I walked the halls of the Hokage building and approached the conference room. Today was an important day, and I needed to keep myself focused on the task at hand. The meeting was going to start in less than ten minutes, and I would often arrive early to double-check that I had everything I needed. However, a last-minute emergency kept me in the hospital longer than I would have liked.
I didn’t find out much about what happened, but an Aburame kid got a few bones broken during a rough training session and fell unconscious due to chakra exhaustion. One of those issues would not have been a problem. Still, both happening to a young Genin caused some trouble as the bug colony living inside the boy got unsettled due to the breakages, and the boy being unconscious meant he couldn’t settle them down. Adding the fact that his body was too low on chakra to keep the bugs happy just compounded the problem.
We finally just had to cull his bugs so that I could mend the breaks, but a lot of the critters were already eating the boy alive from the inside, trying to feast on his chakra. A small problem for any other ninja that would have taken two weeks of rest and relaxation will now cost the kid roughly two months. Not only is there a need to recover the damages, but also to rebuild the colony's population. The kid was still unconscious by the time I left, but a specialist from the clan took over his case.
Turning a corner, I spotted two Leaf Jonins I recognized chatting with one another right outside of the conference. “Yo, if Dekai is here before me, I must be late. Is the meeting even still going?”
“Ha ha, Amon,” Dekai said sarcastically. “I will have you know the meeting hasn’t even started yet, and I heard Lord Third might not even make it.”
The shinobi Dekai was talking with spat out his gum and placed it behind the metal of his headband. “Last minute meeting with the village elders. Don’t know what about.”
“Is that right? What’s the rule about classrooms without the teacher present? After 15 minutes, we are allowed to leave.”
“You know, the fact that you're teaching at the academy while making jokes like that makes me worried about the quality of the students who are about to graduate,” Dekai said, shaking his head. “Hey, Mimura, I’ll catch up with you, but is it cool if I talk to Amon for a minute before everything starts?”
“Sure, I need to talk to Shirakumo anyway. Catch you two inside.” Mimura waved goodbye to us as he entered.
The moment the door closed, Dekai spoke. “When was the last time you touched base with Kakashi?”
“Oh, this isn’t going to be good since before I returned to the village. He has thrown himself into Anbu's work since I’ve been back. He’s an outdoor cat. I try not to smother him.”
“Yeah, well, consider smothering him a little. I went out on a mission with him. It wasn’t a nice mission-” Dekai said in code, as it was most likely an Anbu mission. If I had to guess, assassination would be significant enough for Dekai and Kakashi to be on. “-But we did have some free time. I tried to talk with him but… well… you know.”
“Kakashi acted like Kakashi?”
“More so than usual. He was doing better, but after the attack, you know.”
“I know, I should. I have a thousand things on my plate right now. About to be a thousand and three,” I said, gesturing towards the conference room, to which Dekai gave a sympathetic nod. “I see about cobbling together some of my free time to track him down. How bad are we talking?”
Dekai shrugged his shoulders. “He’s got an excuse with the kinda missions he’s been grabbing nonstop, but I mean…well… you know, he’s Kakashi.”
“Well, that is a condition he has often suffered from in the past. I’ll do what I can, but medical science has only gone so far,” I said with false sympathy. I made sure to play up my body language to show I was joking. With my face wrapped in bandages, it was hard for people to tell I was kidding.
Dekai scoffed at my joke. “Well, we do what we can when we can.” Silence fell between us as we stood in the hallway, unsure how to continue the conversation. Because of the ANBU missions he’s been going on and me with the medical information, that doesn’t make for good small talk. “I was talking to Mimura before you arrived.”
“Yeah, I saw; still trying to kick that smoking habit.”
“Oh yeah, well… you know.”
“Always good to try to stay healthy when you can.”
“Yeah…but he and I were talking about how he has fire and lightning, and I have fire and water-”
“And Shirakumo has fire and air.”
“Yeah, and you have fire and earth.” Dekai smiled, pointing it out.
“I am not great at fire.”
“Really?!” Dekai said with a puzzled expression.
“Yep. I can do a little, but it’s nothing to write home about.”
“Oh… then… you know.”
“Ying and Yang affinities.”
“Oh yeah, I mean, yeah, that makes sense.”
