Ssssssssssup ya'll
How's it goin?
BIG shout out to Dawood Saqlain, zerkses, Antex-The Legendary Zoroarc (thank you, man), biginferno (probably), 777torn777, DaDragon562, KakeruPB, NarutoManiac2400 (hahaha, sure, sure), RealSaberwolf ( I appreciate it, dude. Thank you), Spark681, TheKing91, Arraia, Saiyan prince1, John and Banjo the Fox. You're all effing wonderful :)
Thank you all so much for your awesome words!
I took something from a manga I've taken an interest in, by the name of Enen no Shouboutai (Fire Force) (I DO NOT OWN). Can you catch it?
Also…this chapter is fairly dark…
Enjoy!
CHAPTER 9
Somewhere along the Earth country-Grass country border
The commander of the Dark country black ops listened to the wind silently, her eyes closed meditatively and her head slightly cocked to the side. Her lips turned down under her full face mask as she heard the revelry in the missing ninja camp unfold through the night.
The vampire, wearing a Bat mask with red paint-instead of black-peered down at the lower ranked ninjas from above, bent down on a branch of a tall tree overseeing the blips of fire around the fairly large camp. Her black combat gear merged perfectly with the darkness of the forest and only her red eyes shone ominously from the eyeholes of her mask, though none of the C to B ranked ninjas saw her.
She lifted up a small walkie talkie up to her mouth and whispered.
"Position."
There was a sharp glint before her as her assistant captain affirmed his position, as well as the other two members of Team Eleven. There was a low crackle from the radio and then a silent.
"Team Twelve reporting from camp four."
"Team Thirteen reporting from camp five and six."
"Team Fourteen reporting from camp seven and eight."
This went on until BLAK team eighteen confirmed they were in position around camps fifteen and sixteen on the Fire-Grass country border, thus completing the number of enemy camps.
There was fighting going on along the Earth and Stone country border from ten separate groups of people and the remaining five warred between Earth and Fire country, travelling back and forth through Grass country.
Sueki's team, being fortunate enough to be senior to the other teams, were given three camps instead of two.
"Clean up teams, report." Commander Bat muttered into her radio. There was only a split second of static before.
"Clean up Team Nineteen reporting from one to ten."
"Clean up Team Twenty reporting from eleven to fifteen."
Their roles, as their team functions implied, were to clean up after the massacre of the preceding teams and ensure that the surroundings weren't out of place. Their role was to remove all trace of Dark country assassins from the environment so no country or hidden village would know of their involvement. The dead bodies of the ninjas were to be disposed of and only a few misleading bodies would stay back for any other hidden villages ninjas to investigate in. Each camp had about thirty individuals of varying skills and strength and the Assassins of Darkness were to eliminate each one to the last person without so much as alarming the neighbouring camp.
Each BLAK team was made up of shinobi that specialized in close to all ninja arts, though a master of only one. Strictly only to be of four members per team. No foreigner, Uzumaki or Suna, was allowed entry into the exclusive shinobi force Naruto had established and Sueki led.
For example, Team Eleven was made up of four distinct individuals; first was the deputy captain of the team, Wasp, a long distance master from the Suzumebachi clan that specialized in using the bow and arrow to such a degree that his skill had gotten Sueki's attention, a feat upon itself. His wasp colony gave him perfect eyesight from close to any angle around him and his ability to merge seamlessly with his environment, so much so that he could scarcely ever be found, far exceeded those of his Suzumebachi clan mates that applied. His bow was equipped with tough stingers and tissue corroding acid that had helped him on the occasion an enemy got too close for comfort.
Second was Panda of the Chui-Inku clan; the quiet man was a master of fuinjutsu and also a mid-range fighter, given his clan ability of controlling ink. Sueki had scouted him out in the ink clan's exclusive BLAK aspirants training ground for when he had smoothly attached fifteen Cyanide seals on the bodies of fifteen dummies in a span of four seconds. The vampire commander had kept her eye on the young man's development and had quickly enlisted him into Team Eleven once he passed the main BLAK exam. His weapon of choice, when forced into close range battles, was a tanto.
