GUESS WHO'S BACK?

The Owl's Vengeance

Chapter Seven:

The Exams Begin, The Grip Tightens


Fire and smoke filled the air as the village burned. The night was black, almost as if it was foreshadowing the bleak fate of the village. She looked up in fear as her master ushered her away with the rest of the villagers. The nearby castle was smoldering, having finally fell after centuries of standing.

There was a metallic noise, some unholy fusion between a bird's wing flapping and the sound of blades striking. Her eyes were drawn to the highest peak of the castle, where she saw it.

A gleaming monstrosity stood atop the castle's summit. As it stretched it's wings, it's glowing yellow eyes flashed red for a minute.

It cut a sinister silhouette against the full moon, a demon hellbent on destruction. It flapped it's wing, beat the air into submission, and was gone.


Minato Namikaze, Fourth Hokage, looked up from his paperwork to see a surprising sight walk through his door.

"Shizune? I thought you were at the gambling tournament in Tanzaku Gai with Tsunade?" He asked, then got a good look at her.

Shizune's clothing was torn and burnt, like she had been caught on the outside of an explosion. Her hair was in disarray, and her eyes seemed haunted. She began to sway.

Realizing something was wrong, Minato ran from around his desk to grab her and guide her to a chair before she collapsed.

"What happened?" Minato asked as he signaled for one of his ANBU to get a medic, his tone a mix between worry and authority.

As the medic arrived and began to diagnose her, Shizune seemed to snap out of her fazed state and grabbed him by the collar.

"It's gone…" She whispered to him.

"What do you mean? What's gone?" Minato asked her, trying to keep her focused.

"Tanzaku Gai… it's gone…" Shizune, apprentice to one of the legendary Sannin, muttered in fear.

"What?! How?!" Seeing that Shizune was about to pass out, he reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her a little to try to get her attention, ignoring the medic's frown.

She muttered one word before collapsing into an uneasy sleep.

"Owl…"


Naruto Namikaze hadn't been in Konoha for quite a while. As a matter of fact, he hadn't been back since he left.

He remembered the events leading up to his leaving clearly. Him gathering his few friends, drawing up blueprints and plans, observing the guard patrols until having their routes memorized...

The night they broke free, ready to make their own destiny and change the world...

'How far we have come.' Naruto mused as his carriage pulled up to the main gate of Konoha. He made sure his hood was up and covering his face, as the barrier seals around the village would dispel and Transformations that passed the village perimeter.

Every year for the past 4 years since its creation, Ashtown had sent representatives to the Chunin Exams wherever they occurred. The official story is that they came to assess the shinobi sent by the Five Great Nations and the various smaller nations who attended for the purpose of seeing who is worthy of a contract.

Ashtown contracts were different from those of most shipping and weapon suppliers. Every year, Ashtown cleared their contract slate and sent a letter to the nations considered worthy of a contract. The various nations would then bid on the contract over a period of seven days. At the end of the time period, Ashtown would pick the best offer and grant them a majority contract.

A majority contract meant that the winning nation would receive an increased flow of high-quality arms from the forges of Ashtown, while the losing nations would be forced to accept a minor contract, with an accompanying lesser amount of goods. They wouldn't be happy about it, but would accept it regardless.

Some high-quality weapons are better than none, after all.

Naruto and the CLAWW Organization had been using the Annual Exams for another purpose, however. The Exams were a good way of getting into a village and blending in with the crowd, allowing operatives to take stock of the village's setup, defenses, and major landmarks. Of course, they had to be careful, as the villages were fully aware of the opportunity it presented for spies and infiltrators.

That is why the Ashtown Contract System was created in the first place, to allow operatives to enter the village under the guise of observing their defenses and ninja to assess who was worthy of the weapons they offered.

Admittedly, it wasn't often that Naruto himself actually did the ground work himself, but he felt that it was a special case. Konoha was going to be one of their first targets once the Plan began in earnest, and Naruto wanted to observe his dear sister as she struggled for her rank and life during the Chunin Exams.


All actions have consequences. For example, many years ago, some of Konoha's most prominent young ninja simply vanished without a trace, causing chaos to erupt among the teams who were suddenly absent one or more members.

As a result, the team that could have been among the great legends of the ninja world ceased to exist. In their place, new teams arose to fill in the ranks among the Leaf Shinobi. Today, after hardships and years of academy training, the new genin would take to the field and begin to prove their worth in the Chunin Exams.

It was into the Konoha Academy for the Shinobi Arts that they walked in. In another time, they might have been paired with different people, but now they were a team dedicated to watching each others back. They were the best of the best, full of spirit and fire.

