Chapter 10

The Land of Water was the most technologically advanced nation in the world.

Such a statement, when made normally, would have resulted in large, mocking, disbelieving laughter. Now, it was a disconcerting truth that creeped up unsuspectingly unto people. The first, and most prominent thing that had changed its status, was none other than the conclusion of the Kirigakure Civil War. As expected, a hidden village could not survive without the backing of its Daimyo. They could take no jobs, received no aid or trade, and were eventually considered as rogue elements in Mizu no Kuni. This of course, was the fate of the Yagura Loyalists. In contrast, the Rebels were well-funded, well-fed, and had the full backing of not only the Daimyo, but the High Priest of Gatoism, the Shepherd himself. Yagura could not wage a war by just himself, and in time, more and more of his men defected, finding his purist beliefs archaic and pointless. More and more of them became Gatoists. Eventually, the starvation became too much, and a revolt emerged within the Loyalist army. They rose, slaughtering themselves and killing amongst themselves, until eventually, the dissident faction of the Loyalist Army defeated all those who would oppose them. The feared and legendary Yagura Karatachi, Jinchuriki of the Three Tails, had no choice but to eliminate his own army to save his life.

He became a Kage with no shinobi.

Then – he vanished. Not a single trace could be found of him. Nothing, save for his staff which was found discarded at a site where a fierce and heavy battle had occurred, a battle between him and unknown elements.

And like that – the war was over.

The actual Rebels, were floored with the completely unexpected turn of events.

Immediately, the religious amongst them had pointed out that such was the fate of those who opposed the Chosen One, those who opposed the Divine, those who opposed the Shepherd and his flock.

Many had agreed. And hundreds more were convinced.

The Kirigakure Civil War had ended – without the Rebels ever fighting a single major battle, or suffering a single defeat.

Even the most stoic among them could not help but admit that it was completely unprecedented. The Bloody Mist, known for its violent wars, conflicts and practices, had somehow resolved a major civil war without any bloody battles of both sides. All of this, occurring only after vast majority of their members had been converted to a new faith. As every decent shinobi knew, there were no coincidences in their line of work.

The Faithful rejoiced, singing in the streets.

The skeptical revaluated their beliefs and began to pray.

The stoic stared on in disbelief, but accepted the good fortune.

And so, a new era dawned for Kirigakure no Sato, with the eventual rise of Jinshi Hoshigake as the Fifth Mizukage.

Following this, the 'Six Commandments' of the Land of Water's official religion, an elite group chosen by The Shepherd himself, began the plans that would aid in the revolution of the entire country.

"Have all the preparations been made?"

"Yes, Shepherd-Father."

"Well then – don't just stand there and bat those pretty eyes at me – power it up!"

A thick, heavy buzzing echoed in the area as the engineer pulled down the switch. Immediately, a silent hum could be heard, echoing from the large metallic constriction which stood proudly on another plot of land which had been donated to the religion's cause by the Daimyo himself.

"Now, to test it out."

Gato grinned, and he immediately grabbed the small device, placing it to his ear, and pushing a button at the side of it.

"…ju… ti… Adjusting… Can you read me? I repeat, this is Chief Communications Engineer, Satoshi Hagawa, reporting from Gato Communications Waterlily Port Town Headquarters. Can you read me?"

His grin grew wider. "I can read you loud and clear Hagawa. This is your boss speaking, and he's got a feeling you might be getting a fat fucking promotion very soon."

Several loud cheers went up, along with numerous polite claps and jubilations, and Gato himself could not help but admit he was certainly pleased with the results. This was the 20th Radio Tower finally installed in Mizu no Kuni, and with it, they could successfully send instantaneous voice messages every single where on the country, to anywhere else.

Honestly, Gato was surprised that he had chosen to stay this long and let things progress as they had. Then again, he could not help it, especially after he had received that letter from his son, eleven full months ago, when the boy had finally departed on his journey.

Dear Father,

Have I ever mentioned how ridiculously stupid the world is? No? I haven't? Then I'm going to state it quite bluntly. The world is ridiculously stupid. Now – you might probably be chastising me about underestimating the world again, but in this case, I think I'm suitably right. You see, father, I realized a major problem with the way things worked. We have access to wireless radios which transmit signals by sending electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. We have video cameras, video cassette recorders, VHS tapes, and eight bit computers. We have access to refrigerators to keep our meals preserved, plastics, synthetic fiber clothes, knowledge of electricity and of the internal combustion engine.

