[Kukui Tanku]
I woke up at five in the morning today. It was meant to be mostly a rest day for me apart from progressing the mission. So I had a plan on what I was going to do today. It was the most complex and dangerous plan I had formed yet. One that could be life threatening. I wanted to stay in bed all day and sleep. Oh the horror!
Originally, I wasn't going to wake up at five AM. I planned to sleep until eleven in the morning. I wanted to sleep longer but I needed to wake up before twelve so I could get ready for four hours of a boring meeting I regretted choosing for our mission.
I was never going to go on a diplomatic mission again for as long as I lived.
My carefully laid plans were ruined though when I woke up with two really energetic figures on top of me and shaking me awake with one standing behind them. All looking at me with a shit eating grin. My carefully laid plans were destroyed in an instant. I was dragged out of bed after three hours of sleep. I was held at kunai point to go with the demons and do stuff. Like walking around. Talking about random stuff. And not being lazy.
It was hell.
Now I was being dragged around Takigakure, almost literally, by my friends who were way too energetic for a Wednesday. I wasn't mad or grumpy at all. I just wanted to go back to bed after a long night of failure.
"Come on Kukui, lighten up!" Fuu slung an arm around my shoulder. "This is fun! Just because you didn't get any sleep doesn't mean you should look all gloomy!" Fuu gestured around. "We're just about to go into the scary part of the village too see if any ghost stories are true!"
I looked at Tenten who very blatantly had a grin. "There's also a rumor about some scythe-wielding weirdos here as well and I wanna check them out!" I stopped walking. "Have you heard of them before Kukui? You looked shocked?" Tenten and Mika also stopped.
I felt a nudge to my side from Fuu. I sighed. "I have... A while ago I was doing some research about the supernatural. And one of the things I came across was the Cult of Jashin." I wasn't lying blatantly. It just wasn't the first time I discovered the cult. Saying I knew of the cult from my past life watching an anime probably wouldn't have been received well.
"So they're a cult? Why do you have that haunted look on your face?" Tenten walked closer to me with a very curious expression on her face. Ooh boy... Welp. No use in hiding it now I sho-
"They're savages," Fuu said. "They exist and they're here..." Fuu looked down. "They're a bunch of wackjobs who spout a bunch of mumbo jumbo about some god they call Jashin. I think they all just act that crazy so they can sell their special scythes but I've heard rumors about them killing people through some weird circle."
"Those rumors are true." I looked down. "There used to be a lot of them back in the third war. But they were wiped out by Kumogakure and some Sunagakure forces for their sheer brutality." History books could be fucking brutal man. 'I don't think I could ever look at Hidan without the express urge to either run or to saw him in half.'
"They can't be that bad, can't they?" Mika asked. She looked at me and Fuu. "Like whats the worst they could do? Kill someone? That's what shinobi normally do anyways. Kumo and Suna had to have been overreacting. " I deadpanned at Mika.
"The most powerful Jashinists known were near immortal and had to be disintegrated by Killer Bee or have enough poison made by suna's Puppet corps inside of them to kill a hundred Shinobi. All of them killed for pleasure and literally were known to flay people alive when they had time whilst some bathed in their blood and made robes out of their skin whilst having a medic Jashinist make sure they lived."
As it turns out, there wasn't a lot you could include in an Anime or Manga without it being too graphic. I imagine if Kishimoto saw the Narutoverse in a dream he saw this and that's why there was pretty much nothing on the Jashinists in canon.
"Oh..." Both Mika and Tenten said.
"Yeah that's bad..." Tenten said right after. "We definitely should stay away from them... Although..." Mika bonked Tenten on the head lightly with the back of a kunai. "Sorry..."
"I thought they were just lunatics? They actually flay people!?" Fuu asked, surprised by the fact Jashinists flayed people. "Don't tell me ghosts are real too and they actually haunt people."
I pat Fuu on the head. "They aren't. Don't worry." My shoulder was punched and I groaned. Fuu hit like a train. I looked at Tenten next. "So the Jashinists are bad. I want to stay as far away from them as possible if I can."
