[Yagura Karatachi]

'So far, everything is going well. Almost too well.' Yagura thought. He glanced around, looking for anything off. A shinobi looking at him weirdly, a wall shifted suspiciously, or even a piece of equipment missing. But he couldn't find anything wrong. It both assured and frightened the man. 'Something is going to go wrong. Maybe not today but there is always tomorrow.'

Still, he might as well enjoy today's successes. 'No Yuki clansmen.' Yagura glanced around at the people in cages. He could spot a few people from specific clans throughout the land of water. All with various cheats. Not a single Yuki though. It was expected. Not unwelcomed either. This was the perfect time to test it all.

There were things that would go wrong on the first attempt after all. Nothing went right on the first attempt, unfortunately. But failure was the friend of progress. If everyone just succeeded first try at everything then there'd be no real reason to learn. Each failure gave someone the opportunity to improve and eventually iron out the flaws in their previous attempts at doing something. You would know how to correctly do it.

So there would need to be tests. Several tests. At the very minimum eighty. Each and every one of them would require a sacrifice and a bit of Yagura's chakra. He knew it'd be an unfortunately uncomfortable process. Which was why he was taking a long time to walk to the room under the prison.

"Is the device ready?" Yagura looked at his head scientist, Hirotsu Kamo. The smartest man in the Land of Water. Over many, many sleepless nights the man had created the device that Yagura had envisioned. Yagura was honestly impressed by the man's efficiency. Even with all the resources he was given. The man was neutral in the matter of the bloodline purges but he worked under Yagura thankfully.

"It is!" Was Hirotsu's enthusiastic response. The bags under his eyes were signs of the man's hard work. Along with the burns and various scuffs on him and his outfit. "Come with me, Yagura-sama. The device is just this way!" Hirotsu began walking, almost dancing to the left and into a room. Yagura followed him.

A circular, almost orb-like metal device greeted Yagura. It had several tubes coming out of it that would supposedly extract his chakra. Yagura had an idea of how it could work if the man followed the design but it was unlikely.

"As you can see there are three tubes there. As you know they will extract your chakra. Well two of them will. They will extract roughly half of it. The other tube will drain the chakra of a bloodline user. The chakra that directly comes from their brain to be more specific." Yagura nodded. " Inside the machine will compress the chakra using seals into a more dense form and then it will be contained by a ruby embued with sealing ink. It is ready to be tested. Furthermore, the one to contain the Sanbi and keep you alive is almost done. Do you have any questions Yagura-sama?"

'Perfect.' Yagura let a grin creep up on his face. Just like in his designs. "I currently have none Hirotsu." The man would be paid handsomely for this. He deserved it. "Now let's see... what cheat do I want to try?" Yagura had a list of Elemental Bloodlines that he wanted to use. The main one was obviously the Hyoton but like any other shinobi, he had some ideas on what Kekkei Genkai he'd want personally. A specific one came to mind. "Lumiere, get a Arashi clan member."

Lumiere shunshined and within a second came back with a tied and knocked out blond man. "Here you go, Yagura-sama."

Yagura smiled at his anbu and then looked at Hirotsu, "I'm ready to test this." Hirotsu nodded and wordlessly grabbed the tubes. Both already knew that he'd feel some discomfort. It wasn't a surprise to feel like a slug was crawling into his back when the pipe dug into his flesh. Yagura was just happy he wasn't the bloodline scum next to him.

"Alright, this is going to be the bad part." Yagura looked at Hirotsu who was standing by the machine. Yagura noticed the "on" button next to Hirotsu. "You're probably gonna feel like you wanna die after this but that just means it's working. This guy on the other hand is gonna die. So yeah. It's not gonna be pretty." Hirotsu glances at the bloodline scum. "Are you ready?" Yagura nods. Don't expect this to work on the first try!"

With those final words, the button was pressed and Yagura suddenly felt like he was getting his back blown out by Might Gai again. This time with his chakra being drained as he was being kicked. Yagura grit his teeth but sat still, glancing to the side briefly as he saw the now awake bloodline scum spasm and silently scream as their chakra was sucked from their skull. The life soon left them and they looked... well Yagura imagined a mummy from an old Sunagakura tale he heard back in the war. It was about the same.

Eventually, the sucking and draining stopped. "Success!" Yagura pulled the tubes out from his back and his head snapped toward Hirotsu who was holding a shiny red ruby. "It actually worked the first try!" The man's laughs of jubilation were something Yagura would never forget.

'Things are going way too well.' Was Yagura's first thought. But he pushed that away. This was cause for celebration. Of course, there would be more tests ran but still. This never happened! "Could I try it?" Hirotsu nodded enthusiastically and handed the Ruby to Yagura.

