455 My SI Stash #55 - Snapping Turtle by Chairtastic (Naruto)
-Crazy how I've read hundreds of SI Naruto fics and this is the first one to not have the classic SI!9Tailed/1TailedJinchuriki but instead Isobu the 3 tailed~
Synopsis: Isobu the three-tailed turtle has been bonded to another host due to civil war. But the trouble with making a living weapon is that sometimes they can think. They can make decisions of their own. And they might be of the opinion that a leash can be pulled from either end.
Rated: T
Words: 29K
Posted on: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/snapping-turtle-naruto-si.903843/ (Chairtastic)
PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)
-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics/originals mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)
Chapter 1
Fifteen years before Naruto.
Mother Jiang.
Akami had been afraid every afternoon that, when the children came back from the instruction at the academy, her boy wouldn't be one of them. With the civil war, none of the civilians knew when their children's class would be ordered to graduate and partake of the bloody ceremony. Had the Daimyo not commanded that all children in the village be sent to the academy to train, she would not have allowed her son to go.
He could hate her if he wanted, but he would be alive to hate her. Better an estranged child than a buried one, as her mother had told her when she did the same to Akami.
Akami cooked to distract herself from the worry and the war. She worked in a restaurant in the village, so her managers were appreciative of her dedication. The extra work, from when her son left in the morning, made them content to let her leave in the afternoon to be there when he got back.
She was a large woman, she'd gotten into cooking because she loved food, and anyone who ever had anything to say about it got punched square in the teeth. Her father had been a ninja, she knew how to throw a punch that would hurt. Her mother had said that, after the starvation that had hit Kiri during the First Shinobi World War, she thought it a blessing that she had a daughter who loved to eat to soothe her anxiety.
Kiri wouldn't go hungry during the civil war, she hoped. The loyalists still controlled the major ports and Kirigakure had priority on supplies. But any day, the battle could turn against them and their vast archipelago could shrink down to just the central islands, and food would grow scarce.
As if she didn't have enough to worry about, when she left the restaurant one day, she noticed that it had started to snow. A terrible omen, and she rushed home to put on a pot of tea. Alongside that, a quick meal of egg fried rice for both her and her son. She had the meal set out along with tea so that he would see it the moment he came back. Something set her hairs on end, like an instinctual warning, before she heard it.
The neighbor's children had come down the road home. And shortly thereafter she heard soul-crushing wails. Akami sat and watched the door as dread creeped into her veins. The screams grew more numerous as more children returned home and more… didn't. Akami's son was a bit silly, observant, but he talked back when insulted -- and had inherited his father's Wave Country temper. Anger got ninja killed.
A figure passed by the window, too tall to be her boy. Tears started to fill her eyes. Someone knocked at her door, too loud and deliberate to be her boy. Akami desperately tried to keep it together as she stood from the table and shuffled to the door. She knew what she was going to be told, but she couldn't shake the slim hope that it was something different.
A thousand possible scenarios played before her as she opened the door. Without the barrier, the wailing of mothers who mourned their children was even worse. In her doorway was one of the ninja instructors at the academy. Sojiro Hidaka, a tall and whip-thin man who wore all-grey except his black Kirigakure headband and a medical mask over his face.
She stood there for a second, afraid that she would break and begin to wail as other mothers did. She stood there while the ninja looked down his nose at her -- for all she knew, he smirked underneath that mask. Kiri ninja were vicious like that.
"Akami Jiang," the chunin started and folded his hands behind his back while he bowed.
Akami returned the gesture, and tried to remain dignified as she rose from it.
"It is with honor that I inform you that your son graduated from Kirigakure's ninja academy this morning. He will serve his country as a genin."
Relief was bitter as she heard dozens of mothers wail at children who didn't make it. She looked to the chunin's side, and didn't see her boy there. Something was wrong. "Where is he? Is he hurt? At the hospital?"
Sojiro sighed, as if exasperated, and explained. As his words hit her, it was like a knife drove into her heart. Her son was alive, but some part of her wished he wasn't. The chunin left, to go inform another family of their child's fate, and left Akami in the open doorway.
She didn't have the energy to join in the desperate wails of other mothers. Akami closed the door and shuffled to the couch. The food she made would go cold, as would the tea. But she didn't care at that moment. Akami sat with her head in her hands and wished she could cry. She had been almost there mere minutes prior, then it all went away when she heard what had become of her son.
She couldn't bring herself to cry for a demon.
--
Director Ruan.
