A Rapidly Growing Threat

(Kamui's Point of View)

Fire. That was what she felt from the new being who breached the barrier. That said, she could tell from the chakra's feel that this entity wasn't the one who cast the beam. In fact, she could tell that the intruder wasn't part of the beam either.

Her senses may have been restricted at the moment, but from her earth pulse, she could feel that the girl didn't impact the ground; she appeared there after the beam itself impacted. In short, she teleported.

As expected, her sensei was not excited at her findings.

"Kamui. Are you sure about this? That's some serious news. No one outside of Konoha has ever been able to use space-time ninjutsu." Yugao uncomfortably asked, hoping her prodigious student was mistaken in her findings.

Kamui shook her head.

"That's not true sensei. Space-time manipulation is the domain of the gods. That's why the only ways we have of accessing them are divine in nature. From everything I've learned, sealing jutsu and space-time ninjutsu is of divine origin, though I'm not clear on the specifics. The sharingan is the same; the divine origin of that is clearly recorded. From the feeling I got from that beam, it's definitely divine." Kamui replied, shattered the jonin's preconceptions.

Hearing this, Yugao's eyes narrowed toward her student. Where did that knowledge come from? Sure, she could believe the sharingan descended from the sage of six path's eyes. Danzo all but admitted that he strove to awaken the eyes during his assassination.

However, to classify space-time manipulation as the domain of 'gods' outside of that lineage was a bold claim. In fact, most would call it superstitious as shinobi generally didn't believe in the Kami.

"And how did you come about that information?" Yugao asked with unconcealed suspicion.

Once again, Kamui shook her head.

"I could brief you now, but that was to be a part of the explanation I planned to give you and my family upon our return to the village. Long story short, just trust me on this for now. The world is bigger than is documented and space-time manipulation is not out of the realm of possibility for those outside our awareness. At the very least, its usage here suggests that the user isn't likely part of the five great nations, though that's just an educated guess at this point." Kamui explained, turning her gaze toward the direction of the beam's impact site.

The intruder was now heading their way, albeit at a relaxed pace.

"*Sigh* I have a feeling this explanation's going to flip everything I know about the world upside down…" Yugao mumbled in quiet frustration, assuming a guarded posture and focusing on the same thing as her student. While she couldn't feel the intruder the same way Kamui could, the incoming heat gave it away. While it clearly wasn't malicious, they had to be wary, especially in their weakened state.

"*Chuckle* Sensei, you have no idea."

"Huh. I'm surprised. I'd heard that your people didn't know of the kami, but I had no idea it was this bad." An amused voice called out.

Slowly coming into view was a beautiful crimson-haired young woman whose warm aura radiated from her passively. From her posture, she wasn't on guard. In fact, everything about her denied the possibility of being a ninja; she was too loud. Of course, that didn't mean she was free of suspicion. It just made her a little more trustworthy.

Kamui's senses picked up more though. Her chakra felt similar to hers, yet so very different.

There was a comparable density, but the 'flavor' was different. While Kamui's chakra could be likened to a prism of colors encompassing all things, this girl's took one of those things to the extreme; it didn't take her long to figure out that the element was fire.

In short, while Kamui could become proficient in fire, she would never be close to the same level as this girl was in the element. While that didn't mean much when facing normal shinobi, it was a big deal in higher level combat.

There were also the artifacts the girl held on her person; they each radiated a different aura. While the sword's matched the girl's ever increasing divine essence, the shield's felt closer to the beam of light that penetrated the barrier.

["To meet another inheritor so soon. Be wary Kamui. While I don't sense any hostile intent, we're in too vulnerable a position to be careless"] Yume suggested, having watched the entire scuffle to its conclusion.

'I agree. I'll be careful. Thanks for the input.' Kamui acknowledged.

"Well, we don't know too much on the specifics, only bits and pieces from second-hand sources. Thank you for the assistance. Are we to assume that you're friendly?" Yugao took point as per protocol.

The red-haired girl chuckled once more at the caution, reminding herself that this was the land of paranoid tree jumpers.

"I meant no offense and that was my intention, yes. I come in peace on a mission from my mother and mistress." The girl replied.

A moment later, two of the magatama on her necklace glowed golden before the girl's sword and shield glowed in the same color. The two artifacts then broke into tiny particles and were sucked into the two magatama.

'So, the magatama are like storage scrolls then.' The two Kunoichi concluded at the sight.

"Like I said earlier, we appreciate the assistance, though I'll admit to being a bit confused. What business do you have with us specifically?" Yugao asked in confusion.

