Chapter 63: Skipping Stones

For quite a while now, Shizune had been feeling a little less than useful… At least… When she was out on a mission with her team. It couldn't be helped, her teammates were extremely powerful and gifted. Both had become Sages and Naruto was a perfect Jinchuriki, while Shizune… She didn't have a lot going for her.

Sure she was a Jonin level Kunoichi, but that didn't really amount to much with what she had to face. On her last mission, she'd come face to face with a Biju and… And nothing. She didn't have the skill or the power to fight it off.

Then there was the Akatsuki. Each member was an extremely powerful Shinobi, some of whom were capable of fighting on even footing with the Kage. On her own, she might be able to survive for a few minutes… Long enough for backup to arrive, but other than that, she didn't have a hope of matching that level of power.

She always knew that she wouldn't be the strongest around… That she wouldn't ever surpass her master. That much had become apparent when she failed to learn the Byakugo, but that didn't make it any less frustrating.

So when an opportunity arrived that could potentially help her close that gap… Help her be more useful, she'd jumped at it and all but begged Tsunade to let her assist.

"Test number nine hundred and thirty two," Shizune announced, looking up to see one of Tsunade's clones observing her. Grabbing a scalpel, she proceeded to slice open a dead fish that was laid out on the table in front of her "Making the first incision in the test subject and removing several vital organs along with various tissue and bone samples for later testing."

"You don't need to announce everything that you're doing," Tsunade's clone hummed.

"I know," Shizune muttered softly. "It's just a habit at this point." It helped to announce everything that you were doing during a surgery. If she ever skipped a step, the other medical Shinobi would realize it and stop her, potentially saving a life.

Placing the scalpel down, her hands lit up with a green, ethereal glow and she hovered it over the fish, examining the damage done to its body. Seeing that nothing could be done to repair the damage, Shizune pulled back and pressed her hands together.

Focusing her Chakra, the green glow that surrounded her hands darkened. Taking a slow breath, Shizune placed her hands on the fish and allowed her Chakra to flow through it.

At first it seemed like nothing was happening, but ever so slowly, the removed sections of the fish filled in. Bone began to slowly form, organs grew and were covered in muscle. It took several minutes, but by the end, the fish looked completely unharmed.

"It worked," Tsunade's clone said, sounding impressed.

Removing her hands from the still dead fish, Shizune let the Chakra in her hands fizzle out and marveled at what she'd just accomplished. Sure it was just a fish, but with time, she should be capable of doing the same to humans.

"It did," Shizune mumbled, astonished. Her hands lit up with a green glow as she moved to examine the fish. "Let me just…"

"Wait, it needs to…"

Placing her hands against the fish's body, it suddenly bulged before popping, coating the room in its guts. Blinking at the unexpected rupture, Shizune let out a loud groan. How could she be so stupid.

Besides the simpler anatomy, fish were used to train beginner Medical Shinobi for one reason, they were sensitive to Chakra.

Using too much Chakra resulted in the fish rupturing, while too little wouldn't do a thing. It was the perfect creature to train beginners, they needed to get the Chakra output just right or else, well…

"I tried to warn you," Tsunade's clone commented. "That fish was already at its limit. All it took was the slightest hint of Charka to push it over that limit."

"I know," Shizune sighed miserably, wincing when she pulled a piece of fish gut from her hair. "I realized that after I had already made the mistake."

Chuckling, the clone helped remove the rest of the fish's guts. "And I thought the days of having to do this were over," Tsunade hummed. "There is an upside to this. Now we don't have to cut it up for samples."

That may be true, but it was still quite the embarrassing blunder on Shizune's part. She'd just been so excited that she'd forgotten herself. This was why she'd gotten into the habit of announcing everything she was doing while operating.

Cleaning up the training room, she placed samples in various containers for Tsunade to examine later, before grabbing another fish.

Naruto had mentioned that the man who had invented this technique, Shinnō, had been able to regenerate from what should have been fatal damage and had even opened all Eight Gates, surviving far longer than he should have.

