The Enlightened One Ch.72 (Patreon)

With a determined frown, I gazed at the scroll spread out beneath me, after having bitten my finger and written my name plus put my fingerprints with the blood of what would hopefully be the first of countless future generations of Senju signatures. This was the moment that held the most significance, the moment that could summon and define my relationship with any of the myriad creatures.

First impressions. 

Using the blood still fresh on my hand, I weaved through the hand seals and slammed my hand down on the contract.

‘Summoning Jutsu!’

A large puff of smoke erupted from the contract, and as the smoke cleared, my eyes widened at the sight of not just one monkey but two. 

“Enma.” Hiruzen greeted him with a small smile. 

“Saru.” The Current Monkey King, Enma, greeted his partner with a firm nod. Then, his eyes locked onto me. “Is this him?”

“It is.” Hiruzen nodded, walking over and stopping just beside me. “This is Lei Senju, Grandson of Tobirama-sensei.” The words hung in the air, their weight sinking in slowly, as the truth of my lineage was revealed to the Monkey King.

“Even when you told me, I never believed it.” Enma chuckled before bursting out in full-blown monkey laughter. “That hardass really had a kid?!” Another round of bubbling laughs.

“I would never lie to you, old friend.” Hiruzen chuckled.

While the monkey and his summoner were laughing, I gazed at the other monkey who had been studying me closely this whole time. His eyes were more cold and untrusting than anything else.

“Ha! How could I forget to introduce myself and my company.” Enma grabbed his head with both hands before wildly smiling at me. “I’m the Monkey King, Enma, and this-” He gestured to the other monkey, “Is my son, Enka.”

“It is an honor to meet both of you, King Enma and Prince Enka.” I lowered my head a bit, while not going so low that I would be perceived as less than them. 

“A polite catch you have here.” Enma grinned toward Hiruzen.

“Yes, he was raised well.”

“Then it couldn’t have been you who did the raising!” Enma broke out into another fit of laughter, which Hiruzen joined him in. 

I felt like a fish out of water as I stared at the Monkey King. I was still confused as to why two of them were summoned.

How the hell would I even manage to summon two of them anyway? I have a pretty large chakra pool, and while I believe it was large enough to summon both, the amount of chakra I used seemed more like it was only enough for one of them.

No, that’s not important right now. I’ll just assume one of them tagged along via their own means.

I looked at the Monkey Prince, who was still staring at me coldly. 

Well, to hell with first impressions, I did my best and the guy already doesn’t like me…

“Fight me.” 

I paused at the sudden demand that came out of Enka. Where the hell did that come from? Judging by his expression, he’s serious, but why so soon?

His eyes narrowed at my lack of an answer. “Fight me or I will return home.” 

Now he’s giving me an ultimatum…

“Sure, if that’s what you want.” I placed my hands on my hips and frowned. “Then how are we gonna do-”

Before I could finish the sentence, Enka’s fist slammed hard against my chin, knocking me away.

BOOM

I spat out a wad of spit as my back impacted with a nearby mountain. The force left a large dent in its side. 

…I guess we’re getting right to it.

I pushed myself out of the dent and landed on my feet, staring down at where the two monkeys and the old hokage were standing.

“Enka.” I heard Enma speak, his voice held a dangerous edge in it.

“I won’t kill him.” He grumbled out before stepping toward me, the same cold glare  twinkling in his eyes. 

Okay, what the fuck did I do to earn his hatred?! 

Ya know what? It doesn’t matter. He can hate me if he wants, but the old man entrusted this summon to me, and I’d be damned if I let it bitch me.

I held up a hand seal and deactivated the weights that restrained my body. The moment I did, my body felt so light, as if the slightest movement would send me flying forward. 

“I’m ready now!” I shouted, the air around me shifting as I dropped into the Natural Fist stance. 

Enka rushed forward with high speeds, appearing in front of me in an instant and throwing a hard punch to my face. I blocked the hit with my arms, then followed up with a hard counter right into his gut.

He skidded back a few meters before glaring at me. A smile came to my lips as I saw the pain in his eyes.

“You’re not the only one who can hit hard, bastard.”

He bared his teeth at me and dropped down to all fours. 

“RAAAAAH!” He shouted as he rushed me again, even faster than before and this time I couldn’t block his attack. He grabbed my upper body, wrapping his arms around me and started squeezing tightly. I tried my best to pry my way out, but he was stronger than me. 

“D-Damn it!” I shouted as I struggled to bring up my right hand and form a hand seal.

“Weak!” Enka shouted as he squeezed tighter. I could feel my bones creaking from the strain he was placing on them. I needed to get out of this hold, now!

