Heyyyyyyyyy
How you all doin?
Shout out to TheKing91, anthonym3, Spark681, Primarx, Arraia, Antex-The Legendary Zoroarc (read to find out, dude. Thank you for the review), KakeruPB, Kodos94 (kinda hard to kiss someone with no lips, mah dude. Thanks for the review!), Mrbiggs132, Lokitazz0, lord 7th, OverseerOfHimself (emotional moment, dude), 77torn777 (thanks, man), Saiyan prince1 (I try. Thanks), biginferno (maybe, maybe not), OmegaRealism and .Sama. You're all fantastic people :)
I was hit with a serious case of laziness. I couldn't do anything for days. It was absolutely wonderful XD
Some wonder why Naruto agreed to sleep with Sueki and why it was so…rough. You'll have to read to find out. Above all, I'm pleased to know that a good majority of you guys liked the small 'age appropriate' scene, but for those that know how I write, I do not prioritize romance in the general plot. I really just wrote that 'age appropriate' scene to try something new.
This is a long chapter.
Enjoy…
CHAPTER 8
Kemuri clan Private Training Compound
Kemuri clan compound
Northern region
Dark country
The deep voices of the soldiers jogging around the remarkably large training compound resonated through the air.
Hup hup hup hup hup
The training compound or facility was the largest in the country and this one in particular was exclusively meant and used by Kemuri clan members, though it was still split to separate those of the lower ranked from higher, meeting only in a general training ground at the very centre of the massive complex.
The jounin of the Kemuri clan were jogging on an oval shaped 400 metre track in groups of four, numbered up to twenty, rhythmically running to the tune of their chants and huffing with each breath, expelling thin white mist. The men were bare-chested and the women wore either light grey tank tops or sports bras, both genders wore black and grey camo ninja pants and black boots.
The clan of ninjas were primarily blonde and blue eyed, of varied tints and tones, and their skin colours also varied from pale white to mocha brown. It was unarguably the most diverse clan in the Dark country and they were also the dominant clan in the Dark country BLAK operatives, serving as closely to the Leader of the country as possible.
The trainers jogging before each group yelled an opening chant and the jounin finished it off, exhaling tightly to conserve as much oxygen as possible. There were ninjas assembled into neat formations, also split into smaller, workable groups that jounin trainers expertly managed. They barked out orders and the assembled jounin dutifully followed, running through previously lectured formations and strategies for unanticipated circumstances on the battlefield. There were ten separate groups of in the middle area of the track, still leaving enough space for them to move about.
This was the outside training ground for Kemuri jounin and chunin.
This clan of people were especially loyal to Naruto, the Supreme Leader of Dark country.
And for good reason too.
Their beloved leader was a birth member of their clan.
The clan collectively saw it as an unimaginable honour and privilege to share the same blood as their leader.
The clan of smoke users greatly populated BLAK because of their reverence for their country's leader.
Naruto sat back in his seat in a small assembled canopy smack dab in the centre of the oval track, a faint crinkling smile at the corner of his eyes as he heard the chants from his clan mates.
"Honour to the smoke!" the jounin trainers jogging on the tracks yelled.
"Loyalty to Leader!"
"Life for our country!"
"Death for our leader!" they returned, swearing not just their life and prosperity to their leader, but also their death in and out of battle.
Three groups in the middle were powering through push ups and another group went through rigorous sit ups. Their trainers shouted. "Victory to our people!"
"Success to Lord Naruto!"
The trainer of on group, a light skinned female, broke out in a singing tone. "Oh~ there is no hell in the service of our Leader!"
"Oh~ there is no heaven for the enemies in his sights!"
Naruto chuckled. He turned to the Kemuri clan head and said. "They're awfully enthusiastic, Lord Rimaru."
Lord Rimaru was a war veteran in his late eighties. He was a dark skinned man with heavy wrinkles on his forehead and cheeks, sandy blonde hair and small moustache. He had dull blue eyes. The old man was perched in a wheelchair in heavy looking combat uniform-even though his legs haven't worked since they lost their functionality in the civil war-of a short sleeved grey shirt and black and grey urban camo shinobi pants with black stomping boots on his feet. Over his shoulder was a dark green jacket, a pair of thick black medicated glasses were set before his squinting eyes. The man bit into his fat brown cigar as he grinned at the young leader, blowing out a wisp of smoke from a corner of his lips. "You're a hero in these parts, Lord Naruto." The war sagely old veteran leaned on his left forearm, to Naruto, and said in a not so quiet voice. "You should have seen the party we threw when we found out the Legendary Ghost is a member of this very clan."
Naruto hummed with a smile. "I can only imagine." Not that Naruto wasn't flattered that his clan mates thought so highly of him, it was with the eagerness of their efforts to ensure his happiness.
Aside from being the main ninjas in Naruto's BLAK, a silent organisation formed by the leader to both work in tandem with him and also to accomplish the covert goals and aspirations of the country, they had also pleaded for their precious leader to take up the role as clan head as well as Leader of the country.
Lord Rimaru readily agreed to the proposal before they brought it before Naruto, as he had lost his sons, daughters and grandchildren in the civil war.
The old man had no direct family left and it was only logical to want to appoint a younger, much stronger person to take his seat.
Naruto politely declined.
He explained to the clan head and the Kemuri elders that he already had his hands full with the responsibilities of leading the whole country, and adding the job of a clan head would derail and divert his attention.
The heartbreak was evident when the news broke out.
In his place, Naruto recommended the Kemuri council to train a suitable successor. They dutifully followed his advice.
The Kemuri clan, along with the rest of the clans of the country, was highly hierarchical, but unlike a majority of the clans, the Kemuri people were highly militaristic.
They believed in loyalty, morale, order and discipline above anything, and some of these traits leaked out into the Kemuri civilian population. This had been the main tenets of the clan since before the civil war, seeing as they were the first two clans to have helped found Dark country as a whole.
Naruto adjusted his Leader's robe and set his hat on his head properly as he observed his clan mates work through exercises and commands. "You said this is the first training exercise to qualify for being a BLAK operative, right?"
