[Ryuuji]

Takigakure wasn't small. It wasn't as big as the main five hidden villages but it certainly was the most impressive of the minor ones. It coincidentally was also the most hidden of the hidden villages with few ever finding it. Some people even called it a legend.

Also coincidentally, it was where Ryuuji's boss was born and betrayed. Ryuuji was probably the only man alive to know what happened to Kakuzu and why he defected as brutally as he did. Kakuzu's defection was legendary. It was the reason why Takigakure was never able to become the sixth great village. Kakuzu took away Takigakure's prized jutsu and left a bastardized version of it and surprisingly the Hero Water.

Because Taki lacked the one thing that made it so powerful it faded into near obscurity before it made a comeback. Mainly because of the Seven Tails. Of course it never fully recovered but it became the strongest of the minor villages... No Ryuuji was not counting Amegakure into that. Amegakrue had someone that could make Kakuzu kneel. He was not going to count them as a small village anymore.

"The fresh air, the beautiful surroundings, and the tree that'd make Hashirama orgasm from just looking at it. A shame that this place is rotten." Really. Ryuuji almost regretted having to take the village's strongest weapon. But they betrayed his boss which was a sin he couldn't look past. 'Just like those dirty Kumo cunts.' Ryuuji sighed as he looked around.

His target was a tanned green haired girl with orange eyes. They should be quite easy to spot in a place like Takigakure right? Well no apparently. Takigakure was a place with homes in and out of the Great Tree. And there was a lot of ground to cover as well. Not to mention the waterfall and hidden section of Takigakure behind the tree. So it was like three layers of Takigakure. Not to mention, Takigakure had a lot of people with green hair and orange eyes as it turned out.

There were three parts to his search that Ryuuji would go over one by one. First the outer layer. The most populated layer. To the Tree layer. The second most populated layer and where most of the Shinobi resided. And then the inner layer. Where the Hero water was presumably made and anything and anyone else important was kept.

Knowing how villages treated Jinchurriki, the girl wouldn't be there. She was most likely in the outer layer. "Guess I should get moving..." Ryuuji didn't want to be caught by any shinobi. Sure he could take down most shinobi in Takigakure but there was two people who'd be an issue. Hayate Gekko and Shibuki. Shibuki was a coward most of the time but if the worst came to worst then he'd be a horrible opponent to deal with.

Hayate on the other hand would be a more proactive pain in the ass. But he was only an A-rank shinobi. Just below Kakashi Hatake in the Bingo Book. He couldn't beat Ryuuji sure, but he was known to use earth release. Ryuuji didn't want the man getting any lucky strikes which would lead to him getting mobbed. Or Hayate somehow finding him. Hayate being here really sucked for Ryuuji. He honestly regretted letting him live. But at the same time, this provided a wonderful opportunity.

He could frame Konoha for the kidnapping of the Seven Tails Jinchurriki.

There were three laws of the shinobi world that no shinobi usually tried to break. 1) Don't try and destroy another villages academy unless you are sure you can do it without getting caught by over a thousand shinobi. 2) Don't go graverobbing. The dead were meant to be respected. And 3) Don't try to steal Jinchurriki unless you want to piss all over the tentative "balance" the first kage's set in place.

War would spark between Taki and Konoha. Suna and the Newly formed Otogakure would side with Takigakure and they would ally with Kumo probably and take down Konoha or leave it weak enough for Iwa to come in and take revenge for the massacre Minato Namikaze caused. And then whats ever left of the shinobi world could either try to rebuild itself or they could all team up and gangbang Kiri.

A wonderful thing for business. Once sanctioned shinobi start dropping like flies Ryuuji could take more jobs and gain more money. For that to happen he needed to find and capture the Seven Tails Jinchurriki. "Should only take me a few days at most."

Takigakure was usually a talkative place. Ryuuji knew that the few times he was there. Unfortunately he didn't pay attention to the real juicy stuff it seemed because he didn't remember anything about the Seven Tails Jinchurriki. But that was going to be fixed soon.

Information was easy to gather if you knew how to get it. All you had to do was know who gave out the most information and how you could easily trick them into giving that manipulation up. Or torture. That was fun. Ryuuji usually only tortured someone when they were alone.

Which was fortunately not as rare as one would think.

Ryuuji began walking through the part of the village he entered as casually as he could. All he needed to do was act like how he looked instead of a shinobi. Fun fact, people willing to buy something had a lot of information usually. They also died easily.

It was why he was wearing a transformation and holding a big sign up. "Chocolate and flowers here! Need something to give to your partner in a pinch? Well I've got exactly what you need!"

Sue him, he was old.

"Excuse me." Ryuuji felt his shoulder be tapped lightly. He turned around and saw a small thin man wearing a fancy kimono. Perfect. "Uh... how much for what you're selling?"

