The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
It's full of sauropods.
Bone and Blood (Naruto Quest)
- Thread starter No Country
- Start date
I forgot about Itachi.
Not as weird to other timeline stuff but still weird.
It's got great hospitality.
That can still be an island, just really close to the mainland. I also can't remember if that was the whole country or just the one dumpy little village that passed as its major settlement. Either way it's a lot of shallow, brackish, treacherous water and mangroves that keep foot traffic from the mainland from reaching it.
Done listening to my lazy justifications? Good, because I'm going to be a hypocrite and
Now onto the real content.
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- Location
- USA
Huh, because that's one of the things that makes sense to me. Itachi is a good bit older than Naruto and Sasuke's generation after all
Shame (Iwa Sidestory 1)
Hikyotsuchi's Alehouse was the one place in Iwagakure where a ninja could go if he didn't want to be bothered. And right now, the last thing Shigen wanted was to be bothered. The only one who could drag him away from the old pitted bartop was the Shinigami himself, even the Tsuchikage would need to at least settle up his tab.
Big old Hikyotsuchi herself was tending bar tonight, a toddler precariously balanced on one of her flabby hips. The scarred mountain of a retired kunoichi had been running this place since at least the end of the First War, when she only had two brats running around. There weren't any brats running around tonight, all of her own children were either adults or in the grave, all but two of them older than Shigen regardless. The rest of her grandchildren who weren't already in the Academy or serving in the field were no doubt sleeping in the manor house that had been built up in the decades since the bar had stood here, on the property behind it. This place was also quiet because of its proprietor. The old woman's husband died in the last war, Shigen remembered coming in to celebrate a mission, unaware of that fact. His next memory was over a week later, one of many who had been caught up in the celebration of both the life of a great shinobi and the war's end.
Lord Ohnoki had been mad at him then, but then he had been mad at most of the ninja celebrating in the streets. Sure, Iwa was ascendant, even in the wake of the Second Tsuchikage's death and what the Five Tails did in the Land of Hills*, they were still considered the victors of the Second War. Kiri had launched into one of its characteristic civil conflicts before the war was properly over, the situation in Kumo rapidly devolved without the outside pressure of the war keeping it unified, and Suna came out of the war worst of all. But the Third Tsuchikage was shrewd, shrewder than his master, the Second, and, having stood the test of time, shrewder than even the First. Konoha may have been quiet in the aftermath of the previous war, but Ohnoki was right about remaining vigilant against them; the interbellum had allowed Fire Country's hidden village to become truly monstrous. Shigen knew that all too well.
Where fifteen years ago, Ohnoki had been mad at his revelrous comrades, now, the weight of his ire was directed at Shigen alone.
Staring into the half-drank spirit held in his hand, the famous Iwa-nin wished that he had let Sakumo Hatake cut his throat. The Fission Technique was useful, the Second Tsuchikage had made great use of it, but the user paid a great price when it was used, and to have either of yourselves killed after it was used was devastating. Crippling. Shigen downed the rest of his booze, grimacing before the burn even hit the back of his throat. He was a cripple now. Him, the Captain of the Explosion Corps, someone who's name was spoken of in the same breath as Konoha's Sannin or Kiri's Seven Swordsmen or Kumo's Chromatic Master Tsuyoi, couldn't even use his famous kekkei genkai anymore. Not in the way that made him famous anymore.
Shigen had dumped a pile of coins in front of him when had sat down, the unspoken signal from a shinobi that they wanted to be left alone aside from refills. He knew the look Hikyotsuchi gave him as she poured him another one though, he had seen it before, but never directed at him. Veiled judgment over just how much alcohol the sad sop in front of her had decided was enough to drown their sorrows. The Explosion Corps' captain could drink Earth Country dry and still not forget his shame.
"Sir—"
Someone was talking, definitely not to him.
"Captain Shigen, sir—"
Ah, that was his name, he could no longer ignore them. Anywhere else he would have responded, but this was the Alehouse, where nobody was allowed to interrupt a night of drinking. He looked up at Hikyotsuchi, but the hill of a woman took one look at the intruder before looking back at Shigen and shaking her head.
Damn, he had hoped to at least be allowed to pass out with his head on the bar tonight, but, knowing the man was there on the Tsuchikage's orders, he turned around anyway. The man was a tan-clad special jounin, with long spiky hair in a ponytail and a dull red standard forehead protector. Donkossu, Ohonki's personal attaché with the Explosion Corps. Sure, he could use the kekkei genkai, but he wasn't anything special with it, and Shigen was fine with his unit not having a monopoly on Explosion Release if it meant keeping the novices and weaklings out. But he was stuck with the Tsuchikage's man nonetheless. And with the war on, he couldn't afford to be picky anyway.
Before answering with his words, the captain of the Explosion Corps jerked his head in the barkeep's direction. Donkossu produced a sack of coins from one of his flak jacket's pockets, tossing it to Hikyotsuchi, who deftly caught it with one hand. She weighed the pouch before undoing it, taking out whatever Shigen owed her, and passing the rest back to the special jounin across the bar from her.
"You don't have to," Donkossu, clearly nervous to be caught between the Tsuchikage, the famous innkeeper, and the Explosion Corps' captain, "Lord Third gave me that to settle Captain Shigen's tab—"
Hikyotsuchi held up a hand to silence the younger ninja, "send the rest back to Lord Ohnoki, along with my regards."
"Y-yes," the special jounin nodded, "of course."
Zero words passed between the Captain and rookie of the Explosion Corps on the way to the Tsuchikage's office, and the latter left him at the door to the village head's office, depositing the coinpurse he had been given with his Kage's secretary.
The Tsuchikage's office was dim, the clouds hanging in the sky keeping the moonlight from streaming in from the single, long, low window set high on the wall behind the dais on which the diminutive Kage sat. The only light came from the four braziers suspended from the ceiling along the wide chamber's curved walls. The desk which the Tsuchikage typically sat behind had been dropped into the floor, giving those who knelt on the floor of the room's lower section an unobstructed view of the man, who sat on a pillow with his arms crossed.
Ohnoki wasn't what one would think of if they heard the word "Kage", despite him holding the office for over two decades. At just over a hundred and thirty centimeters tall, the Third Tsuchikage was one of the smallest ninja in the village, including genin, and his thick eyebrows, bulbous nose, and shaved pate wouldn't have helped his image, were it not for the intensity in his eyes or the way in which he carried himself. For while the Third Tsuchikage may have been small, he was also the most stubborn, proudest, and most determined shinobi in Iwagakure. All of which he could back up, for it was said, even by those oldest sages and former councilors of the village who had known the First Tsuchikage at the height of his power, that Ohnoki was the strongest man to hold the title of Tsuchikage. And he was certainly the strongest in the village. The small man's bushy eyebrows, his long, perfectly trimmed, mustache and beard and his proper topknot were all dull brown, only just streaked with gray, given his age. His round black eyes surveyed the room in front of him with a gaze that at first appeared impassive, but which would pierce any he focused on.
Naturally, his attention was focused entirely on Shigen when the captain of the Explosion Corps knelt to his right.
To Shigen's right knelt perhaps the only person in the world he wanted to see less than the Tsuchikage. Clad in a loose, garishly pink shirt and pants, a brown set of armor, and a half-helmet half-forehead protector, and with messy red hair and the beginnings of a mustache, Roshi, the Four Tails' Jinchuuriki, looked like he was trying to draw eyes towards him, even while in the Tsuchikage's presence. The Kage and the Jinchuuriki had a relationship going back a long time, possibly even longer than Shigen had been alive. Not that Shigen or anybody else knew the particulars of that relationship, just that the Jinchuuriki seemed to be something of an on-again off-again advisor to the Kage.
"Shigen," the Third Tsuchikage's voice was gravelly, displeasure evident. "You arrived in the village earlier today, yet I had to order you to my tower. Why?"
"Lord Third, I submitted my mission report and was debriefed. I was never ordered here," Shigen tried not to sound clipped, tried to be respectful.
"Yet you were not dismissed for R&R," the Tsuchikage raised his voice, and Shigen couldn't help but scowl. "Did you know that the White Fang is dead?"
"Yes, Lord Third," Shigen had heard while on his way back to Iwa from Kaen, while stopped at a field hospital to receive treatment for chakra exhaustion. He had pushed himself past his greatly-diminished reserves, something he was still kicking himself over.
The Third Tsuchikage scoffed, "it was suicide, you know," Shigen knew. "But Hiruzen didn't order him to do it, he wouldn't do that," he scoffed again. "Maybe I should order you to open your stomach, Shigen. Would you do it, hmm?"
He would, "Yes, Lord Third, I know the magnitude of my failure." Kaen still fell, Iwa held it, even now, uncontested. But that was Gari's victory now, Shigen was the one who let Konoha's entire occupation force slip through his fingers. All ten of them.
"But you can still use Explosion Style," the Third moved on, tone painfully casual, "so you still hold some value to the village."
"Thank you, Lord Third," Shigen didn't grit his teeth, despite the effort it took him not to.
"In fact, I'm sending you back to the Explosion Corps," Ohnoki put his hands on his knees and leaned forward, "you'll be joining them in the Land of Meadows once you've recovered, by the end of the month."
Shigen didn't look up, but that made him hopeful. Of course he couldn't regain his previous chakra reserves, but perhaps he could use Pernicious Spider to summon a third or even fourth arm, and he could still command—
"Naturally," the Kage's voice shook him from his thoughts, "you can no longer serve as the Explosion Corps' Captain. For the foreseeable future, Han will serve as the Corps' commander, until your former adjutant is capable of serving in that capacity."
"The Five Tails' Jinchuuriki?" Shigen's head snapped up, and he met Ohnoki's eyes, which he found equally unimpressed and annoyed at his insolence. "He isn't a user of Explosion Style, he doesn't know the Corps!"
"But he knows how to conduct an operation!" The Tsuchikage snarled back, quieting the diminished shinobi opposite him. "Han has yet to let an enemy slip through his fingers and he hasn't had to come running back to the village with his tail between his legs to sulk," the Tsuchikage turned his attention to Roshi, "go on, tell him."
Roshi bowed deeper to his Kage, and began recounting what Ohnoki wanted him to without looking up, "Han pursued the One Tail back over the border into the Land of Wind. Neither it or its jinchuuriki have been reported since, and it's been months. We believe he died, Han was the one to confirm that." The Jinchuuriki glanced back up at the Kage before continuing, "Afterwards he stamped out the resistance in the Land of Caves before taking command in the Land of Mountains after the rebels assassinated Utsutsuchi."
"Every one of the high-value enemies he faced is confirmed killed or captured, Suna's jinchuuriki aside," the Tsuchikage said, sneering down at Shigen. "And taking a jinchuuriki, even Suna's, out of the war for months is more than enough to take over a command from a shinobi who was unable to take a single head from a retreating enemy."