"Yes, the first of two."
"The second being Sueki's training exercise." Naruto slowly nodded; he had been the one to write the requirements for entrance into the black ops. This exercise occurred only once in three weeks. "I'm still stunned by how many people want into BLAK. I mean, we still have more regular jounin and chunin but… the actual best of the best want into BLAK."
"BLAK is the peak of all ninja aspirations, Lord Naruto. To serve at your side and perform key missions to the prosperity of our dear country is the dream of any average citizen." The cigar smoking man murmured, his black spectacled gaze fixed on the marching black ops aspirants. "If only I could still walk…"
Naruto patted the man's shoulder with a genial quirk of his the corner so his eyes. "If you could still walk, I would have a serious competitor for my seat."
The man fell into peals of laughter, rumbling through his chest as he tossed his head back and almost lost his cigar. "You're a very funny man, Lord Naruto."
The Leader laughed at the old man's laughter.
Nanako Hogo, Hogo clan head and the only other high ranking shinobi under the canopy, quirked up an eyebrow. "I don't understand why anyone competing for your seat is amusing, Lord Naruto." The fifty something year old woman crossed her arms and her legs, sniffing slightly. "Why compete when you know you can't hope to win?"
"It was a joke, Nanako." The dark skinned man sighed, exhaling more smoke from a corner of his lips. "Something you will never understand."
The woman visibly bristled. "I'll have you know, you old fart, that I know a fair few jokes."
"Now, now guys-"
The Kemuri clan head scoffed. "I call donkey shit."
"I'll tell you a joke now." Nanako shot back to the uninterested Kemuri clan head, itching and twitching to lunge at the crippled man. She cleared her throat loudly, somewhat distracting the men and women doing jumping jacks some feet from them. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
The old man didn't answer, only rolling his eyes and leaning away from the Hogo clan head.
Naruto sat forward quickly and, with a more than eager tone in his voice, asked in place of Rimaru so as to prevent a brawl. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
The woman laughed quietly behind her hands. Finally, after some seconds of giggling to herself, she answered. "To get…pfft…to get to the other side!"
Naruto patiently waited for another punchline in the joke, something. Anything. The woman eagerly tilted to him and grinned a little, looking at him with reflective orbs. The Leader started in his seat when he realized that was the joke. "Ah…Ha! Haha! Ha! Hahahaaaa!"
Nanako sat back smugly, and sent a dirty, proud look to the oldest ninja in the village, not realizing that Naruto had only laugh to prevent a village clash from happening, clearly obvious from his fake laugh. "I told you."
Naruto gave the old man a strong look, a look that threatened hell if he said anything other than a lie. The wizened old man snorted. "Fine."
Nanako Hogo was a Kunoichi from a strictly traditional clan, similar to the Pansa-Senshi clan, and so she did not truly understand the general concept of jokes. Of all the challenges the powerful clan head had in her life, being 'funny' or understanding what 'funny' meant always eluded. Naruto sympathized with her; her upbringing was strict and mainly based on ninja training, etiquette and manners befitting a woman. It was during Naruto's reign as Leader that she tried her best to relax so as to sidle up as close to him as possible, trying her best to match his behaviour with her own so as to attract his attention. At that moment she was in what she referred to as 'informal combat wear'; she was in a shimmering green dress reaching her ankles that had a lengthwise slit up to her left hip, showing tight black shorts and a toned, blemish-less leg. On her feet were a pair of black heeled shinobi sandals and perched on her head, on her soft, flowing brown hair, was a small tiara speckled with gems and rubies. The dress she wore was sleeveless, exposing a sleeve of clan tattoos on both of her arms, leaving bejewelled rings and golden bands to glimmer on her thin fingers.
Nanako was the leader of the clan that had sole responsibility over the obsidian mines in the country, seeing as they were the only ones the raw dark stones evil chakra didn't affect. The Hogo clan's atrocious eyesight and their mole summoning might have something to do with it.
The fifty something year old woman looked very good for her age; she had a lithe, slender build from years and years of training but her coal black eyes swirled also with years and years of seeing bloodshed and death. The corners of her eyes had light, barely visible crow's feet. She had once commented that her youthful looks, as well as that of her clan mates, was part in thanks to their diet and another smaller part went to the Uzumaki skincare products.
Nanako looked twenty, four years younger than Naruto.
Naruto knew the real reason for her clan's remarkable youthful looks.
Similar to how Sueki can cycle fresh and replenishing blood around her body, thus sustaining her energy, her chakra and her youth, and how the Uzumaki were simply born into their longevity, the Hogo clan could run nature chakra through their bodies on instinct because of their connection with their Mole summons.
The only difference was that Uzumaki and Hogo could still die from fatal wounds and also when they reached the full extent their bodies were willing to carry them.
Sueki, using her bloodline as the Vampire Blood release user, the only known one in the whole the continent, virtually made her immortal.
She frequently reminded her teacher that she would die with him when his time came.
Sueki was currently heading to the Gado clan compound to inform Mikoto Gado that their leader was in the Kemuri clan compound.
Naruto's mind wandered back to that morning, now only a few hours ago.
Flashback: That morning
Naruto snorted in his sleep, turning and pulling the small warmth in his right arm closer to his body.
A pair of arms tightened around his middle and a head wedged into the crook of his neck.
The Leader groaned and rubbed his eyes muttering. "You're staring…ya weirdo."
He cracked open one cerulean blue eye and looked down at the raptly staring woman in his arms, his laughing gaze mirrored off her reflective, jovially smiling red eyes, now back to their normal size. The white haired vampire smacked her lips sleepily and the corners lightly turned up in a faint smile.
"Hey."
Sueki smiled slightly wider. "Hey."
"Yesterday night huh," Naruto said, his exposed teeth chattering as he spoke. "Pretty crazy."
"It. Was. Awesome." She said quietly, stressing each word. Her cheeks turned a dark shade of red as her teacher chuckled deeply, his laughter warming her to her very core.
