>>6046571
“Iruka-sensei knows,” you tell her, “as does my own former teacher. One student in our class figured it out, and another probably suspects but has the good sense not to say anything.”

You leave your team out deliberately – not so much a ‘lie’ since they were in the room when you received the initial orders, but it’s a piece of information that Hana-sensei doesn’t need to know right now. Knowing any of those specific names isn’t just more information than she needs to know, it’s information that she couldn’t do anything with anyway.

“So… something must have changed, right?” she observes. “To explain why you’re suddenly including me in this?”

You nod once. “Several days ago I was followed home by a shinobi. I couldn’t determine their identity, but I know that they picked me up shortly after leaving the Academy building.”

“It couldn’t have been ANBU?” Hana-sensei ponders, rubbing her chin.

You shake your head. “No. If ANBU were involved I’d know.”

“I see,” she replies. “So… what do you need me to do?”

“I just need you to keep your eyes open for anything suspicious,” you answer, “and let me know if you see anything.”

“I can do that, of course,” Hana-sensei assures you. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”

…

After you leave the Academy building, you take a moment to get a drink and a bag of chips at a nearby convenience store and take a break in a nearby park. Clearing your mind, you turn your attention to what needs to be done next...

>You should check in with your teammates, do one final round at ‘work’ before going to your apartment.
>It makes sense to meet with Kae-hime and her own bodyguard from their homeland, touch base with them.
>This might be a good moment to check in with either the Hokage or with Sasuke-san. You want to know how things are developing in Kae-hime’s homeland.
>Other?

>>6046573
>>This might be a good moment to check in with either the Hokage or with Sasuke-san. You want to know how things are developing in Kae-hime’s homeland.

>>6046573
>>This might be a good moment to check in with either the Hokage or with Sasuke-san. You want to know how things are developing in Kae-hime’s homeland.
Can we get creative with our sage mode ghost clones?
Naruto would be the only one able to actually notice and respond to them, so maybe get one into his office and then communicate with jutsu's or chakra shenanigans.

>>6046573
>>You should check in with your teammates, do one final round at ‘work’ before going to your apartment.

>>6046573
>1d6 taking the first three

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6047842

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6047842

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6047842

>>6047842
After getting ‘home’, you find a spot in your apartment that will allow you to perform ninjutsu without being visible from outside, and do so in a way that will avoid being audible – the technique you choose, your mother’s Ryūmei, creates a purely spiritual ‘clone’ that you send to the Hokage’s office in mere seconds. Since it’s not truly ‘chakra’ in that it lacks the physical component provided by your body’s vitality it should be extremely difficult to detect, even if you assume your opponent is a very skilled shinobi, but because in order to share its senses you need to close your eyes it could be obvious by looking at you that you were up to something.

When your ghost clone reaches the Hokage’s office, you have it draw in natural energy to compensate for the lack of the physical – just enough so that it can use the wave transmission technique.

[Lord Seventh, I think now is a good time for an update.]

“… Shiki-kun?” he realizes, looking up from whatever document he’s been working through. “How are you talking to me right now?”

[I’m using the wave transmission at the same time as the Ryūmei.]

“I see,” he grumbles. “That’d certainly make my job easier sometimes, ya know… anyway, how’s your team holding up?”

[It’s been quiet since the incident I reported earlier.]

“You guys must’ve gotten close to capturing whoever it was,” Naruto muses. “That would explain their suddenly getting skittish.”

[It would,] you agree. [I’ve also informed Hana-sensei of the situation, to enlist her help in possibly identifying the threat.]

“I guess that makes sense,” Naruto nods. “It’s her class that all this affects after all.”

[And what about the Land of Bamboo?] you ask. [I haven’t seen it in the news so I assume the worst has yet to happen, but other than that I don’t know anything.]

“I sent Sasuke to help with their investigations,” Naruto tells you. “The Shinobi Union got behind the intervention fairly quickly, since it doesn’t impact any of our members – the Land of Bamboo may have some friends among the shinobi nations, but it really isn’t that important a player.”

[So the delay came from the Land of Bamboo itself?]

Naruto nods. “That’s right. Think about it this way – when someone like Sasuke-kun or Naori-kun shows up somewhere unannounced, many of the smaller nations have to immediately assume the possibility that it’s an invasion.”

[Because single shinobi have conquered nations in the past.]

“Your mom isn’t entirely to blame either,” Naruto observes. “She was hardly the first. But still, especially these days it’s a misunderstanding that we try to avoid, ya know?”
>1/2

>>6049112
[So has Sasuke-san sent a report on the situation?]

Naruto shakes his head. “Only his preliminary report. For anything you could call ‘findings’, that’s gonna be tomorrow at the earliest.”

[And what does the preliminary report say?]

“The situation doesn’t look as bad as you might imagine,” Naruto informs you. “The problems are all beneath the surface.”

[Was there any early indication why there would be a threat now? I mean, as opposed to a year ago, or a year from now?]

“Nothing clear,” he replies. “The economy looks good, no controversial laws passed recently, no terrorist threats. Sasuke told me he’ll be looking into individual ministers and their families to find any with possible personal motives, which is why it’s going to take a little while.”

[I assume there’s no sign that it’s Kara?]

“None.”

[So it could actually just be a personal grudge?]

“Hopefully,” Naruto sighs. “The alternative is that kind of unpredictable psychopath that shows up from time to time.”

[The kind who’s in it for reasons only they themselves know?]

“Exactly.”

[Great.]

“The good news is that we have more reason to believe it’s a personal grudge,” Naruto observes. “And if it’s the psychopath… well, that’s why we have you and your team on it, ya know?”

[Well, in any event please be sure to keep me in the loop with Sasuke-san’s findings?]

“I’m sure I can find a way to do that quietly enough,” Naruto-san agrees.

[Thank you.]

>Get some rest. You have no idea what might happen tomorrow.
>Go check in with your teammates, discuss recent events with them.
>Go speak with Kae-hime and her ward – see if they know anything.
>Other?

>>6049965
>>Go check in with your teammates, discuss recent events with them.

>>6049965
>>Go check in with your teammates, discuss recent events with them.

>>6049965
>>Go check in with your teammates, discuss recent events with them.
Finally caught back up and can vote after months of nothing but uni; how old are 1st year students supposed to be? Gotta be real weird spending most of the day as a little kid again

>>6050004
Like nine-ish. It's often shown as "whenever they're ready" particularly in times of war though, with Kakashi being an extreme case.

>>6049965
>1d6 taking the first three

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6050535

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6050535

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6050535

>>6050535
What you’re going to do is a little bit complicated – the problem at hand is that you want to communicate with your three teammates without alerting anyone who might be observing you that you’re doing so. And since your ghost clone has no physical energy, that limits your options to just two at least in theory. You could split your ghost clone into three, but that’s just ‘in theory’ because of what it takes to share your senses with a detached fragment of your soul. Even Ryūzetsu-ue is limited to three, and she has decades of experience with your shared kekkei genkai that you lack. You could speak with each of the three of them in turn, but that would be slower and would rob you of the simple pleasure of being around your friends (even if it’s for ‘business’ purposes).

That means the plan is going to be a bit overly complicated.

As you’ve learned over the years by switching places with your ghost clone using hiraishin, that clone can still be moved around to any location where you’ve already left a marking. In this case, you want to send it to the shrike forest to find your partner Kiburi.

She’s in the middle of preening herself when you do find her. [Kiburi-san, I need your help with something.]

She starts for a moment before quickly collecting herself. “Shiki-san, to what do I owe the surprise?”

[Sorry to bother, but I’m trying to create some shadow clones without drawing attention to myself – would you be willing to do a cooperative ninjutsu, lending me your physical energy?]

“Sure, not a problem.”

After ‘possessing’ Kiburi through your ghost and synchronizing (as close as is possible) your spiritual energy with her own, you perform the shadow clone technique to spawn three copies of her body, which then transform themselves into versions of you. But given the unusual method of doing this, you have to ask…

[So are the three of you…]

“You?” one asks.

“Yeah, we’re you,” the second assures you.

“It was definitely interesting being a bird though,” the third muses. “But yeah, we’re all Shiki clones, not Kiburi clones.”

“This is always weird to watch,” Kiburi-san admits. “Isn’t it weird to you to have a conversation with yourself?”

[Sometimes,] you acknowledge.

“It’d be worse if Shiki weren’t a generally agreeable person,” the second clone points out.

“True,” the first agrees.
>1/2

>>6051837
“So you know Boruto-kun’s shadow clones bicker all the time?” the third frowns. “Does that mean we think he’s not ‘generally agreeable’?”

You think on that for a moment. [Not so much that as he’s just got that sort of attitude, you know?]

“What, that he’s a complainer?” the first clone asks.

“Isn’t he kinda?” the second observes.

[Anyway, we’re getting off topic,] you observe. [I’m going to go back now, you three decide which of you is going to talk to which of our teammates.]

…

Your shadow clones’ memories catch up with you shortly before you’ve decided to go to sleep.

Sumire is holding up probably the best of the three, being the most patient by nature. You had a pleasant enough conversation with her, and found that she’s taken some interest in goings-on at the Academy. Kōshū, perhaps predictably, is the most restless of the three. She’s itching to discover anything at all about your stalker so that she can fight them, having missed her opportunity the first time. As for Wasabi, you find that she’s making it a point to stay focused entirely on the mission – although she’s also somewhat concerned that having to constantly play a role like this is wearing on you. And she has a point – you’ve had very little time “off-mission” in more than a month, since you even need to be mindful of your character when in what should be the comfort of your apartment.

