Students and Teachers

"I'm sorry, Kiba. Did you say something?" Kakashi asked as he continued to flip through his orange covered book.

"I said: Kakashi, I am here to bargain." I told the Jonin again.

"Oh… this should be good." Kakashi giggled while still looking at the pages of Make Out: Paradise.

I simply pulled a gray covered book from my coat causing the man's eye to drift to it and bulge at the sight of it.

"'Make Out: Lone Wolf?'" Kakashi questioned as I handed him the book with a sealing tag preventing it from being opened past chapter one courtesy of Hiruzen in his thanks for his early copy, "It's the same publisher… but written by you."

"Looks like literary talent runs in the family." I grinned, "I read Paradise and Violence cover to cover and even did some recent editing work on Innocence. You'll notice a wonderful continuity with Dad's style and my expanded word choice and imagery."

Kakashi's eye passed up and down the text at high speed while flipping through the pages until he hit the seal at the end of the first chapter.

"I see." Kakashi sighed, "There are quite a few parallels between myself and this Kaiza Takeda."

"If stories about men with dark and painful pasts isolating themselves from further heartbreak reminds you of anyone, I assure you it is completely coincidental." I chuckled at the man, "After all this is the story of a man rising above that pain on a winding journey to help a young woman find her father and the many hardships they overcome along the way."

"Consider me interested." Kakashi moved his lone uncovered eye to look at me.

"Consider you sold." I grinned as I pulled out the white covered sequel 'Make Out: Lone Wolf No More'.

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"Now remember Kiba, only use this technique to pierce through hard defenses." Kakashi warned as my lightning-covered hand chirped like a thousand birds, "The Chidori travels so fast that the user develops tunnel vision and without the Sharingan will be completely open to counter attacks.

I started walking around like Sasuke does in Part 2 with the Chidori in hand, completely sans tunnel vision. I even started hopping around with it. Changing angles and levels. Performing a few jabs and hooks.

"Kakashi…" I said to the stunned man, "I get that while using the technique, the excessive buildup of lighting chakra allows a body to move with incredible speed, but how about you just… don't?"

"Well… that's depressing." Kakashi muttered.

"It's not your fault that god forgot the limits of this jutsu and wanted some extra flash with a nostalgic feel to it." I comforted the man, "Also, there are alot of techniques that eat the Sharingan's lunch… kind of like this one." I growled as I activated the Four Legs Technique and my appearance became far more feral, "With this transformation my speed, agility, and precision go way up. My dynamic vision, reaction speed, and instincts are through the rough, so even though I am going much faster, I'm way more accurate. Kinda like a certain dojutsu you may know about."

With that said I easily bolted at a nearby boulder with full chidori speed with a barely noticeable tunnel effect, even changing approach angle mid attack and hitting it from the side.

I loaded up another chidori while activating the internal aspects of the Lightning Chakra Mode only, cutting the power jutsu's cost down to less than a quarter as I am not constantly channeling lighting chakra outside of my body. With that, my reaction time dropped down to near zero and I was able to move at far greater speeds without any loss in vision or agility, capable of performing dodges and changes in direction crisply.

"Thanks Kakashi." I told the man, "I needed a powerful jutsu to get me through the hardest defenses to round out my game." That isn't the Hell Stab, "Plus I think the Chidori is a great base to build off a bunch of other jutsu."

"Is that so?" Kakashi grimaced until he rubbed the pouch his new books occupied.

The somber man Body Flickered away and I summoned up my army of clones to get to work. I wanted the Current, Spear, Senbon, Hound, and Transmission variants of this jutsu down by the start of the Third Stage.

A section of these clones would all practice the Body Flicker each day, as once more the Sharingan is just a crutch for the combat use of the jutsu. I know that Hanzo the Salamander mastered it to a great extent, and he didn't have any stated boosts to his perception beyond baseline chakra enhancement and hard work.

With my various abilities if I can't get the Body Flicker combat ready then I should just turn in my head band.

I trained mostly in solitude during the month before the final stage, almost a return to the peaceful grind of my childhood, but a week before the big tournament, Hiruzen called me into his office where I met with him, my dad, and his advisors Homura and Koharu.

The elderly pair guided the fate of Konoha without their other wartime teammate, Danzo, after the man got fired for his role in the Uchiha Massacre.

Interestingly enough, Konoha has the smallest advisory council out of the major hidden villages save Kiri, who have a history of violently reorganizing its members with shocking regularity. Kumo has the largest advisory council, likely to counter Unruly A through the sheer weight of their collective voices.

At just two members plus the occasional input from Jiraiya and now myself as Sarutobi's chosen successor, the power and respect wielded by Homura and Koharu is a very close second to that of the Hokage himself despite all executive authority resting entirely in one man's old hands.

"We've all been incredibly busy these last few months." Hiruzen began the meeting in his regular meandering way, "It's almost been enough to drive a man to thoughtlessness, but we have maintained vigilance despite the massive drain on our time and energy running this exam and the many visitors and events it brings."

The elderly pair did look quite worn out as the village had put on a cultural fair that started a whole week ago and would continue till the evening after the finals.

"Our vigilance has been rewarded. Jiraiya." Hiruzen nodded to the man.

"I took a trip out to Suna and confirmed that they are building up for a major attack." Jiraiya announced grimly, "They didn't have any documents to confirm the details, but its verbally leaked down all the way to the Genin Core. They intend to attack us during the Exams, with Gaara's match as the start time. Their plan is for him to transform into Shikaku in the arena, then attack with their allied village, Sound, from within and without."

