Confrontations
Minato listened intently and he listened well. It was one of his best skills, memories of sitting in class, intent stares contrasted with the chaotic behaviour of all but the most concentrated students. He paid attention, his mind mirroring lessons taught fortnights before, then compounding information upon that. Studying wasn't unique to him, but he knew lessons as they were told, and so the only thing his young excited mind could do with the information imparted upon him was analyse, and analyse he did.
It was with this analysis he realised that he needed to stop Takai, and ask him some much needed questions.
"The woman, who was she to you?"
Takai stood straight as ever in the ever-prestigious Hokage's office, wooden floors varnished and boards placed such that only a few pre-set places wouldn't cause them to creak, under an opened attic, littered with arches and perches where a full team of ANBU escorts could lay in wait of a Hokage aimed assassin. One would think after speaking so much, standing so straight for so long, he would be tired, yet he has as much enthuse as ever, a smile still stretched on a still stilled body, regarding his leader with both respect and understanding.
His eyes gained a mournful look, yet one that was placed in far-away rather than near, like grief frozen over, then melted with perspective, instead of the expected sorrow of a widower.
"A Fiancée. The love of my life, like Kushina is to you."
"What is she now?"
"Dead."
Minato looked hard, and asked an even harder question.
"From what?"
And Takai hesitated. Went stiller, somehow, than before. He didn't move even his eyes for a moment, but then it passed and he looked up and down, tracing from Minato's eyes to his chest, before his thicker than average lips opened to speak.
"Iwa killed her. An assassin meant for me."
"Oh? And you mean to say Iwa discovered you?"
Takai showed annoyance, perhaps the showing being intentional as to not deceive his commander, or something else, as his eye twitched with the left side of his lip.
"I will explain in order. Otherwise the story gets messy and confusing. Agreed?"
Minato saw no reason to deny it, noting that though his tone was commanding he still gave the choice to him. Loyalty or appeasement he had yet to figure out which, but he kept listening.
"Actually, one more question. How strong were you during this?"
"Low jonin, though my lack of experience hampered me."
It fit with the story so far. Before leaving, his notes told him, he had barely been a Tokubetsu, and for tracking, not fighting. Being able to progress to such a level in a short time was good, but he didn't let his admiration show on his face. He didn't let his suspicion show either: it made little sense that he would go from a low-ish level like that to burning down an entire town and killing every Iwa inside, not to mention being able to stand in front of a hokage and not seem to be inferior.
Because the way he spoke outstripped him in some ways, his assessment was nearly perfect for his previous self, and Minato has taught 2 future hokage candidates, and one of the best medics in the village. He was a damned good sensei, and the man in front of him matched that understanding. Either he was a master manipulator who also randomly gained enough power to rival him, or he was a prodigy. Or he was telling the truth.
"Takai, why do you love this village?"
"It is beautiful for one. Home for another. The people are brilliant and make you feel welcome."
Minato looked at Takai with a smile that he must have known was fake at that point
"If only all of us could have your optimism. You have no living family, no friends aside from those who you were put in a squad with, and all but one are dead. That remainder is in a hospital yet to wake up from a coma they were put in at the end of a war. I thought I should let you know, even if you didn't ask. I find it remarkable that you have such a love for this place, yet no loved ones inside of it. Care to explain why?"
The smile Takai was wearing also must have been fake, yet he kept wearing it nonetheless.
"It is strong, stable, not rife with degeneracy. And I was born here. I would be a fool to pick anywhere else to love. Honestly, I won the lottery. Not only do you have knowledge of the future due to my brethren, but the Leaf is also the strongest it has ever been, and will only get stronger. Being here, even complacent and weak would have still given me the best life out of any of the nations, and now I am strong enough to stand on the same level as the sannin, you, and the numerous prodigies in the next generations. Honestly, it is exciting."
"And how did you manage to get to that level of power?"
"I will tell later. A lot of training and a lot of work, if you need a short unfulfilling explanation, as I'm sure you wanted from that question. But it needs context."
