Snapping Turtle [Naruto SI]

[Chairtastic]

Snapping Turtle
By Chairtastic.

A/N: Okay, so what I'm doing here is a bit of a shift in writing for me. One, because I haven't written Naruto fanfiction since I stopped super hardcore shipping back in my mid-teens. And two, because I'm writing an SI... where the perspective characters aren't the SI. I think I'll have to do a perspective of the SI, but hopefully not for a while. That way the readers can see and feel the reactions to the SI instead of it being exclusively a power trip.

Summary: Isobu the three-tailed turtle has been bonded to another host due to civil war. But the trouble with making a living weapon is that sometimes they can think. They can make decisions of their own. And they might be of the opinion that a leash can be pulled from either end.
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Ch 1: Seal of Hooks

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Fifteen years before Naruto.

Mother Jiang.

Akami had been afraid every afternoon that, when the children came back from the instruction at the academy, her boy wouldn't be one of them. With the civil war, none of the civilians knew when their children's class would be ordered to graduate and partake of the bloody ceremony. Had the Daimyo not commanded that all children in the village be sent to the academy to train, she would not have allowed her son to go.

He could hate her if he wanted, but he would be alive to hate her. Better an estranged child than a buried one, as her mother had told her when she did the same to Akami.

Akami cooked to distract herself from the worry and the war. She worked in a restaurant in the village, so her managers were appreciative of her dedication. The extra work, from when her son left in the morning, made them content to let her leave in the afternoon to be there when he got back.

She was a large woman, she'd gotten into cooking because she loved food, and anyone who ever had anything to say about it got punched square in the teeth. Her father had been a ninja, she knew how to throw a punch that would hurt. Her mother had said that, after the starvation that had hit Kiri during the First Shinobi World War, she thought it a blessing that she had a daughter who loved to eat to soothe her anxiety.

Kiri wouldn't go hungry during the civil war, she hoped. The loyalists still controlled the major ports and Kirigakure had priority on supplies. But any day, the battle could turn against them and their vast archipelago could shrink down to just the central islands, and food would grow scarce.

As if she didn't have enough to worry about, when she left the restaurant one day, she noticed that it had started to snow. A terrible omen, and she rushed home to put on a pot of tea. Alongside that, a quick meal of egg fried rice for both her and her son. She had the meal set out along with tea so that he would see it the moment he came back. Something set her hairs on end, like an instinctual warning, before she heard it.

The neighbor's children had come down the road home. And shortly thereafter she heard soul-crushing wails. Akami sat and watched the door as dread creeped into her veins. The screams grew more numerous as more children returned home and more… didn't. Akami's son was a bit silly, observant, but he talked back when insulted -- and had inherited his father's Wave Country temper. Anger got ninja killed.

A figure passed by the window, too tall to be her boy. Tears started to fill her eyes. Someone knocked at her door, too loud and deliberate to be her boy. Akami desperately tried to keep it together as she stood from the table and shuffled to the door. She knew what she was going to be told, but she couldn't shake the slim hope that it was something different.

A thousand possible scenarios played before her as she opened the door. Without the barrier, the wailing of mothers who mourned their children was even worse. In her doorway was one of the ninja instructors at the academy. Sojiro Hidaka, a tall and whip-thin man who wore all-grey except his black Kirigakure headband and a medical mask over his face.

She stood there for a second, afraid that she would break and begin to wail as other mothers did. She stood there while the ninja looked down his nose at her -- for all she knew, he smirked underneath that mask. Kiri ninja were vicious like that.

"Akami Jiang," the chunin started and folded his hands behind his back while he bowed.

Akami returned the gesture, and tried to remain dignified as she rose from it.

"It is with honor that I inform you that your son graduated from Kirigakure's ninja academy this morning. He will serve his country as a genin."

Relief was bitter as she heard dozens of mothers wail at children who didn't make it. She looked to the chunin's side, and didn't see her boy there. Something was wrong. "Where is he? Is he hurt? At the hospital?"

Sojiro sighed, as if exasperated, and explained. As his words hit her, it was like a knife drove into her heart. Her son was alive, but some part of her wished he wasn't. The chunin left, to go inform another family of their child's fate, and left Akami in the open doorway.

She didn't have the energy to join in the desperate wails of other mothers. Akami closed the door and shuffled to the couch. The food she made would go cold, as would the tea. But she didn't care at that moment. Akami sat with her head in her hands and wished she could cry. She had been almost there mere minutes prior, then it all went away when she heard what had become of her son.

She couldn't bring herself to cry for a demon.

--

Director Ruan.

Medical director Suzume Ruan checked all the injured patients from the latest graduation to make sure they were treated properly. She'd had the trainees do it, as she'd been required for the jinchuuriki procedure.

"Laceration from kunai," she impassively spoke as she examined the genin's back. "Stitches look good, sterilized properly, no bleeding. It'll scar, and you'll have something to brag about when the stitches come off." Suzume adjusted her half-moon glasses and nodded at the trainee who had done the work. To give the genin a bit of a boost about his recovery, she rustled his hair before she laid him back down to rest. Once they were out of earshot of the boy she turned to the trainee and tapped her in the chest. "That stitchwork was magnificent, especially for how little time you had to do it. If you want a hospital job, and not somewhere on the front lines, keep that up."

"Yes, director," the trainee responded, her sweat visible through the scrubs.

"Get cleaned up, you've more patients to look after." She didn't linger much on how she had lied to the trainee -- fast and effective stitchwork was a vital field resource, not a hospital one. But no one wanted to learn the field medic skills and risk their lives. Suzume returned to her office to begin filing the paperwork to bill the medical supplies to the budget committee.

On her desk were pictures of her and her family in happier times. A photo of Suzume and her sister, back when her hair was long and done in a braid, rock climbing. A photo of her fiancee and her on a date, back when Suzume's skin wasn't pale from being indoors. And a photo of Suzume asleep on the couch with her cats, when she didn't have massive bags under her eyes.

She worked in relative silence until her office phone rang. She had enough managerial staff on hand that she shouldn't have been contacted unless something had gone wrong. When she picked it up, she got informed of the specifics: "The jinchuuriki escaped."

Suzume's blood ran cold as she slammed the phone in its cradle and rushed out of the office. Doubtless the Anbu operatives assigned to watch the hospital were in pursuit, but if the seal they had bound the bijuu up in had faltered then there wasn't much that they could do besides bring her back a body.

But maybe the boy hadn't gone far, and she could bring him back.

When she got to the jinchuuriki's room, she found the chunin left to guard the boy bound to the wall by pink coral, and the restraints on his bed broken by the same substance. She refrained from chastising the pathetic ninja that had been bested by a freshly blooded genin, and asked them which way he'd went.

She didn't have to go far, just a couple floors down. In happier times, the hospital had a pool for physical therapy which had gone unused as no one could be spared to do the physical therapy exercises with the patients. Suzume saw the doorknob burst apart with fragments of coral in it, and looked inside.

The jinchuuriki was face-up in the water, fully dressed, floating with arms and legs wide. He wasn't just a genin, Suzume told herself. He was a jinchuuriki of a water bijuu. He had already used his powers long before they thought he would even be conscious. The wise thing to do would be to let Anbu sort it out, she hadn't been on a battlefield in years.

But, perhaps due to too many long shifts and too much ruthless calculus of war, she opened the door and stepped inside. The jinchuuriki turned to her, then looked back at the ceiling. A large boy, tall for his age, and chubby. His hair had to be shaved for the seal, but the hook-like tattoo almost resembled a curly hairstyle on its own.

"Noburu?" She cautiously spoke and approached the edge of the pool. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, you know." The boy responded as if he'd heard her perfectly despite his ears being submerged. "Vibing." He was so nonchalant, it was eerie.

"Vibing?"

Noburu sighed. "Doesn't matter. Isobu wanted to swim, found a pool and went swimming."

"Isobu?" She frowned as she walked the perimeter of the pool. She could tell by the shadows that deepened suddenly that the Anbu were on hand in case something happened.

"The Three Tails. His name is Isobu. He likes to swim." Noburu closed his eyes and floated in silence for a while. "You're still here."

"I need you to go back to your room, Noboru." Suzume didn't want to provoke the jinchuuriki so close to the water, but she couldn't leave the Anbu to sort it out and potentially sour the jinchuruki's attitude toward the village more than it had already.

"And I'll return… when Isobu is satisfied." The boy moved to float upright in the water, and his eyes met hers in an intense stare. "We both want Isobu to be satisfied, content, not at all prone to push against this prototype seal none of you knows the exact strength of, right?"

Shit, Suzume thought to herself. "You… were awake for that, were you?"

"Anesthesia affects everyone differently. Takes a bit longer to kick in for me, my dad was the same way."

"The seal… we expected the demon to fight back. It would be caught like a fish on a hook." She didn't know why she felt the need to explain herself to a child, but the boy's intense stare made her feel like she was being scolded by a superior.

"Spirit," he responded. "Isobu is a spirit. But yeah, the whole fish hook design element, I got that. But I'm not willing to risk my life to stress test the damn thing, so I'm keeping Isobu happy and unhooked." The genin swam around the pool aimlessly for a moment before he turned to her again. "Isobu says the next time you seal him in an urn, just fill it with water and this won't be necessary for future jinchuuriki."

"O-oh. I'll… pass that along to the Mizukage."

"Cool. Now I'm going to keep this up for a while. You probably have work to go do. Bye." Noburu dove under the water and swam submerged.

Suzume glanced at the deepest shadows, where she knew the Anbu watched, and walked out of the pool. The jinchuuriki was watched. He wasn't being confrontational. And if either of those changed, she could trust the Anbu to sort it out without killing him. However she still would have to get those chunin off her wall, and repair the coral damage the boy had done.

The impulse to get the jinchuuriki to kill her to avoid paperwork was tough to shake off.

--

Mother Jiang.

Akami had a friend, Arata Chow. Arata was of mixed descent, like her Noburu, so she looked to him for insight on how to make her son's life easier in Kirigakure. They were both of the foot caste, so there was no pressure to help but Arata did anyway. In return, Akami helped him when his wife took ill -- and looked after Arata's daughter when they had to go to the hospital. Arata's wife was vain, and became nasty as she grew sick, so Akami became a person he could vent to when times were tough.

It hurt her like a knife to the heart when she found out her Noboru had killed Arata's Yuuko to graduate from the academy. A darling little girl who loved to chase and collect bugs, gone so her son could live. Only for that life to be ruined, and the sacrifice to be meaningless.

She expected Arata would hate her, but she wasn't a coward. She made a trip to the bank, and obtained some ryo to give as condolence money. Akami was ready to be screamed at, or attacked, because of the circumstance. But she would do Yuuko's memory right and observe tradition.

She ran into Arata on the way back from the bank. Where once he had been a short but lively man, he seemed empty when Akami saw him. His tanned skin pale, and his eyes red. When Arata saw her he scowled with terrible hatred, and Akami couldn't say it was undeserved. Her son had lived, as a demon, and Arata's daughter was gone.
Akami stood still as the short man stormed over to her and began to shout. Even crazed with grief, he wouldn't throw a punch -- though Akami would have let it slide.

"You have some nerve showing your face!" Arata shouted, his voice slightly hoarse. "I trusted you and your brat! I invited you into my home! I let my daughter stay with you! And your son put a knife in her neck!"

"Yes," Akami responded, and averted her eyes.

"Look at me. Look at me!" When Akami returned her gaze, Arata was despondent. "You told me our kids would look out for each other in the academy! They'd be on a team, and serve together! And…." Arata clenched his fists and beat them against his head. "He killed her! He killed her because she wouldn't fight back, I know it! My sweet girl…."

Would Akami do the same if the situation had reversed? If Yuuko had lived, to become the jinchuuriki, and Noburu had died? She didn't know. She tried to think of what she would say to herself in that situation to make it feel better. But there were no words.

"Say something!"

Akami was quiet a moment longer before she spoke. "I'm sorry. She didn't deserve this."

Arata didn't explode like how she thought she would. Instead, he began to shake his head. "No. No you're not." His face became a vicious snarl. "You're not sorry. Not yet! You'll be sorry alright, but not yet!" He turned in the opposite way he'd come, and shouted over his shoulder. "I'll make you sorry!"

That night, Akami didn't sleep. She stayed up with a sharp kitchen knife in her hand, and kept an ear out for any suspicious noises.

--

Third Mizukage.

Kirigakure heavily featured cylindrical buildings, often with small parks planted on their roofs. There was little adornment for the buildings, or artistic inclination -- only their pragmatic value was considered. Painted walls, murals, any covering for the concrete was considered unnecessary. Even the rooftop parks had begun as a source of food for the landlord's family.

The Mizukage Tower was not as tall as some of those buildings, but it was heavily fortified and the park within its roof was closest to being a forest in its own right. Fruiting trees and bushes were grown, and some wild animals kept for the pleasure of the hunt. A controlled ecosystem, as the First Mizukage had envisioned the village itself.

Sadly, that had not been the prevailing line of thought for the Second or Third Mizukages. While the Second had treated his ninja like family, the Third was markedly more distant.

The Third, Ryukotsusei, was a man without illusions. Haggard and old, he had been the longest leader of the Hidden Mist in its history. He looked out from his office window at the park within the Tower and saw a giant spike-backed turtle emerge from the park's pond to snatch a deer by the neck. Nutrition and value had to be extracted from the weak to benefit the strong. That was just how things worked.

His reflection in the window was of a old man who seemed to have never visited a barber. His hair was long and spiked at the ends from lack of care. His eyes were deadened, and his face was lined with stress wrinkles. As years had passed, he wore the kage robes and hat more than his preferred fashion, until the kage robes and hat became his preferred fashion. A blue robe with a long white coat and a blue wide-brimmed hat with a neck covering -- inscribed with the symbol for water.

Ryukotsusei waited and watched as the water in the pond grew bloody from the spike-backed turtle's meal. A meeting of the war council had been called, but the other members were not so fast as an elderly man with bad hips, it seemed.

Finally, a knock at his door. "Enter," he instructed it and turned away from the scene below.

The first person to cross the threshold was the medical director, Suzume Ruan. She was the one who would have the most to say about the progress they'd made. Ryukotsusei didn't appreciate how she never wore her forehead protector or flak jacket, even to official meetings, anymore -- it made it more apparent that she never expected to see the field again -- which would cause political problems.

Second came Fu Sun, a retired kunoichi who had been appointed to administer the military intelligence and counterintelligence of Kirigakure. Fu was ann elderly woman, her hair once a vibrant color but faded to grey, dressed as a civilian but with a sizable scroll across her shoulders. She sat down on one of the two couches which faced each other in front of the Kage's table, and Ryukotsusei didn't make a fuss about that. She was older than him, and already his hips told him he'd been standing too long.

Third came Raiga Kurosuki of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. A tall man, dark skinned and with long green hair, he was the only one of the war council who was not of the eyes caste, merely a hand caste jounin. Raiga, to Ryukotsusei's shame, bore the Kiba branched twin swords -- imbued with lightning to cut deeper than any mundane blade. Raiga's possession of the blades broke the unstained tradition that only the eyes caste were qualified to be in the Seven Swordsmen. A part of the Mizukage hated him for that. Raiga commanded the portion of Kiri's armed forces meant to guard the village itself from rebels.

Fourth and last was the daimyo's man, Takashi Zhang, from the capital. An overdressed fop by the standards of Kirigakure, the bespectacled man had a pinched face and fanned himself tirelessly while he walked in. Zhang was the daimyo's representative, and provided the village its funds and supplies to wage war in the daimyo's name. The man closed the door behind him, and flounced onto the couch opposite Fu.

Suzume and Raiga seated themselves, and the meeting was underway.

"The three-tailed demon turtle is sealed," Ryukotsusei announced and seated himself at his desk. "One of the foot caste genin was deemed a suitable match and the ritual was completed yesterday. Director Ruan will fill us in on the details."

All eyes went to Suzume, who wilted a bit under the gaze. "The genin we selected, one Noburu Jiang -- "

"Pfa," Takashi interrupted with a cruel smile. "You allowed the jinchuuriki to keep its name? It will not live long -- give it a number or something."

Ryukotsusei couldn't say that was a poor plan. The three-tailed demon was more straightforward in its powerset than the six-tailed demon. Not less useful, but more easily used. Once a host was damaged irreparably, they could extract it and seal it into a new host within a couple of days.

Suzume frowned. "The genin we selected has already shown the ability to use the three-tails' coral generation powers. He broke free of his restraints, and defeated two chunin with relative ease. They are alive, without injuries."

"Hmm," said the Mizukage with concern. The jinchuuriki should have killed them. "I was told the jinchuuriki would be maddened with the pain of the three-tails from the seal we placed on it. Is the feedback not sufficient?"

"I expect it is sufficient, only… we misread the three-tails' personality." Suzume pushed her glasses up and avoided the Mizukage's gaze. "The three-tails isn't trying to escape. If it doesn't try to escape, the seal of hooks doesn't lock in around it to cause it pain and keep it confined."

Takashi scoffed. "What? Preposterous. Every time the tailed demons have had a chance to escape, they took it. They're destructive beasts, they want to be free to destroy."

"Apparently you're wrong, lord secretary," Raiga smoothly cut in. The Swordsman smirked at the civilian official before he returned to professional indifference. "Making assumptions like that could cost us the war, you know. Your stance on jinchuuriki aside, we could lose this one if we send it against Kousuke recklessly."

Fu sighed and leaned on the arm of her couch. "We cannot afford to waste time either. He's graduated from the academy?" She looked around at Ryukotsusei and then Suzume, then nodded herself. "Very good. Get him assigned to a squad, and send him to war. I'll make sure Kousuke has too much on his plate to make an appearance on the front lines."

"I say we need to keep the jinchuuriki here," Raiga said with a cold look. "With the jinchuuriki in the home guard, we can free up potentially dozens of ninja to reinforce the front lines and start pushing back. The shinobi in the home guard are tacticians, experienced soldiers, and not liable to have the rebel leader meet them in a head to head fight."

Ryukotsusei tapped his fingers to the desk. "But having the jinchuuriki on the front lines could be useful for luring Kousuke into a trap. He lost how many men in the raid on the three-tailed demon's shrine?" The Mizukage smirked at the memory. As if they would leave the bijuu in its temple after the six-tails' jinchuuriki rebelled. "What is the jinchuuriki's temperament?"

Suzume cleared her throat. "Accommodating. He only broke free and attacked his guards because he wanted to keep the three-tails calm. His academy marks that, aside from some back talk, he was a competent trainee. Though we have yet to see the impact of the graduation ritual on him."

"Hmm." Ryukotsusei rested his chin on his steepled hands. "I thought assigning him to face his childhood friend would burn that defiant streak out of him. We'll have to work harder on that." After Kousuke's rebellion, it was not in the village's interests to suffer a defiant jinchuuriki, nor would the daimyo allow it.

"Every minute that the creature is not on the front lines killing rebels, more loyal Water Country men die," Takashi said softly with a scowl. His fanning speed slowed considerably. "The daimyo will not approve any plan that doesn't see the creature being put to use."

There was quiet as everyone looked to Ryukotsusei and he, in turn, contemplated. "We will not risk Kousuke stealing our remaining jinchuuriki," the Mizukage declared. "He will stay in the home guard, under Raiga's command, while Fu and I move the front lines around so that Kousuke can be trapped with his fellow jinchuuriki as bait. We have a soldier who can think, instead of a mad dog on a leash -- we can't just throw him at the enemy as was the original plan." The last was said to the daimyo's man with narrowed eyes. The Mizukage's gaze shifted to Raiga. "Get the creature to the point where it can kill jounin regularly."

"Of course," Raiga said and bowed his head.

"Killing Kousuke in an ambush would certainly cement our position relative to the warrior monks," Fu commented. "Can't say I like it more than the increased revenue we'd get from having an active jinchuuriki on the field, though."

"Neither will the daimyo." Takashi fanned himself speedily. "He will be positively furious if we lose Nagi and Ouza on top of the southern islands."

"The daimyo will have his islands back by the end of this conflict," Ryukotsusei assuaged the man. "Before the year's end, perhaps. They won't even have time to print any 'Sea Country' ryo."

--

Jounin Kurosuki.

Raiga made his way to the hospital once the official orders were drawn up to get the jinchuuriki and begin training. From the picture in his file, the kid -- Noburu -- would need to lose some weight. A diet and Kirigakure exercise would see to that. Funerals and wakes would be announced for the children too weak to be genin, Raiga planned to make sure Noburu attended the one for the girl he'd killed.

He'd get to see if the kid was truly sorry.

The Anbu assigned to watch the jinchuuriki hid in the points of deepest shadows on the approach to his room. Too many good shinobi wasted on guard duty, in Raiga's opinion. The jinchuuriki's door was partially overgrown with coral, just enough to block the door from opening. With exactly zero regard, Raiga stepped back and kicked the door down with all his weight.

