5,600Sarutobi chuckled lightly at Daiki's insult, "Now now Daiki-kun, your Tobirama-sensei is showing, what would Sasuke-kun think?" he wagged his finger at him, "Besides once you get to a certain point, it becomes rather easy to copy jutsu even without the Sharingan."
"…Wait, what?" Daiki blinked, his slight shock over seeing his own seal being used by somebody else dissipating. Like, he had copied jutsu before, but it was different for him, while he didn't have the Sharingan, he could full on look into peoples memories if needed, and of course, see their chakra and watch how they moulded it. But, it wasn't something that let him copy jutsu instantly or anything.
"It took long years of training and effort on my part, but for many jutsu, I can recreate them just from sight alone these days," the old man grinned lightly, "For instance." the old man brought up both hands, with one, he just held up his palm, while the other he made..one handed seals!?
Daiki's eyes about bugged out of his head at the sheer casualness of it, and he was lucky they didn't pop right out of his skull by what happened next.
First, there was a whirring noise as blue energy formed in the old mans palm, forming into a violently rotating sphere of chakra, while in the other, lightning shrieked into existence like a thousand shrieking birds, coating his entire arm.
"This in my left hand is the Rasengan, the signature technique and original jutsu of the Yondaime Hokage, while in my right, is the Chidori, a technique created by your good friend Kakashi-kun in his youth." Sarutobi explained nonchalantly.
…What the fuck.
Hax, Daiki called hax!
"You're trying to say you recreated those jutsu just from seeing them?" Daiki asked, disbelievingly.
"Indeed I am, I had no need to be taught them, it is simply that I have so much experience and know so much jutsu and ways of manipulating my chakra, that it becomes childs play to recreate jutsu such as these, genjutsu are harder for instance, but possible," the old man continued on, "Though I'm of course, not unique in this aspect, and in fact, I dare say I know of at least one other that has much greater talent than even myself when it comes to this kind of thing."
"You're kidding right, who the fuck is this monster then?" Daiki asked, because, he'd love to have them at his back when things got hairy later down the road.
"Oh, I think you know of him quite well," Sarutobi's smile turned sobering, it was a slight change, but Daiki's enhanced perception from his eyes allowed him to notice it. It was a smile that wasn't happy at all, but rather, almost sorrowful, "After all, your dear friend Sasuke-kun has made it no secret what his goal in life is."
Daiki froze, "….Itachi Uchiha?"
"Correct," the Hokage nodded, "He was capable of such feats from a young age, without his Sharingan or even much training. The first time he was shown the Grand Fireball Jutsu when he was five years old, he copied it instantly and made an even more powerful one than his father, an Elite Jonin and one of the stronger ninja within our village at the time had."
Wait, that sounded familiar.
That was…in Itachi's filler backstory right? Which was supposed to be getting a novel or something.
"Such a shame how things turned out," Hiruzen sighed, "He was perhaps, the greatest prodigy that originated from this village, or at least close to it and could have rivalled the Yondaime given time, perhaps even surpassed him and all the Hokage that came before."
"Surpass the Hokage that came before…" Daiki mulled over those words, filing the prodigy crap about Itachi in the back of his mind, he already knew the dude was an utter monster, "Was…Itachi a Hokage candidate?" he wondered.
Hiruzen sighed, "Perhaps I should explain," he mused and gave Daiki a slight smile, "There is much blame to be held over young Itachi's actions, some I lay at my own feet even, and wish that I had not allowed others to dictate his path, you could say my prompt action with snatching you up myself, comes from my mistakes with Itachi."
"…What?" Daiki would admit it, he was lost.
"To be frank, yes, Itachi was a Hokage candidate," Hiruzen revealed, dropping quite the bomb, "Itachi was the perfect shinobi, he was diligent, intelligent, could suppress his emotions for the mission and the good of the village, a genius among geniuses and of course incredibly powerful even at such a young age, I thought to allow him more experience and allowed others such as Danzo to foster his growth in the Anbu, that was a mistake."