Last was Phoenix of the Kemuri clan. The bronze skinned smoke user was a master of close and mid-range combat with her bloodline and her hand-to-hand abilities. Sueki had scouted her out during the second entrance training near the BLAK HQ in the Dark forest at her unfailing ability to revive herself to almost full tank when the normal limit for the Steam engine was five times until it became too much. Her regenerative abilities, coupled with her use of virtually any kind of weapon, made her a formidable ally on the field. Phoenix knew many fighting styles. She would have been a better candidate for deputy captain of team eleven if not for her clumsiness.
Team Eleven-including Sueki-was the only team Naruto had named himself, after the spirit animals of their respective clans, or in Wasp's case, his clans colony.
The vampire then gave the respective captains of the individual squads command to direct their people, though still not authorized to strike. She tuned into her teams personal signal. "How many can you take out, Wasp?"
"I've got my eyes on thirteen of them. Give me half a second and I can double that." The Suzumebachi black ops answered promptly from his place at the other end of the camp from Sueki's position. He then proceeded to rattle down a list of who he had in his crosshairs. "Three brown hairs, one black hair, two green eyes, two yellow hairs, dark skin, two blue skins and two bald." It wasn't physically possible for Wasp to manipulate the direction of his arrows, even with the self-made arrows of his, but the man had a special kind of field vision and the quick brain to locate, calculate and utilize surfaces of nearly all kinds and people to afflict as much damage as possible. On one mission in particular, their team had witnessed when Wasp killed four people at the same time, the arrow binged off a concrete wall at an angle and skewered three more targets on the other side.
"Leave that whole side for Wasp."
"Hai, senpai." They collectively answered.
"On my signal, clear us a path into the camp, Panda. Phoenix and I will come in and go along the sides till the three of us meet in the middle."
"Got it, senpai."
The BLAK commander then tuned back into the general signal and said. "This shouldn't take longer than twenty five seconds. Leave no one alive." She said, a warning undertone in her hushed voice at the consequence if the assassination exceeded her time limit and if there was so much as a squeak from any camp. The respective teams nodded curtly, silently in various places around their designated gang or missing ninja camps, staring ominously down at the soon-to-be-dead people with blank, uncaring eyes.
The vampire paused and then said the words that sealed their target's fate.
"Move in."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Fire Temple of the Holy Flame
Fire country
The Fire country's royal family, especially those currently sitting at the helm of affairs over the whole nation, was steeped in corruption and rot.
The daimyo was addicted to gambling, his wife could not parted for longer than half an hour without her Spring country and the two older siblings were addicted to drugs, often squandering the country's money on purchasing the best high from across the border.
Only the two youngest children of the Fire lord were saved from this corrupted family; the older of the two became a Fire Monk and the youngest born, a girl barely seven years old, had been smuggled out of the capital by her nanny to a safe location where she wouldn't be found, under the coaxing of the Monk son. The Monk wanted her to return to the capital to claim the throne when the people of the country became frustrated with how the royal family was blowing through their money and revolted.
The girl was seen as the hope for all of Fire country, as the Monk was barred from ruling the country because of his vow of poverty, humility and constant penance. Though the monk did do small menial jobs for the people of the country and helped out in any way he could.
Naruto's crystal blue eyes twinkled in the night as he landed on the window sill of his target, squatting down and looking about into the dark room. He was in black combat gear, including a featureless black flak jacket. Over his face was a full head mask that hid even his vibrant blonde hair, on the white mask was a grinning black maw stretched from cheek to cheek, a ghostly resemblance to what lay underneath. The assassin had on fingerless black gloves on and the soles of his ninja sandals were blaringly white.
The eyeholes of his mask shone with his eyes, glinting when he found the person eh was looking for kneeling before a small shrine, praying. The man was rail thin, his hair was bleached white with stress and his body had a small tremor.
Fire monks were expected to not own any property but the clothes on the back, anything that sustained them was offering from believers of the Holy Flame. So, as expected, the room was too shabby to look at without feeling some sort of guilt; the cobbled walls and floors were weathered and old, there was a tattered brown mat on the ground, a dirty pillow that used to be white that was stuffed with hay and a thin, worn out blanket neatly folded on the sleeping mat.
