Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from Naruto manga or anime isn't mine.
Author's Note: I'm glad to announce that I only have 1 more exam to pass! And for the ones who thought that 'Haiku' was 'Haku' in previous chapter but I misspell the name, you're wrong! Haku isn't one of Sora group members. He's with Zabuza. Haiku is an OC of mine. Because there would be many OCs soon, I would give you a list of them later (and it would be useful for me too, so I won't forget them).
Oh and yeah, Naruto himself won't have any relationship with the Konoha rookies. He's way older than them and he's the leader of Soragakure, what would he do with a rookie shinobi? About Naruto's pairing, it would be a NarutoOC, though I haven't finalized my touch on this OC. In the next chapter, I will reveal Naruto's family.
Chapter Eleven
A sixty year old man was leaning heavily on his desk, hand cupping his chin, sighing. He was having a headache dealing with the bad things happened on his country, especially after that criminal lord, Gatou, came, and took over Wave's way of communication. He had set aside precious money needed for building a bridge that could connect Wave top island and main continent, that hopefully could make his country flourish. But of course Gatou had to make things difficult for them.
Last time he heard, the bridge builder, Tazuna, went to Konoha to ask for help 12 days ago. To be honest, he doubted that it would work. The money the could gather was only enough for a C-class mission, which meant that they could only afford genin team that most probably not enough to deal with the thugs and shinobi Gatou hired.
A knock on his door snapped him out of his reverie. "Rokuonji-sama."
"Enter," the Wave daimyou straightened himself. It wouldn't do to let anyone, even if it was his subordinate, his weak posture. His assistant entered the moderate looking office, looking uncertain. The daimyou frowned and sighed. "What now?"
"There are some people asking for your audience, waiting in the hall."
"Who?" he looked intrigued.
"They said they were the representatives from… Sora group."
"That mercenary group?" he paled. Did Gatou hired them to assassinate him, thinking that he was of no use? He shook his head, denying it. If they did were hired to kill him, they would do it secretly, not asking for his presence. "Do you know what they want, Kazuo?" his assistant shook his head. The daimyou sighed once again. "Tell them, I will be there later after I finish with this papers," he tilted his head toward a small stack of paper.
Kazuo nodded and exited the office, leaving his superior staring at the paper in obvious discomfort. Rubbing his forehead, Rokuonji proceeded to stamp the papers, his mind wandering toward his guests and their supposed intention.
5 minutes later, he stood up from his couch and walked toward the hall where his guests were supposed to wait. His guards bowed as he entered the hall. The daimyou's eyes swept pass the room, scanning it. There were 3 strangers sat on the chairs, so they must be the representatives. Rokuonji counted his guards. There were only 5 of them, 2 guarding the entrance where he entered, 2 on the front entrance and 1 beside him. He doubted they could stop them if they decided to attack. With a resignation, the old man sat on his chair.
For a moment, no one spoke. Each side inspected the other. The 3 supposed members of Sora group stood from their chairs. His guards tensed, but they didn't make any threatening move. His guests were all male. In the left was a silvery blonde haired man. His hair reached past his shoulder to his waist. A fang shaped earring adorned his right ear. His soft blue eyes and light hair looked contrast against his dark clothes. A long thin sword strapped on his waist. His arms crossed casually. If Rokuonji didn't know better from his experience, he would think of him as a pretty woman at first glance. Despite his casual stance and indifferent eyes, he knew that the silver haired man was alerted to any suspicious move.
The man in the right was shorter and looked younger. His hair was white that reached his shoulder blade. There were 2 red dots on his forehead. He didn't see any weapon or pouch strapped on his white clothes, but Rokuonji knew not to underestimate him. The white haired man stood close to the last man, as if guarding him (AN: sorry guys, but I don't remember Kimimaro's eye color).
The last man, the one in the middle, was taller than both of his companions. His spiky blonde hair looked contrast with his tanned skin. Two weapon pouches strapped on both thighs, indicating that the man was ambidextrous. He wore blue shirt with black pants and trench coat colored black outside and dark red inside that wasn't strapped by belt. His blue eyes stared right on his own brown eyes. The man looked…familiar. It was as if he had seen him before, but couldn't place it.
"Welcome to my humble abode," Rokuonji said, not entirely wrong on it, since his place wasn't really impressive for a daimyou like him. "What can I help you with?" he asked carefully.
The three men bowed respectfully. A weight in the daimyou's shoulder was lifted. It seemed that they didn't come here to kill him. "We're the representatives of Sora mercenary group. My name is Kazama Sora, the leader of our group. Beside me," he looked at the white haired man, "is my guard, Kaguya Kimimaro. And in my right (though it was in the left side if it was from daimyou's point of view) is Yutsu Raido, the head of Investigation in our group. We come here to make a proposal that I'm pretty sure advantageous for your country."
