Chapter 23: Ghost Trouble?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other references mentioned in this fanfic

A/N: Hey everyone, glad to say that I'm back to full health.

I'm glad that many of you like my last chapter.

To those of you who have also read Tales of Demons and Gods, then you know what I'm talking about. This is actually the novel that pushed me to write this fanfic. I recommend it to anyone who wants to now more about Xianxia culture.

I won't write to much, so here is the new chapter.

Chapter 23

Hiruzen was growing worried as the seconds passed by.

The report sheets on the village's expenses remained untouched on his desk, just as it did 10 minutes ago.

He bit the wooden mouth piece of his pipe as he looked to the clock.

This was all due to the unsettling feeling that had been plaguing the village for the last couple of days.

Civilians and shinobi had reported strange incidents around the village. Some claimed to have seen dead family members wondering the street during the dark hours of the night. Many said they felt a strange presence following them around.

The police department was also busy with the increase of break-ins in the village. Yet the strange part was that nothing was ever stolen only moved around.

Some of the more superstitious people began to claim that the village was haunted.

Normally Hiruzen would stamp some papers and claim this as another incident caused by chakra beast and let the C.B.A. deal with it. That option however wasn't available as his chief expert in all things chakra beast related had become unreachable as of late.

Three days ago, Moon Artifacts, the Leaf Village's star attraction, had posted a closed sign in front of their gate saying that they would be closed until further notice. Since then, no one has seen either hide nor hair of the small owner.

The Hokage hadn't been worried too much, thinking that Kenji was simply taking some time off to work on his latest products, but it had already been three days. There was no way someone as greedy as Kenji would choose to remain closed for that many days and lose out on profit.

What bugged the Third most however was that these strange incidents correlated with the closing of Moon Artifacts.

"I wouldn't hurt to just check up on him, right?"

Nodding to himself he stood up from his seat and started to make his way out of the room.

(Scene change)

"Come one! This one has to work," Kenji yelled in frustration as he took a bottle of brown hair dye and dumped it over his head. He massaged it furiously into his scalp uncaring that his hands had long since turned a black color. "Arrrrgh!"

He was sitting on a wooden stool with only a wash towel tied around his waist. A large wooden bathtub with steaming water right next to him.

For once, his eyes weren't wrapped in bandages, so he let his golden eyes gaze over his yard unobstructed.

His eyes that would always be overwhelmed by the amount of nature energy in the air had finally been fixed. Now he could focus it on certain places or dismiss it entirely.

The small noble boy waited a couple of minutes before getting off his stool and taking a bucket of water and dumping it on his head.

His hand reached for the mirror placed on the ground and he stared at his reflection before throwing it on the ground.

"Aaarrrgh! That was the strongest dye I had," he screamed as picked up a lock of his waist length silver hair and held it up to his face. "The dye just slid right off!"

Akame hopped to his side and placed a comforting paw on his leg, 'Just give up. Accept that you have white hair… old man.'

The glare that Kenji gave her spelled a long and painful death so she did the wise thing and hopped away.

Sigh.

With a defeated air Kenji sat back down on stool.

When he had awoken three days ago after that strange episode, he had found that his body had changed even further. His once chocolate locks of glorious hair had turned into a pale silver color that reached his waist and sparkled in the sun. His nails had also grown out to look like claws and had become as strong as steel. His canines had also elongated to look like fangs. Finally the purple crescent moon and magenta strips on his cheeks that he gained when under sage mode had become permanently etched onto his skin.

He imagined that this was what Sesshomaru would have looked like as a child.

Kenji however was far from pleased at his changes and took every effort to change himself back to how he used to look like.

He took a metal file and ground down his fangs until they were level to all of his other teeth. Next he got a belt grinder and filed down his nails to normal length. Makeup would have to do for the markings on his face since he didn't want to do anything as drastic yet. It was when he got to his hair that the problem had started.

No matter what dye he used, it refused to stick to his hair for anything longer than a few minutes.

He considered wearing a wig, but that felt like admitting defeat.

Kenji jumped into the tub filled with water, letting the purified water sooth his muscles.

With a mental order he looked at how much spirit energy he had.

Chakra: Chunin

Chakra Points: 5,430/5,430

Cultivation: First Stage

Soul Points: 130

Unfortunately, it wasn't just his appearance that had changed.

