Red Riot - Chapter 42 - Red progress (Patreon)

Matsu Uzumaki:- person of high interest to other Shinobi Villages. Jonin. Medical/Taijutsu/Ninjutsu/Sensory speciality. Chief Medical Officer of the Kiri Medical Program

Gengetsu Hozuki:- The second Mizukage and trickster Lord of Kirigakure. Master of Illusions and torment. Defeated Mu, the Second Tsuchikage in combat. Lost his left arm and left leg in the fight. Matsu healed him.

Shoto:- ANBU operative, which effectively takes him out of the standard ranking system. Has been absent for several months. A highly skilled Stealth specialist. Friends with Matsu and Rei. Signed on with the Chameleon summons after Matsu brought the summons home to Kiri.

Rei:- former classmate with Matsu, Shoto, and Sayuki. Only the first two know she’s alive. During a brawl at the brothel she was hiding in she was injured with her eyes being damaged. Something of a prodigy at Fuinjutsu but can’t advance her skills until she has a teacher, and her eyes back. She’s also supposed to have died, but Matsu pulled a fast one on all of Kiri to save her life and preserve some good.

Kuroiwa Karatachi - student of Matsu. Karatachi clanswoman. Chunin. Medic. Capitalist! Primed to being Matsu’s second in command of Kirigakure’s Medic Corps.

Kana Karatachi:- the Clan Head of the Karatachi Clan. 

Katara Karatachi:- Trainee of the Medical Corps. Genin.

Koga Karatachi:- Trainee of the Medical Corps. Genin.

Ala:- Kunoichi that met Matsu during his deployment to the Land of Wind during the final stages of the Second war. Matsu used her as a foil to trick a reluctant teacher into teaching. Matsu’s first pick for his training program of Medics.

Hanahime Terumi:- Matsu’s ally during his years in the Academy. Led the Terumi contingent. Upon the success of the Red Graduation she was ordered to kill the weakest shinobi in their respective groups. She had to kill her cousin and best friend. Hasn’t spoken with Matsu since then. Is the daughter to Nezda Terumi.

Nezda Terumi:- the Chamberlain of Kirigakure. Ostensibly the man who has the best chance of taking over the seat of Mizukage if Gengetsu were to die anytime soon. Has political strength. Has fingers in many pies. Understands the financials of the Village. Is the brother to the Clan head of the Terumi. Hanahime is his daughter.

Lord Ryoku:- the Chamberlain of the Land of Honey and the man who sees to the day-to-day running of the nation.

________________

“—and by chewing willow bark you can reduce fevers, pain, reduce inflammation, and manage a woman’s menses!” growled an old woman at the front of the room. 

I sat in the front row of the lecture hall, and next to me, Kuroiwa also kept a copy notes for the lecture.

I had to give it to the old woman, for an uneducated herb woman, she certainly knew her trade well. Thanks to that, I’d already marked her down as acceptable to have as a lecturer for the shinobi students and future civilian doctors that would be attending this medical academy. Ll that from a single session.

When she paused to check that we were taking her lesson seriously, I raised a hand. “Have you tried different delivery methods to improve or reduce certain effects? Creating pills? Salves? Tinctures?” I asked.

“No, I’ve kept to my teachings!” she snapped. “Teachings that have saved thousands of lives, I’d point out! You don’t mess around with medicine brat!”

Instead of fighting her on her point of view, I made a note on her file. ‘Hardline traditionalist’. She wasn’t going to be able to work in research, but she could give us a lot of information on plants, herbs, and natural remedies that we could build on.

The exact sciences would be performed by others, most likely far from this woman’s sight. 

An influx of memory had me sucking in a breath of air through my nose. 

Ah, the trainees had completed their anatomy lecture. Good, I’d be able to continue the diagnostic jutsu training then. 

The herb woman continued to lecture, and when she looked away, I formed a cross seal and formed another clone with orders. 

When the new me formed, they stuck their tongue out before sauntering off. Kuroiwa eyed my clone warily. 

“They always show more emotion than you,” she remarked. 

“Less to live for makes them more emotive,” I replied. “I get rather glib when I’m fighting for my life or in dangerous situations.”

Kuroiwa frowned at her notes. “Considering what I’ve seen you pull off in the last month… It’s kind of worrying to know that your strength is lacking,” she remarked. 

“Thus why I train like I do,” I replied, making another note about willow bark and leaves.

Kuroiwa shook her head. “How long do you think it will take the trainees to realise you’re lecturing them, building the facilities, and training at the same time?”

“Depends how long it takes them to pop a clone,” I replied blandly. 

The herb woman paused in her lecture and squinted at us. She couldn’t hear us, cause we were using genjutsu to transmit our voices, but she was old enough to have some idea that something was going on. 

With her pause, I asked a few more questions to determine the deal conditions for harvesting of bark, age of the trees and other factors that would be important. I hadn’t thought I’d need to grow a forest, but now that I was starting to go through the lectures, I had an ever-expanding list of tasks that would take years to finish.

I had to create a supply chain from nothing for what I envisioned.

A smirk crept onto my features as I added my idea to the written list between Kuroiwa and me. She glanced at it before cursing me out. “I need to grow a forest of this shit?”

The old woman whirled, flicking some chalk at Kuroiwa, only for my student to catch it without even looking, causing the woman to remember who she was lecturing.

“You’ll also need to stock the forest with mushrooms, deer, and other useful animals that we can harvest. There’s going to be a whole community for this, which is before we get into any researchers that are going to be needed to advance this process and make it more effective,” I remarked.

Kuroiwa whimpered. 

“Don’t worry, you’re going to make a lot of money off of this,” I mentioned and her mood did an immediate one-eighty. 

She began sketching out other ideas she could add to get more from the forests. I saw her write down something about lumber mills, hunting parties for nobles and other things that drew a small chuckle from me.

“What’s so funny?” growled the herbal woman from where she’d been sulking after failing to intimidate Kuroiwa.

Rather than back down I inclined my head. “Just thinking about how my students will react when you start your lecture series. If all your lectures are as detailed as this, we’re going to be employing you for quite some time.”

The old woman sniffed. “I have much experience! Don’t try to weasel out of this!” she snapped.

I merely waved a hand, asking her to continue silently.

She did so with a haughty sniff. 

Kuroiwa shook her head. “Can’t believe she’s being paid a D rank mission for every lecture!” she grumbled. 

“What she’s teaching is worth much more than a measly D rank,” I replied. “Keep a note of it.”

“Are we going to pay every lecturer this amount?” Kuroiwa muttered.

“Initially, yes,” I replied. “But that’s the price of start-ups like this. If we want to attract talent and knowledge, we must be willing to pay for it. We’ve got her and several others to vet. She’s already proved to me that she knows what she’s talking about and has healed thousands of people. She’s forgotten more about medicine and healing than I know.”

Kuroiwa gave the old woman another cursory inspection before signing that she understood.

“The trick will be making it so that certain personalities don’t try to intimidate her. Not just the shinobi but some well-to-do doctor candidate,” I pointed out as I made notes about certain scenarios. 

