Chapter [NaN]

Eroninja

Despite the relatively early hour, Tsunade’s desk already looked as if it was losing the almost daily war against paperwork. A sad state of affairs since she had arrived at her office long before the sun had arisen. With her early arrival being mostly due to the nervousness that she was experiencing as a result of it having been roughly a day and a half since the end of the first round of the exams. Which if Ibiki was sticking to the time table that he had laid out for her meant his teams comprised of T and I members as well as the exam taker dropouts that he felt were still potentially worthy of advancement should be arriving in The Land of Secrets. Therefore, she believed it would at best be another day or two before he’d make his move on what he believed was a front for a secretive group called the Organization; which may be in some way tied to the Shadow Cabal. A group which they suspected was sponsoring many of the threats that the Shinobi Villages encountered. She suspected that he’d take the additional time to link up with any forces that he had already put in place to keep watch on the location in order to determine if it appeared that their unseen opponents had been tipped off of the incoming raid.

Her concern didn’t just stem from the idea that Ibiki’s attempt to maintain the secrecy of his operation may have failed, and so could result in the teams that he had assembled walking into an ambush. But, that even if the mission went well, there would be unforeseen consequences down the road. To help mitigate those consequences, the mission was intended to be an intel gathering raid, meaning that even if they caught the Organization flatfooted, and the location was a treasure trove of information. They’d at best have a handful of moments to gather every piece of meaningful intel that they could before escaping back to Konoha while attempting to leave no trace of who was behind the raid. An operation that could easily snowball into a disaster depending on the level of resistance that was encountered. However, it was a necessary step since Konoha had little to know contact with The Land of Secrets, and thus if it was learned that they had conducted a clandestine mission in their lands, it could result in an incident between it and the Land of Fire. Something which she could only imagine the Daimyo would love to lord over her the next time that he felt that she had overextended her authority, which she imagined he would certainly see this mission as having done just that. Not that she didn’t understand why he would feel that was the case, since it would likely fall to his own diplomatic corps to handle the fallout, as failure would likely lead to the Land of Fire needing to make concessions. Which didn’t even take into consideration the potential fallout that she would potentially see within the alliance should they get word of the mission. Still, it was a gamble that had to be made, and so resolved to face the music, should it come to that, much as her lover had when he had decided to take the gamble of extracting Yugito from Kumo.

Her focus was pulled from future concerns as the door to her office opened, and Shizune stepped in. Who upon seeing her teacher already at her desk, gave her a pleased smile at seeing her already hard at work due to the pile of papers in her outbox. As her first apprentice approached, Tsunade spent a moment to study her. For a brief instant, she could understand why Sannomiya would have thought that Shizune’s recent change in appearance might be her desperately trying to attract a man. Changes such as having altered the kimono that she favored so that there were slits along the side so that as she walked her shapely legs would appear. Not to mention the mesh shirt that she had used to wear beneath it had been removed so that she could expose her moderate cleavage. The shirt wasn’t the only article of clothing that she had removed, as Tsunade imagined that if she asked her apprentice to lift up the front of her kimono, rather than a modest pair of panties, she’d be exposed to her delectable snatch. Which as it had been several days since it had last been stuffed by their shared lover, was probably as wet and ready for a hard pounding as her own or perhaps a quick tonguing. Tsunade began to daydream a bit as she imagined ordering her first apprentice to hop onto her desk and spread herself for her viewing and dining pleasure.

However, before it progressed too far, Shizune caused the vision to fade as she said, “Lady Tsunade are you alright?”

“Yes,” Tsunade said a little confused by the look of concern Shizune was gazing at her with, “Why do you ask?”

“Well, just for a moment,” Shizune said sounding a bit discomforted, “You kind of looked a bit like Jiraiya would when getting a bit girl crazed.”

“I beg your pardon,” Tsunade said sounding indigent at it being suggested that she’d look anything like her former teammate, especially when his gaze would grow lecherous.

Shizune giggled in amusement at her reaction. Yet as she came around her teacher’s desk her confident demeanor changed to a lustful one as she leaned down to whisper seductively into her teacher’s ear, “It’s okay Lady Tsunade. I’m glad you feel such lust for me, and if you finish all of your work today, I’ll gladly let you lick my dripping wet pussy, and will help you with your own until we can feel him in us again.”

“Right,” Tsunade said feeling a hunger awaken to finish her work in record time, “What’s on the docket?”

Shizune straightened, and Tsunade looking at her from out of the corner of her eye to see the lust had vanished once more to be replaced by the confident woman that she had become. Which led Tsunade to feel that Sannomiya might not be quite the ladies man that he thought he was, if he had missed that her change in appearance had been accompanied by a surge in her confidence. Although, she supposed that much as she had just been, he might have been distracted by her dazzling beauty as well.

Shizune’s demeanor changed to one of distaste as she mentioned the man that had just been on her mind, “I’ve been through Sannomiya’s files, and much as Inaho had surmised from her quick read through it. It does appear that he was planning to target Councilor Tsubaki. The photos that were in the file are of her husband, Iyashi. While the woman in the photos is Kaori.”

Tsunade frowned since they way her apprentice had said the name, led her to believe she was acquainted with the woman. Which immediately brought to mind a nurse that had been in her late twenties when she had first arrived to the village and had been attending to Rock Lee. She was a little surprised, having suspected that Iyashi would be more interested in a much younger woman. But, figured that Kaori despite being in her mid-thirties still had maintained her more youthful demeanor. Not to mention, she was rather stunned that the well liked, and friendly nurse would engage in such a scandalous affair. Which sparked a question, as she asked, “Do we have any idea as to how long this affair has been going on?”

“No,” Shizune said with a quick shake of her head, “Sannomiya wasn’t too interested in that. But, as I haven’t really noticed any recent changes in Kaori’s behavior. That plus the photos themselves, leave me to guess that it has probably been going on for a while. “

“Did the file give any indication as to how he planned to seduce Tsubaki?” Tsunade asked before clarifying, “Was he planning to leave her the photos, and then try to step in to sweep her off her feet?”

Again Shizune replied with a negative shake of her head, as she answered, “I do not think so. The photos were rather… explicit. They make it clear that they had taken separate paths to the hotel. Kaori had arrived first, while Iyashi entered through the window that she had opened. Assuming this was how they usually met up, my guess is that Sannomiya noticed his perhaps arriving late to his home while looking into Iyashi one night, and so he determined that he was likely off cheating. But, it would probably be difficult to tail him, and once her eventually found out it was with Kaori, he probably tailed her to one of their rendezvous.”

Tsunade nodded also figuring that as Kaori was a civilian, it would have been much easier for Iyashi to appear to be heading off in a separate direction before doubling back to where they were planning to meet. Which led her to ask, “Were the photos of just one encounter?”

“Yes,” Shizune replied, but having an idea of what her Village’s leader was interested in added, “Although, it was apparent that he had followed them several times previously. It doesn’t appear that they had a usual meeting spot. I’m guessing that, Sannomiya had perhaps hoped that at the very least there would be a pattern that he could discern and perhaps arrange a crossing of their paths. After all, the pictures themselves would make it clear that a shinobi was behind it.”

Tsunade nodded since most cameras such as those used to take the photos for the shinobi ID’s were based on rather old technology. Thus it was rather difficult to imagine that Iyashi even in the throes of passion would miss someone setting up the tripoded device and the flash of the gunpower that was required. Let alone for several such photos to be taken. But, shinobi had developed a much smaller device capable of taking pictures in the dark to aid in their espionage work. But, the technology was still rather new meaning the cameras themselves and the film itself was extremely expensive. Not exactly something someone could just drop in a mailbox, and not have the recipient immediately suspecting that the one doing so intended to blackmail them, rather than being just a concerned passerby.

Believing she was seeing the overall plan that Sannomiya had instore for the Head Councilor of the Civilian Council, she stated, “I take it you believe that Sannomiya intended to enter into Tsubaki life in a somewhat harmless manner, and then after getting her suitably interested would try to arrange for them to cross their path after Iyashi and Kaori had finished.” She frowned as she finished, not needing to look back over her shoulder to see Shizune shaking her head, as she followed up saying, “No, now that I say it aloud, that would be rather difficult to achieve as unless Iyashi only lasted a predictable length of time, he’d probably have a hard time explaining to Tsubaki why they were hanging out outside some love hotel.”

Shizune inclined her head to this as she added, “It isn’t outside the realm of possibility, if he could perhaps figure out where they were going to meet. There may have been a drinking establishment which might have allowed him to try and seduce Tsubaki, and use their appearing from it as a means to push her into sleeping with him. But, the photos would at least seem to indicate that Iyashi and Kaori were as cautious when leaving as they had been to get the room.”

Tsunade sighed, before continuing, “Plus, while he may have entered a window this time around. Depending on the location, they probably couldn’t rely on that trick.” Shizune just nodded as the file seemed to indicate that was the case as well.

Figuring that it probably didn’t matter, since soon Tsubaki would probably be aware of the truth that she had been targeted, she instead asked, “The camera that he used is extremely expensive, and so I’m assuming that much like our own, the other shinobi villages would tend to keep track of them. That means he probably needed to get it from the source, the black market, or stole it, even possibly from our own espionage department. The last would likely have been reported at some point, but if it was the first two then he’d need to have an exorbitant amount of cash on hand.”

“The thought occurred to me as well,” Shizune stated, “I already checked with the Village Quartermaster. There’s been no recent report of a camera not being returned or claimed to be lost while Sannomiya was active. There was a case of one that ended being lost by a shinobi. However its village assigned markings do not match the one that was found in Sannomiya’s possession. Yet, as he was often used for missions where he was required to seduce a target to gain access to valuable intel, it might be that he crossed paths with someone on a similar such mission and managed to steal their equipment. Unfortunately, as the manufacturer does not mark the camera with a serial number, it would be rather pointless to reach out to them to try and backtrack who purchased the camera.”

Tsunade nodded along at first, but paused since it occurred to her that while the camera had a sole manufacturer that would sell it to anyone that had the money. It was very careful to remove any markings on the components in order to prevent anyone being able to backtrack them to their various suppliers. A countermeasure to prevent their clients from trying to source the components themselves to build their own. Thus allowing them to charge as much as they wanted for the cameras. However, even should a village succeed in doing so, it would probably avail them little as the truly valuable component was the film. This was a proprietary technology to the company and specially treated to allow it to take pictures in almost pitch darkness without a flash. So, even should a client manage to backwards engineer themselves a camera. Should the company discover this fact, they’d quickly find themselves blacklisted from procuring the film. Leaving the unlucky client one option, to go through the black-market making it all the more costlier to procure.

Figuring the film was what truly made the camera valuable, and some small time bar owner having rolls of it may pique the company’s interest into aiding their investigation, she suggested, “Perhaps not as pointless as it would at first appear. Reach out to them, but rather than focusing on them providing information about the camera, point out that he had several unused film cartridges. Since we feel that he shouldn’t be in a financial position to afford them, we’re concerned that someone may be flooding the market with some knockoffs.”

Shizune frowned not quite seeing what Tsunade felt doing so would achieve so asked, “If that was truly the case, wouldn’t we be rather glad? It would be the end of their monopoly.”

“That would indeed be the case,” Tsunade replied, “But, as I’ve yet to be made aware of the fact, and the last time I had to sign an acquisition form to buy more the prices had gone up. If someone was flooding the market with a knockoff, we do not appear to be benefitting so it is just the type of move a village would pull if they thought their rivals were.”

With a burst of understanding, Shizune said, “So, you believe at the very least such news should force them to look into the matter themselves. But, I’m not sure that we would have any assets in place to determine if they find anything.”

The Hokage gave a dismissive shrug, before responding, “Let’s just say it is a longshot, that may potentially payoff. If they don’t find anything, then nothing is really lost. As at the very least they may tell us as much after concluding their own investigation. Making it a thread that our own investigators will not need to waste time on. Perhaps they will determine that they have an internal problem, and reach out for more details to help their own investigation into the matter along. Which would tell us that there is something there worth pursuing, and also give us a chance to share information. At the very least, if say Sannomiya blackmailed one of their female executives into giving him the film and camera. Then it would tell us that this blackmail operation he appears to have been setting up was under his own incentive. As opposed to some foreign influence sponsoring him to start a spy ring.” Sitting back in her chair, she crossed her legs while adding, “Plus, if he did procure the camera and film through such means then it would at least give us something concrete to hold him on. As unless one of the women that he filmed himself sleeping with steps forward to say that he has blackmailed her, all we have to charge him with is conspiracy to blackmail. But, at present it looks like everything we have is circumstantial. Even a mediocre lawyer could easily poke a hole in any case that we bring by saying that he was just very methodical in how he went about seducing women.”

Shizune nodded in agreement, but before she could add more there were several knocks that emanated from her office’s door. Tsunade frowned, as to her knowledge, she was not expected to be hosting an meetings that morning. She looked back towards Shizune, who’s face clearly showed the distaste that she harbored for the person on the other side before explaining to Tsunade who it was she had sent a runner for.

*********

Suzume felt rather nervous as she lowered her hand after knocking on the Hokage’s door, having been alerted by a genin runner that she had been summoned. The reason for her nerves, was that she was afraid that due to the official lines of communication that had been used, whatever reason the Hokage had summoned her was tied to her official duties, and not tied to the Corruptor that she was supporting. As such, Suzume feared that the Hokage intended to silence her by assigning her some mission that would give another of the women corrupted by Naruto a chance to eliminate the loose-end that she had become. Granted, despite her negative feelings for him, she did believe that Naruto at the very least would be against the idea, but as Yuugao’s actions had shown her, not all of the women that he had control over were above acting in what they perceived to be his best interests. A feeling that intensified as after receiving permission to enter, she found the Hokage studying her with her face being unreadable due to it being hidden behind her hands, which were locked together as she rested her elbows on her desk. However, Shizune’s face was readable enough as it radiated contempt and a smoldering anger.

