Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
"We won!" I heard Kushina scream into my ears the second I teleported back to the office. Somehow, she had managed to convince my secretary to allow her and the rest of my genin team to wait here for me to return. I would have judged the woman for it if I had not fallen prey to Kushina's pout of doom more than a few times myself. Instead, I just shook my head in her direction while I hoisted the red-haired missile that had attached itself to me upon arrival onto my shoulders. I looked at my other students and found them watching the whole thing with fond smiles on their faces.
I had lucked out, I knew. The second I made the decision to pick a genin team, I had known there was no chance Kushina would not be on it. The truth was there was no one else I could trust both with her life and her development. Uzume would keep Kushina alive if it was the last thing she did, but her tutelage left a lot to be desired, to be honest. Anyone else, well, I just didn't want to risk it. And so with the knowledge that Kushina would end up with me and all that that meant, it had really run the risk that any of her future teammates would be unable to deal with the perceived or actual favoritism—even if I did know that I tried my best to devote equal training, attention, and care to all their developments, the fact that Kushina would be going home with me more often than not could send a message. I guess it was a good thing that neither Mikoto nor Minato were the jealous type.
"So how did you guys like your first view of high-level combat?" I asked.
"It was superb—" Minato began, only to be cut off by our resident hyperactive missile of chakra and warmth.
"You went whoosh, can't touch me, and the Tsuchikage went bam, erase everything, and then you went whoosh again and then—"
"Japanese, please, Kushina. Or at least a language that is somewhat intelligible," I interrupted with a fond smile.
"I said you beat him!" she said.
"Yes, yes I did. The Tsuchikage didn't stand much of a chance, did he?" I said, bragging and boasting before my little sister even as Kurama did his best job of reminding me just how close that had come to ending very differently for us.
"But beyond that, Minato was saying something, Kushina, and it's rude to interrupt," I lightly scolded.
She nodded from her position atop my shoulder; I could feel it from the way her body moved with it. I reached up to place her on the ground again and next to her teammates before I dropped to the lotus position in front of them.
"So now that I've heard from Kushina. Minato, Mikoto, tell me what you think."
My other two students looked at themselves, having a silent debate to decide who would go first, and just like expected, Mikoto deferred to Minato.
"It was intense. You couldn't even make a single mistake. Neither could he. It was like every move you guys made was designed to end the fight as quickly as possible," he said, and he was right.
"Correct. High-level fights don't really allow you to make mistakes. I did make a mistake in this one, but thanks to extenuating circumstances, I was able to turn it to my advantage. That is far from what is usually the case though, and the first person to make a mistake is often the first to die in a fight like that. Between genin like yourselves, you can afford to make a mistake or two, but by the time you get to that level there isn't a single mistake that won't cost you your life in most cases," I said. He nodded, looking thoughtful.
"Neither of you used any genjutsu," Mikoto said when I turned in her direction.
"We didn't. While in the academy you might have been taught that all the ninja arts are more or less equal, the truth is that most genjutsu lose their place in high-level combat. For one, anyone who makes it to that level is likely to have highly developed genjutsu resistance. Even if you and every Uchiha in the village tried, you'd struggle to catch me in a genjutsu for more than a second. While the potential genjutsu has in luring your opponent into a mistake is immense, it also runs the risk of your opponent drawing you into a false sense of security by pretending to be under your thrall," I explained.
"So it's useless then?"
"No. Not completely useless. The truth is just that most people can never get their genjutsu to the level where they could be useful in that sort of situation. Someone like you, an Uchiha, has the advantage that comes with the Sharingan so you might be able to train your genjutsu to the point where it can work in those situations," I explained.
"So someone like me shouldn't even bother with learning genjutsu?" Minato asked, looking at me with narrowed eyes, focused on every word that dropped from my lips. I had noticed it now. Where before my students had listened to me and taken my words as valuable advice, now it seemed they were hanging on to every word that dropped from my lips and keen to take them as gospel. That could be problematic, and was probably going to cause me some trouble in the long term. Still, what was the point of being a sensei if I couldn't guide my precious little munchkins on their path to glory? The Sannin never existed in this universe. Hanzo never gave them the name, never birthed the legend.
It was my goal that when the world thought about legendary teams, then these three kids in front of me would be the first to come to mind. That was why I twisted my chakra, brought it under my control, and then threaded it into their chakra networks, doing it so smoothly that even Mikoto could not notice until it was too late. All three of them reacted at the same time as they lost sight of everything.
