Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any other anime/manga for that matter. This is just a parody and all rights belong to their specific owners.
AN: Real quick, I want to thank everyone who has supported and read this story up to this point! When I started writing this I never had written any other semi-popular stories and averaged at about 10-20 followers tops. However, thanks to all of your support, I have been able to reach the milestone of 100 followers! I hope you all continue to enjoy this story and my work. Also, if anyone would like to design some cover art for this fanfiction, as I do not like using Google Images, please PM me, I will give you credit in each chapter of the story.
Review Responses:
Some Guy In An Ambulance: Thank you, and I hope that you enjoy what you see later on as well. As for the age thing, it would be very boring in my opinion to show him growing up in Oto as there is not very much to see or write about. Starting the village was not that eventful and they did not have many important missions important to the plot. And that is why I increase his age every chapter, but we are getting to the point where there won't be many more time skips which I am super excited for.
TigrezzTail: Thank you, something I really take pride in is my creativity. And who knows when the other five villages will figure it out, one thing is for certain though, Konoha definitely won't like it. Also, thank you once again for the Uchiha comment. The stigma will wear off eventually, and Sasuke will play a huge role in that later on in the story.
shadow assassin 96: Thank you for the compliments. Also, unfortunately, you were wrong in your guesses. Suigetsu would not have tied into my plans for the story as a part of Akuma's squad and I am assuming Pakura is already dead. However, Suigetsu may play a part in the story further down the line.
zapper25: Thank you for catching that mistake. I would appreciate it if you notified me of any others since I tend to sometimes get lost in thought of other stories and type the wrong thing.
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: I am very glad that you review on every one of my chapters, it is very helpful and I hope you continue to do it in the future. Thank you for supporting this story and I hope to make better chapters in the future. Anyway, I have a plan for every event that has happened up to this point. I plan to write until the Valley of the End mark of cannon Naruto. Afterwards there will be an epilogue.
KilluaGodspeed: Yes, I know that the sealing is basic knowledge in cannon but I want the people of Konoha to see Otogakure as their enemy in the future. To them, the seal was only to keep the legendary eyes out of enemy hands and that the Main Branch Hyuga were so strong that they just didn't need it. Only the village elders, a few of the clan heads that worked with the Hyuga, and Hinata know the truth of the seal in this story.
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Orochimaru sighed as he looked over all of the damned paperwork that had somehow appeared on his desk. He briefly considered saying that only a fake pile of paperwork could appear so quickly, but he squashed that idea down just as quickly. The last time he had said that and caught the work on fire his new assistant, as Naifu had been part of Isai for a while now, had 'somehow' been 'sick' for two weeks, and unable to help him with his paperwork.
Sometimes he really regretted only having smart assistants. Anyway, now he was going over all of the new clans in Oto. There was a clan council meeting in about thirty minutes to welcome the tenth new clan, the Iburi Clan. The other clans, the Tetsu, Fuma, Mamorimasu, Taranku, Shiin, Onpa, Chikyu, Taka, and Doku clans were all going to be there with their clan head representing them.
Most of these clans had joined during the two years after the Hyuga Massacre and were now an important part of Otogakure politics. Unlike Konoha, civilians dealt with only civilian matters while shinobi dealt with only shinobi matters and the Otokage oversaw both. The Shiin Clan had joined in the first month after the Hyuga Massacre, saying that they no longer were able to achieve their ideals without a village and had soon been integrated into Oto. Shiin was the leader of the clan, with a very unoriginal name Orochimaru might add, and was one of Otogakure's more powerful shinobi. He was a jounin level in genjutsu, taijutsu, and was a master with kunai as well as having extremely high endurance.
The rest of his clan was mostly bandits, but Shiin had promised that his clan would soon be known as one of the strongest non-bloodline clans and Orochimaru allowed him to keep the clan title. The next clan to join had been the Onpa Clan who were now considered to be one of Otogakure's best clans. They had lived in caves and underground areas for years after being persecuted in the Land of Earth thanks to false information and after a few generations, their eyes were now useless. To make up for this, every member of the clan was able to see their surroundings through both vibrations in the ground and with their ability to sense chakra. They were also able to summon the bats to help them fight and see shinobi and people in the village had quickly learned that it was very difficult to sneak up on them.
The Chikyu Clan had joined next along with the Doku Clan next and had been allies for some time before then. The Doku Clan was originally from Yugakure before the Land of Sound and Land of Hot Water combined and the Doku Clan decided to leave for Otogakure instead of staying in a soon to be tourist spot. They were experts with poisons rivaling even those in Sunagakure and were widely known about their policies of ever using a weapon without poison on it. They were some of the best assassins across the land and had already put their skills to use within the village.
The Chikyu Clan had become allies with the Doku Clan way back during the Warring Clans period after a political marriage. The Chikyu Clan were very talented with the earth affinity, enough so that they didn't need hand seals to use earth style jutsu and were widely feared because of this. This caused many people to try and hatch up plots to destroy the clan, however shortly after they revealed their plans they would mysteriously die from a heart attack or some rare disease and be unable to carry it out. Likewise, whenever a large force moved towards the Doku Clan, they would be stopped by shinobi wielding earth so easily it was like they were throwing kunai.
Now, they would have the Iburi Clan joining them. The Iburi Clan was a clan in the Land of Fire that had been hidden underground for a long while. They had the unique ability to turn their bodies into smoke, but it was not always willful and a gust of wind could blow them away. For the past year, Orochimaru had been developing a seal that could allow them to be able to transform at will so that they would not randomly transform and get blown away, killing them.
He had worked hard along with his head scientists to develop that seal, but he did not regret it as he now had a clan with great potential and found a new genius. Yoidesu Doku was the eldest son of the Doku Clan head, Tenno Doku, and was thought of throughout his clan as their smartest mind. He had developed countless poisons, new tactics they used on multiple occasions, and was promoted to head Oto scientist after his help with the Iburi Clan seal. However, he had refused to be the Doku Clan head many years before then and now, at 37 years old, he has already chosen his path in life. Instead, his younger sister, Kobura, was decided as the heir at 30 years old.
