Around the World: 1001 Tales

The trick to infiltrating any hidden village is understanding it's security system.

Take Konoha for example.

It's chief security measure was the giant seal designed to alert the Hokage, the Jounin Commander and ANBU Commander whenever someone that isn't a Konoha nin gets within 2 feet of the walls. It's a pretty well designed and built seal, Angler's in the sewers notwithstanding. I think the only reason the angler's got a pass was because the Behemoth was given permission to be in Konoha, covertly, so that the Hokage, Jounin Commander and ANBU Commander didn't all go ballistic trying to find an intruder in the underground and bust ROOT wide open.

Suna's chief security system is the grains of sand the village is built on.

Each and every single particle of sand is the sovereign property of Gaara. They recognize that fact and worship him as Lord and Master. The only reason my attempt at an incursion can work is because I can fly. If my feet don't touch the sand, the sand won't sound the alarm and Gaara can't crush the life out of the invisible nin who dares try to enter his village in secret.

Of course, that's the most plain and visible system they have, but there's no way it's the only one. Judging from the chakra I can see, it's got a seal as well. Well, technically seals like this are actually dozens of seals interconnected to work together. The first is the 'sensor' jutsu bound in place, then the seals dedicated to giving the important people in Suna the 'ping' when the perimeter is breached. It's a network of jutsu held in place and sustained by chakra, which is what all seals are.

Before I go any further, I'm going to take a look at my quest log and get a refresher on this quest that I'm going to undertake.

1001 Tales.

Search for signs of a Coup against the Sand Daimyo: (0/3).

(Optional: Find documents for each Great Shinobi War): (0/3)

(Optional: Don't get spotted once).

Search for signs of a Coup, learn about the Great Shinobi Wars and don't get spotted.

I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment here to state that if I get caught and don't deal with witnesses, I will start another World War. World War 4 will be on my hands if I screw up at all. There it stands. Being spotted or having my mission compromised is completely unacceptable. So, I need to be careful. Touching down on the ground out of habit or turning off invisibility at the wrong time would be completely disastrous.

Take a breath.

Exhale.

But if I'm going to be doing anything with this world, at all, I need to understand the politics of what's going on here. I need to know the world history, I need to know why it's such a dangerous place, why no one can ever do anything about it. I need to understand why the villages can't ever just live and let live, especially with Konoha's dedication to peace and extensive diplomatic efforts.

I mean, it's probably more than seeing them as a vulnerable animal ready to be butchered and eaten. Probably. Lot's of cynicism in any case, I'll need to get the details before I can put together anything closely resembling an actual solution. And by solution, I mean attempts at a solution A-1 to A-10 and that's not even going into the rest of the alphabet.

But it's time to start.

First thing I need to do is figure out how to move in without causing a disturbance to the sensor seal. Ideally, I'd input my blood into contract of 'approved persons' but that's locked away who knows where. I might actually bump into it while I'm inside the archives, but I honestly doubt it. I would say 'let my CDN just absorb it' but that would cause an even bigger disturbance than just walking through normally because they would be alerted that the seal and jutsu is being disrupted bad.

So…hm.

What to do?

Strong henge into a Suna Nin? No, I'd need to morph my chakra for it to work and that is biologically impossible. Create a biological clone of a Suna Shinobi out of thin-air with creation release? Yeah, if I feel like dying. I don't. Go back in time to when I was invited into the village and do this quest then? Yeah, if I feel like dying. I don't.

Stupid Time and Creation Release requiring hit-points to be used.

Alright, so what do I do then?

Mass Shadow Clone an army, henge them into an army of homeless nin, stage an attack on Suna and sneak in, find the document with approved shinobi and place my name on the list, with appropriate blood print and then search at will?

How about a strategy that does not cause mass pandemonium?

Walk up to the front door, ask to speak to Gaara because he owes me a favor, wait through detention, talk and maybe gain access to their archives? Beyond the risk spending my three months if not longer in T&I and never even seeing Gaara, there's also the fact that I'm looking for evidence that they're planning a coup against the Wind Daimyo. I'm going to be watched, so…clone?