"Morino, the Hawk-Eyes, he was killed—"
"Yes, yes, the Hawk-Eyes, Sakumo Hatake's perennial hanger-on. If I recall correctly, it was Gari who killed him while the White Fang opened your throat," the Tsuchikage's tone was mocking, but he was correct.
Shigen swallowed, he couldn't feel his fission clone's death, but the feeling of emptiness in his chest from both his missing chakra and the burning humiliation ate at him. "Lord Third I implore you, you cannot give overall command in the Land of Meadows to a jinchuuriki!"
He heard the tiles underneath Roshi's fist begin to crack, though the Four Tails' host didn't move.
"No, my son is taking overall command in Meadows, he'll serve better there than in the Land of Wind," the Tsuchikage said casually, before flexing his chakra. Instantly, the room became several degrees warmer, and the flames of the braziers began to lick at the ceiling above. "And who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do, Shigen," the Explosion Corps Captain's name was a slur on Ohnoki's lips. "Do you think I wanted to pull Hanzo the Salamander into the war, hmm? Perhaps I should send you into Amegakure to assassinate him, is that something I can do?"
The Tsuchikage leaned forward, face swallowed by shadow as he did, Shigen stared at the floor, there was nothing he could say. "I- I would do as ordered, Lord Third," he finally said, still buffeted by the Tsuchikage's aura, though the pressure from the jinchuuriki's had subsided. "But I would not be able to accomplish that task, I fear."
The Tsuchikage scoffed again, leaning back, "You couldn't have done it before. Now get out of my sight, you'll have your assignment soon enough. If you are lucky, it won't be against Takigakure."
Shigen expressed his thanks and left, silently cursing the Tsuchikage, and that Five Tails bastard, and the Four Tails bastard, and most of all, Sakumo Hatake. The only silver lining he could find was wondering how poorly Suna's Toxic Conductor, old Chiyo, was taking the news that the White Fang had died by his own hand, the monster who had humbled Suna's greatest puppeteers humbled by nobody but himself.
Thinking could be saved for later, for now, Shigen was heading back to Hikyotsuchi's Alehouse, but not after refilling his pockets with coins. He could fulfill one of his desires tonight, even if it was the desire to pass out onto the bar.
A/N: Yeah, Ohnoki is kind of a dick. As much as the manga/anime want you to forget that, all of the Five Kage across history have been kind of shitty people, or at least had the capability for immense impersonal coldness (looking at you, Hiruzen).
A/N2: Tsubaki hasn't had a ton of interaction with Iwa (besides the latest chapter and that one incident way at the beginning of the quest) so this one was a spinoff from the White Fang sidestory. Not sure when I'll have the chance to write Iwa again, so when I had this idea I took the opportunity. This might be weird, but they are my favorite Great Village. Tsubaki has had even less interactions with Suna, but they might be next, or we could revisit Konoha from a very special POV. Or maybe I could finally crack into the backlog I owe…
T/N: Hikyotsuchi doesn't strictly follow the '[color] earth' naming scheme of Iwa, it just means 'fertile earth', cause she has a bunch of kids. Utsutsuchi means 'unclear earth'.
Big old Hikyotsuchi herself was tending bar tonight, a toddler precariously balanced on one of her flabby hips. The scarred mountain of a retired kunoichi had been running this place since at least the end of the First War, when she only had two brats running around. There weren't any brats running around tonight, all of her own children were either adults or in the grave, all but two of them older than Shigen regardless. The rest of her grandchildren who weren't already in the Academy or serving in the field were no doubt sleeping in the manor house that had been built up in the decades since the bar had stood here, on the property behind it. This place was also quiet because of its proprietor. The old woman's husband died in the last war, Shigen remembered coming in to celebrate a mission, unaware of that fact. His next memory was over a week later, one of many who had been caught up in the celebration of both the life of a great shinobi and the war's end.
Lord Ohnoki had been mad at him then, but then he had been mad at most of the ninja celebrating in the streets. Sure, Iwa was ascendant, even in the wake of the Second Tsuchikage's death and what the Five Tails did in the Land of Hills*, they were still considered the victors of the Second War. Kiri had launched into one of its characteristic civil conflicts before the war was properly over, the situation in Kumo rapidly devolved without the outside pressure of the war keeping it unified, and Suna came out of the war worst of all. But the Third Tsuchikage was shrewd, shrewder than his master, the Second, and, having stood the test of time, shrewder than even the First. Konoha may have been quiet in the aftermath of the previous war, but Ohnoki was right about remaining vigilant against them; the interbellum had allowed Fire Country's hidden village to become truly monstrous. Shigen knew that all too well.
Where fifteen years ago, Ohnoki had been mad at his revelrous comrades, now, the weight of his ire was directed at Shigen alone.
Staring into the half-drank spirit held in his hand, the famous Iwa-nin wished that he had let Sakumo Hatake cut his throat. The Fission Technique was useful, the Second Tsuchikage had made great use of it, but the user paid a great price when it was used, and to have either of yourselves killed after it was used was devastating. Crippling. Shigen downed the rest of his booze, grimacing before the burn even hit the back of his throat. He was a cripple now. Him, the Captain of the Explosion Corps, someone who's name was spoken of in the same breath as Konoha's Sannin or Kiri's Seven Swordsmen or Kumo's Chromatic Master Tsuyoi, couldn't even use his famous kekkei genkai anymore. Not in the way that made him famous anymore.
Shigen had dumped a pile of coins in front of him when had sat down, the unspoken signal from a shinobi that they wanted to be left alone aside from refills. He knew the look Hikyotsuchi gave him as she poured him another one though, he had seen it before, but never directed at him. Veiled judgment over just how much alcohol the sad sop in front of her had decided was enough to drown their sorrows. The Explosion Corps' captain could drink Earth Country dry and still not forget his shame.
"Sir—"
Someone was talking, definitely not to him.
"Captain Shigen, sir—"
Ah, that was his name, he could no longer ignore them. Anywhere else he would have responded, but this was the Alehouse, where nobody was allowed to interrupt a night of drinking. He looked up at Hikyotsuchi, but the hill of a woman took one look at the intruder before looking back at Shigen and shaking her head.
Damn, he had hoped to at least be allowed to pass out with his head on the bar tonight, but, knowing the man was there on the Tsuchikage's orders, he turned around anyway. The man was a tan-clad special jounin, with long spiky hair in a ponytail and a dull red standard forehead protector. Donkossu, Ohonki's personal attaché with the Explosion Corps. Sure, he could use the kekkei genkai, but he wasn't anything special with it, and Shigen was fine with his unit not having a monopoly on Explosion Release if it meant keeping the novices and weaklings out. But he was stuck with the Tsuchikage's man nonetheless. And with the war on, he couldn't afford to be picky anyway.
Before answering with his words, the captain of the Explosion Corps jerked his head in the barkeep's direction. Donkossu produced a sack of coins from one of his flak jacket's pockets, tossing it to Hikyotsuchi, who deftly caught it with one hand. She weighed the pouch before undoing it, taking out whatever Shigen owed her, and passing the rest back to the special jounin across the bar from her.
"You don't have to," Donkossu, clearly nervous to be caught between the Tsuchikage, the famous innkeeper, and the Explosion Corps' captain, "Lord Third gave me that to settle Captain Shigen's tab—"
Hikyotsuchi held up a hand to silence the younger ninja, "send the rest back to Lord Ohnoki, along with my regards."
"Y-yes," the special jounin nodded, "of course."
Zero words passed between the Captain and rookie of the Explosion Corps on the way to the Tsuchikage's office, and the latter left him at the door to the village head's office, depositing the coinpurse he had been given with his Kage's secretary.
The Tsuchikage's office was dim, the clouds hanging in the sky keeping the moonlight from streaming in from the single, long, low window set high on the wall behind the dais on which the diminutive Kage sat. The only light came from the four braziers suspended from the ceiling along the wide chamber's curved walls. The desk which the Tsuchikage typically sat behind had been dropped into the floor, giving those who knelt on the floor of the room's lower section an unobstructed view of the man, who sat on a pillow with his arms crossed.
Ohnoki wasn't what one would think of if they heard the word "Kage", despite him holding the office for over two decades. At just over a hundred and thirty centimeters tall, the Third Tsuchikage was one of the smallest ninja in the village, including genin, and his thick eyebrows, bulbous nose, and shaved pate wouldn't have helped his image, were it not for the intensity in his eyes or the way in which he carried himself. For while the Third Tsuchikage may have been small, he was also the most stubborn, proudest, and most determined shinobi in Iwagakure. All of which he could back up, for it was said, even by those oldest sages and former councilors of the village who had known the First Tsuchikage at the height of his power, that Ohnoki was the strongest man to hold the title of Tsuchikage. And he was certainly the strongest in the village. The small man's bushy eyebrows, his long, perfectly trimmed, mustache and beard and his proper topknot were all dull brown, only just streaked with gray, given his age. His round black eyes surveyed the room in front of him with a gaze that at first appeared impassive, but which would pierce any he focused on.
Naturally, his attention was focused entirely on Shigen when the captain of the Explosion Corps knelt to his right.
To Shigen's right knelt perhaps the only person in the world he wanted to see less than the Tsuchikage. Clad in a loose, garishly pink shirt and pants, a brown set of armor, and a half-helmet half-forehead protector, and with messy red hair and the beginnings of a mustache, Roshi, the Four Tails' Jinchuuriki, looked like he was trying to draw eyes towards him, even while in the Tsuchikage's presence. The Kage and the Jinchuuriki had a relationship going back a long time, possibly even longer than Shigen had been alive. Not that Shigen or anybody else knew the particulars of that relationship, just that the Jinchuuriki seemed to be something of an on-again off-again advisor to the Kage.
"Shigen," the Third Tsuchikage's voice was gravelly, displeasure evident. "You arrived in the village earlier today, yet I had to order you to my tower. Why?"
"Lord Third, I submitted my mission report and was debriefed. I was never ordered here," Shigen tried not to sound clipped, tried to be respectful.
"Yet you were not dismissed for R&R," the Tsuchikage raised his voice, and Shigen couldn't help but scowl. "Did you know that the White Fang is dead?"
"Yes, Lord Third," Shigen had heard while on his way back to Iwa from Kaen, while stopped at a field hospital to receive treatment for chakra exhaustion. He had pushed himself past his greatly-diminished reserves, something he was still kicking himself over.
The Third Tsuchikage scoffed, "it was suicide, you know," Shigen knew. "But Hiruzen didn't order him to do it, he wouldn't do that," he scoffed again. "Maybe I should order you to open your stomach, Shigen. Would you do it, hmm?"
He would, "Yes, Lord Third, I know the magnitude of my failure." Kaen still fell, Iwa held it, even now, uncontested. But that was Gari's victory now, Shigen was the one who let Konoha's entire occupation force slip through his fingers. All ten of them.
"But you can still use Explosion Style," the Third moved on, tone painfully casual, "so you still hold some value to the village."