Medical director Suzume Ruan checked all the injured patients from the latest graduation to make sure they were treated properly. She'd had the trainees do it, as she'd been required for the jinchuuriki procedure.
"Laceration from kunai," she impassively spoke as she examined the genin's back. "Stitches look good, sterilized properly, no bleeding. It'll scar, and you'll have something to brag about when the stitches come off." Suzume adjusted her half-moon glasses and nodded at the trainee who had done the work. To give the genin a bit of a boost about his recovery, she rustled his hair before she laid him back down to rest. Once they were out of earshot of the boy she turned to the trainee and tapped her in the chest. "That stitchwork was magnificent, especially for how little time you had to do it. If you want a hospital job, and not somewhere on the front lines, keep that up."
"Yes, director," the trainee responded, her sweat visible through the scrubs.
"Get cleaned up, you've more patients to look after." She didn't linger much on how she had lied to the trainee -- fast and effective stitchwork was a vital field resource, not a hospital one. But no one wanted to learn the field medic skills and risk their lives. Suzume returned to her office to begin filing the paperwork to bill the medical supplies to the budget committee.
On her desk were pictures of her and her family in happier times. A photo of Suzume and her sister, back when her hair was long and done in a braid, rock climbing. A photo of her fiancee and her on a date, back when Suzume's skin wasn't pale from being indoors. And a photo of Suzume asleep on the couch with her cats, when she didn't have massive bags under her eyes.
She worked in relative silence until her office phone rang. She had enough managerial staff on hand that she shouldn't have been contacted unless something had gone wrong. When she picked it up, she got informed of the specifics: "The jinchuuriki escaped."
Suzume's blood ran cold as she slammed the phone in its cradle and rushed out of the office. Doubtless the Anbu operatives assigned to watch the hospital were in pursuit, but if the seal they had bound the bijuu up in had faltered then there wasn't much that they could do besides bring her back a body.
But maybe the boy hadn't gone far, and she could bring him back.
When she got to the jinchuuriki's room, she found the chunin left to guard the boy bound to the wall by pink coral, and the restraints on his bed broken by the same substance. She refrained from chastising the pathetic ninja that had been bested by a freshly blooded genin, and asked them which way he'd went.
She didn't have to go far, just a couple floors down. In happier times, the hospital had a pool for physical therapy which had gone unused as no one could be spared to do the physical therapy exercises with the patients. Suzume saw the doorknob burst apart with fragments of coral in it, and looked inside.
The jinchuuriki was face-up in the water, fully dressed, floating with arms and legs wide. He wasn't just a genin, Suzume told herself. He was a jinchuuriki of a water bijuu. He had already used his powers long before they thought he would even be conscious. The wise thing to do would be to let Anbu sort it out, she hadn't been on a battlefield in years.
But, perhaps due to too many long shifts and too much ruthless calculus of war, she opened the door and stepped inside. The jinchuuriki turned to her, then looked back at the ceiling. A large boy, tall for his age, and chubby. His hair had to be shaved for the seal, but the hook-like tattoo almost resembled a curly hairstyle on its own.
"Noburu?" She cautiously spoke and approached the edge of the pool. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, you know." The boy responded as if he'd heard her perfectly despite his ears being submerged. "Vibing." He was so nonchalant, it was eerie.
"Vibing?"
Noburu sighed. "Doesn't matter. Isobu wanted to swim, found a pool and went swimming."
"Isobu?" She frowned as she walked the perimeter of the pool. She could tell by the shadows that deepened suddenly that the Anbu were on hand in case something happened.
"The Three Tails. His name is Isobu. He likes to swim." Noburu closed his eyes and floated in silence for a while. "You're still here."
"I need you to go back to your room, Noboru." Suzume didn't want to provoke the jinchuuriki so close to the water, but she couldn't leave the Anbu to sort it out and potentially sour the jinchuruki's attitude toward the village more than it had already.
"And I'll return… when Isobu is satisfied." The boy moved to float upright in the water, and his eyes met hers in an intense stare. "We both want Isobu to be satisfied, content, not at all prone to push against this prototype seal none of you knows the exact strength of, right?"
Shit, Suzume thought to herself. "You… were awake for that, were you?"
"Anesthesia affects everyone differently. Takes a bit longer to kick in for me, my dad was the same way."
"The seal… we expected the demon to fight back. It would be caught like a fish on a hook." She didn't know why she felt the need to explain herself to a child, but the boy's intense stare made her feel like she was being scolded by a superior.
