Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter, coming in right on time. Next three chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
"Is this safe?" Kokuo asked, staring at the device that Reiji and the Uzumaki sealing division had created with trepidation in his eyes. I looked down at it as well from my position next to his head.
"Mostly," I said.
"Mostly?" he roared.
"I was joking. I've looked over the seals myself and had my grandmother, cousin, and every Uzumaki seal master look into it. We've tested it with a few people as well, chief among them the Four Tails Jinchuriki. Of course, with her we couldn't use the version that we'll be using with you—yours will be scaled up by several orders of magnitude. But everything else was more or less the same."
"And how much chakra will I be losing again?" he asked.
"Three—maybe four tails' worth. It's a lot of chakra, but you'll be free, with fields to roam to your heart's content. Kurama has seen the space we have created in the seal for you. Even he thinks it's mighty fine. Tell him, Kurama," I said, swapping places with my friend.
"It looks nice. Meadows as far as the eye can see. Streams that flow with clear water from east to west, and more animals to hunt than you could ever manage , but a cage with—"
"And that's enough of that," I muttered, taking back the reins of control over my mouth and ignoring the roaring that went on in my head.
"Kurama will never change," Kokuo said with a shake of his head.
"Yeah, he never does." And the subject of our conversation went on roaring about how he would rip me limb from limb and suck out my bone marrow. Fun stuff.
"So... you ready?" I asked.
Kokuo looked down at the gathered Uzumaki, and then at the Heart of Fire, before nodding. A hesitant one at first, and then a more resolute one followed.
I gave those on the ground a nod, and the sealing began.
Reiji started off the singing, his voice a clear baritone. Souta and Ayame, the siblings, one paralysed in the attack on Uzushio and the other semi-retired from the shinobi life, continued the tune. Renjiro and Mizuki did not sing. Instead, they began to play the instruments, one a lute and the other a drum. Kaito, the oldest of the lot, weaved seals all through, while Himari had her hands planted on the ground. Takeshi stood next to the giant calabash that our people had made—the heart of Konoha, a tool capable of rivaling the Sage's Amber Purifying Pot—and held it open, stoking it with his own chakra to prepare it for what it was about to receive.
Gleaming golden chains shot out from all around the seal, grabbing on to Kokuo and holding him tight before beginning to pull him in the direction of the Heart. He did not struggle. Not even for a second. That was how much he trusted me. And watching him be drawn towards it, I made a promise. That trust would not be misplaced. I'd see to it that humanity won. Even if he didn't mind it all that much, I would ensure he was set free when the time came. It was the least I could do.
He reached the calabash, and as he did so, he turned into the pure chakra that was his makeup and then began to flow into it like water flowing into a bottle. And when it was done, the Heart plopped closed, the massive thing now having a weight to it that was somehow visible even to the naked eye.
"Good. That at least went according to plan," I muttered to myself before I flew down to meet Reiji.
"Thank you. All of you. This. This is going to do a lot for us. For the village. Thank you," I said, somewhat short of words as the gazes of so many of my clansmen turned to me. They would be joining the evacuation when the time came. Most of them, at least. They weren't front-line shinobi; that much was certain.
I accepted their welcomes, and then, with one hand on the Heart, activated my flying raijin to return to my office. I left it in the hidden office, and then used flying raijin to go somewhere else. T&I. Inoken was waiting.
He looked up as I appeared in his office, but did a good job of masking just how much I'd startled him with my sudden appearance.
"You said your latest resident wanted to talk to me," I said when he had finished his greeting.
"He hopes to strike a deal with you. While it is certainly unconventional, I felt that because of the profile of the prisoner and the fact that he does genuinely seem honest by everything I can see—and there's not much I can't see—it's worth listening to," he said.
"Why didn't you have Shika deal with it, then?" I asked while tilting my head to direct him to lead the way.
"I think something like this would always require your personal touch. And I love Shika, but she can be a bit much at times. What he wants can benefit Konoha, and I don't want her scaring him," he said.
"You think Shika is scarier than I am?" I asked, doubtful.
"I think you have a charm that she does not. And I think you will be intrigued enough by the proposition that you will at least give him a fair shake. Just hear him out, Shori," he said. Using my name instead of calling me by my title was an interesting choice there. Definitely manipulative. I resisted the urge to smile. We were shinobi. Blade over heart. But Inoken was just a bit softer than the rest of us. He never did like killing children.
Not to say any of us liked it, but we were able to see shinobi in anyone that put on a headband, while Inoken looked at them and still saw children. Of course he would want a better future for Yagura Karatachi than what his destiny was after finding himself in our prisons.
