We had been back in the main camp for two days when I got the mission scroll from Orochimaru. It had been long enough for my team to recover and long enough for me to ensure that the medical tent was running well. Things were quieter than they had been in weeks as most of the seriously wounded had already been sent back to Konoha while we were away. What remained were only minor injuries, the kind medics could treat without me standing over their shoulders.
The morning after receiving the mission orders, I found Yuri tidying the shelves of the storage tent, humming softly to herself as she restocked herbs and bandages.
"I'm taking my team out into the field," I told her.
She stopped mid-motion, hand resting on a jar of salve, and gave me a look that was equal parts exasperation and amusement. "Of course you are. I should've seen it coming."
I chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "Sorry to dump the everything on you, but things are quiet here, for now anyways, and my team needs the experience."
Yuri sighed, but there was no real weight in it. "I'll manage. Just remember they're still young. Don't push them harder than you have to."
"I won't."
Reaching into my pouch, I pulled out a marked shuriken and handed it to her. "If something goes wrong, call me with this. I'll come back as fast as I can."
Yuri shook her head, but I could see the fondness in her expression. "Go on, then. Just don't make me regret covering for you."
I inclined my head. "Thank you, Yuri."
When I stepped back out into the morning light, the camp was already stirring, but my mind was on the road ahead. My team was ready and waiting on me. It was time to test them and give them a taste of real battlefield life.
We left camp with the sunrise, slipping out with our gear packed tight and weapons ready. The air was cool at first, and the faint mist of River Country clungto our cloaks, but as we pushed north the light grew harsher and the land began to change.
To our right, the ground was still green, patched with trees and winding streams that glittered in the morning sun. But to our left, the scrub thinned, giving way to dry, cracked soil and the first hints of Wind Country's desert which was open, arid, and vast. The borderland was a scar between two worlds, and we were running right along the edge of it.
We moved fast, only pausing when my genin needed a moment to catch their breath. I used those moments to kneel and etch my Flying Thunder God mark into a tree trunk or the face of a rock, my chakra sinking into the surface until it pulsed faintly back at me. Another point of light in a growing web.
It was during one of those quick stops that Asuma finally asked, brow furrowed and sweat dripping down his temple. "What are you doing, exactly? You keep tagging random rocks. Is that part of the mission?"
I glanced back at him, straightening. "I'm building a network of seals. With them, I can travel instantly across the field, scout quickly, or strike from an unexpected angle. Think of it as… laying down my own roads."
Guy's eyes went wide, his grin practically splitting his face. "Yosh! Secret roads of youth! That's amazing, Akari-sensei!"
Asuma snorted, though I caught the flicker of interest in his gaze. "And what's our mission, then? Running around painting rocks?"
I met his eyes steadily. "No. Your mission is to disrupt Sand supply routes and scouting parties. We'll be their thorn in the side, and you wanted a 'real' mission."
Asuma's lips quirked into a grin, his fatigue fading into something sharper. "Now that sounds more like it. About time we get to rattle some cages instead of just watching from the sidelines."
Guy pumped his fist, practically vibrating. "Yes! A true test of endurance and spirit! We will become the storm that the Sand cannot ignore!"
Kurenai, ever the cautious one, gave them both a look but didn't speak right away. She adjusted her pack and finally asked, "And what about the risks? Supply lines are guarded. Scouts aren't pushovers."
"That's why I'm laying these roads," I explained, tapping the seal I'd just pressed into the stone. "If things turn bad, I can pull you out instantly. You'll strike, retreat, and strike again before they can pin you down. It won't be without danger, but it won't be reckless either."
Asuma's grin widened, a spark of the Sarutobi fire in his eyes. "So we get to fight smart and hit hard? Sounds perfect to me."
Guy let out a booming laugh. "Yosh! Our flames of youth will scorch their supply wagons before they even know what happened!"
Even Kurenai's expression softened a little, the corners of her mouth tugging upward. "Then I'll make sure they never see us coming."
I nodded, pleased. "Good. Then let's get to work. The sooner my marks are set, the sooner you get your wish, Asuma."
He cracked his knuckles, eyes gleaming. "Can't wait."
By midday, the sun beat down with enough force that I called for a longer stop. We found shade under the twisted branches of a gnarled tree and pulled out dried rations and canteens. My team ate quickly, murmuring among themselves.