Suzume felt a slight charge on the back of her neck, where she reasoned some sort of seal had been placed likely when she had first been corrupted herself, which perhaps outside of tracking her movements, also acted as a reinforcement for whatever commands that she had been given which were keeping her from spilling Naruto’s secrets to any who would listen. She could only guess that this was the case, as she had tried to cause the seal to appear in order to study it. Yet regardless of the techniques that she had tried it refused to reveal itself Yet, even if she hadn’t possessed prior knowledge that both women had been corrupted by Naruto, the charge that she had just felt would have indicated to her that she was now free to speak openly on the matter.

Although, tempted to display her own contempt for the pair of women that she felt had sold out their gender for a mere taste of pleasure, she kept her tone neutral as she said, “You sent for me,” since she was more than aware that the woman before her could simply assign her some sort of suicide mission if she became too troublesome. One the woman could even apparently program her to fail, leaving her free to report to her Master that she had tragically died in service to the village.

Tsunade didn’t respond, as instead it was Shizune who said, “Actually it was me. I’m not sure if you heard but a few nights ago there was an incident in the Entertainment District.”

Suzume shook her head in the negative as she stated, “It’s the first that I’m hearing about it. I haven’t really been feeling up to any companionship lately.” She studied the two women’s faces, wondering if Sakura had revealed to them about her inability to achieve release since having been corrupted by Naruto.

However, it didn’t appear to be the case, as Shizune let her comment slide in favor of stating, “Well, the reason that I asked for you to meet with us is because the incident centered around a man that you appear to be rather intimate with. Does the name Sannomiya ring a bell for you?”

Suzume frowned, before responding somewhat challenging, “You obviously know that it does. So can you stop dancing around why you summoned me to arrive at the point?”

Yet, rather than Shizune, it was Tsunade who responded as she stated, “Very well, the reason that we’re asking you about him is because on the night in question, he attempted to manipulate a woman into servicing him in front of a crowd that he had gathered inside his bar. Then afterward, planned to have it videoed as they all had a go at her. A tape he planned to sell for a tidy profit. However, it appears the woman had familial ties to a gang based out of the Land of Rice Paddies. The gang’s leader interfered, before taking the woman with him. But, in our ensuing investigation it very much appears that Sannomiya was planning to start up his own blackmailing ring.”

At first Suzume figured that they were about to accuse her of being tied up in whatever trouble Sannomiya had gotten himself involved in. However, she quickly reasoned that if they wanted to she could easily be compelled to say that she was, so said rather bemused, “Well, you must not have much to charge him with it you’re turning to me for help.”

“True enough,” Tsunade admitted calmly, “At this point all our evidence is rather slim. It appears that he was in a habit of videotaping himself with some of his past partners. We haven’t had a chance to go through them all. So I’ll ask, ‘You wouldn’t happen to be in any of them now would you?”

“Not to my knowledge” Suzume stated, but hearing a small note of judgement in the Hokage’s voice, she asked, “What if my answer had been I was?”

Tsunade shrugged before answering, “I suppose that would all depend on what ends up happening to Sannomiya. Naturally, we’re trying to be discrete as we fear that some, if not most, of the women on those tapes were unaware of their being so. Especially as it seems that he had a type, namely married women or those in positions that such a tape could ruin. Including say a teacher.”

“So what happens if I am on such a tape,” Suzume said her voice reflecting the agitation that she was going to be blackmailed.

“I’ll be removing you from your position as teacher,” Tsunade stated calmly, with even Shizune appearing surprised.

“What!” Suzume shouted angrily as she truly did enjoy her job, “You can’t do that! If I’m in one of those videos, then I’m just as much a victim as any of the others.”

“I can,” Tsunade said her own voice remaining steady as she explained, “If you turn up in one of those videos, then I’m going to have little choice but to consider you compromised.”

“Where the fuck do you get off calling me compromised,” Suzume responded angrily slamming her hands on the Hokage’s desk, “If anyone in this room is, it is you two. If you’re going to judge me, just imagine what the village would think if it learned its Hokage and her precious apprentices have become whores for the demon bastard.”

Tsunade shot to her feet, while Shizune looked equally as ready to tear into Suzume, and not necessarily verbally. However, Tsunade closed her eyes and picturing the smiling man who had brightened her world, calmed before opening them before saying, “I imagine that if the village learned that, there would likely be calls for me to step down as Hokage.” Suzume was obviously surprised by the sudden fading of the anger that her comment had caused to erupt. The Hokage smiled contently as she said, “In fact, that was exactly what nearly happened when another learned of our relationship. Yet, rather than let me go as I had suggested, Naruto abandoned his own dream to become Hokage.”

“How very touching,” Suzume said dismissively, “Not that he needed it any longer since his whore will just do his bidding.”

Shizune took a step forward, but paused as Tsunade held an arm out barring her from attacking the bitter woman. Remaining calm, Tsunade countered, “You’re right. There is very little that I wouldn’t do for him, and to help bring his dream about. However, that has nothing to do with why I would sack you for appearing on one of those films. It is because I already have a sense of your character, and I have little doubt that if Sannomiya showed you it with the intention of blackmailing then you’d fold to his demands faster than a person sitting a shit hand as they faced off against a flush.”

Glaring at the Hokage, she said, “And what brings you to this vast insight into my character.”

“Because you were willing to betray the trust of one of your students already,” Tsunade replied knowing she had hit the mark as Suzume seemed to be knocked back from the verbal blow having taken a step back.

Trying to recover, she countered, “That’s rich coming from you. How many of the kunoichi currently corrupted by your master were enslaved because of you putting them in such a position.”

“Quite a few,” Tsunade admitted proudly, “The difference is that I believed every one of them would be the better and happier for it.”

“Much happier,” Shizune chimed in before sultrily stating, “I’ll be sure to show my appreciation again later.”

Tsunade’s face flushed as she looked forward to her vision from earlier coming true, but focusing on the woman before her continued, “You on the other hand were willing to send Moegi into a situation that you believed would be a living hell for her, and you did it to keep your own ass out of harm’s way. So why then wouldn’t I believe that would also be the case if Sannomiya or anyone else threatened to expose you for the cheap slut that you are?”

“Slut!” Suzume roared angrily, “That fucking rich coming from you, especially considering that I’m sure that as soon as I leave, you’ll have the one behind you between your legs before the door even closes.”

“I’d start now,” Shizune countered with a coy smile, “But, I’m sure Tsunade would prefer to deal with you without being distracted by how much I’ll be enjoying her juicy peach.”

“You’re not making it easy for me, Shizune,” Tsunade replied looking back at her apprentice with an amused smile, which faded as she faced Suzume once more. “You’re right again, Suzume. I can be quite the slut when I want to be. However, it’s always in favor of pleasing the man, and women that are my Family. You are just acting in your own service and needs, and as such I don’t trust you. There is no greater purpose behind your actions, just a woman looking out for her own gratification.”

“I could say the same about you,” Suzume stated with a sneer.

“Which is where you’d finally be wrong,” Tsunade replied dismissively, “In any case, you’re dismissed.”

Suzume felt a bit hollow, especially as once Tsunade sat down in her chair, Shizune quickly dropped to her knees beside her to pull the Hokage into a kiss, as her hand moved between her legs to begin rubbing her pussy over her pants. She watched the Hokage moan in appreciation, while her own pussy began to burn with a desire to be touched, but knew it would only leave her even more frustrated then she already was. However, not willing to let the Hokage have the last word she said, “You know that if he was like the Corruptors from the tales I’ve heard, you’d all be hailing me as a hero.”

Tsunade rose up to allow Shizune to pull down her pants and once she had one of the Senju’s legs free to allow her to spread her legs, and quickly moved under the desk as she kneeled between them to begin sucking on her succulent pussy.

The Hokage moaned with eyes closed as her apprentice hungrily devoured her snatch, but opened them to say, “I wonder if Moegi would be however. Yet, I somehow doubt that she would, since as things stand in her eyes, you’re the monster who tried to sacrifice her, all so you could play at being the hero. While lacking the courage to do so until you were all out of options. Now kindly fuck off, so I can enjoy Shizune’s excellent tongue play.”

Suzume turned away as she quickly tried to escape Tsunade’s growing moans of pleasure, as they became almost mocking considering her own lack of feeling. Stepping outside the office, she quickly closed the door behind her, but found the sudden silence made it difficult to push off it, since she suddenly felt a tingle pass through her. However, rather then it being something pleasurable it was just from the seal that she now sported reasserting itself. One which denoted that she was bound to same harem as the two women who she was sure would soon be pleasing each other behind her, but without the seeming perks as those who had embraced the life their being enslaved had afforded them. Which not for the first time since having first felt the warmth that Naruto had filled her with which had bound her to him, left her with the sensation that she was standing out alone in the cold.

*********

Kukaku imagined that she made quite the sight as she stood atop Ganju’s boar, which he called Bonnie-Chan as they approached Spoken Wheel Village. The man who believed her to be his returned sister looked over his shoulder to ask, “Sis, why not just sit and ride normal?”

“As if I’d place my legs around this filthy beast,” Kukaku replied, which caused her to suspect that despite Ganju’s inability to properly train it, the beast was far smarter than it appeared as it seemed to glare back at her. However, ignoring the beast she said, “It looks like we’ve arrived.”

Ganju looked forward again, and noticed what appeared to be a massive black barricade baring the path so said, “I don’t recall hearing Spoken Wheel having an fortifications built up. Do you think Sabertooth built that wall.”

Kukaku frowned as she said, “That’s not a wall.”

A point which was highlighted as it began to shift and sit up, causing Ganju to pull back on the reigns of his boar while shouting, “Whoa, Bonnie-chan.” Unlike when he usually gave the command, this time the boar listened the first time as it had no intention getting closer to the giant of a man that was now standing before them. The action sent both Ganju and Kukaku flying although one of the two expected the result, as Kukaku allowed it to send her flying into a somersault while the white cape that she wore fluttered around her. Landing gracefully on her feet, Ganju’s landing was far less graceful as he hit face first and slid a few more feet before coming to a rest beside her. Looking down at him she held out her hand as she said, “And that would be the other reason. I don’t think it likes you very much.”

Ganju accept his sister’s hand, as he replied, “Bonnie-chan adores me. She just doesn’t know her own strength.”

Kukaku shrugged her shoulders before focusing on the towering man who stood taller than many of the two story homes in the village behind him, as she would only reach about the bottom of his knee if she were to compare herself to him. Approaching with her cape fluttering behind her she shouted, “I am Kukaku Shiba of the Black Foxes. I come to issue a challenge to the man who has laid claim to this village.”

She came to a stop, expecting a reply from the giant whose face somewhat resembled some stone heads she had come across sticking out of an island that she had once swum to due to how angular it was. His hair was long and done up into a pony tail that reached down to his waist. He also sported sideburns that ended in tied off tassels below his square jaw. Covering his massive frame was a black kimono which was tied off with a white sash. For a moment, Kukaku wondered if they had simply run out of material as the left side of his chest was uncovered. Although she supposed it could be for ease of movement, as he wore an armor bracer over his left arm.

Yet to her surprise, another voice which belonged to a man that appeared from behind the giant said, “Luckily enough for you, that man is not here at present.”

“Oh,” Kukaku said in surprise, “And whom should I ask for in the future.”

“Master Jiemma Orland,” the burly man answered sounding reverent of the name that he had given. Kukaku studied the man whose face was covered in bandages so that only his eyes, and the purple hair he kept in a high pony tail were exposed. He crossed his arms across his chest, covering the diamond patterns of the white tunic he wore over a brown shirt as he added, “But, don’t worry little fox. Our master will pay your den a visit soon enough, where you’ll be given the same choice as Jidanbo here. Serve or die.”

Kukaku stroked her chin in a thoughtful manner as she replied, “I’m sorry to say that patience has never been a virtue of mine. Besides, if your master does decide to come to Ironfog, then he’ll likely end up clashing with mine, and I’ll be left with nothing but small fry to play with. So, I think I’ll take this place as mine, until your master decides to try and kick me out himself.”

As she spoke a bunch of armed men began appear from inside the village to back the two barring her path, as the bandaged man said, “You plan to take us all on with the pitiful few that followed you.”

Kukaku looked back over her shoulder towards the other boar riders that had followed Ganju and her there. She noticed many of them, although loyal to Ganju clearly did not like the odds facing them. As she turned back, she spent a moment to study Ganju’s face, and although hiding it much better, it was clear that he was of the same opinion. As she focused on the bandaged man again, she said, “No, I said I came to issue a challenge to take possession of this town. As Jiemma has never stepped foot in it, I’m assuming one of you would be in charge. So, we can do this the civilized way or you can all attack me at once. It makes no difference to me.”

The man, looked like he was about to order his followers to attack, but Jidanbo stepped forward stating, “I, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka, accept your challenge.”

“Hey now,” the bandaged man said sounding surprised, “Don’t go thinking you can make that decision yourself. I never said we agreed. What’s to say you aren’t planning to throw the match.”

