Pre-Chapter A/N:Hey everyone, back here with another chapter. Let's go! If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio
THIRTY-SIX MONTHS SINCE THE ATTACK ON KONOHA
"As you are no doubt aware, all three of you were recommended for promotion to Jounin seven months ago. Since then, you have been subjected to the assessment process which involves not just combat and reasoning tests, but rigorous examination of your leadership abilities across a variety of missions of different ranks, culminating in a series of A-rank missions where you were given full operational command and failure was not an option. Those missions were finished two weeks ago, and since then, an impartial committee of assessors has read your reports of the missions, listened to testimony of those assigned to your command as well as those assigned to watch you, and seen your various test scores," I said, keeping my tone strict as I read out the circumstances that had led us here.
Could I just have told them they were promoted and left things there? Yes.
But these were my cute little students. Even though, looking at them, they were far from little these days. This was going to be it for Team Senju, unfortunately. I had been able to toss my weight around as Hokage to prevent any reassignment after all three were promoted to Chunin and kept going on missions with them, but I knew that doing so would be impossible at this stage. Three Jounin were a significant military force for any village. Much less one that hadn't graduated any students from its academy in two years.
The Clan Council was being patient, but I knew pushing them would be a mistake. Even a military dictatorship wouldn't last long with everyone who mattered turning against its leader.
"That impartial committee put its final report on each of you before my desk three days ago, and I have gone through their findings and subsequent recommendations and find them acceptable to me as Hokage and have approved them," I said, continuing on with the preamble.
Kushina was practically vibrating on her feet, waiting for the verdict. Minato, on the other hand, remained cool as a cucumber, while the only sign of Mikoto's nervousness was a small twitch in her left eye. The eye that she had almost lost all those years ago.
That was the last time I had allowed them to go on a mission with someone else while they were Genin. I remembered those days vividly. Mikoto had almost lost an eye. Minato had taken a stab to his lung, and Kushina had been forced to pull on more of Gyuki's chakra than she had been ready for. And it had all been my fault. A rogue Iwa kill squad of Jounin had run across them in the Land of Earth, and somehow one of those fuckers had recognized Kushina as my cousin. They had given their lives for that observation but had taken my students' innocence with them.
Enough of that, I warned myself. This wasn't the time for thinking about previous mistakes. I had twenty-three other hours in the day to obsess over that.
"So it is fitting that I tell you all now that the committee recommended all three of you for promotion to the rank of Jounin, and I approved of it. Congratulations, Kushina, Minato, Mikoto. You've earned this," I said, standing up from my seat and unsealing all three of their new vests from the storage seal and handing them over.
"You're serious?" Kushina asked, frozen in her seat.
"Well, if you don't want it, I could always…" I did not need to complete the threat for all three of them to snatch the vests from my tables.
"All three of you will now be expected to take missions on your own or lead other teams of Chunin. You are now representatives of the village, belonging to her highest rank at present," I said.
Minato lifted a brow at my phrasing while his teammates busied themselves taking off their old vests and putting on their new ones.
"You can expect your IDs to be updated tomorrow, and you will notice increases in your official clearances, so no need to keep pilfering my keycard to access the classified sections of the library and the archive," I said, smirking at Minato's guilty look. Kushina was pure shamelessness while Mikoto at least seemed to be able to pretend like she had no idea what I was talking about.
"I wouldn't have made the card so easy for Kushina to steal if I didn't know exactly what the three of you were looking for. But that is a matter for another day; your ability to take higher missions and the expectations that you work with others can be confronted tomorrow. For today, I have a mission of my own for you."
"Reporting for duty, Hokage-sama. Jounin Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, and Mikoto Uchiha ready for orders," Minato spoke for the lot, snapping to attention.
"The mission is simple. Remember this?" I asked, taking out a set of bells. Two bells tied to a single string. I tied the string to the loop of my belt and gave them a significant look.
"This again?" Kushina asked with a sigh that did nothing to hide the excitement on her face.
"For one last time. Who knows, maybe you guys will actually win this time," I said with a smirk that showed I doubted they could manage that particular feat.
"What are the rules of engagement?" Minato asked.
I gave the three of them a look. "If you want to have any chance of getting these bells from me then you must come at me with the intent to kill. Put everything you have on the line, work together like I have trained you to, and maybe somehow the three of you might make me break a sweat."
I smirked and then I was off, using the Flying Raijin to appear at Training Ground 7. I could have done this in the private training grounds that belonged to the Hokage, but there was a reason for everything. Three pre-teens promoted to Jounin after taking only half the missions that most needed to make the jump. The whispers were going to say they only got their promotions because they were my students. This was going to nip that in the bud ideally. That was the one good thing about this village's gossip mill. I just needed one person to see something and it would be everywhere by day's end.