"Now listen up!" He shouted while he crossed the threshold. He pointed at the bald jinchuuriki on the bed, messing with coral, and assumed an authoritative tone. "You've been assigned to the home guard, specifically to my squad! I will function as your sensei, and get you into fighting shape if I have to beat you to death to do it! Am I understood?"

The jinchuuriki met his eyes and continued to mess with coral in his hands. "Great," the pre-teen drawled. "I'm going to learn from a filler villain. A filler villain with personal issues sixteen miles wide, no less." The boy sighed, long-suffering. "Going to have to break out the therapist chair for this, methinks."

Filler villain? What? Raiga hadn't expected that, and he visibly struggled to process it. "Genin, I am your sensei -- and you will do as I say!"

Noburu held up a finger. "That didn't work for Dr. Gero, that's not going to work for you. Also, to quote Tywin Lannister, anyone who has to say 'I am the king' is no true king. Power is shown, not talked about."

Raiga decided he was going to go super hard on the jinchuuriki's training right then and there. He'd never even heard of Dr. Gero or Tywin Lannister -- perhaps they were characters from a book?

"Plus, I'm a conscript. You volunteered to become a ninja, not me. I'm not going to be enthusiastic about this, nor particularly patriotic. You had to know this was likely to happen when you decided to make the jinchuuriki from the foot caste." Noburu shrugged, then messed with his coral some more. Where before it had been a lump, he made it grow into a sharp spike. "I'm trying to make a sort of coral trap," he commented when he saw Raiga's interest. "Eventually I'm going to try and make coral caltrops, but these bigger spike balls should work on enemy summons. Stuff to throw into their mouths, or fleshy joints."

Raiga blinked at the tactical thought he'd just heard from the genin. It was a good start -- not good enough to avoid a proper beasting, but still. "You're able to make the coral grow on your own? Previous jinchuuriki needed to channel the beast's chakra to do so."

"I am channeling Isobu's chakra, though. His chakra mingles with mine. A side effect of the seal of hooks." He tapped the back of his head. "I'm pretty certain I can do that 'eyes of the bijuu' trick on command." He screwed up his eyes and then opened them -- shining yellow where before they had been dull brown. "Intimidation factor."

When Raiga looked at those eyes, he felt small. He felt like an ant must have felt to be the sole focus of a human. He didn't like the feeling -- it prompted him to respond with anger. "Knock it off!" Raiga walked forward and grabbed the genin by the back of his shirt. "We got a lot of work ahead of us! You need to become a ninja worth all this investment, and get rid of this," he growled as he poked the genin's chubby gut. "It's time to get down to business!"

"To defeat," the genin deliberately paused and spoke with a musical inflection, "the Huns?"

Raiga slapped him.

---

Cast:

Mizukage Ryukotsusei: The Third Mizukage, formerly an attendant of the First Mizukage, and a team member of the Second. A pragmatist at heart, and a fan of brutalist architecture. With him as the Mizukage, Water Country repeatedly expanded to include dozens of formerly independent island nations. Not a nice man. Eyes caste.
Director Suzume Ruan: A jounin medical ninja and contemporary of Tsunade. One of twelve sealing experts who helped to develop the Seal of Hooks version one, which was hoped would become the standard for all jinchuuriki seals. A bit of a coward. Eyes caste.
Akami Jiang: A line cook for Chu's Place, a restaurant in Kirigakure. She's a single mother due to her son's father being a deadbeat who vanished in what would become Sea Country. Foot cast.
Noburu Jiang: Conscripted into Kirigakure's armed forces due to the civil war, and made a jinchuuriki for Isobu the Three Tailed Turtle. He's known to talk back, and has always been slightly off -- but did excellently in school. Foot caste.
Yuuko Chow: A neighbor and former friend of Noburu's, conscripted into Kirigakure's armed forces. She was a diligent and loyal student, and was known as a teacher's pet. She was assigned to fight Noburu to the death, where she lost. Foot caste, deceased.
Kousuke: The rebellious host of Saiken, the Six Tailed Slug, a warrior monk from the Water Temple. He has raised an army in revolt against the daimyo of Water Country, and freed some of the conquered countries. No caste.
Raiga Kurosuki: One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, a jounin of Kirigakure. Head of the home guard, he is responsible for the safety of Water Country's home islands and the ninja village itself. Desperately lonely. Hand caste.

Glossary:

Eyes caste: The topmost caste of Kirigakure and Water Country, formed of the inhabitants of the original archipelago. Even the lowest of the eyes caste is higher than the next highest caste.
Hand caste: The middle caste of Kirigakure and Water Country. Made up of the allies of Kiri that bowed to the water daimyo's authority and helped conquer other nations.
Foot caste: The lowest caste of Kirigakure and Water Country. Made up of people who were conquered during the wars of expansion. They are given the riskiest jobs and the least amount of trust.
Seal of Hooks: A sealing jutsu meant to give the sealed target a false path to escape, which hooks them as they attempt to make use of it and causes terrible pain. The nervous and chakra systems of the sealed target and host are more strongly connected, with the pain from the sealed target meant to drive the host insane.

Politics!:

Kousuke, a warrior monk from the Water Temple and the jinchuuriki of Saiken, has risen in revolt against the Water Country daimyo. This is but one theatre of the crumbling of colonial power which is affecting all five of the Great Shinobi Countries in the leadup to the Third Shinobi World War. So far he has secured the freedom of the Moon and Sea Countries, and has begun to move closer to Water Country itself. Due to the split in Kiri's forces from the civil war, a draft of the country's foot caste children is ordered, and the creation of a new jinchuuriki of Isobu becomes necessary.

 

[Chairtastic]

Chapter 2: Gut Punch

---

Jounin Kurosuki.

Raiga watched from the wall as the jinchuriki was forced to run laps with the other genin assigned to the home guard. They, however, had the benefit of food and water prior to their exercise. With arms crossed, Raiga walked the length of Kirigakure's wall as the jinchuriki ran. Slowly, to his annoyance. He'd have to have the brat do hand-to-hand combat practice to burn some of that fat. The snow would help work on temperature tolerance, at least.

"Commander," one of the Mizukage's many secretaries said as she advanced with an eerie smile. All the Mizukage's secretaries dressed the same -- billowy pants and a long tunic with sleeves as wide as any kimono, but in a radically different style. One of the conquered nations had that fashion style, Raiga recalled. The secretary bowed to him and offered a scroll. "The Mizukage has ordered additions to your squad with the jinchuuriki. Please find details enclosed within."

"Thank you, Heylin," Raiga responded and bowed to her in turn as he took the scroll. Most Kiri ninja wouldn't offer respect to a secretary. Most Kiri ninja wouldn't realize how valuable knowing the Mizukage's mood prior to a meeting would be. Raiga showed respect, and was shown respect. After Heylin had departed, Raiga cracked open the scroll to review its contents while he caught up to the jinchuriki. "Sayaka Kanzaki," he muttered as he read the first member of his team.

A war-promoted chunin, Sayaka was of the hand caste as Raiga was. She was dark skinned, as he was, and had similar lips. Perhaps their ancestors had come from the same country. However she shaved her head, per her photo, and had slightly different features. Older than the jinchuuriki by a few years, it seemed the Mizukage intended her to be Raiga's second in command. She wore her forehead protector in its bandana configuration, and dressed in the chunin-level flak jacket over earth-toned trousers and a jacket covered in an excessive amount of pockets.

"Trap specialist, likely to be someone in on the plan for Kousuke," Raiga muttered and nodded his approval. He checked on his new student. The jinchuuriki had stopped to catch his breath, but returned to run when he caught Raiga's glare. With that sorted, Raiga checked on the second member of the team. "Haruki Fujimoto? A kekkai genkai user?" The jounin paused to make sure he'd read that correctly.

Haruki was one of the eyes caste graduates, who weren't obligated to take part in the brutal kill or be killed graduation ceremony. Only hand and foot caste were required to bloody themselves to prove their worth. The boy was in the midst of puberty, and at the time of his photo had just begun to grow his first mustache. Dark-skinned like Sayaka and Raiga, with dark green eyes indicative of his clan. He too had shaved his head, and he had no flak jacket but was dressed in immaculate high-born clothes in his photo. A ninjutsu specialist, from his file. "Boil release will be useful, particularly if he has mastered the acidic jutsu. Odd that an eyes caste is being given to a hands caste like me, though." Once more Raiga glanced at the jinchuuriki. "Boiling works on lobsters and crabs… will it work on turtles, though?"

--

Mother Jiang.

Her son came home two days after she'd been told what they did to him. They'd shaved his head, he covered it with his forehead protector as a bandana. She caught a glimpse of his head underneath and saw an intricate tattoo which had many jagged hooks in its design surrounding a turtle-like shape. They'd sealed the three-tailed demon into her son.

He'd returned dirty, probably from training, and looked like he was about to fall over. But once he'd sat down at the table, he began to improve.

"If you don't want me in your house anymore," her boy told her out of the blue as she'd begun to make tea, "just say so. I can move to the barracks. You'll never hear from me again."

Akami almost dropped the kettle, she was so shocked. "Wh-wha…? What?" She turned to look at her son with shock, but found she couldn't look at his face.

He'd taken his headband off and the tattoo of the demon's seal was obvious. "This isn't going to go away." Noburu steepled his fingers and watched her. "You're not comfortable with me here, and if I stay I'm afraid that will turn into resentment."

She'd tried to hide it. How instinctively she'd gone to hug the boy when he arrived, but recoiled when she noticed the forehead protector. The one he'd killed Yuukio for. She'd tried to hide how she yanked her hand back when he tried to touch her by seeing things which needed doing. She tried to hide how she tried to keep her back to him as often as possible with busy work. It hadn't worked.

"I'm not going to stay here if it means you grow to hate me." Noburu met her eyes with an intense stare, his 'serious business' look which had been so cute when he was younger. "More than you do already."

"I don't -- " She choked when his intense look didn't abate. He didn't believe her. He believed his mother hated him. She never regretted choosing to stay in Kiri than in that moment. "I… don't understand. How much of you is… you? How much is the demon -- "

"Spirit," he cut her off with a raised finger. "He is a spirit. I have to be firm on that."

Akami knew then that at least some of her son remained. Only he could talk back with that tone. That brought a small smile to her face, but it lasted only a moment. "Noburu, you killed Yuukio."

"I did." He didn't look terribly upset with it, but he took his eyes off her and focused on one of his hands. The hand that did it. "It was either her, me, or neither. Either one died, or both. I wanted to live." His hands shook, and he clenched them into fists. "And then it was all wasted, because they wanted a jinchuuriki."

Akami could tell right away that her boy needed his mother to help him at that moment. A hug, something to help let the pain out. She knew it, her instincts told her. But she couldn't bring herself to approach Noburu in that way. There was a demon inside him, and he'd killed Yuukio because she wouldn't fight back.

"I don't suppose you know how odd it feels," Noburu started conversationally. "To be in that sort of situation and realize 'I want to live'." He met her eyes and shrugged. "I was surprised. I thought I'd let her do me in, and hope I wound up somewhere better in my next life."

It was like the ground fell out from under her as she heard and saw her son, her only son, tell her that. That, more than any of the terrible things in the past two days, drove Akami to sit down and feel how awful things were. Her son, not even a man, wanted to die. Where had she gone wrong?

"I knew that they would have us kill each other. But I expected it to be random. Instead, they watched us and paired us up against… well, you can figure it out." He looked at Akami, up and down, then nodded resolutely. "I'll pack my things and go. Shouldn't take long." He stood and walked out of the kitchen at a brisk pace.

She knew that if she didn't fight for her son at that moment, she'd lose him forever. But her muscles wouldn't move. It was like something kept her paralyzed. She remembered the times she would teach Noburu and Yuukio how to cook something, or how to prepare an ingredient. Those memories would always be a little bitter, but if she could not lose her son too they could at least be bittersweet.

With a titanic effort of willpower, Akami rose to her feet and shakily walked down the hall to her son's room. The door was closed, she slowly raised her hand to knock. A powerful impulse to just abandon this and go back to her seat hit her, but she fought it off. Twice she knocked.

"...Come in," her son said, defeated. He didn't turn to face her when she opened the door, or stepped inside. "Got a sharp knife? It'll have to be to kill me before Isobu's healing kicks in."

She didn't say anything. She didn't stop to think about how much it hurt to hear her son consider his murder like that. She didn't stop to think about the sudden impulse to just slam the door. Akami forced herself to take one step, then another, then a third, and spread her arms to envelop her son in a hug. It wasn't as tight as her hugs usually were, but it was better than refusing contact.

"You're my son," she said to convince herself just as much as Noburu. "And this is your home. Please don't leave."

--

Third Mizukage.

Ryukotsusei frowned at the two chunin who kneeled before his desk. "She's a civilian. Your genjutsu is so weak that it cannot compel a civilian to obey?" He leaned back in his chair and pinched his nose. "You young people…."

The two chunin flinched at the Mizukage's tone. "L-lord Third, please, let us try again! We know the issues know, we can use stronger genjutsu!"

"Yes, Lord Third, we won't fail you a second time!"

"No," Ryukoutsusei said with a small flicker of killing intent, "I don't think you will." He opened a drawer and took a sheet of paper out. A few minutes of writing later, he stamped the form with the official seal of his office. "A battalion of reinforcements is being prepared to go to Ouza, to Inaho village. You two will join it, and serve Water Country well."

Like base cowards, the two pleaded for mercy. They beat their heads against the floor to plead against what, to them, was a death sentence.

"Compared to how I was in my prime," the Mizukage softly responded, "this is mercy. Live through to the rebellion's end, and your mistakes will be forgiven and you will be rewarded as any loyal shinobi of Kiri should be. Continue to ruin my carpets, and I will send you to the front as rations. Out."

While the two left, one so weak that he could not help but sob, Ryukotsusei reflected. In the past, the standard operating procedure had been to isolate the jinchuuriki and to make them see the village's ninja population as their family. Useful for loyalty, and to ensure the beast was combat ready. None of the previous jinchuurikis' parents had put up so much of a fight as Akami Jiang had to keep her son.

"Having someone to fight for might be an effective leash," the Mizukage mused. He stopped to consider ways he could make use of such a leash, and a wicked grin spread across his face. "Well, my predecessor did advise me to keep our jinchuuriki close to the Kage's household…."

--

Chunin Kanzaki

Sayaka had been positively bouncy when she learned the Mizukage had assigned her to the squad of one of the Seven Swordsman, and ecstatic for it to be Raiga Kurosuki. The first hand caste to enter the Seven Swordsmen ever and she would learn from him! When she worked at the gym after the news had been delivered, it was such energy that the staff thought she would tear a ligament.

But she couldn't be happier -- sure, she had to work with two fresh genin, but she'd only graduated the year prior. They'd either get kicked out of the home guard, or wisen up to the standards they were expected to meet.

Sayaka shouldered the heavy jacket with her trap supplies and weapons with pride, and ensured she had her best scrolls in her flak jacket before she went off to meet her new sensei and teammates. More than once, she stopped to do a dance in place when she remembered -- her sensei was one of the Seven Swordsmen.

Her sensei had set the place of their first meeting to be in his office in the home guard tower, at the western wall of Kirigakure. It was constructed in the style of the Mizukage Tower, but of a smaller scale, and rested partially on the exterior curtain wall, and the district wall which ran all the way to the Mizukage Tower at the center of the village. With practiced authority she had used to address clients, Sayaka made her way through checkpoints to the commander's office.

To her surprise, it was not some posh suite on the top floor. It was a room with a small desk at one end, and several medical tables on the other. One wall was covered, floor to ceiling, in sealed hatches. A morgue.

A hook-nosed boy in clothes way too nice to wear on a battlefield leaned on the desk and tapped his foot. No flak jacket, just a forehead protector in the same style as Sayaka's. The boy glanced at her, and sniffed in disdain. "Finally, a servant. Fetch the commander -- he's late for our meeting."

Sayaka's gaze hardened, and her grip on the doorknob tightened. "You must have me mistaken, sir. I'm part of the commander's squad." Without pause, she stepped into the morgue and closed the door behind her.

The boy looked surprised, then insulted. "You? You cannot be on the commander's squad -- you're hand caste."

"The commander is hand caste as well, you know."

"An insult my family will remember," the boy tilted his head back snootily. "On top of my assignment here. But to be on the same squad as a hands caste genin? The height of disrespect!"

Sayaka could clearly tell the boy was of the eyes caste, just from how he acted before she'd spoken. She couldn't help but smile, she'd be sparing with an eyes caste lout -- and from his scrawny arms he couldn't lift half of what she could. Maybe she'd knock some of his teeth loose. "I'm a chunin," she said softly, ready to grin as the entitled brat's world collapsed.

"A chunin?" He seemed flummoxed by that. "But that… oh, does that mean the other genin is also eyes caste?" The boy crossed his arms and sighed. "That would be bearable, at least. I wouldn't be alone in this vile insult on my family's honor."

Sayaka glanced at the clock mounted on the wall, and arched her brow. "You said Raiga-sensei is late, but we're both early."

"Hmph. I wouldn't expect you to understand." The boy turned his nose up again. "Word should have spread that a member of the Fujimoto family had entered the tower, and the commander should have come to greet me."

Fujimoto, huh? Sayaka thought to herself. That narrowed down who she spoke to, then. "Then you must be Haruki -- the ninjutsu specialist."

"Finally you know who I am." Haruki rolled his eyes. "I'd been speaking to you for minutes and it still didn't click, hmm?"

I am going directly for those teeth the first time we spar, she promised herself. Might throw in an arm, free of charge.

"Then you would know if the other genin is eye caste from his name, wouldn't you?"

Haruki shook his head. "I told the servants to tell me my sensei, and where we would meet. Nothing else seemed important." He pinched his nose. "A mistake, in hindsight."

The door to the morgue opened, and the imposing figure of Raiga Kurosuki stepped in. He dragged what Sayaka thought was a cadaver behind him, until it coughed, and threw the boy on one of the tables. "You two are early. Good."

Sayaka tried to keep the starstruck look off her face -- it was unprofessional -- but that was one of the Seven Swordsmen! Eee! She snapped to attention and took her eyes off him to better keep her professional air about her. "Chunin Kanzaki, reporting as ordered, commander."

"You've come to a meeting with your team dressed as a walking armory," Raiga observed, sardonic, and closed the door behind him.

"Better to have it and not need it, Raiga-sensei."

"I… guess." Raiga turned to Haruki with a dark look, then jerked his thumb at the coughing boy on the medical table. "He's excused from standing on account of broken legs. Unless you also want that excuse, at attention."

Haruki likely glared -- Sayaka didn't turn to look -- but she felt him stand at attention next to her a moment later. In Kiri, senseis could do with their students what they wished.

"I'm your jounin sensei, Raiga Kurosuki." The Seven Swordsmen introduced himself with crossed arms. Those words made Sayaka feel light-headed. "Kanzaki, keep that doe-eyed look off your face if you want me to show you any respect going forward."

Sayaka steeled her features, desperate to not earn her teacher's ill will. "Apologies, Raiga-sensei."

"On the slab here," Raiga jerked his thumb in the kid's direction again. "Is your other teammate, Noburu Jiang. Since he's not a specialist like you two are, I have him on an intense training routine. I do not tolerate half-measures, I will not reward indecisiveness. Either you're worth my time or you're not. Understood?"

"I… cannot possibly have heard you correctly," Haruki said, more deeply insulted than Sayaka had ever heard him. "Did you say Jiang? A foot caste?!"

Noburu, from the table, raised his arm with his middle finger extended.

"Are you making a rude gesture in my presence, genin?" Raiga snapped without turning to look. His glare was focused on Haruki.

"No sir," Noburu rasped. "I'm asking him how many fingers am I holding up. He doesn't seem bright."

Raiga was quiet while he glared at Haruki. "Well?" He said at last. "How many fingers do you see?"

"I am of the eyes caste -- I cannot be on the same team as a foot caste thrall," Haruki stammered, a little afraid of Raiga's intense glare.

Sayaka wished more than ever that she could eat popcorn and watch this from afar.

"O-one, Raiga-sensei," Haruki eventually answered.

Noburu shifted to a thumbs-up and dropped his arm.

Raiga closed his eyes and sighed. "The time is racing toward us when the rebels arrive."

"Heed his ev'ry order," Noburu musically rasped. "And you might… survive!"

Raiga's expression shifted to apocalyptic fury for a split-second, and his hand drifted to the handle of one of the Kiba swords. But a moment later, Raiga collected his thoughts and was at peace. "As… infuriating as that is, he's right. You do as you are told, you learn as I teach, and you will come out of this war alive."

"Some restrictions may apply."

