62

Preparations for the assault on the Coliseum had taken two more days, constantly being adjusted as the last stragglers of ships came in and changed numbers. But then the harbor the ships had been pulling into was sealed with an earth technique, removing all obvious external signs that the island was in use at all. That also felt like how those in charge were going to ensure that nobody caused trouble, causing the groups that were looking to take over to get nervous. Trapping themselves on the island due to being unable to open the harbor wouldn't exactly look good.

Final registration of slaves, construction of betting packets, and other activities ate up another two days, which provided plenty of time to ensure that everything was in position. All betting money was deposited in advance, most of the nobles planning on doing their illegal goods shopping with their anticipated winnings. Those with slaves participating were promised a financial cut even if they lost their slaves to a stronger fighter, the more fights their slaves participated in the more they'd make in theory.

In practice, the safe with the betting money in it was emptied five minutes after the time-based locking seal was activated on it. Eight minutes later the former contents were being sorted back in Uzushiogakure to be stored in a series of safes there.

As each shopkeeper closed and engaged their own locking seals the night before the tournament their safes were also emptied. The few with those locking seals on their storeroom doors also had them emptied out once locked until after the tournament would begin, even though none of the storerooms were fully protected. Otherwise, storerooms were emptied the next morning as buildings were left unoccupied. The ships in the sealed-off harbor were also stripped of valuables once nobody was present to notice. Three of the highest-quality passenger ships and five fishing vessels that needed minimal work to be usable for fishing again were all taken directly as well, deposited in Uzushio's harbor as soon as the last people that had been staying on the trapped ships departed.

Naruto figured that making properly-built copies would be a good side project, though the small motors on the fishing vessels felt like they were likely to give him minor problems if he tried to make copies of them. Hinata had been doing better at figuring out stuff like that than him, having discovered an interest in doing things with as little chakra as possible. He'd be far more likely to replace the motors with seals, but she'd asked for him to grab three of the fishing vessels as ones she wanted access to the motors on to personally examine. Hanabi was honestly shaping up similarly, though currently puppet-focused. Her latest project was trying to integrate a vacuum cleaner into her 'Hanabi' puppet for use during cleaning chores, which he primarily knew about because batteries didn't last long enough so she'd asked Yoko for help powering the thing.

Hinata had specifications for her own versions of the seal-based battery that had resulted from that, wanting ones small enough to stick in radios she was working on. She'd been annoyed that he'd kept some of the information from Uzushio a secret when she'd found out about elements of their documentation that he didn't understand and was hoping to get something usable in the field instead of in the village. Admittedly, she had a point that sensors could pick up on the communication technique if they were sensitive enough, but he thought he could make seals that would negate that problem.

He wasn't stupid enough to dismiss her efforts with that reasoning though, and could admittedly see radios being useful if a civilian was in the mix too. Besides, it had given Yoko a nice side project to work on back in Konoha.

Ino moved into the bunker carrying her puppy-shaped clone, confident that its consciousness in one of the guards for the slaves would be able to handle things well enough. She had become...reluctant to use the technique directly for a number of reasons, but also had to acknowledge that only using it through clones was limiting. For example, if anyone did actual harm to the guard taken over then the puppy-shaped clone would almost certainly dispel from suddenly being injured. That wasn't a problem she'd have personally.

Once the clone was settled into place she moved through the tunnels to the next bunker. Not everything had been taken back to Uzushio immediately and she was going to be going through some of it. Primarily removing things they didn't want to hand back to any people that had come here to try to do the right things and merely got caught up in the larger actions. Explosive tags, poisons, rare technique scrolls...

Utakata looked over the group of would-be conquerors that Hotaru had defeated. "You take to the more violent techniques far too readily."

"I'd rather not cause them undue suffering," Hotaru replied. "So making it quick is the least I can do for them."

"And you've proven to have problems with the more capture-oriented techniques due to the balance of your water nature. Still, this is the last group on our list, so we should get into position to help against the leaders."

"Not a big fan of just leaving the bodies here."

