THE SPIRIT MOUNTAINS.:

On a desolate path that cuts through a lush forest, a male and a female duo dressed in civilian clothing with beige cloaks on top, were walking along the path at a brisk but calm pace. The female seems to be carrying a baby wrapped in a red bundle, they look travel weary and exhausted as if they've been walking for days on end.

It took Kai and Sayuri one week to leave the land of Kō with Hirōshi, they then spent another week travelling from the North of Chō to the East to completely lose the [Origawa Clansmen] and it has been about the same amount time since they have eaten a proper meal, they've just been surviving on food pills and water they find along the way. By this time Hirōshi was already awake for a while now and from his discussion with G.A.I.A he got to know his current situation and out of all the intel he received the one that affected him the most.

Was the fact that he lost his parents the day he was born even though he asked for a good family amongst his wishes, he also wondered why his shitty luck with family can't even be changed with the help of a so-called 'supreme god' but when he learnt about the cause of his parents death, he felt livid and an unknown pressurising anger attacked his heart which manage to subside a little when he made a silent vow to tear apart the [Origawa Clan] for the simple reason of depriving him of parental love in his second life, but that is a problem for the future.

In the present times, he could really use some normal milk because this alpine milk shit is disgusting to say the least even though it's nutritious I will rather starve than drink any more of this rats piss, says the baby that has a bottle of alpine milk stuck to his mouth.

The reason they were currently dressed like civilians was to hide their shinobi background and to deceive any shinobi they encounter in the land of Chō, essentially giving them the element of surprise in any difficult situation.

Since they've been in Chō for a whole week and they haven't encountered any unwonted situation, Kai decided to take a break and rest before they carried on their journey. Using his advance sensory skills he was able to perceive few fishes in a clearing few miles east of the desolate path so he decided for them to make camp their and eat a decent meal to sustain them for the rest of their travels.

After setting up camp and making the fire they began to slowly grill the large fish they got from the flowing river in the clearing a few moments prior, causing Hirōshi to salivate and curse his bad luck for not being able to partake in the meal which also earned him an eye roll from G.A.I.A.

Whilst they were relaxing after the sumptuous meal they had, Kai asked sayuri "Now that we are in Chō, were do you think we should settle down to raise the young master"

"I was hoping maybe we can settle in a small village that's has little to no shinobi influence so that we will be given enough time for the young master to grow up before having to face the perils of the shinobi world." answered Sayuri as she looked up from her bubbly young master

Kai had funny look on his face before he said "you are indeed inexperienced....if you are hoping to find a civilian village with no shinobi influence it's practically impossible, because the orphans capable of moulding chakra from said villages are what the shinobi clans use as canon fodder in their battles, I know because I was once one of them and the only reason I'm not dead in some war zone is because lord Toshirō took me in as his servant. What will happen if they decided to use our young master as such, because I will rather die than see him subjected to that faith."

Sayuri had a look of disturbance in her face, it's not like she is ignorant to such information, it's just that she is completely oblivious as to what they should do to raise their young master in an environment free from shinobi influence. After realising her error in judgement and not having any better solutions for the current situation she decided to ask Kai

"well if you have a better plan to find a more suitable area then let's hear it because that was the best I could come up with" Kai replied "well I don't have a concrete plan it's more of a suggestion, since Chō is full of mountainous areas I'm sure we can find a secluded peak for us to reside in away from the shinobi world."

"That is just a hypothesis we might venture into a secluded mountain peak and find it to be the location of a shinobi clan since they are always hidden." Answered Sayuri

"You are right we might accidentally stumble upon a shinobi clan if we go with my suggestion, fortunately for us I have a remedy for that problem, that's why we travelled to the east of Chō when we entered from the north, I was once sent to Chō on a recon mission, were I encountered some enemy shinobi, after the battle I was seriously injured and I fell into a river, unconscious. By the time I regained consciousness i found myself in the middle of a forest with most of my injuries healed." He finished off by gesturing towards the horizon "I woke up within the forest that's at the bottom of those tall mountains **points towards mountains in the horizon**." Said Kai whilst rubbing his palms together at the end.

