Chapter 09: Discovery

Hiruzen didn’t know what to think as he silently smoked his pipe while looking at the team of four in front of him. They were reporting matters that were worrying. The ‘simple’ B-rank they had gone to, turned out to not be so simple after all if what he was hearing was true. Oh, he didn’t doubt his shinobis, far from it. Missions turning out not to be what they were thought to be was current. There was always  something a bit outside the parameters in such cases but nothing that disparate. In fact he wondered if this mission was in a way not worse than the one Team 7 got in Wave. Their simple C-rank turned out to be A-rank. While Kakashi and his genins fought the Demon of the mist, Zabuza momochi, and his apprentice, it was just them. The situation had been dire, yes, but Sasuke awakening his sharingan and Naruto subconsciously using the Kyubi’s chakra helped them survive and complete the mission. In comparison this mission he was hearing the report of, was no less than twice the numbers of bandits and more shinobi than expected.

“...You’re all unharmed.” he finally said after Hayate was done with the information report. The Tokujo didn’t yet have the chance to tell how everything went.

“We are.”

Hiruzen’s head didn’t move but his eyes sure did. They slowly moved to the right where Warudo Riku was.

“Forty bandits, six shinobi  and… you’re unharmed. All of you. If I were a betting man I would bet that seals were involved. Am I wrong?”

“No, Hokage-sama. We struck during the night. Riku provided us with barrier tags. The plan was to put a sound proof barrier around each tent with one of us inside to take care of the bandits. We broke into two teams for that. Izumo and Kotetsu henged into a pair of guards patrolling and reached the other end of the camp. Riku and I stayed at our point of infiltration to deal with our side. Finally, Riku put a barrier around the main tent where the shinobi were and released a knocked out gas. That did the trick and we captured the six shinobi and looted all resources in the camp. Everything was sealed inside Riku’s book.”

“Everything?” Hiruzen asked with a frown. “You created a seal that can store living people?” he asked the genin with an eyebrow raised. In his mind, if that was true, Riku had done something that was borderline miraculous.

“I didn’t, Hokage-sama. I think it’s possible but I’m not at that level of fuinjutsu yet. I simply found a way to get around it.”

Now Hiruzen was very interested in that. Especially for his Anbu. Many times they had to interrogate on site and while they were taught how to do it they were not experts like T&I. Unfortunately they couldn’t make the way back to the village with prisoners so their interrogations weren’t as fruitful as it could be. Now, finding a way to seal people inside a storage seal to bring them back for T&I without deep knowledge about seals…THAT… Hiruzen wanted to know. Signaling with his hand, he prompted Riku to continue.

“I simply put one of them in a wooden crate, sealed the crate within a barrier and stored the crate.”

“And they lived?”

“As of this morning, yes.”

The old Hokage wanted to bash his head onto his desk. The young genin before him had thought outside the box and came up with such a simple solution that Hiruzen felt dumb for not having thought of it. Then again, he was feeling quite dumb everytime the dirty blond presented him something. His book of seals, his shurifuins… Once again he cursed the leaders of Team 7, 8 and 10 for not taking him in their team.

“I… I’d like to know how that is possible. Not now.” he quickly said, seeing as Riku was about to, he was sure, give a very long and very technical explanation. “I’ll send a clone tomorrow. Anyway, what you found out is revolutionary, especially for Anbu, so I’m ordering all of you to not say a word about it to anyone.”

““““Yes, Hokage-sama.””””

“Now, anything else?”

“Yes. The six shinobi, which among them had our targets, were wearing a head protector with a musical note on it.” Hayate revealed.

“A musical note?” he repeated, trying to remember a village for such a symbol but failed. “A new enemy, then… Hm. Tora.”

At the call of his codename, an Anbu appeared kneeling in front of the Hokage.

“Riku, give Tora the… pages with the prisoners and Tora bring them to Ibiki.”

Riku did as instructed and Tora quickly disappeared to fulfill his orders.

“This mission is way above B-rank and you will all be compensated accordingly. Good work. Dismissed.”