In a blur of motion, Raiga had one of the Kiba swords drawn and loomed over Noburu with it primed to stab. "I swear to the spirits, if you do that again today, I will puncture your lung!" When Noburu didn't push further, Raiga backed off and sheathed his branched sword. The jounin took a second to fix his flowing hair, then addressed the team. "Tomorrow, we go to Fujioka Castle. We're going to be reconstructing it, and examining the damage the rebels did to understand their tactics. We'll be gone a couple weeks, pack accordingly. Fujioka is a ruin now, so expect to be camping for at least a while. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Raiga-sensei," Sayaka said promptly, unsettled a bit after that display.

"...Yes… Raiga-sensei," Haruki said, just as unsettled.

Raiga turned to glare at Noburu.

In defiance of how long Sayaka knew broken legs took to heal, Noburu kicked his feet up and swung off the medical table to stand. "Yes, Raiga-sensei." Where Sayaka and Haruki were unsettled by the Swordsman's stunt, Noburu seemed amused.

There was something profoundly disturbing in how Noburu's bright yellow eyes caught the light. It seemed almost reptilian. Creepy.

---

Cast:

Sayaka Kanzaki: A chunin of the Hidden Mist. She graduated one year ago, and was given a field promotion due to how successful her traps did against enemy forces. A teenager, she still has some growing to do even though she likes to act like a grown-up. Frequently carries enough weapons and trapping material to supply an entire squad. Hands caste.
Haruki Fujimoto: A member of the Fujimoto clan, noted for their Boil Release kekkei genkai which combines fire and water chakra together. A genin who did not need to participate in the brutal graduation ceremony due to his caste, he thinks highly of himself and needs a dose of humble pie. A ninjutsu specialist. Eyes caste.

 

[Chairtastic]

Ch 3: On the Road

---

Chunin Kanzaki.

"What if Raiga-sensei thinks it's presumptuous?" Sayaka asked her mother as she adjusted the sash her sword was attached to. She'd had the sword for ages by that point, and she knew some of the training exercises from books -- but it would be different, to learn from one of the Seven.

"Then you don't wear it until he tells you." Sayaka's mother was older, taller, and had adapted to her prosthetic arm well. Formerly a chunin herself -- Sayaka's mother had been forced to retire on account of her loss. The Mizukage had allowed her to keep her forehead protector and granted access to regular visits to the ninja hospital on account of her service. To be wounded in the fight against the rebel leader -- when few survived -- was a great honor. She sat on Sayaka's bed as Sayaka viewed herself in the mirror, and drew her sword to test how it worked with her heavy coat.

"Yeah, but...."

"You won't know until you give him a chance to tell you what he wants." Sayaka's mother stood and embraced her daughter across the shoulders with her good arm. "You're a chunin already -- it won't be long until you make jounin too. Make a decision and stick with it, as the genin will look to you for guidance."

Sayaka sighed. "Yeah. Raiga-sensei said he won't respect indecisiveness." She looked at herself and broke away from her mother suddenly. She quickly shed her flak and cargo jackets and adjusted the sword to be more flush against her back. "Right, with the way my coat is set up I should have the ninjato underneath the coat to hide it -- so I can take enemies by surprise." While she put her jackets back on, Sayaka saw a smile on her mother's face. Approval. She'd seen her mother proud, but not often with approval mixed in. As a trap specialist, she'd struggled to earn her mother's -- ninjutsu heavy -- professional respect.

"Having surprises can save your life," her mother said and tapped her prosthetic arm.

On the walk to the Southern Gate, with her bag across her back, Sayaka contemplated how the mission would go. Would there be rebel remnants so close to Kirigakure after their failed attempt to capture the three-tailed demon? How long would it take to repair the damage to Fujioka Castle, and why did they need it rebuilt? The Fujioka family had been extinct for decades -- they had guarded the three-tails against the First Hokage, who killed them all to enslave the creature and sell it back to Kiri. The castle had been made a fortress to guard the three-tails between its deployments in a host body.

Protecting a demon, Sayaka thought with contempt. Idiots had it coming.

As she advanced to the gate, she saw a crowd of people dressed for a funeral. It didn't take long to figure out why -- the class Noburu had come from just went through their graduation test a couple days prior. To her surprise, she saw Raiga and Noburu among them -- not dressed appropriately at all.

Last time she had seen Noburu, he'd been in hospital garb. But now she saw him in strange dairy-cow patterned cold-weather sandal/legwarmers, baggy pants, a dark shirt and jacket combo with a dairy-cow patterned scarf. The darkness of the jacket hid several pockets -- she nodded appreciatively at the extra storage space. He wore his forehead-protector as she and Haruki did, so perhaps they could bond over their mutual baldness.

Then someone stabbed him.

It took her a second to process that she'd just watched someone stab her teammate before she instinctively began to run full-tilt toward the scene. Why hadn't Raiga-sensei done something? She thought as she ran.

When she got closer, she realized Noburu didn't seem overly bothered by the injury. He'd been stabbed with a kunai high in the chest -- and she could tell it'd gone in deep -- but he didn't react.

Noburu stared at his attacker, a grown man also of the foot caste, and didn't react. He didn't react as the man began to cry and realize what he'd done.

Anger mixed with revulsion and -- for a brief moment -- utter hate.

As Sayaka advanced on them, Raiga shunshined away from Noburu's side and blocked her path. "Stop." His order was quiet, and direct. When Sayaka obeyed, Raiga smirked. "Everything's fine. Noburu can handle a civilian himself, no problem."

With her intervention stopped, Sayaka watched the scene unfold. What in hell…?

"Did it do anything?" Noburu rasped at the civilian who'd attacked him. "Did it bring her back? Did it make you feel better?"

"...Why won't you die?" The man seemed genuinely perplexed. He asked the question again, confused and angry.

"So no, it didn't do anything for you. Good to know we both wasted our time with this." Noburu reached up and casually pulled the kunai from his chest -- the civilian either too weak to resist, or too stunned. There was a lot of blood on the blade -- Noburu should have been seriously hurt, but he seemed annoyed at worst. "I'm sorry for your loss, Arata. Goodbye."

Sayaka didn't know what to make of the situation -- when Noburu turned to her she got a clear look at the injury, or rather, where it should have been. Instead, she saw a patch of pink skin through the gap in his jacket and shirt. It didn't even have a mark of blood on it!

"The price for a civilian attacking a shinobi of Kirigakure is death, Noburu," Raiga said, offhand. It was like he wanted to share a fun fact.

"The price for you ordering me to kill Water Country civilians is I feed you to Isobu, Raiga-sensei," Noburu responded similarly offhand. While Sayaka clutched the sides of her head at one of her teammates leveling a death threat at one of the Seven Swordsmen, Noburu walked past them.

Sayaka quickly watched Noburu leave, convinced Raiga-sensei would kill her teammate outright then and there. But the attack never came. She looked up at Raiga and saw, to her surprise, a bead of sweat on the Swordsman's forehead and an intense look on his face.

Raiga caught her glance and shifted back to his usual self. "I-it's good that he has a definitive line he won't cross. And… that he cares so much for the welfare of the civilians." Raiga-sensei composed himself and glared down at her. "But I only let that slide due to his injury. Don't you get ideas."

"Of course not, Raiga-sensei," Sayaka quickly said and bowed.

"Good. I'm going to go make sure Noburu doesn't stupidly bleed to death. You go find Haruki, and tell him we're stopping by the hospital before we leave."

Sayaka bowed again. "Yes, Raiga-sensei." By the time she'd risen from the bow, Raiga had vanished. She was left alone with the funeral attendees, and the man who had attacked her teammate. He too was dressed for the funeral, and held the bloody kunai in his fingers -- limp.

Arata looked haunted by how Noburu hadn't died. All of the anger had bled out of him, and he just seemed defeated.

--

Genin Fujimoto

Ridiculous! Insanity! Utter, complete madness!

"Let me tell it to you again, all monosyllabic and stuff," the Noburu-thrall said in a slow tone. "You haul...your own shit."

"You will not use such vulgar terms in the presence of your betters, thrall!" Haruki snarled as he strained to haul his pack. Raiga-sensei had refused to order their foot caste to do the manual labor as it was intended, so it fell on Haruki to subjugate it with his will. "You are lowborn, I am highborn, you do as your betters dictate!"

Noburu, in defiance of the natural order, continued to march through the snow. The roads out of Kirigakure were all covered in snow, and the south road had the added bonus of going uphill. A tiresome workout which any foot caste would be lucky to have!

"You should have bought the bags with wheels," Noburu said, still slow -- like he thought himself smarter. "Drag it in your wake, much more good."

"'More good' wasn't the way to go there, genin," Raiga-sensei called back to them from his position in the front. "Work on your vocabulary."

"Yes, Raiga-sensei."

Sayaka had spun some fanciful tale about how the foot caste had been stabbed -- but that couldn't have been true. He had no problem with his own pack, clearly the wound had been imagined on her part.

"When I'm appointed to a position within the village's bureaucracy, I'll make sure to remember you," Haruki snarled to the defiant foot caste. "And put you in your place."

"Haruki," Sayaka barked, "you have to carry your own gear. This is the basic requirement of all shinobi of the Hidden Mist. If you can't do that, turn in your forehead protector, and get back to the village!"

Outrageous! Spoken to by a lowly hand caste with such a tone! Haruki opened his mouth to retort, when he caught a glimpse of Raiga-sensei's eyes. The jounin looked almost fed up. It was one thing to be shamed by the Mizukage into such a team. It would be an even deeper shame if his career was ruined because of it.

Bare it now, avenge it later, he told himself. When he got to pick which missions they were assigned to. Careful to keep his features steeled, the eyes caste golden child reveled in how foolish they would seem. Too many ninja coveted the power to level a city, too many ninja coveted the money and fame from successful missions. Too few coveted the power inherent in the levers of power which actually ran a shinobi village. When he and his clan denied them promotions, denied them reinforcements, denied them supplies, but approved them to missions with ridiculous odds of death, they would rue the disrespect they'd shown.

Rue it!

While he fantasized about how he'd get vengeance, they ascended the hills outside of Kirigakure. At the topmost level, Raiga stopped them and pointed down toward the village. "Look," he told the three of them. "Here, you can see the whole village. Everyone in that village depend on us to kill rebels before they arrive and lay the lives they've built to waste. That is what we're fighting for in the home guard."

Haruki looked down upon the village -- its thick walls, tree-topped towers, and water all around. The snowfall would become mist in warmer seasons -- painters had come to such a place to capture the beauty in ink paintings for generations.

"It rings ever so slightly hollow when plenty of people down there have already had their lives laid to waste," Noburu snarked. He was soon cuffed on the back of the head for his cheek -- as he deserved.

"Now then, Fujioka will be a couple days on foot, even with shunshin. I expect Haruki will drag us down even more, so let's try to make as much progress as we can. Remember, you will all be training together after we make camp for the night."

Haruki flushed at the thought that he, a noble scion of the Fujimoto family, could be considered a burden, and promised himself he would show the lower castes how superior he was!

Unfortunately, whilst they jumped from tree to tree with shunshin, Haruki slipped upon a patch of frozen bark and fell. He landed on his gut, and slowly slid off the branch to land face-first in a patch of snow. His bag landed on him a moment later to dig him even deeper.

He heard Sayaka sigh, and the crunch of snow as someone landed near him. Then another someone. "Hold on Haruki, we'll get you out."

The thought of needing their help, after his mistake, made Haruki's blood boil. Which, in turn, made his chakra boil. The snow all around him began to rapidly melt as his body emitted steam. In moments, he was damp and among a wet patch of exposed grass. He quickly stood up and fixed his bag with a scowl on his face.

"I don't need your help at -- ack!" Haruki found himself cut off with a firm slap to the back of the head from Raiga-sensei. Haruki had only seen Sayaka and Noburu, he hadn't even picked up on Raiga's arrival.

"Idiot," the jounin grumbled. "Rather than let your team get you out of the snow, you slow us down more by melting it? You're all wet now, and it's snowing! I've half a mind to let you freeze." He pointed into the forest, and frowned. "Go get into dry clothes. Now."

"Fifty ryo says he doesn't know how to dress himself," Noburu said with a straight face as Haruki walked off.

"One hundred says he asks one of us to dress him when he can't figure it out," added Sayaka.

Haruki didn't know if there was something worse than rue, but he would find out so that the two of them would be in that state some years out.

--

Jounin Kurosuki.

The jinchuuriki hadn't attempted to run. That put the Anbu forces that followed them at ease, which either meant things would go boringly well or something absolutely stupid would happen. There was no in-between with the Anbu in Kiri.

The brats had taken to Raiga's instruction on camping well. While they stomped snow flat for their tent locations and the campfire, Raiga placed a wide-area genjutsu to hide their presence. The rebels had attacked close to Kiri once before, it stood to reason that they could again. And even if they didn't, there were things just as dangerous as rebels among the trees.

In the forests that grew in the shadow of Fujioka Castle, and Yu Palace, mysterious beasts and lively spirits walked like men. In winter, a fire was absolutely vital for civilians, but a fire and genjutsu would be even better. The Anbu could look after themselves.

When he returned to camp, he was surprised to see the jinchuuriki on his knees in front of the fire. The boy knelt as if in prayer, and Raiga could make out words the boy said quietly through lip-reading.

"He of great strength, teach me how to be strong. He of thunderous voice, teach me how to be heard." The same two sentences, over and over.

It didn't take a genius to guess what the boy spoke to. The three-tailed beast.

Raiga felt a chill that didn't come from the cold as he recalled how casually the boy had threatened him with it. Yet, the boy continued to let Raiga smack him around. He still had to fully process what the implications of a friendly relationship with the bijuu would do for a jinchuuriki.

"He's been like that since he did… that," Sayaka commented on Raiga's stare. She indicated the tent space, and saw that a wide overhang of coral had grown over each spot -- like a lean-to. It would shield the tents from snowfall and the wind on one side. "I didn't know he had a kekkei genkai too."

"I don't know if he does," Raiga muttered, mostly to himself. Louder, he spoke to the chunin directly. "Have you set up a perimeter of traps?"

"Yes," she confirmed. "Salt-acid bombs just in case something really nasty tries to come for us."

"Excellent." He stopped to think about the eyes caste idiot he'd been saddled with. "You… didn't make them so that Haruki or Noburu would activate one going to the bathroom, did you?"

She gave him a flat look. "Raiga-sensei, I'm a professional. Of course I didn't make them that hair-trigger."

Raiga nodded at the confirmation and watched Haruki struggle to raise his tent on his own. The boy made an honest effort, at least, which is what Raiga expected. Success could come later, when there was less room for error. But on literally a first mission to investigate a battle's remains? The genin could afford to be foolish.

"For the love of," Noburu said and stood up. He walked over to Haruki and crossed his arms. "The scraping is distracting me from meditating. I'm going to do my tent now, and you can watch it to show how you do it so much easier, alright?" The chubbier boy tapped his foot on the snow.

Embarrassed, red-faced, and frustrated, Haruki looked like he was about to blow hot steam in Noburu's face.

The jounin was about to let the boys have their scrap before he glanced at the tree-line. There he saw an eerily pale womanly figure with piercing yellow eyes that shined in the dark -- like a beast's. She wore a yellow kimono -- totally out of season -- and stepped back into the shadows when she realized Raiga had seen her. Whether a spy or a spirit, Raiga didn't know or care. He clapped his hands to get the boys' attention. "Instead of training by way of sparring," he announced, as if it was his plan all along, "I am going to teach our genin how to do… the stretches and exercises needed before we start proper kenjutsu training." He put his hands on his hips and glared at the boys. "After the tents are all up. The faster that happens, the more you learn."

He ignored how Sayaka did a fist-pump in the air and focused on the spot where he'd seen the strange woman. Hopefully the Anbu had seen her and gotten in position. If they hadn't, and he included it in his report, he'd look like a madman.

Well, a madder man.

---

Felt things starting to drag in this chapter. Time for some action next time around!

 

[Chairtastic]

Ch 4: Steel on Shell

---

Genin Fujimoto.

After a day or so training and traveling with his team, Haruki began to suspect that there was something strange afoot. It couldn't possibly be only an insult to the Fujimoto clan -- the Mizukage would not burn so many bridges for an insult in a civil war. While they lept from tree to tree, Haruki pondered it.

Lord Mizukage is a pragmatist, he told himself as he jumped in auto-pilot mode. He gave that hand caste the Kiba swords because he'd earned them, even if it dishonored the swords. Honor means less to Lord Mizukage than results. Then what results was he more interested in? What could he stand to gain from enraging the Fujimoto clan? Then it hit Haruki, like a moment of clarity.

That coral ability… the foot caste has a kekkei genkai of some kind, but without being of an established family! Lord Mizukage must have assigned me to his squad to teach him what is required of a kekkei genkai user in Kiri!

That was the risk they'd taken when the First Mizukage created the caste system. The foot caste would grow the fastest, so it was possible that they would develop bloodline powers and try to raise above their station. Naturally, Haruki would have to teach the Noburu-creature how to use its power and be a humble thrall at the same time.

A difficult task, given how prone to talking back the foot caste was.

"We're approaching Fujioka Castle," Raiga-sensei announced from the front. "Cease shunshin, and get to the forest floor."

At the forest floor, they grouped up and looked through the trees toward Fujioka Castle. A vast curtain wall topped with sea-green tiles surrounded the fortress, which sat elevated relative to the outer defenses. Before the age of shinobi, such defenses would have made it murderously difficult to take, as all the ramps up to the castle were guarded by gates and with defenses ready for defenders to attack from safety. After the advent of shinobi it was simply a fancy house. The shattered walls and collapsed towers from a recent battle without any damage to the curtain wall were evidence enough.

The castle sat on a cliff which overlooked a lake, kept from the sea by a thin strip of rocky land. A scenic location, which Haruki wished he could visit in peacetime.

"Haruki," Raiga said as he scouted out the castle visually, "are you picking anything up?"

"Nothing obvious, let me try to sense," Haruki responded, eager to prove himself. A sensor type, he was sure he could ferret out any squatters. Haruki focused his senses and began to feel out for chakra signatures in that direction. "There's lingering traces of several people, but nothing right now. It's empty."

"Good, then we approach." Raiga pointed at the tallest of the towers. "I will be there, to plan out how we rebuild the castle. The three of you will be assigned to specific areas of the damage to investigate what caused the damage and what you can make out about the rebel's tactics from it."

Haruki blinked. Then he blinked again. "Raiga-sensei?" He didn't want to ask, lest the answer be as he feared, but he felt he had to.

Sayaka saved the day in that regard, and seemed to complete Haruki's thought. "We're going to be rebuilding the castle? Ourselves?"

"That's right." Raiga crossed his arms. "Fujioka has been in need of modernization for decades -- which we will see to." He pointed behind the castle, and Haruki followed his gaze. "You see that island in the distance? That is Nadeshiko, and Nadeshiko village has warning flares which are visible from Fujioka -- but not from Kirigakure." He looked down on them and crossed his arms again. "The home guard's job is a lot harder without an early warning system. So, we get Fujioka up and running again, modernized this time, then I assign a garrison."

"None of us have the skills needed to rebuild a castle," Noburu added with narrowed eyes. "Unless they had castle building classes at the academy as an elective course. Princess," he said as he turned to Haruki, "did they have elective courses like that at the academy?"

"Well there were some basic design courses -- wait…." Haruki responded automatically, then processed he'd answered a question for the foot caste instead of the other way around, and what he'd answered to. Steam rose from his ears as he grit his teeth and fumed in Noburu's direction. "Princess?!"

"So yeah, no, the castle we're going to build would be about as defensible as toilet against a t-rex." Noburu completely disregarded Haruki's rage, and turned back to Raiga. "Unless you have a 'for dummies' book on it?"

Raiga nodded thoughtfully and promptly shunshined out of their line of sight. Haruki became aware of him again when one of Raiga-sensei's hands grabbed his head, while the other grabbed Noburu's, and slammed them together.

"Your backtalking is going to get you a lot of injuries, Noburu," Raiga commented and dusted his hands off while the boys held their heads. "Maybe you should look into learning medical ninjutsu."

"What did I do, though?" Haruki whined.

"Shut up. I have some associates who will help you with reconstructing the castle, and provide supplies." Raiga smirked, and promptly bit his thumb.

--

Chunin Kanzaki.

"Washu-sensei, this looks like an electrical fire happened but was snuffed out. Am I right?" Sayaka leaned away from the floorboards she'd pulled up from around the scorch marked floor to let Raiga-sensei's summon confirm her suspicions.

A red ant, bigger than Sayaka's thumb, wearing a tool belt scurried over and inspected the damage. "Oh this wiring is ancient," she sighed. "It's got dust all over it -- and it looks like rats got ahold of some of the wires. But yes, it looks like there was an electrical fire here." She backed away and looked up at Sayaka. "Combine this with all of the water damage we've seen, and what do you get?"

"A wide-area water release jutsu." Sayaka pinched her chin and considered. "Which could mean either someone with strong enough chakra reserves to generate water, or they used the plumbing of the castle to use the jutsu."

"By the defenders, or the attackers?"