He took a pause then continued "Whoever healed me was obviously not a shinobi because if they were the best case scenario for me was to be captured for clan secrets and the worst case was my death....I think that area should be suitable for our goal and it's pretty secluded since it took me couple weeks to leave that mountain range." after a little deliberation she decided to trust her partner and answered "fine, we will do as you suggest but promise me if there is any sign of danger at any moment we are to retreat from that place." she said with a stern look to which Kai just nodded to reassure her whilst thinking 'you don't have to tell me twice'.

Whilst they were making future plans Hirōshi was having an inner monologue with G.A.I.A about their own future development.

G.A.I.A asked Hirōshi <~What do you think our personal plans and goals should be?~>

he answered slyly "well G.A.I.A plans at the end of the day are just small pieces of the the ultimate goal y-" <~You don't have any plans do you~> G.A.I.A interrupted.

Hiroshi paused mid sentence as if caught red handed and answered cheekily "You're right I don't have any plans but if we are to talk about my future goals then one of them is to definitely create a powerful bloodline and hopefully a very powerful clan to go with the bloodline."

G.A.I.A nodded and said <~You still yearn for a family after all~> to which Hirōshi just responds with a sad smile.

G.A.I.A not wishing to dwell in the sadness continued <~Well to turn a normal shinobi clan into a bloodline shinobi clan, you need all or most of the members to have the same bloodline i.e. closely related genetics making the chakra containers similar to each other, hence manifesting chakra powers that are comparable to one another~>

When Hirōshi heard that he got startle for a second, a little surprise by G.A.I.A's knowledge about this world so he ask "Whoa! G.A.I.A first of all how do you know so much and second what the hell is a chakra container?"

G.A.I.A just answered indifferently as if Hirōshi was an idiot <~For your first question I had basic knowledge about this world the moment I was concious which I already told you about I was just assimilating the huge amounts of information that's the reason why I couldn't wake you up in the womb, as for the second question it's a bit more complicated but I'll dumb it down for you hehehe~>

"HA..HA! very funny...A.I.'s got jokes, can you just carryon please" said Hirōshi who seems to be annoyed with G.A.I.A's semantics. G.A.I.A just chuckled and continued <~well to keep it simple you know how juice will become undrinkable if it isn't in some form of container right?~> Hirōshi nodded weirdly and said "riiiiight!?" Still wondering what juice has anything to do with chakra.

G.A.I.A ignored his confusion and carried on <~well the same principle applies with chakra, it's an unusable substance without a container capable of storing and utilising it. Different containers manifest chakra in different forms, thats why there are civilians who can't use chakra because their bodies can't contain it, even among the people capable their is a clear distinction, some are weak chakra containers some a overly powerful ones.

Since every organism has a genome, the potential of a chakra container mainly depends on its genetics, if your parents were powerful shinobi it is more than likely that you'll turn out to be a powerful shinobi yourself. Shinobi clans with bloodline abilities are just a group of people with similar or close genetics, leading them to manifest equivalent chakra powers, because of how alike their chakra containers are.

That's the reason why bloodline clans encourage married amongst members of the same clan it is to increase the chances of their descendants to inherit their respective bloodline ability. It's the same with alloys as well if it's capable of storing chakra present in the earth it'll be able to manifest it in the form of chakra metals. They didn't have a name for it so I decided to call it the chakra container~>

Hearing this Hirōshi came to an understanding on how to create a powerful bloodline, by using the [Angel Tears] serum as a means of replacing the present genes with newer ones and this chakra container principle to stabilise it, he'll be more or less capable of successfully turning a normal civilian with no hope of ever moulding chakra into a bloodline shinobi with [Kekkei Genkai], amazing!. Although he still needs to collect more data on the bloodline abilities currently present in this world to know which attributes to add onto his bloodline structure.

