Another Boring Uchiha Power Fantasy.

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[Obtained: Chakra Enhanced Strength!]

Name: Mikoto Uchiha

Age: 14

Rank: Special Jonin

Affinity: Lightning Affinity, Fire Affinity, Yin Affinity, Water Affinity, Earth Affinity

Unique: Immense Chakra Reserves, Sharingan (Two Tomoe), Advanced Growth Rate

Skills: Fire Style Mastery, Water Style Mastery, Lightning Style Mastery, Yin Style Mastery, Earth Style Mastery, Shurikenjutsu, Elite Taijutsu (Ninja Art: Bare-Handed Blade Block), Superb Genjutsu, Ninjutsu (Body Flicker, Clone Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu, Amplified Summoning Jutsu), Perfect Chakra Control (Chakra Enhanced Strength), Uchiha Style: Kenjutsu, Stealth, Survival Knowledge, Cooking, Medical Ninjutsu (Mystical Palm, Chakra Scalpel, Poison Extraction Jutsu), Fūinjutsu Mastery (Sealing Jutsu: Release), Pedagogy Mastery, Space-Time Ninjutsu Mastery, Seven Heavens Breathing Method, Musical Talent, Craftsmanship Aptitude, Needle Mastery

Equipment: Kunai, Shuriken, Senbon, Smoke Bomb, Explosive Tags, Poison Gas Bomb, Flash Bomb, Gas/Sleep Bomb, Food Pills x90, Wire Strings, Shark Skin, Giant Folding Fan, Bingo Book, Training Weights, Fūma Shuriken x87, Hero Water x10

The camp for the Ame offensive was built into the ruins of an old monastery, half-buried in the hillside. The walls were stone and still standing, which made it better than most command posts Mikoto had worked out of in the past year. It had a roof. It had a door. It even had a table.

The table was covered in maps. The maps were covered in markers. And around the table stood fourteen shinobi of varying rank and disposition, all of them watching the man at the head of the room.

Orochimaru was not what Mikoto had expected.

She'd heard the name. Everyone had. One of the Third Hokage's students, the genius of his generation, the one whose talents Hiruzen himself called once-in-a-generation. She'd expected someone big and large.

He was slender. Pale. His hair was long and black and straight and his eyes were gold with slit pupils. His voice, when he spoke, was soft and paced.

He was briefing the assembled squad leaders on the offensive. Mikoto stood near the back of the room, listening.

"The Taki Valley," Orochimaru said, his finger tracing a line on the map. His voice was soft, almost pleasant, the way it always was when he was describing something he intended to destroy. "Ame has been funneling supplies through this corridor for three months. Weapons, provisions, equipment, everything their eastern forces need to keep fighting. Too much bulk for individual shinobi to carry over the ridges, so they use wagons along the valley floor. Cut the valley, and their eastern forces starve. They'd be forced to reroute through the mountain passes, which are already ours."

His finger tapped the valley's southern entrance.

"The ridges on either side are too steep for wagons but not for shinobi. Two teams through the ridges, east and west, to take the high ground. One team holds the northern end of the valley to keep reinforcements from pouring in while we work. Two more push through the valley floor itself." He looked up from the map. Those golden eyes moved across the assembled shinobi the way a snake's tongue tasted air. "Questions are welcome now. They won't be later."

They found Mikoto.

"Uchiha Mikoto," he said.

Every head in the room turned.

"You'll be leading one of the genin squads attached to the second assault element. Three genin. You'll receive your roster after the briefing."

"Understood, sir." Mikoto was confused why he pointed her out of everyone.

Was there something special about these genin? Was it another group of heirs like her boys?

The briefing continued. Orochimaru laid out the assault plan. Every approach possibility, every fallback position, every contingency for if the Ame forces responded faster or slower or differently than expected.

…

The genin were waiting outside the command post when the briefing ended.

Three of them. Sitting on the monastery's crumbled steps. Two of them were not sitting quietly.

