Chapter 11
Departure
Land of Water
Yuki Clan Compound
Naruto was stood at the gates of the Yuki compound in new clothes, Haku had decided that he needed new more anonymous-looking clothes in order to better blend in, so now he had blue sandals, dark navy pants with no decoration and black pouches on either leg and he was wearing a net shirt that was covered by his new black and orange jacket which was more black than orange.
There was a small gathering in front of him with Haku and a recovered Byakuya along with a small contingent of guards as well.
"Thanks for this Haku." He said gratefully.
"It's nothing you helped save my life and even got us one of the Seven Swords." Haku waved it off.
"Yes thank you for your service." Byakuya said stiffly, he was still injured not to mention grieving his grandfather whose Kekkei Genkai Naruto had taken not that he knew that.
"Well I best get going the boat isn't going to wait forever." Naruto said not really good at goodbyes, the last time he said goodbye to someone it was Karin and he knocked her out.
"Good luck Naruto I hope you succeed in whatever your goals are for this journey." Haku said formally even bowing a little.
"Thanks, I hope so too. Goodbye" Those were Naruto's parting words because after he said them he disappeared into the trees.
"I still don't understand why you're so fond of him, he has no bond to our Clan, the next time he comes back he will probably be an enemy." Byakuya griped looking very put out.
"No he is an ally of the Yuki Clan and if I call he will come, There is a bond Byakuya." Haku said smiling at him before walking through the gate back into his home.
"I hope your right Clan Head." Byakuya said staring at where Naruto was for a few moments longer before following his cousin.
It would not be the last time that the Grandson's of Byakko would meet Naruto, they would, in fact, be part of a large upheaval in the future and they would stand by Naruto through it all but that is for the future.
With Naruto
Naruto felt sad as he ran across the thankfully calm seas in between the islands of the Land of Water, Haku had told him that there was a port on the westernmost island and there would be ships going to the Land of Lightning so he just needed to hide inside one.
'Man part of me just wanted to stay with the Yuki.' He thought as he hit the coast of the island he was looking for and instantly jumped up into the trees and travelled the Ninja way.
'But I have a mission and with the Kaguya wanting my head, it's best I leave.' Naruto concluded sadly.
"Woah." Naruto said coming to a stop on a branch overlooking the port.
This port was purely for military purposes and not Ninja but Samurai, so that meant it was owned and run by the Land of Water's Daimyo. Naruto could see a lot of Samurai and not many civilians and the ships themselves were huge and some were even made of metal.
'How do those things even float?' Naruto asked himself incredulously, he had only ever seen wooden ships before.
"Urgh, enough gotta find a ship." Naruto smacked his cheeks and concentrated on his actual objective instead of gawking at the biggest ships he had ever seen before.
"Right, first find one heading to the Land of Lightning, then get on. Nice and Simple." Naruto said to himself and looked over the entranceway's into the docks.
He noticed that there were two separate entrances; one for civilians and merchants which was long and well guarded and another for Samurai which was very well guarded and also seemed to have a large carriage emblazoned the symbol of the Water Daimyo on the side which meant it was the one that would be watched the closest because it was the Daimyo's stuff.
'Right I know how to do this.' Naruto thought going through some Hand Signs.
"Shunshin no Jutsu." He said lowly and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The world blurred around Naruto as he moved at speeds faster than a normal eye could see, he easily went right over the huge stone wall protecting the docks and landed on a metal roof of one of the larger buildings.
The Jutsu ended and he decided to peak through one of the windows that were open on the roof and saw a huge hull of a ship in progress, it was made of metal and some men were burning huge metal plates together with what looked like Katon Jutsu.
"Cool." Naruto whispered watching the sparks fly off and disappear.
He noticed there was a second floor that looked like an office and decided that was probably the best place to find any manifests.
Naruto went through the window and jumped onto one of the steel beams holding the roof up and crawled along the top until he was right over the office, then he dropped down very lightly on the wooden roof of the office and crept around trying to listen to check if anyone was inside.
After a few fruitless minutes, Naruto decided to peak over the edge of the roof and check in one of the windows lucky for Naruto no one was in the office or they would have seen a head of blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Nice." He whispered though he didn't need to, the warehouse was loud with the clanging of metal, hissing of fire and the men shouting at each other.
So he just hopped down of the roof onto the walkway in front of the door and just walked in and looked around for any important looking documents and eventually found the manifests for multiple ships.
"Right! Land of Lightning here I come." Naruto said as he flicked through the sheets of paper looking for a ship that was departing today and heading to the Land of Lightning.
"Aha! Here's one departing at mid-morning for the Land of Lightning arriving at Hagazure Port." Naruto read aloud as he found the information he wanted.