Of course, you're thinking "Of course we do. That's common knowledge. Why am I bothering telling you this?"

The reason, of course, is because I feel that most of these things are greatly, significantly, underutilized. More importantly, Gato Shipping Company can expand to being more than just that, by utilizing these things properly and providing people a chance to pay to use something they could have gotten for free.

Now, Waterlily Port Town possesses nine industries which I have set to work, in order to mass produce things that would greatly come around to benefiting us. Attached to this letter include the list of things you might find interesting. If not, well, the industries are already managed efficiently enough and should produce rewards without my physical supervision. Though, I think you'll be reaaally interested in some of the stuff I have planned.

Your son,

Gato Junior.

Really interested had been a grand understatement.

What the boy had listed, all of it was downright revolutionary.

The Gato Audio Transmitter Electronics were already a significant hit with Mizu no Kuni's Daimyo and wealthier families. The ability to instantaneously communicate long distances with their family members and friends had rapidly cut down the need for couriers to send letters. And of course, because Gato Shipping Company had now become Gato Enterprises, with the newest Gato Communications branch, he had charged them an exorbitant price for the small devices, being the sole manufacturer and producer in the country.

As per junior's wishes, approximately two GATEs were to be placed in every village, settlement, community and town in Mizu no Kuni. Places like trading posts and merchant hotspots had one, and then the entire community had another one, which they could use to communicate with people over far distances. It was, of course, placed at the simple price of 100Ryo a call.

The device was already revolutionary for the Kirigakure shinobi. Instantaneous communications were made available from Jonin to Genin during a mission, and similarly, a Jonin could immediately radio in backup or request further orders from the Kage in case of emergencies. Of course, the shinobi GATEs were made specially for them in mind, being significantly sturdier, waterproof, and damage resistant, but at the cost of some of the fancier applications that the Daimyo's variants possessed.

However, that was just one of the numerous advancements that had been brought in, as the list was exhaustive.

Cool-GATs was the revolutionary use of refrigerator technology to create an indoor cooling system for the nobles and wealthier citizens of the Land of Water. A self-contained room which could be temperature modulated, enabling one to feel as cold or as warm as they needed to be.

Gat-Vodka was an alcoholic beverage which was created through the fermentation of potatoes and produced a stronger quality liquor much greater than anything ever seen or tasted in the world before. Shelves of bars in Mizu no Kuni were already lined with it, because it was several times stronger and harsher than normal rice sake. Large crates of it were already being exported to the other countries.

Gat-Up and Gat-Cola were non-alcoholic, sugary-based beverages meant for children, or as an alternative for people who did not drink alcohol. Gato Radio Broadcasting was a subsidiary of Gato Communications and it had begun running something called the 'News' which gave day-to-day information about the state of things in the Land of Water, the progress of development, and dutiful reading of scriptural verses. It reminded the people about time for prayers, sanctifications, and to recite the Ten "Hail Shepherd-sama" and "Hail Gat-sama." When it was not discussing religion, it moved onto entertainment programs, though that was still very rare.

Gato Constructions was currently producing concrete and steel, and furthering the development of the citizens by building new houses, new parishes and places of worship, and ensuring that no one was unemployed. If you were able-bodied and willing – there was a job for you there.

Gato Electricity Distribution focused on providing more access to electrical power to the numerous far reaches of the Mizu no Kuni, and this was powered with the aid of Shepherd Dams – the major source of power in the entire country.

Whenever Gato looked back, he still could not believe how far the country had come in a measly eleven months. He still could not believe how he had never considered being more than a mere Shipping Conglomerate. He could not believe that he was some sort of revered, religious figure – Shepherd-Father, they called him – all because his son had somehow transformed the world and put his name as that of a religion.

Except, he knew that was the crux of it all. The religion.

When people saw their name of their religious lord and savior on brands, they rushed to aid in whatever way they could. They purchased in whatever way they could. They were already biased towards it, and so, they would love and accept it without question. They would want it to succeed without question. When the first radio tower needed to be constructed, people had flocked, from everywhere, just to help. Most of them had even worked for free and refused to take payment.

Gato was a witness of what could be accomplished, if a significant amount of people combined forces to make it happen.

All because they believed.

It was terrifying.

Yet, it was astounding.

Best of all, the Daimyo was far too busy enjoying the benefits of the religion, enjoying the technological boom, enjoying all his new toys, distractions and devoutness –

He did not realize that his power and influence dwindled by the day. He did not notice that his army's loyalty twiddled away. When the Water Daimyo – supposedly the most powerful man in the Land, answered to the Shepherd –

He had stopped being the most powerful man in the Land.

