Chapter 4: Kirei

"We need to move the clan location Keno-sama, the enemies are moving in far too fast."

The last fight with Madara was far too close. It has been a month since my first encounter with the Uchiha head and I suffered from two broken ribs and far too many bruises. I cannot help but think how dead I would be if it weren't for my comrades.

The Kireha head sighed and leaned back in his chair. We hadn't moved places for the clan since I turned 10. I small shiver ran up my back as I remember the memories: Not only was I stressed by the sudden movement in clan, but I also had my first period then. What a wonderful day it way. Thankfully no-one died, but we did sustain damage that day. It seemed to brighten the whole clan up when Keno-sama, the head of Kireha, loudly exclaimed the red stain that appeared on my butt and overall lower regions. It was humiliating, but they all laughed and the heavy and tired atmosphere lifted a bit. Humiliation is nothing if my clan is happy.

"You know all the preparation needed for that. And it's extremely difficult to execute. Our clan grew by 350% since 10 years ago," the head said, stroking his beard. Keno-sama was a nice old man that procrastinated when situations were light enough. We were in a wooden and stone building, the tallest one of the clan area. It was also in the middle of the clan, as the clan area was spread out as a circle. Not far from here are the healing grounds, and we also were not far from the library. Then there would be storage of metals every here and there as well as forging houses and blacksmiths. Towards the outside of the clan boundaries, were wooden walls and five towers that formed a pentagon. So basically, clan boundaries, structure-wise, we were good. That is, until Madara went in my personal bubble... personal bubble being, a 122 km away from my clan official boundaries.

"The Uchihas are too close, it is unsafe. We need to conduct more explorations for potential new clan locations. We need to pull out if this war. The sooner the better." I crossed my arms, staring hard at my leader. This time, it wasn't Keno-sama that responded. "Are you crazy, you want to pull out!? Don't you remember what they have done to us, Uchihas, Shimura and all of rest!? Do you want all those lives to be lost in vain?!" It was Rotu and he seemed to be absolutely against my idea. Just like he usually is.

I glare at him, "War is a useless cycle filled with over consuming hatred. Someone needs to break it and mend past wounds. We can be the first," it wasn't the first time I suggested pulling out of the war. To forget our past with other clans and to leave the whole war. It was hard, especially since so many that took care of me died because of these other clans, but nothing is easy. Especially when hatred is the root of the cycle. "So you're just going to forgive the Shimura that killed Mimi?" I squinted my eyes. I sent him a look. Mimi died three years ago from a Shimura spy. She took that Shimura kunoichi to her grave. It was very honorable and it rained that day. "-or when that bloody Uchiha leader's brother injured Shouta-"

I glared fully at him, chakra alongside with blood lust oozing out of my pores. He shut up but still glared at me.

"Children please, calm down. We are here to talk, not to fight," Keno-sama waved his hand, exasperated by the exchange. I glared at Rotu and stood firmly.

"Ruto," I state. "Sometimes to throw a more effective punch," I look at him directly in his eyes, "you need to step back." There was a silence. I didn't feel comfortable in the room anymore and I wanted out, but I wouldn't leave just yet. I look at Keno-sama, "Leader-sama, let me at least scout surrounding areas. I've talked to my team and we've heard of isolated mountain tops that seemed reasonable. Please consider my proposal, we will discuss more of this later. I'm afraid my IQ gets lower each time I'm in the presence of Rotu," I make sure not to smirk when I see Rotu's eye twitch in annoyance. Keno-sama simply sighs and nods and waves me off. I then look directly at Rotu. "If I ever hear you speak of Mimi or Shouta in such a tone, I'll be extremely disappointed in my clan." With that, I walk off.

x

I breathe in the mediocre air. I close my eyes and sense my surroundings. I quickly locate Shouta and start heading there. Another reason why I wanted to change locations is because I could sense so much from outside the clan boundaries. My chakra sensing went up to around 100km radius around me. I had a theory my sensitivity to chakra came from my reborn status thing. Since in my previous life chakra didn't exist, to suddenly be born where chakra was everywhere is extremely noticeable. So I could sense battles raging far away form me and people's life force leaving them without me being able to do anything about it.

