Wuddup ya'll
COLOSSAL shout out to firetemplar415, Yamajiji (he might not collect Bijuu anytime soon. Thanks for reading!), anthonym3 (I wonder as well. Thanks for reviewing, man), Arraia, KakeruPB (I appreciate the enthusiasm, mah dude), zerkses (thank you very much), TheKing91 (he wants one so bad…thanks for reading, dude), youflesh840 (thanks!), Saiyan prince1, Primarx, Banjo the Fox, biginferno, Bakaneko, skfff and Tigrezztail. You're all wonderful :)
As a reminder, I'm not leaning too much into canon, so Zetsu dying in the last chapter doesn't mean that all the things he's set up and all the plans that are underway are going to stop. Jigsaw taught us that, didn't he?
They might slow down but as long as there are successors…
Anyway
Thank you so very much to everyone that has stayed on this journey. Your feedback, no matter how small or how critical, has encouraged me to do my best in this story and also to better my writing style.
Now, on with the story!
Enjoy…
CHAPTER 20
Kushina stuck out her thumb frim the corner of her mouth and squinted hard in concentration. Her sweaty left hand held Naruto's right hand palm up and her right hand, holding an ink soaked fuinjutsu brush, swiped and slashed on the Leader's palm.
"That's…" she drew three small circles. "About…" connected those three circles to each other and drew a clean cross meeting right in the middle of the circle formation. "It." she put the last finish touch on the seal on Naruto's hand, a simple dot to the middle of two of those dot and a whirlpool swirl in the last circle. The woman exhaled and let go of Naruto's hand, who kept his hand up at that height even without her support, and wiped her sweaty forehead.
Naruto looked down to the seal on his right palm with a contemplative eye, then he held up his hand facing forward and the ten foot tall, blue-green eyed horse bent down a little and snorted out thick white, harmless steam onto the seal on the blonde's hand.
The very same seal on Naruto's hand that had been drawn on Kokuo's chest glowed a soft white and black of Naruto's chakra and, as the steam dispersed from Naruto's raised hand, shimmered with white tailed beast chakra.
The summoning contract had now been formed and the seals were linked together.
Naruto wiggled his fingers as he studied the level nine seal. Amara peeked around him and also looked at his hand, checking for herself if the seal was correctly drawn.
The seal mistress threw an approving thumb up to her fellow, though younger, fuinjutsu expert.
An average summoning seal for a summoning contract was level seven and usually administered by the summons themselves, but that kind of contract should never be tried when connecting a summoner and a tailed beast, especially with person with chakra that was as volatile as Naruto's.
The agreement between man and tailed beast was that they could both summon the other, but only for important or extremely dire situations.
The Gobi and the Dark Leader agreed to this condition.
Naruto smirked slightly; this seal was a show of trust between them.
The seal dried as the glow of beast chakra subsided, leaving a mild tingling on his finger, and he said to Kushina. "Are you sure you don't want to get in on this?" he looked to Kokuo and the five tailed horse bobbed his head once. "He doesn't have a problem with you joining this summoning circle, and I don't either."
Kushina laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head with one hand, waving dismissively with the other. "I don't think I'm physically ready to join…this."
Kokuo being the Five Tailed Horse aside, Naruto's estimated power level had always been a subject people purposefully avoided openly speaking about, because there were many households telling their children Ghost Stories, many ninjas praising their Leader's strength during a chance encounter and many young children roleplaying as their beloved Leader on the playgrounds of the school or the parks. In their games, Naruto was what they called a 'Cheat Character'.
Speaking about it in the open with Naruto in attendance was something that just didn't happen.
It just didn't happen.
Not out of envy, for envying their precious Leader was something they couldn't bring themselves to do.
It was out of respect that they didn't measure or estimate Naruto's power level.
It felt very disrespectful somehow.
Yes, they referred to Naruto as 'Legend Class' which was double S rank, but that classification had come from their allies, not from Dark country.
The Power Rank of Dark country was chocked full of outstandingly strong or amazingly intelligent people. Sueki was at the very top of the rankings, as she was a Kunoichi of high repute outside and inside the country, deservedly being BLAK Commander and Dark country Director of Dark Sand and all, and a little bit behind her were members of Naruto's council, after them were jounin and special jounin, though special cases stood above the rest-still under the council though-like level of intelligence and mastery of their Assassination Techniques.
Naruto just…couldn't be ranked.
Simple as that.
Sueki coughed into her fist to break the silence, Naruto looked to Kokuo with a raised eyebrow, still thinking about what the redhead had said and why the country excluded him from their Power Rank, and the beast seemed to mutely shrug at his silent question.
"Why don't you try the seal?" the vampire asked, pulling Kushina and Amara back, and Naruto politely motioned to Kokuo.
"Go ahead."
Kokuo fractionally bent his head down and the seal on his chest glowed black and white.
Poof!
A large plume of smoke exploded around Naruto and the horse and a gust of wind subsequently blew it away.
Naruto was on the beast's back and Kokuo neighed, rising up onto his hind legs. The thundering sound rumbled through the grassland and Naruto, grinning widely, grasped the horse's thick white mane to keep himself steady.
The light hit Naruto at just the right angle and the calm wind blowing from the east reached the horse and the man in the right place, making Naruto's white and black Leader's robe flap in the wind and the horse's heavy mane tousled gently in the air. Kokuo's front hooves finally slammed back down onto the ground and the masked ninja looked down to his subordinates with a cool smile, his bright blue eyes glowed from deep in the dark recesses of under his Leader's hat and the plain black half masked looked to have a beastly wide grin stretched from ear to it. The blue-green eyed horse snorted steam from his nose and stamped his right foot on the ground a few times, adjusting to the new weight on his back and, coincidentally, maintaining the image of Legend Class shinobi and his loyal, ten foot tall, five tailed stead.
Stars sparkled in the eyes of the three women and their knees weakened at the sight.
Kushina placed her hands to her madly thumping chest and whispered, awe-struck. "C-C-…Cool…"
The two other women nodded dumbly.
Sueki's sluggishly hand came up and closed her distant cousin's mouth, while she was still shamelessly gawking up at her husband. Kushina hastily cleaned the droll on the side of her mouth.
Naruto laughed, a slight smirk lingered on the corners of his eyes.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Glass Crater
Desert of Sunagakure
Sunagakure
Tobi looked down into the smoking glass crater with disdain swimming in his single black orb.
