Matsu - The MC of the story.
Rei:- one of Matsu’s first friends from the academy. Matsu faked her death when ordered to kill her in front of everyone, then snuck a byakugan into her after she lost one of her eyes. Lives in the Land of Vegetables and has been devouring everything regarding fuinjutsu that she could get her hands on.
Fumikage Hozuki:- the Jinchuriki of the three tails. A Kiri shinobi.
Gamabasa Hozuki:- one of Fumikage’s minders and a fuinjutsu user.
Yumi - Geisha of the Land of Vegetables, Matsu helped her marry the Seneschal of the Land of Vegetables.
Hiroshi Uzumaki - Old shinobi of Uzushio, father to Mara, grandfather to Momotaro. Blacksmith. Hideo’s target during an earlier mission.
Momotaro Uzumaki - son of Mara Uzumaki, now a samurai captain in the Land of Vegetables.
Mara Uzumaki - sickly daughter of Hiroshi. Former Kunoichi of Uzushio. Married to the Heir of the Land of Vegetables.
Arashi Uzumaki - Uzumaki noble that Hiroshi believes Matsu resembles.
____________________
Meditating on a rock in the wilds was a bit of a cliche, but it suited my purposes well enough.
We’d just finished destroying the Iwa base within one of Marsh's few mountains, and I had to admit that Fumikage was an effective weapon.
Which made me more than a little sick to consider.
We’d located Konoha’s patrols, and when I’d paused to discuss the plan to engage with them, Gamabasa had strode forward with glowing fingertips.
“Time restricted release! Ease the seal!” he chanted as he pressed his fingertips into Fumikage’s exposed shoulder.
The clearing had gone from sedate and calm to suddenly being on the edge of a tornado of chakra as the Three-Tails chakra roared out of Fumikage.
Stunned by the sudden detonation of chakra, I found myself almost blinded by how much was radiating out of Fumikage.
I’d always known intellectually that the Bijuu hosts had more chakra than most people, but it was another thing entirely to experience it.
My skin prickled, and my nose stung with the sudden acidic smell that quickly turned to blood as parts of Fumikage’s skin began to peel off his face.
“HRRRRR! WHICH WAY?” he grit out.
I pointed, still a bit stunned at the sudden loosening of the seal.
Then Fumikage disappeared in a blur of speed.
I’d cursed and given chase.
Now, in the aftermath, I considered Fumikage and his handlers.
Fumikage himself was flat on his back, eyes locked on the trees while his “companions” went to work, tightening and checking off the seal upon his shoulder.
“—loosened within the expected margins. It will give us another five releases to work with before we should change hosts and another eight before it becomes critical,” muttered Gamabasa.
“So long as the exchanges continue the way they have been,” muttered the kunoichi.
“And that other elements don’t get involved,” murmured the other shinobi, eyes briefly flickering in my direction, only to stiffen when they noticed me observing them.
I wasn’t sure if it was rank arrogance or if they truly thought that I couldn’t hear them from where I was sitting on the other side of the clearing.
They should expect better from a Jonin after all.
Or perhaps their skills were rusty, having spent most of their time chaperoning Fumikage to the various battles where they pointed him towards a foe and unleashed him.
… it was extremely wasteful in my opinion.
But that wasn’t the only thought swimming around in my mind as I sat and made sure the cost was clear of any further Konoha or Iwa nin.
No, the thought that stood tall and loud in my mind was that this right here is
It was too good an opportunity not to be a trap in some way, shape or form.
Three shinobi who, from a few days spent together, I could justifiably rate as being Tokubetsu Jonin, and I knew that this was too good to be true.
Gengetsu had to be messing with me right now.
Why else would he send the Three-Tails Jinchuriki of all shinobi to me?
He’d been keeping me at arm's length from any chance to learn fuinjutsu for years now. Even the security seals that I’d needed had to be argued for, and it was only when he deemed it too advanced to learn from nothing that it was allowed.
But he always lingered on the decision. Like he expected me to be some savant that looked at a line of script and understood it perfectly.
The only thing I could take from that was that the Uzumaki had well and truly built their legacy on fuinjutsu and had traumatised Gengetsu of all people, making him so leery of letting me have too many examples of fuinjutsu.
Which made his decision to send Fumikage as my support all the stranger…
Was this him trying to rub something in my face? Or was he trying to tempt me into revealing my hand?
There weren’t any ANBU teams or Hunter teams nearby waiting to close in on me… not that I could tell. There might possibly be some form of seal within Fumikage’s sealing matrix, but there was a lot there I wouldn’t understand.
The more I thought about the situation as it stood, the more I knew one thing.
I had to step into the trap.
It was an opportunity that I would likely never get again.
Getting unfiltered access to one of the Jinchuriki like this was never going to come around again.
Which only solidified my theory that this was a trap in some way, shape or form.
Inspecting the four-man team I gave each of them long, thoughtful looks.
What was the saying? The road to hell was paved with good intentions?
Still, how much could I consider the journey without the destination in mind?
Turning my eyes towards the sky, I considered a bird drifting on a thermal.
Free.
No cares but for where the next meal came from.
I could be like that bird.
I could vanish into the elemental nations or even seek out somewhere far off, on a distant continent, where I could be a non-entity.
It was an idle fantasy, however, and not something I could ever seriously entertain.
My friends would suffer, Kiri as a whole would slip back into the mire, and most of all?
I wanted to rule Kiri.
I’d spent years feeling weak. I’d practically cultivated a hunger for power into my very being by this point.
I was going to be Mizukage.
From there?
Well, then I’d be able to effect true change in Kiri, and from it, the world.
“There, all sealed up,” muttered Gamabasa as he leaned back from Fumikage’s shoulder. He slapped the teenager about the head. “Get up.”
Before I could taste the sickening hypocrisy on my tongue, my chakra twisted, sending out a genjutsu into their coils, and I moved.
With a blur, the world shifted around me, and my kunai flashed out, slashing through the kunoichi’s throat before she could react.
Gamabasa replaced himself with a flex of his chakra, breaking the illusion in a surprising show of competence. He landed on a nearby tree with a glare.