"Ah, Yasu!" I blink and turn around. Soke ran up to me, a small shy smile on his lips. The common dark brown, wavy Kireha hair that he usually wore down until it reaches his shoulder was pulled in a small bun. The Kireha usually had wavy hair, the roots would be dark brown and would fade into very light brown towards the tips. When the light brown color starts appearing changes per person, but Mimi used to say that the older one gets, the more light brown hair they get.

I honestly never understood our hair, so I let it go as some unexplainable anime thing.

"What is it, mr. weapons?" A cool smirk breezes on my lips, my previous argument shoved behind my head. He blushed and started spluttering nonsense. Soke is also a prodigy, and he should be more well known than me. His talent did not come in fighting, it came in creating. He was legendary at making weapons. He's like, 17, and could make most weapons. Since the clan specialized in weapons, but mostly swords and katanas, he could literally make the best swords.

And he had a thing with making swords that are literally twice his size, which is often a bit of trouble to him because he is rather weak.

But to be fair, my clan is weak... ..

"...You're very strong Soke," I say patting his shoulders. He furrows his eyebrows in confusion to me, his blush of embarrassment leaving his face. He then lit up, "Ah! I need you for a moment, follow me please!" I jog behind him as he runs off to his forging house, blacksmith place. He had the largest one of the clan, and with good reason. He was already having students and his work is extremely efficient, so he needed the best quality equipment... which were bigger.

I wave to a few kids that ran past me and entered Soke's workshop. It was quite clean, cloths hung properly and equipment properly put away. I then sighed when I saw Soke designing a huge sword... again. "You do know you need to make it usable?" He looked back and pouted at me. "I know that! A lot of people like my swords..." he looked back and gestured me to look at his blueprints. I sigh in amusement and purposefully avoided making the perfect perverted comment about 'his swords'.

I lean on the table and look at his blueprint... and then I raised an eyebrow. "Wait, is that the Shohi?" I ask, pointing at the darkened line in the middle of his blueprint. He nodded, deep in thought. The Shohi is a black material that can been passed in the clan for generations and generations. It was a long rod, quite strong, that actually consumed blood. Hell, you could touch it and it could drink you up. Another name for it was the Shohi Richi, consumption leach. Not the prettiest name, but it worked.

"You know the metal you found in your last gathering?" He said. I hummed, analyzing his blueprint. I blinked when I read a certain note. I snapped my gaze from his written work and looked straight at him. "That metal is a Shohi conductor?" I whispered, slightly dumbfounded. He nodded and showed me the ore I gave him a week previously. "When this came in contact with the Shohi Richi, it sucked some of my blood," he showed me his forearm. There was a bandaged arm, I could see a line of blood through the bandages. I stared at the metal.

"But when it's no longer in contact, it stops the 'blood sucking' mechanism, but it... it becomes stronger. Just like Shohi Richi." I cross my arms. Well this is fantastic. More blood sucking metals. Before I know it, pieces of stones will kill me. "So what's the plan then?" I ask. He grew a small grin.

"Well, step one. Extract all the metal from this raw ore," he said, holding the ore. "Step two, you need to get me more of this ore." I shrugged, sure, we can never not have enough metals. "Step 3, design a proper model so the sword can grow." I stopped him right then and there. I raises an eyebrow, questioning him. A sword cannot grow... can they? He rolled his eyes at me. "Of course they will grow, they're consuming. I just need to... guide the sword to grow in the right directly. A lot like plants. I actually understand, there are these-" he coughs. "Just believe me," a smirk grows on my face and I nod.

"Step 4, you wield the Kubikiribocho no Wairudogurei."