'Right time to find the boat.' He thought as he put the papers down and exited the room just in time to see a man and a Samurai walking up the steps to get on this walkway.
"Shit." Naruto hissed and jumped back onto the office roof then onto the steel beams and the monkey crawled his way back to the window.
He was very careful not to move too fast since fast movement catches the eye but also to remain hidden and get out before anyone saw him, lucky for Naruto it wasn't like anyone in the port was looking for a Ninja anyway so he had an easy time getting back out onto the metal roof of the construction warehouse.
"Right now to find the 'Water Lord's Joy' it shouldn't be that hard to find." Naruto said to himself peering at over all the ships that were moored at the docks.
"Well I know it's leaving soon so I should look for a ship getting ready to leave." He reasoned out and lept from the roof towards the waiting ships.
Besides despite how bad the Land of Water was for the conflicts between the various Clans none of them would ever dare to attack a port under the Daimyo's protection or any of the Samurai in his employ for that matter especially after the Kishinami Valley Massacre.
Naruto eventually came to a stop on one of the final buildings at the very edge of the docks and looked over the ships which looked even bigger up close and he was stood on a tall building looking down on them as well.
"Damn they really are huge." He commented looking at all the people moving around, a lot of them seemed to be shifting cargo mostly huge wooden and metal crates.
"There it is." Naruto said with a smirk finally seeing one ship that was being loaded a lot more than the others and the Captain standing at the side of the boat screaming at all the workers to hurry up was an obvious giveaway as well.
"Now, how to do this?" He mused looking at the busy streets below, if he just dropped down in an alley and walked out he would definitely be noticed.
Then his eyes went on the cargo boxes being moved around and he got an idea.
"That could work." He said with a smirk and went about his plan to get on the ship unnoticed.
Land Of Fire
No Man's Land
Shikamaru sighed from his place high in the trees overlooking the destroyed land, once upon a time before the Great War this was a beautiful meadow and forest but now it was a trench filled destroyed hell hole.
Currently, he was on an observation post-mission, not an official one that the Nara Clan was being paid for but rather one that was needed for the safety of the Clan since across that blackened field was the Uchiha Clan who was one of the 2 strongest Clans in the Land of Fire.
"Ah man, this sucks." A voice said below him.
"Don't complain Choji, a boring assignment is a good thing." Shikamaru said to his friend below him.
"I just hate looking at this depressing place." Choji said looking out.
"Let's just be thankful that we have this instead of fighting." Shikamaru replied as he shut his eyes again to get a nap.
"It's a waste of time Shikamaru, no Uchiha has ever crossed the land over to us, Hell the Uchiha hasn't made any aggressive moves since the end of the Great War." Ino complained, she was sitting on the branch above him swinging her legs back and forth looking utterly bored.
"Just because they haven't now doesn't mean it won't happen in the future, just look at the Senju they annihilated a small Clan for claiming a village near their territory just the other day." Shikamaru said back eyes still closed.
"The Senju have gone crazy ever since the War." Choji noted as munched on some rations he had with him.
"Just be glad our Clans are allied and hope no one attempts anything especially the Senju or Uchiha." Shikamaru said getting sick of the conversation.
The Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka Clans had been allied for centuries now and that was not a relationship that was going to change any time in the future especially after the Great War and the destruction it unleashed on the world.
"Oh! I wish I was back home instead of looking at this." Ino continued to complain as she swung her legs.
"Just enjoy the peace while it lasts Ino." Choji told her finally coming over to Shikamaru's side.
"Not you too." Ino whined.
"Just imagine all the Uchiha glaring at you from across the wasteland." Shikamaru said sarcastically accepting he wasn't having a nap this time.
"Don't say that Shikamaru!" Ino yelped, the Uchiha Clan were feared for good reason and Ino did not want him jinxing them.
"Don't worry if anything they're gonna be doing what we are, complaining and staring at dead trees." Shikamaru said flatly.
'The Senju being the aggressive one's is a worrying change in attitude, even Senju Tobirama knew that pure aggression was not the answer and held back from waging fights all the time.' Shikamaru thought though to his two friends it looked like he was asleep the reality was far different.
'The Uchiha are now the more reserved Clan preferring the threat of force over the application, their positions have completely switched and no one knows what to think even Father doesn't know how to handle it, we have 100 of possibilities but no true plan in case of a flare-up. We have predicted another Great War is on the horizon but we don't know what could incite it.' Shikamaru was one of the smartest in his Clan and he was also the future leader as despite not wanting to he had to think about these things and secure a future of the Nara Clan.
'The Daimyo will never forgive another war between the Ninja, the next Great War will be the Final War for Ninja and the Samurai will make a full return.' He concluded grimly.
