Chapter 24: Academy’s End

And so it came to be that while I whiled away my time at the Academy, Whirlpool and the Land of Fire fought a war of conquest in Water Country. For the most part, it did not impact me. Tou-san, who had consented to become my first vassal (and how weird was that), had command of the efforts on one of the smaller islands with heavy ore deposits. The island also included a nice, protected harbor with a small town. I selected it, and much of the surroundings, as my fief; Tou-san ensured that the area was pacified with minimum damage to the civilians and infrastructure.

The war progressed very quickly, especially initially. A leaflet campaign promising quarter and safety for those that swore fealty to Whirlpool or were ninja willing to transfer allegiance to either Whirlpool or Konoha proved quite effective. After their Mizukage was located by a Konohagakure recon team and killed in an air-strike, the Mist ninja were about evenly split between those that changed sides, those that stayed out of it, and those that fought a semi-futile guerrilla campaign.

The main military battles went even better. Blocks of militia and infantry armed with spears and bows were no match for our aerial assaults or units of Uzushio Guards deployed with Cyclone-gun systems. The DEWS became quite widespread within Uzushio's forces, and was apparently highly feared as the “invisible fire”. I laughed a bit at that.

So, while there was resistance, and tensions were high, for the most part things were shaping out as a massive success. The Fire Daimyo's troops and Konoha forces could and were drawn down a bit. The biggest problems actually came from a coalition of pirates and pirate-ninja whom Kirigakure had allowed to operate with semi-impunity. The reason why? Because the pirates would attack shipping, which would then be forced to deal with Kirigakure for protection and retaliation. Kirigakure could get a mission to wipe out a pirate village, warn them to move, then burn an empty village to the ground for a hefty price.

Whirlpool, who was on the other side of the pirate/merchant equation were not so generous towards the scum. In the greatest single failure of Uzushio troops in the war, they executed an ingenious trap for an escort frigate, and would have captured it if the captain had not activated the self-destruct. Following that there was a concentrated effort to wipe the pirates out, burning out half a dozen of their villages in a simultaneous assault and crucifying many of the captives.

I gave advice remotely as well as providing some larger seal-works. I had advised a focus on psy-ops and getting the population to turn in our favor. I also used a large portion of my wealth from sealing and elevated position to recruit skilled workers from other locations who were willing to swear fealty and migrate into our zone of administration. More militarily, we recruited heavily out of the better ronin samurai and ninja, and offered top-quality seal-enhanced gear that I prepared as rewards for service. Tou-san earned a land-grant and more minor title, as did many of his lieutenants and our new vassals, most of whom had sworn to Tou-san as my stand-in until I could arrive.

Ojii-sama did in fact send me more retainers. This time he sent me five; Sachiko's Aunt and Uncle, as well as their three kids. Of their kids, all were boys. Two were older, eighteen and sixteen respectively. The eighteen-year-old had a good level of ninja training, and was well suited for the mix of forest-fighting and amphibious combat that Tou-san was participating in; I sent him to be Tou-san's assistant and receive more training in jutsu and sword fighting. The sixteen-year-old was qualified as an Adept sealer; I was tempted to keep him, but decided that I needed someone I could have run errands in Uzushiogakure. Plus, I had no real idea as to how to train him, so I got Hikaru jii-san to agree to take that task on in return for the boy’s assistance.

That left me with the youngest, a twelve-year-old boy called Hisakawa Yasu. He was trained as a chakra-sensor and tracker, and filled out his skills with stealth and close-quarters combat. I decided to take him for myself, and have him as the third member of our eventual squad. As for Auntie and Uncle, as I came to call them, the Consulate needed more staff with the war on and the closer relationship between our countries, and I needed more trustworthy backup. They were also both highly skilled in the stealthy and subtle techniques that I had never learned, and backed up the Academy's instruction in things like genjutsu and poisons with afterhours tutoring. It also did wonders for my homesickness to have people who were from Uzushiogakure, and I loved hearing stories about a grandfather who had always seemed so restrained and distant.

Other than as I've described though, and my occasional ceremonial presence at a war memorial or the funeral of a particularly important person, the war didn't really effect me.

Though I should mention that there was one funeral I was glad to attend: Danzo's. Apparently, he had been in-country trying to get a Water-country clan that had mostly steered clear of the fighting to defect to Konoha. They demanded a senior figure to negotiate with, and I guess that their bloodline was one Danzo wanted. He was in the compound when the local Whirlpool area commander ordered an aerial razing, and Danzo died in a tragic friendly fire incident. His body was found half-crushed by fallen stone, and had some fairly heavy burns over his torso. He died a few minutes after the inspection team checked the area over to confirm the strike's effectiveness.