Rokuonji's mind stopped working when he heard the names. He recognized the 2 of the 3 surnames. Kaguya was the name of a shinobi clan that was supposedly wiped out by Mist shinobi years ago when they assaulted the dominant hidden village of Water country. It seemed the news wasn't right, since there was still a member of that bone user clan stood in front of him. Kazama however…now he remembered why the blonde man looked familiar. He had seen the face in a meeting 15 years ago among the numerous daimyous and hidden villages' leaders. The man in front of him had a face that resembled the face of the fourth leader of Konoha, Kazama Arashi. Same surname, similar face. He wondered if this man was a lost twin of yondaime, but that was impossible, because if that was true the man in front of him should be in his forty not around thirty. Still there was a probability that the man was Konoha's previous leader's relative.
Rokuonji snapped out of his thought, when he realized that he was staring at them. He pushed his questions about their name later after he knew what they wanted. "May I know, what is your…proposal?"
This time it was the long haired man, Yutsu Raido, who spoke. His face was passive, no emotion was registered on his face. A deep voice came from his throat, confirming that the person was indeed a man. "We know about your country's…problem," the daimyou frowned. "And we'd like to help you."
The daimyou was silent. "It was…unusual for a mercenary group to offer its service, instead of the other way around. What's the catch?" he asked bluntly.
The leader of the mercenary group gave a slight smile at his bluntness. "I will go straight to the point. We want to become your country's hidden village. We want to be known as hidden village officially instead of a mere mercenary group," there were gasps rang on the hall coming from the daimyou's guards. The old daimyou itself stiffened.
"…From what I heard, your mercenary group was successful. Why do you want to become a hidden village that would limit your movement?" he asked curiously.
"Since the first time the group was founded, it was already decided that we want to be a hidden village. We want recognition from every country and the hidden villages. It was true that becoming a hidden village will limit our movement, but I'm sure we can make a compromise with you that will satisfy both sides."
"Why this country? Why didn't you choose other country?" he inquired.
"We have investigated all countries for months and we decided to choose your country because it has potential and it doesn't have any hidden village or even a shinobi clan yet. We felt that your country is the best choice."
"…Could you give me time to answer it?"
"Of course," the yondaime look alike nodded.
"Good, my guards will escort you to your rooms. I will give you the answer after dinner tonight," the three shinobis bowed and followed their escort.
"Kazuo, gather my advisors!" he commanded his assistant. The brown haired man nodded and exited the hall to do his wish.
Half an hour later, his 3 advisors arrived in the hall. Their faces were deep in thought, having been forewarned by Kazuo about the meeting.
"I gather you have known what I want your advice for?" the three nodded simultaneously. "What do you think of their proposal?"
"Well, we do need help to flush Gatou out of this country," the first advisor, Hida Ashige, a fairly young but wise man, said. "And I don't think the team we requested from Konoha could help us much."
"We are indeed don't have enough money to pay for high rank mission. The proposal from the mercenary group sounds tempting. We won't need to pay them in advance. Instead we can give them some islands that are not inhabited by human yet. And about the money a country should spare for its hidden village, I think we can make a deal with them that we won't pay them until our country flourish. Since they are a successful mercenary group, they certainly have enough money to sustain themselves for the duration," the finance advisor, Shigaku Sai, informed.
They turned to the last advisor, Kirihara Jinbei, the oldest of the advisors. "I heard they were a strong and powerful group and have links in many country. Indeed that with their help we can improve Wave faster, but we have to be careful making our deal. We wouldn't want to replace Gatou with other tyranny," the other three nodded in agreement.
They spent the afternoon trying to make a deal that could satisfy both sides. When the dinner was served, the 7 people (4 from Wave and 3 from Sora group) ate quietly. The Wave citizens looked tense, while the three ate casually, as if they knew they would accept their proposal. Joined by Kazuo, they entered and took seats inside the Wave daimyou's office.
Kazuo opened an empty scroll and readied his brush, ready to write.
Rokuonji addressed them. "We have decided to accept proposal, but we also have some conditions," the Sora leader nodded, urging him to continue. "If you have anything to object you can tell us and we can make a compromise."
"Of course."
The Wave daimyou nodded to his advisor, Jinbei. He nodded in reply, opening a small scroll. "First, we will give you 4 medium islands and the small islands around it in the East side of this country," Ashige took the Wave country map and rolled it open and pointed the 4 islands. The islands' names were Amefuru, Sangoshou, Fune, and Koori. Amefuru was the biggest island followed by Koori, Sangoshou, and lastly Fune. Koori was in the center of the other 3 islands with small islands scattered around them. They were situated between Wave and Water country.
"May I ask their descriptions?" The head investigation of Sora group asked.
