11 Chapter 11

One year later, Hyto was now 11 years old and many things have changed in this time. The Rasugi clan has flourished with both Midori and Hyto's leadership, which surprised him as he never really saw himself as much of a leader.

The clan members began training under Hyto, learning the clan techniques, and some people, like Midori and Amagi excelled so much that Hyto let them sign their name names on the summoning scroll.

They also started breeding and training shinobi cats called, Nekonin, that can help them in battle the same way the Ninken help the Inuzuka and the Hatake. Hyto even has his own Nekonin which resembled a black tiger that he called, Yami. Yami was just a kitten at the moment, but she was still slightly bigger than full-grown house cats. Hyto loved Yami a lot and brought her everywhere in his cloak, but it would be many years before Yami would be old enough to use in an actual battle.

The Rasugi clan also got into many businesses like hunting, weapon-smithing, and Hyto personally started a construction company which he was garnering a lot of business with, as allowing his building skills using Earthbending to level up several times.

Outside of the Rasugi clan, Minato, Kushina, and Nono, along with Ayumi Uchiha were able to graduate the previous year a few months after Hyto's first mission. Minato and Kushina were assigned to Jiraiya's team, but he was gone on important missions constantly, so they have yet to actually meet him.

Nono and Ayumi were both assigned to Orochimaru's team alongside Nawaki, which greatly surprised him, as he didn't remember any of these arrangements happening besides Minato being with Jiraiya. He was starting to worry if his presence had drastically screwed things up, as he already didn't know much about the Naruto lore, so he'd be screwed if it started going off the rails.

A big worry for him was Orochimaru. Hyto has noticed Orochimaru staring at him a few times, but nothing to the level of the show. He also seems to be far more tame at the moment, which makes sense. He couldn't have always been crazy. Still, Hyto worried about Nono's wellbeing serving under the future pedo snake, so he was already working on plans to get her away from him. He only had a few years before he had to pick a wife and Nono was one of the best choices.

At the moment, Hyto was sitting at Icharaku ramen, along with Minato, Kushina, Nono, and much to Hyto's disdain, Ayumi. Ever since Nono and Ayumi were assigned to the same team, Ayumi has been trying to stick around the group like glue, namely Hyto. He couldn't see it when he was younger due to denial, but it was now clear to Hyto's adult mind that Ayumi had a thing for him. But she still put up a tsundere act with him that Hyto had to admit he found slightly adorable.

"So Hyto, is what you said true? Is war really coming soon?" Asked Minato in a slightly worried tone as he held Kushina's hand. During Hyto's constant absence, Minato and Kushina were able to get close to each other like they were supposed to. Though Hyto would catch her peeping at him every now and then. And strangely, Minato as well.

Now, Hyto was no idiot, so it was clear to him that this universe's Minato wasn't that hung up on which team he batted for and had somewhat of a thing for him, but he didn't really judge. Hyto was a firm believer of you're into who you're into, and that not everyone had to love the same.

Hell, even he began doubting himself once he found out that Kayama was a boy and still thought he was super girly and cute. Every time they sparred and there so happened to be even the slightest bit of grappling, Kayama would blush heavily, making the whole thing awkward. Still, Hyto liked Kayama a lot and added them to the list of potential waifu.

"Unfortunately, it's true. There are more and more skirmishes happening along the border, and the enemy's numbers seem to get higher every time. We've started to lose land through all of the pillaging, and the higher-ups aren't having it. There's a meeting tonight with all of the Clan Leaders and the Jounin where I suspect the announcement of the war will be made official." Hyto said as he finished the last of his ramen.

"Then why have they been just having us sit on our asses this whole time! Me and Mina could've been out making a difference!" Kushina complained loudly as she ate her 6th bowl of ramen angrily.

"Kushina, you know that our assigned jounin has been away on missions. And if what Hyto says is true, it makes perfect sense why he wouldn't be able to drop his missions to come watch over us." Minato said as he rubbed Kushina's hair to calm her.