There was no way I was going to be able to plan for all the situations that would occur, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try. 

A failure to plan was planning for failure after all. 

A bell rang, signalling the end of the time period that we’d allotted for the lecture. The woman smirked. “And that concludes my lecture on willow bark! I hope you enjoyed it!” she declared with a smirk.

“It was enlightening. And I’ve seen enough to conclude that having you as part of our lecturers would be good for this facility. What do you say?” I gave her a handsome smile, making use of every trick I knew from growing up to make my henge more appealing to her.

Her cheeks reddened, but that didn’t stop her from snapping a fan in front of her face to hide it. “I was contracted for a single lecture, but staying on will require more!” she proclaimed. 

She stabbed her fan at me dramatically. “I’ll need double the salary!” 

I merely hummed. “Is that so?” I replied.

She eyed me. “That won’t be an issue will it?” she growled.

“Not at all, sign this document detailing your tasks and we’ll have you moved into a tidy little cottage a short walk from the main buildings!” I replied. With a flick of my wrist, a scroll unravelled in front of her, causing her to stiffen.

“Ninja magic,” she muttered as she read it over. “Hmmm I’m not to talk about what I observe here eh?” she shot me a look.

“We all have our secrets,” I offered back blandly while letting the light catch on my headband. Her eyes twitched towards it and she swallowed. 

“Very well, for twenty thousand ryo a lecture, I will work here until you send me off,” she signed with a flourish. “You’re to pay the money to my family, however. I’ll want to know they’re being taken care of!” she snapped.

“Of course!” I replied, like I expected nothing else from her. 

Poor woman was being paid the equivalent of ninja chicken feed and she wanted it doubled? Done. 

She was wise to demand the money be sent to her family. If we intended to keep her here for a while she could easily verify that the money was going to them. 

For a peasant, the sort of money she’d be earning would elevate them greatly. 

She also knew not to trust a shinobi. There was every chance I might have to cut my losses and silence her in a much less friendly manner.

“Your accommodations, clothing, and meals will be taken care of on our end,” I replied as I rose. “Now, time to meet some of your future students. I think we’ll start with one lecture a day. A morning session to begin in a week’s time—”

The elderly woman’s eye bulged as I began rattling off my plan for her. She likely thought that by the time I’d gotten a dozen lectures from her, I’d be done, but I planned to keep her around for the doctors who would be coming around soon enough.

First teacher acquired! I thought to myself as I led her into the dining hall, where today we were having hamburger steak, thanks to the kindly men and women who followed the recipes I’d handed over to them.

I enjoyed having the freedom to create things like this from my previous life. The spaghetti alone had been delightful, even if it paled in comparison to a proper Italian dish.

It caused pangs of homesickness that I thought I’d gotten over. 

Still, I wasn’t about to stop recreating dishes from my past life. The catering staff enjoyed the challenge and I enjoyed the better dining experience. 

And on another note, it gave me a viable reason to start creating contacts within the Land of Vegetables. If I wanted to recreate dishes, I needed the ingredients.

It was also hilarious to see the trainees being constantly put off balance by the sometimes weird and wonderful dishes placed before them.

Kuroiwa, and I escorted our first lecturer into the dining room, only to find several masked ANBU had our trainees tied up by their hands and feet.

“Oh, right, that drill was today!” I remarked, giving the various groaning trainees a quick look only to dismiss them. “Well best of luck to you all on getting out of your restraints! I’ll be enjoying today’s lunch!” I called.

The Hozuki pair swore at me and tried to escape by turning into water only to get shocked for their efforts.

I tucked into my hamburger steak with gusto while the herb woman inspected everything. “Will this happen in my lectures?” she asked.

“No, I’d prefer to keep risks to civilians as low as possible,” I remarked easily. “Also, I want the trainees to focus on learning.”

“Hmmm shame, I know several of my lectures will be rather dry,” she grumbled. “Also… I might have some pointers on how to tie better restraining knots.”

Kuroiwa shot her a disbelieving look. “What would a herb woman like you know about tying knots?”

The herb woman just smirked. “I’ve five children and twenty grandchildren.”

“What’s that got to do with anything!” demanded Kuoriwa.

I chuckled, knowing precisely what the older woman was referring to. “Let’s start small. You can keep throwing chalk and small blocks of wood if they slack,” I offered.

When she perked up at that suggestion, I knew she was going to be sticking around for as long as I wanted her, if not for the pay, then for the privilege of throwing things at her students.

I took a bite of my hamburger steak and allowed a content sigh to escape from my lips. Things were chaotic right now, but I’d planned for that, so in a way, everything was in order.

Excellent. 

After lunch, once my trainees had escaped their bindings, I joined them in person to ensure their diagnostic jutsu was up to snuff for the next phase of training. My clones walked in. disguised as usual, each with a pig that we’d sedated over their shoulders.

“Alright team time to start advancing your diagnosis jutsu. These pigs have had some internal injuries inflicted to them. Now some of them will be in great pain in about an hour when they wake up, so it’s going to be up to you to diagnose and treat their conditions before then.”

This part of the training made me a little sick in the stomach, but to advance, I needed to give the trainees the best training props I could. 

I wasn’t yet at the stage of bringing criminals that had been volunteered around for testing but that would come soon enough. 

They certainly weren’t going to be touching an innocent civilian anytime soon, but that wouldn’t matter. I’d get them up to speed long before then.

First, I needed to make sure they weren’t going to make things worse just by looking. 

The diagnosis jutsu was fairly straightforward in that you relied on small pulses of your chakra, giving you a “view” into the patient. It did this creating pulses within the body that reacted differently.

I made sure to pause with each group that had formed up since the trainees had begun. Predictably, they were the Hozuki, the Civilians, and the Terumi. 

The last group was the smallest, made up of only three shinobi with the two Karatachi supporting Hanahime, but old habits died hard, apparently.

I’d force them to switch it up soon enough and make them train with each other, but for now, I let things settle into a rhythm.

“You’ll feel how your chakra moves around veins, lymph nodes, bones, and even the patient’s chakra pathways when you’re doing it. If you’ve completed the assigned reading you will know how it typically presents to most medic nin!” I called as I moved to observe the Hozuki.

“What injuries can you observe?” I asked. 

They glanced up at me, then shared a look. “There’s internal bleeding within the intestines?” 

“That’s one of them, good job spotting that,” I offered encouragingly as I stepped back, glad that they’d seen that. 

“Each pig has at least three injuries!” I called the room, which was a lie. There were as many as six for some pigs. 

“They are all different from each other! I will check in with each group, then I want you to swap testers! Once you’ve all had a go at looking at the injuries, you will swap animals and start over with a different trainee going first!”

By the time the pigs were waking up I swept around the room, healing them while having the trainees observe through the diagnostic jutsu.

“Taking it nice and slow,” I murmured, my chakra weaving together the severed muscles. “This pig is going to be a bit sore when they wake up, but they’ll be back to running around their sty in no time.”

At least until we had pork chops on the menu. 

