In the sky on a cloud of iron sand, Sasori sat with his arms in the air as he controlled a puppet with short black hair reaching its shoulders, yellow eyes, and a gray overcoat. "This is my most prized work of art. The effort that it took to capture him was so well worth it."
Rin's eyes widened, "Is that…?"
"The Third Kazekage." Itachi finished as his sharingan eyes narrowed.
I nodded, "It looks like the information was correct. Sasori of the Red Sand killed his own Kage and turned him into a puppet." I stood up and cracked the joints in my fingers. "Now we have no choice but to engage."
My eyes glowed as I activated Deconstructive Analysis while I simultaneously activated Accelerated Analysis and also used my other mind from Parallel Processes.
My perception of time slowed to a crawl.
I pulled out a kunai attached to a string and placed my Amenotokotachi mark on it. Lightning coursed through my hand and fell onto the blade before I threw it.
Hard.
The sound was deafening as the blade traveled through the air towards Sasori at speeds that easily caused it to catch fire from the friction.
Despite this, in my gaze, the knife moved slowly.
I could see Sasori's serious visage as he controlled his puppet releasing a wave of chakra that adhered to the iron spikes. They moved to intercept my kunai, however, their movements were captured in my eyes.
The velocity of the knife, the wind resistance of the air, tension of the string, and the angles of the iron spikes were all calculated rapidly by my second brain. Every twitch I made to my fingers was calculated to give my kunai the most optimal flight path towards its destination as I caused it to weave through the jutting iron spears.
Sasori widened his eyes as he hurriedly formed an iron barrier, however, my lighting shot through it like a beam, melting the edges of the hole it made.
Still, with his incredible experience, Sasori was able to tilt his head just enough for my Kunai to just barely graze his cheek.
A Rasengan formed on my hand
Amenotokotachi
Spacetime distorted as I vanished from my initial position and appeared right behind Sasori, my kunai changing positions with me.
The spiraling ball of energy on my palms slowly inched its way towards Sasori.
And then, I felt it.
An immense sense of danger blared within my mind.
The Third Kazekage puppet suddenly shot out a black iron knife from a hidden compartment within it. I could easily see it coming, however, if I chose to dodge now, I wouldn't get this chance again.
So, I didn't.
The blade pierced my back and exited through my chest.
Despite that, I drilled the Rasengan into Sasori's back, knocking him off the iron sand cloud. His momentary incapacitation caused the iron sand below my feet to dissipate and gravity to take over.
At the same moment, the kunai I had switched myself with had kept its momentum and once more travel in this direction before passing over us and flying over head.
I sighed and thought to myself as I fell to the ground below. "Just as I was showing off my new technique, I get stabbed through the heart because of it…"
At that moment, I felt for another Amenotokotachi connection and tried to move there.
And then I realized.
I couldn't control my chakra.
You've been afflicted by a powerful poison!
Decreases HP by 500 per second
Decreases CC by 100%
Due to Toxin resistance, HP is decreased by 50 per second
Due to Toxin resistance, CC is decreased by 10%
It was the sudden feeling of not having perfect control of my chakra that threw me off. It was like suddenly losing your limb out of nowhere and trying to walk without realizing you had lost it. It was because of this feeling that at that instant...
I was unable to use my chakra.
I looked to the sky, "Why have you forsaken me?"
An iron spike on the ground rammed through my stomach, the sickening sound of flesh tearing resulting from the impact. I coughed up a glob of blood, but that was inconsequential compared to the immense pain my body felt.
"To think you hadn't instantly died from that attack and the poison." Sasori stated as he grinned despite the blood pouring from his back. "You're a little roughed up but I can fix you up nicely."
My vision somewhat blurred as the poison worked its way through my body.
Congratulations! [Toxin Resistance] has leveled up by 1!
"Fantastic." I thought blandly as I gazed at him before turning my head to Itachi and Rin.
They were frozen.
I could make out Rin's horrified expression while Itachi's eyes were widened.
"Yeah…I probably don't look to be in good shape right around now…"
I would tell them to take this opportunity to attack, however, that would clearly alert the enemy and make it obsolete. Plus they looked shocked and probably wouldn't register my words anyway…
Then there was the fact that my lung was punctured through so doing anything that required air would be quite difficult for a few more moments…
"Looks like I'll have to continue myself."