These men usually had the best information and money. Absolutely perfect. "Only about 200 ryo." The man's eyes lit up like it was Christmas. "Come with me. I'll take you there."

The man followed.

[Kukui Tanku]

Since we were in allied territory with many shinobi present I was allowed to go out of our hotel and do stuff as long as I didn't cause an international incident. Luckily I didn't intend on doing that. So I was out exploring. In many ways Takigakure was similiar to Konoha. But it also had different types of food like some squid or different weapons commonly used like chains. Takigakure was interesting and I loved it.

Not in the way I "loved" Honoha of course. But It was unique. It was something I'd never seen before. It sparked my curiosity. Thirteen year old me would have been geeking out right now. 'I've come so far...' I didn't like thinking about my past much. But still. Knowing I used to be a sick, powerless boy and now I was powerful, and healthy as a horse. It was surreal.

Of course all my life wasn't surreal thankfuly. I still had to go get things like breakfast since my gamer system didn't stop me from needing to eat unfortunately. It wasn't a huge issue since I love food deeply. It was why I was getting something unique today. I had no idea what I was getting but if it was on the menu and I've never seen it before then I was going for it.

I obviously wasn't going to go for anything gross though. No. I was only going to go for stuff that looked edible.

"Hey watch it!" I heard and saw a girl be shoved by a grown man. She had green hair and orange... sad eyes... I recognized those eyes... "You better watch where your going demon." The man spat at the girl before shoving her the girl who sighed. It was a sign of being used to the shitty treatment.

'Fuu...' I looked down at my legs who were already carrying me toward the girl. 'No. We're not going to be seen near the Seven Tails Jinchurriki.' My legs once again failed me. "Hey..." I got the sad girl's attention as pathetically as I could manage somehow. "Are you okay?"

Fuu recoiled for a second. "Konoha-nin..." There was a bit of fright on her face as she saw my Konoha-branded headband which ironically wasn't on my head. "Why are you here?"

"A mission. A very long, very boring, but exciting one," I answered. "Now are you okay? That jerk shoved you pretty hard." Everybody just walked by and let it happen... 'Reminds me of what happens to Naruto whenever we're in public...' I should have punched the asshole in the face...

"Why should you care?" Fuu asked. "You don't even know me."

I nodded. "But that doesn't mean I can't have basic human decency." I internally sighed. 'Fuck people man. Humanity sucks.' Well might as well see if I could gain her trust. More friends would be nice. "That guy called you a demon right? I can only see that meaning one thing. Are you the Jinchurriki of the Seven tails?" I sensed no shinobi nearby surprisingly enough. 'This almost feels like plot armor... god my life is weird.' She began to walk to where nobody was and I followed.

Fuu backed away. "How do you know?" She put her hands close. Definitely to make handseals.

"My friend is the Jinchurriki of the Nine Tails. I see the same things I saw with him here." The shock on Fuu's face was barely contained. "He like you is discriminated against. I won't stand for that... Actually I could have punched that dick earlier... Doing that next time... Really gotta work on my aim anyways." Fuu actually giggled at that. Good. Progress.

"Really? Is he with you?" The girl's eyes lit up in hope. "Please tell me he is. I've never met another jinchurriki before."

I sighed. "No. We're not on the same team unfortunately. I'd love to look after the bastard since he always finds himself into some trouble. Also he doesn't know he's the jinchurriki either." He probably didn't know yet. I hoped he did though... Maybe I could bring this up with Hiruzen in our next meeting.

"How do you know he is the Jinchurriki of the Nine tails then?" Fuu narrowed her eyes at me.

"First off, Chakra can't die so our Hokage didn't kill the Kyuubi. Second, my friend is called a demon and constantly shunned by the village for seemingly no reason. And Third: Something I can't disclose. With all this I naturally concluded that he was the Jinchurriki." Hiruzen was probably feeling a disturbance in the force now from me sharing a national secret but Fuu didn't know who the Nine Tail's Jinchurriki was so all was relatively good.

"I'd ask why you can't share three since you probably just shared a national secret with a stranger but then I just realized I don't care enough to know." Fuu sighed. "So..." Fuu awkwardly began before smiling. "Wanna hang out? You look like you have nothing to do and I wanna do something else other than try to talk to people who shun me."

My stomach growled. "Sure. Wanna go get breakfast?" I smiled. "I'll pay." That got the greenette's interest. She was actually smiling , a genuine smile 'Good job Kukui. Turned a frown upside down...' This mission was already going well.

Surely, nothing bad would happen now... hopefully.

"I'd love breakfast." Fuu's smile died a quick death. "But nobody would let me enter a restaurant to get anything... I hate this..." Fuu muttered that last part although I still heard it. Once more I hated this world. Why did we have to be jerks to each other for being different or having a chakra nuke inside of them?