"I'm glad you liked it." he casually looked away and she raised a curious eyebrow. "Maybe next time…we can go a bit slower."
Her heart thudded, clamouring in her chest.
"What do you think?"
The girl pressed her face into her teacher's neck and laughed airily, her whole face now an embarrassing shade of red. "I…I didn't think you'd agree…last night, I mean."
"Well, you can't get any more forward than 'I'm horny.'" She jabbed his gut as he burst out laughing.
"I threw myself out there." she whispered honestly. She had hoped for the best that her long time idol and friend wouldn't reject her. Konan, when they were all still one big happy family, frequently pushed and poked for Sueki to flat out, in plain and simple words, tell Naruto how she felt.
Naruto was a master of many things, but subtly in anything other than murder was not something he understood.
This was something Naruto was glad had changed with time for him, for being a leader demanded subtly nearly all day.
"I'm not gonna lie…" Naruto said, placing his left arm behind his head and keeping his right around his naked student. "I always thought you were only into girls."
The woman sat up quickly. "Seriously, sensei?" Naruto shrugged. "You thought I was a lesbian?"
"The way you kept looking at Konan, or those Ame medics-"
"Only because you were standing right there!" she exclaimed, her stoic façade falling apart.
Naruto raised his hands in defeat and sat up, realizing he too was still naked from their last romp. "I'm sorry."
She glared at him silently, her fists clenched tightly on the rumpled bedsheet. The vampire might be open to going at it with another woman, though only as long as her teacher joined in.
"How about we have lunch together later?"
The vampire huffed and crossed her arms stubbornly. "We always have lunch together."
"This time we don't talk about work, just the two of us talking about whatever else we want."
The expressionless woman perked up and shot forward, sashing her lips into Naruto's grinning teeth; it still felt a bit awkward for Naruto to kiss the woman with his teeth, especially since he didn't have any lips to kiss with, but he allowed the vampire free reign to do what she wanted. "Ok."
He pulled back and checked the time. 10:01AM. It sucked that they couldn't sleep for longer, but duty called. "You can shower first." Sueki hopped out of the bed, snagging one of Naruto's T-shirts from his closet and wiggling her way into the large shirt, skipping merrily out of Naruto's room.
As she shut the door, Naruto released a breath and swung his legs off his bed, wearing a pair of boxers and sitting back down onto his bed.
Sueki was in bloodlust last night.
Her attention was primarily on maintaining the blood connection she had with Onion for six long months as well as her duties as his assistant. She couldn't spare the time to expel her pent up emotions accumulated from her connection with the young and very much emotionally driven Onion as well as the ones she suppressed while on S ranked BLAK missions out of the country.
Risking it and going on a hunting trip in the Dark forest could sever her blood bond with Onion.
Six months' worth of backed up emotions, finally able to pour out but hunting animals wasn't enough for her.
Naruto saw that as he looked at her pin-like red eyes, her panting chest and her protruding canines.
There was the danger that if he didn't accept to release that tension in the safest way possible, that it would all pour out on the people of the country.
Their night revealed her affection for him, the one he hadn't ever noticed.
It also surfaced a well of muddled emotions he had for her, like how he dearly treasured their time together and how he could and would go to hell and back to protect her.
He had done so when Hanzo had held her hostage.
Konan in his other hand, the Salamander summoner had given the condition that the top ranks of the Akatsuki should choose; Nagato killing Yahiko to free Konan or Naruto killing himself to free Sueki. The Kage was known to be a man of his word; there was no doubt he would follow through.
Naruto found his blade already up to his neck, no hesitation in his movements, as Yahiko plunged Nagato's kunai into his heart.
He didn't even look at Yahiko as he fell, only running as fast as he legs could carry him to Hanzo, fully intent on using his very last drop of chakra to catch Sueki as Hanzo threw her.
Naruto fled away with the weakened vampire as a vengeful Nagato summoned the King of Hell to decimate and tear apart Hanzo.
The blonde clearly cared for Sueki, more so than he cared for his first three friends.
He didn't want to manipulate her emotions like Nagato was with Konan, keeping the Angel of Ame in a cage in Ame, and he didn't want to play with her feelings like Konan had done with him while he pined for her.
The man knew he cared deeply for Sueki, more than anyone or anything on the planet, so he grasped that emotion with all his might and stood up, fixing on his half mask over his lower face and swiping his towel as Sueki called through the door.
"Sensei, the shower's free."
Flashback end
Now he had Leader business to attend to.
He discarded those troubling, muddled emotions as he centred his mind once again, watching as his student approached with the Gado clan head. They pulled up a seat and formed a circle, with Rimaru Kemuri turning his wheelchair around to face inwards.
Naruto clapped his hands and said. "Now we're all here, we'll get down to business." He looked to Sueki, who had on her blank red half face mask, and the BLAK commander brought out a rolled up scroll, opening it to show the map of the continent and dropping it on an unsealed stool in the middle. "I'm sure you're all aware of the Dark Sand Joint Taskforce." They all nodded. "Here is a refresher; their main job is to patrol and guard the borders between Darkness and Sand, going further up north to watch the border between Sand, Stone and Rock. Dark country's border to Fire country is handled by the Defence corps." Makoto and Nanako nodded in acknowledgement as their leader looked at them. Them being the two leaders of the internal defence organization; Makoto protecting the north and Nanako overseeing the south. "The Taskforce is reporting that there are small tussles along the Rock and Stone borders, they also see fights along Fire country borders and Rock."
Rimaru scratched a corner of his nose and asked. "Their shinobi forces are fighting?"
Sueki answered for Naruto, as the Dark Sand Joint Taskforce reported to BLAK. "No. They're gang turf wars."
"Gangs?" Nanako wondered incredulously. "Like…petty thieves…?"
"Low ranked missing ninjas and rogue samurai have joined in." Sueki added. "It's not as large scale as war between nations but it would escalate sooner or later to include home countries and hidden villages."