…

The next morning, you arrive at the Academy feeling like you haven’t rested at all, to find that the lesson today is tree-climbing practice. For students this early in their training, the degree of continuous and precise chakra control required to do something like this should be difficult, if not impossible. That having been said there are definitely outliers – Boruto was walking up walls within just a few hours of practice, while it took Sarada just a little longer. You and your sister were doing this two years younger than anyone else in your former class, though it did take you a few days to get the hang of it at that age.

A few of the students aren’t total embarrassments – one, a young member of the Fūma clan, quickly manages to get a handle on the exercise. Himawari of course already has some experience with using her chakra like this, so she has no trouble. Somewhat surprisingly Neon actually makes respectable progress, before taking time to show Osuka how she did it.
>2/3

>>6052583
When your turn comes you make it a show of using too much chakra, which actually pushes you off the side of the tree. But with some ‘advice’ from Hana-sensei to ‘correct’ your ‘mistake’, you can also make a show of getting the chakra control right and succeeding at the exercise. Upon finishing, Kae-hime immediately comes up to you.
“Would you mind helping me, Kagerō-kun? I can’t seem to get the hang of it.”

The Fūma kid – Eiki-kun – seems frustrated to see it. Come to think of it, he’s one of the boys in the class who seems to be perpetually ticked-off that Hima, Kae-rin, and Osu-kun are all so friendly with you.

>Just ignore it. No sense drawing any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.
>Just deal with it. You ALREADY attract attention, so you may as well straighten things out.
>Come up with an excuse to dodge having this entire interaction right now.
>Other?

>>6052597
>>Just ignore it. No sense drawing any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.

>>6052597
>>Just ignore it. No sense drawing any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.

>>6052597
>>Just ignore it. No sense drawing any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.

>>6052597
>>Just deal with it. You ALREADY attract attention, so you may as well straighten things out.

>>6052597
>1d6 first three

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6053355

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6053355

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6053355

>>6053355
You decide to continue ignoring it – because while this may end up qualifying as a ‘nuisance’, it’s a far cry from becoming an actual ‘problem’. Even the Academy students furthest ahead of their peers can’t really do anything to bother you, and butting heads with them is likely to just make you stand out even more (or bother more of the boys in class) depending on how you do it. So there’s no real incentive to play this game, and no real way to ‘win’ even if you did.

“Yeah,” you reply, “sure, as far as I can. What’s the problem?”

“I can’t seem to stay up there,” she admits.

“It sounds like you might not be using enough chakra,” you tell her, before lifting one leg and planting the sole of your foot against a nearby tree. “Try it like this – focus on one foot at a time until you get the feel for how much you need to use.”

“You knocked yourself off the first time,” Kae-hime observes, following your instructions as she ponders aloud. “Why was that?”

“Because I have a lot of chakra,” you explain. “It’s good for using elemental transformations, but it makes it harder to learn fine control.”

“I see,” Kae-hime muses. “So I suppose that means I must not have much chakra?”

“You could have a normal amount,” you shrug, “and you just haven’t had a chance to use it before.”

Actually, you can tell she has slightly less than average for someone her age – but it’d be a dead giveaway if anyone overheard you telling her that. It’d be even worse if they heard you dive into the sort of explanations Naori-ue and Ryūzetsu-ue gave you about the complex interplay between bloodline potential, individual experience, quality of instruction, and personal diligence in determining how much of a chakra reserve any given shinobi develops during their lifetime.

No, best to keep it vague this time.

“Keep working,” you summarize. “You’ll get it, I’m sure.”

…

After falling off a few more times, even Kae-hime – unsteady as she may be – manages to stand horizontally off the side of a tree. And then she immediately falls off, since she absent-mindedly jumps with joy at her own feat. She laughs it off however, which is good to see.
>1/2

>>6054108
Later that day, a class activity arises. Evidently there’s going to be a festival honoring well-known shinobi from Konohagakure both living and gone, and Himawari’s year is supposed to be putting on a play about the Sannin. And as a treat to the class, Tsuna-dono will be the one watching trials to help pick students for the important roles.

Predictably Kae-hime – the only real-life princess available – is chosen as fitting the role of Tsunade by the woman herself. The retired Hokage even gives Kae-hime a few pointers on how to style her hair to match Tsunade’s look at the time when the play is supposed to be set. Himawari is chosen as the lead stagehand, which is an important behind-the-scenes role, because she can see ‘the scenes’ clearly even from ‘behind’ them using her byakugan. Meanwhile, in your own head, you debate what to do. It’s clear you have to participate, since conventional wisdom is that defending someone at a large event like this is much more complicated than the opposition role. You want to stay close.

But how?

>You can probably nail a pretty good Katsuyu – a role that your teammates may get a kick out of as a little bonus for them.
>You actually fought alongside Jiraiya. Getting his role ‘right’ would be a cinch and would put you closest to Kae-hime.
>A role behind the curtain would give you some freedom that a stage role might not. And besides, it’s kind of interesting.
>Other?

>>6054112
>>You actually fought alongside Jiraiya. Getting his role ‘right’ would be a cinch and would put you closest to Kae-hime.

>>6054112
>>A role behind the curtain would give you some freedom that a stage role might not. And besides, it’s kind of interesting.

>>6054112
>>You actually fought alongside Jiraiya. Getting his role ‘right’ would be a cinch and would put you closest to Kae-hime.

>>6054112
>>A role behind the curtain would give you some freedom that a stage role might not. And besides, it’s kind of interesting.

>>6054112
Testing hotel wifi

>>6054112
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6054565

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6054565

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6054565

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6054565

>>6054565
Your initial thought is that you should probably avoid the attention of taking center stage, instead favoring the more distanced, low-key position of a backstage assistant. While your teammates will be in the audience actively searching for possible threats, you’ll be able to dedicate your whole attention to serving as the ‘trap’ for a would-be assassin who tries to get close to Kae-hime while she’s on the stage.

“Hey, Kagerō-kun, you’re up!”

A hand pushes you from behind while you’re considering your next move, and before you realize it you’re standing in the open looking straight at Tsuna-dono. She looks back at you, her expression curious, leaving you just a second or two to come up with something based on your limited – but considering your age extraordinary – personal experience with Jiraiya himself.

Well, cue the dramatic poses and the booming, kabuki-style voice.

“The white-haired toad tamer… the man with no enemies in the north, in the south, in the east, or in the west… the master sage of Myōboku-zan… favorite of the ladies in every Nation! Only those with evil in their hearts need fear, for that gallant Jiraiya-dono stands now among you!”

After doing the full physical routine that went with that little introduction, you finish with a dramatic pose which you hold, making direct eye contact with Tsuna-dono. Her expression, at first, is unreadable. But you’re a damn jōnin – holding that eye contact isn’t the hardest thing you’ve ever done. One of the more awkward things recently, that’s for sure, but not the hardest.

“Kagerō!” you hear Fūma-kun hiss behind you. “What the heck was that!?”

“A real man thinks lightly of himself,” you reply, still making eye contact with Tsuna-dono, “and deeply of the world.”

“That was…”

“Excellent,” Senjū Tsunade declares, rising to her feet with a slight smile. “It’s been a long time since I was reminded so strongly of Jiraiya.”

Most of your class is left completely aghast.

“It’s true, when things were serious he was exactly how most people think of him,” Tsuna-dono recalls. “But I think he’d love it if more people remembered him as a goofball who was only ever serious when he had to be.”

Then she puts a hand on your shoulder. “You should play him exactly like that – I know a lot of us older folks would love to see it. But tell me something before we move on to casting Katsuyu… how did you know to play him like that?”

>I’ve heard stories about that time Orochimaru attacked the village… some people saw him doing it.
>Oh, my mom told me about her experiences with him once. I kinda played off that.
>He wrote that book series, right? That got a film adaptation with Koyuki-hime? The one about...
>Other?

>>6055093
And that first one refers to people seeing Jiraiya striking poses and shouting his own entry monologue. Just to be clear.

>>6055093
>>Oh, my mom told me about her experiences with him once. I kinda played off that.
>>He wrote that book series, right? That got a film adaptation with Koyuki-hime? The one about...
"Our mother was a huge fan" isn't techincally a lie ...
Also, what the fuck is the thought process to get to that on the fly?

>>6055093
>>Oh, my mom told me about her experiences with him once. I kinda played off that.

>>6055093
>Mom talked fondly about him from time to time. I think she was a fan of his.
>He also wrote that book series, right? That got a film adaptation with Koyuki-hime? The one about... y'know.

>>6055093
“Well, my mom told me about meeting him,” you answer, which isn’t technically a lie. “I based it off that mostly. And he also wrote that book series, right?”

Her expression becomes ever so slightly strained.

“The one that got a film adaptation with Koyuki-hime? The one about…”

“Well now, we have our Jiraiya!” Tsuna-dono interrupts, her smile now somewhat eerie. “Now how about we move on to Orochimaru!?”

…

Fūma Eiki ends up being cast as Orochimaru – an important role but un-glamorous, while other students are assigned the even less glamorous roles of Gamabunta, Katsuyu, and Manda.

“Well, class, you now all have your assignments!” Hana-sensei announces cheerfully once everyone has a task. “Please be sure to coordinate together over the next few weeks to make sure that things go smoothly… particularly you three, Kae-kun, Eiki-kun, and Kagerō-kun.”

