Capítulo 28: Chapter Twenty-Eight
A/N- I am so sorry, I have no idea how the formatting of this chapter got so messed up in the first place. Special thanks to the folks on Discord for giving the head's up!
Hey guys. Here's the chappy. Expect the following update on Wednesday next week, and know you can skip the wait and read the following three chapters and continuous updates on Pa-treon right now. Since I now qualify as an unemployed member of society, all subscribers on my pa-treon are much appreciated. If you enjoy my writing, please don't hesitate to support it. For Pa Treon, you can remove the hyphen between Pa and Treon and Google it, then search for my username—Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting it in your address bar. Note: Please subscribe to my pa-treon using the website directly instead of the IOS app. It's cheaper on the website.
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FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE SECOND GREAT SHINOBI WORLD WAR
By consensus, they would be steering clear of the Land of Whirlpools for this mission, so that meant they would have to sneak past the Land of Hot Springs. The Uzumaki clan, in the wake of the attack and their planned exodus to Konoha's aegis, had activated a series of protections around the island that basically made that entire area impassable to all but those who held the blood. The whirlpools that had once been tamed to act as a safeguard for the island itself had been turned loose on the entire area, and so travel through the area was nearly impossible. It had destabilised shipping lanes that had been in use for decades.
It was just a helpful amount of good luck that most of the Land of Fire's trade with the Land of Water had consisted of foodstuffs. Foodstuffs that were easily rerouted to the Land of Wind or the other minor nations instead. Without that, they'd have had to explain the situation to a very pissed off Daimyo. The loss of those shipping lanes also meant that trade between Lightning and Water had been on the rise. Skilled captains could still make the journey by taking the long way around the disputed islands. It was those islands where the meeting that they had been sent to destabilise was set to take place.
They hit the border as the sun began to set and Danzo signaled for them to stop. Shori did it, feeling none the worse for wear from the journey. It had finally happened, he realised. He had finally become old enough to fully enjoy the benefits of that famed Uzumaki vitality. He never noticed it within the village since long runs like this one were rare. He barely trained endurance since he was sure his genes would handle that in time, and he was proven right. He took a seat against a tree trunk and unsealed a pack of rations once it was clear that Danzo intended them to stop for the time being.
'We will rest for a few hours to allow night to fall more fully and then will make our way in' Danzo signed to the four of them. Shori nodded, accepting the message, and took another bite of his nutrient bar. He turned to his Sensei and found the man on the opposite end of the clearing eating his own meal and seemingly studiously ignoring him. Orochimaru and Danzo were exchanging whispers off in their own world, so he decided to turn his mind inwards.
Six months had passed since that day. Granduncle Tobirama died. He had a burial ceremony as befitting any Kage, and the world itself was darker for it. He was gone. Completely. It turned out that the act of affirming Tsunade as the next Senju Clanhead was enough to overrule the previous words stated in his will. Especially because he had done it in front of Hiruzen, who was a competent witness as to his mental state. Part of me felt like the reason for that was because the will itself was too dangerous to Konoha's interests to be allowed to stand. Somehow, the man had gotten it into his head to name me as his successor in his will.
If the ruling became that Tsunade's appointment as Clanhead could not stand, then the one naming Hiruzen as Kage was put on shaky ground. It was for the best for everyone. Even me. I had no interest in being named Hokage. Especially not as I was now. So, I was forced to give the position of Clanhead. To her credit, Tsunade had offered me the position of being her heir, but there was just too much emotional baggage in it. In the end, I'd taken the offer in the spirit it was given and refused it with a grateful smile. That hadn't meant I'd had a peaceful time, however. Between training with the Whales and training on my own, I had little in the way of leisure time.
And all that spare time was taken up by the girl I now turned my attention towards. Kushina was the Eight Tails Jinchuriki now. Suffice to say, canon was well and truly gone. The seal my Granduncle had given his life to make was nothing less than a masterpiece. I could see the traces of the seal that would one day be placed on the main character of the show. It funneled chakra from Gyuki into Kushina, but it was much less filtered. Minato had been a genius. He had figured out a way to have the Kyubi chakra flow constantly into his son with no ill effects.
In our case, Kushina had writhed in pain for hours once the seal came fully into effect until Grandmother and I had been able to create a slapdash filtration system that filtered out the hate and anger of the tailed beast from entering into her chakra system and burning her from within. Now, she managed it by keeping careful control of her chakra and doing the filtration manually. For when she was asleep, we'd designed seal patches for her. I spent time with her, talking, playing, even helping with her training every once in a while when she asked. It was one of the few things keeping me sane in light of the circumstances. Her, and Mito, to be certain. Mito, who now did not have someone to take in the Kyubi after her.
