There's two days left until we leave for Sunagakure, meaning that today is the last day of training for the genin. Afterwards I'll have my students rest so that they enter the exams at one hundred percent.
It's right after I arrive home and finish eating my lunch that the doorbell rings. Which is kinda weird, since no one was invited by any of us as far as i am aware. Hinata casually activates her byakugan from the couch and immediately stiffens.
She takes in a deep breath "Danzo"
I nod and go towards the door, she leaves the living room. Opening it reveals the bandage man sitting right at my front door. I then invite the completely innocent man into my house. I take him to our living room, serve the man a cup of tea and serve myself a can of soda. Afterwards I just wait for him to begin speaking.
He takes a sip of the tea "Have you heard of ROOT?"
I shake my head "That old ANBU black ops organization? Didn't Lord Third disband them?"
He nods "ROOT was disbanded, but we still operate in the shadows. We protect Konoha from our enemies, keeping them weak and keeping us strong."
I open a can of soda "And what's your proposal? A recruitment pitch?"
He adds a teaspoon of sugar "Not necessarily. My desire is for collaboration between my organization and your team, regarding something you are well aware of"
I take a big gulp "The murders? What is it you want with them?"
He sips the tea again "Do not stop them. I desire for you to investigate and discover the source for them, but refrain from stopping them unless necessary for the safety of our village. Konoha has proven itself resistant against the source of these murders despite our lack of knowledge regarding their mechanism. The other villages vulnerability may be exploited in order to weaken them"
I finish the can "So you want to keep the murders happening in the other villages to weaken them? Honestly that's not a bad idea. I'll figure out as much as possible, don't expect me to keep any finds secret from the Hokage however."
He finishes his tea "I did not ask for you to do so. I merely request for you to act in the best interests of Konoha."
With that we both get up and I escort him outside. Hopefully I didn't get kotoamatsukami'd. Thankfully there is a good fix for that.
I go back into the house and go to the living room. When I open the door I find Sakura standing right in front of it. She aggressively points her finger at me "Danzo used kotoamatsukami on you!".
I touch my chin, as if I was thinking. "Nah, I think we're good this time. Actually you know what? Let's make a routine out of it. Every day after lunch we all accuse each other of being under kotoamatsukami, that way if we ever actually are we'll just break free of it"
Sakura nods "That's not that bad of an idea"
-four days later
Our arrival in Suna is pretty anticlimactic. The guards didn't even ask to see our papers, since with how many shinobi are arriving for the exams it's pointless to try and regulate everyone and everything. We book a stay in a nice hotel and the genin go to their rooms to rest . TenTen, Wakemi and Hidesho all have their own single rooms. Sakura, Hinata and I are sharing an apartment.
While the students are resting Sakura, Hinata and I go meet with Rasa. On our way towards his office no one stops us, neither outside the Kazekage Tower nor inside of it. They were probably announced beforehand of us coming.
When we enter his office we find him aura farming, staring at the village through the glass walls. We all wordlessly sit down.
He aura farms for a bit more before he turns towards us "What information are you aware of regarding the murders? I agree to swap information."
I begin talking "Not much. What we know for sure can be boiled down to two simple facts. The first is that stopping one murder-suicide seems to stop any others from happening. The second is that the murder-suicides have something to do with Janshin. What is the information you hold?"
He nods "There is only one concrete piece of information that our village holds. The murders have never involved shinobi. Whether it was in our village, a town or another one of the ninja villages. No murder has had either a shinobi perpetrator or a shinobi victim."
That's actually good info. "No shinobi victims makes sense, but there being no shinobi perpetrators implies that chakra does have a role in this. Shinobi have much greater chakra compared to a civilian."
We had stopped the murderer from killing himself. The Hyuga didn't see anything involving chakra happen, but the suicide itself could be a part of some form of ritualistic jutsu. Since they stopped the murderer from finishing his ritual it may have not been detected simply by virtue of not having happened just yet.
Rasa then just goes back to aura farming "You may leave. Keep in contact with me regarding any information you uncover."
I nod and we proceed to get up and leave.
-next day.
I am giving my students some encouragement before they leave for the first task "I've trained you well, so don't worry too much. Just remember what I told you. This isn't an exam, it's a dick measuring contest. So you should be the biggest dicks in the contest! I have faith in you."
TenTen gives me a deadpan stare. Wakemi gives me an oddly resolute nod and Hidesho just confidently grins.
After they leave for the exams I create three shadow clones and have them follow them. Better they suffer some shame instead of simply dying.
When it comes to investigating the murders we've decided to just do as cops do when faced with a cold case. We sit on our ass, eat doughnuts and wait for the next murder. Hinata has a shadow clone up 24/7, with the express goal of seeing the entire murder. We won't try to stop it, we need to see with the byakugan what happens at the end of it, when the murderer commits suicide.
—
The first task for the chunin exams was apparently some kind of hide and seek. Teams got assigned either seekers or hiders and had to either not get caught for the hiders or find another team for the seekers. No combat was involved. I'm pretty sure Suna is trying to make as much as possible of their home advantage. My students passed, if they hadn't passed something like this with a byakugan on their team they would have never lived that down. I would have made fun of them for months.
The second task will be held tomorrow. I don't know what the task is but I would confidently bet one of Rasa's solid gold bars that it will be something where the Suna teams will have an advantage.
—
I was right. The second task was finding some scrolls hidden in the desert around Sunagakure. The third and final task will be a tournament. To be held in a month's time. I decide not to give any of my students preferential treatment, so I am still training all of them collectively.
Another interesting tidbit is that the Hokage is coming to spectate the exams. This is probably a move to both deepen the alliance between our villages and to remind the other villages of it.
I also spent some time in the last two days scouting the other villages teams. This exam does not have anyone all that exceptional participating so my team should do just fine. Wakemi and Hidesho are going to end up fighting in the second round.
I've gathered them all so that I can tell them about their new schedule. "Alright. We'll meet at the training grounds every day and begin training. Don't worry about facing each other. We can hold our own fights and decide who will concede so that the winner isn't disadvantaged. Just make sure to make a spectacle when you have to fight each other, that will benefit both of you. Any questions?"
They all shake their heads, good. It's time to give them their very own training arc. Hinata and Sakura both agreed to help me train them, so they should make a pretty good showing for themselves here.
-two weeks later
Another murder has happened. Hinata thankfully saw everything that happened with her byakugan. The murder-suicide is as i suspected, some form of a ritualistic jutsu. The instant the murderer commited suicide his chakra was transferred to a random passerby. We're going to follow that person, see if anything weird happens with them.