"Don't get me wrong, at every stage of combat up until the very top of the shinobi world, genjutsu ability could make the difference between life and death. Also, while at the top genjutsu might not be as useful, it can buy you a second or two in the right situation, and that could easily mean the difference between life and death," I said, restoring their vision and retreating with my chakra.
"What genjutsu was that, Sensei? I've never felt anything like it," Mikoto asked, eyes practically turning green with envy.
"Oh?"
"I knew I was under a genjutsu but I couldn't dispel it. No matter what I did, the genjutsu just refused to leave," she said.
"You've diagnosed the problem halfway. What if your dispels were working but I was applying the genjutsu over and over again in concert with your attempts to flee? Or alternatively, what if the genjutsu helped me hijack your chakra network to prevent you from flaring it and thus breaking out?" I asked.
"Genjutsu can do that?" Minato asked, his blue eyes sharp as icicles as he broke down every word I said. It was frightening just how much intelligence lurked behind those eyes.
"Genjutsu can do whatever you need it to do if you have the power, control, and will to accomplish it. In this situation, the only reason I was able to do that was because of the vast difference between us—both in terms of chakra potency, reserves, and control." I listed all three of the factors out.
"Of the three, reserves are the least important by quite some margin, but I still outclass you by enough in the other respects that it didn't matter that the difference in our reserves didn't matter as much. Do you understand?" Minato nodded, and so did Mikoto after a second or two. Kushina just looked lost.
I leaned down to ruffle her hair. "Don't worry, Kushina. You don't have the chakra control for genjutsu, and it's not worth it focusing on it beyond learning how to identify and dispel them," I said.
"But Sensei, shouldn't that mean that Kushina should spend more time training and thinking about genjutsu? Because she doesn't have the natural talent for it?"
"Who are you calling talentless, huh? You blonde—" I leaned over and grabbed her in my hands, covering her mouth as she attempted to lunge at her teammate.
"I'm very sure that's not what Minato meant, right, Minato?" I said with a significant look tossed in his direction. He was too smart not to understand, so he wasted no time in nodding so vigorously that it might have been like his head was about to fall off.
"Yes, Sensei. That definitely wasn't what I meant. I just wanted to know why Sensei didn't want you to focus on something that might be a weakness," he said. I flashed him a thumbs up from behind Kushina's head as I released the appeased girl to the floor.
"And to answer your question, Minato, I'll ask you one of my own. What did you notice about the fight between the Tsuchikage and I?"
"It was fast."
"No, no that. Well, yes. It was indeed fast-paced. But that isn't what I meant. I mean what did you notice when it comes to the number of skills we used? We only had a single taijutsu exchange. I assure you that if the Tsuchikage faced me in taijutsu, he would have died in seconds. There's no comparison when it comes to that. And if you notice, I did not use most of my ninjutsu arsenal because nothing I had could truly stand up to the might of Dust Release. That is the truth of the highest level. Your weaknesses matter far less than your strengths. The Tsuchikage's taijutsu was barely better than passable, but he had enough ninjutsu skill to prevent that from being an issue by forcing me to fight him from a distance," I said.
"So you see, in Kushina's case. If I wanted to turn her into a bog-standard jonin—well, as average as a jonin can be—then maybe I'd spend time turning her into a passable genjutsu user. But the truth is that if I want her to reach her full potential, then we'd just have to ignore genjutsu except for what we need to learn to be able to dispel them when the need arises, while focusing our attention on getting her ninjutsu and fuinjutsu to their absolute peak. I can make another example with Mikoto. Mikoto does not have the reserves to be a ninjutsu specialist. Sure, she could train her reserves and get to the point where she can use more than a few jutsu a day before she's exhausted, but she will never get to the level of someone like the Tsuchikage who could wield his kekkei tota to its full extent while still dominating the battlefield with prodigious Earth Release. It just wouldn't be a worthwhile use of her time when we could spend it training with her taijutsu and genjutsu—areas where she excels," I explained further.
"So what would you suggest that I train, Sensei?" Minato asked.
"I'll say this—for every rule, there is an exception. You're more like me than you'd realize, and just like me, I think you can train to the point where you get either up to, or close to, the very highest level in all of the ninja arts," I replied. Minato instantly sobered up, seeming to realize what I was saying without me saying the words.