I made a fresh earth clone. "I'll just have a clone get something. Any preferences or allergies?" Fuu shook her head. "Surprise us please," I said to the clone before I looked at Fuu again.

"Thanks... Wanna go somewhere cool?" Fuu asked.

I grinned. "Always."

It had been a great morning for me. Not just me but Fuu too. After she had taken me to a waterfall where we could eat in peace we just talked about random shit. From how the birds moved to bugs and how cool some were and weren't to even how big the damn tree was. Normally those topics would be somewhat boring but Fuu was so excited to talk to someone once they realized they weren't a colossal dick.

It was a bit depressing to be honest. But I wasn't going to let that get in the way of having a good time.

"What is it even like out of Taki?" Fuu asked suddenly. "Is it any different from in here? Any cool trees or birds or nature in general? Or is it just the same old stuff that we get here?" Another thing I had found out; Fuu didn't have a good education apparently. No I did not go strangle a few academy teachers. My clone didn't either.

I hummed as I kicked my feet into the air. "Well it depends on where you are. Konoha is a lot like Taki. But bigger and no giant tree. Most of the people there suck though. Then there's the other viillage's that all have different stuff. As for the animals. Well there's a lot but to much to describe honestly. They're all so varied."

"Sounds cool." Fuu sighed. "I wish I'd be able to leave Taki one day to explore the world. This place is full of jerks and is barely even a home." Fuu then looked up. "I wanna be able to see all that cool stuff for myself."

"I'd suggest you leave but unfortunately you can't can you?" I asked. She probably wasn't even allowed to go on missions until she fully mastered using Chomei's chakra. And that may never happen.

"Yeah. Assholes want to keep me as their weapon. Don't they know I'm a person too?" Fuu threw a rock. "Like I said earlier, I hate them. I hate this place. The people suck and it just sucks in general to be here..." Some days I felt that way about Konoha. I understood how Fuu felt.

But, Konoha was my home. I only hated it because of what people did to Naruto when they thought we weren't looking. I had no right to be as mad as I was.

" "They" Probably just think they can control you and the seven tails forever." I formed a spark of flame on my hand and made it dance. The village elders of any village seemed to suck ass always. "You could always just run away." There was nobody watching us so we were free to talk as much shit as we'd like.

"And get Anbu on me?" Fuu chuckled. "Say all you want about Taki but the few Anbu we have are just mean. I suck way too much even with my friends chakra." Fuu groaned. "I wish those stupid teachers taught me better." Fuu threw her Taki Headband. "I suck at Taijutsu and Ninjutsu and I barely know how to be a shinobi..."

"I could help you with that." Fuck it. At this point I was just going to do my best to send an Fuck you to Taki through Fuu. 'Why not just do it to every village? Anything will do.' Might as well do something to piss of a village indirectly. If Taki doesn't want Fuu to be an actual shinobi then fuck them. 'So glad I have my notes with me...' I had notes on all things shinobi. From history to how to use chakra. Hell I even had the basic academy three here.

"How?" Fuu looked at me like I was an idiot. " You can't really do anything and its not like you're some sort of magical teacher that can bestow knowledge to people." I laughed. I wasn't. But I was getting there!

"You're right. I'm not just some magic teacher or something. But I'm studious. I have some notes I can copy and give to you. Before you ask why I'm doing this because fuck villages doing this shit." They tried with Naruto and they succeeded with Fuu. If I could help fix that then I would. "Hell I can help you train your Taijutsu if you want. Me and my team are gonna be here for a while so I have plenty of time... Although maybe not today." In a few hours I had to go back to the hotel room we were given so we can go watch Hayate discuss a trade deal or something with the leader of this place.

"You'd really do that?" Fuu at this point just seemed resigned. "You don't need to... you're gonna be sticking your neck out for someone you met three hours ago." I nodded. "You are dumb. Like really dumb. But I'll take you up on the offer." I chuckled. I knew what I was doing. But honestly I didn't care. I wasn't some bigshot with a reputation to uphold. Taki wouldn't like their jinchurriki suddenly knowing how to fight without their Bijuu's chakra and that was just great.

"I know." I grinned. "Its great. This wouldn't destroy Konoha's bond with Taki and Taki needs Konoha otherwise its gonna have to fend for itself since the other closest villages either hate Taki or are stuck in their own trouble." What else could go wrong if Taki made a fuss? Oh yeah Konoha wouldn't be happy that they were treating their Jinchurriki horribly. Hashirama did gift them the seven tails as a sign of goodwill after all. "And Konoha would be massive Hypocrites and raise a fuss over the Jinchurriki not being treated correctly... Also some political shit that makes my head hurt would happen and Taki would not look good."

Hiruzen hated politics a lot. But he sure did enjoy bringing political situations up to me. I knew a lot now. I didn't want too but I did.

