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Padawan
2 February, 14 AK
To be entirely truthful, I was kind of winging the whole 'let's keep this war going' thing. Until I managed to find someone to have my back, namely Itachi, I needed to remain on the move, and not only that, but I needed to remain a hot-target: otherwise known as a nuke-nin that was on a roll, and thusly had his guard up.
It wasn't exactly an official term, even if I had come to appreciate it.
Walking around without the protection of either a group or a Village meant that I could be ambushed at any given moment, which on one side allowed me to reap the fool bounty hunters willing to seek me out, but on the other side made me nervous. I had long since perfected my modified henge, so my appearance no longer immediately declared my identity, but there were only so many people willing to walk on their own across the Elemental Nations in time of war.
Besides, as a Nuke-nin, the only reasonable job I could land was killing either other nuke-nin, or taking a job from a bingo book. Taking the first road would have meant landing on myself the attention and rage of the 'Black Market' community, it wasn't something that actually worked like 'honour among thieves', but it was close enough that keeping myself from breaking other missing-nin meant not having an ambush awaiting me at every bounty station.
Going to Kiri had been mostly done because I suspected that Terumi Mei was the only reasonable person capable of holding onto Samehada, she would be able to use it to rally the last needed numbers to overthrow her opponent and officially become Mizukage, which wasn't a bad thing. Sure, organizing the meeting between us had been a true hassle, and it required more time than the transaction itself.
Being paid upfront for a black op against her ruling Daimyo was just icing on the cake.
From what I remembered through my metaknowledge, Kisame, once he had become a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, was given the title of "Monster of the Hidden Mist", and formed a connection with Suigetsu and Mangetsu Hōzuki. Kisame eventually became a missing-nin when the Land of Water sought him for plotting to overthrow its government and being involved in numerous assassinations that included another country's Daimyo. That, during his departure, he opted to take Samehada with him simply meant that his bounty would be higher, that was all that there was to it.
I wasn't adjourned on his sins and faults, but overthrowing a government, like Mei was proving, wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and that she wanted to keep the Daimyo from interfering was simply another occasion for me to break those whispers that pictured me as a Konoha's deep cover agent.
After all, a Village tentatively cultivating an alliance with another wouldn't send a known shinobi of its forces against the lawful government of another, it didn't matter if he was a renegade, the connection was still shaming.
I was surprised that Terumi didn't want an official ruler of the land to butt in, but not al that much. She was busy trying to reverse the current of hate towards the bloodlines, trying to become the first woman Mizukage, trying to keep enough of her forces that the war among the other Hidden Villages couldn't spill over in her territory. There were enough headaches in that to keep her from being pointed at as the one responsible for giving out a hit-contract on the Water Lord.
I had no doubt that in a few months one of the bumbling nobles would manage to find the right shinobi to task with his own protection. But by then, who knows? Despite my walking among the roads of Kiri blazing my chakra without fear to be found out, behaving like I was inviting a challenge, I managed to take the pulse of the country, and Mei was close, extremely so, to take over. I didn't know how the events had unfolded in the canon teamline, but I could tell that she was being helped, and given the info I had left to Shikamaru, I was ready to bet on Konoha.
I had left the Land of Water three days before, and I kept moving west, crossing once more the south of the Fire Nation, where a surprisingly low number of shinobi was keeping up the patrols. I needed to shake off some Hyuga or Inuzuka from time to time, but when I didn't manage that, they would retreat on their own before engaging: it seemed that Konohagakure was short enough on numbers that it didn't want to risk losing even more uselessly.
No doubt however, were I to stop for too long, I would find Jiraya on my ass, or a Root platoon.
As I ran across the trees, distractedly reminiscing about my genin days, I let my chakra out unhindered, for I had no real need to hide, while I had all the reasons to sell my confrontational nature.
Itachi has better to kill Kabuto before everything goes to shit. I thought with a grimace, besides the clusterfuck that would be fighting a Kabuto born as mix up of bloodlines, I really didn't want to have to kill Orochimaru again, for every fight against an S-rank tended to be a risk I much preferred not to take. And his seal was bad news on that side, even if I managed to keep him from taking over Sasuke.
