Gamashiro felt like he was in heaven. He had just eaten another bowl of his favourite meal, pupa soup, and he had been experiencing unknown kindness from the other toads, especially the two elders, Shima and her husband. He was searching for a shadowy place to rest and sleep a little, when he stumbled into Fukasaku. He was calmly walking up and down in front of Kese, who was sitting in a meditating pose, not moving. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be concentrating. It had been a few hours since he had got there and fought with the green toad elder, and they had already begun some kind of training.

Gamashiro stepped closer to his superior and whispered to him, handing over a little bag. – Shima-dono sends snack to you, Fukasaku-dono, and to Kese too.

- Thank you, Shiro. – he took the bag, glanced into it, then at the blonde. – I do not know whether he liked it or not, but I will gladly eat his part as well. – he munched. The little albino toad tilted his head as he watched his sitting friend.

- And how goes the training?

- Excellently, I have to say. He has already managed to feel natural energy, and, considering how little time he needed for this, he will be soon able to absorb and use it. I knew he would not need as much time as when he first learnt it, but he is still surpassing my... - suddenly he stopped and stared at the blonde. Gamashiro turned that way, too, and he noticed changing on his friend. He watched as the skin around his eyes became reddish-orange. And when he opened his eyes, his irises weren't black, but yellow, and he had horizontal bar-like pupils, just like the toads. This meant he had entered Toad Sage Mode*.

The blonde blinked a few times. – Wow. – he raised his arms and looked at them, then around. – Just wow! – he clenched his fists. – It's a friggin' awesome feeling, Gramp' Sage!

- I have not given you permission to call me like that! – Fukasaku hit the grinning human's head with his cane. In all of a sudden, there was a very loud growling, which even startled Gamashiro. The toads were looking around what could make such noise, when Kese chuckled.

- Eheheh, it seems I'm a little hungry. – he rubbed his stomach while smiling awkwardly. – What are you eating, Gramps?

- Roasted centipedes.

The smile on the blonde's face froze. He needed a few seconds to process. - ... What?

- Roasted centipedes.

Kese was getting pale, then green.

- And here I thought you would like it. – Fukasaku sighed. – After all, you are not made out of toad... – something came to his mind, and made him scratch his chin. – Kese, would you like to do some hand-seals for me?

The blonde nodded, copied the hand-seals Fukasaku showed him, then molded chakra for this jutsu - but they weren't hand-seals for a new technique. Suddenly, Kese felt like he was throwing up! Something huge filled his throat and mouth and he had to spit it out. He coughed, wiped his saliva off his chin, and cried out when he saw what he had just thrown up.

- What was a toad doing in my stomach?! – he yelled. - I've never ever eaten one!

It was a quite large, grouchy, black and orange toad with a strange thing around his waist. – Finally! – he spoke loudly and grumpily to the blonde. – What did it take you this long to get me out of your stomach after getting rid of that bloody fox?! – it looked around and noticed his superior. – Oh, good morning, Fukasaku-dono. Is that roasted centipede?

- Yes.

- May I have some? I haven't eaten normal food in ages.

After gaping like a fish and staring at the newly appeared toad, Kese pointed at it and screamed. – What the hell is that?!

- Hey, I have a name, y'know!

- He is Gerotora. He is a scroll toad. He keeps whatever secret has been written on his scroll-abdomen. – Fukasaku smiled. – He has resided in your belly, guarding the key of the Hakke Fuuin* that once kept the Nine-Tails* inside of you.

- But after that beast got out of you my presence became unnecessary. I should've been out for a long time!

The blonde blinked at him a few times until Fukasaku spoke again. – So, he is also an evidence of your past, Kese.

Gerotora glanced at the toad elder, then at the blonde, then at his superior again. – Why did you call him "Kese"?

- Were you monitoring what was going on with him? – Fukasaku asked.

- No. – he crossed his arms. – I could only feel the changes in his body, I couldn't even get a peek from the outside! It's been so boring! But I'm still impressed you've managed to stay alive after losing the fox. How did you do it?

There was silence, Kese didn't answer. He was still blinking at the scroll toad, thinking about how he could have gotten through his mouth despite of his size. He moved his jaw: it didn't hurt as much as before. Then he realized he was asked a question which he should reply to; but before he could have said anything, Fukasaku spoke.

- I think there would be a few things you should be told, Gerotora. – he waved him to follow. – While I am away, Kese, practice absorbing natural energy!

- Understood. – he saluted, forgetting about his cursed word, and got back to his meditation pose. He had exited Sage Mode before, so he tried to enter it again, but his stomach growled loudly.

- You should eat something. – Gamashiro stated. – If you ask me kindly enough I might share my next bowl of pupa soup with you.

'So pupa soup enjoys priority over me', Kese thought. – I don't think I'd like it. – he came up with something. – Shiro, could you do me a favour?