"Yes, I just wonder if I will ever get it."
And Takai smiled wider after that, more genuine.
And he started again.
…
The next 13 days and nights were of planning, working and training. I couldn't let myself get butchered by Iwa after all, and my idea was that if Nezu discovered me, I would be out of a job and a boss (mainly from him losing his head), and have no cover or cloak against the ninja who seek to slaughter me. To escape in that case, head back home, I would need to be in perfect health and body. I would have to be fast and kill faster to escape without getting tired. Tired prey gets killed, you see, and I needed to live. To get back to you of course.
That was the worst case scenario though. Well, not actually, but in my mind, there wasn't any way it could get worse than that. The better case one is that Nezu doesn't suspect shit and takes whatever I tell him as fact. Preparation is key though, and I didn't want to get caught with my ass in the air and them with a sword positioned right above me. So, I prepared.
It was hard to figure out where a trained ninja is. Harder when they don't exist. I did, but I was trying to find a me that wasn't, and it was fucking hard to make up any kind of needed evidence when that person couldn't leave any. So, I had an idea, that I simply make up the evidence as I did before, but leave it unresolved. This of course had its risks. If anyone found out it was me, I was dead, but if I didn't I was probably dead anyway so eh.
What I didn't foresee as much as I should have, is that Nezu wasn't the only one that suspected that I was still around. I had needed caution, and I admit that I didn't have enough.
…
Most of my informants were unusable, the implication that a low-ranking member would be privy to such information dangerous, and the outcome that the information was from a more knowledgeable informant would yes, give credibility to the fake information, both from the source itself and also the inevitable selling and reselling of such intelligence leading to the information being taken as fact by everyone else, but it would be risky as all hell. The idea that a grizzled intel gatherer, taken refuge after growing fat and rich of the previous war, would be un-crafty enough to take bullshit as fact from the hand of the shitter himself was insulting to their intelligence and mine own. So, I had to find an ideal candidate. One high enough in the hierarchy of the underworld, but inexperienced enough to take the bait.
So I looked for nepotism of course.
Being born into power never meant you were fit to wield it. Ninja clans are exceptions, because the training and expectations are so high globally that you don't ever see a clan heir where any amount of incompetence hasn't divorced them from the position or from life. We are hard, but civilians are softer, and so there was a rich fool, second son to a high family that belonged in the higher districts of the city, yet meandered around the poorer ones, a group of mercenaries grizzled and well fed, former dogs of a war they didn't belong in, following at his heel, hoping for a treat or prize.
His name was Gin, and he was apparently a pompous asshole.
He was also trying his hand at information gathering. And everything else. He spread himself thin, so though he wouldn't recognize bait for what it was, no matter how big it was, it was questionable wherever he would even see it if it didn't ring with a harried alarm and flash with hurried lights. It needed to present itself like one of the stories he saw in plays as a child, or read as a teen, and fantasised about as an adult.
But who to frame?
Guilt didn't gnaw at me, but it wasn't a good practise to kill every innocent you saw if there wasn't the understanding that there was no other way out of there. I needed a bastard. Not a bastard from one of the nobles, a real piece of shit, scum nobody would think twice about slitting the throat of. It would go a long way into selling the lie, everyone wants to believe they killed a bad guy, and you tend to think on their deaths a lot less.
I had spent a while honing my skills too. It had been over half a year since I had left, and my abilities had grown considerably. A combination of the experienced gained from killing those in the past fights, and the studying of half remembered theory lessons and taijutsu teachings from the academy gave me a way of moving that I had to actively turn off, lest it be too obvious I was a (mostly self) trained assassin. Killing was nearly second nature, so meditation was a tool to prevent me from going postal and killing everyone around me. That gave me a better command over my chakra, and my soul. I would need both. I had neither fully.