If possible, she would like to learn that level of regeneration. Maybe, just maybe, she could surpass her master in her own way.

"Damnit!"

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked. "What's wrong?"

"I just got some stressful news," The clone replied before shaking her head. "Never mind that, the original will deal with it. Let's continue."

"Okay," Shizune said in an uncertain tone.

Whatever it was, she'd find out later when she was done here. For now, she would simply focus on the task at hand and work towards perfecting Shinnō's technique.

…PTL…

For the first time in a long time, Tsunade's office was emptied of clones. It was almost a little eerie, but I paid it little attention. There were bigger things to focus on.

"You've got to be kidding me," I mumbled.

A few days had passed since my and Fu's meeting with Utakata and my search for the wayward Jinchuriki. It had been a somewhat boring process of manually wading through tens of thousands of Chakra signatures, but I'd eventually managed to find his.

I now had a rough estimate of where he was hiding. Unfortunately, meeting Utakata in person was going to have to wait. Iwa had been attacked and three separate locations had been devastated.

Two locations had been all but destroyed by explosives, incidentally wiping out all remaining traces of the invading army. The other location was currently the host to a massive forest fire that had been set off by a mixture of Lava and black flames… Amaterasu.

The worst part of this all was that we'd received the news a few days too late. The Akatsuki's had more than enough time to escape the Land of Earth, squirreling the Jinchuriki away for when they decided to seal them.

"It doesn't end there," Jiraiya hummed. "Iwa's lost their Jinchuriki… And they're looking for someone to blame."

"I can already see where this is going," Tsunade sighed, nursing her forehead.

"They're blaming Kiri," Jiraiya continued. "Both for the attack and their missing Jinchuriki. They've already sent a retaliation party."

Oh, for the love of… "Couldn't the Akatsuki have waited until after I fetched Utakata to cause all this shit," I muttered, more frustrated than anything. "Now we have to clean up their mess."

It was always wars with them. I was getting a little sick of it. I know Zetsu has his whole 'master manipulator, the Shinobi world is my creation' thing going on, but at this point, all he was doing was smacking a hornets' nest. There was nothing subtle about it.

"Unfortunately, this situation isn't one that can be easily solved," Jiraiya began. "This isn't just a matter of a few Shinobi, this is an entire nation we're talking about. If Konoha chooses to get involved, we could potentially be dragged into a war… However short lived that would be."

That was true. Iwa wasn't exactly known to be the most reasonable village, although the same could be said about any village that had just suffered through an attack… Especially if they just lost both of their Jinchuriki. Any action we take could be viewed the wrong way.

"You're strong, Naruto… Easily the most powerful Shinobi that I've ever met. If it came down to it, I have no doubt that you would be able to fend off the entirety of Iwa on your own, but are you willing to put that big of a burden on yourself?" Jiraiya asked worriedly.

Sighing, Tsunade leaned back in her chair. "The same could be said for doing nothing. This chaos suits the Akatsuki's needs perfectly. How long will it be before they attempt the same thing with one of the other nations?" She shot back.

That was also true. This war needed to be prevented. I could go to Iwa and just threaten them into submission, but that wouldn't solve any long term problems.

Madara had once done the same thing and threatened them into subservience when they tried to ally with Konoha back when Mū was still the second Tsuchikage… I was pretty sure that was one of the main reasons why Iwa still held a grudge against Konoha.

What we really needed was to point Iwa towards the Akatsuki, unfortunately that was easier said than done.

Ōnoki was a hard headed bastard at the best of times, he'd even used their services in the past. Convincing him that the Akatsuki were to blame before he invaded Kiri would be an almost impossible task, especially in the timeframe we currently had, unless…

"Iwa's using boats to travel to Kiri, right?" I asked.

"Well they aren't exactly going to swim," Jiraiya hummed lightly.

That was actually relatively good news. Kiri's natural defense would work in their favor, delaying any incoming attacks… It also gave me the chance to try something that would probably be impossible to replicate on land.

"I see now," Kurama chuckled, sounding genuinely amused. "It seems you might still be worthy of your title as the most unpredictable Shinobi in the world."

