Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and any reference to any other thing owned by someone else.
Claimer: The OCs are mine. If any are sue-ish, well…they're still my sues.
Warning #1: Characters may sometimes be OOC. You have been warned.
Note #1: Be prepared for another long one.
Note #2: I'm sure you've noticed that I have different kinds of clones. Each of these clones have a certain specialty, almost all of them are modified kage bushin. There are also different levels of modification. There is the regular modification, like the shinobi clones, then there are the extreme clones or extreme something clones, which are like the ultimates but go poof eventually, then there are the ultimate clones, like the General clones like Gekai, whose bodies stay long after they have died.
Apology #1: I accidentally wrote Chapter 10 instead of Chapter 11...hehe...
Lost
Chapter 12
Previously on Lost:
Tsukiko was still awake when Naruto's army came marching out of the portal, Yoshiko had already gone back to sleep. She saw shinobi clones come out, this time with the kanji for the number three on their masks, following them were ankylo drawn wagons, riding on the wagons, along with the supplies, were the medic clones whose sleeves also sported the number three. Following them were the Chef clones, then the smith clones, and so on and so forth. The last ones to leave the portal were five hundred ankylos and their riders, two riders per ankylo. After the last one was out the temporary Gate snuffed out of existence.
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Tsukiko got bored after watching the clones set up camp and eventually drifted off to sleep. Some of the clones went into the tunnels to search for more chambers, ones that they could use as stables for the five hundred ankylos.
Once Naruto noticed that Tsukiko had gone to dreamland he had a few of his clones move her and her daughter to one of the tents that had been set up in one of the other chambers. These tents had beds in them already set up. Naruto then had his clones turn the whole abandoned mine into one big base. Outside of the mine was a mining town that had been abandoned when no more iron ore could be found. Naruto wouldn't use the town just yet, he'd have to first fortify the mine, make sure that there would be no possibility of infiltration or of any collapses. He could afford to lose clones, but in the future there would be real people working in the mine, and he couldn't have any of them dying on him.
The mine situated beneath a small mountain. At the peak of the the mountain Naruto had some clones set up his communication office. It would be from here that all communication with other camps and bases would occur, also all information would be received and passed out from there.
Outside all of the mine entrances and exits Naruto had the his clones set up some lookout towers, and sandbag them, he had them create a number of defensive barriers that would serve as the first line of defense should this base be found by the country's daimyou's army. Ballistas and catapults were set up on the slope of the mountain as well as outside the entrances of the mine.
Beyond the actual barrier Naruto had his clones set up a mine field of sorts, not using actual mines, but using some pressure sensitive explosive tags. Those little pieces of paper would be harder to detect. Of course the clones made a map of where each and everyone of the tags were located so that no one would accidentally set them off.
Lights were installed inside the mine, the lights were not run by electricity or chakra, the lights were mostly those blue glowing crystals that Naruto's clones had found in the crystal cave. There wasn't a place in the entire mine that did not have light.
Naruto made sure that the whole of the mine was explored, he had this accomplished the fastest way possible by spamming regular kage bushin, by doing this it only took him three hours to map the whole mine.
Naruto had his clones set up teleportation gates in every room. This base or camp being the biggest of the three that he had founded so far, it needed all these modes of getting places fast.
From some of the people that he had freed in the other two countries, Naruto was given information about the uniforms of the armies of the other nations, this information would be used in Naruto's upcoming rescue operation and invasion plan. He would have his clones look like soldiers from the other nations, except Naiya and Nasu.
His ankylos would be equipped with more armor than their bodies already had, they would also be equipped with mini-ballistas on their backs. One of the riders would operate it, while the other would control the ankylo. Its clubbed tail would get some additional apikes for added harming power.
When Naruto started his invasion he would first send out his ankylos army, behind them would be the shinobi clone army, the last group of fighters that would march on the battlefield would be Nauto's Mage clones.
The mage clones were made out of chakra, but they had a pool of magic for them to use. These clones were limited to magical attacks and physical attacks only. These were the literal mages of the army. Naruto woud have their attacks limited to curses and hexes that would slow down and slightly weaken the forces of the gluttonous daimyou, they wouldn't be allowed to use some of the more destructive spells in their arsenal.
During this little attack Naruto's armies' objective would be to rescue the prisoners worth rescuing, meaning that the clones would bring the battle to the castle. They weren't a distraction, they were to actually invade. Naruto wouldn't be going with his army, he would be waiting in the mine. His face was known inside the castle as well as inside the pit, he couldn't afford to be seen. His presence wasn't to be known as of yet.
After a week's worth of preparations, Naruto's army were off. The armies were split into six groups, each would be attacking from a different direction. This would force the Tetsu army to divide itself among invading forces. Naruto's clones and ankylos were more than enough to get in. Its the getting out that would be a problem. But Naruto had something planned in case that would happen.
Under his base were several tunnels that led to Tetsu's capital, none of them reaching the castle on the hill, but they reached inside or rather under the city. The ends of these tunnels that were under the city would be openned up to allow escapees to get in. Waiting in these tunnels would be wagons, but instead of being pulled by ankylos or any other animals, the clones would be the ones pulling. The escapees would ride these wagons all the way to the base. Once the wagons were several meters away from the openings, the clones that remained there would collapse the tunnels. To the escapees it would look like the clones sacrificed their lives for the escapees to escape.
Once safely in the base the people would be passed over into the care of the medic clones, after they were treated they would be given the choice of going to Naruto's fortress of staying and helping out.
The attack was underway. The sentries of the city received no warning when they were suddenly attacked. The ankylos stopped moving forward when they had reached the a certain distance from the city, then they began firing their ballistas. They would serve as the long range cover for the shinobi clones that were darting forward ready to engage the city guard.
The city got a kick out of the agressiveness shown by the clones that looked like soldiers from the other countries. Some of the clones were able to bypass the guards and went all pyromaniac on the buildings in the city.
Unlike Naruto's fortress, there was no wall that protected the city from invasion, the only walls that were there were the ones that protected the castle. After this little battle, a wall would be constructed. To the defenders it looked like the other countries had grown tired of them and formed an alliance against them.
The clones that did not join in on the pyro-fest raced to the castle walls. Once there they set exploding tags on the walls, went to a safe distance then watched the fireworks. The tags were strong enough to bring down a mine shaft, but were only strong enough to dent the walls. The sound of the explosion alerted the soldiers that were nearby which them went to defend the walls. The clones had to divide themselves, a third would blow a hole into the walls, while the rest would keep the defenders at bay.
It took the attackers three hours of continuous blasting to blow a good sized hole in the wall. There was only one hole in the wall that was made in that time, it was good enough for the clones. The ones detaining the defenders continued what they were doing, while the demolition group made their way inside. They raced toward the pit as fast as they could, any resistance that they met were dealt with swiftly, they were even able to knockout the daimyou that they were not supposed to get rid of as of yet, they also didn't have the time to do such things. The clones were running on a tight schedule. Once they got inside the castle they had to get the people they were after as fast as they possibly could, without using jutsus or magic or anytihng else out of the ordinary, then get out with their targets.
Inside the city, the pyromaniacs had to deal with the sudden arrival of the defending soldiers, as well as the people living in the city, some of whom helped the clones attack the soldier, these were the people that were made to eat a relative as punishment for displeasing the daimyou or any military offical for that matter. The clones that encountered these people decided then and there that they too would be brought back to base. So after dealing with the nuisances that were the soldiers, the clones brought these people and their families to the tunnels.
Outside the city the defenders had managed to make their way to the ankylos, but they were having an extremely hard time dealing with them, those things packed a lot of power with every swing of their tails, the spikes didn't help their victims either. None of the ankylos were injured so far, but some of the riders had already died. Once a clone died it burst into flames, it made the defenders think that it was some sort of precaution against being used as food for the Tetsu army. The soldiers just couldn't figure out how it happened. Seeing that happen the defenders increased the ferocity of their attacks. They bagan to push back the ankylos. The ankylos were being forced to retreat since their riders didn't want any of them to wander off.
Due to the ankylos pulling back the mages had to resort to buffing the ankylos, making them faster. Naruto could not afford any of his ankylos to be captured.
The clones had finally made their way into the pit, some of the POWs thought that their prayers had been answered and that their daimyou's had finally sent over someone to rescue them. But they soon learned that it wasn't meant to be, since some of the POWs decided that it would be impossible for them to escape the city, and more so the country. So they thought that they could curry favor with their captors and maybe be granted a bit of freedom like be allowed into their army instead of in the pit, they did this by attacking the clones. This made the clones' jobs harder. The attacking people were hindering their movements. Some of the clones were taken out of commission. Even with all the help that the Chisio Bushins were providing, it was almost no use. They got it, but getting out seemed to be almost impossible. Some of the clones started to hear approaching footsteps from outside the pit. The soldiers had found out where they all were.
The clones decided to use their smoke bombs to create a distraction as well as decrease visibility. Then they would use the shadows to find their targets. The extraction operation was getting harder and harder. Time was running out for them, it almost came to the point where they would have to use a jutsu or two to complete their mission.
But they didn't need to resort to jutsus, what they thought were approaching soldiers were actually their comrades come to help them out. They had somehow trapped the denfenders somewhere.