They were also trembling a little at the glares they were receiving from the foreign ninja that had gathered in the room. Well, some of them were.

Kiba Inuzuka couldn't help but be a little afraid. Every foreigner in the room doubtlessly had at least ten times more experience. The fact that his dog Akamaru was cowering in his hoodie wasn't exactly helping his feelings either.

Behind him, his teammate was doing her best to remain unnoticed. Yakumo Kurama knew that she wasn't exactly the most physically intimidating person around, so she decided to try and keep a low profile. Despite her Jisseikatsu bloodline, she was a remarkably timid person 75 percent of the time.

Their third teammate, on the other hand, was glaring right back at the assembled foreigners, and had managed to force a few of them to look away. She was different from other members of the Konoha genin teams in that she was not a member of a major clan or apparently related to impressive ninja. In fact, she was an orphan abandoned on a doorstep as an infant with naught but a name.

Her name was Gogo Yubari, and she had torn through the academy records to become the strongest female genin to go through it since Kushina Uzumaki. Despite her impressive scores in the Academy, she didn't appear to be much. She appeared to be dressed as a standard schoolgirl, with the addition of a jacket lined with weapon pouches instead of normal lining.

The innocent-looking schoolgirl was glaring at the entire room with enough force to make a yak keel over dead. All in all, Team Eight struck a strange, contrary appearance that was equal parts non-intimidating and terrifying. It was into this that Team Nine walked in.

Things had changed forever when Rock Lee had vanished along with the other genin who had disappeared. Unfortunately for Neji and Tenten, things hadn't changed THAT much.

"HOW AMAZING! LOOK AT ALL THESE PEOPLE!" their teammate exclaimed upon seeing the room. All they could do was put their heads in their hands and sigh.

The latest of Might Guy's terrifying students was Joni Mo, a tall, thin, and bald man wearing a black suit jacket, black pant and shoes, a white shirt, a small mask that covered his eyes and nothing else. A bo staff was strapped to his back. Joni was considerably older than all of the genin there, despite having just been put on a team.

The full story as to why he was just now getting a chance at promotion was a mystery, but he had bonded almost instantly with Guy due to a similar mentality, and the sight of Joni and Guy getting emotional and hugging it out was a sight that was known to bring tears to the eye.

His placement on their team had crushed any hopes that Neji and Tenten had of getting a normal teammate.

Team Seven, meanwhile, had just arrived at the front door to the Academy. The three of them were fresh off their break and had mostly recovered from their adventure in Wave Country that had ended in a once sided, Nine-Tails fueled massacre. Sasuke had needed some alone time after experiencing flashbacks to the night of the Uchiha Massacre, while Sakura had required a bit of therapy to recover from the sight of her teammate murderizing everyone on the bridge.

Their teammate, Yoko Namikaze, had only just stopped having nightmares of that day thanks to the Nine-Tailed Fox inside her. She wasn't quite sure that she was ready for the exams, but wanted to put on a good show and to help her teammates and friends achieve their goals.

Before leaving the house, she had strapped the Stinger to her arm, as she had taken to calling it. It had been a gift from her brother, who she hadn't even remembered existed until then. The gift itself had raised a lot of questions. How did he get it? Where had he been this whole time? What happened that night?

It was Yoko's ambition to find out the truth, about her brother and all the others who had gone missing.


But while young, promising ninja from around the country gathered together to risk life and limb for a chance at promotion, other forces moved in much more sinister ways.

For example, the forces of Orochimaru, newly outfitted with weaponry from the finest forges in the shinobi world, began to consolidate with their new allies from Suna.

In the far off Land of Rain, the Red Dawn prepared to take the first steps towards the start of their plans.

And all around the world, the CLAWW began to tighten.


One aspect of this tightening grip could be found in Kiri, the Hidden Village of Mist and a place known for it's bloody history. Unlike many of the villages, Kiri had not been able to send any Genin to the Chunin Exams this year as they were still recovering from the end of a rather successful rebellion. The lack of manpower, even after both sides of the bloodline conflict had merged together, meant that the village couldn't risk sending forces out and leaving the village undefended.

Of course, as history has shown repeatedly, a lack of manpower among the reigning authority means that there is always room for darker elements to enter the equation. Several of those elements were meeting together, as a matter of fact.

In a dark room lit by a single, naked light bulb, forgotten to most, Choji Akimichi of the CLAWW Organization was meeting with one of the most influential people in the Kiri Underground. He was flanked by the Konohamaru Corps, who had been given express orders to stay silent throughout the whole meeting, as the man they were meeting with was not a person they wanted to annoy with the Corps attempts at being 'hip.'

