Chapter 47: A History Lesson

Shin and Lei were in one of the training grounds of the Jade Palace, trying to perfect the lightning style kenjutsu by incorporating chi and the raikage's lightning chakra cloak to create the perfect lightning style. Shin was given 1 week off so as per usual, he decided to visit this world to train and since the time flowed here faster than the ninja world, Shin would have twice the improvement.

It was during this time when a messenger came for Shin, he had been summoned by the master of the Jade palace, Lei's father, Po's grandson. Shin went to the hall of heroes where he met with Master Son and the panda led him away, going through a hidden entrance to enter the mountain beneath them. As they descended the stone stairs caved inside the mountain, Shin looked at the panda but only saw a seriousness unlike he had ever seen before, illuminated by the flaming torch he held.

Shortly after entering the mountain, the duo came to a halt in front of a giant stone door. There were words and characters carved into the 20 feet tall doors and it all seemed connected to a small dent in the middle, just high enough from the ground so that a giant panda could reach it.

Son took a knife and made a small cut on his paw before putting it in the dent. Shin activated his Sharingan and his eyes turned red with the slightest hint of gold deep within them, a mutation occurred from the constant exposure to Shin's massive chi reserve.

Shin saw chi move in strange patterns as the door clicked and opened just enough to let one person pass at a time. Inside, the only light was from Son's torch but that was enough for Shin.

They had entered a dark cavern, there was no light and no life inside this place. There were murals carved into the walls,depicting various events of this world.

The Panda started to walk deeper as he finally spoke up, "I am sure you wondered why other-worlder like you was so easy accepted here…" He carried the torch close to a mural, illuminating it, "It's because you're not the first other-worlder we have met."

The mural depicted a scene of a valley, lightning fell from the sky as fire engulfed the entire valley and a giant serpent the size of a hill hissed at a much smaller panda which seemed to be engulfed in a silhouette of a dragon.. Shin held his breath as he saw this scene, he could see the world move, as if he was truly there in that moment, witnessing this earth shattering battle.

"He called himself the Great Serpent God of the North. Lord of the Black Lake." Son paused before moving to the next mural, "He was the first other-worlder that is remembered by living memory, he was also the strongest." The next mural depicted the snake biting into the dragon as it roared in agony.

"According to GreatGrandfather, the great serpent was greatly injured and weak when it arrived in this world… but it was still the greatest calamity this world had ever faced. Great grandfather was powerless against it."

The third mural showed a beaten and broken panda, small and powerless… yet defiant against the inevitable. The panda stood, holding its head high, trying to halt the great serpent with his hand, defending the countless animals behind him from the coming serpent.

They moved to the furth mural and saw a surprising scene, the serpent was bowing to the panda as the fire extinguished from the valley and the cloud dispersed to show the rising sun.

"I don't understand… what happened?" Shin asked in confusion and the panda replied, "Great Grandfather didn't bow in defeat, instead he remained steadfast to protect the people even in the face of inevitable doom… and he gained the serpent's respect."

The final mural on this side showed both the panda and the serpent bowing to each other and the serpent giving the panda 3 objects that looked like books. Looking over, Shin saw three books on a pedestal and several more stacked into three stacks on a desk nearby.

"When he left, he left 3 gifts to his new friend. Gifts that unlocked the secrets of Chi for the entire world… and the world was changed forever." Son moved to the opposite side where another set of murals were carved but his face showed sadness as he continued, "And that was when tragedy began for our family…"

Murals on this side started from the opposite direction so the last mural was close to the entrance door.

The first one showed Po giving light to everyone in the valley."When he uncovered the secrets of Chi, he gave them away to everyone, teaching them freely…" 

The second showed Po giving his staff to another Panda as the entire valley celebrated. "...Until he retired nearly 60 years ago, selecting my grandfather, his 2nd son, as the new leader. But in doing so, he ignored the jealousy and hate that grew in his 1st son…"

The third showed a Panda corrupting the light as everything around him begins to die. "...Fueled by hatred, he began to corrupt the chi, instead of being a power of life and light… It became a power of darkness… and death."

Fourth showed a battle between two armies and two Pandas where the evil panda leading the army of corrupted chi killed the one holding the staff of wisdom and darkness spread through the valley. "My grandfather tried to stop his brother, to reach the good inside him… but he failed…"

"After his death, Po finally attacked. And with grief and sorrow… he killed his own son to protect the world."The final Showed Po killing the evil panda as his light forced the evil corruption to retreat.

Shin fell into a deep thought as Son sighed and the two moved to the center and Son sat behind himself on the chair behind the desk. "This was nearly 40 years ago. Greatgrandfather never accepted a disciple from that day, until now. The evil that he fought all those years ago still lingers in the bloodline of his 2nd son. Just beyond our borders, evil gathers its strength, waiting for a chance to attack." Son's eyes grew cold as he continued, "We cannot afford the sacrifices of our ancestors to be wasted." Son looked at the quiet Shin as his eyes softened a bit, "That is why, I would like you to become the next dragon warrior!"

Shin was surprised to say the least but he soon realized the reason and spoke "Having the disciple of Master Po become the dragon warrior would indeed deter any enemy, but…" Shin looked straight at the panda, "I am not the only disciple Master Po has am I?"

While it was true that Po had not taken any disciples until now, Shin was not the one that broke this trend, there was another that had become a disciple of Po before Shin. In fact she was more akin to being his adopted daughter than anything and she was the exact reason why Son asked Shin to become the dragon warrior even though he was not of this world.

