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After leaving the Hokage's office, Danzo Shimura led Aki straight to Training Ground No. 4. Danzo pulled out a signal flare, fired it into the sky, and then turned to Aki.
"Ninja signal flares," he explained, "are super useful tools. They're mainly for signaling your squad to regroup or retreat, but in critical moments, they can also distract the enemy, helping your teammates complete the mission or escape safely. My squad should be here soon, but before they arrive, I want to test your skills. We just took on an A-rank mission, and honestly, I'm worried you might slow us down."
Danzo was blunt. Aki stared him down seriously and replied, "I've been wondering myself how far I can go against a real ninja."
Danzo nodded. "Alright then. Give it everything you've got. Come at me like you're trying to kill me."
With that, he took a defensive stance, giving Aki the first move.
Immediately, Aki's eyes shifted—his Sharingan activated with two tomoe in each eye. He formed the hand seals: Serpent – Dragon – Hare – Tiger.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!"
A huge stream of flames shot from Aki's mouth, rushing toward Danzo like a dragon. Aki chose this jutsu to open with because it was fast and hard to dodge. Over the past six months of intense training, he had awakened the two-tomoe Sharingan, giving him sharp perception of every movement Danzo made.
He didn't expect the Fire Dragon to land a direct hit—this was just the setup. He wanted to force Danzo to make the first move. Offense is the best defense, after all.
Sure enough, Danzo used Body Flicker to dodge and reappeared to Aki's right. Aki instantly followed with his own Body Flicker and appeared right in front of Danzo.
Before Danzo could react, Aki formed another set of seals and shouted:"Fire Style: Headstrong Flame Jutsu!"
A barrage of fireballs hit Danzo point-blank and engulfed him in flames.
But Aki didn't let his guard down. He stayed sharp, scanning the area. Right before the fireballs hit, Danzo had used a Substitution Jutsu to escape and vanished into the trees.
From the woods, Danzo's voice rang out:"Forcing movement with Fire Dragon, then closing in using your Sharingan to anticipate enemy movement—releasing a low-accuracy but high-damage technique like Headstrong Flame at close range... not bad. You've already got the strength of a Genin. Now let's see if you've got what it takes to be a Chuunin."
Suddenly, a barrage of wind blades came flying out of the trees. Aki jumped into the air and thought,"These wild wind blades won't hit me... so what's Danzo really planning—wait! Crap!"
Realizing too late, Aki quickly formed seals:"Substitution Jutsu!"
Even though he reacted fast, Danzo appeared next to him in mid-air and landed a solid kick to Aki's stomach. Still, Aki managed to pull off the Substitution Jutsu and reappeared safely on the ground. Gritting through the pain, he looked up at Danzo in the air and thought:
"Let's see how you dodge this in mid-air with no footing!"
Aki launched his most powerful jutsu:"Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon Barrage!"
This upgraded version of the jutsu, taught and modified by the First Hokage himself, was now Aki's strongest offensive move. Flames erupted from his mouth, forming a giant dragon that slithered like a serpent toward Danzo.
The sheer heat forced Danzo to stop messing around. He took a deep breath and unleashed his own jutsu:
"Wind Style: Tornado Hurricane Jutsu!"
A massive tornado formed around him and shredded the fire dragon to pieces. As Danzo landed, Aki used Body Flicker again and closed in with a short sword in hand.
Danzo smirked to himself."Looks like he's running low on chakra—he had to switch from ninjutsu to taijutsu. That last jutsu wasn't even at full power. But no matter how strong his taijutsu is, his tiny body will always be a limitation."
Aki, only about a meter tall, slashed at Danzo with his short sword. Danzo quickly pulled out a kunai and blocked with one hand, while the other launched a volley of shuriken. Aki's sword missed, so he kicked off the ground and flipped back to dodge the shuriken mid-air.
"My body's too small—most attack forms won't work well. Guess it's time to try that move."
He dropped the sword and reached behind his waist, pulling out a handful of shuriken and threw them at Danzo.
Danzo scoffed."Really? That's it? Shuriken? You're outta gas, kid."
But Aki smirked."Who said you were the target?"
Danzo's eyes widened. The shuriken had curved in midair, circling around the trees—then came flying back at him from behind. Glinting in the light, near-invisible steel wires stretched between them, wrapped all around the area.
"Crap—Uchiha clan's shuriken wire technique!" Danzo panicked.
