[Michikatsu Tenno]

It was an exciting day for Michikatsu. Today was the day they finalized the teams for their students and set them on their way to being great shinobi. Michikatsu had a good feeling about this batch. He had some of the best students of the year in his class and he was proud.

All of them would go far in life thanks to his teaching and he hoped he'd be alive to see it. Michikatsu looked at his fellow teachers and smiled. He saw Kanna looking at him and she winked. No doubt tonight was going to be a good night for him, "Alright so is everyone happy with these arrangements?"

Everyone nodded, "Yeah! I think the teams are good and well thought out. Now we just need to get the Jonin and lord Mizukage to sign off on them and we are good." That would be easy enough. Yagura-sama tended to be happy with the teams he and his colleagues proposed.

Kukui Tanku, Sanemi, and Choujuro under Zabuza Momochi(that one was going to be tough to get approved but damnit the three best at the blade needed to have good education in the art of the blade. They all could become swordsman of the mist one day and Michikatsu wanted that to be on his resume, teacher of three members of the next seven swordsman of the mist. That sounded good for any job.) Himiko Takamaru, Kaina Hoshigaki, and Kenkumaru Kenkumaru under Suviche Kukoku(They were all going to make amazing hunter-nin one day, Michikatsu was sure of it) Kenko, Muzan Kizuki, and Uru Uru under Makima Kekana(Best tracker team in the academy for sure), And Mitenaka Hozuki, Mika, and Saikan under Kukoku Kakami(They were going to be the all rounder team of the year.)

All in all Michikatsu was proud. He felt a tear escape from his eye and he knew he had to give a speech to his fellow teachers then, "My friends, My comrades, My colleagues," Everyone looked to him, "I just want to say its been an amazing year. Our students have reached new heights thanks to our teaching and even the biggest of slackers have shaped up. I think we all deserve a pat on the back and a bit of fun," He unsealed a bottle of booze, "Who's with me?"

Everyone smiled, " Yeah!" His beloved Kanna had said that and she grabbed a nearby mug, "Lets party!" Again, it was going to be a good night for him soon. A really good one.

'Now lets see who else joins in.' Michikatsu thought fondly. Knowing his friends they were going to party heavily. The day was starting to turn around for them too. So they had a right to celebrate Michikatsu thought. But he saw their hesitant faces and looked at the principal of the academy

Kenka smiled and grabbed another glass. The principal of the school often let him speak for him, "Yeah! I approve this. Everyone! We can party!" He was excited too. Did his mistress give him a bit of extra confidence? Michikatsu hoped so. The man had been vital in gathering up all the bloodline users in the academy and killing them. Michikatsu then noticed that the glasses looked a bit weird but he paid them no mind. Maybe it was just hot in here. Oh well they were about to get drunk anyways.

Everyone grabbed a glass then Michikatsu poured himself a glass of beer, "To us and our wonderful teaching,"Michikatsu raised the glass and threw the bottle around, and unsealed more. Everyone filled their glasses and also raised their glass for a toast.

"To us and our wonderful teaching!" Everyone chorused.

It was a merry occasion indeed. Michikatsu then heard some sizzling, "Whats that?" He asked the room as they all sipped their drinks. He looked down at his drink and saw an explosive tag in the glass, "EVERYONE GET DOWN!"

His shout was too late as the explosive tags went off.

*Booooooooooooom!*

[Kokushibo Hozuki]

*Booooooooooooom!*

Kokushibo Hozuki was a normal man. He was a chuunin, with a wife, a kid on the way. All in All, life was good for him. He was even barely called to battle against the rebel scum. The Hozuki used to be widely respected due to the Second Mizukage being one of them. But ever since that young upstart bastard defected with his stupid brother, they became the laughing stocks of Kirigakure. Yagura-sama initially planned to kill his entire clan, but Kokushibo begged the man to let them live and that Mangetsu and his stupid brother didn't speak for them all.

