Kichiro used?"

"That's a trick question, he never said any jutsu names or used any hand seals, and in order to be a jutsu, it has to meet at least one of those requirements."

"Wrong again, I know for certain you got your hands on his file that the General leaked, so you should be able to identify the jutsu without either." She was burned as well. "Since you were so eager to speak, Kichiro, tell me the order your comrades mastered the kunai trick."

I gritted my teeth before rattling off the order. "Toad managed it first but tried to hide it, then Mai, Roach, Kyo, Ankle Biter, then Toad had you check his work, and Thing Two got it last, but was the only person who didn't get branded in the process. Why the hell did you have to burn them? There was absolutely no reason—ow!" Gopher pinched me again.

"It seems only our resident newbie would have been able to give a reliable report on this morning's training. There is absolutely no excuse for none of you to be monitoring your surroundings, especially with a Ninjutsu fight occurring. Everyone needs to start paying attention, this is your only warning."

I winced at that; however, Sakumo did have a point. Keeping track of potential enemies on a battlefield was an essential skill, especially for younger operatives who needed every advantage they could get. Sakumo had drilled that into me as much as he could, especially since I was a medic and more vulnerable because of it. "Constant Vigilance," I muttered under my breath.

A beat later, there was a stifled snort of laughter before Roach collapsed, howling.

I barely managed to keep a straight face as everyone looked between us.

"Kichiro, Roach, and Gopher will be teammates against everyone else."

That sobered Roach up quick. "Shit, that ain't fair!"

"Sucks to be you, Roach," Sakumo shrugged.

The next second, Roach had grabbed my wrist and was pulling me away.

"Not so fast, Kichiro needs to heal everyone."

Roach released me, but continued marching some little ways away, studying everyone and discussing something with Gopher as I knelt down to start healing. An hour later, in which everyone had time to rest except me, I finished healing all but the most menial injuries. The Ninjutsu spar and the tornado had used up about half of my chakra reserves. Nagato's healing, as well as the healing of seven other moderately injured kids put me down to a third of my chakra remaining. That put me on-par with a Jōnin-track Chuunin in terms of reserves. It was more than anyone else on the training ground had, excluding Sakumo. Considering everyone I was facing was physically bigger and more experienced than me, Taijutsu wasn't a reliable option. I wasn't sure my reserves would hold out for as long as I would need them to. A glance at Sakumo told me it was an intentional attempt to exhaust me.

"Before we begin, there will be limitations. Kichiro, absolutely no Kyuubi and try to act like a medic. Roach and Gopher, that means you have to protect Kichiro. Everyone, no more than two people can attack a single person. Both teams have ten minutes to figure out their strategies. Go."

I blinked and Roach and Gopher had already grabbed me and were dragging me across the field.

"I'm telling you, it's six against three. They're going to send the twins against you and the brothers against me while Toad and Ankle Biter take down Kichiro. Once we lose him, we have to disengage and retreat, thus they win." Roach insisted.

"They know that's exactly what we'd expect and we can avoid being separated. They'll attack as a unit, targeting Kichiro the entire time. Either way we lose our medic—"

"I can defend myself, you know," I retorted.

They ignored me.

"If we lose Kichiro, we lose—"

"Hey!"

"What?" Roach barked.

"I may not be anywhere near as good as you, but I am a combat medic, that means I can fight; I'm not helpless. You're looking at the problem the wrong way."

They gave me incredulous looks.

"Hear me out. They're going to focus on some strategy to divide us in order to win right? You're expecting us to react to the problem. If we can put them on the defensive before that strategy can be implemented, we're not the ones being divided. Offense is the best defense after all."

Gopher snorted. "You obviously haven't seen Ankle Biter fight."

I frowned.

"He's the best Genjutsu user in the lower tiers of ANBU, excluding Roach, but Roach is probably going to make captain in the next year anyways. Some of his Genjutsu is borderline Ninjutsu. We could go on the offensive, but his defensive Genjutsus are the nastiest thing you've ever experienced."

"Does he need hand seals for his Genjutsu?"

"Obviously."