Once I was finished healing the last pig, I had my clones take the pigs away, only for another pig to be brought in. Kuroiwa moved to stand on the other side of me, aware of how this next exercise would go.

“Now, you’ve no doubt noticed that the image you got back when you were using the diagnostic jutsu together was worse? Lower resolution is the term; this is due to each of you working at different frequencies when you pulse your chakra.”

I waved a hand. “For the sake of being able to work together, you’re all going to learn how to control your pulses to set frequencies so you don’t interrupt each other when you’re working on the same patient.”

“When would we need to do that?” asked one of the trainees. 

“When you need to observe me perform a delicate surgery to gather experience, or when a patient is in such a bad state that they need multiple medics at once,” I answered. 

This issue was something that I’d only encountered in the month of troubleshooting that I’d performed with Kuroiwa. Before then, I’d had no idea that if you weren’t operating at the same frequency, you could blind another medic to what was going on within a patient. 

Another trainee tilted their head. “Wait! We just saw you heal those pigs though?”

“As I said, delicate surgery. I accounted for your chakra in my healing with the pigs easily enough.”

“For clarity of communication, we will refer to frequency of one completed cycle per second as a Hertz.”

“Hurts?” asked one of the Hozuki with a smirk. 

I could tell they were spelling it wrong from the way they said it so I made sure to spell it out on the board behind me, along with including a basic symbol for it.

 “This is something that has yet to make it into the textbooks, but it is in the process of being worked in. This is cutting-edge research,” I said.

The sad part was that I meant it. No one in the Elemental nations was currently playing with radios so the idea of frequencies and how they acted was a new concept. 

Once I’d explained that, I then needed to train everyone to set standards, which for the sake of limiting chakra exhaustion and mental strain, meant we only went for low frequencies without dipping into below a single Hertz for the diagnosis jutsu.

“Softer material such as the liver, brain and kidneys will require slower and therefore more accurate hertz.”

“Why is it more accurate?” asked Ala.

“Slower frequencies propagate further, but they also allow for the chakra to take on more information when passing through areas of the body. Which might not be true of areas that can be moved or might twitch on us, but that’s where higher Hertz pulses will be useful,” I announced.

I tapped on the single hertz number on the board. “That being said, if any of you are performing brain surgery in the next year… well, something has either gone amazingly well, or…” I shook my head. “Let’s just leave it at the brain is a tricky thing. If you’ve read ahead with your anatomy textbook, you’ll understand why that comment is true, and also a major understatement.”

I set out a small metronome that could be set to specific speeds. “We shall now be practising controlled settings. More of these metronomes can be found in your cabins, and you are expected to upskill outside of class hours.” 

The declaration of more work caused my lips to twitch. 

“What? Were you expecting things to be easy?” I asked only to get a round of grumbling from some people. “Don’t worry about it! By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be some of the top medics in the world!” 

That had them all perking up. The civilian nin who were used to keeping their heads down stared at me in shock, so I offered a knowing smile in return. 

“Do the work and you’ll get there,” I said to their unasked question of ‘us too?’. 

The rest of the lesson passed quickly, and by the time we were done, more than a few of them looked like their brains were about to melt out of their skulls with how they’d identified wounds on pigs, and then observed me treat the wounds.

By the time the pigs awoke, they were all back in their sty, none the wiser for the injuries they’d taken on, if moving a little stiffly.

“Alright, break time for most of you, talk among yourselves or relax. You have one more lecture period this afternoon and then afternoon training!” I declared as I marched out of the room.

As I walked out of the building, I set down the scroll that would be used for the next lecture, then formed up another clone just as another’s memories started to trickle into my mind.

I paused to process the memory of pushing my chakra into a waterfall alongside two other clones.

We weren’t making great progress with the wind transformation training, but it was early days, and my chakra nature was water, so it was to be expected.

With that done, I made my way into my office, where another clone was working through paperwork. “Review pile,” I called to myself, tapping a small pile of scrolls. 

I sat and gave the scrolls a quick look over. Most of the time, I simply nodded, accepting the Clone’s line of thinking on what had been proposed but in the few instances where I noticed something off, I deposited the scroll into another small box for a later, more in-depth perusal.

My clone clicked its tongue, and I hummed. “Want to go do something fun?” I asked myself.

I perked up. “What’s possible?” I asked.

I tugged out a small notebook. “You can either goof off in a meadow watching the clouds go by, recreate dishes from our past life in the kitchen, or try your hand at art?” I suggested. 

We had been pulling up a lot of clay for making bricks, but it wasn’t much hassle to pull some unfired clay to muck about with.

The clone considered me for a moment. “I feel like expressing myself. Might try and paint me flipping off Gengetsu and then burn it.”

“Enjoy!” I replied to myself as a version of me trotted off to have some fun.

Some days, I allowed myself the luxury of picking up a stray hobby. It was nice, being able to simply let go. 

Like a slowly ramping up gravity chamber, I hadn’t realised just how much pressure I was putting myself under over the last few years. Getting the chance to take control of everything around me while simultaneously being let go was incredibly freeing.

I’d started sleeping better, which was saying something as I hadn’t even noticed I slept bad beforehand.

Kuroiwa had walked into my art studio once while investigating the growing village, only to stare at me working a spinning wheel with clay and what was my attempt at a vase on it. 

I’d merely shrugged and asked her if she wanted a turn at it.

She’d given it a go and occasionally came back. 

But today wasn’t for relaxing. At least, not for the real me.

Instead of slotting into the role of administrator or lecturer I flipped a rug over and grabbed a hidden latch which unlocked a doorway behind a bookcase. I walked right into the bookcase and down a set of stairs.

Part of me wondered how long it would take for the trainees to notice that there was a network of tunnels running under and around their cottages.

Reinforcing the tunnels had been a real prick of a task, especially while hiding the work from ANBU, but the results were damn well worth it.

I finally had a place to train myself in a variety of methods that I wouldn’t dare show others. 

Techniques that didn’t exist in this world that I could test without fearing someone else would steal them.

My training field was rather rudimentary if I was being honest, but it was all mine, and private. I was going to be attempting things here.

It was merely a small flat grass field that had quickly become loose dirt with how much I tore the grass up. There was a small waterfall that two of my clones were training at, their hands held in front of themselves as they went to work trying to cut the flow of. 

It made for wet work which caused the surrounding area to be particularly muddy but we’d slowly been working on that by stomping down large rocks to form a sturdy standing area in front of the waterfall.

From there a creek ran through the valley and down into a tucked-away little crevice in the earth that I suspected fed into an artisan basin. I’d added a small pool off to the side of the creek, through which I’d filtered the water through fine sand, making for a perfect meditation and chakra cleansing pool.

The tunnel I’d arrived via had begun as a small cave that I’d hollowed out and reinforced over and over again until it was beneath my office. 

The valley curled up into itself like the hills on either side were being pinched in. This allowed trees growing on either side to intertwine and hide the valley from easy detection. 

I’d since reinforced the camouflage of the area with more trees and shrubbery growing at the top while closing off the small passage I’d first used to find this place.

