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Mist — Civil war
"An S-rank mission?" Uzumaki Naruto asked his mentor with a bit of excitement and uncertainty.
His master Jiraiya delivered his speech on the mission, Uzumaki Naruto was to travel south towards Tea country and take a ship towards Water country.
—Uzumaki Naruto's objective was to take the civil war to whatever natural conclusion possible and make the Mist village as a whole indebted to the Leaf village… or more precisely to Senju Tsunade, Naruto's most precious woman in his life right now.
Hidden in the parameters was for Naruto to help Goat Mask acquire a significant portion of the Water Country's real estate and businesses… With Mist's civil war spanning for more than two decades; the Hidden Village was none the wiser of the money war happening underground.
"Rejoice brat, it's your first S-rank mission, getting important enough, are we?" Jiraiya said with the usual sarcastic bite as he took a sip of his tiny cup of sake.
"So you're not going to help, are you master?" Naruto asked with a bit graver tone.
"No, you'll be getting no help, this is your story brat." Jiraiya stated with furrowed eyebrows.
Uzumaki Naruto knew that his master and mentor Jiraiya, the toad sage, was a jokester most of the time, with his perverted antics and porn writing he was quite a charismatic man that Naruto could call somewhat close to a father, however at times like these, where there were bloody missions given to Naruto, Jiraiya would be strangely quiet.
On the next break from the physical routine, Jiraiya opened with a statement that broke Uzumaki Naruto's expectations out of the water. "In all the Hidden Leaf's centenary and celebrated history, only 15 S-rank missions have been issued… Of all of them only 4 ended up in success, all 11 others were met with absolute failure." Jiraiya said with a serious tone again.
Uzumaki Naruto could not believe his master's words and he was battered with information on how S-rank missions differed in importance than anything else. To start with, since the beginning of the Leaf's creation as a village of shinobi more than 100,000 A-rank missions had been issued, the disparity between the two ranks was too large.
"If you thought the distance between A-rank ninjas and S-rank were of night and day then the difference between an A-rank mission and an S-rank one is in even greater orders of magnitude." Master Jiraiya chastised him.
S-rank missions were now being explained to Uzumaki Naruto as if he was but an ignoramus child who didn't know how the world worked and thought that regular career shinobi or a battalion of ANBU black ops could deal with the difficulty and parameters of such an intense mission. Uzumaki Naruto was a boy of fourteen-years of age, barely six months into his training, however he possessed a significant advantage over everybody else in the form of his identifying technique called Shadow clones, producing tens of thousands every day and fighting one on army fights every night for those six months it could be said that there was no person more experienced in combat than Uzumaki Naruto himself, he learned himself and through his clones eyes how exactly one should kill a man with the same level of power, over and over again as the nights became ever more intense and deadly.
That closed off perception skewed Uzumaki Naruto's thoughts on reality and blended into fantasy. This was the real world, not some dream reality where if everyone worked hard, they would achieve legendary status… some like him were blessed on the day they were born with advantages over everybody else… for his friend, Uchiha Sasuke it was his clan, money and bloodline… For Naruto was the longevity, vitality and the Nine-tailed Fox.
These advantages led both to reach the peak of their age without effort, they were the absolute top dogs of the continent in their age group no matter whichever enemy came to them. Similarly S-rank ninjas were the absolute cream of the crop and were born or acquired significant advantages that propelled each one of them towards the very top.
The Sannin were a legendary group of ninjas, consisting of the three — Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Senju Tsunade. Their whole career was filled with accomplishments after accomplishments, each of them being capable of exercising the position of Hokage at whatever point of their life. Their voices were heard, and their presence respected and sometimes feared. The dream team for more than forty years in the making. "—And yet the only S-rank mission issued to our team ended in failure." Jiraiya stated towards Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto was dumbfounded, thrown completely for a loop, his strong mentor failed one of these elusive missions?
It turned out that the mission they, the Sannin, were issued with was to assassinate Hanzo of the Salamander the hidden leader of Rain Country. Hanzo himself proved to match the three disciples of the Third Hokage and defeated these three in a fair and straight combat. They've failed their only S-rank mission issued to their team and nevermore they were issued with one.
"The Third Hokage was often called the 'God of Shinobi' for accomplishing an S-rank mission in his youth." Jiraiya stated.
"I—I see, but then why would she issue one towards me then?" Naruto asked why Tsunade, his mother figure would do such things when he was only fourteen-years-old, and while he was a jonin, he was still a new one with a couple of dozen A-ranks under his belt.
"You always keep sending your journals to her, right?" Jiraiya has been watching his student, always sending journals and messages of his daily life, skills he acquired and how strong he has become. Similarly Jiraiya has also sent reports to Tsunade and Naruto was also being assessed by the Zodiacs in every country they passed. Three different sources gauging Naruto's strength and skill as a shinobi made it certain for Senju Tsunade to believe in her son figure, Uzumaki Naruto's capacity as one of her most powerful assets.
Senju Tsunade and Uzumaki Naruto's relationship was a complex thing. Both loved each other immensely and would do anything for each other. However another aspect was this — she was his leader and he was her tool. Something like this might have led to conflicts between both but Naruto was not incensed at all… He was partly glad that someone recognized his tremendous presence and took complete advantage of it without underestimating him, and he was also in line with Senju Tsunade's sense of justice — no it was the opposite, Naruto had influenced Tsunade's sense of justice and forced her to agree to his own beliefs back when he met her.
Naruto had to smirk, she was the paper-pusher, he was the one that broke bones, this suited him fine, action is where he truly shone.
Naruto walked and stared at the waterfall nearby, he raised his five-foot-six-inch muscular body. He took his arm out of the sleeve of his dark grey kimono and scratched his abdomen, he was ripped in all sort of places and had an eight-pack to demonstrate his pure strength of body the incredible physicality of someone whose resistance seals had the force of an ocean pushing against his body.
With this kind of figure, Uzumaki Naruto was not a simple boy of fourteen years of age. He understood how wider the world was… in these times, when he was reminded of his obliviousness, he remembered Haku. It felt like a long time ago but in reality — it had only been a year since Naruto met him.
Uzumaki Naruto's life was so short but with the Shadow clones constantly feeding information made him feel like he had been living for more than ten-thousand years.
Jiraiya approached him and stood side-by-side. Of course, S-rank missions weren't given to the Hokage once in the seat of power because the Hokage didn't take on missions, he or she, issued them.
"Want to know how little you know about truly powerful people? Out of the four S-rank missions ever completed successfully, two of them have been completed by the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, before he took the mantle."
That tidbit of information that Jiraiya lit a competitive fire inside of the boy like nothing else. An S-rank mission, Tsunade? I'll do it. No questions asked.
XOX
Yakunobe was a town on the outskirts of Water country, it was a port town with a medium sized population of poor and medium class folk, this town of Yakunobe had trade routes towards the city of Naranokawa — the biggest port of these islands was.
The town of Yakunobe was a cool place near the Ocean of Sadness, the beaches were gray and filthy, full of timber and coconuts. The town itself was surrounded by small, verdant and humid forests of the coast and the houses were made entirely out of wood, the pavement was simple dirt where few carriages passed by. There was a large production of cocoa, coffee, tobacco and wheat, controlled by a local warlord leader who had ties to the Water Daimyo. The local warlord had a large stone mansion.
The climate was humid and cold due to precipitations and fog and it prevailed throughout Water Country who consisted of five great island and innumerable small archipelagos all around that formed a nation of largely disconnected people. Some villages were so oblivious to the geopolitics prevailing the land they didn't even know they had a leader called the Water Daimyo living in the lush capital of Hongawa.
Those snippets of information were clearly collected and catalogued by Naruto's spread out clones who used an elementary but perfected technique — the so-called transformation technique, physical clones who were completely indistinguishable from another person, even to sensor shinobi.