I pushed the door open, and there the boy was. He was young. Oh so young. Not even a teenager yet. His Kiri headband and clothes had been removed for processing and logging, and he wore the grey scrubs that all Konoha prisoners wore. The inseam of those clothes hid a variety of seals that ensured that he had few options open to him, and then between his collarbones sat my flying raijin seal—one of the seals I'd placed on his body. The other was far better hidden than that. His eyes snapped open as I walked in, and he turned to me.
We hadn't bothered chaining him—there was no need. Seals ensured that he could not use his own chakra, and a seal on his seal closed the connection between tailed beast and jinchuriki for the time being, making him no threat at all.
"The Butcher," he said, voice sounding awed more than anything else.
"You know, most people don't insult those that they seek favour from in the first few seconds of meeting them. Of course, you might be a negotiation genius, so far be it from me to comment on your process when I am yet to see the full thing in action," I said, walking towards him, and then taking the seat at the desk in the middle of the room.
"Insult? I didn't mean to insult you. I'm in awe of you. The Butcher. The only man in the world to bring an end to a Hidden Village," he said, and fuck me, the little psycho sounded excited at the prospect. I turned to Inoken and found him shrugging sheepishly.
"Yeah, I'm not touching that mess with a ten-foot pole. You said you had a deal for me," I said, switching tacks.
"I want to work for you," he said.
"Work for me? How?"
"I know what happens to people like me when captured. My sensei told me all about the Yonbi and what you did to him. He thought it would scare me into sticking with Kiri. But it just told me that you don't like to waste things that could be useful. I can be useful. If you remove the Sanbi from me and put it in someone else, you have to wait years to get a useful jinchuriki. But I'm already ready. I'm well-trained, and my chakra is unique. The beast calms from it. I can use its chakra better than any host you can find on short notice," he said, laying down his case. And it was an interesting idea. Shinobi defecting among big villages rarely happened because rare was it that an individual shinobi was useful enough independent of the intel they could offer that it was worth inviting a possible mole into your ranks.
Even if they were being honest, someone who had betrayed the village they were born in to join you would have no qualms about betraying you for someone else if the opportunity presented itself. But this was a different situation. Yagura was a jinchuriki, and that made him useful in and of himself. And he was right as well. Isane was what? Four now? Useful for the odd experiment here and there, but far from a frontline-ready shinobi.
And despite his own age, that was what Yagura was. In canon, this boy would be strong enough to become Mizukage one day, and it was not just about the beast in his belly. He showed glimmers of it now. Without the beast, intel pegged him as equally capable as a frontline-focused chunin when it came to combat. With it? He was jounin level. Could I turn down a jounin with the potential to punch above his weight in certain situations? Yes. Yes, I could.
"But you forget the difference between you and a vessel of Konoha's own making. Loyalty. How can I be sure that you will be loyal to the Leaf's interests over and above any others?" I said.
"Because the Leaf's interests will become my own. I know your intelligence would have told you about what happened to my parents. I have no love for Kiri. Konoha can be better. I can have a new life here. Away from the curse of Kiri. You can take me under your wing and ensure that my strength benefits the Hidden Leaf Village above all other things," he said. I grunted but said nothing more.
"It's death or compliance here, I know. I will always know in the back of my head that you can kill me the second you want to if I even smell disloyal. So why would I ever be?" he asked, continuing as my silence gave him more room to speak and to say more things so I could evaluate him. He went on, giving even more reasons why he would never betray Konoha, even as the two of us knew that he almost definitely would.
When he was done, I rose, and for a second, I saw fear flash on his face. That was good. He was still afraid of me, at least. That could be useful.
"Your words are noted. My Head of Intelligence, Shikahime Nara, and Inoken here will interview you several times before you are cleared. They will work hand in hand to ensure that you will not betray Konoha. And when you are done, you will report to me. Welcome to Konoha, Yagura Karatachi," I said, and then I was gone.
In my office, I dug out the scroll that contained the seal for Uzume's summons. Looking to the side told me Retsu had done as I'd requested and prepared the requisite bribe.
I took out some of her blood from the vial, ran through the seals, and offered some of my own chakra before slamming my hand against the seal.
A small puff of smoke revealed the snow-white bunny that I knew Uzume spoke to the most. He was also the most annoying, according to her.
"She's going to owe me big time. She said it would take even longer for you to call," the bunny said, jumping about my table.
"How is she doing?" I asked.