Shikamaru's prediction would have been perfectly accurate except for a certain blondes influence in the future.
And this was how they spent the rest of their day just idly chatting with each other while watching a scorched land where no living thing lived due to the destruction and the lingering miasma from the monster that destroyed it.
Uchiha Territory
Across No Man's Land
"Cheer up Sasuke this is a fantastic mission to get." A cheerful voice said loudly.
"Shut up Uncle Obito, you're gonna give away our position!" Sasuke hissed back at him.
"You worry too much, no crosses No Man's Land that's why it has the name." Uchiha Obito said back, he was an older man with scars on the left side of his face though luckily for him he retained the famous eyes of the Uchiha Clan.
"Sasuke, come on, even if the Nara Clan and their allies wanted to invade don't you think they would be smarter than marching across a desolate place like that." Obito rightly pointed out.
The Land of Fire No Man's Land was a huge area that was destroyed by the brutal fighting between the Uchiha and Senju Clans and their various allies during the Great War though it was not them which that caused the sheer destruction of the forest as Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara had killed each other during the last and greatest battle in the place now known as the Valley of The End.
No, instead the true cause of the destruction during the battle of Kagekura Forest which was the largest clash between both Clans that got so intense and brutal that it attracted the Kyubi no Yoko which proceeded to lay waste to both sides and the forest they were fighting in, at the end of the 3-day battle neither side won instead both sides lost as most of their forces were spent on the field or wounded and it was that battle which was the end of the Great War within the Land of Fire as no Clan had survived the battle unscathed.
"Itachi used to slack off when he was on this guard duty." Obito revealed.
"No, he didn't!" Sasuke shot back hotly turning to glare at the older man.
"Oh, he and Shisui used to mess around I know that for a fact." Obito continued still smiling at the young boy who was getting angrier with each word.
"I remember once on a mission to the Land of Hot Water we stopped off at a Hot Spring and..." Obito began to reminisce on a very funny mission but he was unfortunately cut off.
"Obito-Sama, Sasuke-Sama!" A familiar voice shouted catching their attention and stopping Obito's story.
"Oh, Yoshio!" Obito said surprised at the black-haired man's sudden appearance.
"Fugaku-Sama requires the both of you back at the main hideout." Yoshio said as he sucked in a breath.
"Has something happened?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes, there has been an incident in the north with the Hyuga, I shall take over your duties here please go!" Yoshio said quickly.
"Sasuke." Obito's attitude had changed completely now instead of a joking uncle there was a hardened Ninja.
Sasuke did not say anything verbally instead he just nodded and once Obito disappeared in a puff of smoke he followed the older man.
"We need to get this sorted as soon as, the north is where we're most vulnerable." Obito said as he blurred through the forest.
"I know that." Sasuke groused as he followed closely.
"No you don't know how important the north is to us right now especially with the Senju going on the offensive and annihilating the Uesugi Clan over an unimportant village, their new Clan Head is a ruthless bastard more like an unrestrained Tobirama at least he had some brains instead of pure aggression." Obito informed Sasuke.
"How much am I not being told?" He asked annoyed.
"Far more than I know, only Fugaku-Sama and Itachi know the full story and they play their cards close to their chest because they have too." Obito answered.
"Let's just go see Father and see what he wants." Sasuke finished the conversation.
'Still too hot-headed Sasuke, you're more like me at that age than Itachi.' Obito thought shaking his head almost fondly recalling his younger years.
'Let's hope another War breaks out and ruins your life like it did mine,' Obito went to darker thoughts as he reflected on the Great War he was only a child when it broke out but even he was dispatched as a full combat Ninja fighting in the mud and blood.
'Is it too much to wish for peace?' Obito thought before he concentrated back on running as fast as he could back to the Uchiha Compound.
AN:
Here's Chapter 11 and a different beast from the last few, I want to experiment with weaving multiple storylines at the same time since both Sasuke and Shikamaru are important for future storylines and I wanted to introduce them now.
This fic has expanded beyond just Naruto going to get 5 Kekkei Genkai, so I want to try and run this kind of chapter in the future where Naruto is the main character but sometimes we also see other people in the world, mainly because I have a lot of lore to dump like I hope people are curious about the Great War like how it started and just what happened during it since I've been vague so far about just what exactly happened.
So yeah this one is set up for future more expansive storylines, hope you enjoyed it and look forward to Chapter 12 and hey if this little experiment fails then I can just go back to following only Naruto it just means there won't be foreshadowing for when stuff in the future happens.
Translations:
Shunshin no Jutsu=Body Flicker Technique
Kyubi no Yoko=Nine Tailed Demon Fox