With that being said he can atleast start building the base of his bloodline structure so he commanded G.A.I.A to start a new bloodline template for me.

G.A.I.A became ethereal for a sec <~*inititailising bloodline template* what is your wish for the base attributes master~>

"I will like 'Eidetic Memory', 'Mega Chakra Reserves', 'Super stamina' and Perfect chakra control as my base attributes."

G.A.I.A paused for a sec, then said <~ Are you sure you want every member in your future clan to be that powerful at the start?~>

"Ofcourse not this template is just for the head of the family which is going to be me, the holder of this bloodline in the future will have full 100% potential of the bloodline but after completing this bloodline the one I will administer to the rest of the clan members will only make them utilise 20% of the bloodline's potential MAX,

which means eidetic memory in this case will turn into higher than normal IQ, to the world they would be geniuses but to me they will be nothing more than slightly intelligent people. That G.A.I.A is how you create an Overpowered shinobi clan, anyways leave that as my base template untill we gather enough bloodline data" answered Hirōshi.

<~But you already have Eidetic memory though?~> added G.A.I.A.

Hirōshi just grunted and said "Well change it to 'Hyper-comprehension' or something"

<~ Thats all done master it's being rendered now it'll be ready in 18 hours~> answered G.A.I.A.

After having a meal and resting for a while, Kai and Sayuri decided to resume their travel. They headed back to the desolate path to continue hiding their shinobi identities, the trio travelled along the road for a few hours when Kai suddenly stopped and his left arm hidden within his cloak reach into his hidden poach and firmly held onto a Kunai but he didn't take it out or change his posture if the three shinobi's dressed in black didn't block his path he would've carried on walking whilst battle ready.

Three shinobi dressed in tight leather armor with a black ninjato positioned on their backs and Tabi shoes with a half oni mask made with leather covering the lower half of their face.

<~They dress like Ryu hayabusa for Ninja Gaiden~> said G.A.I.A excitedly, To which Hirōshi said with confusion on his face "Ryuhaya what now-?"

<~ Don't worry master you wouldn't get it~> Hirōshi just thought 'wierd...but ok.'

The one at the front of the trio has gold trimmings with a symbol of a thick vertical line dividing a circle on his leather armor. Whilst the other two had black hoods covering the rest of their heads the one at front didn't have any hood with his gear, practically showing off his pineapple hairstyle with two very short bangs that stop just below his hairline with golden ornaments in it.

He seems to be the leader among the trio. <~He reminds me of Shikamaru~> said G.A.I.A

"Yeh if he was a bloodthirsty shinobi and his shark-tooth hairline was trying to jump off his forehead." quipped Hirōshi

<~hehehehe they are probably his ancestors going by the black symbol on the leaders chest plate~> laughed G.A.I.A.

Looking at the symbol G.A.I.A pointed out it looks the same as the one Shikamaru had on the back of his jacket "but why don't the other two have the same symbol they look to be from the same clan are they not.....G.A.I.A?"

<~They are from the same clan, it's just that the other two are not part of the main clan so they can't wear the main clan's symbol~> after pausing for few seconds as if she was searching for the answer.

Hirōshi nodded to that, still a bit surprised about G.A.I.A's knowledge of this world. The three masked shinobi and the duo looked at each for a good minute in a tense silence before the leading man with the pineapple hair spoke up

"Sorry to disturb you weary travellers but if you don't mind, we'll like to ask you some general questions, nothing too personal."

Kai looked at the man at front for a second seeming to recognise that voice but not exactly the origin, still with his hidden left arm firmly holding onto a Kunai he answered with a kind and welcoming smile

"We are just War-Civillians from a far away land running away from battles my lords, we want no trouble lords, so we will try to help you to the best of our capabilities."

As he was speaking he revealed his bare right arm that had a long deep sword scar and he was making hand gestures with it but there were hidden hand signs among the gestures which Sayuri manage to pick up on and quietly got ready to escape with his young master if things went sideways as they always do with shinobi.

