Chapter 26: The Purple Mountain

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

A/N: I'll answer some question that you guys had.

First, some asked why Kenji attacked them. He can sense emotions remember, so he knew that they were lying when they said they would let them leave.

Second, why don't they just use clones? The answer is because clones are to fragile for something as dangerous as scouting a tomb probably infested with chakra beasts that can hide from detection. Even an earth clone that has the most defense power can be killed if taken by surprise by a horde of those beetles.

Third, this goes to coldblue2015. The final bosses will be a mummy, but also a chakra beast. The sand will also grow stronger. And the Inuyasha swords will be a thing, but not until later when Kenji's blacksmithing skills have improved.

Fmwaver, thanks for the congratulations. I also can't believe it's also been a year.

No on to the story.

Chapter 26

Kenji brought up the upgraded meat cleaver and chopped a section of the sphinx's body.

Everyone around him except for Rasa was currently using this time to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Drago and Akame sleeping only a few feet away. Everyone had a been up for more than 24 hours straight and while they could go on for more, it was better to rest while they could.

Next to him was a booklet that he was using to document all his findings from the autopsy, which he would later file into the CBA's database. The wall torches acting as the only light source as all of their electrical equipment like their flashlights had mysteriously stopped working.

Taking a carving knife, he unhinged the jaw and extracted the two poison glands on the roof of its mouth. This poison was the cause of their deadly bite, capable of turning living flesh into sand. He made sure to be extra careful when he put it away for later research.

Hearing fiddling behind him, Kenji didn't have to turn to see Rasa staring at the puzzle box again. He had a melancholy air around him that made the small boy wonder if he was clinically depressed.

"The sphinxes were lying you know," Kenji admitted out loud.

Rasa didn't say anything but did put away the cube showing that he was listening.

"They had no intention of letting us leave," he went on not stopping in his dismantling.

"…I figured as much."

"I should warn you that things are probably going to get harder from here," Kenji told him, using a tool to scoop out the eyeballs from the two corpses.

"How certain are you?"

"It's more of a gut feeling."

No more words were said as they descended into silence.

As the night dragged on, Rasa would occasionally glance at the small boy and watch him work, his hands moving with a sense of grace as they took apart the large beasts bit by bit.

Kenji Yamamoto, a name that was quickly garnering attention throughout the continent. He had first heard of him from his spies in the Leaf. A report had come in one day that told of a boy who had quickly garnered the attention of the Land of Fire's Daimyo and set a curious shop. At the time, he had dismissed the rumors surrounding the mysterious boy thinking of them as simple gossip told by civilians, many of which contradicted each other. However the more time he spent observing him and his fat friend, the more questions he got.

Where did he come from?

How had he remained hidden until now?

Why was such a small child put in charge of such an important organization as the CBA?

These were only a few of the questions he had.

That wasn't to say he wasn't getting a better picture as time went on. The dangerous beasts he kept as simple pets made it obvious to all that he was far from normal. His equipment was also far from ordinary. Reports from his spies had been pouring in about how the Leaf was now capable of crafting weapons equal to those of the seven swordsmen.

It irked on his pride that the Leaf was quickly regaining its past strength while the Sand was declining.

He took out the key again, his last hope to restore his village.

(Scene change)

"Oh, this is sooo good," Anko exclaimed through a mouthful of fried rice as she practically inhaled the food on her plate. Likewise, pig noises were made by the rest of the squad as they dug into their meal. The only ones that still had any trace of manners was Rasa, who eat with a stoic face.

Kenji scooped up another spoonful of rice and refilled the plate of a sand kunoichi, "Well eat up, were going to need our strength."

Normally the greedy merchant boy wasn't one to share, but drastic times called for drastic measures.

While his cooking ability was only above average, he had decided to cook their meal using only upgraded ingredients in order to give everyone a boost. As such, the simple meal of fried rice, dumplings, and stir-fried vegetables was heavenly compared to the ration bars they were expecting to eat.

Fried Rice

Quality: Low Human

+ Delicious rice that temporarily boost chakra recovery.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: N/A

Meat Dumplings

Quality: Low Human

+ Dumpling made out of beef and vegetables that temporarily improves an individual's durability and strength.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: N/A

Stir-Fried Vegetables

Quality: Low Human

+ A dish comprised of only the vegetables, gives a temporary boost to stamina and poison resistance.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: N/A

Once they were all finished filling their stomachs, they began to look over their equipment. Kenji took out a chest filled with transparent tennis-sized orbs. His main priority at the moment was escaping the tomb, so he might as well take things seriously. He picked out two and handed them to Anko and his clone while also getting one for himself.

