Ketto no Uzumaki II

Ketto no Namikaze

Prologue Land of Fire

It is past midnight, as clear a night as there ever was in Hagane-toshi (Steel), the capital of Tetsu No Kuni (Land of Iron). The Iron Nation is unique among the Elemental Nations, because unlike all of the other countries on the continent, its primary military force, are not ninja, but samurai. This nation sits at the roof of the world, and is an icy, snow-covered wasteland, the highest peak on the continent, Dragón-kiba-yama, sits among its sister peaks, in the Mitaka Mountains. The only export the nation provides, come from its rich, mining industries, and while some foodstuffs may be grown in certain fertile valleys within the nation, everything else must be imported from other places. Because of that, and because the Samurai of Tetsu are comparable in strength to any shinobi, a synergy has developed between Iron and its neighbors. They will trade the mining materials, namely: weapons-grade steel, for the crops produced in more temperate countries, and to make sure each nation get the goods they needed, the quantity of metal goods would be balanced with the quantity of food. Such were the thoughts of Hayashi Shouhei, as his thought turned from the past, to the present.

This interdependence allows Tetsu No Kuni to adhere to a strict neutrality, which allows them to act as mediators in ninja disputes. Under the leadership of Mifune-Taishō, there has never been any reason to dispute Tetsu's neutrality, until shipments of metal began arriving in Kaen-toshi (Flame), the Capital of Hi No Kuni, lighter than when they left, Steel. The Secretary of Logistics for Fire, Hayashi Shouhei, who knew General Mifune personally, counting the stupendous warrior as one of his good friends, did not believe for a moment that his friend was trying to cheat Fire. Hayashi-sama, however would not have been doing his duty, if he did not try to have the situation investigated, so he sent the request for assistance in a mission to the Leaf.

Konoha sent a contingent of ninja to Hayashi-sama, a single genin team led by the legendary Senju-Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina, Jonin Commander of Konoha Ninja Forces, aka Akai Shi. She wore attire consisting of a standard Konoha flak jacket, over a black short-sleeved shirt, black, form-fitting pants that reached her calves, black kunai pouch, O-katana strapped to her back, red hair in a Kiri-braid along the back, no makeup, and her standard blue forehead-protector, in the traditional place over her brow. Her three genin, two kunoichi, and a shinobi, officially they were known as Team Seven, but were also known as Team Kushina, Mark II, or K2, for short.

The first one to enter, after their sensei, was a fourteen-year-old girl, with black-eyes, an ebonette with free-flowing hair reaching to her waist, kept out of her eyes by a midnight-blue headscarf. Covering her torso was a skin-tight leotard, with only the right-shoulder bare, the same midnight-blue as the headscarf, at her waist was a cream-white mini-skirt, reaching to just above the knee, with slits up both sides. This led to a navy-blue loincloth in the front and rear reaching down to be even with her ankles, and adorning the loincloth in roughly the middle, was the famous Uchiha fan on the front and back, and at the waist, acting as her belt, and the only bit of color in her wardrobe outside of her loincloth, was a crimson hitai-ate. She completed the look, with a set of cream-white wrappings, going from her wrists to just before the elbows, and a pair of midnight-blue, knee-high boots. (A/N: Think Electra from Marvel, but more appropriate for a fourteen-year-old girl) The well-toned, but still feminine muscles in her arms and legs, and the washboard stomach, showed the time and effort she put in her training. She wore the requisite kunai and shuriken pouches, which were visible through the skirt slits, but what seemed to be her weapon of choice, were held at her waist by the belt. A pair of sai.

The second one to enter, another kunoichi, also appeared to be only fourteen-years-old. She is tall for her age, and slender, with olive-skin, black-eyes, and ankle-length white-hair, styled into a herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot gathered into a forest-green barrette, with the kanji for "luck" (幸運, Kōun) written upon it, and four bangs at the front. Two bangs are short, with one covering her right eye, and two long, crossing each other on her substantial, for her age, bust; just below her chin. She wore a strapless, long-sleeved, bronze leopard-pattern dress that fell just below the knees. It seemed to be closed at the front with a zipper, and kept open on the front-right, from the waist down.

The Senju crest, the color of her hair as well, was sewn vertically, on the front-left from the waist down, superimposed over the Ūchiha crest. It reminded the Secretary of a tree in autumn, with the sun shining through the bare branches. Under which, she wears a mesh armour, that covers slightly more of her upper body than her dress, and a skirt in the same colour as her dress, and mesh leggings reaching down over her knees. Around her waist, she wears a belt with a pouch attached to the back on the left, along with high-heeled sandals, shin-guards reaching up over her knees, forest-green nail-polish on her fingers and toes, with grass-green lipstick. She also wore the apron that proclaimed her a medic-nin, and peeking out from behind on her right-side, were a pair of Cho-ken (butterfly-swords), and a crimson hitai-ate around her neck.

The shinobi was also fourteen-years-old, his attire consisted of a tiger-striped, flak-jacket, an orange tiger-striped, long-sleeved shirt, horizontal stripes down the front panel, vertical stripes down the sleeves and backside, and tiger-striped, ANBU-style-trousers, a black utility belt, kunai pouch, strapped to his right thigh, and a senbon pouch on the back right of his utility-belt. Near the top of his flak-jacket on the left-side, about the size of a silver dollar, was a scarlet-red spiral, at the same elevation on the right-side was a sun-yellow cyclone. If the boy were to turn his back, the observer would see another design on the youths back, it looked very much like a yin-yang symbol, with the origin of the spiral a sun-yellow dot, and the center of the cyclone a scarlet-red dot, the same scarlet spiral and yellow cyclone curving in the opposite direction, that was encircled. It is the combination of the Uzumaki/Namikaze crests. He wore, a crimson forehead protector threaded through loops of a tiger-striped, boonie hat, sunshine, blonde-hair peeked-out below the brim of the hat, over slightly pointed ears, and two-pairs of three whisker-marks as well as a set of piercing violet-eyes. He wore a pair of black, flexible combat boots, and a pair of twin swords, both sheathed at his back, outboard and parallel to his spine, making room for a full quiver of arrows. The swords were shaped in such a way that the hilts of the blades, seemed to curve away from the quiver, and held in his left-hand was a recurve bow. His violet-foxish eyes narrowed as he returned the scrutiny Hayashi-sama was giving him.

