"You know there is a rumor…" the greasy looking bar tender said to no one in particular but also to the Raven haired man sitting on a stool down the length of the bar. Rinsing out the cup of water he heard the man listening to the rumor. "they say there are Uchiha still alive. You know those scary people, Black Hair and Black Eyes. They say the Uchiha are devils." When the rumor spread about the original Uchiha massacre, people questioned the sanity of each and every one of them. When they found out the last three actually turned around and attacked their home country, there was no doubt in their minds. Some even feared the Seventh going crazy and attacking Konoha.
"There is little to worry about here, this is far away from the lands of Konoha " The customer spoke up. "We are outside anybodies particular reign. Those monsters would have no sense in coming here." The bartender agreed, there was no reason someone would bother coming to the Island of the Hidden Bubble. Even thinking about the name, he decided whoever the feudal lord was, he was stupid. "…but, why do they think their alive?" the ear listened carefully.
"well, they say black flames are appearing all over the place. Four so far, One in the village of the sand. One deep in the heart of rock country, actually quite literally the heart, right smack down in the capital. Nobody has seen them, but the black fire is a tell tale sign of those fire users. I mean a fire that can't be put out? And when they do somehow put one out, when another appears they all reappear again." The bartender chuckled, if the Uchiha were hiding they wouldn't do something so obvious. "and then a couple of others in the Hidden Mist and Hidden Water. I think they are going planning something worse, worse then the Akatsuki that is." The man drinking his sake suddenly appeared to be calculating.
"Where did you say the fire was in the sand?" With sudden interest he seemed to be looking afraid. It seemed it all sounded familiar to him, like a legend or story he was told.
"well, now that I think about it, close to the Capital at one of the ancient Tombs." The man set down the mug. "What is it to you? Do you have any ideas?" Realizing that for the things to be so close to capitals, it seemed too coincidental.
"You are not as safe as you thought." The man stood up and quickly walked out of the bar. Another man came and sat at the stool where he left.
"What was that guy's problem?" The new customer happily chuckled. "I guess you scared him off with your rumor then?" The new customer seemed casually interested, but the Bartender had distant training as a detective. This man was unusually interested in the previous. Maybe that other guy was a criminal.
"Sorry, maybe I was too forward. I was just wondering what it was could get someone so calm to suddenly leave." The man grinned and stared at the bar tender. "so, could you tell me what it was?" Pulling some papers out of his pocket and laid it down on the counter. "please?"
The bartender casually reached for the money and slid it into his apron. "He acted strange when he found that there has been mysterious fires by some capital cities across the land. You may find him up at the temple at the beach, inside the rocks. Trying to douse his suspicions." Actually, the bartender thought, I might head up that way for the same reason. "pretty well hidden temple, if it wasn't that everybody born here knew where it was."
"That is where it is." The man smiled, "Thank you." He stood up leaving behind a few strange gold topazes on the bar for the tender again. The orange haired man stepped outside the door and laughed.
"That was too easy."
"I imagine so, Yul. People in these small towns don't know how to keep their mouths shut when money comes their way." The raven haired man from earlier quickly walked towards the beach. "We have to activate the three after this very well planned. People will start paying attention when they realize its at all the temples. We should dispose of that bar tender soon also."
"Don't worry, I left him some gold beetles which undoubtedly are in his pocket. The heat ought to send them chewing into his thigh." Yul followed after. "I am more efficient then you thought."
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"…spies indicate that there was a black flame left in the Rock village." Shikamaru frowned. "If you draw a line from the Pyramids to the rock countries capital, and continue it further down you would hit another shrine far off the Rock country to its coast on the north eastern side. We should dispatch some people there to see if we can follow their movements. As of now, this is a guess we need to see if another shrine is activated to start seeing patterns." Shikamaru placed himself in a trance, with his hands placed together and starting letting the details compile in his mind.
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Authors note ( This next section is just the way Shikamaru thinks, if anybody is wondering how this works just say so in a review I will explain in a later chapter.)
(You can skip this if you want, I placed an obvious break, it is not too long anyways)
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Konoha, there are 656 total Shrines and Temples across all the main land and islands off the coast
Hokage, 360 Shrines protected under government powers
Naruto, there are about 296 other shrines not protected by powers that be, but watched by monks and other villagers
Eighth Hokage, Of the 360 shrines there are derivations to approximately 112 group of deities including overlapped religion. Of 656 across the land there are about 186 recognized sects.
