Reborn as a Yamanaka Genius
Author: TheDreamofSomeday
Chapter 42: Team Tsunade VS Team Minato
[
: 3974 Words]
---
I set the pen down, careful not to smudge the ink.
The first Chapter of
rested on the desk before me, pristine and perfect. Around me, newly minted Genin filled the academy room with the sound of shallow laughter and shallow nerves.
It wasn’t hard to understand. Today was the day they’d be assigned to teams that would either help them grow—
—or get them killed.
"Are you going to show us now," Shizune asked, "or are you expecting us to beg?"
I tapped the pen once against my lips. "I mean, if begging’s on the table, I won’t stop you."
She didn’t dignify that with a retort. Instead, she reached into her ninja pouch and produced a vial filled with senbon soaked in a viscous, yellowish liquid that clung to the glass like oil to skin.
"Did I tell you about the new poison I’ve been working on?" she asked sweetly, twisting the cap loose. "Extreme diarrhea, nausea, and something I’ve decided to name
I slid the manga across the desk. She grinned, victorious. The bottle was capped, and the senbon returned to the shadows of her bag.
"
?" she said, flipping open the first page. "That wasn’t so hard."
Ignoring her, I sent a portion of my consciousness into my mind palace, simulating a spar against Tsunade only using medical ninjutsu.
Shisui leaned in from her left. His eyes narrowed in curiosity, and he immediately leaned in.
They didn’t know it yet, but they were witnessing a cultural revolution.
had always been one of my favorite anime—Gon, Killua, Chrollo, Kurapika... the world building, the Nen system, the tension, friendship, and action. I liked just about everything about it.
And after the runaway success of
and now
the epiphany was obvious.
If the gods wouldn’t give this world manga, I would.
"What is this...?" Shisui’s voice drifted, cut off as Shizune flipped the page. His brows knit together.
Instead of a traditional black and white manga, the pages were filled with color that bled across the page—alive and almost breathing.
My God given talent truly was a wondrous thing. And I, ever the humble servant, would use it to become the wealthiest man alive.
Sending a small prayer of thanks to Apollo, I answered.
"I call it... Manga."
The pen spun twice between my fingers before vanishing into the storage seal at the center of my right palm.
Seals were a miraculous thing.
But ten months under Tsunade’s brutal guidance had opened the gates. Access to the Senju archives—particularly the Uzumaki Fuinjutsu texts buried inside—had reshaped my entire understanding of what was possible.
I was already the creator of the two-way storage seal—practically a wartime miracle.
But then I stumbled across
n entire volume dedicated to the concept. Naturally, I memorized it, refined it, and built something better.
Now, on the palm of my hand, sat a triangular-shaped seal the size of a penny, painted in white ink,
imperceptible to the naked eye.
And the best part? Its storage capacity was tied directly to my chakra amount, that was coincidentally growing daily.
Which means—
Limitless storage. In the palm of my hand.
Yes, go on—sing my praises.
"...and that is?" Shizune asked, brow arched as she nodded to the book in her hands.
"Another money-making scheme," Shisui cut in before I could answer. His voice was flat, though his eyes had yet to leave the pages.
"
~ Don’t be jealous," I said lightly.
I turned back to Shizune. "But... I suppose you
call it that."
She rolled her eyes. I winked.
"Shisui Uchiha. Satoshi Yamanaka. Shizune Katō."
The instructor’s voice cut through the classroom hum. He glanced up from his clipboard, eyes scanning the sea of bodies until he found us.
"Congrats again to Satoshi and Shisui. First and second in the Academy’s history."
The murmur picked up again, but we ignored it and offered matching nods to the instructor.
Our grades were to be expected. I was, well, the best, and Shisui was competitive, so anything less than first and second would have been an error in their files.
"You two—alongside Shizune—are assigned to Team Seven," he continued. "And your Jonin Instructor is—"
The door slid open.
A presence entered, cutting the instructor off.
It was a woman with blond hair pulled into twin pigtails. Her forehead protector fitted like a crown. And her flak jacket was worn loose across her shoulders like she didn’t even want to be bothered with it.
She didn’t acknowledge the teacher so much as permit his existence with a nod.
Her eyes swept the room. Quick, exact, unhesitating.
They found us.
"Let’s go."
That was all. Two words. She turned on her heel and walked out of the room, not bothering to check if we would follow.
For a second, silence clung to the room like a breath held too long.
Then, chaos.
"Was that... Tsunade-sama?"
"No way. She’s retired. She’s—"
"She’s been teaching them in private this whole time, you moron. That’s why they skip class all the time."
"Holy, shit."
"Language, Kubuki!"
"Lucky bastards."
"Hukimo! Watch your mouth, too!"
Not bothering to pay our fellow classmates any mind, Shisui and I rose in the same breath. Shizune followed a heartbeat later, handing the manga back to me.
I took it, fingers brushing the page edges once—still warm from her hands—before it vanished into the seal on my palm.
We bowed to our instructor.
Then walked through the door, side by side, into the mid-August sun.
The doors creaked shut behind us.
The last time as students.