Son sighed as he took three books from the deck and gave them to Shin, "Here, Grandmaster Po said that I should give it to you when you have rejected me… I should have just skipped to this part." Son sighed at his failure to convince Shin who just chuckled, "Guess master Po knows his students well." He gave Son a meaningful look before continuing, "Perhaps we should trust in his judgment."

The duo left the cavern and started to make their way upwards, Shin looked back at the door and questioned Son, "What are those characters? I've never seen something like this before, the way chi moved was unnatural."

The panda replied, "It's a powerful seal created by my 1st grandmother, Po's only daughter. This is a closely guarded skill that only a very few masters are taught every generation." Shin nodded, he had no desire to push things and to become a power hungry hippo that wrecked everything in his path.

Shin changed the subject, "Master Son, I've been meaning to ask, is there someone who specializes in swords. My Chokoto is excellent but it's not as powerful and not very responsive to chi, the enemies I will face from now on are all very powerful so I need every edge I can get."

Listening to Shin, Son chuckled, "Hahaha, you are quite fortunate Shin. I know the perfect swordsmith! And it just so happens that he is also an inheritor of 1st grandmother. He should be able to make you the weapon you need. Take Lei, he knows the way."

After getting out, Shin found Lei who took him to see a Mantis. Seeing the little green insect wielding a hammer 4 times its size and smacking swords was quite a strange sight. After a while the Mantis came to see them and Shin presented his Chokoto.

The mantis observed the sword closely, knocking on it and listening to its ringing before putting it down, "I have never seen this type of craftsmanship before but I have to say, this is truly the work of a master!" the mantis parised, "I almost feel guilty trying to remake it and the metal it is made of, it is much more conductive than silver and as strong as steel! Marvelous!"

The Mantis requested a chunk of this chakra metal in exchange to which Shin readily agreed. After spending some more time with Lei and having nearly perfected their lightning technique, Shin left the world without his sword as Mantis needed time to study the sword and to make improvements to it.

Shin still had one day before his vacation week ended so he decided to pay Iwagakure a small visit. He was missing a monkey in his personal zoo so he decided to go get one. Finding the Jinchuriki took nearly all day, even with a thousand clones running around Iwagakure. Shin knew that Rushi had left the village some time ago and was wondering about, this meant Shin didn't have to worry about an audience.

Once Shin found the beast, he quickly put him under a genjutsu and extracted the tailed beast. Shin healed the Jinchuriki and wiped his memory before controlling the beast to make a mess of the surroundings and summoned a massive lightning bolt after sealing him away. Shin wanted everyone to know that it was him that got the beast and no one else.

Afterwards, Shin quickly made his way to the village, ready to report for duty. It was business as usual.

Two days later, he was called into the hokage office along with several other jonins. The news of the 4 tailed beast being sighted had already reached Konoha, along with a giant lightning bolt falling from the sky, it was obvious what had happened.

All the jonins that had gathered here remained silent, it was obvious why they had been summoned so they just waited until Hiruzen spoke up, "I am sure that all of you are aware of why we are here so I'll cut to the chase. The Tsuchikage has summoned the five kage for a summit in the land of Iron."

Ibuki smirked as he spoke with glee, "It's obvious why that fence sitter is so nervous. The beast Killer seems to be going up the ladder, after the 4 tails, 5 tails is next and after that is gone, Iwagakure would no longer have a Jinchuriki to protect them."

Another Jonin spoke up, "But there has been no news of 2 tails being attacked."

Kakashi replied, "True, but as far as we know, Kumo might be suppressing the news."

Shikaku cupped his chin as he spoke his piece, "Or maybe the beast killer has not attacked Kumo yet because he knows it won't be an easy target. So far, he's just attacked lone Jinchuriki so maybe he's afraid of facing more than one tail beast at the same time. We can safely assume that while he is definitely powerful, he's not powerful enough to face an entire shinobi village."

Everyone nodded, his conjecture made sense and was mostly true, at least until several months ago. Shin was now more than capable of wiping out a nation; with his recent acquisition, he now had more than 1000 chakra points.

The hokage silenced the jonins and started to speak in a serious tone, "There is no doubt that this beast killer is a threat, one that might come after Konoha one day. As such, it is better to eradicate it now then later. I will soon be journeying to the land of Iron for the summit, Shikaku will be left in charge during my absence and I will take Kakashi and Guy as my guards."

After that, most of the jonins were dismissed and only Jonin commanders and Shin were left in the office, "Shin, you will be given a temporary position as Captain of the Hunter unit. 3 tailed beasts have died, they will be re-forming soon. I have no doubt that the other villages are already looking for them and if they find them, the delicate peace we have will break. This incident has the potential to become the catalyst of the 4th ninja war! We have to protect this peace no matter the cost! I have already assured the Mizukage and the Kazekage that we will aid them in finding and retrieving the tailed beasts, including the missing Jinchuriki of Kiri."

Shin was given charge over two teams, 6 chunins and 2 jonins. Since Shin was the best hunter in the village, he was left in charge of hunting the missing Jinchuriki and finding the tailed beasts that might have started to re-articulate themselves.

Little did they know, they had just handed Shin the key to the treasury. Shin now had both the excuse and the free reign to search for all tailed beasts but his time was also running out. Soon someone would figure out that the killed tailed beasts were not reforming and that would bring a whole slew of trouble.

But for now, Shin was getting ready for a hunt.