"But it's not fair that Hyto gets to go out and we're stuck doing 'D' and 'C' rank missions! Hyto, you're supposed to be my rival! Why do you keep trying to leave me so far behind?!" Ayumi asked as she pointed an accusatory finger at Hyto, but her voice had a tinge of sadness that threw him off.

Before Hyto could respond, he felt two familiar presences appear behind him, saving him from a potentially annoying conversation with Ayumi. Turning around, Hyto saw his fellow teammates of what was now known as, Hellion Squad, Mikoto Uchiha and Hiashi Hyuga.

"Hyto, why did I know you'd be here lazing around? Tsunade-sensei said that you took a break from your shift at the hospital and have been gone for hours!" Mikoto said in a reprimanding tone as she crossed her arms under her heavy chest that was starting to resemble their sensei's.

Mikoto has somewhat become Hyto's rule enforcer for whenever Tsunade wasn't around, but Hyto didn't mind it much. He knew he was lazy, and though she tried to enforce the rules and get Hyto to do better, Mikoto was never a bitch about it, which helped her and Hyto's relationship grew very close over this year and a half they've been working together. A fact that has angered Ayumi to no end, as Mikoto often likes to to tease her by showing off how close her and Hyto were.

Now Hiashi was very different from Mikoto. Hiashi and Hyto were cordial, but that was as far as their relationship went. Despite Hyto actually trying to be friendly with Hiashi, the guy just wasn't a very sociable person. It made Hyto wonder how this prude would ever charm a woman and have two smoking hot daughters one day.

But, Hiashi did teach Hyto how to block chakra points. Mostly when Hyto was peeping on Tsunade and Mikoto bathing on missions and Hiashi dragged his paralyzed body away. Still, after having his chakra points blocked so many times, Hyto also became an expert at it, so that was something.

"Ahh, Mikoto, you always have the best timing. But since Tsuna-chan has sent both of you to fetch me, I assume it's something more important than healing some guy getting chakra sickness from screwing his own clone again. Seriously, the amount of times that happens is disturbing." Hyto said with a shudder as he remembered one of his patients tried to fuck a clone he made out of rock and his junk came out looking like an empty tube of toothpaste. Hyto couldn't eat for nearly a week after that.

"What? Ew, no! And will you please refer to Tsunade-sensei by her proper name? I know you and her are close, but you have to start acting more professionally in front of others. Anyway, sensei wants us to meet up with her and the Hokage early. Apparently things are getting bad and we're being deployed ahead of the meeting tonight." Mikoto said with a disgusted expression at first that grew more serious as she talked.

Though he was still very nervous, Hyto had been preparing himself for this moment for a very long time, and he was as ready as he'd ever be. After paying for his and Nono's food and hugging her goodbye while planting a kiss on her forehead, making her whole face turn red, Hyto and his team rushed straight to the Hokage's office. Inside of the office stood Tsunade, Hiruzen, Danzo and the other village advisors. But what surprised Hyto the most was the appearance of both Jiraiya and Orochimaru.

Hyto was confused seeing those two for a split second before he remembered that they were teamed up with Tsunade and were all deployed to Amegakure together where they earned their future title.

As Hyto and his team bowed to Hiruzen to pay his respects, his whole body immediately began shivering like he was in the cold, and looked straight at Orochimaru who was eyeing him intensely.

'Oh no, the pedo has spotted me! The only other person that could ever match his creepines is probably Hisoka, and thank the heavens I didn't get reincarnated into the HunterXHunter universe! But seriously, this could be bad! From what I remember, he didn't go crazy and start betraying the village until after the 2nd Shinobi War, but some forum have sad that he was always a pedophile. Fuck, now I have to keep an eye out for this bastard and make sure he doesn't try to snake his way into my little boy pants!' Hyto thought as he began to panic on the inside, but remained totally calm on the outside.

"Good, the last of Hellion Squad is here. As you all know, war is unfortunately on the horizon. Our plan of forcing the war with Suna in Amegakure has hit a bit of a snag. Hanzo has declared that he refuses for his land to be ransacked in our war and has tried to strong-arm both us and Suna from his lands. The issue is, he has killed many of our forwarding scouts to attempt this, inadvertently entering himself in the war as well." Hiruzen said in a tired tone.