His full face, orange swirling mask gave away nothing.
A head of red hair popped out from the edge of the festering crater Zetsu had been killed in and clambered out, steadying his feet on the sand and exhaling as much toxic smoke from his puppet body.
"It seems Zetsu is gone for good, Madara." Sasori said. "There's nothing down there Lord Pein can use to resurrect him."
"You don't say…" the one eyed Uchiha drawled sarcastically, the offensive tone in his voice wasn't lost to the older shinobi, whose wooden face showed no reaction to the insult, outside of the peaceful, gentle smile. Obito shook his head. "Figures he'd do something this dumb."
Sasori re-entered his hulking Hiruko puppet body and settled inside, extending his chakra strings out of his fingers and connecting it to all the vital parts of the puppet. The ominous looking wooden creation grated as it rumbled around the glass crater, checking the exterior if, by some chance, some kind of salvageable DNA had sprayed outside. As he looked from inside the Akatsuki robe wearing Hiruko puppet, Sasori said. "Lord Pein warned him."
Obito breathed out tiredly. "He did."
"Our orders were to specifically stay away from the Ghost. We can do anything to Dark country, as long as we stayed away from the Ghost."
"I know."
"You'd think someone as dim as Hidan would be the one to disobey Lord Pein's order."
"…Yes."
Hiruko stopped before the silently musing Uchiha and said. "I've always wondered…is it because Lord Pein has history with the Ghost that he wants us to leave him alone?" the hunch backed puppet turned a little to the smoking crater. "The Ghost…I don't think he's even human."
"Oh, he's human."
The larger being shifted back to the Uchiha, rumbling with the motion. "We could feel this 'fight', if you'll call it that, all the way from Ame." The large puppet lowered its face and looked directly at the now impassive Uchiha. "Take this from someone that has faced and beaten Sabaku no Tetsuyo…the person that did this…the person that caused this," he motioned around with his tail to the dozens of other glass craters, though shallower than the one they stood before, they were still very deep, at the patches of burnt, scorched sand, at the fizzling earth that had been caused by the poisonous black rain. "This person…is not normal."
Tobi stood up and met the hard look from the Hiruko puppet. "Naruto is yet to face an Uchiha."
Hiruko stepped back and scoffed. "Tch, think whatever you want."
"Besides, if Naruto is not human, then Nagato is truly a god."
Sasori didn't know whether or not this was an insult to their leader or a compliment, so he wisely moved the conversation in another direction. "Darkness now has the Gobi. Retrieving it would be much harder now."
Tobi didn't want to but he had to agree.
This made the retrieval much more difficult.
The many seals that covered the entire country, protecting the occupants and the territorial integrity of the Nation of Assassins by casting an invisible dome thousands of miles high and thousands of miles wide prevented him from successfully infiltrating Darkness.
He could very well teleport into the country, that was the definite truth, but the seals would detect his presence immediately, tag his chakra for the security forces to track and most likely incapacitate him, leaving him a sitting duck.
This was the same problem Zetsu had.
Anyone that didn't have proper authorization to enter the country-that is, anyone that didn't have the Entrance/Citizen seal-that passed the seal dome was as good as captured.
The seals of the country, the efficiency of the Defence Corp and the ninjas and the secrecy of the people virtually made Dark country a dark region, where only educated guesses could be made concerning what was happening inside.
The only thing Akatsuki knew was that Darkness was the fourth member of the Wealth Nations, and that report didn't look so favourable.
It meant that even non-allies had acknowledged the might of Dark country, and for people to do that even after knowing almost nothing about Darkness was, admittedly, frightening.
His only hope of entering the country and nabbing the Gobi and the Kyuubi was if they found a person that specialized in flying, aside from Pein, for the man wasn't too keen on leaving Ame any time soon. This person would peer down from the sky into the country and pinpoint where exactly the two targets were for Tobi to teleport in, grab them and leave just as the tag on his chakra was activating.
Another option was recruiting missing ninjas from Dark country, but the problem was that there weren't any missing ninjas coming from the Hermit Nation.
Were things really that good in there?
Was life in Darkness so nice that everyone was satisfied?
Was that even possible?
This led them the criminal organization to look for missing ninjas that could fly. They currently had their eyes on a recently renegade ninja from Iwagakure who used to be a member of Explosion Corp. There were a fairly large number of missing ninjas coming out from the crippled hidden village, most of them fleeing because their previous calls for tailed beast holders to live far away from the village had not been heeded by the Tsuchikage.
Ever since Iwa had excluded itself from the war, the Third Great War was losing steam, fast.
Warring factions were now realizing that they couldn't remember why exactly they were fighting.
The purpose behind the conflict was gone and the motivation of the fighters was draining from their beings by the day.
Two Great Hidden Villages-Suna and Kiri-were already not involved in the war, Uzushio was entirely unconcerned and limited its relations with Dark country and River country, yet another war free, refugee accepting zone, were now increasing their operations with mainly its close allies-namely Darkness, Suna and Hidden Salt Water-because its Dark country counterpart had increased the number of ninjas going to River for escort missions. It looked like Dark country now had more specialized shinobi to send out on missions, even despite the war, and it also looked like life in the country had not faltered or changed that much in spite of the war.
Now, after the Gobi had wrecked a good portion of their village, Iwa was officially out of the war and had locked down its border.
The countries and villages doing the actual fighting weren't sure of their positions anymore.
Fighting now seemed…illogical.
Some would say fighting was pointless.
Confusing even.
There were talks going around that Konoha was planning to call a Five Kage Summit, which would include the two Great Villages not warring with them and the one unofficial Great not concerned with them, to sign a collective Non-Aggression Pact; all previous alliances would remain in place but the agreement would be that the five of them would not do anything to provoke the other, for wars as big as the two previous and one current war could only be sparked by three Great Villages quarrelling.
In addition to the Five Kage Summit, there were speculations of the four Wealth Nations meeting in their very first Conference of Wealth Nation Daimyos to cement outline their own Non-Aggression Pact.
Snow, Iron, Hidden Chill and Darkness, the four Wealth Nations, had a lot of influence on the continent, and not because of their land mass or their population-like the Five Great Hidden Villages-but because of their wealth, the strength of their shinobi, their networking and the casual-hardly formal-trade alliances they had with smaller countries and villages. If the four Wealth Nations were to agree to their conditions and sign the pact, then war might as well be considered dead.