Kaguya had tried to explain it to him, but he could only get the basics of it as he was too busy not dying.

Apparently, his soul had grown strong enough to produce its own energy after consuming his purified chakra that had bits of nature chakra mixed in. Again, he didn't know everything, but it was enough to look at things differently.

Kaguya called this new energy qi, which was a lot better than his first idea of calling it soul juice.

He had experimented with this qi a bit and found that it was far different from chakra.

Qi and chakra for instance didn't mix.

While chakra tended to act like gas most of the time, qi felt like water in the way it moved around the body.

Chakra also had a pathway that was very neatly constructed with many tunnels and checkpoints similar to how a subway route worked. Qi on the other hand had a network that looked like tree roots that spread from his center.

What was most surprising was that unlike chakra that was contained only in the pathways, qi saturated all part of his body with the roots acting as supply lines.

He had tried to perform jutsu using qi but found out that they did work.

Qi didn't require hand signs to mold it making it easier to control than chakra but as a downside it couldn't used outside the body.

What it could do however was strengthen his body to a degree that even chakra couldn't do. To test this, he gathered qi in one of his legs and used a senbon needle to pierce his skin only for it to remain unbroken.

Using qi he could enhance his speed, strength, and durability to about half as much as he could during sage mode.

There were also no negative drawbacks if he wasted all of his qi unlike chakra. He would also replenish all of his points after of night of sleep with an extra 5 points being added.

That was all he had managed to figure out for now though.

Kenji almost groaned when he remembered Kaguya telling him that it might be similar to the cultivation techniques in his book.

"Why is it that all of the rabbits I know seem to be obsessed with Xianxia fantasy. First Akame and now Kaguya. Seriously, it shouldn't be possible! …Yet there's no denying that something strange is happening in the world," Kenji muttered with a pensive look on his face before submerging himself further into the bathwater.

He enjoyed this time off more than he would care to admit. Working all of those jobs had become tiring even with the help of shadow clones. He didn't know when he would get a vacation again though.

"Oh right, the Daimyo sent a letter announcing that Madam Shijimi was pregnant. Looks like the Land of Fire will finally have an heir. Sucks for all of those nobles previously eyeing the throne. Good thing I'm not there."

He used chakra control to pull out a hand sized ball of water from the tub, then had it spin, forming the beginning of a rasengan. He used this as an improvised loofa to get rid of all of the dye off his skin.

Kenji could perform the full rasengan if he wanted to, just chose not to as it would lead to unnecessary questions. That and its high chakra consumption made it more trouble than it was worth.

Just as he was relaxing a signal from the front gate informed him of someone entering his property. There was no cause of worry however as there was only one person in the enter village who it could be.

He closed his eyes momentarily as he heard the sound of feet on the cobblestone.

"Amazing Kenji-kun, you're looking like the Second with every passing day," came the shocked voice of the Third.

Kenji opened his eyes and splashed some water in his direction.

"Argh!"

"I'm not in the mood Hokage-sama," the small merchant said as he submerged himself neck deep into the water.

Hiruzen shook the water droplets off his robe, the basket of fruit he was holding in one hand almost forgotten. "I apologize, my boy. I take it there is a story to your sudden change in appearance."

Bubble. Bubble. Bubble.

"I was worried since no one has seen you for the last couple of days," the aged ninja said taking a seat on the wooden stool placing the basket on the floor.

"…There was a minor accident on my part. I've been trying to fix it but nothing seems to be working," Kenji said as he held up a strand of silver hair.

The Third took out his pipe and lit it, "Who would have thought you would go grey at such a young age. I warned you that too much stress would lead to this."

The small boy threw a withering glare.

"Ahem. Is there anything I could do to help?"

Kenji shook his head, "No. Not unless you know of a secret jutsu to change hair color."

"I'm afraid not."

"Then no."

Silence spread through the yard, as both just took a moment to enjoy the peaceful scenery.

The Third however remembered his purpose for coming and turned to the small boy, "I don't suppose you have any idea of what's been happening in the village?"

