It would take several days to reach their destination. On the first evening, Shiba informed his genins that Anko had been Orochimaru’s student. Jun declared that he didn’t care, and he knew full well what it was like to suffer from a bad reputation for something you weren’t responsible for. The jonin looked embarrassed.

He wasn’t any more polite to Anko, though. Less brittle, yes, but still just as cold and wary of her. Natsumi and Susumu weren’t as distant. Jun’s remark may have created some guilt in them. Or maybe they were embarrassed. They had never discussed the rumors surrounding the exclusion of Jun’s family from the Uchiha clan.

Jun knew they were on his side, but neither Natsumi nor Susumu had ever been outraged at what happened to his family. They pretended everything was normal. They were doing the same with Anko by ignoring the rumors about her. His teammates did not try to become friends with her. Anko’s personality was a bit peculiar. Not everyone could be comfortable around her. They were freaked out by her mood swings and creepy laughter.

As a result, Jun was the one who spent most of the mission with Anko. She seemed to enjoy the company. Jun was patient with her. It was often exhausting to keep up with her energetic personality, but the teenager did not give up. He wanted to show her some people could look past rumors and try to know someone to make their own idea of who a person is.

Their convoy was ambushed once, on the third day. Jun didn’t do anything. Kurenai and Susumu took care of most bandits with Genjutsu, and Anko handled the remaining ones. Even Shiba was impressed by her fighting abilities. She was also crazy on the battlefield but insanely effective. One could see why Orochimaru took her as a disciple. The man was attracted to prodigies, not failures.

The shinobis escorted the entertainers to their destination without any more incident. There were Kusa ninjas in the town, and they looked at the group with suspicion. However, they left safely.

“For a B-rank mission, it was pretty easy,” Jun said on their way back to Konoka as they were leaping from tree to tree.

Anko burst out laughing and put an arm around Jun’s shoulders with such enthusiasm that she nearly knocked them both out of a tree.

“Well said, Jun. But don’t worry too much about it, most missions do go wrong. So many things can degenerate, you have to be ready for the unexpected. This mission is an exception. You won’t get many of those in your career as a ninja.”

“I feel better already.” The teenager replied sarcastically.

Anko laughed and began telling him about a whole bunch of missions that had gone wrong. Natsumi and Susumu looked terrified. Jun, on the other hand, was starting to get comfortable with her way of telling stories. Kurenai intervened from time to time to correct a few things here and there.

Meeting Anko had been fun, but Jun didn’t see her much in the village afterward. Konoha was big after all. He continued spending most of his time with his team or his two friends. Yugao and Iruka had ended up meeting Natsumi and Susumu. They had expressed no desire to meet Shisui and Itachi, but they were curious about his teammates. Jun didn’t think much of it. It was his team. They were the ones who watched his back during missions. He found it natural his friends wanted to meet them.

There were benefits to both parties meeting each other. Shiba was a jonin and would periodically go on missions by himself. The team was on its own then. They would do some D-rank missions to earn some money, but they practiced most of the time. It was also good sometimes to practice with other genins who also had free time. Iruka and Yugao met the criteria.

They wanted to do more team vs team matches, but they couldn’t. Mizuki, Iruka’s teammate, was offended at being beaten by kids younger than him. He wouldn’t join in anymore. Yugao’s teammates preferred to train on their own. Therefore, the only one who consistently showed up was Madoka Hyuga, Iruka’s other teammate. She was a sweet and reserved kid but easily offended. Iruka was not close to her. But she wanted to train with them. She was very good in Taijutsu; they couldn’t deny that.

“Let’s do a match between Team 14 against the rest.” Natsumi proposed with a smile.

“No way. We lack familiarity with each other.” Yugao replied.

“How about girls vs boys?” Iruka offered.

“Unless you’re scared,” Jun added.

Natsumi recklessly accepted the challenge. Yugao was good at Kenjutsu; Madoka was strong in Taijutsu. She was good at Taijutsu and kunais and shurikens handling. On the other team, Jun was the one to be wary of. Iruka was cunning, and Susumu was smart and used his Genjutsu well. But the danger came from Jun. He was the only one among them all strong in Ninjutsu. And that was what won the match for the boys. Iruka, very pleased with the outcome, declared he would love to do it again. He received some friendly insults from the girls.

Autumn ended. Jun briefly saw Shisui again. Between missions and training, the teenager went back to studying Fuinjutsu. He had never really stopped, but now he was getting back to it seriously. He had a new project. He only knew basic storage arrays’ seals. He could create a seal to store corpses, a stockpile of kunais, food…But here was his idea, he wanted to be able to store chakra somewhere to collect it when he ran out of energy.

Tsunade had something similar with the seal on her forehead. But it was based on medical Ninjutsu, not Fuinjutsu. Jun didn’t have the skill to redirect and store his chakra in his body like that. He hadn’t reached such a degree of control and precision. But, Fuinjutsu could be within his reach. He didn’t plan on focusing his chakra to the point that it created a mark on his body like Tsunade did. Instead, he would create a seal that would passively suck in chakra. It would be the seal created with Fuinjutsu that would do all the work, not his ability to control chakra.

It was an ambitious project. Seals containing chakra were significantly advanced. A mistake could cause the energy in the seal to explode. It wasn’t an easy thing to achieve. Creating a seal that would absorb his chakra at the risk of sucking him dry if he made a mistake. Then injecting it back to him at the risk of exploding his chakra points if not done properly. It would have to be a very powerful seal, a B or A rank at least. Jun knew he had a lot of research and testing to do… and that he would need help. Or at least someone to be there just in case things go wrong to take him to the hospital.

He told his mom and sister about it to not worry them. He also mentioned it to Iruka, Madoka, and Yugao. He let the Hyuga in on his idea because he believed her Byakugan could come in handy. He didn’t forget his teammates either. They were shocked.

“What you’re trying to do is very advanced! Are you sure you can do it?” Susumu exclaimed in disbelief.

“He is right. Sealing chakra… I know how to seal a whole bunch of weapons, but chakra? It’s too volatile.” Natsumi added.

Shiba-sensei also looked worried.

“It’s an ambitious project. Maybe you should talk to an expert about it.” The jonin said.

Jun raised his eyebrows.

“Do you know someone?”

Their sensei grimaced. Jiraiya was on the loose; Minato and Kushina were dead, Orochimaru had deserted… There were a few Fuinjutsu experts left in the village. Jun could only think of the Sandaime Hokage and maybe Danzo. The Hokage was too busy, and Danzo was not an option he considered. He couldn’t think of anyone else. But he was confident in his chances. His Sharingan could help him succeed.

Jun was becoming more and more familiar with his Dojutsu. He sometimes practiced with it on his own. There were also times he activated it discreetly to observe people. He had secretly copied a few Kenjutsu techniques from Shiba during fights on their missions. He had copied Natsumi’s shuriken techniques and several of Susumu Genjutsus.

He thought about using his Sharingan to observe Madoka Hyuga while she used her Gentle Fist. However, it was a risky move. If the Hyuga caught him with his special eyes, he would have a hard time explaining himself. She would probably report it to her clan that would pass on the information to the Uchihas. It would be a disaster.

He was not supposed to have the Sharingan. His mother never awakened it, and the fact that her children did not possess it, was also a reason they were easily kicked out of the clan. If Jun’s secret about his eyes were to be known, the Uchihas would change their position about his family. It was something the teenager wanted to avoid.

Because of that, he was very cautious when he used his Dojutsu. He always checked his surroundings. Jun had no issue hiding it from his comrades. His safety was on the line. He couldn’t afford to not be extremely cautious.