(Kuroda must deal with the consequences of disappearing from the Hidden Leaf, but before that there is a side mission he must complete to further his secret plans. I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
After two weeks in the Snow County Kuroda decides he should probably return to the Hidden Leaf Village, but first he wants to make a side trip. Kuroda, Yukiko, Rin, and Gina pose as siblings, altering their appearances with a transformation jutsu, and they take a freighter all the way to the Land of Water.
"So what are we up to? Why are we going all the way to this country?" Gina inquires.
"You'll see when we get there," Kuroda replies turning back towards the inside of the vessel.
"Geez, what the hell?" she complains, "Did we really give up our freedom for this?"
"Would you rather be dead?" asks Yukiko.
"She's right, this is better than not existing," Rin says.
"I just wish he would tell us something, anything really. Is he always like this?" Gina asks.
"This is the longest time I've ever spent with him," Yukiko admits, "So I really don't know if this is how he normally is. In the end it doesn't really matter though. He saved my life, so my life belongs to him."
"Ahh, love is such a beautiful thing," comments Rin.
"Love?" Yukiko repeats, her face turning bright red.
"Whatever, I just hope we're not stuck joining the Leaf Village or something," Gina states.
"Something tells me that isn't the plan," says Rin, "Come on, lets go below deck. It's almost meal time."
The journey by water takes them another week and a half. Then once they arrive at the port they set out towards their next destination.
"Halt, who goes there?" a guard shouts when he spots some travelers approaching the gates. Even though it is a relatively cloudless day and the expanse in front of the village entrance is an open space with little to no cover, the guard is insistent about checking for enemies.
"What are you the keeper of the castle?" his friend mocks, "Just relax, those people are harmless."
"I don't know," the first guard says as he adjusts his Mist Village forehead protector, "They look pretty suspicious to me."
"An old man and his three daughters?" his fellow guard questions, "Really now? They can't cause any trouble, so just calm down."
"Sorry, this is my first official duty as a Chunin," the first man admits as he scratches the back of his head, "I don't want to mess anything up."
"Hello there," calls the old man who sports a black cap, a long white beard, and black robes. His companions stay behind him on the long dirt road that leads up to the massive wooden gates, even though his pace is fairly slow due to his age.
"Hello, sir," says the more experienced of the two guards, when the travelers get closer, "Welcome to the Village Hidden in the Mist, how may we assist you?"
"Such a friendly greeting for a weary traveler. It is nice to see young folk with manners," the old man comments, "I've come a long way with my three granddaughters here." The three girls step forward and bow. All of them have short and straight brown hair, simple faces, and are dressed in plain green robes.
"Oh, so they are your granddaughters, I thought they were your daughters," the elder guard admits, a light chuckle escaping his mouth as he rubs his head.
"Well now, such a nice compliment but I am far too old to still be having children of my own," the old man replies.
"Oh no, you don't look a day over 40," the guard counters, causing the girls to giggle.
"Thank you, thank you," the old man says, "Now, down to business. I have a very important mission and I would like to hire ninja from your village to help me out with it."
"Yes, of course, we'd be happy to help you out," the guard replies, "My young friend here can escort you to the council chambers where you can make your official request and negotiate a fee."
"Hey, wait, are you sure I should be leaving?" the newly appointed Chunin questions, "I mean, we are supposed to stay at our post the whole time."
"Relax, just show them the way and you'll be back in no time," his partner replies, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, if you say so," the other guard says, still a bit unsure. He turns to the travelers and motions with his hand, "Just follow me and I'll show you where you need to go."
"Lead the way," the old man says, "But not too fast, I am an old geezer. My legs don't carry me as fast as they used to."
The streets of Kirigakure full of people eager to enjoy the unusually nice weather. The sun shines bright overhead as the youthful guard leads them through the ninja village. The route to the central office is fairly straight, but because of the elderly man's pace the group has the time look around and take in the sights of the large and active village. Seeming to be more country-type folk, the girls gawk at all the marvels of the big city. Giant shops line all sides of the street offering food, clothes, and other items from all over the world. Some of the buildings are eight stories high while others use shapes and designs that should be impossible to exist in such large structures. Eventually they make it to a large circular building with a dome covering. At this point the guard leaves to return to his duties and a polite receptionist guides them through several hallways until they get to the grand hall where the village council accepts requests for missions.