"Well, I can hit him with a Genjutsu right now and put him out of commission before the fight even starts if he's the only thing keeping you from an offensive approach."

"That's cheating!" Roach protested.

"I cheat like I'm damned and you kill people for a living. Get used to it." I glanced over at Ankle Biter. "Alright, the Genjutsu is set. I'll start it as soon as we start fighting."

They both scowled at me. "You refused to attack back in the Ninjutsu fight earlier until Sakumo made you," Gopher challenged.

"I didn't see any need to attack. It was two against one, and if I get hurt, I can heal myself. In this case, it's three against six in a melee. If someone, anyone, gets injured, there is every chance they won't be able to disengage fast enough, and that might cause them harm I can't reverse. The safest way is to end the battle as quickly as possible."

"Your very existence means your life is in danger. Why do you care about safety?"

"That is a discussion for another time. We need to hurry up on tactics. I already have Ankle Biter's Genjutsu covered. You don't have to worry about any jutsu from him, but if he switches to Taijutsu, he might realize I tagged him. What next?"

"I'll take the twins out right off the bat," Roach volunteered.

"Kichiro, you should be able to hold off whomever comes for you for long enough that Roach can help you. I'll intercept the brothers, but I'm going to need help."

"I can run support, you know."

"Why the hell didn't you say so sooner?" Roach snapped.

"Combat medic. All have the same basic skillset."

"There's nothing in your profile—"

"My profile hasn't been updated since the end of my first mission."

"In that case—"

"Begin!" Sakumo announced.

"That wasn't—" someone tried to protest, but the three of us were already flying across the field towards the other group.

Roach got to them first and took the younger twin out with an arm to her throat before she could react. He spun around, but Kyo reacted fast enough to give him a nasty gash from his armpit to his hip with a kunai before his foot snapped out and shattered her knee. He knocked both girls out with a kunai to the temple before I could stop him. I made a mental note to lecture everyone on the seriousness of head injuries before Toad flew in my face.

For the first few seconds, I relied almost entirely on the reflexes Sakumo drilled into me. Toad was fast, faster than Sakumo normally pushed me. After blocking a particularly vicious kick, I tried to grab him and turn the fight into a grappling contest to neutralize his advantage, but he never stayed close enough for me to be successful. Without Roach's initial surprise, Gopher struggled against two opponents tag-teaming him. Instead of helping, Roach had gone after Ankle Biter. For the next few seconds, my entire attention was necessary to defend against a particularly vicious combination from Toad.

I was steadily forced backwards and away from the fighting as I tried to make space to breathe, without luck. Toad pressed his advantage. With no warning, his style switched to the first few stances of the Hyuuga Gentle Fist. Alarmed, I tried to back up too quickly, and a rock under my heel shifted unexpectedly, sending me skidding on my butt. In an instant, he was sitting on my stomach, pinning me to the ground. While it wasn't impossible to copy a taijutsu style by watching it, few people took the time to, and the Hyuuga's style was impossible for anyone but a Hyuuga.

"Yield," he ordered. In a real fight, I would have given up when he told me to. In a spar, I took risks I would never have considered if my life was on the line.

"No," I snapped back and flicked my fingers, a blade of wind cutting deep into his upper arm. He cursed and released one of my arms to retaliate by stabbing a fiery kunai into my right shoulder. He started to back off, and I took the opportunity to plant both of my feet against his chest armor and launch him across the training ground.

Unfortunately, he managed to catch himself. Instead of flying back towards me, he flew at Roach, whose back was turned. I altered the Genjutsu on Ankle Biter as Roach collapsed from a sharp strike to the temple. Ankle Biter went down as Gopher disengaged and landed beside me.

The other three closed ranks and advanced.

"If you can't beat Toad, we can't win, not without Roach."

"Shit."

"We yield," Gopher announced.

I scowled at that.

"Good call. Kichiro, heal and wake up your comrades, please," Sakumo ordered. I hurried over to Roach first, who definitely gained the worst injury to his side. A half hour later, I finished, my chakra at a quarter of its full capacity. All the others were even more exhausted. "Good job today, everyone. Early dinner should be starting soon; you're dismissed for the day. Meet back here tomorrow, same time as this morning. We'll be starting with a tournament."