“I knew it! You Uzumaki are all the same coveting po—” The clone I’d formed a few minutes ago, when the thought first occurred to me, leapt out of trees only to be skewered by Gamabasa with a water needle jutsu.
Gamabasa had enough time to turn back to me to catch a water slicer through the chest.
It cut him in half and sent his torso flying through the air while his legs toppled to the ground.
“Traito…” he murmured into the ground.
I turned my attention to the last shinobi in the group.
He still hadn’t caught on that I’d placed him in an illusion.
Damn… it would have been easier if he had fought back.
Reaching out, I put my fingertips to his eyelids as my chakra swept through his body until I had a few very specific blood vessels in my grasp.
I closed his eyelids gently, knowing they wouldn’t open again.
He sighed contentedly, and I swallowed back some self-revulsion as he slumped forward slightly.
With that done, I took a small step back and observed my handiwork.
Around me, life continued, but where my eyes fell, only death lingered.
“Can I die like him?” asked Fumikage quietly from where he lay upon the grass.
He’d watched the violence unfold but hadn’t made a move to intercede or escape.
He’d just… lain there. Accepting what was to come to him.
I sat down and let out a long, tired sigh.
In so very many ways… I felt like I had just failed to live up to my goals of making the world a better place.
Grasping a blade of grass, I twisted it in my hands only to let it catch on the wind a moment later and float away.
“Do you want to die?” I asked, feeling very morbid.
"Some days I do," Fumikage replied quietly. “There’s an ache in my body. It gets worse each time they let the demon out… Are you going to kill me?”
Something about the hope in his tone of voice made me wonder if perhaps I hadn’t made the world a better place by killing his handlers.
“I’d rather not kill anyone for a while if it’s all the same,” I offered. “I think I’d rather take you to meet a friend.”
“Are they nice? Or like us?” Fumikage looked into my eyes.
Ooph, right in the weak spot.
“They’re nice,” I offered back. “They’re going to look at your seal. Maybe they can help you?” I offered lamely.
“That sounds nice,” he murmured back.
Neither of us moved for a long while; we instead watched birds fly overhead and the trees shift with the wind.
“When I die, I want to come back as a bird,” Fumikage stated.
“That would be nice,” I offered. “I think… I think I want to be born during peaceful times…maybe as a merchant's or tradesman’s son. They have good, uncomplicated lives.”
Fumikage hummed in agreement, and I let the moment linger a while more.
Eventually, I stood and sealed up the three corpses after checking them over for anything important.
Gamabasa had several sealing scrolls on him. None of which I could understand more than a smidgeon of. “Shall we?” I offered Fumikage my hand.
He took it without hesitating and stood. The soft touch we shared in this case was just enough to ease the ache of his coils and the surrounding tissue, making it easier for him to move.
Then we began an easy run towards the Capital of the Land of Vegetables.
I might have to come back to Marsh in the future, but for now, I think I’d done enough.
___________________
Fumikage Hozuki wasn’t sure what to make of Matsu Uzumaki.
He’d heard whispers within the clan; even with how he was kept away from others of importance, he’d still heard gossip.
Matsu Uzumaki, the next Mizukage in the making some mocked.
The kind Jonin, some called him with a scoff. Others had chuckled, calling him Kiri’s kindness, usually after people recounted his battles as a child Jonin, where he killed other shinobi from Konoha, only to offer up one of their own to make them depart.
Fumikage had been warned of him.
How, as an Uzumaki he would seek to strip Fumikage of his life, how he’d unravel the seals that bound the demon in a manner so painful that Fumikage would beg for the beatings he received from his uncle.
Matsu was nothing like they said he was.
He was kind, yes, but it wasn’t a spiteful ‘kindness’ that gave with one hand while taking with the other.
On their run north, Fumikage noticed things.
Like how tall the trees could grow, or a random patch of flowers.
As he often did, he slowed.
It was a personal failing.
One that had seen him punished often in the past.
And yet… he still found himself lingering.
He’d barely slowed the third time when he suddenly found Matsu standing next to him, staring at the same patch of flowers.
“Huh… they’re quite nice,” he muttered before he gestured towards them. “Did you want to smell them?”
Fumikage stared. “You…want to stop and smell them?”
Matsu nodded, a faint smile forming on his lips. “Yeah, that’s like the whole point of enjoying them… Although I suppose some places also like to do flower arranging.”
“Flower arranging?”
Matsu considered him for a drawn-out moment.
Fumikage curled slightly away from him, readying himself for the blow that would come.
“It’s a form of artwork that weaves a flower's colours, composition and other pieces to make something appealing to the eye. Sometimes they also use the flower language to convey messages.”
Fumikage blinked. “Oh.” He had no idea what any of that would look like.
Without saying anything more, Matsu hopped down to the flowers and began to pick some. Fumikage followed, unsure what he was supposed to do. He shifted, eyes darting around, still waiting for someone to shout at him or to appear from nowhere and reveal it was a cruel illusion.
Nothing happened, however… until suddenly Fumikage found himself holding an arrangement of flowers. The whites and yellows were arranged in a way that made them stand out.
“It’s not much, but… It’s nice to look at. Hold onto that; maybe give it to someone you like, yeah? It can make ladies' days when you give them flowers out of the blue. It shows you think of them. Or just keep it for yourself. Flowers don’t need much of a reason.”
Fumikage nodded, still unsure of this situation he’d found himself in, but starting to wonder… if perhaps it might be real.
At the very least, it was nice.
There wasn’t any pain with Matsu.
In fact, he felt better than he had in quite a while, like his aches and pains were slipping away.
“He will betray you! They will all betray you worm!” hissed a voice from the depths of Fumikage’s mind.
Unbidden, Fumikage twitched, his hand crushing the flowers.
Matsu blinked. “Are you alright?”
"Ah." A wave of shame ran through Fumikage. “It’s nothing… just a sore muscle.”
Matsu observed him for another long moment, while his face remained neutral, there was still an air around him that announced how doubtful he was.
“I won’t press,” he eventually said, and Fumikage exhaled in relief. “But if you want to talk… I’ll listen,” Matsu offered.