And the first time as shinobi.
"Umm... Sensei?"
Tsunade’s heels clicked against the stone path, even and sharp.
"Yes?"
Shizune’s voice was careful. Not timid—not anymore—just measured.
"Where exactly are we going?"
She knew, though. I was fairly certain of that.
And
was where the problem lay.
We hadn’t taken the usual turn toward the Senju compound. Nor the path toward the hospital, or even the one towards my house. So that meant, we were headed towards—
"Training ground Forty-Four."
Shizune tripped. Just a hitch of the foot.
"...
she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.
It was a reasonable reaction.
Last time, we’d spent two weeks in that hellscape—living off whatever didn’t kill us first. Dodging man-sized insects and beasts with too many teeth. All while dealing with rotating poisons, Tsunade had administered like daily vitamins.
It was useful, though. Becoming immune to poisons was one of the benefits of the training.
Shisui frowned. "Why," he asked carefully, "are we going back?"
Tsunade didn’t answer. Not at first.
She just kept walking like she had somewhere better to be, and the forest was in her way.
Then, without even glancing back, she offered. "For your Genin test," and that was it. Our sensei didn’t bother providing more context and continued forward.
The three of us exchanged a glance but followed on.
I already expected something like this, so there was no surprise on my end. Even though we’ve been training with Tsunade for months now, every Genin team in the anime took some form of a test after graduating.
[
I mentally sent to them.
The message slipped through the mental link seamlessly. I’d long since established a two-way channel of communication for our more... private chats. So instead of
it was true
[
?] Shisui shot back.
I’d long since moved past the one-way communication of
This was real telepathy now. Completely fluid and instant.
[
.]
There was silence as they waited for my follow-up. There was none.
[...
?] Shizune pressed.
[
.]
I could feel her sigh across the link, a familiar static of irritation bleeding through. I hid my grin. Didn’t want to become a senbon pincushion... again.
We quickly reached the Forest of Death’s outer perimeter. Massive metal gates circled the territory like a fortress.
Two Chunin guards straightened when they saw Tsunade. She offered a nod.
They stepped aside fast, muttering something under their breath as we passed. Sympathy, maybe. Or prayers.
The mid-day light disappeared behind us as the forest swallowed us whole.
Its name wasn’t metaphorical.
The air reeked of decay and old blood. Trees stretched high above like skyscrapers, their trunks blackened with moss and tangled vines.
The canopy blocked out the sun almost entirely, drowning the forest floor in darkness.
As we took to the trees, my mind split into two. One half maintained control over my body, while the other reached
.
My
had always been reliable. But after the spar with Daiki, I pushed it further. Refined it. Turned it into something
.
Combining the innate
my clan is known for, with my developed
provided me a 3D mental grid—a complete map of everything within an 800-meter circumference around me.
I could see
From the three-foot spider, thirty meters south. To the four human chakra signatures, 100 meters north.
[
,] I sent to the others. [
.]
[
.] Tsunade instantly replied. [
.]
My head tilted as I leapt to the next branch. The forest groaned underfoot. Vines snapped behind me.
I thought.
My brain’s thought process was many times faster than it used to be. My brain could perform thoughts and functions as fast as a high-speed computer.
And that’s without the use of the seal on my forehead.
I smiled.
As we flickered past the final row of trees and dropped into the clearing, my suspicion was confirmed almost immediately.
"—If you just
to someone other than yourself for once—"
"I
listen. You were just wrong."
"Oh, I’m wrong?
? Because the last time you followed your gut, we nearly walked into a trap."
"Key word:
. We didn’t because I held it."
That’s not how handling it works, idiot. You could’ve gotten us killed if Minato-sensei hadn’t been there."
"
the idiot? I dare you to say that to my face, Ba-ka-shi!"
"You. Are. An. Idiot. Need me to spell it out for you, too?"
Two boys stood nose to nose.
One wore a silver mop of hair and a mask that covered most of his face.
The other had messy black hair, a snarl that could kill, and orange goggles clamped over his eyes like they were the only thing holding his restraint together.
Off to the side stood a girl who looked caught somewhere between intervening and pretending not to exist. The violet markings on her cheeks twitched with every shouted word.
"That’s
, you two," came a calm voice. It wasn’t loud, but somehow it was sharp enough to cut through their tension.
The boys held the stare for one more beat. Then Kakashi turned away first. He glanced our direction, clocked us, and clearly didn’t like what he saw.
With my enhanced hearing courtesy of Wind Sensing, I picked up on his muttering.
"
.
."
The Jonin sighed but turned towards us. His chakra pulsed bright and warm, like lightning wrapped in sunlight. Minato’s gaze swept across me, Shisui, and Shizune in half a second, then a smile as warm as the sun lit up the forest.
"Lady Tsunade," he greeted, lifting a hand in an easy wave. "I see you brought your team."
Tsunade didn’t break stride. We followed her like the good little shadows we were.
"Hope we didn’t keep you waiting," she said.
Her gaze flicked towards Obito, who seemed to do a complete 180. He was now juggling apples in front of Rin. One fell on his forehead. Rin laughed into her hand. He struck a triumphant pose anyway.