Yagura stood up and walked out of the room with the two other people there following. Lumiere was close by and looking at Yagura's back. Yagura knew he was bleeding. But he could not care less at the moment.

He was at the top of the world.

Yagura stopped walking as soon as he reached the closest cell. He then began going through hand signs with only a faint idea that they would work. "Storm Release: Storm Trumpet!" Yagura felt the storm release chakra flow into him and into his stomach and throat where he formed the jutsu. Originally the water trumpet.

Instead of the water trumpet, lightning flowing like water came out in the shape of the water trumpet and hit every prisoner trapped inside the cell. A quick but painful death. The ruby turned to dust in Yagura's hands. But it meant something.

"It works..." Yagura looked at the dust in his hands. "IT WORKS!"

Victory would be his as soon as he could find a Yuki.


[Kukui Tanku]

'Everything hurts... Existence is pain.' I glanced around and saw no signs of my attacker. 'Behind.' I quickly let out a bolt of lightning from my back. I heard nothing. 'Below.' I jumped up and saw the hands of satan incarnate. I sent a bolt of lightning at the hands of the she-devil. Said hands turned into lightning. 'Fuck.'

I turned around and saw Ameyuri running at me. Forming hand seals. "You better hope you're getting better brat!" Ameyuri grabbed the Kiba blades after finishing a very familiar set of hand seals. "Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" A blast of lightning came out of the Kiba Blades and was heading directly at me.

'Shit.' I sent another bolt of lightning out which stopped the Electromagnetic Murder. Ameyuri vanished again, however. 'She's wearing me out.' I couldn't find her since I wasn't trying to sense her. 'Damn restrictions.' I glanced around again and saw a glint behind a tree. 'Trap.' I threw a kunai with an explosive tag behind the tree and detonated it. Nothing. 'A shame.'

I then heard the crackling sound of lightning once more. Quickly turning around, I saw Ameyuri with the Depth Charge activated as well. Forming a massive lightning bolt. 'This is how I die. Training with Ameyuri... Oh great Axolotl why must you punish me like this?' I grabbed my false Kiba blades and raised them up into a block as the bolt of lightning was fired at me. 'Come on...' I grit my teeth as I was pushed back by the lightning, trying to break my swords.

The lightning ran out of kinetic energy quickly though and dissipated. My Depth Charge was also gone since I had eaten through a majority of my chakra...At least that was longer than last time. Training with Ameyuri was tantamount to medieval torture at times but I'd be lying if I said it didn't produce results. 'Stats...'

[Name: Kukui Tanku

Age: 12

Title: Defector of Kiri

Chakra: 10/190

Stamina: 190/190

Strength: 36

Dexterity: 37

Constitution: 38

Chakra: 19

Chakra control: C+]

'Beautiful. Just beautiful.'I looked up at the screen as I collapsed to the ground. All my hard work was beginning to truly pay off. I was getting stronger and it felt like it. If I were to fight all the previous versions of me I'd probably kick their asses with ease. My skills in swordsmanship were also leveling up. The Depth charge was also leveling up quickly and it was beautiful as well.

[Lightning Style: Depth Charge lvl 5

Increases the users dexterity and constitution by 15% whilst also giving the user a high defense and the ability to shoot out lightning bolts from the Depth charge cloak

Chakra cost: 100 per minute]

I then felt a light kick to my ribs. The pain from being kicked in the same spot a few dozen times had subsided and now it was just dull. "Get up brat. You did good but you can do better." I nodded and sat up and drank water from a bottle Ameyuri handed me. "Your good at defending and you can already use parts of the Depth Charge for attacks which is good. What isn't good is the fact you didn't try to chase me once. Why is that?"

"I couldn't sense you. So I decided to just wa-"

"Bullshit!" Ameyuri smacked me with the hilt of one of the Kiba Blades. "You still have other ways of tracking me. Lightning clones for one." Ameyuri sighed. "I'll be light on you this once brat, but don't be dumb like that again. You cannot rely on your sensing. You can do it against some people like you did against Zabuza but there will be people who will hide their chakra well enough to where you can't sense them. You need to be ready for that time."

'Alright, I got hit in the head too hard.' That or Ameyuri was just extremely happy today for some reason. "Alright Ameyuri-sensei," I looked back at the ruined training ground in the town we were in. "So, When will the target be here?"

Ameyuri shrugged. "The bastard will be in town within the day. With minimal guard too hopefully. But that's unlikely. Maybe a few Chuunin? Nothing we can't handle though brat. At most, we'll get a few scuffs before we take the prick out. But that's a small price to pay to piss Yagura off."

I grinned, "Yeah. Who knew the short prick actually had some people he was friends with?" A mole apparently found out some of the people Yagura trusted. Said people were important and cocky enough to assume nobody would try to kill them. "So how do we wanna kill the bastard's buddy?"

