18 Journey to Kiri
Five days later:
I looked at the pot before me. I was walking around the market district on my way back from dinner four days ago when I spotted it. It was specially treated, so it won't crack if someone drops it, and it also had some cement mixed into it. The moment I looked at it I knew it was perfect.
A perfect container for Orochimaru's spirit. I began working on it then and there, placing seals on it that were each A rank and above. It would serve as containment seal for a single soul.
I made it so that it's walls acted like chakra lines like that in a human body. So if I put a soul into it, it would produce chakra that would travel along the walls, powering the pot's protections that kept it sealed shut. It was basically a cycle of fuckery for the soul sucked inside.
It took me four days of hard work to perfect this thing, and hopefully it was all worth it. It was around ten in the morning, perfect. I made a clone and it immediately took off, running towards the hospital to talk to the head daughter about the procedure. If I'm going to do this I'll need professional help.
I yawned as I left my room, finding Misu sitting at the kitchen table, already making breakfast.
"You didn't have to make that grandma Uzumaki," I said as I poured myself a cup of coffee, "you know I like cooking."
"It's the least I can do dear after you let me stay here free of rent," she smiled. She looked inside, the room to my workshop was left open, giving her a clear line of sight to the pot, "is it ready?"
"Yup. could you take a look?" I asked.
"Of course," she put away the vegetables she was cutting and went inside. She picked up the pot ad looked at it, humming as she examined the seal matrix, "it should work. I see no flaws in it...none at all. I must say, while you may not be an Uzumaki, you sure do the talent of a grand seal master.
I smiled, "thanks. I just hope it's enough to help Anko."
"Do you really care for this girl that much?" Misu asked with a smly smile.
I smiled back, "she's really hot."
"So all a girl has to do to make you stay up all night for four days in a row is shove your head between her cleavage?"
I shrugged, "pretty much. Oh, and I guess I felt like it was the right thing to do."
"You are...an odd shinobi Yami."
"Is that bad?"
Misu smiled, "kindness is never a bad thing."
Just then the clone popped, it had talked to the doctor and gained his permission. If I wanted I could have examining room for the next two hours. I immediately made another clone that went for the Hokage to gain his permission and when it popped I was ready to move.
The Hokage agreed, but only under the condition that a doctor and nurse be on standby to make sure nothing goes wrong. I decided to go a step further and ask him for the help of Genma and the Hokage Gaurd Platoon, the only other decent seal masters in this village.
The three agreed, though it was difficult at first. And now we were ready. Misu agreed to go ahead and set everything up in the hospital, so now it was left to me to find Anko.
I used my chakra sensory skills and located her easily, she was eating dango in her favorite shop. Duh.
I landed before her and smiled, "you keep eating dango like that and your perfect figure will go down the drain."
"Please," Anko snorted, "they day I become fat is the day pigs fly."
I smiled, "you know...I wouldn't mind if you got a little chubby, just gives me more to play with."
Anko smirked, "I knew you had a fat fetish."
"It's called a boob fetish Anko," I snorted rolling my eyes, "and the only reason I'll find you hot when you get fat is because you would still be the hottest woman in Konoha," I groaned, "which is sadder than you would expect."
"Relax kid, I told you, give it time, you'll find someone," she winked.
"Right...anyway, the flirting was nice, but that's not why I'm here," I smiled.
"And why are you here?" she asked.
I smiled, "I think I can get rid of you seal, permanently."
Anko's eyes widened as she immediately got to her feet, "how?"
"I made a vessel to contain his soul, so if we just transfer it into that, you'll be snake free," I smiled.
Anko looked serious as she nodded, "right. What do I have to do?"
"Take my hand," I offered it to her. She took it without question. I closed my eyes and flashed us over to the hospital room which had already been set up.
"Ah, you're here, good," Misu said as she finished drawing containment seals all around the room that all radiated from the bed in the middle of the room. And attached to the upper left corner was the pot I had made, its lid open.
The doctor and nurse were standing in one corner, I walked up to them and told them what the procedure was going to do, and what they should be looking for.
"So what do I have to do?" Anko asked as she removed her jacket and put it aside.
"Lay down, face up and relax, we'll take care of everything," I told her just as the door opened up and the Hokage gaurd platoon walked in.
"Sorry we're late," Genma said with a node as he looked at Anko, "hey Anko, looking sexy as ever."
"You know it," Anko smirked, "and I'm about to get a whole lot sexier once I get this tattoo removed."
I smiled, "well then that would make it the most complex tattoo removal operation in history," I then guided the platoon members to their potions. They had their hands on the ground channeling their chakra to maintain the barrier around Anko, to make sure Orochimaru's spirit doesn't escape.
Misu opened the pot and went through several hand seals which allowed her to create a tube of chakra flowing from Anko's neck to the pot. And I had the most important role of her, I was going to release Orochimaru.
I activated the mystical palm jutsu, lighting up my hand with a green glow. I turned to Anko, "you sure about this?"
She nodded, "yeah. I am. Even if it kills me...I refuse to be a puppet."
I nodded, "right," I took out a set of goggles and strapped them on. They were tinted so only I could see through, and no one could see inside.
"What's the goggles for kid? A fashion statement?" Anko asked with a chuckle.
I smiled, "it's a special set of google that allows me to focus my chakra sensory skills. Now shut up, your sexy voice is distracting me."
Le successful!
The truth is the only reason I wore these goggles is because I don't want people to see me activate my sharingan. I would need it's ability to see people's chakra veins to work on removing Anko's seal.
"Evil Releasing seal!" I made a Horse hand seal and placed my green glowing hand on ANko's neck.
"ARGH!" she cried out in pain, gritting her teeth and slowly a giant three headed white snake began pouring out of Anko's neck.
I carefully used my chakra to unwind Orochimaru's chakra from Anko's own network. I then healed her body as each stem of Orochimaru's soul was removed. Misu then guided the three headed snake into the pot, activating the seals and made the pot seem like a living body, activating the containment seals around the pot.
"Keep pushing babe! You're almost there!" I encouraged her as the chakra unwound itself from her body.
"YARGH!" Anko screamed as the last of Orochimaru's soul was ripped out and put into the pot. I immediately began to heal her wounds while Misu sealed the pot up, trapping the snakes soul inside of it.
I sighed as I began close Anko's wounds, Misu took the pot away and put it into another Uzumaki special seal that would prevent it from leaving, even if it broke the pot.
The gaurd platoon stopped their flow of chakra and sighed in relief. Anko's breath slowly returned to normal. I finished healing her as the doctor and nurse came up, examining her thoroughly.
"I-Is it over?" Anko asked.
"Yeah, it's over," I smiled.
Ping!
Quest Completed!
Rewards:
Permanent 100 REP with Anko (unless you perform an unforgivable act)
+5 Skill scroll
Cursed Seal of Heaven formula!
I smiled at the 100 REP thing, which is totally awesome. And the skill scroll would be useful too. And the formula for the seal of heaven does peak my interest. If I can get rid of the bad stuff and just use the good...hm, could be game changing.
Misu and I packed up, thanked the platoon for their help, and went to see Anko in the recovery wing. Anko was asleep, which was too bad, but, she did look peaceful which was something.
Misu decided to go back home while I wanted some fresh air. It had been a long four days making that pot, I'm just glad it worked. I walked around the park and sat down, relaxing in the pleasant wind I felt in my face.
I opened my inventory and took out the +5 skill scroll. While I should probably use it on my chakra enhanced strength or something, I decided to have some fun and used it on flirting instead;
Flirting, Lv- 17 (0%)
Your ability to charm your target to drop their gaurd, confuse them or getting them to like you.