Now it was my training site, far from any prying eyes.

I’d come a long damn way, but I knew that it was still a long way from being truly strong. I marched up to the open spot in front of the waterfall, unmindful of the way the spray saw me soaked through almost instantly.

My hands rose, and I began to split the waterfall. 

Or, at least, attempt to. 

A small patch of water in front of me split open as I cut into it with wind chakra only for it to falter a few moments later.

Yup, still a long way to go. 

After ten minutes, the clone on my left stepped back and nodded at me. Then he dispelled, causing a wave of memories of standing in front of this very waterfall and cutting into it to surface.

It was like a very intense wave of deja vu. 

It took less time to process than the last clone and I was quickly back at it with just one clone.

Eventually they too dispelled and I took a moment to centre myself. Then I resumed, noting a marginal improvement in how long my cut into the waterfall held. 

There might have also been a slight widening of the width of the cut.

Slow and steady progress.

I stepped back and shook my body. The wetness of my limbs was nothing new to me. Being born and raised in Kirigakure one grew used to being slightly wet as soon as they stepped outside.

Still, seeing as this was my training field I allowed myself to create a small smokeless fire that I sat next to for the next phase of my training.

The surrounding air shifted as I cupped my hands in front of my body. Slowly, drop by drop my cupped hands began to fill with water. 

Soon I had a steady dripping of water as I worked to both draw in the water vapour around me, along with keep my hands from dripping. It was a difficult task but just another part of my control exercises.

Another skill that had a long way to go to where I wanted it to be, but once again, progress.

After an hour of practise I formed the cross seal for the Shadow Clone jutsu and created another three clones. They sat around the fire with a sigh while I moved to the cliff face. 

From there I began to climb upwards.

For a ninja this was a task most could complete in their sleep. 

I made it harder by strapping huge weighted chains to my ankles while only using a finger for each hold. I alternated the fingers I used and made sure to not use a drop of chakra.

By the time I’d scaled and come down the wall numerous times my arms, and shoulders ached so I turned to conditioning my legs. 

I sank into the water just in front of the waterfall where it was deepest. There was a tug on me as I floated in the small deep part I’d carved out. I locked my arms into my side and began to kick, alternating between freestyle, breaststroke, and butterfly style kicks.

Again, when I was done my legs ached and I was heaving from the added strain of pressuring my lungs by pushing how long I could hold a breath.

It was torture by another name but also conditioning that my body needed.

Chakra was a multiplier but the strong my body was that better the base value. It might only be a small benefit, but I could make the most of it.

“Looking smooth me,” joked a clone. “Really had the style going. Ladies will love to see you thrashing like a salmon and sucking air!”

I rolled my eyes at myself. “I can be such a bastard,” I muttered to my clones’ delight.

“We’re going to need to speed up the creek’s flow,” I mused. “It was almost getting easy at a few points there.”

“Tch, outgrowing our pool,” one of the clones muttered.

“Eh, it was a deliberately small pool. Just a testing pond really. We can dig up an artisan bore behind the waterfall and add that to this creek, keep it all hidden,” suggested another of the clones.

I nodded, not speaking as I calmed my racing heart. The clones stood up, flicking off their wet hands. “Ready for the next part?” one asked.

With a grunt I stood, adopting a fighting stance. “No head or—” “Dick shots, we know!” muttered the clone. “We’re not going to neuter ourselves!” snarked another.

Then without warning they started kicking and striking me.

I braced, allowing my body to weather the blows or twisting to I defused the power behind some of them.

After a few minutes I shifted to outwith evasion, which, when you were fighting yourself was harder than it sounded.

I held back from lashing out. 

After another few minutes of this we stopped and I grunted as I began to heal the bruising. 

With a roll of my shoulders I sighed as a wave of relief swept through me.

One of my clones tilted his head. “Think you’re getting faster there,” he pointed out and I nodded, knowing it was something I’d considered before. 

It wasn’t up to Kabuto’s level of regeneration but with all the practise I gave myself, I might just be able to enure a lot more abuse than any shinobi I knew.

Well, probably not Naruto of course. That kid would walk off a lot of things, but… no reason not to shoot for the stars.

One of the clones dispelled and I had an odd sensation of experiencing the training followed by the beat down from the other side of the equation.

“Any lingering thoughts of self harm?” half-joked the clone. 

I allowed myself a moment to consider that more seriously. “No,” I replied. 

With a flick of my wrist I unsealed my training diary and began documenting what I’d done, how I felt and any other little observations. This diary was yet another addition that I would never have dared create in Kiri.

Too personal. Too much intel on what I was working on and what my thought process was. Even with it sealed in a scroll I wouldnt have felt safe with it existing. 

I worked through the reflection diary before nodding. A gurgle from my stomach had me looking up to see the light was fading.

“Thinking of staying here again?” asked one of the clones.

“...no, not tonight. I have some paperwork to do,” I said rising.

“Make sure you take time for yourself as well, too much work and not enough pleasure…” the clone trailed off. 

“I know. I know,” I replied to myself, holding back a laugh. They did say it was a sign of madness to talk to yourself. I doubted they meant like this, but still. 

A memory from one of my building clones came in and I blinked as suddenly I had a day’s work on how to make bricks in my mind. There had been more than a few instances where even as a disguised civilian worker my clone had cheated, drawing water from the clay, or lifting more bricks than he should have.

I doubted he was alone as no doubt the other building clones would have much the same memories.

It was an amusing experience to get. 

Lord Ryoku didn’t know it, but he was paying a substantial amount of the construction costs to me through a shell company I’d created. Was it wrong? Maybe a little.

But I was also performing the work of fifty men each day with only eight of my clones dedicated to the actual work. I still had civilians working the site but only six of them. And those men and women were mostly in the design and planning roles as I needed to keep an eye on them for intel leaks.

When I marched into my office I found it as I’d left it which allowed me to resumed the paperwork and finalise everything that needed to be handled. I once again timed things just right as a knock on the door announced Kuroiwa.

She entered when I unlocked the door from my side with a flick of a chakra string and she marched in with a dour expression only to scowl at the tower  of completed paperwork.

“I’m going to learn that Shadow Clone jutsu even if it might kill me,” she declared. 

“How’s your chakra control exercises going?” I asked, leaning back in my seat. 

“Good enough. Could I… would you mind doing the chakra coil exercises on me again? I must be getting close to being able to manage a single clone, right?”

I sighed, knowing I didn’t have the time for this today. I still didn’t want to have a clone attempt it but I was tempted. “Honestly? I have no idea. You have a sizeable amount for most chunin ranked shinobi, but this jutsu is a kinjutsu for a reason.” 

As Kuroiwa continued to whine about the stupidly hard requirements to use the shadow Clone Jutsu I toyed with a report that had come in from Kiri. On the side of the scroll cap a series of dots and dashes were set up, looking like a harmless pattern to the untrained eye.

To me, and a select few people in the know, they were anything but. 