The albino toad tilted his head. – What would it be?

- Could you bring me back to my room for a few minutes? I have some perishables I need to eat today.

- Alright! Here you go... – he hopped into his friend's arms, then he clapped his hands. In the next moment they were indeed in the blonde's room.

- Thanks, I'll be quick, I pro-

Suddenly, they heard loud bangs on the door of the forge. Kese knew it couldn't be anyone but his employer, so he put down the toad under his bed. – Please, hide here for a moment.

He changed his trousers, took off his shirt and hidden blade, ruffled his hair and put on a sleepy face. He looked like he had just woken up. He picked up his keys and opened the door of the forge to see a very unhappy Ushimaru. – Are you fucking deaf or what?! I've been knocking for at least twenty minutes!

'That was everything but knocking!', the blonde thought. – Sorry, I'm a heavy sleeper.

His employer said something that caught him off guard. - Get your fucking ass to work!

- What?! – Kese spread his arms. – You told me to not work on Saturdays.

- I've changed my mind. Get to work immediately.

- No. I have another business.

Ushimaru got fed up and he would have grabbed his shirt if he had one on. He put on his scariest and most threatening face and looked seriously into the blonde's onyx eyes. – Get to fucking work. Now. If you don't, I'll beat you to death with your own hammer! - he stared into his eyes for a little more, then turned around, but Kese's mischievous chuckle made him glance back over his shoulder.

- You can't do that. – Ushimaru frowned at his apprentice's smirk then left angrily, but he couldn't really make Kese worry. The blonde had some techniques in mind which he wanted to try out, so he quickly ate something, and went back to Myoubokuzan with Gamashiro.

The same thing happened on Sunday. Ushimaru woke him to work, Kese didn't go to work, instead he went to the toads' place. On Monday, the blonde decided to stay in Siplak to work, because he had a strange feeling in his guts, so he sent a clone with his little friend.

Kese suspected the pirates were going for him that day or the next. Why else had Ushimaru wanted him to work on weekend?

He was whetting a short sword when he felt he was being watched. He glanced towards the entrance and saw someone peeking in through the glass of the door. Then two more head appeared. Those small heads turned towards each other and nodded, and after this, a knock was heard. Kese was surprised when he opened the door: three children around the age of twelve stood in front of him, all of them wearing blue shinobi-like clothes and forehead protectors with Kirigakure's symbol on it. They looked embarrassed and timid, but they greeted him in unison. He greeted them as well, then one of them, a black haired boy, spoke.

- Excuse us, sir. Is this the forge of Ushimaru-sama?

In his mind, the blonde laughed at the polite suffix. - Yes, it is. But he's not in today. I'm his apprentice and co-worker, Kovács Kese. And the three of you would be...?

They looked at each other and nodded. The black haired boy spoke again. – We are shinobi from Kirigakure. My name is Ei.

- I'm Maguro. – his identical twin spoke.

- And I'm Kamome. Nice to meet you. – a brown haired girl smiled at Kese, and the three of them bowed at the same time. – We were sent for a blacksmith named Ushimaru, to see if he could come to the construction in Kirigakure. A new central building is being built, and the Mizukage Office and Residence would take place there.

- New central building? – he had heard about something like this in the brothel. - What happened to the old one?

- It was destroyed by an earthquake. – Maguro replied shortly.

- And Ushimaru-sama was sent a request from Mizukage-sama, like every other blacksmith of our land. He must have received a letter a few weeks ago. – Ei turned back to the main topic. – Do you know about something like that?

Kese scratched his chin. – I haven't heard about it. I've been working here only for two weeks... – he remembered one occasion when he had eavesdropped on his employer, he had heard about a letter. Unfortunately, he hadn't paid much attention to it. – It kind of rings a bell, but he didn't tell me anything about it.

- I see. – Ei spoke. – Do you know where he is?

- He must be in his house, hungov-khm, resting.

- Our teacher, Choujuurou-sensei is at the front door, knocking and waiting for him for at least five minutes. – one of the twins pointed towards Ushimaru's house.

- This is our first mission outside of Kirigakure. Could you help us at it, Kowachi-san? – Kamome smiled, and Kese could clearly hear the original Elemental accent raping the unique Magor sound of his name.

But the puppy eyes of the three children won and Kese gave in. When they went to the front door, he noticed a man around his age with blue hair, black glasses with ear protectors, and a large something (maybe a sword?) covered in bandages on his back. He wore a black shirt, camouflage pattern pants, forehead protector on his chest and shuriken holsters strapped onto each of his legs. – Where have the three of you been? – he spoke, then raised an impatient eyebrow when he noticed Kese. – Are you Ushimaru?

- No, I'm his apprentice, Kovács Kese.