"Here."

Slime Body Suit +10

Quality: Low Human

Defense: 40

+640

+ Reduce physical damage by 25%

10+: Boosts movement speed by 10%

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: 200

Holding the gelatinous ball Anko asked, "What is it?"

"It's a new prototype armor I've been working on."

Master Shu held it up to the torch light and asked, "How does it work?"

"Feed it chakra and then smear it against the area you want to protect," Kenji told them before demonstrated it and coating his clothes in the goo.

Originally, he had been trying to make a gloss to keep his weapons from rusting, but as luck would have it he had stumbled onto this discover in the process.

Anko took off her alchemist robe causing everyone to momentarily pause in their activity.

"Ah… Anko that's not necessary," Kenji started.

The snake mistress stood there with only her mesh shirt on, completely unashamed to be surrounded by other people, one of which was a Kage from another village. "Why? Wouldn't it be better to coat our skin with it?"

The small merchant boy tried to find flaw in her logic but couldn't, "…I suppose?"

"See, then there's no problem," she said with a smirk as she reached for her skirt.

"Okay! That's enough of that!" Master Shu interjected as he slammed his hands on the ground and made an earth wall to act as a screen.

Once both had finished coating themselves with the slime armor the small blacksmith went on, "Now, just let it dry for a couple seconds and it should be ready."

The rest of the team had already finished checking their tools and where just waiting on the other side of the chamber to see what would happen.

"Okay, I think it's dry enough," the purple haired kunoichi said walking from behind the wall, thankfully clothed this time, "So what exactly does this do?"

Kenji walked around both her and his clone jotting down notes in a book, "It's and epidermal body armor, strong enough to ignore most physical attacks under a certain threshold. It can also block 25% percent of all physical damage and boost bodily functions by a total of 10%."

"Wow, that's not bad," Anko announced as she pinched the skin of her arm and found that it didn't hurt.

The sand shinobi however were glancing at their Kage with worried looks. To them, this was just further proof that the Leaf was growing stronger.

Using medical ninjutsu, Kenji ran his hand over Anko's body, "Unfortunately, it's still a prototype. It has a life expectancy of 4 hours before it starts breaking down. I also wouldn't expose it to fire as extreme heat sources can destabilize the molecular bonds in the suit causing it to break down faster."

"Aw man, there's always a catch. So, when do you plan on selling these?"

Kenji gave a shark tooth grin filled with greed, "Once I work out all the kinks in the suit, I'll begin production and start marketing it to those rich nobles from the Fire Capital. I think 20,000,000 ryo for impenetrable skin is fair enough, wouldn't you say?"

The team of shinobi who were secretly listening in all choked on their spit at the amount.

Even Anko was momentarily stunned as she looked at him with wide eyes then adopted a flirtatious grin, "Wow, Boss, you suddenly look really handsome. You know once, you hit puberty I wouldn't mind showing you a couple of things," she said slightly pulling apart the opening of her robe.

Master Shu, who had remained silent until now, took his umbrella and slammed it down on her head with enough force to cause the ground under her to crack, "Begone foul beast."

Anko dropped her act and rubbed her head with a confused expression, "Ow, I guess? That surprisingly didn't hurt?"

"Alright enough, I think it's time we continued our exploration, wouldn't you agree Kazekage?" Kenji said turning to look at the stoic man.

Rasa nodded as he stepped forward, "Yes, it's time to move on."

They all placed their supplies in sealing scrolls, or in storage rings in the case of the Leaf shinobi and walked to the only exit in the room.

The hallway was pitch black filled with all manner of deadly traps as one would expect. After several minutes of walking they finally saw light coming from the exit. There was only one problem.

"Wait a second, weren't we just here," one of the sand shinobi asked.

Indeed, they were back in the sphinx room.

"How is that possible? We went in a straight line and there weren't any other exits," a kunoichi asked.

"Genjutsu perhaps?" Master Shu asked stroking the fake beard he had reapplied during their walk.

"No, we would have sensed it," Rasa said with a scowl.

"Let's test something then, why doesn't half the group stay here, while the other goes back the way we came," Kenji suggested.

While Kenji and his team were left in the room, the others walked back, but not before tying one end of a long rope to the room.

It didn't take long for them to return this time coming back from the same way they went holding the other end of the rope.

"So, what happened?" Master Shu asked.

"I not sure," Rasa said with a confused face, "I didn't sense anything strange this time either?"

