Red Riot - Chapter 26 - Red changes

I knew what I had to do. 

It wasn’t something I was going to take pleasure in. 

Well, actually, that was a lie. 

I’d take a bit of pleasure in what I had planned.

But, in my defence, who hasn’t fantasised about murdering their teachers? 

Especially when their teachers are part of a brutal regime that pits them against their classmates. Those same teachers that sometimes tortured— mentally or otherwise—, tripped you up academically, or even tarnished your ability to learn. More than a few kids likely experienced a downward spiral of what I suspected led to a lot of Kiri’s nutjobs.

So, planning and executing the leadership of the Academy was something I was going to try not to relish.

They had to go, it was just an obstacle for me. I had a reform that needed to happen to drag Kiri, kicking and screaming into a better place. They as the entrenched powers of the Academy, wouldn’t want things to change. Not when it meant more work, or for them to potentially lose some of their power within Kiri.

I couldn’t ignore that the Headmaster, more than anyone else, got to have a say in who lived and who died. 

If I was Naruto I’m sure I might have worked to show them the error of their ways through a series of heartfelt moments over the course of the next two weeks, but I was under no delusions.

I lived in Kirigakure. 

And I was under a time crunch. 

There would be no third act of redemption for these people. 

Instead, they were going to serve as examples for the rest that there was a change happening in the academy. As for the other Instructors? Well, they would either get the message or join the senior leadership.  

But that was presumptuous. 

First things first I needed to handle the Bursar, a woman who relished in short-changing training tools and spending the money on other areas of the academy such as office supplies, furniture or even the Headmaster. 

My only experiences with the Bursar were when she’d tried to claim our weapons as ‘training’ tools for the academy only for us to rebuff her as they were all ours. Thankfully the cheap nature of our training tools deterred her, but it didn’t stop her from her leaning on Instructor Geta to punish us by having us run the obstacle course while older kids were running it, all while she hurled genjutsu at us. 

The Bursar, in most respects, reminded me of a shinobi version of Madam Umbridge. I hated how lawful and evil she was. In another instance I might have been able to ignore her from my list of ‘people’ that needed to die’, but she, more than anyone else could not be allowed to live due to her morals. She’d take the academy and make it worse. 

The Bursar also had, I had learned thanks to talking with Tenpora earlier tonight, a good deal of say in who lived and died thanks to gifts from various clans. 

Everything came back to him in the end.

He, more than anyone else needed to die. 

The Bursar was first though, for the simple fact she was closest. 

I was able to slip into her house, ghost past the traps she’d set up and peruse her paperwork. 

A quick but thorough inspection of her office at large revealed a few hidden documents. Two of which I kept; the others I put back but not before making sure to leave some sign that there could be something to be found.

I left a small smudge near the wall, just behind a painting. Then I added a slight crease to the carpet. I left the cavity exposed for the false cavity in the desk. 

Then I left signs of the fraud out on the table with ink marks splashed around haphazardly, all to make it look like the woman had been working on her fraud before growing lazy and deciding to leave her work out. 

With that done and my stolen information tucked away I snuck into her bedroom.

It was perhaps the nightmare of all women to have this sort of scenario play out and with that in mind, I made sure she couldn’t wake up. I wanted to kill these people, not torment her. 

A sharp, sudden twist of the neck did the trick. 

I then dragged her and a glass to a set of stairs in her house before letting her fall down them with a heavy thump. The glass I shattered next to her. 

I sat for a few more seconds before I felt some chakra signatures stirring.  I doubted they’d investigate straight away, not unless they were actually close with the woman, but in Kiri, most people kept up a certain level of separation to stay alive.

They’d be found tomorrow regardless. 

For now, I needed to keep moving.

The Deputy Headmaster died next due to a faulty screw.

He hadn't been the Deputy when I'd graduated, back then I'd known him as the Senior instructor. So that meant there'd been a few people promoted.

That made sense after Gengetsu had beheaded the Headmaster.

The man should have known better than to sleep with rack upon rack of weapons above his bed.

If he’d woken up he might have gotten to use them. I knew from experience that he was very good with them. 

I still remember having to heal up the carved-up kids that had taken him down during our graduation. Each of them had been very touch and go and it was only the audacity of my plan along with our weight in numbers that had helped bring him down. It still hadn’t been enough, he’d been one of the few Instructors who had actually killed some of the kids.

He had good traps and defences, but sadly for him, I’d been able to sense the traps. He also had positioned his bedroom in front of a window that wasn’t tinted. 

It was child’s play to spot the wall of unsheathed ‘display’ blades above his bed. A good deal of which were held up by a handful of screws.  

Instead of infiltrating his home, I’d slid my chakra down through a crack in the roof and unwound a screw, which caused the stand with bared blades to shift. I threaded my chakra string a little further and lined up a few more blades, and then… I tugged the screw loose and let the blades fall straight into him.

He died after being stabbed ten times through the chest.

If anyone recalled the bodies of the kids during the Graduation, they’d understand the point I was making.

Two down. Each killed in slightly different manners, but nevertheless dead.

And like that, I moved on to the Senior Instructor. This man, before anyone else was perhaps the greatest threat I had to face. 

The Senior Instructor was a man who would come out occasionally to sit in on classes and check that the standard was up to scratch. 

It wasn't even his job to do that back then. I could only imagine he was worse now that he had actual authority.

He was a sadist, but then again... when in Kirigakure you shouldn't be surprised to find psychopaths. 

He’d occasionally test kids by beating them into the ground during Taijutsu lessons or throw them off the obstacle course by shunshinning in front of them. 

He was a sadistic old bastard who had sadly made it through the last war only to get an injury that saw him dumped on us.  As a survivor of the war, I could only imagine he’d learned more than a thing or two.

Such as setting up a wide array of traps that were both chakra-sensitive and not around his house amd yard.

I couldn’t approach his home at all as he’d created a small compound around his house. The trees had a scattering of traps that Shoto and I had taken to test ourselves against during our last year. 

If Shoto had been here I might have asked for his help but sadly he was away right now, and again, I couldn’t afford to wait. 