Transformed into men or women of all ages, the clones spread out. Since this was a medium town a group of twelve was the maximum to not raise suspicion.
Naruto was transformed into a twenty-something black-haired lady with big boobs and cleavage for male attention and was getting some information out of the barkeep but her asking was interrupted.
"Hey! You filth!" a rude bearded man laughed as he kicked some nine-year-old orphan. The child had no one on his corner, everybody on the bar was looking away, no parents to speak of. "Aren't you a filthy bloodline kid, your blood is dirty, you TRASH, how dare you keep asking for change from your betters, every single one of you bloodline traitors should be thrown in a pit of fire!" The bearded man and his gang took the little boy outside dragged by the hair as the boy struggled and cried. The man kept laughing as he spewed out racist drivel against people of bloodlines with his disgusting mouth.
Uzumaki Naruto knew that the kid was not a bloodline user, there was barely any chakra in him, he was a civilian with no background of shinobi in his blood. Yet the bearded man used his disgusting rhetoric to target people he did not like. It was like this in any country who had laws for persecution of certain groups.
With no proof, they will out that person they don't like as that type and get rid of them, it was the natural conclusion of any regime based on persecution. Uzumaki Naruto hated everything about it.
The bearded man and his gang dragged the boy to a dark alley as always… and kicked the boy's head. Naruto arrived, still disguised as a woman with a kimono that showed her big cleavage and light skin. "Can you let the boy go?" she asked innocently.
But of course these men were hardwired into two things, bullying people and sexually abusing women and when such a bombastic girl came to an alleyway, everyone knew what would happen. Two of them closed the distance with two steps invading her personal space. Naruto looked at them with cold unfeeling eyes.
"Hehe~ we have such a nice big sister here…"
"C'mon use those tits of your for our pleasure…"
The man that wanted to touch her body lost his arm and lost half his face from the horizontal axis, a blinding short blade was revealed and Naruto, still disguised as a woman, rushed them and ended their lives while the boy remained unconscious. Completely out of it.
"Goat, come here…" she announced and a huge man with black braided hair with a green jade gem arrived, he wore the usual ANBU uniform and a white goat mask… behind his absolutely muscular back was an intricate designed and colorful tattoo of a goat spanning every inch of his skin until his forearms.
"Uzumaki-san, you took notice of me…" Goat Mask appeared to be an old middle-aged man by his raspy, husky voice and appeared to be even more professional than Monkey Mask.
"Tsunade told me you'd be in this city and that you shall help me contact the rebel faction on the mainland…"
"Yes, however Uzumaki-san, you know by now that any favor given must be returned… you first need to help me here in Yakunobe." Goat Mask spoke to him as an equal partner… Zodiacs were always like this and Uzumaki Naruto learned to love this professional relationship he had with them a lot.
Naruto hugged the unconscious boy with her woman's body and from her back a new Naruto arrived, with no seals or smoke or sounds, a new clone was just formed out of empty space. This time the features were of a brown-haired forgettable man.
Goat Mask was shocked beyond belief. "Uzumaki-san, where is your current body, the real one?"
She took the unconscious boy in her arms in a princess carry. The other clone would be accompanying Goat Mask on whatever task he saw fit. "Who knows? Perhaps I'm here in Yakunobe, perhaps I'm in Naranokawa, the biggest port city of Water Country, perhaps I'm in Hongawa, the lush capital or perhaps I'm already deep within the village hidden in the Mist… Hey Goat mask, where do you think I am?"
"…"
XOX
Goat mask wanted complete control of Yakunobe and assassinating all the henchmen of the warlord and the warlord himself was the mission given. The town of Yakunobe was a port due south of the country and was the last link needed for the Zodiacs in this region of the world for complete control of the countries south of the Ocean of Sadness… Moon, Crimson, Tea, Nagi, Sea, Noodles, Kiko and Jiro countries were already in full control by the Zodiacs… To make a strong trading spot they just needed this port to completely dominate the Ocean south of Fire country.
Bringing this trade route to life would bring a 10 billion Ryo of pure liquid profit annually to the Leaf. Regarding the financial and real estate war there were barely any competitors in the game at this point… It was as if Tsunade was playing chess and everyone else was playing checkers and didn't see how badly she pulled the rug from below everyone.
And so like true unstoppable shinobi, Naruto sprung the plan, assassinate every single henchman in the town so that nobody could raise a peep about the warlord's death and get Goat Mask's little foothold in place to both complete the trade route and open up Water Country for domination.
"So, you'll introduce me to the rebel group, right?" Naruto said retrieving the blade from the warlord's throat in the office of his stone mansion.
"Yes… but how will you end the war? In your mission's parameters, it was stated that you could ally yourself with whatever faction, why choose the rebels when siding with the current Mizukage would be easier."
"It's simple preference, I dislike what Mizukage did to the country." Uzumaki Naruto's reason for choosing sides was simply based on preference and sense of justice.
All the pieces of the Mizukage were already hanging, any move the man made on the board would be game over for him; Uzumaki Naruto by this point had already won due to the incredible progress he made with the Shadow clones as a skill.
"It doesn't matter if you think the mission is hard, the civil war is as good as over from the point I infiltrated this country…"
Goat Mask had an intense shiver as he looked at the confident fourteen-year-old Uzumaki Naruto; For Goat Mask, the shinobi next to him was already situated in another plane of existence… To think that Jiraiya-sama raised another monster was incomprehensible to the tall and strong Goat Mask.
"We will meet on the biggest port of the country, Naranokawa in two days, meet me there, Goat Mask." The Uzumaki Naruto that was there vanished, or more specifically dispelled into nothingness, without sound or a cloud of smoke — the only indication was the reverb of Naruto's voice.
XOX
Yamaoka Arata was a simple but accomplished shinobi in the forces of Water country, two things led his life, his desire for stability and his loyalty to his Kage. He was accomplished in the fact that he was one of the triple dozen forces that surrounded the Mizukage as his bodyguards. Having black hair and brown eyes, being slightly below average in height with a stocky build and the usual gray-blue uniform of a jonin.
Yamaoka Arata specialized in both water, earth and a bit of wind, ninja techniques, with a slight preference towards short blades in a physical confrontation and paper bombs as traps.
Today the Mizukage himself called all his bodyguards to the tower where he was situated, the village hidden in the mist was full of wooden estates and a large stone tower.
Inside of the Mizukage's large auditorium were dozens upon dozens of leather chairs, a small table upon the chair in the center, having a canola incense burning there. The seats were filled to the brim except the one in the center. The closest seat to the center was filled with a person Yamaoka Arata hated… one of the seven swordsman of the mist, the last loyal one.
He was a man named Munashi Jinpachi, wielding the Explosive blade, he was a man with brown hair and braided beard with an eyepatch on the left side and serrated teeth. One of the members of the seven swordsman of the mist, when all of them either perished or betrayed and left the Mist. That was why Yamaoka Arata hated the arrogant and entitled Munashi Jinpachi.
Steps heard, the Mizukage arrived, he had the appearance of a small child with faded green hair and pink eyes, holding a staff with a faded green scarf and mesh armor. This man was Karatachi Yagura, he became the fourth Mizukage at the age of fourteen, he held the three tails inside and had perfect control over the beast and this man hadn't aged in over twenty years since he took control over the Mist.
He sat on the central leather chair, with his face inclined forward and took a pipe out of his pocket, Munashi Jinpachi raised himself and lit the pipe for his leader. This was a sign of respect and nothing was heard but the smoking of their leader and his pissed off face, dozens upon dozens of accomplished ninja almost shivering and telling their bodies to not move a single inch.
Karatachi Yagura built his army upon fear and respect towards his own power as well as hatred and persecution towards bloodlines.