"I went to investigate with my team," Sueki continued. "And we found out that the Fire Lord's son is the one supplying funds and weapons to the Fire country gangs. We didn't find out any reason for him doing this."
"How is this any of our business?" Nanako asked, bowing slightly to Naruto.
"If you recall correctly…this is almost like how the First and Second war began; small, insignificant fights breaking out along the border that, sooner or later, encompassed the country and then the whole continent." Naruto said, titling his head to the side and narrowing his eyes at the youthful lady. No single person could accurately trace back the true origin of a both wars, only resolving that it had started from small fights along borders. "Annexation of uninvolved countries, enlistment of infants, families getting displaced, separated or murdered, loss of order and human morality, widespread death and destruction…should I go on…?"
The woman bowed again, this time in sincere apology. "No, My Lord."
"Lord Leader," Makoto humbly said. "If this is a war council, why are Amara Chui-Inku, Daichiharu Pansa-Senshi and Ginko Suzumebachi not here as well?"
"I spoke with them about this yesterday in the art exhibition but them. They are mobilizing their BLAK clan mates for the mission."
Makoto looked at his leader with a question in his brown orbs. "What mission?"
"I want all of the warring faction eliminated to the very last person, and I want the Fire Lord's son killed and his death is to be made to look like a suicide. Trace each and every person involved and clear them off the face of the earth. Anyone with an important status should be made to look like he killed himself." He paused and sat back, placing his right ankle onto his left knee and lacing his fingers on his knee. "The job should be clean and a testament to the skill of this country."
The clan heads were stunned into silence. Naruto fixed each of them a strong, dominant glare.
"I am preventing a third war."
Nanako nervously cleared her throat. "W-W-What about our allies? I don't think Suna would be happy to hear we killed the son of the Fire daimyo."
"That is why I'm keeping this order under the Dark Leader's Seal of Secrecy. My BLAK will be the ones performing this and…" he jabbed a thumb to himself. "I will kill any involved in Fire country."
Sueki looked up, surprise on her pale face. "Sensei!-"
"That's final." Naruto said, pointedly narrowing his eyes at his student. The clan heads, feeling their own arguments hot on the tip of their tongues, kept their mouths rightly shut, submitted to their leader.
He nodded to Makoto and Nanako. "You two will triple internal defence but make sure no citizen or foreigner notices. I cannot emphasize how much this mission must be kept under wraps."
"We will make sure order is maintained in the country, Lord Leader." Makoto said humbly, placing his hand over his heart and Nanako copied his action, bowing to Naruto again.
"Ten BLAK squads will be mobilized." Sueki took note of his command, already listing out the teams she wanted on this important mission. Team Eleven, her team, was the first on her mind. His eyes dimmed grimly. "I don't want to be the one to say this…but…a third war will come, no matter how hard we try. Tension from the past war has not passed and old wounds haven't yet closed. Grudges need to be crossed out. The world is still in a fragile state; another war would rip it to shreds and leave us all with nothing."
"Then, sir, why are we doing this if all that waits for us is a third great war?"
"Pushing back the inevitable day. Give ourselves a little more time before we allow the rest of the world to kill themselves." The masked leader sat forward and perched his forearms on his knees, lacing his fingers. "This is for our people."
Rimaru closed his eyes and his shoulders heaved tiredly. "Well said, Lord Naruto."
"We move out this night." Naruto said and the clan heads, besides Rimaru, stood up and saluted. "Dismissed."
They left, leaving Naruto, Sueki and Rimaru to continue watching the training regimen of the Kemuri jounin and chunin aspiring to serve in BLAK.
Sueki slyly slipped her chair next to her teacher's and placed a supportive hand on top of his. Naruto's crystal blue eyes flicked to her and he breathed out from his nose, blowing out thin black smoke.
Ever so slowly, Naruto's eyes glowed with a silent smile.
Rimaru made sure not to comment, slickly swivelling his wheelchair around to properly face his clan mates.
He hid his smirk.
Naruto turned his left palm up and Sueki threaded her fingers through his. Naruto's hand curled up and he held her hand, shooting her another side eyed smile, a genuine smile.
Her teacher then lifted his right hand and pointed at a seemingly random sixteen year old boy. "Do you see him?"
The commander followed his finger to a boy with very low cut blonde hair and hard eyes, focused ahead as he jogged on the track. "Yes."
"His parents used to own a fishery close to the Royal clan eastern temple. The Royal clan took all their fish near the end of the war and when they went to complain, do you know what they did?" the vampire could vaguely guess, but she shook her head earnestly listening to her teacher speak. "They took him from his home and brought him to the palace. His parents were executed and, so that he won't run, they cut off his legs," he motioned to his knees. "From the knees down. I found him in a dungeon during one of our raids."
Sueki then noticed the subtle stagger in the teens steps as he sprinted with his group.
"He's got on Suna brand prosthetics."
"Is that why he became a jounin so quickly? His prosthetics?"
"Ha." Naruto snorted. "No. Taiyu's taijutsu is pretty good."
"I'll keep an eye on him if he gets into BLAK." Sueki promised.
Naruto bobbed his head and his head titled to the side, towards hers though not looking directly at her, he pointed again at another teen, this one was a fourteen year old girl with wavy blonde hair tied up into a messy ponytail, she had on a pair of thick black glasses over her eyes, similar to the ones Rimaru had on. She jogged in the group behind Taiyu the Crippled Taijutsu User, desperately heaving for air with each inhale and exhale. Sweat drenched her forehead and her limbs shook with each step. "See her?"
"…The girl in the glasses. Yes." A trainer jogged back and yelled harshly into the girls face, roaring for her to quit.
"Konoha ninjas raided the Kemuri clan compound back in the war, some months before we arrived, and they murdered many smoke users. The Leaf ninjas killed her parents in front of her and blinded her with a hot poker so that their deaths would be the last thing she sees." The fourteen year old jounin turned to her trainer and spat in his face, jogging along with her group. The masked leader laughed loudly along with the old Kemuri clan head at the normally vivacious girls daring insult to her group's jounin trainer. "I didn't know it at the time, but I killed the same squad of shinobi that murdered her parents when we were kicking them out of the Royal clan's temples in the southern region."
