Episode 34: The Second Kinkage
A letter was sent to the Hidden Leaf Village of the Steel. It explained their situation, and how they now needed to ally with the Leaf.
The Metal Village didn't make allies with anyone before. They also didn't make enemies. Unlike all the other Great Shinobi Nations, they stayed out of the Great Ninja Wars. They only had Shinobi there in case someone attacked them, so they could defend themselves.
Lady Tsunade instantly agreed, but they had to go to a meeting with some of the Kazekage, Kinkage, and Hokage.
The Steel agreed to their needs, and then they sent a small group to find their new Kinkage.
In this group was Tatsuzo, Yozo, and Rinji. Yozo was his clan was the only trackers in the village. Rinji and Tatsuzo were there in case they encountered enemy Shinobi.
After several days, they found him. He had long black hair, and black facial hair. He was wearing a broad straw hat, and he was wearing a black kimono. He had a walking stick with him. He was also lying on his back.
"So the Steel has come back for me, eh?" He asked.
"Yeah. We want you to come back to the Steel."
"I appreciate the offer, but no thanks..."
"The Kinkage is dead. Kuma Sachi. The Kinkage wants you to become the next Kinkage." Tatsuzo said.
He stopped for a moment. "So the old man finally kicked the bucket... what did him in? Old age? Bad case of food poisoning?"
"Assassination." Rinji told him.
"I see..." He closed his eyes. "I'm sorry for his death. But I'm not exactly made to be the Kinkage. For one thing, I don't like to be in the same area for long periods of time. I'm also not the strongest Shinobi, or the most strategic."
"Mister..." Yozo said.
"Sachi." Kuma told him.
"Mister Sachi. You don't need to be extremely strong or extremely strategic to become the Kinkage. But you're a jack of all traits, master of none. You are half strategy, and have strength. I've read about you, and when you were in the military, you were one of the best."
"But like I said, I'm not exactly the best candidate. What about Tadashi Fujino?"
"Sir, he was the one who assassinated the previous Kinkage."
"I'm sorry about that." He sat up. "Give me a list of all the Jonin, and I'll tell you who is the best candidate to become the Kinkage."
"Alright, Squad One's Jonin spot is vacant. Squad Two is my friend Rinji here."
"I'm from the Toichi Clan. I may be smarter than some Shinobi, my jutsu makes teamwork extremely hard with me."
"Squad Three's Jonin has been killed. Squad Four's Jonin is Retsu Unohana."
"Retsu? Is that the first Kenpachi's daughter?"
"No. Yachiru Unohana changed her name to Retsu after our current Kenpachi joined the Steel."
"I know Unohana... go on."
"Squad Five Jonin has been killed. Squad Six Jonin is Ayako Kujianja. She's smart and strong. But she's too cocky to be a Kinkage. Squad Seven has Majikku Itsuki. He's very calculative, but he's not very strong. He's took weak to be the strongest in the village. Squad Eight, has Raijo Yajiko. He's very cold, and he's sadistic. Squad Nine has Nario Washi. Nario doesn't like people very much. Squad Ten has myself."
"Tatsuzo is probably the best candidate." Said Rinji. "But he's not quite strategic and he doesn't know much about military battle. He'd probably prefer to just fight on the front lines with the rest of his people. Squad Eleven has Kenpachi Zaraki... You know of the Kenpachi?"
"Yeah. You don't need to talk about him."
"Squad Twelve has Suraisu, who has no Clan. He's very loud, and he tells people exactly how he feels. If he doesn't like you, he'll tell you. This is not a notable way for a Kinkage to ask. Squad Thirteen has Machiko Fujino, Tadashi's little sister. I don't think she was in on this, but she might have been. I don't trust her."
"Well then. I'll join and fix the village."
They tell told him about the meeting he had to go to.
He nodded. "Alright..."
`The next day, Kuma was in the Village Hidden in the Steel. He cut his hair into a military cut, and he shaved his face. He was still wearing his kimono and straw hat. He was standing in front of the ninja of the Steel Village.
"If you don't already know, my name is Kuma Sachi. I am the second Kinkage. I understand that not everyone wants me to be here, and I know why. I don't want to be here myself, but it is my duty. I want any un-squaded Jonin to step forwards."
They stepped forwards. He appointed all the squads without a Jonin a Captain. All of the Jonin were picked, aside from one.
`The next day, Kuma teleported to the Village Hidden in the Leaves to the talk to the Fifth Hokage.
The other two Kages were already there. They were sitting at a round table. The Kazekage had red hair, and green eyes. He had the kanji for love on his forehead.
Kuma tipped his hat to them. "Lord Kazekage. Lady Hokage."
"No need to be so formal." Said Tsunade. "You can just address us by our names."
"I'm really bad with names. I have forgotten them..." He started to rub the back of his head, and his face reddened slightly.
"My name is Tsunade."
"And I am Gaara."
"Spooky." He sat down at the table, and took his hat off.
"Kuma, if you can't take this seriously then leave." Said Tsunade.
"Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood." He looked at them, his eyes turning serious. "The Akatsuki have threatened each of our villages, correct?"
"Hm. They extracted the Tailed Beast from me." Said Gaara.
"That was Shikaku?"