“And earth, obviously.”
“Yeah, yeah, and earth.”
Dekai and I stayed in awkward silence for a little longer in the hall. “I mean, nothing is stopping us from going inside to take a seat.”
“Yeah, you're right. Let’s see what the future holds,” Dekai said as he opened the door for me.
There were about a dozen shinobi sitting on pillows scattered around the room. Most of the time, everybody would be standing around. Still, the Hokage not being here made everyone much more relaxed—they were going over scrolls with the pictures of the upcoming academy graduates on them. I also had files on my person of the students on me but on paper instead of scrolls like everybody else was using. Paper was used more in the medical field, and my previous life made me biased in using it instead of acting like everyone else.
Off to one side of the room was a long table with stiff-looking wooden chairs. I shot a bandage on my arm to one of the unoccupied pillows and flung it back to my open hand as I walked to an open seat. Nodding to Shirakumo and Mimura, I took a seat after putting the pillow down on it first.
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Half the room was opened to the outside, allowing for fresh air and, if needed, easy access inside and outside of the room. The room was used to assign missions that were low-ranking and public knowledge. The room's openness was meant to show many things: strength, transparency, and acceptance. I had mixed feelings about using this room for the meeting. On the one hand, the information was personal and somewhat secret; on the other hand, it was not that big of a secret and was meant to show off to anyone watching. It wouldn’t take much effort to discover the information being discussed here, and it was information we would want to tell people anyway. In a world of cloaks and daggers, not everything had to be kept secret.
“Sorry, I’m late. Dekai was confessing his love for me. What did I miss?” I couldn’t see him behind me, but I assumed Dekai was rolling his eyes at my question.
“Well, as long as you let him down gently.” Shirakumo played along, to Dekai’s annoyance. “Blake and Salem are going to moderate the meeting.”
As if summoned, the doors flung open, causing a barely noticeable flinch in the resident ninjas. “Did someone talk about the number one most lovie dovie couple in all of Konoha?” Salem said as he and his wife both stroked a pose at the entrance.
“Now that we are here, all paperwork and administrative problems stand no chance against our combined might.” Blake finished by pushing up her glasses that, once she took her fingers away, slid back down her nose.
With their entrance, the rest of the shinobi in the room let out an exhausted sigh at their antics, except Amon, who golf clapped quietly on the other side of the room. “Thank goodness you two are here. Now we can get started.”
“Slow down Amon. We first need to make sure everybody who is needed is here if they were requested to provide additional information.”
“Then we need everybody to have the files needed for each student.”
“Yes, yes. All very important indeed. Dekai, Shirakumo, Mimura, and myself are here. A bunch of the teachers at the academy and other Jonin sensei’s are here as well, I assume everybody has copies of the information they need and if they don’t, are to stubborn to admit it. Now, with that out of the way.” I clapped my hands together. “Let's divide up the kids and decide who teaches who makes a new generation of heartless killers…I mean brave young men and women who will carry the will of fire and defend our nation.”
My words upset my loyal colleagues, but seeing they also didn’t want to be here any longer than they had to and knew the kind of ninja I was referring to, they kept silent. “Yes, well, I understand your enthusiasm. If there are no complaints, then I see no problem proceeding.” Blake chimes in and turns to speak with the rest of the room. “As Amon said. Four new teams led by our esteemed Jonin are here. Today, we will be assigning them new graduates from the academy.”
“Records show that, with the fifth years included, and students that were rolled back from the previous year's team assignments, number around 120 unassigned Genin.”
“One hundred and twenty! Why so few?” I proclaimed in shock. If kids were going to be assigned the way I think they were, the number of new Genin staying in the village would be about to dwindle.
“You were not here for this, Mr. Amon, but after Lord Fourth took office, In what I assume was an effort to gain financial resources, as well as other reasons, allowed Leaf ninjas to buy out the rest of their tours if they served in a combat capacity during the war.”
Salem's words took a second to hit me, but then I got it. “And he didn’t put an end date on the offer.” Well, that explains our manpower issue. If I was an underperforming Genin who still had hopes for a military career, then one night, a giant fox giving off a tsunami of bad vibes destroyed my house. I would be inspired to have a career change. With a bunch of new vacancies opening up, any Genin who had average talent was already scouted and assigned to a long-term position. If a Genin was still in the school system at this point, there was something wrong with them. Either ridiculously weak and still too stubborn to quit being a Leaf shinobi or were blacklisted for one reason or another.