"Two weeks prior we received reports of a complete takeover on the city of Naranokawa, our most important port, since then the enemy has advanced towards starving tactics…" Soft spoken, the terrifying Karatachi Yagura continued. Since the takeover of Naranokawa, the rebels have been gaining more and more battles in their favor towards the north-east of the country, near the capital where the Daimyo was settled Hongawa. The starving tactics were reaching a critical point where supplies were hard to come by for citizens and protest and riots have been prevalent. The Daimyo gave an immediate order for the Shinobi village, they needed to reclaim Naranokawa right away from the rebels' control.
From the past week, Karatachi Yagura has been sending teams upon teams of both surveillance and battle-ready battalions but none had returned. The most likely scenario was they were ambushed.
The Daimyo has grown increasingly frustrated and gave an ultimatum. Reclaim it now or suffer sanctions. Karatachi Yagura had been rageful this day about the failures of his squadrons in reconnaissance and battle.
"We received reliable reports that the rebels are situated near Hongawa, north-west of the island."
It was worth noting that there was peculiar geography on the main island of Water Country, that there was a giant mountain range spanning from the north to the south.
Both Hongawa and Mist were situated east and Naranokawa was situated west of the mountain range. Mist has survived terrible wars only because there was only one Pass on that mountain range. The Honzuki Pass was a heavily fortified valley and road, that's why the Mist never fell and that's why they spent more than fifteen years fighting rebels as well… Because the Mist was east of that mountain range and the rebel base was north-west, any venture to terminate the rebels would be met with extreme loss of life, and any attack to the Honzuki Pass was death. Overcoming the mountain range with large forces was tantamount to a suicide charge. So the mountains both to the south and the north remained largely unexplored.
"The Daimyo wants this done, so I shall go personally," Yagura said so softly as he smoked more of his pipe. "I want a half-dozen of you to be at Hongawa to quell the protests and riots, the rest will follow me to Naranokawa."
Mist was well protected and Hongawa would receive some soldiers as a bonus to appease that coward lord, Yamaoka Arata also saw that Honzuki Pass was extremely protected in case of an attack from the North. And Kenkami prison was south-east of the country, directly south of Mist village and heavily guarded, all the positions were so heavily fortified.
"When we re-take Naranokawa we shall set a three-side pincer on the Northwest region, rat them out." Yagura pointed at Honzuki Hongawa and Naranokawa and traced arrows towards the northwest.
Yamaoka Arata had eyes of admiration towards his Kage, as expected of him, he was a master at the board as always, it was time for payback.
XOX
Yamaoka Arata saw the fallen shinobi on the ground, a woman with black-hair, wearing a blank white uniform and a mask. After they arrived in Naranokawa they were able to flush out the invaders and they were able to dispatch them, however half of the Mist jonin, his comrades were dead.
Yamaoka Arata breathed hard, his arm and chest was full of cuts, these invaders all were as strong as jonin and had no affiliation whatsoever. Even to a dedicated man as him, their appearance did not match with most of the rebels in the country.
A Mist Jonin by his side pushed the dead woman shinobi's pants down and unbuckled his own, his breathing was hard due to his injuries but the man that Yamaoka Arata watched was ready to violate the dead woman's corpse… It was a commonly seen, violating dead or dying kunoichi in the battlefield, it was ugly… it was vomit-inducing but some men would break down under pressure and depression if they didn't do this. The practice of raping civilians was thankfully banned after the third war… but even still to a mentally loyal and stable man like Yamaoka Arata, seeing his comrades do such a thing made him pale.
However before his comrade could start doing his deed, the white masked kunoichi that should have been dead, sprung to life and stabbed his partner. Yamaoka watched his partner's blood slid through the air before seriousness and professionalism settled into his eyes, he prepared a slicing water technique however the woman appeared before him faster than he could—
Both ended up stabbing each other, the kunoichi stabbed him in the stomach, his pancreas and intestine exploded out of his wound, and Arata stabbed her in the heart with a kunai.
Before he could fall and die, he thought of something — the kunoichi was definitely dead before, no pulse and no breathing, then how did she spring back to life?
As they fell to the ground, Arata stared at her eyes, she was definitely dead this time, a wound to the heart, bursting it completely open.
Her eyes were cold and not moving and he felt relief.
Until she winked her eyes at him and then returned to being "dead".
He died with an upsetting realization on his face.
XOX
Munashi Jinpachi put his Explosive blade as the last blast killed and disembodied the man he was fighting; he saw that all enemies wore the same blank uniform and had the same white mask. They all had fighting skills that matched with Jonin and were all resilient and silent, however they didn't use any nature transformation techniques.
Karatachi Yagura arrived near him after killing five or so enemies.
"These aren't from the rebel forces; it makes me a bit uneasy." Yagura confessed with soft-spoken words as his men gathered the dead bodies of their enemies into a cart.
"Do you think the rebels got some outside help?"
"Yeah, but we don't know these ninja, could be from Sky, Lightning or Fire Countries but we would have no idea. Still we must continue, the time of those rebels and the bloodline families is here, by next year we will be a country free from those demons." Karatachi Yagura said, leaking his tailed beast chakra to make his point.
Recapturing Naranokawa was tough but they did it in less than two days of fighting, it was a reckless assault without much information and some of his forces paid a price, but it was better than let the starvation tactic continue further. Yagura foresaw the burning of the enemy corpses near a marsh near the city of Naranokawa, he stared at the burning cart of at least twenty-four foreign ninja. Jinpachi accompanied him.
Jinpachi was a complicated man, as he looked towards his leader Yagura he thought about his comrades of the seven swordsmen of the Mist, all dead or gone. Munashi Jinpachi was a man that had a degree of loyalty towards his Mizukage however he was arrogant and preferred to think that he was his leader most powerful asset, that was why he was always stationed close to his leader for double protection. However that closeness birthed resentment. Munashi Jinpachi had personal wishes, one of them was to hunt down the still-alive members and gather all seven swords back and grow a new generation of the seven. However Yagura never let Jinpachi out of the country… even when Zabuza was sighted a year back in Wave, Yagura still wouldn't let Jinpachi hunt down the bastard and acquire Jinpachi's most desired sword — the Executioner's blade.
Still Jinpachi carried on hope that one day Yagura might finally give the order.
Just then a jonin arrived and went on one knee in front of the Mizukage Yagura. "Mizukage-sama, we have an urgent message! The Prison of Kenkami is currently under siege by the rebels!" the ninja delivered the scroll, Yagura grasped the scroll and read its contents.
The message was a last-ditch effort by the Prison's security.
"Kenkami Prison is already taken? But this does not make a lick of sense—" Yagura's brow furrowed.
Jinpachi was of the same mind. For the longest time the rebel base was thought of to be in the Northwest of the country. The Prison of Kenkami was due Southeast. In the first place, the rebels needed to pass the mountain range and the only way was through Honzuki pass in the center of the country, which was heavily fortified, and not to mention that Yagura and himself were there two days back and even left a few forces to fortify that Pass. There was no feasible way for the rebels to have captured Honzuki without incurring terrible losses.
And even if they were able to find a safe way that was not through Honzuki pass over the mountain range, the capital of Water country, Hongawa, was the closest target instead of heading south and passing the vicinity of Mist to attack Kenkami.
"If we go by the preconception they already freed the prisoners, we must assume their forces have increased considerably, here's the plan…" Karatachi Yagura formed a plan, the rebels would need a day or so to restock the prisoners of war with weapons to make an attempt of attacking Mist village directly north of the prison. They would return to Mist and fortify both the Honzuki pass and Mist and alternate between the two as a siege was coming.
Since Hongawa was directly north of Mist it was safe and there were many forces there already quelling the protests. This was all a terrible development, but they would prevail in the end.
However one Hawk arrived to throw everything for a giant loop.
There was a delicate and intricate scroll that only the Daimyo would use and there contained the information that Hongawa's castle was under siege from the riots and that the life of the lord and his family was put at risk. It was procedure for the Kage to serve as the bodyguard in situations like this. The Daimyo was calling for Karatachi Yagura personally to quell the rage at the capital.