He was told he was being an idiot and begging in front of their great leader was probably stupider than siding with Mangetsu. But Kami-sama's grace smiled down at Kokushibo that day. Yagura-sama cancelled their execution! All they had to do was swear loyalty to him and him alone forever. The Hozuki did. Some more reluctantly than others. Kokushibo took care of them swiftly. He was working his way up in the world. He was even allowed one day off!

So when that day off was interrupted Kokushibo flinched. An explosion? This close to him? Inside Kirigakure. That had him on high alert. Kokushibo immediately rocketed toward where he heard the explosion and he realized something. 'That came from the academy.' Why the academy? Did someone... 'No. Unlikely, The academy is the second most protected place in Kirigakure. No way those rebel scum could destroy it.' Kokushibo didn't believe it.

As he made it to the academy he saw something that infuriated him. It was rubble. Just rubble. What was worse was that he saw a hand sticking up in the rubble. Moving. They were still alive! 'Wait wasn't there an academy staff meeting today?'

Oh no. 'Please tell me I'm just wrong and that's the janitor!' Kokushibo rocketed toward the hand and pulled the rubble off of them. He saw Michikatsu, crushed completely but somehow still alive, "MICHIKATSU!" His friend was dying. He needed to find a medic to save him. He had a life to live too! He couldn't let his friend's life be snubbed out early.

He heard a weak cough from the man and blood came out of Michikatsu's mouth, "Bloodline scum did this... Somehow they *cough* di-" He coughed up more blood, "This... There were exlp- *cough* tags in our mugs... our drinks... our walls!" The man's eyes seemed to dull a bit.

Kokushibo tried to heal the man with what little medical jutsu he knew. He frantically poured his chakra into the man, "STAY AWAKE! PLEASE DON'T GO!" He couldn't help but scream. This was the first time he's seen a comrade. A friend. Die. Or he hoped not.

Michikatsu smiled weakly and the light in his eyes dimmed more, "Its the end for m- *cough* I'm barely alive as it is... I feel nothing but pain in my chest. Please just kill me," Death by a comrade's hand was better than dying by the enemies hand. Going out on your own terms was important to Kiri-nin. But his friends were never going to get the chance.

Kokushibo felt tears leak from his eyes, "WE CAN STILL SAVE YOU!" He shouted before he lost focus on his chakra, "W-we can still save you..." Kokushibo noticed more Kiri-nin show up. He hoped they'd find more people alive. But with how Michikatsu described where the tags were placed, they likely weren't. 'Svages... those bloodline savages killed my friend!' He angrily thought.

Michikatsu weakly put a hand on Kokushibo's, "Thank you for being here... I can go see Kanna again anyways. See ya in heaven pal... Please watch over my students for me," With that last request, Michikatsu gell limb an his hand went cold.

Kokushibo let out a wail. He gripped Michikatsu's hand tightly, "I WON'T LET YOU DOWN MICHIKATSU I PROMISE YOU!" Michikatsu was his best friend... he had just died in front of him... 'I... want to kill whomever did this. Those bastards need to die!'

"First time losing a friend I see. My condolences," Kokushibo turned around and saw Yagura-sama himself looking solemn at the sight of his beloved academy, "This is more proof that those bloodline scum need to die quickly. We'll keep loosing more and more sooner rather than later."

Kokushibo stiffened and bowed, "It is an honor to be in your presence once more Yagura-sama. And I do concur, those bloodline scum need to die for what they did... I don't understand why they would do such a thing though! This is barbaric even for them," Even scum had standards. Or so Kokushibo thought. He was wrong. Oh so wrong.

Yagura smiled kindly, "You are smart but not wise. And there is no need for bowing," Kokushibo stood up, "There is a reason for everything Kokushibo Hozuki. This was a smart move by those scum, they know we aren't in a place to replace teachers at the moment because we need as much manpower as possible. The students would have been a killing blow but it seems they have some standards. Anyways, I have a proposition for you Kokushibo,"

Yagura-sama had an offer, for him? Kokushibo needed to see this.

