I do not own Naruto, Dragon Age (minor, not to a degree warranting a crossover status (in my opinion) nor any other element that may arise in this story. I'm fairly sure that has well been established at this point... In any case, this story is for entertainment purposes only. Why else would it be in FanFiction?
Answer me that, I dare you! (Supreme glare (OF DOOM)!)
Of consequences: From it an Empire
Chapter Six: The worries of a reclusive
Naruto's abode, Yonzo Province
Weeks passed since the 'kidnapping' incident had occurred. Thankfully life went back to normal almost instantly the moment it was all 'explained away' with the story of having to perform an emergency visit to a sick patient in another village. Though true, for certain reasons, a fair bit of it was... edited for their sake, to protect them through their own ignorance should certain questions be asked... And as much as Naruto tried not to think about it, in true fashion he just couldn't help but think of her reasoning as he found himself spending more and more time within the village rather than his isolated home in the woods.
Be it in the name of their own ambition, their greed, their religion if it ever was an issue to begin with, war was an unfortunate pastime for the powers that be. Sadly the tale belonging the late daimyo of Yama was but another page at best in the very long and bloody book that was the overall history belonging to the lands west of the Elemental Nations. Wanting to expand his territory, the Daimyo of Yonzo attempted to invade Shiki to claim their renowned forging techniques to better equip his own samurai for further expeditions in the provinces beyond Shiki. But like everyone in the West, they, Shiki, were too accustomed to war and conflict to be easily conquered. As such they resisted and even repelled Yonzo only to enter a stalemate that would last for years no matter how aggressive or masterfully planned each assault was for either side of the conflict. It was not to last forever however. As the war dragged out from months to years the other lords from the other lands began to take interest with the two warring provinces and their weakening armies. While some marshaled their own armies in preparation for hostile takeovers of their own, others took more... subtler means to eliminate the opposition. As such the late lord of Yonzo was assassinated. By whom was up for debate as there was little in the way of evidence, especially since almost every province had its own band of shinobi duty bound to serve its particular daimyo. It was of popular opinion however that the late lord's son, the current Daimyo of Yonzo, was the one who had him murdered, though again there wasn't much in the way of evidence.
Regardless, with the previous lord's death, Akihito, the current lord, ascended to the position of Daimyo. It was with his ascension that rather... drastic changes began to occur. Other than ending the war, one which Shiki begrudgingly withdrew from as well to favor their defenses, his first order of business was to banish the samurai once employed by the previous daimyo. While the official reasoning was that it was a 'condition' placed upon by Shiki as Yonzo 'lost' the war, a fact the country's samurai were all too happy to argue with, perhaps playing in part as to why they were outlawed within their own homeland in the first place, it was said that even before Akihito's own Grandfather assumed the position of Daimyo of Yonzo that most of the gold Yonzo had accrued had been spent on the country's samurai army; armor, weaponry, arrows and even horses were not made freely no matter how generous the smiths, the fletchers and breeders were. Without that army there was only a a considerable amount of gold to hoard, and Akihito had a love for gold that he shared with no one, not even family.
With a number of their 'neighbors' beginning to encircle them and their 'lord' being more concerned with luxury than the safety of his domain, what samurai that hadn't been driven out of Yama and even the entirety of the resident shinobi clan had rallied underneath the erstwhile lord's daughter, Akihito's sister, Rei. Yet Akihito was not one to be deposed so easily and thus did not remain idle: in lieu of samurai he had legions of ashigaru, foot soldiers of common birth, raised to 'police' and 'protect' the land. Though nowhere near as fundamentally dangerous as even the poorest of samurai, and their armament cheap even by other daimyo's standards, they were easily more numerous than samurai. And with a bow and arrow, arguably more dangerous than one too in thanks to such numbers. Yet they weren't the real problem: to better combat a civil war and to keep his coin, Akihito had struck a deal with Wakai to make use of their own army to keep Yonzo's enemies at bay. More importantly, along these samurai he had also bartered for their own shinobi to be at his beck and call with one purpose in mind: to kill Rei to ensure his rule was uncontested should she ever produce a heir before him.
As such what would be a rebel army and their princess went into hiding. But it would not last forever.