43% chance of it working (+40% from Ladies man) (+30% from nobel)
+5 REP bonus if works
Yup, with chances like this there's no way the ladies can resist me now. Thank you Ladies man perk! And speaking of perks, I wonder if I got any new one's thanks to Anko gaining 100 REP with me?
I opened it up and found two oddly enough;
A woman's bed- Gain +10,000 EXP every time your lover(s) and you share an orgasim together. (Conditions to unlock- Achieve 100 REP rate with a woman) PP cost- 20
Snake summoner- Gain a the snake summoning contract. (Conditions to unlock- Achieve 100 REP with a snake summoner) PP cost- 40
….I want the first one. I want it, I want it! I need it!
Ping!
You have obtained the perk: A woman's bed!
A woman's bed- Gain +10,000 EXP every time your lover(s) and you share an orgasim together.
And as for the snake summoner thing, I never was much of a snake person. Hate those things, so sneaky and deadly. But...that did get me thinking, what kind of animals do I summon? My curiosity took hold and soon I was on a mission.
Ping!
Quest Alert!
Find your summons and form a contract!
Rewards:
Summoning contract!
Failure:
Possible death/dismemberment
Do you Accept?
Y/N?
I of course pressed yes and took off, intent on finding more information in the library. I found a lot, mostly just a general guideline, but I also found several summoning contracts in the library itself.
The thing is, a summoning contract is a very powerful and private thing. Usually only a powerful ninja would have one, and they would in turn only allow their students to sign it, like Jiraiya did with the Fourth and Naruto.
But there were common summoning scrolls that anyone who earns the right to sign them get to us. Like the turtle scroll, the dog scroll and the rat scroll which was the village's basic summoning scrolls.
Only jounin level ninjas could use them however, and I really wasn't interested. It was honestly a pain. Plus it's not like I need a summoning contract, I do infact have pokemon….but no way to use it.
Hm, maybe I should make it so that everyone believes that the pokemon are my summons! A custom made summoning scroll that integrated my pokeballs and the space and time factors of the summoning jutsu!
But the quest, it implied I needed to find my summons, hm, that could take a while, and I only have to days left in my break. So I'll do that later, for now, I need to figure out how to make my pokemon seem like summons.
Two Days Later:
It was the day of departure and I now sprouted six new seals on my arms, three on my left forearm and three on my right. They were covered by bandages, keeping everyone unawre of what they could do, but needless to say, I had succeeded in creating a pseudo summoning contract.
I was called into the jonin HQ and inside found myself in meeting room 4 where Zabuza and Haku were already present. The ten jonin that were assigned to this mission was also present, taking up the front three rows.
We had three aburame's, four Inuzuka's, a clanless ninja that was covered with scars and two medical kunoichis.
"Morning!" I smiled as I waved at everyone as I walked in. the Jounins smiled and waved while I sat next to them, while Zabuza just glared at me, though Haku did smile back. Just then the doors opened as around 20 chunin walked in, sitting down behind us. They were all a lot older than me, probably had a lot of combat experience.
"Alright everyone, settle down," a Nara walked in and judging form his name and how familiar he looked I'm guessing he was Shikamaru's dad;
Shikaku Nara, Jonin commander
Lv- 72
REP- 60
He yawned as he took the podium and looked around, he then nodded to Zabuza who came forward standing next to the Nara with Haku by his side.
Shiaku then explained the mission, what we were going to do, how we were going to do it and what the Demon of the Mist was doing standing right next to them looking calm and almost bored.
"...And that's about it," he sighed, "you'll follow Zabuza's lead, essentially, he's in charge. We give Kiri that image, but in reality Tota will be the lead on this," Nara pointed to the scanned clanless ninja, "any questions?"
No one spoke, professions, nice.
"Good. Now, Zabuza will explain the mission parameters," Shikaku said as he stepped away and walked towards me, taking the free seat next to me. He turned to me and gave a slight nod, which I gave back.
"Right," Zabuza said stepping before us and grumbled, "honestly, I hoped I would get more help but...whatever, you get what you get. Hopefully you won't blame us for dieing because you stepped into a fight that isn't your own."
The ninjas around looked unimpressed at Zabuza's attempts to rile them up, Obviously they wouldn't fall for something that stupid. The missing nin then began his talk, detailing where we were going to lad, how we needed to go about making contact with the resistance and how we have to behave.
After the briefing we were lead into the armoury, I had never actually gotten a proper introduction into this place, no time. I either was on missions or was training and since the Hokage never told anyone to do it, I guess they just didn't bother.
Damn, now that I think about it, even though I am a tokubetsu jonin, no actually treats me like one. They still see me as a kid! The people I worked with, Ko and team eleven, they respected me, even Kakashi and Zabuza had respect for me, but these guys? No way.
Anyway, since I didn't know the route I moved to the man and followed the team, which was labeled Team Wet Wood. We ended up in a locker room eerily similar to the ANBU room and before us was a table filled with identical gear, handed out to each person.
Each person got a grey cloak with black and white camouflage patterns and a new set of weapons, which I really didn't need.
"Alright, as I call out your names step forward and receive your mask," Shikaku said as he held up a porcelain white mask with numbers on them. They looked like the hunter nin mask that Haku first wore, but these had red, green and brown patterns on them.
"Tota, you're number one," the Nara tossed him the mask, "medics Sushi and Furo, 2.1 nd 2.2," and like that he went, tossing people their masks.
By then we were all in our new gear, all ready for anything. But as more and more people gained their mask I started to grow worried, where was mine? And soon, the masks were gone.
"Alright, now that we're all set up let's move," Nara turned to Tota and Zabuza, "good luck you two. You'll need it."
"Ah, excuse me jonin commander Nara? I don't have a mask," I called out.
The man turned to me and smirked, "tokubetsu jonin Yami correct?"
I nodded, "yes sir."
"Right, well you're under special orders from the Hokage Yami, you aren't allowed to hide your face," he pointed to my face mask ad hood, "take them off. Since you're already an A rank in the bingo books we want you showing off for a bit, got that?"
I nodded, "make lots of noise, show off, look sexy while doing it. Got it."
"Is he related to Anko?" a jonin asked in a whisper as a few chuckled.
Nara smirked, "right. Oh, and one more thing, the Hokage told me to tell you that you aren't allowed to show the red while during the mission, unless it is a life or death situation. Do you know what that means?"
'No sharingan huh? Hm,' I nodded, "I do," I pulled down my hood and face mask showing my real face to everyone.
"Huh, so that's what you look like huh?" Zabuza snorted.
I smiled, "why? Are you falling in love me with Zabu? You know I'm straight right?"
"Annoying brat," the man hissed.
"Nice one kid," said number 4.1, a chunin and jonin number four. She has short spiky brown hair and was around level 45. God, how can someone so old be so weak?! Ah! This is infuriating!
"As I was saying, good luck, all of you," Nara nodded, "you'll need it. Dismissed!"
"Sir!" we saluted the man and went out in a swarm.
"Yami, take lead on this," Tota, now called 1, ordered, "you're a chakra sensor right?"
I nodded, "yes. My range is about 800 feet sir."
"Okay, they take the lead. Number 5 and 4," he pointed at the Inuzuka's and their wolf like dogs, "gaurd him. Chunin ranks follow behind Zabuza, Haku and myself, 2.1 and 2.2, behind them and the rest bring up the rear."
"Right," we nodded as we all began to move into position, with my protected by 5 and 4, whose giant dogs kept close to my side.