"We sent some soldiers to Hongawa, this doesn't make any sense at all." Jinpachi said as he sensed his leader's frustrations. The rebels did not have the firepower to attack Kenkami and Hongawa at the same time, one was a heavily fortified prison south-east, one was the capital north-east full of samurai and shinobi.
Yagura put a hand on a tree by the marsh and crushed it with his hand. "Of course it was a two-pronged attack following a diversion, they have more white-masks in the country to help them. Jinpachi take seventy-percent of my forces here and return to fortify Mist from the attack coming from the south. I'll take the fastest troops and kill anyone in the capital then immediately return to Mist."
Jinpachi was also frustrated at the development, using Naranokawa to draw them away from the Mist was the basic plan, the real attack was coming.
XOX
He and Yagura separated at Honzuki pass, which was still intact and full of troops, Yagura ordered most of them to go to the Mist and holdout until he arrived, he took the fastest troops and rushed to the capital. He was strong enough to quell any riot or attacker there.
Jinpachi handled his sword in the back as they rushed continuously to Mist village, they passed through the water marshes where the fog was settled, in 20 miles they would be home.
Most soldiers were frustrated that they had to marathon the country twice over these past few days. Jinpachi understood that frustration well, they've been ragdolled by the enemy over the span of a country's length, it was frustrating. "Tch, whoever's behind this, I want them to pay with their blood." He said.
"I guess you have the chance."
"Who—?"
Jinpachi and a hundred or so soldiers were stopped by a man near one of the small trees. Wearing a simple black kimono and slippers, having a short sword by his side. He was short for a man only five-foot six. He had spiky golden-hair with bangs that covered his forehead, blue-eyes and whiskers marks on his face.
There was no headband or identifying village symbol or country symbol.
"So Mizukage decided to go to the capital instead of going to the Mist himself… That was a bad move." The man insulted their leader to their faces.
"I'll ask again, who the fuck are you?" Jinpachi yelled as he swung a sword that exploded the air itself.
"Oh, will I be able to witness a third swordsman of the Mist fall before my eyes? Anyways, name's Uzumaki Naruto…" the man who was called Naruto continued to insult them, saying that this was the last time they were to be alive and they should pray to their loved ones first and not regret it later.
Jinpachi raged and engaged. For more than five minutes the man named Naruto evaded his attacks and then a hand came from behind the man and pierced his throat with the small blade, another hand came from the shoulder of the golden-haired man and pierced Jinpachi's chest.
Another, another and another. Jinpachi's body was full of holes as if he were attacked by a phantom army while Naruto sat there with a smile. Naruto grabbed the fallen Exploding blade and sheathed it behind his kimono.
"You guys are unlucky…" Naruto faced the hundred elite jonin with a smile, and as if a mirage appeared, more than three hundred Naruto's divided from the same person, as if they were seeing a broken mirror. It was a cloning jutsu, one too advanced for words, there was no hand signs, no clouds of smoke and no sound, one Naruto turned into three hundred faster than one could blink. An army that outmatched every single Mist ninja had arrived.
"Have you given your loved ones your prayers?" The Naruto at the center tilted his head.
"Because you are going to die here…" He finished as fear settled in that foggy marsh.
XOX
Yagura and his forces arrived in Hongawa after a full marathonic sprint, again they found those blank masked ninja who were inciting the crowd of rioters. Most of the samurai and all of the shinobi on the capital were dead by the time Yagura arrived, that only stoked Yagura's fury even more.
Reclaiming the capital from these bastards took more than he would have liked but in the end the coward Daimyo and his family was safe.
"O—Oh, Yagura-san what a timely arrival, you are to protect me and my family as a personal bodyguard u—until everything is over." The fat lord said on his throne at the defaced castle.
Yagura burst a blood vessel in frustration, he did not have time to deal with a pampered lord right now, there was a mounting attack towards his Mist village from the south and he did not have time to babysit his lord any longer.
He left a few of his trusted troops behind while guarding the lord within a safe room in Hongawa while he headed towards Mist with the remainder of his troops. Hopefully his last seven swordsman of the mist, Jinpachi had already arrived and fortified Mist.
XOX
Back on the west, port city of Naranokawa, the burned corpses of the attackers started raising themselves and regenerating as if they hadn't died. The few leftover jonin turned around to see them before a golden ball reached their heads and their bodies exploded. The blank mask people now had their true power revealed, clones of unbelievable power and immortality.
This was one of Naruto's unreal enhancements to the basic shadow clone technique.
The blank masks invaded Naranokawa again and in record time they conquered the port city from the hands of Yagura's faction while the Mizukage himself was blindly rushing to nowhere. Goat Mask who was hiding in the shadows arrived near one of the clones and both went amused into the city as they 'purchased' every single real estate and large businesses here, taking total control of transport in Water Country, every single boat company and the largest port itself was now under the Zodiacs control.
Meanwhile back in Hongawa where Yagura had just left for the Mist, the blank masks that were killed had risen again and in less than an hour assassinated every single shinobi in the city, as well as murdered the lord along with his family. Again taking control of the castle and issuing orders with the guise of the Daimyo, he also took control of the stone city of Hongawa.
Two of the most important locations in the country were seized by the Zodiacs while Yagura rushed blindly to the marshes before he arrived in Mist… there Yagura would face the final battle.
XOX
Karatachi Yagura led his last squadron of soldiers through the marsh, his warriors were already exhausted; they had run throughout the country twice at this point without any rest as the enemy just took and took more territories without any prior notice or suspicion. Some took their moment to voice their displeasure at the lack of information and how badly they've been misled these past couple of days.
That man who complained was cut in half from a pressurized water whip running faster than hypersonic speeds, that water came from Yagura, as the men looked at their comrade's upper body sliding like cut butter, the blood had a splashing sound as if the two midsections were like a hamburger and the center was like ketchup. The man had wide eyes and paralyzed pupils as he was bisected by his leader. And Yagura himself hadn't even turned to face him, he was still in front of them, with his black staff there silently.
The men looked at their dead comrade and saw Yagura turning his head slightly to stare them with his pink eyes, they turned red and Yagura's pupil slanted like a cat's. They had forgotten how monstrous and cruel their leader was. That glower was a clear warning not to grumble any longer.
However a salvo of kunai made them prepare for battle. They were being sieged from the front. But they were so close to Mist village, the only answer was if the rebels had taken the hidden village. Yagura launched a storm at the front but the ninja were well prepared and avoided it. Yagura could see it, these were the rebels… right in front of his own village.
He could see a woman with a blue dress and auburn hair, he could see the traitorous young swordsman of the mist, with blue hair and glass frames around his eyes. He could see the man who had a Byakugan replaced with his left eyes. These were certainly the rebels and they were being led by the auburn woman — Terumi Mei…
The battle was in the marshes, they were being sieged by Mei's melting mist and her long-range shots of lava. Yagura gave it all the got as the battle was of long-range reach amidst low foliage and tiny trees around the watery marshes. A deep fog was settling in as his soldiers expertly hid and struck at the rebels.
"You made a large mistake…" A man said next to him. Yagura turned to look at who he was and there was a blond man, not from here, his features were very similar to those of the Fourth Hokage.
"You, who are you?"
"Uzumaki Naruto…" he said while bored.
"Uzumaki?!" Yagura exclaimed, while also feeling frustrations at the man's lackadaisical attitude.
Yagura prepared his own black staff as he prepared for battle. But the man called Naruto shook his head in disapproval.
"You made a large mistake by trying to return to Mist village. It was already captured by the time you arrived in Hongawa…"
"Impossible, I sent Jinpachi to protect the village."
Naruto explained that would have worked, had he not ambushed the loyal swordsman, to this Naruto presented the dead man's Explosive blade and tossed it in the shallow waters of the marshes.