"I won't disappoint you, Sensei," he pledged.
"None of you could ever disappoint me," I replied, and I wasn't even lying. These children, these kids, they had managed to worm their way into my heart slowly and surely, and I would do my best to make them better than they had been in the world where I did not exist. I would make them great. I would see each and every one of them become legends that would carve their names into the world.
"Shorirama-sama," I turned to my secretary, only now noticing her hesitancy.
"What's happened?" It couldn't be something too serious, could it? If she'd waited this long to say it.
"The Hokage has woken up," she said. Oh. Ohhhh. How timely. Just in time to take credit for my victories, huh?
"How fortunate. I will make my way over there immediately," I said to her, making sure none of my thoughts showed on my face. Maybe I should have actually just had Uzume do it when I could have. Killed the man in his bed to avoid the suspicion. Maybe if Tsunade wasn't the greatest medic in the world and his student, I would have gone through with it. But she'd recognize any foul play from miles away, and there was no chance I'd get her to back off from investigating. Even worse, she was the wrong type of hot-headed. If she got it in her head—or more likely, if someone (namely Danzo) got it in her head—that I had something to do with it, then I would have her coming for my head.
"You guys should take care of yourselves while I'm gone, and please don't trash the office," I said, directing the last part of the sentence to a blushing Kushina.
"It wasn't my fault, the Rasengan—"
I missed the rest of what I was sure would have been a very reasonable and impassioned defense of why she'd turned this place upside down the last time I'd left her alone in here as I teleported to the Hospital.
"Shori, you're back!" Tsunade said, head snapping up to me as I appeared in her office.
"Indeed. The Hokage is awake?" I asked.
"Danzo is seeing him now. I guess you could go right in after they finish," she said. I nodded, filing away the fact that Danzo had beaten me here as there was nothing to be done about that. It meant I was going to be going in on the back foot with no idea just what Danzo had told him. I just hoped the cursed seal dealt with him appropriately.
"That works for me. What's the state of things?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I mean how is he doing?" She looked at me, looked to the notes in front of her, and then sighed.
"I guess there's no harm in telling you. You'd probably have been able to guess most of it on your own. The Healing Coma Seal and jutsu from the Uzumaki clan let us save his life, but it meant that we couldn't operate in time. His body has healed to depend on one lung, and adding another one might place too much stress on it and would risk his life. With only one lung, and a good portion of his innards gone though, I find it difficult to imagine that he'd ever be a shinobi again," she said, and her voice broke in the middle. I stepped closer, placing a hand on her shoulder. I could understand her pain, at least. Hiruzen had been to Tsunade what Tobirama had been to me. With absent parents, he had been the father she needed right when she had needed one.
"He will struggle to breathe for the rest of his life, and the second he finds himself engaging in any exerting physical activity, he will be short for breath and struggling to continue. Retirement is his only option, right when he was just hitting his prime," she said. I nodded. I didn't like Hiruzen. In truth, I hated the man. He was entitled, and smug, and a bastard, but he was hers, and I could feel her pain.
"I'm sorry," I tried to do my best to console her, but what was there to do? Even if I did want to help Hiruzen, there was nothing I could do about it. I knew Hashirama Cells would probably be able to help—instant miracle cure that they were, but Tobirama hadn't hinted anything to me about having any of his brother's cells stored away anywhere so I doubted that there are any out there to be used. I had no idea where Orochimaru had gotten the ones he'd used for his experiment, but it couldn't have been from within the village. I would have found something on it at this point. I'd studied the Forbidden Scroll of Seals, all my Granduncle's journals, all of it, and found nothing.
A whistle blew, and she took a breath before rising.
"He's alone now," she said, beginning to lead me out of the room. I said nothing about what had transpired as we made our way to the room and she wore the coldest expression she could on her face.
She knocked on the door before pushing it open. It smelled sterile in here. As we walked in, I noticed Tsunade cast a sterilization jutsu over the both of us and our clothes.
"Can't risk him catching anything," she said, and I nodded.
"Tsunade-chan," he wheezed from his position on the bed. It took longer than it should have for him to turn his head and spot me.
"Shorirama-san. Welcome," he called.
I stepped fully into the room then and allowed the door to swing shut behind me.
"So, Shorirama Senju, have you come to kill me?" he asked.
A/N: Cliffhanger, yes, I'm an arsehole like that. Next five up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.