Chapter 19

A quick note, last week we passed a hundred follows and I forgot to mention it, so thank you one and all, doubly so because we also hit one hundred favourites yesterday. I hope you continue to enjoy what I write, I have a few ideas for other fics but there's currently no timescale for when I'll start them.

Artefacts and the will of others

-North-Eastern Hi-no Kuni-

"And there you are, right where the records said you would be," a young black and red-haired male murmured to themselves.

The object of interest was a large derelict wooden building. A damaged stone staircase fronted by a simplistic mon [1] led up to a raised central structure that was itself surrounded by a wooden walkway with battered railings travelling its circumference. The mon's two stone supporting columns barely held it up, chunks were missing and they were riddled with cracks. Nature had begun to reclaim what it lost with the buildings construction.

Part of the wooden walkway had collapsed and huge chunks of the roof were missing. 'Hmm, looks like explosive damage and yet there is no fire damage that I can see'. The figure ascended the stairs, soon reaching the entrance to the building proper. The doors had been smashed in. "Even here did not escape the destruction," they quietly sighed. Not that there was any danger of being overheard.

Walking through into the structure brought him into a large open room devoid of detail. All except for a raised wooden podium that dominated the centre of the space. The platform comprised a single wooden wall, at the bottom were ornate dark coloured flames, at the top were three connecting spiral symbols. In between both lay the reason he had sought this place out.

The wall was adorned with twenty-seven masks of varying design. "Huh, this building was clearly attacked and yet all twenty-seven remain. Ah, perhaps that's why," they finished with a light chuckle. Near the base of the mask wall was a mound of what looked like ash. "Hmm, perhaps those flames aren't for decorative purposes only. The texts I found on this place made reference to the masks being defended but didn't elaborate."

He tapped an index finger against his upper lip. "So, how do I retrieve the masks without dying?"

He took out a kunai and gently threw it at the wall. As soon as it hit the wall it burst into flames. The flames burnt black as the kunai quickly lost its shape, droplets of molten steel dripping onto the floor. "Well, those flames look familiar. Good thing I made the kunai bounce back onto the stone floor too, no good if I burn the whole building down."

He pondered the words of the only complete statement he'd found in reference to this wall. 'The wall will only abide those who's design matches its own.'

"Design matches its own? Couldn't be that simple surely," he wondered aloud. Withdrawing a bottle of water, he emptied some of the liquid onto his hand and flicked it at the wall. It burst into small puffs of steam immediately. "Ok, so it does respond to liquids so I can try this."

Storing the water bottle again he withdrew another kunai and cut into his palm drawing enough blood that he also flicked at the wall where it stuck but didn't boil away. "Huh, so maybe it was that simple. The walls defences will not respond to Uzumaki blood. I can only imagine how complex the seals behind that must be but does it apply to the masks, are they an extension of the wall itself?"

He threw the second kunai so the blunt ring end struck one of the masks where nothing happened. "Guess not, leaves one final test." Without the slightest movement a shadow clone appeared next to him. "Yo boss, whaddya need?"

"I need you to touch the wall and not catch fire."
"And will I catch fire?" the clone asked apprehensively. "I don't believe so but I want to be sure."

The clone didn't look very reassured by his words but nonetheless tentatively reached out and placed the palm of its hand against the wall. There was an audible sigh of relief when the clone didn't erupt in black fire. "What do ya reckon boss?"
"I believe the wall responds to Uzumaki chakra as well as blood, across the Elemental Nations, it is unique."

The original withdrew a large storage scroll and lay it flat on the ground, fully unrolled it was nearly twenty feet in length and was split into 27 even segments. "Okay we need to do these in order, remove the very top left mask from the wall and bring it to me."

The clone did as was asked and brought the first mask to Tri who sealed it in the far left segment. He spent a few minutes writing down what information he knew. The masks name if it was known, its purpose and the dangers of using it if any.

