Pre-Chapter A/N: Remember when I said this one might end up coming a bit late? Guess who underpromised and over-fucking-delivered? This guyyy. Thank you for the kind wishes. The assessment went well, I think. So full speed ahead to the bar finals, I guess. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXX - ONE MONTH LATER
"No, not like that," I muttered, turning to the seal that my newest apprentice had been banging her head against for a day now. It was relatively complex, but not so complex that it should have given her any trouble to understand. In fact, if understanding was the issue, then I would have ended the apprenticeship immediately and sent Inoken an apology and a bottle of sake.
No, she understood the seal perfectly. She could explain it better than most journeymen seal users. The issue was replication. Because this girl could understand seals with a natural intuition greater than anyone I had ever seen, but it didn't matter because her handwriting was utter shit.
"Kushina?" I called for the only other occupant of my office.
"Yes, Shori-nee."
"Please help her with this. I have an appointment now," I said. The clock said I was a few minutes late, but with teleportation, arriving was going to be no real issue.
"Yes, Shori-nee," the redhead said, and I nodded before leaving in a flicker of space.
"How can someone with the power to teleport somehow manage to be late everywhere?" Uraume's voice was what greeted me on my arrival at the Hokage training grounds.
"Prior commitments, I apologise," I said, waving it off.
"And you know the rest of us have commitments of our own, Shorirama." Oh, she was calling me by my name, not cousin this time. She was not pleased.
"You don't need to be here, you know? In fact, I distinctly remember telling you that your presence would not be needed for this," I said with a shrug as I began to stretch.
"If even Shikahime, Toshiro, Inoken, and I cannot convince you to abandon this path, then I might as well be here to watch what happens to make sure nothing goes wrong," she said.
"Pfft. What's she going to do? Somehow figure out a way to kill me or escape? I highly doubt that," I scoffed.
"And if she uses a suicide technique to take you with her when she realizes she's got no chance?" she asked.
"Flying Thunder God, of course," I retorted easily, unsealing the Tsuchikage's unconscious form. I tapped her neck first, placing a hiraishin marker on her to ensure that she couldn't ever escape me, and then injected the antidote to Inoken's poison while dispelling the genjutsu that kept her unconscious. She shot up, a punch aimed straight at my face. I leaned backwards. How interesting. This time, instead of choosing to feign unconsciousness for longer, she decided to attack straight away.
Now I just needed to motivate her into using the technique. One month of practice with shadow clones still hadn't managed to yield anything other than frustration. I dodged the next kick, turning with the movement and smashing a kick of my own into her midsection, sending her sprawling backwards across the ground. She turned with the force, weaving two seals even as she rolled along the ground. When she came to a stop, spikes rose from the ground, coming towards me. I sent my chakra into the ground beneath my feet, stopping her from lifting any of the spikes close to me.
She adapted well. Twisting into another seal, the spikes that had risen shot at me like missiles. I lifted my hand. Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm, I said mentally as I used the Hyuga jutsu to shatter the spears that came close to me. I winked at Uraume even as I did so. I hadn't had much cause to use that one in a long time. I stayed still, watching to see what she would do next, keeping full attention on her chakra as I did so.
I couldn't miss a thing when she was eventually pushed far enough to use the technique. She slammed her fists into the ground. They were submerged up to her elbows. When she lifted them, each of them was covered in a thick stone gauntlet. And then her chakra did something strange. I could see her visibly ease as the strain from supporting the gauntlets disappeared. So that was the Lightweight Rock Jutsu then.
She shot across the ground, moving faster than earlier. But I'd fought the Raikage. If this was the best she could do, then she wouldn't be lasting long today. I twisted out of the way of the punch and kicked her straight in the face this time. She slid backwards, sent flying even further this time. I hadn't even felt the impact of that one. Probably the Lightweight Rock Jutsu.
It meant I hadn't been able to transfer all that much force to her, so she stood just as easily. This time, she took a more circuitous route. Two clones of her rose from the ground as she moved. All three of them moved to encircle me, each of the clones doing the same twist with their chakra that I identified as the Lightweight Rock Jutsu. I bobbed and weaved out of the way of their attacks, dodging all three of them like they were genin and I was their jounin sensei or something. I watched the determined expression on her face give way to pure, unadulterated rage, and then I decided to toss her a bone.
I allowed her comparatively amateurish manipulation of the earth beneath me to go through, and the ground trapped my feet beneath it once I moved again. The triumphant expression on her face was a thing to behold as she twisted her chakra while she wound up the attack and swung. The Added Weight Rock Jutsu, most definitely, I thought as I replaced myself with a mud clone.
The attack didn't even give it a chance, splattering it all over the mountain. She had blown its entire upper body off in one blow. I dug my way out of the earth, applauding the effort.
"That was pretty good for someone of your level. Thank you," I said, and I truly meant it.
It seemed she wasn't all that interested in receiving compliments from me, though, as she twisted into the Lightweight Rock Jutsu again and both her clones picked her up and launched her like a missile. Once again, right before she made impact, she twisted into the Added Weight technique. I memorized that as well, as I allowed the seal I stored my nature energy in to open up and give me a slight boost.
