Chapter 56

Nagato did just fine anyways. While he didn't know as many styles as I did, he was good. There was a damn good reason he was specializing in Taijutsu. I had to take full advantage of my greater height, weight, and ability to take damage with impunity in order to hold him off. In purely hand-to-hand combat, Nagato was undoubtedly better. My sticks leveled the playing field by a lot, and the fact that Nagato had to keep his feet attached to the ceiling at all times and couldn't attach parts of his body to the ceiling at will to increase the number of angles he could attack with, actions that gave me twice the attack range and maneuverability. Nagato earned his fair share of bruises; he fell as often as he succeeded. A surprise leg sweep on my part had him attempt to jump over it, forgetting that gravity was working in the opposite direction and nearly sent him headfirst into the seal. He turned the dive into a clumsy roll, hissing as the seal sent painful shocks through his body until he stepped up on the wall to continue the fight.

Unfortunately for me, after two hours of ceaseless Taijutsu, Nagato started to get the hang of fighting upside down. Panther's occasional Genjutsus became easier for Nagato to brush off when he was actually fighting. He had a bad habit of relying on pain to break himself out but Panther noticed the problem shortly after and hit Nagato with a sensory deprivation Genjutsu. It was good timing, since Nagato had managed to lock his hands around my wrists and was in the process of disarming me.

"Shit, shit, shit," Nagato hissed in English. It was funny he was copying me, but I was still going to needle him about his language. "Is this a Genjutsu? Yes, obviously. Shit! I can't feel my chakra, how am I supposed to—there it is. What if I destroy the root instead of—does gravity affect chakra—no, focus, still fighting, almost won. I need to get rid of the root of the Genjutsu. Maybe I won't fall if I don't disrupt the entirety of my chakra system at once."

I smirked as Nagato readjusted his stance. "You should really watch your language."

He flushed and grumbled something about me cursing all the time.

"I'm older," I retorted.

"You cussed all the time when you were my age, To-chan said so."

"To-chan didn't know me when your age and you're the baby."

"I am not! Natsuki is."

I considered being nice, but quickly dismissed the idea. "I'm not too sure about that."

"She's three!"

"I fail to see your point."

"You're teasing me."

"Just stating the facts. Someone's getting too big for his britches." I winced. The idiom did not translate very well.

"Why do you say weird things, Nii-san?"

"Shut it, bratling. You're the one with drool all over your front."

Nagato looked at his shirt in panic and I took the opportunity to continue the fight. I was twice, maybe three times as good at Taijutsu as I was three years ago, but Nagato had thrown himself into Taijutsu, since he had few other responsibilities and his chakra capacity was several years away from being able to fuel large jutsus. B-rank jutsu exhausted him too much to train with and he mastered jutsu twice as fast as me, though he still needed hand seals for all of them, and no matter what we tried, he just couldn't figure out how to do jutsu without them.

It wasn't just him that couldn't do it. Thinking that it was because Nagato and I had different affinities it didn't work, they asked me to try and teach one of the adults in ANBU with a wind affinity. When the man decided it wasn't worth the effort, they found a kid who wanted to be a ninja and had a wind affinity.

The child was only six, but since I had unprecedented success with Nagato at that age, they were hoping I could replicate it. The evenings of the past three weeks had been spent with the boy, teaching him. It also made sure I remained somewhat in the public eye. He and his younger sister had been abandoned by their parents.

Their aunt and uncle had taken them in but died a month before I picked up the kid as a student. Practically orphaned, but not qualified for the stipend Kushina and I received, he proved himself to be extremely determined and nearly managed to meet the Academy's minimum requirements without any help.

While his sister was still young enough to be eligible for free schooling, but he was not. The kid was exceptionally resourceful and intelligent in practice, though it didn't fully translate to activities other than survival. During the day, he worked to pick up kunai, shuriken, and other abandoned shinobi supplies from the training grounds to trade for rations for him and his sister. I wasn't entirely sure where they lived, but I suspected the two were homeless, even though I wasn't allowed the time to investigate the matter.

I was hoping the boy wouldn't show one day so I could figure it out, but he was always early, struggling, and ultimately failing, to do the independent reading I assigned. I knew he couldn't do the assignment to begin with. Most of it was chakra theory that Nagato was barely able to comprehend. Not to mention the boy couldn't even read it.