Like Yonzo, Wakai had its own host of opportunistic warlords who saw an opportunity in its weakened defenses. Worst of all, for Wakai at least, some of them couldn't be bought off with the surplus of slave soldiers and workers as was Wakai's trade. And with Akihito being more 'concerned' with his own trade with Shiki, foodstuffs sold at exorbitant rates since the proud warriors and smiths were almost constantly under siege from other countries in recent years, their fields burnt to starve them out, it was only a matter of time before the samurai from Wakai were pulled back along with the majority of their assassins to fight the inevitable war up north. When that happened it was only to be expected that Rei's forces would emerge once more. More to the point, after so many years of suffering under Akihito, it would be an open revolt once the villages caught wind of the missing force from Wakai.
Until then it was but a waiting game...
Naruto wasn't honestly sure how he felt about it.
Having essentially lived it, he saw the ugliness and horror war can bring, at least on a 'small' scale if nothing else. Even now, in spite of everything, he shuddered at the thought of 'what if' should Nagato not done what he did with the populace's resurrection. He honestly wasn't sure if he could even survive the fact that Konoha was utterly obliterated regardless of what happened if Nagato hadn't brought everyone back. As such there was more than a sizable part of himself that wanted to help: To take to the front lines, to do dangerous missions and beat everyone else up to a pulp if it meant to protect the quasi-family that was growing on him. Yet if he was honest with himself, another chunk of himself didn't want to: He served his own village rather well over the years if he did say so himself, never mind the naysayers and actual crap he pulled. At the end though he was disowned as a shinobi, nearly executed for wandering too far to investigate a mysterious glint, and then ruthlessly hunted down by almost every mercenary, rogue and odd shinobi village imaginable for four weeks. Even if he utterly ignored all of that, even in passing he heard some of the villagers recount the horrible tales of Elemental Shinobi crossing over only to reap havoc to destabilize the countries in the western lands and incite war. Some made it even clear they had never hoped to meet one, ever... it didn't take a genius to figure out that if he did join, even if he was as far as he could be from his potential allies, if there was so much as one scratch to forcibly negate his henge then the repercussions from word of mouth alone would likely force him out of Yonzo entirely given that everyone in Yama knew where he lived; it was amazing how fast news bad news can travel.
Still, with the forces of Wakai guarding the borders for now the civil war was... stymied, for now. Whatever bridge he'll cross would come later along with it. For the time being he could simply enjoy the quiet life in the village, the literal fruits of his labors, when they arrived of course, vegetable/fruit argument not withstanding! And of course... building traps.
While the coming and assured war was a fair distance away, time-wise at least, bandits were a real problem as evidenced by the day of his arrival. Unfortunately some of these bastards were once the very samurai pledged to the previous Lord of Yonzo while others, much like 'himself', supposedly slipped in through the cracks littering the defensive encampments meant to bar out armies rather than small groups. Without a proper army barely consisting more than barely organized units ambling about the countryside, if ever, and Wakai content with simply acting as a deterrent toward invasion, Yonzo was ripe for abuse by raiders. Worse yet it seemed the current daimyo was perfectly willing to let them roam the countryside and stealing from the food stores as it provided him with 'ample' reasoning toward 'punishing' the villages by selling their kinfolk to Wakai whenever they couldn't provide their tribute...
With so many villages now abandoned as their residents had been sold off or else slain by one or the other, only an absolute fool wouldn't expect resentment to build throughout the entirety of the country.
Hoping to forestall an open rebellion till Wakai was forced to retreat, Rei, at great risk to herself, had ordered the majority of the Banten to hunt down the bandits and hopefully return what they had stolen in time. However given that they had to stay out of sight as much as possible their ability to conduct such operations in broad daylight was limited at best. Not only that but, as Naruto managed to observe by sheer luck no less as they had taken a keen interest in staying hidden from him in thewir own observations of the rogue shinobi, they interestingly couldn't run along the trees unlike himself and countless others back in the Elemental Nations. He could only scratch his head as to why that was.
At any rate however, with them being stretched thin between trying to protect the citizens and guarding the princess, he took it upon himself to help them, in his own way of course. To that end he had taken it upon himself in learning the more immediate layout of his surroundings.