"Yeah... that's fair." Tenten said. "But still if they're here in Takigakure then the surviving members can't be too dangero-" Mika kindly bonked Tenten again. "Fine... Also, ghosts are real!"
Mika rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say." Mika then grabbed Fuu. "C'mon, let's go have a spar!"
'Oh joy...'
[Hayate Gekko]
Hayate just wanted the day to be over already. It had barely begun but he was starting to wish he could go back to bed. Insomnia sucks. A lot. But he was a shinobi. He was used to little amounts of sleep. And he had a mission to do. And he'd do it as well as he could.
From the look he was getting from Shibuki, Hayate knew the other man was feeling the same way. He didn't know what the man went through last night but it was probably not fun considering the mans posture and the bags under his eyes.
"Alright, Hayate-san. I'm going to throw away formality for a moment here. Please let's just let this day be short. After nearly twelve straight hours of discussion with the elders and no sleep in the last 36 hours at least I have managed to get them to agree to open up trade for our various special fruits once more and they've agreed on the price for the wood but they want more for the water."
Hayate groaned. It was sounding too good to be true. Of course there had to be a but involved. " I see. So how much more would they like? Are they going to be reasonable with their requests Lord Shibuki?"
Shibuki chuckled. " No they are not."
"Fantastic."
"I know."
It was going to be a long day. A very long day. One Hayate wished he could just skip. "How much more for the water would the elders like?" Hayate would guess they wanted to skyrocket the prices exponentially.
"The elders believe that since Konoha needs more water that they would be willing to pay multiple times the original amount for it. They want 3 times the Ryo for the water." Shibuki looked at Hayate with the most tired eyes possible.
"Konoha would never accept that and they should know that," Hayate said. Hiruzen would maybe accept 1.7 times the amount. But 3 times was just insane. "Konoha would maybe except 1.7 times the amount of ryo but three times the amount is a hard no."
"Fair enough." Shibuki leaned back into his chair. " Is there any way we could get Konoha to pay more than 1.7 times the amount?"
"Give us the fruits for cheap. Really cheap."
"How much specifically?"
"The amount Konoha would have originally requested was 2750000 ryo per shipment since we were going to request relatively small shipments. But for more than 1.7 times the amount for water, lets say 2 times the amount of ryo how about 1700000 ryo?" Hayate knew that he was playing a dangerous ball game but it would be worth it. Asking for over a hundred thousand ryo off of the original price would probably not go over well.
"Deal." Shibuki said suddenly. "The elders probably will bitch about it but they will see this as a win for them. It's a deal and we can get this done quickly and you can be out of here by Monday once everything's finalized."
Hayate smiled. That had to be the best news all day. "Since we still have time how about we begin to finalize things now?"
Shibuki nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. " He then looked at a peice of paper and sighed. "Nevermind. The elders are making a request of me to be in their chambers soon unfortunately. It looks like I'll be seeing you tomorrow to start this process instead."
Hayate nodded. "Okay Lord Shibuki."
[Kukui Tanku]
It's been around an hour since what had to be the most boring experience of my life. Instead of going back to bed which could still save my day I was almost literally dragged by Mika to Fuu so I could "hopefully get my ass kicked into gear". Luckily for me, I managed to weasel my way out of fighting Fuu, Mika, and or Tenten... Okay that was a lie. I wasn't fully fighting any of them. But we were all helping Fuu with Shinobi stuff.
It involved practicing it. Which involved me being a target for Shuriken right now.
"Flick your wrists harder," I ordered as I dodged a few shuriken. "You've gotta throw them harder if you want them to hit me. Act like I'm an enemy. Someone you dislike." I goaded with a grin, "Throw them at me with the intent to kill."
"FINE!" Fuu shouted before winding up three shuriken. "DODGE THIS!" Fuu threw the three shurikens at me at blinding speeds. All of them missed me and hit the trees behind me, presumably going through them. "DAMNIT!"
"Maybe Shurikenjutsu's just not for you." Tenten walked closer. "It's not for everyone. I know a few classmates from the academy who sucked at Shurikenjutsu but they found other ways to fight from afar. Maybe you can try using that powder attack from afar?"