"Alright – get me Gato Constructions on the line!" Gato barked into the GATE, "Tell them that we're going to start working on the largest project they've ever seen, and it's going to be the greatest fucking thing ever naturally created by man. Call in the Foggers – er – the Shinobi – we might as well use their freaky ninjutsu nonsense to get this thing done."

Gato grinned as he looked at the list that he carried with him everywhere.

"By the time we're done, the Land of Fire's "Valley of the End" will be but a bonsai tree in the grand forest of world wonders."

…Shit he should have written that down.

Definitely something for the history books.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Son of Gato ~~~~~~~~~

Year Five – Month Eleven, Day 20

On a small, uninhabited island in the middle of the vast seas, four people stood. One, a young tanned man with golden eyes and black braided hair. The other, a large, heavily bearded samurai with two swords and garbed in an elegant, yet truly refined kimono. The other two were children, albeit, they would not be considered children in the situation and the context.

A young girl, dressed in a short, dark-blue kimono, a sharp smile on her face, her hair tied into a smooth bun, stood with a geisha-like appeal. Across from her, a white-haired, skinny, pale looking young man, standing shirtless but with a pair of black pants, stood, his arms crossed.

"Are you ready for this, Kimi-kun?"

The older boy, determinedly nodded. "Whenever you are, Haku-sempai."

The garbed samurai, stroked his beard before uttering a single word.

"Begin."

The two figures immediately blurred into action. Kimimaro possessed the initiative, charging forward with two bony-white blades immediately appearing in his hands, which he swung with unexpected grace.

Maxilla Swords.

Haku dodged two slashes that aimed to take her head off with an elegant twirl, before shooting her right leg upwards, in a kick that was designed to shatter jaws. It never connected, her opponent leaning backwards, and in the process, his dual bone blades morphed in his hands, extending, in the blink of an eye, into spears.

Extending Bone Spear.

She could not evade them, and the spears immediately punctured her chest and stomach, extending all the way through. Her expression morphed into one of shock, for all of a brief second, before her color faded, and in her place, was an exact copy made of ice.

Ice Clone.

Kimimaro's eyes widened, realizing what was coming before it did, as the ice immediately exploded, sending a torrent of ice senbon flying in his direction.

Exploding Ice Clone: Ice Senbon.

He rose his arm, and a jagged shield made of bones emerged, causing the ice senbon to shatter on impact against them.

Shield of Crossbones.

His eyes narrowed, as he turned his attention upwards, finding his target once more, Haku smirking down at him as her hands blurred into a series of handseals. The Kaguya didn't let her complete them, as he immediately changed the shape of his bone shield, transforming it into a magnificent bow with a curled, jagged arrow in front of it.

Mandible Bow.

Both techniques unleashed themselves at the same time, the bony arrow soaring into the air just as several lances of ice rained down below.

Ice Release: Piercing Hailstorm.

The arrow divided halfway through its flight, raining a bullet of bones into the sky, shattering through the jagged ice and piercing through the girl in the air, riddling her body with an innumerable number of holes.

Exploding Bone Bullet Arrow.

Her face contorted into one of shock, once more, for all of a second, before she lost color, revealing it to be another ice clone. From within the frozen clone, the original emerged, a smirk firmly displayed on her face.

Secret Technique: Ice Release: Demon Possessing Ice Mirrors

With her activating her ability to travel nigh-instantaneously through ice of any sorts, Kimimaro became wary, paying attention to his surroundings to attempt to ensure that there was no ice around him – only to curse as he realized he was surrounded by it, courtesy of her Ice Release: Piercing Hailstorm which he had broken.

In a flash, Haku was in front of him, a senbon of ice slamming into his left foot.

Less than a second later, another senbon of ice slammed into his right foot. Then, in a blur that was too fast for him to react to, too fast for him to stop, his entire lower body was covered with frozen senbon.

Secret Technique: Ice Release: Speeding Demon Princess.

She appeared before him in a blur, her hand placed into a threatening handsign, one which he knew would not end well for him if activated.

"You know what this handsign means Kimi-kun."

Of course he did. How could he not? He had seen her use it before, using it as a focus to train under the questionably insane methods that Shepherd-sama put her under. Ice Release: Frostbite, was the cutesy name she gave the technique that could instantly freeze boiling water. A technique that enabled anything and everything she touched to be frozen solid from the inside out. A technique that she used all the time casually, to turn beers and drinks into frozen popsicles she would then suck on.