"Spirit," he responded. "Isobu is a spirit. But yeah, the whole fish hook design element, I got that. But I'm not willing to risk my life to stress test the damn thing, so I'm keeping Isobu happy and unhooked." The genin swam around the pool aimlessly for a moment before he turned to her again. "Isobu says the next time you seal him in an urn, just fill it with water and this won't be necessary for future jinchuuriki."
"O-oh. I'll… pass that along to the Mizukage."
"Cool. Now I'm going to keep this up for a while. You probably have work to go do. Bye." Noburu dove under the water and swam submerged.
Suzume glanced at the deepest shadows, where she knew the Anbu watched, and walked out of the pool. The jinchuuriki was watched. He wasn't being confrontational. And if either of those changed, she could trust the Anbu to sort it out without killing him. However she still would have to get those chunin off her wall, and repair the coral damage the boy had done.
The impulse to get the jinchuuriki to kill her to avoid paperwork was tough to shake off.
--
Mother Jiang.
Akami had a friend, Arata Chow. Arata was of mixed descent, like her Noburu, so she looked to him for insight on how to make her son's life easier in Kirigakure. They were both of the foot caste, so there was no pressure to help but Arata did anyway. In return, Akami helped him when his wife took ill -- and looked after Arata's daughter when they had to go to the hospital. Arata's wife was vain, and became nasty as she grew sick, so Akami became a person he could vent to when times were tough.
It hurt her like a knife to the heart when she found out her Noboru had killed Arata's Yuuko to graduate from the academy. A darling little girl who loved to chase and collect bugs, gone so her son could live. Only for that life to be ruined, and the sacrifice to be meaningless.
She expected Arata would hate her, but she wasn't a coward. She made a trip to the bank, and obtained some ryo to give as condolence money. Akami was ready to be screamed at, or attacked, because of the circumstance. But she would do Yuuko's memory right and observe tradition.
She ran into Arata on the way back from the bank. Where once he had been a short but lively man, he seemed empty when Akami saw him. His tanned skin pale, and his eyes red. When Arata saw her he scowled with terrible hatred, and Akami couldn't say it was undeserved. Her son had lived, as a demon, and Arata's daughter was gone.
Akami stood still as the short man stormed over to her and began to shout. Even crazed with grief, he wouldn't throw a punch -- though Akami would have let it slide.
"You have some nerve showing your face!" Arata shouted, his voice slightly hoarse. "I trusted you and your brat! I invited you into my home! I let my daughter stay with you! And your son put a knife in her neck!"
"Yes," Akami responded, and averted her eyes.
"Look at me. Look at me!" When Akami returned her gaze, Arata was despondent. "You told me our kids would look out for each other in the academy! They'd be on a team, and serve together! And…." Arata clenched his fists and beat them against his head. "He killed her! He killed her because she wouldn't fight back, I know it! My sweet girl…."
Would Akami do the same if the situation had reversed? If Yuuko had lived, to become the jinchuuriki, and Noburu had died? She didn't know. She tried to think of what she would say to herself in that situation to make it feel better. But there were no words.
"Say something!"
Akami was quiet a moment longer before she spoke. "I'm sorry. She didn't deserve this."
Arata didn't explode like how she thought she would. Instead, he began to shake his head. "No. No you're not." His face became a vicious snarl. "You're not sorry. Not yet! You'll be sorry alright, but not yet!" He turned in the opposite way he'd come, and shouted over his shoulder. "I'll make you sorry!"
That night, Akami didn't sleep. She stayed up with a sharp kitchen knife in her hand, and kept an ear out for any suspicious noises.
--
Third Mizukage.
Kirigakure heavily featured cylindrical buildings, often with small parks planted on their roofs. There was little adornment for the buildings, or artistic inclination -- only their pragmatic value was considered. Painted walls, murals, any covering for the concrete was considered unnecessary. Even the rooftop parks had begun as a source of food for the landlord's family.
The Mizukage Tower was not as tall as some of those buildings, but it was heavily fortified and the park within its roof was closest to being a forest in its own right. Fruiting trees and bushes were grown, and some wild animals kept for the pleasure of the hunt. A controlled ecosystem, as the First Mizukage had envisioned the village itself.
Sadly, that had not been the prevailing line of thought for the Second or Third Mizukages. While the Second had treated his ninja like family, the Third was markedly more distant.
The Third, Ryukotsusei, was a man without illusions. Haggard and old, he had been the longest leader of the Hidden Mist in its history. He looked out from his office window at the park within the Tower and saw a giant spike-backed turtle emerge from the park's pond to snatch a deer by the neck. Nutrition and value had to be extracted from the weak to benefit the strong. That was just how things worked.