I never asked him if he finished it, hoping he would figure out the lesson and come clean, but so far, he just nodded when I asked if he understood it. In all the progress reports I was required to give, I never failed to mention that the boy needed to either be in school or have a full-time teacher if he was going to pass the wartime Genin test anytime in the next five years. It would have been extremely easy to push the kid into class with his sister and house the two of them with a retiree or an injured shinobi. Someone was stopping the kid by making sure he never got to school and met the requirements to graduate to Genin.

Thinking about the kid made me lose focus on my fight with Nagato, which proved disastrous. For me at least. Nagato twisted, his foot flying straight towards the back of my head while I was forced to use both arms to block a wicked punch a kid as small as him shouldn't have been able to throw. Instead of trying to block, I sent a pulse of chakra, like I was dispelling a Genjutsu attached to him, at his foot that was planted on the ceiling. He squawked as he started to fall and couldn't adjust the kick in time.

He hit the ground a second after I quit fueling the seal, hissing at the mild shock that was left over. "I had you! Twice!" Nagato insisted as I flipped and landed in front of him.

"No, you didn't," I lied. "You fell. The first time, you got caught in a Genjutsu." During the past year, I had only barely managed to hang on to my title as 'better than Nagato' in Taijutsu through a mixture of pulling rank, hasty ends to fights, and convenient third-party interruptions. Nagato was better and he knew it, he just couldn't prove it because I never allowed myself to be dragged into a straight Taijutsu match with him. "Either way, you've got the hang of it, for the most part, you didn't even fall when you dispelled the Genjutsu. Just remember, you don't have to disrupt the chakra in your feet to dispel a Genjutsu that doesn't target them."

"Why didn't you say that from the beginning?"

"Because you're trying too hard."

"Nii-san, you are the most vindictive person I know."

"You don't know all that many—" Nagato cut me off with a punch to the stomach.

"I deserved that," I wheezed. Panther left without a word.

"You did. Anyways, you're supposed to be doing doctor stuff today. What changed?"

"I had another fight with the General and the Hokage."

Nagato rolled his eyes. "You're going to get in real trouble if you keep this up."

"You know I don't care about that. I'm going to see if Jackal will let me out of headquarters to surprise Genma."

"The kid you're teaching?"

"Yeah."

"Did he ever come clean about the reading?"

"No."

"You mentioned you wouldn't be able to teach him much with the time constraints."

"Someone's watching out for the kid, trying to make sure he doesn't get sent on missions too early."

"But you wouldn't let that happen."

"If I was his formal sensei, I would have more control, but the mission says I'm only teaching him wind Ninjutsu without hand seals. I can't do that until he has more chakra and it's going to be years before he gets to that point at this rate. I just wish whoever is trying to protect him would reveal themselves so the kid can actually get a roof over his head."

"He doesn't have a house?"

"His parents abandoned him and his sister when they left Konoha. Since he's not an orphan, he doesn't get any help or a discount on the regular Academy and can't pay the full student fees. The village needs me to pass along my wind ability and prove it's not a Kekkei Genkai, so I took the kid on for a few ryo. It's where the pile of spare change on the desk came from."

"You never buy anything."

"I've been saving it to get the kid his own kunai and shuriken, though he has a preference for senbon."

"And he's only six and not a shinobi so he can't get them himself."

"Exactly. I certainly don't need the money."

"Jackal's not going to let you out."

"So?"

"You know what, I want plausible deniability. Do whatever the hell—"

"Language."

"Shut up. Whatever the hell—"

"Language."

"—you plan on doing; I'm going to go work on the seal-less water jutsu you suggested I start with."

I waved and left. Ten minutes later, I had changed into my Chuunin uniform and practically skipped up to the main door of ANBU where Jackal sat behind a desk. He was tossing kunai at a target on the other side of the hall.

"Go away, Uzumaki, you're not allowed out for another six hours."

"You say that like I've sneaked out before."

"Why do you want out?"

"You know the kid I took on?"

"You're still a kid too, but yes."

"That's beside the point. Well, I only get an hour or two a day to teach him, and today I'm mostly free, so I want to actually train him for once."

Jackal glared at me, the mask on the side of his head making the expression unexpectedly fearsome. I couldn't help but shift uncomfortably. "Can you tell me why I'm on shift today?"

"Not for certain, no."

"What can you tell me about my family?"