A technique, which would immediately freeze his blood and every other liquid in his body if he let her use it. Indestructible bones were useless if your blood was brittle as ice.

It was for reasons like this, that he knew, and accepted the younger girl as his superior. Shepherd-sama had chosen her wisely.

Slowly, he rose his hand.

"I forfeit."

XXXX

"I forfeit."

I could not help the satisfied smile that came to my face, even as the man standing beside me grumbled annoyingly under his breath.

"Haku wins. Again." Kitami said, clearly doing so with great effort, before he turned back to me, his right eye twitching.

"You've created a monster."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "You're just angry that my method of training Haku makes her stronger than all the beatings you instilled into Kimimaro."

"Yes," Kitami didn't bother denying it. "But you've still created a monster. That speed… the only person I could think of who could move that fast –"

"The Yellow Flash?" I supplied, nodding. "Yes. That's who I had in mind when teaching her the technique."

The application was simple enough, one which always bothered me. Haku was fast, I meant fast, but when using the famed Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals which was a staple of the Yuki Clan, she stopped being fast and started being insane. A technique that enabled you to travel through dozens ice crystals so fast, you appeared on all of them simultaneously? The level of speed required to perform that was insane.

Hence, I brought up a simple solution –

What if she used that ability, to travel through ice – what if she mastered it well enough to be able to travel through any type of ice, at the same speed as she would while in the jutsu? To be able to nigh-instantaneously move through fragments of ice, no matter how small, and to be able to do this at a speed that would allow her to look as though she was in two places at once?

The result was creating a frightening five-year old that was the fastest girl in the world.

Minato and Tobirama's Flying Thunder God utilized teleportation via markers to achieve their insane speed, but Haku utilized ice, all and any type of ice to achieve hers. She could move through two cubes of ice approximately one hundred and thirteen times in the same span of time it took me to blink. And considering the fact that she could make ice, and all her jutsu used ice – it meant that she would always have ice on the battlefield. That meant, she would always be able to move between ices faster than most people could blink. So unless you had the Sharingan or Hiraishin or Lightning Armor… you were screwed.

The best part?

She was just five years old.

Which meant… she would get faster and stronger.

Gods, she was so broken. So, completely and overwhelmingly broken.

AND SHE WAS MINE!

I couldn't help it as I sauntered towards the scene of the battle, where both combatants where still shaking each other, and I immediately whisked Haku off her feet and spun her into the air.

"S-S-Shepherd-sama?" she stuttered, her entire face going red.

"You've done well Haku-chan. You are a magnificent prodigy – and I am so, so proud of you."

It should have been illegal as to how cute she was when spluttering and stammering. Gah! I wanted to just hug her and squeeze her –

But I couldn't afford to play favorites too much. So, I put her down to the ground, where she tried to regain some form of composure, and then I moved over to Kimimaro, before equally raising him into the air.

"…Please put me down Shepherd-sama."

"Would you deny me, Kimimaro-kun?"

"…"

"Ah, you're so cute when you're being tsundere."

"I-I-I am not Tsundere!"

"Are you calling me a liar, Kimimaro-kun?"

"…"

"Good little Tsundere follower."

Kimimaro, trying his hardest not to appear embarrassed, but failing overwhelmingly, was one of the few things that I had started to live for.

I placed him down, before immediately going back to my serious voice. "Now, Kimimaro-kun, do not feel too badly about losing to Haku. Her bloodline is simply one of the most powerful ones in the world, and against yours, it makes for a poor match-up. Also… Haku cheats. She initially attempted to try close-combat, but the difference in skill between you and her is too great – so she resorted to a ranged fight. You put up a good challenge against her though, but – you are a close-ranged fighter predominantly, which put you at a distinct disadvantage."

Kimimaro listened to every single word I uttered with straight-faced seriousness, and – and he grabbed a small note and jotter, and began rapidly scribbling down.

The Shepherd's word is law, that was his mantra, and I found it immensely amusing.

Technically, Kimimaro was the better fighter. Experience wise, and in actual combat, he was far far better than Haku. However, he could not beat her when it came to her speed. When she was using her Speeding Demon Princess technique – Kimimaro couldn't do a single thing. This was also not to mention the fact that I had trained Haku in how to utilize her bloodline to freeze objects. It was the reason I had her practice water-walking on boiling water after all.

Seriously, how had no one ever realized that Haku possessed the potential to be the Narutoverse version of Elsa?

"Ah – Shepherd-sama?"

I turned my attention to the source of the voice.