"Huh? Something is happening in the village?" Kenji said with a surprised face, "I've been here for the past 3 days so…"

"As I thought. Well to summaries people have been reporting about strange incidents of things moving around in their homes without anybody touching them. Others claim to hear voices in the middle of the night while other say they feel a presence standing behind them but when they turn to look, they see nothing. The more gullible people claim to be the work of ghosts and ghouls."

"Oh, like the one hanging off your shoulder?"

"What?"

"…What?"

The Third looked to his left shoulder, he thought it had felt cold lately, but there was nothing.

"I'm sorry I think I misheard you, can you say that one more time."

"…you know what. I think I was mistaken. Glad you could drop by, you can see yourself out right," Kenji said as he let himself sink fully into the water's depth.

That however wasn't going to fly this time, as the Hokage quickly shot up from his seat and reached a hand into the water to pull him up.

Kenji dodged the first attempt and those following it with expert precision.

Getting tired of this game, Hiruzen tipped over the entire tub, letting the water and Kenji spill onto the green lawn.

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

Kenji flopped around like a fish, forgetting that he could breath air for a second. He laid still before he stood up and dusted himself.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked crossing his arms, the towel miraculously still preserving his modesty.

"I don't know, but why don't you tell me by what you meant first?" the Third said with a glare.

The small boy gave a sigh as he tried to ring his hair of any excess water, "I'm sure it's nothing, but I can see this weird blob like energy hanging around you."

He focused his eyes to allow him to see the nature chakra in the air to get a clearer picture. What had looked like a transparent smudge before gained a sinister grey color with a face that resembled that one picture, the Scream.

He was unable to hold back the grimace, something that the Third had caught, "What? What do you see?"

"Sorry. It's just really ugly, it looks like a screaming head that's missing it's eyes and tongue," Kenji explained.

The Hokage couldn't help the chill that ran up his spine, "And it's on my shoulder? Any idea what it could be?"

"No, but now that I'm looking at it, I can sense some type of yin energy coming off it."

He switched to sage mode in a second using his store of qi, "Yeah I can definitely sense some type of malicious intent coming from it."

"Well do you have any way to get rid of it?" Hiruzen said getting inpatient at the small boy's carefree attitude.

"Hmm? You know, I think I just might? Let's go inside, it's pretty draft here."

(Scene change)

Kenji, now dressed in a white yukata, walked into his storage room with the Hokage following behind.

"I remember making some exorcism talismans awhile back, but since no one seemed to want them and I couldn't find a use for them, I just kind of forgot about them," Kenji said as he looked inside of a box filled with old talismans.

"Why do you have exorcism talismans anyway?" Hiruzen couldn't help but ask as he looked over shelves of unsold merchandise.

"Well I mean, I am a monk, I thought I would need to perform an exorcism someday?"

The Third raised an eyebrow at that, "You? A monk? Why would you-"

"Taxes."

"Ahh. Say no more."

"I even have official documentation for my shrine out front thanks to the Daimyo," he added as he opened another box.

"Really? What did you call it?"

"Official it's called the: Temple of Red Moon Goddess, she who hold domain over chakra, the moon, order, and the afterlife."

"And unofficially?"

"Goddess that gets me a 25% decrease when I do my taxes. Ah! I found it," Kenji said as he took out a stack of talisman tied together with some twine.

Taking one out, he activated it and threw it toward the Hokage's shoulder.

As soon as it touched the blob like being it released an electrical current that wrapped around it causing it to fall to the floor.

The Third was at first shocked but as he looked at the ground he could now see what had been plaguing him. The blue electrical currents did a good job of outlining the things body even if he couldn't see it. It was wriggling around as if it was in some kind of pain.

"So this was it huh?"

"Yep," Kenji said as he stuck a few of those talismans on a wooden spiked club.

Hiruzen noticed this and couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

"Huh? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to finish it off?" the small boy said giving his club a few test swings.

"Are you sure that's a good idea. If it really is a ghost, doesn't it deserve more respect?"

"Hey! Who's the monk here?" Kenji retorted as he walked up to the 'ghost', "Plus what's the worst it could do? Haunt me?"

Without further ado, Kenji began to rain blow after blow on the defenseless ghost. Every attack with the club caused fresh sparks to course over its body, lighting it up even further.

No mercy was given as Kenji took out his frustration over the last couple of days onto the perfect target.