"Um, small shinobi clan, immediate family is all civilian. You have four older sisters, your father is dead, as are two of your sisters. Your mother is one of the clan elders. I don't know anything specific."

"One of the sisters who is 'dead' actually abandoned Konoha with her husband. My clan refuses to recognize the children they left behind."

My eyes widened. "So, you're the one who has been stopping my requests to place the boy with a full-time mentor."

"ANBU takes the kids no one will miss. I've made sure they have food and shelter, but I can't, in good conscience, put their applications forward for ANBU unless the girl decides to be a shinobi as well."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you have access where I don't. I already have a full team, so even if I manage to pull them in, I can't take them on. The General is taking every excuse to keep you in the village. Both children are wind-natured."

"Again, what does this have to do with me?" I already suspected the answer, but I wanted to hear him say it.

"Because you can take on a future combat team, I can't. It's quite common for ANBU members to raise their own team. I get my niece and nephew in a place I can make sure they're taken care of, the General gets his real excuse to keep you in the village, and the Hokage gets his best shots at you passing on the freaky air control you have without risking creating a third Kichiro."

"Third?"

"That little brother of yours may be an angel when you're around, but he's more of a hellion than you are when you're not there to make him behave."

"I could take offense to those statements."

"But you won't because you're secretly proud of your brother and take pride in your own troublemaking capacity."

I nodded good-naturedly, deciding not to insist that my troublemaking wasn't intentional—it just happened. "So, can I go?"

"On one condition."

"What condition?"

"Pick up Genma's sister, Sachiko, from school early and take her to this address." Jackal held out a scrap of paper. "Then you have until midnight to be back."

"The girl would be an idiot to follow me anywhere."

"She knows you're coming."

"How?"

"I told her."

"How?"

"Shadow clone. You have six minutes to get to school and sneak her out of recess."

"Fine." I snatched the paper out of his hand and marched out of headquarters.

I arrived at the school in less than a minute. It was about a block away from the ANBU headquarters, which I knew wasn't a coincidence.

As soon as I caught sight of the playground, one of the little girls leapt off the swing, flipped in the air and landed, rolling several times before jumping to her feet, unhurt. "I told you I could do it!" She boasted to a knot of older boys. "Now you gotta let me play ninja with you."

"No one wants to play with a cheating baby!" They retorted. I guessed they were eight and the girl was about five.

"I don't cheat!" She shrieked, lunging towards them, fists flying. The boys sneered and took the opportunity to jump on her. I was more than a little annoyed at the fact there was only one adult on the playground to supervise, and even though she was looking directly at the fighting children, she didn't lift a finger as the older boys ganged up on her.

I sighed and leapt the fence, landing behind the boys with a loud thump. "You know, five to one is overkill against almost anyone."

"She started it," one of them protested.

"She's three years younger than you, and you antagonized her hoping for a fight. Because she threw the first punch, I'll keep it at this. If you want to fight, I don't care, but pick on someone your own size. Now scram!"

"What about you?" One of the ringleaders challenged.

I was at least a foot and a half taller than the tallest of them. "Try me," I growled, releasing the tiniest bead of killing intent. They quickly hurried off and I knelt beside the girl. The caretaker watched us, but to my annoyance, she didn't interfere as I crouched beside the girl and laid a hand coated with medical jutsu on her forehead. "You're fine, now go play," I stood up and started to march away.

She jumped up and grabbed my hand. I barely managed to stop myself before I reflexively threw her across the playground.

"Never approach a shinobi from behind, girl, and never, ever touch one without their explicit permission, understand?" I snapped at her. I probably sounded scarier than I did when I told the boys to buzz off.

She nodded and I marched away towards the woman who was supposed to be taking care of the children.

"Three things, lady." I told her flatly. "Uniform or not, you need to need to at least approach any stranger that walks onto the playground. Secondly, since when are eight-year-olds allowed to beat up their much younger classmates? You should have interfered in the fight, no matter who threw the first punch, but you didn't even move. Finally, I'm Kichiro and I've been told to pick up Shiruani Sachiko for the day."

"She's in detention."

"For?"

"Not bringing a lunch."

"You do realize that the girl is being cared for by her six-year-old brother, right?"

"Her family are traitors, it's only a matter of time—"

"Her older brother wasn't even old enough to remember their parents when they left, much less her. Even by shinobi standards, they are under no suspicion."