Orochimaru shook his head to clear his thoughts of clan matters and looked out the window he installed in his office. His office was truly his own now, with snake statues looking at him sitting at his desk made out of Fire Country wood. There were bookshelves and filing cabinets filled to the brim all around the walls of his oval shaped office and there was a large window bigger than Orochimaru right behind his desk. It was amplified with seals and chakra so nothing could pierce it, but it sure made his Isai nervous.
He chuckled at this and began to turn his many thoughts towards Akuma and his newest comrade, Neji Taka. It had been two years since Neji's public embarrassment and recruitment into Akuma's squad and he could say without a doubt that he was chunin level. Sure, he was jounin in taijutsu thanks to all the one on one training he received, but he was still learning everything else. Akuma also seemed to really love 'training' Neji in his stamina and endurance as they sparred every week or so. The first time, Neji did not even last five seconds but he could now last a few minutes thanks to him using his brain.
If Orochimaru wasn't mistaken, which he rarely is, Neji now was at least genin level, and chunin in some areas, in all of the things he had been taught, well except taijutsu. He was taught stealth, archery, taijutsu, tracking, medical jutsu, poisons, and a few earth ninjutsu. The boy had actually thanked Ken with tears in his eyes once he taught him the Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu. Before he learned that, he was only able to fight Akuma for about 40 seconds at most. Unless it was taijutsu only, he had lasted much, much longer when the two boys did that.
Speaking of Akuma, Orochimaru couldn't help but smirk as he thought of the seven year old jounin. He was the youngest jounin to ever live, beating Kakashi Hatake's old record by a whole four years. However, he was high jounin level in ninjutsu while low jounin level in taijutsu and with a few weapons. Everything else varied from low chunin to high chunin level, though it was more than enough to defeat his comrade and a few ninja who would cross his path.
Orochimaru's good mood about thinking of his son's progress did not last long as he thought about how fast he was growing up. In fact, the very next day would be the day that the two went off to find the rest of his squad. Orochimaru had already selected his subordinates, with most being from Oto. These would be Kidomaru Taranku, Tayuya Furuto, Jirobo Chikyu, and Sakon/Ukon. The last, two?, had a recessive bloodline that allowed them to break their molecules on a molecular level and infiltrate someone else's body. This also allowed them to live within one another while still being two separate beings.
They had refused to be tested on to distribute their bloodline to others, which he reluctantly accepted. Now all he needed was a leader for them all as he would not be able to go around with them like Akuma would be able to. However, while he hadn't actually recruited anyone for Akuma, he had made a list of people that would be good for being a comrade. There were a few from each country, including Otogakure, and he was sure that Akuma would be able to make his choice soon. He stopped thinking and looked at the clock above one of his cabinets and sighed sadly. It seemed like it was time for the meeting… oh well, maybe it would be interesting.
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Ken moved silently through the dangerous canyon, not making any noise as he moved through the middle of it at high speeds, as is befitting of an Isai captain. He was on a mission in the Land of Fangs to assassinate a noble of the land to raise tensions between them and the Land of Claws even more. They had narrowly avoided a war not too long before and this was not good for Orochimaru's plans. Before they had avoided the war, Iwa shinobi had been hired by both sides to fight for them since the Land of Stone was bordering both countries to the right. This caused the shinobi of the village to go to the border furthest away from Oto, enabling them to steal from Iwa techniques, weapons, gold, and many other things while pinning it on other countries.
They mostly blamed it on Taki, Ishi, Ame, and Kusa, and because of that, tensions between them were rising more and more. Ken was the main person sent on those types of missions and since he mainly used weapons, there were no unique traits that could tie Oto to any of them. "What you thinking about Dragon-taicho?" Shizuka asked with his mountain troll mask covering his entire visage. Ken himself wore a mask that appeared to be a dragon with many horns all over it.
"Just about our mission Troll-san, are you sure that we left no evidence behind?" Ken asked in a hushed tone as they sped back to their country. This would be the hardest part as they would have to go through The Land of Stone, The Land of Waterfall, and The Land of Iron while killing any witnesses.
"Yes sir," Shizuka said as he pointed back to a man with a thunder bird mask. "Thunder Bird-san checked out the room with his Byakugan before we left, he said that there was no evidence whatsoever," Shizuka said with a bit of pride in his voice.
He seemed like he was about to say something else when the Taka Clan member spoke up. "Seven Iwa shinobi are approaching to the right. There seems to be five chunin level shinobi and two jounin level ones. I am assuming that they are patrolling and there is a sensor in their squad."
Ken nodded seriously at the information and silently agreed with his squad mate. The only way they would have found them is if they had a sensor on their squad, though it seemed like the sensor wasn't a very good one if they only brought two jounin and five chunin. "Very well, we will test that last theory. Everyone go underground and await my signal." Ken's two comrades nodded before they all did a few hand seals and hid underneath the ground.
They waited for about a minute before the seven shinobi landed where they last were. Ken's eyes widened slightly when he saw one of the Tsuchikage's two sons, Yama Kamizuru. 'Killing him would work greatly in our favor if we could pin it on either Fang or Claw, but we would have to ensure there are no survivors. I suppose I will have to use that technique,' Ken thought morbidly. He clasped his hands together in a seal and began to concentrate.
A few seconds later and one of the chunin looked up with fear in her eyes, oh well, it was too late. "Get awa-," she started but was cut off by Ken's deep voice echoing off the walls of the canyon.
"Iron Style: Senbon Devastation," he said while jumping out of the ground above the Iwa shinobi and pointing his hands towards them. This jutsu made an iron senbon shoot out from every skin pore on Ken's hands and made thousands of the weapons rain down upon his enemies. It took about two-tenths of his chakra and a large amount of concentration, but it was good for taking out shinobi groups like the ones below him.
