I had no idea where the jonin tournament was going to be held, so that evening I made my way into a pub where I had spotted several shinobi. Gathering information discretely wasn't fun, and overhearing other ninjas conversations wasn't exactly safe, but it couldn't be helped.
I only hoped to not encounter Shin. We really had nothing to talk about. We both realized it during the six months I had spent in Konoha after the chunin exams.
I has worked through my rage, so likely I wouldn't feel overwhelming hate towards Guy anymore, even if trusting him with anything not mission-related was off the table.
I wasn't hoping to hear exactly where to go, but at some point I would strike up a conversation and try to find out. There were always other methods, but the lack of details around the 'I've signed you up for a tournament that could not exist' meant that I was being tested.
From my gathering info skills to my open combat ones, if the tournament actually existed.
If there was one thing that my economic ventures in the capital had granted me, it was a shitload of money. I eyeballed the Monopoly on one of the shelves in the left side of the room and gave a satisfied grunt in seeing a couple of chunins giving their all to win a nine-man' morris game while sipping their sake.
I purchased a warm cup of Honjozo-shu along with a pot of warm water. I had my personal blend of tea thank you very much.
I sat at an empty table, distractedly checking for poisons. That kind of sake was made by adding brewer's alcohol and was not as potent as sake made without the addition of alcohol.
This addition was responsible for giving the sake a light and smooth body and flavor. It also made the aroma of the drink distinct and easily identified.
I sipped it slowly, assigning a number to every other ninja in the pub.
When I had finished my cup, I carefully warmed up the water in the teapot with some fire natured chakra. It was nothing less than an advanced form of chakra control. The water must not boil but begin the evaporation process nonetheless.
"...Guy's little clone..." were some wonderful news to hear. It looked like he ended up with Rock Lee on his team.
"... Tsume's kid is in the class with the other clan heir..." I rolled my eyes, that was an old new.
I fished out from a breast pocket of my tokubetsu jonin jacket a paper bag of my favorite blend and let it fall into the teapot.
I kept overhearing snippets of stuff I lacked a context for, but I mostly confirmed that the timeline was roughly on track. Good enough.
When I deemed it ready, I poured myself some tea. I used the same cup I used for the sake, I didn't really care, worst-case scenario, my blend would have something wrong in it.
I was considering my next moves, staying in Konoha would have been the best until after the chunin exams.
Orochimaru sure as hell should be kept away from the Sharingan, and many of the key players would converge to Konohagakure no Sato, if I were to believe to what I had managed to overhear in the Capital.
I was deep in my thought when Mitarashi Anko, of all people, popped out of the blue on the empty seat in front of me.
Kunoichi #5 I associated my previous identification number to her face.
She was a fairly tall woman of a slender frame. She has light brown, pupil-less eyes. Her hair black with a blue tint in the manga was styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. Her infamous fitted mesh bodysuit covered her from her neck down to her thighs.
Over this, she wore a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark orange mini-skirt, a dark blue belt, and pale grey shin guards. In addition to the forehead protector, she also wore a small pendant that looked like a snake fang.
I got why ninja tended to wear always the same combination of clothes, I did it too. During a fight one had to know where everything was stashed on one's own body.
There was never the time to stop and think about where one had stashed the ninja wire, so everything had to be always the same. The same reasoning went for the colors a ninja wore. They heavily impacted one's ability to camouflage after all.
Still, her mesh bodysuit let me take a peek at the areolas of her nipples. And that rose every kind of alarm in my head.
"Well hello! I'm the sexy and single..."
"So." I interrupted her before she could get the ball rolling. "I don't think the Hokage issued the order to seduce me, he has figured me out enough that he can tell manipulations will backfire spectacularly."
She didn't blink or in anyway betray that she knew where I was coming from. But I frankly didn't care.
"You work for Ibiki, so either he is somehow spooked by me..." I tilted my head, letting my eyes take in her form shamelessly. She had leaned back on her chair.
"Or a disgruntled... Anbu with a recently broken nose asked for a favor hoping to get some dirt on me." I continued, finally figuring out the reason for her presence. Yugao had been the one in charge of my evaluation, and I had willingly broken her orders. And nose.
"Daiki-kun!" A most youthful voice exclaimed.
I smirked to the unreadable expression on Anko's face. "Embarrassing isn't it?" I sardonically asked before rising from my seat.
Guy hadn't changed. Not really, even if he did look more mature. He was 26 after all, even his youthfulness couldn't stop his growing up.
But which were the chances that he wouldn't be running a C-rank on the day I came back? It did smell like a setup.
But maybe I was just paranoid.
"Guy-sensei." I replied with a smile. My relationship with him had remained civil after my chunin exams, even if understandably strained. But I had always known that it wasn't really anyone's fault.
I doubted that I would ever again refer to him as sensei in the privacy of my thoughts, but alienating him would have meant losing a powerful ally.