I stay silent. "...Alright, two questions." He nods and sits down on his chair and starts making a list of things. "First, why do I have to wield a giant, blood sucking, growing sword?" He taps his head with the pencil and puckers his lips. "Well, it suits, doesn't it? The prodigy fighter with the prodigy's sword..." I raise an eyebrow at his reasoning, so he continues, "..and also because you're extremely chakra sensitive, you'll be able to handle it the best. Cannot have a sword that kills the owner." I suppose that makes sense...? "Fine, I need a more offensive weapons anyways... and... the name? 'Kubikiribocho no Wairudogurei?'... 'Decapitating Carving Knife of the Wild Gray?'" That name also founded extremely familiar...

"It sounds cool." I sweatdrop. I guess?

He turns around and sends me a smile. "Please get me more ore! I really need it!" I sigh and stand up. "I need to scout some mountains anyways, we'll make a detour." He thanked me too many times and told me to come by any time to check on the progress. I nod and wave at him as I walk away, telling him good luck. This time, I start walking towards my house, where I can sense Shouta drinking some tea.

Then, a tug on my trousers. I stop and look down... Tenso. I sigh and immediately sense the other kids hiding behind the corner. "What do you kids wants?" I ask. Tenso grins and gestures towards the rest of the kids to come. They all squeal and run up to me. An irritated look blooms on my face and I crouch down to the kids and redo their clothes correctly. "Come on kids, put your clothes on properly. Don't you know how hard it is to get clothes like these?" I say, swiping some dirt off their shirts. The Kireha wore pretty similar things.

Since we valued speed over all, we tried to keep our clothes as close to our bodies as possible. So the basic outfit was some loose pants and bandages attached to the ends and top and usually mid way too so that there would be less air resistance. More often than not, bandages were used as tops. Women would bind their chest with bandages, men could as well but didn't need to, and then they wore a dark cloak that reached the hips. The clothes we wore were pretty unsaturated, so we could easily blend with the background. I wore the typical pants and binded my chest, but I still wore a special metal shirt Soke made me as a protective gear. Then for shoes, it was binded sandals... we were searching for better footwear.

"Yasu, help us with our training!" Remu squealed, taking one arm. I positioned my twin tanto's behind my back correctly so they wouldn't touch the kids. "Kin-sensei is teaching you guys and you all just started to forge. Besides, knowledge is power. Read at the library." They all gave me disgusted looks. Kids will be kids. Tenso grabbed my other arm, "We want to be strong like you! Fast and seeing everything!" I let out a sigh and stand up, pulling both arms up to pull the two brats off the ground. They squeal in excitement and hang on tightly.

I start to calmly walk towards my place. The rest of the kids circle-walk around me. "Please Yasu! Give us tips! Kin is super boring! Bleh!" I laugh, Kin is rather boring. But I bet he's just very tired by there energetic kids. After having someone like me, it's understandable. I sigh when another kid managed to jump and latch on my arm. "I won't be able to walk if you all grab on my arm," I say monotonously. "Liar! You're walking like we're nothing..." I chuckle.

"Ne ne, Yasu, I wanna summon big waterfalls, can we do that?!" I hum a the kid's question. Can you indeed? Kireha weren't exactly known for ninjutsu or genjutsu. We were mainly known for our taijutsu and kenjutsu. This was mainly because of our rather small chakra reserves, it's unwise to directly use our chakra just like it's down for ninjutsu. But we do know the essentials, like walking on water, walls, ceilings. Actually, because of our small reserves, we were quite good at handling chakra, hence the usual chakra coating we used on our weapons. Of course, it was possible to increase our chakra reserve and we could use ninjutsu and genjutsu, we had a few Kireha scrolls on them... but they were not our forte. Me, for example, I couldn't do ninjutsu very well. Or well, I could do small scale ninjutsu's well, but not chakra consuming ones. It was because of my extremely sensitive nature to chakra. But I could easily detect it if someone put a genjutsu on me, which is always a plus.