We travelled at around high chunin speeds, surprisingly the weakest chunin, number 3.2 whose level was only 43, could still keep up. I think it must be because of age and leveling up his skills. Obviously levels weren't a clear cut answer to how strong a person was. Example a, me.
We kept this pace through the day and into the night. I honestly wasn't bother by much because of this, not at all, but, the chunins, especially 3.2, started to get tired. We did however reach a coastal town by nightfall and hired a boat to take us across the ocean to Kiri.
We were out into international water by midnight, and it was only then when 1 allowed us all to get some rest. Though I didn't need it, I did have to pretend I did, else they would grow suspicious as to how I can stay awake without any negative effects.
The boat rocked gentle across the calm seas as we sailed for over a week. Kiri was a far away group of islands just off the coast and the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, as such it rarely ever was much of a country that was involved with any major wars or rivalry. It was far removed, which was both good and bad.
The night before we reached the land I found myself on lookout duty, since we were approaching a cluster of islands filled with ninjas, there were bound to be a few people who would note a boat full of ninjas coming for them.
As I stood at the ship's portside I noticed someone else come up from below deck, Zabuza and Haku. They walked onto the deck and walked towards me.
"Did you get anything kid?" Zabuza asked.
I shook my head, "it's clear for over 800 feet...although there are some creepy ass fish in this part of the sea," I noted looking down to see a giant fish fin rise up from the sea surface, splashing back down almost instantly.
"Kiri's water's are dangerous, and not just because of the ninja. We have sea monsters living in the waves. Some are….less friendly than others."
"Do you guys have mermaids?" I asked.
He blinked and turned to me, "what?" Haku was chuckling softly in the distance.
"Mermaids. You know, bottom half fish, top half woman? Totally hot? Don't….you don't have those here?"
"Are you talking about the Hoshigaki clan?"
I blinked, "Kisame's clan? What about them?"
"They are a clan of ninjas with shark like features. Kisame is just one of them."
"Huh...do the women also have sharp teeth?"
"Sharper."
"Nevermind then," I shuddered.
Zabuza laughed, "yeah kid, don't' even think about it. I heard from a friend about a ninja dumping a Hoshigaki kunoichi that ended with his cock bitten off. You don't' want to fuck with that clan."
I nodded, "yup. So...what's Kiri like?"
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"You know what Konoha is, loud, stuffy and covered with forest. So what's your village like?"
"It's...wet," he turned away and walked to the other side of the ship, ignoring me and Haku.
"Don't take his actions personally," Haku replied, "he hasn't been home in a long time. To him it's still a place he would rather forget."
"And you?" I asked, "you're from the Yuki clan yes? An ice user. Would you prefer if you didn't return?"
Haku smiled and shook his head, "no...to me, this land is still home...though I can't say I look forward to being back to a place that hates me for something I have no control over."
I sighed, "that's sad Haku...so tell me, are you really a guy? Because you're way too cute for that."
Haku smiled, "I assure you, I'm a guy."
I looked at his neck, but oddly enough it was covered by a turtleneck collar, "show me your neck."
Haku blinked, "excuse me?"
"Your neck, show it to me. If you're really a guy you'll have an Adam's apple. So...show me."
Haku blinked, "I...I don't' think that's necessary now."
I blinked, "oh my God….you're a girl!"
"Heh, about time you figured it out," Zabuza grumled.
"Lord Zabuza! Don't encourage him!" Haku cried out, and that moment of doubt I pressed my hand against 'his' throat and felt it smooth, no adam's apple, "shit!" Haku cried out as she slapped my hand away, "what is the hell is wrong with you?!"
I blinked, "you are a girl! Ha! This is hilarious!"
Haku growled as she turned away and walked back inside, growling under her breath. She slammed the lower deck door shut, I could see ice forming on the handle.
"You've done it now kid," Zabuza said as he turned around, "she'll probably freeze your balls off for that stunt."
I shrugged, "if she does I'll just thaw them out, no biggy. So why did she hide her gender anyway?"
"A lot of people would want the last daughter of a bloodline clan like hers," Zabuka explained, "we perfected her male identity for her own safety. And if you tell anyone about it," he turned to me leaking an obscene amount of killing intent, "I'll fucking kill you."
I shrugged, "you can try," he growled, "fine, fine, I promise, I won't tell anyone. Shesh, it's not like I want her to be molested."
The man huffed and looked away, his eyes fixed on the horizon. We sailed until eventually I could see land coming up thanks to my 8.0 eyesight perk. The ninjas came out from under deck and we all go ready, suiting up and arming ourselves.
The boat stopped a kilometer away from land as we hopped off and ran the rest of the way to land, water walking as quietly as we could. The boat then sailed away, intent for a trading port nearby to trade its goods, a boat coming all the way out here only to turn back would have been just too obvious.
We managed to reach land, Zabuza taking the lead as we walked through a bamboo field heading East.
We couldn't run, going that fast would only attract attention towards ourselves. And around an hour later we came upon a campsite, a bandit camp site.
"What do we do?" 1 asked Zabuza.
"We sneak around," the kiri ninja explained as he observed the bandits, "they look like they have raided some merchant's caravan, they won't bother us."
"What exactly are we trying to do here?" I asked.
Zabuza looked at me, "we're trying to gain information about the land and what's going on."
"Then let's do that," I replied cracking my knuckles, "I'll take them down and you lot and interrogate them."
"There are around thirty men down there," 1 said motioning to the campsite, "you can't take them down without drawing attention to us."
"Genjutsu," I replied.
1 and Zabuza looked at each other before the Kiri ninja nodded, "if you're confident about that, then go ahead kid."
"Right," I stepped forward and went through hand seals for an A rank genjutsu I learned in the library;
Temple of Nirvana jutsu, A rank
A powerful genjutsu that generates a fluttering rain of sleep-inducing, illusory white feathers.
CP cost- 1,000 CP
Area affected- 100 square feet (per 1,000 CP used)
It was the same ninjutsu Suna used in the Chunin exams when Naruto was involved. I threw my charka out which entered into all thirty enemy's chakra viens, influencing their minds to see white feathers rain down from the sky. Soon they all dropped down asleep and my team moved out.
We tied them up, stripped them of their gear and then began integrating them. While they did that I was waiting for my peace lover and peace briner perks to kick in. But surprisingly I didn't any bonuses for sparing the lives of all the bandits.
Hm, it did say sparing them in battle, so maybe it wouldn't work if I didn't actually fight them. Hm, something to keep in mind.
Finally they were done, One gathered us all around as we used the bandit's campsite for ourselves.
"Here's what we know so far," Zabuza said as Haku held up a map of the Land, "Kiri has seven islands around it's main chunk of land that it controls, the others are mostly uninvolved or have their own daimyo in it. So for now we focus on these islands. Each is named after a weather style, Cloud, Rain, Mist, Lightning, Sunny, Storm and Sky. The main island is just referred to as Kiri.
"These Islands are divided by straight's of water keeping them apart. It would take a chunin a day to cross the strait between each island, as such most conflits don't pour over immediately into each island. Here's what we know so far, Sky, Storm and Sunny have been taken over by the resistance.
"Cloud and Rain are neutral in all of this because of the clans that live on the island refuse to fight for anyone and would kill both the resistance and the Mizukage's forces if they ever came to their side. That leaves Mist and Lightning in the hands of Kiri, along with the main island. And to make things worse the battle on Sunny island is getting bad, the Resistance is losing."
"So we're going to sunny first?" 1 asked.
Zabuza nodded, "yes. Sunny first, that's the war front. I've been told that the resistance movement doesn't wear the Kiri headband, instead they wrap a blue bandana around their foreheads, that's how we'll know the difference."
