Ello!
How's everybody doin?
HUGE shout out to Yamajiji, TheKing91, KakeruPB, anthonym3, biginferno, BigNoseMagee, firetemplar415, Primarx, bumike99, Arraia, Bakeneko, Saiyan prince1, Banjo the Fox, youflesh840, Lokitazz0, dancemario and TigrezzTail. You guys are absolutely brilliant :)
I've been itching to write this particular chapter since Chapter 15. I've played and replayed the events that happened in this chapter since after the fifteen year long time skip, some of my initial ideas were either swept aside and replaced with something I thought was better or better etched out and provided more detail on whatever situation I'm describing. Whether or not I changed my mind on parts or didn't, one fact remains; I had so much fun writing this chapter :D
The journey to this point has been wonderful and I couldn't hope to have better readers than you guys, so I appreciate all the amazing reviews and your fantastic, uplifting messages. They help me grow as a writer, refine how I express myself (and all the dark stuff going on in my head) and I genuinely think that my writing style is much better now than it was when I first started publishing fanfiction. The point of reading and writing ff is to have fun and that's exactly how it is for this story and for most of my older stories. Sure, I do a bit of research her and there, fact check real life, anime and manga stuff, but it's all still amazing.
I hope you all enjoy reading it as much I enjoyed writing it.
Let me not bore you with my jibber jabber. This is a long chapter. Ya ready?
Enjoy…
CHAPTER 26
The Leader of Darkness took off his wide brimmed hat and pulled off his ceremonial cloak, handing them to his BLAK Commander, who sealed them away and handed him a chalk white mask with a red and black painted beastly, gnarly grin and wide open eyeholes. She did so with a deep bow.
The man collected the mask but he did not wear it, instead he fastened it to the top of his head, a bit-messily-inclined to the left. He adjusted his black half mask on his lower face and his eyes steeled over as he stared down into the darkness inside the manhole in the sand.
He rolled his shoulders and his Commander ran her hands over his bandaged forearm, checking for any loose bandages and making sure it was clean, before the masked man jumped into the pitch blackness of manhole.
The white haired woman followed suit half a minute later.
Not a minute later, four black clothed BLAK ninjas crept out of the hole and squatted down around it, facing outwards to the vast, empty desert. The four ninjas of Team Twenty remained professionally silent, vigilant…watchful.
Patient.
They were not going to let their Leader down.
Two more teams-eight ninjas-flowed out from the hole in the ground and ran ahead into the desert. There was scarcely any sound, aside for the muted crunch of sand beneath their feet, and the featureless night merged with their dark clothing, seamlessly making them slightly darker spots in an already dark night.
Ever so gradually, the sounds of insects chirped, adding their voices to those insects fifty miles away from the manhole, as if they had never been silenced.
The Suzumebachi wasps could imitate sounds from some insects but what they could do was rub their hind legs against their bulbous abdomen, flicking their venomous stingers ever so slightly, creating a creatively similar chirping and hissing sound of crickets and desert snakes; four of the eight ninjas that had come out of the manhole were from the wasp clan and they had trained long and hard with their colonies in order to replicate this sound as closely as the wasps could, spreading out smaller wasps from their colonies around the fifty mile radius and adding their chirping to the other insects.
The remaining four went ahead to a minor road connecting Suna and Darkness, one that was smoothly tarred and majorly used by ninjas of both shinobi settlements for going to and from missions between their homes.
This road was private and civilians were not allowed to travel along it without permission from the Shinobi Division, the reason being that it was this same road that Suna and Darkness exchanged precious goods, like Suna sent over dozens of carriages filled with hundreds of barrels of crude oil and Darkness, a few weeks later, sent back hundreds of barrels of the by-products of crude oil, to be divided between them and sold to their different buyers. Darkness would send hide and animal skin to Suna and Suna would return it as clothes and shoes that would most certainly stand the test of time, that too would be divided equally among the two closely allied shinobi settlements. Basically, anything that needed to be closely guarded by many ninjas and of which the road should not be blocked for security reasons, was the purpose of the minor road they were on. Aside from the six-lane major road leading back and forth from Darkness to Suna, there were two other minor roads between them; one that entered the south western region and gave allied merchants easy access to Ghost town, one that entered the northern region and the main road led up to Darkness's main western gate and Suna's main eastern gate.
Merchants, traders, travellers and tourists were at liberty to use the main road and the three minor roads but the Exchange road was off-limits to all but authorized ninjas charged with transporting precious goods. The Exchange road was not constantly being in use, reason being the items transported on it sometimes needed weeks to be processed once they reached their destination, but it was maintained by Suna and Dark shinobi alike. There was a slightly smaller road than the major road going out of Darkness and connecting it with River, this one was at the north western side of Dark country and south eastern end of River, and this road wound right into Darkness, branching off either into the capital or Ghost town, also branching out into other reaches of the Silent Nation. On the other end, in River, the road led to the Merchants Guild and smaller markets around it.
The connection between Uzushio and Darkness was by sea and the same was with Kiri, for the most part. Going by boat from Kiri to Darkness was faster and safer than circumventing the continent-around Fire country-. The port in the southern region was very hospitable to sea farers, primarily those from Uzushio and Kiri.
Naruto and his allies guarded these roads that connected them-individually or as a group-to Darkness very diligently.
There had been no reports of bandits or kidnappers and there was hardly ever any missing ninja or group of them that had set up shop near those important roads that survived after a joint operation.
Those roads five roads going out of Darkness were not exactly a secret from non-allies, the problem being that those roads-major and minor-were watched at all times and no one but Citizens of Darkness or allies could walk on them at ease. Allies that used the road for their own purposes feared nothing. It was the Entrance/Citizen seal that had allowed the Defence Corp to catch impersonators.
The four black operatives met up with their Gado counterparts in BLAK, also assigned to the mission, and those mask wearing clay users flagged for the fleet of carriages to follow them as they seamlessly created a clay path for the wooden wheels of the carriages to silently roll through the Suna part of the tarred road.
The horses that drew these large carriages, six eyed beasts that were clearly domesticated demon horses from the Night Forest, huffed slowly behind the Gado shinobi laying down clay on the tarred road. The clay was somewhat soft beneath their hooves, though not so soft as for their legs to sink in or for the carriages to lag behind them.
The Gado ninjas formed hand seals and whispered the jutsu under their breaths.
Hiden art: Clay release: Earthen Walkway to the Stars
When they ran out of chakra and clay, some ten miles into the journey, other Clay release users tapped in and swiftly took their place.
As the BLAK ninjas did this, Naruto entered the main hall the Kurama people were gathered in, all packed up and ready to move out.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Lady Umara Kurama exclaimed and dropped onto her right knee.
"My Lord Naruto!"
The Kurama people couldn't follow suit fast enough, murmuring excitedly as they saw their master's bright, beaming face enter the hall. The atmosphere in the hall visibly improved at the entrance of their legendary Leader. The masked man glanced into the crowd of people, catching a few masked faces walking about here and there, some of which wore the animal masks of BLAK while the rest wore the blank masks of ROOT. The others that didn't wear masks were the elderly, children, young teenagers and adult caretakers.
Naruto noted to Sueki, his assistant for that moment who also doubled as the BLAK Commander, that he would dissolve ROOT and incorporate those willing to join BLAK into the illustrious ranks of the elite shinobi. There would be those that would want to retire, want to join any other military branch in Dark country or would simply want to perform lesser roles, and Naruto accounted for that as well in his mind.
The glasses wearing man smiled gently. "Stand, feel at ease everyone."
"Yes, my lord." Umara said humbly.
Naruto reached forward with his left hand to the clan head and the woman eagerly took his hand with both of hers, bowing her head slightly. The Leader asked. "How has Konoha been treating you, Umara?"
"Very poorly, my lord. They tried to starve us by not sending funds. Without your support," she smiled beauteously. "We might have all perished."
"Oh don't say that. We the People of the Dark are very resilient; we know how to survive." Naruto said with a smirk.
"Agreed, my lord." Umara grinned outright, reluctantly releasing his hand. "We don't know how to die."