Even in my condition, I was still fine and my regeneration would be able to keep the poison at bay in addition to my Toxin Resistance.
"Before you're reborn as an immortal masterpiece." Sasori began as he shakily stood up, eyeing me with a crazed smile. "You first have to die!" He spread his arms with a smile and controlled his puppet to move.
At the same moment, I was about to pull the iron spike out of my gut.
And then, we both stopped.
Chakra signatures spiked to immense levels.
A beast roared which shook the skies.
Sasori paused his attack with wide eyes and looked to the source only to see an orange ethereal armored warrior surrounding Itachi. Next to him stood…
"The Three-Tails…" Sasori whispered before taking a step back. He looked back at Itachi, "What the hell is that?!"
There was no one to answer him as the ethereal warrior lifted up his sword.
The Three-Tails began to gather an extremely dense amount of chakra within its mouth.
My eyes lingered on the two behemoths radiating immense amounts of energy…
I blinked.
"Yeah…they got this."
I then focused on Sasori's tense look and thought about attacking him, but I gave up that thought soon after. The amount of chakra Rin and Itachi were gathering was quite large and I would definitely get caught in the crossfire if I decided to interfere.
I decided that the next best thing for me to do then would be to simply vanish to a different spot.
Why?
Well for one, I didn't want Sasori to take me hostage and use me against Itachi and Rin.
Plus, I was interested in what type of abilities they had…
With that thought, I found a kunai marker for my Amenotokotachi technique nearby and immediately flashed there before looking down below at the battle that would soon commence.
-Yoru: Gamer-
[3rd Person POV]
Neither Itachi nor Rin really knew what happened.
One moment their partner and friend was next to them.
The next moment he was gone, the kunai he had thrown earlier replacing his position.
The fact that the Kunai still flew forward did not even register in their minds as they watched Yoru get stabbed through the stomach.
Despite this he carried out his duty and landed his attack on the enemy, causing him severe damage.
That should have been it.
They didn't know what happened.
Yoru should have been able to use his ability to teleport back, but he didn't.
The floating Iron cloud lost its cohesiveness as soon as Sasori lost control and caused Yoru to tumble down.
They wanted to yell at him to move, however, they could only stand frozen in shock as he became impaled through the chest from a stray Iron shard on the ground.
Itachi couldn't breathe.
The scene of a past mission played within his mind.
The death of one of his friends at the hands of that Masked Man.
The despair he felt when his mission objectives had been slaughtered in front of him reappeared.
He hadn't been able to do a single thing.
Why had he been left to live?
Why had his friends died?
Why hadn't he been able to protect them?
The situation replayed in his mind, his friend's body overlapping with Yoru's corpse.
The powerlessness he felt…
The pain he felt…
Itachi didn't know what made him say it or where it had come from, but from the depths of his mind, a name appeared.
Instinctively, he knew what to do.
And he spoke: "Susanoo"
A large orange skeletal projection of chakra appeared around his frame.
Muscle wrapped around its bones.
Skin wrapped around its muscles.
Armour wrapped around it skin.
With only its upper half visible, it raised its sword.
Rin had watched Obito die in her arms.
At that point, she had been powerless to do anything.
When she had been forced to become the Three-Tailed Jinchuuriki, She had tried to kill herself in order to protect her village.
She had caused her own friend to impale her through the heart.
She had expected to die.
Who wouldn't?
She never expected to survive and see her friends and family again.
Her sensei and his wife.
Their beautiful daughter Mito.
Her friends at the Academy.
Kakashi…
She would have never been able to see them again if not for Yoru.
Moreso, she had made friends with her Bijuu, the thing she had been afraid would destroy her village.
The coma she had been in had allowed her to talk to and understand him.
It was all thanks to Yoru that she was able to continue holding onto what she loved and had even gained so much more.
And now, he was dead.
And again she had been powerless to do anything.
Just like with Obito, she could only watch.
Her mind unconsciously sank deep within herself as she appeared on a beautiful sunlit beach.