- Choujuurou. - they shook hands and the shinobi frowned. – Haven't we met before?

- I don't think so. – the blonde stepped to the door. – Let me see what I can do for you. - and he banged the door damned loudly and shouted. – Get your ass out of there, you lazy drunkard!

The visitors were "a bit" stunned by his sudden change in behaviour from normal and nice to, well, overwhelming. Kese smiled back at them. – Please, wait a moment. – he said then stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. He heard Choujuurou saying "that was quite impolite" and Ei mumbling "cool".

He had never been in that house, but found his employer quickly: he only had to find the source of the stench and snoring. He couldn't wake him by calling and shaking, so he got a glass of very cold water and poured it onto his face. Ushimaru's reaction was priceless: he jolted then jumped up, while swearing and making faces. He looked around, then at Kese, and almost went mad. – What the f-

- Four Mist ninja want to talk to you. – he interrupted his employer, then crossed his arms. – About a construction in the capital.

Ushimaru narrowed his eyes. He sighed heavily and walked to the entrance, with Kese following him. The blacksmith opened the door and faced the shinobi. – I'm not going. Get off. – he said simply, slammed the door, and fell back into his bed.

The blonde's chin hit the floor hard. This was one of the most irresponsible actions he had ever witnessed. This request sounded like a really good opportunity, and his boss had just thrown it away.

Kese just smirked and decided to pick it up.

He dashed out of the house, and ran after the visitors who had already left. They blinked at the panting blonde questioningly, and when he could finally take a breath, he asked. – Are you still looking for a blacksmith? - the children looked up at their teacher, and Choujuurou just scratched his forehead. When he finally asked if Kese wanted to go, the blonde flashed his most gorgeous grin at them. – Hell yeah!

They waited until he quickly packed all of his stuff. He quietly summoned Gamashiro to tell him what he was up to, and asked the toad not to be around him for the upcoming weeks. After all, he was going to work in a village full of shinobi! He would get some suspicious question if they found out about his summonings…

After this he wrote two letters: one was for Ushimaru in which he told him to go and fuck himself. The other one was for his family. He told them where he was going to, and to not worry about him much. After this, he asked his acquaintance, Aba, to send the second letter to the Silent Island.

An hour after he had met the shinobi he stepped onto the dock of Siplak, ready to leave. Only a quite large brig anchored there, her flag was light blue with the symbol of the Mist shinobi on it. Kese suddenly noticed Osouma amongst the dockers loading her. But the blonde reminded himself the man hadn't seen him, and so he couldn't wake Ushimaru to warn him about losing an apprentice.

But all of his worries about those two was blown away when he stepped to Choujuurou and his pupils on the brig called Ningyo*. Kese apologized for being the only person they were waiting for, but actually they were surprised he got ready and joined them so quickly. It didn't take long to depart, and they were already on the sea, sailing away from Siplak - to Kirigakure, the Village Hidden in Mist.

Congratulation, you've just finished Sequence 4: "Awakening of the lost sun". \(^^)/

~~For those who aren't familiar with the world of Naruto manga and series~~

* Toad Sage Mode is the empowered state humans enter when they learn to draw natural energy inside them and blending it with their chakra.

The general physical benefits of Sage Mode enhances the combat efficiency of the user by allowing them to tap into the natural force of the world that opens new techniques to the user and allows them to power existing ones with senjutsu chakra. Other advantages: the user can harness the natural energy surrounding them, turning it into an extension of their body, which increases the reach of their attacks; and the user gains the ability to sense chakra around them.

Disadvantages: if the user draws in too much natural energy, they run the risk of transforming into a toad, then into stone (if the petrification is completed, it cannot be reversed). In order to gather enough natural energy to initiate the transformation into Sage Mode, the user must remain perfectly still (because of that, the user can be an easy target for an opponent). And because the user needs to move during combat, the senjutsu chakra cannot be replenished, which means the user can't stay within this state for extended periods of time (these can be bypassed by merging with sage toad where one gathers chakra for another but shadow clones can be used for the same purpose). (Source: Naruto Wikia)

*Hakke Fuuin: Eight Trigrams Sealing Style or Eight Sign Seal, a strong sealing technique (=Fuuin jutsu).

*Nine-Tails (Nine-tailed Demon Fox, namely Kurama) is one of the nine titanic tailed beasts in the Naruto world. They are differentiated by the number of tails they have, ranging from one to nine. The tailed beasts are living forms of chakra, and so they have immense reserves of especially strong chakra (Source: Naruto Wikia). Because of this, the shinobis were fighting for they power, and sealed them into humans who became their hosts. A human with a tailed beast sealed into him/her is called jinchuuriki.

*Ningyo means mermaid.

And yes, I made Choujuurou the sensei of three younglings. OvO

Thanks again and have a nice day!~:)