The masked man laughed and patted the woman's shoulder. "That we don't, Umara." He fixed her a secretive eye. "And we'll take our pound of flesh from Konoha…soon." The woman, feeling both elated that the Leaf would get what was coming to them and suspicious at how her Leader phrased it, bobbed her head and lowered her gaze respectfully. The man, still keeping a hand on the slightly shorter woman's shoulder, looked around at the throng of Kurama people, muttering with a mysteriously faint smile. "Thankfully, you and your people will be far away from the carnage when it happens."
Umara's eyes steeled over and, bowing her head. "I want to fight, my lord. Wherever you fight, I want to fight alongside you."
The corners of Naruto's eyes crinkled pleasantly and he patted her shoulder once, dropping his hand back to his side. "We won't be doing the fighting, Umara. We'll be watching."
The Kurama clan head left it at that, acknowledging that her master had given her permission to stay back and 'watch the carnage', nodded once again with a pleased smile.
This time Naruto turned to Carrot and Onion.
The last time he had seen them was just about ten months ago, when Minato had 'ambushed' Kushina and Kisame's team during a routine rescue mission, and even then he didn't get a good look at them. He would meet them only a small handful of times but only when ROOT missions happened to cross his path.
Quite frankly, the last time he looked at the-really, really looked at them-was when they were still kids.
The man stood back and looked at the two Kurama siblings, a warm, fatherly smile lifted up on his face.
"Look at you two."
They weren't the skittish, nervous kids from all those years ago.
"You two are…taller." Naruto joked with a wide smile, lifting his fists and bumping them against the younger ninjas own, flicking his left hand into Kurono, just as Onion and Carrot did. The siblings laughed, amused when their master exaggeratedly looked up into the domed ceiling of the underground hall, squinting behind his glasses and blocking the non-existent sunlight with his right hand. "Much taller."
Onion was in a dark long sleeved shirt and black pants with a black, featureless flak jacket over his torso and black sandals on his feet. His hands weren't covered, Naruto noticed thankfully; Onion wasn't ashamed of the concentric circle birthmarks he had on both of his palms. The young Kurama man oozed self-confidence, though not to the extent of being overly prideful, and the same could be said about his older sister, Carrot.
The orange haired young woman didn't have an overbite anymore, one reason being that she had worn braces for the majority of her teenage years, to align her teeth properly. She wore large, thin, circular glasses, a dark grey battle kimono, reaching slightly above her knees, black sandals and her black ROOT flak jacket over her trunk. Naruto, as he spoke to the siblings, chuckled at how Carrot was still the awkward, bashfully praise seeking kid he had known back when he first met them. Onion too for that matter.
Onion did not use any weapons-aside from the standard kunai and shuriken set-and this was because he was a genjutsu master. Carrot wasn't a frontline kind of fighter, rather she preferred to stay back and make strategize to aide those at the front, though this didn't mean she was in any way weak; she had been able to fight Mikoto Uchiha on equal footing and while she went about Konoha, she had been able to fool more than a few people for information, for she was also a master of disguise.
The two children had grown up well.
Naruto was glad.
As he listened to Onion tell him about a mission he went on to Iron country, detailing how Carrot had managed to convincingly disguise herself as an Intermediate Samurai, Sueki slipped out of the crowd of people and said to her Leader.
"Exactly Fifty two thousand, five hundred and sixty one people, sensei." (52, 561 people) The same exact number of people his BLAK had accounted for during their initial head count. The vampire, in her Bat mask, pointed over the crowd to the exit hundreds of yards away from their current location. "There are four more rooms."
The blonde man hummed in thought, then asking. "Is there anyone left?"
He directed this question to not only Bat but also to the Kurama clan head, Umara. Umara replied. "This is everyone, there's no one left."
Bat nodded in agreement. "Hai, sensei, I went back and checked." She saw the question her Leader was about to ask. "Hai, I went into Konoha with four teams and searched."
Bat and the four teams she had gone with had stretched the bare limits of their sensory abilities, spreading out over the blissfully ignorant Hidden Leaf, and they had confirmed with a perfect one hundred percent certainty that no Kurama, not even one with Kurama-like chakra, remained in Konoha. Technically, there were still Kurama in Konoha, seeing as the base they were currently in was still within Konoha's borders, but the BLAK Commander held nothing back and searched for any stragglers that might have either lost their way inside of Leaf or were forcefully taken away.
"Your ninjas are now in the vacated compound." Bat supplied. Those that were in the former Kurama clan compound in Konoha bore similar chakra types to the vacated clan, but they were not able to use Paint release. Umara and Onion had personally erected their strongest illusion over the whole compound, making it seem like there was life inside of the mostly empty compound, while in reality, twenty BLAK operatives and their shadow clones were hunkered down all over the inside. From an outsiders point of view, looking at the closed off Kurama compound, all they would see were small stacks of smoke caused by fireplaces, lights and faint murmuring sounds, some laughter, some vague chattering. The gates were closed, as they had always been to all of Konoha, and the Paint illusion very well nearly altered reality itself, as sensors would find it doubly hard to detect anything amiss.
Bat tilted her head to the side as the seal on her arm vibrated lightly.
"The Konoha sentry posts are under our surveillance, Naruto-sensei." Outside of the two posts looking into the desert, both of which wisely stayed one foot away from the Sunagakure border, was a team of black operatives, split into two groups-two people for one sentry post-. They crept up the sides of their assigned post and peered in, their eyes glowing in the dark as they watched the Konoha chunin watching the desert, unaware of the presence of Naruto's elite shinobi. One person from each divided group held out a device in both of their hands, slowly turning one of the ten dials on the face of the device, while the other person faced the antenna of the device into the building. "Jamming their signals…now."
The radios of the Konoha sentries buzzed and flicked off. The Leaf chunin ran to their radios and cursed when all they heard was static.
Bat's nodded to her teacher when her subordinates reported success. The person holding out the large, radio signal interfering device, shuffled back and stored the device into their backpacks, while the animal mask wearing operative that had been directing the antenna to jam the signals of the Konoha shinobi, crept into the sentry building, sticking to the ceiling using his chakra and staying in the shadows.
These actions were happening in both sentry buildings by BLAK Team Fifty, two people per building.
The signal jamming ninja followed his comrade, doing so when the frustrated chunin dropped his radio and went back to his fellow chunin to look out into the desert.
Since Suna allied with Darkness, Konoha had distrusted them.
Hidden Leaf no longer saw the benefits they used to reap before Darkness came along, and it angered them. Suna didn't even bother giving them discounts for gas or coal or even medicinal herbs.
The Sandaime was paranoid that Naruto would sway Rasa into invading Konoha.
When the two ninjas had made their way into their buildings, making sure not to even shift the air inside of the sentry post, they waited.
Bat looked up her Leader.
Naruto nodded.
The BLAK ninjas held up their arms, pointing their wrists to the backs of the six chunin before them.
They silently clicked senbon onto the launchers, ensuring they didn't lose their balance on the ceiling.
The two shadow covered ninjas prepared two more senbon, keeping them between their left fingers and keeping their left hand firmly stuck to the ceiling, as were their feet as well.
They suppressed their chakra tighter.
They steadied their breathing.
They calculated the distance as compared to their upside down position, the speed of the projectile and the spacing of each of their targets, adjusting accordingly.
They narrowed their eyes.
Do it. Bat ordered through the seal.
Ptew-tew-tew-tew-tew-tew…
The Leaf ninjas crumpled down onto the ground as all strength left their bodies once the fired medical needles thunked into the base of their necks. Their eyes rolled up into the back of their heads and they died silently.
Not even a whimper of pain sounded.
The two ninjas waited there, silent, listening.
They dropped down from the ceiling and ran over to the six dead bodies, the same being the case in the other sentry house their teammates were in.
Bat turned to Naruto and said. "Targets neutralized."
"Well done." Naruto said with a small smirk. "Clean it up."
The BLAK Commander asked her Leader, as Umara, Carrot and Onion listened. "Food poisoning, alcohol poisoning or drug overdose?"
The masked man tapped his chin, as his ninjas all the way over in the sentry posts waited for their master's decision, and he answered. "Make it look like food poisoning for one post and alcohol poisoning for another."
