Ninja Tail
In this chapter...we're going to learn more about Kenichi...and he's going to do something that is terrible.
Oh, and we're going to see some different characters for a change...you should probably know who they are.
Chapter 14: Genocide
Lucy, Natsu, and Shikamaru entered the Fifth Hokage's office to tell her the bad news.
"Did you complete the mission?" inquired Tsunade.
"I'm afraid not..." answered Lucy.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"Why not?" asked the Sannin.
"You see...we had a chance encounter...with the dragon rider." answered Shikamaru.
"You did?!" exclaimed Tsunade.
"Yes, we did..." answered Natsu.
"That's very serious..." explained the Sannin.
"Up until now I thought that he didn't really exist...and that people simply told tales about him to scare people..." answered Shikamaru.
"How I wish that were true..." nodded Tsunade.
"You knew about his existence?" inquired the shadow ninja.
"Yes, I did." nodded the Fifth Hokage.
"Who is he?" inquired Lucy.
"His name is Kenichi. He is part of the Chikawa Clan..." explained Tsunade.
"The Chikawa Clan? I thought they were all wiped out..." said Shikamaru.
"Yes, they were." answered the Sannin.
"So, are you going to tell us about Kenichi?" asked Lucy.
"Yes, I am...but first, let me start from the beginning. Before I tell you about Kenichi, I shall tell you about his clan." explained Tsunade.
"The Chikawa clan were not an evil clan...but they were very arrogant. They believed that they were the best clan there was...or at least one day they would. They would often go on missions simply to show how superior they were." explained the Sannin.
"Sounds like their leader had an ego..." spoke Lucy.
"Yes. Unfortunately, his clan took his message that they should try to be the best that they could be too literally. That said, he wasn't such an arrogant man himself...though admittedly he could have done more to discourage them from being egotistical." noted Tsunade.
"I see." nodded Lucy.
"Where was I? Ah yes. Eventually, a rather special ninja was born to them...a ninja that happened to possess the Rinnegan. That ninja was known as Kenichi...Kenichi Chikawa." explained Tsunade.
"Go on..." answered Natsu.
"Suffice to say, their clan was very excited. They believed that he was their hero and that he was going to bring honor to their clan, just like his ancestors before him." said Tsunade.
"If he's a hero, then why are you so afraid of him?" asked Lucy.
"Believe me, Lucy, he is anything but...but to his clan they thought he was. They in fact wanted them to be their leader once their old one retired or passed away." continued the Fifth Hokage.
"Interesting..." murmured Natsu.
"For a moment, it did seem that he was going to bring honor to his clan. He accepted the compliments with stride and waved whenever anyone else saw him." said the Sannin.
"I'm assuming things didn't stay that way." answered Shikamaru.
"I'm afraid not. Unfortunately, the compliments began to get to him. He started becoming rather arrogant, and he believed that he was the strongest ninja there was." explained Tsunade.
"Incidentally, he was not an only child. He in fact had a younger brother by the name of Ayumu...who unlike him happened to be the laughingstock of his clan. He was a rather weak ninja, to say the very least." explained the Fifth Hokage.
"Sorry to hear that..." answered Lucy.
"Unfortunately, this weakness caused Kenichi to view him with scorn, and eventually, he decided to take action against him." continued Tsunade.
"What did he do?" inquired Natsu.
"He stabbed him to death with a kunai." answered Tsunade.
Natsu gasped in shock.
"Naturally, his parents discovered what had befallen their son, and they immediately began to mourn his death. This baffled Kenichi, who thought that his brother had deserved to die, and could not understand why they would be upset that somebody so weak had perished." explained Tsunade.
"Eventually, he decided to kill them as well, blowing them to bits with paper bombs."
"How terrible..." murmured Lucy.
"Afterwards, he began to see his entire clan as being beneath himself. He started luring other ninja that considered him to be his friend out in the nearby forest so that he could slay them while no-one was watching." said Tsunade.
"Wait...why didn't his clan investigate the murders?" inquired Shikamaru.