15 minutes went by before Kenji stopped his assault, leaving the ghost with almost no energy left. It's being looked to be flickering on and off.

Wiping imaginary sweat off his brow, Kenji smiled, "Goddess, I needed that?"

The Third who had watched everything squatted down to take a closer look at the pitiful being that was too weak to even move anymore, "Is it dead?"

"I would think so, with it being a ghost and all?"

"No, I mean, did you take care of it?"

"One more whack should do the trick," Kenji informed him.

"So why did you stop?"

Bending down Kenji placed a hand on the surface of the ghost, "Here touch this? Do you feel it?"

Hiruzen did as he was told, but his hand went right through without feeling anything, "No, I don't feel anything?"

"Exactly, you can't, but I do," Kenji said taking his hand back, "It seems to be a mixture of some unknown energy and nature chakra."

"Nature chakra? Do you mean to say that this thing uses the same energy that you and Jiraiya use when you enter sage mode?" the Third asked while stroking his beard.

The small boy nodded as he picked up the invisible creature with one arm and walked out of the room gesturing for the old man to follow him.

They walked into the shop and to a small wooden shrine placed high in the corner of the room. It had a bottle of sake and some incense sticks there as tribute.

"I want to test something," Kenji said as he sat cross-legged and stared at the shrine in concentration.

It only took a second, for Kenji's consciousness to be transported into Kaguya's throne room. The only difference this time was that he was followed by someone else. The person in question was a thirty something year old man that looked to be injured and scared out of his mind.

Kenji ignored the man for now as he took a kneeling position and bowed his head, "Kaguya-sama."

Kaguya waved him off as her eyes took on a thoughtful expression as she observed their new guest. With a single wave of her hand the mysterious man froze and was lifted into the air.

"I already know why you have come. You wish to know if I made these creatures correct?"

"Yes."

The large Rabbit Goddess shook her head, "I am sorry to say but these are not my creations, although I might have some idea."

"Anything would be helpful?" Kenji said.

Kaguya spun the man in the air for several seconds, twisting him this way and that way until finally she opened her mouth again, "It is as I thought."

"Hm?"

"You might be unaware but your awakening into being a cultivator-"

"Urrrrggg!"

"released a large amount of qi into the surrounding area. Normally this wouldn't be a cause for concern, the problem is your location. This village's land has been tainted by war and conflict for such a long time that it has deeply imbedded itself into the very earth itself. Souls that were previously unable to pass on were able to absorb some of this qi and mixed it with the nature energy they had collected from being part of the earth to give them these forms."

"So in simple terms, they really are ghosts."

"Yes," Kaguya said as she made the poor soul bend backwards until it looked like his back would break.

"Is there anything you can do to fix it?"

The giant woman thought about it before she snapped her fingers and two orbs of energy shot out of the man, "I can take away their nature energy and qi. This would cause them to pass on automatically since there is nothing holding them to the mortal plane anymore."

Kenji saw as the form of the man began to grow dimmer and dimmer. The man looked to have a peaceful smile on his face, before he disappeared entirely.

"Here," Kaguya said as she sent the orb containing qi toward the small boy.

He could feel his qi reserve grow by what had to be 5 points.

The Goddess gained a smile at this, "Should you find anymore of these lost souls, I would ask you to exorcise them in my name."

"So… I get their qi, you get their nature energy, and they get to pass on? Sounds like a win-win all around."

"I am pleased you see it that way?" Kaguya said as she held up her hand with her index finger and middle finger together, "Then allow me to show the way to call upon my divinity to exorcise them."

Kenji almost faced palmed as Kaguya went into her chuunibyou mode again.

(Scene change)

For Hiruzen not even a second had passed by since Kenji had sat down, so he was mystified when the ghost disappeared suddenly.

The small white-haired boy opened his eyes and looked at the old man, "Looks like it really was a ghost."

"What happened to it?"

"It passed on?" Kenji said standing up.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. What, were you expecting something flashy?"

The Third sighed and shook his head.

Kenji retrieved his exorcism club and walked out of the house and to his front gate with the Hokage trailing after him.

He stuck his head out of the gate only briefly to see the situation outside.

"Wow," the small boy said with a shocked expression as he pulled back his face.

"Oh? What did you see?" the Third asked curiously, "Did you happen to spot another of those ghosts?"