"Done." Bat nodded and relayed the order.
Food poisoning was fairly probable for a group of six people; one of them could bring in bad food and share it with his comrades. A coincidental alcohol poisoning in the other post would raise a few eyebrows though.
The elite shinobi went about making it happen; they pulled out their senbon from the necks of the dead bodies, brought out a takeaway dish of deep fried sashimi and soy sauce, the dipping sauce being the one that was fatally bad and had been made with pungently spoiled wasabi. The food was promptly heated to just the right temperature, in case forensics pried, and, using their gloved hands, they dipped strips of sashimi in the soy sauce and dabbed it on the corners of the victims mouths, artistically staining their flak jackets with the sauce and smartly scattering the food about the ground, in the general area of the dead bodies, to make it look like they had fallen down onto the ground from their hands. This form of death was slightly believable because the dead chunin were mostly Akimichi and Yamanaka. As a finishing touch, the two ninjas assigned to that sentry post retrieved little bits of saliva from the dead bodies and dabbed them on their clothes, on their mouths and on the ground, making it seem like they had tried-and failed-to spit out the bad food before it could affect them.
The other team forced open the lock jawed corpses and poured copious amounts of sake into their mouths. They did so until the corpses stomachs bulged, closed their mouths, turned them over and injected partly digested sake into their livers. They splashed a little sake on the dead bodies, on the ground, making sure to make small puddles of the alcohol on the ground, where it would look like the victims had thrown up. The lungs of the victims tightened and the BLAK shinobi arranged the dead bodies in such a way that it looked like they had choked for air, gasping for breath and falling onto their knees.
The ninjas checked the whole sentry house again, damaging the surveillance cameras and throwing a light layer of dust on them to make it look like the cameras had been broken for months.
They removed all trace of their presence, eyeing the infinitesimally tiny speck of their chakra on the ceiling; they doubted anyone would sense them, or even look there for evidence for that matter, but they didn't take their chances. One of the ninjas siphoned a little bit of chakra from two of the victims, rubbed the chakra over the invisible specks of chakra they left on the ceiling, masking it perfectly. They did this for seemingly random areas in the sentry post, so that it would look like the drunk-or the food poisoned-victims stumbled about in their delirium. In the case of the drunks, they would wildly sway about the small building, climbing walls and doing what dumb drunks normally did.
The two ninjas examined their work.
Textbook examples of Assassination Technique: Suppression, Misdirection, Assassination and Cover-up.
They allowed themselves proud smirks and a hearty high five, before they left the sentry posts and met up with their comrades.
This all took place in the span of ten minutes.
"Sensei, they're done." Bat told her Leader, saying as more information reached her. "The carriages are also ready."
Naruto rubbed his hands together. "Wonderful, we'll get started." He looked over the crowd of eagerly awaiting people and asked Umara. "Where's your Tsuki?"
"My daughter is over there." Umara pointed to her right, where the Kurama people were keeping a wide berth from, and seated there, wedged in the corner of the hall, was a fair skinned woman in baggy blue pants and long white shirt and a headband covering her forehead, on her feet were a pair of blue slippers. The woman's orange hair hung over her shoulder and she stared blankly at the people her mother was speaking with, she then jumped when she noticed they were looking at her, as if she was lost in thought and unaware of her surroundings. Umara smiled brightly and motioned for her daughter to come.
The holder of Mania hopped onto her feet, slinging a side bag over her shoulder, and ambled through the empty path her clan mates creating, giving her roughly fifteen feet of space.
Umara, Carrot and Onion took three steps back as Tsuki entered their small circle.
The holder didn't even seem bothered by it.
She had grown up without contact, not by choice either. Mania, the demon sealed inside of her, would awaken and burst out of his jail if a Kurama touched her and the demon would also escape if they were too far away.
Sure, she had tutors and maids growing up but it wasn't the same.
When she had a nightmare, of the demon slumbering inside of her, no one could hold her. She saw how much it hurt her mother to not be able to give her, Tsuki, a proper childhood.
She didn't know that she had been staring at the outstretched left hand of the Leader of Darkness for one minute straight until she heard her mother's tickling giggle.
"Uhm…" Tsuki glanced up at the man, the legend, that wanted to shake her hand, wavering in place. "Ah…Uhm…"
Yes, she knew what handshakes were but she had never been on the receiving end of one. The Kurama Curse had been so serious that she was forced to tend to her own wounds, for healing chakra from a Kurama still counted as waking up the beast inside her.
She looked to her mother for help, but the woman only subtly jerked her head to Naruto, encouraging her.
Tsuki's hand tentatively reached forward, unsure. She flexed her fingers and she made a quiet, uncertain grumbling sound from her throat.
She took his hand, his bigger paw covering hers almost completely, and he patted the back of her hand with his other hand. Tsuki bowed her torso forward as she shook hands with the Leader of Dark country.
"I'm Naruto, nice to meet you." The bespectacled man said with an encompassing smile, one that washed over the holder of Mania like a warm stream. His cool blue eyes bathed her soul in an ethereal light, one that not even her mother had been able to accurately describe. Tsuki giggled girlishly, relishing in the first ever human contact she ever had-and could ever remember-, and from 'Lord Leader' nonetheless.
The woman scoffed. "Pshh, uh, duhhh, I know who you are." The way the woman was dressed, it looked like she had just woken up and was still trying to reorient herself with what was happening at that moment. Tsuki glanced at Onion, the person that the first Kurama clan head's chakra was reincarnated into, and who was also one of her few friends, and the man cleared his throat, doing so lightly but firmly. Tsuki, realizing herself, bowed deeply, still refusing to release Naruto's hand, and said. "It's nice to meet you, Lord Naruto. My name is Tsuki Kurama."
The man chuckled good-naturedly. "No need to bow, kid."
Tsuki straightened back up with a snap, refusing to let go of Naruto's hand, even as the masked man laughed nervously when she placed her other hand on his own. "If you say so, Lord Naruto. It's an honour to talk to you, Lord Naruto. My mom told me all about you, Lord Naruto-"
Umara's mouth flapped opened, quickly interjecting. "Tsuki, stop-"
An evil glow shone from Naruto's eyes and Bat hid her silently amused smile. "No, no, let the girl speak." The man looked at the holder of Mania with a soft expression. "What has your mother said about me, Tsuki?"
Umara contemplated whether the end of the world would be better, as she wished with all her heart to cross the distance between herself and her daughter and cover Tsuki's mouth.
Alas, she couldn't.
"She said you're the coolest, handsomest, nicest person she's ever met!" Tsuki exclaimed unabashed, still not used to physical contact-not letting go of Naruto's hand-and not used to talking to someone so close, as her attendants and clan mates stood at a safe fifteen feet away from her at all times. She had to shout to them for them to hear her properly. "She also said that there's no one on this whole planet that can beat you and it's not cuz of Smoke release-"
Naruto laughed as he saw the eyes that had long since been looking at their small group turn up and laugh politely, chortling behind their hands, both at the extreme bashfulness of their red faced clan head and the now apparent extreme clinginess of the holder of Mania, as Tsuki now not only held Naruto's hand but also held his elbow, doing so half a step from their Leader but also holding it like it was her only anchor in reality.
The truth…it was.
Holding her Leader's hand was Tsuki's equivalent of pinching herself.
This couldn't be real.
"I think your mother has suffered enough." Naruto laughed, patting Tsuki's head. The woman preened under his hand like a cat, something that reminded Sueki of herself. The bespectacled blonde motioned to his side and waved over a tomboyish redhead excitedly speaking to a gaggle of eager, enthusiastic orange haired Kurama men and women. The Kunoichi apologized to the group and rushed through the crowd to her uncle. Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder and said, saying. "Tsuki, this is Uzumaki Kushina."
"Hey." The Uzumaki waved.
Tsuki smiled brightly. "I know you too, Red Reaper."
The redhead laughed bashfully, scratching the back of her head and waving her hand flippantly. "Just Kushina is fine."
"I'm Tsuki."
"Kushina here is the Kyuubi jinchuriki," Naruto said. "As you might already know."
