Aruji's POV

I smiled at my old partner, sitting down in front of him as he stared at me in slight shock. When he finally opened his mouth, he gave me a look as if he'd just seen a ghost… Which he kind of had. "Y-You're dead… S-Shinuhi-sensei killed you…"

I chuckled lightly at Tokama's statement, one that sounded oddly like a question. "Well, Shinuhi-sensei thought he killed me… A little Genjutsu work from Kaja-chan, and one of my shadows willing to take a few shards of glass for me, and Kaja-chan and I were able to make our escape… Of course, that cut our gennin team down to just you, but it was worth it."

The shadow nestled in the man's hair cooed happily, swirling down to sit on the man's shoulder, jumping off onto the man's shadow, where it disappeared completely. "Ahh, I see my little friend still remembers you…"

Tokama merely grunted, snapping his jaws at the shadow as it passed his shoulder, attempting to break free from his restraints. "Yea? I see your little friend's are still incredibly stupid, and annoying. I don't want the thing living in my shadow, call it back."

I raised an eyebrow at his last statement, snapping my fingers as I created another shadow on my shoulder. "Come now To-kun, is that anyway to treat an old friend? Haven't you missed me even a little? After all this time? Where's the 'Hello Aruji! Nice to see you again?'" I shook my head incredulously, resisting the urge to be upset with the man.

After all, what were friends for, if not forgiving their friends? I paced in front of the man, deciding that I would have to get the conversation moving since he didn't want to. "In answer to the questions you're too rude to ask, Kaja-chan is doing fine, got a nice cushy job in Barashi, I on the other hand am upset. You see, I go to all the trouble of building a village, creating it with my own two hands… Then Iwagakure Shinobi decide to raid it, several of them from your clan."

I pulled a chair up, sitting down in it as I looked at the man, dangling the forehead protectors from one finger as I did. I knew how Tokama felt about beating around the bush, so I figured getting straight to the point would be more fun. "Now, tell me… old friend. Why is that? Why did Iwagakure attack my village?"

Tokama merely shrugged, giving exactly the response I expected. "How should I know? Probably missing-nin." I nodded at this, standing as I moved forward, cracking my knuckles loudly. Well, I wasn't going to hit him, but my shadow was placed in the right way to wreak havoc on the man.

It was at this point however, that Hoseki leaned forward to whisper into my ears. "Sir, Uchien is here to see you, he said you'd need his help.." I shook my head in slight anger, wondering why no one ever did what they were told…. Still, Uchien was right as always.. his help was welcome here. I nodded my head, as Hoseki went off to find the former Samurai... We'd taught him a few Shinobi techniques, and as it was he was the best interrogator we had besides Yakuma.

Speaking of Yakuma, I wondered how he was faring… He was stuck working with Masuta, and I had ordered Masuta to go all out… Could get ugly, and Kamu's owls would have reached them by now… I turned to my guest, who was currently wringing the neck of my shadow, bowing lightly. I placed my hand down, the shadow detaching itself from Tokama and climbing my arm to sit on my shoulder, pouting slightly.

I knew full well it'd wanted to attach itself to Tokama, and I couldn't have that… Splitting my shadow was a bit painful, and I'd already attached too many of them to the people I loved… Once attached to someone's shadow, my shadow's would live off of that person's chakra, and continue on even after I died… But if I were to die, my shadow would be attached to that person until they died… Even if they didn't want to be…

Even so, sometimes they managed to attach to someone before I could stop it… Kasumi and Arikasa for instance… Of course, the two of them had been thrilled at the thought of having their own personal pet shadow… They'd even stopped calling them shadows, deciding it was wrong to compare them to an ordinary shadow. 'They have feewings' Arikasa said, 'they're people'… Such annoying views…

Ridan didn't want people treating her servants like pets… She didn't want people ignoring them, but the shadows were spies, informants, one of a Ridanists most useful techniques…. Naming one of them was just… wrong…

Still, not much I could do about it.. I wasn't gonna make my own son part with his best friend… He'd named the shadow Taiyo… I'd tried taking it from him once, and he'd burst out crying… And Kasumi… The look she'd given me, I wasn't going to be trying to get little Kaguyaku from her again. Of course, I can't really blame them… They knew each shadow was basically a piece of me, and they also knew that no matter what happened to me the shadow was stuck with them… Knowing I'd always be with them, I couldn't justify taking that away.

And so my life went, I was always slightly incomplete… No matter how many of my shadows I gathered to return to my original shadow, those two would always be missing… For a Ridanist to be missing part of their shadow…. Well, that was almost criminal.

Oh well, I could worry about my missing pieces later, for now the safety of Barashi and my family depended on what information I could gather from Tokama, and later my old sensei, Shinuhi. If Iwa really did wish to wage war on Barashi, then things would get difficult soon, and even I couldn't say who would win.

Barashi was a fortress, nearly impossible to enter without the permission of the Guardians, the Shinobi who stood watch over the four gates… Settled in a natural basin, cliffs surrounded Barashi on every side… Yakuma had dug four paths down from the cliffs towards Barashi, and those formed the four gates, the walls of Barashi later being formed to watch each of the four paths.

