Chapter 40: Promotion

A rather raucous week and a half with Sachiko followed our victory in the exams. Of course, we didn't just spend time in the bedroom; while it was fun, and decent exercise for a civilian, we still trained a few hours every day to keep our edge. Still, the week was, to pardon the pun, fucking awesome.

Honestly, missing sex when I didn't have the hormonal drive for it, and was further lacking the physical capacity for it, was bad enough. As a teenager, with all the boost to my vitality that chakra gave, and Sachiko's propensity to flirt (or at least her equivalent of flirting), and most painfully her obvious willingness and physical contact… the fact I lasted so long is a testament to the strength of my meditations. After such a long dry-spell, it was great to just take some time off, relax, and try everything with my partner.

Granted, we didn't try everything. But we did try a lot. Sachiko was, if anything, more desperate than I. She was significantly more developed, and had been nursing her particular brand of what I eventually decided to call “semi-fanatical devotion with lustful intent” for several years. We experimented extensively, pushed both of our boundaries, and committed acts which were literally damning on at least three worlds I've since visited. The break was awesome, though I was glad for my regeneration; chafing would have brought things to an end earlier otherwise.

Towards the end of the week, I called back Yasu so we could discuss what type of squad we wanted to be in the future. Previously, we had been an upper level territorial trouble-shooting team. We covered a territory, and were typically fairly independent. We would normally receive mission requests from the local government organizations, or the occasional bulletin from Konohagakure's Intelligence department. We hunted missing nin, or forwarded reports of high level missing nin to Hunter squads. We mostly took on organized crime, the occasional mundane psychopath, some counterintelligence work, corporate espionage, that sort of thing.

The problem was that we weren't really fit to keep doing the same thing. It was a practically a given that we'd all be at least Tokujo by the end of the exams, and we weren't capable of the specialized performance needed.

Take investigations, for example. Before, we would make do with our own skills, and call in a specialist team, perhaps with Inuzuka or Aburame for tracking or forensic analysis, or Yamanaka for interrogation. As a top level territorial squad, we needed to be able to do all that, and more, while covering a larger area. Most areas didn't have top level territorial squads for this reason, and those that did, tended to have squads that were specifically formulated at the genin level to include three specialists, each capable of covering each other’s weaknesses.

As powerful as my team was, we weren't true specialists, and lacked the bloodlines needed to do a truly great job. We'd have been sufficient, at least in time, but it would basically be a dead end for our ninja careers, and a waste of our potential. So we needed something else to talk about with the promotion board, a new specialty to focus on during our training at the jonin academy.

Other potential avenues had their own issues. Combat specialization or being an “Elite” Division Jonin Squad would make us far too well known too soon. Sachiko and Yasu were quite capable of taking on standard jonin in combat. With the Advanced Personal Armor System, or APAS, they were capable of giving even top jonin a challenge. With me backing them up, we were a terror to face.

Which was exactly the issue. We were strong enough that if we became well known for our strength, the enemy would form special units to counter us and take us out. Granted, we likely had more tricks than they'd account for, and the new semi-autonomous command seals built into our air-support gave us a load of back-up, but it was a situation I preferred to avoid. Frankly, those on the level of Madara, or one of the Kages, or their top assassins, were far too likely to be able to kill us regardless. And hostile villages would send such titans to strangle us in our proverbial cradles.

I was a powerhouse, with massive, controlled chakra combined with top level elemental manipulation and sealing unknown outside of the top echelons of the Uzumaki. But I hadn't taken anything into the range of myth and legend, getting by with extra chakra and a bit of cleverness. I couldn't match the First Hokage's forming of a forest with a quick jutsu, the Second's ridiculous control of water, or Madara's ability to genjutsu the fucking Kyubi with a single look. Even Sarutobi's ability to extemporize jutsu and use his control over multiple elements to imitate bloodline techniques was beyond me.

Were their legends exaggerated? Perhaps. I'd never seen these people cut loose, go all out. More worrying though, all the legends likely had abilities they kept in reserve. And the ones I just listed are only the legends of a single village.

I was in no way ready to challenge these monsters. But in my full power, I had no doubt I'd be capable of just as legendary acts, and so I had to take these things seriously. I was close, and could give them pause, but I wasn't up to their level. Not yet. I had no desire to put myself in a position likely to challenge them anytime soon.

What might normally happen at this stage in our careers was that we'd split up, at least some of the time. Again, not really an option; they were my retainers, we were a diplomatic exchange unit with what was now one of the most fearsome militaries in the known world, and most importantly there was no way I was giving up what was mine.

That really limited our options, and other possible tracks weren’t easy either. We were too young and effective at field-work to go into administration or analysis. Much of the research we did or even could do was classified by Uzushiogakure (or, alternatively, by Konohagakure), so that was out. And we had none of the military experience required for the ranks we would fill if we went into the Legion Ninja Auxiliary.

After crossing out most options, and taking into account our political position, there was one specialization we picked out.

Diplomacy.