It was good to know Shoto was well, even if his ANBU Captain had chewed him out left right and backwards for attempting a ‘reverse summons’ without clearing it first. 

Still, he wasn’t in any serious trouble beyond getting shouted at for an hour thanks to successfully bringing in another summons clan to Kirigakure.

At least that was what I could extrapolate from the much shorter report he’d left on the scroll cap.

“—and those Hozuki bastards are being such pains in the ass during training!” 

I nodded along. “We’ll switch things up going forward. Start taking them out of their comfort zones. We also need to start building teamwork into the curriculum so let’s kill a flock with one stone hey?” 

Kuroiwa grinned only to start glancing around eagerly which drew a chuckle from me. “I’ve already seen to the financials but if you want you can look them over as well.”

“Yes! It’s important I know about my future moneymaker!” she declared honestly.

“Careful, your inner thoughts are showing,” I murmured only for her to ignore me as she stared at the itemised financial reports. Interestingly, it wasn’t all expenditures which Kuroiwa rather liked. 

All the lumber I’d cut was turning a handy profit for us.

We also had a potential earnings coming in once we had the trainees up to standard with healing injuries. The plan was to give the practical experience with 

That being said, there was another source of income that hadn’t yet been adjusted for.

I glanced at the other scrolls that had come in with the recent correspondence.

A trio of mission scrolls with specific names attached to them glinted at innocently. In Gengetsu’s particular script of handwriting. 

And of course he’d made sure to through some oil onto the situation by giving precise orders on who would be teaming up for these missions. 

Damn Gengetsu and his interference. I shouldn’t have given him as much leeway as I did. He felt comfortable with me reporting in after the mission was over instead of moving to collect the scrolls from Kiri.

Well if he wanted to play those sorts of games I knew just what to do.

__________________

Hanahime Terumi rubbed at her forehead. She had a small headache forming from everything they’d learnt thus far and it was a cold comfort to cycle her chakra through her tenketsu. 

The skill of being able to shift their chakra into the needed yin aligned chakra that was required for the mystic palm had been tough but oh so worth it.

Small tricks like creating the chakra and cycling it through your coils were constantly being taught in attempts to help the trainees stay on their feet.

It was honestly staggering how many little tricks Matsu had that resulted in ease of life, or better results in training.

She’d been here now for roughly five weeks, and it felt both longer and shorter. The days blurred together with the constant lectures and beatings that passed for training sessions.

Matsu made them work hard each and every day.

She’d seen both Hozuki try to play dead once during combat training only to become targets that Matsu ruthlessly beat on, or called out, demonstrating how they were the weakest link in the teamwork of their group.

To further challenge them, he’d started making them partner up with each other in a changing roster. Hanahime had only had to deal with being partnered up with the Hozuki twice now but each time saw her performance dropping as she spent as much time watching her ‘ally’ in the field as she did her opponent. 

Something Matsu hadn’t verbally spoken of but he had given them a long look.

From there further changes occurred with lectures seeing groups shifting around with who you were assigned to.

Anytime it looked like no progress would be had due to conflicting personalities, Matsu would be there, scruffing their wayward attention and forcing to complete the task.

Then he’d assign extra work for each of the ‘lagging’ students.

It had forced her to sit down with the two Hozuki students and ask for a truce during one of the assigned additional homework.

They’d tersely agreed to a deal and been rewarded by having Matsu take it easy on them that afternoon by handing them each a simple fireball jutsu scroll to practise with along with several combustible targets.

Hanahime and the Hozuki took that to mean they’d been rewarded for ‘getting along’. They weren’t friends by any measure, but they were now working together.

From then on some of the training sessions changed from beatings with Matsu facing off and demolishing all ten of them at once to jutsu training sessions where Matsu would walk them through using said jutsu. He’d do this with his personal assistance, notes and insights.  For Matsu it wasn’t sufficient to just be able to use the jutsu. You needed to be able to perform it without hand seals.

When he taught a jutsu he spoke of small steps that built into greater wholes.

She’d scoffed aloud when he’d asked them to train the Water bullet jutsu.

Then he’d demonstrated how his water bullet jutsu was so much more than theirs.

And then he’d just given out the training for it like it was nothing. Ways the chakra coiled and how to hold it in reserve or pulse it just right to get the power building up properly.

It revealed more and more depth. Where she’d been expecting the shallows to finally reveal themselves she instead found herself staring at a dark trench of ocean.

It was galling to discover just how far Matsu had gone since the Academy. 

She’d had intel on him from her father… and while part of her wanted to think his promotion to Jonin was performative she knew he had the skills. 

It turns out that if anything they’d underestimated how many skills he had.

Over the last few weeks Hanahime had started to get a true insight on Matsu. 

He was meticulous with his chakra control and training. 

Hanahime took a moment to observe the room as Matsu swept in and stood in front of the board.

“There’s going to be a shift in the schedule. Missions have been sent to us and its time for us to earn our keep for the Village as shinobi. Eventually as your skills a a medic grow some of the missions you go on will change but that will take a while. For now, here are the missions we have.”

Hanahime frowned. 

She knew from her father that they should have gotten mission scrolls at least two weeks ago.

Monthly missions sent her way to help bolster her mission record for future promotion while also allowing her to return to the clan for a small break. That would have been her excuse to deliver a report on how things were going in the training camp. 

For it to have only arrived now on fifth week… Had Matsu held off on giving them out? Did he know?

“Now the missions themselves we will be addressing at the end of the lecture but for now rest easy in the knowledge that we will be slowing things down for the next week at least,” he began causing a small stir in the group while Hanahime considered what it meant that Matsu had held back the mission scrolls.

“Kuroiwa will be running dedicated sessions to continue your lessons in the time that the selected shinobi are away. It will not be too much of a skip but when we return to normal routine I expect those that missed out on their lessons to catch up.”

Kuroiwa, who’d walked in behind Matsu and taken a seat, didn’t even bat an eye, showing that she knew about this ahead of time.

Was this a Karatachi plot to trip up the Terumi clan? Hanahime suddenly had to reconsider how much Katara and Koga Karatachi had been helping her. Was it a play to win her trust by being unhelpful only to come around after?

“With that in mind I will announce that today’s session will be a review of the diagnosis jutsu. I will have you perform the jutsu upon a cadaver and draw a simple diagram of what you’re viewing,” Matsu continued.

Matsu moved around the hall, depositing several scrolls that revealed several dead people when they were unsealed.

Hanahime stared at her specimen. Where had he even gotten them? Had he killed them?

She could see the question floating across multiple people’s faces but Matsu ignored it.

“Let’s all start with the chest cavity. I want you all to draw what you find.” With a clap of his hands he had people scurrying to work through the assignment for the class.

Hanahime glanced at Ala who indicated she’d like to go first. Hanahime nodded and watched as Ala ran through the hand signs before placing her hands upon the chest of the corpse.

After a few moments, Ala took her hands away and Hanahime moved forward. 

Time passed with them trading off, drawing or inspecting the corpse.

When five minutes had passed Kuroiwa swept around the room. She paused in front of one of the civilian groups. 

