Chapter 16: Sensei

16 July- year 12 AK

I was honestly nervous. I studied critically my reflection in the mirror one last time before leaving.

I was around 1,90meters tall, with a bulky build, thanks to the road Guy had set me on so many years before. My hair was still of a dirty blond, I had cut it short, choosing that the advantage of a moving braid was not worthy of the necessary hours or money spent in haircare. My eyes were still of a steely grey-blue, I remembered them being less... distant when I was a kid, but anyway, I had seen a lot in the meantime. My assessment of my facial bone structure had revealed itself true: I had high cheekbones and a square jaw. I trailed my hand on the smooth skin. Shaving was a must, since at nineteen my beard still grew too randomly to be kept.

I sighed. I am not going to be any readier than this.

I left the yurt and flickered to the academy, where I spotted Kurenai waiting for her clue to enter.

We still had to exchange more than two words in a random meeting, and I had the idea that she was somehow avoiding me.

I shrugged. Not my problem.

I was so distracted that I almost lost my name being made to my team.

I hopped in through the open window without a sound. I hadn't prepared any kind of speech, so improvising it was.

"Training ground 10, as fast as you can," I said, my tone didn't admit any kind of reply. "Now." I narrowed my eyes.

Shikamaru sighed but rose from his seat, while Ino was already dragging Choji toward the door. I nodded towards Iruka, winked at Sasuke, and vanished from their sight.

I watched over my future genins critically. All the over the top flaws already there. Ino tended 'to harpy' to get her way, Shikamaru lacked direction, and Choji hadn't actually realized what he was in for.

It took them fifteen minutes, mostly because of the fact that they walked in the wrong direction for five before Shikamaru bothered to suggest the right way.

It looks like Ino can make them move when needed.

They reached the tree customary wooden posts in the center of the field. Ino whirled on herself, looking for me and berating Shikamaru at the same time, who had chosen to fall on the grass to cloud watch better. Choji was playing peace-maker offering some of his chips to both of them.

I blinked, surprised. To Ino too, uh? She refused, screaming something about... a diet? For real?

They were kids, I got that, and if I had the four years Guy had with me, I was pretty sure I could force them in the hazy abyss between A and S class. Sadly, I had eight months.

Shock treatment it is. I sighed, hidden among the leaves of a tall poplar tree. I brought my hands together, one flat against the other, finger to finger, palm to palm, as if I was about to pray. Sadly, children, you'll be the ones to pray.

I stilled, my chakra seeped through the distance that separated us, taking in a 'taste' of natural chakra, and dripped into their coils. Unseen, unfelt, I overlapped it to their senses, letting the environment do my work for me.

The grass they were on, the clouds Shikamaru was watching, the wind Ino was struggling against to keep her hair in her perfect ponytail, even the taste of Choji's chips. Everything that they were perceiving of the outside world was the foundation of my genjutsu. On that, I was going to build.

INO

I hated everything. I wasn't in the team with Sasuke-kun, Sakura-pig was. Instead, I ended up with a scary-looking sensei that sounded even scarier. There was Shikamaru of all people in my team! Shikamaru! Gaaah!

I couldn't even think about how much I hated everything. Choji was in my team too. Ugh. Not exactly the best thing under the sun. And he keeps trying to fatten me with that junk food.

Worst of all, there was this insistent breeze that turned into a proper wind and was messing with my look. Aaaaargh!

I sneezed all of a sudden and turned towards the two boys lazing around, searching for the origin of that... smell.

It wasn't a fart, thank Kami at least for that, but it was pungent and almost heavy at the same time. The disgust towards my teammates dimmed a bit while I brought my gaze back to the village.

"Is..." I stammered. "Is that smoke?"

CHOJI

I sat down on the grass and popped open another pack of chips. The sensei didn't look friendly, not like Kurenai-sensei at least. But it looked... fearsome. I nodded. It was a good word to describe him.

Shikamaru had yet to express his opinion, so I wasn't sure I was on the right track. But Ino was ranting pretty bad about the whole situation, so maybe I got that right.