The 70:30 ratio was all I needed to catch her rock-covered fist, even with all the added mass, and arrest her momentum. I swung her over, shooting her into the floor. She spat out some blood I allowed to fly past my face. Her clones tried to interfere. I showed them that when it came to Earth Release, they stood no chance, as I turned the ground they ran across into mud. Mud that dragged them into its depths.
She tried to push forward, and I twisted my chakra just like I'd seen her do, applying Earth Release nature to her body. Her body slumped against the ground as the Added Weight technique took hold. The mixture of confusion and rage on her face was a pleasure to see as I stood up straight.
"You got what you wanted, I see," Uraume said from the side.
"I did," I said.
"How strong would you say she is?" I asked, looking down.
"Easily as strong as the strongest Jounin. I don't think I'd be able to beat her even with both my hands," she said. I nodded.
"Strange that Iwa was just so willing to allow someone that strong to retire into civilian life," I said, stepping back to allow Uraume to reapply the genjutsu and poison.
Uraume snapped her head to the side, leaving what she was doing. It took a few seconds before I noticed someone come into the edge of my range. An Anbu agent moving at full speed. He was in the training ground in a matter of seconds.
"Movement at the border, Hokage-sama. Reports say the Kazekage moves towards the village with a force of twelve," he said a second after landing with one knee on the ground, his masked head turned towards the ground. I wondered what he hoped to achieve with that much. Surely not an attack.
Another Anbu agent appeared right next to his fellow.
"Urgent communication from Suna, Hokage-sama," he said, handing a scroll over to me. I took a hold of it, running my chakra across it to check for seals or traps. Finding no latent chakra within it, as expected—if a trap managed to make it this far, there would be hell to pay—I opened the scroll.
"What does it say?" Uraume asked as I devoured it with my eyes.
"The Kazekage has agreed to my terms. He asked that I prepare for his arrival in haste. How polite of him to tell me right as he begins to approach."
"What would you have us do?" Uraume asked.
"Prepare for his arrival, of course. It would be rude to do anything else, would it not?" I asked, a smile building. If he was coming, then there was a good chance he'd agreed to my deal and was making the delivery himself. And if he hadn't agreed to my deal and this was some sort of bargaining attempt, then he was going to find himself in a very sticky situation.
"How long do you estimate we have until his arrival, Shark?" I asked the Anbu agent who still remained knelt at my feet.
He looked startled to be addressed but composed himself quickly, all credit to him.
"Three or perhaps four hours, Hokage-sama."
"Splendid. Have a canopy constructed a few miles outside the village walls," I said.
"You would meet him outside?"
"Letting him into our village proper would be stupid, would it not? We are under no obligations to play along with whatever tomfoolery he's got going on, so yes, we shall be meeting outside. Speaking of, please remind me that I should look into building a new Chunin Exam arena—this time on the outside of the village," I said. That stunt Orochimaru and Suna had been able to pull in canon would never happen again. Not even if I abdicated and dropped the ball on someone else's lap.
"Yes, that is exactly the kind of thing I will be able to keep in mind, considering what we have coming."
"Careful, cousin. Any more sarcasm and I'd start mistaking you for Shikahime," I said, silently giving the warning. Not in front of the troops.
"Apologies, Hokage-sama," she said. I nodded.
"Dismissed," I said, turning to the Anbu.
"I'll get going as well. Need to make sure this doesn't go terribly." I nodded and watched as she moved to gather the Tsuchikage's body before moving off.
"Hey, Kurama," I said, speaking out loud since I was more or less alone.
"What now?"
"Nothing stressful. Think you can loan me some chakra and do some brain healing for me in like three hours?" I asked.
"Sure. Now leave me alone," he said, grunting and returning to his latest hobby. Ninshu had given him all my memories, but all at once. So you could get the gist, but not the nitty-gritty. Now, it seemed he was going to be passing the hours by watching movies I'd seen in my previous life. Which, somewhat embarrassingly, was a whole lot of movies.
"Okay. Thank you, honey," I said back before pulling at his chakra and bringing it to bear.
Then I placed my fingers in the iconic cross seal—I hadn't needed to use that thing in over a decade now, but still. Every drop of chakra would matter for this.
"Tajuu: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" I shouted for the world—just me and my Anbu tail, really—to hear. And then the Hokage training ground was filled with... well, me.
"Headcount?" I asked.
"Don't be an arsehole, boss. You know exactly just how many of us you made," he said. Fair enough. I had split my chakra one thousand and twenty-four ways to form just as many clones. With me as the original, that made about one thousand and twenty-five. The fact that I had an audience in the form of my Anbu guard was the only thing that prevented me from sagging at the change. Even adding Kurama's chakra to the mix had made it so each of my clones only had about as much chakra as an average chunin. In my case, that meant the difference was night and day.
I'd gone from having more chakra than god—not really—to being weaker than basically everyone I knew.
"Okay, can you get to work now? Since you're such a smart arse," I asked.