"Which island are we on right now?" 5 asked.
"We're on Cloud," Zabuza sighed, "fortunately for us Cloud isn't as...deadly with their forces as Rain is. We need to move, now. It'll take us four days to travel around the island before we can move for Cloud, which will two days more. It'll be a long journey."
"Can't we just use a boat?" a chunin asked.
"We can't afford too," 1 replied, "we would be too obvious."
"We could disguise ourselves," number 3 suggested pointing at the caravan, "we disguise ourselves as merchants and go into town and hire another boat. Or steal it if we have too."
"Not a bad plan," Zabuza nodded, "I'm done. You?" he turned to 1.
1 sighed, "it'll be risky...we'll have to hide the Inuzuka dogs inside the caravan...and the bandits will have to be dealt with," he looked at the unconscious bandits, "but yes...it'll work."
"Then let's move," Zabuza ordered.
"Right, 6 to 8, every get moving, wear the bandit's clothes and any other merchant clothes you can find inside the caravan. 3 to 5, get rid of the problems," he motioned to the bandits with his hand.
"No. Wait," Zabuza stopped him, slowly turning to me, "let him do it."
"What?" I raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing Zabuza?" 1 asked.
"He's never killed, have you boy?" the man smirked, "you have never taken a life before. I heard even when you fought over 600 of Gato's goons, you only killed around five of them, and that too they died from blood loss, not from your hits. I can't go into this mission with someone who will freeze when they're faced with a tough choice. So you kill them...all of them."
"That's crazy!" 4 came to my side, "he's just a kid!"
"He's a ninja!" Zabuza snapped, "and a jonin at that. It's about time he learns what that means."
I understood what he wanted, he wanted to know that I could be useful. I looked at the bandits, how many did this because they had no choice? How many had families to feed? How many….how many did this because they just wanted to not die like a dog on the streets?
But Gamer's mind slowly kicked in and I could see clearly, Zabuza was right. If I didn't show my ruthless side then they would think I'm just a kid and I can't let that happen. Because if they don't think I'm useful, when it comes to the dangerous stuff, I won't be allowed to fight, I won't be allowed to try and save more lives. So I had to kill these men, and I had to be ruthless.
"Well? You going to do it kid?" Zabuza asked in a mocking tone.
Pushing my insecurities aside I walked up to the stack of people, they had all be tied together and all knocked out. I don't think I have the stomach to kill them all one by one by slicing their neck open with a kunai. So instead, I choose the second best option, a quickly death so fast they won't even have time to wake up.
I made five clones, we circled the bandits. The ninjas all turned to us, curious as to what we would do. We moved through hand seals, landing on a half tiger and half bird seal, breathing in, and gasping out as one.
'Scorch Style: Dragon's Breath!' I thought to myself as the bodies were burnt asunder, not even ashes were left behind.
None of them woke up, they all died in their sleep. We ended the jutsu after twenty seconds, finding nothing left but ashes, not even bone. They had all been reduced to dust, and now the blue flames burnt those as well.
I turned to Zabuza with a blank face, "let's move, we have a kage to kill."
They didn't say anything as I moved to help find clothes to wear form the caravan. They all began to work as well. I noticed a few of them look at me, I could feel their fear thanks to their chakra, even Zabuza kept an eye on me, though it was more out of pity than anything else.
As we removed out ninja uniforms and mask, wearing the civilians clothes we found, I kept telling myself that it had to be done. There was no way we could even risk those bandits running off and telling someone about us.
And then I asked myself, who would they tell? Other bandits? Ninjas? And what could they tell? I then answered myself, the ninja clans in this island, they could tell them. And they could find us. It was the smartest thing to do. I know that, and yet...I couldn't help feel sad.
We disguised the wagon to make it look different, just in case the merchant who owned this reported it stolen. We then moved out, Zabuza, Haku and the medics hid in the wagon along with the Inuzuka dogs. 1 took the lead as he and 8 pretended to be my father and mother, and me the happy go lucky kid who traveled with them along with the other merchants.
I skipped along the road, smiling and humming as I cheered a tune. 1 and 8 looked at me, obviously worried. They rest of the ninjas were talking in pairs, pretending to be a normal merchant vessel, while secretly keeping an eye out for trouble.
"Yami," 1 spoke up, "do you want to talk about it?"
I smiled and looked at him, "what do you mean pops?"
1 sighed, "you don't have to act Yami. Do you sense any enemies nearby?"
I shook my head, "nope!"
"Then drop the act kid," the Inuzuka lady, one Toba Inuzuka. She had wild dirty blonde hair tied into a ponytail with black fang mark under her eyelids. She didn't have much curves, figures, and while she did have a slim figure, her almost animalistic snarls really pissed me off.
"Fine," I sighed dropping the stupidly exaggerated smile, "I'll admit, I didn't enjoy that, but it had to be done."
"Yami...why did you spare those men?" 1 asked, seeing my confused look he clarified, "I read your file. You fought 600 men, you didn't aim to kill a single one. Why?"
I sighed, "because I don't like killing. I believe….I belive that if try and show the world some kindness, then we can fight back some of the hate in the world."
"And get stabbed in the back," Toba snorted.
"Yeah, maybe, but if you can stop a war, isn't that worth it? Isn't that one of the reason's we're here?" I asked.
"We're here kid because if we help Kiri now, then we can control who comes as the next Mizukage, giving us an alley and great power over them," Toba snorted twitching her nose, "not because we feel bad for these bastards."
I smiled, "you might be here for that, but I'm not. I'm here to stop the pointless fighting, that's all. Our goals are the same, but what we want are different."
"And if you had to chose between the mission and your beliefs, which would you pick?" 1 asked.
"I would pick both," I replied.
"You can't," 1 shook his head, "you have to pick one."
"Give me a situation where that can possible apply?" I snorted.
"We get the Mizukage cornered, we have him in our sights. But, you notice his army is across the land slaughtering hundreds of people at once. Who would you go after?"
"I would use the shadow clone jutsu to send a small army to save the people while I fight the Mizukage."
"And if you have only enough chakra to do one thing?" he challenged me.
"Then I would kill the Mizukage quickly and dump his body in front of everyone, showing the enemy ninjas their leader is dead. Either they'll get so discouraged their stop fighting, or they'll come after me. Either way, they fighting stops."
"You have an answer for everything don't ?" 1 snorted.
I nodded, "I try to think of a way to make the best in any situation."
"One of these days kid, you'll have to face a challenge you can't out think. What will you do then?" Toba asked.
I smirked, "on that day, I'm sure you'll be there to tell me, 'I told you so'. But, until that day comes, I won't give up on my beliefs. The world can be at peace, one way or another."
And with that, we continued, 1 and 8 stopped bothering me, and put on my mask of an innocent child.
We reached the road quickly enough and with Zabuza's help we managed to reach a port town by nightfall. We slept outside the town in tents, I shared one with 1 and 8 to keep up the family image. It was weird, 1 and 8 don't really know each other, but they have no problem pretending to be in love, and pretending I'm their child. I really need to get better at acting.
It was around midnight when we dropped the merchant disguises and suited up. The town didn't have any ninjas on patrol, so we easily managed to sneak inside and steal a boat from the harbour.
Number 7, 8, 7.1, 7.2 and 8.2 were all water users, they used their ninjutsu to speed up our journey. We were an hour into sea when I felt someone approach.
"1! Zabuza! We have twelve ninjas incoming! All chunin level!" I cried out, "they're around….700 feet away!"
"Shit! Someone must have spotted us leaving the harbour!" Zabuza cursed, "alright, everyone get ready for a fight!"