After the final bell rings, Kae-hime motions for you and Eiki-kun to both stay behind.

“Well,” she insists, “you heard sensei – we should start working on our parts as soon as possible. Eiki-kun, are you free this afternoon?”

“I can be,” he replies, watching you somewhat warily.

“Good, then we can meet in my garden in an hour or so?” Kae-hime suggests.

“I can make it,” he continues to watch you. “Kagerō-kun, I don’t think I actually know where you live? Will one hour be alright?”

“It’s no problem,” you insist. “My mom and I have a little apartment in the old village center.”

“Your mom, huh? You mentioned that she knew Lord Jiraiya somehow?”

“Only in passing,” you quickly lie. “She was a genin during the Oto-Suna invasion – apparently Jiraiya-dono saved her life in the goofiest way possible, by dropping a giant toad onto a giant snake that was about to eat her, all while posing an announcing himself to the Oto-nin.”

“Is that so?”

You nod. “Served as one heck of a distraction I’d bet. Intentional or not it worked, they refocused entirely on him and let my mom escape.”
>1/2

>>6056813
“And the enemy ninja?” Kae-hime asks you curiously.

You shrug. “Jiraiya-dono may have been a bit silly sometimes, but he walked away alive at the end of the day. Those other jōnin and chūnin didn’t.”

“We could do our practice at your place some time,” Eiki-kun proposes. “It sounds like your mom has a lot of interesting stories.”

You shake your head. “It’s a tiny apartment, and my mom’s often pretty busy with work.”

“Is that so?” Eiki-kun asks. “What does she do?”

You raise an eyebrow at his persistence – if he was trying to be subtle about pumping you for information, trying to get you to slip, he’s not.

“You never really talk about yourself or your family.”

>Well, she’s probably ANBU, so yeah. I know better than to talk about it, or ask about it.
>Neither do you, Eiki-kun. And why should either of us? It’s not like we’re really friends.
>I get it dude, you don’t like me. But you’re being really, REALLY weird about it right now.
>Other?

>>6058005
>>Other?
She doesn't talk about her work a lot, honestly. Still really good when it comes to helping me train when she has the time.

How to imply your mom is ANBU without actually saying it.

>>6058005
>>Neither do you, Eiki-kun. And why should either of us? It’s not like we’re really friends.
fight, fight, fight

>>6058022
>Support

>>6058005
Support >>6058022

>>6058005
“Well, she’s a shinobi and she likes to take the time to help me study when she’s not abroad,” you say, in a statement vague enough to be considered entirely true. “But that’s rare – and she doesn’t talk about her missions. I don’t ask either.”

The implication here, which you hope Eiki-kun can pick up on, is that the reason you don’t want to talk about your mother and why he can’t expect to see her is because she’s ANBU, and therefore everything she does is pretty much classified by definition. You hope that implication will finally get him off your back, so you can focus on doing your job instead of spending any amount of time or mental energy on trying to keep your identity hidden from a bunch of Academy students who are upset that you’re getting attention from the most popular girls in the room instead of them.

Which at the core of it is precisely what this is about.

“Well, why not?” he asks you, clearly not understanding the implication.

Your palm meets your head with a resounding smack. “Eiki-kun, if you’re going to be a shinobi I think you really, really need to get better at implications.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve been trying to imply,” you answer with a low hiss, “that my mom’s probably ANBU and you should stop asking dumb questions about it.”

Ah. There’s the dawning comprehension.

“Looks like you get it now,” you tell him, “so can we please just drop it and agree to meet up in Kae-hime’s garden?”

…

About a week later, something new comes up – an academy field trip, to be led by Hana-sensei. While your own class went to Kirigakure and got into some shenanigans that are still talked about at the Academy today, this class is supposed to travel to Sunagakure by airship.

“So how do we handle this one?” Wasabi-kun asks you with a frown.

Sumire shakes her head quietly. “It does sound like a logistical nightmare.”

>Simple – the three of you will travel in disguise with the class on the airship.
>Simple – this charade that I’m a student should have ended weeks ago. We go as regular security.
>You know we don’t have to let Kae-hime go.
>Other?

>>6059565
>>Simple – the three of you will travel in disguise with the class on the airship.

>>6059565
>>Simple – the three of you will travel in disguise with the class on the airship.

>>6059565
>Simple – the three of you will travel in disguise with the class on the airship.

the student charade is actually fun, and something coming up that makes it really difficult to keep up will make it more fun
i love shiki's dedication to the bit. i want to see him go so hard sticking to it that he even starts to convince himself.

>>6059565
>>Simple – the three of you will travel in disguise with the class on the airship.

>>6059724
I disagree, i hope its over soon. Speaking off, i do hope we can do a short session with us explaining ourself ot the class, introducing aspects of the job of a shinobi, inspire them a little and so on. With the whole team of course.

>>6059565
>Simple – the three of you will travel in disguise with the class on the airship.

Yeah, the arc is getting a bit long. A far better filler arc would be a Hanabi dating arc.

>>6059565
>>Simple – the three of you will travel in disguise with the class on the airship.
>>6060031
This

>>6059565
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6060107

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6060107

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6060107

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6060107

>>6060107
“Well, I think the answer is simple,” you decide. “We’ll get you three tickets for the same airship, you’ll come along in disguise ready to make a move at any time you need to.”

“There’s going to be security already there,” Wasabi points out. “I’ll contact the transportation security division and arrange to have a specialist team assigned.”

“I’ll have to store Kubikiribōchō,” Kōshū decides, “and instead I’ll carry a tantō for this one.”

“I will be in the same position,” Sumire adds. “Would you like to share some of my folding fūma shuriken? I find them quite useful in situations like this.”

“Please.”

…

Eventually, the day of the trip arrives – Kae-hime’s class is understandable excited, all crowding together onto the observation deck where they’ll be able to see the scenery gliding by beneath the airship. You can sense your three teammates as well, with Wasabi having positioned herself near the bridge, Sumire having taken a position near the engine room, and Kōshū posting up with an expansive view of the main passenger area where she can blend in with the other passengers.

It’s as good a setup as you could hope for, really, since Hana-sensei is also present right in amidst her class. But is there anything else you can do?

>Slip away, ideally unnoticed, and sweep the interior of the airship yourself for security purposes.
>You have a mini radio set, so keep in touch with the airship’s upgraded security detail.
>Stay in the public area, relatively close to Kae-hime – let any possible threat come to you instead.
>Other?

>>6061040
>Slip away, ideally unnoticed, and sweep the interior of the airship yourself for security purposes.

>>6061040
>>Stay in the public area, relatively close to Kae-hime – let any possible threat come to you instead.
trust the team, trust the plan and enjoy the quie- actually, its not gonna be quiet with a class of kids running around ...

>>6061040
>>Stay in the public area, relatively close to Kae-hime – let any possible threat come to you instead.

>>6061040
>>Stay in the public area, relatively close to Kae-hime – let any possible threat come to you instead.

>>6061040
>1d6 taking the first three

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6061580

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6061580

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6061580

>>6061580
You decide that the best plan, at least for your own part, is to stay within sight of Kae-hime for the entire trip. Your teammates will ideally be able to catch anyone trying to make an attack on the bridge or engine room, so that mostly just leaves the possibility that a hypothetical attacker might come after Kae-hime here, in the passenger area.

Those temporary classmates of yours are evidently having fun, playing cards or video games, some of them reading or snacking – none are at the point of napping yet, but barring some crazy development they’ll get there by the time you’re at the hotel.

“You’re looking pretty glum, Kagerō-kun,” Eiki-kun muses, interrupting your quiet, evidently not-quite-subtle-enough vigil. “Hanging out all the way over here and all.”

“I was starting to relax,” you answer tersely. “Emphasis here, ‘was’.”

“You’re not scared of flying, are you?” he teases.

You pause before glancing out a window. “If humans were meant to fly we’d have wings.”

Despite that, of course humans do fly – all the time these days. Some humans like Kurotsuchi-dono can fly even without the benefit of an airship like this one, and you have absolutely no problem with any of that. But the key here is you’re not lying by trying to insist that you do, instead simply letting Eiki-kun’s underdeveloped child brain make him think that’s what you’re saying.

He smirks at you. “So you’re actually scared of flying? Didn’t pin you as the type.”

Something abruptly feels… off. It’s hard to put your finger on it, and you can’t point to an exact moment when that feeling started creeping up on you. But it does eventually reach the point where you notice it. It’s almost like a feeling as if you’ve somehow missed something important, something more important than leaving a light on in your apartment or forgetting to lock the door on your way out in the morning.

“… do you feel that?” you ask with a frown.

“You’re getting jumpy,” Eiki-kun answers, unintentionally confirming that he doesn’t sense the same thing you do.

“… okay, point taken,” you admit, before using the wave transmission technique. [Anyone sense something wrong? Like a vague, ominous feeling that you can’t shake that has no clear reason for it?]

[No,] Sumire replies immediately.

[All I can feel are the vibrations from the power plant,] Wasabi answers.

There’s a short pause before Kōshū answers. [Maybe.]

[Maybe?]

[More nagging than ominous, maybe? Hard to describe.]
>1/2

>>6062331
This is a troubling development – there’s no real way off the airship, and while it’s not exactly fragile it isn’t designed for battle either. And you’re not about to ignore your instincts here, your senses are too developed in rare and unusual ways for that. But that does leave unanswered the key question of what you can actually do to act on your awareness that something, somewhere close to you and to the princess you’re meant to be protecting, is seriously wrong.