The Five-or in this case Two-Great Hidden Villages could still fight if they wanted but the rest of the continent would move on, as their casual trading alliances with the Wealth Nations was something they didn't want to lose.
It annoyed Tobi on how much Naruto was interfering with his plans.
It burned him.
"Whether Zetsu is alive or dead…the wheels of change have long since been turning." Tobi mumbled to himself, not even bothering with his 'idiot' façade, because Sasori knew the real him. "This plan of ours cannot be stopped."
The Leader of Darkness had his bases covered; Tobi was man enough to admit that, but…
"Naruto…you will slip up eventually."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A Few Months Later
Konohagakure
A Hero's Welcome was being held at the northern entrance of the village to welcome the rugged, frost bitten men and women that had fought night and day in the nearly forgotten advance guard in Hidden Chill.
Maybe the Fort wasn't so Forgotten.
The raids and guerrilla attacks of the shinobi and Kunoichi slowly tramping through the crowd, being sprayed with colourful confetti and marching onwards to the Hokage's Tower to the sound of the cheering masses, had resulted in many innovations to the village.
A notably example was the radio jamming device.
Many Kumo hotspots in Frost country had been dismantled and sent back to Konoha.
Advance Guard Commander, Jishou Nara, kept a controlled face as the civilians and ninjas of his village extended their hands to him and patted his back, doing so for his men walking behind him.
The people showered their appreciation on them.
Just a little more time and they would have infiltrated Chill.
Minato sluggishly walked somewhere in the middle, clothed in the same grey and white camo clothes as his fellow returning comrades. His eyes stayed down on the ground, his left hand grasped a strap of his back pack and his right hand was clenched tight around a large duffle. His knuckles whitened as the people hooted and patted his back, reaching for him in any way they could.
It was almost like they didn't recognize him as the Ghost Boy anymore.
The throng of people only now saw a hero, the Yellow Flash.
The one that had eradicated three whole waves of Kumo ninjas that had managed to locate their camp in the frigid Tsumetai Valley of Frost country, doggedly and tirelessly keeping the Lightning village shinobi back while his injured comrades escaped to another camp further down the valley.
Amid the fan-girling screams of the people, Minato wasn't deceived.
He knew the depth of corruption that ate away at the village he had once thought was his home.
The man hunched his shoulders and kept his eyes down, not allowing himself to be swayed by the joy of the people swarming around him and his comrades.
His ears twitched when he heard his name.
"Minato!" his eyebrows furrowed and he looked up, searching for the person. "Hey, Minato! Over here!" he saw a brown haired woman about his age frantically waving to him, hopping up and down and grinning toothily. "Hey!"
A slight smile twitched on his corners of his lips. "Tsume…hey."
"Eyes on the prize, Namikaze." Jishou barked from the head of the procession, a few people ahead of him. "First we report to the Hokage, after that you can do whatever you want."
Minato bobbed his head solemnly and turned back to the beaming dog woman, whose smile dimmed somewhat at the apologetic look reflecting in Minato's eyes. The light returned to her face and she gestured for him not to worry, mouthing. "Later."
The man smirked sharply, an actual expression on his dour, pallid face. "Later."
Minato returned his eyes back to the ground and shuffled on.
He wasn't sure why Tsume was so happy to see him.
He hardly knew her.
During the academy, through his years as a chunin and even while he was a jounin he had never spoken more than five words to the Inuzuka.
Yet…he saw real happiness in her eyes.
She was also the only person he knew to come and see him enter the village.
He shook his head; the war was ending, they could be busy rounding up Konoha ninjas outside of the village.
Some minutes later
The blue eyed seal master found himself on a barstool, tipping his head back and chugging down another of rice wine straight from the jug, disregarding the saucers the bartender had left for him. Minato licked his lips and groaned as the sharp taste of the authentic rice wine hit him like a truck, almost making him double over, but he kept his chin up and swallowed five more mouthfuls to dull the feeling.
Three jugs later and he wasn't even buzzed.
Seated on a barstool next to him, Tsume Inuzuka, jounin Kunoichi of Konohagakure no Sato and partner to the presently absent Kuromaru, eyed the war veteran, leaning into bar with her right elbow and drinking back a saucer of sake.
"That bad, huh."
Amid his delirious search for something to dull his mind, Minato nodded, his lips still latched onto a newly presented jug. He smacked his lips and grit his teeth, groaning again at the tongue curling taste, repeating in a murmur. "That bad."
The woman flicked her eyes down and saw that the seal master still had his backpack and duffle bag at his feet. "You sure this is the first thing you want to do?" Minato looked at her over his jug of sake and the woman chuckled, raising her hands in surrender. "Fine, man. I'd drown myself too I'd seen all the shit you've seen."
The blonde choked as a small surge of sake mistakenly flowed down into his lungs, coughing. He bent forward onto the bar and hacked, blinking away the tears in his eyes. Tsume snorted and patted his back, more a sign of showing that she was there rather than helping him get the sake out of his lungs.
"Just…take it easy. The sake's not going anywhere."
"Yes it is," Minato grunted, sitting back up and looking at the woman. "Down my throat."
The scruffy woman barked with laughter and slapped the bar, even as Minato scoffed out a short laugh and drank deep from the sake jug once again. "That's a good one."
Minato cleaned his mouth with the back of his hand and asked. "Where're the rest, Tsume?"
"I'm not good enough for ya, dude?"
"I-I-"
Tsume rolled her eyes and playfully punched his shoulder. "Psh, I was joking." She threw back her saucer of sake and slammed it back down onto the bar. "A lot of things have changed, Minato."
Minato sighed. "Like what?"
"Well, for starters, Higuarashi quit being a ninja and opened a weapons store. Yoshino finally got Shukaku to marry her," she sniggered quietly at the laughing eye roll from Minato. "I know right? We all saw it coming." She licked her lips and continued. "Hiashi got married some time ago to some Hyuuga princess; they're on a honeymoon in Waterfall now. Shukaku and Yoshino too, for that matter." The Inuzuka tapped her chin, thoughtful. "Seems everyone's getting married these days."
Minato shrugged. "Next best thing, I guess."
"Ha, it really is."