“The capitol, as always, has requested half of this year's Genin to be assigned to the capitol, where-”
“Where they will be given out and traded like party favors to a bunch of lords and ladies.” I interrupted Blake to share my commentary with the rest of the room.
“Where they will be assigned more specific instruction there as needed.” Blake continued where she left off.
“Plus, this is the first wave of “new” Genin since the nine tail incident, for the nation's security and to dissuade any other nation from getting any ideas. I am going to guess half of the remaining graduates will be sent to the border forts. Meaning that the amount of new blood that is going to remain in the village, numbers around 30 realistically.”
The room remained silent. I was speaking out of line and could be seen as disrespectful, but no one wanted to call me out on it because what I was saying was true. People always saying that we were running low on manpower, but this proves it. Before, I was reluctant about the fifth years being pushed to graduate early, but now I see Sarutobi’s point. The land of fire was large, and we had a bunch of easy targets we needed to protect—a noble here, a hole in our defenses there, unguarded farmlands beckoning bandits to pillage them, or at least someone pretending to be a bandit. The village's ninjas were stretched far too thin.
With the way the system went, the cream of the crop will stay in the village while the capital gets the below-average Genin. Seeing that, along with myself, there are four Jonin taking students this year, nearly half the new graduates will be earmarked, leaving 18 Genin to other departments. I don’t know about the different departments, but the Medical Ninja unit would love to get their hands on 20 new Genin by themselves. The fact is that the rest of the village has to fight over only 18 Genin.
“Well, there’s no use morning are circumstances. Lets get to work, where should we start.” Shirakumo spoke up to the silent room. Much like myself, everybody else was doing the math in their heads.
I grimaced as the thought occurred to me that some of the others would see this as a competition. With so few candidate spots open, everybody here needs to focus on quality over quantity. I could already see some people earmarking a few pictures. There was going to be some arguing, and Blake and Salem were going to have their work cut out for them.
“First things first. We believe assigning the first 60 Genin to the capital would be best. If this meeting takes long, we can at least know who we will be dispatched to the capital by the end of the day.”
I nodded my head. We could be missing out on some late bloomers or some diamonds in the rough, but at this point, we will have to take it on the chin and move on. As someone who has spent years at the capital, I know it wasn’t the end for the newbies; it was just a setback.
Everyone proceeded to go over and just called out the weakest Genin they saw and tried to depict them in the most politicly correct way to say that their skills where “Lacking”, and “Needs refinement”. In my head, I kept trying not to think that we were not just discarding the runts of a litter, but it wasn't easy. I recognized a few faces working at the academy; thankfully, none of the students assigned to the capital were from my fifth year, but I doubt my luck will last through the border fort selection.
After 90 minutes, the deed was done. After a quick review and a last chance to replace a name on the list, Blake took the list to Sarutobi’s office for approval. With that task behind us, the mood lifted in the room a little.
The Border forts were going to be easier. For one, the list was only half as long, but it wasn’t an assignment with the same negative stigma attached to it. Because of their placement and staff, A Genin might even choose to be placed in one of the forts. Close to other villages meant that there were skirmishes, even in peace and boarding “Allied” villages. Plus, towns in the areas were not bad because of trade from foreign lands.
The best way to think of a border fort was as a minuter hidden village. It is not as strong as an average minor hidden village, but it is not much weaker either. Because of the constant patrols and skirmishes, many Anbu ninjas came from border forts, which were the most high-risk but also high-reward assignments.
Over half of my fifth years were selected for the border forts. It hurt a little, but it was fair. Other than the obvious, no glaring side effects showed up from my genjutsu teaching method. Mental exhaustion leads to difficulty waking up in the mourning and difficulty remembering the more minor details if the information I provide is never brought up again after it was taught. There was some difficulty for the students to go from me teaching with genjutsu and then straight to sparing. They found it difficult to focus on the spar and then remember what was taught, but a break before a spar for lunch or just simple stretching and exercise fixed the issue.