“Listen to your death throes!” hissed the voice.
Fumikage nodded, hoping that the voice would settle down as the seal settled. That was how it had been in the past… he didn’t want to be like the last host that apparently turned into a madman by the end that they’d kept restrained before the final mission and following extraction.
Fumikage couldn’t rightly remember having the demon sealed inside himself… it had been years ago, and there had been so much pain.
They continued to run, only now they had occasional stops with Matsu pointing out beautiful scenes. Either a bird in flight, a mountain range, a sunset, or even a river.
It was nice, and Fumikage found himself saddened when it was time for it to end.
_____________________
Making friends with someone shouldn’t be that easy, I thought to myself as I took my time walking through the capital of the Land of Vegetables.
We got skewers of meat, watched a street performance and even lingered atop some rooftops to people watch.
And throughout it all, Fumikage had a look of disbelief.
It was almost enough to make me forget that I’d killed three allies just to get him here.
When I had to resort to methods that Gengetsu approved of, I felt like I was slipping down a slope that led to a place I didn’t want.
So I lingered; I indulged Fumikage’s honestly childish desires to stop and smell the roses.
All while noticing how he sometimes flinched or twitched.
It was worse in his sleep. He muttered sometimes. During each of these incidents, his chakra spiked with demonic chakra minutely.
He was a ticking time bomb, and he knew it.
“So when will we seek out the next enemy base?” he asked as we walked through the noble district.
“We won’t be doing that,” I replied easily. “I have a friend that I want you to meet. It’s going to be very important for the future. I’m hoping that she can help you.”
“Help me?” he repeated uncertainly.
“Your seal is poorly made; it shouldn’t be slipping and growing weaker like it is,” I stated. “Can she look at your seal?”
Fumikage nodded. “You’ll fix the seal? Make it so that I don’t hear its voice anymore?”
I resisted the desire to frown.
This wasn’t years in the future when the prodigal ninja jesus would win the hearts and minds of the world by simply appearing and asking for their favour.
The Sanbi right now… no, Isobu, wasn’t in the best mental headspace. What was the seal like for it? The Ninetails was one of the few examples I knew of that changed depending on the seal with Naruto’s version looking downright tame compared to that of Kushina’s seal.
Did I want to try to change that?
I wasn’t sure. What I really wanted was to let Rei attempt the demonic sealing method, because having someone capable of sealing a Bijuu was an important role, and I couldn't easily find someone who could do it in Kirigakure.
Was it a risk to bring Fumikage here to Vegetable?
Yes, but you couldn’t get ahead without some risks.
A dark part of me wondered if that was why I tried to be so nice to him, to earn his loyalty.
I rubbed a hand across my face. Urgh, I needed to shake this funk off.
Approaching the manor, I was amused to see that it was now being guarded by several samurai, one of whom I recognised.
“Finally got to become a fully fledged Samurai, eh Momotaro?”
“Eh? Who are you? Identify yourself!” barked a dark-haired man wearing a fierce mask across his jaw.
I continued to walk forward confidently. He might have dyed his hair, but I wasn’t about to forget his chakra signature; even as a boy, he’d had a lot. Benefits of genetics, I suppose.
I gave a jaunty wave and tilted my head so the sun caught my own long red locks that flowed behind me. “I suppose I didn’t spend all that long with you back then. That was more Himeko’s hobby while we stayed,” I mused.
He stiffened at that, and his eyes darted around as glint appeared in his eyes. “Ah, I remember you now! Matsu… weren’t you a Chunin?” he asked.
I walked up, knowing precisely how this was about to play out.
He loomed over me, staring into my face, only to unclip his mask so I could see his smirk while I had to repress my annoyance at him.
Fucking hell, cultivating my chakra coils might have boosted me to crazy levels of chakra, but it had sure slowed me down when it came to growing physically.
If he goes up to his tiptoes, I swear I was going to—
His height increased slightly, and I felt something twitch inside me.
Momotaro loomed over me with a smirk. "Have you even grown at all since the last time, little Matsu?”
Instead of answering him verbally, I slipped an illusion into his coils of him suddenly falling through the earth while I grew and grew and grew. When I loomed over him as a giant to an ant I spoke.
Through the illusion, my words boomed out. “I have grown in more ways than you understand.”
I then ended the illusion, causing him to return to the real world and stagger as he registered the shift in position.
He stiffened and eyed me.
"You bas…” he bit off his curse as the other guards noticed his tension.
Behind me, Fumikage shifted into a slightly more aggressive stance. Ah, perhaps it was best to stop joking around, although my version of ‘play’ might have been a bit rough considering how white Momotaro was now.
I’d spent a little too long around Gengetsu and the Elite of Kiri it would seem.
“Is something the matter, Captain Momo?” called one of the samurai.
“No,” he bit back tersely. He inhaled and nodded at me tightly. “We’re just saying hello,” he clarified.
"Indeed." I nodded back at him. “I came to see Rei.”
Momo’s posture shifted, and a smile formed on his face. “Ah, yes, Lady Rei’s inside and free to talk. She’ll like that you’re here.”
Ah… Did Shoto have some competition for Rei’s affections? I hadn’t seen her in a few years, but with her time spent at various Okiya’s I didn’t doubt she could be charming when she wanted to be.
Momotaro waved a hand and the gates began to open.
“Very well! You may pass!” he declared grandly, and I held back on rolling my eyes.
We both knew that if I wanted to, I could have jumped the wall. Still, some norms had to be met to stay friendly.
As I walked past him, he leaned in. “Will you step into the training ring and show if you’ve grown physically, or do you only rely on shinobi tricks?”
I paused. “If you can’t handle those tricks, you should be fixing your weakness, not cursing my use of them.”
“...So it would seem. I hadn’t thought myself lacking like that. If you had the time… I would appreciate some pointers.”
That made me give Momotaro another look. Huh, it seems he really had grown up.
“It is always commendable to seek to improve yourself,” I replied, patting his arm lightly.
If he stood a bit straighter at my words and happened to no longer have an ache in his knees and ankle from what looked like microfractures, well… I was quite a good medic.