"8, 7, and everyone else keep going! The rest of us will deal with this!"
"500 feet!" I called out as I made ten clones, each with 500 CP that dived into the water, activating Chakra concealment;
Chakra Concealment- Make your chakra levels seems like that of a civilian. (Active)
Hopefully they wouldn't notice them right away. The water was clear, so we could see the ship coming towards us.
It was a large boat, judging from the way it traveled it was faster than anything we had. And on it were the twelve ninjas in question, though only ten were getting ready to fight us, with one still on the boat and the other...was tied up in one corner. A prisoner.
Each ninja had a grey plain jacket, similar to what the ANBU wore, except less thick. They wore full length grey shirts and a pants with their Kiri headbands tied firmly on their foreheads. Meaning they weren't with the resistance, they were Kiri ninjas.
I made a clone and dispelled it, informing my clones underwater that they can't just burn the boat like we planned. We needed to save the bound and bagged prisoner first.
"Halt!" the ninjas called out, "you're trespassing on Kiri waters! Surrender now or die!"
1 motioned with his hands, the others slowly moved to the back of the boat where they climbed off and walked around stealthily. 1, 8 and I put on our family disguise and moved to the boat's edge and called out, "hello there! We're just some travelers looking for the island of Sunny! Could you help us?!"
"What's your name?!" the ninja called back.
"Wataru! And this is my wife Sakura and son Tatsu!" the man smiled pushing me forward.
"Are they ninja pops?" I asked innocently looking back at my dad.
"Yes son, they are. They're the ones that protect us," he smiled ruffling my head.
"What are you planning to sell in Kiri?" the head ninja. He was a level 51 chunin with grey hair, around 40 years of age.
"Spices from the Land of Noodles and tea from the land of Tea!" 8 replied.
"Oh? Can we try some?" the ninjas challenged with a raised eyebrow, their hands going for their kunais, while 1's did the same. I saw one of my clones reach the surface right behind the boat. They were trying to make a grab for the girl, I had to gain more time.
"Sure!" I cried out suprising 1 and the enemy ninja, "I'll get you some!" I turned and walked under deck, making both parties look surprised. I opened my inventory and took out the tea bags I gained from my mission as a thank you reward for saving Rias and quickly came back up, waving the box, "here you go mr. ninja sir! The best tea! All the way from the Land of Tea!"
I tossed the bag to the man who caught it with one hand. He opened the box and smelt the tea inside, he smiled, "this is some good stuff here boy. How did you get it so fresh? Tea leaves form that land are always so difficult to trade."
One caught on quick as he smiled, "sorry lord ninja, but that's a family secret."
"I see. Well then I suppose it's fine, after all, we ninjas shouldn't be trading secrets to each other so easily," and with that, all hell broke loose.
The Kiri ninjas leaped from the boat right at us. Our allies moving from the back, throwing kunai and shurikens at them. 1, 8 and I moved backwards, donning our ninja gear as the enemy landed on the deck of the ship, a few cuts and bruises but no major damage.
"Swift Release: Speed up times 10!" I cried out exploding into motion. I charged my fists with chakra and collided them into their groin and neck several times, launching them all into the air and out of our boats.
Ping!
Chakra strength- 15 X 150 = 2,250
You gained a critical strike! DMG is multiplied by 5!
2,250 X 5 = 11,250 DMG!
I did that much damage to each one.
"Kill them!" 1 ordered as the Konoha ninjas jumped on the downed and confused Kiri ninjas who didn't see me coming.
"Shit!" the ninja back on the enemy speed boat cried out as tried to turn the boat around. But by then my clones had climbed on board and began beating his ass with their enhanced fists while a spare clone grabbed the prisoner and jumped over to our boat, placing the prisoner besides 2.1 and 2.2.
"Who is this?" 2.1 asked.
"A prisoner!" I called out as I engaged with the head ninja, pushing his kunai back with my dagger before breaking on arm and placing a status seal on his forehead, dropping him down for the count.
Soon they were all either knocked out or killed. At the end of the battle I gained a new notification;
Ping!
You gained +6 points and PP!
Hm, so only six of the eleven enemy ninjas survived huh? Damn it. We pulled all the survivors onto deck where we tied them up. Only then did Zabuka come out and reveal himself, looking at the people we captured.
"They are part of Kiri's patrol unit," Zabuka explained, "I don't know who the old guy is, but them going missing will attract a lot of attention. We can interrogate them for information and burn the boat, hopefully they'll think the resistance did this."
"And what about her?" 2.2 asked she removed the bag from the prisoner I took away. Underneath the mask was girl, she was around my age, maybe a year older. When the bag was lifted, the first thing I saw was a head of pearl white hair come down till her shoulders, almost shining what little light reflected off it. Her face was soft, almost beautiful, elegant even, her white eyebrows framing her face perfectly.
Yukiko Karei, The Last Karei
Lv- 24
REP- 0
"Oh my God," Haku gasped, "lord Zabuza! Thats-"
"-I know," Zabuza growled as he clenched his fists.
"Who is she?" 1 asked as we all turned out the girl. She wore rags, you couldn't call it anything else. The material was thick like a sac, dull brown colour. Her arms and legs were tied up, dirt covering her perfectly smooth skin.
"She's a member of the Karei clan...has to be. No other explanation for it," Zabuza grumbled.
"The Karei clan?" 3 asked curiously.
"The Karei clan was a clan that helped found Kiri. They...they helped create one of the seven swords of Kiri, Hiramekarei. They have a special bloodline that allows them to easily turn their chakra into a physical form, making them very...dangerous."
"Why did they capture her?" 2 asked, "if Kiri really does hate bloodline users why didn't they just kill her?"
"Because even before this whole war began her clan was extinct," Haku explained, "it was..almost impossible to know if one is a member of the clan. They only way to know for sure is by their hair. When they reach 13 their hair turns white, ice white. If they want though, they can change it back, therefore they can't be found, unless they want to be found."
"And even then, more than being a bloodline clan, they are a founding family," Zabuza growled, "the people will revolt if they found out the Mizukage had a Karei killed."
"What do we do with her?" 8 asked.
"We should probably wake her up and ask her that don't you think?" I put in my two cents gaining everyone's attention.
"He's right," 1 nodded, "2.1, 2.2, can you wake her up?"
"Yup," 2.2 took out a capsule which she broke open under the girl's nose. We waited when suddenly she gasped awake. Her eyes flashed open and I faltered as blue eyes as bright as my blue flames looked at me, her first sigh was on me, she was looking at me, right at me….oh my god. I think I'm in love.
I faltered, I didn't know what to say. I held up my hand, "h-hi. I'm Yami, what's your name?"
"Kya!" she cried out as she ran away, crawling to the boat's edge and getting to her feet and tripping because of the chains around her feet and hands.
"Woah there, careful!" I caught her, she looked up at me, "you shouldn't move that-"
Smack!
Her fist flew right into my nose. It hurt, I even lost 2 HP points. I didn't drop her though, as she slowly moved her hand back I looked at her and groaned. I was going to say something smart and snarky, "you are one crazy...beautiful girl. I mean! I..." someone snickered, I blushed as I looked up to see everyone looking at us, even Zabuza has an amused raised eyebrow.
"W-who are you people?!" she cried out as she got on her feet and struggle out of my arms. Standing back as she pushed herself up against a wall, looking at us. She then finally noticed the beaten Kiri ninjas lying on the boat's deck and her eyes winded, "you're all ninjas?"
"Yes, we are lady Karei," Zabuza bowed, "my name is Zabuza Momochi, have you heard of me?"
