Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Here on time! Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
The stands were full. Full and near overflowing, it seemed. Every single seat had been taken. The boxes reserved for VIPs and sold to the highest bidders were full as well. The Daimyo's attendance had probably secured that as much as the fact that a shinobi exhibition had not taken place in the Land of Fire since the Second War. The civilians were starving for the chance to see shinobi in combat, and we offered it now. They had to pay a premium, but that had not dampened their enthusiasm one bit.
"With your leave, Daimyo-dono, I may begin," I said to the man at my side. He looked over at me with a smile of his own.
"Of course, Hokage-dono," he said. I rose, stepping up to the fuinjutsu-enabled sound system. I stood within the seal, confident that any words I said would be amplified and spread through the stadium.
"Welcome, ladies, gentlemen, lords, and ladies. Today is a great day. A special day in the history of Konoha. For the first time since my own Granduncle's reign, changes will be made to the structure of Konoha's shinobi force," I said, and whispers began to spread at that. The shinobi populace had been aware of the change for weeks. They had all been told who would be promoted and given the opportunity to levy challenges at them. Any Jounin who felt that they were wrongly overlooked for the promotion to Special Jounin—a rank that would be granted based entirely on combat ability—could put down their names and get the chance to be drawn for an exhibition match against those I had chosen for promotion.
More people than I had expected had signified interest, and so we had held a preliminary round some weeks ago. That had given me the chance to see what they were working with. I was now certain quite a few of the matchups would be interesting.
"Before that change will be announced, though, you have been promised an exhibition of the power of Konoha's shinobi force, and it would be a shame if I failed to deliver on that and kept you waiting any longer," I said. They were clapping already. Always so easy to please, civilians.
"I think you've heard enough of my voice, and now I hand things over to our referee for today, Nara Shikahime," I said, and then stepped backwards. Shikahime jumped down from her platform to land on the battlefield. It was a grass field with a pond sitting at the middle and separating the field into two parts, while also providing ammunition for water release users.
"Ahem. Thank you, Hokage-sama. The rules are simple. Matches shall be to either yield or incapacitation. If you would turn your attention to the wheels above, you would notice two different selection wheels. Each one will spin to choose the parties for each match. Now, for the first match we have," she said, pointing at the wheel. The first one spun, accelerating to the point where the names were not visible before slowing down more and more until it was a crawl and stopped at a single name: Mikoto Uchiha. The second wheel began spinning then, and like planned, it stopped at the name Fugaku Uchiha a few seconds later.
The matches were chosen for maximum entertainment value, so we tried to avoid matchups with obvious advantages for either side. Mikoto's genjutsu prowess meant there were a limited amount of matchups for her that made sense. Fugaku happened to be one of them. And his fighting style contrasted nicely with hers. He preferred large-scale ninjutsu mixed with punishing taijutsu where he could. Mikoto preferred genjutsu, but as a student of mine she was no slouch in either of the other major ninja arts.
Both fighters walked out of the tunnels on opposite ends to a large amount of applause. The civilians knew the Uchiha clan well, and the shinobi also knew the significance of this match. It was an open secret that the Uchiha elders were pushing for a match between Mikoto and Fugaku. I'd barrelled my way into the conversation and put it to an end for the time being, but they were going to try again. This match would dissuade that. I didn't care what they thought was for the best of their clan, but I would not see my student married to a man ten years her senior with the most severe countenance I had ever seen. I did not care what fanon thought about Fugaku Uchiha. Canon had made it clear enough. He was a bad father, and probably just as bad a husband. If he had been better, Itachi would never have done what he did.
"Now, remember the rules. First yield or incapacitation. If I decide that the fight is over, you stop. The second I say so, you back off. If you make me have to act, then you will regret it," Shika said before jumping backwards and leaving the field.
"Begin," she gestured, and both combatants stayed still.
"Are they not going to move, Hokage-dono?" the Daimyo asked.
"They are Uchiha. Their sharingan gives them the power to use mental techniques and illusions better than most. Now, it might seem like they are doing nothing, but they are engaging in a mental battle with extreme stakes right now," I said.
"Oh, oh. How interesting. But not a good show for the rest of us, no?"
"I am sure that is about to change," I said, and then I was right. Fugaku took a step back, twisting his head away from Mikoto's direction and breaking eye contact. He'd lost.
