I blinked slowly, looking up at the Shinigami in shock, Kurama was gone. He had been sealed into another human hours after his release and now the Shinigami himself was asking me of all reapers to retrieve him. I would've thought he would ask someone higher in the ranks than me, a bottom level reaper. Maybe it was because of my friendship with the demon, but Kurama had friends in higher places than me. However, this was a mission from the Shinigami and it was not my place to question orders. So, I nodded dumbly and received a short nod in return.
"Now go to the human realm and free the level nine demon Kurama, reaper" the Shinigami commanded before turning and simply vanishing.
Rubbing my eyes, I sighed, it was probably best to leave now rather than later. Gathering up my chakra and muttering the unnecessarily long name of the transportation jutsu, I left my home and flew like the Shinigami, though not as smoothly. I landed rather roughly in the wreckage that was once the Hidden Leaf, the dead lay everywhere while the living tried to pick up the pieces. The remnants of Kurama's chakra cloaked my own rather noticeable chakra, I put up a simple illusion to make me look like a Konoha shinobi.
I gave a grim smile to the several reapers I came across who were transporting the dead over to the Shinigami for judgement. I needed to first find the vessel which all I really needed to do was to follow the trail of Kurama's chakra to the new source. As I walked, I took in the damage and winced, the Shinigami was going to tear Kurama a new one, a massacre like this wasn't scheduled for another couple decades. Glancing at the shinobi and civilian bodies, I winced once more, so many lives ending too early. Like that brown-haired jounin, he was supposed to die in a training accident twelve years from now and that pink-haired woman was supposed to have written a very detailed book about torture and interrogation before being killed in a spat with missing nin from the Mist.
Eventually, I found the vessel, a small blonde child with three whisker marks on each cheek. The vessel was not alone as he was being held by the former Hokage, who was most likely going to have to retake the position as the current Hokage was cooling on the ground with a large pool of blood around him and his wife. Now, I would've simply killed the old man and ripped Kurama from the newly made seal. However, I was given specific instructions to not harm anyone of Konoha on purpose and the seal holding Kurama had been sealed by a lesser death god, but a god nonetheless and it would take a certain amount of planning and power to crack that seal.
I cursed silently, this was very bad. I mean, this mission, while important, was supposed to be easy as the seal should've been human-made and new enough to rip off. Now simply ripping the seal off wouldn't work, though if I got into the child's mindscape I could rip it from there, but I don't know any jutsu to do that. I sighed, this mission was now going to last a lot longer than anticipated and that meant I too needed a vessel. I couldn't keep up this illusion forever as well as Kurama's chakra was fading rapidly and I needed a human body and chakra to hide mine. What I needed was a rather unimportant shinobi, one that wouldn't be missed and weak. I wasn't at one hundred percent, so I would need an easy vessel.
Looking around, I began to feel discouraged as all I was seeing were corpses and I could only possess a living body. Well, the body had to be living when I possessed it, but after I took over, I could kill the host and continue living in the body. Nearing a collapsed building, I heard a hacking cough and saw a brown-haired shinobi with a large gash on his chest. From the dark shadows under his eyes and the subtle smell of death wafting off him it had me wondering how long he had been sick. With that gash and the sickness in his lungs he would most likely die within minutes, though he was supposed to die a decade or so from now during a Chunin Exams.
I blinked at it hit me, I'm sure the shinobi would allow me to heal him free of charge and then when he dropped his guard I would swoop in and take him out, I'm sure the Shinigami wouldn't mind this one human who did not have any large role in his future. I kneeled next to him as he looked up, coughing once more, blood splattering on the ground.
"Who are-" another bout of coughs interrupted his sentence "are you?" he finished several seconds later. I shook my head slowly "that is of no concern to you, I am here to heal you" I explained with what I hoped was a comforting smile. Another round of wet coughs filled the silence as he nodded, the air around my hand flared green as I began healing him. As soon as the coughing subsided for the moment and the tension left his shoulders, I made my move. The illusion I had set up fell away and the shinobi had time to only give me a horrified stare before we were launched into his mindscape.
After a long struggle that had been breathing hard and me bleeding from many places, I had finally come out on top. I had thought with the gash and the illness as well as the fatigue I thought the fight would be quick, but the shinobi, Hayate, the shinobi's memories supplied had fought tooth and nail for his body. Speeding through his memories, I found what kind of person Hayate was and how I could act like him. He had one person that could be called a friend, Genma was his name who could be a problem in the future.
However, Hayate has built himself up as a hardworking, though quiet shinobi which is perfect for me. But, he is quite the spitfire around Genma and in his head, I can definitely work with this, I can easily work with this passive aggressive personality. Sorting through memories, I found ones of a hours of training with swords, it seems Hayate was somewhat of a prodigy with swords. I could also work with this as my primary weapon was a sword. I was now feeling confident I could act as Hayate for an indefinite amount of time, it didn't hurt that his personality wasn't that different from mine.
Blinking slowly, the world came into focus and wow, I forgot humans had very limited fields of vision, only seeing what they called 'visible light'. I nodded to myself, getting up and gingerly taking a step forward. Suddenly, my body started shaking as ragged coughs forced their way out of my throat. I shook my head after the fit was over and went about healing the sickness in his lungs, but was shocked when I found I couldn't. I realized that it was because I was using human chakra and not my own chakra, but Kurama's chakra was almost gone and that would draw unwanted attention to me.
I took another shaking step and almost collapsed, the gash in my chest had not completely closed, just yet another problem with this body. I wrapped my arms around myself in an odd hug and shook harder, I felt pretty tired too. The ground looked very comfortable, the perfect place for an impromptu nap. I hit the ground barely registering the several new chakra signatures near me and my eyes slid shut before the signatures could any closer.