After pulling up the giant axe that had been lying beside him and placing the back of its head against his shoulder, Jidanbo puffed up at the insult to his honor as he replied, “Why would I do that? What does it change for the people of the village. I have already failed in my duty as the gate that kept the scum out. I see no benefit to them in exchanging one group of hooligans for another.”

The bandaged man shrugged his shoulders as he said, “Fine, just make sure to make it quick. It’s nearly time for lunch.”

As Jidanbo approached, Kukaku undid the clasp of her cape as she handed it to Gaju, who worriedly asked, “Are you sure you’ll be okay, Sis?” Even Orochimaru never messed with this village back when he was in charge of Rice. They don’t call him Jidanbo the Gate for nothing. The bastard from Sabertooth that took him down supposedly had the ability to use Black Lightning. An ability that was said to be unique to Kumo.”

“Relax,” Kukaku said as she began to stroll forward, “I’ll show you what your big Sis is capable of.”

Despite the bravado of her words, Kukaku would admit to feeling a hint of apprehension at the coming battle as she feared disappointing Naruto. However, as she studied the giant, she felt it begin to fade somewhat as while he certainly made for a rather intimidating opponent. In truth, she felt the feeling mostly came down to his size. As if she had to guess, the reason that Orochimaru had seemingly left the large man alone wasn’t because of a fear of facing him in battle. But, rather he saw no point in it, because in his eyes the man was nothing but the product of a failed attempt at stealing the Akimichi Bloodline.

Kukaku had studied up on the large man, thanks to the intelligence that Koharu had gathered, having figured that the members of Sabertooth would hide behind him since the members of the gang that had been stationed there, didn’t appear to be anywhere close to the upper echelon of its leadership. She figured that Sabertooth’s leader had figured that Jidanbo’s reputation alone would have kept most other gangs from attacking the village that served as a crossroads for most of the country, while he and the rest of the gangs’ more elite members finished mopping up the gangs to the west of the village before focusing their attention on the east. Particularly as Jidanbo’s loyalty was to the village that had served as his home for the majority of his forty or so years of life. A life which if rumors were to believed had started within the womb of a Iwa Kunoichi who had succeeded in seducing an Akimichi until she had become pregnant. At which point she had returned to her village, likely to be treated to quite the reward. A reward which had quickly run dry when Jidanbo had been born, and it became apparent that the Bloodline to control one’s mass hadn’t been passed on. But, rather had resulted in some sort of mutation where Jidanbo had just kept growing.

This had resulted in the kunoichi being stripped of her position, as she was exiled with her ever increasingly larger and larger babe. Not a too surprising development, since the kunoichi had likely been trained for the sole task of becoming the head of an Iwagakure Clan possessing the abilities of the Akimichi. Yet, with it appearing that she had instead caused a mutation, it wasn’t too surprising the village had opted to cut ties with her. After all, while it was quite apparent to all what made the Akimichi bloodline valuable on the battlefield. It was actually in the logistics department where the bloodline actually shined. After all, while an army which could increase their size to rival the most powerful of summons was incredibly valuable, it wouldn’t do anyone much good if they also possessed the appetites to match. Thus it wasn’t their size which was the true value of their bloodline, but rather that they could achieve it while eating standard portions of food. Which admittedly an Akimichi’s idea of a standard portion might be slightly larger than most, it paled in compassion to what it was required to feed a man of Jidanbo’s size as he tended to eat food by the wagonful. A burden which had proven too much for his mother, who while passing through the Spoken Wheel Village had abandoned him leaving the massive baby in the local temple. However, the villagers had come together to support the ever growing boy, who naturally went on to see himself as their protector at least until he had been bested by Sabertooth’s Orga Nanagear.

She could see that defeat still weighed heavily on him, which was burden that she also shared, and would admit that if she was victorious she would only add to his shame. But, hoped that once he saw how the Black Foxes ran things, he’d come around to viewing it as a blessing in disguise.

Towering over her, the massive man said, “This is your last chance to withdraw. I will not be holding back.”

“I wouldn’t want you to,” Kukaku said grinning widely, “If you did, my victory wouldn’t mean anything.”

Jidanbo’s gaze hardened as with almost no warning and a speed that one wouldn’t expect such a large man to possess he brought his axe down on her.

“Sis,” Ganju cried out fearing his just returned sibling had been stolen from him again.

While on the opposite of the rising dust cloud the bandaged man said amused, “That’s it! It turns out she was nothing but hot air.”

However, Jidanbo frowned as while he could attest that his axe had hit something solid, he couldn’t say it was the ground as the axe didn’t feel as if its edge was all resting along it. Moreover, having crushed more than one impertinent bandit in such a fashion, he didn’t feel as if he had completed his swing. A fact which was revealed as the dust began to settle and the spectators on both sides felt their jaws drop as standing below the axe head was Kukaku who hadn’t even stopped the blow with her fake hand as it looked like she had managed to do so by gripping the blade with just her fingers.

“How, are you still standing,” Jidanbo asked in shock.

“With ease,” Kukaku replied causing the man to grunt as he tried to pull his axe back for another swing. A grunt which grew in intensity as despite how hard he pulled, he found the axe refused to budge from her grip. Something which surprised him for a moment, as he figured even if she refused to let go that he should easily be able to pick her up along with it, before it dawned on him that she was using chakra to affix herself to the ground.

As he began to use two hands to try and pull it from her grip, Fingers the man that had been left in charge after Orga had bested him shouted, “Stop messing around and kill that woman.”

Kukaku let go of the axe causing Jidanbo to stumble back several feet while focusing on the member of Sabertooth said, “Come try it yourself if you think it so easy.”

Jidanbo having recovered his footing cut off any reply as he produced a second axe that he kept stored inside his kimono as he said, “You’re definitely strong. Few have ever managed to dodge one of my blows, let alone catch it. But, let’s see if you can keep it up with both of my axes.” With a roar he brought down one axe and then the other as he counted out the number of strikes, although he began to have trouble after reaching six as he began to have to think about what came next and skipped or repeated several numbers. Until he hit what he had thought was ten, but turned out to be seventeen strikes between each axe. Then slamming them down on either side of where he assumed the woman would be, just in case she had managed to dodge them tried to bring them together to squishing her between them. However, even with the dust cloud it was apparent to all that his opponent was still alive as the axes stopped well short of touching each other. However, what was perhaps even more disconcerting to one side of spectators was that as the dust cleared, it was easy to see that while Kukaku was sandwiched between the two blades, which she was holding apart by keeping her arms outstretched. It appeared Jidanbo was the one struggling as his arms shook with his exertion to close them, while Kukaku again seemed to be barely breaking a sweat.

A fact that she demonstrated further as using chakra to grip the blades, she began lifting them up against the giant’s continued downward pressure, before allowing his own force aided by hers to drive them downward so that the axe heads were buried deep into the ground. At which point she jumped up while Jidanbo was thrown forward off balance. She then delivered a powerful shot to the man’s jaw which packed a force similar to when he had been hit full on by one of Orga’s black lightning attacks.

The giant nearly toppled over, but he recovered at the last second although he had to shake his head to clear it of the ringing bell that he heard. At which point, he was shocked to see the woman almost effortlessly pulling one of his axes from the ground before swinging it around towards him. The blow slipped through his guard, as it caught him in the side, and although she had only used the back of it, the blow hit him with enough force to lift even him off his feet as he flew away to smash into the surrounding forest.

Jidanbo tried to get back up to his feet, although a part of him wondered if it would not be better for the village if he remained down. But, suspecting that Fingers had no intention of honoring the bargain, and that his failure would anger Sabertooth’s leader, and lead to the people of the village suffering more, he tried to force himself up. However, he only managed to raise his head some when Kukaku appeared before him stating, “Stay down big guy. I don’t want to hurt you more than I have to.”

“I cannot,” Jidanbo said, “Failure is not tolerated in Sabertooth. Even if you best me, they will not honor the bargain and you’ll need to take the town by force.”

Kukaku sighed, before responding, “Then go to sleep for a bit.” She then smashed her head into his right between the eyes, causing Jidanbo to groan before collapsing back to the ground. She then Shunshined so that she appeared back on the road this time before the gathered members of Sabertooth as she said, “I’ve bested your champion, so in accordance with the rules you have laid out to others, you can choose to serve, or get out of my sight. However, none of you have the qualities we would prefer, so feel free to get lost.”

Fingers prepared to gather chakra to attack as he said, “How about another option…”

But paused as a kunai was placed against his throat from someone behind him. At which point Koharu said, “Oh, I wouldn’t go with that option if I were you. It doesn’t end well for you at all.”

Fingers looked behind him as best he could, considering the blade held against him, and saw that the few remaining men that he had left in the village were all lying in a pile beside the gate, with a contingent of Black Foxes standing between the rest of his men and the village. “So, this was all just a diversion,” Fingers stated angrily.

Koharu smirked as she replied, “Not at all. Our champion was victorious after all. This was just a precaution in case you were sore losers.” Putting her blade away she shunshined to appear in front of the men that she had snuck into the village with as she said, “Now collect your trash and get out of our sight. This village belongs to the Black Foxes now.”

“Yeah,” Fingers said while his men picked up their comrades, “Let’s see how long you can hold it.”

Kukaku ignored the man as Koharu and her men escorted members of Sabertooth from the village, and noticed that the villagers were beginning to appear from their homes, with many of them bearing crude armaments. They began to form a group in front of her, with those who had armed themselves looking as if they were preparing to attack her as an elderly woman stepped forward while she sent a worried look in the direction that she had seen the giant man fly off to, She then met her eyes with a piercing gaze as she asked in a voice that suggested to Kukaku that violence would be breaking out again depending on her answer, “Did you slay Jidanbo?” To the Bijuu’s surprise, she began to feel goosebumps begin to arise as the small woman awaited her reply.

Yet before she could respond, Jidanbo appeared from out of the woods and approaching the gate dropped to his knees saying sadly, “I’m sorry everyone. I have failed in my duty again. After everything you’ve all done for me. I have no right to remain.” Focusing on Kukaku, he said sounding on the verge of tears as he pleaded, “I know that I have no right to ask. But, please show the people of the village the same mercy that you’ve just shown me.”

He then stood defeatedly as many of the villagers began calling out to him while he began to turn away from his home. Yet the crowd went silent as Kukaku shouted, “Hey, where do you think you’re going. I offered a challenge for this village, and that included the big old gate that had been defending it.”

Turning to face the warrior that bested him, he replied while shaking his head, “What good is a gate that fails to keep anyone out?”

Holding her prosthetic arm up, Kukaku stated, “Do you think I lost this arm because I wanted to? It was taken from me, same as this village was taken from you. So, are you going to abandon it just because you find that you currently lack the strength to protect it? I know what it is to taste defeat so bad that you just want to curl up into a ball in order to protect yourself. But, choosing that way to live is where lies the only true defeat. So, pick yourself up, and join me in becoming an even bigger and stronger gate in order to protect those that we shelter behind us.”

Jidanbo appeared to be considering the request. Yet, before he could give his thoughts on the matter, the woman that she assumed was the town’s elder due to her apparently taking charge said disapprovingly, “So, we are exchanging one group Hooligans for another. I do not see that as much an improvement. Am I to assume that you expect us to pay for the privilege of receiving your protection, all the while continuing to harass our people.”

Kukaku frowned, as she wasn’t quite sure what to say to put the woman, or the other villagers at ease. But, fortunately she didn’t need to as Koharu returning alone said, “Normally, the Black Foxes would charge you for receiving our protection. However, I think we can offer you the basic plan as compensation for Jidanbo’s services.”

The old woman was clearly surprised by her fellow elder’s response, although Koharu no longer looked the part, but aware that it sounded too good to be true asked, “And what would this basic plan include?”

“For starters, we’ll be defending this village from Sabertooth, along with any other bandits which seek to harm it,” Koharu responded noticing many of the villagers seemed pleased by her pledge.

However, the elder caused many of those same villagers to appear skeptical again when she said, “So you protect us for your own benefit, and expect us to be grateful.”

It was Koharu’s turn to be surprised, as she cast a critical eye over the old woman for a moment, and wondered if she had perhaps once been a kunoichi or samurai. The smallish old woman seemed to grow uncomfortable as she offered an explanation for her insight, “What’s with the stink eye you’re giving me. I’ve been around the block a time or two missy. You’re interested in the village for the same reason those Sabertooth thugs are. We stand at the crossroads between your two territories, and as such, we serve as a perfect base to either defend your own or push into theirs.”

Koharu didn’t bother denying it, as she replied, “Indeed, however regardless of whether you like it or not, you’re caught between the two of us. So, the question is, into which camp do you wish to fall?”

The Elderly woman frowned at her point, but said, “This is a nice simple town, and we have no interest in the drugs, gambling, or brothels your kind run. If I have my choice the answer would be neither.”

Koharu frowned as many of the villagers began echoing their agreement, and although not able to fault them countered, “Do you believe Sabertooth would honor such a request?” Many of the villagers began to look uncomfortable quite aware of what the answer to her question would be. With even the elder looking unsure, so she stated, “While, it is true that we do run a brothel, and a gambling house. We are sure to keep such activities to our part of Ironfog, and we have no interest in expanding those trades here. Furthermore are leader has already shut down the drug trade in our territory, a ban which would further be applied here should you agree to fall under our umbrella. If any of you doubt my sincerity, then I invite you to tour Ironfog. I think you will find it enjoys a level of security most villages in Rice Paddies could only hope for.”