So instead of going for the stealthy option, I decided to do something else. 

I set myself up on a building across the street and set about making myself a mini trebuchet. I then proceeded to begin flinging tiny vials of oil across the street and onto the target’s house. 

Through my chakra senses, I kept a close eye on the target’s reactions, and initially, when he stirred I stopped only to rethink that and continue a moment later.

The man lay in what I suspected passed as his bed for a few moments only to move to investigate what was disturbing him. He had good instincts and I figured that should I have continued to try and be clever he’d have acted differently. 

He began moving about, pausing every now and then to detect what was making the noise. 

I knew he heard the breaking of the vial when he started moving to the roof. 

I adopted a henge for a young boy that I’d passed on the street. I made tears trickle down his face, making it look like I was just another pissed-off student trying to pull a prank.

It would buy me a whole second when he investigated I hoped. 

After almost ten minutes of flicking small vials of oil at the man’s house as he crept around it, I’d gotten pretty damned accurate with my mini trebuchet. As soon as the man started to jump to the roof I sighted on where he’d land and fired.

I then hurled a kunai an instant later with a hard throw, making sure to empower it with wind chakra so that it cut through the air with a whistling noise. 

The man landed on the roof, and glanced down only for the earlier vial of oil to slam into him, breaking all over him and spreading its contents. 

His head snapped up and he spotted me and the oncoming kunai.

Without even thinking about it he raised another kunai to deflect the threat. 

With a flick of his wrist, he deflected the kunai causing a small ‘skrit’ noise to ring out along with a tiny spark as metal clashed against metal.

A moment later the oil ignited and the roof and the man were ablaze. 

I doubted that would be enough to keep him down though so I made sure to create a small wooden kunai that I tossed with wind chakra helping to give it some edge. The blade bit into the man’s chest before fueling the flames. 

Best of all? The blade would burn up in the fire unlike a metal kunai.

I watched the fire and the Deputy burn for a few moments.

This… wasn’t how I’d thought it would go down, but I wasn’t so beholden to my methods that I couldn’t adjust on the fly. 

The Instructors had taught me well it seemed.

Three down. 

One to go. 

The Headmaster of the Kiri Academy was an old man, and the only reason I could assume that he hadn’t tried to kill me was that I had barely spent a week in Kiri since I’d graduated. 

Well, unless he’d had a hand in sending Hideo on the same ship as me. There was no way to know and I wasn’t about to wait around. 

He was a walking talking example of the past. 

He never interacted with any of the students beyond the final graduation where he read off the names of those that would pass and those that wouldn’t. 

I held no love for him. 

I had little doubt he’d remember me though. You can’t forget a kid that sucker punches your buddy in the throat only to get off scott free while our old comrade got his head cut off.

He was, sadly, the hardest to find out of all the teachers.

Shoto and I had never been able to track down where the Headmaster lived. Which was saying something, as we’d tried. With the previous headmaster they’d formed a trio of old men sitting at the top of the Academy. 

Now it was just him, not that he new that.

Like the Deputy, he was an old ninja, which meant that I needed to make sure I didn’t let him know I was coming for him or fight him in any head-on manner. 

So I dropped in on another instructor first. 

For the second time that night, I snuck into a kunoichi’s bedroom. This time, unlike the others my target wasn’t alone. 

I inspected the shinobi laying on his back while Instructor Mizuna cuddled up to him. The room stank of sex but I was somewhat used to that having grown up in the red-light district. 

I drew out my kunai and flicked it through the air a few times, letting a slight whistle enter the room. Mizuna woke up first and sat up only to stiffen.

“Fuck!” she shouted, her hand snapping behind her as she registered me in her room. 

“I have a mission,” I intoned before she could fully close her hand around the kunai resting under her pillow. 

Mizuna paused, listening despite her instincts screaming at her to act against the threat in her room. 

“Urgh… babe what?” said the male shinobi as he sat up and smacked his lips. 

He was a pretty man but his reactions left much to be desired as he glanced around the room only to notice me and then stiffen. Mizuna had taken a tenth of the time to spot the threat. 

This man didn’t seem all that useful. How had he ever graduated as a Shinobi, I found myself wondering. Probably Nepotism.

“Urgh! You can’t kill me! I’m part of the—” the man started to say only for Mizuna to hiss at him.

“Shut up! He’s not here for you or me! He said he has a mission!” she snapped, not taking her eyes off me or her hand off the kunai. 

I nodded slowly watching her for any twitches that would herald sudden violence. Mizuna, while a sadistic bitch, had nothing on Geta who’d after my trick during the last graduation needed to try and put me down only to be put down in turn. 

“The Mizukage wishes for some reforms within the Academy, tomorrow a suggestion will be put forth, you should consider it,” I said casually. 

“I don’t decide Academy policy, the Headmaster and the others do that!” 

“Hmmm, so you’re useless to me?” I asked tilting my head and letting a sliver of moonlight flash across my eyes. 

“No! No! I didn’t say that!” she said. 

I made a show of considering her. “Tomorrow you can voice your support, tonight it seems I need to talk with the Headmaster, where does he live?” I asked. It was another risk to my already risky plan to involve Mizuna like this but the truth was I didn’t have time to hunt around for the Headmaster. 

I needed to move tonight.

Mizuna relaxed marginally and her lips twitched. Ah, she thought I was going to approach the man and probably get my fool neck torn open. 

I didn’t plan to do any such thing of course, but she didn’t need to know that. 

“He lives next to the academy actually. There’s a tunnel he takes that leads to his house so punk kids don’t find out where he lives,” she said. 

I nodded my head and shunshinned out her window and into Kiri, my vision blurring at the accelerated movement. 

I made my way through the familiar and yet not streets. 

It took me a moment to realise that I’d always walked or run to the Academy through a thick curtain of mist. A mist that had only receded upon the Second Shinobi War finish. 

I wasn’t used to seeing what the houses looked like, nor was I used to seeing them from on high, via the ‘shinobi highway’ that was rooftop. 

I made it to the academy and unlike so many other times I snuck around this time I entered the teacher’s lounge only to move on, deeper than I usually went. 

