Chapter Three: In Training Exalted.

The three great shinobi wars changed the world drastically, and so did the time of respite and peace between them. Wars saw innovation and rediscovery in the form of nin-jutsu. Peace brought technological change, making the time of respite comfortable. Alas, such changes were not for everyone. Especially not Danzo.

Danzo, the leader of the foundation, was the embodiment of the darkness of the shinobi world. He liked the old way of doing things: candles and lanterns over electricity and bulbs. Wars on my terms, then peace on yours. He was a man of no compromise.

As an incarnation of all things that were dark and old, he sat in a room lit with candles. Two masked and hooded figures guarding his back while he enjoyed his tea.

"Is the deed done?"

Danzo's voice was steel and stern, as cold as his ways and as heavy as their consequences.

"Yes, we captured the lady Inagae Reizuka before she could fall into the hands of Asuma Sarutobi."

"Good, now put her in a genjutsu and make it seem like you rescued her from the hidden sound village."

The man with the white insect mask gave a nod and vanished from his post. Shadows in the room stirred to take his place.

"Is the boy back?"

"Yes, lord Danzo. The medics have given up on him, and Lord Third has barred him from taking any mission."

"That old fool. He is going senile, wasting such a sharp blade. Contact the kid, slip the information of his rogue jonin master. I'll use him if Sarutobi is to soft wield such a blade."

"As you wish, sir."

As the shadow vanished to do Danzo's bidding, another one stirred to take his place. Danzo sat alone in a room lit by candles, making tea and doing what the old did. Conspire.

The boy in question, Aki Tsuchisaru, was completely unaware that he had stirred the old man of the shadows to make a move. Even if he knew, he would not care. He was happy beyond words now. He had completed the summoning.

The first time he had attempted the summoning art from the book, his maternal grandfather Benimaru had interfered. That had caused the summoning to fail, among many other things.

The incomplete summoning meant his soul was only partially bound. A worse thing than it being split in half. A soul contains many incorporeal but important organs. Like the balance. Which keeps the mental and physical aspects of energy in check.

In many closed systems of power, like chakra, which comprises two different energies, I.e. physical and mental. When one aspect of the energy gains dominance over another, the dominant one tries to consume the subservient one.

This behaviour is counterproductive for chakra, for it is the sum of those two energies. If one of them eats the other one entirely, no chakra would be made.

So the invisible balance keeps the excess energy of any aspect in check, and that allows the excess energy to augment chakra. The reason why shinobi who only train physically, increase their total chakra reserve.

In Aki, when his soul was partially bound, the organ balance became faulty. It did not prevent the dominant energy from attacking the subservient one. To counter this, his body adopted a new method. It would release the excess of any aspect of energy into the atmosphere, maintaining a perfect balance.

The solution came at a cost. It fixed the amount of chakra the boy had. Which resulted in more complications.

In case of traumas. Like a bodily injury, the physical aspect of the energy weakens, making the mental aspect dominant. This triggers the body to release the excess into the atmosphere. The result being a shortening of the chakra reserve.

This was the reason Hiruzen did not want Aki to continue being a shinobi. To let the green leaves burn was not his way of doing things.

"That is a thing of the past now, boy."

"Yes, gozaru."

"We are now unstoppable."

"Yes, gozaru."

Aki looked at the clowns sitting on his shoulder with utter confusion and dissatisfaction. He had completed the ceremony, and what did he get? Another bloody marten!

Both Dan and Gin were part of a greater whole called the WATCHER. An entity that kept watch over the banished lands. That entity had to split itself into two parts to exist here, since it was not its world.

Oh yes, that was another new mess to deal with, Aki thought. Different dimensions, and foreign worlds. What have I gotten myself into? Father, just what is that book doing in your trunk?

All his life Aki thought his father to be a civilian. Maybe he was. Aki could not know for sure. His father was dead, months before Aki was even born. All he had of the man was a photograph and the book. None of them was normal.

"Are you dreaming, gozaru?"

Gozaru? That's not how gin talks… Dan said something of his own. Aki snapped his neck to the left shoulder, coming eye to eye with the black marten sitting there.