I have no idea what level of involvement we may or may not have had; hell, elements within Konohagakure could have arranged it (the man had enough enemies, after all), or, for all I knew, it was a legitimate accident (which would be hilarious). I suspected, actually, that the strike was ordered by someone trying to get more of the ninja clans to join Whirlpool; it was a kind of “if you don't join, and soon, you never know what kind of accident there might be.”

I almost couldn't go to the funeral because I couldn't stop smiling at the news, but managed to put up with it to look at the corpse myself. After all, I wanted to make sure the fucker was dead.

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For the most part though, while I was at the Academy I raised my secondary skills to at least acceptable levels. They didn't need to be the focus of my combat style, but I refused to have any glaring weaknesses.

A big part of not having weaknesses was genjutsu training. For a long time, I had basically depended on my innate resistance to genjutsu due to my prodigious chakra and constant high-level internal chakra flow techniques. The problem was, other than that, I had no defenses. So, I took the entire genjutsu course through the academy. Introduction to Illusions, Advanced Illusion Resistance, Advanced Illusion Detection and Dispelling, Advanced Genjutsu Techniques and Special Focus- Genjutsu.

It turned out that I had certain advantages and disadvantages, namely a large supply of ridiculously dense spiritual chakra. As an advantage, once I learned the actual techniques to preventing illusions from taking hold, and how to notice and dispel any that did, I became notoriously resistant to genjutsu. The instructor brought in a pair of specialists at the end to show us how far we had to go, one of the villages best from each of the Uchiha and the Kurama clans. I ended up resisting even a direct eye-to-eye with the Sharingan, so I was pretty stoked. It became something of a challenge for these specialists to test their genjutsu on me, and every few weeks we'd get together and they'd test their techniques.

As for casting genjutsu myself, well, the results were mixed. I was actually quite good at putting people into genjutsu, but mine tended to hit with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer rather than the gentle backdoor entry into the mind that it should have been. Because of the density and volume of my spiritual chakra, unless I took a long time to dilute it (by which point my standard control was pretty shaky since it was so comparatively unfamiliar to me) then whenever I injected my chakra into someone to hack their senses it turned out more like a carjacking.

Sure, I might have them, but only a small part of genjutsu are for direct combat. They're much more useful for stealth or subtle mental manipulation. Whenever I tried to use those techniques it was like being an invisible man with a huge blinking neon sign saying “Invisible Man Here! Right Here!!” pointing at me. Not exactly subtle.

On the other hand, if you needed to terrify an enemy force, I was your man. After the whole “Presence of Death” incident had made the rounds, my instructor thought it might be best if I practiced on a criminal rather than another student. This proved to be a good move. I used the basic “Hell Viewing” technique, and tried not to overcharge it too much. The prisoner, a low ranking foreign missing nin up to criminal shit in the Land of Fire, screamed for three hours under a genjutsu that normally fell apart after at most a half hour.

Eventually, one of the guards accompanying us tried to dispel the illusion, but couldn't. A few other people tried with similar effects. Then I tried, and couldn't dispel my own illusion. It turned out that I had effectively poisoned his chakra, and I couldn't manage to filter out all of mine and allow his to restore itself.

The prisoner was put out of his misery, and I was advised not to use genjutsu on allies, ever. It was a bit disheartening to be honest; our seduction and counter-seduction instructor had taught us about a genjutsu you could use during sex to make things more intense, and I had been looking forward to getting to try it after my interest in sex returned with the puberty fairy.

Over all that study I developed a personal genjutsu/ninjutsu attack. It worked by combining principles of my Chains, genjutsu, and mental reinforcement. I called it the “Mind-Flay” technique. It was about as friendly as that sounds. Basically, I’d launch a lance of spiritual chakra that travelled through the enemy’s system like a genjutsu, then catastrophically reinforced the brain, giving the target brain-death.

It didn't need a hand-sign, though that could help with focus, and was fucking fast since Yin chakra is very quick regardless of density. On the other hand, because I didn't have the Yang-combination, it was a launched rather than guided jutsu, so it became less effective with range. The cool thing about it was that it avoided most defensive techniques, even a lot of those based on chakra powered shield techniques and would smash through most genjutsu defenses like a wrecking-ball through tissue paper.

It was a fairly terrifying assassination technique, and far more lethal than other genjutsu-focused students’ personal projects who tended to go for very personalized seduction/charisma techniques for political or spying purposes. I wasn’t sure our teacher really approved of my methodology, but she recognized I had few other options given my limitations with the actual subtle parts of genjutsu - itself the ninja art that focused on subtlety. Incidentally, those genjutsu classes were some of the only ones where I wasn’t within the top three of the class.