"Well, it's difficult to say. I don't know if I can tell you how things are going, you see? Rabbit clan secrets are Rabbit clan secrets, you know?" he asked, and then gave me a wink.
"And what does it take for Rabbit clan secrets to become Uzume secrets?" I asked, returning his wink.
"Well, just a token here and a token there. Little things."
"Little things like this?" I asked, offering a single carrot to the rabbit. He snatched it almost faster than the eye could see.
"That's a start, but I think we could do better," he said, but still ate the carrot in two massive bites, the vegetable disappearing into his mouth at pace.
"What about this, then?" I asked, offering three more.
"Even better, but not good enough." Still, he took the carrots. Fuck it.
I offered the whole bunch that Retsu had procured, and his eyes went wide as discs. When he reached for them this time, I pulled them out of his reach.
"Information first. Carrots later," I said. He nodded, but his gaze did not stray from the carrots as he began to answer.
"She has no talent for Senjutsu. None at all. It's even worse than we first thought. She's trying, but it's unlikely that she will manage to attain Rabbit Sage Mode in the next month, even," he said.
"Even with shadow clones speeding up the process?" I asked. He nodded. Fuck. It had taken Naruto a week to learn it in canon, and while I wasn't expecting anyone to compete with the reincarnation of Ninja Jesus, it had already been a month, and another month on top of that was insane with no visible progress.
"Is it something she is just incapable of? Or is it just a talent thing? Is there anything gained in having her remain with your people?"
"She is capable. The Boss is sure she can do it. She just has to keep training," he said.
"And how is she other than that?" I asked. I couldn't imagine Uzume dealing well with taking so long to master something that even Minato had learned in a fraction of the time.
"She is frustrated. Angry most of the time. She's set fire to a few of our trees, but she has good control over her emotions, so she always stops the fires before they spread too far. She is determined as well. Others would have given up in light of the little progress, but she keeps working. Every day dawns and she works even harder than the last," he said, and I couldn't resist the smile that came onto my face.
"Can you pass a message to her for me?" I asked.
"For a price, I can."
I gestured towards the bunch.
"You already traded that for secrets," he said, shaking his head. My gaze met his and I held the stare, willing him to bend. He did not. I sighed and brought out a second bunch of carrots.
"Deal deal deal deal deal," he said, jumping at me. I was at the opposite side of the office in a second.
"Listen to my message first. Tell her not to give up. Tell her I have faith in her. Tell her—" I took a breath.
"Tell her I care for her and miss her," I said, then I handed the carrots over.
The rabbit was gone in a puff of smoke a second later. I still did not understand what aspect of Uzume's personality made her so well-aligned with the rabbits. But they were good summons. They didn't have a giant boss summon that could be pulled out in a fight, but the fact that they had their own route to Sage Mode meant that they had power to some degree. Not so much as to contest with the heavy-hitter summons. But enough. And Uzume said their Sage Mode was special, so I couldn't wait to see that.
I turned my attention to the next thing on my itinerary. I left a clone behind and popped down to my lab. There I met four clones in the lotus position, each of them working to harness the nature chakra within them even better. Something like this could only be practiced so well by clones, but my physical body had limited time in the day, and there were some things I just had to do myself.
I sank into a seiza position and, instead of pulling on nature energy, I pulled on a different power source. A more potent one in a lot of ways.
"Finally," Kurama growled, flooding my body with his chakra, overjoyed at the prospect of letting loose. Of course, this was not about fighting. Not for now. It was doing something I really should have done much earlier. It was making myself a better host.
I turned my attention inward, to my body. My eyes remained open as I studied my chakra system the best I could. The clones practicing with nature energy would watch me as well to ensure I got as many perspectives as possible. The goal was perfecting the way Kurama's chakra flowed through my body. There was no seal between us, so he could put as much chakra as he had into my body. The only bottleneck for the time being was that my body could not contain that chakra adequately. The point of these exercises was to fix that.
I felt the flow through my left bicep become slower than the rest of my body as Kurama pushed in more chakra. I felt for the blockage and removed it with a flex of my will. Precise control of chakra points, the second Hyuga Kekkei Genkai, making this whole thing possible.
One of my clones pointed at his head, and I took the hint to focus on the flow through my brain. I felt the blockage there and began removing it.
A/N: More prep for the Otsutsuki coming. Think of this as one training arc with lots of village stuff tossed in the middle. Shori can't just focus only on himself. Next chapter comes on here by Wednesday night. Next three chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), you can support me there and read them early.