[Yagura Karatachi]

Yagura was a patient man. He had built an empire from nothing and waited for the perfect time to usurp power from that bastard third Mizukage whom he shared genetics with. He waited for his people to trust him before beginning the purge of the bloodline users. And he waited for certain pawns to grow before they'd be of use.

One of those pawns was Kokushibo Hozuki.

Originally, Yagura planned to make an example of the Hozuki clan once Mangetsu defected. Just as a little fuck you to the man and his brother and to tell his village that if they defected then their families would be the ones they went after. It was going to be beautiful.

But Kokushibo had begged on his knees for his clan to be spared. Yagura pitied the man enough so he decided to let the clan live. After some thinking he realized that a good majority of his anbu(not including Hunter-nin. Sadly the Hozuki declined to become hunter-nin) were from the Hozuki clan. His anbu were very important. So he'd be killing them and pissing them off if he slaughtered the Hozuki clan.

So instead of killing the Hozuki, he made one into his pawn. Specifically, Kokushibo. Kokushibo was a powerful man. He had an incredible mastery over the blade and water. but he couldn't use his Hiden jutsu that well. Only able to turn parts of his body into water at will instead of his entire body and the ability to become one with water. But he was still strong. And a good tracker. He had the ability to use water on footprints to see if they were real or not. A nice tool to get rid of that pesky clone trick. He could determine which tracks were real and which were fake.

He wasn't eligible for promotion to Jonin sadly. What a shame it would have been to let the man die on the battlefield so early. The official reason was that of him lacking experience. But in reality, Yagura was just biding his time.

And luckily for him(and unluckily too) the time came in the form of all of his academy teachers being brutally killed along with the Principal in an explosion that brought down the building. Most died instantly. All but one, Michikatsu Tenno. 'A shame really, he was an incredible teacher too. Almost ready to become a Jonin.' Yagura thought sadly. He cared for his people after all. He may be a dictator but he was a kind one.

Anyways that wasn't the point. The point was that his best friend saw him die. Kokushibo Hozuki saw the man die in his arms. The first time is never a good one. Especially so late into life. But there was a positive. His hatred for bloodline users was fostered exponentially.

With that he could be used as a perfect pawn.

The offer Yagura game the man was a simple one. Join the Hunter-nin and find those bastards who did it so they could be publically executed. Or sit on his ass all day and night, wallowing in shame that he hadn't been able to help his friends.

Of course, Kokushibo chose option one.

"Now all we need to do is find you," Yagura had four files on his desk right now. With four names written on them.

Choujuro

Himiko "Takamaru"

Sanemi

Kukui Tanku

The four were his primary suspects at the moment. Mainly because they were missing and the Takamaru's were found dead in their home. Brutally murdered. One was flayed the other was drowned in blood. This gave Yagura an assumption that one of them was a bloodline user. Himiko was his prime suspect.

"A pity too. You all would have made excellent shinobi," They would have too. Yagura would be willing to look past Himiko having a dirty bloodline if she swore loyalty to him(Like his three closest Anbu) But alas it wasn't meant to be it seemed.

Now he had Kokushibo looking for them. He didn't know they were children. Michikatsu's students. So this was a test for the man. To see if he had the strength to kill them. Both mentally and physically. If the man passed then he would continue to be valuable. If not then he was going to go under an extensive training retreat under Taichi so he would be useful. Normally he would kill those who failed him but a Hozuki, even one such as Kokushibo, was too valuable to throw away. So this was why he gave the man the mission. He either proved he was valuable or he needed a bit more polishing.

Yagura leaned back in his chair. Now all he had to do was wait.

[Kukui Tanku]

I groaned as I ran. It had been seven hours of non-stop running. They had all had been excruciating. 'I think we're far enough now though. Our clones should have done the job well enough.' It would take one skilled tracker to find us now. We were currently well outside of Kirigakure, heading toward Suika village. The closest village to here and the one that'd likely be the place we'd stay for a few days or so, depending on if we were found or not.