By foot just about any other village would be half a day's trip to get to, even then there was only two officially known villages in 'walking' distance. To reach one a person had to wander straight through the surrounding forest and its hills to reach it whilst the other a person could find simply by using the only remaining dirt road they had. Neither of which he had visited yet at any rate. As for Yama itself, while theoretically an attack could come from anywhere in any direction, if the bandits themselves were mounted then they would follow the road for a stretch much like they had done so before. While he couldn't rig anything to cover an open expanse like that, or rather nothing that wouldn't potentially jeopardize one of the villagers if and when they expand their farmland down the line. The same could be said for the forest if he wanted to keep his identity a secret. Sadly the only effective counter measures he could think of that would allow him to keep his secret however were clones disguised as wildlife patrolling the forest and digging shallow trenches along the open field so to not arouse too much suspicion by the villagers and the extreme few visitors the village received; other than the merchant who popped up every other week, on a weekly basis at least one person visits from either village just to swap news.
It was almost depressing that he was limited to basically two options...
Still, with no better option in sight that wouldn't interfere with his neighbors, he got to it when night had fallen where the least amount of eyes were upon him. If he were honest though he was progressively regretting the clone option however: awake or asleep, it was a headache and a half when half a night's worth of information from his patrols came screaming back to him. On a side note he was beginning to wonder in his spare time whether or not that this was the reason none of the Hokage's ever bothered with the use of shadow clones for paper work. If it was then he wouldn't blame them in the least! On another side note Fujiko, while fairly understanding and even a little grateful for his newfound efforts toward protecting the village, was beginning to get annoyed by his increasing requests for painkillers in this particular regard.
In the end though he honestly hoped it was enough. And that the war, when it came, would be over long before he felt a choice was upon him.
"Gnnn..."
... provided of course Fujiko doesn't (nonlethaly (hopefully) poison him first after the umpteenth request for their equivalent of aspirin of course.
XVX
Night
"Bing!"
Against his will he woke up in his futon, wide eyed and awake. Thankfully it wasn't from the nightly barrage of memories either from a dozen or so clones popping out of existence this time. No, the problem was much closer to home in the literal sense as announced by the sharp chime of a metal bell he had scavenged being struck.
While he was stumped in regards toward protecting Yama without risking his identity from being exposed, his house was another story should worse come to worst: Trip wires, pitfalls, homemade and debatably effective poison tipped darts (nonlethal of course in the event someone from Yama was visiting, courtesy of Fujiko once more), even swinging log traps just to name a few that he had made with his own two hands with his limited supplies on hand. Best yet is that if anyone from the village ever bothered to ask, he could simply wave it off as trying to protect himself from the seldom seen patrols that seemingly forgotten the road his house was on. At any rate however he had only so much time on hand to determine whether or not he actually has intruders lurking in the bushes behind his house or if someone from Yama was rushing to their potential and figurative doom if he didn't deactivate the traps before then.
"GAAAH!"
Too late.
Groaning, he sedately pushed himself out of bed as it readily became more and more apparent that not only was the first victim with friends but they were activating the other traps as well. None of which were (deliberately) lethal of course, just in case. It wasn't like him rushing to the scene would've stopped them, the traps and the people, at any rate. As such by the time he opened the back door, after disguising himself of course, he was treated to the brilliancy of the moon, the stars, and, interestingly enough, five of the Banten shinobi caught in various traps, three of whom knocked out by the darts. One of the five was caught in the classic snare trap and the last one sounded like they were trying to climb out of a revealed pit. Overall this would probably be the third time they were trying to spy on him, as far as he knew at least.
"... You know it's kind of late for this crap, right?" he muttered with a groan just as the first wave of memories from the patrol routes began to filter in. As much as he wanted to question the jumbled mess of hours worth of knowledge he learned soon enough that more than enough nightly predators had attacked his clones when they disguised themselves as animals during their nocturnal patrols to keep him from assuming the worse right off the bat any more.
"Just get us out of here, foreigner," the one caught in the snare seethed with narrowed eyes.