I wonder how will Itachi contact me? I briefly imagined that he would make use of his raven summons, which had never been explained in depth in the manga. Were they simply a part of his genjutsu? If so, it was a strange preference, because usually, while genjutsu tended to become better the more personalized they were, signing one so blatantly as Itachi did with his ravens was a bad idea.
Well, he has Uchiha's bullshit on his side. I amended my previous line of reasoning as I ducked under a branch, letting gravity pull me for a scant couple of seconds before skipping off from the trunk of the nearest tree, casually doubling back to check for an eventual pursuer capable of masking his presence: I wasn't actually concerned, for I knew I was among the actually scary shinobi around, but being careless was a sure way of dying suddenly.
And while I have everything of worth safely tucked under the care of the only elephant I managed to convince to actually lend an active hand, I really don't want to die. Sure, the Elemental Nations were pretty from once you were an important enough player, but I had decided a long time ago that I was going to fucking win. And if a part of me no longer recoiled at the idea of massacring other people, so be it. Once I managed to change the world I could look for a shrink.
I crossed the land of Waves without truly stopping to rest, even if I poked around only to find that both Zabuza and Haku graves had been excavated and that Kubikiribōchō had been stolen. Another irritating part of causing so many changes. I softly reprimanded myself even as I kept running among the woods, soon enough breaching into the land of Rivers, which acted as a pillow between Suna and Konoha.
Sleeping among the branches and eating while on the run was not comfortable, but I was deep into Konoha's coalition because the minor village between the great desert and the great forest didn't truly have any choice but to follow the will of its far more menacing and powerful neighbours, so being quick on my feet was for the best. Besides, I kind of remembered that there was an Akatsuki hold in the Land of Rivers, and that it wasn't that far south from Ame, which I would avoid like the plague until it was time for me to actually gut the apocalyptic idiots.
I had a trio of Kage-bunshin run in different directions without hiding their presence while I cloaked my own, churning the chakra in my coil s in tighter and tighter circles, keeping even the barest hint of it from bleeding out. It was as uncomfortable as holding one's breath while wearing far too tight clothes. I felt restricted, weak, and it greatly diminished the speed through which I could tear across the land, as well as making Itachi's life a tad bit more difficult.
For now, my mission was to await news from him, to be frank, I hoped he already destroyed Orochimaru's strongholds, Kabuto in particular, and I hoped that Kisame would die soon enough.
I was interested to see how an actual battle between us would go, but I kind of suspected that without his Samehada I would be able to crush him quickly enough, since, even if he had vaster reserves of chakra than me (and thank Kami he never heard of Natural Chakra before), Suiton wasn't as deadly when used against someone with that very same affinity, nevermind one as trained as my own.
After crossing the better part of the Land of Rivers, I turned North, moving at an unbearably slow pace just shy of the border with Suna. I had to still myself and let Nature Chakra inside of myself more than a few times as a patrol came into my range, but remaining still completely erased my presence, and so I managed to continue North.
After a week or so, I moved North-West, actually entering Suna's territory, but it was a necessary choice in order to not stumble into Ame, where one of the increasingly few shinobi capable of killing me ruled as a 'god'.
Nevertheless, in order to optimize Itachi's chances to find me, I either needed to keep circling Ame, or to stay still in a single place long enough for the news to reach him and for him to reach me. I had no idea if he could use crows as messengers, even if I suspected that much, since in canon he had implanted a pre-programmed Kotoamatsukami inside of a crow's head (I assumed through Uchiha-related bullshit), but remaining still would invite every hunter-team from every major village to give a try to my life, especially now that I eared the front where war was being decided.
From the Land of Wind, I crossed into Iwagakure's territory, carefully avoiding the neverending skirmishes mostly thanks to brief instants of perfect stillness through which I was able to perceive the world further than any other sensor.
My little students are probably somewhere around here... or on the front against Kumo. I sighed as I crossed an empty stretch of land where a battle had happened not too long before. There were deep gouges tearing apart the ground, still smouldering craters and many bodies that had been deemed too useless to be recovered.