Walking into the manor, I was struck with nostalgia. The manor grounds had mostly stayed the same. There was perhaps a new coat of paint on the roof, and there was a wooden deck laid out around the manor with a much smaller, tighter garden.
I could hear the clanging of hammers, plural, not just the one.
Hmmm, so it was true; Shoto had mentioned that Hiroshi had taken on some apprentices.
Rather than enter through the front doors, I wove my way around the building to the back, where a larger garden with a small water feature now stood. Overlooking the garden was a maiden with a vibrant kimono and an eyepatch of chestnut red that complemented her brown, making it look a little red in the right light.
She timed it perfectly to look up at me with a welcoming smile.
Then she tensed and lunged.
“MATSU!” she shouted excitedly as she attempted to tackle me off my feet.
I braced and caught her easily, more than capable of handling a charging Rei in her tracks.
“Hello Rei, long time no see,” I commented idly.
“Hehehehe!” she giggled as she wrapped me in a tight hug. “Eiiii! You’re here! You’re finally here! It’s been years! Oh let me summ—” Before she could say anything more, I put a finger to her lips.
“Rei, this is my new friend Fumikage Hozuki. He’s in a bit of trouble.”
If you couldn’t sense chakra, you’d have missed it as the eyepatch covered the socket and the sections of her temple and upper cheek. It perfectly hid the bulging blood vessels that activation of the byakugan required.
“Hmmm, so I see,” she murmured. She held out her hands to him and smiled brightly at him. “I’m Rei; it’s lovely to meet you. I hope we can be friends.”
Fumikage stared, then he blushed.
My eyebrows shot up. “I thought I was the one who was raised in the okiya, not you." I pointed out.
Rei snorted. “Some of us just take to it better, but don’t you joke. I know you have a few girls watching you these days.”
“Hmmm, watching for me to trip up, I suspect."
“Right into their beds,” Rei muttered in a carrying whisper.
I nudged her. “Yeah, there are consequences to that,” I said, shutting that line of conversation down. I wasn’t about to subject my friends and allies to that level of danger.
I already had Hunter Nin seeking me out. It was bad enough Gengetsu was threatening what I’d built; then a lover would be too tempting a target.
“Hmmm, suit yourself,” she murmured, only to notice Fumikage still hadn’t taken her hands in his. She reached down and took them in hers instead. “There, that’s how we say hello around here!” she declared, causing Fumikage’s blush to go nuclear.
Shaking my head, I chuckled. “Where’s your workshop, Rei? I have some things for you to look over later.”
Her head snapped around, and a hunger appeared in her eyes. “I can take yo—”
“Later,” I emphasised, directing my gaze back to Fumikage.
Rei huffed and turned a smile back to Fumikage. “Of course, I should be a good host!” she declared as she waved me off towards a structure that looked somewhat like a large garden shed.
Eyeballing it, I whistled, catching sight of a plethora of what looked like seals over the walls. If those were anything like the security seals of my office in the hospital…
“I’ll wait till later,” I offered, following her to enjoy a cup of tea after a long trip. Just as she should play host, I should be a grateful guest.
Rei grinned as she led us into a lounge. She clapped her hands, and servants swept in with smiles, trays of food, and tea.
I whistled. That was an impressive trick. The staff would have to be well-trained and none of them appeared to be resentful of it.
“Get many gentleman callers?”
“A lady doesn’t kiss and tell,” teased Rei, only to wink. “We gossip!” she gleefully added.
Shaking my head, I leaned back into the lounge and allowed myself to be ‘charmed’ as she spoke of nothing of importance while teasing out small moments of our trip from Fumikage that slowly had him opening up to her.
Watching her work, I couldn’t help but think I needed a way to soften my approach to some situations.
Tuning out, I let the conversation wash over me as I replayed killing Fumikage’s wardens, along with that of the hunter nin teams…
I had gotten a bit too comfortable killing them… I had other options.
Fumikage was eventually directed to a suite of rooms to rest and cleanse himself, leaving Rei and me to ourselves.
Rei let the silence linger for a while. “Are you alright, Matsu?”
“Just lots on my mind.” My eyes tracked a cloud drifting lazily through the sky.
“Hmmm, whenever is there not?” she rejoined, causing me to smile.
“Heavy is the head,” I cut back, giving only part of the quote.
Most nobles didn’t really wear ‘crowns’ in the elemental nations, so the full quote wouldn’t work, but considering the size of the Kage’s hats it could be reworked.
Rei nodded, still watching me lazily. “Yeah, but this is more inner. What’s eating at you, Matsu? A burden shared is lightened after all.”
“Hmmmm, perhaps you are right,” I replied before turning my head and beginning to explain how I was feeling guilty over killing people trying to kill me. How I felt I needed better ways to handle this issue.
“Hmmmm,” Rei hummed for a long moment when I was done. She took a sip of her tea only to gag. “Urk! Yuck! It’s gone cold!”
Snorting, I lifted my own tea and blew on it, pushing just a touch of fire-aligned chakra into it and causing it to steam. “Mine’s perfect,” I murmured.
Rei stared. “Okay, that’s neat! You have to show me how to do that! I was thinking of making a seal to keep my tea warm, but Hiroshi gets pissy when he finds me drawing seals on the cutlery and furniture.”
“When he catches you, eh?” I chuckled, pointedly looking at several pieces in the room that had small sealing scripts on them, which made her grin.
“Yeah, when he catches me!” she gushed proudly. Then she pointed at me. “But! Back to the actual thing we were talking about! You're holding yourself to a crazy standard! Who are you trying to live up to?”
Naruto, the protagonist of the series, I thought to myself.
“Is it wrong to have high standards?”
“Nooooo,” she conceded, "but you also have to work with what you have. Which is Kiri." She opened a hand and made a face.
Which… yes, that explained enough.
“I think I’ve let myself lapse. I should have just terrified them into never wanting to fight me again. I could do it.”
“Hmmmm, depends on the message that needs to be sent. You killed the hunter nin but so what? From what Shoto tells me, they’re mostly crazy bastards and bitches anyway!”