"You're…not getting married…?" Tsume smirked with a raised eyebrow. The blonde's eyes went down to her hands, looking for a ring. "Or…you already are…?"
"Nah, unlike what you all think, I'm not the long-term-commitment kind of gal."
The man snorted into his jug and muttered. "Like you have to tell me."
Something insider her stood up at the snarky comment. "Listen, smart ass, I had shit to do today but I put all that aside cuz I wanted to see you in and ease you back into society."
The sarcasm rolled out of Minato's lips unhindered. "How nice of you."
Tsume ground her teeth and glared darkly at the drunk man, then she exhaled tiredly and rubbed her eyebrows. "Chill was bad, Minato, I know that. I can see it all over your face. The Hokage not paying you for months must have made it worse. I want you to know that even if everyone else is too busy, I'm going to be here for you, ok?"
Minato unclasped his fingers from the jug and leaned heavily into the bar, looking at the other ninja. He saw how much she understood shimmering in her eyes. He saw how much the war had taken from her and how much of herself she had lost to the war, and he sighed sadly. "I'm sorry, Tsume. I'm being a stupid." There might have not been anyone there for her to keep her together. Kuromaru could have helped but nothing could replace the comfort of another human being. He didn't know what had happened to her during the Third War but it had to be horrible for it to change her this much.
Guilt overtook the inebriated man as he saw a flash of vulnerability behind the solid, rocky exterior of the dog woman.
"I'm…I'm really sorry, Tsume."
The dog woman's lips screwed to the side and she placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it." she glanced down at his luggage again. "So…how about I take you back to your place, help you clean, unpack and we can go and have lunch."
"My…" Minato coughed and said. "My place was torn down. Kumo, they said. I don't even know. I don't care anymore."
"Damn." The woman cursed, her eyes shifting about in thought, unsure if she should voice the idea in her head. She cast aside the hesitation; her friend needed her. "Well, Uhm, how about you stay at my place for the time being. Until you find your feet, that is."
"I…I can't do that to you. I dun wan tah be a bother." The slightly slurring blonde was dirt poor, unpaid for more than ten months now, his apartment was no more-therefore he was homeless-, and his only friend now was a woman he had barely spoken to before. He doubted he could ever find his feet, not to talk of speaking to Orochimaru about his questions.
He was falling deeper and deeper into depression.
His bleary eyes checked the jug, confirming that the bartender didn't replace his ordered drinks with water.
'This sake isn't working,' He grunted sourly in his mind, pulling more of the sharp tasting strain of sake into his body. 'I…I can still remember.'
Wasn't it supposed to be the good stuff?
His first real drink in months and it was making him feel even worse.
"No, no, its fine. Think of this as…as a favour." Tsume's voice brought him out of his regressing, degrading thoughts. She hopped off the stool before Minato could raise another complaint again, slinging his backpack over her shoulder and helping the staggered man off his stool, steadying him with her other shoulder and managing to grab the duffle bag from the ground with the same hand she used to hold his backpack. For now, she was staying in a guesthouse until the Inuzuka clan compound was rebuilt. "Come on, my place isn't too far from here."
"Thanks…Tsume…" she nodded as she juggled his weight and the weight of his bags. "I've…I've…w-what," he coughed again, hobbling under Tsume's steady support. "What happened to Mikoto?"
"Married Fugaku."
She didn't see the drunk man's heart visibly shatter.
"Vacationing in a Suna beach resort."
The Next Day
Tsume sleepily tramped out of her bedroom, yawning widely and rubbing her eyes. She was in an oversized button up shirt, black underwear and green flip-flops. She smiled pleasantly and followed her nose to the smell of toast, bacon and eggs.
The blonde man standing before her stove looked over his shoulder as his senses tingled, and threw an easy smile at her, swivelling around and scraping a large batch of bacon from the pan and onto an awaiting plate on the small dining table. She sat down, noticing that Kuromaru was scarfing down his own plate of bacon in the corner of the two room apartment-one bedroom, and everything else in the other room-. There was barely even a chair in the room; Tsume had to sit on a cardboard box and manage how much weight she put on it. They had to share a futon. The man had insisted on sleeping on the ground, something he was not unaccustomed to with his months away from the village, but Tsume was having none of it.
"Morning." She chirped and picked at her bacon, tossing them into her mouth at a somewhat tame speed.
"How'd you sleep?" he asked.
"Like a baby. You're predictably warm." She chewed the meat between her sharp teeth and rolled a question through her mind, ultimately deciding to phrase it another way. "You know, Minato, I'm surprised you didn't try anything last night."
"I had a lot on my mind."
The woman laughed a little, nibbling on her bacon. "If you wanted to cuddle, you could have just asked. It's dangerous getting an Inuzuka woman's hopes up, y'know."
Minato breathed out a quiet laugh. "Yeah, I know."
She grinned at him and said. "Well, later today I'm going to reintroduce you to the touch of a real woman."
"How are you so sure I haven't slept with the Kunoichi stationed with me in Chill?"
"Because you haven't." she pointed out factedly.
"…Fair enough."
"After ten months of literal blue balls, I hope you've got the stamina to take me, big boy." She bit some bacon and beamed at the man, who smiled at her, amused.
"I'm sure I'll manage somehow." He slid a short stack of toast to her, slyly commenting. "You weren't this horny yesterday."
"Yesterday, I was suppressing it all to my feet cuz I thought I was going to get laid last night. Today, my dear friend, I'm two times my normal level of horniness."
The blonde teasingly raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're not the one that demolished my apartment building? This seems to me like some sort of elaborate scheme to get into my pants."
The dog woman chortled, fairly by Minato's returned, albeit meandering, flirt. "Mikoto talks a lot, especially when she's drunk. She says you've got skill. I wanted to check it out for myself I believe Anko come around later, but I've…got…first…dibs…" She slowed to a stop as noticed a flash of sadness in his eyes, before he turned back to the kettle as it whistled for his attention. As he poured out hot water into a mug and shovelled spoons of coffee into his and her mugs, she asked. "Something wrong?"
"Hm?" he asked, like he didn't know she had just spoken. "Oh, nothing."
"If you're thinking about whether or not I only invited you to sleep with you, then no. I honestly want to help however I can." She placed her hand on her chest and said. "I swear."
"I didn't…doubt you, Tsume, but…thank you…for helping me."