I looked around, going perfectly still for a single second in order to check for possible scouts, and when I found none, I nodded to myself, it was a time good as any other: I undid the vambrace on one of my arms, rolling up the tight sleeve underneath in order to reveal a snake-like tattoo that was littered with a nightmarish sequence of fuinjutsu.
A quick nick on my thumb later, I summoned forth my chakra, pouring it into the tattoo in a precise sequence as I slapped the ground.
Black kanji poured off me in a spiralling patter, and with a white puff of smoke, a twelve meters long snake had been summoned into the Elemental Nations.
"Manda-ssssama won't be pleasssssed that you didn't call him in order to make you offering." the crimson coloured rattlesnake hissed to me, even as its piercing green eyes tried and failed to ensnare me into a genjutsu, testing me to check if I was still worthy of being the Snake Summoner.
"Is Manda a helpless worm who needs others to do his hunting for him?" I rose an eyebrow ironically as Akahebi laughed with a hiccup-like sequence of hisses.
"I'll refer your wordsss sssummoner..." the snake answered with a soft rattle of his tail, which released a subtle genjutsu that failed again to ensnare me.
"That's why I like you better than the others." I snorted, "You don't pretend to act under a misguided sense of honour." I tilted my head towards the near battlefield: "There are many corpses here, if you want a snack."
"Thank you ssssummoner..." Akahebi was already slithering towards the battlefield, its maw dislocating in order to be able to swallow the dead.
I rolled my eyes at the glutton busy swallowing dead shinobi. Very much as it had been for canon Naruto, I had come to appreciate the different personalities of the Summons I managed to have an agreement with. While the Boss of the Elephants and his female counterpart had taught me lots, only one elephant had decided to accompany me until the completion of my task of killing black Zetsu and stopping the Rabbit Goddess from making a return.
Even so, Zoukatatsu was more interested in seeing the kind of shit I kept sending into the Summons Plane, which he kept under his care until it was needed. It was a good agreement between us. He was curious, and while the Bosses of his clan had proved quick in learning some stuff, they also were uninterested in the better part of what I could offer, while he delighted in keeping his eye on 'such a strange human'.
I hadn't even tried to strike a deal with the Monkey Summons, Enma was clearly something that was tied to the Sarutobi clan, and until Konohamaru was around, I wasn't going to open that particular scroll.
The Snake Clan, for all of its mystique, was easy to read: they were greedy, and they wanted everything. The White Snake that was their sage was uninterested in much that happened outside of Ryuchi Cave, while Manda had grown accustomed to having it his way. Pretty much like I had done with the elephants, after a talk with the Great Boss, I obtained the right to summon the snakes, but it was up to me to build a relationship with the one I wished to summon.
Lucky for me, I didn't need a Great Summons on my side: as a Sage, I was a perfect battering ram. But there were many dozens of snakes, and I understood immediately why canon-Sasuke was so good with visual genjutsu despite the lack of Manheyko. Sadly I couldn't have the Snake Clan eat alive Kabuto were he to try and pass their trials.
That didn't mean I couldn't bribe the members of the clan to keep me posted. Akahebi slithered back towards me after having cleaned up the battlefield, and the twelve meters long snake was now bulging at the seams, satisfied with his meal.
"Has anyone approached the Ryuchi Cave?" I asked immediately, receiving a chuckling hiss as an answer, accompanied by a shake of the head.
The big rattlesnake curled up in front of me, distractedly trying and failing to ensnare me in his genjutsu: "It'ssss been ssssome time ssssince we sssstruck our agreement, sssummoner..."
"I'm still interested, your use of sound to throw around large genjutsu is something that I can manage only on few unsuspecting genin, your skill will come useful sooner or later. You'd better be as good as you promised." I half praised half threatened, following the method that allowed me to talk somewhat normally with the snakes. They were all undeniably prideful and didn't listen unless their ability was praised, but they would turn on you at the slightest sign of weakness, so I had to keep reminding them that I wasn't someone to fuck with.
I let Akahebi hiss out another creepy laughter before letting him dispel himself. What does it say about me that the most civil conversation I had in the past month is with a summoned snake?
I moved quietly for a couple of days inside of Iwa's territory before turning once more towards South-East, where I knew Kusa acted as a bearing state between Land of Fire and Land of Earth.
