"Sasuke, you're one hell of a friend." I finally break the ever growing silence. "Thank you."
"You'd do the same for me." He gives me a friendly pat on the back. "Now, let's get this cleaned up. Can't have all these bodies lying about for anyone to stumble across."
...
We spend the next twenty minutes rifling through the belongings of the Root shinobi looking for anything noteworthy or useful. A pile of weapons is off to one side, a handful of storage scrolls containing camping supplies is next to them. We don't turn up anything important, no mission scroll, no written orders, no village identifiers, nothing.
I have my earth monster drag all the Root shinobi bodies into a massive pile. Well all the bodies that are left, there are a few that are already destroyed beyond recognition. Particularly the two I covered in molten slag and the shinobi I ripped to shreds with all five elements.
Then I see a piece of jagged white porcelain laying on the ground. I pick it up and turn it this way and that way. There's a familiar fire design on it. "Those fuckers broke some of my masks!"
"Wait really?" Sasuke asks from where he's stuffing more kunai into his holster. "Those things can take a beating and they broke one?"
"I was stabbed in the heart a lot, I shouldn't be surprised." I will the Jiongu to move my masks through my shredded clothes and into my line of sight. "Fuckers got all but the wind and earth." Each one has chips and cracks. "This sucks. I liked those masks."
"You have issues. You sound like the masks meant more to you than your hearts. Here." Sasuke throws me five of the Root shinobi's white blank masks. There's varying degrees of blood on each of them. "Better than nothing."
"I'll need to get themed ones again. I liked that, it was cool." I swap out all five of them, might as well have a matching set.
"I've got everything off of the bodies we can salvage. Do you want to burn them or me?" He asks while going through different sized tantos. "None of these would work well for me. They're too short."
"I got it." Shouldn't have him waste chakra, who knows if there is another group out there waiting for us. Although they'd probably have attacked or fled by now. I fly through the hand signs for one of my favorite jutsu, "Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!"
The stench of burning bodies fills the air and thick black smoke wafts into the sky.
Sasuke walks over to me and hands me a scroll with a black band around it.
I tilt my head in confusion, we burned all the bodies.
"It's Tayuya." He softly says. "Figured you would want to make it more personal than burning her in a random patch of forest with twelve others."
Oh. Right. I've been ignoring that. Desperately ignoring that. "Thank you again Sasuke." I pocket her. At the very least I'll make sure she gets somewhere nice.
"Now I hate to say this, but we have to get moving. We don't want to be late for the Tournament, enough stuff has already gone wrong."
"You're right." I acquiesce to his words. He's right after all. "You set the pace."
"Stupid Jiongu and limitless stamina." He grumbles to himself. "One of these days I'm going to out run you. Just you wait."
"Whatever you say hotshot."
...
Unknown to Sasuke and Alvarcus, there was a thirteenth Root shinobi wearing the chakra suppressing seal. He watched the whole fight happen and could have intervened at any moment. But that wasn't his mission, his mission is to observe and report.
And what a report this turned out to be, Danzo-sama severely underestimated these two.
The thirteenth shinobi leaps away into the trees, this report is of the utmost urgency. Not only did the two targets survive they took down twelve shinobi. The shinobi might not have been the best Root has to offer, but they were exceedingly well coordinated and had been very well informed. They knew the weaknesses of the one in green, the main target of this assassination mission, and still were soundly defeated.
In the absence of the thirteenth shinobi, an extremely peculiar creature rises up out of the trunk of a tree. It's half black, half white and inside what can only be a large overgrown Venus Fly Trap.
"Well this was interesting. We're just here to gather information about the one tails! Agreed, who would have thought we'd stumble onto this? Itachi will be surprised to know that his brother has left Konoha for Otogakure of all places."
...
Four Hours Later, the Gates of Kusagakure
"Red and Green, gennin of Otogakure here for the final tournament of the Chunin Exams." Sasuke answers the question of the unbelievably nervous gate guards. "Is there a problem?"
"Well... uh... where's your jonin at?" The guard on the left asks weakly.
"Dead. Killed on the way here." I bark out. Both guards flinch as I speak, they would much rather talk to Sasuke but frankly I don't give a damn.
"And... who killed them?" The right guard tentatively asks.