His reflection in the window was of a old man who seemed to have never visited a barber. His hair was long and spiked at the ends from lack of care. His eyes were deadened, and his face was lined with stress wrinkles. As years had passed, he wore the kage robes and hat more than his preferred fashion, until the kage robes and hat became his preferred fashion. A blue robe with a long white coat and a blue wide-brimmed hat with a neck covering -- inscribed with the symbol for water.
Ryukotsusei waited and watched as the water in the pond grew bloody from the spike-backed turtle's meal. A meeting of the war council had been called, but the other members were not so fast as an elderly man with bad hips, it seemed.
Finally, a knock at his door. "Enter," he instructed it and turned away from the scene below.
The first person to cross the threshold was the medical director, Suzume Ruan. She was the one who would have the most to say about the progress they'd made. Ryukotsusei didn't appreciate how she never wore her forehead protector or flak jacket, even to official meetings, anymore -- it made it more apparent that she never expected to see the field again -- which would cause political problems.
Second came Fu Sun, a retired kunoichi who had been appointed to administer the military intelligence and counterintelligence of Kirigakure. Fu was ann elderly woman, her hair once a vibrant color but faded to grey, dressed as a civilian but with a sizable scroll across her shoulders. She sat down on one of the two couches which faced each other in front of the Kage's table, and Ryukotsusei didn't make a fuss about that. She was older than him, and already his hips told him he'd been standing too long.
Third came Raiga Kurosuki of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. A tall man, dark skinned and with long green hair, he was the only one of the war council who was not of the eyes caste, merely a hand caste jounin. Raiga, to Ryukotsusei's shame, bore the Kiba branched twin swords -- imbued with lightning to cut deeper than any mundane blade. Raiga's possession of the blades broke the unstained tradition that only the eyes caste were qualified to be in the Seven Swordsmen. A part of the Mizukage hated him for that. Raiga commanded the portion of Kiri's armed forces meant to guard the village itself from rebels.
Fourth and last was the daimyo's man, Takashi Zhang, from the capital. An overdressed fop by the standards of Kirigakure, the bespectacled man had a pinched face and fanned himself tirelessly while he walked in. Zhang was the daimyo's representative, and provided the village its funds and supplies to wage war in the daimyo's name. The man closed the door behind him, and flounced onto the couch opposite Fu.
Suzume and Raiga seated themselves, and the meeting was underway.
"The three-tailed demon turtle is sealed," Ryukotsusei announced and seated himself at his desk. "One of the foot caste genin was deemed a suitable match and the ritual was completed yesterday. Director Ruan will fill us in on the details."
All eyes went to Suzume, who wilted a bit under the gaze. "The genin we selected, one Noburu Jiang -- "
"Pfa," Takashi interrupted with a cruel smile. "You allowed the jinchuuriki to keep its name? It will not live long -- give it a number or something."
Ryukotsusei couldn't say that was a poor plan. The three-tailed demon was more straightforward in its powerset than the six-tailed demon. Not less useful, but more easily used. Once a host was damaged irreparably, they could extract it and seal it into a new host within a couple of days.
Suzume frowned. "The genin we selected has already shown the ability to use the three-tails' coral generation powers. He broke free of his restraints, and defeated two chunin with relative ease. They are alive, without injuries."
"Hmm," said the Mizukage with concern. The jinchuuriki should have killed them. "I was told the jinchuuriki would be maddened with the pain of the three-tails from the seal we placed on it. Is the feedback not sufficient?"
"I expect it is sufficient, only… we misread the three-tails' personality." Suzume pushed her glasses up and avoided the Mizukage's gaze. "The three-tails isn't trying to escape. If it doesn't try to escape, the seal of hooks doesn't lock in around it to cause it pain and keep it confined."
Takashi scoffed. "What? Preposterous. Every time the tailed demons have had a chance to escape, they took it. They're destructive beasts, they want to be free to destroy."
"Apparently you're wrong, lord secretary," Raiga smoothly cut in. The Swordsman smirked at the civilian official before he returned to professional indifference. "Making assumptions like that could cost us the war, you know. Your stance on jinchuuriki aside, we could lose this one if we send it against Kousuke recklessly."
Fu sighed and leaned on the arm of her couch. "We cannot afford to waste time either. He's graduated from the academy?" She looked around at Ryukotsusei and then Suzume, then nodded herself. "Very good. Get him assigned to a squad, and send him to war. I'll make sure Kousuke has too much on his plate to make an appearance on the front lines."
