-
In light of our recent decision to have a mini-vacation we're now having a nice picnic. Any busywork we have, like adding a modified version of the blessed seal that has inbuilt failsafes to all of our shinobi, is being handled strictly by clones.
Sakura and Hinata are both leaning on my shoulders. We've also taken Hirogi and the sisters with us, they are currently sitting across from us, whispering to each other while occasionally giving us a glance before their gossip intensifies. I feed Hinata a piece of apple pie while Sakura feeds me a strawberry. I smile. "We've honestly needed something like this for quite some time".
Both Sakura and Hinata smile and nod. The past few weeks have been pretty busy and stressful, what with the whole dying thing, so this is certainly a welcome reprieve. I feed Sakura a cherry. "Remember when I asked you to implant a sharingan into my palm? Think you can do that for Hinata and I?"
Sakura swallows and nods. "Shouldn't be too hard, I'll do that for you later today. Hinata will need it more than you, since otherwise she wouldn't be able to use genjutsu to control the four tails."
Hinata picks up a sandwich. "What about learning how to do so?"
I shrug, feeding Hinata another strawberry. "We can just have shadow clones do it. It's more efficient that way too. The only thing we should keep doing personally is physical training, everything else can be handled by clones."
Hinata holds the sandwich and has me take a bite from it. Sakura smiles. "Learning exclusively how to control tailed beasts won't take as much time as you think, since we'll only be focusing on one thing instead of just general genjutsu."
I finish chewing, swallow my food and nod. "Hopefully it won't. By the way, how goes giving the blessed seal to our shinobi?"
Sakura eats a strawberry. "Half of them are already done, the other half is going to take around three more days. The seal makes them much more powerful, but it's not enough for any of them to be considered S-Rank shinobi."
I nod, feeding Sakura a strawberry as I do so. "We never expected it to be able to do that. Allowing most of our shinobi to punch even higher above their weight class than they are already able to do is more than enough."
Hinata smiles. "Let us stop discussing work for now, what did you think of the movie we watched last night?"
"A bit top sappy."
"I loved it!"
—
I stare at my palm. I stare at my face from my palm. Having an eyeball inside of your palm is the trippiest thing ever. I form a chakra scalpel and I can see it from my palm.
I've decided to get it implanted even if we don't know how to perform either Izanami or Izanagi yet. If we happen to learn either of them it's better to already have a sharingan ready to use.
Hinata is next to me. For her the experience is even weirder, since she now actually sees better with her palm eye than her own eyes. When she turns towards me I point my palm at her. "Look into my eye!".
She just gives me a deadpan stare in response.
-three weeks later.
Sakura is currently removing Anko's cursed seal. Hinata and Karin are helping her while I'm just spectating, there is nothing I can actually help them with right now. One of the samurai we captured way back when lies on an operating next to Anko, to serve as spare parts.
The process of removing the cursed seal involves removing all of the failsafe seals in Anko's brain, as those activating would cook her brain like a baked potato. The rest of her organs are then going to go poof the moment they remove a single seal. That's why Mr. Spare Parts is here.
I can tell the moment they begin the procedure, if not from hearing them talk among each other then from how Anko instantly becomes paler than a ghost. The rest of the operation is a race against time before Anko dies. First is the heart, then the lungs and then all of the other not as vital organs.
Once all is said and done Anko looks better, now being just as pale as a ghost instead of paler. Sakura removes her surgical mask. "You're staying here for three months. I just replaced almost all of your internal organs. No using chakra or straining yourself. For the first month I want you to not even leave the bed. Afterwards you can walk as you like, but no running or using chakra. We'll see how your condition changes by the third month and see where we go from there."
Anko nods. "But the cursed seal, is it gone?"
The beaming expression that Anko makes when she hears Sakura's 'Yes' can be described as nothing short of ecstatic. "...Thank you."
Sakura shrugs. "You're welcome. Just make sure to actually follow my instructions and take your medications, otherwise you might literally just drop dead."
Anko nods, before taking a deep breath. "I'll summon the snakes whenever you tell me so that you can sign the contract. If there's anything else you want from me just tell me, alright?"
Hinata gives her a nod. "We will tell you if we wish for anything else, do not worry."
After some more small talk with Anko we just retire to our apartment. Hinata and I have almost managed to get to the point where we can reliably control a tailed beast without effort using sharingan genjutsu. It should take us at most another week to master that.
After we're done mastering tailed beast control Hinata is going to get herself the four tails sealed inside her and then we're going to get me the seven tails. The prospect of finally having flight capabilities is pretty exciting.
-six days later.
Hinata and I have both mastered controlling tailed beasts, and as such the two of us and Sakura are currently standing some distance away from Takigakure. I cross my arms. "So how do you guys wanna approach this?"
Hinata rubs her chin. "Is there any response that they are capable of if we are to just go in, kidnap Fuu and then leave?"
Sakura shakes her head. "Not really. I can probably even transfer the seven tails while we're inside of their village. Our shadow clones can easily take care of everyone else in their village while that's going on."