"Thank you, Lord Third," Shigen didn't grit his teeth, despite the effort it took him not to.
"In fact, I'm sending you back to the Explosion Corps," Ohnoki put his hands on his knees and leaned forward, "you'll be joining them in the Land of Meadows once you've recovered, by the end of the month."
Shigen didn't look up, but that made him hopeful. Of course he couldn't regain his previous chakra reserves, but perhaps he could use Pernicious Spider to summon a third or even fourth arm, and he could still command—
"Naturally," the Kage's voice shook him from his thoughts, "you can no longer serve as the Explosion Corps' Captain. For the foreseeable future, Han will serve as the Corps' commander, until your former adjutant is capable of serving in that capacity."
"The Five Tails' Jinchuuriki?" Shigen's head snapped up, and he met Ohnoki's eyes, which he found equally unimpressed and annoyed at his insolence. "He isn't a user of Explosion Style, he doesn't know the Corps!"
"But he knows how to conduct an operation!" The Tsuchikage snarled back, quieting the diminished shinobi opposite him. "Han has yet to let an enemy slip through his fingers and he hasn't had to come running back to the village with his tail between his legs to sulk," the Tsuchikage turned his attention to Roshi, "go on, tell him."
Roshi bowed deeper to his Kage, and began recounting what Ohnoki wanted him to without looking up, "Han pursued the One Tail back over the border into the Land of Wind. Neither it or its jinchuuriki have been reported since, and it's been months. We believe he died, Han was the one to confirm that." The Jinchuuriki glanced back up at the Kage before continuing, "Afterwards he stamped out the resistance in the Land of Caves before taking command in the Land of Mountains after the rebels assassinated Utsutsuchi."
"Every one of the high-value enemies he faced is confirmed killed or captured, Suna's jinchuuriki aside," the Tsuchikage said, sneering down at Shigen. "And taking a jinchuuriki, even Suna's, out of the war for months is more than enough to take over a command from a shinobi who was unable to take a single head from a retreating enemy."
"Morino, the Hawk-Eyes, he was killed—"
"Yes, yes, the Hawk-Eyes, Sakumo Hatake's perennial hanger-on. If I recall correctly, it was Gari who killed him while the White Fang opened your throat," the Tsuchikage's tone was mocking, but he was correct.
Shigen swallowed, he couldn't feel his fission clone's death, but the feeling of emptiness in his chest from both his missing chakra and the burning humiliation ate at him. "Lord Third I implore you, you cannot give overall command in the Land of Meadows to a jinchuuriki!"
He heard the tiles underneath Roshi's fist begin to crack, though the Four Tails' host didn't move.
"No, my son is taking overall command in Meadows, he'll serve better there than in the Land of Wind," the Tsuchikage said casually, before flexing his chakra. Instantly, the room became several degrees warmer, and the flames of the braziers began to lick at the ceiling above. "And who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do, Shigen," the Explosion Corps Captain's name was a slur on Ohnoki's lips. "Do you think I wanted to pull Hanzo the Salamander into the war, hmm? Perhaps I should send you into Amegakure to assassinate him, is that something I can do?"
The Tsuchikage leaned forward, face swallowed by shadow as he did, Shigen stared at the floor, there was nothing he could say. "I- I would do as ordered, Lord Third," he finally said, still buffeted by the Tsuchikage's aura, though the pressure from the jinchuuriki's had subsided. "But I would not be able to accomplish that task, I fear."
The Tsuchikage scoffed again, leaning back, "You couldn't have done it before. Now get out of my sight, you'll have your assignment soon enough. If you are lucky, it won't be against Takigakure."
Shigen expressed his thanks and left, silently cursing the Tsuchikage, and that Five Tails bastard, and the Four Tails bastard, and most of all, Sakumo Hatake. The only silver lining he could find was wondering how poorly Suna's Toxic Conductor, old Chiyo, was taking the news that the White Fang had died by his own hand, the monster who had humbled Suna's greatest puppeteers humbled by nobody but himself.
Thinking could be saved for later, for now, Shigen was heading back to Hikyotsuchi's Alehouse, but not after refilling his pockets with coins. He could fulfill one of his desires tonight, even if it was the desire to pass out onto the bar.
A/N: Yeah, Ohnoki is kind of a dick. As much as the manga/anime want you to forget that, all of the Five Kage across history have been kind of shitty people, or at least had the capability for immense impersonal coldness (looking at you, Hiruzen).
A/N2: Tsubaki hasn't had a ton of interaction with Iwa (besides the latest chapter and that one incident way at the beginning of the quest) so this one was a spinoff from the White Fang sidestory. Not sure when I'll have the chance to write Iwa again, so when I had this idea I took the opportunity. This might be weird, but they are my favorite Great Village. Tsubaki has had even less interactions with Suna, but they might be next, or we could revisit Konoha from a very special POV. Or maybe I could finally crack into the backlog I owe…
T/N: Hikyotsuchi doesn't strictly follow the '[color] earth' naming scheme of Iwa, it just means 'fertile earth', cause she has a bunch of kids. Utsutsuchi means 'unclear earth'.
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Professor Vesca
Good News Everyone!
You know, considering our age we are better than Kimimaru.
Looks like we know who is going to be Tsubaki's boss fight on the Earth side for this mission/campaign.
I think Kimmimaro in part 1 is the same age as Tsubaki now in quest.
Yeah I retract the Fugaku thing, I completely forgot that Itachi was 7 years older than Sasuke. Which actually means Mikoto was pretty young as far as shinobi parents go.
Still not budging on the Tobirama thing. At most, one could headcanon that Hashirama retired, but that doesn't sound like something he would do, especially with his wife being the Nine Tails' Jinchuuriki. The easy fix for this is him dying before Tsunade was born by the way.
Eh, no comment. Tsubaki's basic taijutsu might be better, but she also doesn't have the Curse Mark.
I stan Kurotsuchi, so I'm not going to give you a shot at her dad. Kitsuchi is also the overall commander in the Land of Meadows, not the commander of whatever operation Iwa conducts into the Land of Storms.
A little glimpse at how the sausage is made, but every campaign gets mission pots, along with a boss mission. It's not really a railroading or narrative structure (not going to get into pacing now, again) but that's what the selection at the beginning of campaigns is, and they all sort of have a loose theme relating to the unfolding war. The next boss will be a proper weirdo from Iwa, and an OC one. Maybe not as weird as Shigen, but still weird. I don't think you're supposed to do spoilers like this, but keep reading at your own discretion! Two of the next three, however, are canon characters...
I thought he was the same age as the main cast after the timeskip, but no he was 15 when he died so Tsubaki is the same age as him now, yes.
but that can't be right, because when he gets revived by orochimaru to help sasuke he knows who she is and claims that he spoiled her.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I think we are overestimating how long the First and Second Hokage's ruled for and vastly underestimating how old they were.
Hiruzen, who died at 69, could remember life before the Hidden Village system. If we say he became the First's genin student right after the founding at age 12... Then that puts the system at 56 years old by canon start.
Tsunade was 51 in Part 1 so she was born 4 years after the Village was founded.
Kushina died at 24 years of age 12 years before canon start. So she was born 20 years after the system began.
If we assume she became a Jinchuuriki at age 9, then Mito was a withered crone 29 years after founding.
Which means she was probably in her 50s at least when the village was founded. And Harashima would have presumably been of an age with her.
*edit*
Hiruzen was Hokage by the time Tsunade was 12. So the Second was dead by 16 years post founding.
If Tsunade could remember the First... Then let's say 6 years old at the earliest for the First's death? A minimum ten year reign.
Which would leave the Second with a 6 year reign at the very most.
*edit*
So, I think the First had a long rule and the Second just had a short one.
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I would of had Tsubaki as having more dangerous taijutsu and be significantly faster. Kimmimaro would have much better tanking ( especially in curse seal 2 mode) and has Bracken Dance, which is far stronger than any ninjutsu has.
I feel like the Curse Mark is balanced by the fact that Tsubaki isn't suffering from Tragic Cough Disease and can fight to exhaustion without immediately dying.
Shapeless Phobos
Filthy Casual
Huh, I had assumed the arm-thing Shigen was pulling had been a variation of the Fission Technique itself.
Slightly unrelated, but I do hope we get to see this person or one of their top students in action. We fought one at the very beginning of the quest but they left much to be desired. Probably just culminates in Black Lightning but we only ever saw one use of it in canon so still interested to see what QM will do with it.
Yeah, I'm saying the way to fix the timeline is to have him not remember her. Well, that part of the timeline at least.
Could he? All I see is that his father was a famous ninja during the Warring States and the Hiruzen was one of the first generation to become ninja in Konoha. Meaning he would have had to have either been extremely young (<5) when Konoha was founded, or he was born in Konoha. That's not really important though, what is important is that Hiruzen was 69 during Part 1.
Though him not having any interactions with Madara during the War Arc even though Ohnoki did presents a problem.
So, Hiruzen is stated to have been the youngest Hokage at the time of his ascension, and Minato couldn't have become Hokage any younger than 22. For the sake of giving the timeline as much space as it needs, and it needs as much as it can get, we'll say that Minato became Hokage the same year that he died, and after his birthday (in January), meaning he was Hokage for about nine months (Naruto's birthday is in October).
We actually get a flashback, courtesy of Danzo, to when Hiruzen was appointed Hokage, and he does look younger than Minato did when he died. But, again, for the sake of the timeline, we'll say that he was 23 there (in all likelihood he was 19-21, but we'll say 23). Meaning from the timespan between Tobirama's death (immediately after appointing Hiruzen, and it was during wartime, so he was likely confirmed immediately) and Hiruzen's own is 46 years.
Hashirama can remember Tsunade as a young child, not a baby or a toddler, but a young child. Again, we're being generous, so we'll say that Tsunade was 3 when her grandfather died, even though she looks closer to 4. She can't be any older because the Sannin graduated the Academy at 6. Hiruzen looks substantially older in flashbacks with the Sannin than he does in Danzo's, but for now we'll ignore that. Speaking of the Sannin and looking older we'll also completely ignore the fact that Jiraiya looks way younger as Minato's sensei than he does with the Ame Orphans and that the Ame Orphans are supposed to be younger than the parent generation.
Tsunade is 51 during Part 1, meaning that, assuming Hiruzen was almost the same age as Minato when he became Hokage, and if Hashirama died when Tsunade was 3 (even though it's implied he didn't die peacefully and his memories of Tsunade don't seem like they were during wartime), then at most we get 48 years between when Hashirama died and the beginning of Part 1.
So I was wrong actually, the math I did in my head earlier gave me a lot less time, but Tobirama was still Hokage for only 2 years, most likely during wartime. Which doesn't gel with his reputation as an administrator. And I know he helped his brother, but I can't see the Uchiha police force and ghetto happening while Hashirama was alive.