Minato glanced over, signed through a grin, and ruffled his hair.
"Nope," he said. "Right on time."
He smiled down at us. "And if the rumors are true, you two beat my Academy record. Impressive."
I stepped forward and held out my right hand.
"Satoshi Yamanaka. Future mass murderer. Pleasure’s all mine."
His smile faltered for a fraction of a second. His eyes flicked to my palm. Saw the nearly invisible seal. Raised a brow.
"Don’t pay him any mind," Tsunade said flatly, chopping her hand down on my head—
winced, already directing chakra to heal the forming lump.
From the corner of my eye, Shisui’s shoulders bounced.
"I don’t want to waste you and your team’s time. You just got back from a mission the other day, right—," Minato nodded. "—In that case, we can start when you’re ready."
"...Right." Minato, who I assumed was still contemplating the seal on my palm—that or my introduction—was quick on the recovery. "In that case. Kakashi. Rin. Obito. Over here, please."
Team Minato, for all their faults, responded to his request like true shinobi. It didn’t take but a second for them to stand beside their Sensei, sizing the three of us up.
? I smiled, noticing Rin’s more than obvious glances at Tsunade.
She was all big-eyed with a subtle blush.
"
," Minato said, motioning towards us, "is Lady Tsunade’s Genin team. And you’re going to spar against them. Team format style."
I offered a lazy two-finger salute.
Rin gave a small, polite smile back. She looked like the kind of girl who apologized when someone else bumped into her.
Obito, meanwhile, squinted like he couldn’t quite figure out what I was. His gaze flicked to Shisui with something resembling recognition.
Kakashi, on the other hand, scrutinized us from head to toe: Past Shizune’s sleeves that extended over her hands, flowing in the wind, to Shisui’s Uchiha crest over his heart, and then to the tanto sheathed over his back.
Finally, he landed on me.
His stare started at my collar first. High, pressed, black. Then down, over the clean taper of my shirt, the crease in my tactical pants, the way the fabric met my boots without a wrinkle. Shin-high. Glossed black. Reinforced toe. Hidden blades in both.
Everything black.
Everything sealed.
[
I sent, slipping my hands into my pockets. [
.]
His eyes flicked up as his eyebrows rose in shock. He opened his mouth to speak, but Minato’s voice cut in before they could escape.
"All right," the man of sunshine said, clapping his hands together once. "First team to fully incapacitate the other wins. Standard rules. No permanent injuries. You’re free to use whatever you’ve been taught.
His grin widened. "Any questions?"
Obito gave a thumbs up. "Don’t worry, Shisui," he said, voice loud enough to carry. "We’ll go easy on you. I know you’re a genius and all, but you’re still a kid. You know how it is."
Kakashi did a good job restraining himself at Obito’s words.
Shisui blinked once. "Thank you, Obito-san."
I thought, amused.
Tsunade now stood beside Minato off the field. His team, now on the opposite side of the clearing, shifted into formation.
Kakashi was slightly ahead. Rin was behind him, and Obito was flanked out wide. Not a bad spread. Defensive, with flexibility to adjust.
It was smart.
Too bad it wouldn’t help.
Shizune watched them from our back. Shisui’s fingers flexed once to my left. I exhaled through my nose.
Minato raised his hand. "On my count."
He paused. The clearing held its breath.
"Three."
Shizune’s eyes sharpened.
"Two."
Shisui’s stance shifted.
"One."
I slide one foot back.
"Begin!"
Before Team Minato could react, Shisui and I were already moving.
Our hands weaved through seals like we’d practiced this jutsu a thousand times. It was a blur of motion, like muscle memory ingrained into our DNA, and it ended with us inhaling together, lungs filling in unison.
Chakra gathered at the base of my spine, curling forward through my gut like a storm winding tighter. I compressed it, twisted it, shaped it into something
The air in my chest shifted as the nature change took hold. Wind chakra, sharpened and compacted, carving its way into my lungs as though preparing to be weaponized.
Beside me, Shisui was already molding fire.
I could sense it, his chakra shifting in temperature and tone, growing more violent by the second. I was aligning mine to his, not the other way around, because he trusted me to catch it.
Kakashi moved first. Quick, as expected.
Four shuriken spun through the air in staggered formation, aimed clean toward our hands and torsos.
Unfortunately for him, Shizune was quick, too.
Her hand snapped forward and released four senbon with precise counter-angles. The
of steel rang out across the clearing, and all eight projectiles dropped to the dirt.
That probably should have been Obito and Rin’s cue to act. Maybe pivot, maybe retaliate, maybe do anything at all.
But they hesitated for a beat too long.
Shisui and I exhaled together, and with that breath, we gave the forest its first glimpse of hell.
!
The resulting combined jutsu
.
Wind-fed flame, and flame consumed air. The collusion created a vortex of fire so wide it couldn’t have been mistaken for a natural disaster.
It spiraled upward, climbing through the trees like it meant to burn the sky itself. Branches cracked and curled. Leaves ignited midair. The air turned to ash beneath its spin.
