The next day at the team meet up, Anko announced that they had a mission. The unusually early meeting had caught Ryoshi by surprise as he was planning to use the morning to test his eyes. Turns out he still would get that practice, since the mission was to find the pet of Daimyo's wife, Tora. Ryoshi was excited to earn his first paycheck even if it was just some pocket change. He was also excited to complete the mission fast and use the rest of his day training. So the youth set out to capture a brown cat with a red ribbon. The cat turned out to be too elusive for the veteran soldier and his cadre of three young kunoichi. Especially since their teacher played the part of a villainess. The boy had grown certain that the cat was no ordinary pet. Its speed and awareness had taught him that. Multiple times throughout the day, they had cornered the cat only for a single kunai or shuriken to fly on their path to victory and make an escape path for the cat. Only for the young ones to hear some bullshit.

“Expect the unexpected.” or “Always be prepared for everything.” Anko said, barely keeping a straight face and falling into hysterical laughter afterwards, when everyone just scowled and glared at her and set out to chase the cat again. Ryoshi of course found it amusing at first. Then he realised they had been doing this shit for nearly the whole day and he had enough.

“Okay, new plan.” He said to the girls.

“Ino, you approach Tora slowly on your own try to be non threatening, he seems to like you. Yui and Akari will stay far away but still in an encirclement, we don’t want it to feel cornered but be ready to capture in case it decides to run. I will run interference against Anko-sensei.” He left no room for arguments and everyone set out to their tasks.

A kunai flew towards the cat, atleast near enough to scare it. Ryoshi dashed in the way trying to catch it, since a metal clash could still scare the cat and he watched as Ino slowly approached the cat. Thankfully Anko hadn’t been throwing these seriously, as there would be no way for him to intercept them otherwise. Now he stood in front of Anko and kept an eye on Ino as well with his Byakugan, not a difficult task. Anko jumped up and launched another kunai towards the cat, keeping out of Ryoshi’s reach. Anticipating the trick he had jumped at the same time as Anko and managed to intercept another projectile. A snake slithered past where he had jumped from, he would have missed the creature if they weren’t fighting in the bright red roof tiles of Konoha and he didn’t have Byakugan. That first day training of the obstacle course was coming in handy as he managed to nail the snake with the kunai he had caught still in mid air. It disappeared in a puff but Anko closed the few metre gap between them as he landed and shot an arm towards his face. Expecting a blow he raised his in block, trying to intercept the punch at the forearm. Only for it to snake through his guard and past his face as well. Latching onto his shoulder and pulling him down hard, face first towards the rooftop. With her other arm she tossed another kunai to scare the cat. The Byakugan coming in clutch once again, he saw this manoeuvre and kicked with his heel towards the kunai flying past him as he fell towards the ground he managed to intercept it and send it flying into the distance. Even if it wasn’t a full recovery he managed to brace as he fell, so he didn’t hit the tiles with his face. He could still see his sensei reaching for another kunai. Finding no quicker way he placed his hand on Anko’s feet and kicked his own, launching his feet in a kick towards her throwing arm, not a devastating blow for sure but enough contact to misdirect the projectile in her hand. The momentum made his feet continue towards Anko and tugged his body along in a collision course with his sensei. She couldn’t step away as he was holding onto her feet but she managed to lean sideways and push him, adding more momentum to his movement and making Ryoshi fly past her as he lost his grip on her feet. It was fine however, as he watched Ino pick up the cat safely in her arms in the alleyway next to the opposite building. Mission successful.

“Huh. Isn’t that eye something? You did well to buy them time. Congrats.” Anko congratulated Ryoshi as she sheathed the kunai she was about to throw.

“In this fight alone it saved your ass three times.” Anko said.

“Yes it is incredible.” Ryoshi confirmed.

