Lessons Learned and Return

Destroyed Hillside Clearing (Kamui's Point of View) (Time: 30 Minutes After the Explosion)

It hadn't taken too long for Kamui to gain her bearings. While this mission did involve her first kill, she was predisposed to do so; it was instinctual for dragons to take the life of threats. Even though she wasn't physically a dragon, her spirit had been heavily influenced by one. That said, those facts didn't mean that she wasn't affected; she was. It just made the fact easier to compartmentalize for the present. It also helped that she found her purpose at the same time, which helped her steer her focus in a positive direction.

On their way here, Kamui had briefed Yugao on the information she'd received from her clone on Sima's conversation with Tonoe and her memories acquired through her genjutsu mind rip. She couldn't give her everything since there was a lot of material to cover, but she did give her the main points. These would need to be discussed with the fourth as soon as possible. Luckily, they could teleport back to the village once this mission was complete. It would save them a lot of time.

Arriving at the scene, Kamui saw her shadow clone staring back at her. The two nodded to each other near-simultaneously before the clone dispelled.

Looking forward, the two kunoichi noticed that the cave the ninja were previously in was blocked from the explosion.

"Is there anything in there you think would be worth digging out based on Sima's knowledge?" Yugao asked knowing that it should be possible for her student.

Kamui shook her head and explained, "There isn't. These four were very careful. The only items they carried on them were ninja tools. They made sure to destroy any documentation once they had memorized it to avoid any attribution to Iwa. In their mind, they were death soldiers who would go down once their mission was complete."

Yugao simply nodded. "Konoha was lucky that we were the ones who took this assignment. Your ability to deny shinobi the ability to substitute is probably your most crippling ability in my opinion. We rely on it so much as ninja that it's extremely dangerous to be caught by surprise like they have. If it were another team, I highly doubt they would have managed to kill everyone. Kagari and Sima would likely have gotten away." She explained

"How do you figure both of them getting away?" Kamui asked, confusion apparent on her face.

"As you've probably learned from your mind-reading, Sima is known as one of the slipperiest ninjas in Iwa. He's survived so many close encounters it's not funny. There was a rumor that he made the claim that the fourth Hokage and Raikage were the only men who could kill him. He wasn't nearly as fast as them, but he had enough escape means to keep himself safe. Funny enough, his transcendent use of the substitution jutsu was the primary reason for this. At least, that's how the story goes.

"Kagari on the other hand was fast, really fast. I didn't even realize it until our confrontation." Yugao said. Kamui's eyebrow was raised at the comment. Before she could comment, Yugao continued, "Remember, Suzune was the target of your teleported scorch release jutsu. The fact that Kagari was able to react and move in front of her with a solid defense constructed in time was astonishing.

"We were really lucky on this mission. If it weren't for those four being separated into two groups and getting the drop on them, it could have been us who were surprised; in a situation where Kagari engages us with his speed unknown to us, it could have been disastrous." Yugao said grimly, her years of experience demanding that she thank the Kami for this grace.

Kamui stayed silent for a moment, then looked up at her sensei and spoke, "That's true. The disturbing thing is that something like that could happen to us if we're not careful. I'll have to develop something to help develop my spatial awareness. I'll put that at the top of the list when we get back." It would be silly to end up like these guys did. It was entirely possible too. In a world of ninjas, sneak attacks are a primary attack method and should be expected.

'I need to have Naruto and Sasuke learn something similar. Sasuke might have good spatial awareness and should be fine, but his perception relies too strongly on his eyes and that can be exploited by someone who knows what they're doing. Naruto just needs work. His spatial awareness is all instinctual, which will only get him so far. I pray that he'll develop something to help him in that department before it's too late. I'll have to ask auntie and dad when I get back.' She thought. At the end of a mission was the best time to reflect on the lessons learned and Kamui received quite a few of them on this one.

"Alright, the fourth didn't list any completion details in the mission briefing, so we'll just head back to Konoha. Can you get us back?"

Nodding, Kamui responded, "I can. Are you ready?" She asked with her palm held out to her sensei.

Yugao took Kamui's hand, "I am. Let's go."

Then, they were gone in a silvery-white flash.

As they disappeared, a black-haired woman with cream white skin and golden eyes walked out of the shadows. Her attire consisted of a white and red miko outfit. As she looked at the place where the anomaly disappeared from, she smiled.