"I envied your freedom once, yes." Tsuki outright said, adding a sharp, vaguely false smile. "But not anymore." She gasped under her breath and rubbed Naruto's hand, the vice grip on his elbow tightening somewhat. "Your hand is surprisingly soft…" she placed his hand on her face and inhaled deeply. "Is that…ramen…? And a hint of…what is that…blood, maybe…? Or is that despair…?" she dragged her tongue up his hand, something that drove chills down Naruto's spine and an embarrassed chuckle from Tsuki's mother. "Yes, definitely despair."
The masked man laughed nervously and scratched his cheek, turning to Umara as she covered her face in shame. "Curious kid you've got here, Umara."
"I am so sorry, my lord."
Tsuki's anti-socialness and lack of understanding of personal space had a sweat drop roll down the side of Naruto's head.
The holder of Mania blinked, slowly, realizing that it probably wasn't polite to lick people's hands without permission. "Oops, sorry." She rubbed his hand on her chest, obliviously not realizing that she was unintentionally making Naruto grope her modestly sized breasts. Umara, poor, poor Umara, face palmed and Kushina wasn't sure whether or not to growl at the unmindful Kurama for-unknowingly-making her man cope a feel or to gush at how innocent the young woman was at not knowing the basic tenets of public decency.
It should be illegal to be this innocent.
Though Kushina wasn't 'packing a lot of heat', she was fairly proud of the size of her chest. The other night, she found out that her aunt's breasts were somewhat bigger, though Sueki taped hers down. Kushina too also bandaged her chest, like most Kunoichi, so as not to throw off her centre of gravity. Not once had she felt insecure of her cup size, Naruto didn't complain when he felt them, so there wasn't any problem, but seeing the doe eyed, innocent brown eyes of the orange haired holder of Mania, Kushina felt inadequate and that Tsuki was somehow, somehow, encroaching on her territory.
Didn't she see the mark she left on her master's neck?
Sure, it was now an invisible dent in his skin but still, didn't she see it?!
…Damn it if it wasn't adorable.
Kushina felt guilty at thinking that Tsuki held impure thoughts of her master, though she also felt like she had to stake her claim on the love of her life.
Naruto was hers!
…and Sueki's…
But still!
The tomboyish redhead snagged Naruto's other arm, wrapped her arms around it and hugged it to her chest, basically pressing herself into her uncles side. Tsuki looked at her with a dully raised eyebrow and Kushina looked back, smug.
'Mine.' She said inaudibly, correcting herself in her mind. '…Ours.'
Sueki though was giggling, discarding her emotionless façade, and laughing quietly into her hand as her husband's eyes widened in sheer shock at his hand being directed to Tsuki's chest by the girl herself nonetheless. Tsuki, holding Naruto's hand in one hand and his elbow in another, asked. "Is there something wrong, Lord Naruto? Did I do something bad?"
"Your mother will tell you later." He wiggled his arm out of Kushina's monstrous grip, miraculously, but the redhead grabbed a firm hold of his black with white design flak jacket. Tsuki's grip visibly tightened and Naruto chuckled, uncomfortable at the possessiveness in the Mania holder's eyes. "Kushina here will escort you above ground and to Darkness in a few minutes."
Tsuki glanced at Tsuki, barely even an acknowledging look, and looked back to the first physical contact she had since she was born. "Oh…that's nice."
Bat was now directing the Kurama people to leave the hall and enter the tunnel, a hundred people at a time. They were to go out at a two minute interval, so that the people that had already gone ahead would fill the carriages, be taken to Dark territory and carriages would replace those that have already left, creating a cycle of silently moving horse drawn vehicles filled with twenty five people at a time. She got to the second batch of a hundred Kurama clan members.
"Y-You can-" he gently pried her fingers off his elbow. "-You can let go of my hand now."
Tsuki furrowed her eyebrow. "You're not coming with me?"
"I have to stay back and make sure everyone leaves fine." the man said, sighing to himself as he managed to release the hand on his elbow and latch that hand onto Kushina's forearm. He went to work prying off the hand holding his own hand. "I kinda need my hand back, Tsuki."
"Why though?"
"Because my hand is part of my body…" the man grunted, releasing two fingers successfully. "And I can't go anywhere without my body."
"But…I want you to come with me." Tsuki pleaded, her eyes enlarging and her bottom lip quivering. Naruto dared not look at her face, for he knew he would succumb to her kicked puppy stare. She gently pulled his hand, two fingers latched on and all. "Please, Lord Naruto."
The masked man finally came up with an idea that would suit him and the clingy Kurama. His whole arm shifted and warbled, changing into a smoky tentacle and slipping out of her grip. A copy of himself seeped out of the thick, misty black tentacle, just as Tsuki's fingers made to grasp the air for his hand. Naruto stepped back as his clone cleanly took his place. "There."
Tsuki looked up at the clone, even as the smoke creation felt nervous beads of sweat pop up on its forehead under the scrutiny of the large brown eyes. Tsuki, taking her hand away from Kushina's forearm, grabbed the clones hand and felt it, running the fingers of both her hands up and down his hand, lifting the limb up and delicately smelling it. Her tongue darted out and lightly lapped on the clone's pinkie finger, then she took half of the small finger into her mouth and sucked.
Bat gave her Leader a hard look and the blonde man shrugged with a wide grin. The white haired woman rolled her eyes underneath her mask. The clingy Kurama didn't even know it, but her actions vaguely resembled foreplay.
Naruto wondered if Tsuki had ever gotten her hands on porn mags before…
Was she even aware of what she was doing?
"It's not the same." The Mania holder said firmly, brining Naruto would of his mind. Then her eyes closed in resignation. "But it'll have to do, for now."
"Perfect." Naruto clapped and rubbed his hands together. He directed his sky blue eyes to the purple eyed woman to his side and Kushina, hiding her mixed feelings at Tsuki tasting the clone, smiled and motioned to the entrance of the underground hall.
The ditzy holder of Mania followed the Uzumaki, taking along with her the hugely unimpressive substitute for the first human contact she had.
Now, Naruto had learnt under Orochimaru for a good three-four years-just about-, so he was fairly knowledgeable of the concept of…creepy.
Orochimaru was a creep, and little Naruto then knew very well that the Sannin teaching him was especially creepy. Creepy to the extent that Naruto would prefer not to have his back to his teacher and would preferably not leave Sueki alone with his teacher.
Naruto knew creepy very well.
Tsuki wasn't creepy, she was simply…weird.
It wasn't an irritating or disgusting kind of weird, but rather an endearing, quietly eccentric kind of weird that made Naruto want to impulsively pet Tsuki's head. Sueki, in her younger years, from when she first met Naruto to when she relocated with her blonde teacher to Kiri, was exactly the same kind of weird. The vampire didn't understand the concept of personal space, not very well when it came to Naruto or his personal belongings, and he felt like Tsuki, who had never had recallable physical contact up until he shook her hand, would go down that very same road until someone, anyone, told her that licking people's hands wasn't considered polite.
A part of him felt like Tsuki knew what she was doing was weird, but when he looked into her swimming, dark brown eyes, he noticed the apprehension and uncertainty of what to do, basically going on instinct and not thinking much about those watching.
Naruto could only hope that out of the hundreds and thousands of non-Kurama people in Darkness, that the Mania holder wouldn't limit her adorable weirdness to only him.
His mind returned to the present.
So as not to free the demon inside of Tsuki, there were to be Kurama people, safely inside of carriages, ahead of her and, as Bat called for the next batch of a hundred people to go out of the tunnel, behind her as well.
Outside of the ROOT base, the carriage drawing demon horses diligently clopped on the roads, egged on by their coaches. The sounds of insect life covered their feet and the Suzumebachi wasps added the silent, background hissing of desert snakes to make the desert night sounds all the more authentic. Once the carriages reached Dark country borders, BLAK stepped back and the Dark country Defence Corp took control.
