Industrious - Chapter 60 (Patreon)

The silence in the office was suffocating.

That said, the Hokage certainly didn't seem bothered by it. The old man was sitting back, slightly reclined in his chair as he stared off thoughtfully into the middle distance as he puffed on his pipe. Lazy clouds of smoke wafted from the ninja's mouth as I occupied myself with pondering the health implications of a man of his age consuming so much tobacco.

Normally, I'd automatically regard it as a bad idea, but I'd never actually tested whatever variant of the plant grew here in this world. Nor had I conducted any examinations of the long-term effects of chakra reinforcement on lungs contaminated with tobacco smoke. It was likely unhealthy to some degree, as I can't imagine a scenario where breathing in those chemicals had even a neutral effect on one's health, however the degree-

“The training ground will have to be decommissioned,” Sarutobi spoke suddenly, his tone as languid and calm as if he were discussing the weather.

Beside me, Kushina twitched in her chair.

“Although Kushina is well aware of this, young Kotaro, I find it unlikely that it would come up in a casual conversation, so I will impart this lesson to you. The training grounds of Konoha are carefully selected to fit within a framework of natural energy which the First Hokage constructed when he grew the trees which give this village its name.”

He paused to allow that to sink in.

Reaching out to tap his pipe empty in an ashtray, the old ninja took his time reloading it. “The web of natural energy, when exposed to suitably large or powerful displays of chakra, takes time to heal and recover. Even now, we are only just bringing back into rotation three training grounds which were similarly damaged during the confrontation with the Kyuubi no Kitsune.”

His fingers snapped and the bowl of the pipe began to smolder.

 “Of course, that ignores the other reasons why I called you both here,” Sarutobi stated with a long sigh before taking an equally-lengthy draw on his pipe. “Such as the wave of panic your clashing chakra sent the village into. It was a comparatively mild one, this is true, but incredibly bothersome to deal with all the same. More problematic will be the subsequent wave of intense scrutiny and curiosity by both foreign powers and domestic ones over the battle.”

Finally, the Sandaime looked at us and it was clear the old man was not happy. “You are banned from ever sparring against each other within the boundaries of the village for the remaining tenure of my time as Hokage. Do you understand? “

We both nodded, releasing quick one-word answers. “Yes.”

Hiruzen nodded, accepting the agreement. “If, for some reason impossible for me to foresee, you must schedule a rematch, you will apply in writing at least a week in advance. After which, I will call you both before me, again, and you will explain why you feel this course of events is necessary before you are escorted well outside the village and supervised as you settle the matter. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” we both stated, the reply as firm as the question.

The Hokage nodded, exhaling a cloud of smoke as he did so, then looked to Uchiha Itachi, who stood behind us, hands crossed behind his back. “Now, I am given to understand that Kushina had been... let us use the word 'pestering' you, young Kotaro, for a sparring match for some days previously. Is that correct?”

I nodded and spoke singularly this time. “Yes, Lord Hokage. Lady Uzumaki herself informed me that, after my numerous escapes, she sought out Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi in order to, 'shake the rust off.'”

The old man's eyes flicked up towards the Uchiha standing behind us before nodding in confirmation of my words. “Given these circumstances and your relative youth, I am willing to be broadly lenient regarding any potential punishment that results from this. Though, I would like to ask what your specific motivation for deciding to turn and face Kushina today was?”

 “Admittedly, it was partially a result of frustration relating to her constant pursuit of me and my inability to leave the shop to accomplish anything,” I explained, then paused for effect. “However, the larger part of my motivation came from the desire to display good faith in my attempts to keep up the promise I had given you.”

Sarutobi's eyes narrowed, though without any hostility. Instead, with a cloud of confusion over his otherwise neutral expression, he replied. “Refresh my memory, young Kotaro. I do not recall any such promise that would involve the near-total destruction of one of the training grounds or the panicking of my people.”

“You had asked that I be ready and able to subdue Kokoro should she not be willing or able to control herself,” I reminded him, and understanding bloomed over his face. “Given her unwillingness to cease pursuing me, I made the judgment call to seize upon the opportunity to fight the closest thing in Konoha to a chakra beast.”

I did not smile as Kushina choked on her own spit.

Hiruzen and I stared each other down as he narrowed his gaze at me once again.

Silently, the seconds ticked by.

One of the Hokage's cheeks twitched.

Slowly, the old man held up a single finger. “You will find that such an excuse will work precisely once, young man. That said, should you feel the need to test your abilities to keep any further 'promises' you feel you have made to me, you will inform me of such beforehand, am I clear?”

“As crystal, sir,” I nodded.

Sarutobi cast me one last lingering look before nodding and leaning back again. Waving his hand with fanned fingers, he ushered me off. “You may go, with the understanding that I expect a full write-up of the abilities of those blades you displayed and a quote on the feasibility of producing more.”

Not allowing my gratitude to show, I stood and bowed the appropriate depth. “I will have them on your desk by the end of the week, Lord Hokage.”

The old man grunted and I turned to excuse myself from the room.