There's also the number of implied/extrapolated generations in general, but that's going into the rest of the timeline, which we're not going to do right now. 60-ish years is probably reasonable for the canonical age of the Hidden Village System.
Mito was alive until Kushina was 8? I don't think her age is ever given, but Kushina had the Nine Tails sealed in her sometime between entering the Academy and 12, when Kumo tried to kidnap her. Unrelated but I know I said Ohnoki was an asshole? A is worse. Wherever whatever happened to Uzushio falls on the timeline is also something we won't get into now, now that I've thought of it.
Tsubaki is significantly faster until second stage Curse Mark, where she's still faster. Bracken Dance 2 (the one he can merge with) is also a lot stronger than Tsubaki's (current) strongest KG tech, Thistle Dance 1. It's actually also better than Thistle Dance 2. Bracken 1 and Thistle 1 are both tier 4s, Thistle 2 is a tier 5, and Bracken 2 is a tier 6. He only has a couple of techs above tier 4, though Tsubaki doesn't have any.
Also this, Tsubaki's stamina massively outstrips Kimmimaro's since she doesn't have Ninja Tuberculosis.
While you can't partially-fission, it's possible that it was a derivation.
I was hoping someone caught that! Yeah, Tsubaki killed a member of the Chromatic Lightning School. Though whether or not it has something to do with Black Lightning (which I fanon the Second Raikage inventing, otherwise that guy is as pathetic as the Second Kazekage), we'll have to see about that whenever Ame starts engaging with Kumo. Though I know some would argue that Black Lightning would be Achromatic Lightning.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wasn't even the last or worst time A tried to kidnap a teen girl. Hey remember that thing where Cloud tried to kidnap Hinata so they could "make" their own bootleg Byakugan clan? 🤮
Like holy shit A is the worst.
- Location
- Singapore
So which had greater penetrating power? Hell Stab or Tessenka no Mai: Hana?
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I've done some more wiki diving and baring some truly incompatible data points (see Kakashi becoming a Chunin at age 6, his teammates graduating at age 9, yet all three of them attending the same Chunin Exam and being the same age...)
For the Uchiha Military Police Force... Obito claims it was the Second's creation in the wake of Madara's attack with the Nine-Tails. Publically, a declaration of faith in the Uchiha Clan's loyalty. Obito just says "Hashirama's younger brother the Second Hokage". So, it is unclear when exactly it happened or what title Tobirama even had when he did it.
As for the Uchiha ghetto... Obito claims it was explicitly a reaction to the second Kyuubi Attack. Hiruzen's administration wanted the Uchiha all in one secluded location for monitoring.
*edit*
The Itachi side stories confirm this interpretation.
I could swear he could... But you are correct about the age. His generation were the first Academy graduates.
I agree with The Second only reigning for about 2 years. Or at least, there only being a two year gap between Hashirama's death and the Second's death. Maybe he abdicated after Madara tried to kill him.
For the Uchiha Military Police Force... Obito claims it was the Second's creation in the wake of Madara's attack with the Nine-Tails. Publically, a declaration of faith in the Uchiha Clan's loyalty. Obito just says "Hashirama's younger brother the Second Hokage". So, it is unclear when exactly it happened or what title Tobirama even had when he did it.
As for the Uchiha ghetto... Obito claims it was explicitly a reaction to the second Kyuubi Attack. Hiruzen's administration wanted the Uchiha all in one secluded location for monitoring.
*edit*
The Itachi side stories confirm this interpretation.
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Technically those are two different A's. A(3) ordered Kushina's kidnapping, A(4) decided to one-up his father by ordering the kidnapping of a three year old Hinata then start a diplomatic incident over Hiashi (rightfully) killing his Jounin Commander.
I'm not saying Sasuke was right (I will, but I'm not saying that now) but A and almost certainly Ohnoki both deserved whatever he was planning for the Five Kage. Gaara and Mei definitely didn't, and I'm still mad the latter retired.
And that's not even getting into A's refusal to disarm after the Third War. At least Ohnoki respected that. I guess we can give A credit for not having kids at least, otherwise Rasa might not be the best Kage at something that something is being the worst father.
Clematis Dance: Flower is stronger than Five Finger, Eaglery would be relative to Three Finger, even Lancing Tailwind Clematis wouldn't have the concentrated power of One Finger Nukite though.
I hate to be that guy, but I'd like to see a source for the Uchiha being shuffled off into a ghetto after the Nine Tails' attack. If that's true though, the novels really do their best to undo whatever sympathy they gave Itachi. Also seems out of character for Hiruzen, for as much consistency you can expect out of his retcon-happy reign as Hokage.
I feel like Tobirama needed at least a couple more years, at least a couple of them in (relative) peace time, and I still don't see Hashirama retiring. And I certainly don't see Hashirama "Let's Build a World Where Children Don't Have to Kill Each Other!" Senju sitting idly by while his brother, Tobirama "Eyes of Red? Better Off Dead." Senju, conduct the first Chunin Exams.
Oh do I have plans for the Uchiha.
TimEd
Meteor maker
They bring their specialty up to necks(t) level
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Only Uchiha ocular powers can tame and control Nine Tails...
The Konoha Elders...
...surmised that that incident was the doing of an Uchiha.
But it was a spontaneously generated natural disaster completely unrelated to the Uchiha.
And yet, unjust suspicions persisted.
That Uchiha was trying to raise an insurrection to take over the leadership...
Black Ops were assigned to run surveillance on Uchiha.
And the Clan's living quarters were relocated to one corner of the Village...
It was an isolation tactic.
Ironically, the Third Hokage alone raised objection over the segregation...
...but Black Ops Danzo and the two counselors overruled him.
The Uchiha Clan was simply not trusted.
That was the beginning of discrimination against us.
Their distrust gave rise to bad blood...
...and suspicions eventually evolved into reality...
The Uchiha Clan started plotting a Coup D'etat...
....to take over the Village...
And so Konoha's leaders sent in a psy to watch the Uchiha Clan.
The Konoha Elders...
...surmised that that incident was the doing of an Uchiha.
But it was a spontaneously generated natural disaster completely unrelated to the Uchiha.
And yet, unjust suspicions persisted.
That Uchiha was trying to raise an insurrection to take over the leadership...
Black Ops were assigned to run surveillance on Uchiha.
And the Clan's living quarters were relocated to one corner of the Village...
It was an isolation tactic.
Ironically, the Third Hokage alone raised objection over the segregation...
...but Black Ops Danzo and the two counselors overruled him.
The Uchiha Clan was simply not trusted.
That was the beginning of discrimination against us.
Their distrust gave rise to bad blood...
...and suspicions eventually evolved into reality...
The Uchiha Clan started plotting a Coup D'etat...
....to take over the Village...
And so Konoha's leaders sent in a psy to watch the Uchiha Clan.
Kakashi explains to new Anbu Itachi that Konoha's leadership put the Uchiha District under 24-hour surveillance.
A flashback features an argument between Hiruzen and Danzo during the Attack.
Danzo says the Uchiha Military Police should be ordered to protect the civilians and stay in the rear.
Hiruzen counters the Sharingan would be useful against the Nine Tails.
Danzo says that's the problem because if the Uchiha take control of the Nine-Tails it would be Madara all over again.
Hiruzen, sick of wasting time when he could be fighting, gives Danzo the job of protecting the civilians and the leave to order the ANBU and security forces as he wishes. With the only caveat being that the youth were to be protected as well.
A conversation between Fugaku and another Uchiha reveals Danzo did indeed order the Military Police to only guard the civilians and to not take part in the fighting.
Later Danzo successfully argues that since an Uchiha could be behind the attack they must place the Uchiha under surveillance until their innocence is proven.
Back in the present (6 years later), Itachi reveals the Uchiha are aware they are under surveillance.Hiruzen counters the Sharingan would be useful against the Nine Tails.
Danzo says that's the problem because if the Uchiha take control of the Nine-Tails it would be Madara all over again.
Hiruzen, sick of wasting time when he could be fighting, gives Danzo the job of protecting the civilians and the leave to order the ANBU and security forces as he wishes. With the only caveat being that the youth were to be protected as well.
A conversation between Fugaku and another Uchiha reveals Danzo did indeed order the Military Police to only guard the civilians and to not take part in the fighting.
Later Danzo successfully argues that since an Uchiha could be behind the attack they must place the Uchiha under surveillance until their innocence is proven.
People have lost respect for the Uchiha for "hiding" during the Nine-Tails attack. The Military Police respond by being harsher (arresting fighting drunks instead of just sending them home), which only increases the animosity in a positive feedback loop.
The Konoha Council argues whether the Uchiha's discontent is justified. Danzo claims the "isolation" of the Uchiha has been Konoha policy since the Second meaning that their current treatment is nothing new. Hiruzen refutes that "Isolation" was ever the Second's intention, but notibly refers to the Uchiha as "friends" instead of "members" of Konoha.
Shishui and Itachi discuss the positive feedback loop of distrust and fear between the Village and the Uchiha.
Danzo and Hiruzen are aware of the danger of a Coup D'Etat and how the Uchiha are uniting against the Village.
Hiruzen explains that Shisui will confirm Fugaku's loyalty or force it via brainwashing. Danzo argues that Fugaku alone is not enough, but Hiruzen says that Fugaku's ensured loyalty will be enough for Konoha to begin offering olive branches and/or carrots to the Uchiha.
Danzo, still believing the distrust between the rank and file matters more, and most importantly fearing Shisui will eventually force him to trust the Uchiha in return sabotages the plan by ambushing Shisui.
Shisui informs Itachi that Danzo has forced the situation. Now the only way to prevent a Civil War which will result in the other Villages destroying Konoha is to stop the Uchiha's rebellion Danzo's way.
Well Shisui does not come right out and say that, but he does say that the Coup is inevitable and that the other Villages will jump on the weakness.
Itachi's plan seems to be hoping Shisui's death would demoralize the Uchiha enough not to try the Coup. It is unclear how much of Shisui's suicide (specifically Danzo's role) Itachi hides from the Konoha Council.
Itachi is now working for Danzo directly as an ANBU captain.
The Uchiha Military Police are improving their armaments.
Konoha has detected Obito entering and leaving the Village, but cannot track him. They can detect he is mostly entering and exiting around the Uchiha District. Which is apparently a self-governing system so they cannot place barriers there.
Kakashi takes Guy to the Uchiha District as cover for an investigation.
Guy remarks that he has not visited the Uchiha District in years. Kakashi remembers visiting to pick up Obito.
This does mean there was an Uchiha District Uchiha living in the same place back then.
Kakashi reports to Hiruzen that they would need the Police Force's help to track down the infiltrator, but also reports the Uchiha treated him and Guy as unwanted intruders.Danzo is excited for an excuse to sideline the Uchiha Military Police with a new force, but is shot down by Hiruzen.
Itachi reports that a Coup is now an actually planned event.