After kai answered, the leader among the trio crossed his arms over his chest revealing his exposed ripped biceps with weird tattoos on it and two lightning scars on his right biceps, he also made hidden hand signs with that movement which his two followers manage to pick up on whilst saying

"No need to be wary we just have a few questions and then we'll let you be on your way." To which Kai answers "The lord can ask as he please." with a nod the leader ask "have you seen a one-arm man along this path?"

Kai look slightly surprise he wasn't expecting that kind of question but he still didn't lower his guard as he answered "We have walked on this path for 2 days now lord but we haven't met such a man." A blatant lie obviously, they've been walking on this road for a little over 6 hours but they don't need to know that.

The leader just calmly looked at Kai in the eyes and said "You might not know this but he is man of great disguise, he might seem like an amicable person but he is one of the most dangerous bandits in these mountains, so if you are thinking of harbouring this man for some good favour he's done for you then you should reconsider that option because of your current position."

Even though Kai heard the blatant threat he still quickly answered with 'distress' on his face " I swear lord we haven't met such man during our travels."

When the leader saw Kai acting distress he sneered behind his mask but still continued calmly " Alright no need to be alarmed you seem clear we will let you be on your way now."

When Kai heard that, he thought he has gotten away with it but still didn't let his guard down, Hirōshi though was still skeptical, thinking the leader let them go a little bit too easily even if he believed we were civilians which I doubt he did. Like the leader was trynna prove Hirōshi right he spoke up when Kai and Sayuri was about to walk pass them.

"Wait up, I have 1 more question if you don't mind." When Kai and Sayuri heard that they silently became alert, whilst Hirōshi thought 'we are not in the clear after all', but Kai still answered the leader with a smile "The lord can ask as he please."

The leader then continued with "Alright, but before I ask my question I wanna tell you a short story about me, don't worry it is a very interesting one so I won't bore you to death, you see 9 years ago, I was just an average shinobi within my clan during those times I was nothin special regardless of that, my squadron of young shinobis were still chosen to fight in the karakan wars despite our inexperience back then.

It was also during those heated battles that my squad encountered the young genius of the earth nation and his squad before the became known as his 4 blades, Ofcourse I didn't fight him it would have been suicide if I did, but I did Battle one of his squad members, who manage to leave me with 2 war trophies on my right arm*points at biceps*, sadly with all my skills I could only leave him with one trophy on his right arm."

The leader pause for a bit then continued in a cold tone abandoning his previous warm words. "Now for my last question, I want to know what the 4th 'Blade of Toshirō' is doing in my fire nation." he chuckled and then finished off with "You should've also hidden that right arm if you were trying to hide your shinobi background."

Immediately after hearing that, Sayuri and kai drew their weapons and disappeared in a flash towards the surrounding forest and as soon as they disappeared the 2 shinobi that silently stood behind the leader all this time finally moved in a flash and followed after them. The leader just looked towards the direction they disappeared in and chuckled humorously behind his mask before walking slowly in the same direction.

With Sayuri and Kai, they were currently running through the forest jumping from one tree to another at high speed but few dozen metres behind them you'll see two shinobi in black gaining on them with one of their hands on the hilt of their swords ready to draw it at any moment.

Hirōshi thought 'Why does shit always have to go sideways with these shinobi.' <~probably because they are shinobi hehehe~> laughed G.A.I.A sarcastically.

Meanwhile Kai made a hand sign which Sayuri understood and start started weaving hand signs then said in a soft voice [Dark Style: Hidden darkness] a layer darkness surrounded her turning her outline ethereal and multiplying her speed by many times, in a flash she disappeared amongst the tree line.

Kai did a backflip and perfectly landed on a big branch, he proceeded to draw his katana and stab it into the branch he was standing on, he then placed his hands inside his ninja poach full of throwing weapons, waiting to face his incoming assailants, few seconds later they landed in a crouching position opposite him on a branch a dozen metres away. With their right hands still on the hilt of their swords, they gazed at Kai with thick killing intent.