"I say we need to keep the jinchuuriki here," Raiga said with a cold look. "With the jinchuuriki in the home guard, we can free up potentially dozens of ninja to reinforce the front lines and start pushing back. The shinobi in the home guard are tacticians, experienced soldiers, and not liable to have the rebel leader meet them in a head to head fight."
Ryukotsusei tapped his fingers to the desk. "But having the jinchuuriki on the front lines could be useful for luring Kousuke into a trap. He lost how many men in the raid on the three-tailed demon's shrine?" The Mizukage smirked at the memory. As if they would leave the bijuu in its temple after the six-tails' jinchuuriki rebelled. "What is the jinchuuriki's temperament?"
Suzume cleared her throat. "Accommodating. He only broke free and attacked his guards because he wanted to keep the three-tails calm. His academy marks that, aside from some back talk, he was a competent trainee. Though we have yet to see the impact of the graduation ritual on him."
"Hmm." Ryukotsusei rested his chin on his steepled hands. "I thought assigning him to face his childhood friend would burn that defiant streak out of him. We'll have to work harder on that." After Kousuke's rebellion, it was not in the village's interests to suffer a defiant jinchuuriki, nor would the daimyo allow it.
"Every minute that the creature is not on the front lines killing rebels, more loyal Water Country men die," Takashi said softly with a scowl. His fanning speed slowed considerably. "The daimyo will not approve any plan that doesn't see the creature being put to use."
There was quiet as everyone looked to Ryukotsusei and he, in turn, contemplated. "We will not risk Kousuke stealing our remaining jinchuuriki," the Mizukage declared. "He will stay in the home guard, under Raiga's command, while Fu and I move the front lines around so that Kousuke can be trapped with his fellow jinchuuriki as bait. We have a soldier who can think, instead of a mad dog on a leash -- we can't just throw him at the enemy as was the original plan." The last was said to the daimyo's man with narrowed eyes. The Mizukage's gaze shifted to Raiga. "Get the creature to the point where it can kill jounin regularly."
"Of course," Raiga said and bowed his head.
"Killing Kousuke in an ambush would certainly cement our position relative to the warrior monks," Fu commented. "Can't say I like it more than the increased revenue we'd get from having an active jinchuuriki on the field, though."
"Neither will the daimyo." Takashi fanned himself speedily. "He will be positively furious if we lose Nagi and Ouza on top of the southern islands."
"The daimyo will have his islands back by the end of this conflict," Ryukotsusei assuaged the man. "Before the year's end, perhaps. They won't even have time to print any 'Sea Country' ryo."
--
Jounin Kurosuki.
Raiga made his way to the hospital once the official orders were drawn up to get the jinchuuriki and begin training. From the picture in his file, the kid -- Noburu -- would need to lose some weight. A diet and Kirigakure exercise would see to that. Funerals and wakes would be announced for the children too weak to be genin, Raiga planned to make sure Noburu attended the one for the girl he'd killed.
He'd get to see if the kid was truly sorry.
The Anbu assigned to watch the jinchuuriki hid in the points of deepest shadows on the approach to his room. Too many good shinobi wasted on guard duty, in Raiga's opinion. The jinchuuriki's door was partially overgrown with coral, just enough to block the door from opening. With exactly zero regard, Raiga stepped back and kicked the door down with all his weight.
"Now listen up!" He shouted while he crossed the threshold. He pointed at the bald jinchuuriki on the bed, messing with coral, and assumed an authoritative tone. "You've been assigned to the home guard, specifically to my squad! I will function as your sensei, and get you into fighting shape if I have to beat you to death to do it! Am I understood?"
The jinchuuriki met his eyes and continued to mess with coral in his hands. "Great," the pre-teen drawled. "I'm going to learn from a filler villain. A filler villain with personal issues sixteen miles wide, no less." The boy sighed, long-suffering. "Going to have to break out the therapist chair for this, methinks."
Filler villain? What? Raiga hadn't expected that, and he visibly struggled to process it. "Genin, I am your sensei -- and you will do as I say!"
Noburu held up a finger. "That didn't work for Dr. Gero, that's not going to work for you. Also, to quote Tywin Lannister, anyone who has to say 'I am the king' is no true king. Power is shown, not talked about."
Raiga decided he was going to go super hard on the jinchuuriki's training right then and there. He'd never even heard of Dr. Gero or Tywin Lannister -- perhaps they were characters from a book?