Sayaka looked over the room and pondered. "Most of the water damage is over there, toward the main entrance." She could practically envision it, shadowy figures that moved through handsigns against armed rebels, with water jutsu deployed to push them back out. "The defenders likely used the water jutsu to try and keep them out of the entrance hall."

"And why didn't that work? And how does it relate to this electrical fire?"

Those questions took longer to answer. All around the ruined entrance hall there were scorch marks like what she had inspected. The wood was warped as well as burned -- some combination of water damage, fire, and what almost looked like termite damage. It clicked, suddenly. "The six-tailed demon slug has acidic bubbles as its main power...." And the six-tailed demon slug in human form led the rebellion.

Sayaka stood and backed up to look at the scene as a whole, and pieced it together. "The scorch marks all look like a splash pattern. The defenders fired water jutsu into an acid soap bubble from the demon slug, which popped and splashed acid in these spots. The electrical fire came from the acid eating through to the wires."

Washu nodded her heavily mandibled head. "That's very good. Raiga will be pleased with your deduction skills." She clapped her mandibles together. "Now let's get to work on repairing this room. We'll start with tearing out all the damaged wood."

Sayaka knew true regret then.

Hours later, with her hands sore from all the wood she had to tear up, and with the knowledge she would have to do more the next day, she zombie-walked to the campsite. Again, Noburu had grown coral shelters for them. Her tent had even been set up for her!

"Thank you, Noburu," she groaned as she played the part of an old granny in her quest into the tent to lay down before lunch.

"All I did was make the shelters," Noburu's voice said from his tent. "Princess got the tents up."

"Thank you, princess Haruki," she said in reply.

"I will get my vengeance on the both of you," Haruki snarled from his tent. After he calmed down, the eyes caste boy stuck his head out of his tent. "What task did the ants have you two do?"

"I examined the entrance hall and started to work on the wood." Sayaka stretched and stuck her head out of her tent to watch the fire. "If I didn't know the six-tailed demon -- "

"Spirit," Noburu quickly corrected.

" -- had been here… what?" Sayaka turned to look at Noburu's tent in disbelief. "Huh?"

"Saiken is a spirit. Not a demon." Noburu stuck his head out for a moment to look at her with narrow eyes. "When you see a real demon, you'll know the difference." And then he was back in his tent.

"Saiken? You know its name?"

"So does Princess, it's recorded in the library."

"Stop calling me Princess!" Haruki shouted, with steam in his ears.

Sayaka was about to push further, when she heard a faint chime of bells. There were no windchimes in Fujioka, but she used the sound as an early warning system for parts of her trap array. Paper seals that chimed when strong chakra signatures passed by them. "Haruki," she barked, "I need you to try and sense any chakra coming from the forest -- now!"

Her instincts, trained on the front lines, told her that enemies were inbound -- but with Haruki she could tell how many. Her teammates at least were quick on the draw -- Haruki closed his eyes to focus and Noburu emerged from his tent with a kunai in hand. Sayaka popped a summoning scroll out of her flak jacket -- a bit of blood and she had proximity paper-bombs with her.

"I'm sensing two reasonably large chakra sources, in the trees. I'd say… chunin? Toku-jou, maybe?"

Sayaka glanced up at the castle, and saw that the room where Raiga-sensei had planned the reconstruction was still lit up. They had backup at least. "Commit the courtyard layout to memory," she told the genin and put her fingers into the tiger-seal. "All together, hidden mist jutsu!"

The three of them together didn't have as much chakra as a jounin would -- the mist their skill produced didn't totally blind them -- it wouldn't totally blind their enemies either. Sayaka tossed a kunai with a wire tied to its hilt so that it dug into the wall in one corner, then cut the wire and threaded proximity paper bombs down it, and threw a second kunai to create a diagonal trap through the courtyard. Without time to place landmines or other traps, she had to make the enemy's approach as dangerous as possible.

"See, this kinda reaction speed speaks of an environment not at all fit with kids of our developmental level," Noburu commented.

"Would you shut up and make yourself useful," Haruki snarled and got to his feet. "I have water and fire ninjutsu, what jutsu do you have?"

"Transformation, substitution, hidden mist, and basic clone." Noburu's answer shocked the other two, and he seemed to take offense. "Hey, all Raiga-sensei has done is hit me and showed us how to stretch, I haven't actually learned anything from him."

I really hate that that's a completely fair point, Sayaka told herself and threw another wire-kunai bearing proximity bombs through the air. "What about your coral kekkei genkai?"

"That's not what my kekkei genkai is, and I haven't figured out how to use coral as a weapon yet. Piercing spikes are easy, long sharp edges not so much!"

"Then make sloped barriers," Haruki snapped back, in possession of a good idea for once. "Like those lean-tos!"

Noburu got on that, but they didn't have much time to get ready.

The mist suddenly parted, as if an object flew through it, and sailed over the lines of proximity bombs in their entirety. They landed on the castle wall, and quickly began to make handsigns. That didn't make sense to Sayaka's eyes -- the enemy was dressed in the simple sleeveless shirt, baggy pants, and straw hat of a rebel monk. But the monk lacked their telltale polearm, and they didn't make use of handsigns as shinobi did. "Wind release: Great Breakthrough!"

A sudden gale of wind cleared a large volume of mist and knocked the genin off their feet. Fortunately, Sayaka was weighed down by her heavy jacket and remained on her feet. She only had a moment to see a brief flash of lightning inside before a displacement of air behind her served as a warning.

She reached for the sword on her back and got the shortsword out just in time to block an iajutsu draw slash from another false monk with a katana. This doesn't make sense, she said to herself as she kept her blade locked against the enemy's. These aren't monks at all! A false flag operation?!

Her opponent suddenly exploded into smoke, and a log impaled with a coral spike remained in their place.

"Oh hey," Noburu panted. He was still on the ground, with a hand extended, and the other braced on it. "I've figured out how to make a coral speargun. Awesome."

An explosion rocked the castle, and Sayaka saw Raiga-sensei in the air with swords drawn in pursuit of the first false monk.

"There he is," Sayaka muttered. With sword in hand, she acted like Raiga-sensei wasn't there, and she was in command -- if anything happened, it would be her responsibility. "Noburu, guard Haruki -- Haruki, I need your senses telling me where the swordsman is!"

"But I have the most ninjutsu to use," the eyes caste boy whined. He still knelt under one of the lean-tos so Noburu could get in position.

"And they know to close the gap before you can use ninjutsu! I just need to know where they are."

She heard steel clash in the mist -- Raiga-sensei had engaged at least one of them, then.

"On approach," Haruki said with his eyes closed, "coming from down low, going for you Sayaka!"

With a flick of her wrist, Sayaka had a kunai in her hand and threw it straight up. A moment later she saw the figure of the katana-wielding false monk advance on her through the mist again. Their eyes were narrowed when they saw she hadn't moved from her defensive stance. As they approached however, Sayaka began to smirk.

She got to watch horror blossom on their face as a broken wire with a proximity paper bomb fluttered down right in their path. The paper tag caught flame from proximity, and an explosion dispersed more of the mist. That was satisfying, but not nearly enough to kill a chunin.

"On the ground, six feet from the explosion site -- on their feet again!" Haruki informed her, perhaps too loudly. "On approach again -- heading for me and the thrall!"

Sayaka quickly moved to throw another kunai, one that had a simple contact-trigger explosive-tag attached, but the false monk jumped over it rather than dodge. They soared over the lean-to and turned with shuriken in hand to throw at the genin behind it. A coral spike flew out, shuriken flew down, and Sayaka heard the sound of steel on stone. At least it wasn't flesh.

The false monk landed with a coral spike lodged in their chest. Unlike Noburu, the false monk had the unfortunate natural reaction to a chest wound -- profuse bleeding and shortness of breath.

That made it really hard to dodge the ball of lightning that sailed at him between the lean-tos and promptly electrocuted him into unconsciousness.

"Raiga-sensei," Sayaka said as she processed who with them had lightning jutsu, "you won against the other one?"

Her answer was a legless cadaver that was tossed into her field of view. Raiga strode in a moment later, tears on his face, and an expression of annoyance. "Don't mind this," he said as he took a handkerchief from his jacket to clean off tears and blood from his face. "Just something that happened." Once he was done, he glanced at Sayaka and jerked his head toward the bodies. "Examine the dead one, finish the unconscious one."

"Y-yes, Raiga-sensei," Sayaka said with a bow.

"And good use of a ninjato -- I'll be sure to add more kenjutsu to your training." He turned to face the genin while Sayaka cheered in her mind. "You two did… not terribly. You followed your superiors' orders, that was good."

As Sayaka sheathed her sword, she glanced back and saw that Noburu had grown coral over one of his arms, presumably to shoot the false monk. He still had two shuriken jabbed into him -- one at his thigh, and the other in his free hand. That would need treatment. There was something up with his eyes -- she didn't have a good enough look to truly see it.

Haruki looked stunned at the katana-wielding false monk, as if he'd never seen death before.

Guess not going through the graduation has drawbacks, she viciously thought to herself. A kunai to the neck ended the impaled false monk's life, and she began to examine them both. The results weren't good.

"Raiga-sensei, I know these people." She'd removed their straw hats and searched their pockets and found Kirigakure forehead protectors to confirm her suspicions. She hadn't been in the academy for a year, but she knew the faces. "These are two instructors from the ninja academy, Sojiro-sensei and Yusuke-sensei."

Raiga stepped away from the boys to examine the corpses alongside her. "So, the two of them wanted… what exactly?" He arched his brow at the cadavers. "Vengeance for something? Did they intend to turn traitor and sell our corpses for bounty money?" The jounin sighed. "They're dead now, and they wanted anyone who saw them to think them rebels. What's likely to happen is that the Mizukage will declare them rebels, and punish their families harshly."

Sayaka nodded, and felt bad for Yusuke-sensei's wife, and Sojiro-sensei's younger siblings. They would be punished and shamed for their loved one's betrayal -- on top of losing them. She removed all the equipment and weapons from the bodies with Raiga-sensei's help.

"I'll prepare these two for a funeral," the jounin said. "Get all those explosive tags you have out there sealed up again."

"Yes, Raiga-sensei." Glad to be done working with corpses, she stood and walked away from them.

"Sayaka," Raiga called out, then tossed Sojiro-sensei's katana to her. "Tell the boys to get ready for a sparring match after we're done with the funeral. Winner gets to keep the sword."

Oh boy, she thought to herself as she examined the weapon. Giving the boys a prize to fight over will make the fight turn ugly… that's going to be some prime entertainment!

She didn't think, until much later, how odd it was that she didn't have a greater reaction to her former teachers having tried to kill her team. She'd liked them, and then she'd helped kill them, and it didn't bother her much.

Maybe their academy training had worked, then? And she had become a competent kunoichi who could answer traitors without emotion? It was something she wanted to talk to her mother about when she got home.

"Boys," she called to the genin, "Raiga-sensei told me to let you know…."

---

 

[Chairtastic]

A bit of a short one today, due to the important things to remember post later tonight.



Ch 5: Transient Beauty

---

Rebellious Monk Kousuke.



It wasn't often that Saiken bade Kousuke to meditate and hear his wisdom. The slug spirit was content in his spiritual enlightenment, and how Kousuke used his powers, mostly. Liberation of the chained was something a bijuu could appreciate. Soon, Kousuke found himself in the watery halls of his mind -- a deep cave system pierced by man-sized crystals that hummed as he passed. His visage reflected on the water's surface -- a tall and corpulent monk in black robes with a brown rakusu. His shaved head was covered by a broad and flat straw hat. His ears were pierced with large gold hoops, and he carried a shakujo which rang out his every step.



Kousuke removed his hat as he approached the area where the seal between him and Saiken had once been, long removed. "Master," the monk greeted and bowed low. "You called me?"



"Oy," Saiken's bubbly voice called from inside the chamber of his former prison. "How many times do I gotta tell you, eh? The master and student thing is old hat." Moments later, Saiken slid into Kousuke's view. Taller than some mountains, a white slug with six slime-coated tails, and two tiny arms among his rolls of tissue. Soap bubbles followed him as he approached, each filled with a scene of precious beauty. "It's weird to bow to your friends, yeah?"



"Only if you're the only one bowing," the monk said and smirked.



Long-suffering, the fatty slug sighed and bent in mimicry of Kousuke's bow. "You're so mean to me, Kou-chan. Making an old slug like me bend so low for formality's sake, yeah?"



"Old slugs like you should get their exercise." Kousuke sat down in the ankle deep water of his thoughts, and put his hat back on. "You had something to say?"



Ponderously slow due to his size, the six-tailed slug of transient beauty rose back to his full height. "Isobu has begun to talk to me again. He's been sealed into a host."



Kousuke sighed through his nose and tilted his head down. "And let me guess, they used that awful fish hook seal we heard about?"



"Ah, Kou-chan, you're so insightful!" Saiken swayed from side to side happily, and swung more bubbles free as he did. "But there's good news! Isobu found a loophole!"



The monk looked up with a hopeful look. "He's escaped?"



"Not at all!" Saiken shuddered and blew a large bubble from his slimy mouth which floated down to sink into the water in front of Kousuke. "Isobu's chubby little jinchuuriki has been respectful, patient, and rather like a younger you." The bubble's oily surface shifted, and Kousuke saw within it an image of a fish hook seal with a turtle inside, and then an image of the three-tailed turtle adrift in a dark body of water with an enormous cruel-looking hook nearby -- baited with a person, a young boy. What the sealers had intended was clear.



"Isobu feels a chat between the two of you might help them get to where we are. Not right away but a step in the right direction, yeah?"



The monk nodded and stood up. With no hesitation he walked into the bubble's surface. Its surface tension allowed him to pass through into the interior, whereupon Saiken tapped it. And then he, and the bubble, were gone.



The great spirits were connected to each other, linked by bonds forged in the fires of creation. Through these bonds, they could speak to each other whenever they wished, or their jinchuuriki could speak with the bijuu's blessing. Saiken sent Kousuke down the path between the six and three-tailed spirit's homes. Inside the bubble, Kousuke glimpsed the realm of the spirits and saw that it was dark, it was empty, and it was no wonder they chose to live on Earth among mortalkind.



A wall of water met Saiken's bubble as the realm of the spirits gave way to Isobu's dominion. Kousuke had only ever been to visit the four and five-tailed beasts, as their provinces were all adjacent to each other. The three-tailed turtle spirit's dominion would be a new experience.



Saiken's bubble sank through an ocean's worth of water. Kousuke could make out colossal pillars of coral in the distance -- with just enough light from the ocean's surface to see animals which drifted between them. It seemed Isobu's dominion was a clear spot in the forest of coral trees. A line of wire thicker than a ship's mizzenmast was the only feature in the oceanic clearing. The bubble followed the wire down into the region where light struggled to reach. Just above the abyssal zone, Kousuke began to see the shape of the three-tailed spirit turtle.



A massive, spiked, shell with two wing-like protrusions near the front. Three long, shrimp-like tails that ended in spikes. Arms like a human, with five fingers and spiked green skin like the shell. Its head had spikes along the crown, like hair, and a pronounced underbite with spikes that went from its lip to its chin like a beard. One massive eye was closed, but the other was open -- red sclera like muscle tissue and a ring of golden light around the pupil. A haunting sight.



Isobu's eye glanced at the monk in a bubble, then shifted back to its original focus -- the hook.



A treble hook with serrations all down the bend and shank, and a massive feathery tuft around the eye which draped around it -- as if to hide its barbs. Vicious. On the hook was the same boy he'd seen in the bubble's vision, at home in the water. He sat on the inner bend, one leg propped up and another free to swing in the water. Pale, but not evenly so. Some sections of the boy's skin were a more natural tone, while others were visibly paler. The one exception was around his eyes. Bald, like Kousuke, with the seal on the back of his head.

Kousuke's bubble rested in the bend of an adjacent hook, and he stood within it. "Greetings, three-tailed jinchuuriki," the monk said and removed his hat while he bowed.



"Yo," the three-tailed jinchuuriki responded with a strange hand-gesture. "Isobu told me you were coming. Kousuke, Saiken's jinchuuriki, yeah?"



"That I am." Kousuke put his hat back on and sat down on the bend. "You and Isobu talk, do you?"



"Yes," Isobu's voice rumbled like an underwater earthquake. "This one knows manners, when he cares to."



"An excellent beginning. What have you talked about?"



The boy was quiet for a moment, before he turned his head to look at Kousuke. "Let's address the elephant in the room," he said, voice soft. "I do blame you for this situation -- because if you hadn't rebelled then they wouldn't have conscripted me, and made me kill my best friend to graduate."



Kousuke didn't flinch at the information. He'd heard it hundreds of times from ninja that had defected from Kirigakure. That did not make it hurt any less.



"But I hate imperialism as much as anyone -- and the Water Country government can go die, for all I care." He paused, then arched his eyebrow. "You are going to kill them, yeah?"



"I will visit justice upon them," Kousuke said, firm. "For some, that will mean death. For others, it will mean a cell for the rest of their lives. And for others still, it will mean only shame. Each according to their sin."



"So idealistic," the boy commented. "No Robespierre are you. I wonder how that'll play out with your followers." He shrugged. "It'll probably sour Kirigakure's power for decades, at least. Assuming Kiri lives through this."



"I feel like we're drifting off the topic…."



"Sorry, it's not often I get to speak to an actual revolutionary. Got a bit excited." The boy swung his foot in the water. "I told Isobu what's coming. It's not likely either of us will live long enough to prevent what's going to happen, but the bijuu return after we die. They can make plans." The boy sighed. "It's not likely they'll believe me, but… I guess I'm flinging a light into the future."



While the boy talked, Kousuke felt his skin crawl inside the bubble. A deep sense of vertigo, like he was about to fall. "May I ask…?"



"Madara Uchiha still lives, and he's figured out how to summon the corpse of the ten-tails back to Earth. It'll take him a while, but his plan is to re-create the ten-tails to become its jinchuuriki, and pretend he's worth something. Obito might be salvageable, but it'll probably be best for everyone if he's just squished as a baby." The boy blinked, and ran his hands across his face. "God, that's a messed up thing to think. Guess I know how I'd respond to the Hitler baby question now."



Confused and with a sense of vertigo, Kousuke blinked rapidly as he processed what he'd just heard. "...You either have profound insight, or a colorful imagination. I'm not sure which."



"I'd go insight, but I'm biased." He closed his eyes and slid down the bend some more. "I told Isobu if he goes down deep enough into the ocean, it'll stall their plans out indefinitely."



"He's being dramatic," Isobu said with his eye on Kousuke. "We have discussed many topics, not just the future. That is something for us bijuu to discuss amongst ourselves."



"You believe him," Kousuke said with shock. The vertigo began to lessen significantly. Perhaps someone in the waking world had tried to shake him.



"I do. He has the eyes to back up his claim." Isobu's massive jaw moved, and bubbles rose up from the motion. "We have encountered an issue where he won't expand his power as I wish he would. My power alone will not be sufficient."



"But," the boy said, "if I become better at using his power and become a perfect jinchuuriki like you," he indicated Kousuke, "one of the perks is the ability for Isobu to break any and all genjutsu that I get hit with. Which is an important milestone to work toward."



Kousuke leaned back and considered. "I am not a ninja, I'm a warrior, so I have an outsider's perspective on this." He looked at the boy with an understanding expression. "The spirits are not used to feeling weak. When confined within us, and they feel our weakness, they feel terrible anxiety. It is why so many jinchuuriki become so devastatingly powerful -- subconscious pushes by the bijuu." He then turned to Isobu, and bowed his head. "And, lord, you are used to having people telepathically speak to you. You know what it is like to feel another's thoughts, and know how to tell the truth from an illusion. But simple humans are not accustomed to these things. We can easily deceive ourselves, let alone be deceived by others."



The two were quiet as they thought about this.



"I cannot teach him any jutsu, and I cannot build the relationship you need with your bijuu to that point for you." He told the turtle spirit and the boy at once. "But… if I could come to you in the physical world, I could teach you what I know about the martial arts."



"...I don't know that I'm strong enough to fight my way to where you are. Or that I could handle what that would mean," the boy said. "We just killed two people who posed as rebels, and their families will be punished as if they were rebels. I only have my mom, dad's side of the family is…," he waggled his hand to the side, "at the best of times. I actually like my mom in this lifetime, she's good." He sighed. "After all these reincarnations, I finally get a good parent that I like, and she's in fucking Kiri. Wonderful."



"...I think I know a way to help you out with that. But that's more… mid to long term. Is there anything in the short term which you could use to ease Isobu's anxiety?"



The boy was quiet for a moment, lost in thought. Finally, he sighed. "Guess Kakashi wasn't so bad a teacher, if his strategies made an impression." The boy looked at Kousuke, and his eyes widened. "I never introduced myself."



"Like I said," Isobu muttered. "He has manners when he cares to."



Kousuke was far more concerned with how the boy's brown eyes had vertical slit pupils, but smiled to soothe the boy's distress. "Yes, if possible, I'd like to know your name before we meet in person."