My eyebrows shot up again. “Where has the elegant lady who just spent an hour charming Fumikage gone? Do I not warrant that behaviour?”
“Nope!” she replied gleefully. “You get the real Rei! Also! You don’t need charming. You love me already!” she teased with a bright smile.
Snorting, I didn’t deny it, which only made her smile wider.
“Matsu, you’re a shinobi, and you’re damn good at it. If you have to, kill them, if not, just do what you did to the genin that came for your test.”
“Hmmm trauma would make them think twice,” I murmured, only to chuckle. “Which is something Gengetsu has been using for people he can’t kill.”
“Gengetsu doesn’t always have terrible ideas,” Rei said with a shrug.
I stared at her, feeling a bit offended that she was defending Gengetsu.
Rei waved her hand back and forth. “You can’t always be against him, or else you’re going to find yourself driven by him into positions that you normally wouldn’t take. It’s something that people with the right mindset can use to corner their opponents or drive them to do things they otherwise wouldn’t.”
“Huh.”
She was right.
“I’d never thought about it like that,” I admitted. Gengetsu didn’t have many cards to play when he manipulated me. But that wasn’t the same as having none. He’d just become more subtle.
Had he tricked me into switching to killing instead of putting the fear of the reaper into my opponents with the recent use of the Chunin exams to turn me away from such methods?
“How’d you get so wise?” I asked, half jokingly.
Rei smiled. “Some nobles talk about it with me. As a woman, you can make men talk about all sorts of things in the right situation. And I sometimes have tea with Lady Mara and Lady Yumi. They offer fresh perspectives.” She pointed at me. “Distance from a situation can help as well.”
Oh, Shoto might not just have one or two competitors for her affections but a whole swarm of them. Damn, fight on and good luck, I thought to myself.
Turning the conversation from my issue, I asked, “They’re doing well?”
“Indeed, both are pregnant. Which, while you’re here, presents a perfect opportunity, as I've been talking to them about hiring you on since they told me last week.”
"Thanks," I replied.
Rei nodded back only to lean forward. “Now! Gimme what you brought me! I want to see what you’ve dredged up apart from the Hozuki clan’s jinchuriki.”
Letting her lead, I observed as she deactivated the seals around her workshop before slipping in. She reactivated them once we were inside.
“Right here!” she declared, patting an empty bench.
Instead of moving to do that, I inspect the rest of the room, noting how it was covered in notepads, scrolls, ink, and brushes. There were also multiple scorch marks around the place, with most being near a corner of the room that happened to have a large metal wall shaped around it.
“That’s your testing area?” I remarked, thinking it looked rather like a blast shield or an x-ray shield that one might find in a hospital’s x-ray room.
“Ahahah, yeah, I almost blew myself up one too many times, and Hiroshi and Momo got together and made me up a blast shield along with an activating script that allows me to be mostly safe.”
“Mostly,” I repeated, raising an eyebrow at her.
She waved a hand. “You can’t always be safe when experimenting with fuinjutsu!” she declared proudly, only to make a grasping gesture. “Now make with the goods!”
Tossing her Gamabasas items, she hummed with delight. “Ooooooooh, now this is interesting! He has a whole slew of ready-made seals here! Oh! Oh! This one has elements stored into it to work as attacks or defensive options!”
She began to bounce from foot to foot. “Eiiiii! This is so amazing! Look at the way the vortex is shifting into the summerfield with a flow back of night drama!”
I stared at her, and then the symbols that she pointed at.
“Those… are words?” I asked, confused at most of what she’d said after vortex, cause that was pretty self-evident.
“Oh! Don’t feel bad Matsu!” she muttered. “This is just something that comes naturally to me, according to Hiroshi! He thinks I might have some Uzumaki blood in me!”
“Guess I’m just unlucky with my half-blood," I said with a sigh. “And I doubt bloodlines had anything to do with your skill with fuinjutsu. It’s the way your mind works. You’re more creative than I am.”
“Eh, I hear you’re plenty creative, you’ve got new jutsu for days according to Shoto,” Rei replied absently as she pointed the scroll towards the shield and pulsed some chakra through it, causing a burst of lightning to lance out and zap the shield.
“Ehehehehe!” she giggled manically.
She thrust the scroll above her head and grinned. “I have the power!” she crowed.
I reached out and took the scroll from her before she could do anything else.
“Hey!”
I levelled a look at her. “I'm going to be telling Hiroshi about this,” I stated, causing her to wilt.
“Please don’t? I’ll be good?”
I rolled my eyes and tossed the scroll back to her. “The guy I had to kill to get this, he was also able to tighten up Fumikage’s seal by using what looked like a combination of ninjutsu and fuinjutsu. Any idea how he did that?”
“Hmmm did he have any tattoos on his fingers?” she asked, and after a moment's consideration, I recalled that yes, he had in fact.
“Got the body?” she asked eagerly.
“You know you would put off a lot of your gentleman callers if you acted like that around them,” I pointed out as I unsealed Gamabasa’s corpse from the scroll.
“Don’t do any destructive testing or anything too invasive,” I told her firmly as she picked up his wrist and inspected it.
Her eyes flickered to me, and she frowned. “You’re going to kill him… and then present him back to Kiri?”
“Yeah. I’ll tell them he died in combat,” I said easily.
“Hmmm, alright then,” she murmured as she turned back to his fingers. After a moment, she drew out a large magnifying glass to inspect the tattoos more closely. “Locked in symbols that must chain together…” she muttered as she began drawing the symbols out on a notepad.
I tried to observe her and even asked her what a few of them meant, only for her to become flustered and distracted.
“Sorry! I need to focus on this right now! Can I tutor you on this later?” she asked, and I nodded, backing away and letting her work.
Getting comfortable, I sat and watched Rei work for a while, then shifted into a meditative state, slowly cultivating my chakra through my coils and thinking about our previous discussion.
With what Rei had mentioned, I had some ideas I needed to work through. New ideas and solutions that had previously been restricted began to form in my mind. I wouldn’t have to slip into a bad habit of just killing those that annoyed me, but I’d still have the option if I needed it.