As soon as they landed Kai started throwing dozens of Kunai's and shuriken's in their direction, the black-dressed men instantly drew their swords and started deflecting the incoming projectiles.

They didn't realise that Kai hid a [Shadow Shuriken Jutsu] amongst they volley of shurikens that he sent towards the two shinobi, one of them blocked the hidden shuriken the other one wasn't so fortunate he missed it and it plunged into his jugular even though he didn't die because the shuriken didn't puncture his throat deep enough, he was still incapacitated and fell towards the ground metres below.

With one of them incapacitated Kai drew his sword from the tree and jumped towards the remaining shinobi whilst making sure their shadows didn't touch. Whilst engaging in a bout of sword strikes they kept on moving further away from their previous positions, they duelled for few minutes before Kai manage to punch through his guard and landed a solid hit square across his chest but the masked shinobi also landed a kick on his stomach which effectively sent them both crashing towards the trees in opposite directions.

Kai got out of the tree and shook the wooden debris from his hair and started weaving hand signs and whispered [Earth Style: Earth Shower Jutsu] when he finished casting the jutsu, hundreds of boulders of all shapes and sizes started rising from the ground and flew towards the black masked shinobi,

the masked shinobi also weave some hand signs and said [Ninja Art: Shadow Stitching Jutsu] his shadow started to rise up and spread into different strings of shadows which grew from the size of a needle to that of a tree branch and started attacking towards the incoming boulders effectively shattering them one by one one until all the boulders were smashed to Smithereens.

'I have to get away before that leader arrives, the [Nara Clan] is not easy to deal with especially in a forest full of shadows.' thought Kai, remaining vigilant like he's waiting on a signal, as soon as the masked shinobi was about to land on a tree branch Kai moved, 'He moved into position now's my chance.' when all the boulders were smashed Kai saw his opportunity and started weaving another set of hand-signs.

When the dust from the smashed boulders was settling, the mask shinobi heard a cold voice saying [Earth Style: Earth Pillar jutsu] the next instance, several large earth pillars extended from the ground and attacked towards him from all angles, even though he was caught of guard, he was still able to dodge some and smashed the others with his [Shadow Stitching Jutsu] but even that couldn't save him from being confined within a certain space and by the time he was able to destroy all of them Kai was long gone.

When the masked man looked around to determine the direction he went in, he realised that their was no trace of Kai so he gave up on chasing after him and decided to check on his heavily injured comrade, he sheathed his sword and flickered towards him.

He reached the ground within seconds and saw his comrade holding his neck with some Kunai and shuriken sticking to his leather armor which stopped them from causing him anymore serious injuries.

He calmly approached him and said "well, you look worst for wear Sanmaru" the wounded shinobi just gave him a piercing gaze that seem to say 'you think!?', he lightly chuckled before he started applying [Iryōin Jutsu] on his neck, a few moments later he recovered from his serious injury and stood up, removing the weapons stuck in his armor he asked "Did he get away?"

The other masked shinobi answered " Yeh he got away and.....he left no traces" Sanmaru looked slightly surprised and said "he most be powerful if he was able to get away from you Shizaku."

The newly named shizaku nodded and said "Yeh he's very good and really experienced too, because he knew to avoid my shadow so he wouldn't be stuck in my [Shadow Paralysis Jutsu], actually if he wasn't trying to get away I don't know what would have happened if we both went all out."

"Simple, You would've died within minutes." As they were talking they heard a cold and deep voice behind them which Startled the two who hurriedly turned around, knelt and then said in unison "lord Shikarai we failed to capture to enemy-nin please punish our incompetence."

The leader who was leisurely walking after them finally caught up, he looked at the two kneeling shinobi and sighed "Get up you two, it doesn't matter he is the most dangerous amongst the 'Blades of Toshirō' after all, I'll be asking too much if I expected you to kill him let alone capture him."

When the two heard him they gave a sigh of relief but quickly became startled by their lords following words "Besides I wanted them to escape towards that direction anyways."

