The wind in this region of the River Country was sharper than I expected. Crisp and dry, carrying sand even this far from the Wind Country border. It clung to our uniforms and stung the eyes. We arrived just before midday at a massive clearing nestled between two high ridgelines; a natural choke point for the main base.
I stood at the front of my division, watching as lines of tents rose across the clearing in well-practiced formation. Supply depots and watchtowers were already being assembled under the direction of ROOT agents. I kept a mental tally of how many of them were out in the open as there were so many that it made me wonder if any were left in the village.
"This is where it starts," I murmured to myself, watching the medical supplies being brought into the main tent.
"Akari-sensei?" Kurenai's voice drifted from behind me. She had been following me quietly since we had stopped to build the main camp.
"Let's get to work."
We moved fast. I called together the people I knew from my time in the hospital, training under Tsunade. Amano Yuri greeted me with a warm nod while Saito Emi, my poison specialist, had arrived late but came with her own set of scrolls, packed with herbs, so I was not going to complain. Nishioka Ren offered a sarcastic salute, but his chakra stabilization talent was always in high demand. I assigned each of them a major position along with a genin to act as their personal assistant.
Yuri was in charge of the triage and the main clinic, only second to me in command. Emi, of course, was assigned to antidote creation and treatment. That left post-care for the patients to Ren, much to his annoyance, but threatening him with every graveyard shift was enough to shut him up.
Kurenai stayed by my side as we took inventory: medical packs, chakra infusion tools, poison-detection kits, blood-replacement scrolls, and too few soldier pills for the numbers we would be treating. Still, the numbers matched the inventory scrolls that had the official seal from the village, so I could not claim any tricks from Danzo easily. Kurenai handled the clipboard without complaint, eyes sharp as she tracked everything. After that, I began listing what still needed to be done like rotating the medics into shifts and the security detail.
By late-afternoon, our first patients arrived. Three scouts which were bandaged and leaning on each other. A few cuts, puncture wounds, and a broken rib, but nothing dangerous. The worst injuries came from a few cuts from poisoned shuriken.
"This one's reacting," Yuri called. "Skin's turning red and numbness, classic Sand toxin. Saito, you're up."
"I got it," Saito said, already moving. "Stabilize chakra flow and start fluid replenishment."
Kurenai had joined them to assist, taking a deep breath before carefully applying pressure to the wounded man's shoulder. Her hands did not tremble, and her focus did not waver. I stayed long enough to confirm that the antidotes were working, then stepped away as another medic reported to me.
"Dead enemy shinobi recovered on the northern ridge," she said. "Two of them. Chunin-level. Mostly intact."
Perfect. I needed a proper task for the boys.
I nodded then turned back to Kurenai. "I need you to help out here for a while; listen to jonin Yuri while I'm gone."
She glanced up, surprised but not alarmed. "Where are you going?"
"To set up the rest of our team's duty shifts," I replied with a small smile. "I'll be back before dark."
She nodded once, eyes already returning to the wounded. I found Duy, Guy, and Asuma picking up the team's rations near the edge of the supply depot, in line with a dozen other ninjas. Asuma looked bored, Guy energetic, and Duy still calm as ever.
"Team," I called after they got our weeks' worth of rations. "Over here. I've got a special assignment for you three."
They followed without question as I led them through the winding rows of tents. Slowly, we came to a small, dark one set off from the rest, tucked behind the main medical tents. It was plain, unmarked, and heavily warded with hidden chakra seals.
I stepped just inside the rope perimeter and called out. "Yamanaka-san."
A moment passed before the tent flap rustled. Out stepped a man in his late thirties, maybe early forties. His pale blond hair was cut short, and a lattice of burn scars twisted across the left side of his face, all the way to his collarbone. His expression was unreadable, but something about the stillness in his posture warned that he was dangerous. Thankfully, I knew that he was a staunch supporter of my father, so I did not need to worry too much about leaving them in his hands.
"This is Kuroei Yamanaka," I said to the team. "He's a master of the Yamanaka mind-reading technique and specializes in corpse-memory extraction. You'll be assisting him with moving and protecting corpses brought in for intel extraction. That means guarding his workspace, handling incoming remains, and making sure no one tampers with them."
Asuma's mouth opened slightly. "Wait... dead bodies?"
"Yes. Welcome to war. There is nothing 'youthful' here; just the consequences of bloodshed."