The door opened, and eight large men walked in and took positions along the walls. They said nothing and made no sounds. All of them were muscular and tough, wearing identical black clothes with their hair cropped close to their heads, making them appear to have an almost identical appearance. Various forms of knives were secreted on various pockets, though some chose to wear them openly.

When the door opened again, three more figures walked in. Two of them were dressed similarly to the other eight figures, except that they had flak jackets over their black shirts. The jackets were scarred and torn, evidence of a hard life of use and abuse. One of them had a sword strapped to his waist, and the other had a bow and quiver slung over his shoulder.

The third figure, however, was very different from all the others. For starters, he was about a full head and shoulders shorter than his guards. In contrast with his monochromatic bodyguards, he was wearing a yellow shirt and dark green pants, with a pair of black sandals on his feet and a dark green jacket on top of everything else.

He had a considerably larger amount of hair than his guards, favoring a longer cut, but not too long. His hair was mostly a deep, russet red, with the ends a fine silver color that betrayed his older age than the other people in this room.

The face, though, was where he truly stood out from the others. His face was wrinkled, yet set like stone, with no laugh or smile lines, evidence of a hard lifestyle. His brown eyes were magnified by the glasses he wore, making him look like he gazed at the world through microscopes, magnifying every detail to see just how well he could exploit it.

This man was the power behind the Underground elements of Kiri, the man every criminal, large or small, deferred to. Nothing moved in this village without him hearing about it, and everything was done by his leave. He carried no weapons, because he did not need them.

His name was lost, for no one knew it, and if they did, they dared not speak it. Therefore, everyone called him by his chosen name, one that was used to taunt him in his younger years before he took the name for himself and made it terrifying.

They all called him Brick Top.

For a moment, the most powerful criminal in Kiri simply stared at Choji and his company, assessing them. For a moment, he said nothing.

Then he clapped his hands and stood out of the way as a few thugs brought in a table and two chairs. The furniture was quickly placed and the thugs retreated. Brick Top simply gestured for Choji to sit, which he did. Once both were seated across from each other, Brick Top clapped his hands again.

This time, only a single person entered the room, carrying a tray laden with a kettle, sugar cubes, and precisely one tea cup. He placed the tray on the table and quickly left the room. For a moment ignoring his guests, Brick Top assembled his perfect cup of tea in a series of quick, practiced motions. Before he drank it, he held the cup out to the guard with the sword, who quickly performed a series of hand signs and cast a jutsu that Choji assumed was to check for poisons.

Satisfied that all was well in the cup, Brick Top took a sip of the tea, sighing in relief. He continued to drink, taking several more sips until the cup was empty. He put the teacup down, almost mournful that it was empty, sighed, then looked up to Choji, who had remained appropriately silent throughout the whole exchange.

"Well? Whaddya got ta tell me thas so facking important?" asked Brick Top, who spoke in an unusual, thick accent that no one had ever been able to uncover the origins of. Clearing his throat, Choji began to speak.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with us, sir. I understand that you have a busy schedule, and-"

"You bet yer facking ass my schedules busy! I'm missin' my aft'noon pig feedin' fer this, so make it quick, boy!" Brick Top cut him off as he reached to refill his cup of tea from the kettle.

Choji bit off the sentence he had started, and, fully aware of what Brick Top meant by pig feeding, changed tactics.

"As you wish, sir. My organization is planning on setting up a business in Kiri, and we would like your help in getting it off the ground."

Brick Top paused as he was putting sugar cubes in the teacup. Sitting back in the chair, he rubbed his chin and looked at Choji for a minute. "Why come ta me 'bout this? I'm not exactly a facking realtor. 'Ead down ta the street and you'll fin' a decent real estate office. Lots a' pretty women too."

"Well sir, this business my organization and I have and mind isn't exactly 100 % legal. " Choji responded.

"Well a' course it isn't, boy! In the future, just spit it ou' an' cut to the chase 'fore I get annoyed! Now, wha' is it, and why should I 'elp you?" Brick Top said.

"What we are doing, sir, is opening a new nightclub down by the docks. We plan on attracting sailors, dock workers, ninja, and all sorts of people there." Choji said, bringing out a set of blueprints for Brick Top to examine.

He looked over the plans for a minute, then put them down and took a sip of tea. "Well, I ain' a facking architect, but that looks right an' propa. Howevea, I still fail ta see where I come inta this picture, boy."