>Speak with Hana-sensei about it so that she can keep the class under somewhat tighter control.
>Use your ‘ghost clone’ to sweep the entire airship together with your team and security.
>Use sage mode to sharpen your senses, and do your best to hide the fact that you’re doing so.
>Other?

>>6062609
>Use sage mode to sharpen your senses, and do your best to hide the fact that you’re doing so.

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38 KB JPG

>>6062609
>Use your ‘ghost clone’ to sweep the entire airship together with your team and security.
>Use sage mode to sharpen your senses, and do your best to hide the fact that you’re doing so.

>>6062609
>>Use sage mode to sharpen your senses, and do your best to hide the fact that you’re doing so.

>>6062609
>>Use your ‘ghost clone’ to sweep the entire airship together with your team and security.

>>6062609
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6062992

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6062992

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6062992

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6062992

>>6062992
You have a few possible routes you can take at this point, given the techniques at your disposal. The problem so far isn’t detection – you’ve already sensed that something is amiss, but you’re struggling right now to identify what it is that’s giving you that sense, and so you can’t yet define the threat. So sweeping the whole airship more closely, either by coordinating with the security detail and your team or by searching with a shadow clone or a ryūmei clone, won’t necessarily add anything to the information you already have.

That’s why you decide to use sage mode to enhance your senses instead. That’s the best way you can think of to actually add to the information you have available, assuming of course you can hide the fact that you’re doing it. After all you’d rather not blow what little remains of your cover in case this turns out to be nothing.

“I need the bathroom,” you quickly lie, getting up from your seat and heading aft towards the passenger restrooms. [Everyone please double down, I’m going to find a spot to use sage mode where I won’t ruin my cover.]

[Gotcha,] Kōshū assures you. [I’ll watch the princess while you do your thing.]

[Thanks.]

…

Once inside the lavatory you lock the door, lower the cover on the toilet, and seat yourself atop it in a half-lotus to better achieve the stillness required without having to shave off a part of your own soul. The surrounding natural energy is a bit thinner at this altitude you discover, but not by enough that it causes a problem – only a delay of about five seconds or so.

Reaching sage mode reveals the source of the problem: genjutsu, and an extremely effective one at that. You’ve been trained to counter such techniques of course, Naori-ue would never have let you out of the house otherwise. But the subtlety with which it’s been woven, the skillful manipulation that almost – but not quite – entirely erases any traces of the user’s chakra? It places this particular technique at her own level. This is someone with genuine skill.

[Someone is using a genjutsu,] you report. [That’s what’s causing that feeling – I think Kōshū instinctively caught it as well somehow. It may have something to do with her training in the silent killing method.]

[Certainly possible,] Sumire agrees with your assessment. [It relies on sensing intent, does it not?]

[Yeah, partly,] Kōshū replies.

[It also explains why my senses didn’t pick up on it,] Wasabi realizes. [Damn. Whoever’s doing it must be good.]

[Very,] you confirm, using your transformation technique to hide the telltale signs that you’ve tapped into sage mode before flushing the toilet and washing your hands.
>1/2

>>6063807
[Am I correct in assuming that you have sensed fluctuations in our chakra that indicates we are under a genjutsu?] Sumire guesses.

[Yup. Barely, but it’s there.]

[And the user hasn’t actually… you know. Done anything with it?] Wasabi wonders.

That bothers you a little as well – if someone were genuinely up to no good, you’d imagine they could have put more of an actual, intentional plan into motion by this point. They very nearly had you completely from the start, but instead, for some reason, they gave you enough time to recognize that something was amiss.

[It’s weird,] you conclude.

>I don’t sense any hostility right now, even with sage mode. So let’s take this slowly for now. Not tip our hand.
>I should be able to track down whoever it is that’s using the technique, assuming they’re physically present.
>This is too big a breach of security to ignore. We should alert the crew and have them land as soon as feasible.
>Other?

>>6063810
>>I should be able to track down whoever it is that’s using the technique, assuming they’re physically present.

>>6063810
>>I should be able to track down whoever it is that’s using the technique, assuming they’re physically present.

>>6063810
>>I don’t sense any hostility right now, even with sage mode. So let’s take this slowly for now. Not tip our hand.

>>6063810
>1d6, taking the first three
>DC: 10
SP: 3/3

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6064362

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6064362

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6064362

>>6064362
[I should be able to track down the user myself,] you decide. [Give me a few minutes to do so, then once I do we can decide what to do next.]

Once your teammates agree, and assure you that they will remain vigilant while you continue to poke around, you start your search. First, you circle slowly around the main passenger cabin and examine the other passengers. It’s not Kōshū – which in and of itself is excellent news given how complicated such a discovery would make things – and it’s not anyone in Kae and Himawari’s class. It’s also none of the ‘regular’ passengers, who remain clueless as to their present situation.

You also examine the crew members you see, as well as the assigned security detail. None of them are the one you’re looking for, which means that the responsible party must be somewhere else aboard the airship – the kitchen and the galley are the next area you clear. Then you shift your attention to the few cabins for ‘first-class’ guests located further forward, away from the engine noise.

Directing your senses through the doors allows you to clear three of the four, however as you approach the last one the door opens.

“Come inside,” a voice, apparently belonging to a young woman, insists in calm, almost flat tones. “No reason to be shy.”

As before, you sense absolutely zero hostility.

>Introduce yourself from outside, but don’t step inside just yet.
>She's shown no hostility, so you can spare the professional courtesy.
>Call for backup.
>Other?

>>6064478
>>She's shown no hostility, so you can spare the professional courtesy.

>>6064478
>>She's shown no hostility, so you can spare the professional courtesy.

>>6064478
>>She's shown no hostility, so you can spare the professional courtesy.

>>6064478
>Call for backup.

Only a retard goes in alone against quite possibly a superior enemy without informing his teammates.

>>6064478
[I’ve found the caster,] you tell your team. [Stand by.]

…

The young woman you meet as you turn the corner is seated in a chair against one wall, from which she can look over her right shoulder to see the door and over her left shoulder to see out a nearby window that runs wall-to-wall along the outer hull panel. Her hair is a dull brown, but smooth and full running down to her waist. Her eyes are colored red, with either no pupils or ones you can’t see, set below thin eyebrows. On her forehead you see a distinctive tattoo – the marking “VII”.

“You’re Ōga-san, right?” you realize.

“It seems I’ve been recognized,” she replies, seemingly without care. As you get a better look at her, you get the impression that she’s… not completely well. Not as in an indication of insanity or anything, but in the sense that she’s a bit sickly. “I can tell you’re no mere child, but not what lies underneath your disguise.”

“I’m a shinobi, of course,” you answer. “Here on an unrelated mission.”

[The caster is the rogue member of Kara,] you update on your team. [No hostile action so far.]

“I won’t pry,” she assures you in that same tone. “I simply find it interesting that you were able to identify my genjutsu. The fact that you’re at very least a high-caliber jōnin is all I need to know right now.”

[Kara? You’re kidding!]

[The rouge that Delta woman mentioned is here?]

[So… are we gonna fight her here?]

[Nope, yup, not sure yet.]

“I take it you have a team here with whom you’re communicating somehow,” she muses. “That’s fine. I mean no harm.”

“Using a genjutsu like that, you can’t tell me all you’re doing is going on a vacation,” you reply with a frown.

“Nothing of the sort,” she admits immediately. “I find that airships and thunder rail trains are good places to study people.”

“Study how?”

“Well, since this particular batch is spoiled I may as well tell you,” she shrugs. “I study people’s responses to life-and-death situations presented to them via genjutsu, then erase their recollection of those tests before releasing them.”

“That’s… slightly horrifying,” you counter.

“Since you know my name I assume you know of Kara,” she continues. “Believe it or not, that is incredibly tame by their standards. Considerate, even.”

>… why would you even do something like that to people? What could you gain from it?
>You don’t look like you’re well… physically speaking. Are you airsick or something?
>Would you be willing to talk to me about the Kara organization? They’ve been… a problem.
>Other?

>>6065241
>>You don’t look like you’re well… physically speaking. Are you airsick or something?

>>6065241
>>You don’t look like you’re well… physically speaking. Are you airsick or something?

>>6065241
>1d6, taking the first three

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6066179

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6066179

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6066179

>>6066179
“You look… somewhat unwell,” you observe with a slight frown. “Are you airsick or something?”

For a moment, Ōga sighs – and you pick up on a sense of something like resignation. “Not exactly.”

“So what does that mean?” you ask with a frown. “Are you well or not?”

“I am not,” she answers, “though it is not something you or I can presently do anything about.”

“Does it have to do with why you have gone your separate ways with Kara?”

“It does.”

“And if your issue is resolved, do you plan to return?”

“Kara is not an organization to which one ‘returns’, under any circumstances,” she answers. “Ordinarily it is not one from which one departs either, at least not alive.”

“Then how did you do so?”

Ōga offers a shrug. “My abilities would make it difficult for most of the remaining members to follow and subsequently engage me.”

“Because they’re weak to genjutsu?” you ask.

She considers it for a moment. “Many are weaker in what you could call the ‘traditional’ shinobi arts than you might imagine. So despite the fact that I wouldn’t consider myself totally suited to face-to-face combat, the difficulty might prove to be out of scale to any potential reward.”