"T-the Demon of the Mist," her eyes went to his blade, "you're one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist. Y-you were banished for trying to kill the Fourth Mizukage."
"That is correct. And now I have returned, with help," Zabuza motioned to us, "this is Haku, my chunin apprentice."
Haku stepped forward and smiled, "hello last Karei, it is a pleasure to meet you."
"And the rest are all tree huggers, and I didn't bother learning their names," he snorted as we glared at him. He then looked at me and smirked, "and the kid who just tried to molest you is Yami."
"I wasn't trying to molest her!" I snapped, "I just didn't want her to fall!"
"And you didn't just spend a full minute gawking at her face, right, got it," 8 snorted.
"Hey! Who's side are you on?!" I cried out.
"W-why are you all here?" the white haired girl asked, "why did you capture me?"
"We aren't here for you is that's what you're worried about," Zabuza stepped forward making Yukiko pull herself inside, squinting in fear. Zabuza put his hands up defensively, "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise"
She looked at him and her eyes were drawn to his blade. Zabuza quickly removed it and tossed it to Haku, "there, see, no blade. I'm not going to hurt you."
She nodded as Zabuza walked up to her and using a kunai he drew out very slowly, unlocked her shackles.
"Thank you," she mumbled as she rubbed her wrists.
"No problem lady Karei," Zabuza nodded as he stepped back.
"What are you going to do with me?" she asked in a soft voice.
"We don't know," 1 admitted, "we're here to join the resistance and help free Kiri, so we intend to first find the rebels who are on Sunny island."
"Is there anywhere we can drop you?" I asked trying to not sound so much like a love sick puppy, "do you have family? Friends?"
She shook her head, "no...I don't."
"Then you can come with us," Zabuza offered, "as long as you're out there Kiri will come after you for your bloodline, I'm assuming that's why they captured you in the first place yes?"
She nodded, "y-yes."
"Then the only place you'll be safe is with the resistance," the man said as he offered his hand, "you can trust me lady Karei, we mean you no harm."
She looked afraid, I could feel it in her chakra, a little as it was. She however gulped and nodded, accepting his hand. She was so scared, I'm honestly surprised she can even move let alone trust someone else.
1 had 2.2 and 8 take her inside and get her a change of clothes, something we had left over from the caravan. And then, after Karei left, we began to interrogate the prisoners. I didn't like the torture, and I'm sure as hell knew that if our new guest heard the screams she would be only more afraid of us.
So I quickly set up a sound numbing seal that made their screams silent, poor buggers couldn't even scream to dull to the pain. But finally, finally we got what we wanted, the patrol schedules and Kiri forces in Sunny island.
Zabuza cut off their heads and dumped their bodies into their boat and had me burn it all into ashes. We then sealed the heads away and set off.
Thanks to the new info we got a course was plotted which would get us to Sunny by morning. Zabuza knew a river that flowed into the island that we could use to sail inland and move out faster. So with that the course was set.
The rest of the ninjas went to sleep, I of course volunteered to stay as look out thanks to my powers. 1 promise to come a relieve me later in the night, though I insisted I could handle it no problems.
The water nature users also took turns, though theirs was based on the hour and on the other side of the boat, so we never really spoke.
As it grew later and later into the night I felt someone stir inside the ship, Karei. I don't know who she tried to fool, but she tried to sneak outside, I could tell she woke up everyone on the ship with her stunt, but for some reason no one tried to stop her.
I hide as she walked onto deck and looked around. She looked over the sides, cursing seeing nothing there. I sat on the bridge and watched her look around the sea, cursing as she realised there's no way off.
"You know, you don't really have to worry about us," I spoke startling her.
She squeaked in shock as she looked up and found me looking at her with a smile. She blinked, "I-I was- I just-"
I chuckled, "it's fine Blue Eyes, it's understandable. You were kidnapped by ninjas only for them to die and you get captured again by another group of ninjas. It's understable you're afraid, hell, I'm afraid and I'm a ninja!"
She blinked, "y-you are? But you're so young."
I shrugged, "the good ones start out young."
"How young?"
"Seven...maybe six," I admitted.
"That's horrible," she gasped, "a child having to be...a killer...a thief?"
"No...even we wouldn't do that," I chuckled, "usually ninjas are twelve when they begin, and for over half a year they aren't allowed to do anything more than chores, like washing clothes, painting buildings and shopping for old people. We don't even think about letting them out of the village for at least a year, maybe more."
"When do they kill?" she asked.
I shrugged, "depends on the person. As you know Zabuza took to it very young, the little sack of shit," I snorted, "but others...they don't really take to it."
"H-how many people have you killed?" she asked.
"As of yesterday?" I sighed, "more than I wanted. But I spare the lives of more people than I killed, so I like to think that I'm not a complete monster," I smirked, "don't' worry, I won't hurt you. You're safe with me, I promise."
"W-why do you care about me?" she asked, "you barely even know me."
I chuckled, "that's true, heck I don't' even know you name!"
"I-it's Karei," she replied.
"No, that's your clan's name. I want to know your name," I smiled.
"W-why? Isn't that enough?"
"No, not really," I shrugged, "I'm an orphan so I never really gave any weight to people who from big clans. What I care about is the people inside, not their clan, to me a first name is far more important. So, what's your name Blue eyes?"
She looked at me with the galaxy wide blue eye and spoke in a whisper, "Yukiko. My name is Yukiko."
I smiled, "hello Yuki, I'm Yami of Konoha, it's nice meeting you."
She nodded nervously, I sighed I jumped down, making her skimp back in surprise. I smiled as I walked up to the bow of the ship and motioned her to join me. She nervously stepped next to me, I looked down at her clothes, she now wore a royal purple kimono that was a size too large for her frame, though it did show off some curves I didn't realise she had.
"You look nice, those robes suit you," I said with a smile.
"T-thank you. Ms. Toba gave them to me," she replied with a smile looking at the robes.
"Do you like them?" I asked.
"Yes...I never had such fine clothes before," she replied in a low tone of voice.
I raised an eyebrow, "forgive me Yuki, but I though your clan was a founding member of Kiri? Why is this the best you ever wore?"
"I...I didn't know," she replied as she looked away ashamed, "I grew up as a street urchin, begging for money to give to Dudo, the man who had us beggar kids working for him. When I grew up they...they..."
I reached for her hands and squeezed it, "you don't have to talk about it," I whispered as I squeezed.
She nodded, "thank you. I...I fought back when they tried to...have their way. I fought back and suddenly...something happened. I wanted him dead, I wanted to cut his head off and suddenly my body started to burn as his head suddenly came off his body. I screamed, I ran away, and when I finally stopped and tried to clean myself in a river, I noticed my hair had turned white.
"I...I couldn't turn it back, I tried but I couldn't. I knew what this hair meant, I heard stories about the Karei clan, but to think I was one...it was impossible. I try to hide, but eventually those ninjas found me and told me they were going to bring me to the Mizukage. And then...and they you all found me."
I sighed, "shit...I'm sorry your life sucks...but...what are you going to do now?"
"Now?" Yukiko looked at me like I was insane, "I don't know...I guess I'll just die. As long as my hair is this color I...I'm marked for death."
I blinked I reached up, making her flinch for a second before she realised I didn't mean her any harm. He slowly moved and touched a hair strand, I could feel chakra flowing through her body, her whole body was covered with it, especially her hair. That's why it changed colours like that.
"Yuki, do you know what chakra is?" I asked.
She shook her head, "no. What is it?"
"It's the life force of the world," I told her, "it what allows ninjas to do what we do, and everyone has it. The reason your hair is this colour, is because right now you're using chakra without even realising it."