"Were you able to determine the motive for the attack?" Hiruzen inquired of his student.

Jiraiya nodded and answered, "Sunagakure is dying on the vine. This attack is their final gamble, one last chance to show the world that they deserve to exist. The Wind Daimyo is strangling them, sending missions to Konoha while building up his Samurai forces. He wants to return the Land of Wind to the old ways, break up Sunagakure back into the wandering tribes unable to exert any political pressure on him. Konoha is the only aspect of their problems they can attack directly. Moral was obviously a problem as it doesn't take a sharp tack to figure out that we are at best ancillary to their real problems, but then the news spread that the Kazekage's daughter got deflowered by a Konoha Genin and it dropped a hot coal in their shorts."

"And that is why you keep it in your pants when dealing with foreigners." Homura grumbled as he listened with his arms crossed over his chest, "Before they were just desperate people lashing out, but now it's personal."

"Me and Naruto can wipe out the majority of Suna and Sound by ourselves." I announced as I tapped my foot up and down on the tatami mat covered floor of the small council room.

Baru growled his disapproval next to me.

"Yeah. With you by my side we could go kill their Kage as he travels to the village." I agreed with Baru's assessment, "So let's hit them first. Me and Naruto can kill their forces before they get to Konoha. Send us with Guy, Kakashi, and Dad and we'll be able to take them all out at once without any of their top end warriors getting away."

"Such arrogance." Koharu spat, "You seem to be of the opinion that you and your teammate are already strategic class shinobi."

"They are." Sarutobi corrected his teammate's wrongthink.

"Preposterous." Koharu denied his claim with a shake of her head sending her jowls jiggling.

"Naruto is very solid journeyman combatant with a mastery of the Multi Shadow Clone Justu hitherto unseen." Hiruzen backed his claim with evidence, "He can quite easily field over two thousand Clones on the field of battle with a divided chakra supply still higher than the average Genin, but with the full physical prowess of his harshly trained body. How could a boy who can single handedly tie down ten percent of our Shinobi force possibly be anything other than S Rank?"

"Fine, the Jinchuriki has come a long way, but you claim your successor is at this level as well, that he can face down two thousand shinobi by himself?" Koharu pointedly questioned.

"He can do far more than that." Hiruzen chuckled, "With Kiba's massive chakra capacity and his medical grade control, he is quickly closing in on Naruto's own feats with the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, but it is cloning a platform that is thoroughly Elite Jonin in body and skill, but the boy takes it further with his mastery of puppetry, bypassing the inherent lacking durability of shadow clones and their low chakra supply when produced in those numbers by fielding multiple puppets with each clone. Puppetry inherently being one of the lowest chakra cost methods of combat. And in personal combat, when he wields the full scale of his chakra alongside his partner Baru. There are very few who can stand against them. This I assure you, Koharu."

"Perhaps, you should consider watching the boy train before further doubting his abilities." Homura stated, much to his longtime partner's shock, "I've seen the boy working with Hiruzen. It is a thing of awe. Are you going to approve the counter attack?"

Hiruzen nodded, "I will. On the morning of the finals, Naruto and Kiba will flood the outskirts of Konoha with clones, then send them over the walls to hunt down Suna and Sound's forces in the woods. While this is happening, Konoha's forces will be on high alert for any infiltrators that have already arrived. Guy, Kakashi, and Jiraiya will all patrol the walls, on full alert for any threats that the clones cannot overcome."

"The plan sounds solid." Jiraiya nodded in agreement to his sensei's choices, "Even if our faith in Naruto and Kiba's abilities is misplaced, flushing out the attackers with an army of completely disposable forces will give us everything we need to launch a perfect counter attack, but from what I've seen of Sound and Sand so far, I don't foresee them winning a fight against Konoha's Army of Two."

"Have the Inazuka and Sarutobi Clans prepared silently to guard Naruto and Kiba while their clones are out." Sarutobi declared, "We will have the procedures for the mission hammered out by the time this meeting ends, but know this. Anyone found leaking information on this operation is to be put to death, and if this operation goes wrong in any way, then Danzo Shimura is to be put to death immediately along with any of his known associates."

"Hiruzen!" Koharu gasped in shock at his steely eyed announcement, "Danzo is forbidden from engaging in Shinobi activities, you know this."

"Koharu!" The Hokage shouted back, "Whenever there is some kind of fuckery going on in this village it almost always traces back to him. So in the off chance he is still engaging in shinobi activities and even has gone far enough to compromise the security of this very meeting room, then the old bastard now knows that he better make sure this mission goes smoothly. If not, and I am just being paranoid, then the mission will go well or Danzo will see his stay of execution rescinded."

"I haven't seen this guy since the end of the Second Shinobi World War." Jiraiya commented, "Welcome back, sensei."

"The world is a dark place." Hiruzen stated, "There was a time when I accepted that, but no more. I intend for it to be just a little bit brighter when I pass down this hat again. Minato had too many old problems dogging his steps. I won't see that happen again."

"I'll drink to that." Homura grinned and lifted his glass of tea, "To finally fixing old problems, and to the Army of Two. Good fortune in the battles to come."

"Here! Here!" Hiruzen agreed with his teammate.

We spent the rest of the meeting going over the mission and Operational Security. It was damn fine to be working with such experienced professionals.