"Winner: Might Guy!"
Namikaze Minato waited a beat, and once it was clear Hatake Kakashi wasn't getting back up, he called it.
At the word, Guy shut the Eight Inner Gates immediately. At his age, opening the Fifth Gate at all was pushing his limits—holding it any length of time was out of the question.
Two medical ninja moved in to treat Kakashi.
Kakashi was somewhat dazed from the beating. The whole thing had flipped in a heartbeat, and he'd been put down in an instant. But he came back to himself quickly.
"Guy." Kakashi spoke up. "We fight again next time."
Losing sat badly, but he lost gracefully. And more to the point, a Guy with the Eight Inner Gates open really was stronger than him.
"It's a promise!" Guy gave him a thumbs-up. "Next time, another showdown of youth!"
Just then, a familiar bellow reached him. He turned to find Might Duy.
"Guy!" Duy, tears streaming down his face, roared it out. "I am proud of your youth!"
"I did it, Dad!" Guy charged over. "This is youth!"
The two of them embraced and wept openly, oblivious to everyone around them.
Once his treatment finished, Kakashi glanced their way and hurried off the field.
Minato couldn't help smiling at it.
But the Chunin Exams weren't over yet—no one had announced which Genin were being promoted.
At which thought, Minato badly wanted to complain. This announcement should have come from the Fourth Hokage, Orochimaru. But Orochimaru hadn't come, and had handed it to Natsuki. The trouble was, Natsuki hadn't come either.
So what now? Push it to tomorrow?
Just then an Anbu ninja appeared.
"Lord Minato." He came up and held out a scroll. "Lord Natsuki asked me to pass this to you."
Minato took it, mildly surprised, and read.
The contents were simple. The first line said he'd watched the whole competition and had already left. The rest was the list of Genin being promoted to Chunin, with instructions for Minato to announce it.
When exactly did he watch? Minato wondered—but let it go.
He stepped forward and read out the list. It included every member of his own squad, Natsuki's, and Nawaki's.
Asuma and the others all smiled at the news. First place had escaped them, but making Chunin meant the goal was met.
—
Meanwhile, at the Uchiha compound.
"So this is your room?" Natsuki looked around.
Several seconds later, he heard Mikoto's answer, unsteady.
He turned and found her leaning against the door, heat radiating off her whole body, her skin dyed pink.
Natsuki chuckled softly and crossed to her bed. A faint, pleasant fragrance hung in the air. He slipped under the covers.
"Come here." He looked at her. "It's just about the right time for a nap."
Mikoto's heart lurched. She lowered her head and came to him. By the time she reached the bed, there was nothing left holding her back at all. She drew a breath and lay down against him.
"How did the Chunin Exams strike you today?" Natsuki reached out, stroking her smooth cheek.
"It—it was very exciting." Mikoto pressed her lips together. "Kakashi and Guy felt like they were already at Jonin level."
"Barely." Natsuki's hand moved down and settled at her chest. "They're still young, after all."
"Mm." Her breath caught around the answer.
"Anything you want to say?" Natsuki asked, smiling.
"S-say what?" She looked at him, eyes misted and lost.
"Does your room leak when it rains?" Natsuki's hands took her by the waist.
"Huh?" Mikoto's whole body went taut, her mouth falling open.
What kind of question was that? Her head was swimming and she had no idea how to answer.
Natsuki raised a brow. He leaned down and kissed her face, then her lips, gently.
"I was just curious." Seeing her come back to herself, he smiled. "Because I think your talent for Water Release is very good."
"I only know Fire Release." Abrupt as the question was, she answered honestly.
"Is that so?" Natsuki patted her hip. "That's because you haven't realized you have a talent for Water Release."
Mikoto blanked. Where exactly did she have any talent for Water Release?
But she couldn't hold onto the question for long.
It wasn't until just before she slipped into her nap that it finally clicked.
In the end, she fell asleep with her face burning. Or perhaps she simply passed out.
—
An hour later, Natsuki opened his eyes. He drew a deep breath, feeling thoroughly restored.
At his strength, he didn't strictly need sleep. But skipping it would mean losing one of the small joys of being human.
Natsuki looked at Mikoto, sleeping soundly. She was far weaker than Yakushi Nonou and Uzumaki Kushina. Nonou had been middling once, but ever since she learned the Yin Seal her strength had shot up. Kushina was born Uzumaki, so her physical constitution was superb to begin with—and the enormous chakra in her body gave her formidable recovery besides. Mikoto simply couldn't match either of them.
She did have one exceptional thing going for her, though: her talent for Water Release was outstanding.
Natsuki surfaced from the thought and reached out. Chakra flowed in, and Mikoto—exhausted—eased.
He kissed her forehead and got out of bed. He dressed and went to the kitchen.
Not long after he left, Mikoto woke. She hadn't been sleepy so much as spent, and once Natsuki cleared away the fatigue, the drowsiness went with it.
She reached out on reflex and found empty air. Her chest tightened, and her eyes flew open.