Kuroei gave a curt nod, his voice a rasp. "I don't need questions. Just silence and fast hands. If you're squeamish, get over it now."
"Take care of my team, Yamanaka-san," I said with a slight bow.
Kuroei nodded then turned and stepped back into the tent without another word. The boys followed him, a bit more subdued than usual. Guy's shoulders were tense and Asuma's expression conflicted. Duy gave me a look of understanding and nodded firmly before he ducked inside as well.
I remained for a breath, remembering my own experience working with Kuroei, then turned and made my way back to the medical tent. The patients were being moved to recovery when I returned, and Kurenai was sitting off to the side; her nose buried in my old notebook yet again. I sat down at the desk then started looking through the reports that had already been collected.
Just as I started to settle into my work, a soft rustle of chakra shifted the air beside me. A faint poof of smoke appeared on the table beside the stack of papers, and Hana appeared. She smoothed her silken scarf and adjusted her tiny bracers.
"Akari-sama," she greeted with a tiny bow then pulled out a scroll from her scarf. "Tsunade-sama sends her reply."
Kurenai looked up from reorganizing the salve trays, and her face lit up with quiet recognition. "Hana-chan," she said, genuinely pleased. "Back already?"
"It's good to see you again, Kurenai-san," Hana replied politely, handing me a tightly rolled scroll.
I unrolled the scroll. Tsunade's handwriting was bold and slanted with speed, but still perfectly legible.
"So, you remember you have a teacher. Must be serious if you're writing. Or are you just lonely out there in River Country?"
I sighed; she was the only person who would tease me like this, even my mother would not.
"Yuri and Emi should be your cornerstones. Keep Ren on a short leash, but he knows his chakra flows. If Igarashi freezes up, make him watch instead of fumbling. You're not there to be their mother, but don't let them get themselves get in over their heads."
I nodded along, already mentally revising the next day's assignments.
"Your notes on the poison were good. The Sand's using the basic strain from five years ago over here, so it may be the same on that front. It's slow-reacting and stabilizes in the bloodstream after twenty minutes, which makes it vulnerable to chakra disruption. I've sent you some recipe adjustments; version three has been most effective so far."
"Also, if you're done being dramatic, I'm thinking of talking to the old man and asking to make a run over there. I want you to sign the slug contract. Katsuyu's been asking for you for a while now, and Hana mentioned that your skill with Space-Time ninjutsu has improved greatly while I've been gone. Besides, she'll be better and faster for long-distance communication between us than Hana; no offense."
Hana sniffed, reading over my shoulder. "None taken. I am not a mail-carrier. I'm family."
I reached over and scratched under Hana's chin. "That's right and thank you for getting it here fast."
"It's my honor," she said, tail flicking from the praise.
I carefully rolled up the scroll and tucked it away in my pocket. Kurenai said nothing more, just resumed stacking supplies and reviewing chakra charts, her presence calm and focused. Still, I caught the faint smile on her lips as she glanced toward Hana, and then toward me.
"One more task... Take this to a safe place eastward, at least seven hundred meters away from camp, then return to your home," I instructed as I took out a special shuriken and passed it to her.
She grinned, recognizing the seal on it, then quickly tucked it away. "Understood, Akari-sama!" Without another word, she leapt off the desk then slipped out under one of the walls of the tent instead of the main opening.
"What did you give Hana?" Kurenai asked with curiosity.
I chuckled and replied, "A good shinobi never reveals all their tricks."
Once the sun set, I finished looking through the preliminary reports and rubbed my eyes, using a bit of Yang chakra to ease the strain. Kurenai had finished the tasks that I had given to her ten or twenty minutes ago but waited for me to finish patiently. We walked back to the tent our team shared together and found Asuma, Guy, and Duy, though only Duy seemed fine.
"Are you too sick?" Kurenai asked with a note of concern.
Asuma just groaned while Guy sat there like he had not heard her.
"It's their assignment. I have them helping out and watching over the morgue. I'm guessing a few more dead came in after I placed you with Kuroei," I commented.
Asuma blanched at my words; Guy remained in his daze.
"Yes, Akari-sama. Another group brought back four heads which is what's troubling the boys," Duy explained.
"ROOT's work," I scoffed. "Still, you two are doing well, and it will get easier over the next few days."
"Do we have to keep working there?" Asuma asked, pale.
