Kakuzu looked down upon the Hozuki Castle as the dragon took off through the direction of the sea.
Ryuzetsu and Moroi were behind him, quietly observing the creature.
It was hard to believe that it was the same creature that rampaged earlier.
They had seen destruction that Satori had caused. And that same prideful creature now was dutifully fulfilling its role as a mount. Transforming living beings into puppets. It was a scary ability.
Ryuzetsu had many things she wanted to say, though she wasn't sure where to start.
The situation that the village was left in wasn't good and the result of Satori's rampage was going to create problems for the village. Especially the fact that all the prisoners and the guards were gone.
She had no hope that higher ups would properly deal with the issue. The elders were far from being reliable. They were people that were more concerned about power and status than people's wellbeing. Not once had they tried to reconcile the two factions that the village had split into. Trusting them with responsibility and hoping for any outcome that didn't further intensify conflict was a fool's errand.
Ryuzetsu knew that if Grass Flower group of Kusagakure didn't act effectively immediately, the situation would only worsen.
The dragon continued traversing the sea. It moved towards nearby land. It flapped its wings which were double its body size with an impressive force and gracefulness. It resembled a western dragon's appearance wise, as it was the form Kakuzu inscribed on the seal of its mask. It was black, the default color of Earth Grudge Fear's tentacle-threads, and if you looked closer you would notice threads of various sizes running and intervening with each other across its skin.
It held something massive with its claws. Some sort of box. It was the box of ultimate bliss.
The box calmed down after Satori's defeat. And now it wouldn't respond to whatever its puppet had turned into. Currently, it was in dormant state.
Kakuzu had an idea of who might be interested in the box. If someone could learn more about such existence, it would take reasonably crazy person.
The entire ride continued in silence.
Soon, the sun would rise, and commotion would follow suit in the Hozuki Castle.
Destruction of the prison and disappearance of all the prisoners and personnel was bound to cause bigger issues than Kakuzu originally planned. Kakuzu took care of any witness to the event that he found in order or at least slow down the information pointing to him.
While the situation was a mess, he didn't regret the outcome. The dragon that he turned Satori into possessed formidable strength and chakra. In a sense, it could be said that it was stronger than Satori, as it could manipulate its threads however it seemed fit. On top of that, it also had hundreds of other spirits attached to it in various parts of its body. Dozens of wind spirits were merged with the dragon's wings, helping it with flight. Fire and wind spirits were placed inside its mouth, allowing it to breathe fire.
It could harden the threads with use of the earth spirits and utilize them both offensively and defensively. It could boost its speed with wind and fire spirits, or combine them to summon firestorms.
For a certain reason, though, the dragon itself couldn't cast a jutsu yet, as its mask wasn't created with its nature affinity in mind. Kakuzu simply didn't know which affinity it had beforehand. Therefore, it was made as a blank slate.
While it was a shame it couldn't use its own chakra to directly cast a jutsu, this would have to do until Kakuzu replaced the mask.
And it seemed that it would have to be done soon, as its chakra was showing signs of instability. The mask that Kakuzu made wasn't perfect. It couldn't properly withstand the chakra of Satori. Therefore it wasn't stable either. Kakuzu wasn't sure how long it would last, but if it wasn't replaced soon, the dragon would perish for good.
•••
In a certain area inhabited by mountains of the Land of fire was a cave that acted as temporary base for a certain bandit group composed of six individuals. The ragtag of people that were fated to lead a miserable life were somehow united by a certain person. Six different individuals who possessed certain talents who were not lucky enough to properly make use of their potential. No, even if they fully utilized their potential, they still wouldn't be able to achieve anything noteworthy. They were people that had skill, but not enough strength to properly make use of it. Destined to never reach a level that would make them able to act freely.
Yet when they met her, everything changed for them. With a weird twist of fate, she kept tangling up in problematic situations one after another and picking up people like them as if she was some sort of eccentric collector. She had weird abilities, able to suck the chakra out of people and create vessels that acted as containers. They didn't know the exact details, but it somehow allowed her to use techniques that she normally wouldn't be able to, Weirder than that, however, was her ability to push their potential to the limit. Ability that allowed them to reach a level of strength that they would never have otherwise.
Out of six of them, two of them were currently elsewhere. Since the remaining four had returned earlier from their assignment, they simply waited for them until they would depart.
Four women in the cave waited while they recuperated their injuries. Some of them tended to their wounds while others made preparations for their next destination.