"Dunno. Any ideas?" Ameyuri asked. "I wanna see what you can come up with for this." I had some ideas... Some very brutal, bloody, and downright evil ideas that'd probably make most normal people sick.

'Oh god...' My grin somehow grew. Ameyuri was a bad influence... Well, the guy deserved some pain, right? "Well. How about we get a rusty saw and-"


[Himiko Chinoike]

Himiko knew she was probably the weakest in their group of four. Choujuro was a Prodigy, Kukui was a sensor and he probably didn't sleep for more than five hours, and Sanemi was a battle maniac who was already really damn good at chakra flow attacks. What did she have? What did she have that'd let her play in the big leagues?

Himiko knew she had her water jutsu, some blood jutsu, and hell even a Genjutsu now along with some medical knowledge but was that really a lot? She could never really hit anyone unless they were complete fodder. Like most of her classmates at the academy. She just wasn't good enough clearly. She was just too damn slow.

And it showed.

"Man, you guys this is fun!' Kukui laughed. He was covered in lightning now. Himiko knew it'd last for only a second. It did. And she got a kick to the stomach for her troubles. "Sorry for that but you're just too slow like Sanemi!" To be fair to Kukui his tone did sound apologetic. But his words unknowingly made Himiko feel worse.

"Damnit... He's somehow even faster than before," Sanemi grunted. "Himi, we need to team up!" Sanemi was then kicked at Himiko who caught him... "Ow..." At this point, Himiko wanted to give up. She knew this was just a friendly spar. Kukui wanted to see if he could beat either of them yet.

He could. So he asked to spar both of them at once. He obviously could and it was showing. It was painfully showing. 'Useless... useless... weak...' Himiko grabbed one of her knives and threw it at Kukui. Kukui ducked and Himiko knew what came next. The kick.

'Grab it...' Himiko let instinct take over as she grabbed Kukui's leg. A glimmer of hope entered her heart. "Got you!" Maybe she wasn't useless after all. Maybe she could help her friends and they could all actually kill Yagura together. Maybe she wasn't as pathetic as she thought she wa-

Himiko felt lightning course into her body as smoke clouded her vision. The painful feeling of getting shocked was less than normal. Mainly due to this being a spar. But Himiko still felt it. "That ws great Himiko! You got me! If I didn't replace myself in time you could have really screwed me up there!" Kukui jumped out from behind a wall and suddenly was in front of Himiko and Sanemi again.

Before Kukui could kick them Sanemi raised up one of his Katanas. It blocked Kukui's kick. With the other katana, Sanemi slashed at Kukui who flipped and blocked with his false Kiba blades. Then like a dance Kukui slashed Sanemi all around within a few seconds. Before Kukui could cut Sanemi anymore Himiko barely blocked it. Himiko then activated her Ketseryugan and looked into Kukui's eyes.

'This is my chance. Prove it... This time you will be useful. Ketseryugan: Blood Demon Illusion!' Himiko felt her chakra enter Kukui's body and saw him stop moving... Then lightning. "I miss it when you didn't constantly use clones..." Himiko blurted out. She then heard a chuckle from Kukui who walked toward them. She threw one of Sanemi's Katana's at the brown haired boy. "Jerk." 'I really am useless...'

"That was fun." Kukui grabbed the Katana with a Chakra thread. He then threw it back to Sanemi.

"Thanks... Bastard..." Sanemi grabbed the Katana and sheathed it before collapsing to the ground. "Did you have to be so mean Kukui? You used to fight so cleanly like a month ago. Why couldn't you have just been like that you speed freak?"

Kukui shrugged. "Ameyuri-sensei told me to use clones more when tracking and I sorta just decided to be a dick about it." The brown haired boy grinned and his sharp teeth were on full display. "It's pretty fun honestly. I don't get hurt and I can troll my enemies."

"I guess that makes sense..." Sanemi stood up. "Himi, you outta fight like that. It'd fit your style." Sanemi walked to a chair and sat down.

'That just doesn't feel right though...' Himiko thought. "Okay." She would try though. If she would stop being useless then she'd try it. Himiko then stood up and walked to Kukui and punched him. "That's for being a meanie Kukui!" Himiko almost expected to be shocked again but she wasn't thankfully. She then went to go sit down as well.

Kukui chuckled. "Okay... I deserved that." Kukui then walked to another chair. "Man... That was exhausting. I still need to get my reserves up. They're good now but they can be a lot better." Himiko knew her reserves could be better as well.

They should be better.

"Yeah... Oh god imagine you with enough chakra to make something like a thousand clones at once! You'd be a nightmare to fight for even the bastard." Himiko would love to have that much chakra. She could definitely be useful then.