“They rely on cutting-edge scientific tools,” you guess.

She nods silently.

“Would you ever be open to fighting against them?”

Again, she seems to consider her answer carefully. “Perhaps.”

“It depends on something?”

She nods. “Correct.”

“It depends on someone helping you solve your health problem?”

“In part.”
>1/2

>>6067529
“So, that brings us back full circle,” you sigh. “What’s your health issue, exactly?”

“I have no will to live.”

“… excuse me?”

“My body modifications are concentrated in and around my brain,” she clarifies. “In our ‘disagreement’, the leader of Kara damaged some of those modifications. While I retained much of the benefit, there were complications.”

“Brain damage?” you summarize.

She nods once. “I sometimes wonder if this is how a blind man would think about colors.”

>That’s… awfully specific. Are you sure you’ve defined the problem correctly?
>And so these people were going to be… what, your test subjects in survival instincts?
>What could you possibly have done to get Kara that mad at you?
>Other?

>>6068372
>>That’s… awfully specific. Are you sure you’ve defined the problem correctly?

>>6068372
>>And so these people were going to be… what, your test subjects in survival instincts?

>>6068372
>That's awfully specific ...
Did you ever get a second opinion on that?

>>6068372
>1d6, taking the first three

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6068983

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6068983

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6068983

>>6068983
“That seems… awfully specific,” you tell her with a frown. “Did you ever get a second opinion on that?”

Ōga looks at you with something like curiosity. “How do you mean?”

“I mean there are plenty of ways you could be off the mark,” you clarify, “and you were the one who told me you’d had brain damage. So can I ask… are you even sure you’ve defined the problem accurately? Because it sounds like you have clinical depression.”

“And so what would you suggest, assuming that you are correct?” she asks, prompting you to go into a little more detail.

>Come with me, turn yourself in. Get professional help.
>Honestly, just try antidepressant medication.
>It sounds like what you’re looking for is actually ‘inspiration’?
>Other?

>>6069139
>Come with me, turn yourself in. Get professional help.
i mean, it really is the best course of action

>>6069139
>>Come with me, turn yourself in. Get professional help.

>>6069139
>Come with me, turn yourself in. Get professional help.

Sure we could recommend antidepressants but that's really just treating the symptoms instead of the cause. Not to mention the fact that we shouldn't be prescribing any type of medication since we're not a doctor of any sort.

If she's reluctant to turn herself in fully, I'm sure we can work out a deal to arrange meetings between her and a psychologist in exchange for information on Kara.

>>6069139
>There are several ways to help with that, including medication... but honestly, the best way to overcome it is to find something to live for. You need your own reason to exist.

>>6069139
>>6069261
I like these additions, supporting.

>>6069139
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6069722

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6069722

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6069722

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6069722

>>6069722
“I’m not sure I’m the right person to talk to about this kinda thing,” you admit, hand finding the back of your neck as you admit to the somewhat awkward reality of the situation. “Like yeah, I’ll talk to you about it if you need that, but all I can offer is advice. If you really want to deal with whatever’s happened to you, I really have to say that you should talk to a professional.”

“A psychologist?” she asks, inviting clarification.

You nod. “A psychologist, yeah.”

She considers your suggestion for a few moments. “That seems like it would be sensible.”

“I mean, I can tell you that you’ve gotta ‘find your own meaning’ and all,” you continue, trying to calmly drive the point home. “But a proper specialist can give you useful suggestions for how to go about doing that.”

“… okay,” she eventually agrees. “I will try this your way.”

“We’re heading for Sunagakure,” you observe, creating a shadow clone who then drops your transformation jutsu. “I trust you can stay out of trouble until we get there?”

“So this is your true face?” she muses, looking at your clone with some curiosity. “I see.”

“You see what?”

“You aren’t that much younger than I am,” she clarifies. “That puts your age now around the same as I was when I received my implants.”

“That was a few years before the incident where you separated from Kara?”

“Correct.”

[I think I’ve gotten Ōga-san to surrender and get psychiatric help?]

There’s a pause before Wasabi is the first to respond. [That’s… progress?]

[Does she plan to release her genjutsu?] Sumire asks you.

“Will you please do me and my team a favor and release your genjutsu?” you ask politely.

“Of course,” Ōga replies, and you near-instantly feel the sensation that drew you here disappear.

[Kōshūn?]

[Yeah, I felt that change,] she confirms, meaning that it’s not just you. It seems it really was so simple as just asking politely… or maybe it wasn’t? Who knows with folks like Ōga – it’s entirely possible that under even slightly different circumstances you could’ve gotten a very different answer.
>1/2

>>6070254
Your real body leaves Ōga-san, at least temporarily, in the custody – or perhaps ‘company’ given her present attitude – of your shadow clone.

[Well that could’ve gone way worse,] you declare as you return to your seat, propping your head up in your hands with your elbows on the low table separating your seats from the two seats across from you. You find yourself gently massaging your temples with your fingertips.

“You okay, Kagerō-kun?” Himawari-chan asks you curiously.

“Long day at the office,” you grumble. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Well, if you say so,” she shrugs, producing a juice box and some chocolate crackers and setting them on the table in front of you. “Snacks?”

After a moment, you pull the little bendy straw free and puncture the top of the juice box with a slight smile. “Thanks, Hima-chan. Appreciate it.”

>Take the time to nap. Everything around here is under watch already.
>Try to do ‘normal kid stuff’ for a little while.
>Keep in touch with your teammates. Maintain your vigilance.
>Other?

>>6070975
>>Take the time to nap. Everything around here is under watch already.

>>6070975
>>Take the time to nap. Everything around here is under watch already.

>>6070975
>>Try to do ‘normal kid stuff’ for a little while.

>>6070975
>Keep in touch with your teammates. Maintain your vigilance.

[I’m going to take a nap,] you decide, informing your teammates of your decision. [It’ll be in your hands.]

“I’m gonna put my head down,” you tell Hima-chan, doing so immediately.

After a moment, you feel a hand ruffle your hair for a moment. “Okay, have a nice nap.”

…

The rest of the trip passes in a dreamless sleep, and before you know it you awaken well-rested as the airship is on final approach to Sunagakure. The class is predictably excited as you disembark, and you notice that as you do so your clone and Sumire are working together to quietly escort Ōga-san to meet with Kankuro-san at the terminal. Good, that whole process is unfolding exactly as you had hoped it would – smoothly and efficiently. You’ll check in with that later.

“So, what do you want to do first?” you overhear another student ask excitedly as the warm, dry air washes over you, leaving you feeling the familiar yet still odd heat in your nose and on the backs of your eyelids.

“Now class,” Hana-sensei insists, “we have a meeting with Lord Kazekage first, followed by lunch and checking into the hotel. Then you can go out and explore in little groups if you’d like – Lord Kazekage will be assigning a few shinobi to serve as guides.”

…

Your class assembles at the Sunagakure Academy, a large almost spherical stone building near the center of the village with few windows and external walkways designed with overhangs that provide deep shade at all hours of the day. Gaara-san is waiting for your class in a reasonably large hall that you understand serves as an auditorium, where he stands on a small stage at one end of the room. It’s a little strange to see a Kage standing alone, since most of them are always followed by at least one adjutant. But in this case it makes sense because Kankuro-san has to be somewhere else.

Gaara-san watches your class file in with a look of faint amusement.

>Let him know who you are using the wave transmission method.
>Send a message to Kōshū, arrange a meeting during your ‘free time’.
>Wait and see what Gaara-san says about your class and your stay here.
>Other?

>>6071524
>>Wait and see what Gaara-san says about your class and your stay here.

>>6071524
>>Wait and see what Gaara-san says about your class and your stay here.

>>6071524
>>Wait and see what Gaara-san says about your class and your stay here.

>>6071524
>>Wait and see what Gaara-san says about your class and your stay here.

>>6071524
Gaara-san coughs into his fist before speaking – even that little gesture captures most of your ‘classmates’ attentions, given who it is.

“My apologies,” he begins, his voice somewhat more hoarse than his usual deadpan. “I’m getting over a bad cold, so I intend to make my comments brief.”

Now that even those who ignored the cough have focused entirely on the Kazekage, he can move on to the meat of what he wants to say. “I am Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to Sunagakure.”

“This land has always been demanding, and harsh. Although much has changed in the last few decades, the sun still shines as hot as it ever did – temperatures may reach 35 degrees on some days, even this late in the year, so please be mindful.”

“Although the harshness of the land has bred a harshness in its citizens and shinobi,” he continues, “our culture also emphasizes the value of hospitality. Please be mindful that here one may invite you into their home and insult you at the same time without contradiction.”

He briefly coughs into his fist again. “Apologies again. In any event, with those points having been addressed I hope your stay here in our village will be memorable – and I would like to invite you to experience the hospitality of our village over lunch.”

…

It’s different for a lot of your classmates, but the meal that follows is a very nice sampling of things you can expect to have while in Sunagakure. Various dips and sauces in little bowls, flatbreads and rice, stewed and grilled vegetables, thin-shaved mutton just crisped on the outside and impeccably juicy on the inside, and of course cucumber water.

“I didn’t realize you were such a fan of foreign foods,” the Fūma brat muses, watching you go for a second helping of the pomegranate-and-honey-based dessert.

“I wasn’t sure at first, but you were right Kagerō-kun,” Hima-chan muses with a goofy smile. “It’s all really tasty!”