With these reinforcements getting the people that they were sent to get out out became easier, they still had to fight off the attacking POWs. With the thought of possible escape some of the non-targets followed the clones out. Originally it was only supposed to be the targets that would get out along with the clones, but plans change. There were more people that were brought out, these people helped the clones, so the clones couldn't just leave them.
Once all the clones and escapees were speeding off to the base, the clones waved goodbye before they collapsed the tunnels in full view of the escapees, they were unable to stick with the plan due to the incoming defenders.
As soon as the signal was sent to all the clones that the escapees had been taken to the tunnels, the ones still fighting in the city commited suicide, taking one or two soldiers with them. The mages were forced to use a mass teleportation spell to get themselves and the ankylos back to base, the spell was disguised by an earthquake that they caused which formed a crack in the earth that looked like they fell in it.
All in all the clones lost half of their number in the attack. But their mission was still a success since all their targets were brought to the base, along with a few bonuses.
Naruto didn't really mind the bonuses since it was a possibility that his clones would bring more people than originally planned.
Since these people had been forced into practicing cannibalism, Naruto decided to treat them to real food, food that he himself prepared, with chef clones as just helpers. He felt bad that he didn't go with his clones into battle, but it was nescessary that no one find out that he was the cause of the attack, yet.
The people were surprised at the way that they were being treated, when they were given the choice on what they wanted to do, all the healthy people decided to stay around, while the younger ones, specifically children and the weaker people were sent to the fortress, that Naruto had yet to name.
After deciding to stay, Naruto assigned them to different divisions in the base. Some of the men were assigned to the soldier division, some of them were sent to work with the ankylos, and the others to other divisions. The bulk of the volunteers went to the ankylos, since the clones that manned the ballistas were decimated in the attack.
Like in the other two countries, Naruto would have his forces in Tetsu conentrate on freeing prioners and slaves for the time being. They wouldn't be actively and directly taking on the resident army.
Naruto spent some time getting to know the people that he had rescued, he also got to know Tsukiko a little bit more, as well as Yoshiko. He learned that the pair were originally from Sakura no Kuni and were visiting some distant relatives of her late husband in Tetsu when they were abducted.
Being Naruto's friend Tsukiko was trusted above all the other escapees, this made Naruto choose her to be in charge of the base once he left. Of course he had to show her the ropes first, as well as leave some advisors for her. The advisors were ultimate scholar clones, they focused on knowledge, they could fight, but not as well as the shinobi clones.
It was a week later that the base received its first visitor from one of the other two bases. Tamotsu came to visit, rather Ryuu needed some information to be personally given to Naruto, since he couldn't leave he sent Tamotsu in his place.
The man was no longer in the uniform of a guard, but actually looked like an officer, he wore a sash that had the kanji for two embrioded into it with silver thread. Instead of a bodysuit he wore a dark purple shirt and black pants with many pockets. Instead of armor he wore a mythril undershirt, and a vest over his shirt. Fastened on his waist was katana. Ryuu and Gekai had decided on implementing this new part of the uniforms so that the officers were easily spotted by their subordinates.
The information that he brought Naruto was that Naiya and Nasu couldn't get their hands on anymore prisoners or slaves. Either the two countries had already run out, or they were being kept secret locations that most likely only the highest tier of officers and officials knew about. Ryuu's position wasn't high enough to get this information.
The new uniform for the offiers was originally proposed by Ryuu, which Gekai approved, then the two sent a message to Yahiko to inform him of it. The three men kind of standardized it. Naruto already knew this information, but he wouldn't reveal the existence of his ultimate clones to even his friends. The mystery of where Naruto got his clone officers and clone officials would remain his secret. He wouldn't teach his bushin versions to anyone, well at least he didn't plan on doing it.
With the information Tamotsu brought some designs with him, as well as some ready made ones for any officers that Naruto had in his Tetsu base.
After the sharing of information, Tamotsu was introduced to Tsukiko and some of her chosen subordinates, most of whom were former officers, none of them were clones. He was also introduced to the advisors. When asked why Nasu's base didn't have any, Naruto said that Gakai didn't need any. Tamostsu realized that it was true, the man did not really even ask for advice.
Tamotsu stayed in Tetsu for week to help Tsukiko and her officers get used to their duties and such. Due to past experiences, as well as forced lessons from Gekai, he was able to create a basic system for the base operate. He shared stories about what the officers in Nasu did in different situations. He even explained how to use the base's main teleportation gate, something that Naruto had actually forgotten to do.
A week after Tamotsu left the base, this time under Tsukiko's command, began its second military operation. Some of Naruto's spies all over the country had sent in information about the confirmed location of a warehouse that held some recent slave acquisitions. With this information Tsukiko assembled the soldiers, and with a little bit of help from Naruto, came up with a plan to rescue these people. The location was a week away, so the army brought some temporary teleportaton gates with them. This would be the first test for Tsukiko and her officers. Naruto left Tsukiko and her subordinates to it. The whole operation was under their command. But that didn't mean that Naruto didn't participate in it, well they didn't know that he was keeping an eye or two on the marching army.
Due to the first assult, security around the towns, villages, and cities in the country were upped in preparation for future attacks, like the one that was on its way.
Three fourths of the army was made up of clones while the remaining fourth were people. Naruto watched over this army by merely becoming one with the wind. He didn't become the wind, cause if he did Tsukiko and the ones that stayed in the base wouldn't be able to find him.
The operation was a complete success, there was no loss of life on Naruto's side, just a few minor injuries. The army had managed to rescue and additional three hundred people, some of whom were about to minced meat for Tetsu.
After getting back to the base some of the people would claim that there were times when they thought that they would die, but some force had pushed back the Tetsu troops. A sudden gust of wind would send things flying at the Tetsu troops thus allowing Naruto's forces to escape death.
Of course Naruto had to help his people. These near death encounters made the people realize how dangerous their choice was, but none of them decided to go to the still unamed fortress city.
Of the three hundred people that had been rescued, only one hundred had opted to leave. Naruto's forces in Tetsu had grown by two hundred individuals. Some of the clones went to the fortress city with the hundred people that opted not to stay. There were now fewer clones in the base compared to living people.
A week after the successful mission, Yahiko came for a visit. There wasn't much to do in Naiya, there were very few slaves left in captivity, the daimyou had decided that due to the attacks and breakouts that he would focus on his army than on acquiring more slaves for the time being. He had half of his forces focus on locating the escapees, while the other half were focused on attacking the other countries, they were to pillage and plunder as much as they could in each and every battle.
Security in the cities and towns had increased exponetially. It seemed that Naiya had gained more man power due to the daimyou waging war with the slave traders, taking out the heads with some assassins that he had found. He then drafted the slave traders' people into his army.
According to Yahiko, Nasu was also doing the same thing. Naiya and Nasu had formed a very shaky alliance due to the attacks and breakouts that Yahiko had orchestrated. The two daimyous had seen the pattern, they noticed the organized threat. There was a possibility that the cause of the attacks and breakouts really were the other countries, but they had noticed the recent events in Tetsu.
Yahiko came to warn the Tetsu base of the possibility that Naiya and Nasu would somehow form another shaky alliance with Tetsu to battle the plague that Naruto's forces were.
After sharing the information with Naruto he decided to help Tsukiko out some more, by giving her some ideas as to what to do in her future attacks. Security had been drastivally increased around the country and more thought out plans would be needed to accomplish any future missions.
Naruto let them do as they pleased, it seemed that things were going according to plan. Of what he had seen in Naiya, he believed that all the other countries had similar social problems. Naruto saw that there was much injustice in among the nine countries. It seemed like these nine countries were the most war torn countries in all of Elemental at the time.
After his first successful rescue mission in Naiya Naruto planned on getting the nine countries to somehow work together to fight him. Once they banded together against Naruto, he would then crush them all at the same time, ridding their countries of their control. He would recreate the nine into something close to the utopian ideal.
Naiya and Nasu had alredy signed their death warrants by joining forces, soon Tetsu, then the next country, then the next.
He had received the latest report from Touken, Hyakume, and Dorotabo, which gave him details about the love of slaves of the nobility of the other countries, their love of torturing POWs as a form of entertainment, their greed for wealth and pleasure, as well as their ability and continued efficieny in making a majority of their people unhappy.
The war between the nine lands had been going on for more than nine hundred years, it was getting close to the thousandth year. The three estimated that if nothing was done to stop the war once and for all then the war would spill out into the rest of Elemental.
The three hadn't been able to do anything for the suffering people in the other six countries, they weren't Naruto, they didn't have the resources to do anything other than report their findings to him. After completing their missions the three returned to the fortress city to prepare for Naruto's planned war, the end to end the nearly thousand year war.
Yahiko, just like Tamotsu stayed for a week. During the week after Yahiko left, Naruto started to make plans to finally leave Tetsu for the next of the nine lands, Sakura no Kuni. He'd be visiting Tsukiko's country, and seeing how he could help there.