Yama scowled and made some hand seals with his large hands while his black eyes looked at Ken beneath his red hair fearfully. "Earth Style: Mud Wal-," he gasped as he was hit with a few shuriken from the back and began to look behind him to see his sensor and the other jounin both on the ground with shuriken in them as well.
"Well, ja ne!" the one with the troll mask said as he leapt up onto the canyon walls to watch the show. The enemy shinobi had no time to react as the senbon blanketed over them and punctured every inch of their bodies. Ken leapt down soon afterwards and stuck his hand out to reabsorb all of the iron he had lost, regaining a small amount of his chakra.
"Thunder Bird-san, will you grab Yama? Troll-san you will carry the other jounin until we reach a resting point, understand?" Ken asked as he picked up the sensor that had caused them trouble.
"Yes sir, but what was the point in all of that?" Shizuka asked as he picked up the jounin he had killed before. He wasn't that hard to kill actually, but he caught him by surprise so who knew how strong he would have actually been.
Ken looked at him in surprise for him not knowing then shaking his head in exasperation. Shizuka knew why, he was just bored so he was making conversation. He usually finds himself wondering just why he was friends with the guy. Oh yea, cause no-one else liked him that much, bummer. "Well, when we get to a place we can stop and hide out in, we can send a messenger hawk to Orochimaru-sama telling him of this new development and then we can forge a document saying that either the Land of Claws or the Land of Fangs found out about Iwa helping their enemy and can jump start a war. I'd say we tell Iwa that Fang did it so that Ishi will join in the war as they are Fang's allies. This will make Iwa go to their left border even more, slowing us to steal from them even more. All in all, it would be a gain to our village," Ken explained while they moved on and the Taka member activated his Byakugan to make sure no-one was close enough to hear. After they made sure of that, Shizuka made a few hand seals and used a fire jutsu to burn away the bodies of the enemy shinobi.
Ken was still curious about who the Taka Clan member really was. After four months of working with the man he had never learned who he actually was. He usually worked with ten different people, and he knew who they all were except for the Taka member. Ken even called him Taka-san when they were off of missions since there was no-one nearby and Thunder Bird-san was really a mouthful. Whoever thought that making their masks mythical creatures obviously did not think about how long the names would be…
"Oh, well that makes sense. Let's get to a cave the-," he was once again cut off by Taka-san's yell of 'duck!' and he had barely dodged a large sword beheading him. He leapt away from the offending attacker and his eyes widened by who it was. "Juzo Biwa… the Demon of the Hidden Mist…" Shizuka muttered while still being wide eyed.
"Correct, I expect nothing less from an Otogakure Isai…" Juzo muttered as he looked at the three of them. He was a tall and slender individual about as tall as the sword he held in front of him, the Executioner's Blade. He wore a strange black cloak with red clouds in various places on it as well as bandages that covered his chin, neck, and ears. He also had red markings around his jaw and had a cross shaped scar on his right cheek as well as a Kirigakure forehead protector with a slash running through it. He also had no eyebrows and had short, spiky hair. He then grinned with a smile that just screamed bloodlust and looked right at Ken. "We are here to do business with you Ken Tetsu. But first, we have to test your abilities of course…"
"We…?" Ken muttered before his eyes widened and he turned towards his comrades. "Scatter!" he yelled as they all leapt in different directions just as a thunderbolt struck where they used to be and another man appeared next to Juzo.
"Aw, they stayed still… I could have held such a nice funeral for them…" the man said as he looked towards his enemies as well. He had blue eyes with a darker ripple around the pupil and waist length green hair with two bangs falling on his cheeks on each side of his face. He had dark, full lips that were smiling in a manner that was not completely sane and wore the same cloak as his partner, though Ken could still see the bandages that ran from his neck down. He also had a weird pack thing on his back that had three red stripes on it and had a hood on his cloak that he covered his head with. In each hand he held one of the twin swords, Kiba, that were supposed to be the sharpest swords ever made.
"I never did understand your obsession with funerals," Juzo smirked as he held up his sword in a fighting stance.
"Yea, yea, I wish I could give you a damn funeral…" the man muttered as he too put his swords in a fighting stance.
Ken's eyes widened just as Shizuka spoke up again. "That man is Raiga Kurosuki, the Thunder of the Hidden Mist. Great, so we have two S-class missing nin to deal with…" (AN: I am making Raiga a little stronger here than he was in the anime.) Ken and Taka-san frowned as they got in fighting stances along with Shizuka after dropping the bodies they held behind them. Shizuka unsheathed his katana and channeled lightning chakra down it, Ken made blades appear out of his forearms underneath his hands, and Taka-san got into a Jyuken fighting pose.
"Ah, it looks like they are all ready to fight. I was expecting only Ken-san to actually fight us, but at least we can get more blood this way…" Juzo smiled with his pointed teeth as he stared Ken down.
"If you don't mind, I think I'll take the Hyuga and the wanna be swordsman," Raiga smirked with his pointed teeth as his two opponents bristled for different reasons. Shizuka was angry because he had spent years training with a sword while Taka-san was furious at the reminder that he was a Hyuga member.
"That's fine with us," Shizuka said as Taka-san nodded next to him.
Ken looked at the two and spoke up, "Fine, but be careful. He may be one of the weaker members of the Swordsmen of the Mist but he's not S-rank for no reason…" His two comrades nodded before they allowed Raiga to lead them away from Juzo. "Now then…" Ken muttered as he dropped down in a mini squat with his arms settled in a cross guard. "Let's get started…"
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It was a big day for Akuma, Neji knew that. That day would be the day that he would choose his other three subordinates for his squad out of a large pool of potential ones. They wouldn't go out to recruit them until the next day, but this was the first time he ever really chose something important for himself. It was big, and he understood that, but why could he just not. Be. Still?