"You're welcome." She placed a few pieces of bacon between two slices of toast and munched down on it, saying with her mouth full. "I was thinking, since you don't have any cash…we ask for a B rank mission, if you're up for it." she moaned at the taste of the breakfast, throwing in some eggs into the toast and bacon sandwich. She went to town on the combination, saying. "We can use the money to get you some new clothes."
"Can I push that to tomorrow?" Minato asked, chewing on his bacon, facing the stove and keeping his back to his accommodating host. "There's someone in the village I want to talk to."
"Who?"
"Don't worry about it." he answered, whirring around and smiling slightly at her. "How are the eggs? I haven't made eggs in months, so I think they're a bit runny-"
"Dude," Tsume exclaimed, taking down a mighty gulp of her breakfast. "They're great." She finally noticed what he was wearing; dark pants and a dark blue long sleeved shirt with a green jounin vest over his torso, with black sandals on his feet. He wasn't wearing a forehead protector and the side strap of his vest was left open, almost like he didn't care how he looked. "You're heading out now?"
"Yup."
She stood and looked around her tornado of an apartment. "Want me to spot you-"
"I'm fine, Tsume." The man interrupted with a light smirk. "Thank you."
"Well…" she swept her eyes up and down his apparently purposefully dishevelled clothing. "You know where I keep the house key, right?"
"Yes." She got up and quickly wiped her greasy lips with the oversized button up shirt, Minato's, from what she could remember of last night.
She went around the table and stood up on her toes, pressing a warm kiss onto his cheeks. "Have fun."
Surprised by the sudden, all too direct, action, all Minato could do was awkwardly pat her head and walk around her. "I will. I'll be going now."
"See ya later, dude."
The intentionally ruffled man opened the door of the quaint apartment and the airy, lightly smiling shell over his face crumbled into dust, under it was a dull eyed, dead-faced man that marched down the road.
Orochimaru.
He ignored the villagers as they sent him greetings.
For a slight moment, his mind wondered back to Tsume; for all he knew, she could be involved in this whole manipulative charade. Destabilize him by having none of his real friends welcome him, having no money and walking down the streets homeless, only for a friend he didn't know he had to welcome him into her home and treat him like a human being.
The Hokage might have been the one to send her to him.
The most unlikely friend.
Strike at the foundations even more.
His friends being married but they could have at least left a letter for him. He would understand.
Those were the friends he knew.
He had known them since they were in the academy and even someone as unfeeling as Hiashi or harsh as Fugaku would do something to welcome him back.
The date for the arrival of his former Advance Guard comrades hadn't even been a secret; it had been broadcasted in the village two months prior and the camp in Chill had known this three months earlier.
A letter would have been nice.
He punched down the part of his mind telling him that he was being selfish.
All his life, he had put everyone before himself. He had disregarded his own personal health and his time for everyone else, most especially his friends, and they all knew this.
They knew this.
They knew how much he had done for them.
Minato had never helped them for any kind of gain in the future, only because they were his friends and they needed help.
A letter would have been nice.
His dead blue eyes became frosty and cold. The people wisely kept out of his way as he moved towards his destination.
Mikoto, of all people, knew this.
She knew how much he treasured his friends.
One…letter…
He didn't allow his now fractured mind settle on the amount of heartbreak killing his heart and tainting his soul.
Did they even think about him?
While he was dying in Frost country, did they even consider his health?
Wasn't he allowed to be selfish?
He blindly turned a corner and stomped into the alley, ignoring the shabby, dirty men lying against the walls and smoking. He looked around as he stopped at the end of the alley, peering deeply to both sides of him; tall, red brick buildings on both sides and an equally red brick wall between them, fitting snuggly in the alley. Minato stood before the wall for a moment, searching the bricks for a moment before he placed his right palm on the wall and closed his eyes.
He frowned with a hum and took his hand off the wall.
Orochimaru was in there.
Naruto was right when he said Naruto was a touch sensor; Minato could sense anyone for miles around as long as he had his hand or bare feet to the ground, he could also sense all the occupants of a building if he had his hand against the outside surface of said building. As long as their feet were touching the ground or their bodies were touching something touching the ground, he would sense them.
The Chakra Suppression seal and Illusionary seal didn't block his probe, it merely stifled it a little.
Minato knew Orochimaru was there.
No one else had the same murky, disgusting, repulsive, reptilian kind of chakra.
This time he raised both hands and hovered them over the wall, ghosting them over the surface and furrowing his eyebrows. He found what he was looking for.
A door knob, invisible to the untrained eye, and turned it.
Locked.
Figures.
With his left hand still on the doorknob, he retrieved a lock picking set from his back pocket, disregarding how his freshly administered jounin vest still flapped as the side straps were still undone, and flipped through the short set of wires on the key ring. His lock picking set was simply a ring of various kinds of wires, in various lengths and of various thicknesses. He chose one wire, after running his hand over the knob again, and pushed it into the key hole on the knob. His now free other hand reached to his other back pocket and pulled out a sealing brush, he rolled the tip of the brush in his mouth, lathering it with his spit, and swiped at the door, disabling the Detection and Alarm seals inside the hidden building.
Spit was a…unsavoury medium for sealing but no book or scroll said it couldn't be used. As long as the medium conducted chakra in some way and to some degree, it could be used as a substitute for ink.
Like blood.
Too bad people's minds didn't stray towards using spit in case of emergencies.
It took Minato half a second to unlock the door and another second to ensure the hidden door was still masked by the Illusionary seal by adding his own touch to it.
The inebriated men lying outside of the secret place didn't notice him enter and it was too far into the dark alley for him to be seen from outside.
There also wasn't any ninja following him.
Good.
Minato closed the door after himself. He wasn't thrown off by how deceptively open the place was. The room he was in was pure white and featureless, with a simple wooden door on the other side. A grey haired boy with thin, round glasses ran out of the door to him, his hands out and his eyes frantic.
"You can't be here." Minato shoved the young teen aside and walked past him. "Sir!"
The seal master, suspecting that the boy had only known of his presence by hearing the door open, pushed open the other door and stopped at the sight before him.
It was a lab, apparently.