They all bowed to their client in greeting, who returned it politely, "Welcome to Kaen, ninja-sans," he began and then continued, "my name is Secretary of Logistics for Hi No Kuni, Hayashi Shouhei, and thank your Hokage for responding to my request."

"You're very welcome, Your Excellency," the ginger kunoichi responded, "I'm Jonin Commander of Ninja Forces for Konohagakure no Sato, Senju-Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina, and I'll be sure to give your gratitude to Hokage-sama, when we return to the Village."

"Pleased to meet you, Senju-Uzumaki-Namikaze-san, and I must say, your reputation precedes you," Hayashi-sama said with a pleasant grin, then shifting his eyes to the younger ninja in the room, asked, "will you please introduce your genin?"

"For the sake of expediency, all three of my surnames are interchangeable, or you may call me, SUN Kushina, if you wish," then she turned to her students. The genin had lined up from left to right, and the jonin, placing a hand on the ebonette kunoichi's shoulder, introduced, "this is Uchiha Sakura, Clan Heir to the nearly extinct Uchiha clan," then indicating the white-haired kunoichi, "this is Senju Yoshiko, Clan Heir of the Senju clan," then smiling with pride, pointed to the lone shinobi of the team, "and that one is my musuko, Senju-Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, Clan Heir to the Uzumaki in Konoha, and Namikaze Clans. As with me, his surnames are also interchangeable, and may also be addressed as SUN Naruto." All three genin bowed as they were introduced, though the shinobi had a slight blush in his face for his mother's tone of voice.

Hayashi returned the bow from his seat as before, "greetings genin, now I suppose I should give you a more thorough briefing on why I needed the services of the Leaf."

"Yes, Hayashi-sama, that would be ideal," Kushina agreed, "the Hokage gave us a few details, about shipments of metal from Tetsu No Kuni that have turned up missing."

"In actuality, all of the shipments arrive on schedule," Hayashi corrected, "but it seems, that not all of the shipment of some of the caravans arrive at all. As far as my own investigation has uncovered, it began about a year-ago. The shipments leave the Land of Iron weighing a certain amount, but somehow, along the way part of the cargo seems to just vanish."

"I take it, Hayashi-sama, you don't believe it just got up and walked off," Yoshiko surmised, "you believe it was aided in its disappearance?"

"Quite," the Secretary confirmed.

"How do you know how much it weighs before it leaves, Tetsu," Sakura asked?

"When a shipment is loaded while in Iron," Hayashi began, "every pallet is weighed separately, then the weight of the truck is calculated, even the weight of the driver is assessed. After that everything is loaded onto the truck and weighed again, to be sure the totals match. If the totals are off, by even 5 grams, everything is unloaded and weighed again, to find the reason for the discrepancy. Then the weigh-bill is placed in a sealed box and given to the head of the caravan, its as much as his life is worth if he arrives here with even a scratch on the box. Only three people along the route, know how to open the box: the shipping managers on both ends of the route, the weigh station managers, but only the manager, along one of the three routes we've chosen at random, know how to open the box, not even the customs agent, knows how to open the box. Yami-sama," their client swore in vehemence, "He doesn't even know there is a box!"

"You mentioned that there are three routes," Naruto asked?

"Correct, but they're chosen completely at random," Hayashi confirmed, then added, "it's impossible to predict which route will be chosen, because it's not done by conscious choice."

"How do you mean, Hayashi-sama," Kushina asked?

"We use I-Ching divination to decide which route we choose," Hayashi explained, "there are three routes, therefore we use a system that allows for three choices. A solid line – means we take that route, a broken line - - means we don't."

"What if you get qián or kūn, Hayashi-sama," Naruto wondered?

"Three solid lines entail dividing the caravan along the three routes, and three boxes are given to the leader of each caravan," Hayashi answered, "three broken lines result in the cancellation of the entire order and taking the loss. Of course, it also means we cancel the order of foodstuffs going back as part of our treaty agreement with Tetsu No Kuni," Hayashi added in a rough voice, "which is why, other than personal feelings, I don't believe for a moment the fraud is originating from Iron. The metal is important to our nation, but it is hardly vital," the Logistics Secretary told them, "we have our own mines in the Kasai Mountains after all, the reverse is not true for Iron. If they lose our food shipments, that's a sixth of their total required food needed to keep their population alive, and happy. Mifune-Taisho could never allow his people to suffer like that, he couldn't afford it and it would go against everything he believes in, to him, his people are more important than anything."

"You mentioned you only have one customs agent," Yoshiko asked, "where does he fit into the operation?"

"He inspects the cargo to insure that no contraband has been added," Shouhei told them, then realization dawned, "wait you don't think…"

"We don't think anything, Hayashi-sama," Kushina interrupted, "but it's as good a place to start as any."