I carried a knuckle duster, though it was misdirection. It would be crushed if I used my full strength with it, so I held it to make people thing my strength was under what it actually was. A ninja's greatest tool, and vice, is his paranoia. It can save him from a stab to the back or make him kill everyone he knows. What differentiates a master from a student, the me of now from the me of then, is that other people have this paranoia too. You have to be sure to tread lightly, and factor that in too, but be good enough to not fall into its inevitable swirl.
…
Days passed, as they always did. It felt like I was going through the motions, but I hid little actions in little moments in the littlest spaces in big busy days. It all came together, bit by bit.
There was a man. He trafficked people, scum of scum. That was reason enough to kill him, but he was also a missing nin. However, he had apparently been away that day, protection detail for a gambler. Nobody else could account for him though, and what would a ninja do if they had loose ends? Tie them.
There was 5 men in the group, including him. The richest of them all, Qian, was a wealthy trader who travelled from place to place to sell his wares. He hired many missing nin. The competent ones, he paid, the less so he sent off to get killed by their betters.
3 of them were your average shitters. Fools who drank and whored way above their pay. They worked for Qian, who was smart enough, or uninterested enough, to avoid the vices of such a lifestyle. He probably picked them for such a set of flaws. They would get payday for their work, spend it, and come back to help him again once the money dried up.
He never kept the same ninjas on his side though. It was for good reason, ninja are not only mythological to the common man, but also untrustworthy. You come to a ninja when you have no other options, and they either solve it and save everything, perfectionists that they are, or take all that they can and leave you with less than you started with. He traded guards every village. It was a good idea, since most nuke-nin tended to not share secrets with one another, but a henged man could simply come back for more, and he would be none the wiser.
None of this information was really needed, but it was important to be thorough. That was my exact thought as I crept behind a sleeping Qian, before stabbing him in the back of the neck with a senbon. No poison. Meiun wasn't one for them, too expensive perhaps to really use, or maybe he just liked the precision of the killing blow, a needle precisely sunk into a man's spine. It was gruesome but not bloody.
The rest had gone down as easily, all laying dead in a hotel room for each. I stole all the money, took their possessions, and robbed all of Qian's trading materials. Then I burnt them. I didn't need the money and it was an unnecessary paper trail to me, but Meiun would have stolen them, so to frame him I needed to as well.
…
Meiun himself had nowhere he stayed permanently, but I could lure him out with the promise of gold. The noble had a lot of it, so I asked him to meet with me for a juicy story we could collaborate on.
The café we decided to meet in was in the upper districts, and the light that shone through was magnificent. If the whole city wasn't burning down right now, I would tell you to visit it sometime.
Under alley gutters were cloaked with the blackest night, darkness shielding the slums from prying eyes, yet the spotless upper levels had reflections at every angel, white buildings and metallic accents concentrating light everywhere one would look. It was at the top of the city, and the sun at its peak beamed down on it with an unstoppable strength.
Even at day's end the district, named "Bright" after its visual motif, shone, with street lights and lamps and candles and torches from everywhere giving a warm, hot glow to the marble textured pillars dotting the landscape of densely spaced yet separated buildings, only commercial blocks linking together, each house, or mansion as you got higher and higher, having its own guarded garden of sun fed grass and plants.
Clearly, this city favoured the light, but profited of the dark. I would imagine the damiyo only seeing the money from this place, and on tours, only the brightest areas, such that he wouldn't notice the undercurrent of crime that stood as this city's foundations.
The inside of the café was darkened, a reprieve from the bright cast light of the outside. It was a nice, homely place, and I had already sat down with a cup of coffee, which was blessed with rich beans and roasted nearly perfectly. It was a nice place, and when the noble sat down to speak with me, I said as much.
He had an upright posture, though it wasn't as tall as it could have been. He had short grey hair spiked up, and though he was young he had a widows peak edging through, noticeable enough one would wonder why he didn't cover it up. He wore a pair of glasses, round and black rimmed, and he had a moustache, fuzzy and too big for his small mouth, nested under a slightly too big nose. He was dressed well though, a black and white dotted cloak wrapped around his shoulders, over a teal, silk kimono.