The team returned to the Hokage tower to report and hand in the demonic cat. Thankfully Akari had learned enough medical jutsu to heal all the scratches they had collected throughout the day, but she was spent. After the long day, the team separated to go home, on his way Ryoshi bought some dango for his sister to celebrate his first mission. In the privacy of his own home, he had managed to find some time to at least compare the Doujutsu he had. His Sharingan being the eye of hypnotism didn’t actually offer any benefit to his vision, meaning he would need to know about Genjutsu to make use of it. A question remained in his head though. As far as he could remember from his days on earth, in the shinobi world, the Byakugan allowed its holder to see if an enemy was using Genjutsu and if someone was under Genjutsu but unlike the Sharingan it didn’t provide additional defence against it. So the question was since he only had the hypnotism eye would he get the defence or not. He was not sure which eye the defence ability related to, so he didn’t know if he had it or not. He could already foresee his mischievous sensei messing with him when asked for Genjutsu training at some point. Thanks to his status as a Jinchuuriki he could squeeze in extra training even on days like today. The next few weeks passed much the same way as the last two days. Team 1 one would meet everyday, and either train chakra control in some way or spar to improve general combat capabilities or do a mission. The missions consisted of D rank menial stuff. They had chased the damn cat a few more times, or did labour like weeding, fence and roof fixing. Generally improve the team cohesion, while Anko acted the role of villainess and kept making the missions much more difficult than necessary. Ryoshi had taken Ino to meet with Yuki, the perverted woman that had helped him with ID and healing. She was very displeased about another person being in her cuddle time with ‘Ryochi’. But having no other option she had accepted. Ryoshi kept visiting Fuu, even though he forgot the first time on the day of the first mission he did. Tsunade was also very displeased with him and threatened to tie him down next to Fuu if he forgot again.

On one of his visits something strange occurred. Tsunade had not accompanied the duo this time due to other responsibilities. The man was calm as he looked around and tried to gesture with his eyes, towards the muzzle around his mouth. Something the boy had not paid much attention to, it was some kind of medical contraption to bind the mouth of a ninja to stop them from biting their own tongue or something he guessed. The boy just looked as he considered removing it. Worst option was deception and the man would start screaming or bite his tongue and attempt to kill himself. Would be bad news perhaps, but on the bright side he wouldn’t have to visit the hospital everyday anymore.

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“I think he wants to say something and is asking us to remove the muzzle.” Ino said after observing the man.

“Yeah, I guess. But what if he starts screaming again or worse kills himself somehow?” Contemplated Ryoshi. The man hearing this moved his eyes left to right to left repeatedly, indicating no.

“Fine. Stay still.” Ryoshi said as he undid the clasps around the muzzle and pulled it free from the man's face. The man showed his tongue with a curse seal on it. Three solid lines and two broken ones. Danzo’s curse seal to keep his subjects quiet about him. Noted the boy as he remembered it from the show.

“Thanks, master!” He said and the surprised Ryoshi and Ino shared a look.

“You must know!” He exclaimed. “Are you the one that escaped three and a half months ago?” Fuu asked, diving straight in. Ryoshi narrowed his eyes as he considered killing the man. That date was the day he had come into this world, the day the kid had died. His voice turned ice cold as he answered.

“If I am?” Ryoshi asked. Ino stood shocked by the conversation.

“It was him.” Fuu said, as he once again opened his mouth to show his tongue. “I can help with revenge or anything, master. Just command me!” Fuu said, with a mad look in his eye as he said ‘master’.

“Why do you call me master and why would you help me?” Asked Ryoshi surprised at the man's fervour.

“I have been in your head, master. I have seen the truth! I have witnessed its greatness! I now know, there can be no greater cause to give my life to! You have given me purpose!” Fuu explained with great fanaticism. At this moment Ryoshi felt pressure in his mind and heard the mad cackling of an otherworldly creature living inside his head, the slimy voice echoed throughout his whole being and made him uncomfortable.

“Fuck!” Ryoshi groaned because of the discomfort, Ino showed terror on her face as she realised perhaps felt as well, what Fuu was talking about.

“Fine. I could use a double agent. Fuu, I will tell Lady Tsunade that you suddenly got better. You will clear whatever tests they do to release you. After that you will go back and infiltrate whatever organisation that is. This will be a long term mission, so not blowing your cover is your number one priority. If you can get me information without risking yourself, you will do so. Understood?” Ryoshi commanded, one of the few times he had behaved like his old self.

“Your will be done, master!” He answered with joy.

“Can you hide ‘its’ influence, it is easy to spot?” Ryoshi stated.