'I mean…Danzo himself is pretty much a mistake.' Daiki snorted mentally, but didn't interrupt the old man.
"And above all else, Itachi knew what it meant to be Hokage," Hiruzen sighed and shook his head, "If only I had taken him as an apprentice myself instead of allowing Danzo to oversee things, I may have been able to prevent the tragedy of the Uchiha."
For a moment, Hiruzen truly did look his age, a tired old man. But, it only lasted a split moment before he controlled his emotions once more. He was a pinnacle shinobi after all. He could probably shed a tear and wipe it away before Daiki even noticed.
"Though, perhaps not," he frowned, "Thanks to you and the information you brought back upon becoming a Jinchuuriki, things are beginning to fall into place and holes in mysteries I never found the answers to, have suddenly been filled."
…Did he mean the whole thing about Obito pretending to be Madara and hypnotizing Yagura? Well, actually now that he thought about it, one of the biggest things about the Uchiha Massacre, was what led to them attempting their coup. Being ostracized by the village because it was suspected an Uchiha was behind the Kyuubi attack.
Which was correct, everyone was just looking at it from the wrong angle. It was an Uchiha, just one that had a massive grudge against his clan. The Uchiha Massacre might have been ordered by the Hokage and elders, but the true blame lay at Obito and Madara's feet, they instigated it all.
Granted, Danzo was a fucking idiot about it as well, so he should get a lot of the blame as well. Even if Shisui's idea to brainwash the entire clan was kind of a stupid idea as well now that Daiki thought about it. It was only a stop gap after all.
'Madara's hatred of his own clan is etched into history itself these days, even I have heard of it,' Isobu mused, 'Assuming the Hokage believes it to be Madara, or Madara's successor which would be an obvious thought, then that would answer the mysteries of that night and what led to the Uchiha being ostracized.'
That did make sense. And was very convenient for Daiki.
The old man had fallen silent, and didn't say anything else for a few moments.
"And so being in anbu from a young age made him snap, right?" Daiki asked, offering him an olive branch. The old man clearly didn't want to reveal the truth behind the Uchiha massacre right now.
If ever.
To be honest, Daiki thought the truth of it was better off buried right now. It really was just a whole crap shot that made the entire clan look pretty pathetic from every angle, the only ones who came out of it looking good were Shisui and Itachi.
"…That is the the top theory, yes," Hiruzen nodded and gave a sigh, before sobering up, "Which is why I thought it best to take a more hands on approach with you myself."
"Not like I planned on being Anbu anyway," Daiki snorted with a shrug, "The armour and gear is pretty sweet, but the whole silent secretive stuff isn't my thing, I like to brag about my exploits. Loudly, for everyone to hear and praise me for the amazing badass I am."
"Quite," Hiruzen chortled, "It's much better to have a Hokage candidate in the spotlight for the most part anyway. Your image and exploits gather awe and intrigue from the village, and reinforces their faith in you when you ascend to the position."
That made sense, "I should probably let everyone know what I've been up to then." Daiki nodded. He would have to brag more he supposed, in public. It sure was hard being him.
"No need, I have already circulated your exploits through the village," Hiruzen gave him a knowing grin, "I sent some trusted jonin out to gossip about your exploits from defeating a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, to foiling a plot using a Bijuu and even fighting off my former student, an S-rank shinobi. I dare say your legend has already began."
Huh.
How sneaky. Daiki wasn't expecting that at all, but it showed how on the ball the old man was with his decision here, he was already laying the ground work for the village as a whole to look at him in awe.
'Just what you need, a whole village of hype men.' Isobu groaned.
"The Epic of Daiki," the teen genin mused, a smirk forming on his face, "That has a nice ring to it."
'Gilgamesh is going to sue you, with lots and lots of swords.'