"Doesn't matter." I bark out again.
"Why not?" The right guard queasily asks.
"They're dead. We killed them all." I blandly inform the stuttering guards.
"Ah." The left guard intelligently replies. "Can we expect you to keep yourselves controlled while you're here without your jonin handler?"
"Yes." Sasuke hisses out. "Do not think us stupid, we are more than capable of differentiating between hostiles and noncombatants. We will only attack those who are stupid enough to attack us first. And before you ask, we have no plans on crippling or deadly attacks during the actual Tournament. Now either refuse us at your door or let us into the damn village already!"
The two gate guards share a nervous look among themselves. "Welcome to Kusagakure. You'll be staying at the same hotel as a month ago, makes things easier if you already know where to go."
"Finally." Sasuke breezes past the guards and I'm quick to follow.
As I walk past the guards I see them tense up, they're more tense the closer I get. Interesting. Or not, I am still covered in blood and my shirt and jacket are barely better than rags.
After a few minutes of walking through the village I hear something very peculiar.
"Now that's my kind of guy!" An arm is thrown across my shoulders and I violently suppress the urge to rip this asshole into hundreds of tiny pieces. I'm not in the mood for this shit. "Casually strolling through a foreign village covered in blood! Say, what's your name kid?"
Sasuke turns at the sound of the newcomer's voice and instantly locks up. He's frozen like a deer in headlights.
"Fuck off." I growl as I duck under and then out of his arm. I don't even spare him a look.
Not even a second later the weight of his arm is back. "After my own heart!" You wish. "Say, have you ever heard of our lord and savior Jashin-sama?"
"Alright asshat, since you didn't listen the first time I'll kindly repeat myself. Fuck off!" This time I don't duck under his arm, rather I swiftly elbow him in the gut with way more strength than I should have been able to use.
He buckles a little and the arm around my shoulders is withdrawn. "Oh hell yeah! I like this one! You'll be a perfect convert if there ever was one!"
I finally spare this lunatic a glance. He has medium-length gray hair that's slicked backwards and shockingly purple eyes. He's a surprisingly tall man and he has a cherry red three pronged scythe strapped to his back. And he's wearing a cloak with red clouds on it.
Holy fuck I just elbowed Hidan in the gut!
"Hidan control yourself." A deep menacing voice calls from behind the scythe user. "We are here to see if there are any high bounties attending these exams, and if so then we are going to take them. We are not here so you can corrupt the youth with your asinine religion."
This man is ridiculously tall, easily towering over everyone else here. Almost his entire body is covered by a black cloak with red clouds and a black face mask. Only his hands and unusual red and green eyes are visible. This man is Kakuzu.
"Fuck you old man it's the one true religion!" Hidan roars. "Back me up on this kid!"
My head ping pongs from Hidan, to Kakuzu, to Sasuke and back again. "I'm not in the fucking mood for this shit."
I stomp over to the still shell shocked Sasuke, spin him around and start shoving him away from the lunatics behind us and towards our hotel room. After a few stumbles he regain his senses and starts walking of his own volition.
"Aw come on kid don't be like that!" Hidan calls after my retreating form. "I promise there's only a lot of pain that comes with Jashinism! Usually it's not even yours! It's a hell of a lot of fun too!"
I don't stop, I keep forcing Sasuke to walk further away no matter how much he want to turn around.
"Hidan remain on task." Kakuzu irritably says. "Or the next time you lose a limb I won't put it back for you."
"Pfft like I'm the one who needs to remain on task. You dragged my ass all the way to this heathen infested village so you can see Muffins." Hidan rounds on Kakuzu aggressively. "Tell me I'm wrong, go on. Do it. Ever since Sasori mentioned that he'd be here you've been more lively than usual. That's saying something, I bet you remember when dirt was invented! Get it? You're so old you were alive before dirt? I don't think you get it. Okay, simple version: You're old as fuck."
"You are lucky we're in a shinobi village. Otherwise I'd be putting your 'immortality' to the test." Kakuzu threatens his partner. I get the feeling this happens a lot. Then I feel something, almost like a sense of foreboding. It feels like I'm being analyzed, dissected like an intricate puzzle. "Besides, I believe we've just found him."
Fuck me.
...
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