Yagura furrowed his brow as chakra started to prevail in the atmosphere, as two peak ninja faced each other.
Naruto told him, that the best move after Hongawa was returning to the Honzuki pass and bunkering down there, there the Mizukage could survive a few weeks of sieging and plan an escape from the country, but now Yagura had nowhere left, he was pincered from all sides. There was a dozen clones rushing from the port city to the pass to attack it from behind. There was a dozen clones securing the capital of Hongawa and Mist village was already conquered.
There was nowhere left to go but the grave for Yagura and his blood prejudiced bunch.
They would all die here.
If the new rasengan was an unstopped ball of destruction, then the shadow clones were an inevitable, invincible army, unable to be distinguished from normal people other than good old strict accounting… but all shinobi cared about was chakra sensing and advanced skills of detection, they often forgot about the most basic of things.
Naruto formed a golden ball and rushed to the Mizukage to end all of this, but the tiny Mizukage surprised him, Yagura pulled the water up with his staff, forming a mirror of water, and from it, an identical form was formed, with the same rasengan, Naruto met his reflection and the attacks canceled each other.
Naruto was impressed.
Something could really stop his rasengan, even if it were himself doing the stopping.
Yagura also had launched a conjunction attack with water drills and a dragon of water above while the man himself rushed with a water blade over his black staff.
"That's nice, but mistaken…" Naruto said as the water drills arrived from every direction, and a water dragon loomed above, all moving faster than sound.
Naruto only raised his hand as water splashed all around him, while a second Naruto arrived near Yagura, from behind, using just a short blade he almost pierced Yagura's nape before Yagura turned to block the attack from reaching his head with his black staff.
Yagura was amazed and a bit frustrated, the blond man in front of him matched his speed and his own strength, blow for blow as they entered a dance of brutality only the absolute top dogs of the whole continent could enter. Not even that little bitch Terumi Mei could match either of them in this dance as she watched from afar, Yagura thought.
Yagura was frustrated in a sense that he could not deal a decisive close combat blow as Naruto always stuck by him, not relenting, and not letting Yagura maintain distance.
Then, Naruto lunged with the short sword again with many openings for a counter.
Yagura was ready to parry it and strike the blond shinobi. "Hah, that attack won't wor—" however as Yagura said this, as if dozens of hands were summoned on top of each other, dozens of short swords were lunged by Naruto.
Yagura opened his eyes to their maximum, that attack could not be blocked nor parried, in the last moments the Mizukage avoided by rolling on the shallow water, making a wave and appearing thirty feet away, his right hand held his staff and his left was holding his shoulder which was bleeding heavily, it was like he was struck with a lance so there was a massive hole, the size of a coin going straight through it, any lower and it would have punctured his lung.
"What was that?" Yagura wondered. It was like I was attacked by a hundred phantom lunges originating from the same arm of his, It couldn't have been speed, the hands all attacked at the same time, with no delay between.
However Naruto didn't let the Mizukage Yagura think at all, he rushed again and tried a piercing strike with the short blade, and again, out of nowhere, hundreds and hundreds of 'phantom' arms were summoned.
"You piece of—"
Yagura avoided it, losing half his left-side hair but then came a kick from Naruto's leg from the side and again Yagura dodged but then came two dozen other legs from different angles and hit him full on the side of belly, just before the ribs with enough force to crack a mountain in half. But Yagura was both the Mizukage and the Jinchuuriki of the three tails. He counterattacked, by performing a wind blade from the front that could cut through even the hardest metal and then he summoned a whirlpool for the blond to stay in place.
However Naruto just smiled and vanished, another Naruto appeared a few twenty feet away from the whirlpool and looked down on Yagura.
Yagura was losing it, not ever in the last twenty years ago he felt this angry, not even when his swordsmen betrayed him and left, leaving only Jinpachi loyal to him.
Yagura was losing it all, his men were dying to the rebels, if he did not finish it now, then it would only cause him more headache
"Ahh, this is enough! This is enough!" He spit blood and glared, Yagura summoned the power from the beast sealed, his skin turned blood red, and then was shed, it was like the air itself was peeling his skin, piece by piece, his eyes turned blood red, and then three tails were summoned from behind.
Then his eyes turned white and the muscles beneath looked like strands of blood red lava swirling around like pure violence, behind his back, a turtle shell was formed of his blood.
The transformed Yagura rushed faster and faster, blowing the pool of water, superheating it to extremes and transforming it to hot vapor that heated the marshes, and reached Naruto and pierced him with his hand, from chest to back, right smack center.
However the transformed Yagura's attack was not over, from the wound, keratin crusts were escaping from Naruto's wound and turning the body into a shell itself, there was often stories of a woman with snake hair turning men into stone, however instead of stone, it was a living shell made of microbes, that produced neurotoxins that would permanently disable anyone and those microbes would slowly in months decompose what was inside without leaving a trace. That was Yagura's power.
Yagura laughed maniacally as he was influenced by both his rage and his beast's hatred.
"Is that all a Jinchuuriki is capable of, I am disappointed…" Another Naruto arrived from behind and kicked the shallow water up. as if he was dribbling a ball up, and from beneath the water, the Explosive sword arose.
This was the point where he threw Jinpachi-s bla— Yagura had no time to think—
Even enhanced by the beast's power up to three tails, Yagura could not react as Naruto picked the blade with his right hand and swung right on his face, and then a pure shockwave blast of many thousands of tags on that blade was heard. The blast was so large it caught the humid small trees of fire as smoke enveloped the area, drying the previous damp fog.
A shower of water cleaned the view, and what was left was a half covered Mizukage with the power of the beast, the part that was not covered was burned up so badly it was almost charred. He let out the only scream of pain necessary. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"
Even so, Yagura was the fourth Mizukage, even in this desperate situation where if he opened his mouth, only a scream of pain would be let out, he still had the mental fortitude to rationalize and think. Even so his body was shuddering with cold and pain. H—He used the maximum output of the Explosive sword, that means he didn't know how to use it correctly, that means he's not in one piece either, what a fool. The blade's maximum output was a last resort for its user, as a means to take the enemy with them to hell.
However reality was not kind to Yagura.
"'What a fool, sacrificed himself to take me out…' is that what you're thinking?" A voice near Yagura arrived, it was the blond man named Naruto.
How is he here?!
"Sorry, that was a clone, see?"
Naruto pointed at the place of explosion, and a body lifted from the water, it was the clone, it was full of blood and half its side was like a carcass at a meat shop, full of red liquid covering it.
However it was still moving.
Then it started regenerating.
Don't tell me…
Then there were two Naruto's in the wide marshes, and Yagura on the shallow water, fully on the floor.
The clone of Naruto regenerated; it wasn't dead.
"Oh yeah, all those white masks you 'killed' all over the country, they were my clones, however right now all of them are regenerated and are now seizing your precious cities. Even the Daimyo you worked so hard to protect is now dead on the floor of his own castle."
Yagura for the first time despaired, what kind of absolute monster was he actually fighting here?
Despite Yagura's mind breaking apart, Naruto continued to talk. "They are linked to me; therefore I can just send a boost of chakra through the link and they regenerate on their own, even if they receive life-threatening injuries they don't disappear anymore unless I will it, it's quite a convenient technique, after all the clones have 100% of my power and are functionally immortal… quite a nice improvement don't you think?"
So that was the secret for the phantom arms, it wasn't an illusion, it was dozens of clones behind him striking at the same time, Immortal clones running amok all over the country, what kind of joke is this?
Even so, Yagura…
Please help me, Three-Tails.
Yes, let me do this… Yagura. A deep voice rumbled from within, despondent but confident.
Uzumaki Naruto who was looking at the Mizukage, defeated and almost drowning in the shallow water, Naruto raised a brow at suddenly feeling a chill, not even the Mizukage's Jinchuuriki state could produce the hair-standing feeling on Naruto but then an explosion of power surged from Yagura.