'He wishes, I could totally kick his ass!' Daiki refuted. He'd see how Gilgamesh liked getting sword barraged right back! He couldn't even beat a ginger with a hero/martyr complex. He'd Bijuudama his ass out of existence before he ever got the chance to pull out his trump card.
"Perhaps you should write a book, you may even be successful enough not to need to write pornography like a certain other student of mine," Hiruzen mused with another light chortle before clenching his fists, and allowing the jutsu in his hands that Daiki had almost forgot about to be quashed out of existence and stretched his arms, "Though for now Daiki-kun, I believe it is time to as you kids say, get down to business."
Daiki's smirk transitioned into a wide eager grin, "Finally old man, as much as the information is good to know, this is what I'm here for!" he cheered, cracking his knuckles, and then his neck for good measure.
He only had eight days to train with the old man right now. So he needed to make every second count. For these eight days, he would have to transcend the grind itself and enter the legendary Hyper-Grind.
'Where do you come up with this stuff?' Isobu asked, deadpan.
'I had a lot of time to think while screwing Anko,' Daiki responded, they'd fucked for over twelve hours after all, 'Come on, you can't think I'd waste all that time with just sex right? Amazing as it is, my mind wandered.'
He could feel Isobu rolling his eyes in exasperation.
"Good to see you're ready then," Hiruzen smiled back and after stretching out, stood normally, unguarded and out of any stance, "I believe we'll start simple, I wish to see your current limit without boosting over your base abilities."
"No seal, no augment jutsu like my lightning armour, no bijuu cloaks, alright, simple enough I gotcha." Daiki nodded in understand, slipping into the opening stance for the Feather Fist style, Both arms up, fists clenched, one at the side of his head while the other was slightly ahead of his face, and one leg pulled slightly back.
"The Feather Fist style, truly a fitting Taijutsu for you, fast with explosive concentrated strikes, I applaud your choice in it," the old man nodded approvingly, "Now, let us begin. Come at me with the intent to kill Daiki-kun, only then will I see your true abilities."
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Daiki laughed, not even at all bothered about the older man not entering his fighting stance.
He slid his foot back further to push off with, at the same time he made a single hand seal and exploded forward in a rush towards the old man with a shunshin enhanced blitz.
His eyes with their enhanced perception were digging into the old mans form, preparing for any move he could make from the slightest twitches of his muscles as he rushed forward lashing out with a rapid right straight aiming for his face, specifically his eyes, to cut off his vision.
It was a feint after all.
At the same time he lashed out with his fist, never intending to make contact with it, he swung his foot out in a stomping kick towards the old mans knee. He'd smash his knee cap and limit his movements massively with it.
He never made contact.
Hiruzen clasped his hands behind his back and didn't even flinch at his fist, at the same time, the old man lifted the leg he was aiming for up, avoiding his blow and before Daiki could backtrack from his failed strike, the old mans leg moved like a serpent, coming down over his thigh and catching it beneath his knee, pinning his leg there and keeping him off balance.
"The ability to predict your opponents movements from the slightest twitch of their muscles with your eyes is indeed a very useful and potent ability," the old man Hokage began lecturing straight away, "But, it is not undefeatable. The Sharingan can do that as well, and how many Uchiha have been killed despite that ability? A better variation in their case in fact. Try not to rely on that ability too much when it comes to close combat Daiki-kun. Though I must admit, very impressive speed for your age."
Daiki grinned at him, "Sure, but you realise even if you caught me, you're stuck too!" he retorted and pushed off with his other leg, rising into a knee strike aimed for his new teachers chin.
Once again it didn't make contact, the old mans hand came from behind his back, quick as a flash and his palm stopped Daiki's strike in its tracks.
But it did its job and loosened the grip his leg had on his own and Daiki thrust his left palm out to the side, using his Force Palm Jutsu to increase his momentum and rip his leg free. Not bothering to aim for the man since he'd see it coming a mile away and retreat.
Leg coming free, Daiki spun mid-air like a rapidly rotating spinning top and lashed out with a dragon wheel kick aimed at the mans neck.