When he wasn't coming up with his plan, he spent some time with the only child that actually was allowed to stay in the base, Yoshiko, the little girl had grown on him just like her mother. When he wasn't playing with the little girl of teaching her stuff with the help of the advisors, he spent his time with Tsukiko. She told him about her country, some reasons as to why the country had entered into the war all those hundred of years ago, as well the basic geography of the place. Through his talks and walks with her around the base, Naruto had learned that out of all the countries, Sakura was the greenest one of them all. It really prided itself for having all those sakura trees that gave the country its name. One of the reasons, asides from the greed and pride reasons, for going to war with the other countries was that the daimyou and his ancestors wanted to purge the world of ugliness. Sure they had their own POWs to torture, and slaves to mistreat, but their reasoning for war was that the other countries were ugly, that the other countries were not beautiful enough to be allowed to taint the perfectness of the world.
But of all the things that made the country stand out from the rest was the importance the nobility gave to women. They took the treatment of women as objects to a whole new level. Women were supposed to be beautiful, the country actually had standards for beauty. If a family had a daughter, that daughter at a certain age would have to reach the standard else her entire family was penalized. The punishment for ugliness was obviously death. All the women in the country were supposed to be perfect. Of course there were some that had escaped death by hiding, or something like that. Some families actually sold their daughters into slavery, since there was a greater chance that they would live as compared to not reaching the standards set up by the government.
As to being objects, the standards stated that only certain families or people were alllowed to keep such beauty in their homes. The most beautiful of women and girls were given to the nobles, as well as some of the soldiers. One of the things promised to soldiers was a really warm bed once in a while. Military prowess was rewarded by being given the chance to test their prowess in bed.
There were a bunch of other things in the country that were really different from the other countries. The standard of beauty sometimes even applied to some men, or rather boys. Being a bishounen was a bad thing for your family. In Sakura being such was immoral, men were maciuline creatures, not pretty boys. The parents of one of these pretty boys were killed out right, the father was given a slow and painful death, while the mother for the crime of producing such a beautiful boy was torn limb from limb.
Naruto didn't really get to come up with a real plan on how to get to Sakura no Kuni's capital or how to integrate himself into that society. Due to Tsukiko and Yoshiko, Naruto decided to stay for a week longer.
At the end of the week he greatly regretted staying longer. But he really had to leave, so he just left the two girls a note in the care of one of the advisors instead of personally telling them that he was leaving.
He decided to walk or run to Sakura no Kuni. On the way he figured that he would pose as an artist, since art was considered as beautiful then he create some stuff along the way.
It took Naruto one whole month and two weeks to get to Sakura no Kuni's capital city. The country really was beautiful, it was somehow able to avoid getting polluted by bloodshed. It took Naruto that long to get to the country since he had to go about creating his works of art. He had managed to acqurie a wagon along the way to carry his art pieces, ones that he would give to the daimyou as gifts, well more like a bribe to allow him to stay in the capital, foreigners were not permitted to stay in the capital, one of the reasons being that the country was at war with the closest eight nations.
While traveling through the country he passed a smaller cities, at some of these he managed to find some individuals to talk with about art. In one city he went so far as to say that art was a bang, it was fleeting. The person he was talking to at that time begged to disagree, art was meant to be forever, it was eternal. Naruto was able to give a demonstration as to how an explosion could be viewed as beautiful. The other artist showed Naruto a form of art that could be considered as eternal. A story, could ace the test of time if it ws good enough, a story was passed down to each generation. To enhance a story, the way it was told was always different. His way was by telling the story through puppet shows. His marionettes being very well crafted, and the puppets that were supposed to depict the female gender looked like they even met the standards.
After their demonstrations, they each promised one another that they would meet up again sometime to once again share art with one another. Although their views differed they became friends. The other artist's name was surprisingly Hyakume Tsuneo, he was somehow distantly related to Hyakume, how Naruto had no idea and it was not likely that he would ever find out.
Instead of parting ways Tsuneo had decided to travel with Naruto to another city that was hosting an art convention of sorts, it was more like an auction. As the two artists traveled together, Tsuneo learned that Naruto's view on art wasn't only that it was fleeting, that was merely one of his views. Naruto's actual view on art was that it was balanced, art was nuetral in a sense. For beauty to exist there must be ugliness. Tsuneo saw the logic in Naruto's view on art.
Once the two reached the city where the convention was being held they were directed to a the warehouse district of the city, that was where the convention was being held. Apparently someone had been able to make the warehouse not look like a warehouse, but a work of art. Naruto was greatly tempted to spam scholar clones to figure out how it was done.
Naruto and Tsuneo then set up a booth that they shared. For the first three days Tsuneo showed the pieces that he was planning on auctioning off, then the next three days it was Naruto's turn. On the seventh day, their pieces were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Who it was the two didn't know, nor did they really care.
After the convention, the two finally parted ways, Naruto heading for the capital, while Tsuneo claimed that he had some other business to attend to in another part of the country.
Once in the capital Naruto was able to easily get an audience with the daimyou. The man was well built, more than well built even, he was like The Hulk, but not as bulky, he also didn't get stronger the madder he got, which was a shame.
Naruto showed the daimyou his creations, which the daimyou liked, then before he was to leave the presence of the daimyou announced that they were gifts. When asked why Naruto was givnig them to him as gifts Naruto told the daimyou that he was an artist from a far off land that had heard of his love for the finer things in life, and wanted to bask in the beauty of the capital city. Due to the gifts and some more flattery Naruto was allowed to stay, and was even granted a plot of land to build a home, as well as some more compensation for his long and arduous journey.
Naruto immediately went to work on his new home, which would also serve as his temporary base of operations until he could find a place to build or set up the actual base. He had to do everything the normal way, he had to hire workers, which took quite some time. Even carpenters and the like were treated as artists. Even though Naruto had wanted the workers to build him a small house, they filled in slightly more than half of the lot with a magnificent house. Apparently there was a standard for the size of a house in the city.
It took the workers a month to complete the house, in that time Naruto was able to create more works of art that he sold to art lovers in the city, some of the works he gave to the officials of the ciity, and others to the military officers.
Through his encounters with these people, he was able to gather some information about what happened during battles and raids. He learned from the bits and pieces of information that slipped out by accident that jus as in his art, in life there was balance. When it came to the balance that existed in life Naruto was already aware of that, but the balance that he learned of was the one in the lives of the citizens of Sakura no Kuni.
On the outside they openly showed their love of beauty, but there were some that hinted at another side to beauty, an unseen side, one that even the daimyou himself enjoyed and participated in.
When it was nightime Naruto would go around the city snooping around for clues as to where prisioners and slaves were kept, if there even were those kinds of people. It really was possible that there were no prisoners and that everyone that the Sakura army met on the battlefield was killed, every person that didn't meet their standards was instantly put to death. But Naruto wanted to make sure, he also wanted to investigate the things he had learned from his brief encounters with the uppercrust of Sakura society.
It was one week after his house was finished that he accidentally stumbled upon the balance to the city's beauty. He had falled into the sewers when he wasn't paying attention. While in it he heard echoes of screaming and shouting. Those weren't sounds that would normally be heard in the city, so Naruto waded through the gunk until he reached a grate that led to a ventilation shaft. Since the screaming and shouting was being carried out to the sewer by the shaft Naruto decided that he would follow the sounds by crawling.
He crawled until he found what he was looking for. It was a grate that showed him the inside of a room, inside the room were some people that he had met during the month of his house's construction. These people were performing perverse acts of violence on restrained individuals, some of the individuals looked worse than ragdolls.
After seeing that Naruto moved onwards, wanting to see what else Sakura was hiding while at the same time not wanting to know anymore. What he found out sickened, horrified, and shocked him. On the outside the people of Sakura no Kuni, especially the elite were extremists when it came to beauty, hidden beneath the surface, literally, they were extremists when it came to the balance of such beauty, they were monstrous. They were just as sick or in some cases worse than the people of Tetsu, at least in Tetsu they showed their true colors out in the open, but here in Sakura everything was hidden beneath the skin.
The ones that got treated the worst were the women, there was a lot of things that were done to the women, these things ranged from a simple beating to well tearing them limb from limb. Some of the women were eaten alive in all senses of the word eaten.
If Naruto were into sadism and masochism, this place would be heaven. Its a good think that he wasn't into that kind of thing.
Naruto had even managed to find the daimyou himself participating in these acts of perverse cruelty, he was actually the cruelest of them all.
After that night, Naruto returned to spying on the people in the underground, while doing so he found out that the people being subjected to such cruel fates were not just prisoners or slaves, some were citizens that disagreed with the majority of the nobles and military, some of these people were even members of the daimyou's clan itself.
As Naruto watched all the suffering he tried to come up with ways to get them out of there, but all of his plans were either incomplete or nearly impossible to implement. One of his major problems was that he didn't know how to get there in the first place, all the grates that he had found were sealed shut. There was no way in through the shafts that was not obvious. He learned that there was a labyrinth worth of torture chambers beneath the city, he just couldn't figure out how to get there.
He could try and make his situation worse by getting arrested, by there was a possibility that he would get killed outright. He could use his skills and abilities, but there was a big possibility that he'd get caught.
He didn't know a lot of things concerning the underground torture facility, aside from how to get in, he didn't know if there were times that the torture victims were ever left alone, he didn't know if there were guards in place, if there were guards he didn't know where they were stationed. There were many variables that he didn't know about. Kage Bushin wouldn't help him solve his problem this time, the only viable solution was to use Ultimate Chisio Bushins, but there was a problem in using those. Normally his regenerative ability allowed him to need only a single drop of blood to create a regular chisio bushin, but when it came to the modified version, it took a lot more than just a drop to create even one. One ultimate chisio bushin would cost him one fourth of his total blood supply. The difference between an utimate clone and an ultimate blood clones, was the that the the second one, even though it could die of bloodloss, would last a whole lot longer than a regular ultimate clone, it had more blood in it, couple the already large supply of blood with the Naruto's regenerative ability, and you get a longer lasting clone.