Minato didn't understand science enough to identify every single chemical in the lab, only the really important and really poisonous ones, but there were beakers, test tubes, phials and contains of different coloured liquids, powders and, in a few cases, gas. There were three large metal drums of what he could immediately identify as radioactive material containers, for when the person didn't want any sliver of the deadly materials inside slipping out. There was an operating table in the middle of the room with a dead body sitting on it, strapped down by his neck, wrists and ankles, so Minato suspected the person had only died recently. The person's stomach was wide open and missing, from a glance, his large intestine and his bladder.
One thing was for certain.
This…was illegal.
The Sannin he was looking for was also standing on the other side of the table, wearing a light blue operating apron, white surgical gloves, a medical mask and thick visors.
Minato's left hand snapped up behind him, holding out a tri-pronged kunai that had appeared from out of nowhere under the grey haired boy's chin, just a bit away from his throat.
The boy was holding a baseball bat.
The seal master, without turning his eyes away from the mildly surprised and greatly impressed butcher on the other side of the operating table, shook his head and said. "Don't even think about it."
The boy didn't drop the bat, holding it up with a tight grasp.
The silence was palpable.
Orochimaru exhaled and said. "Stand down, Kabuto." He took a step back from the cadaver on the table and pulled off his gloves and his bloody operating apron, tossing them into a secure waste bin. He turned around and washed his hands at the sink, as the boy, Kabuto lowered his guard but kept his bespectacled eyes narrowed at the lax jounin before him. Minato spun the kunai on his palm and it disappeared into a seal on his inner wrist. "I suspect…" Orochimaru said, scrubbing his hands up to his elbows down with antibacterial soap. "You will simply 'flash' away if I was to attack."
The blonde stayed impassive, knowing that the man before him had an array of skills that could kill him where he stood. Minato gave nothing away, only answering. "That I will."
Orochimaru chuckled deeply, a grating hissing sound that slid up from his throat and sent tendrils of fear down Kabuto's spine. "It seems I'm at your mercy."
The scientist finished up washing his hands, taking care to go under his nails for every last speck of dirt. The Namikaze nodded once. "Yes, you are."
The pale man turned around, speaking to the boy. "Dispose of the body and clean the table."
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru." The young teen slipped past Minato, holding his baseball bat in his hands, and went about what he had been ordered to do.
"Let's take this to the other room, shall we?"
Minato walked back into the room, never taking his eyes off the dangerous reptile for even a split second.
The black haired Sage laughed, hissing. "For the great Yellow Flash to fear me like this…I have to say…" he bowed mockingly. "I'm honoured." He closed the door after himself and crossed his arms, smirking craftily. "Now, why is the student of my former teammate looking for me?"
"I have some questions for you."
"I take it your questions have nothing to do with what you just saw."
"Depending on how honestly you answer them, I'm willing to forget what I saw."
Orochimaru seemed justly surprised by Minato's answer. "That's…" his head tilted to the side a little, suspicious. "Very much unlike you, Minato." He closed his eyes and hummed laughingly. "Not so 'Konoha' after all, hm?"
"People change, Orochimaru."
"Pray tell, is it Chill that changed you or being abandoned by your so called 'friends'?"
Minato didn't want to delve in asking how the other man knew this. "You're not in the position to be asking the questions."
"Fufufu, alright then."
"Remember, I keep my mouth shut about…that…and you don't lie to me. If you do and I find out, I'm out of here."
"…Sounds fair."
Minato dug into his right back pocket and pulled out a small scroll, unsealing his book of questions from inside and returning the scroll. The blonde flipped through the book and asked, to gauge the man across from him. General knowledge questions. "What is your name?"
"Orochimaru."
"Full name."
"Orochimaru is the only name I've had."
"Where are you from?"
"Konohagakure no Sato."
"Rank."
"Unranked as of last week."
"Unranked?"
"The Sannin are now unranked." The man answered. "It's an honour higher than jounin, apparently. Sarutobi-sensei said that it's a reward for our efforts during the war. We also now have more freedom and have less need to take missions."
"…What are the names of your teammates?"
"Former teammates." The snake man corrected. "And their names are Tsunade Senju and Jiraiya." He then added. "And in case you're wondering, yes, Jiraiya is also the only name he has."
"I'm aware."
Another chuckle escaped Orochimaru, resigned. "Just trying to be helpful."
"What is the name of your former teacher?"
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato."
Now, onto the real questions. "Have you ever had a student?"
The man laughed lightly. "Oh I see…fine…Yes, I have had a student before, besides this one." Jabbing a thumb over his shoulder to Kabuto in the other room.
"What was his name and is he still alive?"
"His name is Naruto Kemuri, but I only found out about his last name fifteen years ago. He doesn't go by Kemuri much, mostly uses Naruto, as far as I know. And yes, he is very much alive."
"When did you last see him?"
The Sannin looked up, thinking hard. "Hm…fifteen years ago, if I'm not mistaken."
"How old was he when you stopped teaching him?"
"He was eleven, maybe twelve."
"…Why did you stop teaching him?"
The older man shrugged. "Had better things to do, like win a war."
"Why did you start teaching him?"
"It was a competition between Jiraiya and I." he waved dismissively. "I can train better than you and all that. He had three students and I had one, but I believe I was the winner."
"…Do you bear any resentment for your student?"
Orochimaru smiled gently. "Yes, I do."
"Why?"
"…He poisoned me."
"Why?"
Orochimaru screwed his lips to the side in distaste. "Tsunade and I…we were sent to Darkness to…convince…its new leader to bend to Konoha at the risk of invasion and destruction. Naruto disagreed and made to leave. I attacked him. Naruto's student had Tsunade and me in a dangerous position and I was about to…kill Naruto in a dangerous position. Long story short, Naruto's killer intent poisoned me."
Minato wrote down the summary with a swish, shaking his head slightly. Right off the bat, Konoha wasn't looking so good. Orochimaru's right fist suddenly shot up and he coughed violently into it, thumping his chest and clearing his throat painfully. Minato lowered his raised guard at the sharp action. "Did…Naruto launch any counterattack on Konoha?"
"No, he didn't."
"Then why did Konoha not follow through?"
"Naruto isn't the Ghost for nothing."
"Did you and Tsunade forget this when you went and threatened to destroy his country?"
The other man chuckled disdainfully. "Yes, I suppose we did."
"I'll be direct here…is there a reason why Konoha hates Darkness so much?"