They continued removing and cataloguing all 27 masks for hours. Some of them he knew entirely their purpose along with the pros and cons of their use, others he knew absolutely nothing. And it wasn't as if he'd be able to experiment with them. He knew that one of the unknown masks would kill the person foolish enough to wear it instantly but he had no idea which one.

He had, however, found the three masks he absolutely had to secure. The mask of the veil, The mask of designs and The mask of the bloodline. He rolled the giant scroll back up but before he stored it away in a seal on his arm he placed his most complex security seal around it, keyed to only open when his own blood and chakra were provided.

"Thank you for your help," he thanked the clone. "No problem boss," it replied before dispelling. With his cargo secured he stepped out into the open air again. He took a deep breath, "Well, guess it's time I headed home."

-The following Day-

Sakura's day had gone from boring to just straight up dreadful and right now she was wishing it would go back to boring. Before she and her teammates had been dispatched on their patrol duties they had been warned of a small band of missing-nin in their patrol sector and that a squad of ANBU were attempting to track them down.

And of course they'd run straight into them, they were hours from the nearest possible reinforcements and days from being relieved from their patrol duties. Even better was that there was only about an hour of daylight left.

They'd been carrying out their patrol in formation as usual when they struck. The rear-guard who's name Sakura couldn't remember had gone done immediately, a kunai embedded in their spine. And now it was only Sakura and the other Chūnin left as they carried their Jōnin commander who had several shuriken lodged in her right leg.

Sakura was desperately trying to break their pursuit, using explosive tags and smoke bombs to cover their withdrawal where ever possible but it just wasn't working. There were simply too many of them and they were experienced enough to keep track of Sakura and the rest of the team.

They just broke into a clearing when Sakura's fellow Chūnin got a pair of shuriken in their side. The three of them went down in a heap. The Jōnin screamed in agony as the shuriken in her leg were forced deeper into her flesh, the blood flow now gushing from the deep wound.

Sakura landed next to her commanding officer, she could tell the shuriken had nicked an artery. She acted quickly placing her hand on the wound, the shuriken between her middle and ring fingers as she channelled medical chakra into the flesh surrounding the wound to dull the pain. Grasping the visible half of the shuriken she pulled,

The weapon thankfully came free with little effort, her commander crying in pain again as the flow of blood only worsened. Using both her hands she pushed down hard as she tried to repair the artery before she bled out.

She spared a brief glance at her third teammate, Sakura was relieved to see he knew at least some medical Ninjutsu as he also extracted and healed the shuriken wounds. In her efforts to save a life she had momentarily forgotten that she was being pursued. It meant she never noticed the missing-nin allowing her to heal the wound.

It didn't take her long before she'd undone the worst of the damage. Luckily the artery had only been nicked and not cut all the way through, if it had she'd of bled to death before Sakura could stem the blood loss.

Sakura took a breath as she stood, her hands and forearms coated in blood, she'd saved her commanders life for now but then it dawned on her she and her teammates weren't alone, in a dozen or so trees surrounding them were the missing-nin that had been chasing them.

"Well, things could look better for us, Sakura-san," her fellow Chūnin Nishioka Sanzo quietly said as he stood next to her, a noticeable limp in his left leg, a kunai in his hand. "We need to buy some time," she quietly said to him. "What for?"
"There's a large Chakra signature heading our way. We need to hang on until whoever it is arrives."
"And if it's just another missing-nin?"
"Well, then we're dead either way," Sakura bluntly replied.

"What direction?"
"North-east-east I think."
"Can you tell how big the signature is?"
"Way beyond anyone else here," As she finished speaking that she spotted a small black bird land on the branch of a nearby tree. She caught the eye of the animal as they both stared at one another.

For a few seconds nothing happened but then she felt the moving chakra signature speed up, it seemed to be heading straight for them. 'Need more time'.

"So who the hell are you supposed to be?" Sakura called out, hoping the leader of their little group would reveal themselves. "I wouldn't worry about names little lady, you won't survive long enough. Good job on healing your commander though," he finished. She could tell he was patronizing her. He only grinned as she gave him a narrow-eyed glare.