"Umm? Sir? Something strange is happening," the shinobi holding the end of the rope said as he tugged on the line causing the part still tied to the room to straighten.

"What the-"

Kenji having enough of this clear violation of the laws of physics went into sage mode to get a better understanding.

Immediately he found the answer.

They were trapped in a pocket dimension without an exit. It had boundary but any chance to escape its area would just have you walk back the way you came. However, Kenji knew that Kaguya wouldn't have made this room if there wasn't an exit, it was just a matter of finding it.

He scanned the room for anything out of place but even with Sage mode he didn't find anything.

Everyone else was looking at the rope trick asking questions, but as he looked at them he finally took notice of the pedestal that the sphinx had used as a perch. 'It can't be that easy, can it?'

Without any word of warning Kenji pushed against one of the stone pedestals and sure enough it began to move, showing a hidden room underneath.

Rasa who had been paying attention to Kenji's actions stepped forward to peer down the dark hole. He retrieved a flare from his pack and lit it before dropping it down the pit.

"Oh my," Master Shu said with a shocked look on his face.

The room was fairly small in size, but it was filled to the brim with golden treasure.

"We're rich!" Anko exclaimed as she turned to her alchemy master, "Eh Boss?"

"…"

"Boss?"

"…"

"Boss!" she shook him when he didn't respond.

"I think he stopped breathing," Rasa ever the helpful one told her before looking at his sealing scroll, "I think we're going to need more scrolls."

(Purple Mountain)

"Urgg!"

A grimy hand appeared over the edge of a cliff side before it was joined by another one, then a familiar mop of red hair.

With effort Aiko managed to pull herself completely over the edge. She laid down on the ground for several seconds letting the soreness in her muscles fade slightly before standing back up again to tug on the vine rope attached to her waist.

The red head planted her feet firmly on the ground and began to haul up her package.

Soon the head of a panda appeared over the edge, "Dear Kami, did you get heavier on the way up?"

Po-chin gave a lazy yawn as he took a bite from a bamboo shoot.

Once he was finally up, Aiko fell flat on her back completely exhausted.

It had been weeks since she had arrived in this valley, and in that time she had faced horrors that she never thought were possible.

In hindsight she realized that she should have probably investigated the land before jumping head first. If she did, then she would have found out that the Purple Mountains Province was one of the most chakra beast infested places in the entire Land of Fire, ranking just behind the Forest of Death.

The only reason why she had been able to survive this long was because she had Po-chin at her side. Together the two would hunt the weakest animals in the area, which were still many times stronger than normal, and hide from the more dangerous predators. Even the mysterious white rabbits that would appear from time to time would occasionally help by pointing them in the direction of edible fruits and nuts. What little food they managed to scrounge up was always shared between them.

Despite all of their hardships, the two managed to grow stronger. Their physical abilities had reached academy student level despite Aiko's farm girl past and Po-chin's general laziness. They still couldn't use chakra, but they were able to jump many times their normal height and even lift things several times their own weight.

What little free time she had in the day was spent cultivating and training in her martial arts.

However she had recently noticed that she was stuck in a bottleneck, where she could no longer cultivate any further. From the novels she had read, this could only mean that she was close to a breakthrough. The rabbit messengers had then shortly left her a message telling her to reach the top of the mountain.

Since then she had been trying her best to climb the mountain. There were many paths to reaching the top, but each one was filled with peril. To the north was a gang of man-eating white yetis, to the south was a steep vertical mountain side, to the east was a dense jungle terrain filled with carnivorous plants, and final to the west was a vicious old goat that liked butting people off the mountain.

During her stay she had also learned that she wasn't the only one that had been trying to reach the top, as others had also felt the pull. Some of these people had also turned out to be cultivators, the name they had jokingly begun to call themselves after the mystical hero portrayed in the popular novels currently gaining popularity across the elemental nations.

So far no one had managed to reach the top, but that didn't stop her from trying.

After finally gathering her strength she was able to stand up and look around.

The scene in front of them looked like it had been taken straight out of one of her novels with how unearthly breathtaking it was. Strangely colored fruit trees covered the area with rabbits roaming the area everywhere they looked. A small crystal-clear pond was on one side with different types of fish. The most shocking things however was the stone temple erected at the center that was as large as a palace.

"What the?" the small red head said in awe as they walked toward the large building.

When they reached the large gate blocking the entrance, they noticed a plaque on the side.

'Ye who walk the path of the immortals enter and be judged.'

Aino looked at Po-chin who looked just as confused as her.

She leaned on the gate only to fall right through it as if it was made out of smoke, landing right on her face.

