Pre-Chapter A/N:Welcome to September, guys! Let's smash whatever goals we've set ourselves this year. More chapters on my patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
XXXXXXX- CEE
He heard a strange whistling sound, and when he raised his head, it was to see part of the army cast in shadow, looking up revealed a sight that would have made a lesser man sully his breeches. "Scatter", he screamed. He was not the first one to do so, and far from the first one to obey the instruction, but the giant stone construct landed regardless. Cee struggled to put a number to the amount of chakra signatures that disappeared from his senses once the obelisk landed. They were dead for sure. Cee thought that was it, until a second later, the obelisk, a mighty structure that looked to be made of solid stone, exploded from within, sending shrapnel and concussive force flying all over. Those closest to it were shredded to pieces.
"Another one" He heard someone shout and felt a sinking feeling rise in his chest when he heard that same whistling sound. He muttered a silent prayer before he looked up, only to find that his prayers had not been answered. It was another one of them. This one, though. It never got the chance to land. Cee got a first hand view of the Raikage tracking it with his sight before jumping g straight at it, hand outstretched.
The obelisk never stood a chance against the famed hell stab, but Iwa had clearly planned for such a tactic as it exploded around the Raikage, sending his village's ruler hurtling to the ground. Cee feared little. Such a thing could never hurt his Kage, but I did keep him too occupied to deal with the next two. They struck down killing dozens before exploding and killing dozens more. Cee made sure to keep his eyes trained on the sky, watching for any more projectiles.
That was why he managed to catch sight of these ones when he did. On second tough, even if he hadn't been looking, he would hav seen them. There were at least a dozen of them easily landing towards them now. Close to their entire encampment was now cast in shadow.
"Scatter. Scatter, you rotten bastards. Run for your fucking lives" He screamed it into the air as he began to jump away, The Raikage's chakra signature he felt as the man hurled himself into one. When it exploded, Yui's cloth wrapped around him, sending him crashing into the next one. This was the only situation she could get away with using her Kage as a bludgeon and Cee respected her for taking full advantage of it. Killua's storm release lit up the sky as he managed to destroy one of the obelisk's with a single jutsu. He was already weaving handsigns for the next one.
Still, despite best efforts, three of the obelisks managed to land in the end. It was far from as disastrous as it could have been, but that didn't mean it was ideal. They'd lost hundreds between this attack, the previous one, and the landmines. Once again, the Raikage commanded that they continued with all haste.
Thankfully, the rain of the obelisks seized once they made a few more steps forward. From what Cee could discern, they had some sort of contraption— maybe a shinobi with a jutsu but he would bet it was something more mechanical because if they had a shinobi with that kind of power on their hands, why were still hiding. Such a person would give the Raikage a fight for the ages. One the Raikage would won of course. Nothing had ever broken through the Raikage's lightning armour, but the fight would still be something to see. Back to it. It was some sort of contraption that took massive towers of stone— most likely compacted and created with earth release and prefilled with explosive tags to add oomf to the attack, and sent them flying into the air. A parabolic arc most definitely. So it went upwards first and then landed.
That meant that it would be impossible to use the weapon once they got within a certain distance of the weapon. He expected such a weapon to be mounted on their village walls so that meant the village was relatively close-by. He looked at the Raikage's broad back as he walked in front of the army, leading them with his unshakable confidence. Some would have called it callous. He might even have made such a mistake, but he knew these same calculations in his head must have run through the Raikage's. The safest place for them to be was back in Kumo. A close second would be close to Iwa. They would not set landmines so close to their own walls and weapons like this one would be less useful in close range.
They had expected the costs choosing this route. This was the only flat route to Iwagakure their scouts had managed to find. Was it any surprise that it was trapped and scouted to the nines. More landmines exploded, but they all continued regardless. It was a background drone. They know not to clump together. Now it was common for landmines to only manage to take one or two where they used to take dozens. In an army of thousands, this loss was acceptable. Even the losses from the Obelisks were acceptable. Their strongest weapons remained on the table.
The Raikage could take a village on his lonesome. Everything else— the rest of them— were ancillary. No one, not even the entire army together was worth the Raikage and that was a thought he hoped each of his men had in their minds. They better know just what they were doing this for. The Glory of Kumo. The Glory of Kumo was Ay the Third Raikage and it would be hard to convince Cee otherwise, and so he ignored the screams of the dead and dying, the wounds their chakra left as their life-forces were snuffed out to his led and to his right and he continued to march. This is what it meant to be Kumo, to be a Son of the Clouds.