"Feisty one aren't ya. Brick, why don't you take care of her. I know you like em young and feisty." At his word a huge figure jumped down from a tree. 'All muscle, no brains. Wonderful' Sakura thought to herself. She just hoped his size made him sluggish as he rushed her, a huge meaty fist cocked back.

With a kunai in hand she ducked under the punch and slashed at Brick's thigh. 'What on earth is his skin made off?' she thought as the kunai only cut a few millimetres deep. It certainly wasn't because her kunai were blunt, she had sharpened them all not long ago.

Her thoughts almost cost her as she barely dodged a backhand, Brick's arm whistling past her head. Again she was able to counter with another kunai slash, again it barely broke the surface. Quickly jumping back the get some distance she tried to buy herself a few seconds to think but she got none as she was forced to roll to the side as Brick jumped into the air, rolling himself into a ball before dive-bombing back to the ground. The impact leaving a crater.

Sakura timed a few shuriken to skim over the crater just as Brick popped his head up. Unfortunately he wasn't looking at her so the shuriken struck the side of his head, one of them piercing the top of his ear, pinning it against his head.

If anything that only seemed to anger the near 7ft giant as he shot towards her again. She backed up until she was just in front of a tree. As Brick unleashed a fist aimed at her face she shunshined away leaving him with only a tree to punch. The sound of cracking and splintering wood echoed around the clearing as Brick lodged his fist up to the wrist inside the trunk of the tree.

Brick gave out a deep but loud grunt of pain as he ripped his fist back out, a sizeable slither of wood embedded between two of his knuckles. Sakura winced slightly as he yanked the wood out and threw it away, the blood running down his hand.

Seeing she had a moment she opened her senses up to find the unknown chakra signature was closing in quickly, they seemed to have sped up further. 'I'd guess another thirty seconds or so'.

As Brick began charging towards her again she ran through some hand-seals, "Suiton: Teppōdama," (Water Release: Gunshot). The ball of water she shot from her mouth wasn't very large but it was very fast. Brick wasn't paying close enough attention to realise the Jutsu was aimed at his injured hand.

Sakura's accuracy was bang on, the water hit the wound dead on and it packed enough of a punch to tear the wound wide open. You would have almost been able to hear the flesh on Brick's hand tearing if it wasn't for the sound being buried by the sound of bones snapping.

The pain was overwhelming as Brick skidded to a halt, dropping to one knee, his full attention on his mangled hand in silent shock. His ring and little fingers had snapped at the Metacarpal bone and were now only attached to the rest of his hand by some skin, the blood pouring out, a pool quickly forming on the ground.

Seeing her opportunity to end it Sakura moved quickly, Brick never noticed her appear behind him, a kunai in one hand, a rock in the other. She jammed the kunai into the back of his neck, again it didn't penetrate very deep but that's where the rock came in as she drove it home into the ring end of the kunai.

*Crack*

The sound was sickening as the blade slipped deeply between the third and fourth vertebrae. Brick went wide-eyed but felt nothing, it had killed him instantly. He didn't make a sound as he fell face forward to the ground, the only movement coming from the small twitches of his limbs.

Sakura took a deep breath before throwing the rock away. Casting her gaze across the trees," Well, who's next." The leader of the missing nin's dropped to the ground along with five others. They all had surprised looks on their faces, it was then Sakura noticed there was someone standing next to her.

"And who might you be, friend?" The latest arrival ignored the question, instead staring at Sakura, his face seemed clouded in confusion before it brightened, "Sakura-san!" he cheered, then he noticed the flak jacket, "Hey, you did it! You made Chūnin. Congratulations!"

Sakura just stared back, utterly baffled. This person had their left eye shut, a sizeable scar ran vertically down it. Their right eye, however, was a mix of green and black she'd only seen once before. "Tri-san?" she asked to which she got an enthusiastic nod in return. "Ah, you do recognise me, good."