They entered the carriages comfortably filled with twenty five people and registered each person into the Dark country Citizen Database, adding tiny drops of their blood into the seal matrix and providing temporary fuinjutsu markers for each person until they came by any of the DC offices for a permanent-painless and invisible until needed to be seen-tattoo on the back of their hands. This was so that the security seals didn't harmfully repel the Kurama people and also made sure not to raise any alarms for DC Officers that weren't stationed to welcome the Kurama clan back home.
The whole process took over five thousand DC Officers, required at least twenty minutes per carriage and handing out pamphlets to each adult in the carriage, explaining to them what to do, who to meet if they needed help, important branches of the Dark country military and giving them locations to the nearest DC Office in either the northern or southern region, took an extra twenty minutes, this including detailing how much Darkness had changed since the Kurama left and addressing each and every question thrown at them.
It was stressful.
Though it was also fulfilling.
BLAK had given the DC's two Directors a heads up in the night operation and in turn the Directors of the North and South DC units informed their subordinates, temporarily merging their offices and assigning officers to the north western Exchange road entrance to welcome the people of the Kurama clan.
Makoto Gado and Nanako Hogo, Directors of the North and South DC units respectively, were even there with their officers to help with the short reorientation.
Those willing to learn more about how much Darkness had changed and improved were always free to come by any of their offices. There will be a small lecture hosted by the Dark country Council in two days. The knowledge the border defending branch of military were bestowing was so that the clan of painters could better navigate their environment.
The DC officers were ready for the stress.
It also wasn't easy for the Kurama people either, but this process made them feel like they were a part of Dark country again. Their Leader and their country were holding nothing back in the reorientation, showing their intention of actually wanting them back, instead of begrudgingly accepting them.
They were going to make sure to attend the lecture.
It would take a short time to fully incorporate the Kurama clan back into the fold but Darkness was willing to go all the way.
The clan of painters felt safe migrating out of Konoha under the security of Darkness's very own elite shinobi, as well as a few of their own that were wearing ROOT masks, but the feeling of passing through the great gates-keyed into the seal matrix and bearing basic knowledge-and entering their home once again was indescribable.
It couldn't be put into words.
By morning, the rest of the country would learn of the return of one of their own clans and Naruto would enact a week long, country-wide festival to celebrate it.
For now, in the partial silence of Dark country's nightlife, among the joyous chatter occurring inside the carriages, the herd of caravans trooped to the eastern region.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The Emptied Kurama Compound
Konoha
Perched on the roof of the former house of the Kurama clan head, peering out of the high A rank Painting illusion covering the vacant clan compound like a dome, Naruto hummed pleasantly to himself at the ignorance of the Hidden Leaf village.
Droves of over fifty thousand people had slipped out from under their noses and not a single alarm had gone off.
Well, no, not completely.
The seals on Konoha's walls had detected several waves of people leaving, about one hundred at a time and at an unhurried pace towards Sunagakure, though the BLAK ninjas watching over the border security team, mainly ninjas from Darkness's fuinjutsu user clan, had altered this report by making it seem like the seal had confused human beings with a pack of rats running in the sewer, and that they weren't heading to Suna but rather going in the complete other direction, rushing over to Wave country, prompting a frustrated exclamation from one of the Leaf ninjas that the seal was due for updating.
From what the Chui-Inku elite shinobi could understand, the seals on the walls hadn't been updated since the death of the Nidaime, whilst the seals on Darkness were revised every five years and improved exponentially.
It was reports like these that made Konoha look even worse in comparison to Darkness.
How were they still the Greatest Major Hidden Ninja village on the continent?
The alarms went off but the Konoha shinobi ignored it.
Until it finally stopped roughly three hours later.
Presently, Bat was coordinating her subordinates impersonating Kurama clan members to create shadow clones and leave the Hidden Leaf through the manhole a stone throw away from the clan compound, hidden in a copse of trees and an assembled cluster of shrubs.
The clones aimlessly walked about the clan as Team Eleven and Team Twelve entered the clan compound and perched themselves strategically around their leisurely sitting Leader, hidden in spots here and there, in one shadow or-in Komodo dragon and Phoenix's case-playing a game of Shogi with one of the other clones under a softly glowing, overhanging lantern.
Umara sat on the edge of the roof, looking out into the bright lights and slight murmur of Konoha's night.
"Lord Naruto." she called, turning to her Leader and realizing that he was now laid on his back and reading a book. Since the roof was inclined, he wasn't fully lying down and his feet found purchase on a few roof tiles. It was a different book than the one he had been reading and a different one than the one borrowed Koyuki Kazahana, which he was yet to get back, though the Snow princess had said that she was near the end when he had left her country for Suna.
She told him, doing so formally and visibly swallowing her pride, that the story was riveting and most times, when she was forced to drop the book at any point in the day, it hurt her soul. She could relate to the main character, a young man that had seen his parents murdered by their grandparents during a private dinner party, so that they could steal their vast fortune. The grandparents left the boy in the hands of a blind hag.
Naruto grunted, turning a page. The name of the book he was reading was from a Snow author, it was called Ascension. He was using the small blips of light from the lanterns shining inside the near empty clan compound.
"Why are we still in Konoha, my lord?"
The man lightly scratched his bandaged forearm and his eyes slowly slithered over each word, replying. "…I want to watch the Hokage pick his successor tomorrow."
"Is…is that important, my lord?"
"You're free to leave, Umara." The man answered factedly. "Your clan might need your help settling down."
"My council is representing me," the woman answered curtly. "I don't feel it's wise for me to leave my lord here in Konoha."
"I'm confident I can defend myself." He said airily.
"What happened to your arm then?"
"Oh this?" he said, flicking his eyes to his bandaged forearm. "Prison fight."
Umara almost fell off the roof. Her eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open, more at how casually her master had said those words. "P-P-Prison fight?!"
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, as if he was confused by her reaction. It looked like he was honestly surprised she didn't expect him to one day get thrown into jail and become involved in an all-out brawl, so he clarified. "Yeah, prison fight."
"H-How did you get into a prison fight?!"
He waved nonchalantly. "It's a long story, I'll tell you later."
The shank wound in his forearm wasn't fully healed, likely because the prison medic hadn't done a good healing the wound. His regeneration wasn't accelerating the healing process, maybe because the wound had been sustained while he was devoid of useable chakra. A medic among his black operatives-BLAK Operative Pony of Team Twelve-had checked the wound, saying that it was infected and promptly cleaning it out as well as she could. Pony was just glad that as the short blade scratched both of those bones, his bones weren't infected. Kemuri bone density prevented any such thing.
Naruto was reminded of what Dr Yuma Nakamura had told him; he more or less had a non-transmittable skin disease that made his skin cells thinner and weaker than what they were supposed to be. He was to avoid chakra attacks and or weapons that cut deep enough to chip his bone, which the shank had very well done, sliding through his radius and ulna, deeply scratching both bones. The shank was dirty and made out of rusted metal.
Pony, during her detailed analysis of his arm and after treating it, had said that the wound would heal at its own time, not at the accelerated time his regeneration was capable of or through the remarkable use of medical ninjutsu, but at a slow, gradual pace, where his skin cells, muscle fibre, bones and the cells in his blood would painstakingly repair the wound. There would be small scar but Naruto could live with that.
The masked man summarily ordered Pony to not tell anyone what she discovered, at the risk of corporal punishment.
The elite ninja professionally didn't pry into her master's secret, though she did make sure to subtly check him for wounds each time she encountered him, plain clothed or shinobi garbed.
Pony, and a large chunk of Naruto's people, also didn't know that his glasses prevented his eyes from burning and from his head thumping painfully. If somehow he got a headache, Yuma had prescribed a pill bottle for his Leader to take then, and only then.
Naruto's volatile chakra was hard to work with.
The Leader's family doctor was still working on a permanent solution for Naruto's headaches and eye pains, this time studying Naruto's blood as well as his chakra.
Every day felt like he was getting closer to a lasting cure.
Dr Yuma Nakamura was a very smart man, so smart that he was the intended successor for the Head of Dark country's Medical Department. Not because he was the Leader's family doctor and not because of the fame of the Nakamura family as being deeply entrenched in Darkness, but because the man was genuinely qualified to become the next head; he started learning the healing arts since he could walk, enlisted in the rebel camp's hospital and moved about Darkness during the civil war, tending to the sick and the wounded. Yuma didn't have fighting experience, being a medic and all, but he was a brave man to have been able to sneak past dozens of Konoha and Kumo ninjas to get into a caged in group of rebel forces so that he could heal their injured.