Sadly, no matter how excellent the genjutsu teaching method is, I have deliberately used it only for traditional academic studies. The fifth years did great with that aspect of the student curriculum, so great that by the end, the students didn’t just finish the sixth year's studies but also could catch up with the civilian schools of the same year. If Sarutobi approves of the method, the academy would lower the time spent on academic studies towards the last two years and focus more on physical skills and chakra refinement. At the end of the day, physical skills, chakra refinement, and sparing were the areas that the sixth years held the edge in. A difference in a year of growth between an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old, plus more experience in all the traditional ninja fields, made it on average, sixth years would win more competitions.
Once the border fort ninjas were assigned, Blake took the names to Sarutobi’s office again. When she returned, she informed everybody that the Third Hokage would review the two lists and then join the rest of the meeting; until then, we would be taking a break. In the end, 20 of my students would be staying in the village while only 10 of the sixth years. I tried not to feel too smug about the prospect; there were plenty of reasons for there being so few sixth years, a big one being that many students in the school chose to graduate early when given a chance. Itachi was with a team already and going on missions.
Getting up and stretching my back, I chatted with the other Jonin sensei. Mimura, chewing his gum that smelled like a fresh stick, brought up lunch. Knowing that I had my Fuinjutsu money, they brought up how they hadn’t had sushi in a while and how it sure would be nice. How “one ninja here” was a fancy medical ninja who was stationed in a medical camp for most of the war and then got sent to a foreign village where he received special treatment and hanged with girls by the beach, While three other ninjas had to fight bloody life and death battles and barely received fair compensation. Taking the hint, I offered to cover lunch where the other three said that I didn’t have to, but if I was going to be so insistent about the whole thing, then they guessed it was fine. I gathered my files and notes and handed them to Dekai to hold for me. Telling the 3 I would meet them at the restaurant, I dispersed my shadow clone.
At the Hatake estates, Sakumo was sitting on his porch while reading a book and listening to some music from the radio. Sipping from a large glass of lemonade, he could hear Amon in the training room; the room itself was pitch black and impossible to see into, but you could hear the creaking of floorboards and the impacts of the punching bag.
While enjoying himself, he heard the pause in Amon's actions and guessed the cause. Grabbing a spare glass of lemonade, he walked over and entered. The light from the doorway barely made a dent in the darkness. Years after retirement,t Sakumo’s eyes were still strong enough to see the outline of Amon’s true form.
“It’s easy to forget what you look like under your bandages, but I guess that’s half the point. How was the meeting?”
“Long, I can feel a headache coming along. An Aburame kid got hurt, difficult to treat the people of his clan. Oh yeah, Kakashi is acting up. Do you want to talk to him, or should I?” I said as I extended a chakra thread to the bandages I had drying outside to come to me and coil around my body.
“You talked to Kakashi?”
“No, but Dekai did, and he suggested I smother him with love and affection. I am thinking about doing it, but I don’t want my face clawed off.”
“Hmm, yes, he gets that from his mother. I personally love being smothered with affection.” Silence fell as Sakumo thought it over. While Sakumo thought about it, Amon released one of his bandages to collect his uniform from the rack and the glass of lemonade from Sakumo’s hand. “I’ll talk with him, invite him over for dinner. I’m sure we can find something to talk about.”
“That’s the spirit; I’m going to lunch. I’ll pick you up some sushi.” Amon said while he finished the lemonade, he performed a self-cleaning jutsu to eliminate the smell of his workout.
“Could you turn the room back to normal? I don’t want to forget and bring something fragile inside.” Sakumo said pointing behind Amon.
“You don’t want to get some exercise in today?”
Sakumo took a lemon slice from the glass and tossed it inside. The moment it passed a threshold, the lemon slice stopped flying and splattered on the floor. The slice didn’t even leave much of a mess, as the droplets didn’t even jump in the air. “I don’t want to be a pancake.”
Amon turned around and flung four bandages into the pitched-black room. A moment later, the room began to light up in both meanings of the word. With the veil of darkness lifted, the room looked like a typical gym with a punching bag in the center. Amon handed Sakumo some pieces of paper, saying, "In case you change your mind." The two left the room, each going their separate ways. Sakumo went back to his porch and sat down. Looking at the parchments Amon had handed him, he scuffed and returned to his book while placing the papers on the table beside him. On them, it read 50XG.