Normally, if one had business with a village's shinobi for non-malicious purposes, they would go through the Hokage. For them to come to the ninja during a mission was not standard and would normally be viewed with the heaviest of suspicion.

"Since I'll likely have to give a more detailed explanation in Konoha, I'll keep this brief. My name is Himiko Yamatai, deposed heir of the land of sun and current chief priestess of Lady Amaterasu, she who illuminates the heavens. On her orders, I am to seek to become a Konoha shinobi in the same capacity as your recently acquired Naga." The stranger explained to the great shock of the two Kunoichi.

She continued, "As for why I've sought you out directly, through a prophetic vision, my lady has concluded that with so many new Kocho shinobi joining Konoha, now would be the best time to join and speaking to you directly would make it easier. After all, you're the only one in Konoha with any extensive knowledge of the divine, even if not the Kami specifically."

Shocked wouldn't be the correct term to describe Kamui and Yugao right now. It wouldn't be enough to convey what they were feeling.

For Kamui, it was a little disturbing that she was on a god's radar and considering that god was making moves to place people near her, others wouldn't be too far behind; at least, that was the shinobi in her talking. It was also inconvenient. If this had happened on the next mission, her sensei would have been better informed. Now, with a glance, she could see her confusion.

The Kami have gone from legends to now possibly being real. The fact that Kamui had already confirmed the attack possibly being divine in nature lent credence to the girl's claims and with the girl's presence, Kamui could certainly believe her being affiliated with a Kami of the sun.

For Yugao, this was a lot. Not only did she have her enigmatic student to deal with, but now Kami were sending their priestesses to subordinate themselves to her student and her by association. It as if the universe deemed it funny to shatter her previously held beliefs in quick succession. There was one worrying part though.

This was convenient for Konoha. Too convenient. It was times like this when wisdom from their runaway Sanin came to mind. 'If too many good things keep happening in short succession, be on guard, tragedy is sure to follow. Life is like that. Konoha is like that.' Although she said that in drunken bitterness, years after her fiancé's passing, Yugao found those words to be true more often than not.

After moments of silence, Yugao turned to her student.

"Kamui, how much of what she's saying can you verify before we get back to Konoha. We're still on a mission and heightened caution is still required." She asked, wanting to follow basic validation before they had the full conversation in Konoha.

Kamui glanced back at her sensei with a tentative smile.

"From her presence alone, I would believe it. The quality of her chakra is similar to mine, just with a different flavor. There are two different flavors though. On her person and from the sword, I felt an extreme affinity for fire, while the shield was brighter and aligned closer to light. From her clothing, I'd say her words were truthful.

"The things she told us described her position and not her person. Considering the circumstances, I'd recommend we bring her with us to Konoha to finish this conversation. We'll just need to have one of us with her at all times." Kamui explained, eliciting further shock in her sensei as pieces of the puzzle she'd been trying to solve were starting to come together.

Yugao pondered for a couple of minutes, running through all the facts she currently knew and her options. Eventually, she decided to trust her student. The reality was that she didn't have enough knowledge in this field to make an informed decision and the Hokage really needed a hand in this. His input was critical. She did appreciate the caution from her seemingly naïve student though.

Turning back to the priestess, Yugao cleared her throat.

"Alright. You can come with us. Just make sure either Kamui or myself is with you at all times. We'll wait to discuss your form of employment back in the village. Naga's situation was urgent and had to be handled immediately. From the looks of it, yours can wait." She stated stoically, having regained her composure.

Hearing this, Himiko sighed in exasperation.

"*Sigh*… the rumors about you ninjas were right; you are paranoid." She said with an amused smile. "Back home, they would have taken that offer immediately. Alright, that sounds fine. I'll follow your lead then."

Chuckling at the girl's words, Kamui mirthfully commented, "Well, it's in the name. Around here, words are air as lying to get ahead is as common as the clouds. Truthfully, if I were alone and not on a mission, I'd probably believe you, but as your divine patron's like informed you, this mission is critical, and we need to follow process a little closer than I would like."

Himiko nodded in understanding.

"Makes sense to me! Lead the way." She exclaimed with a cheerful smile. All things considered; this had gone a lot better than the priestess expected. Truthfully, she expected to be put under a genjutsu to verify the truth.

'They must be wary of antagonizing mom, a kami they know little to nothing about. Were I to guess, they'll probably treat me like a dignitary until we arrive at the village. If that's the case, putting me under a genjutsu would be offensive no matter how paranoid they were. Works for me.' She happily thought, satisfied with how introductions went.