"He left?" Mikoto felt a small disappointment—then steadied. Natsuki held three positions and had endless demands on his time. Of course he'd be busy.
She got up and gathered the bedsheets, changed her clothes, and left the room—and caught a delicious smell.
Mikoto stood blank for a moment. Then a smile broke across her face. She trotted to the kitchen and found that familiar figure.
"You're up?" Natsuki turned to look at her.
"Mm." Mikoto reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear—and only then noticed it was matted together with sweat.
"Go shower first," Natsuki said, catching the motion. "We'll eat once you're done."
Mikoto nodded quickly. She needed one. She felt uncomfortable inside and out.
—
Half an hour later, the two of them sat across from each other at the table.
"Take the rest of the day off. Come back to work tomorrow," Natsuki said casually.
"I'm fine," Mikoto said, shaking her head.
"Be good." Natsuki raised a hand and pinched her cheek.
Her heart gave a shiver, and she murmured her agreement.
She stole a glance at him, remembered what had happened earlier, and a faint pink rose in her cheeks.
"What is it?" Natsuki withdrew his hand and picked up his chopsticks.
"Um... why is the food you cook so good?" Mikoto found a question quickly—though she genuinely wanted the answer. As a traditional kunoichi with her sights set on being a good wife and mother, her own cooking was very good. And Natsuki's was so far beyond hers that she couldn't make sense of it. It left her feeling thoroughly outdone.
"That's a hard one to answer." Natsuki coughed lightly. "Practice makes perfect."
Mikoto didn't doubt him. She bit her lip. Clearly she needed to put more hours in.
"Here—a taijutsu scroll for you." A thought struck Natsuki, and he produced one. "The Konoha Six Powers are inside. My own creation."
"Thank you." Mikoto hesitated, but didn't refuse. Getting stronger would only make her more useful to him.
The Konoha Six Powers were already famous among Konoha's ninja, and after this Chunin Exam their reputation would climb higher still. Anyone with eyes could see that Kakashi and the others' performance was inseparable from them. Shizune and Nohara Rin especially—medical ninja, both.
"If you have questions, come find me," Natsuki said with a smile.
He hadn't taught Mikoto before because their relationship hadn't gotten there. Now that they knew each other inside and out, of course he'd help her get stronger.
Natsuki's gaze settled on her eyes. The fastest way for an Uchiha to gain strength was, naturally, awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan. But awakening it clearly wasn't so simple. It took intense emotional shock—and extreme talent besides. Otherwise Mikoto should have had it by now; she'd taken no shortage of shocks, and not only emotional ones.
The only explanation was that she lacked the talent for it.
Then again, maybe not. Natsuki thought of the Aizen template's Hogyoku again. It let the user evolve, trading talent up toward the optimal outcome. In theory it could give Mikoto the Mangekyou Sharingan too.
But that was a problem for later. For now, the Konoha Six Powers would do. Later she could learn the Art of Weather—paired with the Sorcery Clima-Tact, that would make her an Elite Jonin in her own right.
—
After lunch, Natsuki went to the Hokage building.
"Lord Natsuki." An Anbu ninja spotted him and came over to greet him—the same one he'd sent to Namikaze Minato.
At the time, Mikoto had been running a high fever. Natsuki had to treat her and had no time to show his face, so he'd simply thrown the list down with perfect precision to the Anbu below. An Anbu squad had been quietly handling security throughout the Exams; his high-altitude toss landed directly in front of them. After that, he'd taken Mikoto home.
"The ninja who passed the Chunin Exams completed their paperwork half an hour ago," the Anbu said with a slight bow.
Natsuki nodded and walked into his office. He sat down and started the day's work—the Exams had eaten his morning, so he hadn't come in at all.
He picked up the first document and raised a brow.
The war between the Hidden Cloud and the Hidden Mist had escalated further. Both sides had committed another thousand ninja apiece. The archipelago between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Water had turned into a battlefield end to end.
Natsuki reckoned it wouldn't be long before the Third Mizukage and the Third Raikage took the field themselves. The Raikage especially—every Raikage in history led from the front. In the source material, the Third Raikage had fought ten thousand Hidden Stone ninja single-handedly, and finally died of sheer exhaustion.
The other Kage weren't so reckless. Under normal circumstances they'd only step onto a battlefield at the most critical moment. Sarutobi Hiruzen, for one, never took the field during the Third Great Ninja War. Frankly, had he done so, the weight on Namikaze Minato's shoulders wouldn't have been half so crushing. Of course, without that weight there'd have been no legend of the man putting out fires across every front—and no Fourth Hokage to speak of.
Natsuki picked up the second document, and his eyes narrowed.
This one concerned the Hidden Stone. They'd been stockpiling war supplies, and had recently stopped. On its own, that wouldn't merit much attention. But the Hidden Stone had also reinforced patrols along the Land of Earth's southern border—and south of the Land of Earth lay the Land of Birds, which bordered the Land of Wind.
The Hidden Stone almost certainly had designs on the Hidden Sand.