"I'm saying you can’t become Hokage. You need to be special, talented, have proper decorum to become Hokage." the girl said. She was twelve or thirteen, with pale blue hair cut short and sharp green eyes. She sat with her arms crossed and her chin raised. "You might be a Senju and Tsunade’s brother and the grandson of the First Hokage, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to live up to your lineage. In fact, I think you’ll crash and burn as a total nobody instead."

"And who are you?!" The boy shot back. He was twelve, with short light-brown hair and hazel eyes and blushes on his cheeks that got darker when he was angry, which was right now. A green crystal necklace hung from his neck, catching the grey light. "Your brother's famous. You're not. I bet you didn’t even graduate as top of your class."

"I know you were the worst student in your class."

"No I wasn’t! I was second to last! Ha!"

"Idiot. You don’t even know…" Frustration built in her tone. He actually thought he got her with that stupid line.

"Haha! Haha! I wasn’t worst in my class!"

They were on their feet now. Emi's fists were clenched. Nawaki was making a funny face laughing at her. Between them, a third genin was standing with her hands in-between the two of them.

"Please," Nonō said. She was the youngest, eleven, with shoulder-length light brown hair and round glasses that kept sliding down her nose. Her voice was gentle. "We haven't even met our sensei yet. Can we please not fight before they get here?"

"She can’t even handle being wrong, why would I want to be on a team with someone like this?" Nawaki said.

"He started it by being so stupid." Emi said.

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"To an idiot, of course it wouldn’t make sense!"

"Please," Nonō said again, stepping between them. "Please, please, please."

"Hello."

All three of them turned. Mikoto was standing at the base of the steps, arms folded, Shark Skin on her back, Sharingan spinning slowly. She looked at each of them in turn. Nawaki. Emi. Nonō.

Nawaki's face shifted from anger to awe.

"You're the Red-Eyed Angel!" he said. "My sister told me about you! She said you're the best medical-nin she's ever seen who isn't her!"

"Your sister is very kind." Mikoto said.

"She also said you saved the lives of like hundreds of people! I'm so excited to be on your squad!" He was bouncing on his feet. "I'm Nawaki! I'm going to be Hokage someday!"

"Nice to meet you, Nawaki-kun."

Emi had straightened up but something in her expression had changed when Mikoto appeared. Recognition. She'd heard the name too.

"Katō Emi," she said. "I've heard of you, Mikoto-san. The Red-Eyed Angel." She looked Mikoto up and down. "You're younger than I expected."

"I get that a lot." Mikoto smiled.

"My brother says medical-nin are the most important shinobi on any squad. If you're half as good as the rumors say, I suppose you being my jonin-sensei won't be a complete waste of my time."

"I'll take that as praise, Emi-chan."

Nonō bowed deeply.

"Yakushi Nonō," she said. "It's an honor, Mikoto-sensei. I've heard about you back at the academy. The way you taught so many more medical-nin for Konoha. I..." She hesitated. "I want to learn medical ninjutsu too. More than anything. If you'd be willing to teach me, I'd be very grateful."

Mikoto's expression softened. She looked at Nonō's earnest face, the glasses, the gentle eyes, and saw something familiar.

"I'd be happy to teach you, Nonō. All of you." she said.

Nonō's face lit up.

"Now." Mikoto looked at all three of them. "You two." She pointed at Nawaki and Emi. "You were about to fight just now."

Both of them started talking at once.

"She said-"

"He was-"

"Stop." Mikoto's voice wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. The Sharingan glanced at them both and both genin went quiet. "I don't care who started it. I care that it stops. We're about to walk into a battle where people are going to die. Some of them will be people we know. Some of them will be people standing next to us. The only thing that keeps any of us alive is the person beside us doing their job."

She looked at Nawaki. "If you want to become Hokage, you’ll need to work on improving your bonds with people, Nawaki-kun. Even difficult ones."

She looked at Emi. "Your brother fights to protect the people he cares about. That starts with your own squad."

She looked at both of them.

"You don't have to like each other. You don't have to be friends. But you will work together, you will watch each other's backs, and you will not let your feelings cost someone their life. Is that clear?"