Tears streamed down her face as she gazed at the gigantic Turtle like creature. "Iso-kun…"
Isobu shuffled unceasingly with giant beads of sweat (or water?) streaming down his head. "P-please d-don't cry Rin!"
The Turtle knew what was going on outside and while he didn't really care about the boy who was presumably dead, he really didn't want to see Rin cry.
The girl in question looked at him teary-eyed and ran to hug his large fingers.
Seeing Rin shudder in sadness, Isobu narrowed his one opened eye in anger. "Rin…" he said causing the girl to look up at him. "There's no need to cry, I'll help you."
She sniffled and held back her tears before looking up at him with a firm gaze and nodding.
Isobu's expression relaxed.
Rin hugged his finger.
Their minds synchronized.
The Orange Susanoo lowered its raised sword causing the earth beneath to split as an energy wave shot out towards its target.
Sasori hurriedly took to the skies on a cloud of iron sand and looked below. He gulped and looked to the distance to see that the ethereal monster's weapon had split the city of Rōran in 2.
Instincts honed from years of shinobi training was the only thing that had allowed him to react at the Tailed Beast Bomb that suddenly followed.
He quickly used his chakra to form giant walls of Iron sand while simultaneously moving out of the way. His chakra drained extensively at the ordeal, however, he was able to barely dodge the powerful beam of energy.
The beam blasted through the iron barriers he had put up, slowing it down long enough for Sasori to move away. The attack exploded in the distance, completely leveling the mountain that had previously been erect there.
Sweat crippled down his forehead. "What are they?" He thought while looking for an escape route, "Screw turning them into art. I need to live if in order to even do that. All I wanted to do was to get a few puppet pieces for my collection…" He looked below… "Wait where the hell did he go?"
Wait...Didn't that kid have an iron spike impaled through his body just a second ago?
How could he have moved away?
Well, there went his plan of using a hostage.
He couldn't contemplate any further as the Bijuu suddenly slammed its hands on the ground.
It took only a moment for Sasori to realize that large pieces of coral pierced through the earth from underneath and destroyed his spikes of iron sand.
"Dammit!" Sasori thought as he took off to the air. "Arial escape it is, though I won't be able to do this for long." The amount of chakra it took to manipulate the Third Kazekage's Iron sand was immense mainly due to the fact that he wasn't the Third Kazekage and Magnet Release wasn't his Kekkei Genkai. As a result, Sasori had a difficult time using the iron sand to its pinnacle.
Before his plan could be completely put into motion, however, Itachi's Susanoo moved.
Between its hands, it formed three magatamas bound together by a single, circular thread of energy. It's shape allowed it to function as shuriken which Itachi took advantage of as he immediately launched his most powerful long-ranged attack.
Yasaka Magatama!
Sasori couldn't dodge.
His control of the Third Kazekage's kekkei had become poor as he was running out of chakra. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that he was already quite heavily injured from the white-haired shinobi's last attack.
He grit his teeth as pushed as much chakra as he could to form thick gigantic walls of Iron sand. They barely proved useful as the Yasaka Magatama sliced through each wall one by one before arriving in front of Sasori.
There was little time.
Sasori reached into his holster where he held his puppet summoning scroll and quickly took it out before summoning his army of personal puppets.
An explosion shook the battlefield.
Sasori's form was launched out of the smoking cloud of debris before he roughly slammed against a wall of one of the buildings and fell down.
His most prized Third Kazekage puppet clattered beside him relatively unharmed.
He chucked ruefully. "This is how the tale of Sasori of The Red Sand ends." He knew how bad his condition was right now. His back was torn open from the attack Yoru had inflicted on him earlier, he was out of chakra, and he had not come out of that last attack unscathed.
A pool of glistening crimson blood pooled out beneath him causing Sasori to smile. "In the end, I died before I could turn myself into a beautiful everlasting work of art, however…" He stared at his reflection in his pure red blood as it reflected the sunlight. "Dying this way is actually quite beautiful as well."
The battlefield was silent.
Itachi could not hold the Susanoo armor for long due to his small chakra reserves and had only been able to do those two attack before wearing out. The ethereal armor dissipated and Itachi began to sway as exhaustion overwhelmed him.