"As you said after the previous group, but I'm fairly certain that passing through where we took care of them will reveal that their bodies are already gone."

"...really?"

"Kisame praised Uzushio's skills and 'tidiness', claiming that they're incredibly good at covering their own tracks and removing evidence that would be missed by less-attentive groups."

A couple of minutes later they passed through the previous clearing to find that all signs of a battle were now absent, as though nothing at all had happened. Even the trees damaged in the fight looked unharmed, which was an impressive feat.

"You two are sloppy," Kyo's voice called before she faded into view. Utakata's eyes went wide at this, because he'd had no indication that she was there at all and her chakra only reappeared a moment after she was fully visible. The mysterious Anbu threw a package to Hotaru, mouth forming into a grin under the mask. "Why, you didn't loot your corpses at all. Just left a pile of money and supplies on them. I can understand not wanting their clothing, but nobody should pass up decent quality weapons."

The woman vanished a moment later, and he turned to Hotaru. "I'm starting to think that Kisame was understating things with them."

"She's kind of right," Hotaru said, opening the package to check its contents. "We've always looted bandit corpses before moving on, even if we weren't planning on cleaning them up."

"I suppose. This is a bit of a larger and more important task though."

"No need to get sloppy on the small things while focused on the big picture."

"...true."

Hinata wandered from building to building with some of her clones, placing explosive tags throughout them. Naruto could have handled the demolition through other means, but the timed nature of the interconnected seals meant that even if they pulled out unexpectedly then the buildings would end up demolished. There also wasn't anyone around to see her doing this now that everyone was in the Coliseum itself.

That building was more solidly constructed, as befitting an area that combat was intended to happen in, and harder to pre-seed with explosives while it was full of people. The current plan was to leave it standing until everything else was taken care of, just for lack of a better option.

In addition, she and her clones were looking for anything missed in the previous looting. A couple of well-hidden caches had been spotted, though nothing containing much of importance. Minor blackmail against people slated to be dead by the end of the day, records of agreements between a couple of the shops that were probably not worth the paper they'd been written down on even if the businesses were staying open, and three different personal diaries with nothing of actual use in them.

Then there was the one shopkeeper that had a seriously stalkerish crush on another, with zero indication that there was any reciprocation at all. Right down to stealing underwear and storing it in a cleverly-hidden alcove in his bedroom. The other shopkeeper had complained about the missing articles in their own diary.

Kisame frowned as he looked over the loot from this group of idiots. They'd not put up a fight at all, and they'd not been carrying anything of value either. A pity, really. But now they wouldn't cause problems for the main event, which was the point. Sighing, he petted Samehada's handle, not having had to use the sword yet. "Those in charge should be more of a challenge. These chumps were overconfident, but we know that there's some skill here. They just didn't do their research."

A quick earth technique buried the bodies and he headed to the point on the Coliseum that the Uzumaki had told him about. The security there was light and it made for a good point to slip in unnoticed, even before taking into account that it was probably assumed that everyone was already in the structure by now. It was also almost time for the real show to begin.

Thinking about things, Kyo found this whole situation quite annoying in several respects. Chunin exam finals wanted a small bracket because nobles would get bored, supposedly. But here there were hundreds of slaves queued up to fight all day and into the night, for just the first day of fighting. Admittedly under different, less-restrictive rules, and with up to four fights at a time early in things, but it was still annoying when you realized it.

Arriving at the area the slaves were in, waved in by the guard that Ino's clone was in control of, she pushed the annoyance down and ensured that the current six 'spare' versions of her were ready before floating into the area.

"Good morning," she called out, stopping over a pre-placed Hiraishin marker. "I'm here to facilitate the escape of anyone who wishes to do so. Those who wish to remain..."

A piercing attack went right through her, dispelling the clone, and a moment later the first replacement appeared over the marker. "As I was saying, those who wish to remain with their current 'owners' can indicate that they wish to do so, with no risk of being lost to another in the fights that will not be happening."