I wasn’t looking for intel on exams or lesson plans this time around but rather I was looking for… Ah, there it was, large ostentatious doors with a snarling motif on the outside. 

I tested it with my senses and found it not to have any chakra tricks. Despite that it was locked but opening locks was a skill we’d learned during our second year. 

I slid a metal bar into place and clicked home the lock, and then I worked at the bracing bars on the other side, one, two, three, all of them clicking home one after the other. 

Then I tested the door and it swung open to reveal a large office with a commanding desk. There were no windows looking out and instead, the room was dark but for a few lanterns hanging from alcoves on the wall. 

I looked around the office and found yet another door. 

This door, unlike the last, had a myriad of chakra seals embedded into it along with what my eyes could see were at least five traps that would deploy needles if things weren’t done properly. 

Damn, I’d need to either search all of the surrounding houses… or do something else. 

I considered both options before shrugging and decided to roll the dice. 

If the Headmaster’s ‘secret’ door was like this I didn’t want to know what sort of traps he had on his actual place of residence. 

So I sat on the chair in front of his table and settled in to wait. The only change I made was to put a scroll in front of my position on his desk, seemingly the point of my ‘visit’.  

I didn’t hide myself with any of the genjutsu that Akiko had been teaching me. 

A fake wall or a minor illusion wasn’t going to cut it, not here and now. 

I instead focussed my attention inwards and began playing with my chakra to wile away the hours I had to wait. 

No one disturbed me until a light noise came from the hidden door. It was little more than a light click that heralded the Headmaster striding into the room. 

He didn’t break his stride as he glanced around, his eyes noticing me but not stopping as he took in the rest of the room before zeroing back in on me and then the desk then back to me. All that in barely more than an instant.

Then he was upon me before I could blink. His hand lashed out and he grabbed me around the throat. 

Heh, I was right, he had recalled how I’d taken out the last Headmaster. 

He must see this as poetic justice. 

Good, that made what came next easier.

I swallowed and felt his grasp tighten around my neck. 

“You have a lot of nerve,” he said, his eyes narrowing as he stared me down. “You think you can just wander in here and shit on everything again?” he said. 

I let my eyes twitch around, playing into the gambit that I was suddenly nervous like I hadn’t considered this. “I-I have a mission scroll from the Mizukage,” I said, deliberately keeping it vague for who the mission scroll was for. 

The Headmaster didn’t even look at his desk. “That isn’t worth shit here brat!” he spat. “And no fucking way the Mizukage didn’t know I wasn’t going to snap your shitty little neck the moment you stepped foot on the academy grounds.”

I made my breath hitch. Right as I did that, I began to weave chakra into his coils in a trickle, just enough to not be noticeable, but enough for my needs. 

His lips twitched slightly and he flexed his chakra, trying to break a genjutsu that I wasn’t using. “You thought you were so goddamn clever, didn’t you?”

I looked up at him. “Oh, I didn’t think,” I said as I locked eyes and let all pretences drop. With my chakra forming a pathway of where I wanted it to go I was able to flood his coils in a heartbeat. 

His eyes widened as instead of having to fight off an illusion that he’d no doubt have a great deal of experience dispelling, he found his body failing him as I induced a coma with medical chakra. 

“You shit!” he snarled before the chakra could take hold and he twitched his hand attempting to crush my neck. 

No sudden snap rang out however and my neck remained unbroken. 

I stared him down as he slumped slowly to the ground. “How?” he rasped as his eyes became lidded. 

Instead of answering him I reached into his body with my chakra and pinched a very specific blood vessel.

He gasped as his heart suddenly found itself unable to supply itself with blood. 

Wonderful things the coronary arteries.

But fickle. Oh so fickle. 

The man’s eyes bulged suddenly and he fell to the ground with a slump.

I kept my hand on him and made sure to keep his arteries pinched as he spasmed and fought. 

Despite how he outwardly looked, I could feel him trying to rally.

I didn’t let up until his heart stopped beating and he breathed his last. 

I stood and sighed. “It’s a shame you couldn’t see that change was necessary,” I said to the corpse. Then I  dusted myself off and walked out the office to claim a seat within the room I’d passed earlier where all of the teachers must meet to talk.

I felt the academy slowly fill as other instructor entered and began to prepare for their day. I could feel Tenpora enter and approach each instructor as they arrived. 

He and a bunch of other instructors entered the room only to pause when they found me sitting in the room. 

“Yo,” I said casually. 

They all stared at me.

Tenpora frowned, opened his mouth, shut it and then tilted his head. I could see that he was running some sort of mental calculus. When he reached the outcome his eyes widened. 

Then he marched up to me. “How many?” he hissed. 

I smiled winningly. “Hmmmm I’m not sure I follow what you mean,” I said casually. “Still got that proposal we drafted up yesterday?” I asked.  

“Matsu you can’t just—” he started to say only for me to direct a stern look at him.

“You’ll find I have, not because I wanted to, but because I have to. Change is coming to the Academy Instructor Tenpora. I’ve been charged by the Mizukage with a mission, and I don’t plan to fail it.” 

Tenpora backed away from me, eying me like he’d never seen me. I suppose I should take that as a compliment of my acting skills. 

I laced my fingers together placidly. “You have a heads up that others don’t. I think you’ll make a wonderful Headmaster,” I remarked like I was commenting on the way grass grew. 

“That isn’t up to you!” he hissed but he nevertheless moved to begin talking with other Instructors hurriedly. One of which I noted was Mizuna who was staring at me in shock. 

Heh, she hadn’t been expecting me to still be walking around, had she? 

Other instructors started to walk into the room as word was shared with new arrivals that a meeting was taking place. Soon the room was full, bar three seats. 

Three very conspicuous seats, and of course the seat that I was sitting in. 

I’d deliberately made sure to sit in the bursar’s chair and not the Headmaster’s. I didn’t want to send the wrong message that I’d be taking over after all. 

Tenpora rose. “We have a few things to discuss today,” he announced. 

One man sat up from where he’d been slouching. “Hey hold up now, you don’t get to start things up. We’re waiting on the Headmaster! Then we’ll get to watch him break this shit-head brat you raised Tenpora!” snapped the man.

I hummed and plucked out the scroll prop I’d used on the Headmaster. I thunked it onto the table. With a flex of my chakra, I made sure the thunk echoed and forced people to look my way. 

“The Headmaster, Deputy Headmaster, Bursar, and Head Instructor will not be attending today’s meeting, nor any further meetings,” I said with clear intent in my words.

It took the smarter Instructors but a moment to understand while others frowned and had to be nudged by their quicker peers. I tapped the scroll. 

“The Mizukage—” I said formally, refocusing them before bravado or misplaced loyalty could announce itself, “—has decided that Kirigakure needs to change. There are going to be opportunities for those willing to seize the moment,” I said eyes pointedly not flickering towards Tenpora or anyone else as I said this. 

“Loyalty will be key, but also? The Mizukage desires results, and with that in mind certain previous, wasteful practises are being reexamined so that the Academy starts living up to its potential,” I said. 

I felt a squad of ten chakra signatures making their way through the academy grounds. 

I rose, making it seem like I was perfectly in control. “I shall be working on other parts of this process, so I will leave things to you… for now,” I said calmly. “Have a nice day,” I said as I marched out of the room.

I made it out the door and down the hallway before a trio of ANBU dropped into position surrounding me. The others swarmed into the Headmaster’s office where they no doubt found his corpse. 

None entered the meeting room.

Hmmmm good, few people would be able to detect them and I’d given hopefully a strong enough impression back there to see my desired changes carried forth. 

“The Mizukage will see you now,” intoned one of the ANBU agents. 

“Excellent,” I said. “Lead on.” I’d thought he’d want to talk to me after what I’d gotten up to last night. 

Now it was time to see if he was amused by how I’d taken his orders. 

Still, hopefully, live or die, I’d just changed Kiri for the better by changing the graduation process. It was small, but it was something. 

And all I’d had to do was kill four men to see it happen. 

I didn’t have to wait this time to be led into the Mizukage’s office. 

Instead of being seated behind his desk or on the couch behind me on the couch, this time the Mizukage was standing with his hands clasped behind him as he looked out through a window at the street below. 

“You know Headmaster Tora was a veteran of two wars? He served Kiri well,” said Gengetsu with the air of one talking about a comrade. 

I tried to slow my heart as much as I could because with just those words I worried I’d overstepped and The Headmaster and Gengetsu had been friends. 

If that was the case, I wasn’t walking out of this office. 

Another ANBU agent appeared. Gengetsu flicked his fingers at the kneeling agent. 

“It appears that his heart gave out Lord Mizukage,” said the agent. 

Gengetsu flicked his fingers again and the ANBU vanished. 

“His heart gave out,” Gengetsu said as if tasting the words.

I wet my lips, I had an overwhelming urge to speak up to defend my choices but some instinct was screaming at me to stay quiet. I wasn’t going to say anything clever enough to change how it might play out. 

I also wasn’t being invited to speak as yet. Gengetsu was just, talking aloud, as one might comment about the weather… which… made me relax a fraction. He hadn’t actually said anything about liking the Headmaster yet and—

“Ahahahahaha!” roared Gengetsu suddenly as he threw his head back and began to laugh. “Oh! I do like that! That was subtle stuff!” said Gengetsu as he whirled about and grinned at me. 

“Ah! That’s a good trick, I’ll keep that in mind around you!” he said as he waved a finger reproachfully at me. 

Gengetsu sighed and sank into his chair. “Ah but you don’t do things by half measures do you? Tell me Chunin Matsu, do you think you were subtle enough with the others?” 

Gengetsu lifted up a scroll. “Faulty wall hanging, falling down the stairs, and lastly… burning to death? Tch tch tch, that was sloppy work there at the end!” he said reproachfully. 

I shrugged. “Massage oils and candles don’t mix I suppose,” I said. 

“He was fully clothed and on his roof,” Gengetsu said but his lips twitched in amusement. 

I kept playing Gengetsu’s game. “Hmmm strange kink to have to be a prude and an exhibitionist,” I said with a tilt of my head like I was actually pondering such a combination. 

Gengetsu tittered before lacing his fingers together. “People aren’t stupid Matsu,” he said imperiously. 

I nodded, aware that we’d stopped our little back and forth. If there was a tonal whiplash it was one that I was starting to associate with Gengetsu. It was how he worked, making you play his games before suddenly changing the rules of the game or suddenly not playing. You couldn’t rest easily when talking with him. 

Gengetsu tapped the scroll. “There’s going to be questions and lots of people talking. I hate when people think they can bother me with such trifling concerns,” he said, his tone conveying a sudden lethal intent to it like he was drawing a blade ready to cut my head off.

Then he smiled and the feeling of a sword being drawn vanished. 

“My own clan won’t be pleased with Tora dying. He was one of ours. Did you take that into account?”

“It was why I made sure to kill the others. With them out of the way the Academy can be reshaped with the right people in charge,” I said back.

“The right people,” said Gengetsu once more repeating my words. 

He considered me for a long, drawn-out minute. “Yes, the right people and the right changes. I will of course be reviewing everything.” He commented only to consult a scroll. “Ahhhh, Tenpora was it? Hmmm, I think I’ll call him in once he’s done with his meeting and tell him the good news about his promotion,” he said. “As for the other three positions? Well, I can find some suitable candidates for those.”

It sounded less like a chore and more like he had a form tucked away awaiting his signature to slot some people in. Like he was sending a person to fetch replacement kunai or thread, small but inconsequential items on his to-do list. 

Gengetsu levelled his gaze upon me. “Which leaves me with the question, of what to do with you?” 

“Whatever you want,” I responded. 

“Yes, I can do whatever I want, can’t I? Good that you understand that.”

He continued to stare at me over laced fingers. “You have been noted down as showing remarkable intelligence, haven’t you?” he said and this time I didn’t respond. 

He rubbed at his goatee, lowering both hands and allowing a smile to creep onto his lips. “I like you kid, you’ve got some real spunk, and not the fake shit that people try and plaster on.” He stared at me with dead eyes while he said this. 