Which… yeah, I was going to need to start pushing that to my last resort, as I needed more shinobi for the upcoming war.
“Matsu,” Rei spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence that had lingered between us.
“Yes, Rei?" I responded, still cycling my chakra.
“Do you want me to extract the demon from Fumikage…and put it into you?” she asked, not looking up at me.
I allowed the question to linger. It was a fair point.
“I considered it,” I replied. “But it’s not a good idea for multiple reasons.”
“Such as?” Rei questioned, eyes still on her notepad.
“Fumikage doesn’t deserve it,” I stated, enjoying the way Rei’s lips twitched upwards, and she relaxed slightly.
I’d known that was the point she most wanted to hear, so I made sure to lead with it. “Also, having such a being within me would cause my chakra control to become terrible, and I’d need months to rework it. My chakra itself would also become slightly toxic to most people, making it impossible to be a medic. I’d be painting a huge target on my back that Gengetsu would be able to use to have me restrained the second I returned to Kiri. I think it’s the true reason he sent Fumikage out. He wants me to try for the power-up. It’s nothing more than a trap. If I grab for it he can turn all of Kiri against me as I’d be too much of a threat.”
“...huh,” mused Rei before nodding and offering me a smile. “I’m glad!”
“You still need to look over his seal, however… There are at least eight other demons like that out in the world, and I might need a seal or an expert to call when situations like this come up.”
“First of all, I don’t like how you said ‘at least eight other demons’ I thought there were only supposed to be nine bijuu?”
I smiled at her. “The world's a big place,” I responded glibly, and she grimaced.
“Well, these seals just became a lot more important,” she muttered. “Guess that means I’ll be coming back to Kiri eventually?”
“Like I’d lose you and Shoto to Vegetable for good? Please!” I scoffed. “I’ve got a wonderfully drab office with no windows that I’ll stick you in once I’m Mizukage. I’ll even put a plaque on the door announcing you as head of the fuinjutsu department!” I announced grandly.
“Wow,” she said with a flat tone. “You treat all the girls this nice?”
I waggled my eyebrows at her. “I’ll have you know I kept Sayuki up the entire night before I came here.”
Rei perked up, and before she could speak, I added. “With paperwork!”
He huffed and shot me an annoyed look. “The worst!” she muttered, turning away from me.
Tapping the notepad and the corpse, she nodded. “Give me a week or two to work through this, and then we can see about Fumikage’s seal,” she announced.
“Cool, I’ll leave him here and get some friends around here to help me clear out some foreign shinobi bases from the Land of Demon.” I deposited the other two scrolls with her. “These two might have also had other seals on them, I’m not sure,” I stated.
“Fun times for all. Who’s coming around?” Rei asked.
“I’ve asked for the old gang. They should show up in a couple of weeks,” I smirked at her. “Think Momotaro will enjoy seeing Himeko around again?”
“You cruel, cruel man,” she murmured.
I gestured towards the exit, indicating I’d like to leave, and she moved to deactivate the seal to let me out.
Before I could leave, she wrapped me in a hug. “It’s good to see you again, Matsu.”
“And you,” I replied, hugging her back. I curled one of her hairs around a finger. “Why chestnut? It’s close enough to red to be rather dangerous these days,” I murmured.
“Hmmm, it’ll be fine, Matsu,” she replied easily, causing me to sigh and shake my head.
When we broke apart, I moved to the room set aside for me and lay down for a rest. I still summoned forth a handful of clones to patrol the area and watch over me, but otherwise I lay back and allowed myself to relax properly and sleep.
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Sadly, I couldn't stay there for more than a few days before rushing off to the Land of Demons. I needed to be seen after all, and while I could cross the border quickly enough on my own, I still needed certain brokers to know I was casing Demon to limit the amount of scrutiny the Land of Vegetables would be under.
On the rare day I got to stay within the Land of Vegetables, Rei made sure to sit me down and attempt to tutor me in what felt like fuinjutsu for idiots.
Despite that, progress was… glacial.
Thankfully, my other task had some results or else I’d have been extremely annoyed.
Over two weeks of scouting the Land of Demon resulted in multiple destroyed caches, bases, and even one informant. I covered a decent chunk of the lands near the eastern border only to return to Vegetable once a week.
It was towards the end of the second week that something interesting happened.
I encountered a team of Konoha ANBU.
They’d been slow-moving and careful in their actions, but I’d made sure to keep my mind's eye of the kagura jutsu spread as wide as possible.
Knowing where they were going, I’d tracked them over the course of a few days until they looked like they were about to leave the area.
Deciding to intercept them, I chose a more extreme method than I usually favoured, but previous encounters had shown that it was necessary to catch Konoha off guard.
I created an army of shadow clones and sent them in a wide arcing run while I’d sat and meditated to get back as much chakra as I could before the battle began.
From almost a kilometre away, I observed the fight as hundreds of me swarmed the team of ANBU.
They put up a good fight, with wide, destructive ninjutsu and even a well-controlled blade user carving through my clones.
My clones however, came in waves and during a small lull I crept close enough to get within visual range.
From there, I began slipping small illusions into the fight, making them think they’d encountered the real me, or making them miss strikes that should have landed while letting my clones grapple with them and restrain them.
Within a minute of the fight starting, I had the team locked down and disarmed.
Peeling back the ANBU masks, I found that none of them had any clan markings or special eyes that might mark them down as clan shinobi. Which didn’t make them useless to me, however.
One of my clones approached them. “I’m going to separate you all now. I have questions; your failure to answer will result in your teammates being pun—” was as far as I got with my threat before they all began to twitch and froth.
Shit! Suicide capsules!
I accelerated into a shunshin from my position, knowing I’d need a precise weaving of yin and yang chakra to expel the poisons coursing through them.
My gaze swept over them, and I lunged for the eldest-looking ANBU to heal him of the poisons, consigning the others to the reaper.
He saw me coming and, rather than fear me, he began to laugh.
The reason for his mood revealed itself as his chakra network sluggishly flared into a controlled shape despite my clones and eye interfering with his chakra control.