He did so by himself.
Naruto trusted his family doctor; if anyone could come up with a cure, then it was Yuma.
Another errant thought entered Naruto's mind; his black operatives had said that the Kurama people were hesitant to enter the carriages drawn by the demon horse, their physical appearance being the main reason. They did so when they were satisfied that the six eyed horses were properly tamed.
Naruto choosing demon horses instead of normal horses was simple.
The BLAK Headquarters was located in the Night Forest, and as such the sub-organization of elite shinobi knew, just as much as the Animal Conservationists, which animals to stay away from and which to approach. Demon horses were stronger, more durable and they were near mute. The six eyed horses had been born and raised in the Night Forest, immersed in the diluted darkness that gave Dark born citizens their Assassination Technique, so the demon horses, as well as the other animals, were slightly further evolved than normal and more stronger than their normal counterparts. For long missions that required less finesse and more destructive force, demon horse were commonly used.
Once BLAK and Conservationist trainers reached a certain stage of taming demon horses, they discovered that demon horses were docile and more considerate animals, as opposed to their dark, ominous appearance. Demon horses, other domesticated and tameable animals of the Night Forest, were known to defend their trainers from the more feral and savage animals of the Forest.
Some tests on the demon horses and it was discovered that they were direct descendants of the Five Tailed Horse, Kokuo. Smaller, less Bijuu chakra saturated and bathed in the darkness of the Night Forest, the demon horses showed character traits the great demon showed; kindness, patience and consideration.
Other demon animals of the Night Forest that were smarter and less savage than most animals of the Forest were cat demons, dog demons, a few species of bird demons, a handful of wolf demons and dens of fox demons-or Kitsune, as they were popularly known as within BLAK-.
The Kitsune attracted more of their curiosity, as they had created small dens here and around the BLAK HQ, though the small foxes kept a respectable distance between them, as did the elite shinobi to them and their dens. Kitsune were playful and the oldest fox among them, the second of whom Naruto's black operatives noticed had more than one tail-five, in the elder foxes case-headed a large den that controlled and influenced the smaller dens. The foxes were small animals that zipped around hyperactively, though the tamers recognized their potential for being reliable messengers.
Naruto wasn't sure how to approach the Kitsune or how to communicate with them, but he was considering taking Kushina to them to see how that would go.
The Leader of Darkness's schedule was full, though he would find time to meet the Kitsune in a few weeks or so.
"Get some sleep, Umara. The ceremony starts at nine o' clock sharp." Naruto muttered, flipping to another page, looking around the book to the bewildered and confused Kurama. His eyes twinkled mischievously. "We don't want to be late."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
07:10AM
Konoha Onsen
Mikoto Uchiha slowly stepped into the hot springs and a low, deep sigh escaped her lips as the perfectly temperate water soaked into her pores and loosened her tense muscles, easing her mind for a split second, able to take her mind away from the months of guilt she felt.
Hanami Hyuuga, Inorin Yamanaka, Yoshino Nara, Anko Mitarashi, Kureanai Yuuhi, Yugao Uzuki and Lin Akimichi found their place in the large onsen and settled inside, sinking down to their shoulders and melting pleasurably under the heat. Those in their circle either had their long hair tied or, like Anko, one of the newest addition into their group of friends, let it run freely into the water.
Tsume Inuzuka plodded into the bathhouse. She dipped a toe into the bath and, grinning wolfishly, unwrapped the towel around her trunk and fell into the bath with a large splash. Some of the women laughed at the dog woman's antics, mainly those in the circle, while those that weren't close friends with Tsume tutted at the woman's immaturity.
Wasn't she a clan head?
Tsume rose out of the water and doggy paddled to a free corner in the bath, where her friends were soaking in.
Mikoto cleared her throat and asked, once Tsume fitted herself between Anko and Yoshino. "Didn't you say Minato's in the village?"
"Yup." The Inuzuka answered shortly, leaning her head back and relaxing, allowing the temperate water and the steam in the closed off room to do its magic on her body. "Been here since last week."
"Well…" the Uchiha trailed off, uncertain. "…How come…we haven't seen him?"
"Beats me." Tsume shrugged.
The big boned woman of the group, Chouza's wife and a recently retired Kunoichi, piped up with a concerned frown. "Doesn't he want to see us? Chouza said he hasn't seen Minato either."
"Shikaku too." Yoshino murmured, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"And Hiashi." Hanami said, her voice quiet and worried.
Anko added her voice sitting up ever so slightly. "Matter of fact, Kakashi hasn't seen or heard from Minato either." Yugao and Kureanai nodded their heads in support of Anko's statement; the sixteen year old copy ninja had confided in them on that, saying if they saw Minato, they should let him, Kakashi, know.
"Isn't Minato Kakashi's teacher?" Inorin questioned.
"More than that, isn't Minato Kakashi's brother? They grew up in the same house, didn't they?" Yoshino wondered. The wife of the clan head turned to Tsume, the only single their age in their group, seeing as Anko, Yugao and Kureanai were sixteen, this not in their age group. Yoshino narrowed her eyes, something that Tsume ignored with peacefully closed eyes. "He's staying at your place, Tsume. Why didn't you tell him to come see us?"
"Why didn't you lot go see him?" Tsume countered, a reply so swift that it had the women taken aback. "Besides…he's avoiding everyone."
"But…But…we're his friends." Mikoto said in a small voice, looking away from Tsume as her eyes flicked open and fixed on her. "Aren't we?"
"If you say so." The Inuzuka shrugged.
Yoshino sat up abruptly, offended. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
Tsume, the least bit intimidated, placed her hands behind her head and relaxed further into the bath. Her reply was honest. "When he came back from Chill, Minato had nothing." She said coolly, though her words stung, eliciting a wince from even the hot blooded Nara, who sank back down. "Nowhere to live, no money and no one to make sure he was ok…but me. I went to see him in, made sure he was fine, after everything he went through in Chill."
Their small group knew what had happened to those that returned from Chill.
Most had killed themselves; others had jumped head first into alcohol and drugs, abandoning their families and sleeping nights' un-end in seedy bars, brothels and ditches by the road.
Those people, those tormented war veterans, had it easy; they had families to come back to, homes to live in, warm beds and clean clothes as well as hot food to eat, waiting for their return.
Minato had nothing.
Nothing.
They knew that.
They knew about his building being demolished by Kumo ninjas, reportedly, and they knew how the Sandaime had sent him to Chill for ten months without pay as punishment for not retrieving the Kyuubi.
They couldn't imagine what Minato had gone through.
No, they couldn't.
Minato needed a friend, and someone that had suffered half to what he went through in Chill, Tsume, had been there for him.
The dog woman, vaguely aware of the dip in emotions in the onsen, said. "He drank himself sick, you know. Could barely even walk on his own feet, so I let him stay over at my place for however long it took for him to find his feet." Even if the Inuzuka clan compound was fully rebuilt and Minato still didn't know his place in the world, then he was always welcome to stay over at her house in the clan compound.
"Y-You…" Hanami said quietly. "You went against Lord Sandaime's order."
Tsume scoffed. "I don't care." She looked to the stuttering Hyuuga. "You should have seen him, Hanami." The dog woman shook her head with a grim look, sitting back and closing her eyes again. "He wasn't the same guy."
Tsume was still facing punishment from the Sandaime for not following his order to not communicate with Minato; a long week of demeaning D rank missions with near no pay. The Inuzuka didn't care, the man staying over at her house, who went in and out as he pleased by her insistence, smiled at her whenever she came home, mucky dirty and humiliated, made a bath for her and cooked dinner, as much as she wanted to eat.
The Namikaze wasn't in her apartment all day but when evening arrived, and Tsume stumbled through the door with her tail between her legs, he was there, ready to help her vent out her frustrations.
Tsume sniffed familiarly and a ghost of red floated over her cheeks. She whispered to herself. "In some ways…he hasn't changed."