"Akuma-taicho, will you PLEASE stay still for five seconds?" Neji asked while his eyebrow twitched continuously. He looked quite different than he did when he came to Otogakure. He now wore a mottled gray kimono shirt with loose sleeves with matching pants and a purple apron like cloth tied around his waist. He also wore an Otogakure shinobi forehead protector and had two wrist blades hidden in his sleeves for when he did not want to use chakra for his taijutsu.
Akuma seemed to not pay attention to him as he continued bouncing in his seat. Did he mention that the chair squeaked like a mouse that was high on every drug in the world after drinking a few beers? Eventually Neji could not take it anymore and knocked Akuma in the back of the head causing him to fall to the floor. To his credit, he managed to look completely innocent when Akuma glared at him. He huffed and rubbed the back of his, now sore, head. "Ow, ow, ow what was that for Neji?" Akuma asked in a childish voice.
If Neji had not been around Akuma for two years, he might've actually believed that Akuma was a child. However, they had both learned that they both were not really children anymore after the things they have seen. Akuma saw experimentation on human life and lived around Isai level shinobi all of his life while Neji was basically a slave in his own family and saw all of their gruesome deaths. Neji shrugged at his captain and said with a completely innocent face, "I don't know. Fate told me 'watch this' and next thing I knew, you were on the ground. Fate is such an interesting thing don't you think?" Neji smirked at Akuma.
"I swear, you're always 'Fate this, Fate that'. If I didn't know any better I'd say that you were going to end up naming your kid Fate." At Neji's thoughtful look Akuma quickly added, "Don't even think about it. As soon as I become Otokage I am going to make it a law that you cannot name a child Fate."
Neji frowned and huffed at his captain in annoyance. He didn't really believe in fate anymore, no that was a lie. He believed in it, he just didn't think that he was able to see it anymore. He was so arrogant to think that, and he was going to try not to do that again. "Of course I'm not going to name my kid Fate. I'm going to name him, or her, Unmei."
Akuma thought about that before he yelled, or said loudly since he WAS in the waiting room for the Otokage, "That's the same thing!"
Neji smirked superiorly at his captain, "Well you didn't outlaw it so it is completely different."
"N-O you aren't naming your kid that."
"Ugh, as you wish captain. That is, if you beat me in a shogi match," Neji smirked at his captain who scowled and looked away with a pout. Neji, while not as strong as Akuma, had a better mind for strategy and had won every shogi match the two had played. Akuma wasn't really mad about it or anything, he just thought it reinforced his theory about the Byakugan being able to read minds, despite Neji's protests.
"If you didn't read my mind, maybe I could actually win…" Akuma began with a smirk.
"For Kami's sake, I do not read your mind Akuma-taicho! Sometimes I doubt there is anything to read…" Neji muttered.
"Oi! What was that?!" Akuma yelled, for real this time, as he got up and growled at Neji who did the same.
"Quiet! The Otokage will never see you two if you keep it up!" Orochimaru's assistant, Sheru Mamorimasu, yelled out loudly as she pointed towards the two 'hooligans'.
"But you're yelling too Sheru-chan," Akuma helpfully pointed out.
"Well, I can do that since I work here! Anyway, just wait a few more minutes and Otokage-sama will be able to see you," she said tiredly. Akuma always found a way to tire her out somehow, and if he wasn't so cute it would be annoying.
"Okay, thanks Sheru-chan!" Akuma said with a smile as he sat next to an embarrassed Neji.
She sighed before getting back to work and ignoring the brats. No matter how many times she told Akuma to call her Sheru-san, he just wouldn't listen. That was annoying no matter how cute he was. Akuma and Neji waited a few more minutes before Akuma started getting restless again and Neji had to keep himself from dealing with it in the same was as he did earlier. Thankfully, he didn't have to do that as a tired looking Orochimaru walked into the Otokage Tower. No matter how many times he went to them, Clan Formation Meetings always tired him out. There was a ton of haggling about possible favors, clan secrets, territorial issues, authority issues, and a lot of other things.
Thankfully his two allies in these meetings, Shirudu Mamorimasu and Hanzaki Fuma, the leaders of the Mamorimasu and Fuma clans, were there to support him. Shirudu was a 56 year old man who was credited with leading his clan out of Kirigakure. They were hunted down until there were only a few dozen of the members who were able to construct the strongest barriers ever seen in Kiri and when Oto was constructed he joined as soon as he could. The man had shaggy grey hair that reached his shoulders and had many wrinkles on his face. He usually closed his eyes and used his sensory skills to guide him around, but when he opened them they were a deep blue comparable to the sea. He wore a dark red robe with the Mamorimasu Clan symbol on the back of it, a sea turtle shell with waves crashing into it, and walked around on a wooden cane that many youngsters had discovered was very strong.
Hanzaki was Orochimaru's other 'ally' in these meetings and was actually the oldest living sibling of Ken Tetsu. He had short green hair and had kind brown eyes that betray his intentions of helping everyone through sunshine and rainbows. No, seriously, he told Orochimaru that was his goal once. Even though he had many drinks in him at the time, there was no excuse for that kind of talk. He wore mottled grey silk clothes that allowed him to move freely with the Fuma Clan symbol on his left arm, a Fuma Shuriken over a white background. Underneath these clothes, he wore mesh armor and always had two Fuma Shuriken on his back, even during formal meetings. However, despite his kindness, he was a very strong shinobi who earned the name 'Bladed Whirlwind' for his skills in battle with his shuriken, chakra strings, and wind jutsu.
The two helped Orochimaru greatly since Shirudu was a pessimist and Hanzaki was an optimist so he had two separate opinions to help him find a compromise. Anyway, Orochimaru shook his head to focus on the task at hand. Akuma was in front of him talking about being excited to find out about his new subordinates while Neji looked exasperated and Sheru looked annoyed. Ah, so Akuma and Neji had gotten into an argument again, nothing new.
"Hello Akuma-kun, you seem a bit excited today," Orochimaru said with a smile that gave everyone in the room chills, well except for Akuma of course.