Nah, they'll pop it.

The question becomes then, who is allowed into Suna?

Traders.

The land of Wind, as was repeatedly covered into the academy, is completely and desperately dependent on trade coming through to stay afloat, especially during droughts when the wells were all dry. It has no resource value so no one really wants to conquer it anyway. Million Ryo's on there being a vast deposit of crude oil somewhere under the sand just to jump-start the economy to 'biggest in the Elemental Countries' for middle-east parallel's even though Suna isn't the Middle East. But until they learn what oil does, if they do have a lot of it, it'll be useless.

So, disguise a clone as a trader, smuggle real self in with the merchandise, sell stuff and give Suna some fresh Ryo while I'm pilfering their archives and mission information.

Honestly, it's perfect. Shouldn't be too hard to forge proper identification. Well, unless it's got some chakra as a measure against counterfeit.

…crap.

Again, you can't morph your chakra into someone else's. I mean, you can remove any and all 'impurities' from your chakra, make it neutral. That's emergency chakra exhaustion treatment 101. The problem is making any chakra something that isn't yours. So you can purge someone else's chakra and make it yours, but you can't purge your chakra and make it someone else's because it's straight up impossible. I can't produce the differentiating features of Naruto's chakra, for example, anymore than he could mine.

Like only produces like after all.

Alright, that's out.

Trying to obtain a pass into the village legitimately will take longer than three months and Konoha will find out. They'll start asking questions. It will turn into a political mess. A horrific political mess.

Why don't I just ignore the seal and go in? It's not like it tells the Kazekage exactly where I am, just that I'm there. Besides starting a panic, causing the whole village to go on high alert and get people to be actually looking for me where it would be significantly safer if they didn't even know I was there.

But would it even matter if they knew I was there if they never actually find me? I mean, I'll need to find their archives and those are going to be protected in case of a security alert. My biggest problem is that just because I'm invisible doesn't mean I'm undetectable and it's going to be a lot harder to sneak in if they're actually looking for something.

I have 100 Sneak.

There's actually a chance that they wouldn't be able to find me even if they could see through my invisibility. I'm technically a stealth artist in the same way that I invent Ninjutsu and use Taijutsu. If they never find me, it won't matter if all the alarms go off. Besides, I'm known for being a combat monster that abhors stealth, they won't immediately jump to the conclusion that I infiltrated them after they give the matter some thought.

It just offends me that I can't figure out a way to do this clean and quiet. I'm supposed to be a smart, more considerate guy now. If it was just me on the line, I wouldn't care so much, but I'm about to throw a village into uproar and if I'm caught it'll be a huge diplomatic incident. At the very least, it'll burn all of the favor I earned with Gaara and I'll be let go. But that's being unrealistically optimistic.

Quick and clean, that's what I wanted.

But we don't always get what we want.

First, a wave of duplicates, get some initial scouting done. They're invisible, so they can just pop themselves when required, if they get cornered. No fighting, no anything. Just ghosting around, get into the archives and…port…no wait. Just use clones. They find the information I need, then poof themselves, bringing it straight to me. It's practically foolproof.

…I'm starting to see why Naruto was considered the strongest Ninja who ever Ninja'd. Sekaikage. World Shadow. He just makes billions of these things day in and day out and they can do basically anything.

Brought my hands together.

Shine Clone jutsu.

A team of five clones, their forms briefly distorting the air before settling. Then by the rush of air that I felt, they zipped down to the village below and I was forced to sit and wait. Just wait.

…I'm bored.

But that's okay. Being bored is not the worst thing in the world. In fact, that's something I need to work on coping with. Being bored. It's fine.

I'm tempted to execute the wait command, but I don't know if that'll blow up my clones. Let's put that on the note, actually. In my notebook, I quickly jotted down that I needed to test the Wait mechanic with clones to see if that really does pop my clones.

Okay, back to waiting.

You know what I should do?