I closed my eyes and focused on my chips. Sometimes I ate only one, slowly crushing it against my palate with my tongue. Sometimes I took a handful and filled my mouth to the brim. I alternated feeling strong and feeling full.

All in all, it wasn't a bad way to pass the time.

I was focusing on my food almost too much to hear Ino talking, but the expression on Shikamaru's face told me everything I needed to know.

SHIKAMARU

Since I can remember, I've always loved clouds. The white, aimlessly floating ones. The dark ones were always foreboding of something. And while I knew that the only difference between the two kinds was the height of the cumulus above, I still had a preference.

When the teachers at the academy yelled at us to do something or lectured us about stuff that I had read out of boredom years before, the white clouds floated around uncaring.

I also liked the sharpness that my thoughts assumed when I was playing shogi, especially against dad. Even if I never won, it will probably be years before I could manage to land an 'almost' win. And I knew that it wasn't about winning, but about playing a beautiful game, it could turn sharp, steady, broken, confused, but it still could be beautiful.

In all of the chaotic and honestly aggravating games I've been in, the clouds had kept their ways. Hell, even when Kaa-san is mad they just don't care.

With all my supposed genius, I couldn't figure out a way to be just like that. Floating aimlessly without harming anyone, instead of sharing my sense of quiet happiness with all the ones who took their time to look at me.

If I could be bothered, I would have felt irked by the choice of our sensei. He was a slave driver, I could already tell. Besides, how does a ninja gets so bulky?

So I wasn't in the best of the moods when I had to force myself to correct Ino. Nor I did feel up to whatever he was going to push us through.

I just stared at the clouds for a while, slowly fading into the back of my mind, like a forgotten memory.

I barely felt the taste of Choji's chips when I took one, but it made him feel appreciated, and who was I to negate him the occasion to smile?

I kept my eyes half-lidded, barely distinguishing the clouds from the sky, but it was perfect exactly for that reason. It would also be beautiful being the sky, if not for the storms, those looked like a hassle...

I was deep into my mind when Ino's voice made me arise. It wasn't for her words, no, but why would Ino suddenly feel dread?

I rose from my seat, letting my mind break down what the kunoichi had just said.

But I didn't need the meaning my brain offered me to notice something was wrong. My eyes took in everything, from the crumbles on Choji, to the sheer 'not understanding' on Ino's face, to the wind that had taken another direction, almost pulling us towards the source of the problem.

Konoha was burning.

"It comes... from the academy?" I asked.

TEAM 10

The genin hastily rose from their positions and immediately started walking through the origin of the dense, black column of smoke.

There was something strange in the air everyone could tell. Ino started babbling two miles for second, while Choji kept munching handfuls of his chips. The crunching sound was almost soothing, it reminded me of not stressful moments we had shared before.

There! Shikamaru thought. I almost had it. It was... around sound! Sound? Lack of it!

"There is too much silence." the Nara immediately said.

Choji scrunched his face and kept munching as fast as he could, while Ino's step faltered, her lips twitching downward in worry.

The group quickened their steps, soon running toward the origin of the smoke. They left the training ground behind and darted as fast as they could through Konoha. It was empty.

Absolutely and utterly empty.

The three genins were high on alert, slowing down, scared at the prospect of what they were about to find. Their feet on the ground and their breathing were the only sounds.

But the tense situation suddenly took a turn for the worse. Crossing the market district there were upturned stalls, fruit and vegetables smeared across the streets. Broken windows, chipped stone, cracked ground, but worst of all, splatters of blood.

"What..." Ino whispered.

"Not now!" Shikamaru hissed. "Ino, follow us staying hidden, Choji takes point, I got your back." The no-nonsense tone shut up Ino for good, while Choji was simply reassured to have his friend with him.

They turned a corner and reached the academy. Whichever plan Shikamaru had cooked up shattered and fell into nothing.

The smell hit them first. Violent, nauseating, almost toxic.

Choji remembered when he messed up at the barbeque and burnt the pork, but when his mind gave a sense to what he sight had provided, he bent over and violently puked. Shikamaru's face became pale, before assuming an unhealthy green shade.