Realising what he was about to do I flexed my own and threw myself into a replacement jutsu, only for a huge explosion to ring out and blood to splash out.
I felt a double impact from the explosion. First from the shockwave, and a moment later as the memories of almost fifty clones being blown up slammed into me.
I knelt and grimaced. “Clever bastards!” I cursed, kneading my head.
That… that had been rather well thought out. I allowed my body to heal and my mind to recover before standing and inspecting the blood splatters for anything they might reveal.
Hmmm, note to self: just let them die next time.
Their corpses might have revealed something.
That, and it wouldn’t put me at risk.
Sighing, I rubbed a hand through my hair.
That… that was probably enough hunting down foreign nin for the moment. I collected their headbands and what remained of their masks to add to my growing stack that I’d present to Gengetsu when I was done and decided it was time to head back to Vegetable for some much-needed rest and relaxation.
When I arrived, I found Fumikage and Momotaro sparring in the back training area while Rei watched on. She was sniffing at a bundle of flowers that were yellow and white. They looked familiar…
Oh.
With this information, the spar taking place before me took on a new context.
Momotaro surprised me by being firmly in control of the match.
Fumikage, I could see, was getting more and more agitated but underneath, there was also the current of his chakra spiking and growing more and more chaotic.
More demonic.
“Momo!” I called, causing the older man to twitch in surprise and Fumikage’s next blow to land. I walked up with a faint smile. “I see you haven’t fixed that issue,” I mused cheekily.
Momo shot me a glare. “I’m not done in from one blow,” he growled.
“Ah, but I need Fumikage, so we’re going to have to end things there,” I suggested, watching Fumikage rather than Momo.
Momo scowled at what must have looked like disrespect to him. I slipped a genjutsu into his ears. “He’s getting angry, and if he loses control, you aren’t ready to deal with him when that happens. I might have trouble dealing with him, trust me on this.”
Momo blinked at my voice coming to him despite my lips not moving. His gaze flickered back to Fumikage, and he conceded the match with a nod.
Remaining jovial, I clapped my hands. “Momo needs to conserve his strength if he hopes to handle Himeko when she comes around.”
That had Momo shivering only to shake his head and clench his fists as a determined glint entered his eyes. I resisted the urge to shake my head at him. If he hoped he’d outgrown Himeko’s ass-kickings, he had another thing coming.
“I’m beat! Who wants to eat?” I called, having defused the situation.
Later, once the others had returned to their rooms, I sat with Rei. She handed me a sheet detailing her observations. “He’s getting more agitated. It’s mostly small things, but I do think the seal is deteriorating.”
“How much of it have you been able to examine?” I asked curiously.
“Quite a bit, actually. I’ve been able to expand it and browse how it works once or twice.
She raised a hand and waved her fingers lightly at me. On the tips, I could see small tattoos finely inked onto her skin.
“You did that while I was in the field? Didn’t that hurt?” I asked, taking her hand in mine and examining it carefully.
“The chameleon clan has some good tattooists, trust me on that,” she commented idly.
“Well, it’s a good thing we have an option for restraining him if things go poorly.”
“Not going to whip out some Matsu secret ability to save the day?” she asked.
“Hmph, I’m afraid I’m the basic Uzumaki, with only a larger-than-average chakra pool, while others have the replenishment bite, the chakra chains and fuinjutsu fuckery,” I said.
“Only larger than average? Hmph, I’d hate to see what you consider large then,” she commented idly. Growing more serious, she sat up and locked her eye with mine. “When are we going to tighten the seal?” she asked.
“Perhaps it’s best to do so before Himeko and the others get here,” I mused. “She will want to fight him if she knows what he is and that might go poorly.”
Nodding, Rei tapped her fingers on her knee in thought. “I’ll do what I can to have everything ready. Perhaps it’s best we perform this operation outside the city walls, however?”
“A good idea,” I replied. “Do you have somewhere in mind?”
“I have another testing site for explosive seals specifically,” she replied easily.
I stared at her. “...how big is your testing facility?” I asked, worried at just what she might have been testing.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s only a few hectares, nothing serious,” she demurred.
I pursed my lips and sighed. Yeah… that tracked.
Fumikage was easy enough to convince. He’d been ashamed to admit to hearing the voice of the Bijuu initially, but then quickly became relieved when we explained our plan to repair his seal and make it easier for him each day.
As it was, I thought he was far too naive to simply accept us at our word, but eventually I had to shake my head and conclude that he was in such a bad situation that any hand offered to him he’d take.
Thankfully, we didn’t have anything like that planned.
Instead, we allowed Rei to do her prep work, both in her small workshop and out at the testing site.
For the four days her work took, I busied myself by helping Momo get a feel for how lacking he was in genjutsu defences, I trained my own jutsu, I visited Mara and Yumi, who both received me happily; I checked in with the local informants for rumours and concerns, and finally, I spoke with Hiroshi.
Who, in his twilight years, looked like he hadn’t aged all that much but had made up for it with a grouchy attitude.
“Fuck do you want lad?” he grunted when I leant against the door to the forge.
“Well, I came to say hello but thought I'd better not distract you,” I remarked.
“I’m not some apprentice that can’t keep track of more than one thing at a time lad!” he scoffed.
He thrust the blade he was hammering into the water, quenching it with a huge cloud of steam, only to turn and take me in.
“Shit, you really do look like him,” he muttered. “You’re a late bloomer with your growth, just like he was, and you’ve got the same cut of his jaw.”
“Arashi right?” I asked after recalling that when we’d first met he had compared me to a Lord of Uzushio.
“Indeed. You’re his spitting image. It also makes a little too much sense that you’d be his with his… hobbies,” he grunted.
“I know my mother was a geisha, Hiroshi,” I muttered, rolling my eyes at him.
He snorted and considered me. “Still using the piece of trash pipe as a weapon?” he asked.
Tapping a seal I’d had woven into the side of my pants, a strong wooden pole appeared. “I’ve upgraded a little, but I don’t get to use it much. If I’m in close range, I typically have better options.”
“Feh! A true man wields a sword!” he grunted only to reach for a nearby pole of black metal. He tossed it at me lazily, and I caught it only to find myself needing to brace further as I registered just how heavy it was.