Right as he was falling, a pair of lithe arms wrapped around him and held him up straight. His vision unfocused, he turned to see Rin looking at him with a sad smile.
His expression became despondent. "…Let's complete our mission."
Rin nodded, "Knowing him, I'm sure that's what he would want."
They walked on in silence as they approached the area where Sasori had fallen.
As shinobi, they knew they couldn't really hate him. In all truth, they had technically trespassed into foreign territory. Forgetting the fact that Sasori had pretty much defected with his murder of the Third Kazekage, he still had any and all right to defend himself against intruders to his home soil.
Not to mention, it wasn't like they had come here with the intention of peacefully talking him out of releasing the Third Kazekage's corpse.
"I'll do it." Rin said as she approached the Third Kazekage puppet before taking out a storage seal. With a little application of chakra, a beautifully decorated and elaborate coffin.
Rin's expression soured, "Such a beautiful thing for a puppet yet…" She shook her head and carefully placed the Third Kazekage's puppet body into the coffin and resealed it in the scroll.
Next, she looked at Sasori. Rin was a kind-hearted individual and while she definitely didn't like Sasori by any stretch of the imagination, she felt it was wrong to simply leave him bleeding here. While he had betrayed Sand, they were still Konoha's allies and so Rin felt it would be best to have them deal with him.
She took out another storage scroll that was on her person and placed his corpse within.
She looked to Itachi who nodded in agreement.
With that, they made their way over to the area in which Yoru had "died"…
Then they noticed an oddity.
"…Where did his body go?" Itachi asked
"…"
Rin had no idea what to say.
Itachi activated his sharingan despite his protesting eyes and looked around.
Then he stopped.
He sighed and sat down on the ground before speaking out loud. "…Yoru, please come down."
-Yoru: Gamer-
[Yoru POV]
I looked down below where Itachi was sitting on the ground while Rin was looking up every which way for my shadow.
"I suppose I should…" I thought as I heard Itachi. I promptly jumped off the building I was on before landing in front of the duo "Yo."
Itachi remained silent.
Rin was looking at me with an upset gaze.
I idly scratched the back of my head. "Good job team…"
"…"
"…"
Rin almost looked to be on the verge of tears.
I looked at her and patted her head somewhat awkwardly, "Aren't you such a kind soul? Preserving the body of your enemy like that…"
She looked downwards before her body trembled, "I...I thought you died...I was so upset."
"Rin." I said making her look at me. "I'm not so easy to kill. As you can see, I'm still alive."
She froze before immediately hugging me. "Please don't worry me like that again...I don't want to lose anyone else anymore…"
I Idly patted her head since I wasn't necessarily the best with comforting people…
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Itachi give me a subtle thumbs up.
I internally rolled my eyes. "Thank you for worrying about me." I said as Rin leaned away from me and wiped a tear. "May I take a look?"
Rin blinked before understanding and nodding her head. She took out a scroll and spread it out before a coffin appeared which she promptly opened.
I looked into it. "All this trouble for what is now essentially a pile of wood." I shook my head and looked at the Third Kazekage puppet before I internally smiled.
I immediately snatched up a strand of his hair and put it in my inventory before looking at Rin and Itachi, "We're all set."
They nodded
"Now then, time to inform Minato."
-Yoru: Gamer-
[3rd Person POV Suna/Konoha meeting point]
The tension in the atmosphere was so thick that it almost felt like you could touch it.
The Fourth Hokage and the Fourth Kazekage stood on opposite ends of the canyon that separated their two forces.
On Suna's end, there were many powerful chakra cannons that were lined up while the Kazekage floated on his Gold dust cloud in front of his forces.
On Konoha's end, the Hokage stood tall as the wind caused his cloak to wave in the air. As a show of goodwill, they didn't have weapons pointed, however, that didn't mean Minato was foolish enough to come here without a contingency plan.
He just hoped he wouldn't have to use it.
"Minato Namikaze." Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, spoke with his arms crossed as he floated on his golden dust cloud. "At this stage, there is little else that could be said between us. With the situation as is, you can't blame me for being afraid of Suna's best interests."