"If his clan had a sense of humility, they likely would have included him on a list of possible suspects. But they believed that their chosen hero would never do something like this to them, especially not his brother or his parents." continued Tsunade.
"So...what are you saying is...he's a serial killer?" asked Lucy.
"I'm afraid that he's worse than that." answered the Sannin.
Lucy gulped.
"Eventually, Kenichi decided that his entire clan needed to be purged. Using the animal path of his Rinnegan, he summoned a dragon to lay waste to this entire village. He burned it to the ground...and left no survivors." explained Tsunade.
Natsu began to cry. It was a rather sad story.
"Since then, Kenichi had made it his goal in life to completely eradicate the weak from the world of ninja. To this end, he has wiped out clan after clan after clan." said the Fifth Hokage.
"Has anyone ever tried to stop him?" asked Shikamaru.
"I'm afraid it's not so simple...you see, Kenichi never leaves a pattern in his attacks. One moment he could strike in the Land Of Water...the next he could strike in the Land Of Lightning..." continued Tsunade.
"Sorry to hear that." answered Lucy.
"And those that do encounter him often end up retreating...they simply find him to be too horrifying to fight. And considering how many clans he's wiped out...that's not too surprising." answered the Sannin.
"Why is he just a rumor around Konoha then?" inquired Shikamaru.
"We happen to be rather fortunate...due to our alliances between our clans, Kenichi does not consider us weak enough to assault us. Other clans...they weren't so lucky." explained Tsunade.
"That explains it..." answered Lucy.
"However, considering how close he's been to our city lately...I'm starting to wonder if that's beginning to change." continued the Fifth Hokage.
"Oh, my..." murmured the kunoichi.
"Anyway, I'm glad that you called off the mission...where exactly was he heading?" asked Tsunade.
"I believe he was heading towards-oh, god..." murmured Natsu.
"I think he's going to strike again..." answered Lucy.
Meanwhile...
The chieftain of the Yasuragi clan smiled in satisfaction. Konoha was offering to accept them as one of their own...and now they could really get started.
Incidentally, he had white hair as well as a beard. He in fact somewhat resembled Makarov...though unlike him he happened to wear a headband on his forehead, since he was a ninja rather than a mage.
Granted, they probably wouldn't end up as famous as any of the other clans of Konoha considering how large they already were...but at least they would be accepted nonetheless.
"Greetings, my fellow clan members! Today is the day we're going to be joining forces with the Leaf Village! It is a special day indeed..." said the chief.
Immediately, the villagers began to celebrate. They were going to get recognized. Hopefully their clan would prosper.
"At this very moment...their ninja are going to be giving us a present of good will...personally I wonder what it is...but I think I'm going to enjoy it." said the chief.
The villagers nodded. Whatever it was, it sounded good.
Suddenly, he noticed that there appeared to be someone in the distance.
Curious, he wondered if it was the same ninja that were going to be giving him a present as a token of good will.
Unfortunately, it was not.
It was none other than Kenichi and Kaishi...and he was planning to destroy the entire village.
At that very moment, Kaishi began to open his mouth...
...and began to spew flames over the village.
Within seconds the village was on fire!
Immediately, the members of the Yasuragi clan began to scream in horror. Just what exactly was going on?
Realizing that a ninja was responsible and that he was plotting their deaths, they began to flee from Kenichi...
... but he had a way to counter that.
Using the magnetic abilities of his Deva Path, Kenichi sent the fleeing villagers straight into the mouth of his dragon.
Kaishi eagerly devoured them, much to his master's delight.
"Trying to escape from me, are you? Oh, how many of you have already tried that...and failed." replied Kenichi.
However, not all of the members of the clan were simply going to flee from the dark ninja. They had a village to protect.
Immediately, some of the Yasuragi ninja began to toss kunai and paper bombs at his dragon, hoping that this would impede him.
Unfortunately, these would not do the Yasuragi ninja any good. Due to the scales covering Kaishi's body, kunai and paper bombs were completely useless against him. They were going to need a jutsu if they wanted to injure him...and a powerful one at that.