And Training Ground 7 was fortunately close to the home of the greatest gossips in all of Konoha—the Hyuga. Minato was the first to arrive.
"Took you long enough," I said, looking down at my pocket watch. Three minutes. That was two minutes too many.
"We don't specialize in tracking," he said as his teammates landed by his sides.
"Indeed. How long did it take Kushina to figure out she could just track my chakra?" I asked, genuinely shocked that it took that long.
"Not even a few seconds. We had to deal with two false positives first though. You have clones all over the place."
"Oh, I forgot about that," I said with a chuckle, rubbing my hair. I actually didn't know how many clones I had running around at present. Somewhere between twelve and fifteen for sure. Some of them had been made as far back as weeks ago, so it made sense that I'd lose track. It was something Grandmother had pointed out while helping me design the seal that let them stick around so long. Well, none of them had gone mad and declared themselves God-King of Konoha and they were for the most part aligned to my goals since they were essentially me, and I could dispel them at any time so it was worth it. At least until they did something that made that stop being the case.
"Are you ready to start now?" I asked, my gaze sharpening on the three of them.
"Ye—" While Minato was mid-reply, I lightened myself and shot forwards. I twisted, amplifying my mass at the last second, right before I made impact. Thanks to his own incredible speed that was somehow all natural, he managed to dodge the attack. My kick created a gust of wind that sent his blond hair flying all over the place.
He ignored it, trying to step into my guard to counter, while Mikoto and Kushina encircled me from either side. Passable. I slapped his punch to the side, but he managed to snatch the hand back before I could truly make him pay for the attempt. Kushina's chains stabbed out at me. The earth beneath my feet rose in a wall that she was forced to tear through before reaching me.
In that time, I had exchanged two blows with Mikoto already. I tore through her attempts to layer genjutsu after genjutsu on me as she attempted to drown me with the sheer number of them.
Kushina broke through my wall and was about to completely cover me with the chains when Minato weaved through them with a Rasengan clutched in his grip. If I avoided Minato, then Kushina would be upon me, and if I somehow managed to avoid her, then Mikoto was waiting in the wings. The attempt was admirable, but I wondered how their plan would turn out if I falsified their first assumption.
I met Minato head-on and grabbed his Rasengan with my hand instead of allowing it to hit anywhere important. As I did, I sent chakra to my tenketsu there, reversing the flow of the Rasengan and causing it to explode between the two of us. Considering I had triggered the outcome, I had hardened and prepared myself with Earth Release chakra. Minato had pushed away at the last second, sensing what was about to happen. It was admirable how fast he could react to sudden changes. I could see why this teenager had gone on to become the Yellow Flash in another life.
The explosion separated us, and in that time, Kushina's chains, rather the spikes at their ends, sought to turn me into a pincushion. Feeling out with my chakra, I replaced myself with the unsuspecting Mikoto, easily escaping their second attempt to overwhelm me. Using the substitution with Mikoto wouldn't work again. If they were expecting it, then it would be all the harder, and these were no longer the children I had tossed around with ease. I wouldn't be able to just flood their systems and force them to do my will by virtue of the sheer power disparity between us.
The ground erupted as I landed, explosive tags that Mikoto seemed to have placed when my attention had been focused on Minato triggering themselves once I took her place. Kushina's chains didn't miss a beat either, the adamantine links twirling and twisting to avoid Mikoto completely as they continued to chase me around.
"Now I have to wonder how predictable I've gotten if you managed to plan for that one," I said to myself as I skated backwards across the ground. Minato was slinking across the treeline, waiting for his opening. Mikoto had disappeared from view while Kushina's chains kept their chase of me continuous. Alright then. It was clear what the biggest threat here was. I came to an abrupt halt, staring straight across the field at my younger cousin.
"Prepare yourself," I warned, and then I shot off faster than a bullet could manage. She kept two chains at her side at all times even when she extended the rest so a situation like this one was impossible. Amplifying my mass at the last second, I punched straight at her barrier. Formed from only two chains, cracks spread along it as the ground around the two of us shattered from the force of my attack. The other chains were coming back, trying to return to her defense, but they would be too slow. So, of course, one of her teammates would have to intervene.
Except that none of them did. Kushina's chains destroyed their own barrier before I could do so, snapping out at me at immense speed. Still too slow though. I moved my head backwards, allowing both to miss, and stomped her in the midsection, sending her two steps backwards. I kept the pressure up. She tried a punch. I weaved to its side, snapped a backhand to her face, and as she backpedaled, I stomped on her foot.