They all bowed and left. Once outside the Hokage Tower, Izumo and Kotetsu grabbed Riku by his shoulders just as he quickly said everyone goodbye. They were all grinning from ear to ear, Hayate included. The young genin was confused at their expression.

“Senpais?”

“Did you really think we would let you go like that?”

“...Yes?”

“Nu-huh. No way kid!”

“We’re celebrating your first successful A-rank!”

“That means you’re not getting home without being drunk to the point you can’t walk straight!”

“... I’m thirteen!”

““So?””

Turning to Hayate for help, he found none.

“Don’t look at me, I’m with them. It’s tradition.”

“Tradition is just peer pressure from the dead!” Riku tried to reason with them and win the argument.

““Don’t care!””

“I… I need an adult.”

“““You are an adult.”””

“Ever since you received your head protector.” added the swordsman.

Looking at the face of his teammates and understanding his situation, Riku raised his hands to do the seals for a kawarimi but was quickly stopped by the chunins shushining away with him and followed by Hayate. They arrived at a bar who only accepted shinobis for customers. That wasn’t something rare in the village. It was done to avoid a drunk civilian picking a fight against a drunk shinobi. In the early days of the villages, incidents happened enough times that an unofficial law separating the two saw the light of day. Of course, since it was unofficial, civilian and shinobi mingle but it was strongly suggested for the civilians and the shinobi they came to drink with, to drink in moderation.

The team found a free table against the side of the wall and sat there. Riku didn’t know where to look. He felt so out of place. Everyone around him was well into their late teens at the very least and he was just a child that reached teenagehood a few weeks prior. From the counter of the bar, he saw Kotetsu with four drinks in hand, talking with an older shinobi. The man was wearing a bandana backward and a senbon in his mouth. When the two men looked in his direction for a moment, Riku knew they were talking about him. After a nod of agreement, Kotetsu left the bandana shinobi at the counter and came back to the table. He put the drinks down and took a seat.

“Come on, kid. Bottom’s up.”

“Wha-”

Riku didn’t even finish talking when Izumo, who was sitting next to him, grabbed his face by the jaw and pushed his head back. Kotetsu was as fast as lightning and  put the entirety of the content of the small glass inside Riku’s open mouth. The reaction was immediate and the poor genin began to cough because of the taste and how hot the liquid had been. The heat burned his stomach and his oesophagus  but also reached his face which turned a bit red. That made his teammates laugh heartily.

“What the hell?!” the dirty blonde exclaimed once he got his cough under control and the fire subsided. He didn’t know what he was forced to drink but he didn’t like it one bit. “I’m not paying for this!”

“Nah, it’s fine. This round is on me.” The chunin dismissed and pushed another glass in front of Riku. “This time we toast! To Riku’s first A-rank and to the easiest A-rank ever!” he called out, raising his own glass in the air pointing at the middle of the table.

Seeing Hayate and Izumo do the same, Riku grumbled but followed suit. Four glasses bumped each other and everyone finished their drink in one go on the spot. Once again Riku coughed but only once. He had been ready this time.

“Now, we just need to find you a nice girl to pop your-”

“To pop his what?”

The feminine voice made Kotetsu pale on the spot. Turning his head, Riku saw a woman with long purple hair, a hand on her hips.  The slight frown on her face didn’t smear her beauty one bit in Riku’s opinion. He didn’t know if this was because of the two shots of strong alcohol he had that were taking effect but in the young thirteen years old’s eyes she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Especially her hair. He really liked the color. He had always loved purple, it reminded him of the sash his mother used to wear. It always calmed him down and soothed him. Thinking of it, it was perhaps the reason why he had been interested in Yamanaka Ino at the Academy. The Yamanaka clan’s main color was a deep purple and they wore it with pride and elegance with their cloth. Despite his mother’s fate, the harsh rejection of his friendship from Ino and the years of berating him for kicking Sasuke’s ass at every turn, Riku’s love for purple never wavered. His love for blondes on the other hand…

“Y-Yugao! How lovely to see you!” a nervous Kotetsu greeted her.