With his lower half of his face smiling while his eyes bored into me, I felt an odd sense of dissonance. 

In another, I might wonder at his motivations, but from everything I’d observed so far, I knew he just wanted to watch me squirm. 

“I’ve decided,” he said abruptly. “Instead of merely leaving things up to chance with who the lowest scorers are, I’m going to personally select some shinobi that I think… could do with a personal touch from someone who’s such an…” he waved a hand in my general direction. “Overachiever,” he flatly, like he couldn’t think of anything worse to call me. 

I bowed my head and felt the soft kiss of metal slide along the back of my neck, forcing me to repress the need for my hair to stand on end.

I instead continued to cycle and shift the flow of my charka, trying to find out if I was currently within a genjutsu. Not even my narrowed focus Mind’s eye of the Kaguya was revealing anything. 

Gengetsu hummed. “Did you enjoy my secretary trick by the way Chunin Matsu?”

I blinked at the change in conversation. “I hadn’t realised the trick until you revealed it,” I said honestly. 

Gengetsu’s head bobbed lightly. “Is that so? Can you tell me, honestly, why I would create something like the secretary illusion?” 

I wet my lips. “Honestly? I assumed it was so that those who made a note of the secretary revealed themselves to be at a certain level of proficiency as sensors,” I said. 

“Yes, correct, and? What else?” he said prompting me along. 

“...” I had an answer for this but it worried me. 

“I want your answer for why I would have such a trick for sensors Chunin Matsu. Tell me, now!” he said, all humour evaporating from him like a puddle in the face of a Great Fireball Jutsu. 

I inhaled and resisted the urge to shut my eyes. “Because you want to know at what level of skill your sensors are at. So you quietly test them… so that they can’t ever be threats to you by being able to reach a level where they might see through your illusions,” I said. 

A blade kissed my throat lightly and I realised I’d mispoken only for the feeling to recede. Hmm? A warning?

Soft claps met my answer. “Good, good. Now you see. I want you to remember that last meeting, just in case you think yourself ‘smart’ enough to detect the real me and think you can challenge me. If you ever reach a level of skill that might even threaten me, you’ll be deader than the rest of your clan,” he said. 

“And you won’t know what gave it away!” he said merrily. 

“I doubt that there is much risk of me reaching that level of skill,” I said, trying my hand at humour to lighten the moment. 

Gengetsu stared at me with half-lidded eyes that once more made me think he was plotting how to kill me. 

I knew he’d do it slowly, the question was how. Knives? Self torture? Or some other way? 

“Why do you think it took three Hidden Villages to destroy Uzushio?” he asked. 

I frowned. Another shift in the conversation? There was a leap of logic going on here that I wasn’t privy to. I’d need to reflect on this conversation later. “Becuase of their fuinjutsu seals?” I offered. 

Gengetsu snorted. “Oh the seals are the public reason, and yes, some of their sealing masters were terrifying. But did you know that Uzushio, a Village that held only one Clan of shinobi had four S ranked Shinobi prior to the destruction of their clan?”

“None of whom were Fuinjutsu users,” he said firmly. “It stands to reason that sensory skills was one of the abilities that let them reach that level of strength. You may just yet reach that yourself. And should you do, I will remind you on that day that I control the Kirigakure.”

“Ah,” I said carefully. I opened my mouth, about to suggest he was scared of my potential, only to rethink that after the earlier ‘warning’. “I don’t think it will get to that stage Lord Mizukage.”

“Hmmmm,” he said lolling his head from side to side like he was toying with an idea. “We shall see, for now, I expect you to prepare yourself to take students when they graduate.” 

He reached to the side and plucked three scrolls. “Take these and complete them within the next two weeks by yourself,” he commanded. “Just as you need to get your students strong enough to perform excellently at the Chunin Exams, you will need an even more impressive record.”

I nodded slowly, having expected that somewhat but I was still surprised that he was personally selecting missions for me. Was he going to screw me over by demanding I run to the Land of Wind or something?

“Of course,” I said, taking the scrolls. I considered opening them in front of him but that might have been rude. Instead, I tucked them away for reading once I was done here. 

It seemed I was leaving this room alive for now. 

I didn’t relax despite this. The most dangerous part of any mission or journey was always the last part. 

“I expect you to have at least ten A-rank missions under your belt by the time of the chunin Exams along with twenty B-ranked missions.” Gengetsu informed me. “You already have half of those thanks to the work you performed during your deployment to the front. The S rank mission I have marked you down for I trust you know enough to not question?” he asked. 

I blinked. I’d mentally marked the entire deployment as S ranked but this seemed very specific.

There was only one ‘mission’ that I could think of that could have been classified in such a manner. 

The Hyuga kunoichi capture. 

I bobbed my head up and down in acknowledgement. People already had me linked but mentioning that I had any closer ties to that success was a bad idea for many reasons. 

“Chunin, I don’t want to hear about any more Instructors having accidents or any fortuitous openings in staff postings. While it’s wonderful that you’ve proven yourself as a true Kiri shinobi there are limits as all of my shinobi learn,” Gengetsu remarked.

I felt my stomach churn at the ‘compliment’ Gengetsu had given me.

I nodded and marched out of the office at a quick pace. 

I didn’t relax until I was out of the building and down the street. I’d been waiting for another ominous whisper as I left only for nothing to manifest. 

I turned for home, deciding that today had seen enough of me. 

I entered my room only to find Rei sitting across from one of the other Geisha playing Konpira Fune Fune which was a party game some of the Geisha were asked to play every now and then. 

The premise of the game was that you either patted a small wooden box placed in front of you, or if the box was picked up by the other player you knocked on the table. This was done while both sides sang a song about travelling on a boat and then around a province. 

As the players continued the song sped up until you were basically going as fast as you could sing. 

In a Village of ninja, they had to be very very good to be entertaining. 

I nodded at both girls only for that to be enough to distract Rei who knocked on the wooden box instead of patting it with an open hand. “Argh! Damnit Matsu I was on a roll! I’d beaten six of the girls straight today!” she said. 