Natsuki could follow the logic. The Hidden Sand had just changed Kazekage, with Pakura taking the seat. But the Third Kazekage vanishing without explanation was a humiliation for the village—and with the other villages to be kept in the dark, the Sand had publicly announced that the Third had retired early.
It was a stopgap, though. The other villages weren't fools; they'd send people to dig into it. Natsuki's guess was that the moment the Hidden Stone pinned down what had actually happened to the Third Kazekage, they'd move on the Sand.
In the source material, the Hidden Stone's ambitions in the Third Great Ninja War rivaled the Hidden Cloud's. They went to war with the Hidden Sand, then Konoha, then the Hidden Cloud in turn—only the Hidden Mist escaped, purely on distance.
Two plot points involved them. One was the aforementioned ten-thousand-ninja battle against the Third Raikage. The other was the surprise strike on Konoha that produced the Battle of Kannabi Bridge.
Kannabi Bridge needs no explanation—it was the hinge the whole story turned on. Uchiha Obito was gravely wounded and presumed dead, was pulled out by Uchiha Madara, and ultimately turned. Hatake Kakashi received one of his Sharingan and became the famed Copy Ninja.
Natsuki stroked his chin.
In the source material, the Hidden Stone, Konoha, and the Hidden Sand had fought a chaotic three-way war in the Land of Rain. He could not let that happen now.
Perhaps he could move first and set the terms—have the Hidden Sand strike proactively and fix the battlefield in the Land of Birds, or in the neighboring Land of Bears. That would keep the Land of Rain out of it entirely.
The Hidden Stone would certainly stay wary of the Land of Rain—or rather, of Konoha standing behind it. But so long as Konoha didn't attack the Hidden Stone directly, the fighting could be kept out of the Rain.
The trouble was that the Hidden Sand couldn't beat the Hidden Stone on its own. And Konoha's geography meant it could never sit out a Great Ninja War in peace. Don't attack the other villages, and the other villages attack you.
Fortunately, with Pakura in the Kazekage's seat, the Hidden Sand wouldn't be turning on Konoha this time.
At that thought, Natsuki opened an Air Door and stepped into the Kazekage's office in the Hidden Sand.
Pakura looked up from her work.
"Have you seen the intelligence on the Hidden Stone?" Natsuki asked, opening with it.
"I have. It's not unexpected," Pakura said evenly.
"The Sand needs to plan for it early." Natsuki paused. "Strike first. Open the war with the Hidden Stone in the Land of Birds."
"To keep the Land of Rain out of it?" Pakura caught it immediately and nodded. "I can move people into the Land of Birds ahead of time."
Once the Sand moved, the Hidden Stone would follow. The battlefield would settle in the Land of Birds on its own.
"How are things on your end?" Natsuki asked, looking at her.
"Fine." Pakura answered plainly. "Though Rasa and Reki aren't falling in line. I'll deal with them before I take on the Hidden Stone."
"Tell me if you need help." Natsuki nodded.
"I know." Pakura smiled. "I won't stand on ceremony."
"Then I'll go. See you next time."
Natsuki turned and stepped into the Air Door. He'd just eaten and wasn't in any hurry—and it was working hours besides, so he'd leave Pakura to it for now.
—
Time reached June.
With the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Sand both in motion, the ninja world grew steadily more restless. Of the Five Great Villages, only Konoha had yet to be pulled in.
Somewhere underground.
Uchiha Madara opened his eyes.
White Zetsu appeared before him and immediately laid out every major development in the ninja world.
"So the Third Great Ninja War is nearly at full boil." Madara nodded, then asked, "And the investigation into the Uchiha clan?"
"The results, here." White Zetsu handed over a scroll at once.
Madara opened it and read.
The investigation, so called, was a search for an Uchiha suited to serve as his proxy. The scroll held profiles of the clan's young ninja—young, because the young were easier to control.
Madara skimmed. There were a fair number of names. Some obscure. Some quite well known—Clan Head Uchiha Fugaku, Hokage Secretary Uchiha Mikoto, the new-generation prodigy Uchiha Obito.
He ruled out Fugaku quickly. Too old, for one. And as Clan Head, too conspicuous—his movements would draw Konoha's eyes at once.
The same went for Mikoto. A Hokage Secretary, sitting close to Konoha's leadership.
In the end, Madara's attention narrowed to Uchiha Obito.
Reading about that sunny, hot-blooded personality, something stirred in him. The boy hardly seemed like an Uchiha at all. What Uchiha runs around helping old women across the street?
But that sort of temperament usually meant enormous emotional swings. If Obito had the talent for it, awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan would come easily.
And since he was to be the proxy, weakness wouldn't do. Too weak, and he'd never carry out the Eye of the Moon Plan.
"Go and watch Uchiha Obito," Madara said.
"Yes, Lord Madara." White Zetsu sank into the earth and was gone.
Madara sat with his thoughts. As things stood, contacting Obito now would be premature. He'd wait until Konoha was drawn into the war before making his approach.
Then his mind turned to Nagato. Changes were needed on that front too.
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