“Cut the crap, Kotetsu. What do you need a nice girl for?”

“N-Nothing!”

“Probably to pop my cherry.” said Riku, wanting to stick it to his bullying senpai. “I mean, I killed, I drank, that’s only leaving sex on the list. Hard pass, though, too young for that and even if I were not, I doubt you’d find someone willing to do it without a big load of cash involved.”

“Kid!”

“He has a point.” the woman said, pulling an empty chair from nearby and sitting next to Hayate. She gave him a peck on the lips and turned towards Riku to introduce herself.

“Hi. I’m Uzuki Yugao and this one’s fiancée.” she pointed at Hayate with a jerk of her head to the side.

“Warudo Riku, nice to meet you.”

Yugao nodded and turned towards her man. “So, what are you guys celebrating?”

“Riku’s first A-rank.”

“A-rank?!” she exclaimed in surprise. “Aren’t you a genin fresh from the Academy? Did these idiots somehow convince mine that taking you on one was a good idea?”

“What?!”

“Nothing like that, Yugao.” Izumo denied on the spot. “It was a simple B-rank that was bumped up.”

“Still. A B-rank for…”

“He is that good.” defended Hayate. “In fact, the mission was so successful thanks to him.”

“Really?” the purple haired woman asked, a bit doubtful.

“Really. Speaking of being good. Riku, in a month it’s the Chunin exam.” announced Izumo.

“I am aware, what about it?”

“Kotetsu and I-”

“And I.” interrupted Hayate but Izumo continued.

“...Think you are ready to take it. Especially when this time the exam is in Konoha.”

Riku controlled his surprise as best as he could. The prospect of being promoted to chunin was appealing. He wanted to climb the ranks fast, that was what he was training hard for after all. Except that since he ended up in the genin corps that prospect died quickly. He knew that he would have to make friends with other genin and formed a team but that was years away. To hear that he was ready made him feel proud about himself however the feeling went away quickly when he remembered that problem about not being in a team.

“We’ve been trying to search for a team that would participate in the exam but with a missing member for a few weeks now.”

“And?” Riku asked, trying not to hope.

“We found you one. Friday morning, training ground 15.” Kotetsu finished what Izumo began.

“You’re… kidding? You really found a team?”

“Yep.” the bandaged chunin, simply replied taking another shot of whatever they were drinking.

“...Thank you.” the genin replied in a soft voice.

From there, Riku didn’t drink much, pretending that he had obligations the day after from the Hokage and simply listened to the conversation going around the table. Kotetsu tried to chat up a kunoichi when he went for more drinks but ended up with a knee to the balls, to everyone’s hilarity. Because it was late and because Izumo dragged his completely drunk and suffering best friend home, Riku wished Hayate and Yugao a good night and left too. He didn’t much like the loudness of the bar or the atmosphere but he did like having people around to talk to and that would listen to him. The last thought Riku had before falling asleep would have been quite sad for anyone who would have heard it.

‘Is that what it’s like to have friends?’

___________________________________________________________________

Riku was woken up by a knock at the door. Opening an eye, and nursing a bit of a headache, he looked at his alarm clock.

‘9:00am. Ugh, crap, I’m late for training.’

Getting up from the bed, he went to his front door when the person on the other side knocked again.

“H-Hokage-sama?”

The sight of the leader of the village standing in front of him surprised him greatly.

“Good morning, Riku.” the old man greeter with a shameless smirk.

“Wh-... Oh, yes you wanted to know more about… And I’m fashionably late hence why you’re here and not at training ground 11.”

“That you are.”

“Somehow, I don’t believe it but okay.” Riku added and let Hiruzen in.

“You don’t?”

“No. I think you knew what would happened once my team was out  and you purposely schedule our meeting to… have fun at my expense.” the young man said, and invited the his guest to take a seat. He made a clone and sent him to make some tea, all the while seating himself in front of Hiruzen while still wearing his night wear.

“Guilty as charged.”