Everyone was quick to leave, but Sakumo grabbed my arm before I could head over to Nagato.

"You forgot to heal yourself."

I rolled my eyes, but held my hand over my shoulder to heal the cauterized stab wound.

"A lot of people were jockeying to be your mentor in ANBU," Sakumo murmured. "Rat and Panda were only the two properly qualified. I've always valued the input of others, but I never tolerate disobeying orders, especially not in ANBU and I would thrash anyone else within an inch of their life if they tried. One of the reasons you are in ANBU to begin with is because of your track record in following orders and your chronic lack of respect. Though I am unsure of what the Hokage's reasoning was, others have expressed their disapproval of your conduct and they hope that placing you with agents far above your skill to be humbling enough to curb the extent of your negative traits."

I rolled my eyes.

"That means—"

"I need to start behaving or I will be placed with someone who won't give me a choice."

"Until you became the Spirit, you were nearly lost in the system. In ANBU, there isn't enough people for you to be lost in. Your age and specialization make that even more impossible."

"I understand."

"Good. The Hokage wants to finish his discussion from last night with you and Nagato."

I nodded.

"Nii-san, are you okay?" Nagato asked from directly behind me. I flinched, having not noticed his approach. Nagato had too little chakra for me to properly sense. I turned around and pulled him into a hug.

"Later," I murmured in his ear. When I released him, he swayed on his feet. "How are you feeling?" I asked. The boy scowled at me when he realized he wasn't getting a straight answer. I smirked. With a scowl exactly like mine that had to have taken a lot of practice to perfect, I could see why Kyo had referred to him as my doppelganger. "Nagato?" I asked when he didn't make an effort to respond. I rolled my eyes and did diagnostics instead.

"Time to go," Sakumo said and grabbed my arm and Nagato's. A shunshin later, we were standing in front of the Hokage, who looked several years older than he did yesterday. Sakumo left as quickly as he came, leaving Nagato and I alone, a few steps back from the Hokage's desk. I put my arm around the boy's shoulders when he leaned against me.

"Before your mission to Kumo, you point-blank refused to work with Orochimaru. Did you know about the experiments he's been conducting?"

I flinched. "No, I didn't know, but I suspected. It's part of what I'm here to tell you."

"Am I right in thinking that the rest of your explanation will be much more difficult to believe than the previous bit?"

"That is almost certainly the case."

"And the rest will be much more sensitive in nature?"

I shrugged. "The only reason I'm telling you anything is so that you'll take me seriously about Madara. If you don't, I'm just going to announce it to everyone and hope someone does."

"Will you respect my decision on the matter?"

"As long as something is being done and I have no other solutions."

"Do you have a solution already?"

"No."

Nagato wasn't nearly as clingy as Kushina, but he was vulnerable in his exhaustion and he kept close to me, as if I could protect him.

"Have a seat and we'll continue where we left off last night."

Nagato and I sat down shoulder-to-shoulder in the chair off to our left. Well, I sat down and Nagato followed.

"You elaborated on Madara's role and the buildup to the problem but indicated that there was more than Madara's plans in this source you say this comes from. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Continue from where you left off."

"Well, eventually, Madara plans to steal all the Bijū, but he doesn't have the resources to do so, and won't for a long time. Anyways, shortly after the battle at the Valley of the End, the First Shinobi World War began. I have no idea if Madara was involved in starting that, but from my history lessons—"

The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, from the time I spent in the Konoha library, I figured that it's entirely possible, even if I can't pinpoint what he did and why. During that was, the Shodai died, and the Nidaime died in one of the final battles facing the Kinkaku Force from Kumogakure in order to allow his team and a few others to escape." The Sandaime stiffened. "Your willingness to sacrifice yourself is why the Nidaime chose you as his successor."

"Only six living people know what happened that night and all of them refuse to speak of it," he accused, his voice angry.

I didn't answer that. I knew I had crossed a line, even though I wasn't sure how. I stared at the ground in front of me. I hadn't put my gloves back on from healing, and Nagato started to trace the seal on my palm with his finger.