5 February, 14 AK
It was on the second day of the last stretch of my trip that I stumbled upon a prisoner camp. Said camps were commonly used as both stations to refuel the troops, since every army marched on its stomach, and to sort the prisoners: from those that were to be killed so that Iwa could pocket their bounty, to those with bloodlines, which were to be sent to the capital, where either experiments or forced breeding were enforced through a combination of drugs and intensive genjutsu.
I frowned in distaste and made to turn North, knowing that passing south would be unnecessarily risky. Takigakure and Tetsu no Kuni before being able to reenter the Land of Fire, hopefully before reaching the Kumo-Konoha front.
Then, another thought wormed itself inside of my head: what if they have Ino? The Yamanaka's combination of bloodline and techniques was one of the highest sought after bloodlines in the Elemental Nations. The ability to read someone's mind was incomparably precious to every self-respecting spy-organization.
I grimaced as the blond head of my student appeared in my mind.
If Iwa gains the Yamanaka, the war will intensify, as even Kumo doesn't want anyone but themselves to hold onto bloodlines. I reminded myself, forcefully turning away from the prisoner camp. War is shit for everyone, but this one is necessary. I gritted my teeth as countless occasions in which she and her companions had managed to surprise me, from succeeding in a part of their training to grasping a more theoretical lesson that I'd been trying to impart.
If they find out that I've gone out of my way to help a former student, rumors of a deep-cover operation will suddenly gain more substance. I shook my head as I walked away, finding a reason after another why I shouldn't stick my nose into that problem.
After three minutes, as the sun started to properly set, a traitor thought wormed its way to the forefront of my mind: If nobody finds out, I won't be doubted. Besides, I can sell my eventual saving of my old student as some sort of misplaced affection... besides, I can't even be sure that she's a prisoner, and if I storm the camp, I may make an ally that will turn out helpful later down the line...
I sighed as I turned my head in the direction of the prisoner camp. Hypocrisy, thy name is Daiki.
Piggybacking a war that had quite unexpectantly fallen on my lap? Okay, I would even make sure that the Hidden Villages' numbers and strength would dwindle in it, for it would grant me more freedom after the conflict, but if I could randomly help a kid that had once been entrusted in my care, I would. Fucking useless sentimentalism. I insulted myself even as I left a Kage-bunshin burrowed in the ground, busy accumulating Nature Chakra. I would prefer to complete my self-imposed task quietly, and I had the skills to fight on the lower end of S-rank even without my trump card. Given my superb chakra control, I could be stealthy enough, but from there to be actually capable of infiltration there was a long step to make.
Back as a genin, when I was being molded for subterfuge and infiltration, I had in a couple of occasions managed to trick an enemy shinobi, but I had succeeded only because I made use of my quite real distaste for the Elemental Nations' situation, which wasn't a lie on any level.
Infiltrating an enemy stronghold, even one that expected an eventual enemy force to come from the opposite direction, wasn't an easy task: so I waited, biding my time.
In Sage-Mode I was pretty sure that I could escape any platoon, no matter the kind of strategy they employed, but I didn't want to face a whole army on my own. It was a waste of resources and time, besides, if I was to spring out any prisoner that would eventually help me, it would be better to have the surprise on my side: that didn't stop me from leaving a Kage-bunshin to accumulate Natural Chakra. I would either use him as a distraction or as a sudden trump card. As a Sage, I was unreasonably powerful, that meant that each step could bring me further and much faster than anyone had any right to suspect.
Even so, infiltration of an enemy camp was good training for my less flashy skills, which, to be entirely truthful, didn't quite agree with me. If because of my own affinity with the Elephant tribe, or because I never truly needed those, I couldn't say.
The camp had been clearly realized with a heavy application of Doton, and it was more or less a stronghold grown out of a hill, and I was observing it from one of the last outcroppings of trees that became rarer and rarer the deeper one trailed in the Land of Earth. If not for the importance of the small forests for the wildlife that counted as perfect emergency rations for hungry shinobi, I had no doubt that all of the trees would have been already cut down, for they obviously gave cover to people that didn't want to be seen by scouts.