"What in the actual fuc—" Obito couldn’t even finish his sentence.
The words vanished behind the roar of wind and combustion.
Together, our jutsus merged into a single phenomenon. A spiraling column of flame and pressure, howling with heat, chewing through the clearing with the hunger of something alive.
It didn’t just scorch; it
.
The outer winds snapped at bark and branches like invisible blades, and anything that wasn’t anchored down was yanked from the ground and thrown into the inferno.
Every breath in the area became harder to take.
The temperature had jumped from hot to blistering in seconds, and the air warped around us with visible heatwaves. Even I could feel sweat bead down from my neck.
Obito’s scream came from somewhere near the edge of the storm.
"You’re gonna burn the whole forest down—
! It’s hot! Dammit!"
Rin yelped as she lost her footing. A twisting vine invisible via genjutsu snagged her ankle, and she went down
but the flames didn’t reach her.
A wall rose between her and the fire.
The ground cracked open, and a wide slab of solid stone earth surged upward, tall enough to block the tornado’s approach, reinforced by three snarling dog-heads carved into the front.
Summoned earth, reactive and immediate: Kakashi’s work.
The inferno met the wall a heartbeat later.
The sound that followed was deafening.
A shockwave burst outward from the point of impact, flattening branches, shaking the forest floor, and hurling the nearest underbrush backward like it had been struck by an explosion.
Flame splashed against the earthen barrier, spilling around its sides, licking the air like it was testing the limits of its prison.
But the wall held.
.
Smoke poured upward in thick black ribbons in an oppressive cloud blanketing the space.
The fire began to break apart at the edges, losing coherence as the oxygen thinned. And through it all, the scent of burning wood and smoldering grass hung heavy in the air.
The smoke hadn’t settled. Not fully.
Which meant it was still mine to use.
I moved through it like water through cracks, soundless, fast, pressed low to the ground.
Obito was hunched behind a tree with Rin. Shielding her. Or maybe hiding. Either way, they weren’t moving. They hadn’t seen me.
My palm flared with chakra.
The seal in the center responded.
A whisper of motion, and my tanto appeared in my grip.
I pivoted around the tree.
The smoke thinned just enough for Rin to see me, and for her eyes to go wide.
"Obito!"
Her shout tore through the haze, and for whatever reason, she shoved him—roughly, without hesitation—out of my path.
Obito tumbled to the side.
And Rin took his place.
Too late to pull back. Too late to redirect.
My chakra-enhanced tanto carried through.
The blade met her neck with a sickening ease.
It sank
.
And she dropped.
Obito’s scream was not the kind of thing you recover from.
It came from somewhere far below the ribs, a sound dragged up from the gut, and the rage in it wasn’t clean.
It was wild. Messy. Unfiltered. It was grief before it could name itself.
His kunai was in his hand before he finished screaming.
It swung at my head in a wide, furious arc.
I deflected it with a flick of the tanto, then flickered back, hopping out of range. I spared the faintest flicker towards his eyes.
"Congratulations," I said.
His snark cracked something open in his throat. "Shut the hell up!"
He dropped to his knees beside Rin, hands pressing uselessly at the wound in her neck, which wasn’t clotting, wasn’t slowing, wasn’t survivable.
The blood was too much. The angle was too deep. And Obito knew it.
He broke.
"Minato-sensei!" he shouted, twisting toward the trees. "Help! Rin—Rin, she’s—she’s bleeding! Please, please, you have to help! She’s gonna die—don’t do this, Rin, stay awake! Just stay awake, okay?!
!"
His voice cracked. His hands were shaking.
And then, just as quickly, the panic was replaced by the pain.
"Ah—!"
He flinched, clutching his ribs. A tremor shook through him.
"Ka-Kakashi?" he rasped, turning his head. "What are you—no. No. Rin! We have to help Rin. I saw it—he stabbed her—he—she’s bleeding out, I saw it, I—"
His voice was starting to rise again. Words collided in his throat.
"Minato—sensei! Where—"
"Obito."
A soft voice. Familiar.
A hand brushed his cheek.
Gentle.
Anchoring.
"Obito, it’s okay," Rin said. "I’m fine. I’m right here. See?"
She smiled, small and steady.
Obito blinked.
His breath hitched.
"We were caught in a genjutsu," she explained. "It wasn’t real. None of it. You’re okay. I’m okay. Please—just breathe."
His eyes roamed her face, like he needed confirmation from every angle before believing it.
"Genjutsu?" he whispered. "We were in... wait. My vision—why is everything so... clear?"
There was a beat of silence.
Then Rin tilted her head.
"You really can’t tell?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"It’s because you awakened the Sharingan, you idiot," Kakashi said. "And now they’re gone, likely trapping the forest."
Obito froze.
Blinked.
Then again.
Then a third time, as the truth fully landed.
And then—
"I did WHAT?!"
-000-
Hundreds of yards away, perched high atop the branch of an ancient tree, I let out a soft, amused breath. Despite the distance, their conversation was as clear as day.
Part one of
was complete.