While they had their fill, I summoned my Space-Time clone while ignoring the forming headache in the back of my mind. For the first time in a while, I could feel a constant throbbing from my temples, similar to when I first started using my clones regularly and would be overwhelmed by their memories. This time, though, I knew it was my connection to the Flying Thunder God seals that I had spread around, but I ignored it for now as I could still manage; I would have Yin look at me later this evening to see if there she could do to ease the strain.
"Head west," I told the clone. "Keep extending the network into Wind Country and stay hidden."
She bowed once then took off running to the west. I sat down and leaned back against the tree trunk, sipping from my canteen. The headache lingered, a reminder that the web was already pressing the limits of my mind. Still, the pattern was beginning to take shape as faint lines stretching across the borderlands like threads on a loom.
Then a sharp cry split the air. My gaze lifted until I spotted the hawk perched high on the bare limb of a dead tree, talons gripping the branch as if it owned the world beneath it. Its feathers were a dark sandy brown, lighter across its chest, with striking red accents around the eyes, vivid enough to remind me of Kurenai's eye... and an idea popped into my head.
"Kurenai," I said, nodding upward. "Use genjutsu, and bring it down to us."
Her brows knit. "A hawk? Why..."
"Trust me."
She sighed but formed the seals. Her chakra slipped outward, invisible but insistent. The hawk ruffled its wings, then swooped down from its perch in a clean dive and landed on the dirt before us. I rose and walked to it, reinforcing her genjutsu with a thread of my own chakra to steady the bird's will. My fingers brushed its feathers as I placed a Flying Thunder God seal into its back.
"Why mark a hawk?" Kurenai asked cautiously, her chakra still holding.
"Because it can be more than a hawk. Copy my hand signs," I replied. I guided her hands into forming a short, simple sequence of signs. "This pattern will let you thread your chakra into its senses. While stationary, you can see what it sees, allowing you to scout around the area."
Her eyes widened slightly as she mirrored the sequence. When she pushed chakra outward again, her breath caught, and a flicker of surprise sparked across her face. "I… I can see through it!"
I nodded. "You can also train it with basic commands. Keep it close to our route so you can reuse it. If we're lucky, over time it will adapt to your chakra. That's how summoning bonds begin. This hawk could become yours, not just a tool, but a companion."
Kurenai's lips parted, the faintest smile tugging at them. "A summoning beast of my own…" The excitement in her tone was subtle, but undeniable.
Behind her, Asuma whistled low. "Not fair. She gets a hawk? Where's mine?"
Guy practically exploded, fists clenched, eyes blazing. "Yosh! I want one too, Akari-sensei! A partner to embody the fire of youth!"
I chuckled, shaking my head. "Asuma, once things settle somewhat, I'll take you to meet the Sarutobi clan's monkeys. One of them will suit you if you can prove yourself. Guy…" I smirked at his eager grin. "We'll have to wait until after the war to find something worthy of you."
Guy slumped for a heartbeat, then sprang upright, renewed fire in his eyes. "Then I'll become strong enough that even the fiercest beast cannot refuse me!"
Duy chuckled, resting a steadying hand on his son's shoulder. "With that spirit, Guy, it's only a matter of time."
Kurenai kept her focus on the hawk, a flush coloring her cheeks as she tried the hand signs again. Her chakra linked more smoothly this time, the bird's eyes flashing briefly red as it accepted the illusion. She was still smiling when she glanced back at me.
"Alright, have the hawk take off and head towards the north along the border. We've still got a lot of ground to cover," I said.
"Yes, Akari-sensei!" Guy shouted excitedly while Asuma and Kurenai simply nodded.
With a gesture from Kurenai, the hawk gave a cry as it flapped its wings and took off into the air. All five of us watched it climb into the sky before we rushed off as well. There was still half a day to cover more ground and expand my network of seals.
Night had fallen by the time we made camp. None of us bothered with tents and decided on bedrolls laid around the fire. Asuma and Guy sparred lightly on the packed dirt nearby, their shadows jerking and clashing in the firelight. Duy crouched over the flames, turning a spit with a deer he had caught earlier, the rich smell of roasting meat hanging in the air. Kurenai sat off to the side with her hawk perched on her arm, on a rough leather bracer fashioned from the deer hide, as she fed it scraps of raw venison. The bird's talons flexed, wings twitching faintly, but it did not resist. She was smiling, faint, but genuine, as it snapped each strip from her fingers and gobbled it down.
I drifted away from the group and summoned my Earth Clone to handle the first watch for the night. She nodded and walked towards the group with a subtle look that made me sigh with annoyance and a hint of pain. Next, I summoned my Yin Clone who stepped into existence, arms crossed, expression unimpressed.