Even so, having an outcrop of trees so close to a stronghold, even one so clearly well-defended, sounded... needlessly risky. I grimaced as I considered my options, quickly realizing that to be sure, I had to ask my betters: one, in particular, was perfectly suited for the impending task.
Cautiously moulding my chakra, I performed the necessary hand signs to make use of the Elephant Summoning Contract on the arm opposed to the Snake Contract I had stolen from the dead body of Orochimaru.
With a puff of chakra, a roughly two meters tall coffin appeared in front of me, and in less than a split second, a shinobi clad in blue armour not unlike mine left its wooden resting place.
"Boy," Tobirama greeted me with an open frown on his face, "We told you that until we managed to confirm your words with this Itachi Uchiha we wouldn't do your bidding."
I stopped myself from rolling my eyes: "Yeah, but that is an Iwa prisoner camp, and we're next to the border with the Land of Fire."
"I remember the location of the Elemental Nations, boy." the Nidaime Hokage cut me off, his red eyes already trailed over the Iwa outpost.
"I want to get in, check on the prisoners, and free the ones with bloodlines that are better not spread around." I explained quickly.
"A quiet operation, or the prisoners you hope to free will be killed." Tobirama nodded, turning his head towards me with a cold gaze intent on pinning me down. And I would have been on guard, had I not been able to dispel him immediately in case he turned out to be hostile. "I recognize Iwa's style, so I will help, for I know what will happen if you botch this, but it won't happen again, am I clear?"
At my nod, the Nidaime turned his head once more towards the fort: "The bloodlines Iwa-scum hopes to steal will be kept in a higher security area, but there will also be a list of the prisoners there, either for ransom purposes or because they're going to be sold off to the best buyer."
Without words or hand signs that I could see, Tobirama's chakra seeped lightly into the ground around us, before extending further and further. I could sense it only because I was so close to its origin because otherwise, Tobirama's presence didn't register at all on my senses: "Circle back and approach from the Northern side of the camp."
I simply nodded and darted out of the small outcropping of trees just as a faint mist started to rise from the ground, clearly Tobirama's work. The extraordinary thing about the Jutsu, besides its unreal 'quietness', was the scale: as far as I could see both South and West, mist was starting to swirl forward.
Once more I was reminded of the kind of skill that those grown up in the Warring Clans Era could casually wield. And having access to infinite amounts of chakra is cheating, I don't care how you phrase it. I withheld a snort: that Konoha had a technique like the Edo Tensei under her belt and never used it in canon was mind-blogging: sure, there weren't that many extraordinary shinobi that couldn't be overcome by a selected team, but why in the nine hells didn't Danzo exploit the Forbidden Technique? He hardly looked like someone with tall morals to respect.
Hell, having a reanimated Hashirama ready to be deployed would have been dead useful against the Kyubi, sparing Konoha the loss of Minato. I understood that the perfected technique was something that very few were actually capable of accomplishing, but even then, while the best result could be obtained only when the reanimated body was willing to complete the mission he was tasked with, it didn't mean that reanimated people were useless, like Orochimaru had proved.
I ran a large circle in order to approach the camp from the Northern side, mindful of spotters and traps alike as thin droplets spun ahead of me 'pinging' off invisible ninja wires that would have alerted everyone about my approach, while my perception of said drops wavered imperceptibly each time they hovered above a seal. In less than three minutes, I had reached the base of the giant ant-hill that had been built by Iwa-nin in order to act both as an outpost and as a prisoner camp.
Remaining cautious of eventual traps or ambushes, I slowly made my way up the artificial hill, ignoring the holes that promised an easy entry into the enemy's camp: a more obvious trap I had never seen.
Still, from my advantageous position, I could see the barren land both South and West from my position slowly disappear under a thicker and thicker cloak of mist. It wasn't an ordinary climate in the Land of Stone, and that was why I had such an easy time in reaching the top of the hill: every guard had temporarily directed their attention towards the unusual event. Far into the West, the sun was completing its descent, almost setting over a white sea of mist that its warmth apparently could no longer pierce.
To be truthful, it was obvious that it was either a trap, a distraction, a bait, or a proper invasion that Kiri had no hope to actually hide.
