Welcome back to the Smoke and Mirrors AU.

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In front of Hattori Yanmaru stood ten children. Five girls, and five boys, who all looked to be around age five. Above each was a small blue panel, just like he’d seen before. And after reading each one, they disappeared just like the rest.

Asahiro (A-Rank Potential)

Sasori (A-Rank Potential)

Seigo (B-Rank Potential)

Mitaro (B-Rank Potential)

Yuta (S-Rank Potential)

Hanae (C-Rank Potential)

Amanai (B-Rank Potential)

Izumi (B-Rank Potential)

Mei (S-Rank Potential)

Yuki (S-Rank Potential)

Their name, and a rating of their potential. Not that Hattori really understood what the letters meant, of course, but he could guess. A-Rank, and B-Rank, seemed about average. C-Rank was much rarer than S-Rank, so it was likely that C-Rank potential was the best…

Shrugging that off, he focused on the fact that there were 10 people in front of him. They all had the hallmark of the Yanmaru clan. Black sclera, solid, single colour iris’ with no pupils, and wild black hair.

“Uhm. Hello. I’m Hattori Yanmaru.” After Hattori introduced himself, the children looked at eachother strangely, but decided to introduce themselves as well.

“So, I’m supposed to train you. Right? That’s what the thing said.” The children gave each other strange looks, again, before Yuta answered.

“Clan Head. We will be the future Shinobi of the Yanmaru Clan. Yes, please make us stronger.” With that, the children got up from their kneeling position and bowed deeply. Hattori had a weird look on his face. However, faced with a group of ten children who all wanted to grow stronger – he couldn’t say no.

He didn’t want to. They said they would serve the Yanmaru Clan; and he was apparently the Clan Head. The Samurai from years ago had been right. Might makes right in this world. So he would just become the strongest of them all, and his clan would come with him.

Within minutes of talking and walking with the children, Hattori noticed that none of them were fit at all. None of them had exercised or trained with Bukijutsu tools, or a tanto-blade. None of them had the Bochigan unlocked either.

With a frown, he told them to go into the large cabin and make it their home. The spirits of his parents’ would accept that, he knew. They always wanted to protect him as a child, to carry on the Yanmaru legacy. He hadn’t entered that cabin since they died. With a smile, he watched as ten energetic children opened the door, and entered.

When the door shut, Hattori turned around. The entire region around his house was covered by trees; for eleven people, there just wasn’t enough space Or… maybe… He rounded up the kids, and brought them to Bukai as he went shopping.

Several people stopped him to ask about them, but he merely just answered that his family had reconnected. In Bukai, he bought an axe and some basic wood carving tools.

Around three days had passed since the ten new Yamnaru clan members arrived. Hattori spent several weeks after they’d gotten back from Bukai chopping down several specific trees, creating a slightly more open environment for the children to train and play in. With the wood from the trees, he carved obstacles, targets, wooden Kunai and Shuriken, as well as ten wooden Bokken for the children to use to train their Kenjutsu.

In Bukai as well, Hattori had bought some heavy steel-rods and ankle, wrist, and waist bands modified to carry them so he could begin weight training. The kids, on the other hand, had finally begun physical conditioning now that they had the space to.

The daily training regiment was around four hours of physical training, three hours of Kenjutsu and Taijutsu sparring, and then around an hour of Bukijutsu practice for the children. With years of practice and instincts honed by the Bochigan, Hattori was able to adjust the Kenjutsu and Taijutsu stance of the children. The ones who advanced the fastest, surprisingly, were those who had been labeled as S-Rank potential.

Hattori had thought they would be the slowest to advance, but it had been the opposite. S-Rank, then A-Rank, then B-Rank, then C-Rank.

The speed that Yuta, Yuki, and Mei advanced was incredible. It was almost as fast as Hattori’s, and that was without access to the Bochigan. Several months passed before he adjusted the training schedule. There was more grueling physical training for the kids, about the same level of exercise he had been doing a few years ago.

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He moved them onto more Kenjutsu training, now totalling four hours of both physical training and Kenjutsu training each, with two hours of Taijutsu practice, and another two hours of Bukijutsu. The entire day was spent training, with little time for rest. It was the same schedule that Hattori himself was on.

Those who had been listed as B-Rank potential, and C-Rank potential struggled to keep up. Hanae in particular was having massive difficulties. With a frown, he adjusted her schedule specifically. Those with B-Rank potential, he slightly lowered the amount of training they did as well, but still far more than Hanae.

It was over the next year that he perfected the routine of training for each individual. He, Yuta, Yuki, and Mei spent the entire day training, sparring, and practicing; each of them by this point wore weights, although Hattori was still far ahead in terms of that.

The kids were still too young to have heavy weights like he used. By now, Hattori was fourteen, and the kids were all six.

Several months passed idly, before Hattori noticed something unusual in the distance with his Bochigan. He looked at the children, spread out a dozen meters in each direction from the house, and shouted.