The academy was burning, yes, but it wasn't the academy anymore. It was a pyre.

Countless bodies were into the fire, the skin melting, the eyes exploding for the heat, the bodies turning black. Shikamaru recognized a face, and he bent over to puke too.

A shriek froze the boys in their positions, they exchanged a meaningful look, their chins still dirty with vomit, and they shared a single thought: 'INO'.

Choji moved, almost running over his friend in his haste. There was no time to think, and Shikamaru's mind drew a blank, following the Amikichi without hesitating.

They went back on the way they had come from and turned the corner, Shikamaru froze again.

Ino was pinned by an enemy shinobi against a wall, a hand slowly squeezing the life out of her.

The stranger was almost two meters tall, with broad shoulders and a manic grin on his otherwise forgettable features. His black hair was spiky and long, almost like a mane, while his forehead protector held the kanji for 'failure' on it.

Ino kept trying to punch the elbow of the man, who didn't budge.

Choji had stopped thinking a while ago he punched the man with all of his considerable enhanced strength. The hit did not land since the target had sidestepped it with ease.

The manic grin of the stranger turned into a mocking, patronizing smile while he kicked Choji in the gut hard, sending him barreling through already broken stalls.

The man left a wheezing Ino on the ground, and out of nowhere, he was in front of Shikamaru.

The Nara fell on his knees, no amount of planning, no sudden stroke of luck, scratch that, no miracle was able to save them.

He fell on his knees, already defeated, staring dumbly the face of the shinobi with the Kanji for failure on his hitai-ate. With an almost detached spark of curiosity, noticing the purple, rippled eyes of the man who was suddenly striking him down with a gleaming sword.

That's when everything went still. The smoke in the sky, the sword, the enemy, his own breath.

"Enough, I think." A voice sounded out of everywhere. Then the air itself craked, and with a sound of shattering glass, the genjutsu unraveled.

DAIKI

I quietly watched the genins, my genins, I corrected myself, while they slowly came to their senses. They were my genins, not yet my soldiers.

Half an hour. Half an hour on three different minds, even if untrained, of a genjutsu that perfectly manipulated their senses, letting their minds fill in the unavoidable blanks. It took all of my focus, but only a little amount of chakra, especially on such a little scale.

Ino started coughing desperately while grabbing at her throat, Choji was rolling over, his hands clenched over his stomach, and Shikamaru was just sitting there staring ahead aimlessly.

I quietly sat cross-legged on top of one of the wooden posts, giving them time to gather their bearings.

Fifteen minutes later I offered Ino a jug of water, which she took and drank greedily.

The first question was unexpected, as much as the one who asked it.

"Why does it still hurt?" the Akimichi had asked me.

I wonder, does he ask it because his first priority is not feeling pain, or because he has realized it was already a genjutsu.

"The mind controls the body," I answered, trying to put kindness into my voice.

"Why?" Shikamaru asked, leaving his torpor.

I removed the jug from Ino's hands. "Slow down Ino. You don't need to drink, you're fine." I said, trying to info and steadiness into the hand that was holding her shoulder.

I turned my head towards the Nara: "For several reasons."

Ino managed to control her wheezing sobs and Choji had stopped clutching at his stomach. Ready to listen, then.

"You've been assigned to team 10, with me as your sensei. My first task was to determine if you can be trained to become soldiers of Konohagakure no Sato, or needed to be sent back to the academy. The choices you made while in the genjutsu allowed me to assess you."

I didn't let a dramatic silence to settle or any of that bullshit. I disliked wasting time. "You passed, congratulations, now you're part of team 10." I droned on.

They didn't smile."That was a genjutsu!" Ino shouted. "How dare you!"

I arched an eyebrow, letting her understand that I was unimpressed.

Then I unleashed not killing intent, but a more refined expression of it. I bore my chakra to the edge of my coils, letting it rest heavily under the brim of my tenketsus. To their eyes, nothing changed, to their senses, now I resulted heavier.

"I am now your sensei." I reminded her coldly, and when she hastily nodded muttering an apology for lashing out I went on.