He responded to me in a slightly nasally voice, but with deepness that told of a man running underneath the spoilt boy he really was.
"No offence, but I wouldn't have thought a man of the underbelly such as yourself would have good taste to appreciate this place. I have come here since being a small child, you see. My father brought me here whenever he had meetings, and I have always wanted to take an informant here, or do an information trade."
Whilst he spoke of a place that was near and dear to him, his entourage of what must have been 6 men and 9 more outside crowded the place, made the atmosphere go from a relaxed one handcrafted to perfection, into a meeting, proper and dangerous. They weren't any threat to me, but if I killed them in this shop, iwa would gut me like a fucking dog. I had to be careful one of these idiots didn't make a dumb move, or they would kill us both. He spoke again.
"By the way, I like your outfit."
It was a nice one. A black shirt over navy blue trousers, simple but smart. I had gotten my hair cut too, short, and shaved myself clean for the first time in what felt like forever.
"Well, I have a plan. You see, there is a conspiracy going about. There was an assault on a shipping plant, some people died, whatever, and the guy who did it got caught. He was some village idiot really, nobody important, apparently hired to do so by a rival company. However, some say that it was a ninja who really did it, a missing ninja by the name of Meiun. Thing is he had an alibi, but as it turns out all those he was meant to be away with are dead now. Seems he killed them to keep a secret. What we need is proof he did it, so we can show it to all of the potential companies to show that he is playing them."
The noble looked indecisive. He stroked his chin, and his eyes looked a little lost under the weight of thick glass framing them.
"Ninja. I do not know. They are dangerous, how are we meant to get the evidence? Even if he has a home, I don't think any of us could break in without getting killed."
"That's the thing. You are a rich man, and more than the gold in your hand you have a silver tongue. Give him an offer and keep him occupied and a couple of your men can sneak in where he is held up and take all the needed evidence. Do that, and you won't even need to pay him for the job."
And that was all it took. Simple and easy.
But it felt like someone was watching.
…
It was rare that I went to the upper districts, and so I walked around, explored a little. It was fun to run on rooftops at night, but I had to resolve to walk on my feet instead of my chakra sometimes, and this wasn't unpleasant.
I came upon a fountain, a facsimile of a cherub from the west adorned on the head of the faucet, wrapped around the pipe from which liquid sprinkled with stars derived from their mother Amaterasu above. I looked up from the freshwater incident from a cool spring upstream, when I saw her. Again. Aka, and she looked even more beautiful than the first time I saw her. Her black dress and black hair and ruby lips shone in the harsh light, and she contrasted with it so well, as if her perfection evaded even a goddess' light, absorbing both the sun's rays and my attention. I walked to her, brisque and deft, each step another step closer to my desire, my want.
Then, I was in front of her, and she turned to me. This time I wasn't afraid. This time I knew she would recognise me. And she did. Surprise turned to an addictive (for me and her) attraction, as she opened her lips, before acknowledging me.
"Takai."
"Me."
She smiled. She bewitched me that night, but it felt like I was losing myself again to her.
I moved closer, too close, by all means. Close enough that if either of us wanted we would be touching tongues in a second, but we both wanted to tease the other, let that anticipation build. We stared into one another's eyes, waiting for the other to break, before I made another move, grabbing a strand of her long hair with a single finger and swiping it to the side, before brushing my finger on her cheek and behind her ear.
"You're as beautiful as I remember."
"It has only been a few days."
I looked back from the side of her face to her eyes, where they were painted with desire and want, tilted downwards towards me.
"Yes, but I dreamt about you every night too. That doubles the time, right?"
She looked away, too embarrassed to respond.
I laughed "Do you have anywhere we can go eat? I'm not too familiar with the surroundings, and if good company makes better food better, I'm sure with you it would taste gorgeous."
She summoned back the will to stare at me again.
"I have just the place."