"Yes, my cute little ice angel?"

She blushed, before trying her best to regain her composure again.

"Um… Kitami-sama seems to be taking out his frustration on the forest again…"

I turned my attention to Kitami, watching as the man slicing through a couple of trees, yelling at them as loudly and as annoyingly as he could.

"Ignore him Haku-chan. He just can't handle your cuteness."

Kimimaro frowned. "Why does Kitami-sensei get upset whenever I lose? Should it not be a given that I cannot defeat Haku since she is Shepherd-sama's chosen?"

"Ignore him Kimimaro-kun. He's just very, very competitive."

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Son of Gato ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Year Five – Month Eleven, Day 22

I sat in my room aboard the SS Gatebreaker, jotting new instructions and ideas to send back home to my father to complete the technological revolution of Mizu no Kuni. The ship swayed back and forth, and made me realize how I had grown so accustomed to sea-travel that I barely even noticed it anymore.

I let out a slight yawn, before stretching my arms, feeling the satisfying 'pop' echo from the within, and I couldn't help but feel the amusement at this Grand Transformation, which I could now keep up indefinitely, after using a Miracle Point to make the Jutsu require no chakra cost.

Speaking of miracles…

A lot had changed in the seven months since leaving Hi no Kuni and being declared the Enforcer of the Land of Fire. I did my best to stay away from any of the major villages, particularly because going to any of them to spread my religion or meet with their Daimyo's would immediately cultivate it in the heads of people that I was a power-hungry individual. Instead, while sailing to our final destination, we made stops at the smaller villages – smaller and lesser known towns and cities, and the lesser populated countries.

I spread Gatoism as far and as wide as I could, doing my best to avoid the Big Five countries, but at the same time, the constant stops enabled me to train Haku and Kimimaro up to their current level, whilst at the same time begin working on my fuinjutsu knowledge.

More than that though, there were two major thing that had actually contributed towards their progress, especially Haku's progress – bringing her to a level that was clearly A-Ranked in just under seven months.

Title:

Legendary Master

When equipped, this title enables you to be capable of training legends and developing heroes, finding their hidden potential, and bringing out the best of it as quickly and as effectively as possible.

Grants +200% Learning Ability to All Disciples

Grants +100% Comprehension Speed to All Disciples

Grants +70% Affection with All Disciples

And…

Skill:

Tutoring (Passive) Lv. Max

The ability to impart knowledge or instruct, or to cause someone to learn or understand something by example or experience. For every ten levels of this skill, everyone you actively instruct will gain a 10% increase in their ability to understand and conceptualize theories, ideas, or foreign notions, for anything as trivial as cooking or sewing, to anything as complicated as brain surgery.

At Max Levels – you can teach a goat to breakdance…

And succeed.

The title and the skill were two things I purchased with Miracle Points. I almost laughed when I realized that they both cost nothing more than 15MP each – and though it had taken me 30 MP, I could gladly say that they were both worth it, considering how far I had gone with Haku.

She wasn't quite S-Rank yet – but she was certainly good enough to give a Jonin a run for their money. Her true power lay in her bloodline and the element of surprise, which would allow her to immediately devastate most Jonin in a fight if they did not know to expect it. If they did however, they would be able to conjure a way to counter it – and Haku's combat ability was not quite Jonin level. I'd place her around mid-to-high Chunin than outright Jonin level in Taijutsu and she was just Genin-level in Ninjutsu. So, she wasn't S-Rank… yet.

Kimimaro on the other hand, faced the opposite problems. In Taijutsu – Kimimaro was solidly S-Rank. He could not be beat – as now, Kitami had to go all out against him if he wanted to make the boy actively work up a sweat, and even then, their spars had often ended in draws or in losses for the Land of Iron Samurai. Kimimaro's bones got stronger and stronger like a muscle, and his experience with fighting Kitami had made the bones become strong enough to match the elite samurai's swords. He was fast – faster than he had been in canon, nowhere near as fast as Haku, (because Haku was hax) but now as fast as Kitami.

His problem, however, was the fact that he was not good at long-ranged combat. I estimated that War!Gaara or War!Temari would be able to beat him, merely because he was a Taijutsu specialist pure and simple. His ninjutsu moves were all deadly moves which were fatal at close-range, but not so much at long range.

He did, however, have five long-range ninjutsu… all of which were incredibly destructive, and could be used to devastate long-ranged fighters. Such as his Mandible Bow and Exploding Bone Bullet Arrow, but they cost a lot of chakra to create, and were slow in creation.