Looking down she saw another plaque on the ground.

'Cultivator, you have been judged. Welcome disciple of the Red Moon Sect.'

(Ruins)

"-Discount your mother! I don't care even if you are the Shinigami!" Kenji shouted all of a sudden as he sat up.

He looked around wildly only to see that he was back in the sphinx room.

Anko who was at his side raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"…nothing," he carefully dodged the question then noticed something strange, "Why does the inside of my mouth taste sweet?"

Anko was about to answer before Shu pushed her aside and helped his 'friend' to his feet, "CPR, don't think about it buddy."

"Fine. What about the gold?" the blindfolded merchant asked.

Instead of answering Shu just pointed to the side of the room where the sand shinobi were stacking everything, Akame and Drago acting as guards.

Kenji lost his breath again but thankfully didn't faint this time as he made his way to the pile and grabbed a handful of golden coins, letting them fall between his fingers.

"I'm rich," Kenji muttered.

Shu gave his creator a side hug, "We're rich."

"Yes, we are," Anko said trying to be included. She received a deadpan look from Shu.

Rasa walked to the trio with a small smile shockingly enough, "Yes, unfortunately the sealing scrolls we brought don't have enough room for everything.

Kenji could guess why. Sealing scroll's fatal flaw were their weight capacity. The heavier the object you wanted to seal away was, the more room on the scroll you needed, which was why smaller scrolls could only about 500 pounds of material. If you wanted to seal something bigger like a cart or a large amount of water then you would need larger scrolls, kind of like the one Naruto or Ten-Ten would carry.

His space rings however didn't have that weakness, it just needed to fit inside of the required dimension.

Kenji retrieved one such ring from his sleeve and flicked it at Rasa, "I'll loan it to you until we get back to the village."

The Kazekage obviously knew what it was since he seen them use it plenty of times already. He gave a small nod of gratitude as he began to place things inside of the ring's inventory.

In a matter of minutes everything had been successfully taken.

Moving the other stone pedestal revealed a hidden passageway.

The passage was extremely narrow forcing everyone to crawl on all four with Drago having to hide in Akame's shadow world. The trip was made even more uncomfortable when they had to carry makeshift torches in one hand to light the way.

After several minutes of crawling they reached a fork in the path.

The shinobi at the front summoned two shadow clone and made it scout ahead of them.

For several minutes everything was quite until they returned.

The shinobi relayed the information he had received from his clones, "The right leads to what a larger throne-like room. The left path leads to a dead end, but I detected an air current, meaning that it must be close to the outside."

Kenji who was stuck in the middle of the line voiced his opinion first, "I say we go left. This was supposed to be a simple expedition mission and we already achieved our objective."

"I agre-" the Kazekage began before a gust of wind blew through the passageway threatening to blow out their torches.

"Well that wasn't ominous at all," Shu spoke sarcastically.

Rasa on the other hand was rooted to his spot.

Kenji who felt the torrent of emotions from the man asked, "Are you okay Kazekage?"

"Yes…" the man answered in his usual stoic voice even as he felt a crushing weight on his heart. For just the briefest of seconds he could have sworn that he heard the voice of his long-deceased wife.

A shiver ran up Kenji's spine as his gut told him that he wasn't going to like what would happen next.

"…We'll split up, Team 1 will find the exit while Team 2 explores the throne room," Rasa said finally.

"Right, I don't want to be that guy, but some has to say it. Kazekage no offense, but that sounds like a horrible idea!" Kenji exclaimed, "I've read and written enough horror stories to know this is can only end in one way. At this point of the story the exploration team usually gets killed in a graphic and horrific way."

"I for one vote for not dying today," Shu said.

"I second that," Anko joined in.

"You are free to head back to the village if you wish," Rasa offered.

"Oh well when you put it that way," Kenji said in a cheerful tone, "I'll just be taking that ring back then. We don't want it getting left behind in case you die a gruesome and painful death now would we?"

If Rasa could see Kenji he would have given him one of his most deadpan stares, but seeing as he couldn't he tapped on the shinobi in front of him and gave him the ring, "Take the ring and the Leaf team back to the village. This is your top priority, understand?"

The nameless man took the ring with outmost seriousness, "It shall be done, Kazekage."

Team 1 consisted of the Sand shinobi, Kenji, Anko, and Shu in that order. Team 2 was made up of Rasa and three other shinobi.

(Team 1)

As Kenji followed the Sand shinobi, he started to think about everything that had happened so far, and couldn't help but think that everything had been going too smoothly. Sure there was the matter with the beetles and the sphinxes but honestly he had been expecting more.