I looked down to my hand and pushed to raise it up, i could feel my hand losing strength by the second, but finally I managed to get up between both of our stomachs.

‘Wood Release: Underground Roots’

Strong roots shot out of the ground from behind Enka and began to tug him backward while forcing him to loosen his grip on me. I took advantage of his quick moment of surprise and wiggled out of his grip, giving him a powerful punch to his face as the roots strengthened their hold around him. 

He wanted this fight, but I’m ending it, now!

I began weaving through hand seals as he fought against the root's grip. 

‘Wood Release: Twin Wood Wyrm Jutsu!’

The earth beneath us began to rumble-

BOOOOM

BOOOOM

Two explosions erupted on my left and right side, leaving holes in the ground, and from those holes, my twin wood wyrms emerged, their faces locked in snarls as they looked at the entangled Monkey Prince. 

“Get him.” I verbally ordered, and the two wyrm slammed back into the ground, borrowing their way over to him. As they reached him, they shot out of the earth once more, biting either side of him.

“Arggghhh!” Enka shouted in pain. I kept my distance as I glared at the trapped monkey. 

“Yield, I’ve won.” I ordered with cold eyes. 

His pained face looked up to me, then at the two wood wyrms biting into him and he remained quiet. 

“At any moment I can make these two detonate. I don’t know much about monkey summons, but I have a feeling not even the most powerful primates can survive two powerful blasts.” 

His pained eyes met mine and he lowered his head. I took it for what it was, admittance of defeat. 

‘Let him go.’ I mentally ordered, and the two wood wyrms released the monkey before digging themselves back into the Earth. 

Enka kept his head down, and I could tell by not only his body language, but also his chakra that he was crushed by his quick defeat at my hands. 

“Hahaha!” 

I looked over at the Monkey King and the Hokage who were approaching us.

“Enka, you were in over your head! You should have listened to Saru when he told you of this boy’s power!” 

“...Yes, father,” Enka answered quietly. 

“Quick and decisive. Well done, Lei.” Hiruzen smiled, giving me a nod. 

“I got preliminaries tomorrow; I really didn’t wanna go through an hour-long fight.” I frowned, staring at the defeated Prince. Honestly, with his strength, our fight likely would have lasted even longer than that.

He underestimated the power of my ninjutsu, and that cost him the fight early. 

“A wise decision.” Gramps grinned. 

“Agreed, Enka is known for his endless stamina and great strength. Ending the battle early was a genius call.” Enma nodded sagely. “However even if the fight went on, Enka would have made a few mistakes, he’s always been brash…always.”

“Father!” Enka looked up, his eyes pleading but he was instantly shut down by a glare from the Monkey King.

“Enough, Enka!” Enma crossed his arms. “You’ve lost, you will become his summon. It is your duty.” 

“My duty is to the Sarutobi!” Enka shot back with a challenging glare at his father. 

“How can you serve the Sarutobi when their Heir wants nothing to do with you.” Enma tilted his head, and Enka dropped his own.

I was beginning to see just why Enka hated me and why he didn’t want to be my summon. 

“Sen,” Enma called out, looking at me. I pointed at myself, earning a nod from him. “You’ve proven yourself worthy of my son’s strength. He is your partner to command. Though, I cannot give you his faith.” 

I looked toward the glaring Prince and nodded in understanding. Now I know what the scroll meant by having their power at my disposal but not their faith. 

Sure, Enka would fight for me and execute my orders, but he wouldn’t like doing so, and he wouldn't like me as a person. 

That’s fine, I have plenty of time to work on our relationship. 

“Thank you, Monkey King Enma, Monkey Prince Enka.” 

“Haha! Still so polite after displaying your power? Truly you must have learned your manners from someone else. Saru was never this kind!” 

“You didn’t deserve my kindness then.” Hiruzen crossed his arms with a cheeky smile.

“Of course I did, I was, am, and will always be the great Enma!” The Monkey King laughed as he walked over to his son and grabbed him by his nape. “It was nice meeting you, Sen.”

“Uh…my name’s Lei…Lei Senju.” I clarified only to feel a hand on my shoulder. The Monkey King and his son disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving me and Gramps alone in the mountains.

“Don’t even try.” Hiruzen sighed. “I’ve been trying to get the old chimp to call me by name for decades, yet he insists on annoying me. Resign to your fate, Lei.” 

I let out a sigh and looked at the ground. It is what it is. 

— Kakashi (The Next Day) —

The Copy Ninja let out a tired sigh. The last few days had been nothing but work and more work. 

