Smoke and Mirrors -- A Naruto Fanfiction

Welcome back to the Smoke and Mirrors AU.

Hanae Yanmaru was the weakest in the Clan. She knew that, and everyone else did too. Her eyes were dull, and unfocused, as she crouched behind a tree. Her team was with her, all of Team Mei.

Mei, herself, and Izumi. Asahiro was still off duty, training by himself further into the forest. No one really knew what he was up to, but there were loud explosions going off in his direction. Odd, charred smells. Hanae wondered cynically if that’s what Seigo had smelled last.

Asahiro, before leaving, had briefly discussed what happened. Those damned Uchiha. Their impossible Fire-style Ninjutsu. Flames the size of their entire house, he had said. Hanae didn’t want to believe it. Couldn’t believe it.

Mei touched her shoulder gently, indicating it was time to move to the next border point. There were fifty total stops along the entire stretch of the Clan’s border. This was the fourty-third. Hanae had taken great comfort in counting them as they patrolled.

Seigo used to call her weird for it. She counted a lot of things; numbers brought her comfort. They were the only thing that really made sense to her. Ninjutsu was somewhat easy to understand, being similar. One plus one always equaled two. One plus one, with an end modifier of…

She frowned as she stepped on a twig. Mei glanced back, flashing a few single-hand signs at her. Hattori had forced them to learn a basic sign language, to converse without speaking. He said that it would be important. So far, that wasn’t really true. It was still something to focus on, something besides Seigo.

They stopped at the fourty-fourth border point, and waited in silence for half a minute. The fourty-fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and fiftieth points all passed in much the same manner. The journey back to their compound was done in silence, as was typical.

They would only speak when in the comfort of their compound. She remembered the diner, when Hattori had eavesdropped on the Shinja Clan. He had taken the man’s words to heart, what little he had overheard from them while they ate.

He told them frequently that the walls have ears. The compound was in sight now – and for the first time in a long time, Asahiro was standing in the center with a peculiar look on his face. Team Mei raced to meet him.

Mei, of course, reached him much faster than the rest. The rest of the team were less than a second behind. “Asahiro! You’re back. I thought you were still training?”

“I believe I’ve finally reached what Hattori qualifies as low-Jonin. Besides, that’s unimportant.” Mei frowned at that. Asahiro is almost as strong as me now? What the hell kind of training has he been doing?

“What’s more important than that? Another Jonin-ranked fighter for the Clan is massive.”

“Title means nothing; It’s not much larger of a boost than yesterday, or the day before. Growth is gradual.”

Mei rolled her eyes. “The news, Asahiro. What’s more important?”

Asahiro let a small smile loose. “I’ve figured out a new Fire-style Ninjutsu. I’ve been practicing it since… since before I returned from my last mission. It’s the same one that Uchiha used. The Gokakyu no Jutsu.”

Mei’s jaw dropped a little. “How’d you manage that?”

Hanae and the others were silent, looking at eachother with expectant eyes. A new Jutsu meant bigger, better magic to play around with. Hanae was the only one whose thoughts took a different turn. I will roast those fucking Uchiha with their own Ninju-

“Nothing too high-level. I managed to memorize the sequence of handseals the Uchiha had used, since my Bochigan had awakened. Time is slow with it on, you know that right?”

“Yeah. So…”

“Instead of fractions of a second, I had seconds to note down each handseal. After that, I just extrapolated from the Endan no Jutsu scroll. It was a bit complicated, and I’ve figured out something interesting with the Bochigan – not important. I’ll leave that for whenever Hattori and Yuta return.” In Hanae’s opinion, he glossed over the end a bit too quickly.

“Right. Asahiro,” Mei gingerly walked forward to the boy, putting both her hands on his shoulders, and continued. “You’re going to make a scroll, like for the Endan no Jutsu, alright? That way everyone can learn it. But before that,” Hanae swore there was something inhuman in the way she smiled. Demonic, honestly. “You’re going to show us a big fucking fireball.”