Naruto: Kage of Kages

“Alright genin! Your mission is simple. Touch me.” Inori declared to her barely arrived students, a casual yet confident smirk gracing her beautiful features as her hair swayed in the wind.

‘The beauty’s words were carried off by the breeze along the leaves so commonly found across the verdant Konoha.’ Shiki jokingly thought in a poetic way.

“Touch you . . . ?” Mei questioned.

“That’s right!” Inori replied.

“You three must combine your strengths, squeeze out all your power and wisdom, and succeed at touching me, even if just for an instant.” The jonin further explained.

“I’ll be waiting in the clearing up ahead.” She pointed towards the forested area at her back.

“The time limit is nightfall. If you succeed, there will be a nice prize, if you don’t, there will be punishment~” The blonde spoke with a coy, mischievous tone.

And poof.

With a cloud of smoke, Yamanaka Inori was gone.

“What should we do?” Mei turned towards her new companions.

Shinka, without even attempting to communicate, started walking forward with the intent of pursuing the departed jonin.

But her “cool” lone wolf act was immediately shattered.

The culprit, Shiki, pulled her overcoat from behind making the poor girl chaotically wave her arms around, trying to maintain balance while letting out cute squeaking sounds.

With a moment to regain her bearings, Shinka turned towards the smiling white haired boy with an intense gaze.

The blaming pressure on him was huge despite her clothes hiding all of her features and facial expressions.

“You did it to yourself.” Shiki casually said.

{What do you mean!?} The Aburame girl signed with outrage.

“It’s obvious we’re supposed to handle this as a team.” Shiki said seriously.

“Besides, as an elite jonin, even with all three of us together, laying a single finger on Inori-sensei will be nearly impossible if she is serious.” He continued.

But just because Shiki was right, it did not mean Shinka wanted to admit it so she just turned her head away and declined to communicate further.

‘Ugh! Children!’ Shiki was starting to wonder if this was how Tsunade felt when he acted like a brat just to annoy her.

Mei could only look on from the side as if she was the only sane person in a mad world. From her sensei to her two teammates, everyone seemed to fit the word abnormal all too well.

“Right then! Let’s set a plan of attack.” The bespectacled girl tried to continue the conversation so Shinka could move on without admitting her faults, time was wasting after all.

The white haired boy knew that was for the best too so with a decree look of gratitude sent Mei’s way, which she received well, he started pitching his ideas to the team.

“Inori-sensei is one of, if not the best sensor in Konoha so sneak attacks will likely be useless. We need to force an opening through a combination.” Shiki posed.

“But will we be able to put that kind of pressure on an elite jonin?” Mei doubtfully said while adjusting her glasses.

{It’s the only option.} Shinka signed, surprisingly supporting Shiki.

{Inori-sensei is a Yin release expert. Most Yamanaka hidden jutsu are not very useful without the support of allies but sensei is a genjutsu type kunoichi so she can cover that flaw but-} The overly clothed girl rapidly signed.

“But Shinka can bypass genjutsu because of her insects.” Shiki completed, drawing a surprised nod from Shinka.

‘Those two actually seem to get along pretty well.’ Mei thought to herself.

‘They’re both abnormal after all. Guess I’ll just have to join the circus then.’ She internally shrugged before interjecting.

“How about the two of us?”

“I’m largely immune to genjutsu as well so I’ll be good.” Shiki responded.

His two teammates seemed to be very interested in that tidbit of information but the boy quickly moved on without giving them a chance to inquire.

“Mei-sama wouldn’t have happened to awake the sharingan, right?” He glanced at the Uchiha Girl.

She just annoyedly grasped her glasses while glaring at him, As if that in itself was an answer. Shinka seemed to think similarly too.

‘Wait . . .’ Shiki paused.

‘Does everybody actually think her sight issues alone will prevent her from awakening the sharingan?’ He always joked about it but knew it was just a myth.

In fact, the boy believed she got a bit of bullying for the stigma of an Uchiha with poor eyesight and no more but . . .

If the common belief was that her sharingan would not awaken because of it, then the bullying she received would be far more intense in the clan that values visual prowess above all.

‘But even if I tell her that is just a myth, she won’t believe it.’

Determining that now was not the time, Shiki reigned in his thoughts and got back to the matter at hand.

“Right then. Since Shinka-san and I are genjutsu resistant, we’ll be the main attackers.” He declared.

Mei reluctantly nodded in agreement while Shinka acquiesced through inaction.

“We still don’t know each other very well so it is best to keep our general plan of attack simple and adapt on the field.” The bespectacled girl proposed and Shiki agreed.

Once again, Shinka showed no disagreement.

“I’m the fastest so I’ll keep the pressure up close and try to go for the touch.” Shiki proposed his role.

“Shinka can try to box sensei in using the wide area, mid range jutsu of the Aburame.” He suggested.

. . .

No response.

. . .

“ *cough* Shinka-san?” Mei called out.

{Ok.} The human pile of clothes finally signed in response.

“Okaaaaay.” The Uchiha was losing patience in real time.

She was the eldest of the group so there was the big sister kind of feeling, Mei wanted to lead and take care of her two teammates.

But with the Shiki being hyper-independant and not even remotely concerned with the opinions of others while Shinka acted as if acknowledging the existence of her teammates was the most bothersome task in the world . . .

Safe to say Mei was not feeling it.

“Alright, I’ll provide mid range support with my shurikenjutsu and if sensei feels close to breaking away, I’ll try to box her in with my Fire Release.” The bespectacled girl suggested.

“Actually, fire release will only block my and Shinka-san’s senses and allow sensei to hide and ambush with her sensory camouflage, I’m sure she is extremely good at it.” Shiki countered.

But he immediately thought of something else.

“No wait . . . How about this-”

*

Back to Inori, she awaited her students in the clearing while keeping her main sensory ability homed in on them.

‘Their fluctuating states and emotions are really fun to read.’ She thought while simulating what they might be saying or discussing based on their general emotions and intent.

This ability was the horrifying power of Inori’s unique evolution of the Yamanaka Sensory Jutsu, the Ninja Art: Sixth Sense.

By reading aggressiveness she could tell they were planning forms of attack, small instances of fleeting disappointment told her when they figured the plan they were discussing would not work.

The fact that she could also read their body language by observing them through her jutsu also helped.

An even easier thing to probe was what each of the three thought of each other. In many cases, she could easily tear apart a team through small mental nudges using Yamanaka Ninjutsu or even just genjutsu.

But before she could dedicate herself fully to her simulations, Team 6 was on the move.

‘They finished their discussion faster than expected.” Inori appraised.

‘It seems there was no breakdown of communications and the three are working as a team so let’s see what they cooked up.’

And with that final thought, it was on!

+++++

Hey, Author here!

Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.

I’m trying to become a full time Author now and I’m not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.

Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -