Dear god, this is finally done. I had the first half of this chapter written for a long time, but the second half just wouldn't come together. So i just sat down and hashed one out. AND DEAR SCIENCE DO I WANT TO BURN IT. Oh well.
well, that is one story down out of three... now i just have to update two more that i really want to update and that will be that.
Also, damn this is a short chapter for me. Usually i get between 7,000 to 10,000 words, but this is fantastically short...
IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: This is actually based off an idea i thought up which is: if one theoretical man decided to make a certain decision, how much would it change? and let me just say that it changed the lives of two people SIGNIFICANTLY. said two people being konan and hinata. hopefully i will get around to explaining that sooner or later...
It was dark.
The moon was new tonight, refusing to shine its lantern's light on the world below, making it so inky blackness creeped into the crevices where moonlight would usually seep into.
Within the shadow of the moon, a single figure was sitting on a rooftop, sloshing around a large, eight shaped bottle. The entity giggled slightly as the contents, a clear liquid, occasionally met the upper lip, almost causing it to spill before falling back down.
"Hnn~~ hnn~~ Almost out of sake~~~ almost out of sake~~~" The person sung in a feminine tone, jiggling around the bottle a few more times. "Well, I got up here, good enough."
She took a swig of the alcoholic drink, inserting it into a thin opening in the mask she wore. Then, lifting it up and tilting it vertically to confirm there was no more of the precious drink, she took out a scroll from the inside of the dark cloak she wore and placed it on the roof, unfurling it nonchalantly after sitting cross legged on the floor. A circular diagram covered the paper, with sharp lettering bursting from the center.
She placed the container in the center and placed her hands on both sides. Not even a moment later, the container disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Wrapping up the scroll and putting it away in the same place she took it from, she cracked her neck and relaxed her shoulders, attempting to get comfortable despite the hardness of the concrete below her.
Finally finding a stance to relax in, she held up a gloved hand and lazily contorted it into a one handed hand sign. "Persona shift..."
And the one eye that was shown through the mask closed.
From an outsider's perspective on the scene, it would have looked as though time had stopped. Her muscles refused to move, causing her cloak to be perfectly still. Her breathing had halted, no air escaped from the confines of her mask. Her heart, unmoving, her blood run cold.
Thirty two seconds. Exactly thirty two seconds later, the one visible eye snapped open. She took a sharp intake of breath, as though she had been drowning but seconds ago. Her heart races once again.
She stood once again, taking in her surroundings. She made another quick hand sign, although this one did not seem to do anything that anyone looking would visibly see.
'Current destination, approximately .89 kilometers from the target. Currently .39 kilometers off target.' She thought. 'Most likely scenario, lust once again ran out of sake. Note: bring more sake next mission. Current supply insufficient in bribing her.'
She took a deep breath and pulled out another scroll, this one on the other side of her cloak.
She performed a similar action to the one she did earlier, and in a poof of smoke, a bow with three arrows, two of which held a small tag at the base near the feathers. The bow itself was a very large one; completely pitch black and as tall as the user. Two pulleys, one at the top and one at the bottom, rested taunt against the single string that looped between them.
Taking the bow, she stood it up, raising it like a flag after the battle is over. She took one of the tagged arrows, holding it up high as to inspect it for any defects. Seeing there were none, she decided to take a brief second to analyze herself through the arrowhead. Despite the minimal amount of light, she could see her mask in the dark metallic head of the arrow.
Her mask had a white backdrop, a common color. Spiraling out from her right eye was a cascade of seven petaled flowers. They circled the hole meant for her eye in a tight spiral, before becoming thicker and spreading out, touching the left edge of the mask and completely flooding the small slit representing the mouth. The other eyehole was stylized with two symmetrical curved lines, giving it the appearance of a vertical eye. The hole itself was covered with the image of a red moon, thus leaving only the right eye open.
Through the hole, she could see her own eye, its completely white color blending in slightly with the mask that surrounded it.
'Mask undamaged. Lust didn't cover it in sake again.' She thought. 'Good.'
She relaxed her arm, letting the arrow fall into place in the bow.
She pulled back taking aim in the distance, toward a tower. The tower stood tall, especially when taking into consideration the fact that every single other building in the nearby vicinity of the tower was only a single story tall, with the building she was standing on being one of the few exceptions, being a tower of similar height.
To her right, she could see another tower that was slightly closer than the one she was in, which had been the original target location.
Knowing she had to take what she got, she double checked her aim, and released the arrow.
Without missing a beat, she took the second tagged arrow and proceeded to fire that one as well.
Then, she waited.
Two explosions. Both coming from the direction of tower. A small light show could be seen from the base, and she could feel a small shockwave from the explosion. Smoke began to billow from the bottom of the building, and the sounds of alarms could be heard.
'Structural points hit. Tower on high alert. Still strong enough to stand, but won't stand another shockwave of that caliber. All according to plan.'
She took her final arrow, taking careful aim. This time, she drew back further and aimed quite a bit higher, this time aiming toward the windows on the topmost floors.
"Partial persona, left arm." She called out.
Her left arm went rigid, holding the bow in an iron grip. For fifty six seconds, her arm remained as unmoving as stone, before finally seeming to regain life and move slightly.
"Lust. Wind nature chakra on the arrow. Now." She called out to the winds.
The arm holding the bow tensed slightly, before returning to a proper slacked grip on the arrow.
A blue hue surrounded the tip of the arrow, lengthening until the chakra looked similar in shape to a needle and as long as a broadsword.
"Partial persona, release."
This time, only a mere half a second of stiffness occurred before returning to its normal state. The chakra on the tip, however, remained.
Quickly checking her aim, she released the arrow, watching as it sailed in a graceful ark toward its intended target, piercing the window and disappearing into the depths of the structure.
'Primary objective, elimination A-rank missing nin Kurosawa Akira, completed. Secondary and tertiary objectives commencing.'
"Persona switch." She repeated as she made the one handed hand sign once more.
Thirty two seconds passed once again.
The eye opened again once more, blinking several times as she quickly shook her head.
"Hmmm... Envy left the byakugan on again... And all her supplies out. Tsk tsk... Danzo-sama won't be too happy about that..." She mused.
She brought out two scrolls, and opened one. She placed the bow on top of this one and sealed it inside, and then put that one away. Opening the other one, she pumped some chakra into this one, causing a large one sided axe and a katana to spring forth.
"For Danzo-sama..." She whispered, before jumping off the streets into the buildings below, heading in the direction of the tower in the distance.
She blinked.
She looked around. Wrath had done her job and done it well, it seemed.
The room she was standing in had several corpses littered here and there, some in awkward positions with body parts bent at strange and gruesome angles, but with every single one of them suffering a slash wound somewhere. The floor had become a puddle of blood, with her shinobi sandals just being high enough to not stain her feet with the liquid of life. Her cloak was more red than not now, and she could feel a slight sticky wetness from gloves, as they had become drenched in the red fluid.
Sighing, she made a hand seal and turned her head ever so slightly to the left and to the right.
'No survivors left in the tower.' She nodded to herself.
She walked forward, being careful to not take any more blood onto herself, toward the hard wood desk dominating the back of the room. She moved around it, opening the drawers on it carefully, just in case they were booby-trapped. Eventually, she came upon a drawer with a stack of papers.
Looking over the top page, she realized that this was what she had come to get, and took off her gloves in order to take them out without smudging the paper with blood.
She took out yet another scroll from her pocket, and repeated the process of sealing an object into a separate dimension.
'Secondary objective, retrieve information completed. Moving to tertiary objective.'
She looked toward the window behind her and stood right in front of it. She placed her blood soaked gloves on her hands again and made a hand sign.
"Persona shift."
Thirty two seconds of stillness occurred. Thirty two seconds of vulnerability.
And there was no one alive to take advantage of it.
She blinked again. She looked around the room and to herself. The red tinge of anger clouded her vision.
"Wrath, you idiot! I swear I told you last time not to get our clothes dirty, but no, you decided it would be a good idea to cover us in blood..." She sighed. "Oh well... Guess it's my turn..."