He thought not having his genin to run around and chase all day would be great, but he realized that the time he spent with his genin was way better than standing guard all day.

He didn’t know how he did it in his past when he was a part of the Anbu. Standing and doing nothing, it was boring. The least they could do is give him a book to read. Preferably the greatest series of literature that ever was written: Icha Icha. Man, how the wait for the next book of the series was KILLING him.

Now he was standing with the other Jonin sensei and a great deal of the Konoha Higher Ups while they waited for the Examinees. 

Today was the Preliminary Stage of the exam that determined who would move onto the Final Stage. 

“Did you see your team yet, Kakashi?” Asuma whispered, earning the attention of some of the people around.

“No,” Kakashi answered lazily.

“What? Why not?” Kurenai asked.

“Dunno.” He shrugged. It wasn’t like he cared. He’d see them now. 

“Seriously, you never change, Kakashi.” Asuma facepalmed and Kakashi glanced at him with slightly narrowed eyes. That was rude. He definitely changed…he was early now, and he actually cared somewhat for his students! 

“I disagree!” Gai grinned, wrapping his arm around Kakashi's shoulder. “In all the years I’ve known him, Kakashi has never been one to arrive on time, much less early.” 

“He did?” Kurenai's eyes widened slightly and she looked at Kakashi as if he just grew a second head.

“Yes. He. Did!” Gai posed.

Both Asuma and Kurenai started looking at Kakashi as if there was hope for him, making a bead of sweat fall down his forehead. 

They never had any faith in him, did they?

“They’re coming.” Shikaku Nara announced, glancing back at them with an almost scolding glare. 

All of them quickly dropped the playful air around them and grew more serious, upholding an air that only Jonin and higher-ranked Shinobi had. 

Half a minute later, the Examinees began to walk into the room, chattering as they went, and stopped just in front of them. Kakashi’s one eye caught sight of his team, and though he looked as if he was lazily looking at them, he was searching their bodies up and down, trying to see just how much damage they suffered from the forest of death. 

He had already heard about the traitors Kuzan and Taro, as well as the Orochimaru spies, and he knew his team had been involved in each incident.

To his surprise, though, his team didn’t look that bad. Any injuries they suffered were already healed, but their clothes showed telltale signs of any damage they had taken previously. 

Lord Third stepped forward, and the moment he did, all communication among the Examinees came to a sudden halt. The air around Lord Third demanded they be silent. 

“Welcome Examinees to this year’s Chunin Exams.” He greeted with his hands crossed behind his back. “Congratulations are in order for all of you who have made it this far.”

Kakashi’s eyes scanned across the remaining examinees, and he shrugged upon seeing that the Cloud, Sand, and Stone teams were all still in it. They of course were the most powerful teams, the only teams he considered a threat to his students should they mess around, so he wasn’t surprised. 

“Now that proper congratulations have been given, I would like to ask you all a question. Do you all know the purpose of the Chunin Exams?” The Hokage’s voice boomed out in a question. 

At first silence was all that met the Hokage, but as moments passed, whispers began to circulate through the gathered shinobi. 

The Hokage’s eyes scanned all the Examinees as he patiently awaited an answer.

“To test ourselves.” Satsuki spoke up. Kakashi wasn’t surprised that was her answer, after all it was her reason for taking part in these exams. 

“That is partially correct, yes.” The Hokage nodded. “But the true answer goes deeper than that.” 

The examinees remained silent, looking around amongst each other for someone to deliver the answer. Kakashi locked his one eye on his only male student and wondered when he’d speak up. His grandfather, Lord Second was the one that created the Chunin Exams after all. 

“War.” 

The Copy Ninja smiled underneath his mask as all eyes in the room locked onto Lei Senju.

“Would you expand on that?” The Hokage asked, earning a small nod from the Senju Head. 

“The exam was created by the Second Hokage with the purpose of showing young and/or inexperienced shinobi what war is, what it’s like. However, as time progressed and the other Hidden Villages began adopting this practice, it has morphed into a way for Villages to compare their genin with one another. The power of genin, while the lowest bar of shinobi, can be a mirror of the strength of the higher ranks. Long story short, it lets villages and potential mission contractors know who has the strongest shinobi.” 

“Precisely.” Lord Third’s lips twitched upward as he suppressed a smile, needing to remain professional throughout . “It is as Lei said, the Chunin Exams, while once a mere introduction into war, are now a way for villages to measure up against one another and gain the eyes of potential clients. It is a necessary practice that helps each village out greatly, should you perform well for your villages.” 