"I'm Noburu Jiang," he said, and bowed his head.



"Kousuke of Sea Country." Kousuke bowed his head. "Presently I'm on Ouza Island, and where are you?"



"Fujioka Castle."



"Ah," the monk sighed. "A few weeks too late for me to swipe you, then. I hope the castle didn't fall into the lake, or anything?"



"Nah, the snow stopped the fire. The castle's mostly intact."



"Excellent. Now, I think I'd best make my way back to the waking world for now. I hope to speak to you again, face to face." When all the goodbyes were said, Saiken's bubble rose back up to return to Kousuke's mind and Saiken's dominion.



In the waking world, Kousuke rose from his meditative pose and exited his undecorated tent. The fortified camp his army had built to plan for their next push would be gone come the next week. Toward the middle of the camp was the command tent, where tactical and doctrine decisions were made on the next battles and the war as a whole.



"Friends," Kousuke said as he used his staff to open the flaps of the tent. There had been no conversation for him to interrupt as he entered -- they had waited on him. "I have meditated, and come to a decision." He looked around at his lieutenants, his friends, and siblings in arms, with a serene expression. "We will do as Tsuneo suggested," he inclined his head to the skinny notary with a clipboard and a pencil in hand -- who was surprised by such an announcement. "We will hire ninja from another country."



As Tsuneo's idea had been a last minute suggestion, many had strong opinions on the matter and voiced their displeasure.



The monk jinchuuriki was quiet while they spoke, and waited until they were done before he spoke to refute the points they'd made. "Winter has come," he indicated the outside, where snow continued to fall. "Which means that food will become harder to come by, our advance will stall out and if it stalls out we will be defeated by attrition. We have to guard our supply lines, and cut at our enemy's."



He moved to the map on the central table and looked it over. "Our daimyo friends wish me to ask for less aid in liberating their fellows, enslaved by Water Country? Then we tell them to break out their chequebooks, and to go to the village we designate to hire shinobi to aid us." Kousuke looked over the lands, and saw with heartbreak where Uzu had been. An entire strip of a big island, broken and thrown into the sea out of fear. A decision born of madness. "With Uzu gone, our closest hidden village neighbor is Kumo. But Kumo has problems of their own -- the eight-tails escapes his prison every month it seems like." Kousuke shook his head. "Perhaps I could help with that, if I live through this war. But, with Kumo off the table it seems…." He tapped the swirl in the shape of a leaf, and nodded. "Konoha will do nicely."



---


Cast:

Kousuke: A monk of the Water Temple, born in Sea Country before it was conquered by Water Country. He became the host of the six-tailed slug at five years old using a seal stolen from Uzushiogakure after Whirlpool Country's destruction. His time as a jinchuuriki wasn't meant to be long, as he was born with a terminal illness. However Saiken's regenerative abilities allowed him to live long enough for medical technology to cure his disease. An intensely spiritual man, whose combat ability comes from his skill at martial arts, his extensive self-education, and his years as the six-tails' student. No caste.
Saiken: One of the nine bijuu, great spirits of pure chakra that once wandered the world. Saiken is found in humid conditions, typically caves and marshes but sometimes rainforests. Despite his power over water, he is not often found at sea or in great bodies of water. Saiken is covered in acidic slime that he can control which easily forms into soap bubbles. His soap bubbles can show people visions of far off places, or their own memories -- but only moments at a time. Saiken assists with erosion, and finds transient art sublime. Bijuu.
Isobu: One of the nine bijuu, great spirits of pure chakra that once wandered the world. Isobu is often found in or near the water -- he prefers warmer water to cold, but will migrate when allowed to roam. Of all the bijuu, his chakra control is the greatest -- which allows him to make use of skills which the others lack, such as genjutsu, clone jutsu, and space-time ninjutsu. Isobu's carapace is hard and spiked, making him tricky to harm but allows him to inflict grievous harm when attacked. He ensures the health of large bodies of water, destroys invasive species and lays waste to polluters. Isobu has been known to fall asleep listening to whalesong. Bijuu.

 

[Chairtastic]

Ch 6: Grudges

---

Genin Fujimoto

After he'd spent the morning using fire release to weld pipes together for the castle's plumping, Haruki had wanted to sit on the outer all and enjoy the serene beauty of the winter. He jumped up to the tiled roof, cleared off some of the snow, and sat down to enjoy the scenery. And then he saw that insolent foot caste boy running at a tree.

With a kunai in his hand, the thrall ran at the tree and tried to run up its side. Sometimes he'd be launched off as wood exploded under his feet, but other times he'd slide. Haruki scratched his head as he watched, and saw the thrall scratch a line in the tree as he got higher up.

"The only way the tree would explode under him is…." Haruki muttered, then widened his eyes. "Wall walking?" The heir scowled and jumped from the roof to the pine trees across from it, then shunshined to Noburu's tree. He crossed his arms and looked down at the thrall. "What are you doing?"

Noburu, on his back in the snow, promptly held up his middle finger. "Your mother, that's what I'm doing. I think she's got another round in 'er." With that he got back to his feet and backed up for another run.

Haruki seriously considered if it would be worth the Mizukage's displeasure to murder Noburu then and there. While Noburu ran up and notched a new record, Haruki fumed and plotted vengeance.

"Woo, she did! Thank you ma'am." Noburu rose his arms in a victory pose, hampered by his spot on his back in the snow. Again. "I'm going to give her a few minutes before we try again to get you a younger sibling, princess."

With his eye a-twitching from his temper, Haruki smirked and casually planted one foot on the side of the tree-trunk. Then the other. He walked a complete circuit around the pine, and put his hands on his hips as he looked down on Noburu. "I guess I'm doing your mother now," Haruki said, smug.

"Well, that would require doing that to a different tree." Noburu raised his brow, and Haruki saw that the thrall's pupils weren't round, but vertical ellipsis. Odd. "As we've previously established, this tree represents your mother, so you're basically doing your own mom."

"Are you upset that I won Sojiro-sensei's sword, or something?" Haruki adjusted the blade on his back. "It was as fair a competition as can be had between eyes and foot caste… persons. No reason to be so hateful."

"Oh princess," Noburu sighed, and chuckled. "This isn't me being hateful. You haven't seen me be hateful. I'm just taking the piss outta you."

Haruki's train of thought was completely thrown off by that. "Wh-what? You're doing what?"

"Taking the piss outta you. Ribbing you. Joking, dumbass." Noburu explained three times, and by the third he was fed up. "Geeze, you eye caste folks need to work on your vernacular."

"Eyes," Haruki corrected him, sharply. "Plural."

"We're singular, so you people can be singular too. Nya." The foot caste stuck his tongue out at Haruki. "As for the sword, whatever. I've already grown back the teeth you knocked out -- how're you doing on that?"

Haruki frowned and rubbed his mouth where a couple of his baby teeth had been knocked out or required pulling from the spar. "Fine. Why are you trying to learn how to wall walk? You're foot caste, they're going to send you on missions at the front -- you won't need this. And you can jump higher than this."

Noburu's eyes narrowed, and the foot caste smirked. "Maybe. Maybe if I get good enough at killing people, I'll get promoted. And then again. And then again."

"Pff, idiot." Haruki rolled his eyes. "From genin, you go to chunin, then to jounin. There is no rank higher than jounin."

"Technically, there's Anbu." He held up a finger to indicate the technicality. "But there's another rank, too. One with a fancy hat and nice office."

It took him a moment to realize what Noburu meant, and he couldn't help but laugh. A deep laugh, at the absurd thought of a foot caste succeeding Lord Mizukage. The forest echoed with it, though it didn't seem to shake Noburu's smirk. Haruki collected himself before he spoke again, in a much better mood. "You? As Mizukage?! That's impossible, literally impossible. You're foot caste, the Mizukage is of the eyes caste."

"The First through Third are," Noburu held up his correction finger again. "But the Fourth? Who knows." Still on his back in the snow, Noburu crossed his arms. "The Third Mizukage is a man defined by his pragmatism. I mean, he gave those swords to Raiga-sensei, and he's," Noburu feigned a gasp, "hand caste. If I'm the best man for the job, it won't really matter what caste I am, not to the Third."

Those words had the cold, harsh, unforgiving ring of truth to them. They utterly ruined the good mood Haruki had just gotten, and tore the smile off his face.

"I mean, he's done so many unprecedented things out of pragmatism already. He's partnered you and I together, and he's trusted the defense of Kirigakure to a hand caste -- directly snubbed your relatives to do that, if I remember. He's clearly not motivated by tradition above all else."

Haruki frowned, and hated that he couldn't immediately defeat the foot caste's logic.

"Anyhoo, I think I've given your mother a long enough break. C'mon, daughter!" Noburu quickly jumped to his feet and tried to run up the tree again.

Later that evening, Raiga-sensei surprised them with a reward that didn't involve being punched in the least.

After they'd eaten their food -- Noburu had cooked, and did so well -- Raiga had stood up for an announcement. "I've gotten the castle's plumbing and water-heater working again. Tonight, we bathe properly."

As everyone was sick and tired of the field bathing they had to endure, there was no back-sass. Even Noburu shut his miserable mouth, for once. Sayaka went first, as she was the only woman on the team, and she was surprisingly scary when she wanted to be.

"Me first, or you all wake up with a motion-trigger explosive tag on your heads," had been her exact words.

It was no problem for the boys, they waited for their turn while Sayaka got to enjoy hot water for the first time in two weeks. Once she was done, she skipped out of the baths fresh as a daisy with an enormous smile. Then it was the boy's turn.

Raiga-sensei took the longest in the initial cleaning phase -- he had hair. And in the time it took for them to wait to transition to the soak portion of the bath, Haruki noticed something odd about his teammate.

"Are... portions of your skin paler than others?" He blinked when he noticed what almost looked like splotches of paleness.

"Yup," Noburu readily admitted. He held up his hand and showed how it was tanner than his forearm, but not as tan as his shoulder. "I'm fairly certain it's a change brought on by puberty. My dad was super pale, and I've got a feeling his traits are gaining dominance."

Haruki frowned and crossed his arms. "Idiot, that's not how genes work. They're either dominant from the beginning, or they're not."

"In a normal human, yes. I'm not." Noburu turned to look at Raiga-sensei and offered a quip. "Maybe you should join the bald crew like the rest of us, it'd be a lot less work."

"Maybe I should see if you can regenerate hands like you regenerate teeth," Raiga-sensei snarled and continued to scrub his hair.

Haruki blinked as he tried to parse what he'd heard Noburu say, then glanced at the back of his teammates head. He saw an impressive tattoo resembling a fish hook surrounding a turtle-creature, similar in appearance to the three-tailed demon turtle. Perhaps a cultural thing?

It suddenly made sense why Noburu could take such punishment and shrug it off -- he'd had to have pain tolerance to get such a tattoo in the first place.

The attention to detail on the turtle's eyes was stunning, he noted as he turned away and waited for Raiga-sensei to finish. It was like they looked back at him, no matter what angle he viewed them from.

--

Third Mizukage

The Mizukage's residence was a piece of art, a structure from the time of the warring states brought into the modern era by Ryukotsusei's memory. The First Mizukage had been too spartan for such things as an extravagant living arrangement; his residence had been a fortified bunker which was the cellar of the modern building. Ryukotsusei's predecessor hadn't ruled long enough to see the building completed.

But he had. Ryukotsusei was tied with the longest rule of any Kage, with Onoki of Iwagakure -- ten years Ryukotsusei's junior. Under his rule, Kirigakure's vicious temperment had been honed to a keen edge and they'd grown fat with strength.

In some cases, Ryukotsusei pondered as he watched his new personal chef serve his food, they had just grown fat. A luxury born from Ryukotsusei's success. "What is that," the Mizukage asked and leaned forward in his seat to see an item on the tray. "The clear thing?"

Akami Jiang, the Mizukage's new leash on his jinchuuriki, paused in her preparations but a moment. "Raindrop cake, Lord Mizukage. Served with additions to help control the flavor to your lordship's taste."

He liked that he could control the flavor, but felt it a bit cheap to take the work away from the chef to produce delicious food. "Why does it have a flower inside?"

"That is an illusion created by injecting food coloring into the cake. It looks real, yes?" The large chef smiled, but Ryukotsusei noticed a bead of sweat on her forehead. She knew she was at risk of the Mizukage's displeasure.

As long as she feared him, he was content. "It does. I appreciate the artistry." Ryukotsusei sipped his tea as his meal was prepared.

A gentle knock at his door distracted the Mizukage but a moment. No two people knocked the same, and he could tell who had come to see him. She knew she could come in.

"Akami," Ryukotsusei said as the door opened. "Some tea for my guest, please."

"Of course, Lord Mizukage," the foot caste chef bowed and prepared a cup. "I could whip up something for them in just a few -- "

"Tea." Ryukotsusei was firm. He didn't even open his eyes from his last sip. "And nothing else."

"Yes, Lord Mizukage."

Fu Sun sat down next to Ryukotsusei and readily took her tea once it was served. She said nothing until Akami had left the room and departed down the hall. "A foot caste in the Mizukage's abode? Scandalous."

"A leash on that jinchuuriki is required and I will not have a foot caste in my sight that doesn't work for its pittance." Ryukotsusei set his tea aside and picked up his chopsticks to begin his meal. "You would not be here unless it was important."

The elderly woman nodded. "Your gamble has backfired spectacularly." She sipped her tea again, and waited until Ryukotsusei had swallowed his morsel before she talked. He was old, he could choke. "Not deploying the jinchuuriki to the front has emboldened Kousuke. He's had emissaries from Sea, and Moon go to Konoha. We only learned about this by happenstance."

Ryukotsusei paused in his meal a moment in surprise, but he quickly returned to it. He'd paid good money for food served hot. "When will they arrive?"

"They're already there. Shimura's man slipped up, and our spies got visual confirmation." She held the tea cup in her hands and allowed herself a moment of unprofessional despair. "We don't yet know how many, or if they will send one of their great names."

The Mizukage considered this and shook his head. "We must redistribute forces, perhaps pull back from Ouza Island entirely and fortify Nagi until we know for certain what force from Konoha Kousuke has been able to secure."

"The daimyo will not approve of such happenings. Already he wails night and day for his toys to be returned to him."

"He's a teenager," Ryukotsusei sighed. "Teenagers are like that. Have you forgotten?"

"Have you forgotten that Moon Country is wealthy beyond reason, and we cannot afford to coddle a squalling daimyo and wage war simultaneously," Fu scolded him, she dared even put heat into her voice. "They can afford to send an S-class ninja after us, and we have had our defenses to the west thin this whole time. You think they won't remember who put Uzushiogakure to the torch, Two-Faced Dragon?"

Ryukotsusei paused in his meal to glare at Fu. He said nothing, he let the weight of his visible displeasure and his overwhelming killing intent reprimand the old woman as words could not. When she turned her gaze from him, he returned to his meal. "We are Kirigakure, the Bloody Mist. The more bodies they send at us, the more blood we spill, and the more vicious our tactics will become. And while we have the three-tails close to the village, we will have the option to unleash it upon Konoha's forces. Send word to Raiga, post-haste."

Fu finished her tea, for to do otherwise would be to insult the Mizukage's hospitality, and departed.

Who will it be, Ryukotsusei wondered as he ate. Orochimaru? Konoha's White Fang? Jiraiya? Will they use us to launch another star's career? Tsunade is too cowardly to take the field again. Shimura never recovered from that lost eye. Who else do they have? He continued to ponder, and to eat, until he had to return to work.

--

Third Hokage.

In the forests of Konoha, in the village hidden among the leaves, in the Hokage's tower, preparations for combat were made.

"Ah, sensei… I can't say this is a good idea."

Hiruzen Sarutobi continued his preparations. Scrolls sealed inside of other scrolls, for the sake of transport. Gone were the robes of the Hokage, and he stood there dressed in his black fatigues and his armored helm -- ready to go to battle. "I don't see why," the Hokage said, coy. "Assassinating a daimyo is a major mission -- the fire daimyo demands that any such missions be done under the Hokage's direct supervision, lest war result. And helping a rebellion? There's so many skills that are needed -- we couldn't afford to send enough personnel."

His students, two of the Sannin stood close by. The pale-skinned, dark haired, golden-eyed, snakely figure at the door was Orochimaru. Ruthless, borderline vicious, Orochimaru was the greatest of the Sannin and had a lot of Sarutobi's hopes bound up in him.

Jiraiya, the one who had spoken, was the opposite of Orochimaru. Bulky to his slenderness, white-haired to his dark, and kind to his ruthlessness. Jiraiya looked at Sarutobi with a twitching eyelid, and looked to Orochimaru for support. "C'mon sensei, Orochimaru or I can handle the mission. You don't need to go out to Water Country… or you could at least take one of us with you."

"If too many of us leave the village," Orochimaru smoothly cut into the conversation, "then some foolish people at our border might get… ideas." The snake Sannin wasn't pleased by the situation, but he didn't harp on it. "You're sure you can handle this on your own, sensei?"

"I will take some Anbu with me, to put your fears to rest." Hiruzen was going to do so anyway, but he'd held out to make it seem a concession. He looked over his shoulder at his two students. "I don't want you two arguing over who is in charge. You're part of a team -- work together while I'm gone."

"Of course, Sarutobi-sensei."

"Yeah, yeah."

Orochimaru turned to Jiraiya, "I'll handle the paperwork, and keep mission assignments going while you handle meetings. How's that work for you?"

Half-heartedly, his other student gave his thumbs-up.

Pleased that the two of them would work together for once, Hiruzen put the last scroll he felt he needed in his equipment pouch.

"However, sensei, I need to know." Orochimaru phrased his question as a minor curiosity, like it didn't really matter. "Is this about the incident with Uzu?"

Hiruzen kept his face stony. Yes, an element of payback was at play. No, it wouldn't do to tell his likely successor that the pursuit of personal vendettas was appropriate for a Hokage. "If Uzushiogakure still existed, they would have gotten this mission instead of us; I am well aware. Ryukotsusei is a deadly foe, and I wouldn't throw myself at him over a mere grudge."

Orochimaru smiled, serene despite how thinly veiled his question had been. "Good to know, sensei."

The Hokage turned his focus to Jiraiya. "Don't follow me, Jiraiya."

His student dared to play dumb. "I've no idea what you mean, sensei."

"I am trusting you with the village. Our village. You are to stay here, and guard the village."

"I understood that the first time you said it, sensei." He held up the charade for a moment under Sarutobi's gaze, but the pressure broke. "But you're getting on in years…. You don't have to go there yourself to directly supervise."

"And how do you see the other nations seeing that?" Sarutobi arched his brow and crossed his arms behind his back. "It's one thing for a Kage level shinobi to go on a mission of this level, it's another thing entirely for a Kage to go on a mission of this level. There is a certain degree of respect conveyed by one Kage facing another." Sarutobi's expression became wry. "And there's a certain level of disrespect to have a Kage defeat another, assassinate their daimyo, and play their armies for fools."

"I'll be sure to remember that," Orochimaru commented.

Hiruzen nodded even though he felt a sudden chill down his spine. Oh, that's not a good omen at all…

---

Cast:

Hiruzen Sarutobi: Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf, known as the Professor. A skilled educator, combatant, and strategist. Thus far he has ruled Konoha longer than the First and Second Hokages combined. His reputation largely precedes him. No caste.
Orochimaru: This information has been removed from the public record. No caste.
Jiraiya: One of the legendary Sannin, known as the Toad Sage. A legendary ninja, and skilled novelist known for his perversion and skill in combat. Has a tendency to make terrible decisions. No caste.

---

Now, I'm actively trying to avoid explosive escalation so there won't be any Hiruzen vs Ryukotsusei cage matches in the next chapter. That's not to say there won't be a cage match eventually. Hypothetically. I have yet to find a cage big enough to contain Ryukotsusei's ego, which is a surprise because we canonically have one which can hold Orochimaru's.

 

[Chairtastic]

Ch 7: The Great…

---

Isobu.

The turtle spirit's thoughts arched through the leyline connections which bound the bijuu together. Too often, they went unused. Isobu brushed the wear and tear off them as his mind passed through them, his very presence renewed the bonds. He'd already shared the dire warnings with seven of his siblings -- it had come time to warn the last. The most standoffish sibling -- more so than even Shukaku -- and in their mind the greatest. Kurama, nine-tailed calamity, and the spirit of karma.

Isobu's watery dominion gave way to the utter emptiness of the spirit world. His form took shape, and he waited for Kurama to emerge as well. For a long while, there was nothing and Isobu settled himself down to wait. Kurama would emerge eventually -- in a moment, in a day, in a year, or in ten years. What he had to say was worth the patience.

At last, Kurama emerged from the void. Titanic, even among the bijuu -- no mountain in Fire Country was tall enough to reach Kurama's elbows. Covered in burnt orange fur, with nine snake-like tails and massive ears whose black interiors swept down to surround the fox spirit's red eyes.