'What can I say,' I thought back, 'I like to challenge myself sometimes. Preventing a war is hard… Doing it without spilling a drop of blood, however…'

"Good luck with that," Kurama hummed. "If you succeed, you should at the very least be able to buy Kiri some time."

Nodding, I turned my attention back to Jiraiya and Tsunade. "I might have an idea that would prevent this from devolving into a full blown war."

After this, I was going to have to make a quick stop at Mt. Myoboku to fetch some supplies.

Seeing the look on my face, Tsunade shook her head, looking as if she wanted to both laugh and sigh worriedly.

…PTL…

Standing on the misty shores with my arms crossed and my eyes closed, I stretched my senses towards the ocean, tracking the approaching Iwa warships. There was quite a decent amount of Shinobi heading this way, numbering in at least a few thousand. It wouldn't be long before they got within range.

Opening an eye, I glanced towards the Kiri Shinobi that were assisting me with this. Mei, who stood with a determined look, ready for what was coming while Ao appeared more grim and resigned, likely thinking that this was going to devolve into another war that would devastate the Land of Water.

Mei, as it turned out, was proving to be one of the most level headed and cooperative Kage that I'd ever met. She'd taken the news of Iwa's inevitable invasion in stride and had even begun planning a defense, one that relied on the natural defense of the island nation to fend off Iwa's invasion. Not that it was necessary.

Once I'd told her my plan to help, she'd immediately agreed with a condition that she would be able to assist, stating that Kiri was her home and that as the Mizukage, she should at the very least help defend it.

In the end, it suited me just fine. If Iwa was halfway competent, they would have sent a few sensors to alert their ships of any potential attack. They'd be sensing Mei's Chakra while mine would hopefully be hidden. The less that was known about my involvement in all of this, the better.

So long as I wasn't seen and didn't use Kurama's Chakra, everything should be fine. My Chakra was extremely potent and most likely highly recognizable, but I would only be near Iwa's boats for an instant, not giving them much time to memorize my Chakra signature.

Plus, I doubt the Iwa Shinobi would remember much of today.

"They're approaching, ma'am," Ao announced, the veins on the right side of his head bulged.

"Finally," I hummed under my breath. Grabbing several Kunai, I held them out for Ao to take. "Do you think that you could tag a few of their ships from here?"

"Do I think I could hit the ships?" Ao muttered softly. "Back in my day, a Shinobi never needed to be asked if they could do anything. They were simply expected to do it."

"Ao," Mei began with a sweet smile on her face. "Time is of the essence. Shut up and do it already."

Wincing at Mei's reprimand, he nodded and took the Kunai.

"Be sure to place them where they won't easily be discovered," I added.

"That should be fairly obvious," Ao grunted.

Rearing back, Ao threw his arm forward, flicking a single Kunai off into the distance. Waiting for a few moments, he smirked. Repeating the process several more times, he stopped once he ran out of Kunai.

"Now what?" Ao asked.

Grabbing a sealing scroll that I had specifically prepared for this, I placed it on the ground and proceeded to unseal a massive gourd. Creating several clones, they immediately got to work and climbed to the top of the container in order to uncork it.

"Mei, if you could please…" I trailed off, gesturing towards the massive gourd.

Already knowing what to do, Mei placed her hands against the bottom of the gourd and began to focus her Chakra through it. It began to bubble ominously, before a small amount of mist escaped the top, before dissipating harmlessly into the air.

My clones hadn't been idle, either. Having gone through the necessary seals, they'd created several small barriers that transported the mist to the Kunai that Ao had placed earlier… Although, they did seem to be struggling a little with the intangible nature of the mist. There were a few small clouds of vapor that managed to escape them, but not nearly enough to affect any of us.

"I see now," Ao said, weariness in his tone. "You're transporting Mei's mist and whatever's in that gourd to Iwa's ships, allowing it to mix with the natural mist so they're none the wiser. The only way they would be able to avoid it is if they abandoned their ships."

That pretty much was the gist of what we were doing. The Hiraishin was a scarily versatile technique that gave its user a ton of options.