The three legendary ninjas watched on as the girl belted out the morale chants as loudly as she could.
"She told me she was going to serve under my feet for the rest of her life."
The vampire shrugged. "You have many admirers."
"She took a blood oath." Naruto blurted, the white haired lady sat away from him, though not removing her hand from his. The blonde held up his hands and quickly said. "I didn't make her do it, I swear. She just came into my office and finalized the contract with her blood; I don't know who taught her the seals, where she found it or how the hell she got a strand of my hair." the irate vampire calmed down somewhat. "Thankfully she's the only one that has done this."
A blood contact bonded the soul of the contract bearer with that of the target person. It only succeeded if the bearer well and truly felt a strong positive emotion, commonly love and admiration. In essence, the contract bearer was to protect the object of their affection with their life even at the cost of their own. The bearer was to obey each command under the consequence of a brutal punishment from the blood contract. If the loved one died in anyway, then the bearer would die also.
Sueki earnestly looked into her master's red eyes. "Do you want me to," she slid a single, silent finger across her throat, flicking her eyes to the struggling girl. "Nothing in the contract says anything will happen to you if she dies."
Naruto patted the tense woman's head, an action that had the dual effect of calming the vampire down and making her flush red. "No, of course not. Killing a comrade is bad, Su~" he couldn't believe he had to tell her that. "In your free time, find a loophole in the contract and unbind us. Make sure she doesn't find out though, I don't want it breaking her heart."
"But…but…but I want to break her heart." The BLAK commander whined quietly, batting her eyes at her teacher and holding his hand up to her thudding heart.
Naruto laughed at her attempt. "Su~. She's just a kid."
She threw his hand away and stood up. "Whatever."
"Cheer up, Su. Lunch would be my treat." He patted her seat and she begrudgingly took it back. "My point is…No matter how hard I try to remodel and rebuild this country; there will always be remnants of the past to haunt us. Sure we've had seven years of rapid development and advancement, and I forecast the coming years will bring even more wonderful development, but at our current state we desperately need that time to get ourselves in complete order."
It wasn't that Naruto was sheltering his people, the proof being he established the three main defence and offensive sub-organizations in Dark country, all of whom were sworn to him; the Police Force, the Defence Corp and BLAK. Another smaller, less Darkness-centric organization-Black Sand Joint Taskforce-was the second proof Naruto wasn't coddling his people. He gave his people remarkable free reign to live their lives and make their money, such as establishing business within and outside of the country, whether or not in an allied nation or not, though he preferred it to be in the former.
Years ago, he had officially signed for more funding to go to orphanages and old people's homes, of which was being well and truly implemented and used for their stated purpose.
About two years ago, Naruto had successfully raised the standard of living to the extent that there was virtually no one without a home, reasonable income, approvable healthcare and free basic education, all without the aid of his present alliances. The Leader had also implemented a steady retirement benefit for his ninjas and civilians in risky jobs, like construction workers, chemical scientists and wild animal conservationists that worked around the Dark forest.
More and more money was coming into the country, either from the high paying missions or their trade with River country. Every week or two a substantial amount of money was added into the country's money reserves, bumping their spending limit further up with each addition. This increase in money not only raised the value of their products to non-allied nations but also allowed Naruto more room to fund departments and projects that weren't just about his ninjas. For instance, Naruto sent more money to the Dark country Laboratory for the scientists to buy state of the art instruments and also to begin their search in finding cures. He had his engineers look into inventing a fully functional railway system that went only within the country. The last major thing Naruto had signed to be done was for the Civilian Academy curriculum to expand to include subjects imported from Uzushio and Suna.
A regular, monthly sum of money was sent to the Kurama clan to sustain them as Konoha refused to cater to their needs, seeing as the clan of painters disagreed to become Leaf ninjas.
Naruto and Sabaku no Tetsuyo-Sandaime Kazekage-were expecting to harvest the first batch of crops from the Suna farm by the end of the year.
Naruto wasn't one to not give credit to where he had inspired the development plans from; Ameagakure was a highly industrialized nation and Naruto only tweaked and adjusted bits and pieces from the plan Ame used and applied it to Darkness.
So far, he was wildly successful.
The loyalty of his people was already ensured, with or without the development he brought, but their devotion and admiration for him went up tenfold at the rapid level of development sweeping through the whole country.
"Before I can say our defences can repel unallied invading forces, we need at least five more years."
If Kumo, Iwa and Snow country, three nations that had been constant long-time allies, chose to set their sights on Darkness, then they had no chance to keep them at bay for longer than a year. Konoha would undoubtedly join in the assault from another angle, without allying with their enemies, and this would slash their defence time to half a year. Suna and Kiri could aid in keeping the three allies back for a while but not for long especially because Sand and Mist couldn't attack Leaf seeing as Sand was an ally to Leaf and Mist was on non-aggression terms. They would be locked in from all sides. Even travelling by boat to Uzushio would be a challenge.
"The foreigners in our country are also on the list of people I want to protect." Naruto clarified as Rimaru turned his wheelchair around.
The man stroked his moustache and mumbled. "I agree with you, Lord Naruto. War is the last thing any decent human being would want." He glanced down at his legs with a down sigh; he had to switch himself with a subordinate of his as the latter accidentally stepped on a land mine set by the Royal clan, nearly ruining their attempt at helping their clan mates flee the Royal clan's invasion. It was the fastest he had ever run in his life and it was the last time he used is legs. His clan could create smoke with their fire and water affinities, and neither of those were dominant enough to be called a second bloodline, not like how Naruto's lightning chakra was a bloodline and the resulting smoke, stronger than regular Kemuri smoke, could be formed with lightning affinity mixing with water affinity.
To cut the distance from their master's power, Rimaru Kemuri and his council created a new seal-less jutsu the clan of water and fire users could use to nearly automatically replenish their energy.