"I have a very secret and important mission and I require the shinobi known as Kasumi Momochi for the mission," the old man says once he appears before the village council.
"Kasumi is one of our top Jonin, she is very important to our village. What will this mission entail?" asks an elder member.
"This is a very top secret A rank mission. I will only reveal the details to Kasumi," replies the old man.
"Can't you give us any more information than that?" asks another council member, "And why do you need Kasumi specifically?"
"I cannot answer either of those questions," insists the old man, in a polite manner.
The elders whisper among themselves and then the first one who spoke says, "Kasumi is unavailable at the moment, but her brother Desh Momochi is highly skilled and can take her place."
The old man considers it for a moment and then pulls a large bag of money from his robes and plops it on the table saying, "Kasumi is the only one whom I trust will be able to do the mission the way I want it. There can be no one else. I'm sure this fee will more than cover the expense."
A helper steps forward and makes a quick count of the money and then reports the total back to the council. They whisper amongst themselves once again until they come to a decision. A female member speaks up and proclaims, "Very well, we will accept the mission. However, Ms. Momochi will not be returning until this evening, so you will have to wait for her to get back."
"That is fine with me," the old man agrees, "I heard there are some excellent sushi restaurants here, so I will explore them with my granddaughters until then."
Later in the day the old man and his three granddaughters are summoned back to the council chambers. Kasumi soon enters the chambers. An elder informs her, "This man and his family have hired you for a mission. They requested you specifically and have paid a significant sum for your services. You are to leave immediately."
"Is there some reason you requested me? Have we met before?" she inquires, curiously scanning over the customers and trying to recall if they have met before. Nothing significant pops out to other then the fact that they seem to be dressed in more moderate clothes yet they had enough money to convince her superiors spare her for the mission.
"Something like that," the old man says vaguely, "You came highly recommended from a friend of mine."
Satisfied with the explanation she then asks, "So, what exactly is the mission? Can you give me some details?"
"I will tell you once we are outside the village," the old man responds, "I trust you are prepared for anything that will come up."
She starts to argue, but the council members tell her, "The matter has already been settled Kasumi. Please complete the mission as fast as possible then return to the village." She does not say anything else and follows her new employers out of the village.
A few miles away from the village the old man stops in a fairly dense part of the forest and turns around to Kasumi. She starts to ask him, "Why was I requested for this mission and what exactly is the mission? And…"
The old man interrupts her, "Is anyone from the village is following us?"
"I was not aware there was any reason for someone to follow us," she says, growing more and more concerned about the strangeness of the mission.
The old man responds, "Let me rephrase that; tell me if anyone was sent by the village to follow us."
Kasumi does not answer and she is hit by a wave of pain, and falls over. She slowly gets up and says, "It's you, isn't it?"
"Answer my question, Kasumi, unless you want the pain to continue," says Kuroda, his voice changing from that of an old man back to its normal tone.
Kasumi quickly answers, "The village elders told me to watch you closely and abandon the mission if it was too dangerous, but they did not send anyone to follow us."
"Good," says Kuroda, and then he rips off his disguise and his face morphs back to normal.
"Who are the others?" Kasumi inquires, recovering from the pain of the curse, "They don't look like they could be the same ones from the last time. "
"Don't be foolish," responds Kuroda, "I would never bring any of those people on a personal mission."
"A personal mission? Why are you here? What do you want me for?" asks Kasumi as she climbs back to her feet.
"I have come to see how you are," Kuroda replies, "I also want to know why the Hidden Mist Village has not made any public responses to our encounter in the Tea Country."
"Is that all?" Kasumi asks, sighing as she brushes her bangs out of her eyes.
"Yes, that is the only reason I have come," Kuroda reveals, "I became concerned when I did not hear any news in my own village and wanted more information. I figured that they might have used poison or some other means to kill you because they did not believe your story."
"Oh, the Mizukage believed my story when he heard it, and the village is taking it very seriously," replies Kasumi. "We have sent out messages to all our ninja to look out for a mysterious and deadly shinobi. We have sent spies all over to find out which village he is from. As for our encounter in the Tea Country, the Mizukage has decided to wait for the Leaf Village to make the first move before responding."
"I see, very interesting," comments Kuroda, "Oh, you three can take off your disguises as well."
The girls all fling their borrowed clothes to the ground and their faces and hair return to their true forms.
"I hate having to use that kind of transformation jutsu for an extended period of time," Gina complains, stretching out her various body parts.
