Chapter 38
Raiga
Haku huffed and once again held up his ice gauntlets. Once again, he dashed forward to clash with his opponent. Halfway there, Haku smirked. Instantaneously two ice mirrors appeared. One in front of Haku, and the other behind his opponent. Haku dashed into the mirror in front of him at full speed and jumped out of the other at triple his speed. "this is it!" he shouted and swung his arm. His opponent barely had time to react as he was frozen by the sub-zero nature of the gauntlet and shattered by the follow up concussive force. Haku relaxed his stance for a moment "I win" he huffed.
"not quite" a disembodied voice said. Just then Haku felt something restrict his movements. He looked to where he shattered the opponent a moment ago before dropping his head "you got me Naruto" he said.
It was at this moment that Fu snuck up and placed her Raijin blade on Haku's shoulder, right where one of Naruto's liquid restrictions was. Haku's head instantly shot up and Naruto quickly untangled himself and reformed away from Haku. Both boys glared at Fu who just childishly stuck out her tongue and made a victory sign.
"well done you three. Fu, good work on catching them by surprise. You knew that you were not as strong or combat oriented as Haku and Naruto so you pretended to be taken out early on to save your strength while they wore each other down. Haku, very nice thinking on that last attack. You have become very adapt with the making and using of your demonic ice mirrors and to make them so quickly without handseals in the middle of battle, with your ice gauntlet activated no less! And Naruto, taking advantage of your hydrofication technique and using a water clone disguised as yourself to catch your opponent off guard. Good work. All three of you" Suzuno beamed. "you passed my test of traps in battle with flying colors. After all, not all traps have to be made of ninja wire and equipment" she winked while Mangetsu and Hibiki nodded on the sidelines.
"take a break. After that, we'll head over to the leader's tent. Ryuji-sama hinted that he had an important mission for the three of you and two other guys."
"team Zabuza and another two? Must be a pretty big mission. I can't wait"
Xxxxxxx
Team Zabuza walked into the tent in their normal formation. Haku in front, Fu to his left and Naruto his right. Facing them were the leaders of the rebel camp. Ruyji, Chukichi, Mangetsu and the elders. Another two figures had their backs turned to them. The tall one appeared to be wearing a hunter-nin's outfit with blue moused-up hair and the other wore a blue pin-striped shirt and camouflaged pattern pants and ear protectors going over his short, tuffy, blue hair.
"Chojuro?" Naruto spoke up. The figure quickly stood straight and turned to face them with wide open eyes. "Naruto? Haku? Fu? What are you doing here?"
Fu shrugged "the same as you I guess"
Haku stepped forward and bowed to the leaders "team Zabuza reporting in. You requested for us Ryuji-sama?" he asked.
The figure next to Chojuro snorted "at least someone has some respect. Why, back in my day-"
"that's enough Ao." Ryuji interrupted. "I did indeed call you here and I intend to explain the reason before nightfall if possible" he said, shooting a quick glare in Ao's direction before turning back to team Zabuza. "our manpower is slowly growing, but I heard some news of Yagura possibly getting mercenaries or other shinobi to boost his forces. This is why I wanted Zabuza back. With Zabuza, we would have two of the four remaining swordsmen alive. The other ones are Raiga Kurosuki and Kisame Hoshigaki. Kisame is currently missing and hasn't been heard of since he deserted the Mist back when Zabuza failed his coup. This leaves us with Raiga." Ruyji tossed a scroll to Haku who opened it and read it while Naruto and Fu peered over his shoulders. "Your mission is to either bring Raiga back to join the rebel fraction or if he refuses, eliminate him. We cannot afford to have him on Yagura's side."
Haku snapped the scroll shut and sealed it away in his pouch. "I understand. I believe that as the one with the most experience, Ao is to be the leader?"
"Correct. Ao already has a list of things we can offer and negotiables. Raiga currently resides in a mining town in the land of Rivers called Katabami. I requested the permission of the Leaf for us to pass through their territory but try to avoid going closer than you need to. Good luck"
The five ninja bowed at the clear dismissal and left the tent.
Ryuji watched them leave the tent in silence before looking at Mangetsu out of the corner of his eye. "each of them are powerful in their own right, but they are up against a former swordsman of the Mist in his home territory. Even if they were trained by Zabuza and yourself, I still have a feeling that something will go wrong. Tail them but stay far enough so you are out of Ao's Byakugan range. Only interfere if necessary.
Mangetsu nodded and disappeared in a swirl of water, leaving a scroll where he sat.
Xxxxx
Katabami gold mine. A town that relies on extracting ore and processing it into gold. Having no shinobi system of its own, the town relied heavily on trade and the government. Unfortunately, the government knew this very well and imposed heavy tax rates on the workers and traders. That all ended in one night. A single shinobi assassinated all members of the corrupt government and freed the people from its oppression. At least, that was what the people thought.
The man was known as Raiga Kurosuki. Not being privy to ninja information, the people have never heard of him and his cruel deeds so they hailed them as a saviour and hero. They wholeheartedly accepted his proposal of creating the "Kurosuki family". Too late did they see how wrong they were.
Rumours of Raiga burying people alive started to spread. Anyone that confronted him about it disappeared less than a day later. The oppression the people felt came back full force. An unspoken rule was made. "do not go against Raiga, do not displease him and do not show any signs of defiance or traitorous acts."
News of the Kurosuki family travelled to nearby towns. Young adults and teens flocked to Katabami mine in hopes of being part of it. Nobody knew what happened to them, all they knew was that the Kurosuki family was growing and there was nothing they could do about it.
Xxx
The group of rebel shinobi looked down at the town. Everywhere they looked, people had a look of hidden fear and resigned sadness. Sneaking around, they found that the case was the same everywhere. Old people who must have been long past their working age carrying huge sacks or wheeling wheelbarrows overflowing with goods.