A pen and a little black book appeared in my hand. Flipping it open, I began drawing.
Now... onto Part Two.
: 3974 Words]
---
I set the pen down, careful not to smudge the ink.
The first Chapter of
rested on the desk before me, pristine and perfect. Around me, newly minted Genin filled the academy room with the sound of shallow laughter and shallow nerves.
It wasn’t hard to understand. Today was the day they’d be assigned to teams that would either help them grow—
—or get them killed.
"Are you going to show us now," Shizune asked, "or are you expecting us to beg?"
I tapped the pen once against my lips. "I mean, if begging’s on the table, I won’t stop you."
She didn’t dignify that with a retort. Instead, she reached into her ninja pouch and produced a vial filled with senbon soaked in a viscous, yellowish liquid that clung to the glass like oil to skin.
"Did I tell you about the new poison I’ve been working on?" she asked sweetly, twisting the cap loose. "Extreme diarrhea, nausea, and something I’ve decided to name
I slid the manga across the desk. She grinned, victorious. The bottle was capped, and the senbon returned to the shadows of her bag.
"
?" she said, flipping open the first page. "That wasn’t so hard."
Ignoring her, I sent a portion of my consciousness into my mind palace, simulating a spar against Tsunade only using medical ninjutsu.
Shisui leaned in from her left. His eyes narrowed in curiosity, and he immediately leaned in.
They didn’t know it yet, but they were witnessing a cultural revolution.
had always been one of my favorite anime—Gon, Killua, Chrollo, Kurapika... the world building, the Nen system, the tension, friendship, and action. I liked just about everything about it.
And after the runaway success of
and now
the epiphany was obvious.
If the gods wouldn’t give this world manga, I would.
"What is this...?" Shisui’s voice drifted, cut off as Shizune flipped the page. His brows knit together.
Instead of a traditional black and white manga, the pages were filled with color that bled across the page—alive and almost breathing.
My God given talent truly was a wondrous thing. And I, ever the humble servant, would use it to become the wealthiest man alive.
Sending a small prayer of thanks to Apollo, I answered.
"I call it... Manga."
The pen spun twice between my fingers before vanishing into the storage seal at the center of my right palm.
Seals were a miraculous thing.
But ten months under Tsunade’s brutal guidance had opened the gates. Access to the Senju archives—particularly the Uzumaki Fuinjutsu texts buried inside—had reshaped my entire understanding of what was possible.
I was already the creator of the two-way storage seal—practically a wartime miracle.
But then I stumbled across
n entire volume dedicated to the concept. Naturally, I memorized it, refined it, and built something better.
Now, on the palm of my hand, sat a triangular-shaped seal the size of a penny, painted in white ink,
imperceptible to the naked eye.
And the best part? Its storage capacity was tied directly to my chakra amount, that was coincidentally growing daily.
Which means—
Limitless storage. In the palm of my hand.
Yes, go on—sing my praises.
"...and that is?" Shizune asked, brow arched as she nodded to the book in her hands.
"Another money-making scheme," Shisui cut in before I could answer. His voice was flat, though his eyes had yet to leave the pages.
"
~ Don’t be jealous," I said lightly.
I turned back to Shizune. "But... I suppose you
call it that."
She rolled her eyes. I winked.
"Shisui Uchiha. Satoshi Yamanaka. Shizune Katō."
The instructor’s voice cut through the classroom hum. He glanced up from his clipboard, eyes scanning the sea of bodies until he found us.
"Congrats again to Satoshi and Shisui. First and second in the Academy’s history."
The murmur picked up again, but we ignored it and offered matching nods to the instructor.
Our grades were to be expected. I was, well, the best, and Shisui was competitive, so anything less than first and second would have been an error in their files.
"You two—alongside Shizune—are assigned to Team Seven," he continued. "And your Jonin Instructor is—"
The door slid open.
A presence entered, cutting the instructor off.
It was a woman with blond hair pulled into twin pigtails. Her forehead protector fitted like a crown. And her flak jacket was worn loose across her shoulders like she didn’t even want to be bothered with it.
She didn’t acknowledge the teacher so much as permit his existence with a nod.
Her eyes swept the room. Quick, exact, unhesitating.
They found us.
"Let’s go."
That was all. Two words. She turned on her heel and walked out of the room, not bothering to check if we would follow.
For a second, silence clung to the room like a breath held too long.
Then, chaos.
"Was that... Tsunade-sama?"
"No way. She’s retired. She’s—"
"She’s been teaching them in private this whole time, you moron. That’s why they skip class all the time."
"Holy, shit."
"Language, Kubuki!"
"Lucky bastards."
"Hukimo! Watch your mouth, too!"
Not bothering to pay our fellow classmates any mind, Shisui and I rose in the same breath. Shizune followed a heartbeat later, handing the manga back to me.
I took it, fingers brushing the page edges once—still warm from her hands—before it vanished into the seal on my palm.
We bowed to our instructor.
Then walked through the door, side by side, into the mid-August sun.
The doors creaked shut behind us.
The last time as students.
And the first time as shinobi.
"Umm... Sensei?"