"I can send you back to Kohana if you would prefer," I retorted. "You may have killed a handful of bandits and even a couple of rogue ninjas, but that's a lot different than the battlefield. If you can't handle the morgue, how can I trust you in a real battle? How do I know you won't freeze when you see companions that you had been talking to the day before dead at your feet?"
Asuma looked down at the ground in shame, no longer arguing, and Guy finally snapped out of his daze.
"So, that is why you assigned us to Yamanaka-sama? To get us used to death?" Guy asked, his usual bubbly personality subdued.
"It is... I was five years old at the end of the Second Shinobi War when I became a genin. Tsunade-sama noticed me during one of her visits back to the village from the Amegakure front while I was working in the hospital because I boasted that I was ready to go to the front like the other genin... that, and I beat her brother to become a genin which forced him to stay in the village despite his protests. So, she dragged me to the village morgue and had me assist Kuroei, and that was when those scars were fresh... I spent three weeks working there before the war truly ended, going through our dead and the enemies', and, if I had not done that, I would not have reached chunin by eight and jonin by eleven. It's a difficult position, I know, but you will be stronger for it and ready to face the horrors of war."
It was all true. As a reincarnator, my mindset had never been that of a child, so despite my parents trying to slow my progress, my big brother Takeshi, Konohamaru's father to be, had taught me several jutsu after plenty of pestering. It started with the three basic jutsus that were taught in the academy when I was just four years old, but after mastering them in less than a week, my father could no longer ignore my potential. He assigned the strictest tests for my advancements, yet I passed them all with flying colors.
Honestly, it was Tsunade's trial in the morgue that gave me the most trouble as I had never been exposed to so much death in my past life. I had been an engineer before and queasy at the sight of blood, so I literally had no experience in the medical field. While people toted me as some genius, I knew the truth that I was a forty-year-old stuck in the body of a child. My 'accomplishments' were nothing in the face of true geniuses, especially those that would come after me like Kakashi and Itachi, but my system was my true edge like any good reincarnator... except that I had wasted far too much time when things were peaceful.
"No wonder you are so messed up," Asuma muttered under his breath.
Hearing him, I laughed then pounced on him. Pinning his arms behind his back before he knew what hit him, I messed with his hair or poked him in a ticklish place until he cried out for mercy.
"I might be messed up, little brother, but no more than the rest of this world," I laughed. "And because of that, I'm going to make sure that you, and the rest of this group, are able to take care of yourselves before I let any of you become chunins."
"Stop! Please stop! Guy! Help me! I'm begging you!" Asuma cried out between fits of laughter.
"So, Guy, will you defend your teammate?" I asked with a smirk, never stopping 'torturing' Asuma.
Duy gave him a little nudge with a playful smile, so Guy yelled out, "I won't let my teammate be attacked!"
He rushed at me, but I laughed and rolled Asuma between us. Throwing Asuma into him, I had the chance to make a few hand signs and summon my five main clones. The tent was suddenly crowded with all the clones, but Lightning and Fire grabbed both of them by their collars and threw them out as the rest of my clones and I followed out. Before they could recover, I had them surrounded, each of clones with the same menacing grin on our faces.
"Surrender now, my little genins, or face the consequences of your actions," I said loudly, drawing the attention of the nearby people.
"You bullied me, onee-chan!" Asuma could not help but yell out, just like he would back at home to get mother on his side.
"And as you're onee-chan, I'm going to teach you what discipline is all about," I retorted then rushed in with all my clones.
None of the punches I threw were meant to be damaging, but I made sure that both Asuma and Guy had a few whelps once they tried to get serious. Even they realized that I was trying to get their minds off of their day's task, though I could have picked a better place than the center of camp. Still, it worked and achieved my secondary goal of making our group look like rambunctious kids which I hoped would make Danzo underestimate me more.
After a light meal of rations, everyone settled down for bed. I, of course, was not truly sleeping, but rather waiting for the middle of the night when the rest of my team was asleep. Once I was sure that they were out, I summoned my Yin Clone to take my place while I teleported away, using the Flying Thunder God technique.
I found myself in a dark, quiet forest then grinned. While I had no crazy plans of forming a powerful secret group, staying locked away at the camp would bring my training to a grinding halt, ha. I continued to head east, away from the camp, as I searched for a suitable place to make a personal base.
Eventually, I found a river which I followed to a waterfall. It was a clique location, I knew, but the rushing water would wash away my scent and even weaken my chakra residue quicker after I sealed the entrance. Without hesitation, I summoned six of my clones, leaving Yang and Lava in reserve.