"She's coming along quite nicely; maybe it's time I introduce her to my priestess." She silently spoke to the empty forest; then, she was gone in a bright flash of light.

Konoha Outskirts (Kamui's Point of View)

A few miles outside of Konoha, a silvery-white light flashed for a moment and then disappeared. In its place were the two kunoichi who had finished their mission.

"It'd be nice if we could just teleport to my house or something." Complained Kamui.

"Now you know we can't do that. The gate guards need to take stock of our presence in the village. They need to have a constant awareness of the traffic in and out of the village." Yugao explained with an understanding tone. She wouldn't mind slipping in herself, but protocol needs to be followed.

Sighing Kamui replied, "I know. It would just be so much easier."

To that Yugao didn't respond as she smiled and began walking toward the gates with Kamui quick on her trail.

One of the interesting reforms that was made was the addition of gate guard duty to the village police force's responsibilities. In the past, the Third would just assign two chunin per shift to do the job. They would basically consist of people he felt had little to no potential for advancement. The problem was that this wasn't true.

When reviewing the records in the years following Danzo's treacherous reveal, Minato found that the ones who were assigned this duty were often promising chunin with weaker backgrounds. The third had even listed some of them as promising genin and promoted them off their potential. The fact that he would soon put them in positions that would destroy their prospects of success was odd. When asked, he would deny any knowledge of why he made the decision. On some occasions, he made some nonsensical arguments from what he could remember, but they didn't make sense for a man of his intelligence. Initially, this issue had been shelved as bad decision making.

When the journal incident came to light, this incident was revisited and labeled as another move by Danzo using the same genjutsu that was used for the library journals. The theory was that Danzo used this means to fix the current power structure as he likely believed it was the ideal one for him to operate under. In this way, he prevented a lot of civilian prodigies from ascending. They even found that Minato was scheduled for gate duty before Jiraiya took him on as an apprentice. The thought was that Danzo likely pulled back to avoid the third's odd behavior from being discovered.

Needless to say, reform happened soon after these findings were discovered and compensation was made to the victims whose careers were ruined.

Anyways, the guards actually rotate every four hours. The two would each do eight-hour shifts, but at different times. One guard would be on the A shift, while the other on the B. Basically, every four hours, one guard is replaced. This keeps a level of continuity and prevents situations where the guards fall asleep on the job, a common problem in the past.

Walking up to the gate, Kamui noticed two guards she had no knowledge of. They both wore the standard chunin uniform as is custom for chunin gate guards and had clip boards in their hands.

These were actually secretly invented by her when she was younger. It was pretty simple. The guards would write something on the board. Then, they would insert a bit of chakra. The text would fade from the board and reappear on another pre-configured board in smaller letters. In this case, the other board was manned by a full-time shift employee, who properly documented the entrees at the gate house. It could also be used to send secret emergency messages to the Hokage.

It wasn't that hard from a sealing perspective. Either Jiraiya, Kushina, or Minato could have invented it if they desired to. The reason they didn't was simple, it didn't have direct battlefield applications outside of logistics. Even then, there were just better ways to communicate on the battlefield with the Yamanaka clan in Konoha. In essence, their own desire to innovate was intrinsically tied to what they individually could do on the battlefield.

The reason Kamui invented it was mainly to send messages to her dad when she was bored in the academy. She also gave one to her aunt and mom for the same purpose. Within a day after seeing its potential utility, Minato created a kanji seal version of it and implemented it across Konoha. He found it too useful to not take advantage of.

"Name, rank, and reason for entry?" One of them asked.

"Yugao responded, "Yugao Uzuki, jonin, and Kamui Uchiha, genin. We're returning from a mission and are headed to report to the Hokage."

The guard wrote the information down and waited for a second. Kamui noted that he sent the information to two locations.

'I guess there's no surprising dad that we're back early' she silently lamented.

Fifteen seconds after sending the information, he gave them the green light to enter. Entering Konoha was a little slower than it used to be, but spies had a significantly harder time doing so. With names and mission status's being checked in real time at the guard station, a spy would need a pre-established identify and those are extremely hard to fake in Konoha with the various sealing barriers in place. The only ninja who was known to do so effectively was Orochimaru and most of that is due to his pre-existing knowledge of how to circumvent them from his time as Hiruzen's student. Most other villages have to bribe already resident civilians to spy for them.

"Well, let's report in." Yugao told her student.

"Right" Kamui responded.

With that, both began walking toward the Hokage's Office.