Mikoto stuttered foully. "But-But…Lord Third-"
"Pah." The dog woman scoffed again.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, advised by Jiraiya of the Sannin, had advised Minato's close friends-men and women-to not meet with or speak to the Namikaze until the day he, Hiruzen, appointed a successor, a week later. His reason was so that Minato would acclimatize himself with the village at his own pace and with his own strength, something that would make him stronger as a person. To those that were unwilling to listen to him, he changed the advice to an order.
Tsume didn't obey the order.
They didn't know the reason for the Sandaime giving the order, nor did they know that it was Jiraiya that had supplied the same words Hiruzen used, convincing the Third that the feeling of being abandoned and solitude-after the unforgivable hell in Chill-was somehow good for Minato.
Two days after the war veterans returned from Chill, Minato's friends realized their own mistakes and returned back to Konoha from wherever they were vacationing, searching high and low for the Namikaze.
"I-I need to talk to Minato, Tsume." Mikoto said lowly. "Before the ceremony."
She needed to explain herself.
Why she didn't wait for him, despite she telling him to hold on for her.
Why she didn't welcome him back to the village.
Why she obeyed the Hokage's damn order.
Tsume's shoulders lifted and dropped casually. "Sure."
"W-Where can I find him?" the Uchiha felt horrible. Her heart thudded hard in her chest, berating her for what she had done to her great friend, for betraying him, for breaking his heart. It took all in her to not cry. "Y-You need to help me, Tsume. Please."
The Inuzuka looked at Mikoto with a raised eyebrow, seeing the tears glazing her eyes and her pleading, begging coal black gaze. She looked to the other women, seeing similar looks of regret and despair on their faces, weighed down by their guilt.
Tsume sighed. "He told me he's going to look for Lord Jiraiya before the ceremony, he didn't tell me why."
Their morning soak was ruined.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Behind Konoha's Onsen
"Uhehe~" Jiraiya the Toad Sage giggled perversely, grinning lecherously and scribbling into a notebook as he stared into an eyehole, looking into the women's section of the bathhouse, hunkered down in a makeshift bush and partially shaded by average height trees. Blood streamed down the man's nose and he whispered to himself, feeling his pants tightening and his heart racing. "That's it, Tsume. Stretch those arms. Ohohohoooo~…" the dog woman arched her back and yawned into her hand, providing inside details on her and Minato's several nights together, although the Sannin was to distracted by what he was seeing to listen to anything they were talking about.
Their previous conversation had flown right over his head.
"Ouuuu~ Mikoto you too, what smooth skin, what firm breasts!"
The famous pervert tittered dirtily, doing so quietly.
"You've grown so much, Miko…how I wish I could touch you…feel you…ouuuuuu~…" he groaned longingly. "You've all grown marvellously." He ogled Hanami's large chest and panted, beads of sweat dripping down to his neck. "Let me see those…" he bit his bottom lip and groaned when he got what he wanted before he even finished. "Nipples~"
"Jiraiya."
The white haired man jumped and tendrils of fear rolled over him at the coldness and hollowness of the voice.
The sage turned around and his shoulders relaxed, so much so he almost fell down onto his knees in relief. He bared his teeth and shook a stern finger at Minato, standing roughly five three from him.
"Kami damn it, brat. Don't sneak up on me like that."
The Namikaze's face didn't shift and he didn't recoil back under the finger.
Jiraiya got a good look at his student; Minato looked paler, thinner and more unkept, his jounin vest was casually unzipped to show his black, long sleeved shirt, there were standard weapons on the left side of his hip and right thigh thigh-shuriken and kunai respectively-and his black shinobi pants, reaching his ankles, looked fairly used. Minato's shaggy blonde hair was grown out just a bit longer, spiking above his head and not kept together, unlike when he wore his forehead protector; which he didn't, now that Jiraiya got a good look.
There was also a holstered sword on the right side of Minato's hip, though the thin black cloth covering the handle didn't clue him in on what the weapon looked like.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the familiar feeling he was getting from the sheathed sword.
He met Minato's eyes and winced at the soulless gaze that returned to him, akin to looking at a long dead, long buried corpse. The Namikaze's formerly sparkling blue eyes were dimmed with age, for one his age had seen and did many things that he would rather not do. Heavy bags were under his student's eyes and there was a visible sag on Minato's once proud, strong shoulders.
Jiraiya almost regretted having Minato's friends leave the village for the week.
Almost.
Minato needed the time to himself, to reflect on what he had seen and done in Chill.
It would make him stronger; prepare him for the path ahead.
That was what Jiraiya the Toad Sage told himself.
"Heyyyy kid, how's it going?" the older ninja abruptly said as Minato stared a hole into his soul for five long, silent minutes. The blonde gave nothing away, standing rigidly ramrod and his face clean of emotion.
"I've been looking for you, Jiraiya." Minato said in an empty voice. His eyes looked over his teacher, slowly dipped down to Jiraiya's feet and took its time looking back into the sages black eyes. "You look…well."
The sage placed his right hand on his chin and entered a pose, grinning widely. The corner of his eyes twinkled. "I know, the Great Toad Sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin, always looks good."
The only reaction he got from Minato was a slow blink and a fractional dip of the corners of his lips.
The man chuckled uneasily; a sweat drop fell down the side of his head. "You look…alive…?"
Minato hummed mutely and answered. "…Just barely."
Jiraiya exhaled heavily. "I wanted to see you back but I had to be Sarutobi-sensei's bodyguard for the Kage's Summit in Kiri, you understand, right?"
Minato shook his head once. "No Jiraiya, I don't understand." He breathed out quietly and closed his eyes, centring himself as he felt his dormant emotions well up, saying. "I wasn't paid for ten months while I was in Chill…you know that right? He took a half a step to Jiraiya. "I didn't have a place to live…you know that right?"
Wakono, the Fire Lord, made sure to stuff his mouth with as many biscuits as she could before he disappeared in a yellow flash, each and every time he came by. She would notice his hollow cheeks as he instructed her to leave something in his Vault for him, and she would push bread or bottles of water into his hand, imploring her with the pride and entitled-ness she was known for.
Jiraiya winced and shrugged. "Well…the past is the past." He waggled his eyebrows. "I heard you were staying with that hot dog lady, Tsume. Lucky bastard." He furrowed his eyebrows at Minato's sharp flinch at his last statement, struggling to remain his perverse grin again. "On a scale of one to ten, how is she? I'd think she's a good nine…probably-"
"Is Sakumo Hatake my father, Jiraiya?" Minato asked, cutting his teacher off before he could begin rambling.
The white haired Sannin briefly stumbled back at the question, looking like it had been a slap on the face. He regained himself and promptly replied, smiling gently. "No, Minato. Naruto is your father."
Minato's face lowered and his unkept blonde hair cast a shadow over his upper face. "…There's no use lying to me, Jiraiya."
"W-What do you mean, kid?" Jiraiya faltered. "I told you, Naruto is your father." He pointed away from the onsen, towards Konoha. "He's the reason people have hated you; he hurt people in the village, tore families apart and made Konoha look like a fool. We've lost too much to Naruto-"
"Stop." Minato muttered once, refusing to look up at his lying teacher. "Just…stop talking."
Jiraiya frowned, hard. "You're…you don't believe me?" he jabbed his thumb to his chest and barked, doing so under his breath and harshly, trying not to make the women in the onsen notice his presence. "I've never lied to you, Minato. Not once."
Minato shook his head, a quick twitching motion. "My whole life has been a lie-"
The Sannin's eyes then suddenly widened. "Naruto…he's brainwashed you-"
"I told you to stop, Jiraiya." Minato said with finality. "I know the truth. Naruto isn't my father. Sakumo is…was."
Jiraiya then sighed, giving up with a hefty shrug. "And so what, Naruto is still our enemy here. Whether or not you're his kid or Sakumo's doesn't matter. What matters is that Naruto faces his crimes and Konoha gets justice."