"Hm..." Fuu looked at Tenten. "But my scale powder isn't good offensively. It's a great distraction though." Fuu grinned at the last part. "Anything I could do to make it hurt?" Fuu asked before sitting down. "I can't think of anything good."
'What could work?' I rubbed my chin before looking down at my glove. 'Bingo.' I had an idea. "I've got an idea." Fuu looked at me and I grinned. "You could ignite your scale powder. It's only a theory but if it works you could effectively burn dozens of unsuspecting enemies with a massive explosion.."
Fuu grinned. "That sounds awesome!" Fuu then frowned. "I don't know any fire jutsu though so I can't test that."
"Me and Kukui can teach you some. Mainly me but I'm sure Kukui's got a jutsu he can teach you!" Mika wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "Right Kukui?" I nodded. "Great!" Mika looked at Fuu again. "But first I think we should see if you can actually ignite your scale powder."
"That sounds smart... It'd be a waste of time if I couldn't after all!" Fuu went through a set of hand seals, "Scale Powder Jutsu!" Fuu spat out a massive amount of hopefully flammable dust that covered a large part of the area we resided in. "Now lets try!"
'I didn't expect to do this now...' I thought. Some takigakure shinobi could hear this... Ah fuck it. I looked at Mika and then at my glove. She nodded before letting me go and grinning. "Fire Arrow!" Using both of my arms to form the bow and arrow out of fire. "Get out of the way everyone!" I grinned.
Everyone began running back.
"This is a bad idea." Tenten said, "Someone might hear or see this and come over here. And not to mention how destructive this may be." Tenten was still running. "Also, Kukui you're still too close to it!" That was a valid concern but I needed to be accurate.
My grin grew. "I'LL BE FINE!" I shouted before firing the arrow of literal fire. it hit the scale poder and ignited immediately and exploding with a shockwave that sent me to the ground. I replaced myself with a log and stood next to Fuu. "That... was better than I thought..."
The explosion and fire quickly dissipated, leaving a destroyed landscape and ash where I was.
"Wow..." Mika looked at where we just were with stars in her eyes... "Fuu, we need to recreate that." Mika stared at Fuu. "I will teach you as many fire Jutsu as I can for as long as we're here just so you can use that without either me or Kukui."
"Yes!" Fuu's grin stretched wider. "Teach me! That was awesome! I didn't know my scale powder could be that powerful!"
"This was a horrible idea..." Tenten muttered and I could only nod in agreement.
"Wait- You shouldn't teach her any fire jutsu yet Mika." I looked at Mika with as serious of a look as I could muster. We needed to take many things into account.
"Why not?" Mika asked with a loud voice.
"Learning fire jutsu is hard if you don't know how to use fire manipulation." I pointed out.
"Oh fuck you're right."
"I always am."
Mika punched me for that. "Ouch..."
"Wait... so I need to learn fire manipulation first?" Fuu asked, switching between looking at me and Mika.
Mika nodded. "Yeah, it's gonna be tough. And it's gonna take a while. But once you start to grasp the element of fire me and Kukui can teach you something!" Mika then ran over to a tree and grabbed a leaf. "It'll be harder if you don't have a fire affinity. But you'll get it done no matter what!"
Mika handed the leaf to Fuu and she inspected it. "What's the leaf for?"
"It's how you learn the first step of elemental manipulation." I grabbed my own leaf and burned it. "It takes a long time like Mika said. But you don't need to fully complete it to learn fire jutsu. You just need to learn how fire chakra feels."
"Alrighty then!" Fuu ran over to a tree and practically robbed it as it suddenly was missing a majority of its leaves after a kick. "I'll get it down then."
Mika chuckled. "Oh yes you are. We're gonna train every day and make sure you get it down just enough so you can learn fire jutsu!"
Tenten sighed. "This isn't going to end well."
[Ryuuji]
There was good news and bad news. The bad news was that The Jinchurriki had no official place of residence that was on file. Presumably, in case someone were to actually manage to break into the village and try to look for the Jinchurriki. Probably a defense against Kumogakure. But there was good news.