…
I'm going to skip ahead. But yes, we fucked. The dinner was fantastic, and we walked along side one another, warming each other from the cold night, before renting a hotel room and sleeping together. We were together from that day onwards.
I don't regret it, even though it is a stupid idea. She was upper class, her father a businessman who had spoken to a damiyo once, and as such a marriage to a lower class man would never be allowed. She said she didn't care though, and I said the same, and we said we would love each other for all of time and we weren't wrong. At least I wasn't.
I told her where my house was and she told me where hers was, and we for the next days went to the same hotel and slept together. It came to the point where my bedroom was dusty, I had used it so little.
But I digress.
It took the noble about 3 days to contact the ninja, God knows why, and a day for him to respond.
5 days after, and I had 2 days left, 3 days to get a meeting with the noble (Fucking secretary) and 3 days making the plan biting into my remaining time.
The next day I would plant the evidence, it would get delivered, and Nezu would find out who did the warehouse job. Clean.
And I was afraid. Mainly because if anything fucked up, I was almost certainly dead, and a lot was weighing on the head of an idiot.
A rich idiot.
…
As it happens, the job itself was clean as fuck. The noble asked for him to have a place where they could send a messenger, he gave it out, I asked for the location (for information purposes), he gave it me, and I disabled all of the traps and planted the evidence. The men would come during the meeting, and I was home free. All I would need to do is shake hands with the noble and tell Nezu about the missing nin.
Of course, it is never that simple. I was jumping from rooftob to rooftop, the darkness of night shadowing me, when I saw a figure. It was black, dark, impossible to see, yet I saw it. So, I followed.
I needed to kill him if he was an iwa spy. The idea that he would catch onto my bullshit was a horrifying one, and I needed to curtail it with a quick death.
They ran, jumping from roof to roof, and I pursued, feet pattering against roof tiles like a barrage of arrows against steel, until the runner leapt down an alley. I jumped down too, sliding into a duck to avoid a head aimed kick he had prepared for my pursuit around the corner.
I rolled back up, and got into a fighting stance, as he did the same. We edged towards each other, bit by bit, until we were nearly touching arms.
I attacked first, lashing out with twin jabs, both blocked, then spinning with a fist, which was ducked, allowing me to kick at his head, arms coming out just in time to cushion the blow. It left his face open though, so I kneed at his face, though he raised up and used his palms to block the blow, then leant back as an axe kick nearly shaved his face clean off, scraping against his Iwa headband. My leg slammed the ground, a small crater kicking up dust, shielding myself from sight as I stepped forwards once, stretching my left leg out, as I moved on my right leg, a powerful fist following at my side and slamming into his stomach. I didn't lose momentum as I flipped over his head, grabbing his back and launching him at the alleyway wall.
He thudded against the wall, upright, so I sought to smash his face into paste, my strong taller frame punching at his head. He moved at the last second, and spiderweb fractures riddled the wall next the his head. He wasted no time, and deftly equipped a curved dagger, swiping up to attempt to slice my arm in half. I brought it out of the wall, and had to dodge as a flurry of strikes came my way, the swipes of the blade cutting ravines into the wall at the side as he continued his maddened assault.
Neither of us could use jutsu, so we resolved to trying to kill each other the classical, bloodier way.
Eventually he ran his knife through a wall, and when it came out it slashed against my ribs horizontally with a insane speed. And advantage presented itself and it was took, as he moved to my left and pushed me into the wall. He sliced at my head twice, but twin ducks saved it (and doomed the wall behind) but he used the momentum of the second to stab the knife into my ribs.
The pain summoned anger, and I grabbed his shoulder, smashing a fist into his head, followed by a nose crushing headbutt. He fell back, but I rushed into him again, a blow to the stomach presenting the perfect target for a kick. He dodged that too, and tried to respond with a jab to the face, but I simply shifted out of the way and slammed him in the face, then a kick to the shin, and a double uppercut to the ribs, and more and more until he was at the other, unmarked wall, and I grabbed his neck, crashing his body into the wall with a thunderous clap, and a rolling thunder came, rhythmic thuds of head against wall as my fists smashed his skull into the grey wall behind.
