Chapter 7.2- One thousand Hands

“For the second task, we have a new game to play. This one involving all fourteen teams in plain view of you, the viewing audience. It’s called King of the flags. As you can see, there are two hills and two flags in the play field. Your task is simple. Every team is to work on their own to complete one of two objectives- Either take the hill or take the flag. Taking the hill means having the only people on the peak of the hill be members of one’s team. For every 30 seconds that a team holds the hill, they get twenty points. If the hill is in contention, meaning that the people on the hill are members of more than one team, then the points are shared between the teams equally. As for the flags, the rule involving the flags is simple. Taking the flag means having possession of the flag at the end of the stage. Each flag is worth 200 points. The top five teams at the end will move on to the final stage of this exhibition.” He said, going on a long spell that I tried my best to keep track of. It reminded me of two games from my past, and it also told me that Grandmother Mito had more of a role in designing these than she let on.

I’d told her about King of the Hill and Capture the Flag before. In fact, it was a game she enjoyed playing with me- with figurines of course- we had these cool puppets powered by fuinjutsu that could move in all sorts of ways. I guess designing this test like this was supposed to give me some sort of advantage.

“Just to clarify, the flags are not to be removed from their poles, and they must not be hidden at all during the task. Does everyone understand the rules?” He didn’t wait for an answer.

“Good. You have three minutes to strategise among yourselves.” Jiraiya finally said, and shut off the feed from his mic. The crowd’s buzzing gnawed at me as they chattered about the undoubtedly exciting task to themselves.

I turned to both Uzume and Toshiro and began to make signs at them.

‘Focus on the flags?’ I asked first.

‘Negative. That’s what most of them will be thinking as well. Having to keep it openly displayed means we’d sooner end up in a situation like whoever gets the Hill, without the benefit of the high ground’ Uzume replied, signing furiously.

I thought over her words and nodded. It had one advantage over the hill; mobility. But at the end of the day, we’d have to fight off everyone who wasn’t going to scrap over the hills. I tried to come up with a plan, but literally the only other option was scrapping it for the top of the Hill. I knew that was the option Uzume preferred. Both because she was that type of person, and she literally just signed it at us.

‘We’d have to fight at least half the people here by ourselves. And we have to make sure they don’t stay on the hill in any large numbers because splitting those points would be terrible.’ I signed back. She wanted to sign something back before Toshiro stepped between us. Uzume was no longer antagonistic with me- not as much as she used to be, but we were still far from friends. Teammates maybe, but not friends.

‘I have an idea’ His fingers said for him.

‘How long will it take you to make a barrier that rejects outsiders. How long can you keep it up for?’ Both questions were addressed to me.

‘Since I already know the script for a really good one, it’ll probably take about three minutes with clones. And as for keeping it up, I can go for hours if it isn’t being assaulted. Under heavy assault, maybe 30 minutes but I’d be dead on my feet afterwards.’ I said to him. Being a quarter Senju and a quarter Uzumaki meant I had chakra reserves that put some Jounin to shame. I wasn’t Naruto, by any means. At about six shadow clones, I was tapped out. But I wasn’t lacking when it came to reserves.

‘Good. My idea is this. Uzume and I buy you the time to make the barrier and once you can get it up, we chill at the top of the hill.’ He signed. It was a good idea, I thought. Better than whatever I had. I signed that to both of them, and Uzume signed her willingness soon after. She’d get to fight to her heart’s content, so it probably soothed the battle lust in her Uchiha blood. I slapped myself at that thought. I was slipping up more and more. The more time I spent in the clan compound, reading scrolls from previous clan heads, and talking to Granduncle, the more anti-Uchiha propaganda was shoved down my throat. It was a subtle and insidious thing. Like how Senju Benimaru, the seventeenth clan head had written that Uchiha had a natural lust for battle- ignoring that we Senju enjoyed fighting just as much as they did. We started half the conflict between our clans, after all. He even ignored Senju Kenpachi who loved to fight so much that he came close to ending the entire Uchiha Clan, but allowed the survivors to leave simply because he wanted them to get stronger and present him with a good fight.

My thoughts were knocked out of my head, as someone walked towards us. Izuku. He had both his teammates behind him. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

“I saw your plan. We want in.” He said. He wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to Toshiro. And my ever affable teammate turned to him with a sharp smile on his face- “Fuck off” I choked. I actually choked on air and had to bend over. I missed the next part of the interaction.

“We could just as easily ruin the entire plan if we wanted to. Let us in. Besides, if you want to cover Mr. Seal Master over there, then the two of you won’t be enough” he said.

“Hold on, how did you even know our plan?” I cut in before Toshiro could reply.

He flashed his sharingan for a second, and I almost facepalmed. Of course.

“The point is, we want in. We have the numbers to help you make this thing work” He said, still talking to Toshiro.

“Fine. But you’ll do precisely as I say.”

“Sure thing, Captain” He said with a sincere smile on his face.

“Now that I’m in on this, I say you should probably stop assuming you’re the only ones who speak Anbu code. I saw Uraume peeking at you guys earlier with her eyes, and Shikahime’s gaze hasn’t left your team since you started your little strategising session” He said.

I wanted to sink into the floor, embarrassed at making such a rookie mistake. I’d defaulted to standard operations protocol for missions, not computing that we were surrounded by Konoha nin here. If anyone spoke the code in our year group, then Shikahime, Izuku, and Uraume, would be my first guesses outside of my team.

“Do you think they’ll come for us?” I asked him.

“Only a fool would try to fight both you and Uzume-chan working together. They’ll probably work around you guys. But if they get the chance I doubt they’d hesitate.” I nodded at his words.

“Good. Now, let’s complete the plan” He said, switching over to English. I smiled at the confused faces around us. Teaching the language to Izuku so we could plan pranks and pretending that I’d come up with it was reaping dividends even now.

A/N; here’s this part for ya. Something to cut your teeth on, ey?