I shake my head. "We should just kill everyone and kidnap Fuu, since they're going to become our enemies anyway after we steal their tailed beast. Afterwards it's better to do the transfer in Sakuragakure. If anyone tries to interfere it will be much easier to deal with them there. Any objections?"
Sakura and Hinata both shake their heads. We activate our cursed seals and rush towards their village. When we encounter enemy shinobi they are promptly decapitated, the bodies we just leave there.
On our way to Takigakure proper we encounter six more patrols, all six of them are dispatched before they can even react or raise any form of alarm. Once we reach Takigakure proper we each make fifty shadow clones. Mine and Sakura's rush to slaughter all of the enemy shinobi inside of the village, Hinata's clones scatter and prepare to catch any of the stragglers.
It does not take long for Fuu to enter the fray, her seven tailed cloak allowing her to pop our clones before they can properly react. Hinata and Sakura activate their chakra cloaks. We all rush towards her location, the memories of our clones easily allowing us to pinpoint her location.
Hianata and Sakura both smash into Fuu with the angry force only a tailed beast can grant. I remain in the sidelines, ready to activate the gates and jump in if need be. Hinata begins an overwhelming barrage of strikes and cuts on Fuu, preventing her from reacting to Sakura. Sakura grabs Fuu's arm, who is then noticeably not paralysed by Sakura. Thankfully Hinata is unphased by this, taking advantage and using the opportunity to begin pummeling Fuu into submission.
Sakura coordinates with Hinata, throwing Fuu into the air. Hinata jumps above Fuu and spin kicks her back down to Sakura, who hits her with a strong enough uppercut for the resulting shockwave to shatter the windows of the surrounding buildings.
Fuu tries to take advantage of Hinata's temporary absence by leaping towards Sakura. Sakura's tail then smashes into her face, sending her flying towards the newly landed Hinata, who begins to pummel her into submission again. Sakura rushes towards them and joins Hinata's beatdown of Fuu.
I decide to help them. Once I have a clear line of sight to Fuu I blast her with Amaterasu. Kagutsuchi allows me to keep her from dying and to prevent the black flames from harming Sakura and Hinata. From here it does not take long for Fuu to go unconscious, the combination of the black flames burning her alive and Hinata with Sakura giving her the beating of her life overwhelming her.
Sakura injects the unconscious girl with anesthetic. "Can't be too careful with this bitch, don't want her to wake up in the middle of the journey."
Afterwards we take their Kinjutsu scroll before leaving. Sadly there's no hero water to steal, that would have been to have.
During the journey back Sakura keeps running diagnostic jutsu on Fuu, checking on the level of anesthetic in her system. By the time we arrive she had already administered Fuu three more anesthesia shots.
We decide to do the transfer the following day, Karin makes sure Fuu does not wake up until then. The next day we do the transfer as planned. Transferring her tailed beast to me does not take long. Afterwards Sakura uses the edo tensei to bring Fuu back, apparently she wants to test some new way to control hostile edo tensei while they are still retaining their cognizance.
The second day Kurotsuchi calls us to have a discussion with us. This time we're in our apartment instead of the office. The four of us along with Hirogi and the sisters are sitting at the table. Kurotsuchi begins. "The other villages will not know for sure that we eliminated Takigakure and stole their tailed beast, but other than Konoha we are the only suspect and have proven ourselves to be ruthless already. They will simply assume us to be the culprits."
I add some more sugar to my cup of tea and nod. "And what are they going to do about it?"
Kurotsuchi taps her finger on the table. "They will do nothing officially. Under the table they will prepare an alliance against you. The good news is that Konoha is unlikely to be invited, since they are friendly with us and Kumogakure hates them. Iwagakure is your vassal, the Tsuchikage should be able to root out any dissent on that side, otherwise I will take care of them myself. The only villages left that can band together are Kumogakure and Kirigakure, and both of them are too weak to begin the war."
Sakura eats a biscuit. "Why wouldn't they begin the war now? Before we get even more powerful."
Kurotsuchi takes a sip of tea. "Because we already are too powerful. The window to put down Sakuragakure passed after Iwagakure's fall. Now even if those two somehow convinced Konoha to join an alliance against us, they would still be too weak to take us on."
I shake my head. "Konoha can just use the edo tensei and throw all of their dead S-Ranks at us. We can only deal with a single edo tensei or a single summoner using Danzo, the rest would still be a giant pain in the ass."
Kurotsuchi shakes her head. "It would be mutually assured destruction. Konohagakure would be destroyed, as would Sakuragakure. This prevents any war from breaking out between the two of us. Any conflicts would be proxy wars."
Hinata shrugs. "Lady Tsunade views us positively. It is highly improbable for Konohagakure and us to have a conflict start between the two of us. The other villages can do nothing but hope we won't attack them preemptively."
Kurotsuchi nods. "Esentially. Everyone other than Konoha has no counter for our forces. Konohagakure's counter is for both of us to be destroyed, which means neither of us will wish for a direct conflict."
I take a sip of tea. "What about Obito, Black Zetsu and Kakuzu? Do we have any way of locating them?"