Normally Naruto would use ultimate clones, but in a place like the underground facility, the clones would need to last a whole lot longer than normal. Naruto could only afford to create one clone. He knew that it was a bit cold hearted to send one of his clones to a place like that, but it was nescessary. He also really didn't want to experience what his clone would be experiencing, but he had to endure. For the greater good and all that.
It took Naruto three weeks to prepare himself and to safely create the clone. It would also take a week more for the clone to somehow get sent to the place. Naruto also figured out how to get into the place, without being thought of as a liberator or a spy. It would be risky, but Naruto was hoping that it would work.
So a month after his first encounter with the underbelly of Sakura no Kuni, Naruto once again found himself in the presence of the daimyou. First he showed the daimyou some new works of art, but the quality was somewhat lower than the ones that he had first brought before the ruler. He said he would have given the ruler more beautiful gifts but he was running low on inspiration as of late. He also claimed that he had seen a disturbing sight, there was a man that had been stalking him, Naruto said that the man was probably one of the causes for the quality of his art to have decreased.
Aside from being a master in the field of medicine, a master chef, a seemingly unbeatable foe on the battlefield, and a master of the arts, Naruto was a very good actor. Acting was a skill that he had acquired in his youth, and that he had further refined while training in Zombie-sensei's world. It was also the reason why it was easy for Naruto to create personalities on the fly, which was why his clones were able to act like totally different people, it was also why making some of the clones more real easier. It was also the reason why Naruto was able to 'play god' sometimes.
After listening to Naruto the daimyou acted in the way which Naruto wanted him to act. He said that if Naruto could describe the person, he would have him arrested, and if Naruto wanted, he could punish the man and get back at him for taking away his inspiration.
So Naruto described the man as having long black hair, yellowish eyes, a long face, pale skin, and looked to be wearing purple make-up around his eyes. The man looked exactly like Orochimaru, even acted like the serpent a bit.
Naruto was going to enjoy beating the crap out of his Orochimaru clone, when he got the memories he would just erase them somehow, either erase them or lock them away in some deep and dark corner of his mind, that or take the memory out of his mind, dump it in a bowl or dump it into someone else's mind.
After Naruto gave the ruler the description of the man, the daimyou told him that he would be informed when the man was apprehended and Naruto would be brought to where the stalker would be held.
Naruto was informed of the capture and led to the underground torture chambers on the night of that very same day. He quickly memorized the way to get in, as well as all the other minute details of his trip. Details like how many guards were there, where were the other entrances and exits, the number of other rooms, chambers, and cells that he passed, how the locks looked, all those kinds of stuff.
The guards brought him to the room where the clone was being held in, inside the room the daimyou himself was also waiting for Naruto. He claimed that he wanted to see what Naruto could do.
With the daimyou himself watching, Naruto put on a show. He beat up the defenseless clone with his bare hands. Not long after he started pounding the crap out of the clone Naruto's clothes were stained red with blood. He wasn't wearing his red outfit, actually he hadn't worn the outfit for a long time, the last time that he did was right before he left his fortress city.
By the end of the torture session the daimyou was impressed by how Naruto handled the prisoner. In his eyes Naruto was a true artist. There wasn't a place in which the clone wasn't bleeding. He informed Naruto that there was no schedule in which in he had to follow to gain access to the underground. It was open to all who knew of its existence the whole day. But most people preferred to go there at night. The time that mirrored the day.
Naruto asked if he could tour the facility, which the ruler answered that he could. He could even visit the other residents of the underground and play with them.
After the daimyou left Naruto alone with his prisoner, Naruto left the room and went exploring. He decided that he would personally map out the entire place. A task that could not be accomplished in one night, or day for that matter.
It took Naruto a full two weeks to map out the entire underground, he had found a lot of captives, as well as people that were supposed to be dead. He even found some people that he didn't think he'd ever see locked up in the place. But out of all the people that he had seen in the underground there were two that had shocked him the most, the first one was the previous daimyou. The previous daimyou was the only one out of all of the daimyou's of his line that had tried to end the war, but apparently his son would have none of that. The other perosn was someone that Naruto did not want to see in the place, Tsuneo.
The man was badly beaten and unconscious when Naruto came across his cell, it was probably a good thing too, because if he had seen Naruto, he probably would have died on the spot.
Seeing his friend in there made Naruto want to break them all out sooner. Seeing people he didn't know personally suffer was one thing, but seeing one of his friends suffer was another thing entirely.
Once Naruto got back to his house he summoned up some scholar clones to help him come up with a plan. The only plan that would work was one that involved his clones dressing up as agents from other coutries, again. It was a tried and tested tactic, it would have to do the trick. The only questions that remained unanswered were when he would do it, and where would he take them. He obviously couldn't take them back to his house, no matter how big it was. So before he could break them out, he would first have to find a place to set up his base of operations in Sakura no Kuni.
So for the next week Naruto went out of the city to look for the perfect place during the day, then once night came he would go to the underground and beat the blood out of the blood clone.
At the end of the week Naruto was lucky enough to find the perfect place. It was a valley not that far from the city, the city was found on and around some hills that had numerous sakura trees. The valley on the other hand was more like a forest with only sakura trees. It wasn't too near or too far from the city. Another thing about the valley, was that the mountain range that surrounded it was pink, since the slopes were covered in sakura trees that were in full bloom all year round.
On the day that he found the perfect place, Naruto opened up a temporary Gate and had his army of clones march out and construct the base. The base was something that the clones were used to seeing, it was a fort, built just like the forts that littered Naruto's prvate world. But instead of having dragons, rocs, or ankylosaurus sent over, Naruto chose direwolves, the ones the size of horses.
Once his army was there, Naruto swiftly made his way back to the city just in time for the daimyou to watch him turn his Orochimaru clone into mush. Sometime during that week Naruto started to get bored with just having a serpent punching bag, so he created another situation which allowed him to have his own Mizuki punching bag. Oh joy what fun, the loss of blood was worth it.
Now that he had his base, he could start his operation, but since he didn't know how the Sakura army worked he was prepared for a long mission, he had enough clones and supplies to last a month.
The operation officially began a week after the base was founded. Unlike Naruto's last operation which occurred during day time, this one started at night, more specifically it started after an hour after dusk. Five armies from what appeared to be five countries silently made their way to the capital. The direwolves being just a more fearsome and vicious version of man's best friend had no handler, they only had trainers, and they could work with any of the clones. They too were silent, their black coats were ideal for a night time attack. The operation was one based on stealth, the clones were all shinobi clones, no mages or anything else. All of their masks bearing the kanji for the number four. The clones and the wolves would use every trick they knew of to not be seen, by anyone at all.
The only clones that were purposely going to make themselves known, were the ones wearing the uniforms and colors of the other countries that Naruto had yet to visit. These clones would make their presence known to, at first all the people that knew of the underground, then everyone else. Among those that they would attack would be an ultimate chisio bushin, one that would not change how it looked, but look like Naruto himself.
Naruto would leave his clone, which he decided to just call the artist clone, to be the one to be him in the capital. He would be one of the model citizens of the country. He would fight valiantly for Sakura no Kuni and create marvelous and beautiful works of art, and so on and so forth. The artist clone would be Naruto's front, which would allow him to move on after the operation was a success.
Naruto would personally end the life of his Orochimaru and Mizuki clones then proceed to personally be the one to save his friend, and not one of his clones.
Once the majority of the clones and the wolves were in the city, the actor clones made their move, they simultaneously attacked the residences of all the people that knew of the existence of the undergeround facility.
While that happened Naruto and his clones dug a hole into the ground, and once they reached the stone ceiling of the facility he punhed a hole into it allowing himself and the clones access to the people within.
After killing off the clones, Naruto swiftly made his way to where he knew his friend was. As he got there he was relieved to find his friend still alive. But his friend didn't recognize him since he was disguised as one of the generals of the Sakura army.
He picked up his friend with ease and made his way to the hole. Once out of it he jumped onto the back of one of the direwolves all the while carrying his friend, with another clone that held two more people around their waists. Naruto then had the wolf run as swiftly as it could back to base.
Naruto didn't stay there long, as soon as the people were dropped off, he and his clone and the wolf went back to make another pick up.
Luckily, due to the chaos caused by the actor clones, all the prisoners were successfully taken back to the base.
All were treated, once they were each given the choice of retreating to the relative safety of the fortress city, all of them chose the other choice, they all decided to stay.
Some time during the next day Naruto made his way over to his friend to see how he was doing.
"Yo, Tsuneo, how ya feeling?" Naruto asked his friend as he sat down beside the man.
"Better than a few hours ago."
"So, what did you do to get stuck in that hellhole?"
"Would you believe I was trying to do what you guys did?"
"Eh, seriously?"
"Yeah. Had I known you were part of some resistance group, I'd have gone to you for help."
"Had I known you were planning something similar I would've gladly welcomed you."
