[Kukui Tanku]

'Why am I doing this alone? I want breakfast too!' Currently I was heading back to the hotel, with a bunch of medical supplies in a backpack I bought since our sealing scroll wasn't with us anymore. I had volunteered to go get the supplies we needed this morning since everyone realized we needed to have these and I needed some bandages. I had also gotten lightbulbs for the second stag

I already had applied some of the stuff to where my cuts were and I was feeling much better. But I was still hungry and all the boxes of Pocky I had were eaten already. What a shame too. I was sure they weren't gonna save food for me either. Hungry vultures. I didn't blame them. Hako had damn good food.

Speaking of Hako, I planned on looking around some of the Seedier area's soon enough so that I could find the Shinobi library. I didn't want to enlist myself in the Daimyo's personal army. That just wasn't for me. Also I just wanted the freedom that came with being a missing nin at the moment.

I didn't have to do missions which was nice. I wasn't sure I could do D-ranks without killing myself from Bordem. I heard my stomach growl then. 'Maybe I should stop by and get some breakfast myself?' Yeah that was a good idea actually. Something cheap like Onigiri would be good.

With my mind made up I began turning into an ally where I knew a cheap Onigiri shop was located from my research. 'At least nothing can go wrong today.' I smiled. Cheap breakfast always would make the day better for anyone!

"Hey brat get back here!" I felt someone bump into me and I looked down then. I saw a redheaded child look up at me and gulp. I then looked up and saw a large man look at me, "Hey kid give me the brat and I'll let you go. Nobody needs to know this happened," He was big, muscular and bald. He wore a black tanktop, pants tired off at the cuffs, and standard sandles.

I looked down at the child who looked scared and I knew what was going on right away. 'I see no indication of this guy being a shinobi. And with my sensing, this guy has a pitifully low amount of chakra.' This dush was a child trafficker. I grit my teeth, "And why should I?" I looked down at the child and I could see the absolute fear in their eyes. I saw finger marks around their wrist and some cut marks on her arms.. They only looked to be around seven or eight at the very most, "I see a child running from you and they have cuts and marks on them?" They also had rags on for clothes and I knew Hako was a nice town.

The man scoffed, "She just gets into accidents. Now give me the brat and nobody gets hurt," He pulled out the knife, "I'm sure you wanna make it back to your parents you snobby brat? Maybe I should take you too for some ransom money. Yeah actually come with me too brat or I'll kill you,"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I looked down and saw the girl had latched onto me and was beginning to cry now whilst she whispered. Something about that broke my heart. She thought we were gonna die and it was her fault.

I laughed. This guy was a fucking idiot. He thinks he's threatening? I was in a good mood today before this happened. But looking down and seeing this child hold on to me now that the man was approaching whispering I'm sorry. "Buddy, buddy, buddy," I drew one of my taiji blades, "I know your type, trying to scare me when your just an asshat who think's he's cool for having muscles and a knife. Spoiler alert. You look like an idiot to me." I tapped my headband with a slash on it, "See this?"

The man and girl looked up and the man rolled his eyes, "So some brat from Kirigakure huh? A missing brat like you doesn't even stand a chance against me."

I looked at the child, "Hey whats your name?"

The girl looked at the man and at me, "I'm Tayuya," That made me stop for a second. Redhead named Tayuya. Either a coincidence or I changed canon. Ah fuck that didn't matter at this point. I grinned and pat the girl on the head with my free hand, "Are you gonna stop the bad man?" She was too innocent to be one of the sound four for sure.

I grinned and the man roared and charged, "Close your eyes for me Tayuya. The bad man will be gone in a second." The girl did that and I went through a few hand seals and put as little chakra into the attack as possible, "Lightning release: Electromagnetic murder!" I sent a small blast of lightning toward the man.

It hit him square in the face and zapped him into unconsciousness quickly. 'Civilians are really weak to chakra attacks huh.' I quickly checked to see if I killed the man and thankfully I didn't. I disarmed him and sheathed my Taiji blade. Not in that order. I then looked at Tayuya, "You can open your eyes now,"

The small redhead did and gasped, "The bad man's knocked out! You did it!"

I smiled, "I did, now can you tell me why he was chasing you,"

The girl scratched her arm, "Well he had me and a whole bunch of other kids given away to a creepy man. I ran away before I could be taken and he wanted me to go with him. Then I bumped into you eventually and you took down the bad man," I fucking hoped to god this didn't mean Orochimaru was here. If he was we'd all be pretty screwed.

I decided to not let my own nervousness show and I pat the girl on the head, "Well do you know where your parents are? We should give you back to them if that's what you want," I hoped to god she had parents who loved her.