Sakura shakes her head. "We don't. They can be as proactive as they want while we are forced to be reactive. We have no real way of locating them if they don't act."
Hinata nods. "We are sadly forced to wait for them to make the first move. We will only have our opportunity once they give up on hiding."
I sigh. "The good news is that the Hyuga from Konoha are doing pretty good work at stopping that murder suicide jutsu. More of them haven't popped up, so that was probably less of a real plan and more of a gamble."
Kurotsuchi takes a deep breath. "That jutsu honestly worried me significantly. Without the Hyuga it would have had the potential to exterminate the entire human population."
I nod. "It's a good thing that we managed to stop it. I don't want to find out the hard way the end result of that thing."
Sakura finishes her tea. "Is that all? Or is there something else that we should discuss?"
Kurotsuchi shakes her head. "That is all. Thank you very much for taking my opinion seriously."
I take the kettle and down all of the remaining tea, to everyone's exasperated looks. "Don't worry about it, that's what you're here for. Let's go spar some now, I want to test what being a jinchuriki is all about."
—
Wanna hear something scary? Hinata and Sakura are both rushing towards me at full speed. All of us have the seal active and maxed out chakra cloaks. Even without the sharingan they're moving in slow motion for me.
I now understand why Kurama is considered to be ridiculously stronger than all of the rest of his brothers combined. Tails are exponential, so my seven tailed cloak is just too much of a boost for Hinata and Sakura.
This means that a fully cloaked Naruto would be ridiculous. Which honestly kind of tracks with canon.
By now Sakura and Hinata have reached me, so I just punch both of them in their stomach, sending them flying off before they can even react.
Even with Naruto fully cloaked with all nine tails we should still be a little stronger. Sakura could have fought Fuu on equal footing even with the tail disparity, while Hinata was just relentlessly beating Fuu without a worry. The eight gates should be able to bridge the gap if all else fails.
Hinata and Sakura return somewhat ruffled. They both shake their heads. Sakura sighs. "It was nice being stronger than either of you for a change. Use a combination jutsu, let's see how much your ninjutsu has improved."
I make two shadow clones and fire off a great explosion bullet into the sky. The resulting shockwave is strong enough to simply uproot the trees beneath the explosion. When it reaches us it also brings an almost uncomfortable heat with it. I swipe my hand and break a tree trunk flying towards me.
Sakura smiles. "Now imagine Hinata firing a barrage of those things. The only thing we've encountered that is more destructive than that was the tailed beast bomb."
I nod. "Firing those arrows into a village would be terrifying. Pretty sure even Deidara would ask to become an apprentice after seeing this. Hopefully it's enough to handle Madara."
Both Hinata and Sakura gulp. The thought of having to fight against that fucker is honestly terrifying. Him and Hashirama are both beyond any regular norm for power measurement. I grimace. "I'll start making explosive seals with jutsu like this, that should give us a good edge."
-two months later.
Nothing of much interest has happened for the past two months. We've been doing intense physical training while our clones practiced whatever else we needed. All three of us can now reliably open the fifth gate, the sixth can be opened, but at immense strain.
Hinata has improved her bow, massively increasing its draw weight. She has also massively improved on her taijutsu technique. Sakura has reverse engineered Tsunade's super strength and even begun using it with her legs, her sharingan allowing her to easily handle the increased speed. On my side I've finally mastered Hirogi's sensory jutsu. Figuring out how to sense chakra underground took my clones a while, but afterwards it was smooth sailing.
While Hinata and I are lightly sparring, Hirogi brings us a letter. A Kage summit has been announced by Konoha. It will take place in about a week, so there's more than enough time to prepare.
-1 week later
While on the way to the town the meeting will be held in I begin to sense something… odd. Now that I've mastered the sensory jutsu it's turned into less of a jutsu and more into a sort of passive sense. There's a pretty big chakra signature in the town, not belonging to any of the Kage.
The closer we get the clearer its location becomes. When we are inside of the town I pinpoint it to the Kage meeting room. Opening the door brings me the answer as to who the chakra belongs to. It also opens even more questions.
Madara is calmly leaning on the wall. When we see each other he nods at me. "Do not worry, I come in peace. I was the one who called all of you to the meeting."
Mei and Darui have already arrived, tracking Tsunade's chakra leads to the conclusion she will arrive in two minutes. I keep staring at Madara. He sighs. "I will elaborate once Hashirama's granddaughter arrives."
I shrug and take my seat, throwing a can of soda to Madara along with the rest of the kage. Darui catches his and then just opens it and begins drinking. Mei absentmindedly catches hers, keeping it in her hand. Madara catches his can and gives me a bewildered look before grumbling like a grandpa about kids these days.
Tsunade has much the same reaction that I had when seeing Madara. Madara just sighs again. "Please sit down. There is a situation that requires everyone to cooperate if it is to be resolved."
Tsunade, still standing, scoffs. "And what is that situation supposed to be?"
Madara briefly closes his eyes, before giving each of us an appraising look. "There is one more surviving member of the Akatsuki you are not aware of, Zetsu. He plans to eliminate all human life."