“Well I’m glad you’re all happy,” a new voice muses cheerfully, as a woman who strikes you as being perhaps a little bit older than Hanabi-sensei greets you with a slight bow before joining you at your table. And she’s not the only one – a good number of Sunagakure shinobi have arrived in the last few minutes, quietly waiting for enough of your classmates to finish up before seating themselves.

“Hello,” you greet the lady politely. “I take it you’ll be sticking with us during our visit, miss…”

“You can call me Matsuri-san,” she tells you. "Gara-sama asked me to look after you."
>1/2

>>6072662
Matsuri-san has brown hair that falls in slightly messy fringes around her head, not quite reaching her shoulders, with the very dark eyes that seem common in Sunagakure. Her headband, this one with the inscription for ‘shinobi’, sits around the base of her throat, and along with her plated armguards is the only sign that she’s not just a shinobi but a veteran of the last great war. Her top is a sort of mauve-color, with cut vents that expose her shoulders, and with this she wears a plain dark skirt, thigh-highs, and shinobi-tabi. At her waist is a jōhyō, a weighted rope dart – and an unusual choice of weapons for a shinobi.

“It’s nice to meet you, Matsuri-san!” Himawari replies, beaming. “I’m Himawari!”

“Kagerō,” you lie.

“Fūma Eiki,” Eiki-kun adds. “You’re a shinobi?”

“Yup,” Matsuri-san replies. “Tokubetsu jōnin, actually – I teach special weapons at our Academy.”

“Like the jōhyō,” you muse.

“That’s right. So you know it?”

You trained with it to practice the kongō fūsa in the same way that your mom does, so the answer is definitely yes. “A little.”

“More than most,” she observes.

>So, I take it you’re in charge of a small group of us – has this been pre-determined, or are you open to requests to add people?
>Is this afternoon going to be a ‘guided’ experience, or are we going to spend the rest of the day roaming free and feral?
>I’m curious, Matsuri-san – what made you decide to sit down next to this little group in particular, out of all of us here?
>Other?

>>6072829
>>I’m curious, Matsuri-san – what made you decide to sit down next to this little group in particular, out of all of us here?

>>6072829
>>Is this afternoon going to be a ‘guided’ experience, or are we going to spend the rest of the day roaming free and feral?

I just want to say "Free and feral" lol

>>6072829
>>Is this afternoon going to be a ‘guided’ experience, or are we going to spend the rest of the day roaming free and feral?


>>6072898
Same.

>>6072829
>>I’m curious, Matsuri-san – what made you decide to sit down next to this little group in particular, out of all of us here?

>>6072829
>free and feral

>>6072829
“So how is this going to work?” you ask carefully. “Will this afternoon be a guided tour, or will we be left free and feral?”

Matsuri-san seems caught off her guard by your phrasing there, but quickly rallies. “It’s a guided tour next, in small groups. Take a few of the more prominent sights in a sort of rotation. More personal that way. Easier to manage too.”

Right now, Kae-hime is chatting politely with Osuka-kun – not happily you’d say, but polite enough. But the problem is she’s not in your tentative group, so unless you say something it might get difficult for you to protect her the way you’re supposed to. You're willing to bet right now that those groups will pretty much conform to where students are right now and which guides from Sunagakure have approached them, rather than by Hana-sensei forming firm assignments.
>Prompt Matsuri-san on the group ‘assignments’ such as they are, see what she says.
>You can roll with this by making use of shadow clones and working with your team.
>Silently explain to Matsuri-san who you are and what the problem here is.
>Just fess up about who you are, this is getting ridiculous already.
>Other?

>>6073852
>>Prompt Matsuri-san on the group ‘assignments’ such as they are, see what she says.

>>6073852
I am torn, continue or fess up and deal with this one kid knowing?
>fess up
But ask himawari for support in dealing with her classmate, in exchange we promise her a favor for later.

>>6073852
>Silently explain to Matsuri-san who you are and what the problem here is.
Wave transmission exists for a reason, go in for a handshake or something

>>6073852
>>Prompt Matsuri-san on the group ‘assignments’ such as they are, see what she says.

>>6073852
>1d6, taking the first three

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6074758

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6074758

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6074758

>>6074758
“Matsuri-san, will this be our final group ‘assignment’ for the afternoon?” you ask, feigning curiosity when what you’re actually feeling is more akin to exasperation – while you’ve definitely been able to feel like the ‘natural teacher’ people keep taking you for at times, mostly this mission has just tested your patience. “Or is there still a little room to add a couple of people?”

“What, were you planning to go trade me out for Kae-hime?” Eiki-kun accuses you.

You try – and fail – not to roll your eyes. “I said add, not switch. Stop being so insecure.”

“So,” you press, returning to Matsuri-san before Eiki has another opportunity to complain. “Is there?”

“… it isn’t a requirement or anything,” she admits. “How many are you talking about?”

“Either one or three,” you clarify, gesturing at Kae-hime. “Over there are Kae, Osuka, and Neon. The latter two come as a set, so one or three.”

“But it’s this ‘Kae-hime’ either way?”

“Correct.”

Matsuri-san seems to ponder your proposal for a few seconds. “Well, we were aiming for four students each. So go ahead and invite Kae-kun to join us.”

…

By explaining to Kae, Osuka, and Neon that the goal was to go in groups of four, you’re able to ensure that Osuka and Neon aren’t too broken up about having to go in another group – since as you point out, your group has three and Kae-hime doesn’t exactly fit into any particularly ‘tight’ cliques with any of the other students. So putting her with a group of three that’s already formed just makes sense to everyone.

Once lunch is finished your group heads out under Matsuri-san’s guidance. The first place you go is Sunagakure’s botanical gardens, which aren’t too far from the Academy building and the Kazekage’s office. Outside at least, most of the gardens are focused on desert environments – which you weren’t particularly expecting to find so interesting. The barrels, the towering saguaros, the squat globules, the paddle-shaped oddities. Long spines and short. Those you knew to expect, though not necessarily in such variety nor with so many tasty-looking fruits. But there are also some with kinda chunky, thick leaves to go with their spines and flowers, which look more than a little like ‘normal’ trees. There are also many of those – ironwoods, acacias, desert willows, and things you’ve never even heard of.
>1/2

>>6076339
Inside the climate-controlled glass structures however are a treasure-trove of greenery. Each is designed to cut a certain amount of light filtering in, and air moving through each from vents in the floors and ducted in along the structural frames maintains a specific temperature (which is distinctly less than it is outside, even in the shade). Small wonder this seems to be a popular place to visit.

“Sunagakure’s benefited a lot from our post-war waterworks projects,” Matsuri-san explains, her hand brushing against a leafy tree. “A lot of the plants in here only grow in oases in the desert, or tucked away in deep canyons. Most of us hardly ever get to see them except for in here.”

“You even grow a lot of medicinal herbs, right?” Himawari muses cheerfully.

“That’s right,” Matsuri-san confirms with a proud smile. “Lord Gaara once nearly died due to how precious few herbs Sunagakure could grow when we were children. It had always been a problem, ever since the earliest days of our village.”

“Now, nobody here is going to die just because we can’t get them medicine.”

Inside one of the greenhouses you find the medicinal herbs – row upon row of carefully-tended plants, all of which are rare in the wild and incredibly valuable in the creation of high-quality medicines. Some can be mixed into deadly poisons, others are key in counteracting both commonly-used and rarer poisons.

While you and Himawari take a lot of interest in the herbs, it’s the flowers that Kae-hime finds most interesting and by extension it’s what Eiki-kun finds interesting.

“I’ve always been interested in flowers,” he lies.

“Really?” Kae-hime muses.

“Tell me something, Eiki-kun,” you reply, looking at a blue-tinted hydrangea in front of you. “Which of the two types of ajisai blooms in spring – is it the pink one or the blue one?”

He looks at the hydrangea, and does the proverbial math. “Pink.”

You sigh. “Ajisai color is determined by soil acidity. It’s one species and it blooms in summer.”

“… oh.”

“Eiki-kun,” you shake your head. “Next time try admitting you don’t know something, and use it as a chance to learn something about the other person’s interests.”

“He’s right you know,” Matsuri-san observes.
>2/3

>>6077544
Honestly, the side-trip to the botanical gardens is very nearly enough to distract you from your current mission – the subtle and not-so-subtle colors and dramatic shapes, the scents, the feel of the misters keeping the more ‘tropical’ specimens healthy.

…

Dinner is also served to the whole class, marking the end of what was from your perspective an uneventful day. It was so calm and relaxing that it was almost nerve-wracking. Is it that your protective detail has been that much of a success? Is it that the coup faction in Kae-hime’s homeland just not interested in targeting her? Are you missing something? Those are questions that turn over in your mind, and at the moment you have no answers.

You get your room assignments, and quickly place the boy you’ve been paired with under a genjutsu to make him believe that you turn in early. That lets you do what you feel necessary for the first night in Sunagakure.

>Your rooms all have sitting chairs in them – use the one in Kae and Himawari’s room to watch over them.
>Place hidden fūinjutsu tags around the building, make sure nothing moves without your knowledge.
>Use the ryūmei to watch her room without being physically present, ready to swoop in as a surprise if needed.
>Other?

>>6077685
>>Use the ryūmei to watch her room without being physically present, ready to swoop in as a surprise if needed.
he's a phantom, shiki phantom

>>6077685
>>Use the ryūmei to watch her room without being physically present, ready to swoop in as a surprise if needed.