"Can you change it back?" she asked.
"Well...no," she looked saddened, "but I can teach you how too."
She blinked, "r-really? You can?!"
I nodded, "sure, here, come sit down," I moved away from the edge of the boat and sat down in the lotus positions, Yukiko doing her best to copy me.
She sat down, struggling to make herself comfortable, "alright, now what?"
"Close your eyes and concentrate," I told her, "focus on you body, focus on the way you feel, the way you breath, the way your skin feels against the wind, concentrate and keep focusing until you feel something in your gut tingle."
She nodded as she did just that, focusing, staying still for well cover a minute before she grumbled and opened her eyes, "it's not working!"
"Patience, it'll take some time, but don't worry, you'll get there," I smiled as I took hr hands and held them in mine, "here, maybe this will help," I then began pouring chakra into my hands, circulating it around my palms, "can you feel that?"
She blinked as she squinted at my hands, "I...yes...it feels...nice. Soft. Warm even."
I nodded, "right. Now try and feel for that feeling inside of yourself. Use my chakra like a guide and look for your own."
She nodded as closed her eyes, this time keeping them close for well over ten minutes. I don't mind, I rubbed her hands gently with my thumb, they were callous and well used, but...they felt so soft around her palms.
And then, at the ten minute mark, she opened her eyes with a gasp, "I felt it! I felt something in my stomach! It was so nice! Like a feather!"
I nodded, "good. Now, I want you to feel around the chakra, see where it goes, see where you can take it. Try and see where it's all going," she closed her eyes and she did just that. I continued, "feel it move from your gut, to your chest to your throat and to your head. Can you feel it? Can you feel it in your scalp?"
She took a moment before nodding, "y-yes, I can feel it."
"Good. Now imagine you're pulling on a rope made of your chakra, pull the rope into your gut, pull it into your stomach and away from you hair and don't stop until it's all gone."
"Yes," she spoke with such clarity and focus I was surprised it came from the same mouth that sounded so scared all the time. I watched as slowly the whites of her hair sank into her scalp, I felt her chakra go back into her gut and finally, her hair was midnight black, ironic I would say.
She opened her eyes and looked at a strand of her hair, "it's back to normal!" she got on her feet and looked at her reflection in the waters, "amazing!" she turned to me and jumped hugging me, "thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
Her REP went from 0 to 20 immediately as I hugged her back.
When she finally calmed down I sat her down next to me as we began to talk. I told her about my life, about Naruto and the village. She seemed enchanted by Konoha, amazed that orphan children wouldn't be left to beg on the streets but instead would have a place they could stay and have food to eat. Guess the war was tougher on Kiri than I thought.
Eventually it got late and Yukiko, now finally relaxed enough to let herself get some sleep, dozed off in about ten minutes into my story about how I passed the chunin exams. I watched her doze off and smiled, she needed the break.
Just then 1 came up on board and looked at Yukiko sleep with her head tucked into my shoulder and me smiling off into the distance with closed eyes.
"You should stop staring, it's creepy," I told him as I opened my eyes and looked at him, "come to take her inside?"
"Take her in yourself, and then get some rest, I'll take over for now," 1 replied as he stepped up to the bow.
"I can stay you know, I'm an insomniac, I don't sleep for days at a time," I told him as I carried Yukiko in my arms, her head tucked into my chest.
"You're a growing kid, you need to sleep if you want to grow up," he said dismissing me, "oh, and make sure you and her are in separate beds. Got that?"
I snorted, "yeah yeah. Night Tota."
"Night Yami," he replied.
The next day:
We reached Sunny island later that originally estimated. It took us all morning to get to the island. By noon we found the mouth fo the river that took us inland.
Zabuza stood at the bow of the ship and faced us, everyone was on deck, even Yukiko, who was sticking closely to me as she still had trouble trusting everyone else, especially now since they all wore masks.
"This river will eventually taper in around 10 kilometers in," Zabuza said as he pointed at a pair of mountains off in the horizon, "we'll reach those mountains and get onto dry land and reach a small town there names Shichibu. Once there we can find more information about what's happening and where we need to go to find the resistance."
"Lord Zabuza," Haku suddenly spoke as she looked over the railing, "look."
We all watched as a bloody stump of a hand floated down the river, hitting the side of our boat loudly. Yukiko shrieked as she moved behind me, watching the floating arm float away in horror.
"It looks like the battle started without us," 1 replied and he looked further ahead, bodies slowly coming around the riverbend. One wore a blue sash around his forehead while another had the Kiri headband, "the resistance and Kiri...looks like the war came sooner than we thought. We need to hurry up! Zabuza what's the plan?"
"We fight," he growled, "the bodies look fresh maybe five minutes ahead? Have the boat dock by the river side and serve as a base. Haku, you and the water users stay here with the healers and Lady Karei, keep everyone here safe. The rest of us will be fighting."
"Here," I took out the blue kimono I wore while under cover and tore off several stretches of cloth, "ties these around your heads so the resistance knows we're friends."
"Good thinking kid," Zabuza replied as he removed his headband while putting on a blue band and, an act copied by everyone else, each wearing the bandana over their masks.
Slowly the boat turned the bend in the river and suddenly a giant smoking and wet battle field stood before us. It was a sloping plain, with a fortress on the top of the mountain that was reduced to nothing more than rubble.
The rebels had the higher ground while the Kiri ninjas refused to give up, the sound of metal clashing metal clearly heard from even here. They were slaughtering each other, fighting like monsters, out for blood.
"We need to move," 1 ordered, "Yami, how many can you hit."
I took out my chakra metal trench knives from my inventory and channeled wind chakra into it causing them to glow with a blue aura, "I can get them all to stop fighting, either by removing an arm or disabling them."
"What?! No! Yami you can't possible fight in that! You'll die!" Yukiko cried out.
"Oh, looks like someone's got a girlfriend," 5 snickered.
I sighed, "Yuki, I'll be fine, I told you didn't I? I'm a ninja," I grinned, "it's what I do."
"But-"
"We don't' have time for this," 1 spoke, "5, 6 and everyone under them move out to the South, 2, 3, 4 and everyone under them move to the North with Zabuza and I, we'll surround them!"
"Yes sir!" we nodded as the boat slowly docked.
"Alright Flash, show us what you got," 1 nodded at me.
I threw off my cloak and jumped onto dry land. My hands moved like a blur, ending with the final seal for what is quickly becoming my favorite jutsu "Swift Release: Speed up times 10!" And the moment my feet touched the ground, I vanished in a blur.
The battle field was a nightmare, people's guts spilling out, their blood baptising the ground like holy water on a baby. And I swear I would have thrown up in my mouth if I hadn't have Gamer's mind pushing me forward.
There were at least a hundred people here, all chunin level or higher. I couldn't afford being nice, I couldn't spare their lives. But...I could try.
I charged at the first Kiri ninja, moving behind his distracted form to cut off his arms, both of them. I didn't bother sticking around to see how much damage I had down or if he was still alive.
I just kept going.
I slashed with the wind enhanced chakra trench knives, cleaving them apart, if not maintaining them. If nothing else, I distracted them, just long enough for their opponents to kill them.
I moved towards the South side, as that's where the Kiri ninjas came from. Cut into their ankles, legs, arms and sometime even eyes. They were all quick to fall, blood staining my hands and cloak.
"You bastard!" I turned to see a Kiri ninja moving just as fast as I was. He was a jonin, his level 68. He was merciless in his attacks, trying to stab my throat with a kunai. I dodged, I was impressed, for him to keep up with me at this level? It was impressive. But he was still slightly sluggish, meaning I could end this easily.