While in the dark of the cave it was hard to discern others, it was easy to notice a tall figure of a redhead woman in the middle of the group.
She was leaning on the wall while gripping a sizeable battle axe planted in the floor. She had her eyes closed and seemed to be asleep. Though, she would easily be able to sense and react if anyone approached the cave, unless they were particularly exceptional jonin. She was vanguard of the group and possessed the best physical strength among the group. In return though, her ninjutsu skills were lacking compared to others. She couldn't really be called a proper shinobi, and while she could move nimbly and stealthily if she wished, it was not her style.
The two organizing the treasure and valuables they stole, on the other hand, were a different matter. They were twins, and their expertise lay in stealth and assassination. They were the perfect description of the ninja, who were previously employed as assassins by a local warlord until they met her.
The girl sprawled on the floor lazily was sensor of the group.
As more time passed, the more impatient the group got. Their boss was late. It was hard to imagine anyone catching her. But she was master at finding trouble. So, they couldn't help but worry about her. Though, she was probably fine.
Meanwhile a person in action was standing in the middle of a forest. The woman had long red hair, light complexion and blue eyes. She had a smug smile etched through her face and had an expression as if she was slightly drunk.
She was holding a person by the neck, who was lifted in the air.
A dozen other shinobi were sprawled around the vicinity. Some of them were knocked out cold, while some had taken a terrifying appearance. Their bodies were dried up, their skin turning dark grey, taking the appearance of a mummy.
She brought the man closer to her face and kissed him. Unfortunately for the man, there was nothing erotic about it. Soon the man gained his consciousness, and panic immediately encroached his mind. He began to struggle, trying to get away while a terrifying feeling rose inside his gut, but he had no strength to do so. The woman had used strange power on him, and his chakra was rapidly drying up. His body followed suit. It didn't even take a minute for the man to turn into a corpse that seemed to be taken straight out of the sarcophagus.
The woman dropped the man with a disappointed expression. Although she knew she shouldn't have expected much from those people. After all, they were defeated so easily. Well, they would at least act as fuel.
Meanwhile, she noticed a person rapidly approaching her.
Suddenly, a person appeared in front of her, as if being propelled by something. Strong gust of wind blew moment later. But the two had already collided. Katana and kunai clashed together. The attack was fast. If there was any other shinobi besides her, they would be hard pressed to block the attack. Even an experienced jonin would have hard time reacting to it.
But the redhead woman wasn't pushed back at all. She just effortlessly parried the swing.
She didn't remember how this weird form of greeting developed between them. But the woman seemed to be determined to catch her off guard at least once.
"Are you done playing?"
A vein appeared on a red-haired woman's forehead at the question.
"You! Do you think I'm playing around here?"
"Yes." the person replied without batting an eye.
"… tch, is that how you view me as? I'm dissapointed." She let out an exaggerated sigh. "Anyway, Ahari, aren't you supposed to be swiftest member of our group? You sure run late a lot."
"It's only natural." Ahari replied expressionlessly. "We get assigned jobs with different difficulties after all."
The two began to run across the forest. Both carrying bags full of some sort of valuables.
"Speaking of… are you having difficulties with your body?"
"I'm fine. My chakra was somewhat unstable for a few days. But that's it. I haven't fully gotten used to it yet. But it won't take much time."
"That's good to hear. Though, I'm afraid your body has reached the limit~"
Ahari sighed, she somewhat expected that. Still, to be disappointed would be asking for too much. She would never get this strong by herself no matter how much she trained, so she was grateful. Still, she wasn't sure if that would be enough to keep up with Fuka who probably would end up entertained in some kind of mess sooner or later.
"Yeah, I felt that that was the case." She nodded.
"Ah, don't be down, sweetie. People as strong as you are already rare. In fact, if I was a kage, I would love to have someone like you as my bodyguard~."
"I'm not down." Ahari shook her head and stoically replied, without addressing rest of the sentence.
"Ah, you are no fun ~, stop worrying about others, they are no children, they can take care of themselves." Red-haired woman smiled. She knew why Ahari was down. Reaching a wall was a terrible feeling, especially for someone as worrywart as her. Rest of the group was in similar situation. She couldn't strengthen their chakra further, as their bodies wouldn't be able to handle it. Normal means were not enough to achieve that.
Fortunately, she had idea of what could be done about it. A perfect vessel that she could freely modify. Soon, they would start showing up one after another. All she had to do was to take advantage of that. And she had a hunch that things were going to become really chaotic really soon.