"It couldn't be helped, someone could have recognized us," Yukiko shrugs.
"I'm glad to have my own face back," Rin comments, rolling her neck to work out all the kinks.
"Kasumi, this is Yukiko, Rin, and Gina. They are other associates of mine. If you ever happen to come across them during a mission for your village I want you to do your utmost to avoid any combat with them. Okay, now that we have finished the introductions, I want you three to return to the Snow Country and continue to train and become stronger. Yukiko, you can tell the others of the mission I gave you, but I doubt you will find anyone. Absolutely do not go near the Village Hidden Among the Snow," Kuroda orders.
"Understood," Yukiko nods.
"So we came all this way for nothing?" Gina complains, throwing up her hands in frustration.
"It's not for nothing," Kuroda says, "On the off chance that you encounter each other I don't want to have to be dragged into anything and expose myself."
"Relax, Gina, it isn't like we had anything better to do," Rin comments, her eyes wandering around.
"If you need to contact me then do it by either sending a note using the aliases Rin and I used; or you can come in person to the Hidden Leaf and ask for a ninja called Kayo Yuhi and her squad to go on a freight escort mission," he explains before pulling out a bag of money and tossing it to them, "This should be enough if you need to come in person."
"Where does he keep getting all this cash?" Gina wonders, looking at him speculatively.
"Now, give me your headbands, from this point on you are no longer to associate yourself with that village," he orders.
Rin and Gina reluctantly take of their old Hidden Snow headbands and hand them over.
"I will contact you in two years if nothing comes up, now go," he commands.
Without any hesitation the three white-haired females disappear into the forest.
Kuroda turns back toward Kasumi and says, "Now, for your orders, you will wait for a few days and then return to your village saying that you assassinated ninja from the Snow Village." He tosses her one of the headbands to use as proof.
"Sounds like a believable story," Kasumi replies, storing the forehead protector in the pouch on her back.
"In one month you will suddenly remember that you saw the Mystery Ninja use a grass type Jutsu. You will suggest that the village give this information to the Hidden Leaf Village and that there should be a joint mission to identify if the Mystery Ninja hails from the Grass Village," Kuroda orders
Kasumi inquires, "Why do you want to blame the Grass Village?"
Kuroda explains, "I want to visit the Grass Village for my own purposes, you don't need to know about them at the moment. However, the problem is that I am still a member of the Leaf Village and I don't have any good excuse to go there. So this will give me the opportunity I need."
Kasumi decides to not question it anymore and then turns to leave.
"One more thing," Kuroda says, "When I was back in your village the council mentioned you had a brother. Is he strong?"
"I suppose you could say that," she replies, her head turned away.
"Stronger than you?" Kuroda asks.
"I couldn't say, I've never seen him in combat," Kasumi admits with a shrug, "He's only a Chunin, but I do know that he has never failed a mission before."
"Hmm…intriguing. Well, have fun on your mini-vacation," says Kuroda, "Make sure to be discreet about where you go and what you do."
"That won't be a problem," she replies, glad to have the discussion over with. He nods and then decides to leave and head back to his village.
The next day Kuroda arrives outside the gates of the Leaf Village, and when he tries to go in two guards jump down and block his entrance. They both take out a kunai and get ready to attack. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?" one of them asks, blonde hair covering half of his face.
"Relax," says Kuroda holding his hands up, "My name is Kuroda Taishi, I am a Genin here in the village."
"We know who Kuroda Taishi is," says the guard, "And there is no way you are him."
"Why not?" asks Kuroda curiously.
"Because he vanished from the village four weeks ago," replies the second guard, his sleeveless arms flexing to show off his large muscles, "You may look like him, but there is no way you are him."
"Well, if it is going to be like that then I request an audience with the Hokage," Kuroda sighs.
The guards look at each other and then one of them sends a message on the radio.
Raj Fujo bursts into the Hokage's office and immediately falls to his knees bowing, "I am sorry to intrude Lady Hokage but we have urgent news."
She sets down the scroll she was reading and replies, "What is it? Did the Tsuchikage send a reply message?"
"No, my Lady," he responds, "There is a report from the East Entrance that there is a boy claiming to be Kuroda Taishi."
She stands up immediately, "What did you say?"
"The guards say they stopped a boy trying to get into the village. He claims to be Kuroda Taishi and even looks like him. One of them is half Hyuga and confirmed that the boy is not using a transformation jutsu," Raj explains, "He has requested an audience with you."