“No, stop. Don’t just copy down what you think is there or should be there. Draw what you’re witnessing!” she growled.

The trainee bristled. “This is what’s there! The heart, lungs, stomach, an—”

“And if you were paying attention, you would notice that this person has their heart on the opposite side of their chest!” snapped Kuroiwa.

“Don’t assume! Know! The textbooks clearly state that people will be different in thousands of different ways! If you were performing heart surgery on this person what would you do when you start treating their lungs instead of their heart? Stop and do it over!”

Hanahime glanced down at her own drawing with a swallow. It had copied much of what the textbook had shown, but their corpse happened to have a growth in their lung which she’d drawn. 

Matsu clapped his hands from the front. “You can continue inspecting your cadavers along with drawing but Kuroiwa just raised a highly relevant point. Never assume that the body will match what has been drawn in the textbooks. Those are merely generalisations. People will differ in hundred if not thousands of ways. That’s why it’s important to know what you’re looking at with the diagnostic jutsu!”

Another trainee raised their hands. “What sort of ways can they differ?” they asked.

Matsu nodded and began sketching things out on the blackboard. 

“Blood vessel location, nerves, musculature, and even some bone positions can vary slightly.”

“Bone positions?”

Matsu chuckled. “Never heard of slipped discs? That happens in people as they age and it will be something we learn to manage and treat going forward. But before that, who here has fought the Kaguya?”

That got a round of grumbles and Matsu nodded. “Perfect examples. Some of them deliberately keep more bone under their skin than a normal person would. Other examples of clan specific variations would be Konoha’s dojutsu favouring clans. They are believed to have larger blood vessels along with chakra coils leading to their eyes to account for the greater demand on their eyes.”

Hanahime wrote that down. That must be some high grade intel as she’d never heard of that before but it made a lot of sense!

Matsu drew a basic shape of a person before making a smaller person within along with a larger person surrounding the other two. “Don’t forget that size, and age will also greatly change the position of certain bones.” he considered his diagrams before defacing them with genitals. “Gender as well.”

Hanahime blushed and held back a cough. Alright so that wasn’t him being childish. 

She considered something that Matsu had said. “Is that why the Hyuga are the only ones able to properly perform their gentle fist style?” she asked.

Matsu gave her an encouraging look and she continued. “They can see the slight variations and account for them?”

Matsu nodded slowly. “That would be accurate. They can see the variations and therefore know how much force or chakra is needed to strike a tenketsu properly.” 

He then tapped the board. “It also potentially gives us a line of thought to pursue in defending against this style of fighting with shielding our tenketsu or creating false tenketsu.”Hhis lips twitched slightly at this for some reason but Hanahime was too busy copying down his impromptu lecture to question him on that.

This was rather interesting. 

Underlining the topic he continued, “This is something that would be a viable path of research for any of you that want to undertake such an endeavour, just be aware that Gengetsu might want you to prove its efficacy by sending you against said Hyuga.”

That got a small chuckle from the room with Matsu gesturing for them to continue drawing what they were observing. “Shift to the legs, now would be a good time to work on synchronising your chakra frequency with your partner. I’m seeing a lot of you take turns, stop doing that!”

Hanahime held back a flinch at being called out on that. She shared a small smile with Ala before shifting to work together at the standard hertz for inspecting the corpse. 

Kuroiwa swept past to inspect their work several times over the next ten minutes and Hanahime felt rather good at spotting several more tumours on her patient. 

“Alright, swap tables!” Matsu called from the front. 

As they moved Hanahime glanced at him to find that he was… writing a book? She shook her head, wondering what this would be about. 

By the time they were done, Hanahime had to admit that she hadn’t been expecting all the strange oddities she’d encountered with the corpses. It made it all the stranger that Matsu had them on hand to use as training subjects.

Kuroiwa swept around the room resealing the corpses away into their respective scrolls. Once she was back at her seat Matsu set his writing utensils aside and laced his hands.

“Ala, Hanahime Terumi, Katara Karatachi and Jidanbo Hozuki, you have all been assigned missions.” Matsu placed two scrolls on the table in front of himself. 

She felt her gut sink. “Ala and Katara, this is your scroll.”

Revulsion roiled through her as Matsu tapped the other scroll. Without meaning to she shot Jidanbo an annoyed look only to see it mirrored on his face. Was there a secondary hidden objective that her father wanted her to perform by killing or making their rival clan look bad?

“Jidanbo, you’ve got a solo mission,” Matsu announced, cutting through her thoughts.

Hanahime blinked as a third scroll was drawn out. “Hanahime? You’re with me on a mission.” his gaze swept the room. “Now, as I mentioned Kuroiwa will be overseeing the lighter course load for the duration of the missions take. I expect everyone to complete their missions to Kirigakure’s satisfaction and then return here alive.”

He smiled. “I’m not done with you by a long shot after all. If you get injured don’t worry this will be the perfect place for you!”

That didn’t sound as reassuring as it should have.

Matsu’s expression shifted and suddenly everyone found themselves locking eyes with a steely eyed Jonin that had survived the war and multiple high ranked missions. “If any of you think you are going to be able to get away with anything, I would strongly advise otherwise. Kuroiwa is highly competent and knows how much she can get away with in terms of injuring and then healing you.” another shudder swept the room while Kuroiwa smiled innocently. 

“If I return and find you being used as a test subject…” Matsu trailed off leadingly. “Well, as they say, play dumb games you win dumb prizes.” 

Why was he smirking? Hanahime screamed mentally. She and the others shared a quick look confirming that none of them wanted to win any such prizes!

Matsu snapped his fingers. “Kuroiwa is in charge, when I return those who have performed the best will observe during several surgeries and treatments I have planned for some of the kitchen staff. Hanahime present yourself to my office in two hours for departure.” he rattled off quickly. 

Then he was out the room before anyone could so much as question him.

Kuroiwa moved to the front. “Those of you that have missions, be about them. For the rest of you we will be getting ahead of the others, so I expect you to take meticulous notes for your fellow trainees. When it comes to your turn to go on a mission you will be just as reliant on them to do the same for you.”

Kuroiwa nodded. “Until then we shall break for the allotted period and resume with this afternoon's final lecture, which is to be given to us from a local herb woman. She will be a regular lecturer but she is also a civilian so no silly business with her.” 

Hanahime and the others left the hall but she didn’t pay the others much mind. She followed Ala into their cabin which quickly had them running around packing various items into storage scrolls or pouches. 

Ala finished first. “Lock the place up for me yeah? If I beat you home I’ll bunk with the other civilians so don’t go easy on the traps,” she said as she trotted out the door.

Hanahime huffed, annoyed that it fell to her to see to their security. Cheeky woman.

Still, it certainly helped her relax a little knowing that she’d be able to tell if anyone had been through their things while they were away. 

By the time she was done laying her traps and locking up she barely made it to Matsu’s office within the two hour mark.

She approached the door only for Matsu to meet her in front of it. Which was a bit of a shame, she kind of wanted to see how he decorated his office. It would give her more insight into what sort of person he was. 