The best part of this?

All of this training had been done in seven months. In just seven months – Kimimaro was S-Rank. It made me realize how lucky I was to have such prodigies under my wing – these were the unsung prodigies of the world, but everyone was always too busy sucking Itachi's dick to realize that there were other child prodigies than him.

Fuck being ANBU captain at age thirteen – Kimimaro was S-Rank in Taijutsu at age seven.

I, on the other hand, continued my dabbling into medical Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu – although with varied degrees of success.

Chakra Scalpels (Active) Lv. 81

Mystical Palm Technique (Active) Lv. 94

Apprentice Level Fuinjutsu (Passive) Lv. 34

I could now create Paper Bombs and Sealing Scrolls but not much else. Still, it was a work in progress, and considering I still had a whole twelve years before the canon timeline – I could be rest assured that I would be a master soon enough.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I blinked, my mind now far away from any reminiscing as I turned to the door.

"Come in."

Entering into the room with her formally designed Kimono, her hair let down, and an ever-permanent blush on her face, I almost positively beamed at seeing her.

"Ah, Haku-chan. You look so demure I could almost eat you all up."

Her blush only grew wilder and more ferocious, and I knew it was because she still had not gotten over my bishounen transformed appearance. I was still irresistible to the female gender, regardless of age, and to the male gender, I was the object of envy.

"Y-you really shouldn't say such things Shepherd-sama!"

I waved off her concern. "You're my cute little Saint Haku-chan. You know it's true. Besides, I don't think you'd be too adverse to the proposition."

Her face went tomato. "I-I-I – I am too young for s-s-such –"

I sighed. "True, true. I suppose I shall wait for you to ripen Haku-chan." I smiled, "I am sure you'll look forward to that day, won't you Haku-chan?"

The poor girl looked as though she was about to faint, and I resisted the urge to start laughing.

"It's reactions like these which made me warm up to you two little munchkins," I said wistfully "It's hard to keep up an appearance of being an unflappable priest of divinity around such adorableness."

She pouted at me. "You tease me too much Shepherd-sama."

"It's because you're such an easy tease Haku-chan." I responded simply. "That, and when you get older, I suppose I'll have to teach you seduction techniques… which means I won't be able to watch you get so easily flustered anymore. I might as well enjoy it while I can."

I watched as the young girl walked closer to me, and it reminded me of the stark differences between this world and the world I came from. Chakra – it was a beautiful thing, it made all the difference in the development and maturity of a child. The world, and their chakra – it molded a different breed of children than the ones I was used to.

It was how and why twelve was seen as the legal age for graduation, as you were expected to possess a certain maturity as a shinobi, and at twelve, you were considered old enough to be responsible for your own actions, old enough to kill, to drink, or to go out and fuck if you wanted.

It would be hypocritical to let a twelve-year old slit the throat of a full grown man and watch the light leave their eyes, but then turn around and say that they were not mature enough to remove their clothes sexually stimulate themselves. Or, even more ridiculously, to tell them that they were not allowed to imbibe a mind-altering substance.

"Shepherd-sama?"

"Hmm…?"

"W-what are you thinking about, Shepherd-sama?"

I smiled at her. "Just thinking about this wretched world, and what I must do to bring it salvation."

She smiled at me, moving closer to place her hands on my face. They were cold, very cold. But they were not uncomfortable.

"I believe in you Shepherd-sama."

"Oh?" I said, my lips curling "And if I were to say that I am a fraud?"

"I would believe in you still."

"And if I said that I was going to conquer the world and enslave everyone in it?"

"Then I would stand beside you, Shepherd-sama, against the whole world."

The conviction in her eyes, it was startling, and it was comforting.

"I – I want to thank you, Shepherd-sama."

"Thank me?" I questioned.

"For… everything."

The look in her eyes, on her face – her expression, her words, her movement – I analyzed everything, and I knew what it meant. I knew – Haku was in love with me.

Haku would die for me.

She would do anything I asked of her, without fail.

She was mine.

"You're welcome Haku-chan."

I smirked.

"You're welcome."

XXXX

Year Five – Month Eleven, Day Thirty

"Land ahoy!"

"We've reached our final destination!"

Garbed in thick winter clothes, I took a deep breath of the fresh, pristine air of the outside, whilst at the same time glancing forward, unable to keep the giddiness out of my face from finally reaching my major destination. The place in which I would truly begin my empire. The starting point for the magnificent revolution I would bring to the Shinobi world.

Location Discovered: Yuki no Kuni

The Land of Snow.