Eroninja

Mito smiled as Apacci said, "Look at him strutting around like a peacock. If Lady Tier had gone out fully she..."

"Would have faced an opponent who wasn't holding back as well," Tier said as she appeared in the viewing box. "We were both equally handicapped in that match and it was decided by the person with the better tactics." Focusing on Mito, she said, "I apologize if my loss has put us at a disadvantage going forward."

Kiyomi was the one who telepathically responded, "Do not concern yourself, Tier. A loss by any of you would hardly have been insurmountable." Kiyomi let a little amusement enter her mental tone as she amended herself, "Well perhaps a first round loss might have been. In any case, you have all showcased your skills quite admirably, and if we were to suffer a loss it is good that it came as it did."

"By Naruto's hands," Tier asked.

"No, by the man who sponsored him." Kiyomi said as she corrected her sister. "Jirocho is not a competitor of our company, but a potential client. I have a feeling he was here to personally test us. But, considering his cleverness, he may have his eyes set on something else."

Kukaku backtracked the conversation as she said, "I couldn't help but notice that you said our company."

"Of course," Kiyomi replied, "Each of you now have a stake in whether it is a success or failure as a whole. A lot is going to be riding on how well you perform, and I hope that you come to see that success as not just mine, but ours. As Tier's match highlighted despite our inherit strength we can and have been bested by humans before. Just because they can no longer seal us, does not mean that they cannot fight us on an equal footing."

Kukaku dismissed Kiyomi's words with a snort as she said, "Please, the only time they truly got the better of me was when they swarmed me like insects."

Mito corrected the Bijuu as she reminded her, "Hashirama was able to fight you on an even level."

"He was a fluke," Kukaku said with a dismissive wave, "I managed to break free several times after being given to Iwa. They only ever managed to reseal me by overwhelming me with numbers." Advertisements

"A feat which may be repeated if you continue to be so dismissive of their skills while relying only on your own strength," Kiyomi warned. "But history does not need to repeat itself if we take after them in pooling our skills and strength in the pursuit of making this world one that father would be proud of."

Urd smirked as she said, "A pretty speech, but we've already agreed to go along with your plan, Kiyomi."

"I know," the nine-tailed Bijuu responded, "I merely hope to correct you of the notion that it is merely my plan. You all have taken involvement in it now."

Mito nodded as she said, "True enough. I suppose I should go congratulate the winner." The Uzumaki stepped up to the microphone to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, let me take this moment to offer my heartfelt and sincere compliments on a spectacular victory to Naruto Uzumaki and his sponsor in this contest, Jirocho Wasabi. I happily, if somewhat reluctantly, will present to you Lord Jirocho the sum of..."

"Excuse me milady, but that will not be necessary." Jirocho interrupted having joined Idate by the microphone set aside for the sponsors. "If you would see fit to refund the Wasabi family its entrance fee, then I would consider us more than even."

"O-of course," Mito said unable to conceal her surprise, "but may I ask, why?"

Jirocho smiled widely as he explained, "Unlike most here, I did not enter to see the Great Tree Shipping Company brought down. I merely wished to gauge for myself just how well protected shipments leaving from Degarashi would be under your care. As this contest demonstrated your company considers security paramount for it to gather such strong warriors to escort them. Therefore, if I may be so bold, I would like to enter into negotiations to secure your company's services and would be pleased if we could host them at my home in Tea Country."

Mito inclined her head as she responded, "I look forward to it. Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope going forward you too will come to call on us for your shipping needs. Thank you for attending."

Mito stepped away from the microphone allowing Urd to approach her to say, "Now he's certainly the sly one."

Mito agreed with a nod of her head as she said amused, "He's not the only one. So just what do you intend to do with Naruto on your night out with him." Urd's cheeks began to color giving the Uzumaki an idea which caused her to smile even as she felt some concern about a nearby presence she could feel via the locating mark Naruto had placed on her.

*****

Toka remained in the shadows as she heard the soft footfalls of her target walking towards her. The Senju wasn't exactly hiding as she knew many a shinobi would be able to easily pick her out, which was actually the point. Several citizens had passed by her without noticing or only doing so when they were practically on top of her, with one such person actually leaping back and offering his wallet suspecting she was there to rob him. But it highlighted something that separated shinobi from those they protected, which was their highly developed skill of observation. Something that was almost impossible to shut off.

