"Well, that was interesting."
Tsume Inazuka spoke with a big grin, watching Cat drag both of them out by the back of their collars, like she was dragging out trash to throw in the can.
"Annoying is more like it."
Tsunade replied, feeling the urge to drink all the sake in Konoha.
"I didn't expect you to be the first one to agree."
Tsunade said to Shikaku, raising a brow.
Shikaku fought the urge to yawn, this summons having cut into his evening nap.
"It made sense; it gets the lazy civilians to actually pull their weight, and the responsibility of arranging our forces isn't that troublesome a job. It could be worse, like that job of sorting through all your paperwork."
Choza laughed, his belly jiggling before he slapped Shikaku on the back.
"Hearing you call someone else lazy is something I only hear when you talk about Shikamaru."
Inoichi shook his head in amusement at the antics of his two teammates.
"This was a good proposal."
Tsunade smiled, having waited for this moment, gesturing to Kakashi.
"Kakashi here came up with it."
Shibi Aburame nodded to Kakashi in respect, surprised when Kakashi noticed and nodded back, used to being the one who went unnoticed in a lively crowd like this.
"Not bad, Kakashi; Minato would be proud."
Inoichi smiled, happy to see the student of his late friend do so well for himself.
Tsunade smiled behind her hand, clearly enjoying putting Kakashi in this situation in the first place.
"Alright everyone, relax a bit, or you'll make him blush."
Tsunade teased Kakashi before continuing the meeting to discuss other ninja-related issues, such as tensions and disputes among ninja from other nations, the mercenary group known as Akatsuki, and what Tsunade expects of each of them.
After a long meeting, Tsunade called an end to it and allowed everyone to leave, watching all the clan heads leave before Kakashi too made his way to the door.
"I'll make sure she grows to be the monster you clearly planned for."
Kakashi stops, looking over his shoulder to meet her eyes.
"I'm sure Sakura would have made herself a monster given her motivation, but with your help that process will no doubt be much smoother."
Tsunade nods, speaking up about something she has been thinking about since taking office: reports about different genin and how their growth is directly or indirectly influenced by this man.
"What are you preparing for, Kakashi?"
"Maa, that's a loaded question, but to put it simply, war."
Kakashi said before vanishing in a swirl of leaves, leaving Tsunade with a surprised expression.
- Training Ground 7 -
Appearing in the clearing where he was previously teaching Sakura, Kakashi sat and began laying out his fuintjutsu materials, determined to begin the process of making his own Flying Raijin mark now that he had time, his clones having already dismissed Sasuke and Naruto for the day.
Kakashi started off with the marks provided as a guide, that being Tobirama's, Minato's, and now Naruto's, thanks to his student handing over the progression of his work. This by no means meant he could simply use another's mark; every user of the Flying Raijin has a unique mark that only works for them; that was why Minato was never afraid of anyone getting a hold of his kunai. The words themselves wouldn't give anyone insight into how to achieve this technique or how to attempt to steal it. The reason many stay clear of the Flying Raijin is the uncertain domain of space/time techniques; they were very dangerous subjects, and no one short of an idiot would attempt to mess with them recklessly.
Kakashi racked his brain until the sun started to set, going home with the beginning of the idea for his own mark, feeling on the cusp of it with the help of Naruto's own notes.
Going home, Kakashi rested up and met up with Sasuke at Training Ground 7 the next day alongside Naruto and Karin, who joined to further her Fuinjutsu with Kakashi as he worked on his mark.
They wasted no time, splitting up to tackle their individual assignments, Kakashi helping Karin while simultaneously working on his mark, not distracted or aggravated by her questions in the slightest, welcoming them when his brain hit a brief block, her questions actually broadening his own work and making the creation of his mark come along faster than it normally would.