A look of fondness set into Kukui's eyes for a second. Himiko wondered why. "Yeah. That'd be great..." Kukui then looked at Himiko. "Hey, You alright? Did I hit you too hard or something? You look out of it, Himiko." Kukui frowned.

"Yeah... I'm fine." Himiko said, yawning to fake tiredness.

It didn't seem to convince Kukui or Sanemi but both nodded.

'I need to be stronger... faster...'


[Kukui Tanku]

'Two whole years...'

It has been two years to the very day since my death. A pretty eventful two years if I do say so myself. I became a terrorist at Ten, killed a man brutally at Eleven, Joined the rebellion, Stole a sword of legend, became the apprentice of Ameyuri Ringo, and months later at Twelve I assassinated Yagura's... something. I honestly forgot what that guy did. He was a piece of shit though. And I killed him and his two chuunin guards...

'I wonder what people would think of me now?' I was sick. Twisted. A monster. At least I was compared to how I used to be... I'm not even phased by it either... I was normal here. Maybe I was always this way. Or maybe I was just twisted like everything else in this world. 'The world is a cruel place here. And cruelty breeds cruelty...' My old loved ones would surely be disgusted by the things I've done and probably will do right? I didn't know. Back... in my old world, I would probably be considered either insane or someone who needed the death penalty.

All shinobi deserved the death penalty, to be honest. We all stole from others, killed others, tortured others, and much more. 'I used to be disgusted by this stuff...' I at this point am probably just desensitised to it all. That'd explain a lot, to be honest.

I still wanted to make this world a better place though. I still wanted to kill Obito. To make him suffer for the pain he's caused. I would also have to kill Yagura. I didn't want to do it. The man likely deserved a better life after so long as Obito's puppet. But he needed to die for the greater good. This was all assuming I'd live to see the day they'd die.

Until then I just had to focus on now. On protecting my friends and getting strong enough to make sure if it came to it I could save them. I could beat a lot of Chuunin with Ease with the Depth Charge activated and running. But I was still not comparable to many Jonin yet. Speed-wise I was definitely fast. Maybe as fast as Rock Lee with the fifth gate. But I needed to be faster. Speed could decide a battle but there was also reaction time.

A lot of Jonin had good enough reaction times to beat me. Or at the very least most Jonin I had faced. Both in spars and in missions. I'm just glad I was more experienced than before. More experienced than when I faced Zabuza... 'I could have done so much more...' There was no use in dwelling in the past. I had gone on more missions and was more experienced now. I knew what not to do.

I had time before I had to face the next big threat. The next big pain in the ass. Most likely another swordsman- oh yeah we had five of them and the other two had defected... I slept so much better at night knowing that. But meant that there were other shinobi who were just as strong or stronger that we needed to deal with.

But there was plenty of time before I needed to even see any of them. 'There's still a few years before canon... If we can wrap this up before then that'd be great.' I wanted to leave Kiri for a bit. Go explore the world and do what I could to make it better. But I wouldn't leave the land of water now.

Not until Obito was dead.

I would only die if Obito was dead. 'I still need to think of a way to actually put him down.' I needed lots of chakra. Lots of chakra. I had a decent amount now but if I wanted to kill Obito I needed something big. Something so destructive and painfully long that it'd kill him. Like a constant version of Tomura Shigasomethings Decay. Or maybe something that fucks with space itself? Something like Hollow Purple would maybe work?

To be honest I didn't really know.

'You'll find something.' I looked up at the moon. 'You have time. You have allies to help you if need be.' In my last life I was painfully useless. I was sick for a large part of it. I died saving someone who might have died anyways.

In this life, I wouldn't be that useless.

I will protect everyone I love. Even if it kills me.


[Chapter end]

And we are back! 3.7k words is great if I do say so myself. And this only took me three days... To write. Not begin. That took thirteen days. Depression's(or something similiar... God I wish my parents believed in mental health issues) work at its finest folks. Originally I was gonna finish the chapter yesterday but writing Himiko's bit triggered some of my more depressing thoughts and I couldn't write anymore. So much for those 15 chapters I wanted to write... I'll see if I can't scrounge up another one or two before uploading.

Anyways, as for the chapter itself, this one is my favorite one of the arc so far. In short: Yagura finally got a W, Kukui training, Himiko's mental health issues, and holy fuck it's been two years in universe. Originally I was going to make this arc last a month. Then I just started doing time skips... Shorter ones. Than the big one this chapter. This entire chapter takes place roughly five months ater the last one.

The reason for this is so Kukui could take more missions in between this arc and next one so he could be more expirenced and have an excuse to be stronger. All in all I think Kukui is at like month 9 or 10 of being Ameyuri's apprentice... I kinda need to go back and do that.

Anyways, Tobi out!

-Tobi