A fact, which Toka was counting on in order to out the woman known as Kiyomi as actually being Mito Uzumaki. She still didn't understand how such a thing was possible, but felt that it might be attributed to the Uzumaki Clan's well know vitality. She spotted her quarry as she walked through the tunnel with her hands folded in the sleeves of the kimono that she wore. Toka noted that much like the civilians that had passed through the area before her, she gave off the aura of someone that didn't realize she was sharing the space with someone else. Yet despite that, Toka could pick up subtle hints that the woman was aware of her presence. Hints that she was trying to suppress, but couldn't due to her years of training. Still, she knew reading subtle shifts in the way a person carried herself wasn't exactly proof, which was why the shadow clone she had created and had been doing everything in its power to remain hidden should have caught her by surprise as it sprang out of the shadows opposite of where Toka was, and would have a civilian.

Mito may have been able to suppress her instincts to an opponent barely trying to hide her presence, but from a threat that suddenly appeared had little chance to succeed. The clone separated from the shadow of a pillar running along the wall and did a high spinning kick which the red-head easily avoided. She then lashed out with a palm that caught the clone in the chest as it straightened causing it to disperse before it hit the wall. Toka, then leapt forward with a kunai knife but found her wrists caught by the short-haired version of the Uzumaki that had been married to her cousin.

"I knew it was you Mito," the Senju said pleased at seemingly proving her theory.

Mito saw no point in denying it so simply asked, "How?"

"I'd recognize your smugness anywhere," Toka said bitterly. "Outside of still being alive, I'm surprised you could find a way to function without a man in your life to tell you how to live."

Toka was about to continue, but received a head-butt from the Uzumaki who responded, "I see you tend to still get all preachy about how superior you are to women who found happiness in starting families instead of living on the battlefield as you choose to do. You still tend to drop your guard when you do also."

The Senju was about to leap forward to attack the Uzumaki, but was stopped as Naruto sensing the conflict appeared in the tunnel saying, "There you are Toka, I thought you were..." He trailed off as Mito grabbed him and sealed her lips to his, shocking the brown-haired woman at the display.

Mito pulled back trapping Naruto's lower-lip between hers before letting it snap back. Then with an overly pleased smile on her face she said, "Allow me to introduce you to the man in my life that has given me a new way to live."

Naruto's stunned gaze traveled between the Mito's pleased visage to Toka's quickly darkening one as he simply said, "Um... I can explain."

*****

Explain Naruto did, although to say Toka was pleased to learn that she was unknowingly living in a home populated by almost entirely by his lovers and had been marked by him with a seal was an understatement. Furthermore, she had quickly reneged on her promise to train him in how to counter genjutsu and had remained sealed in her room, only emerging for team practice or the occasional mission. All in all, Naruto felt she did take it rather well since he wasn't currently trapped in an unending nightmare of her creation and had agreed not to tell anyone of what she had learned.

A week had passed since the competition and Naruto was currently eating breakfast in the common dining area. To his surprise Toka had appeared for the first time in a week. Ino was currently nuzzled into his side as she saw no reason to hide her relationship since the only resident unaware of it now was Kurenai. Naruto was a little jealous of how she appeared oblivious to the darkened gaze of Toka, who watched as Ino used her chopsticks to feed her lover.

Toka finally set her bowl down loudly as a bit of the sauce Ino had dipped the meat into dripped onto Naruto's bare chest and so she had leaned forward to lick it off. The Senju leveled a disproving glare on the kunoichi as she said, "If you insist on displaying such a vulgar side of yourself, perhaps you should get a room."

Ino responded with a bored look of her own having grown used to the disproving glares of the Senju in a rather short time. She calmly responded, "Maybe you should take your own advice. Kiyomi offered to let you move into another of the apartment buildings that she owned, but you decided to stay here. So, why should we change to accommodate you?"

"You don't act like this when Kurenai is around," Toka pointed out heatedly.

Ino nuzzled her face into Naruto neck as she caused him to shiver while she began to rub his package beneath the table. Giving a look to the Senju that conveyed how she wished for the woman to make herself scarce she said, "That's because she doesn't know, and recently lost people important to her. I'm not going to rub her face in my own happiness."

"But it's okay for you to do so to me?" Toka asked angrily.

Ino shrugged as she began to nibble on his earlobe while replying, "Your situation is different. You are miserable and insist everyone be equally as miserable as you. That is why you refuse to move out. You want to force us all to comply with your ideas of how we should conduct ourselves. I'm simply not going to play along."

"So instead you decide to act like a whore, and prostrate yourself before this man who barely values you since he's taken so many lovers and all because you lack the self-esteem to stand on your own," Toka said bitterly as another of the new generation of kunoichi seemed to think so little of her. She sat back in surprise as for the first time Ino's gaze grew fiery as she locked eyes with the Senju.