"Well of course I am father! I finally get to pick out my squad! It's going to be the best squad in the world!" Akuma chattered excitedly as he continued to hop in place.
Orochimaru chuckled as he rubbed Akuma's hair again and led him and Neji to his office. "Thank you for watching over them Sheru, your assistance is appreciated." Sheru nodded and moved some of her long red hair back into its ponytail. Orochimaru still thought that she had some Uzumaki heritage somewhere in her, but she neither confirmed or denied it so he had no idea. He knew she found that amusing for some reason, not telling him things he was curious about.
He sighed and continued to lead the two boys to his office before sitting behind his desk when he got there and pulling a book out of a drawer inside of it. "I have found about 50 people who seem to have unique abilities, are around your age, have reason to join you, and aren't 'evil' I suppose…" Orochimaru said as he listed off Akuma's requests to narrow down the list of people.
"Great! Neji, come here and help me pick some out," Akuma said with a smile as he began flipping through pages. Neji sighed, but did not refuse him as they continued to look through the pages.
"What about this Suigetsu guy?" Neji asked as they looked at his picture in the book.
"No, sure he's strong but his constant need for water would make him kind of a nuisance. Besides, it says here that he'll probably betray us just to get some swords."
"Hmm," Neji hummed as he looked over the book entry again. "Well in his defense, that is part of his clan and his brother WAS one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist…"
"Doesn't matter, next one. Ooh, what about this Haku girl? It says here that she had to kill his family recently, poor girl. Come on, she looks like she needs a new family to help her out…"
Neji sighed and nodded his head in approval, though he didn't know why his captain was asking him if he approved. It was his choice after all. This went on for a while more and eventually they settled on two other people, despite Neji's insistence that they should recruit that Komai guy from Lightning Country. One of the other two was a young boy named Deidara who had stolen his village's forbidden technique and ran off because they did not appreciate his 'art' and actually feared him for it. The other one was the son of the Kazekage named Gaara who was feared by the village for being a jinchuuriki. Neji did not agree at first since he doubted he would defect, but Akuma said they just had to fix his seal to help him sleep, since it said he couldn't in the book, and promise the boy a better life in Otogakure.
Orochimaru smiled as he looked at Neji and Akuma continue to argue about his choices. Neji might not have gotten it, but Orochimaru saw that Akuma clearly cared about the opinions of those that would get affected by what he was about to do. That was a good quality in a leader. He just wished that they didn't argue so loudly…
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Shizuka's eyes widened as he had to leap away as Raiga suddenly stopped and slashed at him. He soon regained his composure and entered a defensive stance with Taka-san right beside him. The two looked at their opponent and noticed he was… crying? "*Sniff* this is such a sad day… Two more people will have to leave this world just because they were in my way. Don't worry you two, I'll be sure to give you both a proper funeral when I'm done…" He smiled at the last part and got ready to charge the two Isai agents.
"I will take care of this Troll-san," Taka-san said as he activated his Byakugan. He gasped slightly as his eye bloodline deactivated and he fell to his knees at the sudden shift. He was unprepared for Raiga as he charged with his swords prepared to decapitate the Taka member. Shizuka did not waist time as he jumped in front of Taka-san and blocked the twin swords with his own katana which had lightning chakra channeled down it.
Raiga smirked and leapt back with his swords loosely held by him. "Hmm, interesting. So your lightning affinity is strong enough to combat mine? However, that won't be enough to keep deflecting my strikes like that, especially when that Hyuga over there is useless…"
His smirk was erased when he saw Taka-san stand up. His eyes widened momentarily when he saw blades pop out of Taka-san's grey robes that went over his hands instead of under them like Ken's had. They looked similar to the weapons many Iwa shinobi had used back in the Third Shinobi World War, except he saw the blades become encompassed by lightning chakra and his eyes widened, they seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"I am not a Hyuga…" Taka-san began while he took off his mask to stare at the enemy with hate-filled eyes. Taka-san had a very stern, but young, face with a few scars on it and it was twisted up in hatred. "My name is Gurifin Taka, an Isai of Otogakure, and the one who will kill you!" he yelled out in hatred. Shizuka was momentarily shocked by who the young man was. He had heard the name Gurifin Taka all around the village. They said that he was a genius with lightning style attacks as well as taijutsu and was one of the members accepted into the Elite Taka Branch. However, he was only accepted in there recently so he had not mastered all of the abilities of the Taka.
Shizuka was knocked out of his shock by Gurifin rearing back and shooting his hand forward, with his blade still covered in lightning chakra. "Lightning Taka Style: Vacuum Lightning Palm!" he yelled as a large burst of air shot towards the enemy with lightning racing down in various places on it and meeting in the center. It raced towards Raiga who grinned and channeled lightning down his own weapons.
He raised them and a ball of lightning formed in between the two swords. "Lightning Style: Ball of Lightning!" he yelled as he launched his own attack towards Gurifin's as they met in the middle of the distance between the two. The two attacks seemed to fight each other for a few moments before Gurifin's overpowered Raiga's and continued on towards the man. Raiga smiled maniacally before channeling lightning down his swords again and destroying the remainder of Gurifin's attack with a cross slash. However, this left him open, as was seen when Shizuka attacked him while he wasn't paying attention.
Or at least, it appeared like he wasn't paying attention when, in reality, he had jumped back as soon as Shizuka jumped forward, despite him not making any sound. "Ah, ah, ah that wasn't very nice Troll-san. Speaking of which, you are the only person who's name I don't know. It wouldn't be very good if I couldn't say your real name at your funeral…" Shizuka growled at this part, he was really starting to get annoyed by the man's constant talk of funerals.
To demonstrate this, Shizuka stabbed his sword into the ground and began to preform hand seals. However, he didn't get to finish as Raiga aimed his sword towards him and shot out a thin beam of lightning. Shizuka scowled and barely dodged the strike before picking up his sword and deflecting the next beam. "Heh, heh, you can't deflect them all…" Raiga chuckled as he shot a beam every second towards him with one sword and at Gurifin with the other.