She still had maybe a decade left in her since she was yet to hit that bedridden stage that I knew would mark the beginning of the end, so I was fine with kicking the problem down the road, and it seemed that both Hiruzen and Mito were as well. The Uzumaki clan didn't have anyone else compatible with the nine tails, but that was likely to change in the nearest future with how they'd been going at it like bunnies. They were trying to replenish their numbers in a generation if it was possible, as my Cousin, Arashi, had told me in confidence and I wished them the best of luck. It inspired me, in truth. The way they refused to see the end of their clan. They were, they saw the end coming and committed themselves to fighting bitterly against the dying of the light. The way they refused to go quietly into the night.
"Let's get moving" drew me out of my thoughts, and I sealed the remains of my rations before joining the others and seamlessly melding into the shadows as we made our way into the land of hot springs.
XXXXX- ONE DAY BEFORE THE SECOND GREAT SHINOBI WAR
In the end, we made it to the disputed islands with one day to spare until the meeting was supposed to happen. All our travel had been done in the most quiet and careful way since there was no telling whether Hot Springs were going to be neutral in the coming con flint or siding with our enemies. If there was any chance of the former then getting caught skulking around their territory would be sure to evaporate it. With that thought in mind, we'd moved with the greatest level of stealth under Danzo's unique cloak of darkness jutsu that made it impossible for outsiders to detect our chakra signatures.
I'd had a mini panic attack when he explained the capabilities of the jutsu to me but once I tested it out for myself, I was certain that it could not last beyond even basic scrutiny by any hyuga. The ability of my mother's clan to see for miles in all directions was one that I relied on for my personal security. The thought that Danzo and his people could sneak in and have at me at will would have been a deadly one. Thankfully, that was not to be the case. The jutsu, like any other, fell apart before my eyes and gave away its secrets in no time at all.
We swept into the island like a plague. This one had already been identified as one of the two likely to be the host for the negotiations between villages. After a quick sweep to make sure we were alone on the island, we moved on to the next one. We had to make sure we had all the likely meeting points on lock and that we were firmly entrenched in the islands by the time the enemies arrived. It would make the ambush we were planning much easier, and place that extra sense of control that I knew Danzo would crave. He was an interesting mission leader. Quite different from how Sakumo had been, and even farther from Shika.
He planned everything to a meticulous amount of detail. He paid attention to every single thing to make sure that he was ready for every possible eventuality. Of course, that made it even funnier when everything inevitably went to shit.
They were all supposed to arrive for talks on one of the two islands at the same time or roughly the same time. They were also supposed to be limited to a fixed number of representatives. Instead, I watched with my byakugan as 15 Kumo Jounin fell upon the island Danzo and I were scouting. Of course, we remained hidden. I had the largest chakra reserves of the four of us, so I was the one who stuck out most even with chakra suppression, so I was the one who was chosen to stay with Danzo whose jutsu granted the closest thing to chakra invisibility that we had on our side.
The Kumo shinobi did not bother to search the island much and just moved straight to the clearing we were keeping watch over. I signed as much to Danzo, and he replied, telling me to stay still and not give myself away. As if I were so stupid. The 15 kumo shinobi seemed to lounge about the clearing, but any shinobi worth his salt could see how they were alert. Their hands never strayed too far from their kunai pouches. One of them kept reaching up to scratch at his back, which just happened to be next to the hilt of his blade. Another's eyes never stayed still, darting from place to place like a chipmunk scurrying in the forest. Regardless of which, they all seemed to form around a single man. Tall, blond hair, and lithe frame. He had about as much chakra as Orochimaru did, and my brain was able to recognise him from the bingo book as Kubo Yatsuki. S-ranked. Needless to say, he was definitely the leader of this lot.
They waited for a few minutes before another group of shinobi appeared. The only problem was that they were not Kiri shinobi. No, the clothing they wore and the insignia on their headbands marked them as Iwa shinobi. Even worse, among them, they had a girl. She didn't look any older than 12, but her body shone like a furnace to me. The closest comparison I could come up with was Kushina. Jinchuriki, I realised with a startle.
It didn't take much guessing to figure out what tailed beast she held. Han was very much alive, well, and active. That meant she was the Yonbi jinchuriki. The one to replace Roshi. She had black hair, unlike his red, and wore it long to her shoulders. Not long for a woman, but definitely long for a kunoichi not from Konoha. Observations both from the anime and this second life taught me that little fact.
Her features were sharp as well. Sharp, an angular, unlike the more broad faces that one would expect from the land of earth. If I had walked into her in the street, I would have guessed Land of Fire nobility of some sort. I turned to Danzo on the other end of the clearing and tried to sign at him to point out their presence. The genius had been the one to insist that we split up to cover more ground and make sure we had different angles on things. He had also been sure he could maintain the jutsu around the two of us across the distance with little difficulty. Now, I couldn't warn him of what was coming. Iwa being here instead of Kiri stank to high heavens and the presence of a Jinchuriki of all things.