I smiled as I felt the soft bond that I had with Tobirama's reanimated body ping off in random direction over the Land of Stone: he was almost flaring his chakra, managing to make it appear slightly different each time. It wasn't enough for a sensor to pick up, not unless there was someone with a bloodline related to actually sensing chakra, and last I heard, there wasn't one in the Elemental Nations, even if the Yamanaka could pull off some insane shit thanks to a combination of their techniques and fuinjutsu.
Once at the top of the artificial hill, I slowly climbed up the earth wall that surrounded the small dome built to facilitate the best spotters work. Only, the most likely assault would be coming from East, where the boundary with the Land of Fire did lay, or South-West, where the strange mist was acting up. Still, as I forced my muscles to leverage me over the wall, not using chakra in order to not be spotted since I was so close to the sensors available to Iwa, I could hear that the alarm hadn't been given yet.
Why? Because that mist, even if unnatural, could be used for something completely unrelated to the outpost, and the explorers that had been sent into it in order to investigate weren't encountering any problems, even if Tobirama was running circles around them and keeping them just on the edge between calling for reinforcements and going back to the base in order to relax.
The room hadn't roper doors, but simple openings at regular intervals in order to let people in and out. With my trick of drops of water clearing the way in front of me, I ignored the first three entrances that I had been offered, sliding in through a third, smaller hole on the left. The first guard fell to the ground quietly as I placed a paper tag on the back of his head, while the second didn't manage to give the alarm because my arms were already clamping down on his airways, my chakra smothering his so that he couldn't call reinforcements by wildly fluctuating his own.
My eyes scanned the room quickly while I put to sleep the second guard, my attention dropping briefly on a desk holding the observations of the spotters before focusing on a small staircase that led both upwards and downwards.
I didn't take risks and planted paper bombs that would be destabilized with the first wave of wildly fluctuating chakra, which would be caused by the first slightly inexperienced idiot that roughly checked for genjutsu once the unconscious guards were found.
I quietly crept upstairs, were a couple of sensors were using their chakra to deep scan the humungous amount of mist creeping in from South and West. Is this how I felt using the knife to kill campers in MW3? My lips twitched upwards as that old memory of mine resurfaced.
Even as I quickly turned the two sensors unconscious with a twin blow carried out on the base of their necks, a frown marred my forehead: how long had it been since I last thought about my previous life? If not to leverage my metaknowledge of memory of either movies or random things in order to set up my small economic empire, I had never actually thought about my past. What does it say about me that I feel more alive and necessary here than I ever did back on Earth?
I shook my head, quickly freeing it from the potential reminiscing: it was not the time.
Without a whisper, I walked downstairs, and soon enough, I was inside the ant-hill like structure that was the Iwa outpost/prisoner-camp. My personal version of the henge quickly covered my form, making me look like one of the shinobi I had subdued at the top of the hill.
Once that the sensors on active duty were dealt with, I could be a bit more liberal in the use of my techniques, and without hesitating, I let brief instants of absolute stillness to give me an inkling about the position and relative strength of the chakra systems surrounding me. With that undeniable advantage, I sneaked past everyone, only a few random shinobi managed to spot the retreating form of my back, but given the lack of an alarm and my regular appearance, I didn't encounter problems of sort.
To my great relief, I didn't feel any known chakra signatures, even if I could recognize the several fire natured shinobi held prisoners roughly at the middle of the ant-hill-like outpost.
In short order, I reached the entrance of the prisoner wing, which unlike what Tobirama had foretold, were all kept together. Placing all the prisoners together had its merits: less potential escapes, all potential threats in the same place, a place that had likely been trapped to hell and back, that granted the possibility of dispatching less shinobi or kunoichi as guards, and was far enough from the confines of the outpost that an attempted rescue mission would turn into a bloody mess. Not that rescue missions happened often, wither in time of war or peace.
I didn't know anyone among the prisoners, if that was because of my limited contacts with other shinobi or because I had badly underestimated the number of the Elemental Nations' populace, it was up to anybody's guess. Nevertheless, there was a particular presence that felt... important. I had already felt it at some point, I was sure, even if I didn't take notice of it back then, but who...?