“Potential threat incoming, south-south-east. Hide in the house. I will deal with it.” With that command, the children all scrambled to get into the house, and Hattori turned to look at the rapidly approaching white outline. It was around two-hundred meters away, and would arrive in about seven seconds. Whoever it was, was moving just about as fast as he could.

Thirty meters a second. With a scoff, Hattori raced forward through the trees. He saw the person coming far before they saw him.

The boy was about his age, a black bandana tied around his head with a Clan symbol sewn into it. He wore a standard black cloth outfit and sandals, and stopped suddenly as he finally noticed Hattori.

The two were only ten meters apart. The brunette spoke first.

“Who are you?” His voice was much deeper than Hattori’s own. It grated on his nerves slightly.

“Hattori Yanmaru. Who are you?” He watched the clan kid’s nose scrunch up.

“I’ve never heard of that family name. I’m Tako Shinja.” It was my turn to look confused.

“Shinja? Like, next to Bukai?” The clan kid nodded.

“Yeah, you been?”

“Yeah. Do you know Katakuri?”

“The Nishimura reject?” I frowned, tossing a wooden Kunai I kept in my thigh pocket at the boy half heartedly. It bonked off his forehead and he cursed. “What the hell man?”

“Don’t call him that. He’s a good man, and a better blacksmith. So what if he got kicked out of the Nishimura? A lot of people do.” The Shinja looked down at the wooden Kunai and his face paled.

“Hey, hey… you know you could’ve killed me if that was a real one right? Why’d you do that?”

“It wasn’t a real one, and I don’t want to kill you.”

“That’s still dangerous!”

“No it’s not.”

“Whatever. Fine. Yeah, I know Katakuri. Our clan buys ninja tools from him.”

“Oh yeah? Mine does too.”

“You’re part of a clan? Are you sure? I’ve never heard of the Yanmaru.”

“I’m not surprised. We only have eleven members.”

“Who’s the Clan Head?”

“I am.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I grunted, watching him sputter.

“Nothing! Nothing, just surprised. You’re my age.”

“Yeah. My parents died.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Anyways, you can’t come any farther.” Hattori pointed behind himself. “That’s my clan compound. If you try, I’ll have to fight you.”

“Clan Compounds are supposed to be a secret, man. I know you’re like, new to being Clan Head or whatever, but you shouldn’t tell people that.”

“Oh. Really?” Hattori asked, stupefied. “How does that make sense? Won’t people find it if you don’t tell them to go away?”

Tako took a second to look stupefied as well. “Well, maybe. But telling them not to go somewhere makes people want to go there and check it out. And also you said it was your Clan Compound.”

Hattori frowned. “Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Do I have to kill you now?”

“What!?” Tako shouted. “No! No, man, I won’t tell anyone. Promise. Or, hey, what if our clans became friends? That’d be pretty cool.”

“I guess. It’s like, a three hour run from Bukai to here, though. Is your compound farther?”

“Yeah. It’s like, six hours from here. Ah, shit, probably shouldn’t have said that. Whatever.”

“It’s fine. Well, anyway, why are you running this way?” Hattori was curious; a six hour run, and he was still going. Why?

“Oh yeah, I’m being sent as an envoy to the Senju, and the Nara who’re further up north.”

“Those are other Clans?”

“Do you seriously not know?”

“..No.” Hattori watched Tako sigh, and reach into his pockets. The Yanmaru gripped his sword’s handle, his other hand reaching into his thigh pocket for a real kunai. He relaxed slightly as Tako brought out a rolled up scroll.

“This is a map of the lower peninsula in the Land of Fire, and some of the Land of Water’s islands. It has a bunch of Clan territories vaguely marked out.” The Shinja tossed the map over, raising his hands in a gesture of peace.

At this point, Tako finally looked into Hattori’s eyes and ooh’d. “Woah man, you got some freaky eyes. That a Dojutsu?” Hattori nodded, letting the stream of Chakra powering his Bochigan fade. His iris returned to its normal shade of purple, rather than its dark, glowing red.

“Pretty cool, man. Looks kinda like the Sharingan. But like, not. You got black eyes with a glowy red pupil. Kinda similar, I think. I’ve heard the Sharingan is black and red too.”

“A red iris, not a pupil. The Yanmaru don’t have pupils.” Hattori corrected. The other boy just shrugged and muttered some vague ‘close enough’.

“Well, listen man, I have to keep going. I’m already a bit behind schedule since I stopped by Bukai. Can I go? I have to warn you, if you chase me I can run pretty fast.”

“You’re still a bit slower than me. But no, go ahead. Just do not approach the Yanmaru gravesite or our houses.”

The other boy nodded seriously, and dashed left to avoid the vague region Hattori had pointed at before. Just to be sure, he’d activated his Bochigan and watched Tako leave the territory completely, his outline flickering out once he’d gone around two hundred meters away. With a sigh, Hattori went back to his house to tell the kids it was alright.

And like that, besides a brief encounter with another Samurai patrol and Tako on his way back, two more years passed by quickly.

Hattori was now sixteen, and all of the children were eight. It was then that he received the last functions of the Founder’s System.