Naruto's feet soundlessly touched down on the stone floor and the monk was none the wiser.
The Dark Leader wasn't really religious, not much anyway, and he was sure if he slew the monk there and then it would slip from his conscience as any other person would, but the Blue Eyed Ghost gave the constantly repenting son of the daimyo the benefit of the doubt for all his supposed good deeds.
He lifted up his right hand, his pointer finger and thumb jutting out into a finger gun. He pointed his hand gun at the back of the monk's head from his place near the window of the starless night sky and muttered. "Lightning release: Sleep Paralysis."
Zzzt
A quick, infinitesimally small bolt of electricity shot from the Leader's finger and struck the monk in his back. The praying man's muscles tensed tightly, preventing any sort of movement aside from breathing. He couldn't even blink, for his eye muscles were stretched taunt, making his eyes bug out in horror.
Naruto's feet soundlessly plodded about the poor room in the Fire Temple and he rolled up the sleeping mat, his sharp eyes caught a scuff mark on a cobble stone underneath the mat, resembling the daily scraping of fingernails on stones to move it aside. His fingers dug into the scuff marks and pulled out the stone retrieving a journal and mutely, still in a squatting position, flipped it open and began reading the entries of the young monk since the very first day he set out to be a monk.
The monk groaned pitifully as he fought to move his unresponsive body. "Oooooooohhhhhhhhh-"
Zzzt zzzt
Naruto shot two more paralysis bolts without looking away from the journal and silenced any more attempts at freedom.
"Today, Daddy gave Yutaboro village to a debtor." The young monk wrote, about five years ago. "He said that it was because the man cheated in a card game, but I know Daddy isn't good at playing poker. Head Monk said I should pray for my family and take all their sins upon my shoulders so that when they…pass on…they would at least find some sort of peace on the other side-" The writing slurred, then leaped to the other page. "Baby Wakono held my finger today," he wrote, referring to the last born. "She shouldn't have to be born to such a wretched family. I would do anything to keep her from the rot in our family. The…people don't seem happy…"
Naruto recalled that there was once an issue some days ago. That the Fire lord gave land to a well-known gang leader but that land was already owned by another gang leader. There was a big fight and the daimyo had to settle with giving the latter gang leader money from the country's reserves.
Naruto skipped some pages.
"Sometimes I think Faro and Caro are dead. They don't talk to me anymore…they just…have this glassy look in their eyes…"
The Ghost skipped some pages again.
"I…love my family…I must send Wakono somewhere safe…I must take their sins upon myself…"
Skip…skip…skip…
"Daddy won some land from an Iwa warlord. The people don't want to give it to him because the land has gold in it. Daddy's guards aren't listening to him anymore. The gold can bring Fire country out of Lightning country's debt. Wakono…must not inherit our debt."
Naruto raised an eyebrow and turned to the next page.
"Missing ninjas are cheap to hire as long as they're not Konoha missing ninjas. I had to work for weeks and pay them bit by bit because my vows prevent me from holding any money for long …Guard defectors and civilian criminals…gold…" the words became almost ineligible rambling. "I haven't seen Wakono in months…country in debt…Chief Monk suspects something…sins on my shoulders…my soul is weak…Pure Flame give me strength…" Naruto turned the journal about, struggling to read the chicken scrawl. "They're becoming too many…the fighting is too much…all for gold…I didn't want this…I'm sorry Wakono…sins…Flame…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…Kami, forgive me…"
Naruto shook his head and replaced the journal where he found it.
'Well, he doesn't have any accomplices.' He assumed in his mind. He cast an eye on the frozen man, his left hand forming a dragon seal and his right finger gun pointed at the monk again, this time adding his middle finger, the tip quietly fizzling with white lightning. 'He's not some evil mastermind. I almost feel sorry for you.'
A painless death is the least Naruto could give him.
"Lightning release: Lightning Enlightenment."
Zzzap
Silence.
The sounds of the night finally broke into the monk's room.
His heart tightened up impossibly, shrivelling and squeezing itself as the muscles hardened and tensed, expelling blood out into the veins and arteries. His lungs pulsed once more with air and then they stopped, too taunt to suck in air or release it. The monk didn't feel the pain of his heart turning into a brick though, for his brainwaves ceased long before then.