"Sure," he said, and then the clones split perfectly into two groups. Right down the middle. The level of coordination clones could have with each other was another thing I added to my long list of things to figure out. Because it couldn't just be that they were all me. How did they know to split perfectly like that? Perhaps it was a yin chakra connection between the clones I was not party to because of my existence as more than a chakra construct.
"And you guys know to—"
"Dispel ourselves whenever we make a breakthrough to spread that to the rest of the group so we can make even more progress. Yes, we do. Who the hell do you think you're talking to?"
"A smartarse, clearly," I said, taking a step back and feeling for the mark I had in my office.
"Good luck then. Remember that when the three hours are up, you dispel in groups of a hundred. Let's not give me more brain damage than I can handle," I requested before leaving. 1024 clones for three hours was roughly 128 days' worth of practice with the jutsu. Hopefully, with them dispelling when they made breakthroughs and the sheer network effect of working in such a large group, they'd make months' worth of progress in a matter of hours. By the time the Kazekage arrived, I'd be a master of the jutsu.
It would be cool as fuck to fly into the meeting or whatever.
"How are things going?" I asked the combination of my little sister and the girl I'd taken under my wing at a friend's request.
"Terribly," and, "Well enough," came the different replies. I looked at the girls and shrugged.
"Into the study with you both for now. I have business to conduct. Expect me to be busy for the rest of today."
"Yes, Shori-nee." "Yes, Hokage-sama." I nodded as they made themselves scarce. Spend some time with my genin team, I noted to myself as I watched Kushina leave. Minato popped by multiple times a day—probably more to see Kushina than to ask me questions I was mostly certain he knew the answers to—but I hadn't seen Mikoto in a minute.
I turned to the coin on my desk, picking it up and running my chakra through it before moving to my private council room. I'd gotten the idea for the coins from another piece of media from my last life. The fuinjutsu itself to mimic the Dumbledore's Army coins had turned out to be even more difficult than basically everything other than the Hiraishin I'd done before. And for the Hiraishin, I'd had more or less a full step-by-step instruction guide, so could I really call it my seal? It mattered little, though. I'd made the technique mine.
I felt my chakra swell and increase by nearly two-thirds as I received a flow of memories. One of my clones had figured out that using targeted bits of wind manipulation to steer was better than shooting off gusts in the opposite direction for smaller and more precise movements while under the influence of the Lightweight Jutsu. Lovely. That should mean the others will get even more experience flying and doing it well. None had dispelled from the other group yet, but that was fine. It didn't mean no progress. Just nothing that needed to be shared with everyone else, posthaste.
Uzume was the first to walk through the door. "What's happened this time?" she asked as she did so, spotting me lounging on a couch in the corner of the room.
"Suna. The Kazekage is on his way."
"You didn't invite him," she said.
"Yes, I did not invite him."
"Want me to kill him for you?"
"I don't think killing the Kazekage is a particularly good idea," Shika said, walking into the room next. She spotted the couch and made a beeline for it. I said nothing as she practically sprawled herself over me. Uzume huffed, narrowing her eyes at the Nara head. Had no idea she wanted to kill the Kazekage that much. Was she jealous? Well, that would make some sense. I'd beaten two Kage, and the fight against Ay was basically a draw so you could consider that two and a half, to her none. Hmm. Maybe I'd let her fight the Kazekage this time so she could get her numbers up.
"I'm tired, Shori. Think you can avoid calling meetings so early in the morning moving forward?"
"It's 11 a.m.," I said, deadpan.
"Exactly," she said, before yelping as Uzume grabbed a hold of my hand, pulling me off the chair.
"Fine, fine. Let's get things started," I said, as Inoken, Toshiro, and Reiji walked in mere seconds after each other, carrying on a conversation about… something. It seemed to be gossip about some jounin that had been caught dating five different chunin at the same time.
"Okay, everyone. Game faces. Look alive," I said, sending a jolt of lightning chakra towards Shikahime. Her shadow rose from the ground, intercepting the tiny bolt even while she looked to be asleep, and she practically crawled off the couch to her seat at the table.
"The Kazekage has chosen to grace us with his presence. The village must be prepared in case things turn hostile. While I doubt we will need a full evacuation, Reiji, the barrier must be at full power. Do you think you can expand from identification to full entry denial?" He started doing some calculations in his mind.
"If we conscript the older Uzumaki and get your Grandmother to help with adapting the present barrier to reduce the strain as much as possible, we should be able to do something like that for four hours at the maximum," he said.
"Brilliant. Now, Shikahime, maintain constant threat analysis of the Suna group once they arrive, and have your clansmen and Inoken's work on evacuating the homes closest to the walls. Just a precautionary measure." And the hour ran down like that, making plans for the worst-case scenario.
A/N: Shori adds a new weapon to his arsenal. While things move forward. As for the shadow clone thing, while no one actually can say Naruto's limits, most people estimate it to be in the tens of thousands (some say millions). Shori's not quite at that level, as we can see—on account of not being Ninja Jesus and all. Next six up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.