Then….
XOX
Naruto blinked and the real world was entirely replaced.
He was standing on a total black sea, with a black horizon and a black sky… nothing was here.
An illusion perhaps?
Then he saw the Three-Tails in front of him. It's really massive. I can see how it causes fear and makes armies tremble. He was standing directly in front of a tailed beast, resembling a titanic turtle, with gray crab-like shells and spikes all over his back and sides, the face of the beast was concealed between a protruded jaw and forehead, it's eyes were deep red and his interior was like an exposed red muscle. Three tails swung from behind.
Behind Naruto was the cage, the golden bars with a seal, and two red eyes belonging to a fox, both these beasts had made a mental connection and were now criticizing him within his mind. Naruto saw that he was in danger here, this was his mind, his soul, they were constructs made out of chakra, if they died here then they would just reform, if he died here, then his soul would be deleted from the cycle of reincarnation.
However even with tailed beasts here, he did not feel like he could lose… Even so seeing these pieces of shit rummaging around his mind, his memories, insulting his life, insulting him, everything about him, made him snap, the unprofessional side, the angry side, the side that hated this situation surfaced from Naruto, he wanted to drag both of these beasts and painfully kill them both and when they reformed he would be there to kill them again. That's how badly Naruto hated these beings.
"When are you going to stand there and talk about nothing? Didn't the poor, poor, weak Yagura call for your help? Aren't you going to try and kill me?" Naruto taunted as ugly feelings surged through his chest.
The three tails turned his gaze downward, Naruto truly was an ant when comparing sizes with these titanic beings, but still, he felt like he could never lose.
"You are but a brat, swimming in the wide sea, without a destination." The three tails answered with a dry tone as if he knew everything, as if he told Naruto that his life amounted to nothing.
Something broke, something snapped, he felt something being triggered in his heart. Piece of fu—
Naruto smiled; however it was a mocking one as he looked the three tails, not shying away. He never felt such anger before, not since Sasuke, in fact this took the fu— cake.
"There it goes again, another self-important bastard that thinks that just by meeting me for a few hours thinks they know everything, every single thing about who I am!"
Naruto was now shouting in a low commanding voice, Naruto did not care, he was going to make his mind heard for these self-important beasts who thought they were strong. "And what about you, three tails! talking about such philosophical things while your bastard of a vessel went on and eugenics crusade, killing children, destroying families, systematically erasing lives of people who did not deserve it!"
Let me guess, oh I did not agree to those things, he was kind to me… blah blah. The same thing again, while Yagura destroyed Haku's life from the moment he was born?!
The three tails spoke with a more reserved tone, as if he was never ever rebuked in his entire life. "I cannot condone his actions, but Yagura… he accepted me, that's more than you humans ever could. Look at you now gold brat, what do you see behind you, in that cage?"
I'm tired of hearing this horseshit, I'm tired! Naruto spent this whole year learning and learning and learning and this was what these beasts had? Beast who lived for millennia, this was it?! Just kids who were used to being attacked and not talked down to. Well, Naruto would gladly do a dressing down with how furious he actually was becoming here.
"What I see? WHAT I SEEEEE?! I see the biggest monster of them all, a bastard Nine-tails who brazenly destroyed my village before being sealed into me, and what, was I the only one to be chosen?! I KNOW! Because every baby born that day and every baby who was born but a week before had died because of this piece of shit poisonous chakra invading and poisoning the atmosphere of the Leaf!"
Naruto did not see the shadowy Nine-tails behind the bars shake its head.
It was true, it was strange that no other baby was chosen other than his Uzumaki origins and resistance to the tailed beast's toxic chakra, but the story was not kind, every single baby born on that day, and every single baby born within a week had died that night, the hospitals were filled with baby cadavers, poisoned and then developing organ failure, he knew, Naruto researched it before leaving, he needed to know exactly why people really hated the Nine-tails and this was the most horrifying reason, and it was not just a quick thing, babies born that year who weren't resilient as part of being born of a clan had a 20% higher chance of developing cancer or other developed disease, mothers who were pregnant firstly, had a chance of having a stillborn, if the fetus didn't die then there was a chance of they being born with congenital diseases. The Nine-tails did not just kill the older veteran generation, it also crippled the next.
Therefore Naruto would not forgive the being jailed on his abdomen, not now nor ever.
"You humans caused this, all of this, now you blame us, curse us and hate us with every waking moment, but we will survive in the end, humans won't!" The three tails announced.
"Then you default the blame on humans alone, huh? Let me ask, what did you do, what did you ever do with your long-lived life?"
At this the beast went silent.
Figures. At least I'm learning, at least I'm walking towards my dream, they sat on their asses for millennia and did nothing with their lives, pieces of garbage like that aren't qualified to criticize me.
"Enough of this… any last words?"
"You smell like 'him', but you are as far down as possible from him… Just prancing around with your power thinking that clever tactics are going to resolve everything." At this the beast of three tails looked down on Naruto, saying that his clone technique would not work here, as nifty as immortal clones were, it would not damage his hide. Naruto's eyes turned completely dull, his eyes were cold and blue like an elegantly-colored marble.
"I feel bad for Yagura, he had the perfect counter for my strongest technique, so I had to use my clones as I attacked him … but you know, you don't have that perfect counter, do you?"
It was the third time the tailed beasts felt fear, the second was when humans discovered the sealing methods. There was something fundamentally broken within the boy, as if there was a wealth of hatred within him that he kept hidden from everyone in his daily life, and only now was revealing to them who were in a closed space like his mind, where no one could watch, where no one could see.
The three tails instinctively charged a beast ball at the boy, intending on killing him immediately, an incredibly dense ball was formed in its jaw, with the power to vaporize a mountain, heavy and dense, however it was shot faster than massively hypersonic speeds. The black sea turned into a downside curve as water moved out of the way because of pure gravity and the splashes of water that reached the ball were erased as a liquid and immediately turned into vapor, which immediately turned into plasma.
That was the kind of attack a beast ball was, if trained enough even a Jinchuuriki was able to perform it. Yagura was capable of it but lost immediately to Naruto's clever attack with the clones, before he could even entertain of charging such an attack.
However the three-tails fired it, and it fast approached Naruto, but the golden haired boy turned his head behind and stared at the golden cage and gave a menacing look at the Nine-tails, a look that implicitly said to 'don't dare look away'.
Naruto turned his head and looked at the blackness approaching with a gentle smile.
The shockwaves were blowing his hair back and he truly smiled, warmly.
He raised just one hand.
Just a tiny little hand at the titanic attack.
A tiny golden ball was formed in that small hand, the golden ball was barely larger than a baseball.
The titanic beast ball met the golden ball.
…
And the world was over.
At least, that's what it felt like. For the creatures calling themselves the strongest.
The three tails was completely catatonic, its biggest attack was shattered like glass against the advent of that tiny little golden ball, its massive attack that unleashed a hundred times more chakra than the strongest humans to roam the earth, that ball had less chakra in it then the chakra the human used to make those immortal clones.
This wasn't possible, the Three tails had thousands of times more chakra in its attack, then why, why did the little human shatter it without any effort?
What was this power?
"In a strange kind of way, I also spent a millennia on this earth, and I spent every single moment of that time on just this one technique, if you think a big blast of chakra is going to beat it, then you are delusional, beast!" Naruto charged, on his hand was the same peerless ball of golden chakra.
The beast could not understand; however he summoned his deadly aura of chakra around his shell and spun his body faster the massively hypersonic speeds to meet the little human's charge head on, his shell was unbeatable. "Die human!"
"So is this what you thought of. This was boring until the end." Naruto whispered, the Nine-tails widened its eyes but then closed, it was painfully obvious what the result would be, the fox was a way more experienced fighter than the both outside his golden cage, however he did not shout, he did not intervene, even when his sibling's life was on the line.