The tension in the heart released and the man slumped slightly forward.
He died on his knees.
Any autopsy would show he died naturally.
He was going against his own order for the daimyo's son's death to look like suicide. When news went out that the benevolent, kind monk was dead and that he had died from stress and overworking himself-for the muscle tears on his arms and legs, as well as the callouses on his hands would show-there would be no one to cushion the effects of the mass neglect of the royal family and there would be a revolt, usurping the family from the throne. They would select a new daimyo to lead them and when young Wakono came out of hiding the chances of them accepting the child to lead them was high.
Naruto was going to let history run its course, as long as there was no effect of it on his country and his allies.
His right eyebrow twitched and he turned to the door of the dead monk's room, catching a pair of yellow eyes peering at him from the wall.
"I already know your 'smell'" Naruto said, referring to how he had the newcomer's chakra signature memorized. "You're the same person that met Nagato before he came up with that insane idea for global domination."
Zetsu remained silent, his eyes narrowed at the infamous Ghost.
"I know," Naruto nodded, turning away from the plant man. "That you brainwashed the Fire country's royal family…and you might also be the one that brainwashed Nagato as well." On the off chance that Zetsu couldn't escape into the earth from Naruto, the chase would still attract attention from the seals around the Temple. It would jeopardize the mission. "I don't know your end game, stranger, but see this."
With his back still to the mysterious watcher, Naruto raised his left hand, his middle and ring finger bent to his palm and his thumb over them, his index and small finger straight (Metal horns).
"Do you know what this means?"
Zetsu eased out of the wall till his head-except the flytrap-was somewhat completely formed. The creature's warbled voice answered. "Kurono."
Naruto nodded once, his left hand still in the Kurono hand sign. "Kurono…Next time we meet, you will not be so lucky."
Naruto leaped out of the window and disappeared into the night.
Zetsu felt a chill run down his back, for both of his halves.
He would have to make sure he didn't encounter the Ghost again.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
As Naruto's feet took him back home, his mind took him into a memory.
"Kurono."
Naruto's father held up the hand sign to his five year old son. The blonde man was sitting on a ratty chair with a dark green scarf wrapped around his lower face and his dull blonde hair cut short. The boy, a near mirror image of him, had a white handkerchief around his lower face and his longer, wilder yellow hair bobbed as he nodded insistently, trying to manoeuvre his stubby fingers to copy the gesture of his father.
Naruto's reflective blue eyes gazed up at his highly amused father.
"I've seen mama doing it before." The loud boy said, though his voice was muffled by his handkerchief. "Wuzzat?"
"Kurono is…hard to explain." The man admitted. He still went on an explained. "Before the creation of our home, Dark country, the Lord Yin-Yang, encountered our clan, the Kemuri, and the Suzumebachi clan on this land. He taught us how to survive in the harsh terrain and make the place more durable. Sometime later, the Hogo clan emerged from their tunnels, the Gado came out from their caves, the Kurama sailed in from the west, the Chui-Inku came in from the east and the Pansa-Senshi migrated up from a barren island south of this continent. Lord Yin-Yang corralled all the Dark animals and contained them in the Dark forest, with the help of all the clans, we cleaned the water and we defined our border."
The man paused, relaxing his hand and closing his eyes in reflection. Naruto didn't look any less enraptured.
"Dark country was officially formed when Lord Yin-Yang appointed the Royal clan to lead us…before he walked off into the ocean…never to be seen again…"
There was a short silence for Naruto to digest the quick history of Dark country.
"Kurono is…was…the hand sign Lord Yin-Yang used to drive all the Dark animals into the Dark forest. Other clans adopted its usage long after Lord Yin-Yang disappeared to remind us all of our history. Now…now…" the man's blue eyes positively glowed with joy. "Now…Kurono is our history."
Naruto looked at his hand, shaped into the Kurono hand sign.
"Kurono is Darkness. It is our national pride. It is the heart and soul of our country. It is the stubbornness of our people. It is our unwillingness to accept our fate and die. It is hope for a brighter future. It is our passion for the Darkness and all within it. Kurono is our life." The man said, his voice hushed passionately as he leaned down to speak to his son. The fire in his blue eyes ignited something in Naruto's heart. "Kurono…is a promise."