Kakashi, Of the 186, 178 of them overlap shrines the other 8 consist of one or two gods. One sect believes the Golem and the Sphinx once existed under allegiance and it would rain that way again. Temple do not coordinate with belief,
Seventh Hokage, Disqualify
Jiraiya, of 178 overlapping sects, one consists of 167 temples and shrines claiming to encompass all that there is, generalist belief, highest unlikelihood
Sixth Hokage, given that goal is to be accomplished in reasonable time, narrowed down to at most 17 gods, including division and not under certain detection 12 gods
Tsunade, narrowed down to 46 possibilities. For there to be a threat, approximately 4 shrines need to be unlocked
Fifth Hokage, 27 possibilities
Sarutobi, 27 possibilities
Third Hokage, 27 possibilities
Akimichi, 27 possibilities
Chouji, 27 possibilities
Yamanaka, Possible geographic courses, correlations to three possibilites.
Ino, One possibility, Five deity Sect, believed there was a group reigning during the time of beasts. One shrine in the pyramids another in the land of rock one at the Sea by rock country one at the eastern Konoha Beaches, and last shrine in hidden mist. Possible but unlikely
Temari, One Possibility, Five Deity, repeat of Ino, last two rather are both in hidden mist.
Gaara, Final Possibility, Three Deity, Straight line through countries, highest probability. Should be looked into. No known reason of interest
Sand-Sound Alliance, send to third shrine.
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Shikamaru left his thoughts and took a deep breathe. "Same advice, send three Genin teams, or three Jounin. Kakashi must go with and I should be there too."
Naruto nodded, he has learned better to doubt Shikamaru when he actually considers possibilities. "There is no known reason for any group to go through and light fires at these shrines though." Naruto gently rubbed the back of his head, for all he could tell was give these people more time and see if anything more noticeable happens. "So we shall dispatch You Kakashi and Neji. I have a feeling you three are the wisest choices, I will take care of things while you are away."
Shikamaru nodded, "Should we inform the Rock that we are coming?" If the culprits are in the rock village, this would be a bad idea, but if they were outside it would have little effect and would be good diplomacy.
Chouji spoke up in between bites of ramen, "I don't think we should let them know we have spies in their village. Besides if we discover any secrets it would be also wise to keep them to ourselves." Chouji continued eating as everyone let what he said sink in.
"Then it is agreed, Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Neji will be sent out then." Naruto finalized a document and had a bird sent towards Neji's housing at the old Uchiha mansion.
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The streets of this part of Konoha had been no different in the past 25 years. Eerie winds blew through silently at night, sending things slightly blowing. The bake shop had the same sale it always had with a sign that was never taken down. There were holes across certain walls, each one telling a tale that no one knew. If a person followed the holes or the blowing wind, they would arrive at a pond where the head council had lived. Very few people ventured far into the forgotten side of Konoha. Only children on a dare would take interest.
Inside a window overlooking the pond, a bird flew out with a note tied to its talons. It was blowing quickly away through the town square with the bake shop and away from a book store selling the brand new, very first, Icha Icha Paradise. The bird was on it's way to the Konoha temple as a letter carrier. In a few hours, at sunrise, the nation would be awake at the news of the morning would be Neji's departure.
Neji looked out the window. This morning would be interesting. This would be the first mission to be out on since Zetsu. He was wondering why he had been selected for this mission. It had to be because his extensive ability to understand Biju or maybe they just needed somebody with his eyes. He had nearly forgotten that he, His daughter, and Hanabi were the only Hyuuga to still be alive. He knew he lucked out in having a strong daughter. Before, he thought there would have been some sort of defect in her, but at birth it seemed pretty safe to assume she would be fine. She had the characteristic white eyes and it appeared nothing of the Seven-tailed Kaku. It was unfortunate that he couldn't know for sure. He knew that the tailed beasts don't leave effects until active chakra molding takes place. He was the only one who knew about it and it would be with tons of other research papers to be released upon his death.
Neji found it mind boggling that Naruto hadn't died. It took him quite a long amount of time to come up with a Chakra-Body Theory. First he said, the body has a set amount of energy to use through all of time. Or rather, that a person has unlimited potential, but their bodies can only take so much chakra burn. A Biju also follows this theory he claimed, but their bodies were adapted to deal with high chakra burn. He couldn't understand how Naruto could deal with the strongest of the Nine-Tailed beasts. He came up with a special factor in his theory just to make more sense out of it. If a person had a Biju inside, then their Chakra actually becomes the total burn while the Biju is the actual body taking the damage. Not that it mattered too much anyways, he just wanted answers to why things happened the way they did. These theories were just ways of getting a solution.