"You're pestering me, little brother," the fox spirit hissed between massive teeth with their lips pulled back. "There was a time you wouldn't come to me without another to guard your flank. Have you upset our siblings so much that none stand with you?"

Isobu took a deep breath and tried hard not to be afraid of his sibling. "Kurama, I bring news."

"Oh? News? Have you escaped your urn, little brother? No…." Kurama's eyes flashed with malevolence. "You are bound, just as I am, and there is no way you know anything worth my time."

"My jinchuuriki has knowledge of the future." Isobu blurted it out when Kurama advanced, their teeth on full display.

Kurama stopped, their tails swayed with thought. "An oracle? They sealed you into an oracle?"

"I… guess?" Isobu was a lot less certain with Kurama than he was with his other siblings and mortals. "He knew who I was, even my name. He knew all of our names, and he talked to me about what's going to happen."

"...Well, get on with it!" Kurama slammed their human-shape hand into the void-ground of the spirit world. "What's so important you risked me eating you?"

"Madara Uchiha figured out how to come back from the dead."

It took a second for Kurama to parse what Isobu had told them. Their brain was the size of a small lake -- that speed was remarkable. After that second, they belted out an agonized roar and slammed their hands into the ground. "Damnit! Damnit, damnit, damnit! And my jinchuuriki is near death -- he will come and enslave me again! Again!"

"It gets worse." Isobu began to relax as Kurama went longer without an overt threat toward him.

Kurama's tails puffed out in rage. "Worse?!"

"Worse." He watched his sibling rampage through the void at the outrage, until the spirit of karma was calmed down enough to hear the worse news. "Madara has figured out how to summon the corpse of the ten-tails back to Earth. He's going to seal us inside it, starting with Shukaku."

Kurama's dramatics stopped all of a sudden. Their tails coiled around like agitated snakes. After a moment of processing, Kurama sat back on their haunches with a contemplative expression. "We have to make a plan," they said, calm and neutral for the first time in generations.

"My jinchuuriki told me that if I go down to the ocean depths when he dies, it'll stall their plans out. I've told Chomei to go high into the sky when she is free… if she gets free."

"Shukaku and Matatabi…?"

"They think they're too tightly bound to get free in time." Isobu hung his head. "They've resolved to make Madara's henchmen pay a steep price in blood to capture them."

Kurama smiled, faint as it was. Then their expression neutralized again. "How do we defeat Madara, then?"

"I don't know. My jinchuuriki hasn't foreseen that yet."

"Typical humans," the fox growled. "We'll need to meet more regularly, to discuss how to best deal with this. Saiken is free, yes?"

"Saiken remains with his jinchuuriki, but he can leave when the monk dies." Isobu recoiled suddenly when Kurama's old temper returned for a moment and he was in the turtle's face with a snarl.

"If he can leave, why does he choose to stay in his jail cell?"

"Y-you should ask him yourself, Kurama. But… I'm getting the same kinda vibe with my jinchuuriki that Saiken gets from his."

Kurama squinted. "Vibe?"

"A-a modern colloquialism. My jinchuuriki… he asked me to teach him." Isobu felt like when they were small, and he could gush over every small thing he'd found in the ocean again. "He treats me with respect. He does what I ask, and he's never demanded anything from me. He warned me that the seal I was in was a trap."

"You should all know by now that humans cannot be trusted." Kurama's tails thrashed with rage. "Am I the only sane one among all you?!"

Isobu didn't respond right away. He'd said what he'd needed to, and his job was done. He didn't want to confront Kurama on the issue of humans as a whole -- Kurama still hurt from repeated betrayals. But Isobu didn't have any similar experiences. He turned away from Kurama and began to return to his dominion. "I have to go back to my jinchuuriki, and I'll let you know if he finds out anything else."

"What has this human done to shake loose what you know in your heart to be true?!"

Isobu turned, before he faded away. "He told me that one of your jinchuuriki would be the one to set us free, even if we failed to avert catastrophe. There is hope, even for you." And then he was gone, he left Kurama to rage in the spirit world and returned to his dominion.

--

Chunin Kanzaki.

With the help of Raiga-sensei's ant summons, restoring and modernizing Fujioka Castle progressed exponentially. The work they did made additional work easier. While she worked on the wood, and Haruki worked on the metal, Noburu worked on the stone. They finished the repairs to the castle at relatively the same time -- fixing the hole Raiga-sensei had punched in the wall to confront Yusuke-sensei. All within a week.

"Good," Raiga-sensei had told them when the work was completed. "You know how much work goes into our solid fortifications, and you have the skills to repair them collectively. Sayaka -- get the flares set up in the watchtower. Boys, the two of you will do chakra control exercises until sundown." Their sensei smirked suddenly. "Be sure to claim a spot in the barracks, when the garrison arrives you'll have to fight to keep it."

Sayaka frowned and glanced over at the boys, neither of whom looked pleased. She recalled how Raiga had said he would not respect indecisiveness, she steeled herself and spoke up. "Raiga-sensei, are we not returning to Kirigakure?"

"Not unless we're recalled." Raiga crossed his arms and looked them over. "The Mizukage wanted me to get you all to the point where you can fight jounin and win -- that requires space, that requires lots of combat practice, and it requires us to be ready to reinforce the front line on a moment's notice."

That didn't seem correct, she believed. The Mizukage would probably want all his soldiers able to fight jounin, but that just wasn't feasible. She'd been on the front lines, and she wasn't at that point yet. No way were Noburu and Haruki going to get there being marginally closer to the front.

"With respect, Raiga-sensei," she said, resolved to be the leader, "that's utter bullshit."

Raiga's eyes widened, surprised.

"You didn't teach us much of anything except how to do manual labor," Haruki groused. "If I'd wanted to be a plumber, I would have taken that route."

"For someone who hates indecisiveness, you haven't been able to commit," Noburu muttered with his arms crossed.

Raiga wasn't used to backtalk from all three of them, so he floundered a moment before he spoke again. "Right now it's best to be near Kirigakure, but not actually there." His voice was soft, perhaps he lied or bent the truth, but it sounded convincing. "The front line on Ouza is collapsing. The Mizukage's ordered all forces to fall back to Nagi." He arched a brow. "Looked at a map recently? How do you think that changes the rebel's tactics?"

Sayaka had actually looked at a map recently. She moved the pieces in her head, and reflected what she knew about the rebels from Fujioka's damage. "With Ouza in their possession again, they could begin raiding the Water Country heartland islands," she said, horrified. "Or they could launch a naval attack on the capital."

"Except the sea gets turbulent in the winter," Haruki added. "They can't just go to any island without risking their own forces."

"All of the safe routes through the heartland islands come here first, to the south of the big island." Raiga pointed outside. "Where Nadeshiko can spot them if we can't. Then, with enough water release users, we can capsize a fleet."

"Unless they've gotten some of those Sora flyers with the laser beams attached," Noburu commented. "Then y'all's fucked." This caused a minor incident with his sensei and team

"Wait, Sora had what -- "

"How do you know about that, that's classified -- "

"You would be just as fucked as us, thrall -- "

Until everyone agreed that it was best if they left the speculation for another day. Noburu, with several goose-eggs on his head from Raiga-sensei remained quiet while the Swordsman reaffirmed his orders. Sayaka would set up the flares, the boys would work on chakra control. Later on, she found herself shopping for the most ideal place in the chunin barracks. It'd be a lot easier for her to guard her spot than the boys -- she knew how to lay down three-tier traps and only maim the victim.

"Sayaka?" Noburu's voice called from outside the barracks. "I'm not allowed inside, so could I ask you some questions through the door?"

"I'll allow it," she called back and continued to lay her traps. "Ask your question."

"So, I know the hand sign for a justu, and I know the jutsu's name. How do I figure out the fiddly-bits to make the jutsu actually work?"

She stopped in the process of laying a shrapnel mine under the floorboards to look quizzically at the paper door. "Um. The hand signs are usually the 'fiddly bits'. Is it a genjutsu? Medical ninjutsu?"

"No, it's just a solid clone jutsu."

"Then you just need the chakra control not to kill yourself, some of the element it's made of, and you're good." She stopped after she'd armed a line and quickly shouted over her shoulder. "And the ice-clone jutsu and snow-clone jutsu are totally different things! You can't use one if you have the other to work with!" She'd watched a Yuki clan kid get gutted for that mistake. The differences between snow and ice weren't mere technicalities to be shrugged off.

"I know, I know," Noburu said as his voice grew distant.

She continued to trap her precious spot for a moment longer before she stopped and seriously looked at the myriad tools of death and dismemberment arrayed before her. "I should be out there to supervise," she said and set down her flesh-eating scarab jar. No one was stupid enough to mess with flesh-eating scarabs, so she quickly made her way outside and saw Noburu in the castle courtyard. That surprised her, she expected him to be on the way to run down to the lake to practice a water clone.

He stood in place with an odd hand sign she'd never seen before, clearly in the chakra kneading process. Suddenly, he seemed to get it and shouted out: "Shadow clone jutsu!"

There was a puff of smoke, and a second Noburu stood beside him.
Sayaka blinked once, twice, three times. Then she walked over on autopilot to investigate what the hell she'd seen.

Both Noburus quickly fell over, sweating heavily and out of breath. "Okay, so," one Noburu said to the other. "Still… not there yet."

"But," the second said, and held up a finger. "We're getting there." He tried to stand and fell over on his back. "Oh, the world's spinning. This was a terrible idea."

"Noburu," Sayaka said in a moment of calm before she exploded. "The fuck?!"

"Oh hey Sayaka," the two said in sync. "Could you… be a pal and knife him?" The first Noburu said and gestured at the second. "I kinda need my chakra back before I go into shock."

"Screw you," the second Noburu panted. "He's the clone, knife him."

Sayaka sighed and drew her ninjato. "You have got so much," she emphasized the words with a sharp stab into the clone, "explaining to do." In a puff of smoke, it vanished and Noburu began to visibly improve. "See, this? All of this? Is not how clones work. You broke the rules with clones. How?" She sheathed her sword and put one hand on her hip and counted off on her fingers with the other. "You're not supposed to get the chakra back from a clone. And they require an element to be solid. And they don't act like they're chakra exhausted!"

Noburu was back to his old self in seconds. Literally, right before her eyes. "Okay. Okay, I can explain." He stood up and brushed the snow off his clothes. "I saw the jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed fox spirit make like five thousand of these all at once, and figured I could make one." He stumbled a bit and leaned on the wall to remain upright. "As it turns out, I can, but it's a bad idea." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Oh well. Maybe next week."

Sayaka's brain stalled out as she tried to parse what she'd heard. "Um. I can't tell if you're serious, or if you've got dementia."

"In the land of the blind, the one man who can see is called mad." He looked up to her with a smirk. "I happen to know for a fact that there is a version which can explode, and a version which duplicates shuriken. Think we can use those for your traps?"

Sayaka's brain, still stalled, took a moment to process that before she narrowed her eyes at the boy. "We could. But until we can actually do that jutsu without killing ourselves, it's a bad idea. Also -- we'd need to reverse-engineer jutsu, which is like," she gestured as if toward something huge, "a tall fucking order for a chunin and a fresh genin."

"Eh, this is wartime. If a filler villain like Raiga qualifies as jounin, we'll make the grade in no time at all."

--

Director Ruan.

It was always a tough day when she had to tell her trainees they'd been selected to go to the front lines. She'd had people beg her to reconsider, she'd been offered bribes, she'd had threats levied. But it didn't matter. The decision was out of her hands. Once the Mizukage approved her recommendations, there was nothing she could do -- it was his orders.

With the fall back order in place, Nagi and Nadeshiko were the only colonies between the rebels and the Water Country heartland islands. Wounded soldiers and shinobi would need medical attention, so almost all of her trainees had been cleared for field deployment. There was nothing she could do -- it was the Mizukage's orders. It was war, they needed medics on the front. There was nothing she could do.

To distract herself from the poor soon-to-be-dead young men and women she'd sent off to war, she laid out several scrolls she'd been allowed to use for the development of the seal of hooks. She'd been one of twelve sealers to work on the seal of hooks, but of those twelve she was the only one still alive. It all fell on her to find out how to improve the seal for use on the six-tailed slug once it was recovered.

If it was recovered.

While she looked over the notes of dead men and women, she wondered what the history books would say about this period of Kiri's story. Were they correct in assuming victory and throwing soldiers at the enemy in waves rather than employ actual tactics? Would the fact that Kiri's shinobi had standing orders to kill any intel or medical nins who were at risk of capture, on top of Kiri's brutal hierarchy, spell their defeat?

Would she be remembered as a coward? Would she be remembered at all?

Her eyes drifted to the photo of her fiance, Isshin, and her hands began to shake. It had all happened so fast -- a bubble, a pop, and then Isshin melted right in front of her. Maybe Tsunade of the Leaf knew how to save a man from acid that ate him down to nothing in seconds, but Suzume didn't.

No one remembered Isshin anymore. Everyone they'd worked with was dead. Everyone who'd come to their parties, or wished them well was dead. Swallowed by the war. As the years of war raged, Kiri became more and more a ghost town. If she went to the front, she'd just be another tombstone in a week's time. In the hospital, she'd helped make the seal -- the future template for all jinchuuriki of all nations. Still, someone had to go to the front. Someone had to fight the rebels. Someone had to be melted to nothing in seconds while their loved ones watched in horror. Someone had to be completely forgotten as everyone who knew them died.

It had to be someone -- she just didn't want it to be her.

The design choices of the seal of hooks made a bit more sense as she contemplated it. The seal had been ready for months -- but they didn't move forward with a plan to seal the bijuu with it until the foot caste conscription order came. It had to be someone, they just hadn't wanted it to be one of them.

She reviewed the notes on the seal and narrowed her eyes. "We need to include some form of leash in future versions," she muttered. With a deft hand she reached for a scroll taken from Uzushiogakure during its destruction. "We might not be able to integrate it into the seal of hooks, but this should be a good starting position." She opened the scroll and looked within its contents, not for the first time. Two hooked lines, the barbs arranged toward the middle and inverse each other, with a manji hooked on the ends between them. A commission Uzushiogakure had done for a noble family in Konoha in antiquity. "Hmm, it uses pain in the same way the seal of hooks does… perhaps we could bind it to a different stimulus -- paralysis perhaps?"

She'd need to practice the modified seal on people to get results she could take to the Mizukage. Or else he'd have it tested on her. Someone would need to be the lab rat, she just didn't want it to be her.

---

Cast:

Kurama: One of the nine bijuu, great spirits of pure chakra which once wandered the world. Kurama is intrinsically tied with the world of humans, for they can perceive emotions with a sixth sense unique to the bijuu. They have been known to despise strong negative emotions, and malice in particular, and mete out terrible punishments to destroy it where it begins to fester. Due to this, they have earned a reputation as the spirit of karma, or justice. No wonder shinobi hate them so terribly. Bijuu.

 

[Chairtastic]

Ch 8: Boil Over

---

Jounin Kurosuki.

With the Kiba swords drawn, Raiga arced lightning between them in a threat display. Surrounding him were his students, each given instructions to come at him with their best. Raiga expected them to badly disappoint him.

Haruki started off the attack. "Boil release!" He declared as he formed hand signs. "Sauna fog bank!" The boy breathed deep and let loose a torrent of steam from his mouth at Raiga. In springtime, such a jutsu would be a novelty spin on the hidden mist jutsu, with the added effect of causing a victim to tire more quickly. In winter, such a mass of boiling water would freeze quickly, and ice over enemies in a layer of painful frost.

Raiga stood his ground and swung the Kiba blades and parted the cloud around him as lightning met steam. A crunch and whistle signaled to Raiga a projectile, so he swung his swords to deflect it. Coral shards peppered his face as he broke Noburu's attack. A flurry of fireballs from Haruki and the occasional spear from Noburu actually had Raiga use both his hands, one for each student's attack.

As he split another coral spear, he frowned at Sayaka. She hadn't moved, hadn't thrown a knife or shuriken, she hadn't used any explosive traps. To test a theory, Raiga moved out of the way of one of Haruki's phoenix-flower fireballs and let the attack go for Sayaka. She didn't move, and it became clear why -- the fireball passed through her like light through a window.

A clone…, Raiga thought. She'd had to have moved quick to get the clone in her place. Motion caught his eye and he had only a moment to process what looked to be a figure of pure white among the snow before he was attacked again. Clever girl. He fought the urge to smirk. But not clever enough! Raiga crossed his blades and dragged them across each other. "Lightning cutter!" When his blades swung free, a crescent of lightning spread out from the apogee of their swing. The projectile lightning flew out at what he thought was Sayaka, only for it to also pass through her. Another clone!

The lightning cutter dispersed the intangible clone, just in time for Raiga to be attacked once more by a cloud of rapid-freezing steam and a coral spear. He parted the steam and deflected the spear, and looked for Sayaka among the snow. To his surprise, he saw a figure in the steam a moment before a ninjato took off his arm. Sayaka looked immensely pleased with herself as the sensei she had fought broke down into a mound of snow -- a replacement jutsu.

From atop the wall, Raiga clapped. "Very good, you got me to abandon my position." He dug the Kiba swords out of the wood and sheathed then before he jumped down. Haruki and Noburu looked pretty worn out, but Sayaka looked pleased with herself. "That was a good strategy, using Haruki's steam as cover." Raiga's pleasant expression slipped when he glanced at the chubby genin. "You didn't contribute much to that, though."

"I kept one of your hands busy," Noburu said with a smirk. "Even you can't say you do that on the regular."

Once Noburu had been punched as hard as Raiga possibly could without inducing brain damage, Raiga returned to his monologue. "It was almost a solid team-wide effort. With practice you'll have the teamwork necessary to at least fight back if a jounin comes after you. When the garrison arrives, we'll be able to do more variations on this training exercise." He clapped his hands, to indicate training was over. "Sayaka, I want you in the office with me to review the latest intel. Haruki, down to the lake to practice water clones. Noburu," he outright glared. "Run laps around the castle. No food until you've done one hundred."

"Fuck you too, binkie-boy."

"Two hundred."

--

Mother Jiang.

When opportunity visits, make it feel at home. Akami had been on her way back from the graveyard when she got the news -- a job opening in the Mizukage's household, for a chef! Normally she would not be so bold but perhaps, if she could earn the Mizukage's approval, her son would not be sent off to die wastefully. Maybe he'd be treated well.

So far the Mizukage had been firm, but fair. He'd asked for good food, she'd provided. She'd had no complaints against her, and he seemed to enjoy the dishes she took extra time to make visually appealing on top of delicious. Water Country chefs didn't typically worry about plating, but her tutors in Honey Country had been adamant about it. Those were good memories, her time in Honey Country.

When she could forget her caste, she could forget Kirigakure, and she could just be Akami for the first time in her life. For the only time in her life.

Maybe she should have stayed in Honey Country, and not come back to Kiri.

But then she wouldn't have met Jirou, and she wouldn't have had Noburu.

"You were married, yes?" The Mizukage asked her out of the blue while his breakfast was prepared. "Divorce?"

The chef had made folded eggs thousands of times, she only needed to keep an eye out on potentially flavor-damaging issues. A little conversation wouldn't hurt. "Yes to the first question, Lord Mizukage, no to the second." She had learned not to volunteer information unless he showed interest.

"Tell me about my jinchuuriki's father."

She tried desperately not to break the spoon in her hand when he refered to her son as his property. The spoon was not worth being fired over. Possibly literally fired. "Jirou was a foreigner to Kiri," she started, careful. "He didn't know how things worked, and he upset some people of higher caste with impertinence. My friends and I took him in, and showed him how things were done."

"How dutiful of you. 'Jirou' is not of the same origin as 'Jiang', I notice."

The eggs were finished, so she just had to season them and chop spring onions for the dish. "He took on my last name when we were married, Lord Mizukage. He was originally from Wave Country, and his father came from Fire Country -- and you know how bizarre those people can be."

The Mizukage chuckled. "Quite so. Where did his mother come from? Uzu, I imagine?"

Jirou had only ever answered that question once, drunk to deal with the pain and half-mad from the horn-like growths on his head. The pale-skinned man had pointed up, at the crescent moon that night as his answer. "Moon Country, actually. She'd traveled quite a long way!"

"Mmm. Our records indicate he visited the hospital numerous times." The Mizukage sipped his tea while Akami served his food. "Did he have a chronic condition?"

"The doctor said it was the precursor to a kekkei genkai." She carefully served the folded eggs with spring onion and added the rice side dish which the Mizukage insisted be served with everything. "It wasn't likely that our children would manifest it, but that our descendants might." She bowed to the Mizukage when the food was served. "Eat well, Lord Mizukage."

"Thank you, Akami. I may have guests by later today, set aside some tea leaves for when they arrive."

"Of course, Lord Mizukage." She covered the mobile cooking station used to prepare the Mizukage's meals right in front of him, and began to walk away.