“Of course master!” Fuu answered back. Then Ryoshi turned to Ino and seeing her terrified face pulled the girl into a comforting embrace.

“It’s fine, you are safe.” Ryoshi softly comforted the girl. The girl’s grip around the boy tightened. They went and got Tsunade and shortly after were shooed away from the hospital. Now that he gained another hour in his day to train, his progress improved even if only a little. He figured there was a correlation between his chakra control and sand manipulation.

Ryoshi used more time to train his chakra control over sand manipulation. Sometimes Sakura and Hinata would show up, for girl time and train more way of the intercepting fist with Ryoshi. One day Anko told team 1 that they had a long term mission, the first C rank they got.

“Listen up, pipsqueaks! We got our first rank C mission!” She almost yelled. “It’s gonna be a long one. One month to be precise. We are going to the land of waves on border patrol. Usually border patrol would be more important, but we don’t expect any kind of trouble so Hokage himself decided it would be a good learning opportunity for the younger generation to see what it is like. It’s a day’s journey and we are setting out first thing in the morning, so you will have the rest of the day off, to pack and resupply. That is exactly what Ryoshi did. Eventually finding himself in Tenten’s weapon shop. Not that they had talked before but they knew each other's faces at least. She was leaning over the counter, lying down too tired to stand.

“Hey, Tenten right?” Ryoshi asked politely. She slowly turned her head towards him.

“Yes. You are… oh I remember, Ryoshi-kun. Oh please tell me I am not the only one suffering! How is your new sensei? Mine is crazy! It’s nonstop training.” She burst into conversation. Ino side eyed Ryoshi as he indulged the girl a little.

“Oh, yes. First day we met for training, she poisoned my whole team. Not only that, she has been doing it everyday, under the guise of getting a better metabolism to resist poison users in the future. This is Ino by the way, my teammate.” Ryoshi said as he pointed at Ino. Tenten paused thinking.

“What? I remember yours was the first team with Yui and Akari. What happened there?” Tenten asked.

“Well, I graduated early under special circumstances and am assigned as a fourth member to team 1.” Ino explained. The two girls being chatty started talking about various girly things, as Ryoshi was mostly ignored and at some point he had to interject.

“Alright. Tenten, sorry to interrupt, but I got here to get some supplies as we are leaving for a month-long mission tomorrow.”

“Ahah, of course. Sorry I got a bit excited to meet a fellow kunoichi, being the only girl in the team is exhausting. What do you need?” Tenten asked.

“I was hoping to practice some sealing, since we might have some downtime during the mission. You got any ink and paper for such things?” Asked Ryoshi.

“Of course.” Tenten said as she pulled a pack of the stuff. There was a bit more shopping after that, some ninja wire, more shuriken and kunai for Ino and himself and a few real explosive tags. He wasn’t familiar with smoke bombs or poison gas bombs, so he didn’t get any of that but a few flashes might come in handy so he got a few of those as well.

“I can sort of relate, I am the only boy in my team.” Ryoshi commented off handedly and he realised it was an error in judgement as both girls glared at him.

“What do you mean!?” Both girls exclaimed at the same time. “We girls are awesome!” said Ino. “Yeah, you should be grateful you get to be in the team you are.” added Tenten.

“Ah, yes. Of course, my mistake. Sorry, sorry.” Ryoshi apologised and they had a good natured laugh about it at his expense.

“Any chance for a classmate discount?” Asked Ryoshi.

“Maybe. What else you got?” Tenten said.

“I can try convincing Anko sensei to have a joint session with your team, after we come back of course.” Ryoshi offered.

“Deal!” She said. So they parted on a promise to meet again. Ryoshi and Ino trained when they got home and helped Shinry as well.

“Listen Shinry. We got a long mission and we are leaving tomorrow.” Ryoshi started saying.

“So sudden.” She said sadly.

“Yes, sorry. This kind of thing just happens I guess. I wanted to tell you to be careful. If anything happens, run to auntie Yuki or even Ino’s house. You will be safe there. I am sure nothing will happen, but just in case keep that in mind. Also don’t slack off, because I am not here.” Ryoshi said softly.

“I never slack off!” She yelled angrily. It was cute of course, how much anger can a tiny girl display. Ryoshi just pulled her into a hug and she gave in.