The Hokage jumps out of the window and runs toward the gate leaving Raj behind.
Kuroda sees the Hokage approaching and sighs in relief, "Finally, someone rational is coming. Will you tell them who I am, Lady Hokage?"
"I know who you look like, and who you claim to be," says the 8th Hokage, crossing her arms over her chest, "But I find it very hard to believe that you would just suddenly appear after running away from the village for a month." Her eyes run over every inch of him, trying to spot anything out of place that would prove he is an impostor.
Kuroda states, "What makes you think I ran away? I could have been kidnapped, or misled by someone to think I was on a mission."
The Hokage admits, "Those two options are possible, but there is no proof of either of them."
Kuroda replies, "Well, then I guess that the only real way to confirm my identity is to have Kayo to use her Mind Interrogation Jutsu on me."
The Hokage tenses up for a split second then stares intently into the boy's eyes. After a while she remarks, "The real Kuroda wouldn't know about that Jutsu."
Kuroda counters, "I am well aware of the Jutsu and I am sure that it has been used on me at least once, due to a time gap in my memories. Plus I have seen Kayo-sensei use it on a mission before and I know it erases all traces of the invasion into the victims mind."
"You could have gotten that information from a spy or a bingo book," she replies, circling around him like a shark.
Kuroda lets loose a deep sigh in annoyance. "Fine, would a bingo book know that I single-handedly defeated Raj in Team 3's Genin test. Then proceeded to carry him on my shoulder all the way to your office before demanding a new Jonin supervisor?"
She stops her prowling, knowing that only a few individuals knew the exact details of that incident. The 8th now seems convinced that it is in fact Kuroda. The Hokage grabs him by the ear and drags him all the way to her office.
Once they get there she starts yelling at him about all the ninja they had to use to look for him, and how Sakura got extremely sick from worry and ended up in the hospital, and various other things that could have destroyed the entire village because he disappeared.
Kuroda takes everything with a grain of salt, quickly growing bored with the lecture, but not letting a hint of it appear in his expressions.
Then she starts questioning him, "Now, I want to know where you went and why you left even though you were under direct orders not to do so."
Kuroda calmly explains, "I was on my way to visit Sakura when a messenger bird flew up to me and gave me a note saying that a friend I met on one of my missions needed my help. So I decided that I would go on my own and help out, partly because I wanted to help and because I wanted to get out of the village for a while. It turns out that my friend was being harassed by some new gang that just showed up in his town. So I helped to get rid of the gang and set up some defenses, so that the people would be safe from any future trouble."
The Hokage starts yelling, "We could have easily sent a team on a mission to help out and then this whole mess would have been avoided."
Kuroda replies, "The town was poor and would not have been able to pay for a mission, so I did it for free."
The Hokage admits, "It was the right thing to do, but you should have at least told someone. But now you have forced my hand. You will still be confined to the village like before, but now I will assign someone to follow you everywhere you go to make sure you obey my orders."
Not waiting for a dismissal Kuroda exits her office. Groaning with distaste for his new plight he barely even notices when he runs into Kayo. Her familiar features are a welcome sight until he recognizes her demeanor.
Without warning she tries to slap him across the face but the pain of the seal surges through her, bringing her down to her knees before she can lay a finger on him.
"You idiot! Where have you been?" her hands curling into fists as she tries to contain her anger and frustration, "Sakura has been so worried about you. She even tried to kill herself in order to summon you back and make sure you were still alive. But this cursed pain prevented her from doing that. Eventually, she tried and failed so many times that her body just collapsed and the medical ninja are bewildered because they cannot figure out what is wrong."
Kuroda quickly drags her into a private room before she can cause a scene and replies, "It was pointless of her to worry so much. If I die you will instantly know because the seal mark would burn off."
Kayo snaps back, "How are we supposed to know that? You never told us that, so there was no way for us to know."
Kuroda smirks and says, "I was not aware that Sakura cared that much about my well-being."
Kayo's face turns red with rage at his apparent lack of concern, but before she can get another word out he is already out of the room. Kuroda walks away from the room, contemplating his new situation and trying to figure out a way to dissuade Sakura from developing more feelings as he makes his way over to the hospital.
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? How will Kuroda and Sakura's relationship change? Will Kuroda ever be allowed out of the village again? As usual, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)