Even something like Madara's meteorites didn't really compare… Not when you could just send it somewhere else… Hell, you could even send it straight back towards Madara if you used clones.

It was even worse if you managed to mark someone. If Minato had survived the night Obito attacked, he could have killed his traitorous student from the comfort of his couch. If you were an enemy Shinobi and you were marked, you were pretty much screwed.

"They're starting to drop," Ao announced. "Whatever poison you've put together seems to be working."

"It's not poison," I replied, before turning towards Mei. "That's probably enough for now."

Raising a delicate eyebrow, Mei stepped back, releasing her hold on the technique. Tapping the gourd as my clones worked to reseal it, I found that it was a little over half full. Gamabunta was probably going to want it back.

"Then… What is it?" Ao asked, genuinely interested. "Some sort of sedative."

"I suppose you could say that," I hummed. "It's Sake from Mt. Myoboku."

Ao's visible eye began to twitch violently. "So that would mean that the Iwa Shinobi are…"

"They're completely wasted," I nodded, doing my best to keep myself from laughing. "I'd be surprised if they even remembered what they were doing here." A few were probably still sober enough to fight, but they would be at a massive disadvantage.

If I recall correctly, Hashirama had something similar in his arsenal. He was capable of growing flowers that could put a person to sleep… Or kill them. I hadn't reached that level of control over plant life yet, but I was making steady progress.

"I… I don't even know what to say to that. We never did anything quite like this back in my day," Ao said, tiredly nursing his head. "At least the threat's been neutralized."

"It's not over yet," I muttered. Nodding to my clones, they instantly disappeared.

Sensing where my clones currently were, Ao's head snapped to the side and he once more activated his Byakugan. "What?!" His jaw slackened. "What are you doing?"

"I'm sending them back to Iwa," I replied.

Technically speaking, I was sending them to the eastern coast between the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Earth, but it was close enough.

Once again, the Hiraishin proved to be an absolutely terrifying technique and a logistical nightmare, one that Iwa had no means of defending against.

It wouldn't be long before Iwa's entire fleet was discovered, the crew nursing the worst hangovers in their lives with absolutely no clue as to how they managed to screw up so badly that they ended up back in the Land of Earth.

It seems that I might have retained a bit of my prankster side from my childhood.

"Only you, Naruto," Kurama chuckled.

Well… It beat the alternative. Wiping out the entirety of Iwa's invading fleet wouldn't have been that difficult. All I would have needed was a couple Rasenshuriken or a single Bijuudama and no one would know what happened.

However, that would have done nothing to ease the tension between Iwa and Kiri… It likely would have done the opposite.

I'd at least bought a little time for everything to cool down, more than enough for Tsunade to call a Five Kage summit.

"This has been quite an interesting experience," Mei remarked. "I don't believe that I've ever seen an invading army stalled in such a… Unique way." Chuckling lightly, she looked off into the distance. "It seems that the debt Kiri owes Konoha keeps getting larger."

"Don't worry about it… We're allies after all," I hummed.

This wasn't exactly an official mission that Konoha could claim credit for. It was precisely the opposite. The less people that knew about this, the better.

Sighing, I resealed Gamabunta's Sake gourd. Things were about to get a lot more busy… But, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. My goal of uniting the five nations was finally in sight.

…PTL…

Slowly waking up to the sound of a rhythmic dripping, Rōshi blearily opened his eyes, before his memories hit him. Slapping his palm into the ground, he jumped to his feet, only to suddenly fall back down onto the hard ground in agony.

Letting out a pained groan, he glanced down at his chest, only to see that the majority of his body was covered in bandages.

If the way he felt was any indicator, it was for a good reason too. Broken ribs, a fractured leg, deep cuts, missing skin in several areas and a throbbing head to top it all off. It would be shorter if he listed what wasn't hurt.

"Finally awake," A familiar voice noted. "There were a few moments where I thought you would die, but it appears that your status as a Jinchuriki saw you through the worst of it."

Glancing around the dimly lit cave, he caught sight of a pair of red eyes gleaming in the spot opposite him.