"True, sir. The reason I am here before you is because of this." Choji said as he tossed a small bag on the table. The bag was clear plastic, and was filled with a red powder.

Brick Top looked at it quizzically for a second, then made a subtle hand motion. The guard with the bow grabbed the bag and examined it. After a minute of looking it over, he opened the bag and smelled it. After taking a sniff, he closed the bag and put it back down.

"Ain't no drug I've seen before, boss, an I've seen 'em all. Smelled like seasonin'." the guard said.

"Thank ye, Tomotsuu." Brick Top then turned back to Choji. "So, wha' the fack is it, eh? I've seen my share o' powder 'fore, and I ain' seen one like that eithea."

Choji replaced the bag in his pocket. "We call it Maindosupaisu. Something of our own creation. It passes all standard drug tests, and is virtually harmless. However, the stuff tends to stay in your system for a while, and it has an interesting effect on people."

Brick Top leaned forward. "Oh? An' pray tell, wha' might that effect be?"


"Are you ready, Eiji?" Shikamaru said as he looked up from his notes.

"Yes sir." he said as he finished strapping on the last parts of the suit.

"Alright then. Remember not to move too much at first this time. I don't want to build another suit again." Shikamaru reached out and activated a tape recorder.

"Experimental Flight Suit 7A. Test 1. So far, apart from a few incidents, results have been promising. The wings of the suit, a miniaturized version of those on the Clockwerk armor, have been enhanced with an extra Chakra Thruster on the bottom of each wing. In a bird's wing, this would be where the radiale, ulnare, and metacarpus all join. Also, as an added safety feature, a tensile, fireproof fabric has been stretched between the individual "phalanx" components of the wings to allow limited gliding in case of thruster failure. The final product will have a built in parachute as well.

"Additional control flaps have been placed on the back of the suit's thighs in order to facilitate more controlled maneuvers. The Chakra Batteries have been fully charged and the joints have been greased with a special, non-flammable non-freezing oil that I have created in order to increase movement and flexibility. All that remains is to test this version of the suit in terms of maneuverability and flight duration. A 4 inch thick cable has been attached to the suit to prevent accidental acceleration past testing parameters. Eiji, you may proceed."

Taking a deep breath, the burned man put on a set o goggles, then hit a button on the suit's stomach and triggered the thrusters. The wings strapped to his shoulder blades via the suit's cables and seals flared out in response to his arm movement and he slowly began to rise into the air. After rising about 5 feet off the ground, he shifted his arms again and his ascent stopped, leaving him hovering in place. Eiji performed some maneuvers to get a feel for the suit, and then slowly descended back down to the ground.

"How do you feel?" Shikamaru asked as he prepared to take notes.

"Well, those extra thrusters definitely helped get airborne faster, and the back flaps did help maneuverability considerably, but they have to be able to work simultaneously without me manually changing them individually. Also, I think we need to change the ignition button to a different location. The stomach is too much of an obvious target." Eiji said as he removed the suit and put it on a specially designed rack.

"I see what your getting at. I'll crunch some numbers and come up with something. Suit 7B should work a lot better." Shikamaru put away his notepad. "Before you go, Eiji, I have one last thing for you to test."

"Oh? Is the weapon done?" Eiji asked. Shikamaru responded by reaching behind him and pulling a tarp off of a workbench.

Carefully Eiji grabbed the weapon as Shikamaru ran through the specs on it. "It's just a prototype, but it should be effective. The seals on it convert your chakra into a Fire Style form, and at fully power it should have the effectiveness of a Great Fireball Jutsu. Take a look for yourself."

Shikamaru pressed a button and several training dummies rose from the floor. Taking careful aim, Eiji channeled his chakra into the weapon and pulled the trigger when he was ready.

A huge gout of flame roared out of the weapon's barrel and exploded against the targets, leaving nothing behind but ashes and some charred wood.

The burned man looked down at the smoking weapon.

"Oh, I like this!"

As Eiji gushed over his new toy, Shikamaru simply grinned and took some more notes.

'Firefly indeed.' he thought.


Jisseikatsu: (Real Life): The Kurama Clan's bloodline limit, capable of making Genjutsu into reality. It has the unfortunate tendency of driving it's users insane by manifesting a terrifying alter-ego in the user's mind.

Maindosupaisu: (Mind Spice): (?)

AN: Despite what It may appear, We are, In fact, not Dead. Real Life is Crap, lets Just Say. Expect more Updates in the future, along With a rework of the New League, which I, Z, Have such Plans for.

Until Then.

-Z