1- week later
We're playing Go to pass the time. We haven't gone out of our hideout at all yet. Hinata confirmed no patrols even came in her byakugan's range, so we should be alright here for now. I'm playing against Kurari, Hinata is playing against Hirogi and Sakura is playing against Karari. We're discussing our future plans, more specifically Sakura is suggesting we build a more long-term base somewhere.
Sakura places a piece "The Land of Wind is almost certain to be a giant shitshow right now. We escaped into Iwagakure so that I could do the experiments needed for the transplants unmolested. After we finish the transplants we can move into either The Land of Wind or the land of a minor daimyo."
Hinata holds her piece in her hand, thinking "The Land of Wind is still allied with The Land of Fire. If we are found there then Konoha will be able to attack us without any repercussions. I believe the best course of action would be to make a hidden village inside The Land of Flowers."
I pause midway placing a piece "That's… I didn't actually think of that. That would solve most of our problems. The protection of the daimyo would protect us politically, we're far away from Konoha there and the daimyo would rely on us for protection against The Land of Earth."
Sakura shrugs "I honestly don't necessarily care about the location. We need to be able to settle somewhere long-term if we are to actually grow. We can't train properly without attracting attention here."
I place my piece "Then it's settled. We create a hidden village inside of The Land of Flowers. We can get our test subjects from the Land of Earth. If the daimyo proves himself difficult we can mind control him with genjutsu after we research that some more."
Hinata sighs "One thing we must be careful now is to not create any trails leading towards this hideout. We should choose a random spot and create a fake lead towards it. We kidnap from the villages surrounding this spot so that they assume we are in that area"
Sakura and I both agree to Hinata's proposal. At the end of the next week we will go out.
-one week later
We are going out to get Sakura her test subjects today. So that we don't create any leads towards us we will kidnap them from towns farther away, this should keep them from searching our current area. We chose a random spot as a 'hideout', we'll kidnap from the towns around that spot, creating false leads.
We all create as many shadow clones as we comfortably can. I manage twenty, Hinata does twelve and Sakura makes seven. Each clone will carry one or two people each. The clones henge into random civilians and then split into three groups of twelve each, quickly leaving towards the towns. The three of us on the other hand are going to the nearest large town. We want to get some intel on what's been happening in the outside world. The remaining three clones stay to guard the hideout.
—
We enter the town disguised as tobacco smugglers that are pretending to be merchants. After entry Hinata quickly guides us to one of the town's premier information brokers, the byakugan once again proving itself invaluable.
Entering their bar reveals them to be a bald, scarred middle aged man. Almost certainly a former shinobi from their mannerisms, and a smart one by the way he seems to recognise and not comment on the fact that we are disguised.
I sit on the barstool "Yo. I heard you're the best info broker in this town, that true?"
He takes a deep breath "I am. What is it you are interested in?"
I place a piece of one of Rasa's gold bars, weighing around fifty grams, on the counter. "Any news regarding that whole Amegakure mess? We have been away from people for quite some time now."
He gulps, giving each of us a quick glance "The villages have agreed on their expedition. They will gather in five days inside of The Land of Rice. After gathering they will attack them immediately, my best estimates put the attack two days after they have gathered their forces."
I nod "Any information on who will be a part of the force?"
He nervously nods back "All the big hitters from every village will be there. Anyone under chunin is going to remain in their village, since they would be more of a burden than an asset."
I nod at the man "Thank you for your answers. Might I have your name?"
He breathes a sigh of relief "My name is Matoki. Thank you for your generosity."
We then simply leave. I don't bother threatening the man. He seems to have understood what would happen to him if he talked by himself. Smart guy.
We leave the town the following day with the same disguise we entered. Don't want to create any inconsistencies.
—
Once we reach our hideout the clones we left as guards quickly pop themselves, as they are no longer needed. We then just get back to playing poker, since there's not much else to do until the clones arrive with the test subjects.
Two hours later Sakura is on a six victory win streak when the clones finally arrive. They all drop their sealed and tied captives before popping. I give them a good look. Fiftyone people, twentynine are women, eleven are orphans and eleven are men. We don't put them in individual rooms, simply splitting them between five cells.