"What do you mean by 'you' exactly?"
Before Naruto could answer the question someone else did, one of Naruto's general clones, one that went by the name Waza.
"He's the Boss of this whole operation," Waza said.
Tsuneo stared at Naruto in disbelief, he couldn't believe that his fellow artist was the man behind the rescue operation.
"That true?" Tsuneo asked Naruto as Waza walked away from the two.
"Yeah, its true," Naruto answered, "So, did you work with another group of liberators or something?"
"Yeah, though I don't know what happened to them after our failed operation. We were all send to different facilities."
"Do you know where these other facilities are located?"
"Yeah I do. Why? Are you planning on breaking my friends out too?"
"Sure am, but you'll have to give me or tell me everything you know about those other facilities."
"Oh thats simple. They're all underground, under all the major cities. If you'd let me I could draw you a more accurate map of the country."
"Draw a map?"
"Yeah."
"How bout you paint one instead? What kind of artist are you anyway?"
"I can't paint, I can sculpt, but painting is way beyond me, you'll have to suffer at the sight of a mere drawing."
"I think I'll live through the experience."
At that the two men shared a laugh.
"You know, you look like you've done this kind of thing before," Tsuneo said.
"Thats cause I have, Sakura is the fourth country I've done something like this."
"So you're the guy in charge of the Naiya, Nasu, and Tetsu breakouts? Amazing!"
"Yeah, well what else was I supposed to do, leave those people to rot? No way!"
"Good think you didn't leave 'em to rot. You're part of the reason why my original group was founded, we wanted to do as you did in those countries. But its seems that we weren't experienced enough."
"Well now that you're working under me, you'll get all the experience you need. On that same note, how would you like to learn how to use the art of puppetry in battle?"
"Is that even possible?"
"Yep."
"I'd have to see it first to believe it."
"Sure thing, follow me," Naruto said as he stood up.
The two then went to the supply room, where Naruto fetched two puppets then led the way to a training ground.
Once there Naruto attached the invisible chakra strings to the two puppet and had then fight one another as Tsuneo watched.
Their movements were bascially just punches and kicks, but the mere possibility that puppets could be controlled without the use of strings intrigued Tsuneo.
"So Tsuneo, wanna learn?"
Tsuneo just nodded, still slightly shocked.
So Naruto led his friend to one of his special clones, it was special in the sense that it was the only one of its kind presently in existence. It was a Puppet clone, this clone did not have blood flowing in its veins, it had chakra, its blood was chakra, its bones were made out of solidified chakra. It was special also in the sense that Naruto had merged a soul with the clone, making it one of Naruto's 'playing god' successes.
"Tsuneo will be your first student, so don't botch it up," Naruto said to the clone as he walked away to do whatever.
"I am Chikamatsu Monzaemon, puppet master," he said introducing himself to Tsuneo.
"Ah..I am Hyakume Tsuneo, puppeteer."
"Any relation to Hyakume Hyakume?"
"Who?"
"Never mind. Meet me here tomorrow morning so that I may start your training. We will not immediately delve into making our kugutsu move, since you still need to learn how to access the energy I use to make the invisible strings. Understood?"
"Hai."
"Good, then I shall see you tomorrow."
After being dismissed Tsuneo went off to look for Naruto since he didn't know where he was going to be staying exactly. He found Naruto sitting on one of the branches of a Sakura tree.
"Hey Rosuto! You gonna tell me where I'm gonna sleep or what?" he called out to his friend.
"Huh? You say something Tsuneo?"
"Rosuto! I don't know where I'm going to stay!"
"Kidding, kidding, I heard you the first time," Naruto then dropped off of the branch, "Come on then, I'll show you to the barracks."
Naruto led Tsuneo to the barracks of the base. Instead of going to where the rest of the people were staying Naruto led the man to a room that had only one other occupant, Monzaemon.
"Hehe, you'll be staying here with your sensei. Once you've learned enough to be called a master, you'll have to take on at least one student, and so on and so on."
"I'm staying here? What's this some sort of kugutsu division or something?"
"Yup, have fun with Monzaemon," Naruto cheerily said as he left his friend alone with the puppet clone.
"So any chance of getting a head start on those lesson?"
"Fine.."
Two weeks had passed before Naruto's forces were ready to go out and take on another city. But the city that they were going to attack was one that had a fortress nearby, since it was close to one of the borders.
The day before the attack Kyonshi had popped up from out of nowhere just to tell Naruto that lesson number three had just begun. The man had no sense of time or timing whatsoever. He informed Naruto that lesson number three was going being lesson number two. Lesson number three was named: Legend.
Kyonshi gave Naruto the task of becoming a legend. Why? Cause he'd already learned enough to be one, that and he couldn't think up anything else Naruto could do at the time. The nut job of an animated corpse also informed Naruto of some added rules to the game, as well as to be prepared for some unnatural things to happen in the future.
Coming from Kyonshi, that warning was an omen for baaaaad things to happen. But such things were only going to happen after lesson number three ended and Naruto graduated from Zombie school.
But before leaving Naruto, he informed his pupil that he had added a few other things to his world. Like bigger than normal moles to help Naruto with digging and stuff. It was like Naruto was a character in a game that had levelled up and gained access to more stuff.
Since the target had a fully equipped military base near it, one that was prepared for almost any attack, Naruto would send the regular troops to the target, while he would send Monzaemon to deal with the fortress. Tsuneo would go with the troops that would rescue the prisoners since he was as proficient as the puppet clone at commanding and controlling puppet as of yet. Naruto would yet again not be joining the operation. He would be looking after the base, while at the same time sending out another army to another target a week after the one that was about to leave left. The next target did not have a military base near it, but it was farther, it was three weeks away from base camp. Then another week after that operation, Naruto would send an army to attack another city to get the prisoners held over there out. That city being a month away. All of the armies that Naruto was sending out were equipped with temporary teleportation gates. He expected all the armies to return to base by the end of the fourth month of that year. By the time the third army would be sent out the fourth month of that year would have just begun.
During the first attack Monzaemon had brought with him only ten puppets, each one he controlled using only one finger. He stood at a visible distance away from the fortress which was where he would orchestrate his attack. It was dusk when he struck, he sent the ten puppets to the base disguised as traveling actior who were looking for a place to stay in exchange for a performace. The man in charge of the fortress readily let them in, a play would provide some form of entertainment for his men.
Monzaemon had mastered the use of his puppets so much that he could literally see what they saw, and if he wanted to feel, hear, smell, and taste what they did as well, via his chakra link with them. That was how he masterfully controlled them. From the get go his puppets were already in a play.
Once the play had ended the puppets were led to a room, they were even given a young plaything to toy with if they wished. The appearance of the young woman caused Monzaemon to grow curious. He decided to have one of the puppets investigate, snoop around the fortress and see if there were any prisoners held and tortured there. By asking the man in charge of the fortress for the possibility of another plaything, it was led to the dungeons of the fortress, where it found around a hundred men and women. The women were for stress relief, while the men were used as an output for pent up negative emotions.
Finding that out Monzaemon knew what he was going to do. His next actions would forever immortalize his name in history, as the puppeteer to take down a fortress with only ten puppets. How that would happen if Naruto was supposed to be the only one who knew how to use chakra to the extent that he did, would be because he was not the only one who knew how to manipulate chakra. Passing in view of the fortress would be a nomadic clan that knew how to manipulate chakra, their speciality would be the use of chakra strings to move things around, none of which were puppet as they were still far too complex for the clan.
Once Monzaemon initiated his attack, it quickly turned into a slaughter. He was authorized to use jutsu via his puppets, and use them he did, it would not matter since the only witnesses would be prisoners that were to be let out, and they would be too weak to actually see and be mesmerized by the attacks that Monzaemon was going to use.
Once he initiated his attack, that would be the signal for the rescue army to begin their operation. The city would be in high alert, sending all available men to the fortress. Once that happened Naruto's fortress would do as they did in the capital, which is what they did once Monzaemon unleashed his puppets on the unsuspecting soldiers.
By dawn the whole fortress had been brought to the ground, not a soldier was left standing. But all the hundred or more prisoners were freed, Monzaemon standing amongst them and preparing his temporary teleportation gate for use, his puppets were searching the ruble for any soldier that he missed.
An hour after dawn three families from the nomad clan separated from their passing group and headed for where the fortress once lay to investigate its destruction, they found the former prisoners, the puppets, and Monzaemon there.
The eldest among the three families approached Monzaemon.
"Were you the one that did this?" he asked.
"Yes, now what do you want?"
"How?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes it matters! My clan is one of the few clans out in the world that know how to do what you did. I want to know how is it that you were able to do it."
"Ahh, one of the nomads then. We were wondering when we'd encounter one of you."
"You haven't answered my question."
"Practice, practice, practice."
"Well since you've got us interested in your art, would it be possible to learn from you?"
"If you agree to help my master with his plans, sure why not, I'm already teaching someone else my art."
"Thank you," he walked back to his family and told them that they would not be returning to the clan. Some of the members of the three families were not pleased with his decision, but he was the eldest of them and therefore the one to be followed. The decision was based on the want to further master the clan's speciality.