"AHEM, I've already asked you once before, I shan't be so polite again, who are you?" the leader of the treasonous nin demanded. But again Tri ignored him, "I guess this lot attacked your patrol?"
"Yep, killed one, injured the other two."
"I see, any requests?"
"Fancy leaving the leader to me?"
"If that's what you want."

"STOP IGNORING ME!" he screamed at the two of them. "I wouldn't get cocky, it's still eleven vs two," he quickly added after calming himself. "Well, your half right," Tri replied. "Care to explain," was the smug reply. "Well, it's just you were right, there are two of us. But there are only six of you." Before he could even retort, five bodies fell out of the trees. "I believe these belonged to you," Tri calmly added.

All the bravado, all the confidence drained out of the remaining five. "Shall we wrap this up, Sakura-san?"

"Yes, I've my teammates to attend to. Sanzo-san, hold down the fort." Tri nodded before vanishing, one of the five quickly going down, a kunai jammed into their jugular.

The rest of the fight was surprisingly disappointing as far as it being a contest, Sakura was expecting the leader to put up a better fight but it hadn't taken her long to cripple him, she really wished they wouldn't beg for their lives when they realise they've been beaten. It made killing them a little awkward.

With the fight over Sakura reclaimed the kunai she'd used, the one in Bricks neck proved rather difficult to extract. Tri walked over to her after sending a clone to check on her injured teammates. "You alright?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm fine apart from being covered in blood, losing one of my teammates and this damn kunai not coming out," she said with a sigh as she finally managed to extract the weapon. "Talk me through what happened."

She spent the next few minutes taking him through the events of the past hour or two. "I can understand why you're frustrated but you shouldn't be. Yes you lost a teammate but you couldn't have prevented it, your two remaining teammates are still alive because of you. Take solace in that fact and that your fallen comrade is avenged."

Tri knelt down next the dead leader, he laid a sealing scroll flat on the ground. Channelling Fūton chakra through a kunai he decapitated him, sealing the head in the scroll he stood again. He walked back to Sakura and offered her the scroll, he explained upon seeing the confused look on her face.

"Despite my ignoring him, I know he's listed in the Konoha Bingo book. Sure he was only a B-Rank missing-nin but that's still 150,000 Ryo, you got the kill, you get the bounty." Sakura sighed before accepting the scroll. "How did you know we were here? And what happened to your left eye?" she asked after she remembered that they were in the middle of nowhere.

Instead of using words, he held his arm out. A couple seconds past and nothing happened, Sakura was about to ask what he was doing but a bird landed on Tri's arm before she could speak. "A bird?" Sakura could have sworn the Raven was glaring at her, Tri must have noticed too because he started laughing.

"Muninn-kun here is a Raven and a special Raven at that," he said, gently stroking the feathers over the bird's chest. "It's a summon?" Sakura inquired. "Yes Muninn-kun and his brother Huginn-kun are my twin summons. Muninn-kun spotted your team being harassed and informed me, that's how I found you."

"I thought all summons could talk," Sakura blurted out. "Humph, well, others talk enough for the rest of us," Sakura heard in her head while Tri struggled not to laugh again. "I guess you heard that too?" she asked, already knowing the answer. "Yes, they both communicate telepathically and they're both remarkably intelligent. Makes them magnificent scouts and spies."

"And your eye?"
"I-I'll explain on the way but we need to get your teammates to the hospital and retrieve our fallen comrade's body. It's going to take us nearing a day to get them back to the village."

-The following day – Konoha-

Tri and Sakura had successfully returned to Konoha without further incident, Sakura was at the Hospital with her squad mates. They'd debrief with the Hokage later but right now Tri wanted a better view of the village he'd not seen for five years. He walked up to a wooden pole walked vertically up it to the top. He smiled as he drank the view in.

Rezano was walking home after another day at the Academy, he had begun nearly three weeks ago. His thoughts drifting to those that comprised his class. First there was Uchiha Sasuke who seemed to be as arrogant as Rezano himself although Rezano was in denial of sorts regarding his own arrogant attitude. Despite that he could tell Sasuke was talented for his age but he was utterly unapproachable socially.