An office, as her uncle always said, revealed more than any person ever intended, as it was where they had to work, and live, which meant their personality bled into it even if they didn’t mean for it to happen.

“What’s our mission?” she asked.

Matsu sniffed. “We’ve been given a B rank mission to investigate and eliminate a tribe of bandits that have been plaguing travellers on the southern border of the Land of Wolf.”

“A B rank?” she asked. “Are they samurai?”

“No, so what does that tell you?”

Hanahime frowned. “That we’re to expect significant level of combat or resistance?” 

“Yes, and for shinobi such as ourselves, what could that mean?” Matsu prompted.

“That other shinobi are involved?” she offered. Matsu raised an eyebrow and she nodded firmly. “That we should expect it!” 

“Yes. That or there’s some level of trickery going on here. Hunting bandits should be something local samurai do, unless they have a trick up their sleeve or Wolf is announcing some sort of internal weakness. So already we know something is up. At a B rank there are a multitude of circumstances that we should account for.

“The most prevalent thought is how other shinobi are involved. Is it Kumo, or another smaller, shinobi village from the eastern continent. But it shouldn’t be an issue if it’s a smaller village. It will depend on the bandit situation, is it a small but clever group or something larger like a peasant uprising that we need to put down. ”

Once more Hanahime found herself feeling less than reassured by what Matsu had said.

“What of Konoha involvement?” she asked. 

Inwardly, she doubted that. Any mission that was to be assigned to her usually got reviewed by her father beforehand. While the rank of the mission was concerning she suspected that the true reason she’d been assigned this was to get more time with Matsu.

“Anything is possible,” he replied as they began walking. 

They got outside and took off at a light jog for shinobi standards. Matsu kept upping the pace until Hanahime found herself struggling to keep up. 

Matsu backed off, eying her. 

“I’m going to have to add endurance, speed, and agility drills to the training roster,” he mused.

“Sorry,” Hanahime said feeling like she’d failed some test.

Matsu waved it off. “No bother, it’s just what it is.”

The casual dismissal struck more than any condemnation Hanahime had ever experienced at the hands of her clan’s elders.

“Perhaps on the way back we can work on that.” Matsu tilted his head and nodded. “Yeah, and while we’re stopping for meals, I can tutor you so everything stays fresh.”

Hanahime coughed. “That… sounds wonderful?” she offered, unsure if that was actually what she was feeling. What else could she say when a Jonin offered to train you? 

She’d had quite a few of her Clan offering their help thanks to her own position, but they had always felt fake or like she was trading a favour with them.

Which, now that she thought about it, she did want to know,“How did you do it?” she asked, the question slipping through her lips before she could second-guess herself.

Matsu didn’t reply for a while, merely continuing to run. Hanahime dismissed the idea that he hadn’t heard her. He might have just been ignoring the question, which was him telling her he wasn’t going to tell.

Then he eventually asked. “How did I do what exactly?” 

She blinked, surprised. “Uhm, get all this? It hasn’t been that long since we graduated and… you’re a Jonin now who’s about to run the Medical side of Kiri.” 

She opened and closed her hands, trying to grasp what she wanted to say only to settle for, “How?”

Another long pause lingered between them. “I never slowed down,” Matsu eventually replied. 

Hanahime wanted to ask what he meant by that. Matsu must have anticipated her desire as he kept talking. “It’s different being born into a clan, being supported and shown the way to progress forward. I didn’t have any of that. I just had whatever I put together.” His gaze shifted up to the slowly darkening sky. “I will admit that the situation of my birth has helped out in some ways.”

His red hair caught in the light of the fading day causing her to recall that he wasn’t just a civilian shinobi. He was an orphan that had grown up in the red light district. 

“But I didn’t settle for that. I found ways to push, to get more from each drop of knowledge or strength that I could.” Matsu’s words lingered, heavy in the air and Hanahime found herself  thinking on his words more than she should.

This was a golden opportunity. She needed to think up more questions but she found herself pondering on what she’d have done. 

After two hours of running they stopped for a break with Matsu eying the vanishing sun while she took a long drink of water in case they set out again.

“Hmmm, if I was alone, I’d push on, but I did promise to tutor you,” he mused. 

Hanahime almost choked. He’d been serious? They were in the field!

What was she thinking, of course he had been. If one thing had stayed true about Matsu it was how painfully honest he could be with you.

Matsu smiled at her. “Here,” he handed her several small pieces of paper that were different colours. “I want you to put these in grids along your body and work on shifting them along set routes. Start with one or two at a time and then try to get them all moving at once. Try to match colours. This will train your memory along with your chakra control.”

He held up the pieces of paper. “I’ll put these on your back, hands, and legs. While we make camp, I want you to work on this.” 

Hanahime gaped. “That’s ridiculous! You can’t honestly expect me to…” 

Her protest died off as Matsu opened the front of his own shirt to reveal smaller pieces of paper, each no larger than a fingernail, each of them in matching squares. His torso was a riot of colour, like some rainbow fish with all the scales he had shimmering about beneath his clothes.

Matsu chuckled. “I didn’t stop pushing,” he said again, and it was only then that Hanahime realised the extent of that statement. “Don’t worry if you fail at the start. There are multiple levels to this chakra control exercise. I have Kuroiwa working on this with me.”

“Why would you need to do something like that?” Hanahime asked, feeling like she was starting to come to terms with just how far behind she’d been left since graduation.

“It’s a challenge, it helps mental discipline and well there is a useful side effect of continuing to do this, but I’ll keep that a secret for now, alright?” 

Hanahime narrowed her eyes at the deflection. So there was a use to this beyond chakra control. Interesting. 

Matsu applied the paper to set points around her body. Straight away, she realised that this was a much harder task than she’d understood. Just holding so many pieces in place took up most of her concentration. How many points could Matsu control if his was so much more complicated?

He had her collect some firewood while he saw to the other tasks. She had to take her time as each movement threatened to cause the paper to pop off her skin. 

When she finally had enough firewood for the job she turned back only to find every other job had been complete.

Matsu even had a small rabbit that he was stripping back.

Within a few minutes, there was a low campfire crackling between them. 

Hanahime felt another headache coming on. She was supposed to be getting a better insight into Matsu with this mission. Instead, she just had more questions and an ever-growing feeling that she was looking at an ocean rather than the lagoon she’d first assumed. 

She watched Matsu as he made a stew from local plants and a rabbit he’d caught. It was good sense to always monitor your food, in case he tried to slip something in. 

This… this would be the perfect time to learn more about Matsu, she realised with a jolt. 

“What happened to you after graduation?” Matsu asked, beating her to the punch.

“I…” Hanahime pursed her lips. “I struggled after graduation. Having to…” she swallowed. “I didn’t take killing my cousin well. I became rather jittery and when I was assigned a team to complete missions. I didn’t perform very well. This was noted, and I was remanded to the clan for remedial training. I ran chores and trained for a few weeks.”