With confusion written all over their faces, one of them spoke up "My lord we don't understand, you mean to say you wanted them to escape towards the spirit mountains?" Asked Sanmaru.

His lord nodded leaving them even more confused until one of them complained "But my lord they'll be even more difficult to capture if they're allowed to escape towards that mountain range." Said shizaku.

Shikarai lightly laughed and said "It's exactly because it's the spirit mountains that I want that to happen. Don't you know who is rumoured to be based at the spirit mountains?" Shizaku paused for a little bit and thought about what he just said and within a few seconds, light bulbs went of in his head.

He smiled slyly as he answered his lord "Lord really is one of the greatest minds in the fire nation." Shikarai smiled behind his mask and said "Oh! what makes you say that?"

He doesn't like giving his subordinates all the answers, he encourages them to give their own point of view and as a strategist that attribute is more essential than anything else because the more information you have the more accurate your plans can be.

Shizaku continued while lightly chuckling because he knew his lord intentions already "Within few minutes of meeting him you already gauge that his strength is good enough to take care of the one-armed wolf bandit, so you let me and Sanmaru attack them so that they will flee towards the spirit mountains which is said to be his base of operations when they eventually meet, they'll either kill each other or one of of them will die, either way one or both our problems will be solved, it's a brilliant plan my lord."

He's lord replied "Exactly.!!" with a nod of his head but in his eyes he was waiting for something else, at this point Sanmaru cut in and said "There is something wrong with this perfect plan my lord, for it to work both of them have to meet each other and we all know the spirit mountains is a maze it might take years before they even meet each other, if that'll ever even happen." Hearing this Shikarai smiled as if expecting that question and said

"That's a good point Sanmaru but we all also know that since the one-armed wolf bandit moved into this region 18 years ago he comes out every 6 years to kidnap babies for his wierd experiments this is his third time coming out and he must be after Babies just like the other times and I know it wasn't obvious for you two to notice but that lady with him is carrying a baby beneath her cloak, they'll be sniffed out by the one-armed wolf bandit the moment they stepped into the spirit mountains, after all he is a traitor from the [Inuzuka Clan]."

As if they both heard an epiphany they both looked at each other in wonder and they both slowly turned their heads toward their master and stared at him like he was a monster, he planned that far ahead just after meeting his enemy for few minutes, whilst they were trynna comprehend their lords intuition they heard him say

"The shinobi you were fighting was no ordinary shinobi he is the 4th 'Blade of Toshirō' the youngest and the most dangerous among them all he only fought you with his secondary element [Earth Style], if he used his [Lightning Style] you would've died within minutes but he was probably wary of me."

He smiled in a sly manner before saying "Now tell me who is more qualified to kill off the one-armed wolf bandit than the 4th 'Blade of Toshirō' and if they happened to kill each other well that'll just make it a one stone 2 birds type of situation, for a strategist that will be the most ideal situation hehehehe." he chuckled darkly at the end and said "Come on you two let's go back to the clan, mission's over hehehe." After saying that all three of them vanish into the shadows.

With Kai, after escaping their chase he made sure to go in direction different to the one Sayuri took, with the aim of meeting up at the base of the mountain range, Kai body flickered through the forest without leaving any traces of his presence behind in case those [Nara Clan] shinobi are still on his tail, little did he know that, those enemy-nin have already plotted against him and are long gone from the forest towards their hidden clan base.

"If i am being completely honest, with all my fore-planning I wasn't able to predict the fact that we might bump into one of the three strongest shinobi clans in Chō the moment we stepped into the region, though they don't seem to be aware we were even present within their borders, which means they were really looking for someone else and not trying to sound me out with their questions, either way I've managed to shake them from my tail now all that's left is meeting up with Sayuri and finding us a new base of operation." said Kyle thinking out loud.

After running for what feels like a few hours Kai began to pick up on Sayuri's chakra signature within his sensory range 'she seems to be few metres away' thought Kai causing him to speed up his pace to quickly meet up with her and decide their next course of action.