“Yet, that security will be bought by this village’s suffering,” the elder countered.

“Not if we have anything to say about it,” Koharu stated, “Outside of fortifying its defenses, one of the first things that we intend to build would be a shelter where the villagers can gather in case of an attack.”

The old woman studied Koharu for a moment, before addressing the gathered villagers as she stated, “I think we should accept this deal. We have already enjoyed the hospitality of those fiends from Sabertooth, and they weren’t nearly so kind as to ask our approval. At the very least these foxes have a sense of decency about them.”

The small woman began to walk away, prompting Koharu to state, “Um, I would like to negotiate…”

The elderly woman turned to give her an amused smile as she said, “Oh, I’m not in charge of this village. Merely an old woman who settled here after a run of bad luck and was sticking her nose where it probably doesn’t belong.” Indicating an older man, who appeared to be in his fifties, she said, “He’s the one you’ll need to negotiate with.”

Koharu watched the woman walk away feeling rather intrigued by her, but let it pass in order to approach the man she had pointed out.

Yet before she could begin to suggest that they move to a location more conductive to negotiating the Black Foxes occupying the town, Kukaku slapped her on the back before stating, “While you handle all the boring business talk, the rest of us will go check out where those vermin were staying and take care of properly fumigating the place.”

Giving an appreciative nod, Koharu said, “Thanks,” before turning towards the man with whom she would be negotiating the Black Foxes taking over the town.

*********

Aeris smiled politely as she handed over a flower from her basket to a young man that was looking to earn a quick few bonus points from the woman with whom he was enjoying lunch. He then returned to their table where they had been dining on the restaurant’s patio and approached her from behind before placing the flower into her hair and retook his seat. She imagined the move paid off, as the woman reached out to place her hands in his and said something which caused the man’s eyes to light up. He then hurriedly paid for their meals, and gave her a wink as the two of them left arm in arm for what she imagined would be a midday rendezvous.

The smile faltered some as her gaze settled on Koreshige Inuzuka, who was also eating at the restaurant although he was inside the building itself. He too was enjoying the company of a beautiful woman. Yet, the meeting definitely had more of a business transactional feel to it.

Yet, before she could give the matter much further thought, she sensed someone’s disapproving gaze settling on her. So, didn’t allow her own to settle on the pair, as she quickly turned away to move to the corner of a nearby building, where she stood for a few moments while asking a few passersby if they’d like to purchase a flower from her. After several rejections and a lull in the foot traffic she said, “So, this is what you’ve been doing with yourself in-between jobs for the G.T.C. I do not imagine that Tsume would be pleased to know that you’ve been helping yourself to her perfumes.”

Yuffie kept her gaze down on the magazine that she had folded over so she could hold it with one hand while resting on the other side of the corner. She raised it enough so that any of the people walking by wouldn’t see her lips as she responded, “What makes you think that I have? I’m just here waiting to be picked up for lunch.”

“Really,” Aeris replied in disbelief as she projected her voice while keeping her lips from moving in a similar manner as a ventriloquist would, “And you just so happen to be waiting on the same corner while Koreshige meets with some mysterious woman.”

“You’re one to talk,” Yuffie stated, “Since when do you sell your flowers in the Inuzuka district as opposed to the main gate? Especially during the midday rush.”

Aeris didn’t respond as she instead asked another passerby if they would like a flower, but received a hastily given negative reply as the person barely broke their stride. Finally, she said, “I just thought a change of venue would help drive up my sales.”

“How’d that work out for you?” Yuffie asked pushing from the wall to come around to stand beside Aeris, figuring her presence in the area gave her enough reason to appear out in the open now, “You’ve sold what, one in the last forty minutes.”

Aeris sighed giving the impression that she was disappointed by her lack of sales as she waved the basket slightly to draw attention to it. But, responded quickly, “Fine, I’ve noticed that his faction has begun to become more active as of late too. So, decided to poke around some.”

Yuffie despite appearing to be the younger of the two, gave a pleased sounding nod as she said, “It’s good to see that your time as a clerk hasn’t dulled your senses. Has your time in the district turned up anything?”

“You mean besides this shady meeting that we’ve stumbled upon?” Aeris responded sounding amused.

“I didn’t stumble upon anything,” Yuffie replied proudly, “I’ve been shadowing him every chance I got for weeks. Which is how I determined that he likes to conduct a lot of his business from that restaurant. Probably because it’s owned by his toady Shinta’s family.”

Aeris found herself rather surprised at just how long Yuffie appeared to have been investigating Koreshige and his followers. Especially, since after Naruto had brutally slapped down the large Inuzuka when he had tried to turn the clan against Konoha following the revelation of its role in the Uchiha massacre, he had lost quite a bit of standing in the clan. But a few of his more fanatical followers had continued to support him. With Shinta Inuzuka, a young man the same age as Kiba, being one of his more ardent supporters.

Although Aeris knew that she didn’t have much of a limb to stand on, she said, “Weeks? Don’t you think you’re being a tad paranoid. Right now, most of his avenues to gathering power would result in him getting his face caved in, especially if he was crazy enough to challenge Tsume again.”

Yuffie at first looked annoyed, but realizing Aeris was perhaps trying to talk herself out of following the same road that she had admitted to have traveling down, replied, “You can try to deny it all you want, but we both know what has been motivating your trips out here lately. He’s exactly the type of man that we would have approached back during our infiltration days. An ambitious bastard, who currently finds his ability to achieve what he desires stymied.”

Aeris wanted to counter that not all of their past contacts fell into that category, as she remembered Zak the man she had fallen in love with, and ultimately sacrificed himself to save her and her friends as they had been pursued by Kirigakure’s hunter-nin. But she couldn’t deny that the vast majority of them had been exactly as Yuffie described. So asked, “Then do you think the woman that he’s speaking with is an agent from another village?”

Yuffie although much like Aeris had only focused on the pair for a handful of seconds so as to avoid piquing their interest with hers, had little trouble recalling the details about Koreshige’s dining partner. Such as despite her relatively youthful demeanor, she suspected the woman was older than she appeared. Which she based on her rather voluptuous frame which looked like it belonged to a woman in her mid-thirties. Which was easy to tell due to the white and black dress that clung to her frame, particularly her large breasts which looked almost as big as Tsunade’s legendary endowments. Yet, perhaps to add to the youthfulness that her face radiated, she wore a black ribbon in her roughly shoulder length brown hair, with which the way in which it was tied seemingly making it appear as if they were bunny ears.

She was tempted to focus on the woman again, but she had feared doing so might alert her to their being observed since she was sure the woman’s red eyes had passed over the corner that she had hidden behind after watching them for only a few moments. Answering Aeris, she said, “I don’t know. A decade ago, I would have been able to tell you. But we’ve been out of the game for too long and with its attrition, I doubt any of those that we matched wits against in the past are still around.”

Aeris didn’t nod along, although she did respond jokingly, “As evident by our own long incarceration.”

“Yeah,” Yuffie said her professional pride still reeling from the fact that their imprisonment had come about due to interference from a five year old Naruto, and his Chunin instructor. Pushing it aside to focus on the present, she said, “Although, I doubt this meeting would reveal anything of value, I’d love to get ears in the place.”

Aeris agreed, but stated, “His character aside, there has to be more to your suspicions if you’ve been at this for a while now.”

“Nothing concrete,” Yuffie hesitantly admitted, “This is the first time that he’s met with someone other than a woman named Oboro. She owns a company which competes with the Great Tree Shipping Company.”

Before Aeris could ask for more details, an older woman approached them asking Aerith for several of the flowers she carried, which she used to make a bouquet. Once the customer was satisfied Yuffie continued, “They apparently first crossed paths during that New Year charity auction that Kiba took part in. Since then, he’s met with her a few times, usually just before leaving on some mission for her.”

Although on the surface, Aeris admitted that it sounded suspicious. Especially as she knew one could say that Naruto was doing pretty much the same thing for the Great Tree Shipping Company, Aeris asked, “Were they officially sanctioned missions by the Leaf?”

“It appears so,” Yuffie admitted begrudgingly knowing it didn’t help her case, “So it isn’t out of the realm of possibility those meetings were just him getting additional details for the missions. But he and many of his cronies have been meeting up at the restaurant after it closes. However, since they wait until nightfall when the district is deserted, I dare not even try to approach.”

Aeris didn’t show it, but she couldn’t help but agree since while Yuffie was helping herself to Tsume’s perfumes which allowed her to disguise her scent. The leader of the Inuzuka wasn’t so careless as to leave a bottle of the scent masker which they produced that could completely remove it. As such, with a building full of Inuzuka and their Nin-dog partners, even a disguised scent would undoubted attract their attention if it got to close. After a moment, she asked, “Have you considered sharing your concerns with Tsume?”

“You mean our concerns,” Yuffie replied pointedly, reminding Aeris that she wasn’t lingering around the district due to the massive sales that she was seeing.

“Well, you’ve obviously had them for far longer,” Aeris countered with a smile earning a frown from her comrade since she felt the brown-haired woman was trying to make her seem like the paranoid one.

However, letting it slide for the time being she answered, “No. Even if she thinks he’s a bastard, she’s not going to just accept that he’s a possible traitor unless I can come up with something substantial. I mean, considering how they settle everything with their fists, even his nearly killing Kiba hasn’t really earned him the type of heat it would in more traditional clans.”

Aeris was inclined to agree, as the fiery temperament of the clan could lead to extremely violent clashes, with the understanding that once it was over the bad blood was to be put to rest. As such, even if the two of them were to level an accusation against Koreshige, it would likely be attributed to their being outsiders and unwilling to do so because of what he had done to their mate. Something she rather admired about the clan, as they typically were free with their emotions, often wearing their hearts on their sleeves. But it often left such people blind to the serpents that rose from within their ranks until it was too late.

However, before Aeris could ask if Yuffie had a plan of action to perhaps begin gathering some evidence, she heard a surprised Kiba say, “Aeris, are you joining us for lunch? I thought you’d be at the front gate selling flowers.”

Aeris gave him a happy smile, as she regrettably answered, “No, I’m still on the clock. I just thought I’d try a change of venue to see if it would increase my sales.” Looking at her still mostly full basket she said, “Sadly, it doesn’t appear people just going about their business are as interested in them as those returning from a trip or visiting family.”

Kiba inclined his head, as he said, “Well, I’m sure Yuffie wouldn’t mind if you join us. Right Yuffie?”

Aeris smiled in amusement as Yuffie almost begrudgingly said, “No, she’s welcome to tag along if she wants.” With the amusement being born of the fact that while Yuffie had likely invited Kiba to meet her to provide some reason for her hanging around outside the restaurant, it was clear her mind wasn’t entirely focused on business.

Still despite wishing to have a little midday rendezvous with the pair, she knew it would likely ruin Yuffie’s afternoon since she wasn’t quite as accepting of their unique relationship as she would have liked, particularly how Aeris wanted to add more women to their pack so as to raise their mate’s standing so sounding disappointed said, “I wish I could. But, I should probably make my way to the gate to try and offload some more flowers less Mrs. Yamanaka think I was goofing off.”

Kiba accepted her reasoning while Yuffie even seemed a little grateful as Aeris waved them off, before directing her attention back to the restaurant where she saw the Brown-haired woman had already left. While Koreshige finished off the remains of his meal before standing and picked up a large packet which hadn’t been present while him and his guest had been talking. Tucking it into the inside of his flak jacket, he made his way for the exit, as the canine which had been seated beside him began to follow along with him. Although tempted to follow him, she knew she wasn’t equipped for such a challenging tail so headed in the opposite direction. Although, while she did so, she made plans that perhaps starting tomorrow, she’d try seeing how well her flowers sold in the district which housed the headquarters of the Oboro Forbearance Company just in case she ran across a familiar face or two.

********

Moegi stepped out of the bathroom as she wrapped a towel around her hair, and wearing nothing else inquired, “Who’s next?”

Toka and Yakumo shared a look for a moment before the Kurama Clan Head indicated that the elder Senju could go first. Giving an appreciative nod, Toka stood from the chair that she was sitting in while studying a book on various military tactics which had been used during the Three Shinobi World Wars, and proceeded to the small bathroom within the hotel room they were sharing. While Yakumo returned her focus to writing out another seal on a paper tag that she would be adding to the pile that she had created, and were laying among her other shinobi tools, which she had laid out on one of the twin beds.

Picking up her pack, she took a seat on the opposite bed, and began removing her nightwear from it as she asked, “I do not see any of that… what did you call it…optical-fiber among your gear. I thought a part of the reason that you wanted to participate in the exams was to prove out some of the Anti-Genjutsu tactics that your clan has been developing.”

Yakumo nodded as she finished preparing the seal, before then reaching for a pile of metal spikes that laid among her tools. Picking one up, she used her other hand to make a release sign before ending the sign and quickly affixing her just prepared seal to it by wrapping it around the spike. Upon finishing the first, the Kurama Clan leader replied, “Yes, that is one of my goals. But unfortunately the optical-fiber is too brittle, and limiting in actual combat situations.” Moegi nodded, due to her and Naruto having often served as test subjects for some of the tactics that Yakumo’s clan were developing, particularly when they had squared off against Toka and her teammates in preparation for the exam. Continuing her explanation, Yakumo stated, “Truthfully though, the Optical-Fiber was developed as a proof of concept for the overall technique. With it fundamentally proving that applying a constant chakra charge can prevent a genjutsu from taking hold, now it falls to us to develop a chakra thread technique of our own.”