I chuckled. “Good luck then,” I said, knowing that there were far better ladies at thsi game that wouldn’t entertain playing unless you were at least a Chunin. 

I stepped into my room and opened the scrolls. 

“Hmmm one was a mission to go to Nagi Island to assist the Wagarashi family win what amounted to a shrine race. Hmmm now why did that sound familiar to me?

I checked the next mission and was pleased to find that it was a mission also on Nagi island, only this time I was to investigate the wagarashi, Wasabi, Watanabe, and Wotona families for the current sitting Minister. Apparently, there had been a small blood war spilling out onto the streets and the Minster wanted to know the names of those involved to lay down justice.

The final mission scroll was for me to guard a Shrine Maiden as she journeyed around O’uzu and Nagi islands. Apparently, she was the daugther of one of the Daimyo’s minsters and her death or capture by opposition forces would allow pressure to be applied to the Minster. 

I checked the dates on all of the missions, wondering at the overlap only to stiffen. 

The shrine race mission started tomorrow!

I was up and packing instantly. Within moments I had my bug-out bag sealed up and a quick raid of the kitchen saw me grabbing food for the journey.

I’d need to get a fast clipper as soon as possible to have any shot at making it before the race began. I’d also need to have a message delivered to Akiko about what had happened. 

Somehow, I just knew she was not going to be pleased by my actions to secure the Academy for future students by repealing the Graduation ceremony. 

I inked a quick letter to Akiko which was the bare minimum I could do before sprinting for the port. 

It was only once I’d bargained for the fastest ship I could possibly get on heading south that I remembered that Gengetsu had given me those missions without ever once mentioning the timeframe. 

Somehow, I just knew he was sitting in his office cackling at me having to scramble to merely start the missions. 

Damn that man, I thought as I sat in an out-of-the-way location. It seemed I was destined to not be able to rest in Kiri. I no sooner arrived than I was gone again on a mission. 

I could only hope that there would be as few complications as possible, but knowing Murphy’s law, I somehow doubted that would be the case.

                                                  __________________________________

Midori Terumi stared up at the imposing sight of the Skull Cliffs. She’d heard about this place. Her clan had done much to stress the importance of this excursion. 

Supposedly there was a ban on all of the clans discussing anything about this location, to the point that not even in their most secretive, secure rooms, did anyone dare speak of what was to come. 

Whenever Midori asked she only ever received a wan smile. Her older cousins were always particularly nice to her afterwards. 

Then last year she’d encountered Hanahime, the leader of the year above her’s cohort of Terumi, right after her own graduation. 

Midori had tried to talk with her, but Hanahime had just walked straight past her, staring down at her hands in shock. 

Midori once more felt adrift in her own clan. The graduation last year had been both better and worse in some ways. People had whispered and gossiped about it being a never-before-seen occurrence. 

Whenever Midori tried to approach them to find out what they were saying, they would detect her. Which… sadly wasn’t all that hard. 

Midori wasn’t very good at sneaking, she felt left-footed most days and she fumbled putting her weight down carefully. She liked to think it wasn’t her fault though, it was her damn body’s fault! Other girls her age were dealing with small growth spurts and parts of their bodies developing. 

Instead, she had to deal with long, gangly limbs that left her towering over others her age and no matter how much trianing she did she always felt like her body had changed from day to day. 

Something her mother tsked about as she had grown half a metre in the last two years she’d been at the academy. Lots of people thought Midori might end up being over six feet tall… if she survived graduation. 

They always said things like that. If, if, if. 

They started whispering different things after Hanahime’s graduation. There was a current of uncertainty regarding what had happened last year. 

Midori, and the other Terumi children, had been asked questions about her own cohort’s break up of allegiances. 

For some reason, the civilians got a lot of attention.

It wasn’t that much different from the year above her, or even the year below. Wasn’t that what usually happened?

The elders of her clan got pinched expressions when she asked that while other kids her age rolled their eyes. 

Midori could only feel frustrated by a lot of things in her life. She felt like she was kept in the dark about too many things and people never gave her a straight answer. 

Midori preferred just punching people, that was easier, but that always made people shake their heads whenever she said it out loud. 

Now though? While running up a wall of rocks that looked an awful lot like skulls embedded into the cliff face, there was a trickle of fear taking hold. 

What was about to happen?

She and the others landed atop the first rocky outcropping only for her Instructors and what looked like a bunch of ANBU to appear on a ledge above them. 

Oh damn, this was serious! Mirdoir had only ever seen ANBU approaching some of the Jonin or the Clan head! Supposedly some of her clan were part of ANBU, but looking at the now, there were no discerning features that Midori could see that would indicate who among them might help if things went bad. 

Not for the first time in her life, Midori wished she was a sensor.   

A single Instrucor stepped forward only for Midori to grimace. Right, Instructor Tenpora wasn’t just an instructor anymore. He’d been promoted after the last Headmaster had passed away valiantly doing work in his office. 

That was respectable, and when she’d said as much to her mother the woman had given her a long stare before sighing and nodding her head. Then she’d hugged her and told her to enjoy the weeks before the graduation. 

Midori wasn’t sure why, but her mother seemed awfully sad for some reason, but she was a dutiful daughter, so she hugged her mother back and said she would. 

She’d returned to the Academy to find things drastically changed. Every part of the classroom had changes, from the seating arrangement moving to a fixed chair and table arrangement to the posters on the walls, along with strange items that appeared about the Academy. 

Some of her fellow students were convinced that there were hidden messages and she knew a lot of them wasted time chasing down supposed hidden missions using archaic ciphers they’d only been taught for a week!

Midori had heard others teasing the kids about their delusions only for the kids to smile and shrug it off, trying to play it cool. Midori had just settled in to have fun with her friends for the last two weeks, ignoring how things changed in favour of throwing down during the taijutsu spars and doing her best on the obstacle course. 

Both were difficult tasks with how her body continually grew a few millimetres seemingly each night. 

Headmaster Tenpora stared them all down. “Welcome, to the final test of your competence as shinobi of Kirigakure! Here on the Skull Cliffs, you will prove yourselves!” 