Naruto and the beast met and instantaneously, 85% of the tailed beast body was erased, completely.
Just the head was blown away. "You…" the three tails started to speak.
"Enough, I don't care…" Naruto appeared immediately in front of the beast, with the same golden ball still in its palm, that golden ball that deflected it all and ended the last remaining piece of the beast.
XOX
Naruto sighed. He stood in the middle of the black sea as it still waved with the previously powerful attacks. The fourteen-year-old looked at the pure black sky, this tiny human compared to these titan legends of old, had beaten one of them completely, not even in his truly first stages of life. Undoubtedly, Naruto felt a sense of accomplishment, if he could beat a tailed beast this easy, then he profoundly underestimated himself.
Even after spending every day of these six months with more than ten thousand clones, he felt like he was still behind everyone. Naruto had to truly thank Jiraiya for making sure he would invest his time improving on his already learned techniques, if he spent his time learning trivial hand signs for useless techniques he wouldn't be able to beat a Kage and a tailed beast in one go, completely unharmed.
Everything was fluid with enough time invested, even the rigid rules behind the ninja techniques taught, deconstruct it, reverse-engineer it and see what can be improved instead of having a thousand useless weak jutsu on the tip of his tongue and hesitate on choosing. No offense to Kakashi or to the Third. But it truly wasn't Naruto's style.
That was why Naruto now ended up with immortal clones and an absolute defense and offense attack such as his tiny golden rasengan which barely used any chakra and could be summoned in at a relativistic speed.
Naruto turned around, and there it was, the damn fox looking at him, impressed but unshaken. Naruto had no misconceptions, that beast behind the golden bars could kill the three tails as fast or faster than him, he knew that the fox was still far ahead but now Naruto knew, the fox was beatable, he had proven it here.
"You didn't change, not since you became a ninja, right now you're just an aimless wandering mess just like you were back then, you're more like us than you realize, but then again you are a human, you'll never be like us, just another odious human, even your mother and ancestors were better, and that bitch kept me crucified on a ball of lava with stakes on my body. Go on then, wander your life without purpose for your actions and go die in a ditch somewhere once old age arrives."
"You and the three tails were having such a cozy talk earlier, as a 14-year-old boy, let me enlighten you to what this child sees… you're just a wandering mass of hatred, where were you before you were sealed inside of humans… roaming the land for what? Food for a tailed beast made of chakra that's immortal? Don't kid yourself, you had all the time in the world, you had all the power in the world… AND YOU DID NOTHING! At least I have dreams of helping Tsunade, becoming Hokage and making the village a better place! And You. Don't. Get. To. Condemn Meeeeeee!"
Naruto approached and bashed his forehead on the bars, making a loud sound while stared at those red eyes.
"'Becoming Hokage?' 'Helping out that blond tits woman who you always dream about having in your bed?' if those are your goals then you're dumber than I thought, you're shallow Uzumaki Naruto, there is nothing there, if you think you're complex or important than it's a lie, there is nothing of substance to you, nothing! NOTHING!"
Both were stubborn to a fault, both would never see each other eye to eye, they were too set in their ways, and both were obstacles to what the other wanted. The Nine-tails wanted its freedom and Naruto wanted to be free of the label of demon. In the end, this tale would conclude with one killing the other, it was already written in stone.
"I've trained hard and got myself power to never depend on you again, this is the last time we'll talk before the inevitable end… Goodbye Kyuubi."
The Nine-tails mocked him. "Oh, but you still depend on me, you fully utilize the chakra that gets drained by the seal and become yours, and you still use my regeneration to survive and train your body, your 'power' is a lie, you took the advantages of having me sealed in you and made it your 'power' but everyone who hears of this will call you a loser, you'll never escape the label you've been saddled with and you'll depend on my power until the day you die."
If the Nine-tails could take the chakra and the passive regeneration away it would, if it could cripple Naruto, then it would, it would be highly amusing to see this child die in the most humiliating way, even if it meant a decade of waiting to be reborn in the world.
However the Nine-tails lamented that it could not interfere and inflict pain until the child foolishly challenges it in the future.
Naruto closed his eyes in pure fury and anguish. "I'm done, I don't want to see your face… there is nothing to say or tell, in the end, we can't come to an understanding, and that is fine, I've never intended to understand the monster who killed my parents in the first place…"
"Then go on, use your 'power' which you're so proud of and use it to resolve your problems by killing everyone who is your enemy, like I always did. Don't be surprised when you're left alone again once you reach the 'top', child."
XOX
As he returned to the real world, he calmed down, he was uncharacteristically furious after the meeting with both the Three-tails and Nine tails, as his heart rate and eyes turned back to a normal pleasant look, he walked on the foggy marshes towards Yagura.
The three tails was dead and gone, for another two to three years according to their experiences of reformation. The only thing left was the body of the Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, the man was dead.
He crouched down and picked the body from the water before it could drown, as he did so he spotted something strange, a red tint on the boy's pink eyes, the red tint faded away and Naruto raised an eyebrow.
Karatachi Yagura was a man who waged his cleansing of bloodlines since before the third world war, it had been a long time, and there was no way the people of Water Country who had been in complete misery under his rule would let the man live. Naruto dealing the deathblow with a single quick rasengan was the best end, otherwise Yagura's execution would be one of public humiliation and torturous death.
Naruto did not want for Mei-chan to go down this route.
After lugging around Yagura's dead body on his back, he went to meet up with the leaders of the rebel faction, Terumī Mei, a tall slender woman with fair creamy skin, with green eyes, however her most prominent feature was her auburn long hair that hid one of her eyes and reached her ankles, she also was a wielder of two different bloodlines, essentially she held power over Lava and Boil, making a fight against her extremely dangerous for any other shinobi who wasn't an S-ranked ninja.
She held two close confidants who aided her in the past few years, a surly man named Ao who wielded a hidden Byakugan, obviously stolen from a dead body, but Naruto did not ask. It was not in his mission parameters for any retrieval of any doujutsu in the Water country, and the ones who really really cared would be the old farts at the Hyuuga clan. Naruto doubted that Tsunade would tell those bastards anything of value. A single eye outside the village wasn't to be freaked out about but seeing Ao skit about around him and try to hide it with the eyepatch was a bit funny.
Ao was the first guy Naruto met from the resistance, he was a man who was very skeptical about him and hated Naruto from the very beginning, however as the efforts of liberating the country went on in these couple of weeks the surly veteran became more accepting of Naruto as the time went on, and as the victory against the Mizukage drew near, the man was almost like an approving uncle.
There was also a member of the seven swordsman here, or at least an apprentice, he was called Chōjūrō and wielded the Great Twin blades capable of storing the user's chakra and unleashing it in various different molds, he had serrated teeth like his contemporaries and was a bit on the young side, being 16-years-old, not like Naruto could talk since he was still two years younger than the boy. As for their relationship, it was one of one-sided envy, Chōjūrō was not agreeable to Naruto's presence after a few weeks, firstly because Naruto was magnitudes higher in power and still two years younger — Just his presence in the country was enough to turn the tides of war completely under their favor. Naruto was that kind of strategic weapon, fully utilizing his immortal clones to do the bidding everywhere in the country. And secondly Chōjūrō did not like Naruto's presence because of the intimate relationship Naruto had with Terumī Mei.
The war raised the tension in one's person and both found a way of relieving tension in each other. Terumī Mei and Uzumaki Naruto, their relationship was complicated, there were lustful feelings, there were romantic feelings, but both were still professional shinobi who were completely loyal to their respective countries.
For the past six months since he was in this training trip with Jiraiya, the man always made Naruto sleep in brothels. With usually three or four girls, if he were well known in the establishment, then sometimes the whole roster of girls would want sleep with him. He was addicted to sex since then and could not go one or two days without a woman in his bed to keep him company, it was great that Mei came to his bed so easily.