Kawaguchi Ken was an average looking man, with mud-colored hair and eyes, a weak chin, whose shoulders seemed to be in a perpetual slump. At thirty, he had been a well-respected customs agent for Hinokuni for five-years now, never taking so much as a bribe, before eighteen months ago, always content with his wage, he was. Which was why he was placed in charge of the shipments from the Land of Iron. These shipments, while not economically vital to Fire, were an essential part of what kept peace within Yōso No Kuni (Element Nations). For six-months he discharged his duties faithfully, and without duplicity. Cargo of weapons-grade steel arrived in Kaen every month, and he would be in charge of ensuring that only the cargo designated in the bill of transport was present in the trucks. He was not looking for contraband, or illicit goods, the only thing that should have been present were the ingots of metal from Iron.

Then last year, he met Kyōi Josei, his girlfriend, the reason he decided to betray his country. Never in his wildest fantasies did he ever believe he could ever attract a woman so beautiful. Ebony-hair, midnight-blue eyes, the face of an angel, a voluptuous body, and only slightly taller than him. They met at a department social function, she was introduced to Ken by a mutual - much lamented - business acquaintance. How that little troll got such a lovely woman to be with him in the first place, Ken could only wonder about. Ken did not so much as meet her, as rescue her from his clutches. Josei refused to go into details, but apparently that ugly dwarf helped her out of some financial trouble, which now that Ken thought about it, would be the only way that man – and Ken used the term loosely – could even talk to a woman of his Angel's calibur. Freeing Josei from his clutches proved more difficult than Ken thought it would, for the debt she had accrued under him was quite substantial, and his tenshi, being an honorable, proud woman, insisted on paying her debt to him in full, before she could allow herself to be completely Ken's for life.

Ken, even by tapping into his own life savings was only able to pay off half of Josei's debt to that vile man. So, Ken worked out a deal with the imp, if Ken paid off half her debt to him, he would reroute a piece of the shipment from Tetsu, to the wicked man's coffers. The price for such high quality steel, would bankrupt even that man's bank accounts, or embellish them even more, if he could find the right buyer for such goods. They agreed, that regardless of Josei's debt, Ken would provide the steel in varying quantities to Gato of Gato Trading, for eighteen-months, which would pay him back in spades. At the end of which, Gato would acknowledge Josei's debts to be paid in full.

It has been almost a full year since Ken made that deal, and he has been living in bliss with his Angel all that time. He never took more from the shipments, than a pallet or two. Ken was smart about it, or so he thought. He waited until the shipments arrived in Kaen, in the customs warehouse, the section designated solely for the metal from Iron, which he was in-charge of, then he would conduct his inspection. Which entailed moving every pallet in and out of the trucks, and sometimes 'forgetting' to put them all back from where he took them. At the end of the day, or the next, Ken, after finishing his paperwork would move the pallets to an obscure warehouse, rented by Ken under a shell company he set up, and that was how they conducted their caper. Not even his tenshi knows where the warehouse is located, just in case the troll tries to intimidate the location out of her. Ken has not delivered even an ingot to Gato, but has been hording the metal in that warehouse, and would deliver his end of the deal, only when the eighteen months were up, this was to insure that vile worm, would not double-cross him, or his Angel. Ken really did not see the harm, he silenced his conscience with, so, a little bit of the foodstuffs sent to Iron would be removed, its not like anybody would go hungry, and they would not miss what they were not expecting.

What Ken did not realize; the weight was calculated to be exactly equal to the shipments being sent to the other nations. This was essential to prevent Iron's neutrality from being called into question, which was essential for maintaining their credibility. This is the reason for the weigh-bill, which tells each client-nation how much of their product was released. This has a similar function to the chunin exams, it maintains the balance of power for the Elements. Kawaguchi knew each shipment was weighed twice; once in Iron and once at the weigh stations held along each route the shipments took. What he did not know about was the third time the shipment was weighed, upon arrival in Kaen. Where the weigh-bill was reviewed to know how much food should be sent to Tetsu No Kuni, which was how Secretary of Logistics for Hinokuni, Hayashi Shouhei learnt of the discrepancy, and caused him to reach out to the Leaf.

After the more thorough briefing given to them by Hayashi-san, Team Seven began their mission by surveilling their number one suspect, Kawaguchi Ken, the Customs Agent. They began, by pouring over his official personnel file, provided to us by the Secretary. To be fair and to prevent their subconscious, and unwarranted bias, they went over everybody's file, everyone who was even remotely involved with the shipment in anyway; even Hayashi-san's file. It wouldn't have been the first time a politician lined his own pockets, putting on the mask of benevolence, and hiring ninja to investigate their own scheme. They are usually so arrogant, and so taken with their own cleverness, they come to believe their scheme is so foolproof that nobody will be able to crack it.

Kawaguchi Ken was born in the city of Otafuki-Gai, his father died when he was young, and he lived quietly with his mother, Kawaguchi-Yukimura Miki. His childhood was unremarkable. He attended school regularly, never got into any more trouble than most children his age. He graduated near the top of his class in high school, not remarkably intelligent, but fairly studious and hardworking. He had little to no liaisons with the opposite gender, until he was in his late twenties, not from disinterest on his part however, the ladies just didn't seem interested in him. Recruited into the ranks of the Customs Corps in his early to mid-twenties, he quickly gained a reputation for extreme meticulation towards procedure, and imperviousness toward bribery attempts, which show a character with a well-defined, if naïve sense of right and wrong.

It was Kawaguchi's naivete which led to his downfall. After thoroughly vetting, and discarding all other suspects, Team Seven concluded Customs Corps Agent, Kawaguchi Ken was the most likely culprit in the theft of the metal shipments.