It was a Hiden Smoke clan technique they called Steam Engine that only those with high chunin and jounin skill could pull off. The ninjas were required to take a tiny bit of their fire affinity and, for lack of a better word, drop it onto a larger body of water affinity in their reserves. Instead of making smoke, it created steam and the effects would prolong the energy and strength of the Kemuri user.
The Kemuri ninjas marching around the track had been doing so since six in the morning. Presently, it was ten.
It was almost like how Naruto could bounce his lightning affinity chakra inside his body, striking numerous muscles, bones and organs, and revving up his speed, stamina and endurance. The process, for Naruto, was painful-for obvious reasons-but the end product never disappointed him, but for the Kemuri people the effect was only destabilizing them with how their fire affinity would be more than their water after a while. When this process of creating steam went on longer than three hours, the user would become dizzy or, in a terrible case reported to Naruto some years back, would develop temporary vertigo.
The clan head of the Kemuri clan was conditioning his people on how to overcome the tiring and weighty effects of having more water chakra than fire in their natural reserves.
Naruto rubbed his hand together. "Enough of all this sad talk. How about we spar, Lord Rimaru."
The older blonde man's eyebrows shot into his hair line.
Naruto chuckled lowly. "I saw what you did to that Kiri ninja earlier this morning." The leader rolled his eyes when the man's eyes bugged out. "You're disabled not vulnerable."
"For what it's worth, he tried to ditch paying for his breakfast bagel at my friend's granddaughter's bakery."
"Oh yeah, I saw that too." Naruto waved it off. "I just think it was a bit…excessive…"
"I sent him an apology some time ago." Rimaru answered flippantly. "And anyway, I'm still a bit rusty, I might have pulled something back there-"
"Peeeshhhawww, you almost killed that guy."
Sueki cleared her throat. "If you don't mind, Lord Rimaru, I would like to spar with Naruto-sensei." Naruto turned to his student, giving Rimaru a chance to sigh in relief, even placing his hand on his chest and exhaling smoke. "No, a really real fight."
"Wait, don't you have ten more minutes before you have to go and get your BLAK operatives together?"
"I'll send a message to my team to get things in order." She bit her thumb and pulled up her right sleeve all the way up to her upper arm. She swiped her bleeding thumb over a BLAK Commander Seal Tattoo on her outer upper arm. A tingle went over her body and she pulsed chakra into the seal four times, directing a message to BLAK Team Eleven. Sueki pulled down her sleeve and cycled the blood leaking from her thumb back in, healed the wound and smoothing out the scar till there was no sign of it left. "Done. They'll know what to do." She directed her gaze to the still relieved Kemuri clan head. "Do you have a free training ground, preferably outdoors?"
"I…I haven't agreed-"
Sueki pulled her master onto his feet. "We haven't fought in four years, sensei. I want to see how far I've come."
Naruto hummed, then he pointed at the dark skinned clan head. "We'll settle this later."
Those on the field that noticed the leader and the BLAK commander acting awfully close shook it off; they had known each other for the longest time, they were openly best friends and Naruto was Sueki's teacher.
Naruto was a carefree, open minded man and Sueki was more subdued and accepting of the masked blonde's relaxed mannerisms.
It wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
"Let's have the fight out here." Rimaru suggested. "It'll show my men both of your power and increase morale in the camp."
"Good idea," Naruto said, shrugging off his robe and folding it, dropping it on his vacant seat and placing his wide brimmed hat atop. He was in a grey shirt and black pants with black sandals. Down his arms, from his collar to his fingertips, was a thick vertical black line that broke out and branched into his fingers, leaking into his fingernails and turning them black, like he had painted them black. He flexed his fingers and rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck. There were white bandages wrapped around his ankles. He didn't look to be carrying any of the basic ninja weapons.
The leader ran a hand through his spikey blonde hair and listened as Rimaru roared.
"Gather round, all of you!" the exercising stopped. "Lord Naruto and Lady Ketsueki want to spar." They marched in strict formation and created a wide circular space. There was a pathway of ninjas in attention that Naruto calmly walk through, a fair distance to the sparring ground. Sueki followed behind in her own combat gear; a dark red long sleeved shirt and black ninja pants with black shinobi sandals. She had on the standard jounin flak jacket over her torso, unlike Naruto, and also not like her teacher she had on the Dark country hitaite on her forehead. There was a kunai pouch on the side of her right thigh and a shuriken pouch on the side of her left thigh. She clenched her hands and reached back, tying her smooth white hair into a heat pony tail.
She marched confidently, her red eyes gradually shrinking into small dots and her needle-like teeth poked out from under her lips, almost like the other night she knocked on her teacher's door.
They stopped in the middle of the wide sparring ground and the Kemuri jounin and chunin sat down on the ground, crossing their legs. Rimaru was wheeled in through the pathway, stopping at the edge of the sparring ground.
The Kemuri ninjas watched as Sueki pulled up her long sleeves to show a seal tattoo on each forearm.
Naruto cocked his head to the side, interested, and his eyes sparkled inquisitively.
"Neither of us can go all-out, of course." He observed the wide berth they had been given, probably wide enough to equal any standard training ground. "How do you propose we do this, Su?"
The vampire fought down the blush at the overly familiar name. "If I tag you, I win. No intangibility, Naruto-sensei."
Naruto stood in a thinking position, scratching his masked chin. "That…doesn't sound fair…"
"To who?" Sueki asked incredulously.
Naruto palmed his face and muttered. "Fine. If I can't be intangible, then at least allow me to defend myself." He pushed his hands into his pockets and leaned back lazily, his eyes turning up in a wide smile. "Go easy on me, ok? I'm rusty." Rimaru scratched the side of his nose as his leader recycled his own excuse.