Make a hand-held gaming system. Even something as simple as Snake would be better than just sitting here right now. Actually, I've always wanted to play D&D on demand, but the biggest weakness I had was trying to find someone willing to DM, which was a lot of work. With jutsu, and seal work, and 10 Intelligence, I might be able to invent a DM which comes up with stories and plot lines automatically. Just so long as I don't make it sapient, it should be good.

The sun gently flew across the sky in it's slow, ponderous way, the shadows on the village below growing and changing direction with it. I could see patrols of nin being scattered, slowly growing more frantic as hawks started being let out, dancing in whatever formations they might. I assume that flight pattern was 'silent alert'.

There was a point when the hawks were collected back inside then let out again, this time with a different signal. They flew in a different formation this time and the patrols all started to calm down. Is that formation 'false alarm'?

That's interesting. Only took, what, two hours? Huh. Alright, I guess they're doing a good job of being hidden. Are they looking at the seal to see if it's gotten bugged? I mean, it could happen. I don't know how, though. Extenuating circumstances definitely.

…Hooboy.

Quest Completed: 1001 Tales.

Completed: Search for signs of a Coup against the Sand Daimyo: (3/3).

Completed: (Optional: Find documents for each Great Shinobi War): (3/3)

Completed: (Optional: Don't get spotted once).

+1200 EXP.

Bum-bum-bum-Bum!

Level up!

You know, this is a very bad time for a level up. Ugh. I wasn't even paying attention to my EXP over the past few weeks. Whatever.

All 23 points into Barter. Bring it up to 53. It was boosted 10 points when I got almost Perfect so while it was 20 before then, it was 30 after. I'm level 31, so no perk to spend.

Thank goodness we avoided that close call with the Kazekage. Almost Bumped right into him on the way to the archives. That would've almost made me call off the op and have to come back in a week and they surely would've bumped up security because they'll know what I was after.

But it doesn't matter, I got in and got what I wanted.

Number 1, yeah. They were totally planning a coup against the Sand Daimyo. Turns out it's a bad idea to outsource your mercenary work when you've got your own force sitting in the sand getting poorer by the day. That was the main impetus behind them colluding with Orochimaru to invade Konoha, which was still on the table until Orochimaru's death. Beyond taking out their chief competition, they could take over the Sand Daimyo's position and install a puppet.

Things in the Land of Wind are bad. The poor are getting poorer. Some of the Rich are picking up and leaving because they're getting poorer too. I wonder how Gaara managed to turn it around in Canon, since there was still a village to be Kage of when Shippuden rolled around. Maybe I'm just overestimating the time until Economic collapse.

Actually, given my lower than Journeyman Barter skill, that's exactly what's going on. Though I don't know by how much. The more interesting thing was with the records of the Great Shinobi wars. Specifically, the third one.

They think Konoha started it.

We were always taught that Iwa started the war when they launched a surprise attack within the borders of the Land of Fire. It was taught without a hint of deception, even looking back on my lessons in the Academy. The instructors all believed what they were teaching with all the certainty that the truth brings.

But, well...

Let's not make any mistakes here, I don't like the third. He's overly manipulative, slow to understanding and quick to make exceptions for those he cared about. I remember that he actually let Orochimaru go and I almost want to say that he had something to do ROOT's continued activity. But he's not a warmonger.

So, what's going on?

I need to find out. Which means heading off to Iwa and back to Konoha and raiding their own archives for whatever is going on. Then I might as well head off too Kumo then Kiri to round everything off. I'm making a round the world trip. Heck, I might as well include the Land of Iron in my itinerary.

Quest Added: Around the World.

Completed: Complete 1001 tales in Suna.

Complete Written in Stone in Iwa.

Complete Ashes of the Past in Konoha.

Complete Myths of Olympus in Kumo.

Complete Rivers of Blood in Kiri.

Complete The Iron Rod in Tetsu no Kuni.

The Iron Rod?

Oh…heh. I remember now. Nice reference to my old religion. Symbolism for the word of God, going to dig up the Samurai's old dirt. Kind of a clumsy reference if you ask me, but whatever.