In was becoming annoying because many compared us to samurais, which we are not. Samurais are strictly binded to swords and are never associated to chakra. While we, very much, use chakra. And we're a lot nicer than them. And more flexible. And open. And simply better.

"Sure you can, but you need to train lots for that," I finally end up saying. "but it's not our forte, you know that right?" He hums, slightly sad. The kids have turned silent then. Looks like that was the question on everyone's mind. I let out a small sigh. I crouch down and drop the three kids that hung on my arms. "Alright kids, I'm going to tell you a secret, alright?" They suddenly lighten up and look at each other in delight. I chuckle and reach behind me to grab one of my twin swords. I hold it in my right hand and hold it horizontally for the kids to see it.

"We the Kireha, are known for our beautiful swords," I begin. I pour some of my chakra in it, making the sword have a blueish glint to it. They all 'woo' at it, as if that was amazing. "We use chakra to coat our swords and weapons. It makes it stronger and sharper." I coat it even more, making my twin sword seem longer and thicker, "For this, you need to manage your chakra well. To balance your energies..." I then close my eyes.

Then I hear a few gasps. I smirk and chuckle.

I open my eyes and I am greeted by my twin sword, coated in light blue by my chakra. But even better, my hand is tinted blue just like my chakra, vines of chakra reached down my arm, beautifully engraving my skin like moving blue tattoos. I keep my hand in front of them and move my left hand to take my twin tanto. They gasp once more when they see that the coating of the tanto stayed in place while the tanto left. It was as if the ghost of the tanto stayed behind in the form of chakra. I grabbed the chakra tanto and stood up.

"We can create with out chakra and solidify it," I whisper to them. I could feel the blue vines of chakra crawl all over my body. It started to reach my cheek. The kids looked at me in amazement. They were speechless. I laugh and immediately cancel it and put my twin back in it's holder on my back. The blue tattoo like vines vanished and the awe struck looks on the kids' faces were swiped off and they immediately started to shout at how they wanted to learn that.

I sported a proud grin and patted their heads. "Once all of your master water walking and the art of creating katanas, I will teach you all. Until then, listen to your teachers."

x

I walked in my house. The sun was setting and I was extremely tired. "Ah, finally home Yasu!" I hear Shouta say. I shrug off my sandals and walk towards the lounging area. I see him there... looking less pale. I smile at him and sit next to him. "Do you need help bandaging Shouta?" I eyes the bandages on his leg and stomach. He shakes his head, "I'm fine, I'm fine." We both stay in silence.

"You know Shouta, I realized something today," I say to him. The lounging area had a low table with mats as seats, but best of all, there was a sliding door to open so that we could access the shared garden. "Yeah?" he says back patiently, a tranquil smile on his face. I hum. "When I showed the kids the clan's bloodline limit," to give context. I was rewarded with a gentle smack of paper to my head. I look at him and see him have an amused look on his face, "You're not allowed to show kids the bloodline limit until they finish the first phase of training," he lightly scolds. I smirk and shrug.

"They would have figured it out anyways," I say.

"While everyone in this clan is quite different," I start, "it's amazing how harmonious we are. Sure, we have our arguments and different specializations... and while I can say our bloodline limit it beautiful... as corny as it sounds..." I smile, "I kind of think Kireha as a whole is beautiful..."

I laugh and an embarrassed blush appears on my cheeks, "Do you think that's why the word 'kirei' sounds so close to 'Kireha?'"

Lets clear stuff up.

First. Kirei [Japanese] = Beautiful [English] (apparently it means neat as well... ok)

Second. "If I ever hear you speak of Mimi or Shouta in such a tone, I'll be extremely disappointed in my clan." Why is she disappointed in the clan, and not just Rotu? It makes more sense to blame his stupid behavior on him, right? Well consider this. If the whole clan if blamed for the doings of one person, that one person will feel 219470 times worse, because people got dragged in his problem. And the fact that Yasu, the prodigy, is disappointed in him, is a pretty huge deal.

A chapter to give more context about the Kireha!

21 - April - 2018

Tsuki