Tsunade’s heels clicked against the stone path, even and sharp.
"Yes?"
Shizune’s voice was careful. Not timid—not anymore—just measured.
"Where exactly are we going?"
She knew, though. I was fairly certain of that.
And
was where the problem lay.
We hadn’t taken the usual turn toward the Senju compound. Nor the path toward the hospital, or even the one towards my house. So that meant, we were headed towards—
"Training ground Forty-Four."
Shizune tripped. Just a hitch of the foot.
"...
she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.
It was a reasonable reaction.
Last time, we’d spent two weeks in that hellscape—living off whatever didn’t kill us first. Dodging man-sized insects and beasts with too many teeth. All while dealing with rotating poisons, Tsunade had administered like daily vitamins.
It was useful, though. Becoming immune to poisons was one of the benefits of the training.
Shisui frowned. "Why," he asked carefully, "are we going back?"
Tsunade didn’t answer. Not at first.
She just kept walking like she had somewhere better to be, and the forest was in her way.
Then, without even glancing back, she offered. "For your Genin test," and that was it. Our sensei didn’t bother providing more context and continued forward.
The three of us exchanged a glance but followed on.
I already expected something like this, so there was no surprise on my end. Even though we’ve been training with Tsunade for months now, every Genin team in the anime took some form of a test after graduating.
[
I mentally sent to them.
The message slipped through the mental link seamlessly. I’d long since established a two-way channel of communication for our more... private chats. So instead of
it was true
[
?] Shisui shot back.
I’d long since moved past the one-way communication of
This was real telepathy now. Completely fluid and instant.
[
.]
There was silence as they waited for my follow-up. There was none.
[...
?] Shizune pressed.
[
.]
I could feel her sigh across the link, a familiar static of irritation bleeding through. I hid my grin. Didn’t want to become a senbon pincushion... again.
We quickly reached the Forest of Death’s outer perimeter. Massive metal gates circled the territory like a fortress.
Two Chunin guards straightened when they saw Tsunade. She offered a nod.
They stepped aside fast, muttering something under their breath as we passed. Sympathy, maybe. Or prayers.
The mid-day light disappeared behind us as the forest swallowed us whole.
Its name wasn’t metaphorical.
The air reeked of decay and old blood. Trees stretched high above like skyscrapers, their trunks blackened with moss and tangled vines.
The canopy blocked out the sun almost entirely, drowning the forest floor in darkness.
As we took to the trees, my mind split into two. One half maintained control over my body, while the other reached
.
My
had always been reliable. But after the spar with Daiki, I pushed it further. Refined it. Turned it into something
.
Combining the innate
my clan is known for, with my developed
provided me a 3D mental grid—a complete map of everything within an 800-meter circumference around me.
I could see
From the three-foot spider, thirty meters south. To the four human chakra signatures, 100 meters north.
[
,] I sent to the others. [
.]
[
.] Tsunade instantly replied. [
.]
My head tilted as I leapt to the next branch. The forest groaned underfoot. Vines snapped behind me.
I thought.
My brain’s thought process was many times faster than it used to be. My brain could perform thoughts and functions as fast as a high-speed computer.
And that’s without the use of the seal on my forehead.
I smiled.
As we flickered past the final row of trees and dropped into the clearing, my suspicion was confirmed almost immediately.
"—If you just
to someone other than yourself for once—"
"I
listen. You were just wrong."
"Oh, I’m wrong?
? Because the last time you followed your gut, we nearly walked into a trap."
"Key word:
. We didn’t because I held it."
That’s not how handling it works, idiot. You could’ve gotten us killed if Minato-sensei hadn’t been there."
"
the idiot? I dare you to say that to my face, Ba-ka-shi!"
"You. Are. An. Idiot. Need me to spell it out for you, too?"
Two boys stood nose to nose.
One wore a silver mop of hair and a mask that covered most of his face.
The other had messy black hair, a snarl that could kill, and orange goggles clamped over his eyes like they were the only thing holding his restraint together.
Off to the side stood a girl who looked caught somewhere between intervening and pretending not to exist. The violet markings on her cheeks twitched with every shouted word.
"That’s
, you two," came a calm voice. It wasn’t loud, but somehow it was sharp enough to cut through their tension.
The boys held the stare for one more beat. Then Kakashi turned away first. He glanced our direction, clocked us, and clearly didn’t like what he saw.
With my enhanced hearing courtesy of Wind Sensing, I picked up on his muttering.
"
.
."
The Jonin sighed but turned towards us. His chakra pulsed bright and warm, like lightning wrapped in sunlight. Minato’s gaze swept across me, Shisui, and Shizune in half a second, then a smile as warm as the sun lit up the forest.
"Lady Tsunade," he greeted, lifting a hand in an easy wave. "I see you brought your team."
Tsunade didn’t break stride. We followed her like the good little shadows we were.
"Hope we didn’t keep you waiting," she said.
Her gaze flicked towards Obito, who seemed to do a complete 180. He was now juggling apples in front of Rin. One fell on his forehead. Rin laughed into her hand. He struck a triumphant pose anyway.