The Sandaime didn't continue the conversation for a long time. I let the silence stretch on. From the histories and the biography on the Nidaime that I had read, the Nidaime's death had approximately the same impact on Konoha as the assassination of Kennedy had on the United States.

"Continue," he finally ordered.

"It didn't mention anything else until Kushina arrived in Konoha around the time of Uzu's destruction, except, she was one of the very few who had survived it, and the only one to come to Konoha. Nagato and his parents were in Ame at the time, and the only other Uzumaki mentioned would be a kid or teenager right now. Shortly after Kushina became Genin, she was kidnapped by Kumo and rescued by Minato."

"And because Minato-kun had managed by himself, you decided you could do the same thing here."

"I've never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed. Either way, in the story, Minato rescued her and the Kyuubi was sealed in her sometime after. In the time between Uzu's destruction and the Third Shinobi World War, Nagato lived in Ame with his parents. Madara planted the Rinnegan in him. Instead of me and Sakumo coming across them and bringing the family to Konoha, two others went and Nagato's parents attacked them to give Nagato time to run. They died, Nagato activated the Rinnegan, and killed the two shinobi." Nagato stiffened against my side. "He wandered around until he met up with two other orphans. After the Sannin faced Hanzō, they encountered the orphans. Jiraiya stayed to teach them to feed themselves, eventually finding out about the Rinnegan and then trained the three of them as ninja to give them an edge in their quest to overthrow Hanzō. Sometime later, it wasn't specific on years at all, the Third Shinobi World War began. During it, a team was sent to destroy the Kannabi bridge.

"The team was basically the next generation of Sannin before they were able to get along. On the mission, the girl was kidnapped by Iwa. It was either orchestrated by Madara or a freak coincidence. The two boys went after her. They managed to rescue her, but one of the boys, he was an Uchiha, was crushed under an Iwa jutsu in the process. He gave his Sharingan to his teammate so he could get the girl out. Instead of dying, Madara rescues the boy and eventually arranges for the girl to die in front of him, causing his spiral into madness. After the war, the Yondaime is appointed and Orochimaru's experiments are uncovered and he is declared a missing-nin. Life goes on, Kushina has a baby like apparently everyone else, and the Uchiha mentioned earlier, driven mad by Madara, who is too old to do squat, took advantage of the seal loosened from the pregnancy to use the Kyuubi to destroy Konoha. She dies, the Yondaime dies sealing the Kyuubi into her son, one of the last four living Uzumaki in the world. Well, Konoha didn't know about the other three.

"Somewhere in that time frame, Nagato, and the two others Jiraiya trained, formed a group called the Akatsuki and confronted Hanzō to try and bring peace to their country. Well, with the help of Danzō, who wasn't called out on his army of robot children—"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well, you ended up telling Danzō at some point to start handling affairs of Konoha that were too dark to involve the regular forces, including ANBU. He made ROOT and eventually, you know, the whole 'when you look at the dark side, careful you must be, for the dark side looks back' deal became a thing. Anyways, Danzō helped Hanzō kidnap one of their founding members during the confrontation and told Nagato that he had to kill his best friend or the girl would die. Well, said best friend committed suicide on the kunai in Nagato's hand, which drove Nagato insane and warped his ideals of how to achieve peace. Back in Konoha, you were stuck with a position you were too old for and Kushina's son grew up a pariah because of the hard feelings toward the Kyuubi contained in him. You made a law to prevent the adults from telling their children about the Kyuubi and isolating him from his peers, but the kids picked up on their parent's attitudes and it didn't work."

I stifled a yawn.

"The kid grew up and eventually made it his dream to become the Hokage, and still loved the village despite the wrongs it had done him. He was also a chronic prankster, and a damn good one at that, even though he was the dead last at the Academy. He found out about the Kyuubi, graduated, had a botched mission, took the Chuunin exams, went on a training trip with Jiraiya. During that time, Nagato, manipulated by Madara, had finalized his plan to bring peace to the world through force. He turned the Akatsuki into a mercenary organization of S-ranked missing-nin. Their long-term goal was to steal all the Bijū in order to be the most powerful group in the world so no one could oppose them and they could tell everyone to stop fighting or else their village would be wiped off the face of the earth. Well, Kushina's son wasn't going to stand for the targeting of his fellow Jinchuuriki, so one thing led to another and Nagato, calling himself a god by the name of Pein, he was pretty much an insane fanatic at this point because of Madara, basically annihilated the village. Kushina's son fought him, almost lost, but won, and some miracle bullshit made Nagato turn over a new leaf and resurrect everyone in the village, which killed him in the process."