Kakashi nearly let out a chuckle as he looked down at the remaining examinees. If this exam was to measure how powerful each village is, then Konoha is blowing all other villages out of the water. Five Konoha teams remained in the exam, whereas the Sand, Cloud, and Stone only had one team each, and the Mist had already been eliminated. 

“Any questions?” Lord Third asked and immediately the knuckleheaded blonde opened her mouth. 

“Why does the exam have to be like this, so dangerous, so full of death?” Naruko clenched her fist as she looked up at the Hokage with confusion and pain in her eyes. 

“Hey dumbass, did you not listen to your Hokage?” Kankuro spoke up. “Its for the sake of each vill-”

Suddenly Kankuro paused as a cold sweat fell down his brow. Kakashi’s one eye opened a bit more in interest as he looked at the sheer air that had morphed around Lei. 

What kind of change did he go through to develop such a deadly aura? There wasn’t even an ounce of chakra leaking from him, just pure killing intent that radiated off his body. 

“To answer your question, Naruko…” Kakashi spoke up, stealing the attention off of Lei before he ended up creating an issue for himself. “The villages profit off of the Chunin Exams. Money is necessary to keep the economy growing. It’s politics, not your strong suit. Don’t think too much about it.” 

Naruko frowned at his words, but nodded, eliciting a hidden smile from the Jonin. 

The Third Hokage sent a nod Kakashi’s way, one he returned before the old man looked back toward the group of Examinees, waiting to see if any of them had a question. 

Once ten seconds of silence passed, the Hokage spoke once more. 

“If there are no more questions, then I wish all of you luck on the exam, and remember, fight hard, your villages depend on you.” With those final words, Hayate Gekko stepped forward and bowed to the Hokage.

“Lord Third, if that is all, I would like to begin proctoring the Preliminary phase of these exams.”

“Of course.” Lord Third waved his hand, granting the Jonin permission. 

Hayate lowered his head before standing and facing the Examinees. 

“Alright, we’re going to begin the next phase of the exam. Before that, you must know what it is that you’ll be doing.” 

Kakashi’s eyes gained an interested glint as all the Examinees leaned forward in anticipation. 

“All of you will be engaging in randomized single combat. The winner will advance to the Final Exam. The rules of this portion are simple. Fight to win, a knockout or surrender grants victory. Killing is allowed and will grant victory, but I will try to step in if I see things may go that far. Any questions?”

“None.” 

Kakashi’s eye narrowed at Gaara who had answered with a malicious look on his face. 

He was gonna be trouble…

With Gaara answering for everyone, Hayate continued. 

“Well then, proceed into the stands above with your Jonin Senseis. Only then will I announce the first fight.”

— Lei —

We heeded Hayate’s order and a frown split my lips as I glanced at the back of Gaara’s head. He really wanted to kill someone, and I could practically see it in his eyes. I don’t know if he killed anyone during the Forest of Death, but getting his ass whooped by me probably added some fire to his belly. 

“Kakashi-sensei…” Naruko frowned, addressing the approaching sensei.

“I know that the rules don’t suit you Naruko, but understand that this world isn’t fair.” Kakashi said to her, dropping a hand on her head. Naruko stayed quiet, and I could tell that the whole killing thing for the sake of bettering everyone’s villages was getting to her. 

But that was literally the job description of being a shinobi. 

It was part of the reason why I wanted to change the way this world worked and usher in a new age of peace and prosperity. 

Kakashi locked eyes with Satsuki for a moment, and I could tell the two were having a silent conversation with their eyes alone. Then the Copy Ninja looked at me. 

“I heard about your work in the Forest, good job.” He said, and I paused at that.

Was killing my friends and cutting down a spy nothing more than work in his eyes?

Now that I think about it…that’s exactly what it was. I had a job to do, nothing more, nothing less. 

My team and I made our way up to the platform and waited for everyone else to. I glanced down and saw Gramps, the Village Elders, and a few ANBU were still down below. Were they going to watch the Preliminary round? 

My question was answered when Hayate spoke again. 

“The first round will be-” We all looked up at the screen above that began randomizing through the names. As the randomization stopped and two names were selected, my body froze. A wide grin tugged at my lips, and my blood boiled.

Rock Lee vs Neji Hyuga

What are the odds?!

— Chapter End —

Author’s Note: Shorter chapter than I would like, I know, but I honestly saw no better time to end this chapter. Rock Lee vs Neji, you don’t know how hyped I was when I put this into a randomizer and actually got these two fighting. The downside is they were the first fight, but I decided against moving them to later on, as much as it would have helped in making things smoother. 

Spider on Thursday

Beta-reader: @Dragonboy1