Everyone stared up listening intently for the coming instructions. The Headmaster looked them all over. “The following students, have already proven themselves through various means. Either through displaying skills that are vital to Kiri to a high enough standard, be they leadership, sensory skills, fighting skills, or even investigative skills, your names will now be read out!” he barked. 

He snapped his hand and a INstructor Mizuna, now the Headmaster’s secretary, stepped forward and began reading off a list of names. 

Midori almost wished she was good enough to guarantee herself a place on that list. 

One thing that quickly became clear?

Every student who had spoken about chasing down the rumoured hidden messages and clues they’d said had appeared were called out. 

Midori blinked slowly. “Oh, they were right,” she said aloud. 

“And the ryo coin drops for her,” said a snide Hozuki boy in front of her. 

Midori narrowed her eyes on the boy’s spine. The first chance she got, she was punching him. 

When Mizuna was done she rolled up the scroll and stopped back, indicating there would be no more names read out. Midori glanced aorund and realised that there were now only thirty kids left down here where before there had been almost two hundred. 

Oh damn, this wasn’t good whatever it was that was coming next. 

Headmaster Tenpora stepped forward again. “In the past, we would order you to prove your worth by killing one of your fellows,” he said coldly. 

Midori blinked only to stiffen a moment later. 

What? That… No… but… last year almost all of her cousins had made it back… bar one…

“You will note that I said, in the past!” he snapped, head whipping around towards where a group of Kaguya kids were pulling out bone weapons in readiness to fight. 

To Midori’s eyes, they looked like they’d just been given their heart’s desire. Only to have to be torn away. 

Tenpora grunted. “Times have changed due to the circumstances of the war causing a shift. Our glorious Lord Mizukage has created a new system. Those of you left below will still fight, but only to incapacitation or knock out. Death is not the goal here,” he said. 

“Fucking ring the dinner bell much?” muttered the Hozuki boy ahead of her as he glanced towards the once more eager-looking Kaguya kids. 

Midori eyed them and realised that the shithead in front of her had a point, Tenpora had only said it wasn’t the goal, not that it couldn’t happen.

Shit, shit, shit. 

Tenpora waved his hand. “Well? What are you waiting for? Begin!” he snapped.

Midori didn’t stop to think or assess her surroundings. She had a target in front of her so she leapt, swinging with all she was worth to slam a fist into the Hozuki boy’s back. Today! Today she would make her clan proud of her by—

Her fist sank into a gelationius body. 

“Shit! What was that?” The Hozuki’s head turned a full one-eighty to smirk at her.  “Heh, good thing I learnt this jutsu from a cousin last…” The boy’s pale features paled further right as Midori’s hair begna to stand up. “No! Don’t!” shouted the Hozuki boy at someone behind her.

“Sorry Midori, you were always the weakest link, but thanks for slowing him down for me,” whispered one of Midori’s cousins right as she slammed an electric-coated fist into Midori’s back. 

Lightning literally coarse through Midori’s body and she arced her back before collapsing. Around her, the watery body of the Hozuki boy had arcs of lightning running through it only for it to lock up Midori’s body. 

No.

No. Not like this!

What if they still decided to kill her?

Midori screamed at her body to move but as it often did of late, it failed her at a critical moment.

She could only watch as others fought around her and succeeded while others fell to the ground defeated. 

Some of them were still able to get up however and try again. 

Midori could only watch on pathetically as others rose up to look down from the higher level. 

The headmaster raised his hand. “The Graduation ceremony is complete! Twelve students have proven themselves capable! You eighteen beneath us? You have failed. That means that you will not be joining your fellows as Genin. You will not be allowed to return to the academy either.

“No, instead you will be cast into limbo. The Mizukage has decided that you might yet offer Kirigakure some worth”

He took a moment to think about his next words before clicking his tongue. “We will return to Kirigakure now.” 

He pointed down at the gorup laying on the ground with Midori. “You will be on a separate boat. You will not be acknowledged as shinobi, not until your betters deem you worthy. Until then, you are lesser. You, are the first class of failures!” 

Midori was then lifted and dragged onto a boat separate from her previous fellow students. Both ships sailed near each other, close enough that she and her fellow failures could only watch on as the others received praise and their headbands, signifying to all that they were shinobi of Kirigakure. 

Midori wasn’t sure she’d ever felt this way before, but in that moment, she knew that all she wanted, was to be on that ship and not here. 

Instead of dragging her off the ship, she and her fellows were led after the successful students to the square of the shinobi district, a large square in front of the Mizukage’s office. 

Midori was surprised to find the Mizukage himself standing atop the deck of his office addressing a crowd of people, some of whom Midori recognised as her family. She waved only to receive flat stares or to be outright ignored in return.

Oh. 

They knew. 

Midori was so caught up in that thought that she missed most of what the Mizukage was saying but some parts of his speech stood out to her. “—new system will result in stronger, more determined Shinobi! Death was too kind for some! They contributed nothing to Kiri after three years of education? No! Such time will not be wasted! The failures will contribute and if they wish to ever be seen as more than failures they will strive to prove themselves to their betters! 

“Until then they will be Mudanin! Or Waste nin! For that is what they are! Wastes on our society! Wastes of their own potential!”

Midori felt people turn then to actually look at her. She rather wished they hadn’t.

Midori hunched in on herself as she felt those same relatives staring at her. 

The Mizukage continued. “We will not allow them to remain as mere waste, however! I am a wise leader and I wish to get something out of them while also seeing if there is a drop of potential as yet overlooked!”

He waved his hands about in a flourish. “For that reason, a specialised program will be used! Until they prove themselves, you and your families will be forced to endure them for the stains that they are to our society!” 

Midori felt like she wanted to slip away, but as the tallest girl in her cohort, she knew that wa easier said than done. 

The speech continued on for a while but she ignored most of it. She did come out of her moping to spot how the victors and successful students were lauded with praise openly. 

That only made the sicknes in her gut feel worse though. 

After what felt like an eternity, her group was nudged out of the square and to another building that was open inside. 