"You're burning yourself out," she said bluntly. "Clones alone wear your mind thin. Add over fifty Flying Thunder God signals tugging at you all at once? You're going to split your head open from the inside."
I exhaled through my nose. "I don't have much of a choice. The technique's range is short with my current level of skill. If I want it to matter, I need a network, and that means more marks."
"Not like this." Yin's gaze sharpened. "You're treating every signal as raw input, and it's battering your brain. Since you can't ignore them, or dispel them yet, you need to reshape how you process them."
I frowned. "Reshape?"
"Use your Yin chakra," she said simply. "Wrap it over the Space-Time signals, coat them so they don't all scream at once. Instead of thousands of loose threads, pull them into something coherent. Think like a map, a fast-travel map... When you 'access' it, your Yin chakra could allow you to visualize the Space-Time seals that are scattered across the region, but otherwise, the genjutsu can suppress your ability to 'sense' the markers and, thereby, easing the strain on your mind.
The words made me pause. The ache was still there, throbbing behind my eyes, but I knew the idea had a lot of potential. A map instead of noise, patterns instead of chaos. I might not be using it like Minato, but it still accomplished most of my goals and the bonus of a mental map.
I gave a short laugh, shaking my head. "You're supposed to be a part of me, but sometimes I swear you're too clever for your own good."
Yin smirked faintly. "I'm only clever because you're too distracted to be."
"Just keep me from frying my mind with this idea of yours," I replied.
"Of course," she agreed.
As I sat down, I closed my eyes and drew a steady breath. Channeling my chakra into my head, it shifted into Yin chakra and spread like ink in water, seeping through the pathways of my brain, brushing against every signal from the seals. Each one flickered bright at first, raw and insistent, until the Yin chakra coated it, softening the noise into something dimmer, quieter, manageable.
The headache pressed at the edges of my vision as I worked, Yin chakra wrapping again and again over the flood of Space-Time signals. The first few attempts collapsed almost immediately, the light scattering back into painful static, but I kept at it, forcing myself to refine the flow with each pass. By the fourth try, something finally clicked.
The ache in my skull dulled as the noise eased into something more coherent as the chaos resolved itself into order. A map bloomed within my mind's eye, instead of the vague sense of distance and direction I had before. It was like the hand-drawn maps in the command center, but with twinkling silver lights that represented each Flying Thunder God seal. There was the stream of markers along our route we had taken as well as an offshoot from my Space-Time Clone's work, but it was the signal to the southeast that caught my attention; Pakura seemed to be halfway between Umiwake and the Hidden Sand Village, if my guess was correct.
[Ding!]
[Unlocked: Phantom Realm Release – Rank F-]
The system's announcement chimed in my mind, and for an instant I let myself savor the triumph. Another fusion, and something unheard of to my knowledge, meaning I was not limited to canon. But the excitement faded almost as quickly as it had come.
Chakra was bleeding from me in steady streams, every mark pulling at once. It felt like I was tethered to dozens of anchors, each drinking greedily from my reserves. Within seconds I had lost a quarter of my reserves; by the half-minute mark, over half was gone.
I cut the technique off with a sharp breath, and the map winked out. The pull vanished instantly, leaving me drenched in sweat but still conscious. There was a faint trickle being used, but it was less than I recovered while resting so I could manage until I ranked up the new release and practiced the technique more.
"Activating that map is no joke," I muttered, pressing a hand against my forehead.
Yin crouched in front of me, her expression thoughtful rather than chastising this time. "In a sense, you were feeling the strain that your mind was under, but now as chakra drain. On the plus side, Space won't have the need for this technique and will be able to use the Flying Thunder God technique freely since she resonates with that chakra."
I exhaled, staring up at the stars overhead rather than Yin. "So, I've built a map, but I need to know where the hell I want to go before I use it. Still, it clearly has potential besides being a crutch; hopefully, ranking it up will ease the cost of the technique."
Yin's smirk softened. "Every new release starts at the bottom. F- rank is just the first step."
I gave a dry chuckle, brushing damp hair from my forehead. "You're annoyingly proud of yourself."
She shrugged, entirely too smug. "I'm only proud because you never give yourself enough credit."
"Help Earth keep watch tonight, and wake me up in five hours, so I can practice the technique again... This isn't the place to train a new technique," I said, standing up.
"Such a wonderful thanks for assisting you develop a solution to your problem and a new Kekkei Genkai," Yin retorted.
"Thanks," I yawned with a wave without looking back.