"Watch your footwork," I said before snapping another punch at her head. This one she blocked, and then she was on the floor as I swept her feet right out from underneath her.
She turned the fall into a roll, managing to keep her guard up. Her chains had managed to make it back now, aiming to stab me straight through the back. The ground beneath me erupted into mud, grabbing the adamantine links and dragging them into the ground. I felt the chains strain as Kushina tried to pull them back. If she thought she'd win a tug of war with me, then she had another thing coming. I moved to close the distance between us again, and a kunai flew past my face, embedding itself in the ground to my side.
"Epicenter created," I heard Minato's voice declare as he stepped out of the treeline. Mikoto herself did the same from the other side. I looked at the sealing tag, only activating my Byakugan when I was sure it was not a flashbang. Minato had reached the level where he could make his own seals in his own language but I could still see traces of both the Uzumaki style and even my own there. Less of the latter than the former considering I'd never even formally taught him my language.
"Some sort of barrier seal?" I asked, ignoring Kushina as she hurried back towards her teammates. With my Byakugan, I could see four such seals spread across the battlefield. The little I could understand told me it was a barrier, but if that was the case, why were the three of them still within its range with me? Trapping themselves in a barrier with me would be stupid.
"Something I've been working on. You said the best way to beat an S-rank would be to either overpower their strengths or deny them of it. Exploiting their weaknesses wouldn't work because they're the kind of monsters who train their strengths to the point where their weaknesses don't matter."
"Yeah, quoting me at me is cute and all, but this isn't going to help you much unless this is way more than a regular barrier. Especially considering you are within its range."
"Good. You picked up on that. I wouldn't want you not to recognize how awesome this technique is," my blond student said with more arrogance than was proper and then raced through fifteen hand seals in the time it would take most Jounin to run through three. The seal tags, all five of them, lit up, and then they sent blasts of purple light into the air before forming a glowing purple barrier. Four sides, then one peak at the middle.
"This is my answer to denying an S-rank their strengths, a modular barrier that I set the rules of. Within these four walls, none may use Earth Release," he said.
And true to his words, I felt my relationship with the earth at my feet be cut off almost instantly. It was a strange feeling. Not quite like being blinded, but more like suddenly losing your sense of hearing. It was jarring. I hadn't even noticed how much of the world I interacted with through my feet. How interesting. I tried to push past the block, to form some Earth Release chakra, but my own chakra refused to comply.
"A barrier that makes it impossible to form Earth Release chakra? I need to see this," I said, turning to the seal tag, ignoring the way my cute students bristled at being ignored. I reached my hand towards the seal tag only to catch a flash of amusement on Minato's face. It was too late to stop myself as I touched it.
"Fucking hell," I cursed, snatching my hand back.
"Well, I'd need to discourage people from messing with the seal somehow, wouldn't I?" He asked while both his teammates cackled. I looked down. That thing had burned straight to the bone. How the fuck had he managed to make it that hot even?
Kurama? I asked.
Nope. This is way too funny, and maybe leaving you with the pain will teach you a lesson about touching random things.
Everyone's a critic, I sighed before manipulating my own chakra to form the Mystic Palm Jutsu. A process that took me longer than it should have. Of course, I hadn't needed to do any healing in a while. Kurama's presence in my gut had kind of made doing any healing moot.
The second I began healing my hand, though, my students jumped back into the fight. I dodged out of the way of a hail of kunai. The second I tried bringing my glowing hand to the bleeding and burnt one, there was another in my path. Minato began with a thrust straight for my forehead; I leaned back, avoiding the blow, and the second he was fully extended and I stopped, the kunai shot from his grasp like a bullet, probably pushed with Wind Release.
"Kaiten," I said, watching the way his eyes widened. I was in too awkward a position to spin into the Revolving Heaven, but forcing my chakra to complete the motion without my body doing the same was possible, if taxing. So very taxing. I was able to maintain a brief barrier around my head, tossing the kunai off into the distance. Minato moved to take advantage of my brief loss of visibility and I tried to lighten myself to push backwards when the jutsu fell apart without even fully forming.
"Shit," I cursed as I was forced to place my injured left hand between myself and his kunai to prevent a more dangerous injury.
"Fucking hell," I cursed, seeing Mikoto and Kushina plug my escape routes and hem me in.
A/N: As you might have noticed, I've been a bit less prolific than usual. Let's just say my stomach still rumbles when I see roadside shawarma signs and leave it at that. Next five up on patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.