It was tedious, but that was nothing new to her.

"Since we've gotten that straightened out, why don't we examine the sound four's base here and then make our way over to the others. Kamui, can you teleport us over? After we secure Jirobo's statue and collect any valuables, we'll need to regroup with the others as fast as we can." Yugao asked.

After considering her depleted chakra pool, Kamui shook her head.

"I don't have enough chakra right now. I could probably pull it off, but I'd be helpless. We just got through a taxing fight after all." She said to the disappointment of the group. "That said, there's nothing saying I can't ask Naga to reverse summon me and you who'll be in direct contact. With our contract, she's the equivalent of my summoning animal, so it should be possible in theory. From what she reported through our connection, she didn't expend nearly any chakra in her confrontation so summoning us should be easy."

Both Yugao's and Himiko's eyes widened at the revelation.

"Well, that's convenient. I remember you explaining the contract like that earlier, but I hadn't considered the full ramifications. Let's do that then. First, let's examine the sound four's base and then, you'll contact Naga. Once we regroup with the others, we'll rest while your mass teleportation scroll charges up and use that to teleport to Konoha as soon as possible."

"Right" Kamui acknowledged before reaching out to Naga.

(Naga's Point of View)

Naga was currently sitting on a tree stump away from the main group.

She had caught up with the others fairly quickly; she was much faster than them after all. Currently, they were trying to reunite with the other clan members that had initially escaped with Reina. According to her, she had signaled the 'all clear', so they would be moving to join them on their own.

Since they didn't know where exactly that group would be coming from, they decided to stay put and send up flares every half hour. Reina was currently socializing and re-engaging with her family, while Naga sat off to the side, out of sight.

Truthfully, she wanted to meet her new family, but now wasn't the time. Reina knew them, had a bond with them, and needed to reconnect to assuage any fears they might have. Introducing Naga would take time and introduce suspicion that wasn't needed right now. After all, no matter how nice Kamui put it, Naga was still raised in large part by the man who did this to them.

That's also not mentioning all that Reina's father sold to the snake. She hadn't been in the room, but she had roughly figured out why the man betrayed his clan from the start. Her 'father's' M.O. largely involved blackmail after all. It helped get cooperation from his experiments, voluntary or not.

Suddenly, she felt the telepathic connection with Kamui flare with chakra.

'Hey Naga, we're done on our side. Are you all safe over there?' Kamui asked through the link.

'We're safe. Reina just signaled the runaway group to join us. We're just waiting in place for them to arrive. She's taking the time to both catch up with her family and see if anyone has any medical issues from the sound four's extractions.' Naga calmly explained.

'Great. Can you reverse summon me? I don't have enough available chakra to do it safely. I'll make sure to bring the others with me.'

'Reverse summon? Hmm… I didn't know I could do that. That contract's pretty convenient.' Naga replied, once again reminded that she was basically the girl's summoning animal, as degrading as that sounded.

'It is. I'll explain the details when we get back to Konoha. For now, just focus on our connection when performing the jutsu; at least, it should work like that.' Hearing the uncertainty in her new friend's voice was… unsettling to say the least.

Any jutsu in the summoning category should always be performed with full knowledge of the outcome. Otherwise, they could go horribly wrong. She really hoped Kamui knew what she was doing.

'Alright, I'll do it now then, Are you ready?' Naga asked.

'Wait... alright, we're ready now. Bring us over.'

Running through the hand signs, Naga focused on the link and placed her right hand on the ground.

"Reverse Summoning Jutsu." She called out, getting the attention of some of the others, particularly Reina.

Poof. A cloud of smoke scattered and inside were two familiar faces and a red-haired stranger.

The three of them glanced at her and their surroundings to take stock of their situation.

"Well, it looks like it worked. That's convenient. We'll have to explore the team benefits when we get back to Konoha." Yugao stated in astonishment.

"That's soooo crazy! I didn't know you could summon people! I'd only heard of summoning animals." Himiko shouted in excitement, much to the amusement of the audience and confusion of Naga specifically.

"Who's the new chick?" Naga asked.

"She actually saved us and wanted to travel back to the village with us. We'll discuss it more when we get to Konoha. Right now, the important part is that she needs to be either around sensei or myself until we get there for safety reasons."

Naga couldn't believe her ears. There's no way those chuckle heads could have put her new friend in a dangerous position. What kind of power did Orochimaru give them? Before she could ask though, a voice sounded from the direction of the larger Kocho group.

"Everyone's here. I'll say, I didn't know you could summon people. Did you capture the other two?" Reina asked, having moved to greet the group after seeing the summoning.