That heat bled into her voice as Ino leaned forward and pointed her finger at Toka as she said, "Look here lady! This is our house, not yours. And you better get used to the idea because sooner or later we're not going to need to hide our feelings for Naruto." Before Toka and Naruto could inquire as to what she meant she said, "Eventually Kurenai will move out, or..." She let a lustful smirk appear on her face as she let the Senju's imagination supply what the other outcome could be, "When that happens you can be as unhappy as you want and pout in the corner, but we're going to act like the family that we are." Ino looked back as she felt Naruto's hand on her shoulder as it reeled her back a little since she had begun to lean further and further over the table to get in Toka's face. She sat back against her lover and smiled up at him contently as she added softly, "Oh, and just so you know. He values me plenty. Thanks to his love and encouragement, I went from an underfed and weak kunoichi to the head of my clan. It is because we are so secure in who we are, that I and his other lovers are willing to share him. If it's a lifestyle that's not for you then fine. But in my opinion, people like you, who protest so loudly how others live their lives do so simply out of jealousy or out of a strange belief that people finding happiness in a way other than how they believe it should be found somehow robs them of their own. If that's the case, can you truly claim to be happy with your choices in the first place?"

Ino stood and offered her hand to her lover as Toka couldn't think of a rejoinder to the Yamanaka's point. "Lover, let's give her what she wants and let her stew here alone. Now that you've eaten it's my turn for breakfast, and I don't think she's going to appreciate how I go about getting it."

Naruto accepted the hand and sent the Senju a slightly apologetic look before Hirashining them both away. Despite getting what she had initially asked for, Toka couldn't help feeling as if the silence that had descended over the room was mocking her as she recalled the many times she had entered it before to find it filled with laughter and joy.

*****

Toka knelt behind Mito inside the meeting room of the Wasabi family's head. A week had passed since Ino had put her in her place verbally. But despite that, Toka had not exactly given up on her point of view and more to the point had grown furious at being made to question her long held beliefs. Ultimately arming herself with the mantra that the kunoichi of the current era had no idea of what she had needed to endure, she had decided to take that anger out on what she viewed as the source of her current frustrations, Naruto.

She sent an uncomfortable glance at the jinchuriki in question, who upon sensing it looked her way to give her a reassuring smile. Toka felt a fresh wave of revulsion at herself for how she had gone about trying to punish him for her own shortcomings. After he had emerged from his room leaving behind what she suspected was a rather satisfied Ino. Toka had approached him with the offer of training him in how to break a genjutsu. She had felt guilty at how he had happily and perhaps gullibly, in light of what had happened that morning, leapt at the offer of new training. Still, Toka had wanted to put the blonde kunoichi in her place for what she had said and due to her anger felt the best way to do so was to get Naruto to doubt the Yamanaka's feelings for him.

She had reasoned that due to how she intended to train him, if things were as happy between them as Ino was leading her to believe then Naruto would have no problem dispelling the genjutsu that she had in store for him. She didn't let the small detail that the method she was going to prescribe had been rejected by her peers in the field as unnecessary and overly risky due to the current countermeasures that had existed at the time. Naturally, Toka believed it was also due to it being a method that was being suggested by a woman. Toka would shortly learn that while that could have been the case, she was little prepared for what had happened when Naruto had reacted.

Recalling the memory, the current room faded away to be replaced by the dojo located in the Hidden Eddy Inn. Naruto had been kneeling in front of her and interrupted her explanation of genjutsu to ask, "Shouldn't we be conducting this training in one of the fields?"

Toka sighed as she responded, "Haven't you been listening? Genjutsu is a battle that takes place in the mind. It's a technique where you might think you're running and jumping about, but in actuality you're physical form is motionless. What makes genjutsu effective is twofold. The first is that while a person is motionless somebody can come along to finish him off. The second is when a powerful genjutsu inflicts a mortal wound and the mind accepts it as reality. This causes it to shut down, and in some cases the person can even die."

"Right," Naruto said and then his face grew confused for a moment prompting her to ask what was bothering him. Naruto explained, "Um...well talking about this subject caused me to remember when Itachi placed me in one back when Team Kakashi rescued Gaara from Akatsuki. Before we faced him Granny Chiyo explained that one tactic to counter genjutsu was for someone to remain in the rear to cancel it and to attack the castor from behind should the opportunity appear."

"Yes," Toka nodded as she said, "That was a technique originally developed by the Senju as a result of our many battles with the Uchiha. It is a reason while their ocular jutsu are impressive, the most feared practitioners were those capable of using genjutsu via sound. Those shinobi are able to ensnare multiple people at once without exposing themselves to similar counterattacks. Luckily, those capable of doing so are rather rare." Toka wasn't sure why the smile that appeared on Naruto's face annoyed her, but imagined it was tied to a woman bound to him. Pushing on she stated, "But that wasn't a question?"