The five year old boy recalled how his mother had used Kurono to quell an argument between a Kemuri clans mate and a Suzumebachi man.
"A time will come, Naruto, that you will we will have to flee this country. You will feel lost and hopeless." The man said, sadness leaking into his eyes. "But always remember this," he showed the boy the horned hand sign again. "Will give you hope."
Naruto's fingers tightened as he looked down at his own Kurono. The sign wasn't blind servitude to the yin-yang user that had created the country or some sort of way to keep the hope for his return alive.
No.
Kurono was a sign that the people of Dark country, clan or clanless, shared a home.
They shared a past and they shared a future.
It could be a way to remind the people that no matter how bad things get, as long as there was life and family then everything was going to be alright.
It could be a promise to an enemy that their spirit couldn't be crushed.
Kurono itself held no real power besides being just a hand sign-unlike normal hand signs-but it was everything when there was nothing.
Naruto experienced the rush of these feelings as he stared at his hand.
"Promise me, Naruto. When shit hits the fan and we have to run," he grabbed silent boy by his shoulders and made him look into his eyes. Blue clashed with blue. "Promise me you'll come back home."
The next day, the Royal clan broke into their home and arrested them.
Naruto watched his uncle lose his head.
He watched as his father was forced down onto his knees, defiant and stubborn, roaring for his son to close his eyes but the boy remained unresponsive.
For a long time he forgot about Kurono.
Then, when his parents were killed by the landmine and his friends parents too lost their lives, leaving five orphaned children alone in the world and in the middle of a great war, he remembered.
A promise made with Kurono would definitely come to pass.
Naruto stopped before the gates of his country, pulled off his right glove and showed it to the guards at the north gate. The Gado man eyed him suspiciously, subtly readying his clay abilities to fight but relaxing somewhat when the masked man showed his Citizen Tattoo, a special branch of Entrance Tattoos their Leader had assigned the Chui-Inku to make specially for Dark country born and registered citizens. There wasn't any real benefit in the tattoo itself and it couldn't be used to brag because the ink used turned invisible once the need for it had passed. They ran a rolled up scroll with a seal written inside over the tattoo and when the scroll buzzed, they opened it. The midnight gatekeeper attending to him fell onto his knees almost fast enough to crack the ground.
"My apologies, Lord Naruto. I didn't recognize you." The rest of the chunin's comrades heard and rushed out from the building, falling onto their knees before the masked man in a neat row.
When BLAK operative returned from missions, they weren't to pass the normal gates but through the Dark forest and straight into their HQ. Though the Leader didn't see himself above going through due process and checking into the country; an imposter could have come in his likeness and the guards would be too flustered to check him in, letting him into the country. Naruto wasn't in the mood to go to the HQ that night, so he pulled off his mask, swiftly putting on his blank black half mask and running a hand through his wild blonde hair.
"Guys, relax." He noticed that the guard group was made up of Gado and Hogo members and that they wore the country's colours and their clan colours, not that of the Defence Corp. They were about nine in number and they were all wide eyed and fully awake. "You're all Defence Corp, right?"
"Hai, Leader."
"Why aren't you in uniform?" Naruto asked, hiding the sternness in his voice. BLAK wore black clothing and gear. It could be anything, as long as it was black and mobility wasn't accidentally or purposely limited; black shirt, black dress, black skirt, black shorts, black tights, black flak jacket, among others. The Police Force wore blue and black uniforms and blue flak jackets. The Defence Corp had their own uniform, though Naruto gave leeway for it to vary ever so slightly, and their colours were grey and black. Naruto had run a survey and had found out that uniformity not only bolstered his ninjas to perform better at home and in the field but also made the civilians and the foreigners feel more at ease at the unity and composure of those charged to protect them.
There was a general feeling of calmness and ease when a group of people from a sub-organization in Dark country, wearing uniforms and behaving as they were meant to entered an environment. The Police and the Defence Corp had managed to apprehend more criminals and delinquents due to the cooperation of the citizens and Naruto himself had seen when, during a routine nigh time patrol of a street in the west (Pansa-Senshi region), people had eagerly waved to the police and the DC, took pictures with them and encouraged them to do their best.