Team Seven began surveilling and following Kawaguchi-san, as he went about his business. They followed him to and from work everyday for three weeks, with Naruto using his Fox/Shigaisengan-enhanced senses and newly discovered sensory ability, they never lost track of Kawaguchi at any time during that period. Team K2 learned that between shipments, Ken-san had no problems aiding his fellow Corpsmen in their work, helped train new recruits – we managed to embed Sakura and Yoshiko under a henge – and drilled the inspection of customs procedures into them almost fanatically. Ken's coworkers admired his integrity and held him up as a standard for doing their job. In the week leading up to a scheduled delivery to his warehouse however, he seemed to grow quieter, and more subdued, as if he was aware of his own hypocrisy. How could you harangue others about following procedure and be lauded for honesty, when, regardless of the purpose, you were guilty of theft and betraying your own ethics

The day the shipment arrived, Ken, sequestered himself in his Fire Nation customs warehouse. He was as meticulous as his reputation said he was, going through every pallet with a fine-toothed comb, testing every ingot as procedure dictated. Then, when Kawaguchi was done, he placed all of the pallets back on the truck, before closing and securing the truck and placing the customs [APPROVED] seal to insure no tampering. He seemed to have missed one of the pallets of ingots, which was sitting atop a section of floor which was different than the rest. Ken walked over to the door but along the way pressed his foot on something, causing an old freight elevator to activate and descend into the floor. What Kawaguchi failed to notice the entire time he was working, was the presence of two cockroaches scuttling onto the wooden pallet and getting ready for a ride. The cockroaches weren't born cockroaches, they were human… or clones of two humans, getting ready to go for a ride.

After his inspection and subsequent betrayal of Fire Nation, Kawaguchi-san left for the day and went home. Ken-san had no sooner walked into his home, when he heard his live-in girlfriend, a Kyōi Josei-san, screaming and crying. He rushed into his parlor to find her kneeling on the floor with a knife at her throat. It was two of Gato's thugs, both had katana strapped to their sides; one was shirtless, one wore a hoodie; they were grinning evilly at the Customs Agent, who was staring at them in shock. From all appearances, Kyōi-san appeared to have been ravaged, her blouse and bra appeared to have been ripped open, exposing her breasts. There were tear tracks etched into her face, and she had the appearance of physical abuse.

"What's going on here," Ken asked, "I thought we had a deal?"

The two thugs laughed, "Oh, ya do have a deal, wit de boss," one of them answered, "but we couldn' miss de chance for one mo ride, down de rabbit hole, could we?"

One of them ran his hand sensuously down Kyōi's cheek, who turned her head away in repugnance, then he swiftly grabbed her pale breast, and began squeezing it harshly. As he was doing this the other thug – Ken never knew their names – turned his head in Kawaguchi's direction, and leered, "maybe you didn' know dis, but Kyōi had a funny nickname amongst us guys, she was de gang's Tension Relief." Kawaguchi looked from the two thugs to his Josei, and felt rage welling up inside him, at what the name implied, "bet dat just blows a hole in your fantasy doesn' it, Ken-chan? Didja really think, Josei-chan was jist a natchural talent," the thug continued, "everyt'ing she's ever done fer you, she learned from one of us."

"So, we got to t'inkin'," the first thug mused, "we don't wanna be losing one o' de perks of workin' for da boss," he said while moving over to stand between Kawaguchi and the scene behind the thug, "so me and de boys figgerd dat since you hadn' delivered your end yet, ya musta hidden de loot sum'ers else, and since ya seemed teh have taken a liking to de gang's tension relief ova here, we could get boss de loot he wanted and still keep the gangs spirit groupie."

"If you harm as much as a hair on her head," Ken spat, while pulling out his own blade and setting it at his throat, "I'll kill myself, and your boss will get nothing. How do you think he'll repay you after expending so much effort, only to have his plans foiled because his own men couldn't keep their libidos in check?"

"Ken-kun, no," Josei-san screamed, "don't do this, I'm not worth losing your life over," she beseeched him, "let them have me, I'm damaged goods anyway."

Kawaguchi looked at the woman, taking in her features, black almost blue hair, a buxom yet athletic figure, aristocratic facial features. "But, you are worth it, my tenshi-koi, you see, I was never going to survive very long, after this whole thing was over," he told her, "as soon as I was able to conclude our business with that evil, little imp, and ensured that you had a stable future, I was going to turn myself in, and confess everything. Why do you think, I refused to send him the metal, until I could accumulate all eighteen months' worth of product," Ken asked rhetorically, "I knew that sooner or later Gato, or somebody in his pathetic organization, would try to stab us in the back? So, take your hands off her, or your Boss gets nothing!" The thugs raised their hands away from Kyōi-san, "LEAVE, and if I see anymore of Gato's people until it's time for the exchange, I will go straight to my boss, and confess my wrong-doings, then your boss gets nothing!"

Later that night, after both of them had calmed down, and Ken had been suitably rewarded for his gallantry, the couple left their home and began to walk around town. They were arm-in-arm and appeared to be just wandering around town, enjoying a date. They moved further away from where they lived and into more industrialized neighborhoods. Once they reached the warehouse district, which included government owned installations, they stopped hiding their purpose for coming here. Ken began walking directly to his warehouse, never thinking that he was being followed.

They came to a dilapidated structure, that looked more like an old school building than a warehouse. The couple entered the building and walked through the halls, and it was indeed in times past, a schoolhouse. Kawaguchi and Kyōi made their way to the gymnasium of the complex, when she decided to voice her unease, "Ken-kun, what is this, where are we?"

Kawaguchi looked back and smiled, "this is my insurance policy, tenshi-chan," when she continued to look confused he went on to explain, "if there's one thing that is predictable about Gato, is that he's never made a deal he intended to abide by, as someone who has come across him when he was conducting legitimate business for a change, you can trust me on that, the man is poison. So, I had to be sure he wouldn't be able to crawfish on us and leave us holding the bag so to speak, I used my own investments to find an off the books facility to house the cargo from those shipments of metal from Tetsu.