"No," Naruto admitted as he reached for his stomach as he said, "I just recalled that the genjutsu Itachi used felt so real. There were these shuriken that he stabbed me with and I felt like I had really been stabbed. But, when Kiyomi was sealed inside me and we... well when I interacted with Kiyomi everything seemed muted. I guess I just wondered why."

"That is likely due to the fact that whoever designed your seal wanted pain and other sensations to be lessened. Likely it was as a defense against your being killed while in the seal," Toka explained. "Your mind wouldn't register an attack in the seal with the same response as it would a pure genjutsu."

Naruto nodded as he mumbled something more to himself but she thought it sounded like, "Guess that explains why I couldn't cum." He quickly realized he said that allowed, so hoped to change the subject as she said, "Still, the First Hokage was able to go toe to toe against Madara right. So you probably showed him how to counter all kinds of genjutsu."

Toka again felt a flash of guilt as Naruto praised her, but squashed it down as she said, "No, Hashirama was horribly weak against genjutsu. As much like you, he had had far too much chakra to suppress it as much as was needed to end a genjutsu. Luckily, Madara was an arrogant bastard and didn't wish to triumph over his rival through ocular trickery. He reserved such things against those he considered to be lesser opponents and a waste of his time. It may also be because Madara was a chakra powerhouse as well, and was only able to break a genjutsu as a result of his Sharingan."

"Oh," Naruto said a little crestfallen since his chakra training exercises likely wouldn't give him the results he had been hoping for in regards to genjutsu.

"Still, there was an avenue that may be open to you that most people have never explored," Toka said baiting her trap, while offering to help. As she expected Naruto appeared quite eager to learn it. Explaining a theory that she developed, but had been rejected by her peers she said, "Shinobi tend to be those that rely on tried and true methods rather than experimenting. As such the methods for dealing with genjutsu users have remained the same as you earlier described for centuries. I however began to prescribe to a different belief on how to deal with a genjutsu, but most people quickly came to reject it."

"Why," Naruto asked.

Toka wanted to suggest that it was because she was a woman, but felt that was only a partial truth as her theory had never been proven. Plus, for what she had in store for the jinchuriki, she wanted to explain it in a way that she could claim he knew what he was getting into. "Well, what most people likely don't realize is that when a person casts a genjutsu it is in essence a contest of wills between the people locked in it. Naturally, the castor as the person supplying the chakra for the jutsu has the advantage. They also do so because rather than engaging in the contest of wills, the person under its influence is doing everything in their power to escape it. Just as they have been trained to do for centuries. Now, let's suppose that rather than trying to escape the person trapped in the genjutsu decides to engage."

"How? Not to sound rude, but when Itachi ensnared me it didn't feel like there was anything I could do to affect what I was seeing."

"That my point," Toka said quickly. "You had already conceded victory to him. He likely further kept you off balance by using your own fears and doubts against you." Naruto nodded as he recalled Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi appearing from his body as they leveled charges against him made up of his doubts. "Now what if I told you that Genjutsu might not be the one-way street that it appears?"

"Huh," Naruto said confused as he tilted his head and squinted trying to figure out what the Senju meant.

"What I mean, is that in order for a genjutsu to remain active a shinobi needs to keep a link between himself and the person he ensnared. For example, a person that uses sound would need to continue to play in order to affect the genjutsu they cast. This is why they tend to focus on genjutsu that immobilize their opponents. It allows them to strike quickly while lessoning the chance of their positions being discovered. But if they continue to make the sound the effect will become more fluid and involved. The one you described was such as this. This means that while this Itachi was controlling what you saw, there was an opportunity for you to turn it around on him. In order to do this though, you would need to introduce doubts into his belief of the control he is exerting over the illusion."

"But to what end," Naruto asked finding the theory a little hard to swallow.

"Well to the same ends as what a person hopes to achieve when they completely stop their chakra when they caught in a genjutsu, severing the link which is affecting them. Except this time it would be the person casting the genjutsu who does it." Advertisements

"Has anyone managed it before?"

"No, but like I said, shinobi are unwilling to deviate from things they know work while in the heat of battle." Toka didn't exactly sound convinced but hoping to persuade him fired a shot at his pride, "Plus, it would require the person trapped in the genjutsu to have a strong will in order to overpower the castor's. Not a lot of people are willing to be confronted with what another perceives as their weaknesses for purposes of training. Are you man enough?"

Toka almost wanted to smirk as Naruto's chest puffed out predictably. But the moment faded as he said more contemplatively, "I guess we'll find out. But if it'll help me be less of a burden to my team and family then I'm game."

The Senju almost backed down, but her anger from that morning and the temptation to finally test her theory proved too much. Preparing to cast her genjutsu she said, "Then prepare yourself. I'm not going to take it easy on you."

*****************************