"First lesson. Your life belongs to you. Period. Not to your parents, not to your clan, not to your village, most certainly not to me." I was as serious as I could, and I saw them gulp and widen their eyes. I had their full attention.

"That means that the choices you make belong only to you. Your first choice, is to weather be a ninja or not."

They were all suddenly confused. Didn't expect it did you?

I sighed, they grew up in a family of ninjas, the possibility of not being one never existed before in their minds.

"Every action has consequences. If you choose to be a civilian, you get to do whatever you like, and will never be allowed to leave the village because Konoha won't risk its bloodlines. You get to live a happy and likely longer life in which all the important choices are made for you by ninja. Either from your clan or from the village council."

Shikamaru was staring at me with narrowed eyes probably trying to understand if it was some kind of test or not. The other two were... bewildered.

"If you choose to be a ninja, you pay in blood. You'll eventually steal stuff, information, lives, and even dignity from the corpses. You'll probably die young in protecting the village, and nobody will remember why or how you died after a couple of generations tops. But if you manage to stay alive and become strong enough, at some point your voice will carry weight. If you become strong enough, you'll be listened to. And maybe you'll reach the level at which nothing could enforce other people's decisions upon you. If you want to be a civilian, you're free to go, no hard feelings."

I waited with my eyes closed for five minutes. I heard them shifting uncomfortably where they were sitting. And the rustling of their clothes informed me that they often looked at each other to reassure themselves. When I deemed enough time was passed I opened my eyes and saw that they were still sitting there. Staring at me with nothing but determination in their eyes.

I didn't let my expression betray anything. We're still roughly on track. I was even relieved.

"So be it." I rose from my seat and stared at them.

"We can go on in two different ways. One, the road of minimal effort. I'll have you do team-building exercises and light conditioning, waiting for you to pick up your parents' techniques and become another Ino-Shika-Cho trio." I let my tone explain for me what kind of waste I thought it would be.

"You will probably further their researches. Each of you has talent to spare, there's no denying it, you will eventually surpass your parents, of that, I am mostly sure."

It was some kind of backhanded praise, I knew that at least Shikamaru and Ino managed to tell that there was something fishy going on.

I raised a hand, anticipating their questions. "Or you can give me your best, and I'll do the same."

At their questioning glances, I elaborated: "I am a scary strong shinobi."

"If you choose to do your best, I'll train you. And for a while you will hate me. At some point, you'll feel like your bones are melting, your brains collapsing, your chakra coils burning, and your very souls will consider the idea of leaving your bodies. But I will hammer you in the direction that will ultimately lead you to be the best you can be."

I looked at them, clearly seeing that Shikamaru had already chosen the first option.

"Before you choose, a last warning. At some point, someone dear to your hearts will die." My words slammed on them like a tidal wave, effortlessly bringing them to the burning corpses I made them see with my genjutsu.

"Maybe it will be your teammate during a mission. Likely, it will be because someone did not do enough. A split-second faster and you could have saved your teammate. A single jutsu could have tweaked things just enough to make you survive, letting your friends being captured to undergo months of torture."

They were sweating fear, I could almost taste it in the air. "And I can promise you, that you'll believe the fault is yours."

Shikamaru didn't like it. "And with the second option we will be strong enough to protect everyone, sensei?"

It was hard to miss the sarcasm in his last word. "No." I simply answered "But you will be able to think that it was impossible to do anything more, for anyone. But I can't deny that being the strongest you can be, usually does make a difference. Life will never be fair, I fear."

I rose from my position. "Think about it, tomorrow morning we'll meet here at 7:00 am, sharp. And you'll tell me your team's choice."

I left in a flicker and sat on one of the branches that gave a good position to look into the classroom where team 7 was still waiting for their sensei. I noticed that Sasuke's fingers were moving following a pattern: he was exercising some tabs. I was glad that I managed to help him help himself. It didn't matter the world, music was magic.

"So, will you wait another couple of hours to see who will crack first?" I asked the other shinobi hidden among the branches.

Kakashi hmmed instead of properly answering.

"If you are wondering, it's your smugness that gave your position away." I continued conversationally.