Moegi slipping her legs into the shorts that she intended to sleep in stood to pull them up, while asking, “Couldn’t you just ask Yukata for help? I mean it would only be fair considering Naruto taught Quistis the Shadow Clone jutsu.”

Yakumo nodded in agreement, but replied, “You would think. But I don’t think Kankuro would be quite so understanding since the Chakra Threads is the primary technique which makes Suna’s Puppeteering Forces so dangerous. Thus, it is a closely guarded secret, and if we were to suddenly master the technique, then blame would quickly fall onto her. By comparison, the Shadow Clone technique isn’t all that valuable.” Moegi arched a skeptical eyebrow considering their shared lover’s usage of the technique, which caused Yakumo to smile but she explained, “He kind of proves my point, Keep in mind that each clone created effectively halves a person chakra. So that most standard jounin can only make four or five effective clones. The fact that Naruto can make thousands without nearing chakra exhaustion, even without calling on his Bijuu chakra is almost unprecedented. The truth of the matter is that the jutsu isn’t sealed in a Forbidden Scroll because it is unique or something the village fears getting out. It was because it could be a great danger to its user and so they wanted to prevent some foolhardy student from getting access to the jutsu and nearly killing themselves.”

Removing the towel from her head, Moegi pulled her shirt on before saying, “I see. So, I take it that those spikes are for some new technique that you want to test during the exams.”

“Not entirely,” Yakumo replied as she began the process again, “Think of them as several already proven techniques, combined for a new purpose.” After affixing a new seal to the one that she held, she picked up another and giving it a twirl between her fingers, she said, “The spike itself is made from the same metal that is used in Naruto’s chakra blades.” She then made the release sign again as she continued, “Which takes on the properties of the chakra that is stored in it, in this case the command to release a genjutsu.” She then grabbed another piece of paper from her stack, which she wrapped around the spike as she finished her explanation, “The charge it takes is contained by the seal, which you can prime to disappear after a set amount of time, or upon a command. The chakra that the seal was containing within the spike then explodes outwards, rather than a slow bleed.”

“Oh,” Moegi said impressed, “So, the seal acts like a dam that bursts, giving the escaping chakra a force to it which covers an area and thereby releasing anyone within from a genjutsu.” Frowning though she asked, “But if a person suspected they were in a genjutsu, couldn’t they just make the release sign themselves?”

Yakumo nodded, but stated, “Yes, but if you’re a part of a squad that was caught, then sure, you’ve released yourself from a genjutsu but what about your comrades. This alleviates the need to release them individually. Also, if you know you are facing a genjutsu user, you can set up several to be time released just in case you ever face an opponent who restricts your movements via one.”

Nodding in understanding, Moegi sat back on the bed before sighing before stating, “I wish the Boss didn’t insist on having his own room.”

Yakumo giggle as she replied, “I don’t know. It is probably a good thing that he did. If we are being observed, and just haven’t detected it yet. I don’t think they would have any illusions about what a certain someone wants to do with her Boss, especially with how much creaking the bed we shared did last night.”

Moegi’s cheeks began to color as she realized that Yakumo had been awake while she had handled her desires. Which although she had done her best to remain quiet, she had ended up moaning out Naruto’s name a few times. Sitting up she said, “W…why didn’t you say anything.”

Giving her an amused smirk, Yakumo answered, “Well, because it provided the perfect cover for me to handle mine. Which is why we should face it that if Naruto was sharing the room with us, we probably wouldn’t be getting nearly as much sleep as we should.”

Moegi nodded, before getting up and grabbing a key that had resided on a night table which resided between the two beds. She then made her way to the hotel room’s door as she said, “Well, that doesn’t mean that he needs to isolate himself from us completely whenever we stop. I’m going to go check on him.”

“Don’t get up to anything too crazy,” Yakumo replied as she began working on the next spike, before adding under her breath, “At least without me.”

Turning the knob and stepping into the hallway, Moegi replied sounding disappointed, “We probably won’t.”

Moegi moved down one room over, although she approached the door on the opposite side of the hallway from their own before knocking. Not receiving a reply, she felt a spike of concern, since although they were taking the longer route from Suna to Konoha which passed through several villages, and so had numerous proctors to prevent major conflicts between the participants from erupting. That didn’t mean some enterprising teams wouldn’t try to eliminate the person that many considered to be perhaps the strongest one participating in the exams while he was resting. She pressed an ear against the door, and although she heard some strange noises coming from the room. Nothing which suggested to her that he was in the midst of a struggle. She knocked again, while using the key that he had given them just in case some emergency were to happen that required access to his room. Afte unlocking the door, she struggled to push it open as it felt as if there was someone on the other side pushing back against it. However, the resistance wasn’t so great that she couldn’t overcome it. However, as she opened the door wider, she noticed a yellow light emanating from within the room. Undeterred, she pushed forward until she could slip into the room. Yet once inside it slammed itself shut behind her. She then frowned as she looked about the room in confusion since it looked as if it was in the midst of a poltergeist haunting. Not only because of the soft yellow glow which illuminated it, with a mediating Naruto appearing to be the source of it. The effect was also highlighted as the various pictures hanging about the room were clattering against the wall, while the headboard of the bed was showing a partner a good time. However, the sole occupant of the bed seemed oblivious to the chaos threatening to erupt around him, as he sat cross-legged upon it.

Moegi felt her desire for him grow as she basked at the sight him meditating at the center of his in just his boxers. Although, she noticed that the seal on his stomach was visible and appeared to have been opened. She called his name, but her voice seemed muted in the room and as she approached it felt as if she was moving underwater, with the pressure bearing down on her seeming to grow stronger with each step that she took. Her concerns that the room was haunted, and something was trying to possess him spiked as she noticed an outline of something coalescing around him as it seemed to fade in and out of existence.

Managing to reach the bed, she placed a hand on his shoulder, which caused his eyes to snap open and she felt a surge of power begin to erupt from him that threatened to lift her off of her feet, but was suddenly cut off as he quickly used the key that sealed in his right hand to close his seal once ore.

Sounding surprised, Naruto said, “Moegi, what’s going on? Is everything alright?”

“That’s what I want to know!” she replied sounding concerned, “It looked as if something was trying to possess you. I kept calling for you, but you wouldn’t respond.”

“Did it,” Naruto replied with a frown as he directed his gaze around the room detecting signs of the chaos that Moegi had experienced. Noticing the clock that had been on the nightstand had vibrated off, he moved to the edge of the bed to pick it up and his eyes widened to see that over an hour had passed. Placing it back atop of the table, he gave Moegi a calming smile as he explained, “Sorry to worry you. I was just doing some training.”

“What kind of training,” Moegi asked still looking concerned.

“I was practicing trying to call on my full power without generating the fox construct that comes with it,” Naruto stated standing from the bed on legs which felt a little shaky while making his way to a nearby wash basin. Taking a towel, he dipped it into the water and began to wipe away the sweat which now coated his skin. Turning to Moegi as he began to wipe his arms and then neck, he explained, “The fight in Ruin highlighted for me that I need way more control over it. I can’t help but feel that the reason things spiraled so out of control was because I couldn’t unleash it from the start.”

Moegi nodded in understanding, that due to the confrontation between him and Hayate having started underground it had limited Naruto’s options since using all his Bijuu chakra would have created a giant chakra fox construct. Particularly as it would have brought a good portion of Ruin down upon them both. Granted, such an occurrence had ended up happening regardless. But she could see why he felt that if he could go full out, without fearing what doing so would do to the surrounding environment, let alone any nearby allies, it could go a long way to shutting down many battles before they became pitched ones. Admittedly, there were reasons most shinobi didn’t, since doing so could mean there would be nothing left in the tank when it really mattered. But, although he was using the recent clash against Hayate as his primary motivation, she could imagine that it had been a concern weighing on his mind since many of his more recent battles hadn’t happened in the middle of some forest or desert but rather in populated urban centers.

“So how pray tell do you try to condense it to the point that you aren’t reshaping the landscape with every step you take?” Moegi asked as she laid across his bed, while resting her head on her hands.

Naruto placed the washcloth in the basin, before turning to face her as he explained, “Well, the first part is learning to control the power myself.” Seeing the orange-haired kunoichi’s confusion he explained, “Normally, when I fully open the seal, I’m coated in a chakra cloak. But this is just the result of a small amount of leakage that the seal had been containing, and that Kiyomi’s former form is always giving off. Yet, when I try to actually try to call on the Bijuu chakra in full, I cannot control it myself. In truth, I first need to partition off a portion of my mind by creating a mental clone. This is what I usually use to control that power, as well as the fox construct. An idea that I assume that Pein used as similar technique to control his paths, especially when he upped the quantity for his attack on the village.” Receiving a nod, he continued, “But, I need to remove that element of relying on a clone just as I eventually needed to learn how to generate a Rasengan without one. Especially if I want to be able to go all out without devastating the neighborhood.”

“Why though?” Moegi asked as she moved to rest her elbows on the bed to elevate her head, “Why not follow Pein’s example and create another partition to focus on condensing the power even further?”

Crossing his arms across his chest, he replied, “Well, reaction time for starters. The way it currently works is the construct is controlled by the partition. So, while it is acting independently of me, as we tend to be literally of the same mind, it doesn’t hamper us too much in combat. But, if I create another clone for this task, well it might work as a short term fix. But, in a fight were seconds count having to communicate my desires, and for them to be followed could create openings that my enemies can exploit.” He smiled as he held out his hand and created a Rasengan, which Moegi marveled at as due to his chakra changing colors looked as if he was holding a small sun in the palm of his hand. Meeting her eyes, he said, “While my clone technique did help me master the Rasengan at a blistering pace, and ultimately saved my life on more then one occasion. Doing so installed many bad habits that I had to unlearn in order to perform the technique properly. Plus, relying on the clone often telegraphed my intentions of using it, which counteracted one of its strongest attributes. The ability to call on it in a moment’s notice without hand signs. Which is why I would prefer to master this training without turning to shortcuts this time around.”

Moegi nodded in understanding, but took the opportunity to ask, “Why is it that you just didn’t absorb the Bijuu form like Fu and Yugito did with theirs. They don’t appear to suffer from the same difficulties in controlling their Bijuu abilities.”

“My guess would be the nature of the seals used to originally seal the Bijuu” Naruto stated after a moment of consideration, “Yugito’s seal was designed to work in conjunction with her chakra, which had a similar quality to it as my mom’s, and is why I assume the Raikage had targeted her for abduction. So, when we broke her seal to release Yoruichi, she melded fully with it as her chakra was the primary catalyst preventing Yoruichi from escaping in the first place.” Thinking of how his inner world had always appeared he continued, “However, my mental mindscape of the seal always gave me the feeling of it being some boiler room, which while it could have been a state of my mind. Perhaps is more a clue as to how the seal was always intended to function, and as such the Bijuu chakra is treated as an additional power source to my own chakra as opposed to being fully integrated. This is probably why when Neji cutoff my chakra during my previous time in the Chunin Exams. Kiyomi was able to just supplement it with hers. Also, when I faced down Kabuto back when Jiraiya and I were searching for Tsunade, he attempted to cut me off from receiving healing from Kiyomi which further lends credence to the idea that my father didn’t want me merging fully with Kiyomi even if I achieved complete control. I’m guessing this is because of what he felt were perceived failures within the Iron Seal that Kumo uses to contain the Eight-Tails.”

Moegi’s eyes lit up as she believed that she saw what Naruto was driving at, and sat up as she said, “You’re saying it was an additional safety feature, one created just in case Kiyomi ever did fully take you over.”

Nodding, he made a slight correction as he explained, “Not quite a safety feature for my benefit, but for those whom I became a danger too. My guess is, if that had happened, then I would serve more as a critical vulnerability where if my physical form which would be trapped within her could be destroyed, then it would cause her to disappear as well, like popping a circuit breaker. At least for a time, since Kiyomi would reform after a while. I believe this is probably because he was aware of how the Eight-Tails had broken free of its seal several times.” Moegi looked pained by Naruto’s explanation, and felt a desire to comfort him since she believed that it must bothered him to think of how he had been used to protect the village. However, he didn’t give any indication of that being the case as he continued, “However, this seems to be preventing me from fully taking control of the chakra. So, in essence I need to learn how to use both sources at the same time, without relying on a clone.”

“But don’t you already have experience doing that?” Moegi asked thinking of how he mixed the Bijuu chakra with his clones to make the more durable K-clones.

Naruto seemed to have an idea as to what she was referring to, so stated, “Yes, however the seal is closed in those instances, and a purpose of the seal is to regulate how my chakra mixes with the Bijuu’s chakra. Yet, when I open it fully I lose that function as well. Thus, the purpose of my training, is to force the two chakras together without the seal being in play.”

“By meditating?” she inquired with a slight tilt of her head.

Shaking his in amusement he answered, “No, actually I was practicing the final principle of the jutsu that I intend to teach you during the training period before the final rounds of exams.”

Moegi perked up, but asked, “I thought you were going to teach me the Rasengan.”

“Indeed,” Naruto stated giving her a quick nod. Holding three of his fingers up towards her, he explained, “The first two principles of learning it are Rotation and Power. The one I’m concentrating on would be the last which is containment. The reason I feel learning the Rasengan will help you with your goal is because it is considered the ultimate in shape manipulation techniques. Hence if you can master it, you could mesh your chakra with that of another to empower their techniques. I’m operating on the same principle, except the chakra I need to mesh with is my own, and I believe that if I can contain the Bijuu chakra enough it should eliminate the need for the construct entirely and allow me to fight in more situations without fearing if there is enough room for me to go all out.”