I had to force myself to look straight ahead at the Hokage and ignore Nagato's reactions. Even so, I couldn't ignore his nails digging in to the crook of my elbow or the fact I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers anymore. I pried his hands loose and gave the boy a hug.

"None of that shit is going to happen. Nagato is here, Kushina's not a Jinchuuriki, from what I can tell, Danzō isn't a ruthless, jealous asshole, and the team that gets torn apart are infants, if they've even been born yet, I haven't checked. The people powerful and influential enough for Madara to make useful puppets out of are not in a position to be manipulated."

The Hokage studied me, but I ignored him and stared at the front of his desk, my chin resting on Nagato's head. "If Madara is indeed alive—"

"There's no 'if', he is alive and planning to screw over the world."

"If this is true," he continued, daring me to interrupt and contradict him again, "Beyond keeping Nagato out of his influence, I don't see any feasible way to combat a threat of this nature, and I have no resources to spare in hunting it down, at least not until this war is over."

I scowled, but he was right.

"There are three more things I want to discuss with you, but they will have to wait. You are needed to assist in an experiment to cut losses in ANBU. Kagami will bring you. I need to speak with Nagato-kun about the security measures he will need to implement in his interactions with others and the less people who know, the better."

I didn't get a choice in the matter. Kagami, who apparently had been in the room the entire time, cleared his throat behind me. I was more on edge than I thought because the unexpected noise and the presence at my back automatically sent me reaching for the sticks at my back. The second I lost my grip on Nagato, Kagami pulled me into a shunshin. We landed in an unfamiliar part of ANBU. The entire hallway was filled with soundproof doors. Three of the doors had the seals activated, the only light in the dark corridor.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"Captive and interrogation training." Kagami answered shortly, his mask on.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll see."

He opened one of the doors and pulled me inside behind him, quickly following and snapping it closed behind him.

There were several people standing in front of a piece of glass with seals glowing around the edge. They all turned and bowed out of the way, murmuring 'General-sama', that is, until Sakumo noticed me standing a step behind him and slammed his hand against the seal, cutting off the noise from the other side of the glass. He glared at Kagami, silently demanding an explanation, which he gave, but I wasn't listening. On the other side of the glass was a man dangling by his wrists from the ceiling, clearly being tortured by the team of four prowling around him. As I watched, horrified, he screamed, face twisted in pain.

My stomach churned and I wished I didn't have the experience I did in identifying injuries by sight to avoid wasting time in the field with diagnostics. Everyone except for Sakumo had a textbook open. It was one of the books Kushina had brought back from the Academy on employing and resisting torture and interrogation techniques. Of course, she had been given the watered-down, abridged version that was not-quite as inappropriate for pre-adolescents and I had seen the full version on the shelf of the Konoha library the handful of times Sakumo had brought me into the shinobi section.

I couldn't ban her from the book, but whatever she read in it gave her nightmares for weeks, if not months, and I would wake up in the morning with her shivering against my back.

Distantly, I heard Sakumo speaking, his voice cold. "If you weren't going to respect my decisions in regards to his training, then why did you allow the formality?" He knocked me into the wall on his way out.

I had treated plenty of victims of torture, but that was always conflict between villages, desperation for information driving them to extreme lengths, I could understand. I could understand, even though I abhorred the thought of it, terrorism tactics, like what had been used on Minato, Kushina, and their third teammate, whose name I had forgotten a long time ago, but I recognized the man dangling from the chains. He was one of the young men I had shared breakfast with the day before, Cat. There was a timer on the wall that showed six hours had elapsed since it was set.

The next thing I knew, I was standing beside Cat's unconscious body, healing on autopilot.