Aki followed up instantly with another jutsu:"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!"
The flames surged down the steel wires, wrapping the battlefield in fire. The wires lit up like fiery snakes, surrounding Danzo completely.
"You've got nowhere to run," Aki grinned.
With a sharp tug, the wires pulled tight—fire closing in from all directions.
Just then, a booming voice shouted from above:"Expansion Jutsu!"
A giant hand came crashing down from the sky, smashing the fire-covered wires in front of Danzo. He used the opening to Body Flicker out of the fiery trap.
Once clear, Danzo looked back to see the flames tearing through a massive tree, splitting it into chunks.
"That tree was so big it'd take three people to hug it—those wires cut it. Damn, this kid's not just skilled, he's strong as hell. If Choza hadn't shown up just now, I might've really gotten hurt..."
The dust cleared, revealing a chubby man standing beside Danzo.
"Danzo, you called us out here—do we have a mission? And what's up with you fighting this little guy? You looked like you were going all out."
Danzo pointed at Aki. "This kid is Uchiha Aki, the Fourth member of our squad, assigned to us personally by the Second Hokage when I picked up the mission. He's a prodigy from the Uchiha clan. I just had to make sure he wouldn't hold us back."
He then gestured to the big guy. "This is Akimichi Choza—another member of our squad. He specializes in taijutsu."
Choza waved. "Hey there."
"Nice to meet you," Aki replied.
Danzo looked satisfied. "I've seen enough. You won't be a burden on this mission. That last shuriken technique was excellent—I approve."
Just then, a figure appeared in front of Aki, kneeling on one knee.
"Greetings, Young Master. I am Uchiha Kagami, one of your clan's sworn protectors."
Aki looked awkward, scratching his head."Right... I think Dad mentioned this before. Every future clan head of the Uchiha has a few personal followers. These followers are given a curse seal at birth to bind their loyalty. Since my dad married into the clan, he didn't have any, but apparently I have four. This is my first time meeting one of them..."
"Please don't bring clan customs into this," Aki said as he helped Kagami up. "I'm a Konoha ninja now, and you're my senior. That's all we are here."
Danzo cut in. "Enough introductions. Kagami, deal with your personal stuff later. Listen up."
Kagami nodded and looked apologetically at the group.
Danzo continued, "We've been assigned a joint A-rank mission. It's dangerous—maybe even close to S-rank level. So we need to be well-prepared. Now that Aki's joining us, we've got to tweak our plan a bit."
He glanced at everyone before going on.
"Takigakure has been buying huge quantities of military rations. Our undercover merchant caught wind of this and offered to sell. In the Land of Fire, we can produce over ten thousand ration pills a day, but in the Land of the Waterfall, they lack the ingredients—it's a rare and vital military resource. So, the Second Hokage ordered us to sell them at a high price."
"Doing this will boost Konoha's economy and drain Takigakure's funds. They've been moving suspiciously, along with Iwagakure. Looks like war might be coming. But we can't let them know Konoha is behind the deal. After the trade, we'll bring the money and the merchant back safely. That's when things get risky—there's a high chance we'll get attacked by elite ninja."
"Aki, you'll play the merchant's nephew and stay close to protect him. Choza, you're in charge of the cargo. Kagami and I will stay hidden to scout and clean up. Got it?"
All three said in unison: "Got it!"
"Good. We leave tomorrow. Meet at the village gate at 5 AM. Dismissed."
Danzo vanished in a flicker. Choza said goodbye and ran off shouting the name of a BBQ place.
Aki turned to Kagami. "So... can you tell me who the other followers are? And how strong you all are?"
"Yes, Young Master. When you were born, the previous clan head chose four young elites to serve you. Besides me, there's Uchiha Mine, Uchiha Ame, and Uchiha Chise. I've already applied to become a Jonin. Mine was promoted two years ago. Ame and Chise are both Chuunin. All four of us have awakened our Sharingan."
Aki nodded seriously.
"I know the clan used a curse seal to make sure you're loyal to me. That's not right. You might even resent me for it. I'm not strong enough to change that yet, but I want you to treat me like a normal person. One day, I'll remove your seals myself."
With that, Aki turned and walked away.
Kagami watched him go and thought,"Maybe following a genius like this isn't such a bad fate. I wonder what Mine and Ame will think when they hear this. That curse seal... it was created by that legendary Uchiha, and he's the one who cast it on us..."
"....."