"No, Jiraiya. It does matter." Minato muttered, his voice laden with sadness. The blonde frowned slightly, his hair still shading his face. "My whole existence was built on the thought that the person you claimed was my father…that Naruto was the most evil man in the world only I can kill him, to restore balance in the world again. I was the person that would bring justice to Konoha, return what was taken from us…take back what is in Darkness that is rightfully ours-"
"And you will-"
"-That…that Konoha really is innocent." Minato said, as if he hadn't been interrupted. His head twitched again, this time more visibly and accompanied with a quick flex of his fingers. "Konoha…raped Darkness…"
Jiraiya paled at the blunt, painfully honest statement.
"We raped Darkness…blamed them and Naruto for fighting back…and once we lost to them, we swore that we have never done any wrong…that we deserve…justice…" Minato slowed to a stop and his lips screwed to the side. "…Justice…"
"Now, Minato, listen to me." Jiraiya said, motioning for his student to calm down. "Think about what you're saying-"
"Konoha invaded a country, raided their lands, raped their women, forced people to fight a war they didn't even believe in, drained their lands, stole their resources…Konoha took from them, and we blame them for fighting back." Minato finally looked back, his eyes hauntingly wide, reflecting Jiraiya's pale, surprised face.
Minato's soul had long since left his body.
"Why would Konoha think it deserves everything Dark country has, Jiraiya?" Minato asked. "Why?"
Jiraiya's face, ever so slowly, twisted with anger. "Because their Daimyo signed a deal with us. We own them, Minato. Their lands, their people and their money. It is all Konoha's by right." He spat harshly, saying in a grating voice. "Then that fucking brat came along with that his pest called a student…took our right from us. Naruto, the Ghost, is the reason Konoha is the way it is now, and you should know that most of all, Minato." He pointed at the stoic Namikaze again, his finger trembling with rage. "Naruto is the reason people hate you; you just so happened to be from his clan, took after his face and inherited a good chunk of his abilities."
Specifically his chakra affinities and Assassination Techniques.
Minato had been born in Dark country, smuggled out by Sakumo when they were being driven out of the country and stolen from the Kemuri woman the Hatake had assaulted.
"You're a Konoha ninja, brat. Act like one."
"…Why did you take me to Sakumo?"
"No one else was willing to protect you while I was out of the village."
"…He didn't want to protect me…"
Jiraiya scoffed. "Of course not. Kirino, his wife, had just passed away and it was my chance to leave you with your father. Your real father." The older shinobi said with brutal honest, giving up on taking it easy on the blonde before him, laying it all out as it was, unfiltered and unhindered. "Sakumo and Kirino's marriage was never the same when she found out about you, and I never forgave Sakumo for betraying Kirino either. She never wanted to see your face, that's why Sakumo left you in the orphanage."
Kirino Hatake died of a broken heart.
"She didn't even want her husband near her anymore, not even when she was dying." The Sannin shrugged. "Her death was the best chance I had to have someone capable look after you."
"He didn't want to look after me."
"Ha, no. He hated you, Minato."
Minato's head twitched.
He hated you.
"You are his greatest sin manifested."
Minato's head twitched again.
"Maybe…somewhere in his head…he thought raising you would atone for his sins, for what he did to your mother and what he did to his wife."
Naruto's head twitched, his eyes flicked to the other side.
Jiraiya huffed and his shoulders lifted up and down, coming down from his rant, realizing and acknowledging that he had exposed himself, Sakumo and Konoha to the boy that had believed that there was nothing Konoha ever do wrong.
No matter the situation, Konoha was always right.
Right?
It was…right?
"Konoha is always right." The Toad sage clarified, stepping up to Minato, a quarter of a head taller than his student, and glared down at him with dark eyes. "I nominated you for Hokage-"
Minato's eyes widened fractionally; he was just hearing about this now.
Now.
Of all times.
"I'm sure Sarutobi-sensei will give it to you," instead of Orochimaru and Danzo, the other two candidates. The teacher placed his hands on Minato's shoulders and his grip tightened, still not eliciting a reaction from the silent Namikaze. "Now…get your shit together, brat, and get ready for the ceremony."
Minato breathed out. "Get…my shit…together…"
Jiraiya beamed brightly. "Yeah."
Minato bobbed his head slightly. "Ok."
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Ok?"
Minato nodded. "Ok."
The sage grinned patting his shoulders once. "Ok! Now get lost, I have research to do."
"Alright."
Blue light shone from under Jiraiya's eyes, briefly blinding him.
"Rasengan."
A million burning hot knives ripped into his stomach, tearing apart his skin, shredding his muscles, rending his intestines, liver and bladder into pieces and severing his spine. The blue light illuminating from below, between him and his expressionless student, dimmed as the source entered his body, pushing outwards.
Minato's arm was elbow deep in Jiraiya's gut, the blonde stared deep into his teachers eyes as the ball of blue chakra wreaked havoc inside of him.
Jiraiya coughed, blood dribbled out from his mouth and his eyes shook.
"Wha-what the-." He whispered in horror, clawing at Minato's shoulders. He hacked. "-Gungk."
The Rasengan expanded, cutting through his diaphragm as he made to scream for help.
Air escaped his nose as the bottom of his lungs got torn into, his mouth being too clogged up with blood.
"Cack!" Jiraiya coughed, feeling the strength in his body leave him as the blood either pooled inside of him or pulsed out from his mouth and back. "Ack!"
Minato didn't speak, peering into his dying teachers eyes with the gaze of a dead man.
The pain, starting from the sage's gut, set all his nerve endings on fire. The chakra attack targeted his chakra coils as well, dismantling any chakra control he had with the accurate strike on his internal organs and spine.
"Hangck!"
Some blood sprayed on Minato's face.
"W-Why?" the man struggled to get his arms up, cupping his precious students face. Tears streamed down his eyes his eyes and his hands trembled, unable to find purchase on the blondes stony face. "M-M-Mina…wh-why…?"
The attack had taken him completely by surprise, and he couldn't do anything until it was too late; his chakra coils were destroyed and his internal organs were being grinded by the spiralling sphere of chakra.
No ninja, no matter how renown or powerful, was invulnerable to an attack from the person he least expected.
The younger shinobi didn't reply, only twisting his arm and cutting through more of Jiraiya's lungs and ripping open the diaphragm more.
The Namikaze then suddenly pulled his arm out of his teachers gut. Jiraiya's legs gave out and he fell down onto his knees, his head defiantly staring up at the impassive blonde. His hands went to his abdomen, vainly trying to keep the near liquid guts in his stomach from spilling out.
"Y-Y-You'll regret-"
Sssshing!
Raijin no Ken lopped off the Sannin's head and in his last few seconds, he saw his headless body fall onto its side and more blood pour from the neck, soaking into the grass. The man standing over his headless body flicked the lightning sword-noticeably without lightning-, ridding it of the blood and smoothly sheathed it back, this time not covering the handle with the black material.
The white haired man's eyes remained open; his face twisted in a mixture betrayal and mortified horror.
Dead.
Fear the man whose belief has been put in doubt. The place he once thought was his home turned out to be a prison, the people he once learnt from and trusted turned out to be his slave masters.
Naruto quoted those words from Jiraiya's book to his subordinates after Konoha's failed retrieval mission, unknown to both Minato and the toad Sannin.
The Ghost knew this would happen.
Minato blankly looked down at the corpse, the soles of his feet drenched in his teachers blood and part of his face spattered with the red liquid. Silent tears ran down his eyes at what he had done, and he spoke, as if talking to himself.
"Are you satisfied?"
The air shifted and Naruto, sitting on a branch with his back to the tree, gave a slight smile to the soulless murderer. "Very."
The Yellow Flash wasn't under the Ghost's instruction, never was, and now the younger didn't hold any grudge towards the older ninja.
Rather, he respected Naruto for making him see the light.
Konoha was corrupt, through and through. A cesspool of putrid, foul humanity, and he could finally see that now.
One thing had Minato curious though.
"…What are you doing here?"
"I came to watch the show."
Authors note
I thought about adding the Hokage Successor Ceremony to this chapter but ended not doing that.
Let's end it here, for now.
So how was that? What do you think of the events that occurred in this chapter? What do you think of this story?
Tell me what you think, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.
Foy.