Naruto didn't extend the order for uniformity in the clothing of his ninjas though, for they already outperformed on duty and another survey among his ninjas had proven that wearing a uniform on field would be stressful and paint a target on their backs.
The leader of the squad promptly answered. "Lord Gado had ordered for us not to wear uniforms for this week. He wouldn't tell us why."
Naruto was silent for a moment, then his senses stretched out and pinpointed about forty other DC operatives speckled around their position, when normally there was no more than twenty. The nine at the post was for citizens to see while the forty were to remain unseen.
They were doing their job of not rousing the attention of the Dark citizens perfectly.
The Leader suspected that Nanako Hogo, the head of the Hogo clan and the Dark country Chief of Police, had a bulk of her officers wear mufti while they were out and about, posing as normal people while the usual number of uniformed officers patrolled as per the norm.
Naruto's eyes twinkled. "That's ok then. Thank you for your work, guys. Anything new to report?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary, sir. Some Konoha ninjas seeing how far they can go into our territory, late night River country deliveries of fish and porcelain-Lady Amara Chui-Inku (clan head) signed off of the porcelain herself-, some Kiri ninjas were passing by and wanted to stay the night-we processed them accordingly, by the way, sir-" he added as an afterthought. Naruto nodded approvingly and motioned for him to go on. The man brought out a clipboard and handed it to his Leader, saying. "A family of three came in from Chill, we confirmed that they're refugees and they had difficulty travelling down here."
"Hmmm…" Naruto made a mental note to tell Daichiharu Pansa-Senshi, the head of the panther clan and the one Naruto had set in charge of informing refugees of the country that Darkness was peaceful, that any family that wished to move could request for support via a message animal or letter of some sort. Naruto's eyes skimmed the report for just that night, an ordinary night among ordinary nights.
"A late night carriage of Uzumaki from Konoha came in. They were six in number and politely requested for accommodation. They were willing to pay however much to stay for as long as possible." Naruto looked up with a raised eyebrow, the Gado man went on. "Do not worry, Leader Naruto, I checked all to make sure no Konoha citizen was hiding among them or in their carriage, then I gave them the booklet on the procedure of how to acquire housing in the country and for how long allied foreigners were allowed to stay." The booklet was given only to those that were visiting Naruto's country for the very first time. He wasn't too worried an enemy or unallied foreigner would get a hold of the booklet because they wouldn't even have access into his country; his defence was fairly tight. "The Uzumaki family wish to visit you as soon as you're free; the father said that when they get a good hotel here in the northern region, he would personally go and set an appointment to see you with Lord Rimaru." Because Naruto's tower still wasn't ready and his temporary office, which doubled up as his suburban home with Sueki, was currently empty. The Kemuri clan was where appointments from foreign delegation and his people who wanted to see him for one reason or the other were set. "Some Suna ninjas coming from a mission in Fire country are spending the night, an Uzumaki man left the country to pack some more of his things in Konoha, a River country family came into the country to celebrate the oldest daughters tenth birthday," on that part of the report, Naruto saw that the River country family often came back to celebrate the birthdays of their children or any kind of major event. He idly wondered if his country was becoming a must-be location for his allies. The masked man proudly hummed when he was again reminded on how safe Dark country was now. "And finally you arrived, sir."
Naruto appreciated how meticulously detailed the report was. The DC was in charge of internal defence, which included the gates leading into and out of the country. The average shinobi never really had gatekeeper jobs, only missions within and outside the country. The Gado and Hogo clan heads shared power over the DC; split in an even half, Makoto Gado was in charge of the northern region and Nanako Hogo was in charge of the southern region, as well as being the Police Chief. The two clans were already attuned to working with one another, so there was little if any arguments on jurisdiction and power.
"The next DC guard rotation will be in two hours."
"Good…good…" Naruto gave the man his clipboard back and speculated aloud. "I've always wondered, what do you people do when no one comes in or goes out?"