Nawaki's blush deepened. He looked at the ground. "Yes, sensei."

Emi's jaw tightened. She held Mikoto's gaze for a beat longer than the others, testing, and found nothing that gave. "Fine."

"Emi."

"Yes, sensei."

Nonō exhaled. "Thank you, sensei."

Mikoto let the tension hold for one more second. Then she relaxed her posture and her face warmed.

"Good. Now, our squad will be pushing through the Taki Valley alongside other Konoha forces. I'm your squad leader. You follow my orders. If I tell you to fall back, you fall back. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to hide, you hide. You are genin. Your job is to survive, support, and learn. Not to be heroes."

She looked at Nawaki specifically when she said that last part.

"Sensei," Nawaki said. "I can fight. I'm not just some kid."

"I didn’t ask if you can fight. That's not what I'm worried about." She held his eyes. "I'm worried about you fighting when you should be thinking. Bravery without using your brain gets people killed. I've seen it happen. I hope it doesn’t happen to any of you."

Nawaki didn't argue. Something in the way she said it, told him she wasn't just talking.

"We move out at dawn. Please get some sleep. Eat something. Tomorrow is going to be long." Mikoto said.

…

Mikoto found Orochimaru sometime later standing by himself. He was watching the horizon where Rain Country's grey sky met the darker grey of the mountains. His arms were folded inside his sleeves. He looked like a statue that someone had forgotten to put inside a temple.

She hadn't been looking for him. She'd been heading to the supply station when she spotted him and something made her stop. A question she needed to ask.

"Orochimaru-san."

He didn't turn. "Mikoto."

"The genin assigned to my squad. Nawaki Senju and Katō Emi. Those aren’t just regular genin."

"They are."

"Tsunade-sama's younger brother and Dan Katō's younger sister." She paused. "Why are they on my squad?"

He turned his head just enough to look at her from the corner of one gold eye.

"Why do you think?"

"Because I've done this before. I kept the Ino-Shika-Cho heirs alive under my command, and I assume they said good things about me. Command trusts me with high-value genin."

"That's part of it."

"What's the other part?"

"The other part is that Tsunade specifically requested that her brother be placed with you." He turned fully with a smile on his face. "She trusts your medical abilities more than almost anyone else's. If Nawaki is hurt, she wants the best hands in the war nearby. And you, Mikoto, are those hands."

"And Emi?"

"Dan Katō made a similar request. Though he phrased it less as a demand and more as a request." The smile widened by a fraction. "Important people want their loved ones near you. That's a form of power, you know. The kind that comes from trust."

"I don't think of it as power."

"No. You wouldn't." He studied her for a moment. "You’re still too young to know what kind of power I’m referring to."

The wind picked up. Rain was coming.

"Keep those children alive, Mikoto," he said. "Tsunade will be very unhappy if her brother comes home in pieces. And an unhappy Tsunade is something even I prefer to avoid."

"I'll do everything I can."

"I know you will. Which is why they were given to you in the first place." He turned back to the horizon. "Get some rest. Dawn comes early in Ame."

“What about Nonō? Is she related to someone special as well?” Mikoto asked.

“Who?” Orochimaru was temporarily taken aback, then he remembered, oh right, a cell needed three genin. “No. She’s just a regular civilian. Like me, I suppose.” Orochimaru chuckled.

“Thank you.” Mikoto bowed and left. His gaze followed her until she disappeared around the corner of the monastery wall. Then he looked back at the mountains and the darkening sky.

"Interesting…" he said to nobody. “I didn’t consider her a factor on the board, but I suppose I underestimated her significance…”

…

Konoha assembled in the valley below the monastery. Five groups, spread across a kilometer of forest and ridge, each one a collection of squads and support teams organized around their specific objectives. Mikoto's squad fell in alongside forty other shinobi, a mix of chunin, special jonin, and genin squads with their leaders.

Nawaki was vibrating with nervousness and excitement. He kept checking his tool pouch, adjusting his headband, touching the necklace at his throat. He'd slept badly and eaten everything Mikoto had given him from her ration scroll and was ready to prove himself in a way that made her nervous.

