Kirigakure Life

The stay in Kirigakure was quite frankly the stuff of nightmares. Nightmares to me, not any other reasonable isekai protagonist. Training and more training. For a fairly technologically capable world this sucked. The messed up part is at some point I was becoming comfortable with such a life. I was losing my mind clearly.

Life in Kirigakure was several steps down from the life I enjoyed in Konoha. While I was part of the highest social class, it didn't really mean much. Ironically I was now also at the peak social class in Konoha so the contrast between the villages noble groups became apparent. Walking around like an asshole like the Kiri nobles wasn't exactly my bit. Especially when I came from the Hyuga branch family. I used to be part of the lowest social group so I couldn't bring myself to act like some xianxia young master and piss on everything to mark my territory.

The political bullshit behind Prince Zukos existence also came with several fairly annoying consequences for me.

The first being the fact the amount of second wife candidates I was forced to meet after training were rather insane. Women upon women were thrown my way along with a list of suitable candidates. A list Tsunade immediately destroyed. Not to mention the poor dumb dumbs who brought their daughters to meet me had a one way ticket to the hospital "mysteriously". The clear punch marks destroyed the mystery but no one would say otherwise. For those in the know my wife became a possessive demon, a trend that was getting worse the longer I stayed here.

Second was the fact the amount of assassins discovered in Kirigakures vicinity was outstanding. Some of these guys were actually dangerous. Unfortunately for the assassins, the poor bastards were cleaned up by Kakuzu who was having a field day. The rumors of my "treasurer" being a harbinger of death weren't wrong but the infamy that came my way made me seem like the demon king. A level of recognition I didn't want. There was an asshole Uchiha with game breaking eyes out there after all.

Last but not least was the ever growing pressure by several places asking for my corpse or imprisonment. Somehow I was really becoming this worlds demon king. Rumors stated the attack on Uzushio was to destroy me and not the Uzumaki. The world believed I slaughtered anything in sight with my gathering of demons. It didn't help a lot of the land of Fire and Waters political enemies were being eliminated and I was now the poster child for both.

The alliance between Konoha and Kiri was going swimmingly. With access to Kiri's top tier assassins a lot of the land of Fires enemies were meeting questionable ends. The land of water was also experiencing an economic upturn like no other. Improved resources coming from their trade agreement with the land of Fire were improving Kirigakures situation. The real uptick actually came from Tsunades gambling losses creating a great deal of wealth. It was also my only good source of PR as most people thought she was losing on purpose. No ones luck could be that bad so clearly it was purposeful charity. A thought process I refused to correct.

Overall this identity was too prominent and well known for my tastes. As Senju Ren I was a useless boy toy and no one really cared if I existed or not. Prince Zuko on the other hand was a god damn prince. Being low key wasn't exactly an option, especially when I was being pimped out to create an even stronger political position. My patience was slowly deteriorating the longer I maintained this identity.

While I was not taking very well to my new identity Tsunade was a different matter. She was absolutely loving this little excursion. Gambling as she pleased, being doted upon by the masses, having great medical test subjects handy. Not to mention her and Kakuzu were a mysteriously compatible duo. Intelligence. Check. Short tempered. Check. Money grubbers. Check. If it wasn't for Tsunades obsession with gambling they'd probably be best friends.

It wasn't all that bad for me if I was being completely honest. For one I had now mastered the real Hydrification technique. Two, I now officially had genuine jonin level chakra strength. The most important thing is that I had acquired the Earth Grudge Fear. Kakuzu noticing my obsession with medical techniques offered me his technique…for enough money to build his own nation. It wasn't hard to comply, I showered the man in duplicated jewels and other highly valued items. He seemed shocked as it turns out he was joking but seeing the money at hand such integrity went out the window.

Learning Earth Grudge Fear changed a lot of my anatomy in ways that made me seem like the demonic monster the world made me out to be. My earth grudge tendrils replaced my blood circulation system. My cells could take a water based liquid state at any time. Now thanks to the Earth Grudge Fear technique and save and load I also had two hearts. I used a Shuichi clone to steal and adapt not only his heart but his skeletal structure. Unlike Kakuzu I refused to attach masks to my body, it was a unique application of earth grudge fear but I found it better to maintain my hearts with in the body.

The change was what propelled me to Jonin level chakra strength. This had proven several facts for me. I could steal other kekkei genkai using Earth Grudge Fear. Downside being that I could not steal their techniques by just integrating the bodies. Shikotsumyaku was a lucky choice as the ability was of a purely physical nature. Apart from the previous perks I had gained Shuichis affinity for earth release. One I had zero intention to build on but I had it. My weakness to lightning shouldn't be made worse after all.

Integrating the body did come with some side effects so it wasn't perfect. The waiting period for my body to accept the new changes were rough. A sweaty and sickly looking me appeared for a few months. The distinct reason for the illness was only known by Kakuzu at the moment. When Tsunade discovered the real reason she asked for the Shuichi cloned corpse. The corpse of her dreams apparently as Shuichis body structure was unique and unseen. Her eyes when looking at my own body worried me.

Things weren't exactly as perfect as they seemed with the alliance however. For one our access to the the other clans was severely restricted. It seemed a bit odd to me that all of my so called second wife candidates were from none of Kiris noble kekkei genkai clans. Of the Hozuki clan only Gengetsu really appreciated my existence. The hydrification technique I learned and perfected was directly provided by him. Meaning the clan itself refused to teach me any of the technique.

Tsunade and I were actually being treated more like outsiders than new family members. This applied to all of the Hozuki except one. Gengetsu.

Gengetsu on the other hand made me question just how much a Kage should be allowed to know. Maybe Danzo really was necessary, Hiruzen was pretty bad but Gengetsu was... If Hiruzen loved to teach talents, Gengetsu outright raised talents. The man would give me all of Kirigakures secrets if it could somehow make me stronger. Considering how many of those secrets he had access to as Mizukage it did make you wonder. Taking into account his ridiculous level of strength there wasn't any really reliable way to reign him in either.

Shuichi becoming one of the seven swordsman of the mist was widely attributed to this peculiarity. Most if not all of the noble kekkei genkai clans looked down on the titular seven swordsman of the mist. The power of the nature transformation kekkei genkai or the Kaguya clans Shikotsumyaku was definitely enough to be arrogant. In turn such power made them look down on others reliance on the power the seven swords held. After all this was external power not the users. Such issues however went out the window when the Mizukage himself kidnapped Shuichi. The Kaguya clan respected strength and Gengetsu was nothing if not strong.

My time was mostly spent with these two so I had learnt the most about them. My time wasn't purely dominated by the two and I had also met some other members of the seven swordsman of the mist. Of note to my own sword preferences was Raiga and Juzo. Spending time with the seven swordsman of the mist I noticed common thread behind all of the swordsman was that they all had a penchant for brutality. Which made me think Shuichi probably had a few screws loose that I wasn't aware of. Then again blowing up your enemies into piles of guts wasn't exactly for a well adjusted individual.

Life in Kirigakure was in the end quite uneventful. You could call it boring. After my tenth birthday this rapidly changed. Two great events would happen this year. One of them would change my life in ways I could never imagine.