The white haired lady went down into a rigid fighting style, spitting. "Like hell I will." Naruto recognized it as the taijutsu style he taught her when she began exhibiting more of her vampire traits; the Vengeful Heaven Bat fighting style. It made use of light steps, quick strikes with four of her fingers and feet, extreme athleticism and inventiveness. Naruto idly wondered why it was this style, out of the two he taught her and the other one she learnt on her own, that she chose. The Kemuri ninjas turned to their leader and spoke in hushed whispers as he didn't drop into a fighting stance. Her eyes narrowed as they blazed over her teacher's body, studying his posture and his immediate surroundings.
She smirked.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, interested.
Her hand swished before her and she shifted her weight to her left leg, the one in front.
Naruto closed his eyes and chuckled to himself.
His hidden jaw creaked open and he said.
"Begin."
The word echoed in the deathly silent training ground.
The vampire leaped forward and her whole body phased out of sight.
Naruto flowed under a strike to his heart, after images flooding after each movement. He took a step back and raised his left leg, clashing it against a shin aimed for his side, the after images followed suit. Still with his leg blocking her blow, he hopped up with his other foot and flipped backwards as the commander spat out a bloody senbon needle.
He hopped back, bouncing in his heels. He removed his hands from his pockets and beckoned to his student. "Come on, then."
His head shifted back from a four fingered strike, smoothly moving under her second attack for his neck. He rolled forward as she swung her left leg after his head, pushing off the ground and spinning around to face his student. The girl blazed out of sight again and Naruto batted aside a poke to his neck, jabbed his fist into her stomach and grinned savagely under his mask when he heard a distinct, worrying crack upon impact.
A collective wince swept over over the onlookers.
He slid to his right as she shot her knee at him, giving him time to feel the painful throb of his knuckles; she had strengthened her abdominal muscles on the moment of impact. Naruto shook his hand and the pain was gone. He noticed her crack her left fist into her stomach three times, somewhat feeling the pain from Naruto's former blow, and speeding to him again, her fingers laced with crimson red chakra. Naruto squatted down and picked out two kunai from her holster, an action that had her drag her knee back and surge it forward, thicker and faster than humanly possible.
"Oooof!" Naruto exclaimed as he stabbed the ground with the ninja knives, grabbed the knee dangerously close to his nose, the ground thudded and caved in under him as the sheer strength in her kick travelled through him and passed into the ground, much like a lightning conductor. He slammed her foot hard into the ground, cackling loudly as it dug knee deep into the ground and throwing the vampire off balance. His fingers blurred, picking up the kunai on the ground and he jammed them under her chin.
Krick!
The kunai broke and Naruto jumped back as both of Sueki's hands burned towards his face. The woman grabbed her buried leg and yanked it clear out of the ground. She bared her teeth under her mask and hissed.
"You're not taking me seriously."
Naruto didn't answer, only crouching down onto the ground like a lion ready to pounce.
His sky blue eyes flashed hot white, then back.
White energy travelled down his right arm, flowing along the black markings there to the tip of his fingers. He flicked his wrist and black smoke ebbed from his palm, forming a smooth, gleaming ninjato. The single red bladed edge of the silver Uzushio steel pulsed with black smoke. Naruto twirled the ninjato in his hand and held it in a reverse grip.
Sueki grinned widely, breaking out of her uncaring expression in favour of showing her excitement. "Yes-woah-" her hands clapped together and caught Naruto's ninjato between them as it made to plunge into her heart. Her skin sizzled at the sweltering, hellish heat coming from the smoking silver blade, something that had shocked her to the core, and she hastily let go. She didn't dare look at her hands, or away from her master, for fear of what she was going to see. She whipped out a senbon from a collection in storage seal on her forearm and used it to block a ninjato strike that would have split her head in half; she grunted as Naruto's foot Spartan kicked her in her sore abdomen. Luckily for her, she had strengthened the muscles there in preparation and used her chakra to root herself into the ground. Her knee blazed up and Naruto smashed it aside with the back of his left hand, bringing his forehead down on her own with a gleeful laugh.
Her hitaite provided no protection.
One moment she was on her feet, the next she was on her back, the back of her head pounded painfully and her vision blurry from the headbutt.
Her mind cleared quick enough to notice that the sunlight had been blotted out. She cursed as she rolled sideways from an axe kick from the Ghost.
Thoom!
She flipped onto her feet, hopping over Naruto's right foot as it made to clear her off her feet. She sent a sequence of blows to his chest all of which he deflected with the flat side of his burning hot, smoking weapon. She ignored the pain and flashed through seven one handed seals, using her other hand to keep her teacher back with more strikes.
"Hiden art: Demon Vampire Blood release: Earth Zombie Uprising."
A fist bounced against her left cheek as she finished the set of hand seals, sending her half mask off her face, and Naruto hummed at what he had done, stepped away as Sueki spat out the resulting mouthful of blood from the blow onto the ground. Five pairs of hands ripped out of the ground and grabbed his legs, dragging him down with the fervour of ravenously hungry wolves. Their hunger had him up to his chest in two seconds.
Sueki wiped her bleeding mouth with the back of her hand and stepped to him in a blink of speed, her leg drawn back and ready to kick off his head like a football.
Naruto closed his eyes and his skinless jaw creaked with humour.
For his own, he didn't need hand seals.
"Lightning release: Fourth Degree Burn."
White crackling lightning exploded out of him, washing over himself and Sueki, charring the earth hands black.
The leader grunted as he ripped his arms out of the hardened ground and hefted himself out of the ground. He rumbled to where Sueki last was, seeing as there was a thin film of dust after his lightning jutsu, twirling his smoking sword.
His ears twitched.
He deftly dodged a rain of deathly silent blood senbon aimed at his chest. He saw a glint of red and that was the only warning he got; an arrow made out of blood clanged against the flat side of his ninjato, exploding into a shower of misty redness that Naruto expertly contained by blowing a gust of air from deep down in his lungs, thinning it down and reducing the effect of the blood in the air.
Making Sueki bleed was always a mistake any enemy on the field but Naruto purposely did it to see how inventive she could be.