Finally, I grabbed his eyes, and crushed them with my thumbs, then to finish the job, stole one of his spare kunai and stabbed him through the throat.
Brutal? Yes. Affective? Definitely.
I rifled through their body, and I saw a notepad, sketches of my face and notes upon notes taken on me.
Possible ninja- unconfirmed
Trying to figure out who hit our base (or cover for himself)
Master manipulator
Dangerous if a civ, very dangerous if not
Recommended, kill as quickly as possible.
NOTE: THESE NOTES ARE FOR COMMANDER'S EYES ONLY, IF YOU FIND THIS IN THE DEAD DROP DELIVER IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
My thoughts on that, were defeated. Yet I couldn't give up yet, so I went on. Tried to not even think of giving up.
But I was bloodied and weakened. And so I went to the only person that might help me.
A fucking rat.
…
When Nezu opened the door I assume he wasn't expecting me to walk through with a knife in my torso.
"What happened lad?"
I slowed my breathing, adrenaline was still fucking with me, the fight still a haze.
"An Iwa ninja tried to kill me, I dealt him, fucking piece of shit."
Nezu became very still.
"And why did he try to kill you?"
He was looking very carefully now.
I answered, unsure.
"I don't know, I was just heading home after getting some information on that guy you wanted me to investigate."
Nezu moved again, laughed like you do in good company. He walked over to his cellar, fished out a bottle of hard alcohol. Poured two glasses.
"Here, Takai, for the pain."
He and I downed it in one go. It was smooth, nice. The best alcohol I had ever had.
He looked at his own glass mournfully.
"You know, this is why I rarely get attached. You're a nice kid, I'll give you that. But you're from the Leaf, and I'm not a fool."
Then he smashed his fist into my head. I fell off the chair and rose, scarcely believing what was happening but not about to give up.
I attacked with a flurry of fists and kicks, and he blocked every single one. He ducked under one like a drunk dancer, stretching his body far enough to reach my torso, and pulled out the knife, just like that. The pain stunned me for a big, the adrenaline hadn't returned to a high enough level yet, so I was still shocked by impact, slowly being dulled somewhat by the drink. It was enough to distract me from the sandal that hit the side of my head.
I went flying, stumbling into chairs and table.
"You know, I used to be a ninja. Then, I left, grass never was rich, and the 3rd shinobi war showed they were weak too. I worked as an informant, like you, black market shit, dealt with a lot of scary people, and betrayed a lot too. That's why I am still here, because I am scum! Because I sacrificed everyone I ever knew."
He stalked over, grabbing a chair and slamming it into my back, shattering it. Then he put his hand on my shoulder and flung me through the wall.
I got back up after rolling on the floor, covered in the remnants of the wall, and ran at him, determined to not get killed so easily. He flung a kunai at my leg through the dust, and I only barely managed to dodge, the blade still biting into my heel. I avoided the crack, until the dust cleared and showed nobody.
A sharp pain to the back told me where he was.
"Genjutsu. A ninja needs to use every tool he has to survive. You don't have enough, even though you have more sprit than I do. Haha! Imagine attacking Iwa, when you know the entire village is filled with them. Hell, even the elites are Iwa. In this village, you drink Iwa water and piss in Iwa toilets. Even if you killed every damn ninja, Iwa would still come back within a generation."
He walked to my front and sliced my chest with the knife 4 times in quick succession. He wanted this to hurt. I swiped my hand out at him but he dodged with an unseeable speed and slashed by arm a few times too.
"Fools of the Leaf. In this world, all that matters is yourself. All that matters is-"
"Hello Nezu."
A new voice spoke, a figure silhouetted partially, standing in the open door, light cast behind him. Its owner had blond hair, like yours, but washed out, spiking upwards into the air. He spoke deep, measuring, and like seeing an old friend, though not one you wanted to see any time soon.