The clone came back with two teacups and coasters in one hand and a full teapot in the other. Once he put everything on the table, the clone pulled a tag from his pocket (taken from one of the drawers in the kitchen) and put it on the pot. In a few seconds steam was visible and the clone put the tea in it. Stirring the pot a bit, he served Hiruzen and his boss.

“Hmm Jasmine…” the old man said, taking a whiff of the flower’s scent with his eyes closed. “Good choice.”

“Thank you. Now that I think about it… Do shadow clones eat and drink?”

“That’s… an excellent question.” Hiruzen replied after taking a good sip of the hot beverage and blinked at the sudden inquiry.

“I mean, could clones pop if the food is too hot or too cold? Can a clone pop from a brain freeze? Would the food it ingested fall to the ground?”

Riku was more talking to himself than anything, Hiruzen realized and let him do his things. Anyone would say that those questions were stupid but the old Hokage did not. Knowing what a clone could and couldn’t do, especially a shadow one, was extremely important. Suddenly he saw Riku reach from some paper on the side of the table and give it to his clone.

“Eat.”

The clone deadpanned at his creator but took the paper and made a ball out of it before eating it. When it dispelled, the ball appeared in mid air and fell to the ground.

“It’s not wet.” Riku said, after picking it up. “Meaning, the shadow clone doesn’t imitate saliva and probably other fluids… A flaw of the jutsu perhaps. It also means that we can put as many tags as we want inside a shadow clone and activate it when it pops.”

“Hm, true. An explosive tag would be less chakra intensive than an explosive clone.”

That comment from Hiruzen surprised Riku a bit. He never thought that clones could explode. He needed to explore that at a later time.

“It also means, you’re the real one, isn’t it?”

“I am.” Hiruzen replied with an amused smile, drinking his tea.

“Ha, so the clone is working instead of you. Clever.”

“... Thank you.” then Hokage nodded sagely but his thoughts were anything but. ‘Why didn’t I think of that?! I’ve been using a kage bunshin to meet with him while working! How stupid can I be?!’

Hiruzen had not used a clone to work in his stead. He had just taken a break from the news he got from Ibiki. No one would fault him for that, after all, from the preliminary interrogation of the six shinobi Riku’s team brought back, they discovered that Otogakure, the sound village, was created and led by Orochimaru.

“You wanted to know more about my… get around the sealing of living beings? Are the prisoners still alive?”

“Yes and yes. All of them were perfectly fine and asleep when they were brought from their crate. I’m really curious about how that is possible.”

“I’m not entirely sure, it was more of a passing thought than anything.”

“Please, humor me.”

“When you seal something into something else it creates some kind of… artificial or another dimension? I mean, when I store hot food in a storage seal and bring it out days later it’s still pristine. If it was hot before the sealing, it is hot after the unsealing as if no time passed at all. From that I deduced that in this other dimension-.”

“Time doesn’t pass. The food would be cold otherwise.”

“I think it’s more than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think Time simply doesn’t exist in that dimension.”

That idea gave Hiruzen a stop to his thoughts. Time not existing was inconceivable, way more than time stopping.

“How could that be? Why do you think so?”

“Because if Time was just stopped, people would be stopped in consequence and so wouldn’t die. Yet that’s not the case. They do die. How the food stays hot but the person ends up dying is yet beyond me. Perhaps it’s because the lack of Time has an effect on living organisms but not on the rest. Anyway, that’s not really the heart of the matter, what I meant by that is that with a storage seal we create another dimension but so do we when we create a barrier. The space inside one is disconnected from the rest of the world. Unlike the storage seal’s dimension which may very well be infinite, the dimension inside a barrier is finite and determined by the area of the barrier. The tags are simply the anchors to our own dimension. From studying under every angle the storage seal, it’s impossible to seal something into a storage seal then seal that storage seal into another. Why? Because when we write a storage seal the anchors are set for our own dimension.”

“If I’m following, when we put the first storage seal into another, it isn’t anchored anymore and something bad happens.”