"Politics suck!" Fuu whined. "Thinking about that stuff hurts..."

"I know." I rubbed my head. "I'd prefer to not think about them." I then looked up at the sky. It was almost twelve... Shit. "Well its almost time for me to be leaving. So wanna meet here again tomorrow?"

"Sure!" Fuu grinned and I took that as a sign of victory. I had made a new friend. I nodded and then began to walk away. Now I n- "Wait!" I turned around. "We never introduced ourselves to each other!"

'How?' We had talked for almost three straight hours. No way in hell we didn't tell each other our names at least. "Oh." I said intelligently. "I'm Kukui Tanku!" I mock saluted.

Fuu mock saluted back. "And I'm Fuu. It was nice to meet you Kukui!"

"It was nice to meet you as well Fuu!" I waved.

Now I had to hope I wouldn't be late.

[? ? ?]

Obito had to admit, he didn't expect Kakuzu to send someone to Takigakure. Kakuzu was the type to do things himself... Although Obito didn't keep an eye on the man a whole lot so he didn't really know much about the man. But from his observations he was greedy but wise.

But apparently he had been somewhat wrong. Kakuzu had one person who he'd pay big money too if he wanted something done. Kakuzu apparently even wanted the Jinchurriki captured. He hated Takigakure a lot huh? He even hired an S-rank opponent.

The Rubber Man. He was an S-rank but on the weaker end of things. He was stronger than Hidan the immortal but weaker than an S-rank like Sasori. He was one of the six other S-ranked Missing Nin not in the Akatsuki as well. Nagato didn't seek him out due to his skills not being what he wanted for the Akatsuki.

Obito agreed with that choice. The Rubber Man was more useful in other places anyways. Like now. He was going to collect the Seven tails for them which would save them a lot of effort. Of course they'd need to keep the jinchurriki alive until they at least got to the four tails because sealing Jinchurriki out of order would result in some nasty things presumably.

So they'd have a bit of pain now but later on they wouldn't need to capture the seven tails which would be great.

They were going to have to gather just a bit more funding unfortunately before capturing the tailed beasts. So they would need to wait a while if the seven tails jinchurriki was captured now. But Nagato could just use a genjutsu on the girl. Something Obito wished he himself could do still.

'Damn you Minato...' That night was the worst of Obito's life not counting the day Rin died. Everything went wrong. He could have had all the tailed beasts by now if the Flying Raijin seal Minato placed on him along with that contract seal didn't somehow fuck with his ability to put things under genjutsu. People still worked and so did some jinchurriki as evidenced with Yagura but anywhere above the three tails was a no go. And using Kamui on something with a lot more chakra than him was something he couldn't exactly do daily or easily at this point.

Because of that all he had to do was wait. He had time thankfully. Lots of it. Obito would force someone to Rinne Rebirth him if need be. He was not going to let the plan fail. But he couldn't do much now, unfortunately. So he had to wait.

Luckily he had some entertainment.

The Kiri Civil War was some entertainment for a while before Konoha ruined it.

Orochimaru is entertaining as well.

And now he was watching the Rubber Man.

Obito wouldn't interfere unless he saw an oppurtunity to do something. Obviously he wouldn't fight anyone himself. He couldn't take on a whole ninja village. Even a minor one like Takigakure. He wasn't stupid enough to try that either. But if he could just do something to make things go bad then he'd do it.

'Now lets see if he finds the Jinchurriki or if I have to do that for him.'

[Chapter end]

I didn't expect this chapter to be this fun to write. But it was really fun to write. Ryuuji(AKA the Rubber Man) is a fun character to write. He's evil and greedy like Kakuzu but he's also just different at the same time. Its honestly just a nice break from writing "good" characters. Its like writing Zabuza or Jinpachi in my other fic. Its just so much fun to write an asshole who's just evil. They may have a somewhat sad origin but they're still an evil asshole.

Also writing Fuu was really fun. I honestly just took a look at the wiki and then forgot it and just decided to write her as someone who's bitter about their situation. I honestly loved writing her and Kukui talking for like half the chapter. It also let me write more of Kukui's qualitiies that are actually good.

Sidenote: I really love world building and I sprinkled quite a bit of it throughout this chapter which I am proud about.

Then we have the Obito. Honestly I'm not too sure about his PoV. This is kinda just to introduce him as a spectator. Someone that's going to be really important later. He may be a villain or just an onlooker. Who knows.

Also this chapter is the first one in quite a bit that's 4k words. I dunno what got into me today but I guess I just decided to show up today. I was honestly surprised about the wordcount this chapter since writing Obito's PoV wasn't that fun but still.

Anyways as i always do every five chapters. Time for a question: What are some of your headcanon's about Takigakure? I have a few that were mentioned this chapter.

- Tobi