The girl looked down and shook her head, "No... Those mean jerks gave me away to the bad man for some money,"

Well fuck. I couldn't exactly take her to an orphanage... I sighed. Why did every adult I have met so far suck? 'Okay Kukui. Think of a solution here.' An idea came to mind but I didn't know how well it'd be received. I crouched down and I felt a lot more like an adult than I was, "Say Tayuya," For fucks sakes I was eleven, "Would you like to be able to beat bad men like that?" I needed to not sound like the ass hat behind me.

Tayuya tilted her head, "You mean like you did?" I nodded, "Hell yeah I'd love to kick those bad men's butts!" She pumped her hands into the air and I smiled.

I could feel she had a lot of chakra. Potential just waiting to be unsheathed, "Would you like to come with me then? Me and my friends are trying to take down a really bad man and we're here to get stronger. I could teach you some of what I know and help you learn on your own. It'll be tough but you can be strong enough to take down some really bad men one day,"

Tayuya looked at me skeptically, "And If I go with you are you sure you won't be like that bad man?" She was smart. Good. I could build off of that.

I grinned, "Well Choujuro, Sanemi, and especially Himiko would kill me if I did anything bad to you so even if I wanted to do something bad to you I'd be killed and actual good people would take you in. But I'm not gonna do anything bad to you. I promise,"

The girl took a look a look at me and nodded, "Okay, I'll go with you,"

"You kidnapped a child." Himiko looked at me blankly, "Tell me why Kukui before I scream please," Currently I had Tauya getting food with Choujuro and Sanemi who took a shining to her instantly. Himiko stayed back to interrogate me.

I placed my hands in front of me protectively, "I was getting some Onigiri in some alleyway and she bumped into me. Some asshat was trying to take her back to traffic her to some creepy dude, her words not mine for that last part and then I zapped the man and asked her is she wanted to take down some bad men in the future and if she wanted to go with me. And before you ask, her parents are shit too,"

Himiko took a sigh of what I hoped was relief, "Okay good. I didn't want to have to make you see your own heart," I shivered and Himiko chuckled, "By the way, I had Sanemi, Choujuro and the girl wait for us. So we're fine and by the way your paying for second breakfast,"

I frowned, "What a shame,"

We quickly left and found Sanemi carrying Tayuya, "Its soo tall up here!" Tayuya was having a good time by the looks of it and I smiled. Sanemi turned around with Tayuya and saw us, also ignoring Choujuro who was smiling and snickering.

Sanemi giggled, "It is. Now I think Himiko and Kukui are here so we can leave and get lunch," Sanemi looked like he was having fun as well. Good for him.

Tayuya smiled and I grinned, "Okay I'm not dead everyone. Now we can go. "

Pretty sure ramen sounded good for everyone right about now.

[Kokushibo Hozuki]

The trek to Hako was a long, long, long one for Kokushibo. Mainly since his head was still throbbing. 'Damn brat.' He had stolen the basic supplies he needed and a bit of armor from Suika village. Pretty simple to kill a shop keeper that stayed in his shop a bit late. 'I swear I'll kill him slowly for this.'

Kokushibo wished he had been more rational earlier. It'd have saved him the pain of needing to search for the brats and killing them. At least he knew what they could do this time. One had a Ketseryugan, another wind release, another had water, and the brat had lightning.

He had to be most weary of the Chinoike and the brat. If he was cut once then he was pretty much screwed by the Chinoike and he couldn't get near the brat without him using clones or electromagnetic murder to shock him to death this time. Now that the brat knew what he could do he'd be likely to use clones much sooner.

The other two weren't ones to be careless about either. The wind release brat was good for long range attacks and the water release one was good at swordsmanship and taijutsu. Together they were able to create iceballs that hurt like hell to get hit by.

He wasn't going to take his chances with them either.

Last time he did that he had an iceball to the stomach and it hurt. No way was he gonna allow himself to be hit with that again, even if he had to let it pass through him which would be uncomfortable. It'd be a small price to pay to not let the brats get an opening.

Now he just needed to get to Hako and lay his trap.

"Hey pal are you alright?" Kokushibo turned around and saw a man with long white hair... he recognized it as a legendary man. One he faced as a genin with his entire cell almost dying. He was six years old when he first met Jiraya of the Sannin. "I see your frozen by my might!" The man laughed heartily, "Are you sure your okay though pal? You look like shit."

'Okay Kokushibo. Be calm. Try to not run away in fear.' Kokushibo told himself. Jiraya was a man from Konoha. He was likely pro-scum. But Kokushibo wasn't that much of an idiot. He knew when to not say too much and he was afraid of the man who singlehandedly massacred an entire platoon of Kiri-nin, "Been hit by a lightning jutsu. Head feels like shit," He was telling the truth. Just not saying he was hunting bloodline scum and her supporters.

Jiraya had a pained look on his face, "Yeah I imagine that must suck. Haven't been hit by one myself but I know it has to hurt like hell. Well sorry for interrupting you pal but just figured I should make sure you weren't gonna die whilst I look for inspiration for my latest book,"

This left Kokushibo a bit stupefied, "Latest book?" Jiraya was also a well-known author in Kiri for his famous Icha Icha series. He was known for traveling the world, looking for inspiration for his masterpieces. 'Okay well there isn't much to worry about then.' That made Kokushibo happy. As much as he wanted to tear the man limb from limb he knew he couldn't even get close to trying.