Some of the Yasuragi ninja tried tossing kunai and paper bombs at Kenichi instead, but due to his ability to repel objects as well as attract them, they simply bounced off his body.
"You call these ninja tools? Don't make me laugh. This is a true ninja tool." said the last of the Chikawa clan as he began to pull out a paper bomb.
Unlike a regular paper bomb, this particular bomb happened to be purple.
Kenichi dropped it to the ground...and immediately there was an enormous explosion that shook the village and devastated its defenders.
"This was even easier than I thought it would be..." thought the ninja. He had to admit, using his chakra to upgrade standard ninja tools to give him an edge over other ninja sure was proving useful.
The Yasuragi chief immediately gasped in shock upon seeing this mysterious ninja. He had thought that he was just a legend.
And yet here he was, standing before him...and within minutes he had wiped out his people.
And as he quickly discovered, he was next.
At that very moment, Kenichi began to approach.
"What do you want from us?" inquired the Yasuragi chief.
"Oh, nothing much...I just want you to die...and for you to stop plaguing the world of the strong. You are a pest and must be exterminated." answered the ninja.
"Don't do this! Just because we're weaker than other ninja doesn't mean we have to die like this! Stop!" screamed the ninja leader.
Ignoring the leader of the Yasuragi clan's cries for mercy, Kenichi used his Human Path to rip out the soul from the man's body, killing him instantly.
He smirked in satisfaction a few seconds later.
"Well, now that I've crushed that insect underneath my heel...I suppose it's time for me to move on. There are other clans that need to be eradicated...and I'm not going to stop until I've destroyed them all." said the ninja.
Before he left, Kenichi checked to see if there were any survivors using his Rinnegan. Occasionally, he would end up finding somebody that had tried to hide from him...not that it did them any favors in the end.
Sure enough, he could not find any survivors. The entire clan had been eradicated, and his mission was complete.
"It looks like a job well done." he thought.
Immediately, he went onto his dragon's back and began to fly off into the sunset.
Meanwhile...
At that very moment, Fairy Tail came to investigate the reports of the dragon that was terrorizing the populace.
However, much to their surprise, there did not appear to be any sign of the dragon.
Makarov raised an eyebrow.
"Where is the dragon?" asked Makarov curiously.
"A dragon? What are you talking about?" inquired a citizen.
Immediately, Makarov began to wonder if he had been deceived.
Now that he thought of it, Erza had decided to turn back because there was a voice in her head telling her to do so...maybe she was right on the money.
Who could have sent them that fake mission request?
Sighing, Makarov decided it was time to head back to his guild...which he arrived at a few hours later.
However, much to his surprise, he noticed that Naruto and Erza seemed very worried about something.
"What's the matter?" inquired Makarov.
"It's Chiyoye...she killed the missing Fairy Tail recruits!" bellowed the genin.
"What?!" bellowed the guildmaster.
Immediately, the other members of the guild gasped in shock. Was Chiyoye really responsible for what had been happening lately?
"She also stole the Book Of Dark Arts..." continued Erza.
"Oh...oh no." answered Makarov.
"This is bad, isn't it?" inquired Naruto.
"I'm afraid so..." nodded the leader of the guild.
"What should we do?" asked Gray curiously.
"Prepare for the worst." answered Makarov.
"I believe that she happens to be a necromanceress...she used some skeletons to attack me when I went to rescue Naruto..." explained Erza.
"Necromancy? Isn't that considered taboo in Fiore?" questioned Levy.
"Yes, it is." nodded Makarov.
"I have to admit...it was rather smart of her to use those skeletons to guard her personal chambers..." noted Naruto.
"Where do you think she went?" asked Jet curiously.
"Well, she mentioned something about becoming stronger." answered Erza.
"If so...then we may be in danger." nodded Makarov.
Naruto then remembered that Chiyoye got her strength from draining the life and magic from her victims (or in his case, chakra), and began to wonder if she was looking for more victims.
"That doesn't narrow down where she could have gone though..." answered Droy.
"We might need to search for her." nodded Hinata.
"But where do we look?" asked Naruto.
Makarov began to ponder.
Meanwhile...