"I personally don't care about the place, but," he added with a raised finger, seeing Minato narrow his eyes at him. "I believe Konoha hates Dark country because they believe that since at some point Darkness had a Konoha born Daimyo, Konoha was entitled to a slice of the precious minerals of that country." Minato looked to him to go on. "Some time during the Second War, a weapon maker in this village got his hands on some obsidian steel kunai he found on the corpse of a Dark country shinobi, he refashioned them into a katana and sold it for one point three billion ryu to the Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju, just as he was stepping down. Tobirama gifted Sarutobi-sensei the katana on the same day he died. I don't know if he still has it. What I know for sure is that the obsidian katana was a wonderful weapon."
"…Yes?"
"Konoha got greedy and went looking for more. Hiruzen twisted the arm of the Daimyo and, little by little, annexed Darkness."
"I…see…"
"You see…Dark country is very blessed." Orochimaru went on. "Strong, sturdy trees, silver mines, underground gems, rivers, lakes, mountains, hills, fresh soil, delicious food and they reap bountiful harvests every year…before Konoha arrived…I admit."
Minato's hand tightened around the pen. "Is it true that there are refugee camps around Dark country?"
"That is true, yes."
"How do you know?"
"Hyuuga scouts at our shared border reported so."
"…The Kurama clan. Were they brought here by force?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Why else but to make Konoha stronger."
"From what I know, they're not doing anything to make Konoha stronger."
"They are merely…taking up space. We suspect Naruto is sending them funds to survive comfortably in the village, because the Hokage certainly isn't giving them anything."
"What was the plan for them?"
"Well clans, like other human beings, are classified under human resources, which is a branch of resource adjacent to natural resources. They were to become ninjas of the village, utilize their Paint Ninjutsu to improve our mission success rate and sell their paintings to make a nice, tidy profit."
Minato cocked his head to the side, doubtful. "So…the Hokage honestly and truly believed that…the same people he removed from their homes would do all that without fail?"
"No one would have anticipate Naruto becoming Leader of Dark country and no one knows how he's getting money to them." the Kurama clan presently lived a semi-autonomous life within their assigned clan compound, without need for Konoha's funding or support. This was long, long before the clan of painter became the new ROOT. "The idea was to make the Kurama desperate for help, give them little option but to comply with our wishes."
"How were they taken out of their homes in Darkness?"
"The Daimyo signed the clan to Konoha but they refused to budge, so we raided their compound, stole the clan heads daughter and threatened to kill her if they all didn't relocate to Konoha."
"Wait…wait…wait…" Minato said, shaking his head with a not so amused smile. "You're telling me…you were all planning to kill the holder of Mania…?" Orochimaru's lips screwed to the side and he nodded once. "Did any of you know what would have happened if the girl died?"
"…I have a fairly good imagination." He answered ominously; the one other time in recorded history that Mania had accidentally been released had resulted in a section of the continent being chipped off, Kiri separated from the continent and chipped into islands, with the village itself being the biggest island.
"Whose bright idea was that anyway?"
"Jiraiya's." The man answered quickly and truthfully. "He knew that the Kurama couldn't physically touch the Mania holder and that a majority of the clan couldn't be further than ten miles from her."
"Sounds like something Jiraiya would do."
"It worked."
"When will Jiraiya be back?"
"He's going to meet up with the Hokage in Kiriagakure in two days for the Five Kage Summit, so he should be back…in a week or so."
He saw the underlying happiness in Orochimaru's orbs and he couldn't help but ask. "What's going to happen in a week?"
"The Hokage will be picking a successor to his seat."
Minato eyed the man, suspecting that Orochimaru was on the very short list of potential successors. "One last question."
"Finally."
"…Is Naruto my biological father?"
Orochimaru paused, about to roll his shoulder. He weighed the pros and cons of replying truthfully. Then he scoffed and smirked; the backlash of the truth will be interesting to watch. "No."
"Who is?"
"Since you already knew Naruto wasn't your father, I'm guessing you already know-"
"Who. Is. My. Father?" his pen broke under his intense grip.
"…Sakumo Hatake."
Minato released the broken pen and sealed the book into the same scroll he took it from. He wordlessly turned around and made for the door.
"Hey, this whole operation stays secret."
"Yes." Minato said over his shoulder and left the room.
As Minato took permission to leave the village for the Fire capital, Naruto, the Leader of Dark country, was preparing to leave the country.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
North Gate
Northern region
Dark country
Naruto, wearing his normal shinobi uniform, including jounin flak jacket and forehead protector, stood with his council and his appointed bodyguards. The council were slightly bowed forward while five of the guards were on their knees behind the master; the remaining five were keeping back the crowd of people that had managed to get wind of their beloved Leader leaving the country.
"Only two personal guards are allowed into the meeting hall," Naruto said firmly, not inviting any objections from his assembled subordinates. He nodded to the two ninjas jogging towards them, whom the five guards allowed past. "Kisame and Kushina would follow me in."
The council bobbed their heads and Nanako Hogo, the clan head and Director of the Southern region's Defence Corp, said. "Excellent decision, my lord."
Daichiharu Pansa-Senshi, clan head, said in a low voice. "Will you still take your guard detail with you, Leader Naruto?"
"Yes, even though I think eight guards plus these two," nodding to the bowed redhead and shark man. "Is still a bit excessive."
"One cannot be too safe in ensuring your safety, sir." Makoto Gado, clan head and Director of the Northern region's Defence Corp. He and Nanako were join leaders of the DC and they rarely butted heads, because the Gado and Hogo clans were very much alike, though their duties and jurisdictions barely intersected. Naruto had outlined their limits very well. The only place they usually met was when they were transferring DC Officers back and forth from the north to the south and vice versa.
"Well, I appreciate you guys worrying. I might be getting old but I can still defend myself."
"Ah, no sir, you are not getting old." Ginko Suzumebachi, clan head and Director of the Shinobi Academy, pointed out politely and astutely, outlining facts. "Thirty nine for a shinobi is not old and for one as active as you are, I don't believe there is much that can slow you down."
"In any case, the eight guards would wait outside the meeting hall, and if anything was to happen, I'm sure Kisame and Kushina can handle it."
"Also, boss, if I may speak, are you sure you don't want us to arrange a carriage to take you to Snow country? The road is pretty long." Asura Kemuri, clan head asked tentatively.