"Before you go…." He waited for her to turn around and bow to him again. "Where is Jirou now?"

"He left for Sea Country three years ago, and we haven't heard from him since." That was dangerous to admit. If the Mizukage wished, he could brand Jirou a rebel by proxy. Then… she couldn't actually imagine what worse fate the Mizukage could inflict upon her son than what had already been done.

"I see. Thank you. You may go."

Thankful that she hadn't been lit on fire for anything she admitted, Akami left. If she was lucky, she wouldn't have to answer any more questions.

--

Rebellious Monk Kousuke.

He sat on the cliffs of Ouza, and looked across the sea to Nagi. Behind him, far in the distance, his forces mopped up the last of the loyalist forces and gave medical treatment to the turncoats. Those who wished to join them when the Mizukage abandoned them were spared, as always. They had recently instituted a conscription drive of the foot caste in the heartlands -- all the children had been stolen away to be made into genin, even if they didn't have the chakra necessary to be ninjas.

Kousuke's mere presence on the cliffs was enough to keep the loyalist forces from destroying the bridge between Nagi and Ouza. The two islands were close enough that anyone with a spyglass could see him, and any sensor could feel him. The very idea that he would come across the sea and attack them if they made a move on the bridge kept them away. They were more afraid of him than of the Mizukage.

Perhaps they were afraid of him because the Mizukage was afraid of him.

It slips out that I've hired ninja from Konoha, and he abandons a war of attrition he would have won, Kousuke thought as he watched shinobi paralyzed with indecision. If I wanted to, I could ignore Nagi and focus on Nadeshiko. His army would be isolated, and his precious heartland exposed. Does he even realize how much his strategy reeks of fear?

Kousuke hadn't even heard back from his friends in the Moon and Sea Country governments about how many ninja they were able to hire. Or even what the terms of the contract were. Tsuneo had been right -- the mere mention of foreign involvement put the loyalists into a panic.

You tried to hide away from the mainland and make yourself an empire, Kousuke thought to the idea of Water Country. But you have failed, and we will lay your shame out for the mainland to see -- and allow them to laugh at you.

Footsteps on the snow grew louder -- someone approached him. Someone new, Kousuke had never felt their chakra before. "May I sit with you, rebel leader?"

Kousuke patted the snow next to him. "Always."

The man who sat down wore a black jumpsuit, with mesh underneath, and rather unseasonably thin sandals. Dark-skinned, brown hair, with small eyes that held a lot of intelligence, with queer markings below his eyes. "You're… not worried I aim to assassinate you? To end the rebellion right here and now?"

"I can't control you. I can't decide what you try to do." Kousuke adjusted his hat as the snowfall shifted with the wind. It let him see the man more clearly. Powerful muscles, a heightened awareness of muscle movements -- shinobi. "Living in fear and paranoia isn't worth it. If I fear assassination, it doesn't make it any more or less likely to happen. It would only make me miserable."

"Some would say," the shinobi replied with a look of disapproval, "that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

"A cure to what? My death? Or the end of the rebellion?" Kousuke looked out, across the sea, and saw that the loyalist shinobi had fallen back while he was distracted. "If I die, I'm a martyr for the cause. I fought back against tyranny and won. I proved that people don't need to be ninja to fight back and win." He looked over at the shinobi, and smiled. "The rebellion is at a point where they don't need me to secure victory for them."

The shinobi smiled back. "I don't think you'll enjoy what happens after they realize that. But, as you are my client -- I will do as you have bid me. Though, I felt we should meet before I get to work." The shinobi stood and patted the snow off his clothes. "Do you have any special requests before I get to work?"

Neither Saiken or Kousuke sensed a lie in the man, which lent his words credibility. It became clear to whom Kousuke spoke. A Hidden Leaf ninja -- presumably either the commander of a unit, or one of their great names. They likely would not meet again to discuss special conditions, as Kousuke didn't know the terms of what he'd been hired for. But the snow would fall up before Kousuke admitted that to him. "To the north of here is Fujioka Castle, on the southernmost point of the big island." He pointed there, at the stretch of sea that separated the two islands. "It is the meeting point of all the safe routes through the islands this time of year. The castle is where someone important to me is being kept. A boy with patches of skin of different colors. Lay waste to the castle, destroy its garrison if you wish, but bring him to me." Kousuke allowed his eyes to narrow slightly. "Alive would be preferable."

"As you wish, my good client." And then he was gone.

--

Genin Fujimoto.

"Okay you need to stop with the sass, thrall," Haruki proclaimed as he finally caught up to the chubby genin. How such a hefty kid moved so fast, he'd never understand. "You're not learning anything from Raiga-sensei, and you being the weak link is going to get us killed!"

The chubby genin panted but did not slow down. "The kid who can't bear the thought of his clothes not being cared for properly in wartime is lecturing me on weak links."

"If it's not done exactly right, they'll shrink!" Steam burst from the boy's ears at the outrage.

"And gods forbid your socks not fit right."

Haruki bit back the urge to flash fry his fellow genin and brought the conversation back on track. "You might be a thrall, but that doesn't give you the excuse to be a load on the team!"

"Excuse me," Noburu growled and looked away from the path he'd trod a hundred plus times before, "which one of us tagged Sojiro-sensei with a spear? Was it you? Oh no, it was me -- so you can piss off with that!"

"You have chakra reserves like a kid half your age!" Steam leaked out of his ears at being talked to that way. "Your control is getting better -- but it's not enough! You agitate Raiga-sensei so much he doesn't teach you any jutsu, he doesn't teach you how to use a sword, he doesn't teach you anything! One of the Seven Swordsmen is your sensei, and you're wasting the opportunity!"

"I didn't want to be a ninja at all, so of course my chakra reserves are low! But I'm getting more every day! My chakra control gets better every day!" The boy stopped and all but screamed in Haruki's face. "While I'm busy getting better you're mad that I'm not as far ahead as you! I don't have a ninja clan who can teach me jutsu that Raiga-sensei won't! I don't have anyone who can buy me the stuff I need to be good at traps! And of course he's not going to was time teaching me how to use a sword -- I don't own one!"

"Maybe he'd help you if -- "

"If I tried being nice? If I became a good little bootlicker? Wait that doesn't work, no one in this idiot country wears boots," he muttered the last to himself, then shook his head. "Whatever. If the Mizukage wants us all at the point where we can then fight jounin, then he's hurting himself in the long run."

"Because of you!" Haruki's ears poured steam like a boiler release. "You're hurting the whole team because you won't shut up long enough to get better! You have a really useful coral kekkei genkai and you're not -- "

"That's not what my kekkei genkai is! You idiots just keep assuming I'm talking out my ass about that and not asking!"

"Because when we ask you say stupid stuff like 'your mother' as a response!"

"Only to stupid questions!" Noburu sighed and resumed his laps, with Haruki in pursuit. "It doesn't matter anyway. Raiga-sensei can't teach me the skills I need to make my kekkei genkai useful, and that's assuming it's stable enough to use. Secondly, my personality isn't a good match for his -- so he won't teach me what he does know. I'll teach myself what I can, you learn from him what you can, and we'll try to have teamwork make up the difference."

Haruki processed his teammmate's response, his ears spitting more and more steam as he grew angrier until he shouted. "Fine! If you've given up on Raiga-sensei teaching you anything -- I'll teach you, then!" He stopped when Noburu paused in his laps again and crossed his arms. "I know fire jutsu, water jutsu, and I know chakra building exercises to get you up to speed. Sayaka knows tactics and has more taijutsu training than either of us. If you can tell me -- without being an asshole -- what your kekkei genkai is, maybe the two of us can work out something to help you use it."

Noburu narrowed his eyes at his teammate. "You're eye caste. Why would you ever help me?"

"Aside from the noble obligation we of the eyes caste have to lead and watch over the lower castes? I really like not being murdered by rebels. You and Raiga-sensei's inability to work together makes that more likely to happen." Haruki's ears stopped bleeding steam for the first time in minutes. He put one hand on his hip and snapped the other. "Now, chop-chop, let's see it."

"We're both about six years too young for that kind of talk." While Haruki almost exploded in outrage, Noburu closed his eyes and made a sign like he was sculpting chakra. "Now, when you see this, you're going to have questions. I don't have the answers either, just know I'm fairly certain my dad escaped a lab somewhere in Fire Country."

"What -- why Fire Country specifically?"

Noburu's eyes were suddenly surrounded by swollen veins. When he opened them up, the brown eyes with vertical slits he'd just seen were gone, replaced with solid white disks with a barely perceptible pupil at the center.

Haruki's brain struggled to process what his eyes saw. He closed his eyes and rubbed them before he opened them again to make sure he hadn't begun to hallucinate. "Oh," he said, soft. "That's… that's why Fire Country specifically. Huh."

After a second, Noburu struggled not to smile and resisted the urge to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Your wisdom teeth are going to grow in upside-down."

"Stop looking at my bones, pervert!"

---

Cast:

Jirou Jiang: This information has been removed from the public record. Foot caste.

 

[Chairtastic]

Ch 9: The Odds

---

Chunin Kanzaki

She was honestly surprised by how little sass Noburu or Haruki gave her when she agreed to help them work on their taijutsu. Considering how amateur their spars with each other were, she'd intended to broach the topic eventually -- but probably not before the garrison arrived and had medical nin on hand to fix them up. They met up in what had once been the Fujioka clan's immaculate garden, but had become overgrown and unsightly since their destruction.

"A lot of the work in taijutsu comes from repetition," she told them as she showed them precursor exercises -- exercises which would help them build muscle before they moved on to optimized ones. "You have to work your muscles almost every day, and you have to practice the motions until you develop muscle memory. Kirigakure taijutsu focuses a lot on flexibility, so that's where we're going to start, training your flexibility until you can move like water."

Noburu nodded, but Haruki arched a brow. "If it's all about flexibility," he grunted while Sayaka corrected his stance, "how come you have muscles like that?"

It wasn't often that the boys saw her without her heavy jacket. She'd taken it off and just rocked her shirt and flak jacket to show off her guns. "I need muscles in my line of work, trap supplies and armor are heavy." When she finished correcting Haruki, she flexed one arm to let the boys stare with envy. "All this strength doesn't take away from my flexibility either, it just makes it more dangerous. And if you guys join a gym and work real hard, maybe your muscles will be a third this developed by the time you're my age."

"C'mon Princess, we gotta work to catch up!" Noburu began his routine with gusto before Sayaka shook her finger at him. "Huh?"

"Speed comes with practice," she emphasized. "Right now focus on doing it right, doing it without pain, and doing it the same way every time." She patted her fellow baldy on the head, and let him try again.

When she turned away from the boys to start her own exercise routine, she saw Raiga-sensei with a sour expression on his face on the porch. He gestured her over, and she approached quietly. Together they walked out of the boy's hearing range.

"Sensei, I know you're supposed to be handling our training," she started but was stopped by Raiga who held a hand up.

"That's not what this is about," Raiga-sensei said. "Keeping them busy is honestly for the best right now. You're a chunin of the Hidden Mist, you're entitled to this news." Raiga crossed his arms and sighed. "We just got the numbers back on how much of the forces on Ouza survived to retreat to Nagi. The projections for the war have officially turned against us."

That thought hit her like a punch in the gut. It'd been in the back of her mind, the possibility of losing, but she never thought it'd actually happened. The Mizukage had been so strong, if it looked like they'd lose surely he'd take the field and sort it out…!

"And word has begun to spread -- the rebels have hired Konoha ninja to support them. We're confronted with a serious topic of discussion that I don't think the boys are capable of treating with the gravity it requires." The jounin Swordsman looked down at her and raised his eyebrow. "We're on the losing side of this war, it looks like. Do we remain so, or do we jump ship?"

"Is… are you being serious?" Her sensei had just proposed desertion with her. Her sensei had just proposed treason with her. Her sensei had just asked her if she wanted to rebel. Sayaka's heart pounded, she remembered how Raiga had been dispassionate about the treatment Sojiro and Yusuke-sensei's families would get for playing at rebellion -- he'd asked her if she wanted to visit that on her family? "You can't be serious."

"I can. I'm not Noburu." Raiga's face was neutral. "The side we're on right now isn't going to win. Are you prepared for what happens if we lose?"

If they lost, then the rebels would kill them all. Kiri had been the instruments of the daimyo's expansion -- they wouldn't look kindly on the soldiers of their enemies. The village would burn.

"Our oaths are to Kirigakure first and foremost." Raiga leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. "The Mizukage, Water Country, the daimyo -- those are all secondary. The First Mizukage envisioned a future where our leaders would betray the village as a whole for their own benefit."

Her breathing began to become ragged, she felt like she had to run, had to be somewhere else -- but there was nowhere to go. "What… what do we do?"

"That's a good question." Raiga opened his eyes and looked at her -- he looked exhausted. "When you know you'll lose the battle, you withdraw. When you know you'll lose the war, you…?"

"Surrender." The very thought chilled her to the bone.

"Indeed. Do you think we should surrender, and hope the rebels are merciful?"

"I… Raiga-sensei, I'm not -- "

"You are a chunin of the Hidden Mist." Raiga's tone was sharp, but not angry. "You are entrusted to lead missions, and make tactical decisions. If you don't want to make a decision, turn in your flak jacket."

That's not fair, I didn't do anything wrong, she shouted in her head. But unwilling to let go of her success, she took a deep breath. "We should withdraw."

Raiga arched a brow. "Oh? You think we can still win if we fall back to Kirigakure?"

"No. Kirigakure's a ghost town -- we can't defend it even with the home guard." She reached for any and all justification she could, rather than renege on her position. She'd realized she'd misspoke the moment the word left her mouth, she'd meant surrender. But she remembered how Raiga-sensei had been in regards to indecision. Even if it was a bad decision, he'd want her to stick with it. "You've said it yourself -- Fujioka is a vital point of defense for us -- without it, Kirigakure won't receive any warning if Nadeshiko is attacked. Or Nadeshiko could join the rebels -- I don't know. This place is going to be hit by the rebels. We need to make sure we're not here when it does."

"I see." Raiga offered no criticism or judgement. "You made a decision. Let's see if you follow through when the enemy arrives." With that done, the jounin turned and left with no further explanation.

Any sense of security she'd had with Raiga-sensei had been utterly destroyed. With her heart still going a mile a minute in her chest, she went back to the boys to tell them to keep exercising on their own while she went and had a panic attack.

Perhaps honesty wasn't the best policy at that moment, but she didn't feel like lying in any way except down with a pillow over her head.

--

Third Mizukage

It wasn't often that Ryukotsusei had to be lectured. His teacher had praised him for learning quickly. His teammate, the Second Mizukage, had criticized him for being a know-it-all. And Ryukotsusei had been Mizukage for so long, no one had the chance to talk down to him. With that in mind, he found it surprisingly difficult to not snap Takashi's neck when the daimyo's man relayed their lord's displeasure.

"Unbelievable! The mere mention of foreign intervention drives our forces into disarray? The very idea of facing competent soldiers, and you have our troops run?! The daimyo is displeased, borderline infuriated. His heartland is at risk -- and your shinobi didn't even have the sense to destroy the bridge between Nagi and Ouza!" The daimyo's man fanned himself as he paced in the Mizukage's office. "And -- now our generals predict a loss?! They advise us to sue for peace?! To quote the daimyo -- the word 'failure' doesn't begin to describe your handling of this affair!"

One of those generals, a member of the daimyo's regular armed forces, had been executed for saying such things. It had surprised everyone when a second repeated it immediately after.

Ryukotsusei scoffed. "They are an army of foot caste and turncoats. If need be, I will take the field myself and lay them to waste."

Takashi fanned himself quickly and scowled. "The daimyo is not convinced of that. He is not convinced you're up to the task of retaking his wayward colonies. There is talk in the capital about the need for a Fourth Mizukage."

A sudden flood of killing intent flooded the room. The walls and windows frosted over rapidly. Takashi's breaths came out in puffs, as if he'd walked into a freezer. Ice cracked as it grew outward from Ryukotsusei's hands on the desk.

"Is that so?" The Third's voice was glacial in its coldness. "Perhaps I should do as the generals advise, and sue for peace. After all -- it isn't my head they aim to mount on a pike. Perhaps you should remind the daimyo of whom the rebels are rebelling against."

With the Mizukage's office colder than Snow Country, Takashi began to shiver quickly and violently. "N-n-now, Lord Mizukage, this threat display is n-not going to help your case." Despite the cold, the daimyo's man remained defiant. "This is-s not about your s-trength, but about your ability to lead. Your shinobi hate you, and you've isolated your army with those foolish orders to fall back to Nagi. You've never been on the defens-ive before -- and it s-shows."

Ryukotsusei thought he'd gone mad for a second. He'd released killing intent and turned his office into a freezer, and the toady continued to talk back. People had died for less in his village. He moved to stand and found that he stumbled when he did. The Mizukage glanced at the leg which had given him issue, and noticed how he had to put actual effort into freezing the room. Before he could do more with less effort, to impose his will.

He caught his reflection in the frosted window and saw again how old he'd become. How his hair had greyed and the wrinkles on his face deepened. He'd never felt weakened by age before that moment.

But like hell he'd let the civilian see him afraid of his mortality for the first time in decades. "If the daimyo is uncertain about my ability to lead, I will go and take the fight to Kousuke myself."

The ice around them began to melt, and Takashi raised his eyebrow. "No," he said, soft. "I don't think you will. I think the daimyo is correct -- and it is time you were replaced." He turned to leave. "I will send word to him, and we will compile a list of likely candida -- "

Ice took shape in Ryukotsusei's hand and a frozen kunai landed in Takashi's head, in the brainstem. The corpse hit the ground and spasmed while Ryukotsusei calmly walked to his door. He opened it and stepped out into his lobby, where Takashi's secretary and guards waited for him to emerge.

His form flickered, and he appeared at the door to his lobby as the bodies began to fall, a spike of ice in their necks.

"Have someone clean this up," he casually told his ANBU captain as he left to prepare to go to war again.

He would not be the first Mizukage to be removed from his role. He'd built the village up too high to be brought low due to incompetence.

--

Third Hokage.

"I daresay we're watching Kirigakure and Water Country as a whole break apart," one of Hiruzen's ANBU escorts, Pig, commented as they looked over intel they had intercepted. "Even their own generals say they're likely to lose, and they should sue for peace."

They sailed through Water Country's wintery sea on a fishing boat 'kindly donated' by a loyalist fisherman. While another ANBU, Swan, crewed the boat via shadow clones, the others and Hiruzen put together a plan in the hold.

"Do you want to wait before they actually sue for peace, and assassinate the daimyo then?" Owl, the medical ninja of the unit, spoke up.

Hiruzen looked over the collected intel while he smoked on his pipe and fought back a smile. The gods smiled on revenge -- both the rebel's, and his own. "If we leave them too long, they might recover. Ryukotsusei might take the field, and we don't know how the monk's skills bear out against the Two-Faced Dragon's. Kiri seems like it's on the precipice of outright dissolution, with their army out of position." He took a long drag on his pipe and let out a cloud of smoke through his nose. "Giving them a helpful push seems in order."

"If we hit Fujioka, then we'll run the risk of being sandwiched between their garrison and any reinforcements Nadeshiko is able to send," Pig added. They pointed to the village of kunoichi on the map. "Their admittance to the empire Water Country tried to grow is tenuous, they were able to remain autonomous to a degree."

"On the other hand -- only one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist is stationed in Kirigakure's home defense forces." Owl tapped a person-of-interest file they'd acquired. "And they're moving a sizable portion of that defense force to Fujioka to respond to any attacks by the rebels."

"If something were to happen to Fujioka…," Hiruzen mused. "Ryukotsusei likely wouldn't be able to leave Kirigakure even if he wanted to. He'd face a mutiny among his jounin."

"All twelve of them."

That made the Hokage chuckle. "Now now," he waved his hand at the ANBU in a chiding manner. "Ryukotsusei was once a terrifying tactician, and is still likely to be a deadly opponent in his old age. Let's be respectful and say he has thirteen." They had a good laugh for a moment, then Hiruzen put on his serious face. He bent over and looked over the map with a critical eye. "If we attack the castle, and Ryukotsusei is in motion, he'll divert to it because losing that will be his death knell."

"...If he is on the move," Pig started, then tapped Kirigakure on the map. "We could ambush him in transit. His bodyguard detail is probably equal or less in number to us, and they've been on edge from the war for years at this point." Pig traced his finger across probable routes, given what they knew of the terrain. "And Ryukotsusei might be a deadly enemy, but he's a ninjutsu specialist -- which feels the effects of age the most keenly."

"Fighting and killing him in the woods so his corpse would be eaten by wolves would be so utterly disrespectful," Hiruzen chided Pig playfully. "We have to do it, now. You're supposed to save your brilliant ideas for the end, Pig."

The ANBU bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Lord Hokage, I will allow less brilliant ideas to be fielded first next time."