"I also had to find a way to move the cargo from my customs warehouse to this facility, each one of those pallets weighs at least, 227 kilos, but then I remember in my early days at the customs service, about a series of tunnels that ran underneath the capital. It allowed ninja to come and go as they pleased without being seen, especially during the Warring States period. On my off hours when I was a raw recruit in order to be of more use, I joined a project that was in charge of mapping the various tunnels under the capital. I found a section of tunnel that led from my warehouse to directly under this school, why it was even here doesn't matter, all that matters is it would be perfect for our needs. All I needed to worry about, after that, was getting the cargo I stole from my customs warehouse to here, so I made some renovations to my warehouse and to the gymnasium of this school. First, I installed a freight elevator, that would take the cargo I placed on it to the tunnels below, then I bought an industrial magnet, connected to a conveyor-belt."

As Kawaguchi-san was explaining everything, the couple moved into the gym, where he indicated for her to stand just inside the door. Once there he flipped the switch right next to the door, and bright lights activated, which hurt Josei-san's eyes for a second. When they adjusted to the light, she saw that there were twenty-six pallets worth of weapons-grade Tetsu No Kuni metal, stacked three tall. This was nearly six metric tonnes of high quality metal, enough to outfit a small army with high-grade steel, with this anybody would be able to become filthy rich, just from the sale of the metal alone. Once it was forged into weapons, the metallic material would triple. While Kyōi stood by the gym entrance, Kawaguchi walked over to another panel in the floor, and pressed an actuator in the floor, and the sound of industrial machinery began. Ken walked over to a corner that Josei had not noticed before and retrieved a pallet jack, exactly like the ones they used at his job. It was such an efficient model and he already knew how to use it, that he felt it prudent to buy the exact same model – no need to introduce an unnecessary wrinkle in his life, like trying to learn the mechanisms of a new type of load bearing equipment.

After about five-minutes, the door on the floor opened and up from the depths, came a single pallet of metal from today's shipment. As Ken moved the cargo from the freight elevator to place it on top of the twenty-sixth pallet of metal. There was now twenty-seven pallets of metal, lining one wall of the gym. Josei surreptitiously moved to stand near Ken, when he was done with his task, he moved back over to stand with his girlfriend, keeping his back to her. She leaned over Ken's shoulder, playing with the fabric of his shirt, "you have done so much for me, Kawaguchi-san," she began to speak, "you've put not only your career in jeopardy, but your life as well," she continued laying her head on Ken's shoulder, "and if it were any other woman, for a man to make this kind of sacrifice, just to prevent her from being used as a whore, would definitely make her fall in love with you."

"What're you saying, tenshi-koi," Ken asked, as he felt the acid in his stomach begin to churn?

"I'm saying," SNAP, Kyōi extending her forearm and snapped her fingers, and the sliding doors to the gymnasium were thrust open, and a gang of thugs trooped into the gym, "you're our bitch now."

"What's going on, Josei-chan," Kawaguchi-san demanded as he watched about twenty-four armed men, saunter into the gym? His eyes widen with shock when he recognizes two of the men in front of the pack, they were the same thugs that assaulted Josei and himself, this afternoon. The rest of the men were not one homogenous group, their appearances were unimportant, but they were a hodge-podge of different weapons, and even Ken's untrained eyes, could tell they were an undisciplined group of amateurs. He looked over at his tenshi-chan, only to be brought up short by the look of contempt and disgust that crossed her face.

"This is going to be my favorite part of our relationship," she stated as her lips turned up in an overly-sweet smile, "I'm sorry to say Ken-kun, but I'm not the woman you think I am." She states that with her hands out wide, "Kai," she yells, as she begins to spin rapidly in place, as a ball of light surrounds her, and a sound like thunder comes from her rotating form. As soon as she stops spinning, anyone with eyes could tell she looked and acted different and was even dressed different. Now, dressed in a scarlet-red bustier and leotard, with a golden birdlike emblem embroidered across her voluptuous chest, a sky-blue skirt extending from her waist to her knee, festooned with white-stars, a pair of boots that match the top in scarlet, and a golden-yellow belt with an eagle on the front. A tiara, also gold, rested in her midnight-colored locks, a pair of silvery-colored vambraces encircled her forearm, and a lasso was coiled at her waist. "In fact, not only am I not in love with you, as if I, princess of the Amazons would fall in love with any man," she declared, "the thought of being with a man as weak and stupid and gullible as you, would make me physically ill, in my culture men are good for nothing except breeding, and that's it, the concept of romantic love doesn't exist. We sacrifice our sons to our goddesses, the Goddess of Wisdom and War, the Goddess of the Hunt and Harvest, and the Goddess of the Eternal Flame and the Afterlife."

Despite her harsh words, Ken's face took on a confused expression, "but all those nights of passion, and lovemaking, and what about Gato?!"

Kyōi Josei just looked at him with wide, astonished, and incredulous eyes, then bringing her hand up to cup her mouth, she began a snorting laugh, then remembering she didn't care about his feelings, she grabbed her stomach and began to double-over with ridiculous laughter, while slapping her palm on her knee in mirth. The rest of her gang began to laugh right along with her, then cut-off as she suddenly stopped, "you never so much as touched me, Ken-kun, I would place you under genjutsu every time we did have sex, I did disrobe in front of you, but once my breasts were uncovered, that's when the genjutsu would take hold. Take solace, Kawaguchi-baka, you are the only man to have ever seen my tits."

"Hey, we seen em," one of the thugs from earlier today chimed in, "yeah, I even grabbed one!"