She pushed herself right up against the window, and crouched, her body tightening into the likeness of a spring. Her torso was twisted, her fist was pulled back, and her legs were steady.
She uncoiled.
The window burst into tiny shards, with not one piece of glass remaining in the wall.
"Not bad, not bad... I could have done better..." She muttered.
She looked down, into the night. The fire was still going near the base of the building's east side. It had climbed a few floors, but since she was at the top, it truly didn't matter.
Seeing it was safe below, as there were no people or sharp debris below, she decided the quickest way to the bottom was to jump.
She landed on her feet, cracking the packed dirt surrounding her form. Briefly looking over herself and checking to make sure everything was functioning, she looked over towards the tower.
"Now, where did she say to strike again? Was it there? There? No... There!" She ran towards the left side of the building, toward the side on fire.
She put her hand against the wall and pushed it slightly, nodding to herself. She once again wound herself up, pulling a fist back, and let herself go.
The wall in front of her imploded. The entire structure experienced a shockwave that shook the entire building as though it were in an earthquake.
Knowing she had to get out of there quickly, she ran back towards one of the buildings that she had picked out when looking out the window. The rumble of the devastation occurring behind her met her ears, making her smile behind the mask in satisfaction.
Finally, she reached to top of the building and turned around, and witnessed the result of her work.
The building was no more than a pile of rubble, ash, and dust now, with no definitive hint as to what it used to be.
"Ha! I believe that is mission accomplished!" She beamed. "Time to run away then... Right Sloth?"
"Persona shift."
She opened her one eye and blinked.
'Pride's strength... Even now, I still find it terrifying...' She thought. 'Mission completed. Time to run.'
For one second, if a person stood on that roof, one would have been able to see the silhouette of a cloaked figure. Should that person have even blinked for just one second, he or she would find no trace of that person anywhere in a 360 degree radius, no matter how hard he or she looked from atop that roof.
"Mission accomplished, Zan-sama."
The sun was shining through the glass door, layering light on all the items in the room. The room itself was very large, with it half of it being a spacious living room, while the other half was a meticulously clean deluxe kitchen.
In the kitchen, two figures stood. One was currently cooking eggs, while the other was still wearing her blood splattered cloak and mask.
The one currently cooking was a blue haired woman, wearing a tight, sleeveless black shirt that emphasized her more than adequate bosom as well as similarly tight black pants. Said woman turned to look at the new arrival to the space, and then turned back to concentrate on her breakfast.
"I see you haven't changed your clothes yet." She said. "Also, you may refer to me as Konan while we are here. This place is safe from prying eyes. It is your current living accommodations, after all."
"Hai, konan-sama." she responded. "I simply wanted to give you my report as to what had occurred and give you the papers-"
"I already know. I had my butterflies watch, just in case." Konan shifted her pan, trying to keep the bottom of the eggs from burning. "Talk to me again when you have changed. Also, leave your scroll on the table. I will deal with it when I have to report to Danzo-sama in a few hours."
She nodded, walking quickly out of the room and towards an adjacent one, this one having a large bed and two doors, one to the left and one to the right. She walked over to the one on the left and opened it, revealing an array of different clothing. Taking out a simple pair of bra and panties, as well as a pair of shorts and a loose T-shirt.
Taking those, she then went over to the right, and opened it, showing a bathroom.
The bathroom itself was just like the rest of the abode, overly large and luxurious. There were two sinks even though there was only one recipient for either, seeing as it was her personal bathroom. There was a shower stall and a tub, with the tub actually being a small spa. The small door near the back was a toilet stall, and a rather clean one at that.
She turned on the tap to the shower, letting the water become warmer.
She removed her cloak, revealing a very young female body in anbu style body armor beneath as well as loose fitting pants, which had the occasional bloodstain here and there on them. Taking both of them off, along with the t-shirt underneath, leaving her naked except for the mask on her face.
Hesitating for just a second in removing the mask, she took it off and set it on the counter, unveiling an angular female face with short, dark blue hair and a closed left eye.
She opened it.
Looking in the mirror, she could see the strange, ever changing kaleidoscopic seven petaled flower imprinted on her left eye, surrounded in a ring of writhing writing.