Next were the rest of the boys; Inuzuka Kiba and his puppy Akamaru, Rezano had already met Kiba before the Academy since his Nii-san's were friends with Kiba's sister Hana. Next was Akimichi Choji, a quiet portly boy who really loved potato chips, Rezano had yet to see him without a pack within arm's reach.

Then there was Aburame Shino, he was a very quiet person with a fascination for bugs. Then there was Nara Shikamaru, the laziest person Rezano had ever seen, not paying attention for half their classes and sleeping through the other half.

Then came the girls of his class. First was Yamanaka Ino, an unashamed Sasuke fangirl, far more interested in her appearance than honing her craft. Next there was Nara Meshikamaru [2], Shikamaru's twin sister. She was the complete opposite of her brother, she was driven, assertive and hard-working.

Finally was Hyūga Hinata, an incredibly quiet and shy girl whose voice was never louder than a whisper, she always stuttered when she was around him as well. Rezano wasn't sure why but she intrigued him, as a result he was much nicer to her than he was to the others. That's not to say she was the only one he was nice to, he considered Kiba a friend already and he didn't want to get on the wrong side of Meshikamaru.

Those were his fellow classmates, his sensei was relatively new having only started teaching at the Academy the year before, his sensei's name was Umino Iruka, a Chūnin clad in the standard issue Konoha uniform with a large scar horizontally crossing his face.

Rezano had come to the conclusion that while Iruka-sensei was enthusiastic about teaching and came across as someone who genuinely cared about his students but it was his lectures. He got so caught up in delivering long detailed lectures that his class would simply grow bored and switch off.

Over the past year his Nii-san's influence has been changing how he acted and treated others, sometimes the change was influenced violently, either brother having lost count of how many times Naruto had backhanded or restrained him for his actions towards others, he'd even fractured his wrist once. Despite that the changes had only been minor.

Thinking of his family, Naruto and Minusha were a few feet behind him, they'd been passing the day together before collecting him after he finished at the Academy for today. His final sibling, however, was still absent. His return date was nearing a month ago and no one seemed to know where he was and his Imouto had been asking everyone, well.. It felt like she had. She asked Naruto-nii-san at least every day or two.

Almost as if by magic he heard her ask yet again. "Nii-chan, do you know when Tri-nii-chan is going to be back yet?" Naruto sighed, it frustrated him to not be able to tell his little sister what she wanted to know. Today however would prove to be different.

He was about to reply but a tall pole ahead of them stood out because it seemed to be taller than it should have been. Looking closer he could tell someone was standing atop it. He couldn't distinguish any facial features although he could tell they weren't looking in his direction, however, a light violet sash around his waist gave him away.

"Nii-chan?" Minusha asked, confused why her brother hadn't responded. He smiled, "I think I know Minusha-chan," he replied. His words also grabbed Rezano's attention and caused Minusha's facial expression to brighten. "Really? Where?" she excitedly asked. Naruto only pointed to the top of the wooden pole.

Minusha ran down the street until she was stood at the base of the near thirty-foot pole. "NII-CHAN!" she shouted up to him.

At the top, Tri, who had been looking out over the village smiled as he heard the voice call up to him. Unseen by everyone Tri cast a Genjutsu over the left side of his face, that hid only the scar, he kept his left eye shut regardless. His illusion in place he jumped down from the pole.

Minusha took one look into the green and black eye and immediately rushed to hug him with a cry of happiness. Despite how young she was at the time she remembered those eyes. "Hello Minusha-chan." Her reply didn't seem to include words instead sounding like happy squeaks.

He and Naruto locked eyes, the blonde obviously noticing the Genjutsu and gave the smallest of nods in understanding.

The next hour the four reunited siblings ended up wandering around the village for a while before they found themselves at Ichiraku Ramen, Tri telling stories the entire time. None of the four of them understood quite how they'd ended up there, no one had said a word. It said a lot about them that all four whilst moving on auto-pilot collectively ended up at a ramen stand.