"Enough," I used a trench knife to trap his kunai hand for one moment before tackling him with my shoulder, pushing him back. He came charging right back at me, but the moment he wasted, was enough for me to use my second jutsu of the day, "Swift Release: Speed up times 100!"
He couldn't even see me then.
This jutsu used to take a lot out of me. It used to be almost impossible to maintain. But that was before I leveled up with 300 CHA and 250 CC. That gave a regeneration rate of 105% every 30 seconds, allowing me to produce 2000 CP every ten seconds. Meaning I didn't even have to sweat it.
The man's arms flew off his body. I couldn't kill him because even beheading wouldn't result in his death if his HP wasn't zero, thanks to the game's logic. So I had to settle for maiming the man.
And then I moved to the rest of the Kiri ninjas. They were coming through a valley pass, slowly horrified looks came upon their faces. They looked over my shoulder and I saw what they saw. A trail of bodies, so fresh the blood spilt hadn't even touched the ground yet. I had killed so many...so many people….no, I can't do it anymore. I'm not a monster...maybe this will convince them to give up.
I made five shadow clones, each with 200 CP, they all moved around the ninja's in the valley, surrounding them, making the seals for Scorch Release: Dragon's Breath jutsu. And then, I canceled my Swift release jutsu.
They all gasped as to them it seemed like I just killed half their ranks and stopped before them, arms covered in blood. I looked at them with cold looks, I could feel the fear, the rage.
I held up my fingers and pointed at my clones, they were cautious as a few turned to see them, the more cautious of them never left my eyes.
"They can kill you all in less than a second," I spoke, "it wouldn't even take them long to do that. It would be over," I snapped my fingers, "like that."
"M-monster!" a Kiri ninja cried out.
"I didn't aim to kill a single person behind me," I looked over, seeing most of the resistance fighter stop their fight the moment their opponent was delimbed it hurt, taking them down instead of killing them, "I don't like killing. But….if you force me too, I won't hesitate. So...I'll give you one choice. Surrender," I let my guilt build up in the form of a lone tear as I spoke in a quavering voice, "please. Just...don't make me do this."
The head of the small army looked at me, his face aghast as he looked at the tears rolling down my face. Was he wondering why a ninja cried? Or could he not believe a monster could feel remorse.
Slowly, they looked at each other, and they dropped their weapons, putting their hands up into the air.
"Don't resist," I told them as my clones came down and began sealing them, making most of them drop down unconscious, while a few of the stronger ones resisted it enough to stay on their feet.
"That was..." I turned and saw my team behind me, the resistance fighters behind them. One had spoken, he spoke again with a shaking voice, "a-are you alright Yami?"
"Yeah...I'm fine," I walked away, ignoring their looks, I couldn't stand to see the sight of battle anymore.
Ping!
You have spared 42 enemies! Gain +42 PP and 42 points!
Ping!
You have killed 120 enemies!
Average: 2,560 EXP
Total EXP gained from kills: 307,200 EXP!
Ping!
You have leveled up!
Yami, Protector of Hono
Level- 45 (302,1000/70,100)
HP- 9,550/9,550 (+20)
SP- 5,050/5,050
CP- 6,625/6,625
CONTROL- 100%
FIRE- 100% WIND- 100% LIGHTNING- 100%
SCORCH- 100% SWIFT- 100%
POWER- 100%
Allegiance- Konoha
STR- 150 (+5)
VIT- 100
DEX- 100
INT- 100 (+2)
CHA- 300
CC- 250
LUC- 100 (+5)
Ping!
Conditions have been meet: Fire 100% control, Lightning 100% control. Would you like to unlock a keki genkai!
FIRE + LIGHTNING = PLASMA
Or unlock another element?
Earth
Water
I can't deal with this damn new elements anymore. I'll stick to the basics. I'm in Kiri right? I could use some water jutsus. So I selected water.
Ping!
You have leveled up!
Yami, Protector of Hono
Level- 45 (302,1000/70,100)
HP- 10,100/10,100 (+20)
SP- 5,325/5,325
CP- 7,450/7,450
CONTROL- 100%
FIRE- 100% WIND- 100% LIGHTNING- 100% WATER- 60%
…..
Wait, I have a 60% control rate?! What the fuck?!
Ping!
You have leveled up!
My water control rate had risen to 100%, I gained even more options!
WIND + LIGHTNING + WATER = FORCE
FIRE + LIGHTNING = PLASMA
FIRE + WATER = BOIL
WIND + WATER = ICE
WATER + LIGHTNING = STORM
Or unlock another element?
Earth
I chose Earth, might as well unlock all of them;
Ping!
You have leveled up!
Ping!
You have leveled up!
And just like that, Earth release became 100%. And this time, since I unlocked all of the basic elements, I got a whole list of kekkai genkais, and kekai toutas
WIND + LIGHTNING + WATER = FORCE
LIGHTNING + EARTH + WATER = GRAVITY
EARTH + FIRE + WATER = LIFE
FIRE + EARTH + WIND = DUST
FIRE + LIGHTNING = PLASMA
FIRE + WATER = BOIL
WIND + WATER = ICE
WATER + LIGHTNING = STORM
EARTH + FIRE = LAVA
EARTH + WIND = MAGNET
EARTH + WATER = WOOD
EARTH + LIGHTNING = EXPLOSION
I sighed, might as well go with something familiar...like wood release.
Ping!
You have leveled up!
Yami, Protector of Hono
Level- 49 (12,7000/77,400)
HP- 11,750/11,750 (+20)
SP- 5,850/5,850
CP- 9,925/9,925
CONTROL- 100%
FIRE- 100% WIND- 100% LIGHTNING- 100% WATER- 100% EARTH- 100%
SCORCH- 100% SWIFT- 100% WOOD- 60%
POWER- 100%
Allegiance- Konoha
STR- 150 (+5)
VIT- 100
DEX- 100
INT- 100 (+2)
CHA- 300
CC- 250
LUC- 100 (+5)
Points- 72
Perk Points- 431
I sighed, I need a lot of time to process all of this. For now I dismissed the status message and turned around and sat on a boulder, looking at the gathering of the masked Konoha ninjas and the resistance fighters.
"Now! Make way!" three jonin level ninja came down, the resistance fighters giving him plenty of space. He looked at us, all of us, before his eyes landed on Zabuza, "lord Z-zabuza?! What are you doing here?!"
"I'm here to help Kiri, like I've been sworn to do," Zabuza said putting his blade away, it was stained with blood, guess he got a few people in huh?
"A-and these men?" the jonin, Wagyu, asked.
"They are from Konoha," Zabuza motioned to 1, "he's in charge of them. I spoke with the Hokage, he has agreed to help us fight back. They are on our side against the Mizukage."
"Konoha is willing to fight for us?!"
"Woah! Those tree huggers aren't half bad!"
The people began to whisper to each other, before Wagyu silenced them with a glare. With all of them silent he turned to 1, "how many men did you bring?"
"31," he replied.
"That won't be enough," Wagyu replied with a snarl.
"Will it?" 1 looked over his shoulder at me, I gave a neutral mask, I wasn't in the mood.
"What is he?" a Kiri ninja asked, his voice shaking, "he just killed them all! Like they were nothing! We couldn't even see him! Even lord Fitoruma! The fastest jonin of Kiri couldn't stop him!"
Everyone turned to me, the Konoha ninjas moving around me protectively. "It's fine," I pushed 4 and 5 aside to step before them, "my name is Yami, I'm a ninja of Konoha, the Second Flash. And all you have to know, is that my team and I are going to make sure this war stops. For good. And that's a promise."