Daiki's eyes widened though when the old man casually bent forward, ducking under the blow before both hands whipped up and caught his ankle, "Shi-!" Daiki never even got to finish his curse before the old man stopped him in his tracks with his grip and reared back up, lifting Daiki up above his head, before promptly smashing him into the ground.
The ground shattered from the sheer force of the blow, and if Daiki weren't so tough he would have had the wind knocked out of his lungs.
As it was, he was still stunned and not able to counter as the old man reared him back up into the air before spinning like a tornado and letting go, launching him like a bullet.
He smashed into the cavern wall multiple dozens of feet away like a wrecking ball and went straight into it, debris falling and creating a cloud as his body cratered into it from the sheer strength behind the toss.
"…Okay that hurt." Daiki groaned, shaking his head and pushing himself up. Before the smoke and debris could clear though, he thrust both hands behind him and jumped, unleashing a pair of Force Palms that launched him high and rapidly into the air towards Hiruzen's position.
Then he launched another pair of Force Palms propelling him downwards and generating even more force and momentum.
He smashed down with a double hammer blow that the old man sprang nimbly back from, the ground shattering inwards from the force of his blow, but Daiki didn't pause and rushed the old man, launching into a flurry of rapid fire blows, leading with punches into kicks, enhancing his momentum and rapidly rotating to hide his next move and gain more momentum for his next flurry of blows.
He was pure non stop motion given form.
Yet the old man dodged, weaved around or parried and blocked his flurry of attacks with little effort.
Letting Daiki tire himself out a bit, or maybe just to see how long he could keep up such a flurry of connected and concentrated attacks.
The answer was, he could keep it going for a pretty damn long time his stamina was insane and recovered rapidly even in his base. And the old man realised that pretty quickly.
Because he shut him down not long later and went on the offensive. Beautiful in its simplicity and timing at least. With no wasted movements and nothing Daiki could predict or at the very least keep up with in his base form speed, the old man weaved to the right avoiding a knee strike aimed at his ribs, before sliding back left, foot extended and catching his ankle.
The old man barely touched him and he turned all of Daiki's momentum against him as the tan genin found himself carried into mid-air, sideways and with little reach to counter.
And then the Hokage smiled at him warmly and lashed out with a palm strike that caught him in the centre of his stomach, "Force Palm Jutsu." the old man announced gently.
Daiki's eyes widened in shock, and then he gagged as a very familiar burst of pressure slammed into and through his stomach and carried him back through the air a good twenty feet where he landed on his back, gagging and wheezing.
'Fuck!' Daiki spluttered inwardly as he gagged, blood erupting from his mouth as he hacked and coughed. He'd never been properly hit by his own jutsu.
It sure was something!
If it weren't for his durability, endurance and natural healing ability, that would have been debilitating and kept him down for at least a little bit. A point blank shock wave to the internal organs would do that to a guy.
Actually, most people would be dead. As many of his opponents could attest to…if they weren't dead from being hit by the Force Palm.
Fuck he sure could make a jutsu couldn't he?
But this was no time to be patting himself on the back. One arm wrapped around his stomach to keep his organs from jostling any while he healed, Daiki clawed his way to his knees and glared at the old man, baring his blood stained teeth at him, "Another…one of my jutsu old man?" he growled, "You sure you don't have them spinny red monkey balls?"
Hiruzen just laughed, "They're more one in the same those jutsu of yours, and well, I don't know about spinning and red, but I dare say I have quite the supply of monkey balls," he replied in amusement, "Though, I suppose it's only fair I show off one of my own jutsu in return eh Daiki-kun?"
Despite how soft, gentle and warm the smile that was on the older mans face was, it sent alarm bells ringing off in Daiki's head.
Especially when the Hokage made a single hand seal. With a single hand and breathed in deep, his chest expanding and flames spilling from between his lips, "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Missile!"
And then promptly exhaled and fired off a gargantuan serpentine flaming dragon that blocked out his vision of the old man with its sheer bulk and roared towards him.