Several of those in the room looked concerned at that possibility, including the one that had fired the piercing attack.

"And how are you going to get us out of here?" one of the others asked. "They've closed off the harbor."

"We have ways to get anyone who wishes to go to the outskirts of Uzushiogakure," Kyo replied. "From there we can ensure that you've been checked over for medical issues, have supplies, and can reach wherever you need to go. We will also ensure that you will not be 'reclaimed' by those who claim to own you. The eight of you with seals controlling you can have those removed as well."

She'd expected more fight from those who didn't want to leave their current 'owners', but the enthusiasm of the rest convinced the minority to simply fade into the back of the crowd. A clone with a departure stone was summoned to the room and a description of how to use it was provided before the slaves clamored to use it, with a clone at the arrival point ensuring that the destination stone was clear before each additional individual or group went through.

It took far less time than expected, which was nice, but the only reason they'd not been interrupted was the fight that Kisame and Utakata had started in the owner's box.

"My apologies," Kyo said to a pair of twin boys that were still there in the 'do not want to leave their current owners' group. "But your owner attempted to defend those in charge of the island and was cut down due to that."

"He would be that stupid," one of the two said with a sigh, turning to the other. "What do you think?"

"We're probably better off with them than on our own," the other replied.

A minute later they'd gone through, but the rest of those still there looked incredibly worried now. At least until a couple of Hinata's disguised clones started escorting their 'owners' into the area, safe and sound. Reunions happened, quick stories were gathered, and all but two of these groups ended up traveling through to Uzushio as well.

With everyone 'to be spared' secured, most off the island and the last few being kept under watch, the explosive tags in the rest of the structures were detonated before their timers ran down.

"I do believe that's our sign to stop holding back," Utakata commented as he dodged some kind of purple fire. The bombs going off outside of the Coliseum meant that all the 'faking it' slave owners were likely accounted for, as well as anyone that seemed likely to surrender. Or things had just gone to shit and they were in 'plan B' mode now.

"Indeed," Kisame replied, doing a backflip and cutting through an entire section of the crowd he'd previously been avoiding injuring due to their focus on Utakata and Hotaru. On their part, Utakata let loose with a couple of acid bubbles and allowed his slug tail to start secreting acid while Hotaru started letting loose with wider-area attacks.

The group in charge had been better-protected than expected, though had still gone down fairly quickly due to not expecting a former jinchuriki and someone who might as well be one attacking in a pincer move. That pesky Uzumaki had gone down first, being a core part of the entire operation and a very significant potential threat with an unknown dojutsu, but the rest had at least had a chance to fight for a minute or so. Where things had started going wrong was with their guards and the large number of 'owners' in the stands that were themselves capable fighters. Or had bloodline skills that made them problematic no matter their skill level in at least three cases.

Originally, the plan had been that anyone trying to escape instead of fighting back was to be allowed to, within reason. The criminals that lived on the island were slated for death even if they weren't throwing themselves into the fray, but the nobles and other visitors might be permitted to leave if they did so peacefully. As it stood, only around twenty individuals had backed off instead of leaping into the fight and it was likely that the Uzushio forces had already gotten them outside.

"Do you think we're on our own now?" Hotaru asked after slicing a couple of people in twain with a water whip.

"I suspect that the Uzushio forces are simply ensuring that everything else is in order before stepping in here," Utakata replied before sending a couple stronger acid bubbles at a particularly annoying bloodline wielder. He wasn't exactly one to dislike them on principle, but when on the opposite side of battle from them they could still be problematic.

A few minutes later a hail of kunai and shuriken came over the Coliseum's walls. This should've been a distraction at best due to none of the angles being correct for any of the weapons. Utakata was far from the only one to glance up and dismiss them as a threat immediately. He was one of the few to not regret doing so as they unerringly homed in and struck targets, not a single one missing despite needing to do impossible things to manage it.

And then they all exploded, frequently injuring two or three people near the ones that had been directly hit in the process.