Her hands clenched and she scowled when she felt her control slip, causing several pieces of paper to drop off her back. She held in a swear at that, stuffing the pieces of paper back onto her arms so she could slide them back into place.

“How did—”

“Is that why you’re still a Genin? I didn’t see you during the recent Chunin exams.”

Matsu’s gaze bore into her. “Are you still handling how things went down during our graduation?”

“What? No! I’m not!” she snapped.

Rather than relent, Matsu continued to look at her, his expression softening. 

The fire continued to crackle and she turned her gaze away her next words shot out of her, targeted to hurt, “What about you? Do you think abou—”

“Yes,” he replied, just like that.

“What?” her head snapped back around and the paper fell off her, causing her to litter. 

“I still think on it,” Matsu stated calmly. “I think about how I could have done things differently. How I could have gotten a better result. I know that I can’t change how things went down. The past is cruel like that, but at the same time I try to be better because of it.”

He observed her thoughtfully. “Let me guess. Most people tell you not to think about her? That it is making you weak?”

A hot, wet feeling bubbled up only for her to swallow it down. She wanted to snap at him but Matsu… Matsu above anyone else would have known what it felt like to have come so far only to have to make the choice he did.

She stared at the ground. “Guess I failed your exercise.” She still didn’t want to have this conversation. 

“That happens sometimes. But in this situation, you can just pick up the pieces and start again,” he replied kindly. “Stew is almost done.”

Hanahime ate slowly, her thoughts sluggish and unwelcome in her mind. 

Rather than ask any more questions Hanahime ran through a series of realisations. She could ask almost anything about what he’d gone through and she knew in some manner that he’d understand.

It was nice, not being alone.

“I’ll take second shift, if that’s alright with you,” Matsu said after dinner. “Keep work on your chakra control exercises and set some small traps if you can.”

Then he wrapped himself up in his sleeping roll and shut his eyes.

Hanahime stared. He wasn’t actually asleep, was he? That was far too trusting.

She set about doing as he’d asked, making sure there wasn’t anything lurking around. For that she created a caustic mist that would keep any insects away, while also working to make any that got close have vision issues.

From there she spent most of the night staring into the darkness, forcing herself to think about the control exercise and not how she sometimes still saw her cousin’s smile in her clan, or her laugh in the wind.

When it was her turn to trade with Matsu she flicked a pebble next to him. 

He opened his eyes quickly and sat up. “Hmmm anything to report?” he asked looking around. For a moment Hanahime thought she saw something move only to realise it was a shadow, nothing more.

She shook her head. “Nope, nothing’s out there,” she said as she hunkered down.

That night, she slept lightly and awoke when she heard bird song.

She opened her eyes beyond the sliver she’d allowed herself and found that Matsu had also been working on a control drill through the night. 

In front of him sat several burnt through leaves, a stable skill for those practising fire chakra transformation. Huh, so he was fire aligned. She wouldn’t have guessed that.

She noted it down, but otherwise ate a brief meal before once more running north.

Matsu made sure to adjust the control exercise to be possible, if difficult, to perform while they ran. “Make sure you don’t blind yourself to what’s around us, or more specifically, not around as we move,” he lectured.

“I know that,” she huffed.

Matsu shot her a look. “Ah, sorry, I’m used to teaching these days when I’m with others. Habit I got into with my team.”

That got a huff from her. Students that now outranked her. If Matsu had been as serious about their training as he was with the medic trainees then they likely out skilled her as well.

Which was saying something, as one of those students had been a younger clansman, who had been touted as the first mudanin.

Then again, with all the training she’d put into her Acidic Mist she was probably better than her cousin with their bloodline limit.

It took them three days to cross the border to the Land of Wolf, and another to reach the area where their mission was.

Matsu slowed down and occasionally stopped to glance around, his gaze however seemed distant.

“What’s wrong?” she asked after the third time this happened.

Matsu’s lips thinned. “I was worried about the rank of this mission, and it would appear I was right to be. I’m picking up several chakra signatures moving about.”

Hanahime blinked. “O-oh? How many?”

“Five ninken and four shinobi,” he replied. “Alright!” he clapped his hands. “If you were to create a scouting squad from Konoha clans, who would you assemble into a four-man team?”

Why was he asking that sort of question? Did he already… oh, of course.

“An Inuzuka obviously…” she said as she built on what he’d already revealed only to narrow her eyes. “But that’s too many ninken, isn’t it? So there’s what? Two or three Inuzuka shinobi?”

“Two, but good extrapolation, continue,” he prompted.

“Alright, so two Inuzuka, and five ninken from there…” she trailed off thinking about what she knew of Konoha. “I’d put a Hyuga with them as they are supposed to have excellent vision. From there… one of the Nara? They’re supposed to command shadows aren’t they? See through them?”

Matsu blinked at her. “Ah, they can command them but usually they specialise in capture missions alongside an Akimichi, and a Yamanaka.”

She stared. “They don’t? But the intel that I’ve seen…” she pursed her lips and considered Matsu. “Have you encountered them much?”

“Once or twice during the war. I then got front row seats during the recent Chunin exams you could say,” Matsu replied easily. “Now, Hyuga is correct, but who else?”

Chewing her lip she began to tick off the clans of Konoha. “Hatake, Senju, Fuma, Shimura, Sarutobi, Kurama,... Ah,! An Uchiha!” she said.

“Ah, you know quite a few of the Konoha clans but you missed one. The Aburame.”

“Who are they?” she asked, tilting her head.

“The bug users,” Matsu replied and Hanahime shivered. 

Why did it have to be bugs?

“So we have people that can detect us from a long way off through multiple means.”

“Yes, that’s what is normal for Konoha, but thankfully this group only has Inuzuka. I’m not detecting anything like what I’ve come to expect from Aburame. A Hyuga is still possible.”

She stared at Matsu. “Why did you ask me about their ideal scouting formation then!” she hissed.

“Mostly just teaching habits,” Matsu replied easily. 

Hanahime felt something twitch in her face at his easy admission. She wanted to learn things about Matsu, not learn things!

“Think you can take a chunin of Konoha on your own?” he asked. 

She stared at him. 

He smiled back at her. “What? This is a good training exercise for you!  I’ll let you handle them if it comes down to a fight,” he pointed out, like that was reasonable.

“What do you mean if?” she asked, suddenly worried.

“Our mission is to investigate and eliminate a group of bandits. While there’s a possibly that Konoha is linked it's not guaranteed. So we’ll be slinking around for a bit. If we have to we’ll eliminate them but let’s not jump to conclusions.” He gave her a warm smile. “Just think about it yeah? This might be fun!”

Hanahime wasn’t sure why but once again, Matsu’s words didn’t reassure her.

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A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for your continued support!

Sorry I stopped it here but it was really starting to drag on. I needed to showcase a few things Matsu has been doing along with how he is building the Medical facility beyond just himself.

Hanahime makes for a bit of a fun perspective but I might put her point of view on pause for the next few chapters to show how things play out with Konoha.

Also good pick up to the people that noticed that Matsu had a bunch of people with eye related conditions to practise for when Rei arrives.