XXXXX- RIKU THE GOLDEN FISTED MONK
She's fucking insane, he thought to himself as he took another swig from his flask. His flask. His trusty flask. It was the only thing that made any fucking sense these days. It had only been three. Three days since they entered the land of Earth proper and in that time this woman had done things that nature would never have countenanced. Part of him told him to kill her. Part? Fuck no. The whole of his being told him to kill this woman and end these abominations she created with every breath.
But even if he could— and at this point he was nearly certain that he would fail if he tried— he would be cut down the second he did so. Because he was the only one who saw something wrong in what she was doing. The dead were meant to stay dead.
"They're not dead, you know?" Her voice cut through the stillness of the night. He froze. She had caught him staring at one of her creatures. The thing— the body of an Iwa Jounin with black hair and features that would have been beautiful when there was life flowing through those cheeks, and now she spoke through it.
"Wh-what?" He stuttered despite himself and took another swig from the flask. Bless the gods for Sake, he thought.
"You're staring at this body. I can see the revulsion. The hate in your eyes. You want to destroy this body, maybe even destroy me. Ah, there it is. You do want to destroy me. I suspected, you know? But I was far from certain."
"So what? What you do, it's unnatural. Let the dead rest. I have never judged you shinobi for killing without ceasing. I pledged my services to your Kazekage even despite my faith because I could see a certain nobility in what you did. Service to the village. To a higher calling. But you? You have no respect for the dead. You kill not because you need to, but you revel in it. Enjoy it" He spurned her and enjoyed the wa his rage tasted in his mouth as he let the words free. Instead of flinching. Instead of deciding to repent her ways, she laughed. A full throated laugh as the head of the Jounin flapped back nearly one hundred and eighty degrees.
"I said I don't kill them. This woman, she lives. And you speak of higher calling? I serve a calling higher than any other. Revenge for blood spilt. Let me explain my technique to you, Riku" She spoke in that same voice. Why did she sound so amused. She stood as she spoke, and against his training, Riku tried to flinch backwards. He could not. He felt his muscles betray him.
"Wh-what did you do Ch-Chiyo?" He stuttered out, barely managing to make his lips move.
"You drink from that flask at least nine times an hour. I wondered how long your constitution would let you resist" Poison! He screamed at himself. He felt at his internal systems, his Chakra. Chakra was not unknown to the monks, but they did not wield it as the shinobi did. They were better. Just like it had on every other occasion, it began to come to his aid, flushing the poison from his body.
"What an interesting ability? I can see you flushing my poison from your system even when it should take days to run its course. I was right. You will be an ever useful tool to add to my arsenal"
"Tetsuo will never have this. Stop now and I will consider not reporting this incident to him" He managed to force out of his mouth, doing all it took not to stammer. He was seconds away from being able to use his hands. Once he could, this woman would learn to rue the day she contested Riku.
"Tetsuo? What do I care for a Kazekage that would not give me my due. My loyalty is to family, to blood. Tetsuo was nothing but a means to an end, and now that he has sent me where I need to be and delivered you into my hands, his usefulness has expired." She said, and just as he felt a finger twitch, she was in his space. He felt a pin prick his neck and then all his progress disappeared.
This poison was like tar spreading through his system. Not just his blood, he coughed, his chakra as well.
"I offered to explain the jutsu to you, didn't I?" She asked.
"My Grandson, the little prodigy made puppets in his parents likeness even as he struggled to make them human, he failed over and over. I realised then the true nature of puppetry and how we were mistaken. Chikotsu, Me, my grandson, even Tetsuo himself were mistaken as to the true point of puppetry. We thought the point was to make puppets as close to human as possible. That is a worthwhile goal, and when I kill my target, I can swear to return to it. But true power? True power lies in turning humanity into puppets. My poison robs you of your body's control, and what I will implant in you will make it easier than you can imagine to puppet your body with my strings"
"Ab-abomination"
"One such as you would think that, yes. But what can you do about it but comply with the instructions of your better" This time, her voice did not come from the puppet. She was behind him. When had she gotten behind him. He felt her fingers run down his face— in a different context those fingers would have looked affectionate, caressing, but there was nothing more appaling in his mind than the thought of her skin on his.
His body turned to face her against his will, her fingers were splayed. She was already puppetting him?
"My device will make it easier. Improve my range, yes. But even without it you are already mine, Riku. Give in to your fate" She said, and then her hand was at his chest, cutting past skin and bone.
"In the beginning, this used to be much more messy, but now you appreciate how much better I've gotten, don't you" Stop, he wanted to scream. Against himself he began to whimper. He tried to beg, the words refused to form. He could feel her hands inside him even as he felt none of the pain. Nonetheless, he felt the violation.