The two continually deflected until they decided that it wasn't getting anywhere and went underground. "Oh, ho, ho so you two are going to save me the trouble of having to dig your graves? How…sweet of you. It is such a shame two people so good will have to die," he began to cry again even as he drew his two swords together and sent a large electrical current into the sky. Clouds soon gathered around where he shot and soon the entire area was below dark grey clouds. "Lightning Style: Fangs of Lightning," he said in a sad voice as he looked around the earth where the two Isai shinobi hid. They soon jumped out of their hiding spots as a lightning bolt struck where they each were.
"What the hell…" Shizuka muttered as he held one of his arms that was burned by the lightning bolt. He could only watch as another bolt of lightning lanced towards him. He closed his eyes, prepared to die, but then opened them after two seconds of not feeling any pain and widened them when he saw that Gurifin had managed to get in front of him and deflect the lightning with his blades.
"We need to go on the offensive Troll-san. If things continue like this anymore, we will be defeated soon."
"Well that is very correct Gurifin-kun," Raiga smiled as two lightning bolts shot from the sky towards Gurifin.
"Kaiten!" he yelled as he spun and activated his technique right before the attack hit, protecting him.
"Oh? I thought only Main Branch Hyuga knew that technique. I guess losers like the Branch Family can learn them after all…" Raiga smiled as Gurifin growled and charged. Raiga and Gurifin both clashed with their blades with Raiga deflecting all of Gurifin's wild slashes and stabs before a lightning bolt struck down in-between them both and Raiga shot two lightning streams towards Gurifin. He dodged one, but the other hit him in the side and caused him to double over in pain. Raiga charged and was about to behead Gurifin again, but Shizuka shunshined in front of him and slashed with his lightning chakra, making a thin cut appear over Raiga's chest, through his cloak.
Raiga scowled and leapt back before shooting a few thunderbolts from the sky towards Shizuka. Shizuka quickly grabbed Gurifin and shunshined a few feet behind Raiga before slashing at his back. Raiga immediately turned around when Shizuka shunshined and they both slashed at the same time. The only difference was, Raiga only slashed with one and he had two. Shizuka was reminded of this forcibly as his sword arm was brutally cut off. "Ah!" Shizuka screamed as he shunshined next to Gurifin with a hurt arm. He was surprised to see Gurifin finish forming hand seals with his side barely healed.
"Lighting Style: Lighting Dragon Jutsu!" he yelled as he put the seal in front of his mouth and screamed to shoot out a giant dragon's head made of lightning shot towards Raiga. He growled as he put his swords in a cross guard, as he couldn't use his Lightning Strike Armor because of Ranmaru, and was thrown off into the distance thanks to the power of the attack.
"*Cough* *Cough* Here, I can stop the bleeding but I can't heal it all. We need to get out of here, do you know where the bodies are?" Gurifin asked as he healed Shizuka and grabbed his mask before putting it on with difficulty. Shizuka grabbed him with his free arm, as he was the one with the most chakra left, and shunshined the two to where they left the bodies. When they got there, they did not see either Ken or Juzo so they grabbed the two jounin and left the sensor for later.
"Okay, we got them. Grab onto me and I'm going to shunshin us as far away as possible. It will be up to you to find us a place to hide, alright?" Shizuka asked as he grabbed Yama and Gurifin grabbed the other jounin weakly before grabbing onto Shizuka and the two shunshined away.
Raiga showed up a moment later before looking around and not seeing any of them. "Damn it!" Raiga shouted as a few scattered lightning bolts struck the ground.
"Calm down, Raiga-san, we will get them next time…" a young voice said quietly to the angry man. The two really did make a good team, if it wasn't for Ranmaru the Isai members might have won thanks to the Byakugan and shunshining behind him, but thanks to Raiga's strength and his eyes, they won by a large margin.
"Fine… you're right. It's just kind of sad that we won't be able to give them a proper funeral…" Raiga muttered while tearing up again.
"Don't worry master, next time we find them, we will give them the biggest funeral anyone has ever seen…"
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Ken watched his opponent warily as he led him away from Raiga's battle. Eventually, Ken noticed the other man getting ready to attack and brought up his wrist blades to block the giant sword swinging towards him. It made a small crater in the ground, but his chakra enhanced weapons were able to withstand the impact. "Heh, heh, that's interesting," Juzo said as he continued to push down on his weapon with both hands and Ken's weapons began to groan from the strain. "Not many weapons can withstand the full force of my sword, especially not little wrist blades. However, yours have been able to stay together. Up to this point anyway…" Juzo laughed as he shifted how he held the sword and twisted, launching Ken to the side and chipping one of his blades.
Ken scowled and reabsorbed the blades into his skin before forming another weapon. "You're strong, but I did not achieve the title of S-rank for nothing…" Ken said while he spun his naginata. Outside he looked calm, if not a little angry, but on the inside he was thinking of anything that could help him. He could use three different types of elemental jutsu, earth, wind, and fire. Wind was actually his natural affinity while earth was a side effect of his bloodline and he trained his fire affinity constantly until he could use it well.
Ken was snapped out of his thoughts forcefully as Juzo once again slashed at him from overhead. Ken blocked with the naginata, then used the offending weight to slide it off of his spear-like weapon and slice Juzo's head off. He frowned in disappointment when they form of the man turned into water. Ken looked around the area and quickly realized that he was at a disadvantage with the stream going through that part of the canyon.
"I see you have finally noticed…" Ken heard a voice say on the opposite side of the canyon as about ten more clones came out of the stream and leveled their swords at Ken. "However, it is a bit late to do anything." Eight clones charged towards Ken with their swords while two others began to form hand seals on top of the stream.