An entire mile separated Barashi from the cliffs edge, and the walls were high enough that the basin could be flooded without having to worry about drowning citizens. From there, Yakuma's summons would flood the entire basin with electricity, and the only assault that would work was an aerial assault, which was Kamu's specialty…

Such was the way of my village. However, such defense did admittedly come at a price. No one was able to leave or enter the village without my say so, the risk of civilians being hurt was too high. Once a Shinobi joins with Barashi, the only time they leave is when they go on missions, or when they escape on their own strengths… Barashi was both a fortress and a prison.

It was a difficult adjustment for most Shinobi, but it was necessary…. Barashi had been built for a purpose after all, one that I'd kept from the others for the longest time… Only myself and my fellow Ridanists knew my true purpose in settling down and leading a village…

Before I could continue the thought, a loud clinking drew my attention, and I raised my head to meet the feral gaze of a puppet. It was an ordinary enough puppet, with the head being that of a hawk… "Uchien… So nice to see you here, I assume your division is prepared?"

The puppet bowed lowly, raising it's head as it began to speak, it's voice coming out in a melodic tone one would expect from a human. "Of course Aruji-sama, we are ready to strike at Iwa on your signal. The second puppet shell division will not fail in it's mission."

Of course, there came the other quirk Barashi had… The Puppet shell technique. Using this technique we could seal a person's soul into a puppet, and they would then become the puppet, the puppet replacing their old body… They were granted immortality, at the price of a human form. Not everyone would volunteer to join the puppet shell divisions, and I would not force them. Still, the durability of the puppet shell's, along with the various hidden mechanisms they could be used with were deadly, and they still kept their chakra. They formed the backbone of my army, and were crucial to the survival of the village…

I bowed in return to Uchien, smiling as I did. "I know you won't Uchien-san, the second puppet shell division has never given me reason to doubt it, and until it fails I will continue to have faith in it. Now, I believe you wanted to help gather intel? You will find our guest down that way… Do what you must, but do not let him know you're doing it."

Uchien turned his head to the side to stare at me at this, and I could only hazard a guess at what he was thinking. Still, as far as I could tell he wouldn't question me, he'd never done so before, probably just wondering why I was so worried about gathering intel secretly…. Well, he deserved to know that much at least. "Tokama-san is an old friend, and has saved my life on many occasions… We recently interrupted a fight between him and an Akatsuki member by the name of Deidara, and once we've established whether or not Iwa intends to attack us, we will return him to them. Best that the Shinobi of Iwa don't think we tortured their comrade."

Uchien nodded at me slowly, plucking his sword from it's sheath and placing it on the table. He was known as the puppet master of the heart, and was able to influence someone's emotions with a few simple words, as well as a powerful Genjutsu. Lying to him was nearly impossible, and only Yakuma was better at getting the truth, albeit in a more disturbing way.

Still, Uchien was another threat… Just like Kamu, his sword was more than it appeared to be at first glance, and I was always keeping an eye on him as well… A shadow literally living inside of him, hiding inside the hollow body that was his puppet shell. Uchien didn't make a single move that I didn't know about…

He and Kamu had come to me at the same time, seeking protection from their respective homes. I could only assume they'd worked together to gather their weapons as well, though whether they had the full set or just the three even I couldn't say… I would need to watch them, if other such powerful weapons existed, I would need to gather them for Barashii.

With Uchien interrogating Tokama, there was really nothing for me to do but wait.. Wait and maybe gather a few more trinkets for my dear Kasumi-chan…. She was always complaining about her jewelry going missing, though I have no idea what she wanted me to do about it. Arikasa digs up one necklace and suddenly I'm not allowed to leave my own home without emptying my pockets… it was an outrage!

Still, not something I would tell Kasumi… She'd cut me… I didn't like being cut.. Best to play it safe. Get her some more jewelry, maybe that would fix it… Making a few hand seals, I placed my hand on the ground in the shadow of a tree, frowning slightly. "Shadow Recall!" A cloud of smoke poofed out around my hands, and a shadow stood on my palm, looking around before frowning at me.

It stared for a few moments, once again looking around as if trying to find out where it was. With a loud humphing noise, it climbed onto my shoulder, flicking my nose angrily. "Aruji-san, I was about to get a shiny, why'd you have to bring me here! You owe me a shiny! I want a shiny!" Grabbing another coin, I flicked it to the shadow, who scrambled around and placed it in my kunai pouch, hiding it away in case anyone might try to steal it's shiny.

It's toll having been paid, the creature ran onto my shoulder once more, tugging on my ear curiously as I set off towards the village. "Aruji-sama, where are we going?" I smiled at the creature, waving it's hands off of my ear as I made several hand seals. "We're going to find some nice shiny things for Kasumi-chan, so that maybe she'll forgive me for misplacing her jewelry. Shadow Veil." As the shadows enveloped us, hiding us from view, the Shadow on my shoulder frowned, unhappy at the thought of collecting a shiny for someone else.

The shadow started whining about finding Kasumi more jewelry, until I clamped my hand over it's mouth, silencing it and causing it to begin pouting. I wasn't usually mean to the shadows like this, only when my subordinates were around, couldn't have them think I was going soft. And the amount of times I complained about Kasumi and Arikasa treating the shadows like pets, I was always a bit rough on them around them as well… Still, this shadow needed to be silent, the girl we were going to borrow jewelry from wasn't exactly the forgiving type, and very attached to her jewelry for some reason. Something about good luck charms, I didn't quite remember. Not that it mattered, you couldn't keep the master thief from stealing your jewelry, it couldn't be done… When I set out to steal something, it was already as good as gone.