Itachi enlists Obito to kill the Uchiha at the Military Police Headquarters, while he handles the Uchiha District.
Danzo covers for his own ass by "publically" accusing Itachi of killing Shisui, instigating infighting among the Uchiha, and then killing them all.
Hiruzen strips Danzo of his authority. ROOT reveals that Obito made off with some bodies. Hiruzen thanks Itachi for preventing civil war. Itachi joins Akatsuki to ensure Obito does not use it to destroy Konoha (as Obito implicitly promised). The Military Police are reformed using open recruitment.
Shisui's suicide note (which he told Itachi he wrote himself) is useless vague.
"I'm tired of missions. If things continue, there's no future left for the Uchiha... and for me. I can no longer go against this path."
He supposedly meant the Uchiha are heading toward their own destruction and he is no longer physically capable of stopping it. But, it sure sounds like a commendation of the Uchiha's entire situation.Itachi is made an ANBU captain under Danzo. Not ROOT/Foundation, but still not reporting his missions to the Hokage.
Fugaku reveals to Itachi he has a Mangakyo Sharingan. A friend of his died to save him in the Third War.
Fugaku has come to believe that the Village Leadership will never stop fearing the Uchiha and the Uchiha will need to take control for their own safety. Or at least the Uchiha Clan has come to this conclusion. It's unclear if Fugaku is arguing from his personal beliefs or as the representative of his Clan.
Fugaku has kept his Mangakyu a secret out of fear the Clan would force him to weaponize the Kyuubi by fiat accompli.
Fugaku believes that he and Itachi working together would be strong enough to make the Coup bloodless.
It is this conversation that ends with Itachi reporting that the Coup is officially planned.
Later Danzo orders Itachi to kill every other Uchiha but Sasuke. Or die with them futilely.
Itachi makes his decision and approaches Obito for help.
Fugaku confronts Itachi with a shadow clone and Itachi shows him a genjutsu of the future he is fighting for.
Fugaku and Mikoto refuse to fight Itachi to the death.
Ah, here we go.
Per the Wiki, in the books:
So, there was always an Uchiha District, but it wasn't always in the butt end of nowhere where no one would go.
Of course, there are differences between the anime and the books.
For example,
In the books, Itachi's would-be girlfriend is put into a Genjutsu by Itachi where she lives a full life with Itachi. In the anime, she confronts and is killed by Obito. Begging for Itachi to save her.
*edit*
@No Country here are some quotes from a digital copy.
"At any rate, we must gather the Uchiha clan together in one spot and push
them to the edge of the village. And we should do it now, while we can do it in
the name of town planning after Nine Tails's attack."
Faced with the relentlessness of the man who embodied the darkness of the
Anbu, the other three could only remain silent.
them to the edge of the village. And we should do it now, while we can do it in
the name of town planning after Nine Tails's attack."
Faced with the relentlessness of the man who embodied the darkness of the
Anbu, the other three could only remain silent.
Itachi was satisfied with their new home. They were a fair distance from the
center of the village, but Nakano Shrine, where the clan originated, was within
the compound, and best of all, they were right on the edge of the village, so
there was green all around them. Finding places to train was no trouble at all,
and if he just walked a little, he could cross the border of the village, beyond which rugged hills rolled across the landscape. He also thought it was a good, quiet place for his baby brother to grow up.
However, the adults apparently felt differently. Ever since it was decided that
rather than being scattered all over the village, the members of the clan would
be brought together and a new compound built, a stream of young ninja had
been coming and going from his father's place.
center of the village, but Nakano Shrine, where the clan originated, was within
the compound, and best of all, they were right on the edge of the village, so
there was green all around them. Finding places to train was no trouble at all,
and if he just walked a little, he could cross the border of the village, beyond which rugged hills rolled across the landscape. He also thought it was a good, quiet place for his baby brother to grow up.
However, the adults apparently felt differently. Ever since it was decided that
rather than being scattered all over the village, the members of the clan would
be brought together and a new compound built, a stream of young ninja had
been coming and going from his father's place.
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Catalysis (Konoha Sidestory 2)
A/N (TW?): Get ready for sad.
Ichiraku Ramen had been in operation since before Minato Namikaze moved to Konohagakure. This was strange, as the stand's proprietor, Teuchi, was only in his early twenties, and Minato had been in the village since he was seven. Perhaps the man had opened his stand shortly before Minato moved to the village, or maybe it was in operation when his family had first journeyed there to see about enrolling him in the Academy, but he wouldn't know, they didn't pass through this way when they were here.
Kushina was the one who introduced him to the ramen stand, shortly after he rescued her from Kumo's kidnapping attempt. He couldn't help but smile, thinking back to Kushina tapping on his apartment window and dragging him to the stand as it was about to close. Biwako Sarutobi, the Third Hokage's wife, was the one who caught them, sending Kushina back to the heavily-guarded Uzumaki estate on the outskirts of the village, reinforced after the attempted kidnapping. While Minato was anything but a spiteful person, he couldn't help but take some pride in Jiraiya-sensei and Master Orochimaru bloodying Kumo's nose again and again in the Land of Steam and the Land of Frost.
He debated taking Kushina a takeaway bowl, but when he went to see her in the First Hokage's mansion, in the center of the village, her ANBU guards turned him away. Apparently they were strengthening her seal for a bout of training to control the Nine Tails' chakra, it would take all day. Cold ramen would've been a disappointment after a long day doing something as hard as that, so maybe he could bring her soba at the end of the day instead. The Nine Tails' chakra burned, so that's what he would do, it was the least he could do. He knew Kushina hated being cooped up in her predecessor's mansion, and stuck in the village in general.
"Yo, Minato," his former teammate, Aogu Uchiha, poking her head through Ichiraku's curtains drew his attention away from his meal.
"Hey Aogu," he said with a slight smile, "I didn't think you'd beat me back."
The black-haired girl scoffed, "Course not, half the time I can't even catch you with these," she touched a pinky to her temple. Aogu Uchiha was, at one time, rather distant from the internal politics of the Uchiha Clan, being the younger child of the fourth daughter of the keeper of the Nakano Shrine, but her (first) cousin's engagement to the new Clan Head meant that what little time she had in the village was taken up by being trained to become one of the clan's elders by her aunts. She'd jokingly blamed her family's newfound interest in her on Jiraiya before the Toad Sage left for his latest deployment, but the fact that she was his student probably did factor into her being chosen as the clan's next elder. Not that that would be happening anytime soon, the furthest any of the elders got from the Uchiha District was patrolling along the top of Hokage Rock. The fact that she had finally managed to awaken her second sharingan also probably helped. It was rare, but not unheard of, for an Uchiha to unlock their kekkei genkai one eye at a time, though Aogu was particularly unusual in that she achieved three tomoe in the first eye at the same time she awakened one in her other. "We didn't end up going that far though," she waved off, sitting down, "but I'll tell you about that later. How about you tell us about your mission?"
"Can't," he simply said, silently slurping down his ramen, "went out of the country, not part of the war, you know how it is."
Aogu ordered two spicy crayfish bowls, sidling in to sit next to Minato. Her teammate glanced over and saw who the 'we' she was talking about was. Enko Uchiha, if Minato remembered correctly, was one class ahead of him and his teammates at the Academy, though in the past few years most of his classmates had outgrown her, and even sitting on the stool at Ichiraku it was clear to see that his lanky teammate had nearly a head and a half on her. The image of her slightness wasn't helped by the two low ponytails she wore her hair in or the baggy jacket she wore on duty, but he wondered if that was on purpose, to make her look as nonthreatening as possible. What he was sure wasn't on purpose was the downcast expression that was seemingly stuck on her face, as she even looked dejectedly down into her bowl of ramen after it was served to her.
"C'mon Enko," Aogu confirmed that Minato did, in fact, remember who she was, "try to look at least a little interested, otherwise Minato might not tell you what you want to know."
The teen in question chuckled, "I'm not going to tell you anything classified, Aogu. Sensei doesn't even get that privilege."
His teammate rolled her onyx eyes, "Sure, sure, but if there's a rumor already going around, it doesn't matter if you confirm it, right?"
Minato did his best not to stare at her, instead narrowing his eyes and looking at her sideways instead, "You know that it does, do you remember any opsec?"
"More than this one," she elbowed the other Uchiha in the ribs, causing the smaller girl to swallow her noodles quicker than she intended, sending her into a coughing fit.
"I wish—" she hacked again, bringing her elbow up as tears filled her eyes, "that everyone would st-stop—" she sucked in a breath, managing to stop the fit, "stop bringing that up, Meijirou even told you what actually happened, Aogu."
Minato's teammate shrugged, "That lit a little fire in you at least," she grinned at her cousin, who once again focused intently on her noodles, causing Aogu to roll her eyes. "Anyway, word on the street is that you ran into 'Kotsu' on your last mission, there any truth to that?"
The blond boy blinked, looked at his empty bowl, then turned fully to Aogu. "Why?"
"Cause ever since she managed to slip through this one—"
Enko grumbled something Minato couldn't make out, and Aogu rolled her eyes again.
"Right, right," she chuckled, "ever since she managed to slip through Mikoto's fingers," Aogu corrected, and Enko grunted in the affirmative. "A few of them have been interested in finding out who she really is. And besides, Dekai and Sensei might not go on assassination missions, but I've been on a few. I'm not gonna ask you any details beyond this one."
"You shouldn't have even said that," deadpanned, exasperated, "but yeah, I ran into her." He wished Kushina were here, Aogu liked her, and she liked Aogu, but she had no qualms about driving off anyone on Minato's team when they got on her nerves. Though she did have to try pretty hard to find an excuse to fake outrage at Dekai. "But yes, I did. We probably had the same target."
"So she's not from Kumo or Tani," Aogu posited, trying to be helpful.
Minato shrugged, "She could've been from Tani, but I doubt it, she seemed pretty intent on getting out of there, and Tani isn't Kusa or Taki, it's pretty stable."
"Tani sucks, no way she was from Tani," Enko grumbled, mostly to herself. She had a point though, Tani wasn't renowned for the strength of its ninja, a whole squad of Uchiha letting a single Tani-nin escape from their grasp would be almost as embarrassing as a Yu-nin or Sono-nin evading them.
"Maybe Taki then, definitely not Iwa," Minato slid his bowl to Teuchi and reached for his wallet, "or Kusa," he added as an afterthought.
"That leaves Kiri, Suna, Ame, maybe even Shimo," Aogu posited, "was that all you wanted, Enko?"
The older girl shrugged, "I suppose," despite her seeming disinterest, she was eating a lot faster than the other Uchiha.
Not twenty seconds later, the curtain opened behind them and a man dressed in the blacks and grays of ANBU ducked to enter the stand. Minato was surprised, not only because Ichiraku was usually only this busy during dinner time, but also because he recognized the man, even without his mask. Butsu, the only member of Konoha's ANBU he knew of with a humanoid mask, or, as he was known sans-mask, Takuma Senju.