Fortunately for Chiyoye, her teleport spell had taken her a fair distance away from the Fairy Tail guild.
She let out a sigh of relief. As much as she didn't like to admit it, she wasn't powerful enough to take on Fairy Tail yet...though admittedly she had drained the magic out of their fresh recruits.
On the plus side, they did not seem aware to where she had gone. Of course, this did not mean that they were going to search for her...and she began to wonder if she should try disguising herself.
Personally, she was expecting to be playing Exceed-and-mouse with her victims rather than being the mouse and Fairy Tail the Exceeds, but apparently that was inevitable considering that she was now a wanted criminal. Ah well. She didn't want things to be too easy.
Curious, she remembered that she had the guild mark on her forehead even though she had decided to leave Fairy Tail, and decided that she might as well remove it.
However, just when she was about to do so, a passerby ran up to her. He was a young man with black hair and blue clothing.
Apparently, he wanted her help with something.
"What is your name? My name is Michael." said the man.
"My name is Chiyoye..." answered the necromanceress.
"You're a Fairy Tail mage, are you not? Can you give us a hand?" asked the citizen of Fiore.
Raising an eyebrow, Chiyoye realized that people still thought that she was a Fairy Tail mage depsite her defection, and decided that she could use it to her advantage.
"Sure..." nodded the necromanceress.
Immediately, the citizen directed her towards a nearby city...which unfortunately was the perfect place for her to begin her reign of terror.
This particular city was known as Elm Town...despite being a city.
"Our mayor wants a word with you. He says that he wants to know what happened to his citizens...they all decided to join Fairy Tail and then they disappeared...Makarov never explained what happened to them." explained Michael.
Chiyoye chuckled. She knew at once that he was referring to the dozen mages that she had killed to increase her power.
However, after realizing how large the city was...Chiyoye realized that she was going to have to start out slow. If she drew too much attention to herself, the city guard was going to catch her...and they would inevitably have other mages on their side.
So, she decided that she was simply going to murder one person at a time for the time being...
...and a helpful man had just provided himself.
Immediately, Chiyoye approached Michael and touched his forehead.
"Hmm? Why are you touching me?" asked the man.
And then the screaming began.
Meanwhile...
"Do you have anything that we can use to track her down?" asked Naruto curiously.
"Well, we've managed to find something that we can use to keep track of her mana to see how much stronger she is getting...as for tracking her down, we're still working on that." answered Makarov.
Immediately, the guildmaster placed a crystal ball on the table that they could use to monitor her power.
Fortunately, it appeared that Chiyoye was still not particularly powerful at the moment, as the mana in the crystal ball was still blue. Apparently, the mana in the crystal ball would change in color whenever Chiyoye grew powerful enough.
However, Naruto noticed that the mana in the crystal ball was slowly increasing...meaning that Chiyoye was slowly getting more powerful.
"The sooner we manage to find her, the better, right?" asked the genin curiously.
"Yes." nodded Erza.
"I guess we better get looking." answered Naruto.
"Actually, I would suggest that you would keep on doing missions at the moment for now...in case you haven't noticed, the people of Fiore still need our help..." answered Makarov.
"What? But what about Chiyoye?" inquired the genin.
"We'll work on locating her, but for now, we keep on doing missions. We're still receiving them and we still need to do them." nodded Makarov.
"OK..." nodded Naruto.
"I now realize why she looks so much younger than she really is...ugh, I think I'm going to be sick." answered Mirajane.
"I'm going to go drown my sorrows..." said Cana.
"Me too..." nodded Elfman as he followed Cana.
Jet immediately dashed away.
Droy went to get something to eat.
Levy went back to reading a book.
"I'll go get an ice cream cone..." said Gray.
"I'm scared..." said Hinata.
"It's OK...I'm sure we'll manage to catch her eventually." nodded Naruto.
"I hope so." answered the kunoichi. By the looks of it, she was going on a killing spree...and she had already hurt enough people as it was.
"I'll see you tomorrow Naruto...I can't believe Chiyoye deceived us all like this...I had my suspicions when Mirajane mentioned that she was a lot older than she looked..." noted Hinata.