On Naruto's side, he and his clone work through his exercise with wet leaves, having mastered incinerating the dry ones instantly; the wet ones, while being burned, weren't igniting into flame instantly, instead being hampered by the wetness of the leaves, Naruto hummed to himself before deciding on the straightforward approach of increasing the chakra friction, making the flames more intense and burning the wet leaf in an instant.
"Guys, ramp up the friction and chakra; it's not as complicated as water release."
Naruto shook his head, not expecting it to be this simple, having been used to the more complex wind and water elemental transformations.
The clones of Naruto looked a little annoyed that they had been overcomplicating it this entire time, copying the original's moves and igniting the leaves.
"What now?"
They asked, the ashes of the leaves blowing away as they stood there.
"Well, we go onto something harder, of course. But I need you all to dispel at the appropriate time; I don't want another scolding."
Naruto rubbed his ear, it having been grabbed and yanked as Kakashi scolded him last night.
Naruto's clones chuckled with lines of
"That sucks, buddy." and "Sad to be you." with others murmuring similar lines.
"You're all literally me, just, just shut up and dispel properly."
Naruto sighed, wondering why his clones were so different compared to other clones. His had different personalities, like parts of him were amplified and made to embody one trait, very strange.
The clones complied, organizing and dispelling in their order; the memories pouring back to Naruto were a lot, but having mastered this technique, it wasn't dangerous to him now that he knew his proper limits with it.
On Sasuke's side, he was hypnotizing animals with regular genjutsu and Sharingan genjutsu alike, all subtle as he learned from Kakashi, layering two genjutsu at a time with one target at a time, as managing more than one target under genjutsu was a challenge, and he imagined that it would be noticed by anyone with control of their chakra. This was great progress, as genjutsu was a delicate art, nothing like the brute force of taijutsu or power of ninjutsu; this took far more finesse, and if one wasn't proficient, it just wasted the chakra used to cast the technique and made the target wary of more attempts. Sasuke needed to be subtle and catch his opponents off guard in any way he could.
Even using genjutsu on these animals required a delicate touch, because while some of them were fooled by their sense of sight, their sharp noses caught discrepancies in the technique and ignored the illusions as if they weren't there, a frustrating development for Sasuke, but one that proved a challenge.
The visual genjutsu came naturally to him as an Uchiha, and the auditory aspect was taught to him by Kakashi, a combination that would fool those not observant, but ninjas were observant, so he still needed more understanding of how to trick the sense of smell, and these animals would prove to be the ultimate test.
Sasuke smiled, actually feeling a sense of excitement over genjutsu, coming to like it more and more and wishing he hadn't neglected it for so long.
- 1 day later, with Kakashi and Karin -
"I think I'm done."
Kakashi gazed down on his own Flying Raijin mark with a smile, feeling the connection to it on the scroll, an almost giddy feeling pooling in his stomach as he made double and triple sure, creating a clone and tossing it to the other side of the clearing, breaking out into a full grin as his clone appeared on the other side and caught the scroll before it could fall.
"Congratulations, Sensei."
Karin smiled, having now witnessed the birth of two Flying Raijin users, feeling like a sort of good-luck charm.
"Thank you."
Kakashi sat down, accepting the scroll from his clones after it walked back over before it dispelled.
"Now that I've finally got that out of the way, I think it's time to help you with your own fuinjutsu training."
Kakashi was in a great mood at this point, throwing himself into teaching Karin with the same level of competence, but he was now free to devote his full attention to her training.
"Yes, Sensei!"
Karin responded with equal happiness, fuinjutsu having quickly become her obsession; even Kakashi and Naruto silently admired her raw talent for it; it was like watching a fish in water, very reminiscent of Kushina.
- Chapter End -
Hello party people, hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm nearly ready to start the final arc before the time skip; just want to set everyone's training in a certain direction and point out individual talents, as I did with Sakura and now Karin. The talents of Sasuke and Naruto couldn't be more apparent, but I'm trying to give each of them life and a uniqueness about them. I take your comments and reviews seriously, and this is my response. I hope I'm doing well so far.