Naruto's eyes squinted at him in response before flicking over to the man's leg for a kunai holster; though they haven't attacked him since learning of him that night, the hostile intent was perfectly clear during his brief encounters with them thus far. After a quick search it was clear the leg was void of any obvious weapons. His other leg was likewise bare. Even his hips were free of such armament which the Eastern shinobi found odd. Were they in a similar situation as himself in regards to supplies? Then again it wouldn't be the first time he was duped by an apparent lack of weaponry either, once more courtesy of the four hellish weeks he endured. As such he sighed and rubbed his face as he reluctantly drew out a kunai whilst still shifting through his migraine inducing memories—
... as messy as it was when two or more clones from different sections dispersed and returned their knowledge to him, it was apparent that it wasn't some badger or bear that got them by surprise this time.
"Gotta go!"
He didn't bother trying to explain himself as he threw the knife and jumped to the nearest tree he knew wasn't booby trapped on some level. He was even fairly sure he was halfway through his particular neck of the forest by the time the trapped shinobi fell to the ground. Regardless of where he was and how fast he was moving however he focused on only scene painted so vividly in the now mounting memories of clones and fresh fights, hidden away by the trees and brush that was blocking it. In moments he finally burst out from the woodland and into the open plain where a battle between his clones and a band of bandits was taking place, with the clones on the losing side.
Unable to reinforce themselves, honed skill and once dedicated training easily sliced through skirmisher experience whenever the rasengan wasn't in play. Even then when it was used though either a spear or a sword the clone was run through from an opening in its side as it blew away its intended enemy. And though they, the clones, were on the losing side, the silver lining however was that while they were fighting, and losing, to the band of bandits, not only were said bandits far enough away from the village to not be heard, much less seen clearly, but the horses were the first to go. As such only a few of the bandits were hoofing it to the village as oppose to fighting the clones. At any rate however Naruto quickly made some more clones who immediately drove themselves into the skirmish; a few of the newly made ones gave chase to the 'fleeing' bandits as Naruto himself headed into the thick of it.
When it was over, by the time dawn had come the only things left to tell tale that a battle had taken place were the hastily flattened patches of dirt from where bodies had viciously crashed into the earth, the abandoned shards of metal which hadn't been collected and the wild splashing of blood left to stain the grass for anyone with a discerning eye to see should they pass by.
XVX
With a hefty sigh Naruto cautiously trudged through his own field of traps in case a few of them were still armed as he rearmed the activated ones and covered the pit once more. The bandits had been easily dealt with once the clones utterly overwhelmed them. Sheer numbers had trumped what advantage they had over the clones they were originally battling against. And with his greater speed there were no stragglers to be had, thus safeguarding his secret a little longer. The only real pain from it all however was getting rid of the bodies, especially the horses which were beyond a shadow of a doubt heavier; while he kept a few to carve up and eat later, it didn't make the painful trek to the desert any better just to ensure no one found either the horses or the dead bandits. Making sure no weapons were left behind was a close second though given that he was working in the dark, even with clones. While he made damn sure no bodies were left behind so as to not arouse suspicion, he wasn't so sure if he picked up every last piece of weaponry that was intact or otherwise. With luck any weapon he did leave behind would be hidden away by the growing grass if no one was paying any special attention at the time.
With any further luck, seeing as he couldn't exactly keep it for himself since he neither knew how to properly wield such weapons, and giving them to the people of Yama might create some... issues, his offering of the collected weaponry to the Banten at their fort would help lessen their own hostility towards him... if nothing else then he hoped they won't turn around and kill him with said weapons. He wasn't going holding his breath about it though.
With the last of the traps set and a few positional adjustments for the next time the Banten came calling at night he finally sauntered back into the house. Once inside however he couldn't help but sense something was off. A quick but careful glance swept the room before rearing itself upward to see if someone had taken to hiding in the rafters above him. Thankfully there wasn't anyone there nor anything out of place...
Wait...
Squinting, he couldn't find his futon anywhere! Nor his kettle or even the skillet he used for cooking over the fireplace! There was even a floorboard out of-...
He immediately rushed toward it, moved it aside and looked into the impromptu hiding place where he kept his old gear...
It was missing too.
"YOU JERKS!"
A/N: As much as I hate it, it's kind of inevitable with every story: a filler, passage, etc chapter. In all honesty I had something else in mind but... it felt not only rushed but was sadly cheesy to me as well.
For what it's worth I apologize if this feels a bit... underwhelming. I also hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.
Monkeybandit2, making off with your attention! No refunds. Doubly so for this chapter (cackles)!