"Certainly," Ashige said. "Sangoshou, Koori, and Fune were connected by cave system under the sea. Unfortunately , we haven't uncovered all of them yet. Amefuru itself have a series of caves underneath its ground, but for all we know, it isn't connected with other islands. Plus with the still active small volcano there, it would be dangerous to go inside it," Raido appeared to be interested at the description. "Amefuru has fertile land, but this island isn't inhabited because of the difficulties to come to that place. The island faces the ocean directly with only 2 small islands acted as barrier, so the wave there is big and there are many coral reefs around it, making it difficult for a ship to pass through."
It wasn't a problem for Sora group, because they can fly there using Sharn'gotti, or they could just build a bridge there, Raido noted inside his head.
"Sangoshou on the other hand, doesn't have fertile land since it was a rocky island. The highest peak of Wave is located there. It's volcano no longer active for centuries. I'm sure it would be a good training ground. It has a Laguna on the north side. Koori would be a good place to build your village. It is surrounded by mangrove forest on the beach and small forest inside the island. There is a big lake there where you can get your water. The problem is Gatou use that island as one of his bases here, but I'm sure you can do something with that. Good thing is there are already facilities there that you can use. Fune is the nearest island from Wave Main Island from that group of islands. It looks like a ship from here, so it was named Fune. It has good fishing spots around and there is a natural harbor there. If you succeed to overthrow Gatou, we'd like our fishermen still can sail there. There is nothing interesting about the small islands. They are…small," he finished lamely. "Any question?"
"Does Gatou know about the cave system?"
"We don't think so. The cave entrance is hidden and none of Gatou's men come from Wave citizen, plus the ones who even knew about the existence of the cave systems are only some selected ones."
"We agreed with the selection," Sora or Naruto as he was known by his people told them.
"Second, we won't give you ransom for some time until Wave can support its people. When Wave is ready we'll set aside 15 percent of our income for your village every year. The amount can be changed depending on the situation. Objection?"
Sora and Raido looked at each other. They shook their head. Sai breathed a sigh of relief.
"Third, any sensitive mission that could effect the situation between Wave and other country should be discussed first with the daimyou and us."
"A question, what if we only know that a mission prove to be disastrous after it happened?"
The advisors and the daimyou stared at each other. Rokuonji cleared his throat. "Then we will discuss the best action we should do afterwards." Sora, Raido, and Kimimaro didn't look like convinced, but stayed silent.
"Fourth, when this country is invaded, you will defend this country."
"What about the payment?"
"Payment?" Sai asked bewildered.
"Yes, payment. Of course, we won't ask any payment if the war is cause by us, but we'd like payment if it isn't caused by us. Afterall we will mobile our forces toward defending this country instead of doing missions."
"Oh, that will be okay. Infact we will supply you your needs even if the war is caused by a mission gone wrong." The kyuubi's vessel nodded in satisfaction. They continued with the conditions from Wave side for 2 hours before it was time for Sora to tell them his conditions.
"Our village will be independent from you. You can't be involved with the selections of the leader or the head of departments. Any dealing with other country involving us should be discussed with us first. The money we get from our missions will be ours," they nodded in agreement.
"Any orphan above 6 years old would be tested whether he is worthy to become our village member or not. Of course if the kid doesn't want to be one of us, we won't object."
"What if there are kids still with parents want to join you?"
"Firstly, we want you to understand that all of our members have a…seal."
"A seal?" they asked curiously.
"Yes, basically this seal will ensure our loyalty to our village. The seal could kill the holder when he tries to betray the village. I won't tell you the detail since it is our village's secret. The kids who want to become one of us should be told of this consequence. They can't tell our village's secret to anyone, even their parents. We won't separate them for their parents, but they would oblige to us, not them. If the parents object with it, their kids can't join us," the advisors nodded.
"The territory you would give us when we succeed to overthrow Gatou is off limit from civilians, except if they have a pass that only us can decide whether we will give it or not, with the exception of Fune island that would be our trading ground. We want cheaper price for our supply."
"We can only do that if your supply links are from Wave," the finance advisor told them.
"Yes, we know and we agree. If our suppliers come from other country, we won't ask cheaper price. On the other hand, we will give you cheaper price for doing your mission requests than other countries' requests. And until Wave people can support themselves, we will lower our mission price for them."
The next day they finalized their contract. The daimyou kept their presence secret so Gatou didn't know about the mercenary group. The three Soragakure village members went back to 3rd realm with a promise they would mobilize their force to bring down Gatou soon.
Naruto played with the contract scroll on his hand and threw it to the air and caught it again with a satisfied smile.
"Jackpot!"
TBC…
R&R!
Ugh, you won't believe me how much trouble I get from naming the OC characters. I have drawn the OC characters' faces, but I haven't scanned them yet. Don't have a scanner, you see. Using Internet rental's scanner is too…expensive and I'm too lazy to go to my brother's place (because he always spends his time around to lecture me, especially when it is in the middle of my mid exam. The lectures I got from my mom via phone are enough, thank you very much. And my bro only repeats my mom's lectures anyway).