Hyto could tell that Hiruzen was getting tired of being the Hokage and was likely trying to find his replacement as soon as he could. Tsunade admitted that he'd already asked her, Jiraiya, and Sakumo, but they all declined. And there was no way he'd appoint Orochimaru, as that was something that Danzo also wanted, and there was no clearer sign that something was a bad decision.

"I need my two strongest teams, Team Hiruzen and Hellion Squad to go to Ame and win us this war as soon as possible. The more this war gets drawn out, the more lives we lose unnecessarily. Tsunade, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, you are all generals on this front, and I trust you to make the right decisions. Hiashi and Mikoto, I know this is sudden, but thanks to you two recently being promoted to jonin, we will have you two spearheading as well and be directly under these three in the chain of command. Is that clear?" Asked Hiruzen as the two young shinobi nodded.

"Hyto, given your versatile and powerful abilities, I am to use you as my enforcer on both battlefronts in a sense. I see leadership qualities in you and want you to form a new squad for this war. A squad full of archers from your clan to be precise, as well as any others you deem fit to join. You are regarded as the best marksmen in the world, and have been teaching those skills to your clan for over a year. It's time to put them to the test." Hiruzen said, which made Hyto's mind a storm of different emotions.

His clan was already wiped out once and now Hiruzen was directly putting them in danger again! But things were different now. Hyto had his own plans, and the freedom he just got to roam the world, going to different battles was his best opportunity. So though he was pissed his clan would now be in danger, he remained content since he'll finally be able to lay the groundwork for his future.

The meeting went by fairly quickly after that, and then they were dismissed. They had a week before they had to head out to the war front, which meant Hyto barely had time to get his new squad together.

Heading back to the Rasugi compound, Hyto called for Midori and a few others he appointed as elders. With a plenty of food and better living conditions, the clans population somewhat boomed in the year and a half since they formed. Many babies were now running around and playing with the Ninneko, which was a good sign for the clans future.

"Okay, I'll be blunt. We're going to war, and the Hokage wants me to form a team of archers from our clan." Hyto said quickly and clearly. He had been with these people long enough to know how they'd feel about this situation.

"What?! But we just started to re-growing our numbers! Isn't there anything we can do?" Midori asked, almost pleading with tears in her eyes.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing more I can do. The only solace we have is that he didn't say how many people had to join me. And the team isn't exclusive to our clan if I don't want it to be. I already have an idea of who I aim to recruit for the team, but I wished to discuss it with you all first, since I'll be relying on you all to watch over the clan as I go to war." Hyto said with a hint of a authority in his tone. He had really grown into his role over this time.

"I volunteer as tribute!" yelled Amagi as she burst into the conference room.

Midori and the other elders glared at her, as this wasn't the first time the young shinobi has eavesdropped on their meetings, but never on one this serious.

Before Midori could reprimand her daughter, Hyto interrupted.

"It was already decided that you will be joining me when I leave." Hyto said with a voice of finality, yet Midori still turned to him with a look of disbelief.

"Hyto! How could you want to take her out to war?!" Midori asked, not believing that Hyto would even make such a suggestion.

"It's for her own protection. Midori, whether you like it or not, Amagi is a genin now, one without a teacher. When this war starts, her and all of the other genin will be used as infantry and pretty much used as fodder. With me, at least I can keep her safe and I won't be on the frontlines, which means she'll be even safer." Hyto said with a soft expression.

He didn't blame Midori for her outburst. She was just a loving mother in a fucked up world of child soldiers, but she had to see the clear options laid out for her. Either send her daughter out to war alone as infantry where she can be raped, killed or kidnapped and they would just chalk it up as a loss, or she could be with him, a clan member that actually cares about her and will do everything to keep her safe.

War was coming, and Hyto was going to do his best to make sure that those he cared about live through it.