The subordinates of the current DC squad peered out of the gatekeeper's box. The leader of the squad scratched the back of his head and answered. "We play cards, share stories, boring stuff."
Naruto's eyes turned up in a smile and he patted the man's shoulder. "Well, this job can get tedious at times. Thank you again."
"It's always an honour protecting our home, sir." The Gado man bowed humbly. "Leader Naruto, would you like me to call a carriage for you? It should only take ten minutes to get here-"
"No, no, I prefer walking. It's good exercise."
"But, sir, you just returned from a mission."
"I barely got a chance to stretch my legs."
The Gado man grinned. "As expected of Leader Naruto; a mission for him is nothing." There were low calls of agreement from the guard post.
The Leader chuckled. "I didn't mean it like that."
"Don't allow me to keep you, Leader Naruto. Have a nice night." The Gado man graciously stepped aside and his upper body bent in a slight bow.
"You too."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Konoha Morgue
The next day
06:45AM
Torune emotionlessly stared down at his dead older sister.
When he had felt his connection with his sister violently rattle, shaking him out of his bed and forcing his feet to run over the ocean towards Konoha, he thought that there would at least someone there to hold back the oppressor until his arrival.
All signs pointed to a Konoha ninja being the culprit.
There were obvious signs of struggle.
Mito had put up a fight, both against the Konoha ninja and on the debilitating effects the Kyuubi was having on her age. The woman was in no way a trained shinobi, hell, she hadn't even held a kunai until she aided Naruto and his parents escape from Darkness, but the woman had refused to go down kicking and screaming.
The old Kage's lips screwed to the side, a tornado of emotion swelling deep down in his gut and bubbling up through his throat, threatening to spill out and level the whole Hidden Leaf village.
He placed a hand on his older sister's peaceful face and closed his eyes, exhaling through his nose and fighting the tears that wanted to flow. The woman was shrouded in a burial kimono, pink, red and white in colour with artistic embroidery of waterfalls and quiet animal life over her the material.
The kimono hid the chunk of flesh missing from her gut, her upper right arm and her inner left thigh.
The Konoha ninja had taken five pints of blood from her, siphoned more than half of her chakra and pulled out an incisor and a molar. The work was done shoddily and in a hurry, not with the precision of a trained professional. The quick autopsy said that there could have been a chance that, in her mad struggle for freedom from her attacker, the person had injected her with a clear poison that reduced her bodily defences and left her without her strength. The poison had long since disappeared from her system.
Only one person in the village had that brand of dangerous, undetectable poison.
Orochimaru.
But the Sannin was with the Sandaime when the attack went down; the snake summoner would later say that as he checked his stash of poisons, a whole phial of Silent Killer 43456 had been stolen from his cabinet in his lab.
The attacker, when he was done taking what he wanted, raised an alarm and fled as Senju came to Mito's rescue.
The woman could not recall who had attacked her and as the doctors fought to save her life, she pushed them all away and roared for Kushina to be brought to her.
The exchange of the Nine Tailed Beast lasted nine hours, one hour for each Tailed Beast Shackle seal and three hours to ensure that the seal was air tight.
Mito died immediately after, some minutes before her younger brother could arrive.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, tried to imply that there was a good chance that an enemy ninja snuck into the village, posing as a Leaf shinobi, and attacked Mito with the aim of collecting DNA for some sort of unknown nefarious purpose.
"I don't want to hear it." Torune said in a quiet voice, his eyes closed and painfully bottling up his rage. The Sandaime, standing behind him opened his mouth once more to defend his shinobi but closed it quickly when the Uzukage flared his chakra.
The two Kage were the only ones in the Morgue, specifically the room Mito had reserved for herself on the event of her death.
"My…My brother, Naruto…" Torune whispered, his voice cracking as he tried not to fall onto his knees beside his dear sister. "He…warned me. My brother warned me…so, so, so…many times."
"If you can just give me one hour to get to the bottom of this-"
"Be. Silent." The man spat, hatred and wrath saturated in his strained voice. He bent down and gently placed his forehead on his sisters, remained still for a minute, then he straightened up and slowly pulled over a white sheet over Mito's face. His lips frowned deeply. "My error was standing on tradition and on the belief that Konoha needed only a little time to regain its senses." Torune had hoped to one day re-ally Uzushio and Konoha once again, after some decades when the Leaf saw the error of their ways. "This isn't about the Kyuubi breaking free. This is about my sister, my Mito…being tortured and murdered by one of your own."