The rescue operation went without a hitch, all the defending soldiers had rushed to the fortress as it was the first place that was attacked. That led to all of their deaths. The only souls that witnessed the destruction was the passing clan and the people of the nearby city. The city had suffered no deaths, they hadn't even known that they too were attacked until they found all of their prisoners missing.
All in all the mission was a success. The same went for the other two amries' missions, except they suffered some losses, clones at least, whenever one of the people were about to get killed or hurt too badly a clone would take its place with a quick kawarimi. No one noticed how it happened, but the clone would burst into flames after it was killed. This made the people reflect on how loyal Naruto's men were to him, they went as far as to not allow even their beodies to be possessed by the enemy.
By thinking it over, they noticed that the clones followed Naruto's every order, and anticipated some of the things he had them do. Their loyalty and willingness to serve him was great. Some of the people wondered what it was that got them to decide to fight with him, was it because he had somehow rescued them, saved them from their life as prisoners, or was it something more. Its easy and natural to be greatful to one's savior, but to be willing to fight along side said savior was another thing entirely. That was when the people realised that there was just something about Naruto that one couldn't help but like, and be around. The oppressed people of four countries had gravitated to Naruto. What the people also realized was that all of the clones wore the kanji for the number four either on their sleeve or on their shirt or coat.
Once all the people were at the base and were all treated for this and that, they all chose to stay at the base and help out where they could. The three families that had come along with Monzaemon were the only ones aside from Tsuneo to be taught Kugutsu no Jutsu.
A month after those three missions, Naruto appointed Monzaemon and Tsuneo as the commanders of the Sakura base. He planned on leaving the country soon for less beautiful pastures. His next destination was Tenshi no Kuni, which was named that since most of the populace looked like angels, this was a country that Sakura and Tetsu did not attack as much, one could say that they could become allies if it weren't for a few disagreements. Sakura thought that the country's people were beautiful, but since such beauty was shared by both genders they thought it immoral, that and the country side was too ugly for Sakura to take. Tetsu would have allied or made peace with the country since even though they looked like angels they were devils in everything else. The reasons why Tetsu did not ally themselves with that country was that Tenshi viewed cannibalism as too much for them, also Tetsu did not like the fact that the people of Tenshi all looked weak, they hid their strength.
Naruto reached the capital of Tenshi no Kuni a month after leaving his Sakura base. The capital was by far the strangest one in design, all the buildings looked like enlarged shrines, while the castle looked like a temple. The people of Tenshi no Kuni took their being angels abit too seriously, since they went so far as to live in such a city.
At first Naruto was barred from entering the capital, not for being a foreigner, but for not reaching the standards of the city. So he shapeshifted himself into his Naruko form, with a few modifications. Since he no longer sported whiskers marks, his female form did not have those, she didn't have her hair up in pigtails either, she was also not a blonde but instead had ebony black hair, her breasts were smaller than they originally were, and she was a little bit paler. His female form was his tribute to kitsune, his having one for most of his youth he wanted to atleast keep a part of that with him.
She was an angel of death, her kimono was black as pitch, the embroidered design being that of the sky at night the thread that was used being silver. Her hair was styled in a half bun half ponytail and secured by a kanzashi, or hair ornament. There were very few true geisha, and Naruko was a dead ringer for one of those. She admitted that part of the look was also based on Tsukiko, but that wasn't really all that important.
The guards of the city let her in without hesitation. If a tenshi really did come down from heaven they believed her to be it.
She made her way to the castle and tried to get an audience with the daimyou, surprisingly the first person that she encountered inside was the daimyou herself, it was not a lord like Naruko expected but a lady.
It was an instant audience. The daimyou was surprised to find someone who was actually more beautiful than her, being a woman jealousy reared its ugly head, but was controlled. She was curious as to why someone like Naruko would want to speak with her.
Naruko explained that father who lived in one of the other cities in the country had kept her away from view, no one except for her relatives was permitted to look upon her, so one day she managed to run away. By doing so she met a group of men who were searching for a young woman, since she wasn't the one they were searching for she asked them if they could escort her to the capital, her beauty had been all that was needed to get them to escort her there, or so she said. When asked why she thought of using these men as an escort she explained that she had heard rumors of raids in some other cities by other countries and did not want anything to happen to her as she made her way to the capital. Then the daimyou asked her why she wanted to get to the capital so badly, she answered that she had heard of the daimyou's beauty and wanted to actually compare herself to the daimyou.
The daimyou was impressed with such honesty, and called over one of her attendants and had him compare the two women. He immediately stated that the daimyou was the more beautiful of the two, all the while staring at Naruko. At that blatant lie he was immediately struck down by the daimyou shoving a tanto through his heart.
"We both know who he thought was more beautiful," the daimyou said, "Was there any other reason as to why you would seek me out?"
"I also wanted to learn from a woman with power, I have been sheltered for most of my life and am not that familiar with the way things work."
"I guess that that is a somewhat believeable reason. I'll tell you what, I'll let you stay here, in my castle for a few days. I need to make sure you really are who you say you are."
"Thank you my lady."
Naruko, in Tenshi she didn't go by the name Rosuto, was then led to a room where she would stay for the next couple of days. The daimyou intended to send out some of her soldiers to find out if she really was from some other city, locked up against her will. If she was, then her entire clan would be killed on the spot. It was law that no other should be more beautiful than the daimyou. The daimyou would keep Naruko, who apparently didn't know anything, in her castle, she girl intriued her. She planned on marrying the girl to her son, so that her grandchildren might be more beautiful. Such beauty would not be wasted, all the others that she had caught had been married of to the sons of the elites in her country. If the family could not be found, it would not matter.
Once the servants that had brought Naruko to the room had left her alone, she created ten kunoichi clones and ordered them to go snoop around for any prison or the like. There had to be something like that even in a oountry like Tenshi. Aside from the design of the buildings, another thing that set the country apart from the others was that the land was mostly desert, but in the city there was an abundance of food and water. The reason for engaging in war with the other lands was because, like Sakura, the country did not find ugly things worth keeping in the world. Simplicity and perfection made up their beliefs. That was only one reason, another one were the men's thirst for violence. They openly took pleasure in seeing others in pain or suffering.
After creating the kunoichi clones, Naruko created ten groups of ten shinobi clones. After each creation of shinobi clones was created she ordered each group to travel around the country and as much as possible create the illusion that the country was being plagued by the other nations as well as by bandit and mercenaries. The clones were free to use whatever jutsu they wished, but they had to make sure that the jutsu wasn't too obvious. They were also told to be on the lookout for any nomadic shinobi clans that might want a more permanent home.
Lastly, she created a general clone, just one, this one would be in charge of setting up a base of operations somewhere out in the sea of sands, he would also establish a connection with Naruto's world. After naming the clone Mugoi as well as wishing it luck, Naruko decided that it was time for her to sleep.
A week after being allowed to stay in the castle, the kunoichi clones returned with no information on any of the prisons, if there were any at all. But they did report that they had obtained information as to where the armor and weapons of the country were being mass produced. They also brought information as to where the materials came from. The armor and weapons that the military used were produced in a city that was three weeks away from the capital, while the materials were sold to the country in exchange for glass and some of the lower class citizens, those people that were sold or traded of for the materials were the only reported cases of slave trading that the country participated in. After bringing in that new Naruko had the clones return to searching for any new information.
The daimyou visited Naruko a day later to inform her that she would be marrying her son, the prince of Tenshi no Kuni. This news actually surprised Naruko, maybe she was really too beautiful, too late to change appearances now. She had to find those suffering people that she instinctively knew existed, and fast. She did not want to get married, especially to some insane pretty boy, the fact that he was a guy didn't really cross her mind. When Naruto shapeshifted or transformed he became that person, sure he was still himself deep down inside, but when he became a girl he really became a girl complete with all bodily functions. Icha Icha had nothing on him, err her.
The day after learning of her impending marriage, Naruko was introduced to her fiance. He had an angelic face, with an athletic build. He obviously inherited his looks from his mother, since the father paled in comparison to the son. She was introduced as Rosuto Naruko, she couldn't think up any other name that could be used as her clan name, so that was it. She was then told that she would move into the royal clan compound so that she could get to know her fiance a little bit better. It took Naruko all her self control to reel in her panic. Things were getting out of hand fast. Maybe this approach was not one of the healthiest ones that she had thought up. Those clones had better have found something else to work on fast, else she'd be stuck, married to a guy who was only doing that for her looks.
At the end of that week the kunoichi clones arrived at Naruko's former room to give their report, only to find out that she was not there. The clones didn't panic right away, they got themselves to the undersand base that Mugoi had had build a few hours away from the capital. Thats when they started to panic.
Due to Naruto's having made so many clones most of the ones that he created somehow gained personalities of their own. It was a bit creepy if he actually stopped and analized it. Oh, yes Naruto had been 'playing god' in the sense that his clones were all somewhat altered, they were more like tsukumogami than lifeless or souless clones. Naruto was too exposed to the energies of the universe that it had affected the way he created clones. Sure he could make them go poof, but he did that so often. There were times in the past that Naruto would secretly create kage bushins back in konoha and have them henge into looking like older versions of himself and his original Naruko form, as well as younger versions and much older verions as well. He used to create a kage bushin family for himself. Well, now he literally had a clone family, this was one thing that Orochimaru had repeatedly failed to do, make living breathing copies of himself. Naruto had a whole 'race' created in his image and likeness, well sort of since most of them changed their appearances to become distinguishabel as well as become a whole other person.