Moegi inclined her head as she got up from the bed, and approaching Naruto placed her hand on his stomach as she asked with a sultry tone, “Perhaps, we can get started on that training early. Especially, since it’s just the two of us right now.”

Her hand began to travel south, but Naruto quickly grabbed it and holding it in between his said, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First we need to make it to the final round, and the training can be quite strenuous. Trust me when I say, there will be nights when you’ll barely be able to use your hands due to the training. Considering that we don’t know what the rest of the exams have in store for us, it is best to wait.”

Moegi nodded disappointedly, figuring that Naruto was alluding to more than just the training. He escorted her to the door, and after opening it let her step outside before causing her to shiver with anticipation as he whispered into her ear, “But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to train you pussy just as hard when we are off on our trip.”

The door closed behind her, and she quickly made her way back to her room as his breath along her neck, and words had caused a geyser of desire to erupt within her. Upon entering the room, she saw that Toka was stepping out of the bathroom so quickly slipped passed the Senju while excusing herself as she darted inside. Where she immediately dropped her shorts to the ground before sitting on the toilet as she began rubbing her pussy. She tried to keep her voice down, but imagined that both women knew exactly what she was doing, although one of them decided on getting visual confirmation for herself as the door swung open.

Yakumo smiled at the sight as she said, “Now you see why he’s isolating from us.” Stepping into the bathroom, she pulled her shirt over her head, and then dropped her own shorts to the ground before offering a hand to Moegi as she said, “Come on, you’re going to need to clean up again any way. So how about we just kill two birds with one stone?”

Moegi nodded before accepting Yakumo’s hand, who pulled her up to her feet while pulling it to her lips, where she licked Moegi’s juices from her fingers. She then kissed Moegi so that she could taste herself. The two separated as Yakumo pulled the orange-haired kunoichi’s shirt over her head, and then turning away pulled Moegi into the shower where they first proceeded to get dirty before finally scrubbing each other clean.

*********

Azami Katou sat on a log as she watched the fire that she and her sisters had started after setting up camp for the evening. She was currently on watch, as they had decided to take the direct route back to Konoha, despite it being considered the more dangerous one. For her part, she had been rather indifferent about what path to take, while her sisters had preferred heading straight there. Looking towards them, she had actually been surprised that they had agreed since they tended to disagree on just about everything else lately. She suspected that the root of the discord between them was a mirror of the rift that was developing within their Family, primarily between their mother and father.

Azami’s reasoning in regard to the sisters was that each of them tended to favor one of their parents, with En being more of a daddy’s girl, as she idolized their father Iyashi and hoped to follow in his footsteps as a medic-nin. Hibari on the other hand, although she didn’t exactly take after their mother in the skills department, that honoring falling to her, she possessed a more analytical mind which led her to often blame their father for the building tension between their parents. As for herself, her idol had been their maternal grandfather Chen, who had faked his death after the Third Shinobi War. He had first revealed himself to her, after she begun leaving riceballs on his grave soon after entering the academy, and learning about many of his exploits. Those tales had also been the reason that she had asked their mother to begin teaching her their Family’s Taijutsu style, lessons which her Grandfather had supplemented and had led to her quickly becoming one of the strongest students in her graduating class.

A proud time for her, although also one of the saddest as her Grandfather had informed her that he would be leaving the Leaf for good. He didn’t outright state it, but she knew that it was because his health had been failing, and he had decided to seek out a place to die. She had begged him to come back home with her, but he had steadfastly refused stating it would be far too selfish an act even for him. He had believed this to be the case, since his daughter had buried him once already and so couldn’t just reenter her life just to reopen the wound. A part of her didn’t wonder if her family wouldn’t have been better served if she had come clean to their mother about her father being alive. But, then again she supposed if that had been the case, then his DNA would have been stolen when his grave had been robbed by Kabuto. It had led Azami to question who had been buried in the grave, since the ruse had not been discovered when it had been dug up. But figured her grandfather must of either changed his records, or had somehow disguised the body that had originally been buried.

However, on a personal matter she found that she deeply regretted not telling her mother, as she felt keeping the secret was the reason for her own feeling of separation from her. There were times when she nearly told her, but feared doing so would only further damage their relationship. Still, she knew her mother had high hopes for her, which was why when En had suggested taking the direct route, she hadn’t really ben against it figuring arriving days early might give them more favorable considerations when it came time to being promoted. She suspected this was also what En was hoping, except with a few more head pats from their father.

Hibari on the other hand, probably wasn’t that interested in receiving praise either from the village or their parents. Rather, she probably just saw the direct route as being the more likely to allow her to test her inventions in a combat situation.

Azami focused on her, and wondered what had prompted Hibari’s interest in mechanical science, a field that she said was vastly underserved due to shinobi’s preoccupation with jutsu and genetics. Which she figured was just another subject of disagreement between Hibari’s fraternal twin En. Which due to just how often the two of them were always arguing often led many to mistake her for being the twin. Not too surprising a thing as far as Azami was concerned since all three of them had shades of brown hair, with her and Hibari often keeping their long hair up in buns, and often had a bang which covered one eye, with hers covering her left, while Hibari’s covered the right. En however, opted to keep her shoulder length hair up in a pair of short pigtails that stuck out from the side of her head.

Still whatever had ignited Hibari’s passion, she figured it was an exciting time for her due to the Battle of Ame. After hearing about it, her sister had actually intended to pay the village for several D-ranked missions to be escorted to Ame, in order to collect some of the wrecked flying vehicles that had littered the battlefield. There had been some back and forth conducted between Hibari, their mother, and the Hokage, which Azami believed might have been related to what she was after, but after those meetings Tsunade had given her permission to proceed. With the Hokage even deciding to make it an officially sanctioned missions so that the village would handle the costs.

Azami had even volunteered for the mission, and she smiled as she recalled how happily her sister had crawled over the various wrecks, which had been moved to a field near Ame, while scavenging parts that interested her. She hadn’t been the only one, as both Suna and Kumo had sent interested parties which had led to a few heated arguments whenever a particularly valuable looking piece of equipment looked to be relatively intact. Although, truthfully it had been the Kumo representatives responsible for most of them, since the two kunoichi that had been running the Suna scavenging effort seemed more inclined to work together with them. Hibari had made fast friends with the one named Rikku, which Azami attributed to the kunoichi Al Bhed’s roots as they seemed to be rather fascinated with machines as well. Although, Azami was perhaps a bit skeptical of the young woman’s stories which had so captivated her sister primarily as if she was to be believed there were machines buried deep beneath the sands of Wind Country which were even more advanced than the current era.

The other Suna-nin had been a kunoichi named Selphie, who was also a rather avid fan of technology. She had also shared that although their mission was to scavenge what technology they could. They had been ordered to particularly focus on the device related to extracting chakra and powering the engines. Which had been a somewhat disappointing request for the pair, as their primary interests in the wreck had been the engines themselves. Which while it had apparently been Hibari’s primary focus also, in truth she was interested in all the various systems, and thus it had allowed the two groups to collaborate and scavenge almost three time as many wrecks as the Kumo-nin. This in turn had allowed the Suna party to forage for a satisfactory amount of components that their Kage had been interested in, as well as a couple of complete engines for their own personal use, which was apparently to come up with a flying transport of their own design. Hibari had admitted that she was also interested in coming up with a flying machine although not on a similar scale.

By the time they had left, all the wrecks had been picked clean and when they had returned to Konoha she had learned her sister had been provided her own warehouse in which to conduct her research. This had led to further arguments between Hibari and En due in part to the latter feeling that her twin had been slacking off in their preparations for the Chunin Exams. It had been a fair criticism since their sister had begun skipping training sessions. But if Azami was going to be honest, she doubted it would overly hurt them in the long run since in one form or another they had been training with or fighting against each other their entire lives.

Although, she suspected that she would soon find out if this was truly the case.

*******

Watching the woman from the darkness, Muyami of the Grass Village licked his lips in anticipation of the coming battle. He looked down at the Tekko Kagi which covered his hands, and envisioned them coated in at least one of the three Leaf kunoichi’s blood. He directed his gaze over to his teammate Kazami who would charge in with him after their initial attack. Despite the darkness, he could still make out the frown which the taller man sported, since he was against the attack feeling that they should just make their way to the Leaf Village. However, Muyami had been able to sway their third teammate Burami over to his side by telling the obese man that he could help himself to their supplies.

It was hard for him to keep his killing intent in check, since in truth he had no real interest in being promoted to Chunin. Rather, his sole interest in taking the exams was to kill as many Leaf Shinobi as he could. A long awaited revenge for his old summons Moguranmaru. He still recalled the horror that he felt, watching as the parasitic insects of the Aburame that they had faced in their previous exam had burrowed their way out of his precious summons and friend after devouring its insides. Although there had been several exams since that fateful day, Muyami had been unable to attend them as he had left on a training trip, with the first being the Valley of the Hills located within the Land of Grass, which was a collection of massive mole hills and was the home of the summons that he had contracted with. After returning the remains of Moguranmaru, and telling the Mole King that he intended to avenge his summons death, and receiving its blessing he had left to form contracts with various other summons. Naturally, all of them feasted primarily on insects. A few of the summons had rejected his requests to partner with them, such as the toads. But, he hadn’t been overly surprised by that considering their long association with the Leaf. But, he hadn’t just been out their forming contracts, as he had sharpened his skills as well as developed an affinity for poisons.

However, he had been somewhat surprised upon returning to Grass to discover his team had yet to be promoted. Which Kazami had informed him was because they were a team, and would become Chunin as such. A sentiment that he knew the earnest man who was rather popular due to his good looks and stylish pompadour actually meant. But, he just assumed that Burami had been too lazy to actually take the test without Kazami pushing him to do so. Although, he supposed it would be fair to assign some of the blame to the several year long drought. Yet, while he knew Kazami had been earnest, in truth Muyami just saw the man as a fool now as whatever affections that he had harbored for his team had slowly bled away as he dove deeper in the arts of bringing death to his enemies.

In fact, had the exams not been right around the corner when he had returned to Grass, he probably would have defected to the Village Hidden in Darkness figuring it would allow him to indulge in his desire for revenge. Although due to Grass’s alliance with the Leaf, his eventually defection was all but assured he supposed. But, for now he looked forward to the cover the exams would grant him as he hunted down and killed members of the Leaf, and sweetest of all, it being perfectly legal. He considered for a moment what trophy’s he would take from the three kunoichi, as he fully intended to confront Shino Aburame by the close of the exams to show him the collection that he had started, and had been inspired by the Aburame, all in order to let him know that each new addition was entirely his fault.

Looking off into the distance, he smiled as he saw a shadow flying towards the camp and decided that each of the corpses he left behind would be missing a few fingers. One for his collection, one for a member of their family, and one for Shino Aburame who had set him upon his current path.

*********

Hibari felt a tug on her toe and her eyes immediately snapped open as the string tied to it had been tugged by Azami. She continued to lay there while acting as if she was still asleep while wondering what had concerned Azami enough to pull it. She turned on her side as if to adjust her position, while slipping the string off of her toe and saw that her twin had also been awakened. Still, she couldn’t really detect any threats, although fully admitted her senses were nowhere near as sharp as her younger sister’s. She was about to drop the ruse, and ask her what was wrong when Azami shouted, “Move, somethings coming from above.”

Both her and En heeded the warning as she rolled to her side closer to Azami, while En opted to roll away from them. Just as some massive blob of flesh smashed into the ground where the pair of them had been sleeping.

Hibari snatched up her backpack, an item which had infuriated En to no end when she had learned that it was not meant to store supplies leading to her sisters having to carry the bulk of them. Quickly slipping it onto her back, she synched up the straps before plugging several of the leads from it into connectors on the form fitting bodysuit that she wore. Hitting a button on the back of her gloves, the whirring sound of a motor coming to life began to emanate from the hard plastic case.

Azami sent a questioning look in her direction, but quickly focused forward again as a large obese man wearing just a red vest which left the bulk of his stomach exposed, and whose headband identified him as a shinobi of Grass stepped up from the crater his explosive entrance had created. Glaring at him, Azami angrily asked, “What do you think you are doing? It is against the rules for participants to battle each other.”

“No,” the fat man said, spinning suddenly as En leapt at his back with her hands glowing from her chakra scalpels, his mass shifted about as he seemed to grow taller and skinnier allowing for him to dodge the medic’s attack. As he completed his turn, he brought a meaty hand down on En’s back smashing her into the ground, and as she bounced off of it he delivered a kick which booted her towards her siblings. While end flew towards her sisters like a projectile he finished his statement by saying, “It’s only against the rules if you get caught.”

Hibari tried to catch En, but due to how fast she was traveling, her attempt failed as she was knocked back and tripped over the log that they had carried over to the camp to use as a bench while taking watch. Something which probably saved the siblings’ lives, as Azami charged forward to engage the obese man, whose body again seemed to shift about, this time just his belly as he pumped himself up and down, until suddenly from the rolls of his fat dozens of kunai shot towards them. Azami quickly responded by leaping forward with a kick which created a gust of wind which knocked down the kunai directly in front of her, while many of them imbedded themselves in the log Hibari and En were laying behind.

En rolled off of her sister, as she heard the multiple thunks of the kunai hitting the log. Not bothering to thank her sister for the attempt at breaking her fall, she angrily asked while peaking over the makeshift barricade, “Isn’t it about time you justify the reason you brought that stupid pack along.”