Minato glanced over, signed through a grin, and ruffled his hair.
"Nope," he said. "Right on time."
He smiled down at us. "And if the rumors are true, you two beat my Academy record. Impressive."
I stepped forward and held out my right hand.
"Satoshi Yamanaka. Future mass murderer. Pleasure’s all mine."
His smile faltered for a fraction of a second. His eyes flicked to my palm. Saw the nearly invisible seal. Raised a brow.
"Don’t pay him any mind," Tsunade said flatly, chopping her hand down on my head—
winced, already directing chakra to heal the forming lump.
From the corner of my eye, Shisui’s shoulders bounced.
"I don’t want to waste you and your team’s time. You just got back from a mission the other day, right—," Minato nodded. "—In that case, we can start when you’re ready."
"...Right." Minato, who I assumed was still contemplating the seal on my palm—that or my introduction—was quick on the recovery. "In that case. Kakashi. Rin. Obito. Over here, please."
Team Minato, for all their faults, responded to his request like true shinobi. It didn’t take but a second for them to stand beside their Sensei, sizing the three of us up.
? I smiled, noticing Rin’s more than obvious glances at Tsunade.
She was all big-eyed with a subtle blush.
"
," Minato said, motioning towards us, "is Lady Tsunade’s Genin team. And you’re going to spar against them. Team format style."
I offered a lazy two-finger salute.
Rin gave a small, polite smile back. She looked like the kind of girl who apologized when someone else bumped into her.
Obito, meanwhile, squinted like he couldn’t quite figure out what I was. His gaze flicked to Shisui with something resembling recognition.
Kakashi, on the other hand, scrutinized us from head to toe: Past Shizune’s sleeves that extended over her hands, flowing in the wind, to Shisui’s Uchiha crest over his heart, and then to the tanto sheathed over his back.
Finally, he landed on me.
His stare started at my collar first. High, pressed, black. Then down, over the clean taper of my shirt, the crease in my tactical pants, the way the fabric met my boots without a wrinkle. Shin-high. Glossed black. Reinforced toe. Hidden blades in both.
Everything black.
Everything sealed.
[
I sent, slipping my hands into my pockets. [
.]
His eyes flicked up as his eyebrows rose in shock. He opened his mouth to speak, but Minato’s voice cut in before they could escape.
"All right," the man of sunshine said, clapping his hands together once. "First team to fully incapacitate the other wins. Standard rules. No permanent injuries. You’re free to use whatever you’ve been taught.
His grin widened. "Any questions?"
Obito gave a thumbs up. "Don’t worry, Shisui," he said, voice loud enough to carry. "We’ll go easy on you. I know you’re a genius and all, but you’re still a kid. You know how it is."
Kakashi did a good job restraining himself at Obito’s words.
Shisui blinked once. "Thank you, Obito-san."
I thought, amused.
Tsunade now stood beside Minato off the field. His team, now on the opposite side of the clearing, shifted into formation.
Kakashi was slightly ahead. Rin was behind him, and Obito was flanked out wide. Not a bad spread. Defensive, with flexibility to adjust.
It was smart.
Too bad it wouldn’t help.
Shizune watched them from our back. Shisui’s fingers flexed once to my left. I exhaled through my nose.
Minato raised his hand. "On my count."
He paused. The clearing held its breath.
"Three."
Shizune’s eyes sharpened.
"Two."
Shisui’s stance shifted.
"One."
I slide one foot back.
"Begin!"
Before Team Minato could react, Shisui and I were already moving.
Our hands weaved through seals like we’d practiced this jutsu a thousand times. It was a blur of motion, like muscle memory ingrained into our DNA, and it ended with us inhaling together, lungs filling in unison.
Chakra gathered at the base of my spine, curling forward through my gut like a storm winding tighter. I compressed it, twisted it, shaped it into something
The air in my chest shifted as the nature change took hold. Wind chakra, sharpened and compacted, carving its way into my lungs as though preparing to be weaponized.
Beside me, Shisui was already molding fire.
I could sense it, his chakra shifting in temperature and tone, growing more violent by the second. I was aligning mine to his, not the other way around, because he trusted me to catch it.
Kakashi moved first. Quick, as expected.
Four shuriken spun through the air in staggered formation, aimed clean toward our hands and torsos.
Unfortunately for him, Shizune was quick, too.
Her hand snapped forward and released four senbon with precise counter-angles. The
of steel rang out across the clearing, and all eight projectiles dropped to the dirt.
That probably should have been Obito and Rin’s cue to act. Maybe pivot, maybe retaliate, maybe do anything at all.
But they hesitated for a beat too long.
Shisui and I exhaled together, and with that breath, we gave the forest its first glimpse of hell.
!
The resulting combined jutsu
.
Wind-fed flame, and flame consumed air. The collusion created a vortex of fire so wide it couldn’t have been mistaken for a natural disaster.
It spiraled upward, climbing through the trees like it meant to burn the sky itself. Branches cracked and curled. Leaves ignited midair. The air turned to ash beneath its spin.
"What in the actual fuc—" Obito couldn’t even finish his sentence.