The blonde sucked in as much air into his lungs as the blood mist he blew away circled back and surrounded his immediate vicinity. The blood particles in the air doubled and created a ten foot cube around him, encasing him with tiny particles of her blood. He could still very well see about him and people could see him, as the light red cube floated in a tight formation around him, but he dared not breathe in and get the blood particles into his airways.
If that happened, fighting his vampire student would be significantly harder.
Naruto realized something at that moment.
She was implementing the lesson he gave her six months ago, the one he taught her as they watched the construction of the Leader's Tower and the same day Mito Uzumaki first visited the country.
An assassin's worst nightmare is fighting a stronger enemy in one-on-one fight on a featureless terrain.
The particles around him doubled again, and those too multiplied, making the red blood in the air thicken and make it harder for the Kemuri watchers to peer in. The man still held his breath; the air smelt of Sueki, he could see nothing but red and he could sense nothing but her chakra.
She was hiding her tracks.
Naruto's hidden grinning jaw creaked with excitement.
Ohhhhhh
He flicked his ninjato holding hand and the blade disappeared. He stood in a straight, rigid posture and tilted his head down, closing his eyes calmly.
The Kemuri jounin became alarmed at the relaxed position of their leader; so far, Blood had used jutsu and abilities that would be neigh impossible for them to counter and escape from. Outside the Blood Cube Terrain, they couldn't see or sense the BLAK commander.
"Hiden art: Demon Vampire Blood release: Vampire Empress's Killer Intent Bloodhounds."
Dozens of coal black eyes flicked open around Naruto, slobbering jaws bared and deep growls reverberated through the smoke users very core. Killer intent throbbed from the cube in dangerous waves, washing over them and bathing them in hate. They clenched their fists and powered through the hate and wrath of the vampire.
Naruto didn't move.
He didn't open his eyes.
He didn't breathe.
He sharply looked to his right.
His left hand shot up and caught a straight punch to his face, the hand melted out from his grip and his right shin blocked a roundhouse kick, bending down under an overhead kick. He hummed and slithered away from a hail of silent blood senbon trained for his back, catching two and ducking down from a blazing red jab to his throat. He stabbed the red medical needles into Sueki's right foot, still without his eyes open, and quickly rose up with an upper cut that rattled her brain in her skull. Her feet lifted off the ground after the merciless blow and he caught her ankles as they made to pass his shoulders, a split second before she disappeared into her blood mist, and brought her down straight into the ground. She burst into blood mist and the mist surged towards him but the man flipped through fifteen seals, saying in his head.
'Water release: Cold rapids.' He exhaled and clear water blew out from his mouth, washing over the incoming blood mist and freezing it in its tracks. This technique should have only been possible if he mixed wind and water together. He didn't stop breathing out nor did he release the last seal of the water jutsu, controlling the chilling rapids to rush about him, solidifying the blood mist as the water touched the vampire blood particles. He finally stopped breathing out and opened his eyes, sighing as there was nothing but red dyed frozen water about him in an open-top square.
He winced and tittered to himself when he finally felt the blood needle stabbed into his right calf.
"…Ow…" Sueki stood there, her right knee on the ground and both of her hands wrapped around the senbon, holding it senbon in place, deep in his calf. She was panting for air. "You got me."
She had used the noise of him using the freezing water jutsu to rush at him with. It was a simple attack.
She somehow felt her teacher had allowed her to do it.
Though she felt no less accomplished.
She was still a long way before she could even dream to match the Ghost, but she was getting close.
She yanked out her senbon and fell back onto her knees, her pale hands on her knees and her head lowered, panting lightly.
Suddenly, the Kemuri watchers erupted into rancorous cheers, clapping, cheering, hooting and whooping deafeningly.
Sueki's hands went to her teacher's calf and held it, dragging out any trace of her blood in his leg. She looked up through her eyelashes as the masked man held out a hand for her, his eyes closed in a smile.
"Well done." She reached up and grabbed his elbow as he grabbed hers, pulling her off her knees and onto her feet.
The Kemuri clan mates were yelling Sueki's moniker.
"Blood! Blood! Blood! Blood! Blood!"
The white haired woman bowed her head, too busy hiding her blush, as her master placed his hand on her head to hear her future subordinates roaring her name.
Her hands balled tightly at her sides as she bowed deeper, her body shook unnoticeably and her red eyes glazed over. Naruto's other hand went up and she blinked out the tears when she saw he had her crimson red half mask in his hand.
"You've come so far, Su." Naruto said, his blue eyes dimming down into a warm smile. "I'm proud of you."
"Thank you, sensei."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
09:12PM
Senju clan compound
Konoha
Mito Uzumaki tiredly shuffled around her living room, picking up random toys here and there and tossing them into the toy bin she had designated Kushina and Carrot keep their toys. She grumbled under her breath, promising to discipline those girls later.
Kushina and Carrot had been at her home a few hours ago and Mito had just woken up from her evening nap to the chaos in her living room.
It annoyed her to no end on how messy and disorganized both girls were but damn it if she didn't love them.
Knock knock knock
The old Uzumaki straightened up and turned to the door, her eyes furrowed in confusion.
'I'm not expecting anyone this night.' She held her left side and plodded to the door, feeling weaker and weaker by the minute; she was old and she was holding the Kyuubi without having the Blessing of the Tailed Beast. It was taking a toll on her body. She reached the door and her right hand went up to the knob.
She paused.
'Is…something wrong?' she asked herself, wondering why she was so reluctant to answer the door.
Her thin fingers curled around the knob and tightened. She stared at her hand in silence, trying for the life of her to figure out why she didn't want to open the door.
Why did she want to activate her alarm seal?
Something was seriously wrong.
She couldn't sense any hostile or harmful emotions from the person on the other side of the door but something was seriously wrong.
She jumped as the person on the other side of the door knocked again.
Knock knock knock
Mito steeled her eyes and turned the knob, throwing open the door.
Orochimaru stood on the other side of the door.
"Good evening, Lady Mito." He said with a small smile. "Can I please have a moment of your time?"
Authors note
Leave a review on what your thoughts, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.
Foy.