Seeing the obese man getting knocked back by the gust of wind that Azami’s kick had created, she launched herself over the log as she noticed two more opponents emerging from the edge of the forest. She only managed to move a handful of feet though, as a giant bat slightly larger than a man flew overhead and began to hover before screaming down in her direction. She covered her ears as the scream threatened to burst them as she stood in a cone of its supersonic sound.

She dropped to her knees, as she felt on the verge of losing consciousness when suddenly a column of flame erupted from behind her and caused the bat to fly off. Turning back, she saw that the body suit Hibari wore now had a glowing circular shaped design on her stomach, with several glowing lines emanating from it so that one traveled down each of her legs down to her feet while one traveled up between the valley of her medium sized breasts before separating at her neck so that they could each pass along one of her shoulders and down her arms.

As her sister walked forward, the pack on her back continued to shift so that the hard plastic could wrap around her chest like a piece of armor. Illuminated by the flames her sister was projecting, En could see that a skeletal like frame was now running along her sister’s arm, with a hose wrapping around it until it ended in the nozzle that the flame was spurting from. She noticed her sister adjust one of her fingers pressing into the palm of her hand beneath where the flamethrower was mounted, and suddenly it ceased casting the surrounding area into darkness accept for where her flames had landed on the ground.

Looking back over her shoulder, Hibari smirked as she asked her sister, “Now do you think it was worth bringing along my Armored Carapace Mark One?”

“We’ll see,” En said, not willing to give her sister the satisfaction, “Let’s see if it’s still in working order after the fight.” She charged forward to where Akami was now engaged against all three opponents, although making sure to continue to retreat so as to stay in the light of their campfire, while also pulling her opponents closer to her siblings. En targeted the man whose primary weapon appeared to be a flag, and activating her chakra scalpels, aimed to strike at the the muscles in his wrists. But he stepped back at the last second as he brought his flag into an upward swing. En dodged out of instinct and was glad that she did as she felt a blade of wind pass by her which would have likely bisected her in half otherwise. The man began to spin his flag about over his head, occasionally bringing it down sending additional blades in her direction, but as one of the Medical Cores guiding principles was not to be hit, she was able to continue to avoid them even as she closed with her opponent. At least until the flag wielder’s obese partner tried to flatten Azami beneath him by leaping up into the air, and expanded his massive body out to cover as much area as he could to flatten her beneath him. En didn’t know if the attack had connected, or have the time to direct any concern her sister’s way as she was forced to roll to her right as her opponent sent two horizontal wind cutters towards her through the debris cloud that had been kicked up. With the first heading to where she had been standing, and the second angled lower to where he guessed she would dodge. Fortunately, although he had guess right on the direction, it appeared as if he had expected her to make a simple leap so the attack ended up passing just over her head. However, due to her roll, she then lost track of the flag wielder in the dust cloud as he stopped waving it about, and disturbing the air currents, as he no doubt was trying to determine everyone whereabouts within it much as she was, seemingly causing the fight to fall into a momentary stalemate as they waited for the dust cloud to settle.

Azami had fortunately managed to avoid being crushed beneath the blob of a man by leaping backwards a few times, a fate that she wasn’t quite so certain the large man’s ally had managed to avoid. Although she also was now remaining still, she wasn’t quite as convinced that the battle was in a holding pattern until the debris cleared as the apparent lack of movement of those within the cloud was suggesting. She closed her eyes sharpening her senses in the manner her grandfather had taught her for situations just as this, although his lessons had been geared towards dealing with Shinobi from Kiri and their Hiding Within Mist techniques. As she did so, she recalled the last few moments of the fight before the large man had created the dust cloud. After En had entered the fray and pulled off the Flag Wielder, it had left her facing the two remaining opponents while Hibari had moved along the outskirts of their camp. As if looking for an angle to fire off a jutsu, or more accurately another contraption that she had built. Azami figured this as having noticed that while the nozzle for the flamethrower appeared to have been built into the framework coating her sister’s right arm, there appeared to be several tubes running along the framework of her left which ended in about five nozzles on the back of her hand. A hand that she had appeared to be trying to bring in line with the smallest of their opponents, a nimble fighter dressed in black with a pair of small claws covering the back of his hands. This had prompted the obese man to appear as if he was breaking away to engage Hibari, but he had suddenly jumped up into the air instead. As his mass had shifted, his opponent had launched himself at her as if to tackle her so the pair of them could be flattened. But, she had managed to land a Flash Kick against him a summersult move that launched a crescent of wind from her foot which although lacked the cutting ability of a Wind Cutter nevertheless knocked him onto his back. As she had landed, she had leapt again to remove herself from beneath the large man as his teammate had seemingly been crushed.

With her senses expanded, she could hear the large man climbing from the crater he had created, and seemed to be moving rather stealthily towards her. See frowned at this wondering how he was so confident about her position. But, believed it might be due to the almost grease like sweat coating the burly man and was now coating her fists from the blows that she had managed to land. She felt a shiver of disgust at the idea, but didn’t let it break her concentration. Due to the darkness surrounding her, and the lack of the crackle from the fire, she believed it had been extinguished likely from the dirt thrown up from the large man’s attack. She also had almost no issue telling where Hibari was due to the light emanating from her, as well as the small whirs or clicks coming from the device covering her torso and arms. This confirmed for Azami that some sort of scent marker was coating her allowing the large man to focus on her, but left her wondering why no one would move on the most obvious target. Her eyes widened with understanding as she heard the bat shrieking in the distance, and imagined that it would also have no difficulty marking friend and foe in the cloud. Something she felt was all but confirmed as her ears began to tingle with it next shriek which was even closer and making her believe it was using its echo location. Realizing both her sisters were in danger, she was about to shout a warning ro them when Hibari beat her to the punch, “Azami, En switch opponents.”

Azami smiled at her sister’s command as she followed it by shooing a fireball jutsu into the air. Azami didn’t hesitate in moving towards where her elder sister was and suspected that she was extremely confused by her twins sudden command. However, above them there was an explosion as Hibari’s jutsu hit the bat summons, which shrieked in pain as the blast illuminated the area for a moment. This allowed Azami to see where the man dressed in black was rising from the ground behind En, who she launched herself at in order to hit him with a Leaf Whirlwind. She felt a sense of satisfaction as she felt a few of his ribs break beneath her foot as she caught him in the side with a claw raised in order to strike down her sister, and so followed it up with an even stronger kick as she shifted in midair to deliver it with her other foot.

Landing gracefully as the shinobi in black flew off into the cloud, she noticed that En appeared surprised by both her sudden appearance not to mention the man who had been about to attack. However, with the realization that their opponents had used to debris cloud to switch opponents. She realized what her twin’s command had been meant to convey particularly as she noticed the large man following in the wake of Azami. Charging towards him in turn, she delivered a shot to his massive gut, but frowned as the layers of fat prevented her chakra scalpel from delivering any real damage. He seemed to smile at the futility of her attack, as he raised a meaty fist above his head as if to drive her into the ground like a hammer does a nail. But, as he brought it down, she rolled between his legs and as he connected with the ground targeted the back of his legs, as she sliced along the back of his tendons. He screamed in pain as he toppled forward due to his legs no longer being able support his massive weight.

Hibari breathed a sigh of relief as her jutsu caught the bat in midflight having calculated where to aim her jutsu based on the line it had been traveling and distance covered between its last two shrieks. Especially as it briefly illuminated the Flag Wielder in the thinning cloud, who was charging her silently with his weapon pointed down as he intended to use it as a spear. Although tempted to put her armor to the test, she wasn’t confident it wouldn’t deflect the blow if the metal flagpole was enhanced by wind chakra. As such, she turned to fully face the man, and caught the end of it, causing the motors in her suit to whir as they enhanced her strength enough to stop the man nearly completely. He looked at her in surprise, which she used to her advantage as she pushed his weapon aside and punched him in the gut with her left hand as she activated the five senbon launchers atop of it. The pneumatically launched senbon tore through his unarmored stomach with enough force to fly out his back like a bloody geyser.

He groaned as he crumpled to the ground along with the remains of the cloud obstructing their vision. This caused the obese shinobi now laying on his back with En kneeling on his chest while pressing a glowing hand to his throat to call out in surprise and sadness, “No, Kazami! Muyami, what do we do?”

“Shut up for starters,” the shinobi in black shouted as he held his broken ribs with one hand, and aimed a flare upward with the other. Firing it skyward, he quickly covered his ears while his large teammate followed suit as the wounded bat appeared again this time screaming in a manner so that its Sound attack hit both teams. It then swooped down as it tried to grab both En and the large man in its talons, but the kunoichi managed to roll out of the way. It surprisingly was able to lift the man off the ground without really losing any speed, but remained low allowing the shinobi in black to run toward it and leap upon its back before tacking to the sky once more.

Hibari was a little caught off-guard by how quickly and easily the one called Muyami had abandoned his teammate. But suddenly found herself pushed aside as En knelt down next to the man whose obese teammate had identified him as Kazami. En looking at the wounds on his back as cursed before asking, “Gods, what profane creation have you made this time Hibari?”

Hibari taking a look at the wounds had to admit they looked pretty bad due to how she imagined the exit wounds would be worse then the entry. But, as her sister began scanning the man, she wanted to fire back a reminder that he had been trying to kill her at the time. Yet, before she could, Azami placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her head a quick shake. Sighing in frustration, she gave a quick nod before stepping away from her sisters as she deactivated her Armored Carapace causing the arm pieces to first disengage, and fold up against her back, before the armored pieces covering her torso slid back to cover them as it returned to resembling a pack. She then disconnected the leads that powered it via the body suit that she wore which captured and transferred her chakra to it when activated causing the lights coating it to fade.

Looking back over her shoulder, she saw En was trying to heal the man so asked, “How long are you going to need?”

“I don’t know,” En replied back quickly, “You’ve pierced several of his organs, and may have damaged his spine.”

Not liking the accusations that she heard in her sisters tone, she was about to remind her that it had been her patient who had initiated the attack along with his comrades. But, Azami again played peacemaker as she said, “Well then just focus on stabilizing him if you can. We’ll breakdown the camp. But we should really get moving again by sunrise.” En nodded in agreement as she focused on trying to save the man’s life, while her sisters salvaged what they could from their ruined camp.

A few hours later when the sun began to rise, En was just finishing bandaging up their attacker’s torso while Azami and Hibari leaned against each other on the kunai peppered log. Seeing their sister stand up as she wiped her brow, she said, “There that’s the best I can do. Provided some proctor comes along and gets him to the village, he should be fine.”

Azami stood first saying, “That’s good. We should get moving then. Are you good to go?”

“Yes,” En said making her way to her sisters, “But if you don’t mind can you take point and Hibari the rear so I can recover a little more while we move.”

Azami nodded and turned away to look for the best route to take, while Hibari reached down to grab En’s pack intending to carry it along with her own to help ease her burden. However, En quickly snatched it up herself as she brushed her sister aside.

Without the adrenaline from the fight, Hibari found it much easier to keep her composure as Azami looked back to point out where she intended to head before taking off at a run. En waited a few moments before following suit, while Hibari reminded herself that it wasn’t her fault that her twin refused to accept the reality that it wasn’t their mother’s fault that their father had seemed to grow disinterested in his family. She had just made the mistake of trying to opening her sister’s eyes to the truth as to what he was truly up to when he came home late after claiming to be working. But, reminded of the old adage that one could only lead a horse to water, not what it did when it was there. She took off at a run as she allowed her focus to return to the immediate task of watching the backs of her two closest bonds even as she felt a small worry about how much longer one of them would trust for her to do so.

*********

Obito’s eyes snapped open as the crunching sound of someone biting into an apple disturbed his slumber. A surprising development for him considering that slumber had been meant to be eternal. Not wanting to alert whoever was present that wasn’t the case he removed motionless as he thought back to what he had believed to be his last moments, which had started with him in his cell. He had been sitting on a bed furiously writing in a journal that he had been given in lieu of a last meal. A journal that he had spent several hours furiously scribbling in as he tried to recount all that had transpired over the course of the last two decades. Not only including a timeline of the events that he had participated in, but theories he had spent the previous few days since Naruto’s visit and learning Rin was alive crafting to help dismantle the remnants of whatever plan that he had been used to set in motion as he doubted either KuroZetsu or the being that he believed had birthed it, Madara Uchiha, would let whatever setbacks they had experienced dissuade them for long. He had just added a few last occurring ideas to the back cover as he had completely filled the pages when the metal gate of his cell had slid open to reveal the Hokage, her apprentice Shizune, a cat masked Anbu Captain along with a squad of Anbu rounded out the party.

Stepping into the cell, Tsunade said, “It’s time.”

Obito nodded, and was somewhat surprised at how at peace he was with it. He wondered if it was because of his learning that Rin was still alive, and had seemingly chosen another to favor with her affection which had seemingly robbed him over a desire to live. Which if that was the case, even he had to admit made him a pathetically sad individual. Particularly as it forced him to face the fact that dead Rin could be anything he had wanted her to be, an unrequited crush where if not but for a small change of fate could have blossomed into the loving relationship that he desired. However, with her alive and seeming in love with another man again, well it forced him to concede that she might have never come around to loving him. Which Rin being alive meant that even if he had performed the Infinite Tsukiyomi, the end goal that he had believed all his efforts had been intended to bring about, it would have resulted in only him dreaming of a life together. Although admittedly that would have been the case even with her being dead, however knowing she would be dreaming of a world where she was happy with another, left the idea of his living in his own dream world remarkably hollow. Especially as he considered the possibility that her dream world might far more closely resemble the one that she currently was experiencing. As such, he felt it was best to end this pitiful existence, and hope that after spending time in the grey world as penance while awaiting his turn at reincarnation, he’d get a better outcome during his next turn at the game of life.