So the clones were panicking, no big deal Mugoi would solve the problem, he was the general after all. But when even he started to panic, things didn't look too good for them. That was until someone stepped out of the teleportation gate.
"Hey! Who's in charge of this operation?" the person asked.
The clones all stopeed what they were doing when they heard the voice. When they saw the person they realized who it was. It was Tamotsu.
The general clone stepped forward to greet him.
"I am in charge."
"Well, you look like a binch of headless chickens running around like you were when you got here."
"Hehe, its just that we've never encountered a situation like the one we are in now."
"Well what's your name, and what's the situation? Gakai sent me over here to help out."
"We cannot find Naruko-sama."
"Who's that? And where's Rosuto?"
"Naruko-sama is Rosuto-sama's adopted daughter," Mugoi said and sealed the fate of the specially modified ultimate clone that Naruto would have to create in the future to that would be his adopted daughter. Some clones just weren't as good as the original at coming up with plans and lies on the fly.
"Seriously?" Tamotsu asked.
"Hai."
"Since when?"
"Since the beginning. She was traveling with a separate group, and we met up with her here. Rosuto-sama left her in charge of this operation, and me in charge in her absence."
"Well, you're doing a poor job at it."
"Then I guess you'll have to lead us then. I'll act as your advisor of sorts similar to those that help out Tsukiko-sama."
"Eh, alright then," Tamotsu said, "So what happened exactly?"
"Naruko-sama had been staying at the daimyou's castle until recently. She personaly infiltrated the capital. We received our direct orders from her," one of the kunoichi clones stated.
"And you can't locate her now? What were you supposed to tell her anyway?"
"We found the location of the slave pens, well sort of anyway."
"Oh? Where are they then? Underneath the city? The castle? Some other city?"
"There are no facilities so to speak. All the ones that are sold to the slave trade in exchange for materials and supplies are people of the lowest class in society. This country is by no mean poor, but the source of all the materials used to produce their weapons and armor come from these slave rings."
"And?"
"As I said, most of the ones handed over are people from the lowest caste in society. The individuals are mostly the physically weak, the dying, the women, the children, and some members of the noble clans, even the royal clan donates some of its weaker members to the treasury. The country has a take no prisoners attitude in war."
"So what you are saying is that the slave pens are found in the city or cities that deal with the slave traders?"
"Yes."
"And these people are brought there a few days prior to the exchange of goods. That these people are from all walks of life and that it is somewhat random?"
"Hai."
"That makes our job a lot harder. How are we supposed to rescue people that willingly do these things.."
"Err, they don't exactly willingly do them, these people are mostly brought up into believing that when they are sold they are to be recycled into more beautiful things, or that these traders are going to somehow make them deadlier in a sense. In some cases enuchs make the best warriors."
"So how do we tell who to save, and who to let be? I really need Rosuto-sama's input.."
"Well he's not available, his daughter is missing, and you accepted leadership. Now lead," Mugoi told him.
"So is there anything else that you've got?"
"Well not anything that would be entirely useful. We found out that Tenshi no Kuni does not believe in torture, they believe in outright slaughter. Most if not all of the citizens believe that should they prove that they are weak, they shall welcome death or be traded off for materials that would help their country, those that perceive themselves as less beautiful than most also accepts whatever. But there is a law in the country that states that no one, and I mean no one, should be more beautiful than the ruling family, much more so the daimyou herself. Most girls with unrivaled beauty are married of to clan members of the noble and royal clans, while others are killed along with their entire clans."
"Well that still doesn't help us now does it."
"No, it doesn't," Tamotsu then took a moment to think before continuing, "Have you found anyone who secretly opposes the government? Cause in Sakura the previous daimyou was imprisoned for wanting to stop the war. Is there anyone like that here?"
"We haven't managed to find anyone like that."
"Well, when you do find someone, contact me immediately. That person will be the first one we extract, no matter who it may be."
"Hai Tamotsu-sama!" the kunoichi said before the vanished, which was an action that Tamotsu had not yet encountered.
"How did they do that?" he asked Mugoi.
"Ah...you weren't supposed to find out about that..."
"Mugoi," he said, "Is there anything else I need to know?"
"None that I am aware of, sir," Mugoi stated, but the look that Tamotsu was giving him forced him to say a bit more, "There are a lot of things that you have not been told, the ability of those women is one of those things. Until Rosuto-sama's plan has reached its final stages, We, his people are not supposed to leak too much information."
"So you're saying that Rosuto is capable of more things? That there are more than just dragons and battle puppets?"
"Precisely."
"Great."
"Tamotsu-sama, before you allow dark thoughts to cloud your perception of Rosuto-sama, uhm we still have a missing commander to locate."
"Right, his daughter. Is it possible that she may have just gone out for the day or something?"
"Not possible, those ten did not sense her presence."
"So they can sense when someone is around huh, another ability I wasn't supposed to know about?"
"Eh..ah...not exactly."
"Can you do that, sense others presence I mean."
"Yes, to a degree."
"You guys really should teach that skill to the new guys like me. Compared to you lot I'm still considered as new."
"How bout you ask Naruko-sama when we find her. Let her decide. "
"Fine by me."
"What would be the simplest way to find out where she could have gone?"
"Well, you could disguise yourself as a beautiful girl and ask the daimyou herself all the while sewing a fake story of woe, and that you had been a caged bird all your life and only recently escaped to seek refuge in the capital away from your oppressive relative."
"I doubt that I could pull that off."
"Well, we could always just attack the capital. During all the confusion we might be able to find her, somehow."
"Is it possible that she was killed?"
"No."
"How do you know that for certain? Don't tell me that you can feel her lifeforce somehow?"
"Its not that. Its something else. I'm not quite sure about it myself, but I'd definitely know if she had indeed died."
"Fine, fine, so go rally the troops we march at dusk."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"HAI!"
Then Mugoi raced away from his new commander to gather the troops in preparation for the attack that they would be launching that night. Instead of wolves, the beast of choice were smilodons also known as the sabertooths or battlecats. But those weren't the only critters that the army had at their disposal. The General clone in Naruto's world had sent over more than ten thousand vampire bats, these little guys had their genes manipulated in such a way that they were smaller than they should have grown into.
Mugoi returned to Tamotsu, when all the troops were prepared to deploy.
"How are we to go about this Tamotsu-sama? What's our battle plan?"
"What do we have at our disposal?"
"Well we have around two thousand five hundred infantry, one thousand cavalry, that's both rider and battlecat, one hundred bat handlers each controlling one hundred bats, the blood sucking kind vicious things those are, ten assassins but they're over in the capital right now, the rest of the staff, me, and well you."
"You know I've never seen the city where all of you come from."
"You mean to say you've never gone over to visit it?"
"Never. Now back to the plan," Tamotsu said, "From some other information we our side has gathered, Tenshi are known as one of the more ruthless warriors on the battlefield. They are know to look like angels, but in reality make Tetsu soldiers look human."
Tamotsu then paused to gather his thoughts, and try and formulate a plan.
"Mugoi, will your people burst into flames should any of them sustain a mortal wound or something similar?"
"Yes, its standard proceedure for us."
"For you, yes its only you guys that experiece those things."
"Back to the plan commander?"
"One more question, are you still hiding our identity?"
"Yes sir."
"Alright, now I want half of the infantry to disguise themselves as soldiers from the other nations.."
"They've already done that."
"I see, well then, the disguised half will strike first, they are to charge into battle yelling like mad dogs that haven't had a bite to eat in a long while. I want the other half to get into the city and search all the structures for our missing princess.."
"Princess?"
"Yes princess. Now where was I," he said, "Ah yes. Next I want those battlecats to wait a few meters away from where the infantry will start their charge, they will serve as back up. And well you can have those bats of ours feast on the blood of the living."
"That's it?"
"Yes, that's it. With the troops that we have at our disposal, that's all I could come up with on such short notice."
"Right then. You give the orders commander."
Tamotsu walked over to the standing at attention army. Then turned to Mugoi.
"We are under the sea of sand, right?"
"Yes sir."
"How are we getting above ground?"
"Teleportation gates, sir."
"Oh," then he faced the men, "Move out!"
Once the entire army was above ground, Mugoi took charge.
"Form ranks!" which was what the clone army proceeded to do.
"Cats take the rear, take out any that get through our boys in black! Bats as soon as our boys meet the defenders you have permission to feast on the blood of the living!"
He then returned to Tamotsu's side.
"You're up, commander," he said.
Moving forward, Tamotsu faced his men, unsheathed his katana, then shouted the order, "CHARGE!"
The infantry raced off and did as they were supposed to. Their cries quickly alerting the city defenders to their approach, along with the rest of the city itself.