The genjutsu battle was only the first prong of what was sure to be a long match, and he took the loss in stride. His gaze never sought Mikoto's sharingan after that. He body-flickered forwards, a kunai held in one hand. Mikoto met him halfway across the field. Their blades clashed, creating sparks that made their eyes seem like they were glowing even from here. The screens on either side of the arena rendered them in crystal clarity, slowing down the combat enough that the civilians could make sense of it while not robbing it of its grandeur.
Fugaku was on the aggressive in every clash. He pushed, Mikoto yielded the space to him easily, but the advantage he searched for could not be found. No matter how many angles he attacked from or how complex he made his combinations, he could not slip past her guard. All my students were taijutsu masters in their own rights. It was said that the teacher makes the students, and while I had been careful enough to avoid creating three clones of myself, there were still some facets of my combat style that ran through all three of them.
Mikoto's footwork was flawless. She yielded more and more space and Fugaku chased but achieved nothing all the while. He spun into a kunai stab, and Mikoto, instead of yielding space this time, stepped forward as well. She grabbed his wrist before he could fully extend it, and her own kunai went straight for his head. He tilted his head backwards, red eyes reflected in the dark chakra metal of Mikoto's kunai. She extended its range at the last second, the wind chakra flow turning the kunai into a sword. He disengaged, jumping backwards and escaping with only a nick along his flak jacket for his troubles. That was the kind of move that would have killed anyone without a doujutsu.
If he hadn't been able to see her chakra flow as she fed it into the blade, he would have died there and then, and he seemed to realise it as he slipped his own kunai back into his holster. He had lost in genjutsu, and just barely escaped death in taijutsu. He had only one refuge.
His fingers danced through the seals quicker than I had seen anyone not named Minato or Uzume use them. Quicker even than I could. In my defence, it wasn't like I used handsigns all that often, but still.
He spat out a fireball the size of a bungalow that caused the grass along their feet to catch fire. Mikoto formed a single horse seal, took a deep breath in, and spat out a torrent of water that hit the ground in front of her and grew into a massive wall. She had only a single affinity—fire. Using water release like this, with a single seal only, and without drawing from an external source, was a flex. She was sending a message with this match, just like I wanted to. Thatta girl!
The fire hit the water, creating a sizzling sound that seals carried and spread across the arena to enhance the immersion. Steam spread from the point where both jutsu had come together, and Mikoto took a hold of it with her chakra, thickening it and beginning to spread it across the battlefield. Hiding in the mist technique. The seals that captured the goings-on in the battle shifted, and the screens did the same. Both combatants were still visible, but as if through some sort of haze. It wasn't perfect yet, but still better than just leaving civilians staring at a misty battlefield.
Fugaku slipped his hand into his holster and held his kunai in a backhand grip, eyes moving in every which direction. He shifted, twisting at the last minute, and managing to block his attacker. Except instead of Mikoto, it was an owl the size of a man. Its talons were sharp and caught the light like they were made of steel. Fugaku dealt with the surprise well, but he still struggled in combat against the owl. It was quicker than he was, its movements were completely silent, and it had a biology that he would have had no practice fighting against.
But the sharingan was a powerful tool, and the longer their exchange went, the better the Uchiha became. If it had just been him and the owl, he would have won. But the mist hid other threats. Right before it struck, he managed to lurch out of the way of another owl by the skin of his teeth. This one was a brilliant snow white, while the first had been a more common spotted brown.
Its wings seemed to be coated in the mist that spread about the battlefield for a second before it flapped them in the direction of the Uchiha. He weaved two seals and slammed his hands against the ground. The earth wall he created prevented him from being torn to pieces. The jutsu the owl had used created deep scars on the wall, near slicing through it.
He froze for a second behind his wall, though, and that was his undoing. With my byakugan, I could see the foreign chakra in his network. He broke the genjutsu in a matter of seconds, but by the time he had, there was a blade at his throat. Mikoto lurked behind him, appearing to all who watched like an angel of death.
"Do you yield, Fugaku-san?" Her voice spread through the stadium. The man flushed. But he had the good sense to nod and accept his defeat with dignity.
She straightened up and helped him up. The mist dissolved with the match over, and Fugaku took a step back in visible shock as he realised he was surrounded. Other than the two owls he had fought, there were three more just watching him with cold eyes.
"The match is over, and the winner is Mikoto Uchiha," Shika announced to rapturous applause. I looked over the crowd. They seemed to be having a good time. A great one, even.
"Did you enjoy that, Daimyo-dono?" I asked the man who was practically vibrating with excitement.
"Very much, Hokage-dono. She is your student, no?" he asked with a look in his eyes that I was not sure I liked.
"Yes, she is," I said.