But eventually it became time for Tri to report to the Hokage. It was overdue, after all, he was technically a month late reporting in.

"Hey Tou-san," Naruto said as he walked through the door, "Look who I found wandering around the village."
"Hey Naruto-kun, who are you on abo… Well, took you long enough," Minato lightly chided as Tri followed Naruto in.

Tri cast a quick glance around the office seeing that Hiruzen and Tsunade were both present. 'Good, I won't have to go looking for them'. "Apologies for my tardiness in returning, Hokage-sama. There were a few tasks I wished to see through before I came baaa…"

He wasn't quite able to finish before someone jumped on him from behind, their arms quickly wrapping around his neck. "Hey Kaa-chan," he calmed said to the woman currently attempting to piggyback him.

Kushina had spotted Naruto and Tri heading up to Minato's office and had followed them. "Don't Kaa-chan me, mister. You're late."
"I won't be able to take your threats seriously for much longer Kaa-chan, I'm almost as tall as you." That comment earned him a playful slap on the shoulder, "Shut up," she half-heartedly replied with a pout.

The others in the room was a mixture of chuckles or poor attempts not to chuckle. Eventually they all calmed down while Kushina had yet to let go of Tri. "Where did you wish to start, Hokage-sama?"
"Well, where have you been? you were expected back a month ago."
"I went to Uzushiogakure."

His answer surprised many in the room, Kushina in particular. "Why did you go there, Tri-kun?" she asked, a little sadness in her voice. "Firstly I wanted to see it for myself and secondly I wanted to survey the place. You'd be amazed at what you can find when you can open the locking seals dotted around the village."

"You found something?" Hiruzen asked, "Many things Hiruzen-sama. I found the library with hundreds of still legible tomes. I've copied each and every one, sadly there were maybe thousands more that were destroyed or rendered illegible. Information in the library also led me to a multitude of Uzumaki artefacts, all of which I've secured and safeguarded."

"Do you wish to elaborate, Tri-kun?" Kushina inquired. "Not really, or at least not just yet, Kaa-chan, there are forces in this world that would flatten mountains to get their hands on some of the things I found. Others should never see the light of day. The Uzumaki clan at times dabbled in things they really shouldn't have."

Kushina leaned in close, "Do you know where the masks are?" she whispered in his ear. Covering his mouth he whispered back, "Yes, all twenty-seven are safe." Kushina nodded but neither said another word. The look on her face said this discussion was over.

Tsunade spoke next. "Why don't we move onto the Genjutsu over your face."

Tri visibly deflated slightly at her words. A quick hand-seal and the illusion melted away revealing the scar running down his left eye. Kushina gasped upon seeing it, gently running a finger along the scar. "What happened?" she quietly asked. Her question actually made Tri flush in embarrassment.

"Umm, turns out you can't see shuriken in the dark," he said. "Tri-kun, I thought your sixth sense was highly developed?" Hiruzen asked. "It is, Hiruzen-sama. It was dodging a shuriken that got me hit. I leant to the right, straight into the path of the shuriken that hit me. It cost me my left eye. Kushina furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "But I can feel the curve of an eye in your socket," she said running her finger over it again.

"I'll tell you but only if you seal the room," his voice carried a very serious tone to it. Minato turned to Naruto, "Naruto-kun, do you know what this is already?"
"Hai."
"Do you agree with Tri that the room should be sealed?"
"Hai." Naruto's voice wasn't lacking in conviction which was enough for Minato. Channelling Chakra through one of his feet then into the hidden seal array on the floor underneath his desk.

In a fraction of a second the seal spread across the floor and walls insulating the room so no sound would pass beyond its walls. Tri took a deep breath and opened his eyelid. The room was a mixture of gasps and surprise. Gone was the bright Emerald Green to be replaced by red.

"You said you lost your left eye, yes?" Hiruzen asked. "I did."