The old Kage walked up to the younger Kage and stood face to face with him, glaring deep into Hiruzen's soul. The Leaf Kage refused to break eye contact or cede position.
"I'm taking Kushina with me. She will be staying in Dark country, where she will be safe."
Any Uzumaki anywhere would attest that Darkness was their second home, that much was clear with the near daily migration of redheads out of Konoha and down south to Dar country. The country of assassins was the place to be and, with how there was so much silence, close-allied cooperation and an overall air of mystery about the Dark country, it could possibly be among the top twenty safest places on the continent.
"I will be taking Mito's body with me for a proper burial."
Hiruzen sighed. "I'm sure you're aware of what will happen once you take the Kyuubi away from Konoha."
"And I'm sure you're aware of what will happen to Konoha once they poke the wrong country."
The stare down between both powerful leaders was electric, charged.
The Blood contract Torune Uzumaki, Godaime Uzukage, and Hashirama Senju, Shodaime Hokage, was that the Leaf could keep the Kyuubi-Uzushio's spirit animal-as long as they did not use the beast to start any wars or use it to oppress any nation or village. The contract would hold strong even if both contract holders died, passing authority to their respective successors, Hashirama's being Hiruzen. It was built on the obligatory trust between cousin clans, the Uzumaki and the Senju, the Uchiha-also cousins with the Uzumaki but brothers with the Senju-were involved by association.
If Torune, or any successor, took back the Kyuubi without Konoha's consent then Torune would die a very agonizing death and his remaining life span passed onto the Shodaime, or his successor. The contact would end with his death.
His daughter, Tamaki, though not a ninja and not having any fighting skills outside of self-defence, could take the reins of leadership. She had spent years and years in his office, assisting him with diplomacy and politics and if the question of her physical strength came up, then Naruto could vouch for her that she was plenty strong.
After all, the Dark Leader and the Uzukage had watched, while hidden, of course, as Tamaki bench pressed five hundred pounds forty nine times. There weren't that many Uzumaki that had passed physical limitations and actually bulked up along with their weight lifting abilities but Tamaki wasn't one of them.
The Godaime Uzukage had his affairs in order.
The only downside was that, even if Tamaki was a long time widow, Naruto refused a marriage proposal between them.
"If you step out of Konoha with Kushina…you'll die. I have not given Uzushio permission to take the Kyuubi." And I never will, the Sandaime swore in his mind.
"If death is the punishment for not listening to good council…then so be it. Find out who killed my sister." He snapped his finger and two Uzumaki jounin entered the room and delicately picked up the dead body. "Have a nice life, Hiruzen."
One day, Kyuubi will return to Konoha, the Sandaime thought as he watched Torune take his slumbering granddaughter from Tsunade and hand the seven year old to a clan mate, not even bothering to spare a lasting look at his remorseful grandniece. The Slug sage stepped away from the man as the Uzumaki entourage gradually made their way to the gate.
In a hushed voice, Torune dictated his last two letters to his assistant as they ambled along the road, passing by silent Konoha ninjas who had long since been awake to watch the cluster of redheads enter their village.
The air was saturated in panic that their connection to the Uzumaki clan was well and truly gone, despair that it would never be re-established again, anger that they were taking the Kyuubi from them, resentment to Darkness for being the one to take the great beast and finally wrath.
The Godaime Uzukage ignored the muted voices, addressing his letter first to his only daughter and last to his only brother.
He was going to do the right thing.
Even then, as he glanced over his shoulders and looked at the Sandaime, he could see the wheels in his head turning.
Plotting.
'Kushina or not, the Kyuubi will return to Konoha.'
The Third silently vowed.
'Don't think you won, brat.'
Authors note
I will neither confirm nor deny if the Kyuubi jinchuriki will or will not return to Konoha. You'll just have to wait and see ;)
Leave a review on your thoughts of this chapter, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.
Foy.