Takuma had several centimeters and almost ten years on Jiraiya-sensei, and had served in the capacity of ANBU Commander for as long as anyone Minato knew could remember. Despite the lines on his face and the gray around his temples, he was regarded inside the village as the Third Hokage's right hand. Some even wondered, had the Second Hokage lived any longer, if Takuma would have been his successor. Not that the Senju Clan was particularly nepotistic, rather the opposite, in fact, given how quickly it had practically dissolved into Konoha's general population, but the man had been Tobirama Senju's godson, and was one of the few people left who could remember the First Hokage. Not to mention that he was Hashirama's own grandson. That was how Minato knew both his masked and unmasked personas, actually, as Jiraiya-sensei had the misfortune of bringing his team in to see Tsunade while she was chewing out her cousin. Tsunade had been getting worse lately; fraying, as Orochimaru had put it when Jiraiya was unable to put the state she was in into words. It was only a matter of time until she left the village, that was clear, even if nobody wanted to say it.
But in the moment, Minato was wondering why the ANBU Commander was here, seemingly to see him, given how he was looking at the younger jounin.
Though he turned his attention to Enko first. "Enko Uchiha," he drew an envelope from his flak jacket and the girl paled, "give my regards to Plover," she took the envelope from him and saw that it was small, the type people give as gifts during special occasions. "I was unable to attend her wedding."
Enko smiled, tucking the gift into her jacket, "Thank you, Master Takuma," she inclined her head slightly. The Senju were a lot more understanding of clan ninja marrying civilians than the Uchiha were, and Enko was certain that Hazuki would appreciate the gesture from her former Commander.
"Of course," he said with a slight smile, before turning back to Minato, his face blank.
Minato would've preferred if it was knit with concern, or disinterest, or even anger. Anything but the neutral, businesslike expression someone in Takuma's position would have put on in a potentially uncomfortable situation.
"I should go," Enko said quickly, pushing her bowl away from her and standing up. "I'll give your regards to H- Plover," she bowed to the Senju, who still had yet to sit, "thanks for the ramen, Aogu."
"Hey, hold—" the other Uchiha went to say, but her clanswoman was already gone.
"Commander Senju, sir," Minato glanced behind the counter, and saw that Teuchi had disappeared into the back. "What's this regarding?" He kept his voice level, but there was a lump in his throat, had something happened to Jiraiya-sensei, out on the front? Had there been a problem with the Nine Tails' seal?
Takuma glanced at Aogu, who sullenly sipped at her noodles, "He's my teammate, probably wants me here," she said with a terse casualness that the ANBU Commander almost certainly didn't appreciate.
Minato nodded when the Senju looked back at him.
The ANBU Commander exhaled through his nose, "Namikaze, I'm sorry," he took out another envelope, this one also white, but sized for standard paper. He put it on the counter, even though Minato stuck out a hand to accept it. The older ninja's big, calloused and scarred hand found a place on his shoulder, and Minato swallowed that lump, only for it to be replaced by an even bigger one. "Irigawa was wiped off the map by a force of Kiri-nin. They were driven out of the country but over eighty percent of the village's population was killed. Your mother was among them, I'm sorry."
Oh. "Oh," he swallowed again, the lump disappearing, replaced by a strange hollowness in his chest. At least the tension was gone, even if he didn't relax. "Oh, I see," he said, looking away from the ANBU Commander, who withdrew his hand. "Thank you for telling me. Was her body recovered, at least?"
The big man nodded, "Yes, your," he stopped for a moment, remembering the exact relationship Minato shared with his next-of-kin, "sister-in-law took care of the arrangements."
"Thank you again, sir," Minato wondered if he should be tearing up, but he just felt hollow. His mother had been sick for a long time, he knew she was going to pass away soon, and she knew it. The last time he saw her, hooked up to expensive medical equipment in his childhood home, he got to say goodbye, but he intended to come back. He would have, if not for the war. "Is that all?"
"The burial has been seen to, everything else should be in the letter," he placed his hand on Minato's shoulder again, and gave it a firm squeeze, before departing.
"Minato," Aogu suppressed a swear, looking at her teammate with concern, "I'm so sorry," she said, voice low, "how did Kiri even get there?" She spat out, barely a beat separating the sentiments.
"It- thank you, Aogu," Minato was almost glad that Jiraiya-sensei hadn't been the one to deliver the news, he wouldn't have been quite as tactful as the ANBU Commander. "That's war, I suppose," he exhaled deeply, he didn't know how long he had been holding his breath. He noticed the ryo notes on the counter, and he sighed again, Takuma didn't have to do that. "Just, have another bowl with me, alright?"
"Yeah, sure," she said, and Teuchi magically appeared.
Minato used the silence to reflect. He was sad, sadder than he was when his father died, several years ago, after his promotion to chunin, but he didn't feel like expressing it. He just wanted to conduct himself like normal, be allowed quiet, to reflect. Aogu understood better than Jiraiya-sensei or Dekai, her father had died late in the last war and her mother was grievously injured on a mission while they were in the Academy. She even missed their graduation because of it. His other teammate and sensei were proper orphans, they could barely remember their parents. Briefly he mused on the fact that his whole team were orphans now, before thinking back to his family. He was the only one with two civilian parents, and the only one whose parents didn't live in Konoha, when they were alive. Irigawa was a little village on the crux of the Airo Peninsula, close to the border with the Land of Tea. His father, like most of the men in the village, was a fisherman, and his mother worked her way up to owning the largest fishing gear shop on that stretch of coast. Both of them were old when he was born, and they hadn't expected to be blessed with another child, despite their trying. He was healthy when he was born, another blessing that they hadn't expected, given how many children they had lost to failed pregnancies and infant mortality, which was still high in the countryside. He was the third of their sons to live past infancy, his eldest brother died more than a decade before Minato was born, and his middle brother, always sickly thanks to the damp seaside air, moved into the Land of Tea's dry highlands with his wife when Minato was very young. That brother, Hikishio, died shortly after Minato started the Academy, leaving his wife, Minato's sister-in-law Haruka, in charge of the sizable tea plantation he had built up. He also left behind two very young children, who Minato had only met twice. His father's stubbornness had gotten the old man killed, straining himself into a stroke while at sea, refusing to trust his boat to even his own crew of over twenty years. His mother was sick even then, having been struck by the same illness that had taken the life of her second son, which forced her into retirement.
As Minato had his second helping of ramen, the warm broth and extra pork Teuchi had given him without prompting helping fill the pit that was in his chest, he tore the letter open. It was from Haruka, which he suspected as soon as Takuma mentioned her. The young jounin's heart sank when reading the contents of the letter, though he was happy that he would be seeing what was left of his family so soon, the circumstances weren't ideal.
"What's wrong?" His teammate noticed the change in his expression from passive to a grimace, "Besides, you know." She trailed off, and Minato sighed, folding the letter and storing it for later.
"My sister-in-law," she was more like an aunt, really, but Minato never called her that, and his niece, the one time they had met when she was able to talk, called him her uncle. He couldn't help but smile at that memory. "Is coming to Konoha," Aogu gestured for him to continue, knowing that this was merely the silver lining to a bad situation, "but only because one of my b- one of her competitors hired some ninja from Sonogakure to torch her orchards. They forced her to sell."
"The stretch from Tea to Konoha is safe, at least," Aogu pointed out. "And your niece and nephew are pretty cute," she was close to finishing her second bowl, he was barely halfway done, and his appetite was rapidly shrinking.
"Yeah," he allowed himself a small smile, and Aogu patted him on the back, before standing with a stretch.
"You wanna, train or something?" She asked without concern in her voice, but with it clearly written on her face.
"No, I want to write Haruka back before she gets here, and I should get things ready for their arrival," he prodded his noodles with his chopsticks, "and I need to finish up here. Wouldn't want to refuse a gift from the Head of the Senju Clan."
His teammate snorted, "Yeah, all eight of them," she didn't even mention that the title was effectively vacant, and nobody knew if it actually fell to Takuma or to Tsunade, just that the former handled any official clan business, for what little the diminished Founding Clan still had. "You gonna write the letter at your girlfriend's?"
Minato instantly flushed red, his teammates knew how to push his buttons, but Dekai was too nice to do it, and Jiraiya-sensei was too awkward in situations like this to be able to defuse them like that. But Aogu wasn't. "Ku- she- I mean- we're not," it was hard to get Minato Namikaze to break his composure, but bringing up Kushina was one of the few ways to pull it off.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Aogu gave him a small, genuine smile, "but you should go see her. I may be able to sympathize with you, but this," she gestured vaguely, referring to the whole situation. "She's been through exactly what you're going through, even if she's never admitted to it."
It was true, Uzushio had been destroyed in the closing days of the Second War, when they'd all been very, very young. It was the one time Kiri and Kumo were able to put their differences aside, which fell apart very shortly afterwards. Kumo was eager to get their hands on any Uzumaki survivors, but Kiri was less (more?) pragmatic, headhunting the survivors until the red hair of the Uzumaki was completely extirpated from the Bay of Eddies. The Clan was scattered across the Elemental Nations, and while more than a few had made their way to Konohagakure, Kushina's parents weren't among them. She was more than unwilling to discuss her life between living in Uzushio and when she came to Konoha to enroll in the Academy, all anyone, including Minato knew was that she had lived in Enjou, the capital of the Land of Fire.
He intended to visit Kushina, when the maintenance on her seal was complete, but giving Aogu credit for the idea would make things less awkward between him and his teammate. "You're right Aogu, I'll go see her tonight. I heard that she would be busy today."
"Alright," she didn't give away whether or not she bought that it wasn't his idea to visit the village's most guarded kunoichi, "well, I'll be around, if you need me." She lifted the curtain to the ramen stand, "I won't be going to the front until Fugaku's back, at least," he wasn't sure if she should be referring to the Head of the Uchiha Clan by first name alone, but nobody here was going to bring up the breach of protocol, "so even if it's just to talk, you know where to find me."
"How about the usual training ground?" He asked, referring to the spot where they'd been meeting with Jiraiya-sensei since they were fresh genin, back during the tenuous interwar peace.
His teammate nodded, before ducking under the ramen stand's curtains and continuing on her way. Left alone, aside from silent Teuchi, Minato let himself be consumed by his thoughts. He finished the bowl with thanks to the ramen stand manager, who extended his condolences, before he, too, was on his way.
He would let Kushina yell at him, when he finally got to see her tonight. The redhead was doing it less and less, as it seemed puberty had actually calmed her down, but he'd always admired the fire inside her. Ironically, something about the girl's temper let him know that everything would be alright, that it could return to normal.
Naturally, thoughts of Kushina brought up thoughts of seals, and thoughts of seals reminded him that he had the clearance and opportunity to finally start reverse-engineering the matrices he had only recently been able to study. He could at least crack the seal before his relatives arrived.