"So who did that eye belong to?" Tri took another deep breath, "Whom this eye belonged to is why I asked you to seal the room. This is the left eye of Uchiha Shisui. The eye has been under Itachi-kun's protection since Shisui's death until he offered me the opportunity to wield it around two years ago. Shisui's final request to us both was to carry on his will, through his own eye felt appropriate."

"But I can't have it publically known that this is Shisui's eye. The forces that claimed Shisui's life and his right eye would not hesitate to take his left from me. Tsunade-sama, are you able to heal the scar tissue? I need to be able to pass the eye off as my own."

She walked up to him and slowly ran her finger along the scar, "The Shuriken cut into the eyelid, upper cheek and the eyebrow, the bone of the eye socket stopped it from penetrating any deeper so the scar doesn't run too deep. It will take several hours but I should be able to heal it completely."

"How do you intend to pass it off as your own eye?" Minato asked. "By using my Uchiha ancestry as a front. I will have enough Uchiha blood to awaken a single Sharingan but not enough to properly control it. I can't turn it off so I have to keep my eye closed since it's a constant drain on my Chakra."

"It's certainly plausible," Hiruzen said, "after all there has never been someone of mixed ancestry who's succeeded in awakening the Sharingan at least to my knowledge. So they've nothing to compare it against."

"What's it like to use?" Kushina asked curiously. "It's uses are surprisingly limited for me. Anything beyond thirty yards is slightly blurred and anything beyond a hundred I can barely distinguish. This limits how I can use it. And since I'm poor at Taijutsu I only use it for copying hand-seals and visual based Genjutsu."

"I've never heard of a Sharingan with anything less than crystal clear vision before," Tsunade said as she continued examining the scar. "Neither have I," Hiruzen added, "Kakashi has never mentioned having blurred vision before with his Sharingan." Tri shrugged his shoulders, "I worry that constant use will just worsen my sight so I keep my eye closed, I would prefer few knew of my flawed vision."

The room was quiet for a few moments before Minato spoke again, "Very well, Tri-kun, I imagine the Uchiha clan will try and take the eye from you so we'll need to prepare for that and I want you to drop by tomorrow and we'll sort out your duties. Anyone have anything else?"

"Actually, Minato-kun, there is one more thing," Hiruzen interrupted. "Tri-kun, why are you listed in Kirigakure's Bingo Book?"

"Ah, that. Err, a few months ago I ran across one of the seven swordsmen, well someone with one of the seven swords anyway. They were hardly a fully-fledged member, I managed to kill him after all."
"So, hang on. You killed a wielder of one of the seven swords?"
"Yes, hardly a diplomatic incident since I've heard none of the swords are currently loyal to Kirigakure."

"So why are you listed in the book?"
"Because I didn't give the sword back. They tried asking nicely but I wasn't interested so they listed me," Tri chuckled.

"Which of the swords do you have?" Kushina asked. Holding his hand out a long slender blade shaped like a needle with metal wire attached at one end appeared in it. "Nuibari (Sewing Needle)," Hiruzen said first. "How'd the fight go?" Naruto asked. "One of my hardest but Kuriarare Kushimaru he was not," Minato, Kushina, Tsunade and Hiruzen shivered slightly at the mention of his name. "And a good thing too Tri-kun, there are few in the world who would have willing challenged him."

Tri suddenly lifted the right leg of his three-quarter pants to reveal a round scar on either side of his calf. "Still good enough to run me through with it though, by kami it's painful having the wire pulling on your muscle. Jokes on him though, the hole I put in his chest was much bigger than this."

End Chapter

Another talky chapter I know but there was some violence to satiate you all.

[1] – Mon is a generic Japanese term for gate

[2] – Meshikamaru is derived from the Japanese word Meshika, which translates as Doe (female deer) while Shikamaru is a translation of Deer. Since I aged Sakura I needed a replacement. And an intelligent, hard-working Nara girl felt like a good replacement with the aim of her being incredibly similar and yet a complete opposite.