The smugness that he hadn't any right to display, in my opinion. Sure, he had won at the tournament, after a while, and after I had shown my proficiency in several fields, but he managed it only because I didn't do 'not lethal'. He had the experience necessary to turn every single one of his movements into a not lethal one, while I had to stop and think about it before actually doing it.

Annoying bastard. I thought.

"You do know that with Naruto and Sasuke on the team you'll be forced to sign them up for the chunin exams yes?" I asked.

When he didn't give any kind of answer I went on: "Iwa and Kumo will join too this year, and both will target Uzumaki. I did, in fact, kill Kumo's jinchuriki during my exams, and well... you know what problems Onoki will have with the kid."

That last statement caused a reaction. Kakashi's head turned towards me and his eye narrowed.

I rolled my eyes: "Step up your game, Kakashi, or they'll get butchered. Maybe you should take up your rival' challenges for a spar more often, your conditioning went to shit."

And just like that I hopped down the tree and strolled through Konoha, hoping that my advice would be followed. Kakashi was born a genius, and after dropping out of Anbu he had let himself go. He was still fearsome, the sheer amount of experience he had, coupled with his intellect, made for a scary shinobi. But he could have been an actual S rank. I still didn't know if the Sharingan helped him or not. It had become a crutch in my opinion, but I couldn't micromanage the life of everyone.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I found myself at the east gate of Konoha' ninja cemetery. It was a vast place. But I didn't have anything better to do so I strolled in.

I had never gone to the cemetery before, Hana sure as hell wasn't in her dead body anymore.

I reached to the most recent line of tombs and started walking my way up. At least she had a proper resting place instead of only a name scribbled on the monument to the MIA ninjas.

I stopped when I read 'Sarutobi Asuma' His photo wasn't the same one of his file, he was smiling, with a lit cigarette in his mouth. The flowers had a couple of days, and it had been some time since someone burned some incense.

I was surprised by a sudden twinge of guilt. It was like Hana all over again. Another one dead before his time only because I had climbed my way into this world.

I sighed, staring at the tombstone with something akin to regret on my face.

I sat down, pulled out a couple of cigarettes and lit them both with a flare of fire natured chakra. I put one where a stick of incense should have been and took a deep breath, circulating wind natured chakra in a thin layer to protect my lungs from the nocive effects of the nicotine, at the same time lacing the smoke with my chakra.

And just how I saw the Sandaime do years before, I exhaled, shaping the smoke in the kanji for fire.

I really didn' t believe in talking with the dead, they either can't hear you, or I hoped they wouldn't care. Dying should free you from the worries of the living shouldn't it?

So I just sat there reminiscing in 'what ifs'.

"You know, I got your team." the words left my mouth on their own.

There weren't other news I felt I had to share. "You would have played shoji with Shikamaru and waited for them all to become a better copy of their parents. So I gave them a choice."

I smoked in silence for another minute, simply enjoying the silence, it had been a heavy day, decision-wise. I knew the kind of loyalty a team could develop for their sensei, but I also knew that true loyalty could be paid only with the same coin.

And I was kind of fine with it. It would be nice having someone carrying on my work in case of my death.

"It will be interesting to see if they choose my way over yours, and if they survive it, of course." I mused.

A disdainful sniff made me look at the presence I felt a few seconds before. I didn't consider her before because I wanted to leave whoever was around their privacy.

But it wasn't to be. It was Kurenai.

"Kurenai-san." I greeted her. And notice the way she was glaring at my cigarette, I rolled my eyes. "Asuma-sempai made me start smoking, you know. I'm actually honoring him."

That made her falter. It wasn't anything obvious, but for a fraction of a second, her chakra had tensed. That close to me she could have just as well been wearing a tag with her emotions written on it. "Were you with him when he died?" She asked, her eyes narrowing to slits.

I considered her question, tilting my head while taking in her posture. I had been back in the village for several months already, she waited that long to ask me?

"Nobody told you?" I blinked. I got it, for security reasons the less talk about any mission in which a Konoha nin dies the better, but still.

The answer was obvious, so I sighed.