"So this is where the Akatsuki has taken me," Rōshi mused aloud. "You want my Biju, right? That's the only reason why your group could be after me. Tell me then, why am I still alive?"

Slowly standing to his feet, Itachi stepped closer. His Akatsuki cloak was gone and from the looks of it, the entire right side of his body had been bandaged.

"The Akatsuki and I had a disagreement," Itachi remarked, staying just out of Rōshi's range. "They no longer wanted me in their group."

Letting out a soft laugh, Rōshi winced. "I see now. They attempted to kill you after you had already exhausted yourself fighting me. They played it fairly smart, although… It doesn't answer my previous question. Why am I still alive? If you wanted to spite the Akatsuki, you could have just as easily killed me."

Eyeing the wounded Jinchuriki, Itachi returned to his spot on the floor opposite him. "Killing you would only delay the Akatsuki's goal for a few years at the most. I don't intend on waiting that long to deal with them. You're more useful alive than dead."

"Very logical," Rōshi hummed, appreciating Itachi's reasoning. "But I feel that you're leaving something out."

Glancing at Rōshi, Itachi turned his head, looking towards the mouth of the cave, more specifically, at the storm that raged outside.

"Not very talkative, eh," Rōshi muttered. "I can't help but wonder, what exactly do you plan to do now that you've split from the Akatsuki?"

"That is a question I've been contemplating," Itachi replied. Looking at the blood seeping through his bandaged hand, he closed his eyes. "Perhaps it's time…"

"Time for what?" Rōshi asked, but was ultimately ignored.

Seeing that he wasn't going to be getting any further answers out of the Uchiha, Rōshi resigned himself to staring up at the ceiling. He'd been through many things in his long life, but this was different. He'd been captured by an enemy, only to be patched up by that exact same enemy.

Betrayal and backstabbing wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence among Shinobi, but being saved by your enemy… That was something new.

Whether Itachi was doing this out of pragmatism or spite, Rōshi didn't know. What he did know was that he was still alive and he was going to do everything in his power to keep it that way.

Feeling his stomach growl, Rōshi scowled. He hated having to rely on others.

"You got anything to eat?"

"No."

"Then hurry up and go get something."

…PTL…

Blurring through the treetops, Jiraiya was on a mission. With his onetime pupil currently indisposed, the duty of locating the Rokubi Jinchuriki Utakata, had fallen on his shoulders… Not that it was particularly difficult. Naruto had done the majority of the work and had even pointed out Utakata's general location on a map.

Out of all the places for Utakata to be hiding, Jiraiya wouldn't have suspected the Tsuchigumo village. He'd killed a rogue Shinobi around these parts not too long ago… A man that could create seals in midair.

To think he'd been so close to the Rokubi Jinchuriki without even knowing it. Life was strange like that sometimes.

Now that he had time to think about it, he'd never really visited the Tsuchigumo village before. The village had a decent population and was built near a mountain, meaning they likely had at least one hot spring.

And so it was decided. Shattering a tree branch he'd just landed on, his speed increased massively. The hot springs awaited… And Utakata. Couldn't forget the entire reason why he was heading to the Tsuchigumo village.

Surely it wouldn't hurt if he took a quick peek at the hot springs first… And afterwards as well. Who knows, Utakata might be willing to join him in his noble endeavor of gathering research material. His next book wasn't going to write itself.

And that's chapter 63.

Bit of a slower chapter. Shizune makes some progress in learning Shinno's technique, Naruto and co learn about what happened in Iwa and taken steps to prevent a war from breaking out, Itachi and Roshi make a small appearence and Jiraiya's heading towards Utakata's location.

In other news, I'm opening an Ao3 account and will be crossposting there once it's up due to how screwy this site has become. I might use a few other sites as well... I've heard good things about Questionable Questings and Royal road, but I first want to look into them a little more before I decide to post there.

Anyways, I'm up to chapter 70 on the spooky P word website.

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I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.

Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.

The next chapter will be posted on the 14th of March.
See you all then, dudes and dudettes.