The words vanished behind the roar of wind and combustion.
Together, our jutsus merged into a single phenomenon. A spiraling column of flame and pressure, howling with heat, chewing through the clearing with the hunger of something alive.
It didn’t just scorch; it
.
The outer winds snapped at bark and branches like invisible blades, and anything that wasn’t anchored down was yanked from the ground and thrown into the inferno.
Every breath in the area became harder to take.
The temperature had jumped from hot to blistering in seconds, and the air warped around us with visible heatwaves. Even I could feel sweat bead down from my neck.
Obito’s scream came from somewhere near the edge of the storm.
"You’re gonna burn the whole forest down—
! It’s hot! Dammit!"
Rin yelped as she lost her footing. A twisting vine invisible via genjutsu snagged her ankle, and she went down
but the flames didn’t reach her.
A wall rose between her and the fire.
The ground cracked open, and a wide slab of solid stone earth surged upward, tall enough to block the tornado’s approach, reinforced by three snarling dog-heads carved into the front.
Summoned earth, reactive and immediate: Kakashi’s work.
The inferno met the wall a heartbeat later.
The sound that followed was deafening.
A shockwave burst outward from the point of impact, flattening branches, shaking the forest floor, and hurling the nearest underbrush backward like it had been struck by an explosion.
Flame splashed against the earthen barrier, spilling around its sides, licking the air like it was testing the limits of its prison.
But the wall held.
.
Smoke poured upward in thick black ribbons in an oppressive cloud blanketing the space.
The fire began to break apart at the edges, losing coherence as the oxygen thinned. And through it all, the scent of burning wood and smoldering grass hung heavy in the air.
The smoke hadn’t settled. Not fully.
Which meant it was still mine to use.
I moved through it like water through cracks, soundless, fast, pressed low to the ground.
Obito was hunched behind a tree with Rin. Shielding her. Or maybe hiding. Either way, they weren’t moving. They hadn’t seen me.
My palm flared with chakra.
The seal in the center responded.
A whisper of motion, and my tanto appeared in my grip.
I pivoted around the tree.
The smoke thinned just enough for Rin to see me, and for her eyes to go wide.
"Obito!"
Her shout tore through the haze, and for whatever reason, she shoved him—roughly, without hesitation—out of my path.
Obito tumbled to the side.
And Rin took his place.
Too late to pull back. Too late to redirect.
My chakra-enhanced tanto carried through.
The blade met her neck with a sickening ease.
It sank
.
And she dropped.
Obito’s scream was not the kind of thing you recover from.
It came from somewhere far below the ribs, a sound dragged up from the gut, and the rage in it wasn’t clean.
It was wild. Messy. Unfiltered. It was grief before it could name itself.
His kunai was in his hand before he finished screaming.
It swung at my head in a wide, furious arc.
I deflected it with a flick of the tanto, then flickered back, hopping out of range. I spared the faintest flicker towards his eyes.
"Congratulations," I said.
His snark cracked something open in his throat. "Shut the hell up!"
He dropped to his knees beside Rin, hands pressing uselessly at the wound in her neck, which wasn’t clotting, wasn’t slowing, wasn’t survivable.
The blood was too much. The angle was too deep. And Obito knew it.
He broke.
"Minato-sensei!" he shouted, twisting toward the trees. "Help! Rin—Rin, she’s—she’s bleeding! Please, please, you have to help! She’s gonna die—don’t do this, Rin, stay awake! Just stay awake, okay?!
!"
His voice cracked. His hands were shaking.
And then, just as quickly, the panic was replaced by the pain.
"Ah—!"
He flinched, clutching his ribs. A tremor shook through him.
"Ka-Kakashi?" he rasped, turning his head. "What are you—no. No. Rin! We have to help Rin. I saw it—he stabbed her—he—she’s bleeding out, I saw it, I—"
His voice was starting to rise again. Words collided in his throat.
"Minato—sensei! Where—"
"Obito."
A soft voice. Familiar.
A hand brushed his cheek.
Gentle.
Anchoring.
"Obito, it’s okay," Rin said. "I’m fine. I’m right here. See?"
She smiled, small and steady.
Obito blinked.
His breath hitched.
"We were caught in a genjutsu," she explained. "It wasn’t real. None of it. You’re okay. I’m okay. Please—just breathe."
His eyes roamed her face, like he needed confirmation from every angle before believing it.
"Genjutsu?" he whispered. "We were in... wait. My vision—why is everything so... clear?"
There was a beat of silence.
Then Rin tilted her head.
"You really can’t tell?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"It’s because you awakened the Sharingan, you idiot," Kakashi said. "And now they’re gone, likely trapping the forest."
Obito froze.
Blinked.
Then again.
Then a third time, as the truth fully landed.
And then—
"I did WHAT?!"
-000-
Hundreds of yards away, perched high atop the branch of an ancient tree, I let out a soft, amused breath. Despite the distance, their conversation was as clear as day.
Part one of
was complete.
A pen and a little black book appeared in my hand. Flipping it open, I began drawing.
Now... onto Part Two.