>>6077685
>>Place hidden fūinjutsu tags around the building, make sure nothing moves without your knowledge.

>>6077685
Before you separate for the evening, you make it a point to pass by Kae-hime. [I’ll be monitoring you after eight. Please be prepared for bed by then.]

“Good night, Kagerō-kun,” she nods in response.

“Good night, Kae-hime,” you reply calmly.

…

At a quarter to seven your ryūmei clone is already waiting outside of Kae-hime’s room, which she’s sharing with two students you don’t talk to as much as you probably could – Amino Sōsha, who evidently is a student writer for the Academy paper, and Inuzuka Mimi. The latter hails from a well-known clan of shinobi in Konoha which relies on highly trained dogs as partners: Mimi-kun’s is named Kikuchiyo, a blue-eyed husky and a good boy.

When you enter their room, they’re through getting changed for bed but are still awake and talking – like a sleepover atmosphere, completely unguarded – at least, for Sōsha-kun and Mimi-kun.
>1d6 best of three

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6078507

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6078507

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6078507

>>6078507
“So what’re your thoughts, then?” Sōsha-kun asks, seemingly pressing an answer from Kae-hime to some conversation that you’re only now walking into in the middle of. “And don’t tell me you don’t have any, there’s no way.”

“Well, I think Mikkun has a point,” Kae-hime starts. “I think Eiki-kun’s heart is in the right place, he just tries to hard and trips himself up sometimes. But he definitely has talent.”

“And Kagerō-kun?” Sōsha-kun presses with a smirk.

“Kagerō-kun is popular for a reason,” Kae-hime summarizes.

“You’ve heard the rumors, right?”

“What rumors would those be?” Kae-hime asks.

“The rumor is he’s already a shinobi,” Sōsha-kun clarifies, “maybe ANBU even, hiding out in our class on some kind of secret mission.”

“I’ve heard that rumor too,” Mimi-kun admits. “But I have a hard time believing someone so thoughtful could be ANBU.”

“That’s exactly what a shinobi would want you to think,” Sōsha-kun counters with a smirk.

“Who even started that rumor anyway?” Kae-hime asks curiously. “You are the top reporter in the Academy, no?”

“A good journalist never reveals her sources,” Sōsha-kun replies simply. If that’s true though, and someone did tell her that… it could actually represent a liability. “Anyway, you could just admit you think he’s cute...”

…

The rest of the chatter is quite simply ‘girl talk’, which doesn’t really concern you at all – even the fact that your name came up at all was for much the same reason. Sōsha-kun and Mimi-kun were curious to know what Kae-hime thought about the boys in their class, looking probably to drum up some kind of interesting, juicy gossip along the way. Boy, what would they have thought if they knew you were hanging out in their room like this?

It’s about two-thirty in the morning, long after your actual body along with all the students from this Academy class are asleep, when you have to alert yourself. A lone figure has crept silently down the hallway, right up to the door to Kae-hime’s room, and used their chakra to silently unlock said door. It eases open slowly as the figure slips through in the dark. Your teammates couldn’t have seen this intruder, or else they would have stopped them – which means that they must have already been in the building.

[We have an intruder,] you tell your teammates silently. [Did you notice them?]
>1/2

>>6079689
[No… but I sense something happening,] Kōshū tells you.

[I’ll head to cut off the exits,] Sumire declares. [Wasabi, we may need your nose.]

[I get you,] Wasabi replies. [I’ll get to that floor to back you up, Shiki.]

[Kōshū, the window,] you decide.

[Already on it!]

As the shadowy figure leans over Kae-hime’s bed, you hold back. You wait until their intentions are totally clear, and when they produce a bag to slide over the princess’s head you have your clarity.

“Gotcha!” you shout as your foot makes contact with the intruder’s face, knocking them back. “Hands off the princess!”

Kae-hime starts, and someone flicks the lights on. You hear Kae-hime rip the bag off her head and push herself back off the bed and into the corner of the room, and the other two girls scream.

“… Hana-sensei?” you wonder aloud.

Behind the mask that your kick managed to break is a familiar face… but on it, you see an unfamiliar expression. And behind those eyes, you sense a familiar presence that isn’t the one you’d usually associate with Kae and Himawari’s teacher.

She weaves three quick hand seals before releasing a series of blackish-blueish flame bullets, which you respond to by spitting out an equal number of water needles from your mouth, which neutralize each other in seven puffs of steam.

“… who are you, really?” Hana-sensei, or whoever this is, demands.

“Uzumaki Shiki,” you reply, ending your transformation technique abruptly in an effort to rattle her. “And I could ask you the same thing.”

You draw a couple of hiraishin-marked kunai at a time, tossing them about the room.

“Hana-sensei was always genuine,” you muse. “And while you have her face, your presence isn’t the same as hers – instead it matches the one who tailed me from the Academy building. Reconcile those things for me, please.”
>2/3

>>6079707
see, THIS is why we kept up the charade this long! not that big of a dramatic payoff for all the waiting but I'll take it

>>6079715
more like he finally got fed up and found a way to end it satisfyingly since he realized we were too committed to our duty and were literally never going to quit
good on him, honestly. that's good writing. the bit ended because we're doing the job we're supposed to be doing, not because the QM or writers got tired of it and just stopped.

>>6079707
“I’m the assassin,” the assassin standing before you insists curtly, with a cruel smile.

So that’s the trick.

“I see,” you nod, without taking your eyes off her for a second. “Hana-sensei never knew you exist, did she? That’s how you got through the village’s security.”

The assassin claps slowly for a few seconds. “Well-reasoned, Uzumaki Shiki.”

“Kagerō-kun?” Mimi-kun asks you nervously from behind her vigilant, growling dog. “What’s happening? Why are you and Hana-sensei fighting?”

“Shiki,” you correct her. “And if I’m right, I’m not fighting Hana-sensei at all… think of it as another person who’s using sensei’s body.”

“That’s nonsense,” the assassin sneers. “I’m exactly who Kaka Hana has always been.”

She attacks before you can say anything else, hurling a trio of shuriken at Kae-hime and charging behind them, raising her own tantō and weaving a single seal.

“Don’t move!” you shout at Kae, a hiraishin-tagged kunai already on its way to intercept.

At precisely the right instant you teleport yourself to grab the kunai and spin it once around your index finger by its pommel-ring, back turned to take the shuriken to your cloak, and in the same instant you teleport away with them to crouch against the ceiling where you finish throwing your cloak off, rendering the attack totally harmless. At the same moment you spit another compressed water needle before teleporting away again.

In the mean time the assassin has created a shadow clone to enhance her tantōjutsu attack, but seems to realize that you’ve largely negated her whole strategy and begins to turn her attention towards you instead of Kae-hime. You reappear at the kunai again where it’s still spinning, catch it, and parry the assassin’s tantō. She manages to roll with your kick, largely protecting herself from your counterattack while at the same time the water needle strikes the shadow clone through its head.

Even as she rights herself, your hand clasps her right shoulder – you’ve teleported one final time to your ryūmei clone, the kick you hit her with having sent the assassin towards the invisible ‘marker’ created from your own living ghost clone.

In mere seconds, far too fast for the students in the room to even process what’s happened, the fight is as good as over.

A moment passes.

“Hesitating, boy?” the assassin asks. “Don’t tell me you still think the ‘Kaka Hana’ you thought you knew ever really existed.”
>3/4

>>6080486
“If she didn’t,” you counter, the gentle tone of your voice at odds with the overwhelming speed of the violence that took place just a few seconds ago, “then why are you crying?”

The assassin pushes away from you, but doesn’t try to cut you. Instead she raises the tantō defensively, and backs herself against the wall.

“What are you trying to do to me?” she demands, her eyes slightly wide with tears obviously staining her cheeks. The speaker, unlike the true Hana clearly still fighting somewhere inside, fails to understand the situation.

>You’re just an unhealthy coping mechanism. Hana-sensei deserves better than you – ACTUAL help and support.
>Hana-sensei genuinely loves her students. And I’ve always thought love is more powerful than… whatever YOU are.
>I’m going to put you to sleep now. And by the time Hana-sensei wakes up, I can promise you that you’ll be gone.
>Other?

>>6080498
>>Hana-sensei genuinely loves her students. And I’ve always thought love is more powerful than… whatever YOU are.

>>6080498
>>You’re just an unhealthy coping mechanism. Hana-sensei deserves better than you – ACTUAL help and support.

>>6080498
>Because you deserve better, and i know this isn't what you really want.
>Your students love you as much as you love them, and we'll always do whatever we can to help you.

>>6080498
“Hana-sensei genuinely loves her students,” you frown, never for even an instant letting your guard down. “While you’re just an unhealthy coping mechanism. And whatever else it is you may be… I’ve always thought love is stronger.”

The assassin, or Hana-sensei – or maybe some combination of the two – looks as if she’s seconds away from either breaking down completely or launching a suicidal charge at you.

>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6081026

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6081026

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6081026

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6081026

>>6081026
It’s actually somewhat surprising that what she settles on is to try and do both at the same time, which means she doesn’t end up doing either one particularly well. When the assassin persona is in charge she’s actually pretty good at taijutsu despite being nowhere near the level to counteract even the most basic application of hiraishin, but she’s not even really in the driver’s seat anymore. Hana-sensei may not have what it takes to be a front-line fighter, but right now she’s fighting like hell and it shows in how far the assassin’s skills deteriorate in a span of mere moments.