"No, I can run fine."
Asura was the newly instated Kemuri clan head, doing so after Rimaru Kemuri, the immediate former clan head, had passed away from old age two years ago. Rimaru and his Kemuri council had chosen Asura from the list of candidates and had trained him on how to lead the clan of Smoke release users. The Kemuri clan was highly militaristic, believing in order, loyalty and obedience, and Asura had displayed the determination and drive that surpassed the other candidates for the leadership spot. Asura had been honourably discharged from BLAK once he was made aware that he was in the running to becoming Kemuri clan head.
He knew that no clan head was permitted to be an active or passive member of the country's black ops.
The twenty five year old man had a deep, natural tan, golden blonde hair that he had tied into a short pony tail and glimmering cerulean blue eyes. The blonde hair and blue eyes were tell-tale trademarks of the Kemuri clan. The man had a neatly trimmed goatee he habitually died black and a short moustache he left as it was, in its natural blonde colour. He wore a light grey short sleeved short, a pair of black and grey camo pants that were tucked into his strikingly black stomping boots. He also had on a jounin vest and his hitaite tied around his forehead, though leaning to the right at an angle that covered his right eyebrow.
Unlike his arranged, strictly professional military exterior, the man wasn't a complete hard ass. He had taken to calling Naruto 'boss' lately.
Asura also had a pair of prosthetic legs, from his knees down.
No one could have guessed.
He was the same young man Naruto had pointed out to Sueki fifteen years back that was undergoing training to enter BLAK.
Asura was doing a commendable leading his clan.
Naruto turned to Kisame and said. "Did you get my dry cleaning?"
"Yes, sir." The blue skinned man presented two freshly ironed Leader's robe on two hangers. The hat was in his other hand.
Naruto smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Thank you." BLAK Operative Bat collected the clean ceremonial robes and hat and sealed them away with the rest of Naruto's things. "You probably paid for it yourself. I'll have Amara wire you some money."
"It's-"
"No, I insist." The masked man looked to the Director of the National Bank and the woman nodded.
By obligation, the BLAK Commander was the one to guard the Leader of the country when he was outside of the country in an unallied nation, alongside the other guards. Bat had only chosen to guard Naruto in allied nations with the same amount of security as in the unallied countries out of her own personal discretion.
Now that Naruto was heading to a country that he had blacklisted his traders and merchants from living in, and said nation knew that it was blacklisted by Darkness from directly trading with them, it was cause for alarm for Bat that she wasn't the one accompanying her master into the meeting room.
The Commander spent weeks questioning her master's decision.
He still hadn't given her a definite answer.
But in the end her Leader's word was law, so she couldn't impose herself on him.
All she could do was protect him from afar and most of all trust that Kushina and Kisame would do a good job.
"I leave this country in your capable hands until I return." Naruto said to his council, both the shinobi and civilian halves of it, and the nine men and women bowed deeply, appreciating the level of trust bestowed on them.
The shinobi half had six members and the civilian half had three; one councilman, Fukijima Anato, that headed the Medical Department of the country's Civilian Division, including clinics, pharmacies, hospitals, scientific research, the street cleaners and the movement of drugs within the country and out of the country. Basically, he was in charge of the physical and mental health of the people in the country.
Then there was the councilwoman in charge of trade, Io Boueki. Her department oversaw every single trading activity with the country's allies and non-allies. There wasn't any legal exchange of money that she or her people weren't aware of, for the traders registered sent her letters on their profits and loss every year, which she would neatly compile and submit to the bank to confirm whether or not the year had gone well. Io worked alongside Amara, the Bank's Director, when it came to crosschecking the trader's financials.
The last member of the civilian council was Councilman Kinzoku-Zaiku, the head of the Inventors department in the Civilian Division. His own department was the kind that was hard to pin down, because there were all kinds and forms of inventing going on in both sides of the council. The man was the one in charge of metalwork, carpentry, engineering and mechanics…anything that involved inventing. So weaponsmiths fell under him, as well as household electricians and mechanics.
Just like with the Shinobi council, the Civilian council hid nothing from Naruto and neither did they hold the ultimate power in even their different departments.
That honour went to Naruto.
Information, reports, news and updates all flowed into Naruto's office and onto his desk.
There really wasn't any secret in the country that Naruto wasn't aware of.
The only real freedom they had was for clan heads to govern their clans as they saw fit, just as long as it didn't hinder or block Dark country's growth. It was due to the collective agreement of the clan heads that a summary of each clan council was personally submitted to his office a little while after said meeting was adjourned.
They did this out of respect for Naruto.
The council, and the people of the country, were duty bound to obeying Naruto and they were utterly devoted to him.
It goes without saying the reason Dark country was a Wealth Nation wasn't only because Naruto was a great leader but because the people were great followers.
"You will come back and meet the country better than how you left it, my lord." Councilman Kinzoku-Zaiku solemnly promised, placing his hand on his heart and bowing again. The rest did so as well, murmuring their own vows.
"I trust I will." Naruto said with a bright smile, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Thank you for all your hardwork. I'm not sure if we would be where we are today without your diligence and your selflessness."
"Its an honour, boss." Asura said. Even though he was somewhat new to the council, he was doing his best to make the Kemuri clan not only known for being the majority members of BLAK but also great at metalwork. "Leave it to us."
There was a minor air of fear and reluctance around their Leader leaving for the very first Conference of Wealth Nation Daimyos, but as Makoto Gado said before, there was no such thing as too much security for Naruto.
Naruto silently tilted his head forward, returning the respect to his council. He turned on his heel and walked to the gate at a leisurely, relaxed pace, waving over his shoulder.
"Later."
His bodyguards rushed after him and the people sent him off, wishing their precious Leader a safe journey and waving Kurono until they couldn't see him anymore.
Authors note
I want to say thank you to those that have stuck with this story to this point, and I want to thank you all for the love you've shown. It really means a lot to me.
I'm not gonna lie…I didn't see myself reaching Chapter 20 of this story. You guys and your amazing reviews pushed me on, you lot got my confidence up and my creative juices flowing, and for that I want to say thank you.
I appreciate all of you guys for reading and reviewing and messaging me and for simply being awesome.
Let's see how far I take this story huh XD
So…how was this chapter?
How is the story so far?
Leave a review on your thoughts, would you so kindly. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.
Foy.