Yet while resigned to his fate in this world, he certainly didn’t want Madara or his agent to achieve their aims, so could only hope the journal he had written would be used to crush their dreams in much the same way they had his. In order to achieve this aim, he handed over the journal to Tsunade who asked, “What’s this? A last will and testament?”

“More or less,” he stated taking a small bit of satisfaction as her eyes widened at his admission.

What followed next was pretty much the standard walk to the execution as he often saw portrayed in moves, where the condemned is marched off to the gallows with someone reading the list of crimes that he had committed and for which he was receiving the ultimate sanction. As the reached the chamber, with numerous crimes still left unmentioned he thought to himself, “They should have put my cell on the opposite end of the building.” Looking at the journal, he added, “Although, even that probably would be long enough if they knew everything I’ve done.”

Still, the Anbu continued reciting them as they stood outside the chamber prompting him to say, “Skip it. I know what I’ve done, and soon you’ll have a complete picture, so let’s just get on with it.”

“Fair enough,” Tsunade said opening the door to the chamber, “After you.”

Stepping inside, he had his prison shirt removed as the Anbu strapped him down to a cross shaped table while Shizune study the panel which contained the chemicals. As the last Anbu finished strapping his own arms to the outstretched ones of the table, Shizune took over as she inserted the I.V.’s which would deliver the chemicals that would first put him to sleep, before the second paralyzed him, as the third would cause his heart to stop. From there, after everyone had left the room things had proceeded exactly as he had expected, as his world went dark.

Right up till now, where he wondered if somehow there had been a mistake and he had received a double dose of one of the first two stages. However, he didn’t quite expect the answer would be that simple, as while he had yet to open his eyes, the musky nature of the environment led him to believe that he was underground, and probably in some sort of cave. Beginning to wonder just what this meant for him, it was at this point that whoever was eating the apple revealed that she was a woman as she said, “You can stop pretending to be asleep now. I’m well aware of your having been awake for the past few minutes.”

Obito opened his eyes, and sat up, with the slight breeze generated by the movement revealing that to his surprise, the mask which had been affixed to his face since his capture had been removed. He filed this information away, as at present it told him that whoever the woman was, she was also connected to Naruto. A fact further confirmed as he found her sitting on a raised rock that looked to have been shaped into a platform upon which a stone throne sat, looking almost bored as she read the journal that he had given Tsunade while eating her apple. Her green eyes looked away from the journal, and with a wicked smile said, “Hello Obito Uchiha, I’ve so looked forward to our paths crossing again.”

He frowned as he had trouble placing her face, although there was something familiar about it. But, then like a hammer the vision of her standing in another underground cavern assaulted him as he recalled catching a vague glimpse of her before being forced out of the room which had contained the Gedo Mezo state as unknown forces had stolen it. “You,” he shouted, “You’re one of the people that stole the statue from us. You’ve been working with Konoha this whole time.”

“Not Konoha,” the woman stated as she held the mostly eaten apple up in the palm of her hand, which promptly burst into flames. “However, certain elements within it and other villages have been working with us.” Seeing the Uchiha’s shocked countenance caused her to laugh softly as it prompted her to ask, ”What, did you think you and your little goo buddy had the market cornered on secret cabals working in the shadows?”

Obito frowned as he asked, “Are you telling me that you’re with the Shadow Cabal? I find that hard to believe. Especially if you’re holding that book. They don’t strike me as the type of people that Naruto or the Hokage would align themselves with.”

Turning her hand to allow the ash of the apple to fall to the floor, she said, “Quite astute. Although it does disappoint me that you do not appear to have any great insight into them either.”

The woman moved to the end of the platform before jumping down with the few moments she took her eyes off of him allowed Obito to run a quick check of his body as he contemplated attacking her. Finding that although his chakra was sealed, the rest of his body seemed to be in good enough shape that he imagined he could surprise her, he hesitated as he felt someone else’s eyes upon him.

However, rather than searching around and giving away that he was aware of the hidden individual, he instead focused on the red-headed woman as he said, “They seemed inclined to ignore us, and so we sought to return the favor.”

“No surprise there, I suppose,” she replied beginning to sound disinterested, “Since it appears their goals are to ferment chaos, and oh boy, did you and your friends go about sowing chaos.” Opening the journal, she flipped through several pages before whistling as she said sounding almost flattering, “The Bloodline Purges of Kiri. That was you? What am I saying, of course it was you wrote it all down here stating that, you simply used your Shraingan to control the Bijuu contained within the Fourth Mizukage in order to twist him into becoming the type of man who would institute those bloodline purges. Wow, and people said I was a monster. But, I cannot even begin to hold a candle to you.”

Obito scowled at the mocking undertones contained within the woman’s words, prompting him to ask, “Who asked you? If you are so disgusted by me, why did you spare my life.”

Closing the book, the woman answered, “Believe me, it wasn’t the decision that I would have preferred. If it had been up to me, I’d have left you as the broken piece of garbage that Black Zetsu’s betrayal left you as. But, I admit that I’ve come around to the idea.”

Looking at right arm which along with that half of his body had previously been grafted on White Zetsu flesh, he said confused, “Wait, you healed me. Why?”

“Because he asked me to,” the red-head replied with a soft loving smile, “I really cannot say no to him.” The smile turned rather sinister as she said, “And as I said, I’ve come around to the idea, especially after reading your autobiography. I mean seriously, you spend damn near the last two decades fucking up the shinobi world and what, you get to go off to sleep as the rest of us have to clean up the mess you helped to make. Besides, I want to keep you entrapped within this world, a nightmare of your own creation. Where your beloved Rin even now is probably bouncing wildly on Naruto’s dick all the while aware of the twisted piece of filth you truly are.”

“Argh! You fucking bitch!” Obito shouted as his anger caused him to charge as it overrode his previous hesitation.

Yet before he managed to make it a single step, another person appeared from behind the throne that the red-head had originally been sitting in. This new individual moved as a blur, easily intercepting and kicking him away as he received a powerful blow to the chest that lifted him off of his feet. Slamming into the caverns wall, he slid down it slowly and after sinking to the ground sat dazed for several moments. Yet as his blurred vision began to clear, he gasped as do to the pain in his chest he somewhat hoarsely said, “Rin.”

However, as it cleared even further he realized the woman standing before him couldn’t be her despite the strong resemblance, even though she appeared to be about his age. This was mainly due to her sporting violet hair, while the purple marks on her cheeks were missing. Moreover, while her eyes were the same brown as Rin’s, they were currently regarding him coldly, as well as with a level of disgust that hadn’t been present when the younger Rin with Naruto had visited his cell.

“Thank you Hansei,” the red-head stated to her apparent bodyguard, “But, I wasn’t in any danger.” The purple-haired woman inclined her head, but still kept herself between Obito and the woman. The red-head turned to him and frown as he began to chuckle, prompting her to ask, “What is it that you suddenly find so amusing?”

“I knew that fraud with Naruto wasn’t real,” he replied while holding his hand up towards the woman named Hansei, “For starters she was way too young, and while your attack dog here is about the same age, everything else is wrong. But, I have to admit you played me. It got me to give up all my dirty secrets, so what is this. The part where you rub it all in.”

The red-head made a chiding clicking noise with her tongue before saying, “Obito, Obito, Obito, you sweet summer child. I already told you the truth. Your precious Rin is addicted to Uzumaki cock, and from what I understand she even fucked him just after seeing you for the first time in decades, she needed him to make all the bad memories just seeing you and hearing what you did supposedly in her name brought to the surface and believe me she loved… Every. Fucking. Moment.” Seeing Obito’s face twisting in horror and anger she moved to stand behind what appeared to be a purple haired version of the woman that he loved, “The reason Rin appears so young, is so she wouldn’t experience quite as much stress from the memories that were removed from her. Those memories being the time that she spent trapped in her own body as Joskei’s puppet.” Placing a hand on Hansei’s shoulder, she said, “Memories which I’ve used to create Hansei here. Granted, she might not be Rin, but she does have all of her memories. Including her time as a member of Team Minato.”

“T…that doesn’t make any sense,” Obito said even though he could feel that it was, and began to understand why the woman was staring at him with such cold disgust. After all, if the being wearing Rin’s face had acted as Joseki’s assassin then he could understand why the brown eyes that the younger one had still possessed some degree of warmth, while the hardened version standing before him now just saw him as a piece of trash which had betrayed everyone she had cared for.

“You get it now don’t you,” the red-head said with her sinister smile, “Removing her memories of her time as Joseki’s puppet would reset the true Rin to a point before she had been kidnapped. But, the memories that were taken away, would still retain all of the ones that came before. I’ve used those memories in Hansei who is going to act as our observer as you…”

Obito eyes hardened as he surged forward to tackle the woman, who gracefully leapt away at the same time. His gaze shifted to purpled-haired woman to see how she would react hoping to have just enough time to slam a fist into the red-head’s windpipe to crush it. Yet, before Hansei could react or he could shift back towards the other woman to aim for his target, he suddenly clutched at his chest as it felt like a hand had reached into his chest and was squeezing his heart. Clutching at his chest, he fell to the ground and as he managed to look up from the ground saw the red-head holding her hand out before her, looking as if it was wrapped around a heart made of chakra.

Understanding it was a representation of his which she appeared to be holding, and whatever seal was being used to currently constrict it had likely been placed within him when she had repaired his body, he gasped, “You bitch, what do you want from me?”

“I was just about to get to that,” she informed him calmly, before allowing the chakra construct to disappear at which point the pain around his heart began to lessen. Leaping back up to the platform containing her throne, she said, “Now then. The reason that we’ve spared your life, such as it is. Is so that you can put right the many wrongs you’ve helped to unleash upon the world. Preferably by hunting down, or uncovering what that Black Zetsu is currently up to.”

Getting back to his feet, he said bitterly, “I refuse. There’s nothing in this world I care about.”

The red-head gave him a knowing smile as she said, “We both know that isn’t true. But, if that’s your decision so be it. Slink of to the shadows to continue to feel sorry for yourself. But, a word of warning, if you try to go near Rin… you’ll quickly come to regret it.” She held her hand up causing the chakra construct of his heart to reappear for a moment, once it faded again she added, “Oh, and just so you are aware, she has access to the same jutsu as well.”

“That’s it,” Obito said sounding disappointed, “All this and you’ll just let me go.”

“Of course,” the woman replied with a smile, “We are not monsters. I wouldn’t force you to do something that you do not want to. I mean after reading your journal, it doesn’t even sound like Madara needed to force you in order to get you to turn your back on everyone you supposedly cared for. All the measures I’ve taken here are merely to protect those I care for from you. If you want to stand back and let Madara or his Goo baby achieve their dreams, who am I to compel you to stop them after helping them get this far.” To his surprise, the woman Hansei actually seemed even more disappointed in him then she had already appeared to be. Something which caused him to wince internally, despite his knowing that the Brown eyes currently staring at him did not belong to the woman that he had claimed to love. They did possess elements of her, and truthfully he felt the coldness and anger they contained came into being because he had let Rin down. Yet, he still considered telling the Red-head that she could go to hell, but then realized that he was already there, and she was just the devil running it as she added, “Oh, and just in case you decide to hit reset on this world, and hope the next is better for you. I’m not going to allow that, no matter how painful the end you choose, I’ll bring you back, and I’ll keep bringing you back until this plot you set into motion has been squashed.”

“Fine,” he relented after figuring the only peace he would ever receive was by completing the task being set before him.

The red-head smiled genuinely, before saying, “I’m glad to hear it.” Standing she indicated the cavern, while saying, “I’m sure you don’t recognize this place. But, this cave is where the path ended for one of the people you led astray.” Obito looked about in confusion for a moment before realizing this was the cave from which had Nagato launched his assault on Konoha, and where he had died at Naruto’s hands. “I had felt it would make for a good starting point as you embarked on this new path you find yourself on.”

“You mean forced onto,” Obito said in a dismissive manner.

To his surprise the red-head’s smile widened as she said, “Tomato, tomatoe. But, seeing as the poetic nature is lost on you, lets go with starting point B. Hansei, if you’ll be so kind.”

Before he could react, Hansei disappeared in a blur only to reappear behind him, and with a hand crackling with electricity grabbed him by the neck. He went stiff as the electricity coursed through his body, but primarily traveled up his spine into his brain and causing his eyes to roll up into the back of his head as he lost consciousness.

The Chunin Exams Part Deux!: The Mad Rush Backwards!

Author’s Note: Good day everyone. First let me thank those of you who take the time to leave a review. They truly help keep me motivated to continue working on the story. For those questioning, hey didn’t I read that last part with Obito once already? Yes you did. But, it was a portion that I originally intended to appear at the end of this chapter, to lead into Kiyomi and Kushina’s limelight.

As for this chapter itself, I hope it proved to be worth the wait, and while not the first half was admittedly not entirely exam focused instead wrapping up a few prior plot points. I hope the battle at the end was a good lead off, and the next chapter should shine a light on a few of the other participants that will be playing a part. Plus, will serve as a tie in for the next chapter of Antithesis.

Again, let me thank you all for all the support, and until next time. Take Care! Sincerely, The Lemon Sage