"We can't let her get away with what she's done...to think those mages had only been part of Fairy Tail for a week at the most..." answered Naruto.
"Yes...that's why we should try hunting her down and bringing her to justice." nodded the kunoichi.
"Yes...but as we said, we need to keep working...Makarov said that we can't slack off...even if admittedly there's a serial killer on the loose..." noted Naruto.
"Yes, of course...as I said, I'll see you tomorrow...along with Happy." nodded Hinata.
"Bye!" exclaimed Happy.
"See you later!" bellowed Naruto.
Happy and Hinata immediately went back home.
Naruto immediately let out a sigh. Personally, after everything that had happened to him today...he didn't think he was going to be able to sleep peacefully.
Were they going to catch Chiyoye soon? From what he had seen from her some far, she had the rather peculiar ability to get herself out of dangerous situations.
"They're going to have to be good if they want to catch her..." thought Naruto.
Meanwhile...
At the Phantom Lord guild base, Master Jose was not happy. As he had just discovered, Fairy Tail had become rather well-off thanks to their recent recruit, Lucy Heartfilia.
Suffice to say, he was rather jealous.
Not only that, they had also apparently obtained two new recruits that was all the way from another world...thanks to the magic of an interdimensional portal.
He was not amused.
As soon as his lackies Boze and Sue gave him the latest newspaper, he began to tear it to shreds.
"I...hate...Fairy Tail!" he screamed.
"Is something the matter?" inquired Boze.
"It's that obnoxious Fairy Tail guild! Ever since that idiot Makarov told me that his guild was better than mine while he was intoxicated, I just can't take them anymore!" exclaimed Master Jose.
"Don't you think you're getting angry over something petty?" asked Sue.
"Don't tell me what to do! I'm your master!" bellowed Master Jose.
"Right...of course." answered Boze.
"No matter. Thanks to this personal spellbook of mine, I can create an interdimensional portal that's even better than his. Unlike that interdimensional portal that opens and closes on a whim...I can activate it for as long as I want!" exclaimed the leader of Phantom Lord.
"That's rather impressive." noted Sue.
"And I'm going to be testing it...using some of my best mages!" continued Master Jose.
Immediately, the Element 4 entered the room.
"Bonjour, monsieur Jose!" greeted Monsieur Sol.
"Greetings, my S-class mages...today we are going to be testing out an interdimensional portal...one is superior to that imbecile Makarov's." said Master Jose.
"Really?" asked Juvia.
"It should lead exactly to that alternate world that Makarov is getting reinforcements from...I want you to investigate it. See if you can recruit some followers to join our cause." ordered the Shadow Gear.
"That seems reasonable." nodded Totomaru.
"Under no circumstances are you to fail me. Understood?" inquired Master Jose.
"What if we get blown away to the Land of O-"
"I said under no circumstances!" bellowed the leader of Phantom Lord.
"Yes, master..." nodded Aria.
Immediately, the Element 4 entered the portal to see where it lead.
As it turned out, the interdimensional portal in question led to what appeared to be a village.
However, on closer inspection, it was actually a series of laboratories.
"How very odd...I recall working in one of these once...but I'd never imagine seeing so many of them at once..." noted Totomaru.
"Juvia wonders who could have built all these..." spoke the water mage.
Meanwhile...
As it turned, Orochimaru was also planning on doing an experiment.
However, in this case, he planned on experimenting on a person.
Who was it? It was none other than Naruto Uzumaki. After getting his hands on his best friend Sasuke Uchiha...Orochimaru began to wonder if he should try experimenting on a jinchuriki for a change.
If he could get one of the tailed beasts on his side, destroying Konoha would be a cakewalk. Alternatively, he could use to simply blackmail them. Maybe get some new test subjects for his laboratory.
Of course, in order to do that...he was going to have to capture the teenage boy.
Immediately, he called for his right-hand man...which of course was Kabuto.
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru?" inquired Orochimaru's second-in-command.
"I need you to get the Sound Four...they've got another mission to complete..." answered Orochimaru.