I walked past the rows of individual cells without stopping to consider the ones held within: freeing them would cause a ruckus, and I wanted to figure out who I had felt before being forced to haul ass away from the Iwa outpost.
"Uzumaki Karin?" I asked as my modified henge melted off me, my mind finally catching up with my intuition: she had been at Konoha during the disastrous chunin exams.
The redhead was bound with chains to the wall, while her chakra was kept from being manipulated by a sequence of paper tags that rested respectively over her forehead, her heart, and her stomach. Her red eyes widened as she turned towards me, her gaze unfocused since her glasses had been taken away from her: "You're not my usual guard... and you were under a henge, how do you know my name?" her voice was croaky enough to spur me into a bit of Suiton sealless manipulation.
A tendril of crystal clear water left my waterskin and quietly sneaked its way through the bars of the cell, reaching the girl's lips before she could ask any more questions: "Drink." I ordered, pleased to see that she was coherent enough to recognize that it wasn't the time for her to haggle.
"I've read the registry of the prisoners." I shrugged as an explanation once the cell's door clicked open: "How did they capture you? You're a sensor, and a powerful one at that."
She finished gulping down the last of the water I had kept floating in front of her face when she heard me open the cell: "I've... I've managed to escape Kusa when the war passed there... but there were just so many unknown nin... and some I couldn't feel just got the drop on me."
"Hunter-nin." I commented: given their field of work, stealth was a priority along with tracking, and no matter how talented a sensor, there were counters to every skill, as I had proven by managing to sneak in. "Do you know who I am?" She was skilled enough to raise Orochimaru's interest in the manga, was she not? And Uzumaki tend ot have a minor form of plot armour in any case, what to do? what to do?
"I... the chunin exams in Konoha..." Karin stuttered out, her red eyes wildly moving to keep everything of me into her sights even as she marginally relaxed.
"You're a sensor, aren't you?" I tilted my head questioningly even if I already knew the answer to what I had asked, "A powerful one, too, or you wouldn't have remembered me."
She flinched at my words and seemed to shrink on herself, her eyes growing even wider than before.
What to do, what to do? Generally, when in doubt, I followed the philosophy of 'Never leaving money on the table'. I would never become a swordsman, but sure as hell I was going to leave the Kusanagi in the Summons Plane, along with the shit I had stolen (mostly out of spite) from the Sarutobi clan. I didn't want to have a random Konohamaru jumping in the way simply because he had access to a uniquely powerful summon. It was a hoarder's mentality, but when the things I accumulated could be used against me were I to leave them around, I didn't think my choices wrong.
Sure, I gave back the Samehada, but that was mostly to prove that I was the one to take it from Kisame, and I needed to make my name heavier than it was, at least to make Itachi's job with the Rinnegan-endowed nut-case a little easier.
"You remember me? There's no way you didn't feel me back in the Konoha's Crush." I asked when she failed to answer, and from her reaction, I already knew that yes, she remembered.
"You... were the one that fought the ...?"
"Orochimaru." I quipped with a smile, "along with Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, who had been enslaved from beyond the Veil of Death."
Karin gulped loudly: "But your chakra was... different then..."
"That would be me using Natural-chakra, I would have used it to storm the place, but I'm trying to remain low-key for now." I tilted my head, thinking if what I was about to say would be a winning strategy or not. Then I sighed. Fuck it, I'm gonna wing it and hope for the best.
"Would you like to learn?" I offered, letting my chakra lightly seep out of my coils, making her 'reading' easier. I didn't know what she was feeling, nor I was particularly interested in it, after all, she was an Uzumaki prisoner of Iwa, and whatever I had in mind, sure as hell didn't involve raping and breeding, which was her foreseeable future if she didn't escape, I hoped that her unique brand of bullshittery would be enough to make her tentatively trust me. Besides, I'd prefer to have a second pair of hands to help with Itachi, and her bloodline is scary useful.
When I saw a reluctant acceptation in her eyes, I smiled. I had to work against the propaganda with Shikamaru, Ino and Choji, what could she become under a proper sensei instead of whatever shit Orochimaru had forced her to be? Besides, she had grown up abused by Kusagakure, hadn't she?