XOX
There was a complete celebration afterwards, Goat Mask was happy that the boy with blond hair was able to finish the S-rank mission so fast, this war had been happening for ages and to have it so quickly resolved was a wonder. Tsunade-sama was right to choose Uzumaki Naruto to be the next Dragon, he would surely bring prosperity back to the Fire Country.
To complete an S-rank mission issued by the Leaf Village, that was something out of legend, something only heard of from people like the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama who was able to cripple the Lightning nation at the time with the battle at the Frost valley before he took the seat, or the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, who stopped Earth in the first war with the siege of Azuchi fortress before Tobirama died.
Or the Fourth Hokage, which was able to boast of two completed S-rank missions, something unheard of. He was able to fully control a four-way conflict at the legendary battle of the Kannabi bridge, and singlehandedly was able to end the entire world war at the battle of Kyushuri Plains where he allegedly killed one thousand Shinobi of the Earth in less than a second. Even those S-rank Shinobi that the Earth boasted were slain in just one move. The Yellow flash was a godlike name even today.
And now a boy of fourteen-years-old ranked within those legendary names.
Goat Mask jumped from the trees in this dark wood just south of Hongawa, the capital of Water country and then met with those individuals reported from Naruto's list, some of the loyalist had escaped south and were trying to leave the country, and for peace to be achieved, they had to be executed.
The boy had already given Goat Mask a sizable amount of real estate in Water country, beneath the noses of the rebels, so doing a favor like this was nothing. Goat Mask was an older middle-aged gentleman who repaid his debts.
Reaching almost seven-foot-tall he arrived at the camp, where twenty or so loyalist still remained, the idiots prepared to attack, however all weaponry and explosives thrown at him, bounced off his skin.
Goat Mask summoned a giant sword, which was more like a slab of metal, than an intrinsically crafted sword, weighting just over a ton.
He roared and swung down.
The world was split in half.
Everything was rewritten by just one strike.
Or at least that's what if felt like for the twenty or so loyalists who were preparing to finish off the Goat Mask. Their flimsy bodies were thrown in the air by the pure shockwave.
The shockwave converged and bounced off an invisible barrier and crushed the twenty bodies who were launched in the air. The bodies were like a red jam, still a bit thick but completely blended, their organs and bones were triturated by the bouncing shockwave and they were no more, as they fell to the ground they were just clumps of ketchup on the rocks.
Goat Mask's entire right hand was red and yellow like lava, that was caused by the amount of seals written on his arm which quickly disappeared. His fighting style was combining both fading ink seals with physical martial arts, looking at the area he swung his blade, the fissure was not much larger than 20 meters forward, so the world was not split in two as the loyalist felt before their deaths.
His strikes were peculiar in that the seals would amplify the shockwaves of his physical attacks and multiplied that to the absolute extreme. Then a seal would form a bubble around the area, that bounced the shockwave produced infinitely. The shockwave would affect the victim multiple times until the person died.
Of course for such a fighting style to work, he needed to be able to produce a sufficiently powerful shockwave with his own physical brawn, that's why he had this powerfully muscular build and had such a slab of heavy metal in his hand.
Such a peculiar fighting style using both martial arts and seals was rare, perhaps Goat Mask was the only one back in the Leaf, and it earned him the rank of a Zodiac, in service of the Hokage, Zodiacs were administrators that controlled the economy in other countries, they were the 'rulers behind the shadow of Fire', of course it was all for the benefit of Konoha as a whole.
However there was never a full roster of Zodiacs in a generation. Right now there were only four active members. Goat, Monkey, Rooster and Snake… Tsunade was still pondering on who to add for Tiger and Dog… and of course the Dragon seat was to be filled by Uzumaki Naruto himself.
Goat Mask had to chuckle, the defeat of a Kage would reach the world soon, and Naruto would not be able to escape the buzz, the boy would soon find himself wanted in the famous bingo book.
As Goat Mask returned to Hongawa, he predicted that Naruto would likely fill the position of Dragon next year or so.
XOX
Naruto, after all the confusion of the end of the civil war, quietly, or should be said… normally exited the country by taking a boat in Naranokawa.
As he looked to the sea, he wondered about some things, about what he truly wanted from his special position as a helper to the Zodiacs and being directly under Tsunade's commands.
What did he want to do?
What did she want to do?
Uzumaki and Senju…
As he watched the waves crash onto the sailing boat, as the crewmembers talked to him with a smile after the civil war had finally ended, he knew that this country breathed a sigh of relief that was waited on for more than twenty years, his involvement in the country had been right, his tactics, even if they were dirty had helped, this was how a shinobi should act… right?
He saw the unbridled hatred and stubbornness in the loyalists and those near Yagura, even as he fought the boy, he saw the hatred in his glazed pink eyes.
Quickly and efficiently eliminating sources of conflict from the shadows was the best tactic.
Permanently removing elements that caused strife and stifled the peace was obligatory… that was the correct way, right?
"That all sounds like authoritarian talk to me…" he whispered as he started having doubts.
As he traveled to a certain country that marked his life — Wave country.
He pondered.
He wanted to know, he needed to know who his parents were. He knew that both Jiraiya and Tsunade had the knowledge, they were dangling that information right on his face and he was tired of it, he was already strong enough to protect himself, no matter who his parents were.
I'm meeting Jiraiya-sensei again soon, we're finally going to the land of my ancestors… Whirlpool — This time I'll make him finally spill the truth.
Review Corner~
akune:
I wanted to do this since forever, this chapter was a bit more technical and was from the point of view of the Mizukage, tell me if you liked it.
Lifelessman; RollingFire; Uday Sra:
I hope you continue liking this story and thanks for the support.
erozbrozz:
What are the things that stand out about this fic? Is it the new way I tackled the training and the way I made Naruto powerful instead of bloating him with a billion different bloodlines and jutsu? Or the way I introduced more politicking and seinen aspects to a shounen series?
Author's notes
Another A.U arc, I always wanted to tackle the Mist civil war I see so much in the fandom. This chapter is super-technical with different locations around the country and a lot of moving pieces on the board. So it wouldn't be weird to make a bunch of chapters about it.
In the first place, I decided I would make this single arc an epic-length and 15 chapters long, but I don't want this fic to be a million words long, I am shooting for something like 3150.000+ words long.
So I made a resolution, every single chapter will be a full complete arc. And for it, I had to sacrifice the point of view of the rebels. As I started to write the strategy for Naruto to win, I decided to focus instead on Yagura and leave the plans in the dark so as to surprise the reader.
And I am serious when it comes to the Godlike tag, therefore Naruto killed the Three-tails in one single blow.
There won't be people beating Naruto to the ground any time soon, he's just 14 years-old and by the time someone faces him he will be so above them in power it won't be funny. This fic is focused more on worldbuilding, politicking, seinen, Naruto's mental state and indecision of what's the best choice. He will always be the strongest piece on the board therefore battles won't be the absolute priority.
I hope you understand this going forward.
This series won't focus on who can defeat Naruto but there are three people that can defeat the 14-year-old Naruto in this chapter:
Obito, is physically stronger and faster, has wood style, and intangibility. He's too much for the current Naruto.
Itachi, only due to Tsukuyomi(current Naruto is still weak and not immune to Genjutsu), if Itachi didn't have it then he would lose 10 out of 10 times, even using his broken Susanoo with Yata mirror and Tosuka blade, Itachi would still lose.
Kurama(nine-tails), due to sheer power, speed and experience.
Oh and one last thing:
NO OTSUTSUKI BULLSHIT!
They don't exist in this fic, Kaguya was just a human princess who ate the fruit, there are no aliens here... no bullshit clan scouring the universe or whatnot, fuck that!
Kaguya's tale was done and she was sealed by her sons who lived on earth, not the moon, end of story.
In this fic Zetsu is Madara's will, not some super-mastermind that engineered every single thing for his mother nuh-uh. The last antagonist will be Madara or Obito.
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