"See that you do," Hiruzen once more put on his serious face and tapped the big island on the map. "We go ashore, and we watch for Ryukotsusei's approach. If he doesn't leave his village, we move onto objective A." He tapped the other side of the big island, where the capital city was. And the daimyo.

--

Rebellious Monk Kousuke.

Let it never be said that the Hidden Mist lacked in cruelty. After their retreat was certain, and the bridge secured on the Ouza side, a quick damage report was drawn up for Ouza as a whole. It didn't turn out well.

Kousuke sat cross-legged in the command tent while he flipped through pages of damage, surrounded by his lieutenants and allies. Every page was a new horror. Finally, he came to the terrible conclusion.

Solemn, he flipped the report closed and laid it on his lap. "The daimyo of Alcohol Country is dead, as are all the noble families which lived in or around the capital." One of his lieutenants, who came from Ouza and Nagi, punched one of the tent's posts in his rage. "Sake Town, capital city of Alcohol Country, has been destroyed by paper bombs. The loyalists burned everything as they retreated -- every farm they could find, every village they saw. Nagi will undoubtedly suffer the same fate when they withdraw to Nadeshiko on our next push."

Kousuke opened the report to look at the cadavers they'd found. Slit throats, mostly. He committed their faces to memory, so that he could pray for them to find peace in the next life.

"Without the daimyo and the noble families in the capital… without the capital itself...," Tsuneo, their record keeper, announced with a shaking hand on his pencil. "And without the northern farms, it is projected that we will see widespread famine as winter gets worse."

Shabadaba, a short and portly man with the official sash of Moon Country diplomats, stood from his seat to address the group. "My King has commanded me to order our ships to go out and purchase food from anywhere and everywhere it is available to sell. He fears that the south of Ouza will turn to piracy as they have done every time winter is harsh."

Kousuke's Alcohol Country lieutenant had to be restrained, lest he attack Shabadaba for such a harsh jab so soon after bad news. Shabadaba clearly wished he hadn't been asked to serve as Moon Country's envoy, though it didn't justify his behavior.

The monk narrowed his eyes at the man, and the Moon Country diplomat bowed his head. "We appreciate the help, Lord Shabadaba. Moon Country has my deepest gratitude for however it can ease Ouza's suffering."

"Sea Country is renowned for their gracious manners, and you exemplify it Kousuke." Shabadaba grinned at the monk's irate lieutenant, and sat down.

"That brings me to an uncomfortable line of thinking." Kousuke folded his staff over the top of the report and began to count off on his fingers. "Alcohol Country's daimyo is dead -- and everyone who could replace him is dead. Water Country's daimyo will soon be dead, as will anyone who can replace him -- thanks to our friend's ninja hire."

Shabadaba grinned wide, slightly unhinged.

"When this is done, there will be a power vacuum. Nadeshiko never had ambitions to rule beyond their island, and if we leave so many people in a vacuum with no government to look after them this region will rapidly devolve back into the chaos of the warring states." He turned to look at Tsuneo. "Do any of the surrounding daimyo have blood relations to the Water of Alcohol daimyo?"

The secretary tapped his pencil against his face as he considered. "Well… the current King of Moon Country was cousins with the Alcohol Country daimyo. It's… flimsy, but the people might accept being ruled by a branch of the Tsuki clan."

"Prince Michiru is currently only two years old," Shabadaba informed the group. "And the King has no siblings. Though perhaps if one of the surviving noble families have a daughter of appropriate age…?" The diplomat raised one fine eyebrow.

Kousuke nodded, his face grim.

Shabadaba grinned like a hungry crocodile. "Then I will sing this song to my King, and we'll see what can be done."

The monk felt dirty for what he'd just done. But the cruelty of Kiri had forced their hand. "That brings us back to Water Country…."

"And unfortunately," Tsuneo muttered, clearly uncomfortable, "the closest relationship that… boy had was with Whirlpool Country."

Silence stretched out between the lieutenants, as they waited for Kousuke to speak. The monk closed his eyes in thought. The citizens of Water Country were just as much a victim of Kirigakure and the daimyo as anyone -- they would bear a stigma for generations for what their leaders had done. Leaving them to the mercies of a cruel monster would undo the call to justice which had begun the rebellion. As a jinchuuriki, he couldn't rule himself.

"Perhaps… we could try to set up a marriage between the daimyo of Honey Country," Kousuke said as he envisioned a map in his head, "and the daimyo of Noodle Country. They lie on either side of Water Country, and they could conjoin their lands with Water Country as a gift."

He didn't like it, even as his lieutenants moved to examine maps, and write letters of courtly quality to two foreign countries. He didn't like treating land and the people who lived there like possessions to be given away. But the relentless cruelty of his enemies made no other solution viable.

The one saving grace is that everyone agreed what they would call the resulting nation out of Noodles, Honey, and Water: Soup Country.

---

To clarify, Nagi and Ouza Islands together make Alcohol Country. Here is a map which I've been using for the story, for y'all's convenience.

Also, yes, Ryukotsusei is of the Yuki clan.

 

[Chairtastic]

Ch 10: Kage Match

---

Genin Fujimoto.

A couple days after Haruki and Sayaka started teaching Noburu directly, the garrison arrived. Dozens of chunin and genin, with a pair of jounin commanders all came to man the castle and keep a watch for rebels.

Things became way more noisy, way more crowded, and a lot more familiar than Haruki was comfortable with. He hadn't anticipated needing to fight for the use of the laundry machines.

"Princess," Noburu said from his bunk below Haruki's, "you can literally turn water into a boiling cloud of steamy death. If folks make comments about your wardrobe, murder is an option."

Haruki leaned over the edge of his bunk to look down at Noburu. "You need to be at least chunin to murder people for disrespecting you, you know that."

Noburu didn't look up from his book. 'An idiot's guide to medical ninjutsu', brought with the garrison's supplies. "Not if they don't find the body. I know how to handle that -- just bring the corpses to me, Princess."

"That's so thoughtful." Haruki's tone was sardonic. "But I can dispose of bodies on my own, thank you."

"Suit yourself." Noburu flipped the page on his book. "I guess all that time in medical families paid off -- all I really need from this is the chakra control exercises and the scalpel jutsu."

"Is… your mother a nurse or something?" Haruki had heard weird things from Sayaka about what Noburu had said to her. Things like how he had seen the nine-tailed fox demon's jinchuuriki do a jutsu and copied it.

"No, she's a chef. But, spoiler warning," Noburu leaned toward Haruki's head on the top bunk, "reincarnation is real as it turns out."

Haruki paused when he heard that, and almost fell out of his bunk when he fully processed it. "Wait, what?!"

"Reincarnation. S'real. Hope you've been counting your karma."

"Can you two keep it down?!" Another genin from a row of bunks over shouted. "People are trying to sleep!"

"Well, try harder!"

Haruki glanced down at Noburu just before he extinguished the candle mounted on their bedpost. He saw the genin's eyes turn pale and bulge the veins around it -- so he could see in the dark, presumably. He seemed keen to finish his book.

As if he could see Haruki watching him -- with the Byakugan, he probably could -- Noburu pointed at the book, then tapped the side of his jaw and mouthed the word 'dental repair'.

The Fujimoto heir scurried back into bed, and tried to sleep rather than entertain the idea of Noburu working on his teeth in the future.

He, along with everyone in the castle, was woken up later in the night to the cry of a whale which preceded an earthquake.

--

Third Mizukage.

Before he had been a shinobi, Ryukotsusei had been a samurai in the service of the man who would become the First Mizukage. The art of chakra manipulation wasn't all that difficult to grasp when he began to study the art of shinobi. There was merely a lot less ceremony.

When he'd gone to put on his armor, it didn't fit. When he'd gone to take up his sword, he found he couldn't quite remember how it had felt in his hands. He'd been born and raised before the villages were formed, and he'd grown soft enough that his sword was no longer part of his arm. But if he didn't go with his armor, he definitely had to bring his sword.

Ryukotsusei emerged from Kirigakure dressed like he had in his younger days. Pin-striped arm and leg warmers, the latter had built-in sandals, a black jinbei, and a white haori over the top. He carried no visible ninja equipment other than the ice-bombs mixed into his hair and his sword -- it's long white ribbon fluttered behind him. It made him stand out among the cloaked and masked Anbu who went with him.

It was snowing, soft and gentle. A good omen for him, but a poor one for his enemies.

The grey-cloaked commander of his Anbu escorts pulled back to run beside him. "Lord Mizukage…."

"I see them," Ryukotsusei muttered. "And sense them. Thirty seconds, then we engage." The Konoha ninja his enemy had hired showed their hand too early -- an Anbu unit to assassinate a Kage? Ryukotsusei would have to teach Hiruzen respect when they next met on the battlefield. Maybe he'd learn the names of the shinobi sent to kill him, and taunt Hiruzen with the knowledge. The implications would speak for themselves.

Thirty seconds came and went, then as one the Mist ninja formed handseals and called out -- "Hidden Mist jutsu!"

A fog bank enveloped the forest, even as the snow continued to fall. Anbu split off from the Mizukage as he drew the snow-white blade he'd brought with him.

A fish-masked Anbu parted the mist and threw a shuriken at the Mizukage -- but even as it flew the ninja made hand seals. Where there had been one shuriken, suddenly there were hundreds.

Almost bored to tears, Ryukotsusei allowed the shuriken to pass around him -- when one struck him at last, he vanished in a puff of smoke and left a ball of ice in its place. Ryukotsusei formed handseals with his free hand while he moved.

Each snowflake is a small bit of ice, his father had taught him. And we can fly through ice like air. Ryukotsusei flitted between snowflakes until he passed by one behind the Leaf Anbu. Suddenly, he emerged and thrust his snow-white sword into the enemy. When he struck, the Anbu vanished in smoke and left a tree branch in his place. Quicker than a cut could bleed, Ryukotsusei vanished into another snowflake and flitted between them until he found his target again.

His ninja were silent, the use of chakra softened their landings to where they generated no sound. However, the clash of steel on steel echoed through the mist.

His attack on the fish-masked Anbu continued until the steel of his white sword met a black adamantine staff capped in gold at both end. Ryukotsusei's eyes narrowed. "Hello, Hiruzen," one Kage greeted the other. "Welcome to Water Country."

"The warmth of your hospitality makes me forget it's winter," Hiruzen answered behind his Anbu mask. The two Kage split apart as a fuma shuriken flew through the air at where they had been. Hiruzen spun his staff around, and it grew with each rotation -- until it tore through trees and slammed one foolish Anbu to the ground as it passed.

Ryukotsusei vanished into the snowfall and emerged high in the sky above. With one hand he formed seals and molded chakra. "Ice release: senbon hail." All around him snowflakes paused and lengthened into deadly needles before they fell to Earth at speed. He'd been so far above them that none of the Anbu or Sarutobi had heard which jutsu he used -- but it covered such a wide range that they felt its activation.

One of mine down, the Mizukage thought to himself, I have to even the numbers.

While the ice senbon fell to Earth and dug into the snow or the trees, Ryukotsusei flitted between them. A novice would need full mirrors to use the Demonic Reflection technique, but with practice the amount of ice needed grew smaller and smaller.

Ryukotsusei emerged from a senbon in the same motion he swung his sword upwards. The pig-masked Anbu backflipped away, and thought he had escaped perhaps. The long ribbon that fluttered from the hilt of Ryukotsusei's sword lashed out suddenly, and wrapped around the Anbu's neck. Before the man could produce a kunai to cut free, Ryukotsusei brought the pommel of his blade down as the ribbon pulled the Anbu up. The strike shattered his mask, and exposed his face.

All the Mizukage had to do then was blow. His icy chakra mixed with the moisture in the air and froze the man's face solid. His body spasmed and thrashed a moment as the frigid cold worked through to the Anbu's brain, and then stopped. Quickly as he'd arrived, Ryukotsusei vanished into the ice again. The Anbu's body fell down to the forest floor.

Ryukotsusei stepped out of the ice and leaned on the trunk of a tree for a moment. His breath came out in frosty clouds, his heart beat so loud it rattled his ears. He took a deep breath and reached to the ice on the branch he rested on, and bade it stretch to become a spike which almost skewered Sarutobi in the neck as the Hokage flew in for an attack.

A puff of wind chakra from the Hokage stopped his forward momentum and saved his life. He spun his staff to build momentum, and the two Kage's weapons crashed. Sparks flew, steel on adamant rang out. They fought on the branch for thirty-seconds, walking sideways and upside down around it as the Hokage's heavy strikes forced Ryukotsusei back.

In a fight of muscle on muscle, he wins. Ryukotsusei wisely flitted into a snowflake and retreated again. Moments later, a tongue of fire fifty feet long passed through where he'd been and tore a tunnel through snow and mist. In his escape he passed by an Anbu from each side locked in a taijutsu battle. Without a moment's hesitation the Mizukage took two ice bombs from his hair and threw them, attached to senbons, at the pair. Seconds later two corpses were impaled on tree-like ice-spikes that had grown from where the bombs had impacted.

The literal second he was out of the ice, Sarutobi was on top of him again with his staff poised to strike. Ryukotsusei blocked his staff and flitted to the snowflake behind him for a rear attack. Sarutobi moved his staff to block, so Ryukotsusei flitted again. From an outsider's perspective it looked like Ryukotsusei would vanish and reappear only for the Hokage to block his attack. He just needed one opening.

Sarutobi, as it so happened, needed one opening too. He deflected Ryukotsusei's attack, and moved his staff so that the gold-capped end pointed directly into the Mizukage's abdomen.

There was a moment of silent horror as Ryukotsusei realized what was about to happen, and Sarutobi had the gall to wink at him. The next moment, the adamantine staff exploded in length and drove Ryukotsusei through the air, and the trees, and a rocky hill, and then through more air until it stopped. The Mizukage, battered and in terrible pain continued to fly for a moment before he landed in the snow and rolled. He stopped partially off a cliff. One arm hung downward, and one eye looked down at the sea. While the Mizukage came back to his senses, he heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow. With the hand that hung down, Ryukotsusei formed hand seals.

"Goodbye Ryukotsusei," Sarutobi said, solemn.

"I believe it is customary to grant the condemned their final words?" The Mizukage continued to form seals. When he sensed no motion from Sarutobi, he took his breath and spoke. "You really are too soft-hearted for this work, Hiruzen."

When the seals were completed, the chakra was released. Hiruzen realized his peril but was given insufficient time to react. A horned baleen whale made of ice lept from the sea and flopped onto the cliff-face while Ryukotsusei pulled himself over the edge. As he fell, he saw the land shake from the impact. His white sword's ribbon wrapped around his arm, and the blade moved to dig itself into the cliff-face as he fell.

The ice whale broke apart and fell to pieces around Ryukotsusei, but he had used so much chakra he soon passed out.

--

Jounin Kurosuki.

Raiga emerged onto the scene of a showdown -- but between whom and who had survived? The jounin brought with the garrison and himself fanned out and scoured the area from the treeline to the shore. All they could find was a mass of ice that had been in the shape of a horned baleen whale before it crumbled.

Until he looked over the edge of the cliff and saw the Mizukage hanging from a sword embedded in the cliff face. Raiga could tell he was chakra exhausted, he'd barely come out of whatever fight he'd been in, and he was totally defenseless.

Even still, none dared get close.

Raiga knew the mood of the home guard like it was his own -- most of the time, it effectively was. Ryukotsusei had done nothing but make the war worse, especially now that he'd at best tied a fight. The Mizukage would be out of commission for a long, long time. Time they frankly didn't have.

"We're going to move into the forest now, commander," one of the jounin told him over the radio. "We'll let you know if we find anything, out"

Over the radio, the Swordsman replied. "Roger. Let me know if you find any bodies." Raiga, wielder of Kiba, drew his blades and stepped onto the cliff face. With the wall-walking technique, he swung ninety degrees no problem. He couldn't stomach indecision.

What are you doing, he asked himself.

"What's best for the village," he muttered.

Lightning gathered around the Kiba twin blades as he approached. Those who wielded Kiba had unique funerals -- their bodies were incinerated, turned to ash by the power of the weapon. No stone cold tombs for them, only the lightning's warm embrace.

Raiga Kurosuki walked down the side of the cliff and looked at the unconscious form of the man who had caused decades worth of suffering. He made his decision.

Ashes fluttered away in the winds, lost among the snowfall.

--

Chunin Kanzaki.

She stood at attention with her genin teammates behind her, similarly at attention. Noburu even complied without back sass, a red flag that something serious would be discussed. They stood in Raiga's office while he rocked in his swivel chair and watched the sea's waves and the lake's stillness contrast through his window.

On his desk was a familiar white-bladed sword with a short and scorched ribbon attached to the hilt, half the blade was broken off. The Mizukage's weapon, fresh from battle.

"We found this at the site of a battle," Raiga explained, soft and distracted. He gestured limply at the sword. "No sign of the combatants or of the Mizukage anywhere. Sayaka, I want you to take command of the chunin and organize search parties."

"Yes, Raiga-sensei," she responded, and bowed.

"The sword was in the cliff face, so we can't ignore the possibility that he fell into the ocean. Haruki, Noburu, you two know how to water-walk, yes?"

"Yes, Raiga-sensei," they answered together. Noburu was never that respectful, something had gone wrong with the universe.

"Good. Gather all the genin who can do so as well and join Sayaka." The jounin rubbed his face, like he was tired. "I'm going to send a message to the Seven Swordsmen. In the absence of the Mizukage, we have to send someone back to the village to run things."

"Will…." Sayaka looked down at her feet for a second before she gathered her resolve and looked up again. "Will we sue for peace in the meantime, sir?"

"Not until a Fourth Mizukage is named, assuming the Third is dead. We still have to try and find him." Raiga returned his gaze to the sea. "Diplomacy is the purview of the Mizukage, you see. All of the surviving jounin have to determine candidates, and reach unanimous consent before we send the request to the daimyo."

"Right, we'll get to work right away sensei. Thank you for placing your trust in us." Sayaka turned to walk out of the office, and Haruki followed suit. But Noburu stayed in the pose of attention, unmoving. "Um, Noburu…?"

"Raiga-sensei hasn't dismissed us yet," the boy said, his eyes focused on their jounin sensei.

Sayaka frowned, glanced at Haruki, then at Raiga-sensei. Both of them looked befuddled -- but Noburu was right. She had just assumed a level of familiarity. Noburu showing respect was so jarring that Sayaka and Haruki automatically returned to their at attention poses.

"...At ease," Raiga said, bewildered on top of his tiredness. "Something up, Noburu?"

The boy relaxed from his at attention pose and put his hands behind his head. "Well, you're one of the Seven Swordsmen. The odds are good that you'll end up being the next Mizukage -- yeah?"

Sayaka's eyes widened, she imagined Haruki's did as well. But Raiga just slumped in his chair.

"I don't think so," he said, soft. "I'm only seventeen, and though I'm one of the Swordsmen I'm not sure I have it in me. But I'll be in the running, definitely." He blinked and turned his back to them entirely. "You're dismissed."

When they left their sensei's office, Haruki got all up in Noburu's personal space about his display earlier. "What was that, thrall? You wouldn't know respect if it slapped you into low Earth orbit! What gives?"

Sayaka couldn't say she didn't want to know too, but she remained quiet. If two people hounded him about it, Noburu was more likely to shut down rather than answer.

"You saw something last night, didn't you?"

That threw Sayaka for a loop, and she watched the two of them while they walked through the castle. "Huh?"

Noburu flicked Haruki on the nose. "Could you stop giving people hints? This isn't some mystery novel where we drop in-jokes about things we know all the time."

Haruki soothed the stinging pain in his poor nose before he fired back. "But you did! You saw something last night, after the jounin left!"

"You were supposed to go back to your bunks," Sayaka muttered. She'd been ordered to do the same, and with nothing to see through the windows she'd done so. It irked her that there had been something to see and she missed it.

"You should know how it is trying to tell us to do stuff by now," Noburu said over his shoulder to her. To Haruki he responded, "Christ, if it'll get you off my back -- yes, I saw something. No, I'm not telling you. No, I'm not giving hints. I'm not giving any ominous implications, or referencing anything you can research to figure out what I saw. You want to see neat things? Get better night vision!"

Sayaka pouted. Haruki pouted.

"If you two are going to pout all day instead of doing your jobs, I'm going to practice that magical palm medical jutsu on you instead of a fish. It'll leave a sunburn on you and it'll sting for days. Yeah, that's what I thought. Double time!"

---

In case you're wondering, yes. Tobirama developed the Hirashin after he saw what Ryukotsusei could do with Demonic Ice Mirrors and decided he needed to plagiarize it to hell and back. Thankfully, intellectual property laws don't exist in the Naruto universe. Yet.

Don't let Noburu be your doctor, he finds the tf2 Medic to be a role model and that should be all I need to say.

...Turns out, the Byakugan can restrict its sphereical field of view to get longer distance in one direction. Funny, huh?