She and her escort of six jounin landed next to the Kumo contingent in the clearing.
"So, is it ready?" She asked immediately, tone poking at the men across from her. I could already tell they weren't taking it well.
"Yes they are. They have a nice cloaking jutsu about them, but the Leaf scum can't hide from me" I felt my heart drop into my stomach. I didn't need any warning to jump away from my previous position, and it proved expedient, as the entire forest area I'd been hiding behind erupted in blue flames in an instant. Fuck. She'd turned and fired off that fireball jutsu in just as much time as it had taken me to jump out of the area.
I sped up, activating my wind armor just as I landed on the ground and zipped right in the midst of the Iwa shinobi. They were already moving, this collection of skilled jounin. They all jumped out of the way of my grasping fingers, making sure to keep their distance. I turned to them and tilted my head as I noticed that not a single one was coming forward to meet me in taijutsu. I took my stance to invite an approach. Still nothing. In another blink of an eye, I was spinning. The revolving heaven, an absolute defence with little in the way of equals, took the fireball and scattered it around me, setting a few pieces of grass alight and casting the clearing in an ominous blue glow. Her flames still remained blue. I remembered Roshi being able to use some green flames, but blue was definitely new.
It was new, and this girl was skilled. Each jutsu was executed without seals, and so quickly did her chakra flow to carry out her will that I could not even see the process with my byakugan. I stopped spinning and smiled at the encirclement that had formed. Both Iwa and Kumo, shinobi. All their attention was placed on me, so that meant Danzo had somehow managed to escape detection. I did not risk the thought that he had let me get detected as part of some twisted plan. No, he wasn't a traitor yet. He wouldn't do that.
Still, I had what seemed to be 23 jounin and one jinchuriki around me. One of the jounin was Kubo Yatsuki, so that meant two potential S-ranked threats on the same field I occupied. A fucked situation for almost anyone, but Hiruzen had been right to send me on this mission. I had come a long way from that boy who struggled to content with the weakest Raikage. I reached for my gloves and took the both of them off under the wary gaze of those around me. They were still yet to attack. I wondered why. Bringing my thumb up to my lips, I took a bite of my skin, drawing blood. Almost like that had been a cue, they began running at me almost as one. Too slow. My fingers flipped through seals so quickly that I was certain they were a blur to all but a few. These seals were well known to me. I used the jutsu almost daily at this point.
As I reached the last seal, I brought up my offering of chakra to join my offering of blood. More chakra than I had ever used for any jutsu before. This was easily the most draining one in my arsenal. My reserves were near full and had grown by more than half since my Granduncle's death. Still, this took nearly two-thirds of those massive reserves. "Ninpo: Kuchiyose no Jutsu" I intoned and slammed my hand on the ground as two of the Kumo jounin were about to fall upon me with blades drawn. A massive plume of smoke obscured the entire battlefield, and I rapidly rose up from the ground, now on the back of a massive whale. My water clone formed from the water Jinpei had brought with him and dove at the shinobi that had been just about to reach me.
Their vision was obstructed, but I had the byakugan. My clone took a hold of one's kunai to keep him still and tore through his body with a rasengan while the other tried to jump away. The clone formed a single seal and body flickered through the pieces of flesh that remained of the first and slammed into the second. Both of them seemed to react at the same time as their blades ate into each other's necks. Except where my clone leaked water, the Kumo jounin bled red. They both fell to the ground, gone.
The smoke cleared in no time after that, and I noticed that the Kumo and Iwa teams had retreated further in the face of the giant whale that had taken to the battlefield.
"I thought you said you weren't doing battle for a while" Jinpei seemed to growl. I chuckled and reached down to rub his bumpy skin.
"Plans changed. I need your help dealing with these guys" I replied.
"Hmmmm. You'll have to explain yourself to the Boss after this. But it's good an opportunity as any for me to show you how we whales fight," I said, and even as he already glowed like a sun to my eyes, the glow grew even brighter as he seemed to take a breath. Then right from his blowhole erupted a massive geyser of water that shot into the air and seemed to reach the clouds themselves before dispersing and beginning to fall to the ground around us.
"Your first lesson is that whales only fight in the water" He said.
Important Announcement: Changes made to my pa-treon structure mean its now cheaper to read the very next chapter with a lower-tier subscription. I'll be placing a discount on yearly memberships for a week or so to support this
A/N: How's the chapter? We got to meet Azula and move towards the plot of the Second War. As I said earlier, the next chapter comes up next week on Wednesday, or skip the wait and read the next three, along with daily uploads on pa-treon. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon, google it, and then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. You could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting it in your address bar.
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