Emi was excited in her own way as well. Nothing like Nawaki who couldn’t keep still. She stood apart from the others, arms crossed, watching the forest with eyes that were ambitious rather than anxious.

Nonō stood close to Mikoto. Her hands were clasped in front of her and she was praying.

"Mikoto-sensei, I've never been in a real battle before." Nonō said quietly.

"Stay close to me. Watch what I do. And follow my orders." Mikoto said.

Nonō nodded. Her glasses reflected the grey sky.

The signal came at 0600. A hawk circled twice above the valley, then dove. The shinobi marched.

The forest swallowed them.

They pushed south through the valley floor, moving fast through dense undergrowth that soaked everything it touched. The rain started within minutes, light at first, then steady, then heavy enough that visibility dropped to thirty meters for anyone without a dōjutsu. Mikoto's Sharingan cut through it. She could see the chakra signatures of the people ahead of them and the people on the ridges above. She could see the forest thinning as they approached the valley narrows where intelligence said the first Ame positions would be.

She could see the enemy.

"Enemies!" She called out. "Forty meters. Eight signatures. Dug in on both sides of the trail."

The element leader, a jonin two squads ahead, called the formation.

The first Ame position hit them with a wave of water jutsu that turned the trail into a river. Konoha shinobi scattered. Fire jutsu answered. The forest lit up with clashing elements, water meeting fire in clouds of steam that mixed with the rain and turned the valley into a blinding white haze.

Mikoto grabbed Nawaki's collar before he could charge.

"Not yet." She said in a stern tone.

"But sensei-"

"Not. Yet."

The frontline squads engaged. The sound of combat filled the valley, metal on metal, the crack of explosive tags, the rush of water jutsu and the roar of fire. The eight Ame shinobi in the first position fought hard. They were skilled, dug in, using the terrain and the rain to their advantage. Three of them went down in the first minute. The other five fell back to a secondary position fifty meters south.

Konoha pushed forward.

The second position was harder. More enemies. The fighting intensified. A Konoha chunin took a water bullet to the chest and went down. Then another, caught by a senbon volley from a concealed position in the trees.

"Mikoto-san!" the element leader called. "Wounded! Northwest!"

She was already moving. "Nonō, with me. Nawaki, Emi, hold position. Do not advance."

The wounded chunin was on his back in the mud, water jutsu damage to the chest, fractured ribs pressing against a punctured lung. Mikoto's hands glowed green before she reached him. The Sharingan mapped the damage in a heartbeat. She stabilized the lung, realigned the ribs, sealed the puncture.

"Nonō, pressure here," she said, guiding the girl's hands to the wound.

Nonō's hands trembled but she did as she was ordered.

"Good. Hold it just like that. I'll be right back." Mikoto said.

She moved to the second wounded, the senbon victim. Poison on the needles. The Poison Extraction Jutsu and Healing Jutsu cleared it in ninety seconds.

The fighting pushed south. The Ame positions fell one by one. Konoha ground through the valley like a slow fist, taking ground meter by meter, paying for every step in sweat and blood and chakra and lives.

Mikoto healed throughout the battle. Nawaki fought when the enemy came to them, a C-rank water jutsu most genin wouldn’t be able to perform thanks to the Senju-Uzumaki reserves behind him. Emi stayed back throwing ninja tools and relying on the academy's basic three. Nonō learned medical ninjutsu and how to save people next to Mikoto along with not flinching too hard when an explosive tag detonated twenty meters from their position.

By noon, Konoha had pushed two kilometers into the valley. The Ame forces were pulling back, regrouping, preparing something larger.

Mikoto sat against a tree with her genin around her. All four of them alive. All four of them soaked. Nawaki was grinning through the mud on his face. Emi was pretending she wasn't breathing hard. Nonō was staring at her own hands with an expression of quiet wonder.

"Sensei," Nonō said. "I saved people..."

"You did a good job at following orders. And that’s how lives were saved. Thank you for that.” Mikoto smiled at her.