'Holy shit!' Daiki gaped. The old man was seriously not pulling his punches! This would be a really good time to put the Fire Sealing Method to test.
…If he actually knew the Fire Sealing Method! but no matter how many clones he had raid the texts the village shinobi library had on sealing, none of them even mentioned it!
And he definitely needed it for the future to deal with Amaterasu just in case.
It was too big and fast to dodge or outright with him injured right now, and countering with the same amount of power would leave him in point black range for the clash.
He could only block.
He ran through a few hand seals as he surged to his feet and his chest expanded just like the old mans as he pumped a metric shit ton of chakra into his jutsu and exhaled, "Water Style: Water Wall!"
He spat a massive rushing wave of water that formed up into a huge shield over thirty feet high and long.
Just in time for the massive fire dragon to smash into the barrier of water. An explosion erupted and shook the training cavern as steams welled outwards from the clash.
He felt his skin drying up from the sheer heat produced and his mouth dry up. But, at the very least, he could use the vapor in the steam for his own benefit as well.
He rapidly ran through hand seals as the dragon finally puttered out, leaving him enveloped in steam and his now limp and falling apart water barrier, spreading his chakra out.
As he did, the steam converged into the barrier and the amount of water once again swelled up, before twisting and forming into into a familiar, if very different serpentine form and clearing his vision to show the old man still in his previous position, "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
His own dragon of water roared and shot in the opposite direction of the fire dragon, towards the old man, deadly intent in its gleaming yellow eyes.
But Daiki wasn't done, he rapidly made another few hand seals before thrusting his hands out, "Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" he roared, unleashing a stream of crackling branching electricity from his hands that shot over and enveloped his water dragon.
"Ho-hoh, a combination jutsu I see?" Hiruzen nodded, pleased, "I'm impressed."
He hadn't seen anything yet!
As the dragon rushed him, so too did Daiki.
Pumping chakra into his eyes all the way.
For the first time, he bore witness to the old man losing his composure, however minutely as tens of dozens of clones formed all around him and Daiki, all rushing him like the dragon.
However experienced he was, there were some things that just weren't possible. And the chakra ghost clones couldn't be told apart from him, they made sound as they moved and even the Byakugan and Sharingan couldn't tell them apart from the real thing.
The old man was forced to actually properly backpedal and dodge for the first time, leaping backwards and dodging his chakra ghost clones as they came at him from all sides with the electricity enhanced water dragon hot on their heels.
The old man ran through blurring hand seals Daiki's eyes couldn't keep up with and as he landed, he finished, at the same time a puff of smoke came from one of his hands and a massive fuma shuriken appeared in his grip.
Wind whistled, forming around the edges of the fuma shuriken and the old man tossed it through the air, the spiralling star looking like a rapid buzzsaw, "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
One giant fuma shuriken became dozens, then hundreds in the blink of an eye.
And in just seconds, most of his clones and his huge electrified water dragon were torn asunder.
Even he wouldn't have been able to avoid them and gotten caught up in the barrage of wind enhanced fuma shuriken.
If not for him creating a barrier of chakra and funnelling a ton of his chakra into it. It stopped dozens of those cloned shuriken in their tracks and forced them to dispel.
Would have been easier if he used his armour, but the old man wanted to see him fight with his own base abilities.
As it was, as he dispelled the chakra barrier, Daiki even with his own endurance and massive chakra capacity found himself panting deeply. Both from the damage he'd taken and the rather large amount of chakra he'd just expended in short order.
…Meanwhile the old man, looked no worse for wear at all. In fact, his clothing wasn't even ruffled and he still had that genial smile on his face.
He wasn't going to lie, it was kind of annoying.
"I think I've seen enough for now," Hiruzen mused, clapping his hands promptly, "You can relax Daiki-kun."
Despite himself and the way that casual dismissal hurt his pride in his abilities, Daiki couldn't help but feel relief.