Those were the highlights of my academy experience. Of course, I learned dozens of other things. To put it in perspective, the CIA used something called ‘the Clandestine Service Trainee Program’ back on Earth to train paramilitary officers. Those are the scary guys that you see in movies, rather than the analysts who actually make up the majority of the organization. That program lasted eighteen months. Granted, they typically recruited people with prior military training and experience, and the training was full time. That said, the Academy went pretty hard (chakra helps with recovery and endurance), especially given the age constraints, and I was training in my off time. I had four years to pick up all the secondary skills, since my main combat skills were already established. I had fun with it, and I learned a lot.

I studied covert infiltration, which included both chakra and chakra-less techniques to climb buildings and break into them, as well as aggressive infiltration, which included breaking and entering techniques. In my Document Retrieval section, we learned how to crack through the mechanical and chakra mechanisms that protected safes. I learned how to play cards and gamble correctly, and cheat at the same. I was taught how to pickpocket and spot the local criminals and fences in the Urban Survival course, as well as how to hide tools and spoils on my body even during a pat-down.

I tried out the chakra healing course, but failed out when I found that it was basically impossible for me to strip my identity from my chakra; I still had my medical seals though, so that was something. I learned how to survive in any wilderness from arctic to equatorial desert, and how to track, trap and prepare a wide variety of foods. Then I was taught how to track someone who's at least a little sneaky in those environments, how to trap them even without seals, and how to be sneaky and spot traps myself.

I learned how to better read body language, and how to have my body language give what messages I wanted in my Interpersonal Skills class. I improved those skills in my Advanced Seduction Techniques class, which also taught some pretty extensive massage; I even got an offer for personal instruction in acupuncture from the female instructor when I was a bit older (pretty sure that was a throwaway seduction attempt on Konoha’s part, though I was equally sure we'd both enjoy it).

I tried out the Covert Identities class, and was told that as long as I was playing myself, I'd be alright but to never try and pretend to be someone else; it was just embarrassing. I learned how to make improvised weapons in a variety of settings, and what common household objects could take the most damage.

I learned at least the basics of the Konohagakure General Unarmed Style. It was a bit like krav-maga, but focused even more on simple, direct motions executed with a maximum of violence and action. I picked up a bit about how to fight with knives, and more on how to fight with kunai. I was taught to throw kunai and shuriken, more because it was a graduation requirement than that I ever expected to need it, then added a class on how to throw coins, nails, and other improvised objects because why not? That said, I was eleven; at eleven, who doesn't love throwing around sharp spiky stars of ninja-awesome? So, it wasn't much of an imposition.

In a trio of classes on toxins, I was educated about the poisons, whether synthetic, natural (plant or animal), or enhanced-natural recipes that I could use to make things like shuriken actually useful, and was given instruction on how to combine poisons with water jutsu to boot.

I knew that I'd likely never use a tenth of what I so carefully memorized, but it still might come in handy (whether in that life or the next), and moreover, it was all pretty damned cool. I did improve in more useful ways too.

I sparred with the advanced sword students when I could be bothered, and wrecked a training field once for a jutsu demonstration. I improved my control over my chains, my skill with the Whirlpool-Fist and Sword, and continued to make sure that Sachiko and Yasu were progressing well under the Academy's training as well as what they were getting from Auntie and Uncle. I forced Yasu to learn a few combat jutsu, and continued Sachiko's instruction in Water-techniques started by Tou-san. I made sure to continue training with my seals, and thought I might hit the seventh level of intuition pretty soon.

My chakra sensing continued to improve in range and resolution. But most of all I focused on my body; my biggest limitation was speed, followed by strength, and over those four years I fixed that weakness. I checked on the still sleeping Kyubi, and released chakra that I had cleaned of hostile intent into the environment daily. I continued to improve my chakra density and volume, though my channels were starting to show the restriction in growth indicative of the onset of puberty, and made sure that my control didn't decrease due to the influence of the Kyubi's chakra introduced by the seal.

So, all in all, I had a great four years. There were some negatives. I missed my family something fierce, even though I had weekly video-conferences. Kaa-san had given birth to younger sibling I'd never seen in person two years into my stay after one of Tou-san's visits back from the front. My Uzumaki Fuutaka family compound was a building in a country I'd never been to. I missed the sea air and shores of our island too. But I put those things out of my mind, as much as I could, and continued to take everything I could from life.

I may not have been as focused as might have been optimal, or driven myself as hard as I could like I did in preparation for Kyubi's sealing, but when I stood on the parade ground with the other graduates wearing both my Uzushio and Konoha hitai-ates, I was comfortable in the fact that my retainers could match jonin and that I was the superior of any of the “young geniuses” like, for example, Namikaze Minato who had himself just been promoted to Jonin.

I knew my time at the Academy had been well spent. And there was only really one more event to qualify me as a real ninja; my first personal kill.