“Damn it!” she grunts as you gently push her wrist to avoid her tantō-thrust. “Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

Eventually you just catch her wrist and hold it, feeling trembling and not resistance.

“… sensei?” Mimi speaks up nervously.

Hana-sensei starts, before turning to face her student. “… Inuzuka-kun?”

The tantō thuds as it drops from her hand. “What was I…”

“Welcome back,” you muse quietly, resting a reassuring hand on Hana-sensei’s shoulder – without releasing her right wrist just yet. “So far as I’m aware, YOU haven’t done anything.”

“I’m going to call in my team, who will escort you back to Konoha. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of things here for now.”

…

The next morning, your ‘class’ is understandably anxious. Despite only three students having been present for the incident plenty of them heard various noises in the night before and despite the fact that you had Sumirin’s help in maintaining the strict curfew there’s been plenty of buzz about it. Like Naori-ue says, nothing spreads faster than a rumor – especially when you’re trying to contain it.

“First,” you begin once they’re all here along with your minders from Sunagakure – as well as the Kazekage, first thing in the morning, “I’d like to apologize for deceiving you all. My real name is Uzumaki Shiki, and I’m a jōnin. I’ve been assigned to serve as an undercover, close-quarters bodyguard for Yukiwari Kae-kun while she’s staying in Konoha. Up ‘till yesterday evening you knew me as ‘Kagerō’.”

“What happened to Hana-sensei?” Eiki-kun demands.

“She’s going to be absent for a little while,” you explain. “Unfortunately it seems that when she was young, probably before any of us were born, she was trained by her home village as an assassin.”

You continue, ignoring the murmurs. “Especially in the smaller villages that sort of training usually amounted to torture – Hana-sensei coped by developing a split personality. One was ‘her’, which you know, who basically forgot that anything had happened to her. One was the ‘assassin’, which came out last night, who absorbed both the trauma and the training.”

“What will happen to her, Shikkun?” Himawari asks in a quiet tone.
>1/2

>>6082402
“Hana-sensei is absolutely a victim here,” you assure the class. “But this sort of thing can be complicated – she’ll be gently debriefed and assigned a therapist of course, but she’ll need to be de-programmed to make sure that the assassin training never re-emerges. I’m only guessing at this point, but she may actually be back to work sooner than you might think.”

“Is that so?” Gaara-dono muses.

You nod. “You’ve probably heard my mom mention that my sister and I are basically little human lie detectors?”

“It’s come up.”

“I couldn’t even tell there was anything wrong,” you admit. “That’s actually part of how I filled in the blanks last night – Hana-sensei’s ‘assassin’ persona was so thoroughly compartmentalized she had no idea it even existed. There was no deception there for me to pick up on.”

“The second personality would be easy to remove in that case,” Gaara-dono completes your line of thinking. “That certainly seems possible. Someone who knows the victim would have to determine any questions of likelihood.”

“More than that, Hana-sensei’s true self is hardly ‘weak’,” you insist. “She’ll need support to get through this… but she WILL get through it.”

“And may I ask,” Kae-hime asks you with a frown, “what will happen in the mean time?”

>Hana-sensei will be back in class soon. It will likely be an important part of her recovery.
>Until she’s back, however long that takes, Anko-sensei will be helping with your studies.
>Hana-sensei keeps detailed notes. Until she’s back, I’ll use those to see to your studies personally.
>Other?

>>6082410
>>Hana-sensei keeps detailed notes. Until she’s back, I’ll use those to see to your studies personally.
might as well stick around for a bit and tie every loose end. who the fuck let out that we were a jonin, Neon? Himawari?

>>6082410
>>Hana-sensei keeps detailed notes. Until she’s back, I’ll use those to see to your studies personally.

>>6082410
>Hana-sensei keeps detailed notes. Until she’s back, I’ll use those to see to your studies personally.

Now this seems like a lot of fun

>>6082410
>>Hana-sensei keeps detailed notes. Until she’s back, I’ll use those to see to your studies personally.

This just seems fun.

>>6082410
“You know,” you sigh, “people keep telling me I’d make a good teacher. So I figure Hana-sensei keeps detailed notes, so I may as well give it a try based on that. Take over your instruction starting with finishing this trip, and hand it back to her when she’s in a position to return.”

“Don’t you have your own missions?” Eiki-kun frowns.

“I do,” you admit, “but I’m pretty unusual.”

“Unusual how?” Mimi-kun asks nervously. “You mean… those techniques you used last night?”

“Yup,” you reply calmly. “I’m kind of a champion at multi-tasking. Runs in the family.”

“Hiraishin,” Sōsha-kun observes. “That’s the technique you were using, right?”

“There’s no way…” Eiki-kun begins.

“You’re well informed,” you tell Sōsha-kun. “For that matter, do you know how those rumors started about me being a shinobi?”

After a moment, biting her lip slightly, she relents with a nod. “Eiki-kun told me.”

“Sōsha-kun!” Eiki-kun protests.

“And how did you hear it?” you ask Eiki-kun. “You’re not in trouble, but I AM trying to tie off some loose ends here before I report to the Hokage.”

Not particularly subtle, but at least you can be sure that Eiki-kun gets the implicit threat – such as it is – that Naruto-san will be annoyed if he holds out on you.

“… it was an anonymous note I found in my backpack one afternoon after school,” he admits.

“That doesn’t confirm anything,” you sigh. “Alright, thanks Eiki-kun.”

For now, it will have to simply remain your suspicion that the assassin was responsible for that – since in retrospect Hana-sensei was the most likely leak.

“So… does this mean I’m safe from any further threats?” Kae-hime asks you hesitantly.

You shake your head. “Not quite. But it did give me a good idea of how to proceed…”

…

You are Uzumaki Naori, and your son has asked you for a little bit of assistance with his current mission – and Sasuke’s too, as it happens. While this assassination plot isn’t much of a problem for you or for your nation, you’re not so cold-hearted as to refuse a request like this. It also doesn’t hurt that solving this problem will free up Sasuke and Shiki for more pressing matters.
>1/2

>>6083767
“So… Kaka Hana-han,” you muse, taking a seat across the table from the instructor that Shiki identified as an assassin. “Former resident of the Land of Bamboo, immigrated to Konoha ten years after the Fourth World War as a minor. Studied to become a teacher, in which role this is your first year. Anko-sensei’s reports detail high aptitude for teaching as well as strong general knowledge. Your elemental affinity is for Wind, but your technical proficiency in Fire and in genjutsu are both notable, as is your manipulation of paper as a tool… neat.”

She finally glances up at that. “… neat?” she repeats.

“Yeah, neat,” you insist. “That’s a technique my sensei, my daughter, and I all use. So yeah, it’s kinda neat.”

“I… see. Are my students okay?”

“So yeah, my name is Uzumaki Naori,” you tell her, “Shiki is my son. He’s also the one who asked me to talk with you. He’s taking care of your students for now.”

“That’s good,” she muses, seemingly relieved. “He seems like he’s more than just a skilled shinobi… those students will be in good hands, I think.”

“For sure,” you agree. “Now then, Hana-han, I’m here to conduct your interrogation. Do you need anything first? Food, water?”

She shakes her head quietly.

“Any medical conditions?”

She looks at you nervously.

“Yeah no, this ain’t a prelude to torture,” you sigh. “It’s just best practice to make sure, you know.”

“No, your son was remarkably gentle.”

“Figured I raised him better than that,” you nod. “Good.”

>I’d like to ask you a few questions about your mission, for the record. It would help put this whole affair to rest.
>I’d like your permission to sort through your memories from the Land of Bamboo using genjutsu. Including things you may be blocking out subconsciously.
>Shiki’s report told me that your ‘assassin’ persona was a pain in the neck. How’s that going? Is she under control right now?
>Other?

>>6083794
>I’d like your permission to sort through your memories from the Land of Bamboo using genjutsu. Including things you may be blocking out subconsciously.
Using genjutsu as a healing tool rather than a torture tool, what a concept.

>>6083794
>>I’d like your permission to sort through your memories from the Land of Bamboo using genjutsu. Including things you may be blocking out subconsciously.

>>6083794
>I’d like your permission to sort through your memories from the Land of Bamboo using genjutsu. Including things you may be blocking out subconsciously.

Honestly, have the Yamanaka become just completely defunct at this point? Feel like this would've been handled in house by them, along with other points in the quest so far.

>>6083877
The Yamanaka clan's specialty is actually closer to what Tsunade's boyfriend did in canon, and what Ryuzetsu's kekkei genkai does in quest. And even if Ryuzetsu basically powercrept them at that (they're in different villages so not directly competing) the Yamanaka are also major players in the Konoha barrier division. Apparently.

As for the interrogation division, they'd be at a historic low point in Konoha due to their long history of relying on torture (which is out of fashion with the rise of the Shinobi Union). There are some in that division who can use genjutsu as a more humane method, however they're all what we like to call "normies". If it's not Naori who's one-upping them it'd be Sasuke, who'd actually be slightly better at this sort of thing even than she is. You'd be right though in the sense that comparing either to a normal jonin just isn't fair.

>>6083794
>>I’d like your permission to sort through your memories from the Land of Bamboo using genjutsu. Including things you may be blocking out subconsciously.

>>6084113
I was thinking more of stuff like the mind reading amplification machine used by T&I, but even that is woefully inferior to anyone who isn't a normie, so fair enough.