“STRAIGHTEN UP THOSE SPINES MAGGOTS! YOU MIGHT BE PATHETIC PIECES OF TRASH TO EVERYONE YOU EVER KNEW OR THOUGHT THAT LOVED YOU BUT YOU WILL STAND AT ATTENTION AND IN A LINE OR I WILL REMIND YOU WHY YOU FAILED AT THE LAST OBSTACLE!” bellowed one of the Instructors that Midori had had the displeasure of knowing for the past three years. 

Her body, despite the aches reacted by moving her into position with the others where she adopted a straighter position. 

“YOU WILL NOW BE BROKEN INTO TEAMS WHERE YOU WILL BE LEAD ON MISSIONS TO RECOUP YOUR WORTH! SHOULD YOU REDEEM YOURSELVES YOU MIGHT RISE TO BEYOND THAT OF BEING MUDANIN!” 

The man turned and spat, like the term offended him. “More like Mud nin,” he growled.

The man ripped open a scroll and called out four names only for a scared shinobi to march out and wave for them to follow him. 

Midori stirred. Were they being given further instruction? That was a good thing, right?

Midori listened for her name and it came with the last group to be listed. Much to her annoyance, she was listed off with Idate Hozuki, the boy she’d tangled with only for both of them to be taken out. Joining them was Kuroiwa Karatachi, a girl who was a known penny pincer. 

Midori had seen her get taken down trying to fight a Kaguya boy with a sword that was so cheap it had shattered on the first strike. 

Then there was a civilian boy who thought himself a savant at Genjutsu only for his illusions to be really easy to detect and either break, or ignore. She wasn’t surprised to see him here but unlike her he just seemed pissed off. 

Figures that the civilian thought himself too good to be down here with her and the other failures. 

“—be serving one Chunin Matsu,” said the Instructor. 

“Isn’t that the kid that graduated last year and caused a whole lot of problems?” said Idate Hozuki. 

Midori blinked. Was their new… Instructor? No, their chunin. Yeah, that sounded better, it helped her ignore that she was now a… Mud nin. 

The Instructor stared at Idate. “I have no idea what you are referring to,” he said through clenched teeth. “Wait here for him,” he said before vanishing. 

“Urgh, I can’t believe the awesome me failed to become a Genin! This is going to suck!” said the civilian boy. 

“Shut up civy!” snapped Idate. 

“My name’s not civy! It’s Han!” he barked. 

“Eh, not worth remembering, my clan will…” Idate started to say only to go quiet. 

Han grinned. “Heh! You can’t expect the Mizukage to ignore your fuck up can you? Not after he made a public announcement like that! You’re just like me! A Mudanin!” 

Midori twitched. Idate growled and threw a punch. 

Midori stared, having not expected that from the smarmy Hozuki boy.

Idate and Han rolled around, throwing punch after punch with them scrabbling on the floor. They each loosened growls and howled insults at each other. 

She then glanced around, wondering when the instructors would… oh… they’d been left alone in the building. 

“Should.. We stop them?” she said towards Kuroiwa. 

The girl shot her a confused look. “Why?”

Midori opened her mouth only to shut it. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe because… “We’re on a team together?” she offered up weakly. 

Kuroiwa tilted her head and sighed. “Fuck they’ll probably be pissed if the Chunin gets here only to find we’ve killed each other. Might just write us off as proper wastes then,” she said sadly. 

Kuroiwa moved to pull the boys apart only to take an elbow straight into the nose. 

Kuroiwa reeled back only to twitch. “You know what? Fuck it!” she roared as she threw herself wholesale into the fight. 

Midori gaped. That… had not been what she’d been expecting. 

“Uhmm no? Stop it?” she said only to get tripped and dragged into the fight herself. 

Something within her snapped and she felt her anger at the day’s events explode out. With the others fighting she had a lot of targets. So she didn’t hold back and gave as good if not better than she got. 

Right when she was slamming Idate’s skull into the ground, another shinobi appeared with a flicker in the room. 

The four ‘Mudanin’ didn’t stop fighting, only somewhat aware of the new arrival. 

Instead of shouting at them the new arrival’s hands twitched briefly only for a barrage of water bullets to slam into each of them, knocking the young ‘Mudanin’ off each other and send them tumbling to the gorund. 

When they looked up they found a set of red eyes staring back at them.

Other features, such as the chunin vest and the Kirigakure headband over vibrantly red hair jumped out at Midori. A few stands of which looked burnt, and there were creases in his attire which gave him a tired, travelworn appearance.

All of that stood out to Midori.

That, and how young the Chunin was. 

Red eyes stared down at them but Midori knew that if she stood up she’d be at least a head taller than this guy. 

How was their instructor also a kid? The others had gotten proper shinobi! Was this some joke? 

“Hmmmm… How can I say this..? My first impression is… I don’t like you guys!!” he said with a smile. 

What?

                                                _______________________________________

A.N. 

The ‘Mudanin’ system - Gengetsu realised that in a way, they were wasting time and money on students with them dying. Death was cheap, too cheap for three years of teaching, so he found another way to motivate people. Dishonour and the creation of a ‘lower’ caste of shinobi that are beneath even Genin. They are literally ‘waste shinobi’ who can serve as fodder if needed or as disposable tools. 

Should they grow useful enough they can become Genin but until then? Well as less than Genin, anything they earn is given back to the Village to repay the debt they owe. It’s a Win-win for Gengetsu like always!

• This is of course very barebones as even serving as a Sensei to these students can be used as a stick for misbehaving chunin. 

Matsu’s ‘Mudanin’ team

Midori Terumi - A young kunoichi that is growing faster than she can adapt to! It throws off a lot of her fighting and movement which in turn makes things worse for her! She’s… also not the brightest bulb in the box. 

Idate Hozuki - Born under an unlucky star. “Right? That has to be it! I have all the answers and jutsu! Yeah, that’s it! I have the right tools but fortune seems to never favour me!”

Kuroiwa Karatachi - a cheapskate who’s tendencies to skrimp bite her in the backside. 

Han - Civilian-born shinobi with a chip on his shoulder. Thinks he’s quite good at illusions and trickery. Most people just haven’t told him how bad he is.