Ken's eyes widened and he did a few hand seals of his own before effacing open palms towards the clones. "Iron Style: Iron Senbon Jutsu!" he yelled as a few dozen senbon shot out of his hands towards the enemy. Most of the ones with swords were able to block the ones sent at them, but the ones forming hand seals had no defense and dissolved after being hit. Ken quickly picked up the naginata he set down and spun it to distract his enemy before ducking under a slash and cutting off the clone's leg, dispelling it.
"Hm, you're better than I thought you'd be with that staff…" Juzo said offhandedly as Ken quickly dispelled two more water clones. "However…" Juzo began as he shunshined down in front of Ken and his two remaining water clones jumped next to him. "This may be the end…" he said as all three of the Juzos began to form hand seals. Ken's eyes widened at this and he channeled wind chakra down his weapon before throwing it at the real Juzo. However, the one to the right tried to block it with his sword and body, though it only slowed it down, then the one on the left tried the same thing and got dispelled as well. It was still going, though much slower, but Juzo simply leaned to the right, away from the spear, though he got a thin cut on his left cheek thanks to the leftover wind chakra.
He growled just as he finished his last seal. "Water Style: Multi-Water Dragon Jutsu!" he yelled as multiple water dragons came out of the stream and shot towards Ken.
Ken growled as well before performing a few hand seals. "Earth Style: Mud Wall Jutsu," he ground out before spitting out a large amount of mud that formed a wall. He quickly went underground with his Hiding Like A Mole Jutsu and waited for his opponent's jutsu to be over.
Juzo frowned as his water dragons broke through the new mud wall with minimal difficulty and continued on until they formed deep craters in the canyon wall. He couldn't see Ken anywhere, so he was either hiding somewhere or knocked into the canyon wall. Juzo cautiously walked onto the ground and looked around the area for anywhere Ken might hide. 'Not left, right, forward, up, so he must be…' Juzo thought calmly. "Underground!" he yelled as he lifted his sword to cut into where he thought Ken was. However, he was too late as a hand gripped his leg and pulled him underground before a kunai was thrown into his neck.
"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu complete," Ken said blankly as he looked down at Juzo's scowling face. Before Juzo could say anything, Ken shot a kunai out of his palm right into his skull. He then turned around and began to walk away. For an S-rank shinobi, the man wasn't all that strong, well at least he got a small challenge out of hit. Before he took another step his instincts were screaming at him to move and he jumped to the right. His eyes widened considerably as a sword cut through a quarter of his right arm with Juzo staring at him with a blank face.
"What the hell? I killed you!" Ken scowled at the man as iron filled his wound so no more blood would fall out of his arm.
"If you really thought that an S-rank shinobi would go down that quickly then you don't deserve your rank," Juzo said with a disappointed look on his face. "This is not who I was promised, it seems like I won't be recruiting you after all…"
"Recruiting? What do you mean?"
"If you live you'll see one day," Juzo sighed. "It's time to end this. Hidden Mist Jutsu!" he said after stabbing his sword into the ground and forming a few hand seals. A heavy mist began to fill the area and obscure Juzo from view.
"I couldn't agree more. Iron Style: Black Steel," Ken said as he formed his own hand seals before his body became covered in reinforced iron.
"Oh? So that is your strongest technique? It seems you have been going easy on me. Let's see if it can withstand this!" Juzo said as he was suddenly right behind Ken, swinging his sword. Ken allowed himself to be hit and was shocked when he began flying across the canyon and into a wall. He didn't know that the Executioner's Blade was chipped by that swing, but he did know that the sword packed a punch.
"Iron Style: Iron Vortex!" he yelled out as he pointed his palms where Juzo used to be. Two medium sized drills with spikes came out of his palms at high speeds while spinning. They cut through the mist right towards Juzo, who decided to block with his sword. They went through the sword like butter and tore into Juzo's stomach, who coughed up… water?
"Shit," Ken said before forming a few more hand seals. The mist steadily began to reform so there wasn't much point in trying to get rid of it since it would just make himself open for attack. That left him with one more option, his newest jutsu. "Iron Style: Tracking Iron Falcons," he said as five birds with extremely sharp beaks flew out of his back. They looked like, well, a falcon and had black stripes running down their grey frame. Their beaks looked like Ken's Iron Vortex jutsu as they were more drills than beaks. They were the same as his snakes in that he had to recognize his enemy's chakra for them to actually track them, and with the mist everywhere, he could definitely do that. However, the person's chakra was much more potent than the mist or even water clones, and his falcons recognized that and would track the most potent chakra in the area.
"Go," Ken said simply as the falcons stopped circling him and cut through the mist straight towards where Juzo apparently was. This was an S-rank jutsu along with his Black Steel because of their tracking capabilities and their attack as well as their movement. However, he would not be able to use the jutsu again for a while thanks to its chakra cost and his Black Steel Jutsu would wear off in just a few minutes. Even if the fight ended soon, Ken realized that Shizuka and Taka-san might not have been able to defeat Raiga so he needed all the chakra he could get. That being said, Ken popped a chakra pill just as the mist began to clear and he saw Juzo swinging wildly at three falcons with one arm.
Two were on the ground, smashed to bits, and one of the three remaining was missing a wing and was just smashed as well. Juzo was looked worse for wear with blood pouring out of his arm, his shoulder, his leg, and his side. Ken watched on as a falcon drilled right through the sword he was swinging at them with, making a large hole in it. The other falcon was flying towards Juzo's neck at very high speeds while he was distracted, that was also why it was an S-rank jutsu, the birds were intelligent, when two bolts of lightning hit both falcons, making them burst apart and fall to the ground. Ken's eyes widened as Juzo dropped to one knee on the ground, staring at him hatefully for breaking his sword as Raiga leapt in front of him. Ken cursed as he looked over the twin sword wielding swordsman. He looked like he had just come out of a light sparring season instead of a fight, with the only wound on him being a thin cut across his chest.