As it closed, I heard Kushina's belated squawk of outrage.

…

With the door securely shut and a nod from Itachi, Sarutobi put his pipe aside and exhaled one last cloud of smoke before turning back to the two others in the room. “Now then, your estimation of his level?”

“Jounin,” Kushina stated before Itachi could speak up with a more carefully-worded reply. “I'd nick him a few points here and there for using his swords to do the heavy lifting, but it's obvious that he can both do it himself and can't readily be disarmed. That said, I am rusty as hell and he's still pretty green.”

The Hokage looked to Itachi, silently requesting his own assessment.

“I largely agree with Kushina,” Itachi began, then hesitated for a moment. “With the proviso that he is not as inexperienced as she believes. Her assessment was quite thorough, but had an overly-narrow focus on high-intensity physical combat, ninjutsu, and genjutsu.”

The redheaded mother cocked her head at him as he stepped forward. “As opposed to?”

“Perceiving an overall tactical and strategic grasp and to what degree he's willing to implement them.” Itachi reached up and scratched at his chin. “Unless something much different happened in the first minute or so of the fight, what I saw was that he only seemed willing to react to your probes and attacks. It was extremely rare that he made any of his own.”

Kushina blinked as Sarutobi adopted a thoughtful mien.

“I must be rustier than I thought,” the Uzumaki clan head mumbled, scowling, her mind obviously elsewhere as she reviewed the fight. “Damn.”

“So he's implicitly stronger than what he was willing to show off,” Sarutobi stated. “Moreover, what he did show us was a conscious decision on his part.”

Itachi nodded shortly. “For whatever it is worth, I believe him when he says the fight was to determine the effectiveness of his countermeasures. I don't believe he wasn't catering, on some level, to a desire to react to Lady Kushina's provocations, but the tactics and strategies he used were too refined to be off-the-cuff decisions on his part.”

Sarutobi's fingers drummed on the desk for a moment before he gave into temptation and reached for his pipe. “I'll be blunt, then. Do you think this display is a threat?”

“Kid's not the type,” Kushina responded instantly, shaking her head..

Itachi was more sedate in his consideration. “I have observed that people often display surprising and unexpected qualities when pushed, especially should they perceive their families are in danger.”

Both Kushina and Hiruzen frowned at that.

Letting out another stream of smoke, the old ninja hummed. “I can't say I particularly enjoy or condone showing off like that in order to make a point, but it's reassuring to determine that the boy does have levers. A calculated reveal of his abilities like this is an encouraging sign when one considers the ties he's making with those girls.”

Kushina's eyes widened and she snapped her fingers violently. “Dammit! And that was the whole reason for doing this, ya'know!”

Sarutobi put on his most attentive face and raised his eyebrows. “Oh really? I'm quite interested to hear your excuse, Kushina, considering that such an inexperienced young man had such a multilayered reasoning behind his own.”

“Ah...” Kushina blushed, looking left and right for an escape route. “Well, obviously I wanted to test his skills like this! So I could report to you my suspicions that he'd reached jounin level!”

Sarutobi smiled at the redhead woman. “As I just told Kotaro, Kushina... everybody gets one. You used yours up quite a few decades ago. Now, if you would, the truth?”

Kushina clicked her tongue and clenched a fist. “Damn.” She sighed. “Eh, I was gonna' see if I could get Narumi a spot in his little harem.”

Itachi released an amused grunt.

Hiruzen's expression was skeptical, at best. “Putting aside the fact that I do not believe either party would take well to the announcement that you're invoking some ancient clan tradition now that Kotaro has matched you in combat, I believe Narumi has her own love interest at this point.”

Kushina visibly rolled her eyes. “Look, the Sakurai kid is fine, and it's great that he's going medic, but-”

“Fastest examination pass since Tsunade put the tests in place,” Hiruzen commented.

“-Huh, really?” Kushina blinked, cocking her head, then shaking it. “But he's got his heart set on Inoichi's brat and there's no chemistry. Believe me, I've seen it ya'know. Besides, how did you know how I was going to engage the two of them?”

Itachi, surprisingly, spoke up in a tired and resigned voice. “Lady Kushina, every clan has something of a rule like that. It may be a shinobi tradition to respect strength of arms, but actually invoking the tradition seldom reaps good rewards.”

“Sounds like a story, there,” Kushina noted.

 Sarutobi cleared his throat, saving his subordinate from the coming inquisition. “Perhaps another time, Kushina. We still need to outline the punishment you'll be facing for this incident. I'm currently thinking of a round of testing and then a return to active duty just in time to chaperon the political delegations for the chunin exams.”

The redhead jerked, her expression almost painful. “Grk!”

…

Yakumo stared down the masked hunter-nin as the mirrors of ice formed around them.

The voice that spoke was androgynous. “I would rather not kill you, but shinobi combat can be unpredictable. You should surrender.”