Kabuto raised an eyebrow. He had not called upon them for almost three years now...
"You heard me the first time, didn't you?" asked Orochimaru.
"Yes, of course." nodded the medical ninja.
Immediately, Kabuto went to retrieve the Sound Four. Miraculously, they were still alive after their disasterous encounters with the Leaf and Sand Ninja.
Fortunately for Orochimaru, Kabuto was able to bring them back from the brink of death using his healing jutsus...and they were once again in shape to go on missions...which typically involved killing people, since they were psychopaths.
He had even managed to prevent Kimimaro from dying...though unfortunately he still suffered from his terminal illness.
Unfortunately, even after almost three years, he had no cure for the illness. He may have been a good ninja doctor, but he wasn't the legendary Tsunade.
What exactly did Kimimaro catch, anyway? He hadn't found any illness like it in his medical books. Considering that he was able to bring even a powerful ninja like him to his knees...he was starting to wonder if it had set some sort of record.
The Sound Four arrived on the scene a few minutes later.
"You called for us, master?" inquired Sakon.
"I'm sending you on a mission to retrieve a boy by the name of Naruto Uzumaki...who you happened to have met almost three years ago..." explained Orochimaru.
"Well well well, if it isn't for that little twerp...oh, how I've been waiting to get revenge on him..." noted Jirobo.
"I'm going to wring him by his-
HONK!
"-ing neck!" bellowed Tayuya.
As it turned out, Jirobo now had an air horn that he could use whenever Tayuya swore...which was rather often.
"As satisfying as it would be to kill the boy...I assure you that he is of more use to us alive...as you may well be aware of...he happens to have a nine-tailed fox inside him...that of course will die alongside him if he perishes." explained Orochimaru.
"God-
HONK!
"it! Why can't we kill him?! That little-" bellowed Tayuya.
HONK!
"deserves to die!" exclaimed the kunoichi.
"I was hoping to play a game with him first anyway..." answered Kidomaru.
"I'm really glad I got this air horn..." thought Jirobo.
"Do whatever it takes to capture the boy...just make sure he arrives to me alive..." answered Orochimaru.
"Are we under a time limit again? I remember our last mission ended with you deciding to take Sasuke as an apprentice instead of a body...since you were suffering too much." inquired Sakon.
"No no no. You're not under a time limit this time. By all means, feel free to take your time...I know that Jirobo and Kidomaru will." noted Orochimaru.
Jirobo began to eat some potato chips while Kidomaru twiddled his six thumbs.
Immediately, the Sound Four left Orochimaru's laboratory to search for Naruto...unaware that he was no longer the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox.
However, at that very moment, they noticed the interdimensional portal that Phantom Lord was using.
"What the-
HONK!
"-is that?" inquired Tayuya.
As it turned out, the Element 4 had already left to explore their surroundings...and the Sound Four noticed them from a distance.
"Who are those four? They oddly remind me of ourselves..." noted Jirobo.
In particular, the one wearing a monocle reminded Jirobo of himself for some particular reason...he wondered why.
"You think they're Leaf Ninja?" asked Sakon curiously.
"Probably not...they don't dress anything like them." answered Kidomaru.
"If they're Leaf Ninja, I'm going to slit their-
HONK!
"-ing throats with a kunai!" bellowed Tayuya.
"Would it kill you not to swear for a change?" asked Jirobo.
"Yes, it would! Shut up!" exclaimed the kunoichi.
"Aren't you a cute couple." noted Sakon.
Tayuya and Jirobo sweatdropped.
"Should we...go inside? I have to admit I'm rather curious." noted Kidomaru.
"I guess we could take a closer look..." nodded Sakon.
Immediately, the Sound Four entered the portal to investigate...unaware that in doing so they were going to become a bit...different.
Are you surprised to find out what Kenichi has done to his own clan? What do you think of him now?
Of course, I probably already know the answer...and I probably know what you think of Chiyoye too...and yes, she's going to be killing a lot of people soon...
In the next chapter...Naruto is going to meet some old "friends" of his...but thankfully his new friends (and Hinata) will aid him.