"Well, well, looks like you're a bit beat up huh Juzo? You might need a funeral after all," Raiga laughed while looking at his fallen comrade. Ken saw a moment of distraction and launched a kunai towards the swordsman. Raiga looked back at Ken quickly and cut the kunai down the middle with one of his swords while smirking. "Oh, do you want a funeral too? Your damn comrades escaped right before I was able to give them one, maybe you will make up for it," Raiga said as he began to cry about the lack of a funeral given.
"That's enough Raiga, he has proven himself worthy to join our organization, we need to tell Leader about the news. Remember, you are not to fight him after he has proven himself," Juzo said while steadily losing blood from his many wounds.
"Tsk, fine. We'll meet again someday Black Steel, and then I will give you the most beautiful funeral anyone has ever seen. Let's go Juzo, I'd love to hear how you got your ass whooped on the way," Raiga laughed as he picked up Juzo.
"Let it be known Ken-san, if you refuse our offer later, you will see me again. And I won't fall for the same trick twice…" Juzo said weakly before Raiga shunshined away, with sparks falling around where they used to be.
"Damn… I need to tell Orochimaru-sama about this, and find the others," Ken said as he looked around the battlefield. He deactivated his Black Steel Jutsu and realized that he would have to use a lot of earth jutsu to fix the landscape and he would have to pick up all of his iron so that no-one knew what happened. "Well, I might as well find the others. Iron Style: Tracking Iron Hawk Jutsu," Ken said as he formed a few hand seals and an iron hawk flew out of his back. He had familiarized himself with the chakra of both Taka-san and Shizuka before the mission began and this jutsu had a much higher tracking range than his snake and falcon ones. However, it had nothing for attack, forsaking its beak for another eye behind a telescope like device. "Go and find Shizuka and Gurifin, tell them that the enemy has fled and to tell me if they need assistance getting back to Oto. Here, take this with you," Ken said as he tossed a few extra chakra pills to his hawk, which it caught in the basket it had on its back. This left him with two more pills, he always carried a lot for missions, so he would have to conserve his chakra more. He also pulled out a scroll and quickly wrote the information that he wanted his comrades to know and put it into the basket as well.
The hawk needed no more prompting to start circling the area above Ken's head. The hawk would circle until it could not sense what it was looking for, then go to the edge of its range, a few hundred yards, and start circling again. It only a day it could cover about half of Fire Country and Shizuka and Taka-san would probably be found in mere hours. Ken nodded at the iron bird as it circled overhead and began cleaning up the area. It wouldn't do for some Iwa shinobi to see his unique jutsu after all…
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"NO, NO, PLEASE!" a man's voice cried out as he watched his village burn down around him. They didn't know what had happened, one minute they were all laughing and cheering about one of their villagers being promoted to advisor for the new emperor, a weak man who replaced the old one after he was assassinated, when a demon stood up from the table in the bar they were celebrating in and started slaughtering everyone.
"Now, now, come on, Jashin doesn't like beggars," the demon said as he beheaded the crying man. Hidan smiled as he looked around the burning village as many screams filled the air. That smile quickly turned into a frown when he realized that his mission was very close to over. Most of the Land of Frost's army was gone, as well as all but two government officials who had both gone into hiding. He had even killed a few Kumo chunin who had been hired to check on the rumors of a demon killing everyone and everything in his path.
"Hmm, well this is kind of boring. Jashin doesn't like weak sacrifices…" Hidan muttered as he looked around the burning village again and noticed that there were mostly ashes left. Ah, he would have to thank that Oto ninja sent to train him in his first month there for the fire jutsu and scythe lessons. Burning people was almost as fun as sacrificing them, though he could only do that if they had a chakra system.
"Well, I might as well leave and give my report. It has been a year since my last one after all. Maybe if I ask nicely, they will let me lead the invasion force," Hidan laughed as he left the burning village, leaving many burned and scarred bodies behind.
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Hiruzen looked over the reports from the Land of Frost with a critical eye. It seemed like the entire country was now basically defenseless, and Hiruzen still could not find out why. All he got were reports modified by the Land of Sound, as the new combined land of the Land of Rice Patties and the Land of Hot Water was called. Speaking of them, they were getting very powerful as of late… too powerful.
He would have to take care of that soon, or at least keep an eye on them. If they got too big and powerful they could become the Sixth Great Shinobi Village, and five were enough in his opinion. If a sixth one that accepted even missing ninja from other villages came in, then the wars that were sure to follow would be much, much worse than the ones before. It was time he looked into their village, the Hidden Sound if he wasn't mistaken.
He looked up and signaled for an Anbu to appear in front of him. "Tiger-san, please get me Kakashi Hatake. I have a mission for him." The Anbu nodded before shunshining out of his office and into the village. Hiruzen could only hope this did not start a war.
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Akuma and Neji both looked at the gates of Otogakure longingly as they started to pack. In one day, they were going to leave the village for the first time, or the first time in years for Neji, and they couldn't wait. Finally, they would be getting the rest of their squad and actually going on missions. That had been all Akuma would talk about for the past year, much to Neji's annoyance, and that had not changed. "You all packed Neji?"
"Yes, Akuma-taicho, I have been ready for the past hour while you pack your bags full of ramen."
Akuma rolled his eyes as he pulled out a scroll and sealed up the bags he had packed. "Jeez, I'm just trying to help. For your rudeness, you must buy me some Ichiraku's." Neji groaned but did not resist as Akuma dragged Neji off to his new favorite food stand. From the rooftops, Orochimaru watched with a sad look in his eye. He knew that soon his son would be a shinobi first and his son second. It was an emotional thought but Orochimaru supposed that seven years was enough time to bond with his son. Now, he would have to do everything in his power to protect him, and he had A LOT of power…
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AN: And that ends the bigger time skips that I have done. Now, there will still be time skips but this is where the real story begins. It took a while, but we are finally here and the storyline will probably go by faster thanks to longer chapters and all. Also, Hidan's first mission is over, now what is in store for him. And Ken was actually contacted by the Akatsuki, how will they recruit him I wonder? Find out in the next chapter, and see how Akuma will recruit his team. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to rate and review. Until next time!