"I heard that you got a taijutsu specialist. With a Hyuga and a kunoichi with a passion for every kind of weaponry." I started conversationally, abusing my knowledge of the future for all that it was worth. And it would also set up a precedent of me 'knowing stuff'.
I should have known that talking with Guy in a pub would have backfired spectacularly.
...
The following day
"I still don't know how I got roped into this." I muttered to myself.
The pebbles were embedding themselves into the palms of my hands and the sweat was rolling down my nose in thick drops, making me wish I could stop to scratch it.
I was running on my hands at Guy's side, it was our second lap around Konoha, and the sun hadn't completely left the horizon yet. I started missing the endless string of A ranked missions that my three years in the Capital had been.
We stopped to pick up Lee, and I fully realized how lucky I had been in not becoming a copy of Might Guy.
I avoided being hugged by an over-excited kid in green spandex who kept screaming "Senpai!" only thanks to hand standing. And once more I thanked Guy's crazy training regime.
...
( 20 march- year 12 AK )
Turns out the Hokage monument kept hidden a vast underground arena.
Which was all the more impressive if one thought that there was also a system of caves designated for emergency evacuation of Konohagakure's civilians.
I entered walking at the side of Guy, and we both pretended that I didn't follow him there because I didn't know the way.
"Ne, Guy-sensei, I haven't sparred in a while, is there a set of rules or something that would be... impolite, to do?"
The man shouted something about the joy he felt in having such a tactful student before answering me: "The tournament is more like a series of spars, Daiki-kun. So nothing that is immediately lethal unless you can stop it at any given moment."
I nodded thoughtfully, I would need to play it as a finesse fighter. It would be a good training, and to be perfectly honest, I had been getting restless during the last month. Not enough to take an A rank with a team, that would not happen if I had a saying of any kind.
"Oh fuck me." I groaned when I read the tournament' brackets. What were the odds that my first opponent would be Kakashi of all people?
I was about to ask Guy if the Hokage would be watching when I spotted the Man with the Hat in the gallery above the arena.
It was a circular, barren fighting pit with a twenty meters radius, with seals on the walls. At least it wouldn't fall on our heads. However the Hokage wanted to know what I was capable of, he could have asked.
The end result will be the same. I thought. I unlatched the scroll until I uncovered an empty storage seal, in which I dropped my weights and armor.
My dressing code had remained roughly the same during the last years. Sandals with dark cargo pants held on my calves by tightly wrapped bandages, a couple of pouches on my left tight.
My grey-ish hoodied form-fitting shirt had long sleeves, my armguards were dyed of a dull black which helped to break the uniformity of my torso, along with the straps that held in place my big ass storage seal.
There were a lot of contestants, many that I had never seen before, and several that I had expected to see were not there.
Likely on missions. I reasoned. It was a pity, I had wanted to see what Kurenai or Gekko were capable of.
But eyeing the absolute blank face of Yugao, I smiled and waved cheekily in her direction, doing my best impression of a lecherous grin.
I hopped down into the arena jumping lightly on my feet to get used to the absence of the weights.
I even zipped up my Tokubetsu Jonin jacket and sat down, waiting for Kakashi to arrive.
"Doesn't he surrender if he fails to be here on time?" I asked for the general amusement of the peanut gallery.
Kakashi chose that moment to lazily walk in the underground arena.
Well at least he did me the courtesy of not reading his smut. I considered raising from my position.
This is going to hurt.
...
( 15 July- 12 years AK )
I entered the Hokage's office without hiding my curiosity at being summoned, by an Anbu, no less.
In the room, there was not only the Hokage but also a very famous kunoichi.
Kurenai was a fair-skinned woman of slender build like many kunoichis were. She had long black untamed hair reaching her upper back and very unique eyes that are red in color, with an additional ring in them.
They were enthralling, and I wondered if she had so.e kind of lenses on them. She wore make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. She wore a red mesh armor blouse with only the right sleeve visible.
She was wrapped loosely in a broad material that resembled bandages with a pattern on it similar to those of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were also wrapped in bandages and she wore the Konoha forehead protector and regular shinobi sandals. All in all, she was a knockout.
"Sorry, I'm late, there was this old lady, you see..." a familiar voice drawled behind me, introducing the entrance of Kakashi no Sharingan himself. The lazy bastard.
"It's of no consequence Kakashi-kun, since I convocated you three hours ago on purpose." The Sandaime replied merrily, waiving lazily his pipe through the smoke he had just exhaled.
Then I put together the presence of both Kakashi and Kurenai with mine. No, it couldn't be.
Nonononono... I started chanting.
"You are here because I'm giving you a genin team."
Fuck you old man.
...
If you like the story so far, please throw some power stones.
======================
If you want to read ahead of the public release on p atreon.
p @treon Link :
p atreon.com/sybife
|● sybife