'Something just doesn't add up,' he thought to himself.

*Click*

"What was that?" Kenji said accusingly to the shinobi in-front of him.

"Ughh…"

The sound of gears turning could be heard as dust fell on their heads.

They didn't have to wait long to find out why however as the ceiling started getting lower.

"Oh shit, everyone go back!" the shinobi ordered them as they all started to back-peddled.

"See! I just knew this would happen!" Kenji couldn't help but scream as he scuttled backwards.

"Not the time Boss!"

"You can gloat later!"

*Click* *Click* *Click*

"Oh, what now?" Kenji shouted.

Apparently, Kaguya had a bit of a sadistic side as holes in the walls started to pelt them with darts. Luckily the slime armor was able to protect them, unfortunately the same could not be said for the sand shinobi as he fell down paralyzed by the poison forcing Kenji to drag him by the ankle.

Next, sections on the wall opened up before guillotine blades swung between the cracks threatening to behead them.

As a final measure oil started to seeped through the floor. Kenji eyes widened as he say the still lit torch that the sand shinobi had dropped in in the distance.

"Aaaaahhh!"

In such a narrow space it was almost impossible to maneuver themselves properly, even more so with the slippery oil but they still managed to reach the other end, the only problem was…

"Guys! The entrance is missing!" Shu shouted in panic feeling the sturdiness of a stone bricks where the exit should have been.

"Then bust through it! We know it's there!" Anko yelled.

*Click*

Looking down at his hand Kenji gave a humorless chuckle, "Alright, that was my ba-aaaahhhhh…"

Team 1 screamed as they fell down the bottomless pit that opened up beneath them.

(Team 2)

After getting out of the narrow passageway Rasa and his team emerge into a large Egyptian style room.

"There's no dust," Rasa spoke with a frown as he took out a kunai.

Immediately they were put on guard.

Indeed, unlike the rest of the rooms they had been in this place looked as if it had been untouched by time, there were even bowls of fruit placed on table that looked like they had been freshly plucked.

Using his magnetic release he spread his gold dust in every direction to get a better idea of the room.

As they scanned the room, they took notice of just how richly decorated it really was.

Silk tapestries decorated hung from banners on the ceiling. Large 20 ft tall stone guardians with animal heads were placed on each side of the room with bronze weapons in their hands. Expensive looking furniture was placed everywhere made out of white marble or gold. At the far end was an elevated throne wide enough for a normal sized person to lay down.

Suddenly he felt heat coming from his side.

The cubic key clattered on the floor as it burned a hole through his pouch.

Rasa didn't have time to question this however as in the next second it began to levitate in the air before shooting off toward the throne, where a square slot was located.

The key entered and as soon as it did a pulse of blue energy exploded outward, momentarily forcing them to shield their eyes with their arms.

When they looked back at the throne, they were astonished to see a man dressed in white clothes, a head dress reminiscent of a cobra's hood, and different pieces of golden jewelry all over his body. He had a curved sword in one hand and a staff in the other. The most eye-catching thing however was that the man looked to be semi-transparent.

The phantom said nothing as he looked over them as if they were lower than insects and slammed his staff on the ground.

The sound resonated in the room as a miniature sandstorm blew in the air.

The sand then magically transformed to form creatures carried black jackal heads and black human bodies. Each carried two sickles like swords and were dressed similarly to the mystery man.

The apparition slammed his staff twice and the jackal soldiers gave a battle cry before charging at the group of shinobi.

A/N: Dun-dun-duuuu! What will our heroes do know?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter.

I brought back Aiko, since she can act as a foil for Kenji's cultivator side. Right now she is in the process of finally condensing her qi like Kenji. Currently she has the same physical abilities that academy students have, which I would guess is still many times that of a normal adult.

Kaguya has also formed a sect! Surprise. Wonder what Kenji will think when he finds out?

The mountain is also protected so only cultivators can reach the top, no shinobi cheating by walking up the side.

Finally, what do you think of the slime suit. It's not the final product, just a prototype. Speaking of which, has anyone ever wondered why high-level equipment for female are always so small. I mean really battle bikinis.

Well I have a working theory. I believe that the clothes are enchanted to take in ambient magical energy and use it to create a skintight forcefield around them. The amount of excess skin they show just helps in absorbing the energy faster so more logically more exposed skin means better defense.

So next time you see scantily female armor, just think, it's probably projecting some type of skin invisible forcefield and it is indeed a practical defense. Your welcome.

Well until next time.