"Don't be so hasty." Minato said calmly. "The situation is in and of itself a misunderstanding, but I know that won't appease you so I've scheduled for something to be brought back to you."
Rasa frowned, "There's very little that would move me at this time Yondaime."
"I wouldn't be too sure if I were you." Minato stated with a smile, "Give if a little time."
Rasa remained silent, tacitly in agreement.
Time passed by.
The tension on both ends began to make the soldiers slightly restless in discomfort.
More time passed.
Someone sneezed.
Everyone whipped their heads at the individual in question causing the poor Suna nin to sweat in discomfort. "I-It's just a little sandy out here and I'm allergic to dust…"
Everyone's faces turned black.
"How are you allergic to dust when you live in the middle of a desert?"
Everyone thought it.
Neither said it.
They had to remain professional after all.
The tension eased somewhat and the time continued to pass.
Rasa sighed. "With all due respect Yondaime, I'm usually a patient individual but if we're going to have to wait any longer…"
Minato opened his mouth to reply.
Then he stopped.
And smiled. "That won't be the case."
Before Rasa could refute, a flash appeared on Konoha's end causing both sides to tense but before anything happened, the flash revealed itself to be another Minato in addition to three young individuals. The clone Minato nodded and poofed into a cloud of smoke.
Rasa looked on carefully, "They are…?"
Minato merely smiled and looked at him, "Here to deliver something to Suna."
[Yoru POV]
"So that's the Fourth Kazekage…" I thought as I looked at the individual on the opposite end of the canyon who was floating on a cloud of gold dust.
I wondered how much that cost…
"Yoru." Minato stated, looking at me.
I nodded and looked to Rin who took out a paper storage seal and ran chakra through it. It poofed before dropping an elaborately decorated coffin on the ground.
Minato spoke, "Not too long ago our sources managed to track down some information about your Third Kazekage."
Rasa's eyes widened.
Minato continued. "I know how much Suna has been looking for any information about him. Unfortunately, we found out that he had already been killed. Despite this, we figured that you would at the very least want to have some respite."
Rasa floated down towards the coffin at the opposite end of the canyon.
I decided to say something for everyone's benefit, "His corpse wasn't really in the most ideal situation."
Rasa narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean?"
Rin stepped forward and placed a storage scroll on top of the coffin. "We had to fight Sasori of the Red Sand who had turned the Third Kazekage's corpse into a puppet. His body is sealed within."
I could sense surprise emanating from the individuals around us. Whether it was from the fact that Sasori had killed the Kazekage, we had killed Sasori, or both, I was not sure.
"Did you just say that my grandson is dead?" An elderly female voice sounded out. The crowd of Suna-nin split giving way to an elderly woman. She looked at Itachi, Rin and I carefully, as if trying to remember our faces, before speaking, "I want to see his body."
Rasa nodded before the coffin began to levitate. "A gold-rimmed coffin?" He asked as he looked at Minato.
"Part of our sincerity." Was his reply.
In my opinion, I was pretty sure they only did that because Rasa used gold dust and could levitate the coffin away. If he had been able to use a different element, I was pretty certain we wouldn't have wasted money on a gold-rimmed coffin.
After the coffin arrived in Suna's end, the lid was opened, allowing every individual there to see.
"It's true…" one Sand shinobi stated. "It's really the body of the Third…"
Chiyo frowned, "How can this even be considered a body anymore? It's been defiled nearly beyond recognition." She shook her head before taking the scroll from the coffin lid and splaying it on the ground.
With a cloud of smoke, the body Sasori appeared on the ground, his arms crossed on his chest and his gaze peaceful.
Chiyo looked at her grandson for a while before gently stroking his hair. "At least you'll be with your mother and father again." She said. After gazing at his dead body for a while longer, she sighed before resealing his body and looking to the Fourth Kazekage with a nod.
Rasa turned to look at us before saying, "Sunagakure will remember this moment of goodwill from the Leaf. I pray that our partnerships remain secure for the foreseeable future."
"Of course." Minato said with a smile. "I'll be always glad to work with our friends from the Sand."
Ping!
Quest Complete!
Red Iron Sand!
Reward: 250,000 EXP
You Have Level up by 1!
Rasa smirked and began to fly away, leading his army with him as they moved back.