They watched in horror and disgust as a frail old man working at the mining sector slowly pushed a cart of large rocks with trembling arms and legs. Just then, the wheel of the cart hit a small rock and caused the cart to tumble over and spill its contents on the dirt ground. The man's face drained of whatever colour it had as he quickly scrambled to his feet and rushed on to collect and place the rocks back in the cart. Suddenly, a cloaked figure appeared out of nowhere and kicked the frail old man aside.
The man looked at the assailant with his eyes as wide as they could be. "p-please!" he begged "D-don't tell Raiga-sama! I-It won't happen again! I have a wife and grandchildren!"
The cloaked figure looked down on him. Naruto couldn't see his face from where he was, but even if he could, he had a feeling that it would not have made a difference as it was undoubtedly devoid of all emotion. "Raiga-sama does not tolerate mistakes" he said before knocking him out and heaved the man like a sack of dirt and proceeded to carry him in the direction of a tall hill.
Ao turned to the rest of the team "now's our chance" he whispered before making a handseal and focusing his chakra. Moments later, he released it. "I sense a chakra larger than others of this town in the direction that man went. That is likely Raiga."
Just then, three loud bangs of a gong echoed through the town. Ao's visible eye widened "have we been spotted?" he muttered to himself and once again activated his Byakugan. He scanned the area around the town and saw that most chunin-level chakra were heading towards the same hill that the first one carried the old man to. Ao then focused his eye down to the bottom of the mine where the man was captured to see many were muttering about something. He deactivated his eye and turned to the rest of the ninja "it appears that was a "funeral gong". Our cover is still safe. Now disguise yourselves and follow me" the cyclops said as his appearance started to waver before settling on a cloaked figure like the one they just saw.
Seconds later, the group was once again jumping through the trees in the direction of the hill.
Not far from where they were standing before, few puddles of water slowly started to gravitate together into one larger puddle. The larger puddle started to rise up into the air in the shape of a man leaning against a tree with his arms folded "what are you doing, Raiga…" Mangetsu frowned before collapsing back into a puddle and disappearing without a trace.
Xxx
A lone figure stood on a tall uprising of rocks and stared at the simple coffin being lowered into the ground by four cloaked figures. The only details one could use to explain him were that he had a long black cloak that covered all of his body and had a large lump on his back.
"I'm happy. This brings back memories of when I first met him. Such a kind man." The figure said, his smooth and masculine voice cutting through the silence.
"really? That's good" another, much younger voice said from behind him.
"when we arrived, he greeted us with such a warm smile and gave us a large bouquet of flowers to thank us for freeing him from the tyranny of his former rulers. He was truly a great guy." The man looked up at the dark clouds for a moment, as if to see through them to the heavens beyond. When he brought his head down again to look at the coffin, he smiled a happy smile "funerals are great! They touch my heart!"
"will I also have this kind of grand funeral with people lined up?" the younger voice spoke up.
The older man lost his smile and instantly looked serious "idiot! I won't give you a funeral!" he said before his face softened "you won't die until I die. We don't have to give you a funeral to remember the good times. You are always a good kid." The wind howled and shook his cloak as if in response to his claim.
"Raiga…" the young voice said "I sense six large sources of chakra. They're coming"
"Yeah" Raiga replied "I'm interested to see what business they have coming here.
AN: and that wraps up the first chapter of the Raiga arc. I've got to admit, this feels like one of my better chapters. What do you guys and girls think?
After this arc will be…? (vote)
1. Snow/Spring 4
2. Star 2
3. Shion 3
Also, should I let Raiga live? I already have an idea of what is going to happen. I'm just interested to see what you readers think. If there is a large enough difference between general votes and my plan, I'll just change it up a little from what I planned
Yes:
No:
Oh and its been brought to my attention that I haven't shown a proper scene of Naruto revealing his sharingan to his comrades. So I will just explain it a little here. Haku and Fu, being his most trusted friends and basically a brother and sister to him obviously know( in fact I had a slight mention of them knowing about it in the beginning of chapter 35 battle of the sea part 2)
Mei, having been curious after reading Amachi's lips when he muttered "sharingan" confronted Naruto and found out about it on their way back from the land of Sea.
Mangetsu, Hibiki and Suzuno all know (being his sensei)
Orochimaru knows… because Orochimaru.
That just about sums up everyone important who knows (I'm not going to mention the random spies who saw him activate it here and there and the people who died after a glimpse and whatnot). If there is anyone who you think might know, feel free to ask and I'll say yes or no.
Reviews!
Noahendless: that wouldn't be too hard except that would make him a bit too OP which I want to avoid as much as possible (plus, he already has Hozuki, Uzumaki and Uchiha bloodlines
BlackDragonShinigami: thanks
Wyrtha: lets see… going to skip on commenting on most of your theories cause spoilers, all I will say is that there will be no invasion because Orochimaru already has Naruto, Sasuke won't die cause 1) again, no invasion, 2) Gaara is calmer and doesn't kill everything. Orochimaru doesn't lost his arms or look for Tsunade (again no invasion). Finally, you can say this is set around a week or two before the exams.
Well I already have an idea how the Shion and Star village can play out with the Rebel forces instead of Leaf, just having some slight issue thinking up a good scenario for Snow/Spring
As for the Ukataka one, that's a pretty good idea, but I already have a different idea in mind for the tailed beast training (did Ukataka even have a good control over his beast anyways?)
: thanks
Thor94: thanks, yup and yup
Iou2003us: vote recorded and thanks
Effectivesage: thanks. Oh I guess I haven't really shown them seeing the sharingan huh. I'll put it in the authors note on top there. And thanks again!
Smithpj: thanks