Josei's eyes widened, before she turned her eyes to look at the offending parties, "thanks, for reminding me," she whispered with malice, then leaning down she leapt high into the air, which described a graceful arc that caught everybody looking. She landed with a crunch on the thug that spoke, which caused him to crumble like a sandcastle. Kyōi Josei upon landing, straddled the man's stomach, and just began pounding her fists into his face, for the next five minutes she slammed her fists into the man's face until his head was nothing but a bloody paste on the gym floor. She stood up and feeling something dripping from her face, she walked over to the other man who was in their home today and wiped her face and fists off on his shirt. Which she accomplished with all the deference most people show when using a paper towel. Then after she finished wiping off her face, she looked into his face with a grateful smile, before reaching up to grab his head, and with all of the reverence one uses when throwing away a paper towel, snapped his neck. She looked up at the aghast expression on Ken's face, and with a warm, sweet smile, as if she had not just casually murdered two fully grown adult males. "As I was saying, Ken-kun, you will be the only man who has ever seen my breasts, until I decide to breed," Kyōi resumed her speech, "so we will continue with the deal you struck with Gato-buta-san (Mr. Gato pig), and I will continue to monitor you, and make sure you maintain your normal life."

Kawaguchi-san looked down at the floor, "you were never bound to Gato-sasu (prick), through debts, were you, Josei-ojo?"

"Not at all," Josei answered, "he hired us to seduce you, he needed someway to get a shipment of Tetsu No Kuni metal to a client of his in Gohannokuni (Land of Rice), Otogakure (Hidden Sound Village), if I heard him right. He had a problem though, most of the Ninja Villages in this region won't even try interfering with Iron Nation neutrality, they fear the wars that would be waged if Tetsu was discredited, so he came to our Island and offered my mother and the village a huge sum of money to find a way to open a pipeline for Gato's smugglers. We agreed, but only if our island would receive a portion of each shipment of the metal Gato received, but only if we could keep the pipeline open. That was where you came in, Ken-kun," she said as she made her way over to her pseudo-boyfriend, "we studied your file, even the character assessment, and concluded that while you weren't amenable to bribery, you might be amenable to certain other needs of men, like to be seen as a hero or saving a damsel in distress, it was sweet, and kind of childish. It must stem from not having a father, the need for male recognition, it was so boring to watch and wasn't very hard to exploit. All we had to do was manufacture a story, which allowed you to seem me as weak, and as submissive as the women of this continent – who aren't kunoichi – are led to become, the argument at the business banquet last year was all staged."

"It was all staged," Kawaguchi Ken repeated in a deadpan voice, "nothing that happened between us, was real, none of it was real. None of it mattered," he whispers, "nothing I did mattered," he wheezed, "nothing matters, Nothing Matters, NOTHING MATTERS, NOTHING MATTERS!"

Suddenly, there was a crash from the windows, a couple of crashes and then two arrows were buried in the backs of two male thugs, taking everybody completely by surprise. The human trash crumpled to the floor with just a moan, just as a flash of yellow and red appeared over their corpses. In the same instant, two puffs of smoke went off behind the crowd, standing over the corpses of the thugs was SUN Kushina and Naruto, and as the smoke cleared, Uchiha Sakura and Uchiha-Senju Yoshiko stood, where the cockroaches that had scuttled around until they would be in the perfect position, when they were substituted with, by the two heiresses. The SUN family had obviously Hiraishined into the gym, using Naruto's arrows the way Minato would use his three-pronged kunai.

"Neutralize the noncombatant, musuko-kun," their Jonin-sensei ordered.

"Hai, Kushina-sensei," as he dropped his bow and took out a pair of senbon-needles, "Shigaisengan," he whispered, as the veins leading to his eyes begin to bulge in sharp relief.

At first glance, Naruto's dojutsu may appear to be the same as the Byakugan, when in actuality they are a more evolved version of the Hyuga dojutsu. Inherited from his father's genetics, combining Hyuga genetics with the Senju, add in the resiliency and adaptability of the Uzumaki and also the Senju versatility, the dojutsu which at the moment only Naruto possesses, becomes the most crucial asset the Hidden Leaf owns. With a visual spectrum stretching from the lowest frequency radio waves, to the highest frequency X-rays, which move through the atmosphere thanks to the sun, then add in telescopic range and microscopic acuity, and near omnidirectional vision. The ability to see how brain waves move in a person's head, and not only can he see the chakra circulatory system, he can also perceive the eight gates. Add in the alterations made to his body while the fox was inside Kushina while she was pregnant with Naruto, and you have a set of eyes that can perceive slightly less than Kami-sama's own eyes, and that's all without even mentioning the use of kikko.

When Naruto engages his ultraviolet eyes, which change from his bright-violet orbs into a dark-violet color, he turns them to look at Kawaguchi-san. Naruto sees where his mind is and pities him, he adds a small amount of chakra to the senbon needle, he deserves to have a pleasant dream, until he wakes up to stand trial for treason, Naruto thinks. He flings his senbon needle into the neck of the former Customs Agent, striking the pressure point and the tenketsu, causing Ken to fall to the floor in a coma.

Kushina stares at the enemy kunoichi in front of her with contempt and disgust. "What a lousy thing to do to a man, like him," she says, head pointing to the unconscious customs agent, "men like him, are like a rare flawless diamond to the women of our culture. He may have been misguided, but for someone to be so selfless as to be willing to put his life on the line for his women or precious other people, makes him a man worth cultivating."

Josei scoffed, "that's just like you pathetic Elementals, you blind yourself to the fact that male humans are not worth anything, beyond reproduction or as sacrifices. Like that pathetic creature standing next to you," she stated, while pointing at Naruto, "were he born on Gokuraku-Shima, he would already have been sacrificed to Raise-sama, Eien no Kaen, as are all blonde-headed boys, because they are so rare, they are considered bad omens on our islands."