"Oh thank god you took off that mask." She saw her mouth move. "I need to yell at wrath for being so stupid!"
"I did as danzo-sama commanded pride." She responded to herself. "I listen to him and only him. Not you."
"But-"
"Ne ne... When are we going to get more sake?" She cut herself off.
"U-umm... I-I think... To-today?" She heard herself stutter out. "I-it is m-my turn today... I-I c-can get you s-some..."
"Can I play today? I broke all my toys last time..."
"Yeah, and can we possibly get some decent food around here? Unlike you, I'm a gourmet, and I taste whatever you taste-"
"I believe it would be best if we simply put on the eye patch and when we have our turns, we can work out what we want, is that clear enough for all of you?"
"Good idea, Sloth! I can already feel the migraine coming... Who knows when we'll overload our brain again and start losing bleeding out brain cells-"
"Three minutes, twenty one seconds."
"-okay, three minutes, and some amount of seconds. We'll figure it out later. Right now, I think I need a shower after Wrath's little bloodbath..."
She felt herself pick up an eye patch from a drawer and put it on, covering the left eye and putting herself back in charge. The two strings that attached to each corner of the square patch fit tightly, covering the socket completely.
Seeing steam start to cloud the mirror in front of her, she decided it was time to take a shower.
She was one for efficiency, and so she spent no more than five minutes cleaning up.
Getting dressed, she noticed that her upper body wear felt a slight bit... Tight.
'Note: have gluttony go clothes shopping.' She thought.
She walked back to the kitchen, where Konan had placed two portions of eggs on the table in the main room, along with two glasses of tea.
"Good. You've changed." The woman said. "Usually, you would have a week to yourself in a secure location outside the village after I hand this scroll in, but this morning I received word from danzo-sama about a new mission we are both to undertake."
This was surprising. Both she and konan were among the best danzo-sama had in his forces. For both of them to be chosen for the same mission meant it was of the highest tier of importance.
"Our mission this time is simple. For the next year, we will be posing as a mother and daughter as hinata and Konan Higa inside the leaf village while you join the academy. Your main objective will be to watch the jinchuriki while also ensuring his loyalty, while your secondary and tertiary objectives will be to become best kuniochi in that year while keeping the target good enough to pass, but also at the bottom of those that will pass the end of the year test. During this time period, we will not be able to take any missions outside the village. Gluttony shall be taking charge during this one year period. Whether this mission continues further than one year is up to the results of the mission." She took some of the tea and drank it. "Any questions?"
She was confused. This mission was incredibly simple, compared to the usual fare that danzo-sama saddled the both of them with. Also, they were both being taken out of rotation, it seemed. Plus, couldn't any of the other orphans be used for this particular mission?
"Why us?" She asked.
Konan sighed. "You were chosen because you filled the specific parameters of being a female, being at the correct age, and having your emotions split between your other selves. As for me..." She took another sip. "I made a mistake during my last infiltration. Danzo-sama has seen it fit to have me lie low, as they say. I will still be managing my spy network, however."
She nodded slowly, taking it in.
"When do we start?"
"Tomorrow." She said. "Because we will be masquerading inside the village, you must hide your features. Bleach your hair and get a tan while the sun is still in the sky. Also, use the contact to disguise your eye."
She then took out a manila folder from under the table and plopped it in front of her. "Also, read this. It is a profile on the jinchuriki, so you know what to expect."
Konan finished her tea and began to quietly and methodically eat the eggs of her plate with startling efficiency.
Seeing as she wasn't all that hungry, she put off eating for now to view the profile placed before her.
She opened the folder and examined the first page. Said page was but a single photo of a young, orange clad boy with spiky golden hair. He had a face splitting smile on, scrunching up the whisker marks on his face. She looked at the top of the photo and saw the words 'Naruto Uzumaki' printed on top.
'Naruto Uzumaki...' She placed a hand on the page and traced the name. 'Just watch him. This shall be a simple enough mission. Even for gluttony...'
She closed the folder for later reading, and began to eat, preparing for the days ahead.
Ahh... it feels good to finish this. HA.
Well, that's it.