"Plus, I'm a conscript. You volunteered to become a ninja, not me. I'm not going to be enthusiastic about this, nor particularly patriotic. You had to know this was likely to happen when you decided to make the jinchuuriki from the foot caste." Noburu shrugged, then messed with his coral some more. Where before it had been a lump, he made it grow into a sharp spike. "I'm trying to make a sort of coral trap," he commented when he saw Raiga's interest. "Eventually I'm going to try and make coral caltrops, but these bigger spike balls should work on enemy summons. Stuff to throw into their mouths, or fleshy joints."
Raiga blinked at the tactical thought he'd just heard from the genin. It was a good start -- not good enough to avoid a proper beasting, but still. "You're able to make the coral grow on your own? Previous jinchuuriki needed to channel the beast's chakra to do so."
"I am channeling Isobu's chakra, though. His chakra mingles with mine. A side effect of the seal of hooks." He tapped the back of his head. "I'm pretty certain I can do that 'eyes of the bijuu' trick on command." He screwed up his eyes and then opened them -- shining yellow where before they had been dull brown. "Intimidation factor."
When Raiga looked at those eyes, he felt small. He felt like an ant must have felt to be the sole focus of a human. He didn't like the feeling -- it prompted him to respond with anger. "Knock it off!" Raiga walked forward and grabbed the genin by the back of his shirt. "We got a lot of work ahead of us! You need to become a ninja worth all this investment, and get rid of this," he growled as he poked the genin's chubby gut. "It's time to get down to business!"
"To defeat," the genin deliberately paused and spoke with a musical inflection, "the Huns?"
Raiga slapped him.
---
Cast:
Mizukage Ryukotsusei: The Third Mizukage, formerly an attendant of the First Mizukage, and a team member of the Second. A pragmatist at heart, and a fan of brutalist architecture. With him as the Mizukage, Water Country repeatedly expanded to include dozens of formerly independent island nations. Not a nice man. Eyes caste.
Director Suzume Ruan: A jounin medical ninja and contemporary of Tsunade. One of twelve sealing experts who helped to develop the Seal of Hooks version one, which was hoped would become the standard for all jinchuuriki seals. A bit of a coward. Eyes caste.
Akami Jiang: A line cook for Chu's Place, a restaurant in Kirigakure. She's a single mother due to her son's father being a deadbeat who vanished in what would become Sea Country. Foot cast.
Noburu Jiang: Conscripted into Kirigakure's armed forces due to the civil war, and made a jinchuuriki for Isobu the Three Tailed Turtle. He's known to talk back, and has always been slightly off -- but did excellently in school. Foot caste.
Yuukio Chow: A neighbor and former friend of Noburu's, conscripted into Kirigakure's armed forces. She was a diligent and loyal student, and was known as a teacher's pet. She was assigned to fight Noburu to the death, where she lost. Foot caste, deceased.
Kousuke: The rebellious host of Saiken, the Six Tailed Slug, a warrior monk from the Water Temple. He has raised an army in revolt against the daimyo of Water Country, and freed some of the conquered countries. Eyes caste.
Raiga Kurosuki: One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, a jounin of Kirigakure. Head of the home guard, he is responsible for the safety of Water Country's home islands and the ninja village itself. Desperately lonely. Hands caste.
Glossary:
Eyes caste: The topmost caste of Kirigakure and Water Country, formed of the inhabitants of the original archipelago. Even the lowest of the eyes caste is higher than the next highest caste.
Hands caste: The middle caste of Kirigakure and Water Country. Made up of the allies of Kiri that bowed to the water daimyo's authority and helped conquer other nations.
Foot caste: The lowest caste of Kirigakure and Water Country. Made up of people who were conquered during the wars of expansion. They are given the riskiest jobs and the least amount of trust.
Seal of Hooks: A sealing jutsu meant to give the sealed target a false path to escape, which hooks them as they attempt to make use of it and causes terrible pain. The nervous and chakra systems of the sealed target and host are more strongly connected, with the pain from the sealed target meant to drive the host insane.
Politics!:
Kousuke, a warrior monk from the Water Temple and the jinchuuriki of Saiken, has risen in revolt against the Water Country daimyo. This is but one theatre of the crumbling of colonial power which is affecting all five of the Great Shinobi Countries in the leadup to the Third Shinobi World War. So far he has secured the freedom of the Moon and Sea Countries, and has begun to move closer to Water Country itself. Due to the split in Kiri's forces from the civil war, a draft of the country's foot caste children is ordered, and the creation of a new jinchuuriki of Isobu becomes necessary.