Pulling free another senbon, the genjutsu specialist flexed her arm as she firmed her grip on the odd blade sitting in her hand. The entire length was studded with teeth, giving the thing a wicked and serrated-looking appearance. Feeling her chakra flow through it, she shifted into the careful and watchful stance her lover had taught her.

“I would advise the same.”

 There was a long moment of silence between the two before the masked ninja's hands flew out in quick patterns.

Yakumo matched them, her blade skillfully deflected each and every senbon coming her way; the sound of steel hitting steel like the harshest of rains. In the blink of an eye, the Mist-nin charged, coming in close-quarters combat with a single needle held out to block against the coming blow. Their other hand, though-

Yakumo couldn't identify the rapid series of seals, but disengaged as soon as they began.

Instead of an immediate jutsu, though, the ninja leaped backwards and disappeared into a mirror, only to-

Instinct saved her, Yakumo's body contorting in a way most would find impossible as she spun out of the death-trap of a twin-senbon pierce aimed at vital organs. Her hand hit the rough ground before launching her into the air to land on the mirror behind her briefly before she bounced off into the clearing.

The hunter-nin slowly turned, looking at the coating of paint slashed across their wrists, following the trail of metal-gray color across to their prey. “Was that supposed to accomplish something?”

Instead of replying, Yakumo merely touched the tip of her blade to the line of paint, a few drops of it still dripping from one of the teeth as she focused her chakra into the instrument and through the liquid medium.

The Mist-nin tensed, then blinked as they looked down at their wrists again, seeing a long chain trailing the distance now as thick manacles were clasped over their forearms.

“You took me by surprise and destroyed the painting I was working on,” Yakumo stated evenly, irritation leaking into her voice. “That took quite a bit of time and effort. I will have you repay me.”

Haku grunted as he pulled against the chains, his mind racing even as the girl opposite him spun her own set of one-handed seals before-

He launched himself forward instead of testing the sturdiness of the chains in attempting to run away, as she'd most likely wanted him to. A mirror formed just as she finished her last seal, the name of the technique echoing out as pulses of lightning ran down the length of the binding on him. His bloodline took the brunt of the damage, the mirror shattering even as he teleported to another and used the effect to sunder the-

Haku looked down, seeing the impossible chains still connected to the Konoha girl.

“Like I said, I'd advise the same.”

…

Uchiha Obito really wanted to know how it had come to this as he crossed swords with the bandage-faced jounin, the steel-on-steel rasp sending up a stream of sparks even as water and fire jutsu met to further bathe the area in chakra-laden steam and mist.

“That's a good sword,” The Demon of the Mist growled approvingly.

“Thanks,” Obito grunted out, his sharingan spinning wildly even as he realized that the figure he was fighting was a clone. With a burst of power, he cut through his opponent's weapon, the sword biting deep into the man before he dissolved into water.

Even without any overt warning, Obito triggered the body flicker he'd been holding in reserve and snapped out of the way of the killing blow the real (?) Zabuza attempted to land.

Missing entirely, Zabuza chuckled while keeping Obito at the edge of his vision. The Uchiha, privately, reflected that smart opponents were a pain in the ass to fight. Normally, someone would have made eye contact with him by now.

“Really, I mean it though. That's a nice sword. Where'd you pick it up?” Zabuza pressed.

“Eh, I know a guy who knows a guy,” Obito dismissed.

 “Maybe one of my brats will capture one of yours and we can trade for the smith's name. I have my eye on Kubikirihocho, but I've been trying to get my kids to pick up the blade, too.” Zabuza's absent comments reflected the natural ease he exuded on a battlefield.

Obito sighed. “Look, if you want the sword, that's between you and that dipshit nuke-nin. You don't really want to protect the bridge. Why not just dogpile the bastard and take your sword and leave?”

Zabuza chuckled. “Sorry, but one of my kids, he's a real bleeding-heart type. I keep telling him not to listen to the sob stories, but...”

Obito grunted, he'd been trying to keep Naruko away from the villagers for just that reason. He could break the news well after they were away from things. Then she could blame him and get over it instead of fouling up the works. “So I guess there's no avoiding this, then?”

“Fraid not,” Zabuza laughed again, raising the double-thick katana before tucking it to the length of his arm and adhering it with chakra to roll out a series of handsigns.

The worst part, Obito reflected as the massive water dragon bore down on him, is that he won't even use anything new. I've already got, like, three versions of this stupid jutsu.

~~~

As promised, the next chapter of the OG Industrious. I think I'll be able to get out another chapter of Industrious, this time the Marvel variant, next week.

For now, though, content yourselves with the fallout of Kotaro's fight in Konoha and the continuing combat in Wave. Next chapter of this story will feature the conclusion of the Wave arc which... three chapters is pretty good for that, I think.

Otherwise, look forward to a chapter of Where Your God Is over the weekend.

Until then, rock on, stay awesome, and thanks again for all the support!

...also, Patreon kept poking me about setting up a yearly subscription service? Dunno if anyone is interested in that, but it's 10% off for the price you'd pay on a monthly basis. Don't sweat it if you aren't, though. I'm just happy all of you are here.