"Kumori? It's… It's been a while."
He froze up, in clear fear, and when I saw the purple on the man's clothes, I understood why.
I already thought myself dead, but when I saw Kumori Dokusei, former leader of Rain, mass murderer, and ghost, I thought myself even deader.
"It has. You survived the purge I see."
Though I had no idea what he was talking about, Nezu did. You could see on his face, his heart sink into his gut, then catapult into his throat as he tried to explain.
"N-No, no no no, I didn't betray you Kumori, I just got lucky, I was resourceful, I would never-"
Kumori lifted up his gun. Funny how I had started my journey with you by trying to research into him. He was proof that there were others like me in this world, but none of that mattered then. The real fucking deal was right in front of me, and he had a pistol.
"What did they give you Nezu?"
He sighed.
"They let me live."
"Well-"
And then he shot thrice into his stomach. I wondered why he was screaming so much, then I noticed the rounds were dripping acid into his body.
Two blasts rang out, as they dropped Nezu to his knees, his legs blown to pieces by explosive pressure, two normal bullets rammed into his shoulder, then a final seventh to the head.
He had planned even the magazine of bullets out.
Then he left without another word.
…
"Kumori Dokusei?" Minato asked.
"Yes. Guns and hair and everything."
Minato leaned back.
"Did he actually say nothing to you?"
"Nothing important."
"Everything that man says is important, tell me."
An order from the Hokage isn't anything a loyal man can ignore.
So Takai seemingly didn't.
"He looked at me for a moment. Just a single fucking moment. And then he told me "Don't waste your third life like you wasted your second. This is another chance, but not from the universe, from me. Don't squander it. Live your life to the fullest." And then he left.
One fucking moment and he knew who I was immediately."
Minato chose his words wisely.
"I figured you out too."
"Yes, but I was greener, and you asked questions. He just took a look, and he knew."
Minato breathed.
"That is what you didn't want to tell me?"
"It wasn't that important, and it freaks me out. There have only been two people who have ever made me feel completely powerless."
Minato had an idea of who the other was. He smiled a bit, prideful and nostalgic as he sent his mind back.
"This is confidential, but I have met him twice before. Once, when I was 16, and the second, when I was 23. If there is any man in this modern age who could rival Hashirama and Madara, it is Kumori Dokusei. He came to warn me of an attack on my squad. He said it was for himself, and that it was, but he still fought through hell for that. I went to investigate the direction of where he had trudged from, covered in blood and the smell of death, and I saw near 100 high class ninja dead, and an Uchiha with both of his eyes gone, along with a completely destroyed battlefield. Not even I could have won that kind of battle."
Takai had a solemn look on his face.
"Well, I apologize for not telling you."
"Yes, well, let's move on, what happened after Nezu's death?"
"There was a lot. Firstly, Iwa knew something about me, that spy probably did some more shit before being discovered. Also, my boss was dead, so my protection was up. In short, I was fucked.
But hey, that's where I thrive."
AN: I might finish the story this month, since I have some free time.
I have written a large amount of the final chapter. Usually I write in order, allows for consistency, but I was going through some shit and decided to express it via writing form, and the plans I had for the story happened to fit perfectly with what I decided to write. What is there is already really fucking good, so I am excited to share it with you.
Also, Kumori! This is mainly a self-indulgence thing, but I liked the idea of a shared continuity. Don't worry, this story doesn't require anything from rainfall, but I liked the idea of adding in this legendary character. He is still alive, still cool, and has a link to Minato, as well as being scary as shit.
I have begun uploading on Ao3 as well, but all the stuff will still be here. Just for alternative formats and to learn how to use the site, and to massage my ego.
Remember to review and all that kind of shit, make any complaints here so I have a funny number next to the fanfiction thing so I can smile tonight. Honestly though, the support of rainfall is part of why I am making this story, so thank you guys.