"I can think of a dozen ways to block that," Kisame commented as he landed next to Utakata, most of the remaining fighters having decided to cower at the display of homing explosive weapons. "But most of them require having a clue it might be coming, and I really wasn't expecting that."

"Indeed," Utakata agreed, avoiding flinching as a normal kunai that had been stuck in Samehada was launched at high speed past his head and into one of the few in the crowd that wasn't already down for the count. "And hoping that you're faster than they are, of course."

Kyo nodded as the last boat left the reopened harbor, leaving four behind that nobody left in the survivors had been able to operate. They'd probably end up back in Uzushio later. "Thank you for your assistance."

"I honestly think this should be going the other way," Kisame said. "Too many bloodline users and not enough prep on my part."

"We hadn't considered that they'd seal the harbor off with the boats inside of it," Hotaru added. "Getting the slaves out would've been problematic."

"Do you three want assistance getting back to the mainland?" Kyo asked.

"...I can make my own way," Kisame said. "But it would probably be faster if you're willing to let us use a teleport seal."

"Not quite what I was thinking. Where would you happen to be heading?"

"West of the Land of Fire would probably be close enough."

Kyo nodded, then turned to Utakata and Hotaru. "And you two?"

"Er," Utakata said, looking at Hotaru before shrugging. "Mount Katsuragi, however close you can get us?"

"That shouldn't be a major problem." A clone in a generic Uzumaki Anbu guise came up a moment later with two bundles. One was tossed to Kisame and the other to Utakata. "These are your share of some of the basic supplies and money we confiscated. Is there anything else you think you need before leaving?"

"...hold up," Kisame said, staring at the bundle he'd caught. "You're just...handing over some of the loot?"

"You three provided an excellent distraction from the evacuation of the slaves and more tolerable 'owners'. Why wouldn't we share the spoils?"

"...because we're affiliated with one of the villages that helped squash Uzushiogakure?"

"And none of you directly participated in that act."

"True, I suppose."

"So, are you ready to go?"

Kisame gave her a look, but nodded. "I suppose."

Kyo reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder, reaching out to a clone just outside of Amegakure's current rainstorm, given that everything Jiraiya knew about Akatsuki had them running out of the village. The target clone was disguised as a rock on the side of the road, and she ensured that Kisame would land next to it as she executed the Hiraishin without traveling herself. Nodding, she turned to Utakata and Hotaru. "Are you two ready?"

"Did you just teleport him to somewhere West of the Land of Fire?" Utakata asked.

"He should have landed in the general vicinity of what we believe to be Akatsuki's current base of operations in particular."

"...huh."

"So, ready?"

"Might as well."

This time she placed one hand on each of the two and targeted a clone at the base of Mount Katsuragi. It only took a moment to send them along.

A few seconds later Kyo poofed into Naruto, who sighed. "That was annoying."

Hinata appeared next to him a moment later. "And we have plenty of time before we're expected back in Konoha to make the island...unsuitable for criminal enterprises going forward."

"True. I'm just glad that I guessed where they'd want to go correctly so that I had time for my clones to get into position."

Kisame blinked a couple of times as he evaluated where he was. Which was just outside of Amegakure. With all of his stuff, the bundle he'd been given, and no clue how the hell Kyo had gotten him there.

On the other hand, it was...unlikely that he had to worry about tracking seals in the bundle, if they knew exactly where to drop him off when he'd been as vague as 'West of the Land of Fire'. Which fit with them having a scarily efficient information network and thus probably wasn't all that surprising, honestly. More surprising was that they'd just...dropped him here. Kyo hadn't even used hand seals, just placed her hand on his shoulder, connected her chakra to him, and then he was here.

That...was concerning, though there was probably a seal somewhere around here for her to have targeted. He'd need to mention that, and see if it could be located...

Yoko sat down across from Shisui, a little surprised that he had a chair ready for her. "You wanted to speak to me, sir?"

"I'm hoping you can provide news on how things are going with Naruto's mission," Shisui replied. "The Daimyo has been asking about a select set of currently-absent nobles that recently got robbed."