“Yes. However when I put a barrier on the crates, the anchors were the tags themselves. Since the tags went with the crates inside the storage seal, there was no anchoring problem. I had hoped that the barrier would protect the prisoner from the lack of Time.”

“I… don’t understand how?”

“When I created the barrier, it took in the laws of our world, for exemple gravity and time, and disconnected them from their… source. Which means that inside the barrier they still existed, protected from everything exterior in a certain measure.”

“Wouldn’t the prisoner have died of thirst then?”

“No, because Time in the storage seal doesn’t exist!” Riku replied with excitement to a completely confused Hiruzen.

After a long moment of thinking, the Hokage spoke.

“I don’t get it.”

“There is no Time in the storage seal except inside the barrier put on the crate. The prisoner is still under the influence of Time, our Time. But this Time, that is locked inside the barrier, is affected by the lack of Time in the seal’s dimension. It’s like…A bubble if you will. The lack of Time of the storage seal kind of froze the time inside the barrier which in turn froze the prisoner who survived because he was still subjected to Time even if it was frozen.”

“Ooh. I think I understand. Since the body is still under the influence of an existing Time, passing or not, it continues to live. Regardless of the lack of Time beyond the dimension the body is in.”

“Yes!”

“Fascinating.”

“But headache inducing. In theory it would be possible to seal whole troops and have an infiltration expert unseal them anywhere. The troops would be as fresh as a daisy ready to act. Though it’s only a theory and I wouldn’t test it on anyone. Animals maybe? That also leaves the problem of the storage seal. If it’s destroyed or lost, the people sealed inside may very well be lost forever. Personally I wouldn’t test it or use it like that unless it is an absolute necessity.”

“That’s an avenue I didn’t think about.” siad Hiruzen after downing another cup of tea. “Riku what you discovered-”

“S-rank secret, yes, I know. At this point Hokage-sama, I think that any discovery I make should be considered a S-rank secret by default even if it isn’t. There is no need to tell me everytime.”

“Huh…That’s not a bad idea.” considered the old man. “If you come up with anything, regardless if you think it’s ground breaking or not.”

“I’ll come to you to make sure it’s S-rank or not.”

“Good. Of course you’d be credited for it and the knowledge would belong to you and thus private.”

“Speaking of private, any news from the books of seals from the Anbu?”

“Out of the two teams having them, one had not yet had the opportunity to use them, the other… Let’s just say it saved their lives and leave it at that.”

“If more are needed-”

“I will let you know though I believe it would be an order more about your shurifuin than the books themselves. The latter, Anbu, can make them on their own. It’s simple storage seals after all.”

Riku noded and rose from his seat a moment after Hiruzen. The old Hokage made his way toward the door, wished Riku a good day and left to get back to work. He still had to deal with his wayward student and his new village. When he went back into his office, he groaned at the sight of two small mountains of paperwork. He sat behind his desk, picked his pipe up and lit it.

“Neko, Boar,” he called out and his two usual guards appeared in a kneeling position in front of him. “You will speak of no one of what you heard.”

““Yes, Hokage-sama.””

“At least the more technical part. When you go back to headquarters, share the fact that prisoners survive if put inside an object and sealed by a barrier to Team Ro and Alpha. Anything else is forbidden and they too are forbidden to speak about it.”

““Yes, Hokage-same.””

“.... A lack of Time…Thirteen and he’s already theorizing what not even Orochimaru or Minato ever thought of and found a way to get around the obvious problem…” he said more to himself than his bodyguards. “Neko, keep your eyes and ears open when you’re in position to do so. No need for intensive surveillance but simply observe.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama.” the woman replied. “If I may?” she asked and he allowed it. “With how… talented he seems to be with seals, perhaps providing him with advanced material on the subject would be wise? From what I heard, he’s halfway done with the first intermediary book on fuinjutsu but once he finished it, he won’t have access to anything more with his rank.”

“Hmm… Not a bad idea. See it done.”

The neko gave her usual answer when the Hokage gave her an order and went back to her hiding place in the ceiling, along with Boar.