"I'm tired, can't we rest?" Himiko whined. This trip had made her just as exhausted as the rest of us. If not more for some reason. I decided to not pry into it as it may have had something to do with her parents. That or the potential guilt of killing our teachers.

'Don't think about it now Kukui.' I chided myself mentally before looking back at Himiko, "No. We'll be at Suika soon so we can rest there," The plan was, get a hotel and by dinner for the night. Then go out, steal some cash, and then get a new look. That last part was optional which was why Choujuro decided against it. But it didn't matter since me, Himiko, and Sanemi would look different enough anyways.

Himiko groaned, "But I'm tired now! Can't we take a small break?" Sometimes I forgot we were children, "We don't want to be dead on our feet when we make it to Suika!" She had a point there... Did hell freeze over or was I dreaming?

Choujuro hummed for a second before stopping, "Yeah that'd be a good idea," Everyone else stopped and Himiko let out a victorious wail, "We want to actually make it to Suika and be ready to fight after all. We can rest for a few minutes,"

Sanemi raised his hands up into the sky and grinned excitedly, "Finally we can rest!" He and Himiko plopped down onto the ground and sighed tiredly, "I fucking hate running for that long... How do Jonin even do it," Simple, They had way more training than us.

I sighed sat down as well and watched as Himiko found a tree to sit against, "Well aren't Jonin super strong and fast? Like they have wayyy more training then us and more stamina. Plus we're only genin. Just out of the academy," The "Or rather we would have been genin," Went unsaid as she cupped her chin and went into thought supposedly.

Sanemi stretched out and nodded along, "I guess that makes sense. This means we're just gonna have to do a whole lot more training right?" Yep.

I grinned and grabbed a bottle of water from my bag, only now just realizing I was thirsty as fuck, "Yep. And this is why we need to get to Suika as soon as possible. We need to find a place to train after all," And to come up with some ideas. We probably weren't going to be able to learn jutsu from someone for a long time. So we probably had to make our own, "And we might need to find some books on Jutsu creation," I added as an after thought. That was going to take a long time. But it couldn't be much worse than elemental training right?

Choujuro nodded, "Yeah... We need to learn to make our own jutsu... its going to be really difficult... I don't think I'm going to be able to do it but yo-" I threw a rock at him, "Kukui what was that for?" Choujuro looked at me like I had just thrown a rock at him... Oh wait I did.

I raised my eyebrow, "Your self deprecating again. I know jutsu creation might be hard but we all need to try. And I can't let you tell yourself you can't do it. It will be hard yes but it anyone can do it, its gonna be you," Choujuro was a prodigy. That was a fact by this point. The only one who couldn't see it was Choujuro himself.

Himiko grinned, "Yeah! Your super skilled remember? you can do it!"

Sanemi nodded, "Yeah dude, your a prodigy at this kind of stuff. The only thing I can see you struggling at is thinking of a creative idea,"

Choujuro turned red at the praise and like a turtle, tried to shrink into his nonexistent shell, "U-Uh thanks?"

This caused everyone to chuckle at the expense of our friend.

Whilst this was happening I took a look at my system.

[Quest complete: Defect from Kirigakure

Rewards:

Title: Defector of Kiri: When training outside of Kirigakure, stats increase 5% faster

+1 levels to all skills]

I grinned.

Welp. Thats arc one finished. Next one is looking exciting! What will Kokushibo do when he finds out the ones who killed his friends were his best friends four star students? What will the four do if they come to blows with Kokushibo? What will happen when Kukui loses his mind after hours of trying to create a jutsu when its not at least chapter thirty? Who knows! I don't.

Anyways hopefully you enjoyed the chapter. This one took me a few days to make because my lazy ass decided nothing was better than something lol. So I'm a few chapters behind where I should be... eh not really. I'm still way ahead lol. I can't believe your all seeing this in a few weeks... In August I believe?

Probably. Anyways, Thanks for reading the chapter!

See y'all in another six days!

- Tobi