The young jounin smiled sadly to himself, if he had had this time before, maybe he could have been at his mother's side. Not that he would have been able to move the medical equipment, but he could have been there. He resolved not to dwell on what could've been, and his smile widened a bit when he wondered if Aogu would be mad when he dragged her into the Hokage Tower's library tomorrow. Probably not, as she'd get to go into the section restricted to jounin clearance.
Idly, he flipped a kunai before catching it. He'd have to visit the blacksmith today too. All the better, he wanted to stay busy.
A/N2: Hope you enjoyed, even with the subject matter. I started this, then started on the actual chapter, then I read something that made me really want to write Minato, so this came out first. I really do like writing Minato, even when he isn't being the murder blender that Tsubaki would like to get to know better.
T/N: Sonogakure is the (OC) Hidden Village of the Land of Tea. It translates to the Village Hidden in/among the Gardens, a reflection of the agrarian nature of its nation. I also think that it would be more concerned with aesthetics than the other Hidden Villages. Aogu is another reading of 'Ougi', referring to the fact that Minato's unnamed teammate she's based on is pretty androgynous. The other teammate, whose skin and hair color change in every one of his (sparse) appearances is apparently named Dekai. Irigawa means "inlet on the creek/small river", and Enjou means "Fire Fortress", appropriate for the Land of Fire's capital, I think. Butsu means Buddha, which I almost used but didn't because I honestly can't remember if the English dub ever used that word and it would be kind of weird if Buddha existed as a concept in-verse, even if Guanyin/Kannon and other Buddhist and Shinto concepts are referenced.
Ichiraku Ramen had been in operation since before Minato Namikaze moved to Konohagakure. This was strange, as the stand's proprietor, Teuchi, was only in his early twenties, and Minato had been in the village since he was seven. Perhaps the man had opened his stand shortly before Minato moved to the village, or maybe it was in operation when his family had first journeyed there to see about enrolling him in the Academy, but he wouldn't know, they didn't pass through this way when they were here.
Kushina was the one who introduced him to the ramen stand, shortly after he rescued her from Kumo's kidnapping attempt. He couldn't help but smile, thinking back to Kushina tapping on his apartment window and dragging him to the stand as it was about to close. Biwako Sarutobi, the Third Hokage's wife, was the one who caught them, sending Kushina back to the heavily-guarded Uzumaki estate on the outskirts of the village, reinforced after the attempted kidnapping. While Minato was anything but a spiteful person, he couldn't help but take some pride in Jiraiya-sensei and Master Orochimaru bloodying Kumo's nose again and again in the Land of Steam and the Land of Frost.
He debated taking Kushina a takeaway bowl, but when he went to see her in the First Hokage's mansion, in the center of the village, her ANBU guards turned him away. Apparently they were strengthening her seal for a bout of training to control the Nine Tails' chakra, it would take all day. Cold ramen would've been a disappointment after a long day doing something as hard as that, so maybe he could bring her soba at the end of the day instead. The Nine Tails' chakra burned, so that's what he would do, it was the least he could do. He knew Kushina hated being cooped up in her predecessor's mansion, and stuck in the village in general.
"Yo, Minato," his former teammate, Aogu Uchiha, poking her head through Ichiraku's curtains drew his attention away from his meal.
"Hey Aogu," he said with a slight smile, "I didn't think you'd beat me back."
The black-haired girl scoffed, "Course not, half the time I can't even catch you with these," she touched a pinky to her temple. Aogu Uchiha was, at one time, rather distant from the internal politics of the Uchiha Clan, being the younger child of the fourth daughter of the keeper of the Nakano Shrine, but her (first) cousin's engagement to the new Clan Head meant that what little time she had in the village was taken up by being trained to become one of the clan's elders by her aunts. She'd jokingly blamed her family's newfound interest in her on Jiraiya before the Toad Sage left for his latest deployment, but the fact that she was his student probably did factor into her being chosen as the clan's next elder. Not that that would be happening anytime soon, the furthest any of the elders got from the Uchiha District was patrolling along the top of Hokage Rock. The fact that she had finally managed to awaken her second sharingan also probably helped. It was rare, but not unheard of, for an Uchiha to unlock their kekkei genkai one eye at a time, though Aogu was particularly unusual in that she achieved three tomoe in the first eye at the same time she awakened one in her other. "We didn't end up going that far though," she waved off, sitting down, "but I'll tell you about that later. How about you tell us about your mission?"
"Can't," he simply said, silently slurping down his ramen, "went out of the country, not part of the war, you know how it is."
Aogu ordered two spicy crayfish bowls, sidling in to sit next to Minato. Her teammate glanced over and saw who the 'we' she was talking about was. Enko Uchiha, if Minato remembered correctly, was one class ahead of him and his teammates at the Academy, though in the past few years most of his classmates had outgrown her, and even sitting on the stool at Ichiraku it was clear to see that his lanky teammate had nearly a head and a half on her. The image of her slightness wasn't helped by the two low ponytails she wore her hair in or the baggy jacket she wore on duty, but he wondered if that was on purpose, to make her look as nonthreatening as possible. What he was sure wasn't on purpose was the downcast expression that was seemingly stuck on her face, as she even looked dejectedly down into her bowl of ramen after it was served to her.
"C'mon Enko," Aogu confirmed that Minato did, in fact, remember who she was, "try to look at least a little interested, otherwise Minato might not tell you what you want to know."
The teen in question chuckled, "I'm not going to tell you anything classified, Aogu. Sensei doesn't even get that privilege."
His teammate rolled her onyx eyes, "Sure, sure, but if there's a rumor already going around, it doesn't matter if you confirm it, right?"
Minato did his best not to stare at her, instead narrowing his eyes and looking at her sideways instead, "You know that it does, do you remember any opsec?"
"More than this one," she elbowed the other Uchiha in the ribs, causing the smaller girl to swallow her noodles quicker than she intended, sending her into a coughing fit.
"I wish—" she hacked again, bringing her elbow up as tears filled her eyes, "that everyone would st-stop—" she sucked in a breath, managing to stop the fit, "stop bringing that up, Meijirou even told you what actually happened, Aogu."
Minato's teammate shrugged, "That lit a little fire in you at least," she grinned at her cousin, who once again focused intently on her noodles, causing Aogu to roll her eyes. "Anyway, word on the street is that you ran into 'Kotsu' on your last mission, there any truth to that?"
The blond boy blinked, looked at his empty bowl, then turned fully to Aogu. "Why?"
"Cause ever since she managed to slip through this one—"
Enko grumbled something Minato couldn't make out, and Aogu rolled her eyes again.
"Right, right," she chuckled, "ever since she managed to slip through Mikoto's fingers," Aogu corrected, and Enko grunted in the affirmative. "A few of them have been interested in finding out who she really is. And besides, Dekai and Sensei might not go on assassination missions, but I've been on a few. I'm not gonna ask you any details beyond this one."
"You shouldn't have even said that," deadpanned, exasperated, "but yeah, I ran into her." He wished Kushina were here, Aogu liked her, and she liked Aogu, but she had no qualms about driving off anyone on Minato's team when they got on her nerves. Though she did have to try pretty hard to find an excuse to fake outrage at Dekai. "But yes, I did. We probably had the same target."
"So she's not from Kumo or Tani," Aogu posited, trying to be helpful.
Minato shrugged, "She could've been from Tani, but I doubt it, she seemed pretty intent on getting out of there, and Tani isn't Kusa or Taki, it's pretty stable."
"Tani sucks, no way she was from Tani," Enko grumbled, mostly to herself. She had a point though, Tani wasn't renowned for the strength of its ninja, a whole squad of Uchiha letting a single Tani-nin escape from their grasp would be almost as embarrassing as a Yu-nin or Sono-nin evading them.
"Maybe Taki then, definitely not Iwa," Minato slid his bowl to Teuchi and reached for his wallet, "or Kusa," he added as an afterthought.
"That leaves Kiri, Suna, Ame, maybe even Shimo," Aogu posited, "was that all you wanted, Enko?"
The older girl shrugged, "I suppose," despite her seeming disinterest, she was eating a lot faster than the other Uchiha.
Not twenty seconds later, the curtain opened behind them and a man dressed in the blacks and grays of ANBU ducked to enter the stand. Minato was surprised, not only because Ichiraku was usually only this busy during dinner time, but also because he recognized the man, even without his mask. Butsu, the only member of Konoha's ANBU he knew of with a humanoid mask, or, as he was known sans-mask, Takuma Senju.
Takuma had several centimeters and almost ten years on Jiraiya-sensei, and had served in the capacity of ANBU Commander for as long as anyone Minato knew could remember. Despite the lines on his face and the gray around his temples, he was regarded inside the village as the Third Hokage's right hand. Some even wondered, had the Second Hokage lived any longer, if Takuma would have been his successor. Not that the Senju Clan was particularly nepotistic, rather the opposite, in fact, given how quickly it had practically dissolved into Konoha's general population, but the man had been Tobirama Senju's godson, and was one of the few people left who could remember the First Hokage. Not to mention that he was Hashirama's own grandson. That was how Minato knew both his masked and unmasked personas, actually, as Jiraiya-sensei had the misfortune of bringing his team in to see Tsunade while she was chewing out her cousin. Tsunade had been getting worse lately; fraying, as Orochimaru had put it when Jiraiya was unable to put the state she was in into words. It was only a matter of time until she left the village, that was clear, even if nobody wanted to say it.
But in the moment, Minato was wondering why the ANBU Commander was here, seemingly to see him, given how he was looking at the younger jounin.
Though he turned his attention to Enko first. "Enko Uchiha," he drew an envelope from his flak jacket and the girl paled, "give my regards to Plover," she took the envelope from him and saw that it was small, the type people give as gifts during special occasions. "I was unable to attend her wedding."
Enko smiled, tucking the gift into her jacket, "Thank you, Master Takuma," she inclined her head slightly. The Senju were a lot more understanding of clan ninja marrying civilians than the Uchiha were, and Enko was certain that Hazuki would appreciate the gesture from her former Commander.
"Of course," he said with a slight smile, before turning back to Minato, his face blank.
Minato would've preferred if it was knit with concern, or disinterest, or even anger. Anything but the neutral, businesslike expression someone in Takuma's position would have put on in a potentially uncomfortable situation.
"I should go," Enko said quickly, pushing her bowl away from her and standing up. "I'll give your regards to H- Plover," she bowed to the Senju, who still had yet to sit, "thanks for the ramen, Aogu."
"Hey, hold—" the other Uchiha went to say, but her clanswoman was already gone.
"Commander Senju, sir," Minato glanced behind the counter, and saw that Teuchi had disappeared into the back. "What's this regarding?" He kept his voice level, but there was a lump in his throat, had something happened to Jiraiya-sensei, out on the front? Had there been a problem with the Nine Tails' seal?