“Well, this is deadly,” I hummed, inspecting the edge to find that it wasn't rounded so much as octagonal. Multiple surfaces had fuinjutsu seals along them that I couldn’t make much of.
“That’s yours,” he grunted. “Rei did some work with me to learn how to embed seals into metal, and that was one of the items we made. Told me to hold it for you, so there it is. Don’t get cocky, brat!” he spat, only to grab up his hammer and set to work again, dismissing me with a jerk of his chin to the door.
Huh, still a tsundere then.
I set to work practising with the far heavier metal pole, amused at what Hiroshi and Rei had made up for me.
By the end of the fourth day, Rei returned to the manor looking tired but upbeat. "Tomorrow," she announced firmly.
To make things less suspicious, we set off in the middle of the day. She was in a palanquin supported by my clones, with a small group of clones henged as samurai while Fumikage and I ran directly to the site.
I led Fumikage through the barn that served as Rei’s secondary testing site.
Outside, there were numerous gouges, bits of shrapnel and even a section of earth that was simply gone. Inside was the same array of seals that made certain areas more reinforced while restricting access to certain parts.
Fumikage shifted, taking it all in. “You’re sure she’ll be able to help?” he asked.
“I’m confident in her skill,” I replied. “She’s something of a savant with seals, which is lucky for us as she’s been able to build on what we have on hand.”
“That’s good,” he murmured, rubbing his hands over his arms only to twitch.
“Getting worse?” I asked.
“I think it knows it’s going to be restrained soon and is angry about that,” Fumikage murmured with a faint smile. “I’m looking forward to the quiet again.”
“Good,” I replied for lack of anything else to say.
Rei appeared ten minutes later, the clone escorting her as she ran across the land, a strike of colour with a huge grin on her face.
I snorted, recalling one of the pieces of information that was being bandied about.
The rainbow of the river had been a common enough sighting of late, with fishermen proclaiming that they’d seen something race past them upon the waters around the capital.
Watching Rei run, with her colourful kimono, I had no doubt that they’d caught a glimpse of her sprinting up and down the river.
When she skidded to a halt, she did so with a huge grin.
I waved a hand and sent the dust cloud that followed after her away, earning a small pout.
“You know you’ve sparked rumours with your jogs,” I pointed out.
“Eh, no one serious has seen me!” she remarked, winking at me. An act that… really didn’t work so well with only one eye visible.
Waving her on, she dropped her security measures and led us to a sofa bed. “I crash out here sometimes when I stay too late to just run back into the city!” she declared shamelessly. “Fumi!” she called, and I smirked at the nickname she’d given Fumikage and how he smiled happily at it.
She rolled out a giant scroll on one side of the sofa and nodded. “I need you to hop up here and relax as much as possible!” she asked, patting the sofa and scroll. “I’ll be working on your seal and trying to tighten things up for you.”
“Alright!” Fumikage replied happily. When he lay on the bed, he turned, and I spotted his nostrils twitching.
Shaking my head, I watched Rei work, sitting back as she drew a circle around the seal, only to write her own line of script. Then she set her fingers tightly into the centre only to flick them out wide, causing ink to run outwards onto the scroll she’d laid out earlier.
She then began to look through the script, muttering to herself in vague abstractions that must have made sense to her, but sounded like random words thrown together to me.
With only the smallest of contexts, I could only lean back and listen.
Fumikage twitched once. A trickle of demonic chakra coming out of him.
Then again. Another trickle.
Then he clenched, and Rei stiffened. “Fumi, I need you to stay—”
A growl erupted from him, and demonic chara surged through the air as the three tails decided to make itself known.
“Oh shit! Shit shit!” muttered Rei as she shifted back and forth. “What should I do? I need to… that won’t work. But I could…” she trailed off worriedly, and I realised then and there that she was in over her head.
Fuck.
This was not going to be good… I needed to… without stopping to think why, I stepped up and past Rei.
I then drew up my chakra and pushed it right into Fumikage’s shoulder, right where the seal was.
I didn’t try to form a jutsu. I didn’t try to repress the demon.
Instead, I attempted something else.
I tried to speak with my soul.
Ninshu, as it was known.
For a moment, nothing happened, and then the world shifted around me, and I suddenly found myself within a world of bloody coral and jagged spears shoved haphazardly around a giant of a beast.
A yellow eye glared out from behind a spear as chitinous plates ground against one another.
Each spear I noticed had symbols upon it. Symbols that I recognised from outside upon the scroll.
Ah… This wasn’t so much a jail as it was a tower of sticks just waiting to come crumbling down. They interlocked, but the more they were tugged on, the weaker the entire structure became.
Something that the demon was well aware of.
Before the demon kneeling and staring in horror, Fumikage cowered.
“No, no, no, you were supposed to go away!” he wailed.
“YOU WILL NOT RESTRAIN ME ANYMORE, HUMAN! I WILL MURDER YOU AND ALL THAT YOU CARE FOR!” raged the beast.
I walked forward, repressing the urge to shudder at the feel of the demonic chakra radiating outwards.
Fumikage shouted something else, but it was lost in the bellows of the demon.
“—NEVER CARED FOR YOU! YOU ARE BUT A PAWN TO THEM!” called the demon.
I grit my teeth in annoyance, knowing that I needed both of them to calm down so Rei had a chance to fix this.
I needed… I needed…
Shit. I had no idea what I was doing.
Time to wing it.
So, for lack of a better idea, I pulsed my chakra for all I was worth and decided to get its attention.
“ISOBU!” I roared.
Instantly, the demon stilled, its one visible eye turning upon me.
Oh… good, that worked.
But also… oh shit… that worked.
Swallowing, I prepared myself for anything, knowing that I was in uncharted waters right now and that I would need to be very careful not to run aground.
A metaphor that seemed all too appropriate when a murderous demon turtle capable of summoning coral to kill you, was glaring at me.
Oh well, who dares wins, right?
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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!
Sorry, not sorry, for the cliffhanger! Know that you’re getting another chapter this month with more fun to come!
It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!