"Earth, help me make the chamber. The rest of you, find me something to eat; these ration bars aren't going to hold me for long," I instructed.
With a nod, the other clones dispersed into the forest while Earth walked with me to waterfall. Over the years, the only drawbacks that I had found of my elemental clones were that they had to recover their own chakra and my appetite increased with each clone, so I was basically eating for ten people since I had nine clones; if explosive tags and storage scrolls were not so profitable, my wallet never would have survived.
Less than an hour later, the chamber was completed, and I was roasting a deer that Space-time brought back. Fire and Wind had also killed a boar, but I tasked them with smoking it to ensure that it lasted longer. Water and Lightning had gathered some wild vegetables and mushrooms, so I had a balanced meal mostly.
"I found no traces of people to the region to the north," Water informed.
"It's the same to west," Lightning added.
"I found a few traces to the east, but they weren't trying to hide their tracks, so I'm guessing civilians, or that ROOT is truly incompetent," Space-Time said.
"ROOT's only incompetency is in the intelligence department," Earth remarked offhandedly as she drew a seal on one of the walls.
Using a Wind-infused chakra scalpel, I sliced a chunk of meat off the roast and added it to my bowl of stew as I said, "Still, we don't need to take the risk. I'm going to leave the hunting to you, Space, while Fire can smoke the meat for her training. Let's keep this place closed up except for airflow and smoke control."
"I'll expand the smoke seep channels to the north and east as I practice, but I'd like you to keep an eye on the west, Space," Earth said, knowing that the two of them would be responsible for security.
"Everyone is to keep their reserves above half in case I need to use any of you, and four hours of practice, maximum, with another two hours for Fire if only she is finishing the rations, and don't let her leave that to last; you all know she will. Danzo could ask me to fight in the beginning," I added to the rules then started eating with the gusto of a starved man.
"You're obviously in your father's camp, so Danzo won't let you be in the spotlight, other than a medic," Space-Time commented, never liking any restrictions on her training time.
"She said 'beginning', so it's the perfect time to use her for an easy win or two then hide those victories as the war draws on," Water countered with ease.
"The Sand could also directly attack the camp, and then it won't matter if Danzo wants to involve her or not, she'll need to step into the spotlight," Lightning said with smirk.
"Try not to sound too eager for bloodshed," Water chided.
"Meh, it's not bloodshed that I'm after, but rather standing out. We might as well be ROOT with how much Akari hides her strength and sticks to the shadows," Lightning retorted.
"Yeah, well, I'm not fond of the idea of being on Danzo's radar any more than I already am. He has no trouble attacking Father's support base, and I still believe that he had something to do with that attack on him five years ago, so it isn't too much of a stretch to expect an 'invitation' from ROOT if he knew about my Lava Release before we were set to go to the front," I commented.
"Heh... but that won't be a problem much longer, not with your little secret," Lightning replied with a mischievous grin.
I rolled my eyes, but a similar grin was on my own face as I pulled up my Elemental Affinities which had undergone a significant change in the last year.
Fire: B 2,943,617 / 40,000,000
Wind: B 2,873,912 / 40,000,000
Water: B- 7,250,198 / 8,000,000
Lightning: B- 7,418,626 / 8,000,000
Earth: B 3,125,347 / 40,000,000
Yang: C+ 893,467 / 1,000,000
Yin: B- 6,914,773 / 8,000,000
Space-Time: B- 5,289,428 / 8,000,000
Lava: C 198,771 / 200,000
Scorch: D+ 38,942 / 40,000
Fuinjutsu: C+ 843,571 / 1,000,000
Taijutsu: C+ 923,482 / 1,000,000
Shurikenjutsu: B- 1,862,527 / 8,000,000
Eventually, I knew that I would need to reveal my mastery of the Flying Thunder God technique, as it was simply too overpowered in a war setting, so I had developed another trump card. Thankfully, Scorch Release was not an accidental mistake, so I had been able to keep it hidden from my father's prying eyes.
With me being sent to the Sand front under Danzo's command, and no official record of Pakura's death, my trump card would be the perfect method to burn away the diseased ROOTs of Kohona if I ever got the chance to launch a surprise attack, but without the Sand Village attacking the camp directly, it would be doubtful if that chance would ever come. Still, the war had only just begun, and it would not end soon, so I could only grow in secret and wait for an opportunity.