The battle was the first time that the clones had actually encountered some samurai, althought these weren't the bushido following people that Naruto was used to, they were samurai nonetheless. They were true masters of all their weapons. Who knew that these armor clad men were the defenders of the city. They were a wall of steel that the clones were unprepared for. They were also the first opponents that the clone had encountered that could faintly detect the clones that were sneaking into the city. They were unable to pursue the infiltrators due to the onslaught of the one thousand two hundred fifty clones that were attacking like a pack of mad dogs. The residents of the city took up arms, donned their armor, and went to defend their city from the invaders. Leaving their homes unprotected, well the only defenders that they left were the women and children, people who had no real way of defending themselves against the onslaught of the bats. Ten thousand bats descended upon the city like a plague, the drank as much as their little bodies could take, which was a lot more compared to their not genetically altered ancestors and cousins, none of their victims died, but the loss of blood had weakened them enough to get them to drop to the ground unconscious. This suited the infiltratos perfectly. They were able to search through all the buildings.
The only place that the attackers were unable to breach was the castle, and by extension, the royal clan compound, which was where Naruko was. Most did not join the battle due to their clan head and daimyou ordering them not to, while a small group would have been considered weak if it were found out that they did not enjoy battle as much as the rest of the populace. One of these individuals was the prince himself.
The ruling clan of Tenshi no Kuni was the Ichida clan, its head was Ichida Sadame, her husband was just not suited to ruling, and had been laid off. The name of the prince was Ichida Mori, and he had fallen in love with Naruko the moment he laid eyes on her. He spent several hours trying to woo her but to no avail, she seemed dead set against ever feeling anything for him. She even kicked him in the gonads when he got too close. The daimyou didn't bat an eyelash at that. To her women seemed superior to men in the sense that they didn't have a blatant weakspot.
Due to the chaos happening all over the rest of the city, Naruko was able to sneak her way out of the compound, but as she was about to make a break for it, someone grabbed her arm and spun her around.
The person that had grabbed her arm was none other than Mori.
"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded an answer.
"Just...out."
"Out?! Its chaos! The capital's being attacked by who knows who, and you decided to go out!" he shouted at her.
Instead of saying anything else, Naruko promptly kicked him in the balls, and walked away while he fell to the ground in agony.
"W-w-wait!" Mori managed to shout out.
"What?" she asked as she stopped walking and turned to face him.
"Where are you going?"
"Back."
"Where?"
"Away from this place, its worse than Sakura and Tetsu."
He managed to get back onto his feet, then he staggered over to her.
"You've been to Sakura and Tetsu?"
"And Nasu and Naiya."
"Amazing..but what do you mean its worse here than in those places?"
"It just is, but not on everything, just most things...why am I telling you this anyway?"
"I dunno...tell you what, if you stay, I promise I'll change how things are when I suceed my mother."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I don't approve of how my country is, there's a few of us actually. Please stay."
"I can't. I still have things to do."
"I figured as much, since you don't act like most of the girls in this country do. Mother knew that your story wasn't real."
"So what now?"
"Come back with me, please..?"
Before she could reply, the pair heard some rapidly approaching footsteps coming from the direction of the chaos. Three of the shinobi clones and five of the kunoichi clones had managed to get past the castle and made their way to the compound, intending to see if she was in there.
"Naruko-sama, thank kami we've found you," one of the kunoichi said.
"Step away from Naruko-sama Ichida-teme," one of the shinobi said.
"Mori-kun, how about you come with me instead?"
"What?! B-but, my mother, and the others? How can I change the country if I leave?"
Naruko had received information as to what Mugoi had told Tamotsu, through the nearly forgotten chakra link, which she noticed seemed to grow thinner, and smaller as time went by, but she didn't really pay it any mind.
"Otou-sama will bring about change, for all nine countries."
"Your otou-san?"
"Hai, so how about it? You can come with me if you wish."
"Naruko-sama there isn't much time, we're running out of time, it's almost dawn," one kunoichi said.
"You lot go ahead, I'll catch up," she told the clones, who did as she requested.
"Well..?" she asked him.
"I really can't leave..."
"Suit yourself," she said as she left.
Once Mori returned to where the rest of his group were situated at he was greeted by his mother, who was frowning. Apparently she had sent someone to follow him and make sure that he was not planning on joining the chaos in the rest of the city, but instead of finding him going to the city, her spy had found out that he was actually a traitor. Being her son, she would give him some time to tell his allies about his encounter and what he had learned. Her spy didn't stay long enough to hear Naruko mention her father, but the spy stayed long enough to hear about Mori's actual views and beliefs, which was why he returned to the daimyou to immediately inform her of such treachery. She suspected Naruko of being a kind of spy from the start, but there was no physical evidence to prove her guilt. But now that there was, the little bird had already managed to escape. Her son on the other hand was going to lead her to the other traitors, and once all of them had been found, there would be a public excecution.
Once Naruko finally got to the base she immediately went somewhere that she wouldn't be spotted doing what she planned on doing. Being a girl for too long had caused severe mental problems for her real self, problems that were about to be solved. Naruko created a clone, one of those clones that Naruto created, the kind that he created when he 'played god', but instead of someone else's soul, he shoved the part of him that had become Naruko. Naruto stood there watching the birth of Naruko, it wasn't like the usual clone creation process, or the regular 'playing god' type of clone creation process. It was creepier, for Naruto anyway, for it wasn't just a personality that he was implanting, or something like that. He was in a way splitting his very soul, and then mutating it in a certain way. His soul regenerated easily, as it didn't really lose anything, but creating the new soul was hard. Because he had to recreate his Naruko personality, that and add on to it, like create fake memories and the like. He then had to make her a helluvalot different from him, in many aspects. After an hour or two of waiting for his daughter to fully mature into the woman that Mori had fallen in love with, the process was complete. Naruko was no longer Naruto playing 'dress up', she was an actual person now.
He had a daughter, which was kinda weird. That was when he realized that he more or less had lots and lots of children. Not normal was normal for him, so he just accepted it, and didn't let it bother him.
'I am greatly bothered by what Naruto has done, his playing god is even creepier than some of the things I've done...maybe the Being will give me counseling...' Kyonshi thought to himself as he watched Naruto and analized the situation of his student.
Naruto used his clones connection to inform all his clones, ALL his clones about his daughter, cept for his daughter that actually thought of herself as an actual person with a real history and stuff, and those other clones that didn't really need to know.
Naruto and Naruko walked into cafeteria and made a beeline to where Tamotsu was sitting and eating some cereal with Mugoi.
"So, how's it been while I was away?" Naruto asked Mugoi.
"Good, bad, bad, good. Welcome back Rosuto-sama!"
"Welcome back Rosuto-sama, I'm sure Naruko has informed you about the plan that I excecuted. I really couldn't think of anything else."
"It was fine, some of my earlier plans were like that one."
"Oh, okay then, you know..coming from you that's really high praise."
"Your welcome, now before we continue with the pleasantries, I need to get down to business."
"Err, sure, you're the boss after all."
"I know who we need to break out."
"Seriously? That's great news!"
"Who are they and where are they Rosuto-sama?"
"Ichida Mori and his group of supporters."
"What?! But he's like royalty in these parts, why him?"
"He's like Sakura's former daimyou."
"I see, so when are we breaking them out?"
"When they're about to get excecuted for treason."
"What?! But excecution? Why?!"
"They were found out during the attack."
"That's not nice...so do we have any info as to when?"
"I'd estimate that Sadame will find all the rats by the end of the month, which gives us two weeks to prepare."
On the day of the excecution Naruto's kunoichi clones informed the base when the rats were being led to the chopping block. After getting the information Naruto used an AOE illusion to make the battlecats and the riders to look like rgular horsemen. Then they all rode off to rescue the rats. Naruko went with them, Tamotsu and Mugoi too.
Just as Mori was about to meet the shinigami he was grabbed by something, a hand had latched onto his body, he noticed around his some riders that were swiftly snatching his companions. Everthing happened in the span of a few short minutes. After the last rat was taken, chaos erupted in the city, everyone was frantically trying to stop the rescuers from getting away with the traitors, but to no avail. Naruto's battlecats were just too fast, and when they got to the sea of sand the just disappeared.
The next thing Mori knew, he was sitting on the floor of the base along with his allies. In front of them were their rescuers, but one of them caught his attention, Naruko. She was just standing there in her black kimono, beside Naruto who was wearing his special outfit complete with katana and kunai.
"W-who? W-wha? H-how?" Mori managed to stutter out even though he was till in shocked and surprised mode.
"Hello Mori-kun, aren'tcha glad we got you outta there?" Naruko asked.
"Yeah, of course...uh.."
"You wouldn't happen to want to go rebel on your country would you?" Tamotsu asked them.
"We were already labelled as rats, so yes, sure, why not," Mori said, the rest of his group nodded in agreement.
"Welcome aboard," then Naruto pointed at Tamotsu with his thumb, "Tomato over there's commander of theis base. Coz I'm leaving for Komugi no Kuni in a few minutes."
"Hey! It's Tamotsu not Tomato!"
"Anyways, one more thing before I go...Mori I am aware of your intentions, so if you hurt her...Shinigami will be the least of your problems."
After saying that Naruto walked into a shadow, in full view of all the people present.
"Mugoi, as much as I want to say 'you have some explaining to do' I won't, cause that was just plain creepy."
A second after walking into the shadow Naruto walked out of another shadow. He found himself in a wheat field, one that didn't look like it was doing so well, but a wheat field nonetheless.
'That sure is a lotta wheat...only thing missing is the chocolate and the koala...' Naruto mentally said.
To be continued...
*please review if you liked my fic or just this chapter or whatever.
*If you got something bad to say message me instead of posting it as a review.