"My understanding is that Jiraiya did the robbing."

"His reports indicate that, yes, though I was unaware that he'd informed you or Naruto."

"Messages have been passed back and forth through the toads about various items and the state of the houses of a number of dead nobles was included. The mission itself is largely complete on the surface, but Naruto was convinced to ensure that the island can't be used for similar purposes in the future. It's decently positioned to be just outside of normal patrol areas and yet close enough to be useful for a number of normally-illegal activities."

"So he ended up going with the option of killing most of those involved?"

"There weren't many other good options without getting the Land of Lightning or the Land of Water involved, and there was an Uzumaki in the group of those in charge. We aren't sure if his eyes were natural or implanted, but he attempted to escape with a space-time rift before Kisame removed his head from his shoulders. The eyes didn't survive to be examined."

"...Kisame Hoshigaki?"

"Yes. Utakata and a young woman from the Tsuchigumo clan were also there and assisted, but with the two shinobi still technically being missing-nin they couldn't provide enough legitimacy for proper arrests."

"Ah. And I imagine that this all went down...five days ago, or so?"

Yoko frowned. "Yes. How did you know that?"

"Those aware of your connection to Naruto have learned to pick up signs that he's done something he severely dislikes by virtue of your behavior changing. You're his outlet, just as he's essentially yours, and I was advised to wait until you had...moved closer to normal before asking for an update."

"Ah."

"How long before we can expect to see refugees?"

"We imagine that the boats that left will have already hit ports in the Land of Lightning or Land of Water by now. The freed slaves, and a few of those who were partnered and only playing 'owner and slave' for the purpose of infiltrating the tournament, have posed a different problem."

Shisui blinked. "What kind of problem?"

"Er, most of them have asked to settle in Uzushiogakure. One of the nobles praised what had been done with the limited farming that was already in place but insisted that it could still be improved. There are a few individuals that expressed interest in fishing instead of fighting, that kind of thing. Only a handful of individuals seem to have any desire to be shinobi for the village."

"I honestly didn't expect this to turn into a way to get a population back into Uzushio."

"We didn't either, and haven't actually said 'yes' to any of them yet. Some of that is checking their backgrounds to the best of our ability, but most of it is, er..."

"Trying to find a believable excuse for telling them to get lost?"

"...yes. We're not really interested in being responsible for them in that manner."

"But it sounds like they're looking to be at least somewhat self-sufficient. Handling fishing and farming, likely setting up basic services, that kind of thing. Which would go a long way to making the village usable with less effort for the chunin exams."

"It might, but diplomatically it might also be...awkward. Uzushio being a mysterious force only sending Anbu into the field is one thing, but having a civilian presence without any visible leader?"

"...ah. Yes, that could be a problem. Not one when using Konoha's manpower to help keep the place running but having a 'native' population without a visible leader..."

"We don't wish to be rude, and are currently blaming the delay in answer on things being considered by leadership elsewhere."

"I'll check with others, and possibly the Daimyo. He doesn't know the full truth, but explaining the basics should be enough to get input. I think that the island is also technically 'under the protectorate of the Land of Fire until Uzushio reclaims it'? That may provide options for Konoha providing more direct management on Uzushio's behalf on paper."

"While Uzushio has continued to be more active," Nagato said, gesturing at the reports 'Madara' was asking about, "they're still operating in a reasonably narrow manner. I believe they only went after the Coliseum due to being offended about an individual of Uzumaki descent using Uzumaki seals being part of the leadership."

"And they have ways to both teleport and block space-time techniques," 'Madara' half-muttered. How he knew the latter was unknown, but it was possible that he'd found his own ability to move around had been insufficient to gain access to Uzushiogakure itself. If so, that was interesting and potentially useful to know. A moment later the man shook his head and focused on Nagato. "Do you know if the teleportation seals you found lead to the island?"