Takuma glanced at Aogu, who sullenly sipped at her noodles, "He's my teammate, probably wants me here," she said with a terse casualness that the ANBU Commander almost certainly didn't appreciate.
Minato nodded when the Senju looked back at him.
The ANBU Commander exhaled through his nose, "Namikaze, I'm sorry," he took out another envelope, this one also white, but sized for standard paper. He put it on the counter, even though Minato stuck out a hand to accept it. The older ninja's big, calloused and scarred hand found a place on his shoulder, and Minato swallowed that lump, only for it to be replaced by an even bigger one. "Irigawa was wiped off the map by a force of Kiri-nin. They were driven out of the country but over eighty percent of the village's population was killed. Your mother was among them, I'm sorry."
Oh. "Oh," he swallowed again, the lump disappearing, replaced by a strange hollowness in his chest. At least the tension was gone, even if he didn't relax. "Oh, I see," he said, looking away from the ANBU Commander, who withdrew his hand. "Thank you for telling me. Was her body recovered, at least?"
The big man nodded, "Yes, your," he stopped for a moment, remembering the exact relationship Minato shared with his next-of-kin, "sister-in-law took care of the arrangements."
"Thank you again, sir," Minato wondered if he should be tearing up, but he just felt hollow. His mother had been sick for a long time, he knew she was going to pass away soon, and she knew it. The last time he saw her, hooked up to expensive medical equipment in his childhood home, he got to say goodbye, but he intended to come back. He would have, if not for the war. "Is that all?"
"The burial has been seen to, everything else should be in the letter," he placed his hand on Minato's shoulder again, and gave it a firm squeeze, before departing.
"Minato," Aogu suppressed a swear, looking at her teammate with concern, "I'm so sorry," she said, voice low, "how did Kiri even get there?" She spat out, barely a beat separating the sentiments.
"It- thank you, Aogu," Minato was almost glad that Jiraiya-sensei hadn't been the one to deliver the news, he wouldn't have been quite as tactful as the ANBU Commander. "That's war, I suppose," he exhaled deeply, he didn't know how long he had been holding his breath. He noticed the ryo notes on the counter, and he sighed again, Takuma didn't have to do that. "Just, have another bowl with me, alright?"
"Yeah, sure," she said, and Teuchi magically appeared.
Minato used the silence to reflect. He was sad, sadder than he was when his father died, several years ago, after his promotion to chunin, but he didn't feel like expressing it. He just wanted to conduct himself like normal, be allowed quiet, to reflect. Aogu understood better than Jiraiya-sensei or Dekai, her father had died late in the last war and her mother was grievously injured on a mission while they were in the Academy. She even missed their graduation because of it. His other teammate and sensei were proper orphans, they could barely remember their parents. Briefly he mused on the fact that his whole team were orphans now, before thinking back to his family. He was the only one with two civilian parents, and the only one whose parents didn't live in Konoha, when they were alive. Irigawa was a little village on the crux of the Airo Peninsula, close to the border with the Land of Tea. His father, like most of the men in the village, was a fisherman, and his mother worked her way up to owning the largest fishing gear shop on that stretch of coast. Both of them were old when he was born, and they hadn't expected to be blessed with another child, despite their trying. He was healthy when he was born, another blessing that they hadn't expected, given how many children they had lost to failed pregnancies and infant mortality, which was still high in the countryside. He was the third of their sons to live past infancy, his eldest brother died more than a decade before Minato was born, and his middle brother, always sickly thanks to the damp seaside air, moved into the Land of Tea's dry highlands with his wife when Minato was very young. That brother, Hikishio, died shortly after Minato started the Academy, leaving his wife, Minato's sister-in-law Haruka, in charge of the sizable tea plantation he had built up. He also left behind two very young children, who Minato had only met twice. His father's stubbornness had gotten the old man killed, straining himself into a stroke while at sea, refusing to trust his boat to even his own crew of over twenty years. His mother was sick even then, having been struck by the same illness that had taken the life of her second son, which forced her into retirement.
As Minato had his second helping of ramen, the warm broth and extra pork Teuchi had given him without prompting helping fill the pit that was in his chest, he tore the letter open. It was from Haruka, which he suspected as soon as Takuma mentioned her. The young jounin's heart sank when reading the contents of the letter, though he was happy that he would be seeing what was left of his family so soon, the circumstances weren't ideal.
"What's wrong?" His teammate noticed the change in his expression from passive to a grimace, "Besides, you know." She trailed off, and Minato sighed, folding the letter and storing it for later.
"My sister-in-law," she was more like an aunt, really, but Minato never called her that, and his niece, the one time they had met when she was able to talk, called him her uncle. He couldn't help but smile at that memory. "Is coming to Konoha," Aogu gestured for him to continue, knowing that this was merely the silver lining to a bad situation, "but only because one of my b- one of her competitors hired some ninja from Sonogakure to torch her orchards. They forced her to sell."
"The stretch from Tea to Konoha is safe, at least," Aogu pointed out. "And your niece and nephew are pretty cute," she was close to finishing her second bowl, he was barely halfway done, and his appetite was rapidly shrinking.
"Yeah," he allowed himself a small smile, and Aogu patted him on the back, before standing with a stretch.
"You wanna, train or something?" She asked without concern in her voice, but with it clearly written on her face.
"No, I want to write Haruka back before she gets here, and I should get things ready for their arrival," he prodded his noodles with his chopsticks, "and I need to finish up here. Wouldn't want to refuse a gift from the Head of the Senju Clan."
His teammate snorted, "Yeah, all eight of them," she didn't even mention that the title was effectively vacant, and nobody knew if it actually fell to Takuma or to Tsunade, just that the former handled any official clan business, for what little the diminished Founding Clan still had. "You gonna write the letter at your girlfriend's?"
Minato instantly flushed red, his teammates knew how to push his buttons, but Dekai was too nice to do it, and Jiraiya-sensei was too awkward in situations like this to be able to defuse them like that. But Aogu wasn't. "Ku- she- I mean- we're not," it was hard to get Minato Namikaze to break his composure, but bringing up Kushina was one of the few ways to pull it off.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Aogu gave him a small, genuine smile, "but you should go see her. I may be able to sympathize with you, but this," she gestured vaguely, referring to the whole situation. "She's been through exactly what you're going through, even if she's never admitted to it."
It was true, Uzushio had been destroyed in the closing days of the Second War, when they'd all been very, very young. It was the one time Kiri and Kumo were able to put their differences aside, which fell apart very shortly afterwards. Kumo was eager to get their hands on any Uzumaki survivors, but Kiri was less (more?) pragmatic, headhunting the survivors until the red hair of the Uzumaki was completely extirpated from the Bay of Eddies. The Clan was scattered across the Elemental Nations, and while more than a few had made their way to Konohagakure, Kushina's parents weren't among them. She was more than unwilling to discuss her life between living in Uzushio and when she came to Konoha to enroll in the Academy, all anyone, including Minato knew was that she had lived in Enjou, the capital of the Land of Fire.
He intended to visit Kushina, when the maintenance on her seal was complete, but giving Aogu credit for the idea would make things less awkward between him and his teammate. "You're right Aogu, I'll go see her tonight. I heard that she would be busy today."
"Alright," she didn't give away whether or not she bought that it wasn't his idea to visit the village's most guarded kunoichi, "well, I'll be around, if you need me." She lifted the curtain to the ramen stand, "I won't be going to the front until Fugaku's back, at least," he wasn't sure if she should be referring to the Head of the Uchiha Clan by first name alone, but nobody here was going to bring up the breach of protocol, "so even if it's just to talk, you know where to find me."
"How about the usual training ground?" He asked, referring to the spot where they'd been meeting with Jiraiya-sensei since they were fresh genin, back during the tenuous interwar peace.
His teammate nodded, before ducking under the ramen stand's curtains and continuing on her way. Left alone, aside from silent Teuchi, Minato let himself be consumed by his thoughts. He finished the bowl with thanks to the ramen stand manager, who extended his condolences, before he, too, was on his way.
He would let Kushina yell at him, when he finally got to see her tonight. The redhead was doing it less and less, as it seemed puberty had actually calmed her down, but he'd always admired the fire inside her. Ironically, something about the girl's temper let him know that everything would be alright, that it could return to normal.
Naturally, thoughts of Kushina brought up thoughts of seals, and thoughts of seals reminded him that he had the clearance and opportunity to finally start reverse-engineering the matrices he had only recently been able to study. He could at least crack the seal before his relatives arrived.
The young jounin smiled sadly to himself, if he had had this time before, maybe he could have been at his mother's side. Not that he would have been able to move the medical equipment, but he could have been there. He resolved not to dwell on what could've been, and his smile widened a bit when he wondered if Aogu would be mad when he dragged her into the Hokage Tower's library tomorrow. Probably not, as she'd get to go into the section restricted to jounin clearance.
Idly, he flipped a kunai before catching it. He'd have to visit the blacksmith today too. All the better, he wanted to stay busy.
A/N2: Hope you enjoyed, even with the subject matter. I started this, then started on the actual chapter, then I read something that made me really want to write Minato, so this came out first. I really do like writing Minato, even when he isn't being the murder blender that Tsubaki would like to get to know better.
T/N: Sonogakure is the (OC) Hidden Village of the Land of Tea. It translates to the Village Hidden in/among the Gardens, a reflection of the agrarian nature of its nation. I also think that it would be more concerned with aesthetics than the other Hidden Villages. Aogu is another reading of 'Ougi', referring to the fact that Minato's unnamed teammate she's based on is pretty androgynous. The other teammate, whose skin and hair color change in every one of his (sparse) appearances is apparently named Dekai. Irigawa means "inlet on the creek/small river", and Enjou means "Fire Fortress", appropriate for the Land of Fire's capital, I think. Butsu means Buddha, which I almost used but didn't because I honestly can't remember if the English dub ever used that word and it would be kind of weird if Buddha existed as a concept in-verse, even if Guanyin/Kannon and other Buddhist and Shinto concepts are referenced.
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Minato has always been an interesting character. It would be neat if we could be allied with him in a fight (maybe versus A & B once Tsubaki has improved), but that definitely isn't happening any time soon.
I guess I'm surprised Kiri is attacking in so many places. They got their buts kicked in Lightning, and have forces in a bunch of minor nations.
I guess I'm surprised Kiri is attacking in so many places. They got their buts kicked in Lightning, and have forces in a bunch of minor nations.
Cecylene
Eternal Idea Engine
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If you can ravage enough supply lines and force your enemies to disperse to defend you can find weak points to being major assaulting elements to create a breach. Kiri needs to remain on the offensive as they can't win a defensive war due to issues with losing access to the supplies on the mainland.
Kiri needs everyone to expect an attack from Kiri forces to potentially come from any direction so that they don't have the forces to actually attack Kiri itself. However long this lasts will be up to how long it takes for someone to either break Kiri's spirit or show them a good enough offer is my guess.
or until attrition results in them just not having enough ninjas left to keep it up.