"The boy is a thief and the girl isn't much better."

"The boy is six and is trying to feed himself and his sister by himself. I also know for certain that he is not a thief. Thank you for your time."

I turned on my heel and marched towards the lone child-sized chakra signature in the Academy building. The girl from before followed me like a lost puppy. I ignored her.

"Chiro-sensei!" Sachiko exclaimed when I unlocked and opened the door to the classroom she was in.

"Um, hi," I responded uncertainly.

"You don't know me, but I'm Sachiko!"

"Uh huh," She plowed right through my response.

"You teach my nii-san shinobi stuff! It's so cool because he teaches them to me a lot too and they're really fun and Nobody said you were going to come pick me up today and I'm so excited and—and—and that was all I really have to say but I'm really excited and are you going to teach me shinobi stuff too and—and—and—"

I held up a hand to stop her. "I have no idea what's going on. I was told to pick you up and take you somewhere, that's all." The 'Nobody' thing threw me for a loop and left me wondering why Jackal would pull an Odysseus on a little girl.

"Can I come?" The girl from before asked. I didn't even look at her.

"Let's go." I tuned on my heel and marched out while the girls stared each other down. Something was decided and they both rushed after me. I ignored them both as they fought for my attention the entire way there. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for me, the destination was on the opposite side of Konoha. I had to foil at least two murder attempts each, and stop one aimed at myself from the yet-unnamed girl. I managed to do most of it through very pointed killing intent, but I had to actually disarm Sachiko once. Said weapon was a kunai I had given Genma, and I made note to give it back to him and remind him that only ninja and ninja-in-training were allowed to carry blades and/or weapons in public places.

Too late, I realized what I had been set up for. The address I had been given was one of the handful of training grounds that weren't actually in Headquarters. Apparently, Genma had been assigned to clean up the same training ground. I scanned the likeliest of ANBU hiding places and noticed Jackal crouched in the most obvious, watching the three children swarm me with interest. I glared at him. A second scan revealed that there were four others watching, even though I couldn't make out their identities.

The children must have sensed something change and immediately fell silent.

Something wasn't right. Sure, Jackal wanted me to help him with something, but if he was here, he would have approached. Something moved out of the corner of my eye, just over the unnamed girl's head. I spun and dropped her on her back, barely catching the kunai headed straight for her head before it went through my middle, grumbling curses under my breath as several supposed missing-nin started to circle. Someone threw a dozen kunai at Sachiko as soon as Genma turned his back. I jerked her towards me to give myself enough time to pull up an earth wall to stop the kunai. I pushed her down beside the other girl, just as Nagato arrived. I grabbed Genma's collar and yanked him out of the way of a shuriken before he got the hint and crouched beside the two girls. Nagato took up a position on the other side of the children and we settled into a defensive stance, circling the children in the opposite direction of the assailants. It was a tricky defensive maneuver because we switched potential opponents so quickly, but it also decreased the opportunities for the children to be targeted. Jutsu wasn't allowed on this particular training ground, so I knew it would be a matter of minutes before someone arrived to check out what was going on.

I stomped on the ground and channeled chakra through my foot to raise a waist-high wall around the children, pumping enough chakra into it and the ground underneath them to turn it to stone. It took a ridiculous amount of chakra to get through that kind of material, which forced the assailants to attack from above or waste their own energy. I was also sure that the stone would quickly become a permanent fixture on the training ground.

They continued to circle, throwing the occasional kunai, which Nagato or I threw right back at them, but faster.

When two minutes elapsed and they continued to edge closer, I started to worry. There should have been an alarm raised. I couldn't completely encase the children in stone and risk them suffocating, nor could I fight. They had Nagato and I outnumbered five-to-one. I was quite curious as to how Nagato was there, but not curious enough to say anything.

Over the next few seconds, the pieces started to fall together. Jackal was unmoved, and when I looked closer, he was barely breathing. "We surrender," I growled. It wasn't an actual attack; it was a surprise evaluation.

They approached cautiously. Nagato silently allowed himself to be manhandled to the ground, a seal placed on the base of his neck to knock him out. The three children were pulled out of the somewhat safe bowl I made and treated similarly, but with kicking, screaming, and crying on their part. Unlike with Nagato, three people for each child was overkill, even if they did have a tiny bit of ninja training each. Finally, they focused on me.