"I'm calling you 'Padawan'." I started out as I made quick work of her bindings.
"What..?!" she let out as I hauled her to her feet.
"You heard me."
She spluttered: "Padawan as in that children book?" she shook her head as I walked out of the cell with her hot on my tail, "That's..."
"Be quiet and follow, Padawan." I flicked her nose as I walked along the corridor, "Try to keep yourself hidden from the sensors and every half-experienced shinobi, I'd prefer to be out of here before their spotters blow up."
In that moment, I felt my paper bombs go off, immediately followed by cries of alarm and the chakra of Iwa shinobi.
Well, shit. I sighed as I eyed the other prisoners, which were now clamouring to be freed.
At least I have a secondary diversion now.
AN
Part 0: Snake Contract
I had foreshadowed that Orochimaru's had the contract tattooed on his arm: and Daiki never leaves up for someone else a potentially useful tool. I didn't find a better time than now to show that he had managed to take over the Snake Contract, for using it openly would have painted him as an ally of Orochimaru.
Eventually, I'll have a flashback showing how Daiki managed to not get killed by the snakes, but if you remember, Manda obeyed Orochimaru only because he couldn't win against him, and the MC is an already trained Sage, the Snake Clan is defined by greed, why would they refuse a powerful summoner? Besides, Daiki sacrificed an easy life in Konoha, and the tentative rapport he had established with his genin in order to change the world. That's some hardcore determination right there.
I try to avoid pulling characters or skills out of my ass in order to use them in the same chapter, mostly because it either feels rished or a classic 'pulled out of my ass'-move. However: everyone, meet Akahebi, the rattle-snake with skills that will eventually be used.
Part 1: Tobirama
Daiki wants to keep all of his cards close to his chest, knowing that he's up against Pain&co without Plot Armour, he won't be storming anything anytime soon. That doesn't mean that he can't make use of his resources for quiet operations like this one: you'll notice that Tobirama's existence isn't revealed to the wider world even if he spends more than an hour giving the slip to everybody.
Part 2: Karin
Okay, a filler chapter more than anything else, we recover Daiki's position and he stumbles upon Karin. Karin is the only true-blooded Uzumaki around, a character that Kishimoto pulled out of his ass in Shippuden, tossing in a flashback that placed her as a chunin-hopeful from Kusa. She was saved from a giant bear because of Sasuke's intervention (when did he have the time to randomly save someone?).
Even Sakura can kill a fucking bear, walk up a tree and pelt its eyes with kunai when he tries to climb and follow.
In canon, she eventually gets recruited by Orochimaru after her village gets attacked. The Snake-man puts her in charge of a base after extracting all the useful data from her blood, but doesn't mark her. She's generally a useless character, if not for the unheard-of ability to turn everyone biting her into a chakra-vampire (apparently her mother was killed because her village abused that skill), and the chains that she uses for the first time (again something pulled out of Kishimoto's ass) against White-Zetsu.
Daiki clearly sees the potential of her bloodline, remembers the bullshit from the manga, and feels her lack of direction. Why wouldn't he take advantage of it? That's not to say that he'll simply fuck her into the ground, the MC's character isn't one for that kind of behaviour, and for now she's like... thirteen? fourteen? something like that, let's go with 14. While the MC had to be brusque and kind of an asshole with his genin team, he did so because they had been raised into propaganda, while Karin grew up knowing the abuse that Kusa perpetrated against her.
The only thing Daiki sees is an occasion to mould another shinobi as he did with Shikamaru&co.
After Tsunade became Hokage in the manga, Orochimaru stumbled upon Karin. So we are kind of keeping up with the timeline despite the vastly different circumstances: in the manga the minor village fell as a consequence of a skirmish, here, Iwa keeps what it can, and with this chapter I managed to present the Snake Contract, Tobirama and a new character, not bad uh?
And while Karin was able to keep clear from others after the canon-skirmish, at this point in time, everyone is at war, and being a sensor doesn't mean that you're omniscient, she has to sleep if nothing else.
So, thoughts on the most recent apprentice?