Kushina was shocked, though she did not show it, they would do that to their own flesh-and-blood, their baby boys? Then her eyes narrowed dangerously, "genin, she's mine," Kushina growled, and with a flick of her head, continued, "take out the rest of this garbage," she ordered!

"Hai, sensei," Team Seven's genin replied by rote!

"Kick her ass, kaa-san," Naruto added, dashing head long at the twenty criminals who had been cowed by their superior's brutality toward them. Naruto reached into his shuriken pouch and pulled out four throwing-stars, two per hand, and threw them at a pair of punks. These gentlemen may have been stone-cold killers, having plied their trade against every form of human being available, but compared to even the lowest ranked genin, they were just feral cats compared to tigers. Naruto let the shuriken fly and they sliced through these men's throats, precisely where the jugulars were on both sides of their necks. They were granted a mercifully quick death.

Naruto hopped over the fallen men, drawing two kunai from his pouch, one for each hand. The other criminals recovered from their shock and began to defend themselves. It was not enough, because it has been a little under one year since Team seven graduated from the academy, and they have done nothing but grow stronger and more experienced since then. They cut their teeth on C-ranked missions where they were charged with taking out bandits, twice as skilled as these assholes. Another criminal charged at Naruto with as much speed as she could muster – men aren't the only idiots in this world – she might as well have been moving in slow-motion to Naruto. She thrust a dagger at the blonde shinobi, which was a feint to throw him off guard, while she swiveled her hips and brought her other dagger behind the other one to slice at the kid's ribcage. Naruto saw through her feint easily, pivoted behind the slash, and buried the blade of the kunai in her back, piercing her heart from behind, then kicking her off before the blade got stuck, turned around just in time to parry a tanto. The parry forced the criminal one step too far, which was all Naruto needed as he thrust forward into the man's kidney, before making another pivot and reversing his grip on the other kunai, and while back to back with his adversary, Naruto got the other kidney.

Naruto saw another thug, coming up behind Sakura and abandoning one kunai, threw the other in an overhand cast, right into the base of the ambusher's skull. He was dead instantly, and Sakura while still laying about her with her sai, as quickly as she could, caught his eye briefly and winked at her boyfriend, before both got back to work. That's when Naruto decided to get serious, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath to calm himself, and empty his mind. He reached up behind him and grasped the hilts of his blades and brought them into the fight.

They were as wide as a double-edged blade, and had a curve like a katana, four-feet long, they had two edges, with the posterior curved a little sharper, than the normal anterior curve. The back curve was heavier, meant for hacking off limbs and heads, the leading curve was for more delicate work and it was the sharper edge. It had a one-foot serrated section below the hilt, but the most striking feature of Naruto's blade was the color, or rather, colors of the blade. The sword looked as if a rainbow had exploded and embedded itself, inside the blade of Naruto's Kaminokaze, or Breath of God.

Naruto's Shigaisengan blazed forth and he looked upon them and could see their very souls. Naruto found two of the thugs sneaking up behind him, and bringing his blades up in a snarl, "grr," Naruto, wheeled around to the outboard side of the thugs' attacks, and brought his blade down to the back of the knee, hamstringing him! The thug dropped to the ground immediately, with a cry of pain, which did not last long, as Naruto brought the other blade around with the back-side leading the way and took the wounded thug's head. Then with a back-hand slash at the other thug's belly, which was parried, which was Naruto's intention as it brought the man's blade out of position, which left him open for Naruto to thrust his blade up into the thug's throat, and such was Naruto's fine-tuned control over his actions that his blade went through the back of the criminal's throat and severed his spinal cord at the third vertebrae. The man died painlessly while choking on his own blood.

Naruto looked and saw several thugs ganging up on his other girlfriend and distant cousin, Yoshiko. She was holding her own with her Cho-ken, but she was endanger of being overrun. She was a good ten-yards away, but he needed to get there as fast as he could, so unable to throw a Hiraishin kunai, nor shoot a Hiraishin arrow, he was left with only one option. Naruto channeled wind chakra around his body and felt it lift him, then coiling his body like a spring he yelled, "Kuki Rasen," (Air Spiral), and shot across the expanse, with his blades leading the way slicing a rather fat criminal in half. Naruto did not waste any time, as he turned away from the bisected criminal, and stabbed one of Yoshi-chan's assailants in the back, before beheading another from behind. As that happened, there came a sound like breaking glass, which distracted Naruto long enough to turn his head in time to see Kyōi Josei-meinu (bitch) escaping through one of the skylights. Naruto turned back just as his hime's were finishing off the last of the human garbage.

Kushina looked around at the carnage as she allowed her enemy to escape, she had placed a Hiraishin seal on the woman sometime during their battle. This would allow Kushina or Naruto to locate her wherever she went, and they would be able to sense any other people she went around. Kushina continued to survey the battlefield, that used to be a school gymnasium in times past. She could tell which of her student's had done what, by the wounds she detected on the dead. The Hiraishin arrows, where she and Naruto made their entrance killing two, were both from her boy. Two more with shuriken buried in their necks, a woman down on her belly with a hole in her back, and a man with punctured kidneys, were also Naruto's doing, that's six, but my baby, seemed to range all over the scene. I see another kunai buried in the head of another criminal, and from the angle, it was thrown from the direction of the man and woman on the ground. Turning her head, she saw two more dead, one with a hamstring injury and no head, and another with a pierced throat. Turning her head in the opposite direction, near two of her students who were leaning into each other, while the last makes her way over to the pair, Kushina saw a veritable butcher's yard, with another missing his head, one stabbed through the heart from behind, and the last… was cut in half, Kushina's eyes widened at that, then she guessed what happened, and smirked, nobody messes with my son's ladies.