Minato sighed, "One issue averted." He looked towards us with a smile, "I knew you all could do it. Thank you."
"That was no issue." I replied.
Minato smiled for a moment before his expression became serious again. "Unfortunately, we still have another prevalent matter to attend to." Minato looked to the sky before sighing, "Hiruko's ritual requires the energy produced by the sun during the solar eclipse, but we still don't know what his Fifth Kekkei Genkai will be…"
"There's not much use thinking about it." Jiraiya's voice sounded out as he appeared beside Minato and placed a hand on his shoulder. "In any event, the only opportunity he'll have is tomorrow when the solar eclipse appears. Till then we only need to keep our eyes peeled around Mt. Shumisen."
Minato sighed in exhaustion and nodded before looking at us, "Well, let's get you all home."
He created a clone and had it attend to us as we formed a point of contact with it before the scenery suddenly changed.
"Thanks again you all." Minato's clone said with a smile. "I'll make sure you all are compensated." And with that, he disappeared in a puff.
We found ourselves in the middle of the village and with nothing to do, I pointed to the ramen shop that was right beside us. "Why don't we all get something to eat? It's been quite a day and it'll all be on me."
"Why not?"
"…I suppose so."
Was their reply.
I walked over and opened the flap of the store before calling out to the store owner. "Teuchi, 3 bowls of the usual."
"Hmm?" A voice sounded out from the back of the store. Teuchi walked out with a towel in hand as he looked at us before smiling. "Ah, it's Yoru! And you even brought your friends. You know, I was beginning to worry you didn't have any…"
Rin chuckled.
Itachi looked mildly amused.
"…Just bring the food." I said before sitting down on the stool in front of the counter.
"No problem!" He said with a chuckle before moving to the back of the room.
Rin sat on my left.
Itachi on my right.
We remained in relative silence, the sound of shuffling footsteps and conversation from the outside the store wholly prevalent…
"How are you still alive?" Rin asked, breaking the quiet atmosphere.
"It almost sounds you want me dead…"
"You know what I mean. I saw you get stabbed through-"
"Some refreshments!" Teuchi said as he placed three glasses of water in front of us before going back to his cooking.
I took a sip of water and looked at my reflection in the water. "The simplest answer would be my 'Bloodline Limit' kept me alive."
Both Rin and Itachi looked at me in surprise.
"…Bloodline?" Itachi asked. "What kind of Bloodline would allow you to survive getting stabbed through the heart…"
"How to explain this…" I thought while swirling my cup. "Imagine my body can take a certain amount of damage before I die. What matters isn't really where the damage occurs but how much damage occurs. Stabbing me through the stomach and stabbing me through the leg would cause the same amount of damage to my body even though for normal individuals, a stab through the gut would be much more fatal. Of course, it's slightly more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it."
"That's…" Rin began in surprise.
Itachi looked at me. "So you don't have any weak points?"
"Not necessarily." I said before downing the cup of water and placing it down on the counter. "If you crush my heart, I'll take much more damage. Furthermore, I'm not sure if I can survive without my head and I truly don't want to find out. Aside from those obvious weaknesses, the only way to kill me would be hit me enough that my body's natural regeneration is unable to heal me in time. Ohh yeah, I also have a healing factor."
Rin frowned. "Is that why you let yourself get stabbed? Then why didn't you simply use that technique you used on Itachi and me earlier when you were falling?"
"Ahh, that." I said ruefully. "Sasori had poisoned the iron and the poison had prevented me from using my chakra effectively at that moment."
Rin's eyes widened, "Wait, poison?! Are you alright?"
"I'll be alright, though I still can't use my chakra 100%."
"How is that 'alright'?" She said, looking at me seriously. "We should get you checked out before it leaves permanent lasting effects."
I shook my head, "My body can heal itself of all negative status conditions as long as I get some sleep. Ahh, I guess that's another facet to my 'bloodline'".
"…"
"…"
We lapsed into another round of silence.
"Three bowls of beef ramen!" Teuchi said with a grin as he placed the bowls in front of us. "Please take your time and enjoy!"
"Thank you." We said.
Teuchi nodded before attending to another customer.