I know, I know. I was not exactly the most diplomatic of people. My first instinct with Water was to use a WMD (even if I was later proven justified). My actions within Konohagakure included some fairly risky maneuvers when I arrived, and that was with me knowing that we depended on their goodwill for defense. It all worked out in the end, but it was a tad fraught.

As I grew stronger, my penchant for daredevil diplomacy only got worse, not that I had all that many options to use it. Honestly, it got to the point where I realized that it wasn’t just the standard arrogance of the powerful, but partially an effect of my chakra density and volume telling me that I'm in some way grander. I took measures to limit this tendency once I knew about it, of course, but that sort of attitude is rarely desirable in a diplomat.

In all other respects though, becoming part of the Diplomatic Division, itself part of the Strategic Intelligence Corps, was the right move. The Diplomatic Division included three groups within it. The first, and actually the largest, was the Diplomatic Division HQ&Support or the Diplomatic HQS. This consisted mostly of chunin intelligence analysts who collated intelligence from all across Konohagakure's massive information gathering apparatus, and distilled it into something useful. The administration and trainers for the Diplomatic Division also fell into this group, as did a number of advisers for the Hokage. Needless to say, this was not the group we'd be joining.

The next largest group were the Diplomatic Guards. These were typically jonin or tokujo led chunin combat units that were extensively trained in diplomatic protocol and VIP protection. These guys were pretty humorless, and when I met them gave me the strangest impression. It was like someone had taken the British Buckingham guard, and a bunch of ninja, and somehow merged them. Fairly prestigious, they tended to recruit from longstanding veterans, and often selected those from the more upper-class clans who had served with the Legions and had experience dealing was the more difficult lords or samurai. We were, frankly, too high ranking to be part of a Guards unit for anyone below the greatest lords or a Daimyo, but were too young to guard such people. So we wouldn’t be going there.

The group we decided we wanted to join was the Arbitrators; as is so often the nature of such things, they were both the smallest and the most interesting of any group within the Diplomatic Division. The Arbitrators filled a very odd role. In a dispute, one or both parties might hire an arbitration team from Konohagakure. Arbitrators would then fill a neutral role, and help all parties come to an agreement that they could accept.

Arbitrators might also be hired as advisers or even advocates, and it wasn't unheard of for two arbitration teams from the same village to be facing each other over a negotiating table. They would often be used when a merchant house, for example, wanted to negotiate with the local government or some nobles, but lacked sufficient social standing to do so. There was always a vague hint of threat in ninja involvement too which added a certain lubricating frisson to the negotiations. Often things were tense enough by the time Arbitrators were brought in that they had to be on extreme guard, and many assassinations and assaults (both by those in negotiation and third parties) had been prevented by arbitration team members.

Of course, despite our supposed “neutrality”, Arbitrators were still loyal to Konohagakure. So, while trying to maintain an appearance of strict neutrality, they were also responsible for intelligence gathering and secretly shaping any agreements such that they were beneficial to Konohagakure. Arbitrators were allowed a limited authority to make deals for Konohagakure as well; for example, a trade deal might include a guaranteed rate on insurance or ninja guards, or possibly an investment from or sales channel through Konohagakure. Some arbitration contracts strictly forbid the Arbitrators from acting as an interested party; other times, it was one of the services that the clients specifically desired.

When I heard about them, I decided this was the perfect job for us. It was basically what the Jedi in Star-Wars did, except that as ninja we were more like grey Jedi, or Sith pretending to be Jedi. And I meant that to the full extent; travel, adventure, combat, trade, economics, subtle intelligence gathering, even assassination were skills required of a good Arbitrator. It was perfect for us, and would teach me what I needed to be a more effective Lord and Consul.

While the Arbitration job sounded awesome, it was also highly competitive. I had no real worries that my team would get it, though. One of the main reasons I was sure we could get the position was that Arbitrators needed to have a high social rank. Between that and the high performance requirements, the arbitration sub-division was always understrength.

But as a full Lord and Consul of Whirlpool, I had enough rank to represent people in front of a Daimyo, or organize negotiations between rival Daimyo's courts if necessary. Only a handful of Konoha ninja were of similar social rank, and most of them were senior members within the more military or shadowy parts of the hierarchy, since those allowed them more influence and power within the village. There was no way they would have wanted to refuse me the position.

As for access to training and intelligence, it was great. We could take pretty much any training courses we wanted in our downtime, and frequently had long stretches for personal use in between missions. We got access to whatever intelligence was needed for each mission, and had general access to intelligence and analysis on the national and multinational level, which meant that my companies and fiefdom would get the benefits from that too.

It turned out, the examination board agreed with me. I was promoted to jonin, while Sachiko and Yasu each made tokujo, and we were assigned to training starting the next week. The training was a bit odd; partially because the Arbitrators were such a small group, with less than a half dozen jonin squads at any time, we actually had a unique training program and we were typically the only students. Our trainers tended to be Arbitrators taking time off in between missions or analytical experts with a focus on the subject material. This was actually pretty fantastic, since it meant they taught as quickly as we could learn. We had a year set aside for training, and I wanted to get as much as possible out of it.