"No, because I'm not stupid enough to activate an unknown seal based on assumptions. Doubly so when the assumption is that it will spirit me away to another location with no guarantee that there's an easy way to return and zero ability to scout ahead to see if it's a trap."

"Ah. Yes, that does make sense, and without finding the other end first it's probably too dangerous to risk. I suppose we can't even assume that they need to face the general direction the other end is in. Kisame reported that they were able to drop him directly outside of your rainfall?"

"Indeed. No sign of a seal, but it could be one he missed and was removed before someone could return or a single-use one at the destination. Alternatively, some of them don't need seals. I suspect that most do, but this Kyo may be an exception. I could even see the seals as being something she makes with a bloodline trait, or something similar, to allow others to use her ability."

"That...would make an unfortunate amount of sense. What's this about the tailed beasts being killed to save the planet?"

Nagato shrugged. "It's a theory several villages have. A couple of tailed beasts were killed and all of a sudden areas that had been barren and near-lifeless for decades or centuries started to flourish like old records claimed they used to. Cities and nations used to rely on these areas, only to fade away when the land stopped providing, and now the land is mysteriously recovering. A couple of villages reference the legend of a 'God Tree' in their reports, and Suna in particular has a decent map of the likely giant root pattern pointing to a specific damaged mountain range as the likely place the tree sat. Notably, all of the sudden oasis locations in the desert and in the Land of Earth are along the 'root lines' with no other obvious explanation for that pattern."

It was obvious that 'Madara' wasn't convinced, but Nagato wasn't either. This was just continuing to present reports as requested until such a time as the man could be...dealt with.

"So," 'Madara' said as the last report was put down. "You've...gone a more pacifistic route with assignments."

"I have," Nagato agreed.

"Why?"

"All the old plans required having access to at least the bulk of the tailed beasts. They are, as such, no longer an option. Further, while we were arguably the strongest force in the Elemental Nations, that has unfortunately ceased to be the case. Antagonizing Uzushiogakure without knowing where they are to strike at them directly feels...unwise. As it happens, engaging in more...generally 'acceptable' missions has resulted in both more information on them and a potential working rapport that could eventually lead to more still. It also serves as an alternate route to a general peace through removing those who work directly against that goal, though the Land of Earth's Daimyo provides a counterpoint to human greed still remaining a problem."

"That...makes more sense than I was expecting."

"I'm not a fool that would make such a shift on a mere whim. Besides, the rings stopped working and Zetsu vanished. This requires more independence in the members due to a lack of easy communication options."

"And what of Hidan?"

"He was barely-controlled as it was and was definitely not going to take to the idea of being less violent. In addition, I now know that the methods 'Jashinists' use to achieve their immortality are deplorable and had the potential to cause problems even under the original plans. Kakuzu happens to have agreed and is hunting down all traces of the religion to exterminate it on merely 'upkeep' funding."

It was obvious that this was a shock to 'Madara', not that it hadn't been a shock to the rest of the group when they'd found out as well. Nagato had not been shocked. Kakuzu would never join the religion for multiple reasons, even without the added knowledge provided from extracting information from Hidan. At the same time, it was thankfully highly unlikely that 'Jashin' actually existed as such.

"Could it really be that bad?" 'Madara' asked after a minute of silence.

Nagato got up and moved over to one of his secure filing cabinets, going through the multiple-step process to open it up. He extracted a single sheet of paper from it, closing it before returning to the table and placing the paper down. 'Madara' gave off a slight feeling of worry and trepidation before carefully picking up the sheet and examining it. That changed to complete and total disgust before he was even halfway down the page.

"To answer your question," Nagato said. "I feel that it's worse."

"I find myself forced to agree," 'Madara' replied. "And anyone he killed with the blood connection active just added to the effect?"

"So he believed, at least. It took three days, but with his soul removed his body eventually exploded to the point where his very DNA was destroyed."

"I'm not sure he had functional DNA anymore. Zetsu told me once that Orochimaru made several attempts at analysis and failed to get anything."

"...I must admit that I'd not considered that, not having attempted to do such an analysis myself."