Kamui shook her head.

"One of them turned into a statue, while the other managed to flee. They were a lot stronger than we thought though." Kamui explained with narrowed eyes. It was a frustrating experience to say the least.

"Indeed. We were lucky they were injured before the fight began or we would have died. Quite simply, we wouldn't have stood a chance and they had cut off our path of retreat. Himiko quite literally saved us. In the shape we were in, I don't think we could've defeated Kidomaru." Yugao clinically explained.

"What!?" Reina exclaimed. Even though Naga heard it the first time, her shock grew even greater hearing the expanded version.

"What happened?" Naga asked the question on her mind before Reina could.

Sighing, Yugao went on to explain their encounter. While she did that, Kamui silently began setting up the mass teleportation array. It would take time to gather the necessary chakra to make a full trip back to Konoha, so she wanted to start the process immediately. As much as she loved this place, she wanted to go home.

At this point, all she wanted was her warm bed, a safe zone, and the comforting embrace of her family. She'd like to stick to C-and-B-rank missions for a while. Even D-ranks wouldn't be so bad. She just hoped all the S-rank missions she'd inevitably take wouldn't be like this one was.

"Seriously? They really had another form? Who would've thought?" Naga silently asked, shocked at the news that those four idiots were actually a threat.

'It's a good thing I took Sakon and Ukon out without a fight. If ascending to stage three could make Jirobo and Kidomaru that strong, then the twins might even be able to take me on, even without being inside of their barrier.

'And that's another thing, the barrier. I hadn't heard of them turning Jirobo's jutsu into such a formidable barrier. From what Kamui apparently explained, it was supposed to include a chakra absorption and transference feature. It would basically let them fight indefinitely. Then, there's Kidomaru's dojutsu… and to think he now has all those powers or at least, that's what it sounds like he pulled off.'

Naga couldn't even fathom how the hell Orochimaru made such a large breakthrough in the time she'd been sealed. Not only had the man upgraded his men to S-rank threats, but he also developed a counter to space-time ninjutsu, and he's probably ascended to an even higher level himself.

"Revenge won't be easy…." She mumbled to herself, eliciting the silent nods of the group.

"No, it won't." Reina agreed, her expression fixed into a creepy, but gentle smile.

She needed to train. She wanted to be on the team that went after the monster, the snake that destroyed her family.

"How did he progress so rapidly? It couldn't have been more than a year since I last saw those idiots. He couldn't have made that many breakthroughs in that short of time. Then there's the space-time sealing method…" Naga frustratedly asked.

"I have an idea on that." Kamui replied, drawing the attention of the others. She had finished her preparations and had just walked back; it would still take hours for the jutsu to be ready to take them home though.

Seeing she had the group's attention, Kamui continued, "I was riffling through the memories I managed to snatch from Jirobo, and I found some grave intel. There's a lot I'll need to wait for the Hokage's briefing for, but I will say this; he didn't discover it on his own. He had a backer." She stated seriously.

"A backer? Do you know who it was?" Yugao asked, deeply disturbed that there was a threat with even greater knowledge than Orochimaru. What's worse was that they were working together.

"Jirobo wasn't privy to the specifics, but before coming here, the four overheard Kabuto talking to Orochimaru about a new organization he joined. He called it "Akasha" and the source he received the information from was a recently uncovered criminal in the land of souls experimenting in breaking the biological barriers between species.

"That's about all they knew though. Orochimaru and Kabuto stopped their conversation fairly quickly when they noticed their arrival, though Jirobo firmly believed that they were allowed to hear that conversation, so they knew who to stay away from."

The group was silent in contemplation for a bit before Yugao spoke up.

"That is concerning. You're right. We'll continue this conversation with the Hokage. The topic has gotten too sensitive to discuss in the open. Naga, Reina, can you two be on watch duty while Kamui and I rest? We're exhausted and we need to recover from that battle." Yugao asked.

"Of course." Reina replied, her smile unchanged.

"Sure" Naga replied, her face back to an emotionless mask.

"Himiko, please stay with Naga during your stay here. It's my understanding that you hadn't expended much stamina, so having another member on watch will be helpful. That said, if you'd like to rest, you may come with me; I have an extra sleeping set." Yugao proposed.

Himiko pondered for a moment.

"I'll keep watch with Naga. You're right in that I'm not tired right now. Plus, I would love to meet a new friend." She replied with a calm but happy smile.

With that, the group separated to fulfill their own duties, each pondering on the ominous winds that seemed to shroud their old enemy.