"Perhaps I shall make her an offer, then. The guardian shinobi could do with one such as her," he said. I looked over at him out of the corner of my eye.
"Perhaps," I said non-committally. I had little fear that he would succeed in poaching her out from under me. And sending an offer was well within his authority as the Daimyo. He didn't even have to inform me, so it was probably a mark of respect that he did so.
Shika called for attention to return to the wheel once more, and it spun before stopping on another one of my students' names: Kushina Uzumaki. The other wheel began spinning then, eventually stopping on a name I was more than familiar with: Toshiro Takehada. My genin teammate.
I had not chosen him for a promotion in the end. I had considered it. Probably for longer than I had agonised over most decisions, but I just could not justify making the choice to include him. The rank of Special Jounin was supposed to represent the pinnacle of Konoha's offensive power, and while I had confidence in his skill in a lot of situations, I would not back him in a one-on-one fight against any of those I had chosen.
Part of my decision-making process had been asking myself a question: would this person be able to give any of the Kage I've fought a good fight? And for all those I'd chosen, the answer was yes. Mikoto's inclusion had been another one I had agonised over right until the last minute, but once I had seen what the owls allowed her to do when fully unleashed, there had been no other choice.
Kushina practically sprinted out of the tunnel. The applause that met her arrival was enough to make the stadium itself shake. And she lapped it all up, turning and waving at the crowd with full enthusiasm. She blew kisses here and there and was altogether a much better sport about playing to the audience than most would have been in her situation. Toshiro walked onto the arena with a more measured pace. His flak jacket, a piece of clothing that had not seen much use since the war, seemed to strain against his bulk. He had grown. Sometimes, I found it difficult to conceptualise just how young we had been—all of us—when we had gone off to war.
The war had seen me ascend to the position of Kage, and since then I had been a man set apart from the masses. How much of my friends' lives had I missed. Toshiro attended meetings dressed in baggy robes. Who would have known that a tank of a man stood underneath them.
His hair was cropped short at the sides and allowed to grow out on the top. Around his back was a katana. It was chakra steel, and the handle had come from a tree of my Grandfather's creation. I recognised it well. What I did not recognise as well were the blades at his waist. He had one on either side. They were shorter, and straight. Ninjatos. When did he even start using those?
Shika returned to her platform and started the match. And unlike the previous match, this one began right from the word go. Quick, was my first thought. Toshiro covered the distance between him and Kushina, drawing his blade as he did so, quicker than I'd ever seen anyone other than the Raikage or myself move. Kushina twisted at the very last moment and still could only manage to avoid the worst of the attack. Jumping to the side had not spared her from sustaining a deep gash across her arm.
Toshiro was on her again. His feet hit the ground and he pushed off to the side with a straight thrust. He was going right for it. Kushina was better prepared for the speed now and managed to react better. A chain snaked its way around her arm and she caught the blade seconds before it would have pierced her stomach. The adamantine chain acted as a buffer between the sword and her skin.
The blade began to glow, and she froze for a second. Toshiro then abandoned his blade—something no other swordsman would even have considered—and drew one of the ninjato at his side. His slash was quick, but Kushina managed to break out of the genjutsu in time and lean just far enough away that only the edge of her throat was nicked. She was now bleeding from two different places, and the fight had not even been going on for a minute.
The screens slowed down and replayed the action for the civilians to properly appreciate, even as the fight continued. Kushina did not need to be a Nara to know that close quarters would see her lose very quickly. She pushed down on the ground, jumping backwards and trying to gain some distance. The only problem with that was that Toshiro himself also knew close quarters would be his advantage. He chased with his unreal speed, kicking up the katana from where Kushina had dropped it in her haste to avoid his slash into his grip, and shooting off.
Now that I was seeing it again, I could get a better idea of how he was doing it. Lightning release. Channelled right at the moment he set off, and killed right when he reached his destination. A combination that made the chakra expenditure close to nothing. He didn't have the reserves to maintain a full armour—blood would always tell—and so he found a workaround.
Both of Kushina's arms were cloaked in chains now, and she blocked his next slash with the back of her fist. The katana strained, but the adamantium chains would not be so easily bypassed. The katana glowed again, but this time the genjutsu did not even take hold for a second. Kushina, snarl on her face, twisted her wrist, allowing the katana to pass her by as she attempted a punch with her other hand.
Toshiro flickered, and then he was on one knee a few inches behind her. She froze. I spotted the wound. A deep gash in her stomach. A fight ender.
A/N: Apologies to my boy Toshiro. I've allowed too much disrespect on your name. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.