Several classified files on several Kinjutsu in development were able to be accessed. Files that Kakuzu would definitely love to have. Anything to say fuck you to his former home right? The jutsu ranged from attempts to recreate the Jiongu to replicating over villages Hiden jutsu from a captured genin.
But that didn't help Ryuji on his mission, unfortunately. He still needed to find the Jinchurriki and Kakuzu was probably starting to get antsy by now. And that was something Ryuji was hoping to avoid. So he needed to continue his search. This time by just asking around under a simple transformation and hoping there wasn't another sensor nearby.
And that was exactly what he was doing.
"So, have you seen this green haired girl? Or do you know where she could be at right now? She said something that I didn't like and I'd like some payback." Ryuji asked a simple shopkeeper who's shop was empty. The shopkeeper was sweeping their floor when he came into their shop.
The shopkeeper glanced at him. "I've seen her around. Fuu I think her name was... I haven't seen her recently. I don't really know where she might be since nobody wants to follow the little helion home." The shopkeeper spat out. "I hope you can find her though, someone needs to give that little demon what she deserves."
Ryuji chuckled. "Sorry for taking up your time, sir. I'll be sure to beat that demon black and blue." With a tip of his hat, Ryuji left the shop. 'That didn't go horribly...' Maybe trying to ask a civilian wasn't a good idea. He should just ask a shinobi instead.
But it'd be hard to find one without looking suspicious.
Maybe he could just run into o- 'Oh hey a Chuunin there. Perfect.' Ryuji approached the Chuunin as normally as he could. "Excuse me shinobi-san, could I ask you a question?" Ryuji tapped the woman's shoulder and stood as civilian as possible. Relaxed shoulders and an unthreatening posture.
The woman grinned, "And what that question may be sir?" The woman clearly was a new chuunin. She trusted him already. Good. She had a relaxed stance and her hands were far away from her kunai pouch. It honestly was insulting to Ryuji.
"I was wondering if you knew where a green haired girl named Fuu is?" The chuunin's posture straightened up. Good. "She said something that I'm afraid I didn't like and I would like to teach her a lesson on respect."
"Uh..." The chuunin hummed for a second. "Oh, the demon girl!" It clicked in her mind on who Ryuji was asking about. "I don't know where she is exactly but I do know that recently there's been lots of loud noises outside of the main part of the village and further into the pleatu. She might be there."
Ryuji couldn't help but grin. Finally, a lead that sounded useful to his mission. "Thank you Shinobi-san. That sounds like a lead I've been looking all day and not a single person has even had a clue on where the little helion may be."
The Chuunin chucked. "You're welcome. Go give the demon girl hell for me!"
Ryuji tipped his hat at the Chuunin as he walked away. "With pleasure Shinobi-san." Ryuji quickly got out of sight of the Chuunin and of everyone in the village in general before bursting out laughing. "Beautiful! Simply marvelous!"
Ryuji couldn't believe it. That Chuunin was so fucking stupid, just giving out information like that. She was not going to last long at all in the real world. Her death was not going to be pretty or quick. It was probably going to be long, brutal, and something sickening for sure.
But, that wasn't Ryuji's problem. It was Takigakure's and the Chuunin's family and friends.
Now, it was time to go check out the lead.
Welp. I have no idea how this happened. I wrote this chapter out of order and I completed it in a day. I was procrastinating on this chapter literally all week. Writing this arc is kinda boring at times. There's only so much I can do with dialogue between Hayate and Shibuki. It's usually boring as shit and whilst it's somewhat important I just fucking want to skip it so bad.
I literally wrote the part last. After this. No really, I've yet to write the Hayate part because it's going to be that boring for me to write.
Anyways let's just go through the chapter real quick. In order of what was written.
I really channeled how I felt this morning into Kukui this chapter. It hasn't been the best few days for me mentally and I've just wanted to sleep more. So I just channeled myself into Kukui this chapter. It was nice. Having an outlet for my frustration is a really good thing.
Also, Ryuji finally got lucky and got a lead. I wonder where that's gonna go And for the Hayate bit, it's finally starting to wrap up. Of course the arc has another seven chapters to it so there has to be something else to it, right?
And wow. I finished this chapter in less than a day. Just wow.
Anyways, see you all next week!
-Tobi