After we sort them out we go back to our poker game for the rest of the day. Sakura will begin her experiments tomorrow. Hinata and I will help her with what we can, but most of the work is academic in nature and we are essentially useless in that aspect.
It takes Sakura ten days to kill all the prisoners. The first day she tested simply implanting the cells as is. All of the six test subjects died pretty quickly. An interesting find is that the cells actually multiplied during the small time their host was living, draining their chakra to keep growing. The following tests lead to us finding more and more about the cells.
We are currently gathering the bodies outside the hideout, to burn them with Amaterasu so they'll leave no trace of their existence. Karari throws the corpse of a girl into the pile. Sakura rubs her chin "The cells are like stem cells, except they don't use caloric energy to propagate themselves. They burn through chakra indiscriminately for regeneration. If your chakra is not sufficient it will kill you."
Hirogi throws another body into the pile. I look at the pile, almost done "So to make sure I actually understood. They burn your chakra to do whatever it is they do. If there's not enough chakra they just kill you"
Sakura nods "Basically. As it is, you and Hinata would almost certainly survive the implant. I need to do some more tests for myself. The two of you have a ninety percent chance to survive, I have a fifty percent chance."
Kurari grabs a corpse. Hinata takes a deep breath "Let us continue until we all are certain to survive in this case. It is unnecessary to take that risk right now."
Hirogi grabs the last corpse. I nod "Yeah, let's wait until we are sure all of us are going to live through the implant. Tomorrow we can send some more shadow clones out and get some more intel on what's happened with the whole Akatsuki fiasco."
Sakura sighs "I doubt the villages have any chance honestly. Pain is just too strong, even discounting the other S-Rank shinobi that are a part of the Akatsuki. The only one who can somewhat take him on is Guy, and that basically involves him killing himself"
I nod "Yeah. Guy is going to open the eighth gate, kill the six paths of pain and then the new six paths of pain are going to approach the shinobi forces and kill all of them. Their only hope is if they somehow find out about Nagato and rush to kill him. Afterwards they will be able to kill the rest of the Akatsuki, but they will almost certainly take heavy losses in that fight"
Hinata takes a deep breath "I would not discount them finding out Nagato's secret. You said that Jiraya had discovered it originally. Now that all the villages have allied against them they may figure it out while gathering information on the Akatsuki."
Hirogi throws the corpse. Sakura shrugs "Either way we're finding out tomorrow. The ideal scenario for us involves Pain dying. Without him we'll only have to worry about Obito and Madara."
I use Amaterasu and burn the pile, leaving nothing behind "Lets just get back to playing board games. We can speculate on what to do after we find out who won."
—
We enter the town with the same disguises as last time. When we enter Matoki's bar he is alone once again. When he turns towards us I can see he recognises us from before. I sit on his bar and leave fifty grams of gold on it again "Greetings once again. Anything new regarding the whole Amegakure thing?"
Matoki takes a deep breath "The alliance won but suffered tremendous losses. All of the Kage are dead. The only survivors are Hatake Kakashi and Rasa. All of the villages are currently paralyzed by their Kage's deaths"
I make an effort not to let out a sigh of relief that Kakashi is still alive. "What of the Akatsuki? Any survivors on their side?"
Matoki nods "Kakuzu is the only survivor on their side."
I nod "Thank you for the information"
He nervously nods back. I get and turn towards the exit of his bar. Before I actually leave I remember there is something I should ask the man "What of Janshin? Do you know anything regarding that fiasco?"
He blinks "Those murder-suicides that have been happening everywhere? No one knows anything concrete about them. All I know is that they are happening in every major population center. One murder-suicide every two to three months."
I take a deep breath "Is there any place they are occurring faster? Or is the delay between them always identical"
He nods "They are always identical. Two to three months between every murder. Almost none have a good murder reason."
I nod in assent and then leave the bar with Hinata and Sakura. Pain has been eliminated. Once we seal one of the tailed beasts and get rid of Itachi's body we'd have almost certainly ruined any chances of Kaguya reviving. Killing black zetsu would ensure that would never come to pass. We leave the town in the same disguise we entered it once again, as tobacco smugglers.
Arc 4 ended - Desertion