First stop, Iwa. Never been there before and I want to see more new places before I head back to the forests of Konoha. Besides, it's the most prohibitively dangerous place for a Konoha nin, which automatically raises its appeal by a large amount. I wanna see the world, after all.

As I flew off, below, I saw the remains of the battle Orochimaru and I had. The sand was scarred black from the lighting and fire that Orochimaru had thrown at me in a desperate attempt to stall me and run away. From down there, it looked like those scars were miles long. Up here, they only looked a mile long. At most. But the scars in the land were there. The snake had fought like a Lion, ironically, and the battle created a land-mark in the Land of Wind.

But it proved that those jutsu he threw at me were insanely powerful and would've easily killed me if it wasn't for game mechanics; armor reducing all damage I took by 85% and the CDN absorbing about half of the damage as chakra, allowing me to heal off the rest of it with Nutriwater.

With all my preparation, thousands of points of damage were reduced to just under a hundred points, poison could not work and he could not run. Preparation makes coming up with plans easy.

Preparation makes an impossible fight a winnable fight. But if I didn't have the game mechanics, I would never have won that fight. Ever.

Kabuto finished cleaning his glasses, looking at the monitors, making sure that Kimimaro's condition was stable. When he saw that it was, he turned back to the ill nin.

Kimimaro's curse seal had activated spontaneously several weeks ago for no reason. So, did the rest of those with seals, penned up for his Master to change hosts should he have needed it. But one by one, the seals on the others went silent, leaving the hosts alive, but visibly shaken.

But the ill Shinobi before him? His had not changed. In fact, it had only gotten worse. The glowing tattoos had engulphed him, enshrouding him in a cocoon.

There was really only one possible explanation for this.

Orochimaru-sama had died and was searching for a new host.

The fact that he chose Kimimaro indicated that he wasn't able to think clearly from wherever he was now. That, or he considered the idea of dying by trying to take Kimimaro a moot point since he was already dead. It was a miracle that the Shinobi was still alive or doing as well as he was.

It would not be long before Orochimaru had finished taking Kimimaro's form. Then they would need to decide where to go from there.

Kabuto took a breath. They would need to go into hiding. From the Village of Sound, Leaf, just completely drop off the Radar until Orochimaru-sama was able to take another, healthier body. A temporary replacement would be required to handle the village; he would not be told where they would find refuge in case of attempted coup while Orochimaru-sama was unwell.

The beeping started to pick up, the monitors displaying increased vitals. The purple chakra picked up in activity, sparking and shining brighter and brighter. Kimimaro began to scream, louder than he should ever have been able to because of his infirmities. The air seemed to swirl in a twister in the room.

Kabuto narrowed his eyes, shielding them in the crook of his arm. It's almost time.

Then the light was gone. The monitor began to slowly beep as the vitals returned to normal.

He took a moment to straighten and then walk over to the patient.

Kimimaro looked more or less the same. Still ill, still on the verge of death, still defiantly clinging to life. But his eyes. There was a new intensity to them. A new calculated measure as they took in Kabuto's form.

"Kabuto…" Orochimaru wheezed.

"I am here, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto gave a bow.

"I live again," He said with Kimimaro's voice. "We will need to hide while I regather my strength."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto said, straightening. "I will make the necessary arrangements."

"Thank you," Orochimaru replied.

"Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto began, swiftly moving to the desk to draft up plans. "If I may ask…what happened."

Orochimaru gave a mirthless chuckle. "Shimoda was every bit as powerful as I had hoped…a shame I wasn't ready for him."

"I see," Kabuto replied. "How far back are you moving your plans for him back?"

"To after I recover, most definitely," Orochimaru coughed out. "But after that? I will not try again until I have the Sharingan."

"So we'll resume finding and enticing the Uchiha brat," Kabuto summed up.

"Yes," Orochimaru agreed. "I wonder if I should take his eyes before he kills Itachi and brag about it before I end him? Or should I let Sasuke kill Itachi and take his body so that it's the last thing Itachi sees with his dying breath?"