Kusagakure Chapter

1st Scroll: The Village Hidden in Grass...

Every country is named or associated with a certain type of element. Fighters who come from one of those countries usually have special techniques that have to do with their respected element. In this world of shinobi, only 4 main countries are really recognized. These countries are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Lightning.

But bordering most of these powerful countries are smaller villages and countries with Shinobi that are casted out from this huge circle. My country, Yamigakure will spawn from these villages that haven't seen the light of praise or recognition.

Currently I stood on the border of Kusa, a small grassland country that is on the divides the two greater Countries of Fire and Earth. Iwa and Konoha has always been at odds and doesn't exactly see eye to eye even in these days. I was accosted by a small girl maybe of 14 or 15, she had a Kusa headband strapped to the sash of her beautiful kimono. She was kunoichi, young with strange cat ears.

"Most likely you're a scout for Kusa. You needn't alarm your village of me, I'm simply a wandering ninja." I said.

"Mew..." She cocked her head to the side. "Well that whole fight with the leaf ninjas didn't seem too kosher. You're probably a wanted nin, maybe I can collect a reward from your dead body."

"Tough words from a young genin." I adjusted my hat fixing it on my head. I'd always do this as some sort of ritual before I began a fight.

"HYAAA!" She hopped off of the tree and in an instant...

I dispatched her.

She was laying down face first in the dirt with my foot pressing into her back. I didn't even have to draw my sword. "Give it up kid...you can't stop me."

"Errr!" She growled like a kitten and her body morphed into a log. My mind immediately dealt with the situation and analyzed it quickly, substitution jutsu. I reached to the pouch on my right thigh and drew a kunai spinning it on my finger then tossing it behind me without looking, the kunai stabbed through the back of her collar and stuck her to the bark of a tree. She hung there with her hands and feet flailing.

"Argh! Ahhhhhh kyaaaa!" She struggled and the kunai cut through the back collar of her kimono, she went falling down into a bush.

I didn't think anything of it and continued on my path towards Kusagakure, the village wouldn't be too hard to find. Not with my ninja senses anyway. I made my way out of into an open valley with a vast blue cloudless sky above me, the grass seemed to get longer and taller. As I advanced forward.

CHIK CHIK CHIK...The grass got longer and longer, it continued to grow even past my head as I kept walking I could see massive ants and bugs march past me picking a dirt and building nests. "Dammit..." I said suddenly realizing that I was trapped in someone's genjutsu. They had to be pretty damn good to get one over on me.

This Genjutsu was an illusion that made me see as though I shrunk and everything has gotten bigger in life. It isn't as basic of a jutsu as one would think, many men have known to lose their minds because of this jutsu. But I knew how to break this illusion fast. I drew kunai from my pocket and stabbed it into my right thigh, two hands I shoved the blade into my thigh and even wiggled it abit. The pain was excruciating but I could see the illusion dropping.

It's one of the three cheap ways to get out of someone's Genjutsu, to focus your body entirely on pain. Pain brings you back into reality, with some Genjutsu that doesn't always work, but with one where you're wandering lost or in a loop. Pain is the best way to go, I learned that from Baian.

I pulled the kunai from my thigh seeing that I returned to the path I was walking in the middle of the open grassland.

"You've done well to dispel my Genjutsu." A masculine voice quaked through my ears.

I bit down and glared ahead of me to see a shinobi with the Kusa headband on, he wore a yellow rice colored tunic with a rope like sash around his waist and tight black pants which doubled for boots. It was the same attire that snake Orochimaru would always wear. This man had long black hair and strang zigzagging eyebrows, beside him was the cat eared genin scout.

"Naaaanaaaaa! Azai-sama is here to put you in your place wanted nin." She pointed one of her long kimono sleeves at me.

"What is your business here?" The Kusa Ninja, known as Azai asked holding up a three shuriken between his fingers. He meant to throw them if I gave him the wrong reply.

I narrowed my eyes and lowered my head so that the bill of my hat would cover them from him. "I am Takeda Raizou, the Yamikage of Yamigakure."

"Yami...Yamigakure?" Azai asked sounding abit confused. "I've never heard of such a village."

I went past the explanations and got straight to the point. "I've come to Kusa in search of capable ninja to join me and help build my village."

The cat girl gasped then hid behind her jounin senpai. "What? You've come to defect our ninja? Are you a fool? You come waltzing into another country demanding soldiers for a land that does not exist? Be gone with you rogue, before I condemn you to ninjutsu of Kusa."

"I'm sorry but this is the path that I have chosen, if you will not willingly join me then I'll have you join Yamigakure by force." I said and the moment I said this, three shuriken zipped towards me. At the same speed I threw three shuriken of my own, the six shuriken collided in the middle like bullets and immediately Azai and I both leaped back away from each other clapping our hands together for ninjutsu.

"Doton: Doseikiryudan no Jutsu! (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet Technique!)

"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu! (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!)

A vortex of spiraling water appeared at my feet and collected into a maelstrom of storming water which blew forward forming a red eye'd water dragon like beam. The same appeared at Azai's feet, but the dragon that came to his call was made of dirt and rock. Both dragons like two beams collided together creating a dusted explosion.

Using the dust as cover I dashed into the fray drawing my katana which immediately began sparking off electricity, reacting to my chakra. I phased out and appeared sliding through the dust and smoke out of the other end and just afew inches infront of Azai, he stood there looking down at me with the lightning tip of my sword afew inches from his throat. I could tell this guy was just a Chuunin, a Jounin would have been better prepared.

A Jounin would have thought better ahead and made a shadow clone to stand here instead of standing here like an idiot and waiting to see the outcome of his attack.

"Why does Kusa have a genin and a chuunin out patrolling the border? That's a jounin's job." I replied keeping my sword erect and steady, un shivering, unmoving until he answered my question.

"Azai-sama!" The cat girl called out jumped at me but with just my left hand I grabbed the girl by her kimono and slung her down to the ground resting my foot on her small chest.

"Gaaaa!" She struggled and tried to fight .

Suddenly Azai didn't seem as cocky now, he lowered his head alittle. "Errr...Kusa...isn't what it used to be. We're a poor country with little ninja to spare...Because of the new Kusakage we have, she doesn't want to reach out to Konoha for help with food and resources. Her selfish pride is destroying our people."

He revealed alittle too much just then, another mistake a Chuunin would make. This guy isn't capable of killing me nor is his little...friend. I lowered my sword and sheathed it on my back then took my foot off of the cat girl's chest which made her skitter away. My sudden kindness gave the cat girl and him a strange look. They both backed away from me into an aggressive state.

"Whaa...wh-why are you letting us go?" The cat girl asked.

"It would seem you're being oppressed because of your leader." I said with a shrug. "In my village there would be plenty of resources to go around."

Azai and the Cat girl both looked at eachother then looked back at me. "We can't abandoned our home, we WON'T! So you can keep your ideals BUSTER!" The cat girl screamed. Azai simply stared at me though, as though he were rethinking the whole thing.

"Your village is in need of food and supplies. How about I sweeten the deal and get your village those so called supplies." I said rubbing my chin curiously.

O.o-Cat girl "Wh-Why would you do that?"

"Kaoru, quiet for asecond." Azai stepped forward finally revealing her name to me.

"Bu-But Azai-sama!"

"You say you can get us food and supplies?" Azai asked. "How?"

I grinned. "Heh...just follow me."

Author's Note: What's Raizou's plan? How can he get Kusa to join his cause of creating Yami?