God damn that old man was a monster. He didn't even come close to him in his base.
So this was what the 'Professor' and second 'God of Shinobi' was made of huh?
Daiki had to admit, he lived up to the hype.
"I know exactly what we'll be working on for the next week or say Daiki-kun," the old man said as he casually walked over towards him at a leisurely pace, "Though tell me, if I were to give you a choice of jutsu, what would you prefer? An elemental jutsu? A normal ninja art, a taijutsu technique? Or perhaps even a Genjutsu?"
Daiki blinked, "You're going to teach me jutsu?" he asked, all injuries and exhaustion becoming quickly forgotten as excitement jumped in his veins.
"Among other things," Hiruzen replied, "There are a few specific jutsu I must teach you if you are to become Hokage in the future, jutsu only the Hokage themselves learn. But variety is the spice of life and a big help in different situations, so I'll be teaching you a variety of jutsu beyond them as well."
Hokage only jutsu?
That sounded freaking badass!
Beyond them though, what did he need? He had lots of normal jutsu, quite a few genjutsu at this point, and even tons of elemental jutsu.
Though, ironically the one he was most lacking in, was for his main elemental affinity, lightning. Well, technically it was fire jutsu since he only knew the one, but he'd been training lightning by far the longest and only had three pure lightning jutsu.
And that was including his Lightning Armour.
Wow, he really needed some more lightning jutsu.
"I need lightning jutsu more than any else at the moment," Daiki replied, "Followed by fire. I'd prefer Lightning over fire though since I've not done any fire elemental training yet."
"I see," Hiruzen stroked his chin and hummed in thought for a moment, before nodding, "Easily rectified, I will get you a scroll on fire elemental training, and I believe we'll star you off on learning the Lightning Style: Thunder Bomb, I believe it will go very well with your Kiba blades."
"…All right." Daiki nodded, grinning.
It was kind of weird actually having a sensei who would teach him something, he wasn't going to lie. Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma hadn't taught their teams shit after all.
'What am I, chopped liver?' Isobu huffed.
'You're not a sensei, you're my Isobro.' Daiki refuted. That disqualified him from the inherent failure that was sensei's if those three clowns were anything to go by.
"Once you master that jutsu, I will provide you with another, one a day assuming you can master them in that day, if not, you'll just have more of a backlog I'm sure," the old man chuckled, breaking him from his internal debate, "For now though, I will be returning to my office and leaving you with a clone of mine to oversee your training." as he said that, he made a single hand seal and summoned a shadow clone to his side.
"I hope that recovery ability of yours from becoming a Jinchuuriki is good to keep you going Daiki-kun," the clone gave him that warm, gentle…terrifying smile, "Because we don't have much time and we're getting right down to it right now."
….You know, looking at that smile.
Daiki was so, so glad he got his hands on that fragment of Gelel to boost his recovery and healing ability alongside his Jinchuuriki shit.
Yes indeed it is I, the man, the myth, the legend, the Jord. And thus I do be returning with a chapterooooooo of 46-hooooooo.
Welp, moving on with this chapter we get a little expanded upon backstory for Itachi both from a little bit of the shinden and some added on here just to expound things a bit. And then we move on from that and old man Sarutobi does old man ninja things and monkeys aroung throwing Daiki around like a freshly layn turd as all monkeys do be doing.
And Daiki is happy happy heee heeeee.
Well, that's about all I have to say for commentary beyond that we're up to chapter 50 on the Pa-atreon if you wanna read ahead. That is right my friends, my allies...slaves, yeah, my slaves. I'm Alucardin up in this bitch and Alucardin all over the place. No wait, I be doing Jord stuff and Jordin all over the place!
Jord Jord, he's our god if he can't do it, someone motivated to so it probably can. A warning from Big Papa God Jord though to you all, just because you can, don't go getting chlamydia. Apparently condoms aren't one hundred percent fool proof in that regard, who knew? Eh, was bound to happen at some point.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.