Even worse, his head was propped such that he could see everything she did. He could see as she took out something that was shaped like a small child— an infant, and began to force it into his chest. There was no space, he wanted to scream. What a silly objection, he almost laughed then. Of course this woman would never stop. She removed what he felt as his right lung and replaced it with that thing. It almost clicked in place. Every attempt he made to control his body ceased once it was there. He couldn't even try anymore.
She looked up at him smiling. "And so we are done, aren't we?" She asked.
"Of course you can't respond. That was only half of it, I'm afraid." And his body began to move again. She cared not that his chest was still open and splashing blood everywhere. She grabbed the back of his head and began to cut.
"The first one grants me control of your body. But to be honest, there's little difference between a puppet like you and a wooden one without this second one. This second one is the one that gives me your mind, let's me access your chakra, your memories, use your techniques as if they are mine. And what powerful techniques they are. If it were months earlier and I had you, my revenge would not be denied. But now I know even you will not be enough to deal with HIM" He heard the capitalization in her voice. He just wished for it to be over. He begged, he prayed, he tried top zone pout, fall asleep, even die, but none of them work.
"You must wonder why I want to be here. The Raikage of course. If there is any body that will allow me the chance to deal with HIM, it is that one." Why did she keep talking, could she not just shut up and do as she would? She cut into his brain, and he felt his entire being seize at that. It was a good chunk of his brain he felt being cut off. How could he even feel it? Was not the brain the storehouse of the soul. It clearly was not, because he could still feel her place something in his skull that attached to what remained of his brain.
"Now, you are mine, Riku" And he knew no more.
XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
"No" She said almost the same instant I'd made the offer. I looked over at her. Shikahime and Uzume were the only others in the room. Planning an invasion was not as simple as just diving into the opponent's territory with our dicks in our hands and pissing on everything we could find, so this was the third such meeting we were having. Now the topic had come to what we were going to be doing about the Hokage seat. The one I would be leaving empty once I led the invasion of Kusa.
"You didn't even think about it" I countered. And she didn't. I'd made the offer to Uraume for a myriad of reasons, but I could to deny that the glaring one was the arm missing to her side. I could tolerate her fighting Iwa because that was destined to be a route and Shikahime had strict orders to pull her out if anything even looked to be going wrong.
"I did. I know you Shorirama. Now tell me that you gave me that offer for any other reason than the fact you think I will be in danger going off to war with you"
"Let's be realistic here" I said, stopping once I saw Uzume flick a look in my direction.
"Realistic how? Shorirama? Are you going to tell me I can not do anything but watch my friends go off to war because I am a cripple?"
"I didn't call you a cripple"
"You thought it. You thought it very loudly, Shorirama" She said again.
"You're one of the only people I trust, Cousin. Uzume is needed there— apart from me she's the strongest we've got, and Shikahime is needed to come up with tactics on the fly. Your skills can still be useful with you here" I said, trying to bring her around.
"Can you answer a single question honestly, Shorirama? Look me in the eyes and don't even think about lying. Would you give me this offer if I had both hands?" She asked.
I couldn't answer her. I just couldn't. "I- I don't know" And that was the truth. She was one of the few I could trust. With me out of the village, Hiruzen could get the chance to begin making moves. I needed someone I could trust to cut him off at the knees. That was a very small list.
"And there's your answer."
"No. I don't know because I can't tell how I'd react if you had both arms but I do know you're the best choice for the position when I'm not going to be in the village for long periods"
"Then don't" Shikahime cut in.
"What?" I turned in her direction. What was she talking about now?
"Don't not be in the village for long periods. You said Uzume is plenty strong and that I'll be doing the tactics. From everything that's been said you only really need to be there when we face the Raikage. Why not just teleport there when we need you and stay here the rest of the time"
"No chance" I shot it down. I'd run mad sitting here for that long.
"So now you know how I feel. Find someone else, Shorirama. I saw the Raikage. I do not know what Uzume has told you but that man is a monster. I cannot be here when you face him. Even if all I can do is buy you a second if things go wrong, it is worth more than staying here not knowing if you— all of you, I mean— live or die" She said.
"Nothing will go wrong. I'll beat the Raikage like he owes me money" I pledged.
"Then let me there to see it. You wouldn't have me miss the show, would you?"
And that was it. I was man enough to know when I was beaten.
"So who do we leave then?"
"I have an idea" Uzume finally said.
A/N: How do we feel about Chiyo? Yeah, fighting Shori and getting washed made her push things a bit farther than would be normal for her. More of Kumo and stuff. Next five up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.