Jiraya nodded and grinned, "Yeah I think this one's gonna be a best seller it basically starts off with..."

[Obito Uchiha]

Obito to be quite frank, was bored as fuck. 'Utakata cannot be found at the moment. A real pity indeed.' It'd have been fun to see the conquest of the land of water happen. But oh well. At least his other source of entertainment goals were doing fine right about now.

Earlier he had seen Kukui Tanku and his little band of misfits beat Kokushibo Hozuki. They had of course ran away to Hako town and he watched them, even watching the touching display of the girl comforting the blue haired boy. It was touching to see some purity in this corrupted world still.

And then now a few days later he had just finished watching Kukui Tanku save a little girl from being given away to her death at the hands of Orochimaru. 'I'll have to make sure that snake is out of the perfect world someday.' The event made Obito's heart felt just a tad bit warmer. It was like how he was before he saw the truth of the world. It gave Obito a sense of nostalgia.

These were the people who deserved to be in his perfect world. The people who didn't deserve this hell but were thrust into it anyways. It made Obito angry to see that these children had to fight for their lives and get saved by other children. They weren't even the age he was when he saw the world for what it was the first time.

So much pain would be avoided in the future once he had finished his plans. He just needs to wait for the right time to enact them and get the Jinchurriki. Nagato's Akatsuki wasn't anywhere near ready yet and his plans with Kirigakure weren't done yet either. He had to wait for a while it seemed.

At least he had Tanku to watch in the meantime whilst his other ventures were just slowly building up. At least Nagato had managed to get Sasori of the red sands to join them a week ago and Kisame's been fitting right into the Akatsuki since his defection. So there was currently nothing that required his intervention.

But that meant he could only watch Tanku and his progression. And whilst it was entertaining at times, it wasn't when he was on the run and not progressing. Not getting closer to his own goals of stopping Yagura. To Obito this was just getting boring to watch.

The boy had beaten Kokushibo sure but Obito had wondered how the boy was gonna progress from there. He needed more in his arsenal if he wanted to be good enough to plunge Kirigakure out of this hell that Obito had put it in. 'Perhaps I should reward the boy for not losing his light. To give me another source of entertainment.' Something to make the boy strong enough to be a game changer for Kirigakure eventually. 'Zetsu won't like it if I do this.'

Zetsu would call it a waste of time. And whilst it might be, Obito wanted to see Kirigakure suffer for what it did to his beloved. To his light. To the one person who made this world worth living in. So if the boy eventually helped someone cause more pain to either side, then it'd be worth it.

Judging by his dreams and goals and his recent plights the boy looked like he'd be taking power from anywhere he could find it at this point. Obito could eventually use this offer of power(albeit from a distance and without the boy knowing who he was) to get him to join him.

Another person who's seen the hell that this world was would be nice. Zetsu was an ass and he was likely to betray the plant at some point anyways. So he'd need another ally to aid him in his troubles.

'I think this'll work out well for me.' Why did Obito feel a shudder up his spine? Eh he'd ignore it for now. Obito quickly stole a scroll from Kumogakure's shinobi library(the only one in the world that was legalized by the kage and or Daimyo) The boy'd be thanking him later once he saw the sheer pain of this world and decided to join him.

He'd just need to reveal himself eventually.

Obito quickly placed a scroll down and then left.

Now he just had Zetsu to placate for a while. Yay him.

[Chapter end]

I feel like I should explain myself a lot here. So I will. Only for the last part as the first part is something I will die on if need be. Kukui basically kidnapping Tayuya will lead to some cool worldbuilding moments eventually with him explaining them. Anyways, After Obito caught Kukui blowing up the academy, he's had an interest in the boy. Something for mere entertainment alone at the start. But slowly through watching the boy he's felt a bit of a connection. Not anything noteworthy but Obito sees himself before Rin died and he see's a future pawn. So his future pawn's survival and his own entertainment is paramount to a lot of his current projects since he plans on betraying Zetsu sometime in this fic. So he just wants someone else to be there.

That and the potential for Kukui fucking more shit up and bringing more pain to Kiri is great in Obito's eyes so he decides to help the boy a bit. Nothing too fantastical, just a small nudge in a direction. Any direction really.

Anyways hopefully you enjoyed the chapter. One of my favorites to write tbh because I made Kukui sound somewhat cool to me in the first part of it. (Also really shows how weak civilians are in the grand scheme of things eh)

Also what do you think I had Obito give Kukui? It wasn't anything too grand. Just something for lightning. Be it a jutsu, chakra flow, or something else.

Anyways, see y'all later, I've rambled long enough I think

- Tobi