"I was hunting a nuke-nin with another of the Twelve, we pushed our target into sempai' arms while he was coming back from a mission. We welcomed him on board." I started. The unreadable expression on Kurenai's face didn't change, nor she made any motion to ask for details.

They had a daughter together didn't they? Another thing changed forever. I thought.

"The enemy kunoichi had a team who set camp into an abandoned castle nearby, they were only two and didn't expect to be attacked. So we barged in."

Exhaling, I tied my chakra more deeply to the smoke, augmenting its mass, and I shaped the kanjis so that it would read: "Souls do not die."

"Turns out the castle was a giant summon, who had been eating people for the last, dunno, fifty years. Sempai burned out his chakra to break us out of the summon, but a fire jutsu interacted with some kind of airborne gas. If it was a messed up technique of one of the nuke nins or a characteristic of the summon is not clear. He manipulated the air even when he was running on an empty tank to keep us alive, smothering the fire." I recalled. "He saved us."

I rose from my seated position, my cigarette was finished anyway and resumed my way walking up the aisles. I had a few years of dead people to pass before finding my first teammate.

That evening found me sitting on the head of the Nidaime, taking in the sight. Konoha was a beautiful place, there was no doubt about it. I felt someone approaching and turned my head toward the Anbu.

"Hokage-sama calls." Turtle said.

I blinked, rising from my seat "And I answer." I sarcastically pointed out, flickering over to the Hokage Tower.

I made my way tho the top going as fast as it was considered polite. Shinobi going full tilt towards the head of a hidden village made people jumpy.

Entering the Hokage's office, I didn't bother to hide my surprise. Along with the Sandaime himself, waiting for me there were my genins' fathers.

What is this, teacher-parents meeting? Jeez.

"You called for me, Hokage-sama?" I politely asked. Thankfully, Inoichi, Shikaku and Chouza were veterans, and as such were keeping a tight hold of their emotions, I really couldn't be bothered to deal with those too.

"I did, Daiki-kun." The old shinobi answered "There have been some... questions, regarding your teaching methods."

"Curious, since I haven't started teaching yet." I answered, not volunteering any information.

"You asked your genins if they wanted to be civilians, what kind of..." Inoichi started getting on my case but I rudely interrupted him. Causing several frowns, but eh, see if I care.

"I have no use for slaves." That, however, froze the room.

"You gave me a team tailored for someone too lazy to put in the effort." I continued, looking straight at the Hokage.

"I will not disgrace the title of sensei. If they choose to learn, I'll teach. That's it, if they choose." I glared at Inoichi, who clearly was the mother hen of the group.

"Ino is more concerned about her hair than the safety of her teammates, Choji doesn't think for himself, choosing to follow Shikamaru, who applies himself only if I trick him into it." I watched the other two fathers with a raised eyebrow. I had somewhat managed to keep my voice level, I was sincerely honest about what I was saying.

Oh, the Sandaime probably hoped to glean something on me by the reactions of the genins, and I had my own plans developing with them, but a teacher should be not only competent but driven.

And I would see if it was possible to teach those kids to think.

"You promoted me after the tournament, so while the parents can squabble with you, Sandaime-sama, all they want, I fail to see why it concerns me." I pointed out. I was honestly confused by the whole parents needing to meet me in the presence of the Hokage.

I turned sharply toward an incensed Inoichi, thanks to all that was holy Choza looked thoughtful and Shikaku simply tired of it.

"They stopped being children when they donned the hitai ate, and if they will decide to, I'll accept them as my soldiers." I calmly went on.

I turned once more towards the Sandaime.

"The Wind Lord has been directing work at Konohagakure, Kumo is still sore for the jinchuriki I killed, Iwa has yet to show Onoki's grandaughter at the chunin exams and I heard rumors of a new Hidden village. The next chunin exams will be held here, and my team is made up of clan heirs. I'll be ordered to enter them, ready or not, and they will be a giant target unless I push them. Do I have your... permission... to do so, Hokage-sama?"

The old shinobi held my eyes for a long moment, looking for something I couldn't name, before nodding slowly, his gaze never leaving mine.

"You have it." he answered.