"Yes."
Kuma turned to Tsunade. "And you have the Junchiruki of the Nine Tailed Fox?"
"His name is Naruto Uzumaki. He's not one to be under estimated, but the Akatsuki are a force to be reckoned with."
"Yes, I have realized that. So what is the plan?"
"First, we need to pool our information together. What do you know about the Akatsuki, Gaara? You fought them first hand."
Gaara's face turned red. "Well... the one was an old man. I couldn't get close to him. If any of my sand got near him it'd instantly decay. Not a single grain actually hit him. His name was Baraggan Louisenbairn. The other Sakura Haruno fought."
"Sakura told me that the one she defeated... his name was Sasori. He used Puppet Master Jutsus." Tsunade said. "Our inteligence has told us that the Akatsuki works in cells of two. We only know of Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, Sasori, and Baraggan Lousienbairn. Itachi Uchiha has the Sharingan, and he's a natural born prodigy- he's good at everything. Kisame was a member of the Seven Swordsman. With the limited information we have on him, he uses a blade that can steal people's chakra if it cuts them and he's a master of Water Style Jutsus. And we know of an ex-member named Orochimaru. He uses Snake Jutsus, and he's immortal..."
"Well my intel is different from both of yours. The Akatsuki has several groups. The top ten, are simply known as the Akatsuki. The people after them are the Takdesu. They take orders directly from the top ten, and then give them to the lower ranked people. There are about twenty Takdesu. After the Takdesu there are the Shipata, the lowest ranks. The Shipata never even see the top ten. They take their orders from Takdesu. There are about one hundred and fifty of them.
"Each of the Shipata has a code name, that's a word. Such as Ice, Yellow, or Grime. They are allowed to do whatever they want in their free time. Most of the Shipata work in groups of two, unless they're going after a bigger mission. Becoming Shipata is not hard."
"How do we do it?"
"Well, you simply need to know someone on the inside to join. We have already sent several members of our village to join them and try to go through the ranks."
Tsunade nodded. "Alright. The Akatsuki is going to attack the next Jinchuriki. We know this for sure. We must attack them head on. We're going to send the Squad of Twenty to take them. But, I need the Steel to send your strongest fighters with them, making them the Squad of Twenty One. Make sure the members of your village that you send can work well together. They don't necessarily need to be able to work well with anyone else though. they just need to be strong."
"I know just the guys that can help." The Kinkage said.
"Also, Gaara. I would like you to send a small Squad as well."
"It's now the Squad of Twenty Two." Kuma quipped.
"Alright." Gaara nodded. "I'll send some men."
Several hours later, Kenpachi, Tatsuzo, and Rinji were called down to the Kinkage's office. So was another squad Jonin. This was Machiko Fujino, Tadashi's little sister. Machiko had long black hair that went down to her buttock. She had dark blue eyes, and she had her headband slightly crooked. She was wearing a black leather jacket, that was open up at the top to show her white under shirt. She was also wearing black pants.
"Hey," Kuma said. "I have a mission for you four. I'm sorry for the short notice."
"It'll be fine with just us three." Said Kenpachi. "This woman doesn't need to be here."
Machiko said nothing.
"Well, I wouldn't have her be here if she didn't have to. It's a necessity that she's with you guys. She's a tracker ninja. I'd prefer to only have people that know each other to be in a group, but that can't be done."
"Machiko is not a traitor to the village." Said Tatsuzo. "That was just her brother. They even used the Back to the Past Jutsu on her. She's clean."
"I didn't say she wasn't."
"Well why don't you want her here?" Asked Rinji.
Kenpachi looked her up and down. He didn't take his eyes off her when he spoke, even though he was speaking to Rinji. "I don't know her. Therefore I don't trust her. For all I know she'll get in the way of my battles and I won't be able to enjoy them."
"Kenpachi!" Growled Kuma. "This isn't a recommendation. You must take her with you."
Kenpachi and Kuma starred at each other for a solid minute. Kenpachi's hand slowly went for his sword.
Tatsuzo put his hand on Kenpachi's shoulder. "Chill out. If she tries to get in your way, I'll stop her. But we still need to know what our mission is. If we get into a serious battle, you can pick who you want to fight."
Kenpachi's hand dropped to the side.
Kuma instantly relaxed his glare, and he leaned back a little more in his seat. "You're going to search for some grave robbers."
"Grave robbers?" Growled Kenpachi. "There are four Jonin here. Send some Genin to deal with those damned grave robbers."
"Well they aren't ordinary grave robbers. They're Akatsuki."
Kenpachi grinned. "Akatsuki, huh? What are they doing robbin' graves?"
"We don't know. But there are four of them. We know nothing about them, so you're going in blind. But we did find this..." He pulled something from under his desk, and set it down. It was a headband. To be more specifically, it was a headband from the Steel with a vertical line scratching through the kanji.
"What the hell is that?" Kenpachi growled.
"It's one of their headbands. It'll help Machiko track them."
Notes: I honestly didn't want to have Machiko to join in on this mission. But I knew I needed to have a tracker. And I also wanted to introduce a female main character. Because let's face it, Kiku and Kiyomi are boring. So yeah, Machiko is going to join their little crew.