Kenji said nothing as he took out 10 exorcism talismans from his bundle and handed them to the Hokage, "Here, throw them in any direction?"

Getting a bad feeling the Third walked through the gate and launched the slips of paper in random direction. 7 of those talisman lit up and captured invisible beings in an electrical net.

His face turned into a grimace, "Oh dear."

(Time skip)

Five days had gone by since the Third was made aware of the villages newest problem. In a rare show of decisiveness, he took quick action, and called his expert in the subject and tasked them with the job of dealing with it.

That action nearly caused him to be kicked out of Kenji's home by the very unamused boy. However after much political maneuvering, groveling, they were able to work out a deal.

Ghost and other supernatural beings would be placed inside of the Chakra Beast Association encyclopedia for starters. Kenji would also be recompensated for every ghost he exorcised as long as he had proof. He would also be able to use village resources if need be.

Beside the monetary reward, Kenji was also allowed to choose a single jutsu from the forbidden scroll. Normally he would bargain for a better deal, but he only really needed one at the moment.

Kenji was busy most of the time now, working on his shop, exorcising ghost and training with qi.

However, it was exactly because of this that he was able to make some progress on his M.A.I.D project. He could finally extend the duration of the chakra beast's soul with the use of qi. The only problem now was the vessel he was using, as they simple couldn't contain so much energy and would explode. That however was for another time.

Currently the Third was looking over at his guest with narrowed eyes trying to spot any form of deception, but found none, just a very tired and worried man.

The Suna shinobi looked at him with hope.

The scroll asking for aid lay opened on his desk. It would seem that the Village Hidden in the Sand also had their share of trouble concerning the chakra beasts, but unlike them, they were only just scraping through.

The message spoke of the Wind Daimyo's desire to form a branch of the Chakra Beast Association located his country.

It didn't take a genius to see the political shit storm that this caused between the Daimyo and the Sand Village.

Still Hiruzen couldn't simply ignore them, since they currently had a treaty no matter how fragile it was.

Opening a drawer, he pushed a button hidden inside. A message would arrive at the Anbu headquarters shortly asking them to bring Kenji to his office. The button was recently installed but he was surprised to find just how useful it was.

(Scene Change)

Kenji in his Master Shu disguise smiled as he watched his shikigami dolls chase the group of ghosts around the street.

One of the ghosts tried to run into an alley, only for one of his shikigami to perform a flying tackle allowing his friends to dogpile the ghost.

The civilians that were passing by giggled at their cute actions, seeing one of his shikigami running around the village had now become common place with the emergence of ghosts. They were particularly popular with the children of the village.

They had exorcism talisman plastered to their bodies to allow them to interact with the ghosts.

They took the trapped ghost and threw him into an iron box with the rest until Kenji could take them all back to his place to exorcism them in private, because there was no way he could do it in public without killing himself in embarrassment.

Just as his shikigami captured another ghost, a Cat masked Anbu appeared behind him.

Kenji released a sigh, "I take it he's calling for me again?"

"…"

"Mind telling me what it is for this time?"

"…"

"I'm not going to like it am I?"

A/N: Hello all you people :)

As you can all see, the next arc in the story is going to begin. Yay!

Also ghost and other phenomenon will start to appear since they are part of Wuxia culture. There is this neat thing called a ghost cultivator, just keep that in mind.

Kenji is also a monk, and can now call on the divinity of Kaguya. The Red Moon Goddess is the name of his diety since he can't say Kaguya's name outloud, else when she does appear people will be looking at him for answers.

Random ninja 1: "Kaguya?"

Random ninja 2: "Hey isn't that the name of Kenji's god deity?"

Random ninja 1: "Oh shit! You're right?"

Random ninja 2: "Well we better interrogate him just to be safe."

Being associate with the person wanting to enslave the entire world isn't the best idea after all.

I hope I explained cultivation okay. I also want to point out that Kenji is the exception not the standard. I'll write what the other cultivators are like as a comparison later in the story.

Cultivation will be seen as a bloodline limit, as children of cultivators will find it easier to survive and learn cultivation techniques.

Well until next time.

Also, I'm posting a new Harry Potter/ Gamer story. It's something I've been working out when I have writers block for this story, and would appreciate it if you checked it out.