I split the chopsticks apart and gave a mental 'Thank you for the meal' before taking in a strand of noodles. Even though I didn't need to, I blew on it a little bit before eating a few strands.
"Takoyaki is still better though…"
"Enough about me." I said looking at Itachi. "What exactly was that thing you pulled? Don't tell me it's actually part of your bloodline…"
I could recall the chakra mutation that had occurred in Itachi before he pulled out that Orange armored avatar. Most importantly, however, was the fact that I had felt a very similar fluctuation in chakra before.
In Kakashi.
"…I believe so." He said quietly.
I watched his contemplative expression and saw that he didn't really want to say anymore.
I patted his head, "If you can't say it then that's fine. It'll be something between us three."
Itachi calmly removed my hand from his head.
I smirked before my expression turned serious. "Speaking of…" I said, looking at Rin, "You showed off your Bijuu-"
She frowned.
"-Fine Iso-kun…"
She smiled.
"…During our mission."
Rin stayed silent for a moment, "I-"
I patted her head, "Don't worry about it but you should be more careful. The other villages don't know who is in possession of the Three-Tails and we want to keep it that way." We all spoke quietly enough that only we could hear each other.
She nodded but put then sulked. "Why are you comforting me like I'm a kid? I'm older than you…"
I removed my hand before looking back at my noodle bowl and grabbing my chopsticks. "Whatever happened during that mission involves secrets that we either rather not talk about-" I looked at Itachi. "-Or ones that we should not talk about." I looked at Rin. "We will keep these to ourselves."
Itachi nodded and looked at Rin, "…No one will hear anything from me."
"Likewise." She replied with a smile.
I downed my bowl of Ramen before placing it on the counter and wiping my mouth. "Then we are in agreement. Teuchi!"
"Yes, Yes!" The man said as he came over to us.
I pulled out a stack of money and placed it on the counter. "Thanks for the meal."
Everyone looked at the money wide-eyed.
"T-That's a little much Yoru…" Teuchi said with a strained smile.
I observed him carefully before nodding. "You're an honest guy and the meals were delicious so think of the extra as a tip. Besides, I'm rich."
"I see…" he said with a sigh before taking my money. "The next meal you get will be on the house."
I opened my mouth.
"No buts!"
I closed my mouth.
Around this time, Itachi and Rin had finished off their meals.
"Thank you for the meal Mr. Teuchi!" Rin said brightly as she placed the bowl down and got off the chair.
"…Likewise, the meal was delicious." Itachi said before following suit.
I stood up last. "I'll see you around Teuchi."
He chuckled, "Likewise Yoru. Stay safe and tell my favorite regular 'hi' for me!"
"Will do." I replied before walking out the shop, Rin and Itachi in tow.
The streets were still somewhat busy with people walking to and fro and shop owners pitching their sales.
"This is where we split up." I said, looking at the both of them. "Thank you for coming with me on the mission. It would have been much more troublesome otherwise."
"Of course!"
"Hn."
I couldn't help but slightly smile, "I'll see you all later."
With that, we all went our separate ways.
Stat Update
Tier: 7-B+
Age: 10.99
Level: 96 - 97
HP: 399599 - 403760
CP: 633076 - 639669
STR: 1440 - 1460
VIT: 1451 - 1460
DEX: 1445 - 1460
INT: 1155 - 1500
WIS: 1140 - 1200
ENGY: 1968
Points: 90
Skill Update
Toxin Resistance: lvl 94 - lvl 95
Oblivious IJ:
Yoru is 11 right now
~5 years younger than Kakashi
~5 years younger than Rin
~11 years younger than Kotoe
~13 years younger than Minato/Kushina
~27 years younger than Jiraiya
~2 years older than Itachi
~6 years older than Mito
(Note: [~] = a few days to a few months)
Ataxius: No…Yoru is there to protect Kushina overtly and it's not like he was watching over her every single day for close to 10 months. He still has missions and other things to attend to, after all. The point of chapter 20 was to somewhat introduce the next villain, show Rin waking up, and a little bit of slice-of-life to calm everything down before the next big thing hits. Not every single chapter has to have something major going on.
Acherus01: I'm glad you stuck around!