The black marten was taking a drag from his smoke pipe, releasing smoke as white as his haori through which shined the glowing yellow shades of his round glasses.

"You should train, gozaru." Dan said, taking a drag from his long pipe. "We have to teach you in our ways. You're an EXALTED now."

"What does that mean?" Aki asked.

"All in due time, boy. Let's get to the training grounds."

"Yes, gozaru."

Aki decided to trust the clowns on his shoulder. What more could he lose? His soul was already sold. That's as bad as it gets in his book. Besides, whatever this EXALTED business was, as long as it ended up strengthening him, it was all good in his book.

"Before that, Gin hand this letter over to lord third." Aki said. "Tell him I'm fine now. He can stop worrying."

"I'll tell him to eat my shit, stupid geezer bossing me around… threatening me… the great-"

Aki hit the drunk marten on the back of his head.

"Behave, or I'll stop buying you porn."

"Fine. I'll do as you say."

Dan dived and disappeared into Aki's shadow as the boy jumped out of the window of his room. It surprised Aki so much that he almost tripped himself. Somehow, he caught his fall and jumped on another roof.

He was heading west towards training ground forty-four. One of his favourites. The place where he had trained his stealth. He even learned his speciality of mimicking people and animals there. All by observing and sneaking on the predators of the jungle.

Many called the place the forest of death. A fitting name, if you didn't know which areas to avoid. That was not a problem for Aki. He knew at least a few areas safe enough to train in.

He settled on the north-east section of the grounds, an area relatively free of predators.

"Before we start our training, we must first familiarise ourselves with each other's strengths." Dan said, popping his head out of Aki's shadow.

Aki thought for a moment. What was he best at? The simple answer would have been stealth and infiltration, but that was just a byproduct of many things.

He knew the sharpest tool in his arsenal was his observation. Since childhood, he could pick on the subtle mannerisms of people and mimic them. That was a tremendous boost for intel gathering.

His chakra control and sealing jutsu were his strongest practical skills. Growing up, little chakra meant mastering a fantastic control to utilise his meagre chakra. Last but not least was his trap-laying skill, and he was well versed in using poison as well.

If he looked at it objectively, outside of special circumstances, he was a pretty average genin. Aki relayed his situation to Dan‌.

"So an espionage and counter-espionage type, you say?"

"I mean, I have nothing else going for me." Aki said. "I have to roll with what I have, even though…"

"You didn't like it?"

Aki managed a nod.

"It gets rather lonely at times, especially after what happened with my team…."

"Hopefully we'll change that." Dan said. "I can assist you in two ways. In my normal form, I can perform a combination jutsu with you, or I can assist by acting independently."

"Like a normal summon, then?"

"I would guess, gozaru." Dan said. "I'm not of these lands, and unlike Gin, I have spent no time here to know your ways."

"Are the two of you not one and the same?"

"We are, but we are not. I'm the spiritual aspect of the entity known as WATCHER. While Gin is the physical aspect of the entity. We are part of one whole, but we are not one."

"That is… quite… confusing."

"It is what it is, gozaru. We must move on to the second part of my abilities. In Al-I-Ra, we called it Heraldry. In this form, I pass you my spiritual energy, which you can use to perform jutsu. Totally bypassing the rule of mixing physical and mental aspects to perform ninjutsu."

"I don't get it."

"Umm, think of it as having yin release chakra. Yes, that is a better term for it. Because when I pass it to you, it's forced to mix with some physical energy in your body, thus turning into chakra."

"So I can cast genjutsu and heal with it?"

"Much more if you know how to use it, gozaru. Be sure to remember one thing: Gin and my chakra capacity are a reflection of your own reserves. The larger your reserves become, the more we can sap from our main body. "

"Okay. So we have the same capacity but you and Gin have it in pure forms of yin and yang."

Aki knew a few clans who specialised in yin and yang release. So he knew his chances of getting hands on those techniques were zero. No, that was not right. His chances were almost zero. There was still some wild possibility he could get them, like Hiruzen.

"How do we start, then?"

"By climbing trees, of course."