Team Seven's sensei took in the other dead bodies. Two were killed by Kushina's opponent before they even entered the building, dumbass, those two might've prolonged the fight, and given Josei the advantage, she rebuked her enemy. Kushina looked straight ahead at five bodies in center court, two of them, a man, and another woman, looked like they have been run-through by each other, though both of them seemed to have their necks broken. One of the larger men of the fight, looked like he had been pile-driven into the gym floor, because his head was even with his collar-bone, and the last two looked like they had electrical burns along the edges of large puncture wounds on their bodies. One going into his skull, the other going straight through his chest, Sakura-chan was utilizing the piercing quality of her Raiton chakra, good girl. That's five for her, Kushina concluded.

Returning her attention back to the bodies around where her genin stood, Kushina began assessing the damage Yoshiko did to her opponents. This patch of unburied dead seemed to have the most eclectic series of fatal wounds.

Yoshiko is the best at taijutsu out of all three of Kushina's genin, combining the devastating power and defense of the Senju taijutsu style named: Kokko Akaitori, with the speed of Uchiha Interceptor Fist, and her Sharingan, then her taijutsu is second only to Rock Lee's of Team Guy. Now add in the monster strength and medical knowledge from Senju Tsunade, and the endurance and cunning of Jiraiya, and you will have created the most devastating hand-to-hand combatant you will ever meet. One of her opponents did not have a scratch on him, while another woman, looked as if she had a fist driven through her chest.

Yoshiko also has the most diverse ninjutsu arsenal of her genin, with three elements at her disposal: earth, fire, and water, with near mastery of all three, thanks to her Nara level of intelligence, and Senju plus Uchiha drive and determination. She learned to combine her element manipulation with her taijutsu and ijutsu, and three of her opponents, exhibited signs of that very phenomenon.

Chakra is present in every lifeform, from humans to trees to single-celled organisms, it is a fact of this world. Animals and other organisms learn how to use chakra on instinct, but humans for some reason, when they evolved into a society lost the instinct for chakra and have to learn how to use it, this is also a fact of this planet. In modern days, only three classes of people have learned to use chakra to any real extent: ninja, samurai, and religious types; like monks and priestesses. That being said, just because most people have not learned how to use it, does not mean they do not have it, or a chakra-circulatory system to go with it.

As Kushina gazed upon the forms of her student's victims, she noted that one of her opponents looked like he had been drowned. Another downed opponent with a slash down her torso, looked like she had been burned with fire from the inside-out, while another female… which was in doubt, because her body had several stone spikes protruding from her body at several locations. One was especially thick and was thrust out from between her legs, she must've really pissed Yoshiko-chan off to have her mutilate her body like that. Yoshiko practiced this technique on a few condemned prisoners from the Leaf's Torture and Interrogation Department, what she does is convert her opponent's chakra, while within the chakra-system to a different element, each one her primary nature transformation. The results were self-explanatory. Kushina wondered what would happen if she were to teach her teammates how to do that with their nature transformations?

Kushina could not have been prouder of her son, Naruto took out half of the enemy force by himself, they were undisciplined amateurs, but we were still outnumbered. She waited for her students to reach her, "good job, genin," she said with a neutral smile, "we have accomplished this part of the mission." Then indicating the metal already present in the school, "and it appears that our conspirator's precautions, may allow us to return the missing merchandise and possibly, avoid an international incident."

"Arigatō, sensei," they answered by rote.

After cleaning up and securing the crime scene, they took the unconscious man, and brought him to the man who hired Team Seven for this mission. They, of course, had to bring everything discovered by them before the Daimyo, because only he could preside over an incident of this magnitude. After hearing everything regarding the conspiracy, and hearing testimony from the Secretary, Team K2, and Kawaguchi Ken-san, the Lord of Fire ruled.

Kawaguchi-san, who had been hoping to be put to death, to escape from his pain, was sentenced to eleven years hard labor, and to make sure he did not take his own life, stated that if he were to accidentally step off a cliff, fall on a knife, or get struck by lightning, then the rest of his punishment would fall upon his mother's shoulders.

"You think I'm being merciful," the daimyo stated, "you think I am forgiving you," the Omo no kasai observed, it was not a question. "I can see the pain you're in Kawaguchi-san, and killing you, would only allow you to escape from your penance, as would allowing you to kill yourself. No, this is not mercy, it is not forgiveness, this is me reaping terrible vengeance upon you," Seikatsu no kaen (the Living Flame) snarled, "this is me at my most… sadistic. I sentence you to live, live with your pain, your heartache!" He motioned to his guards, "get this piece of tripe out of my sight," he bellowed!

Since Team Seven were able to return all of the missing material, and in order to cover-up the theft Hayashi-san, sent the correct amount of food tonnage listed on the weigh-bill, the Daimyo saw this as nothing more than an internal matter. They made changes that would insure nothing like this ever happened again, though the daimyo was not naïve enough to believe it would last, he knew there was no such thing as a fool-proof system, and eventually someone would always find a hole to exploit. The Fire Daimyo commended his Secretary of Logistics for his initiative, as well as, Konoha in general, and Team Seven specifically for the timely resolution of the issue. They were paid in full by Hayashi Shouhei and were given a bonus from the daimyo himself.

They had been back in the Village now, for a couple of weeks, and were back to their usual routine. Naruto was just heading home from the celebration at the Uchiha clan compound, they were celebrating Sasuke's graduation from the Ninja Academy, and after some good food, good company, that his mother left earlier to get some clan business done. After some lengthy farewell kisses from his girlfriends, Naruto was walking toward his home. His route took him right by the Hokage Mansion, and he just happened to be looking up at the stars, when a quiet movement caught his attention. He activated his dojutsu, and with his foxy night vision had no problem making out distinct features. What the hell are those two doing, then he recognized them, weren't those two Sasuke's teachers?