I believe that would be Skull Island.
Tome of the Orange Sky (Naruto/MGLN)
- Thread starter CmptrWz
- Start date
- Crossover
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- mgln naruto naruto uzumaki complete
But he in no way would be above teasing Naruto about it as soon as he figures out that it can work that way. Especially if he is reasonably certain that Naruto wouldn't abuse it
- Location
- none of your business
Okay, but disregarding Goku, where'd we even get the Megafauna?
- Location
- Oregon, USA
I think that's part of the point. The FoD seal's chakra cycling through the local wildlife would likely, eventually, make the megafauna. As long as no one was culling the creatures before they got too big and deadly, anyway.
- Location
- Georgia
Jiraiya does seem to go out of his way in canon to be easy enough to find that even a civilian has a chance at spotting him. The chance of being caught might even be part of the fun for him. He would, however, never claim that he was doing that intentionally, and would most likely make a show of being disappointed in Naruto's lack of pervi-ness, regardless of his actual feelings on the matter. He has an image to maintain, after all.
I always figured Jiraiya was a masochist. 🤷♀️
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Canonically, the dude is the Konoha spymaster, and even beyond all of the shouted technique names the
I can't think of any reason for that other than him going out of his way to hold up the neon sign. Part of that might be for his persona (he's so in-your-face all the time, and an established author, it's easy to overlook the "spymaster" part) but also because he's not really trying to get away with it - it's more of a game to him than anything.
AzrielIlluminare
Mothman Cultist
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Especially when we see in his infiltration of the Rain Village just how sneaky he can be when he wants to be. The only reason he got caught so fast is because he didn't know that Nagato/Pain used the rain as a sensory technique.
So if he wanted to peep, and not get caught, he easily could do so.
So if he wanted to peep, and not get caught, he easily could do so.
- Location
- Georgia
First, pay attention to their faces. Their lips almost never move when you hear their voice announcing the technique in the anime. That isn't for the people in universe, who have a much better chance of figuring out what's going on, but for the viewers.
Fanon seems to be pretty united that Jiraiya really is a perv, since he's shown doing the same things as a genin, but that he is usually using his own reputation as a screen for his more subtle business. You can't tell when he's meeting a contact in a brothel or if he's just meeting Ms Right Now in a brothel.
And it's not like "old Shinobi" aren't expected to heavily frequent brothels. Finding Mr or Mrs Right is fairy tale dream material for the typical Shinobi, Shinobi pairings are often more convenience / eugenical than anything beyond distant respect.
And for those who aren't forcibly paired for breeding purposes, good luck finding someone you can have a healthy relationship with.
The vast majority of civilians won't be able to get past your job description (to be fair, "murderer for hire" is justifiably off-putting), and the other Shinobi are too busy being Shinobi to spend much time in a healthy mindset conducive to more than clinical intimacy.
The proper Shinobi mindset doesn't help... as Shinobi are assassins, the proper mindset for one is (in part) "have at least one plan drawn up to kill everyone you meet."
Edit: added on bit about assassin mindset
And for those who aren't forcibly paired for breeding purposes, good luck finding someone you can have a healthy relationship with.
The vast majority of civilians won't be able to get past your job description (to be fair, "murderer for hire" is justifiably off-putting), and the other Shinobi are too busy being Shinobi to spend much time in a healthy mindset conducive to more than clinical intimacy.
The proper Shinobi mindset doesn't help... as Shinobi are assassins, the proper mindset for one is (in part) "have at least one plan drawn up to kill everyone you meet."
Edit: added on bit about assassin mindset
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- Location
- Scotland
Technically that's more of a generic fighter mindset than specifically an assassin one. The assassin mindset is more specifically "How can I kill that person without everyone knowing it was me." Even then very few Shinobi really seem to be all that stealthy, being more front-line soldier than silent assassin. As for your comment on Shinobi not being able to form healthy long term relationships I don't think so. Effectively they are soldiers permanently based out of one location that are surrounded by fellow soldiers whom they will likely get to know quite well when running missions together which can easily lead to healthy relationships. After all they may both be soldiers but they're soldiers working for the same country. Getting the time needed isn't even that hard since not only do you most likely have mandatory downtime after missions above D rank but you can only train so many hours a day. Not only that but the civilians of Konoha proper will be well used to Shinobi foibles so are quite likely to be able to put up with those foibles while some Shinobi might prefer a civilian partner just for the stability aspect of someone to come home to.
- Location
- united states
Time to figure out the Earth Dyaimo's favorite snack recipe and start selling it so he'll be reluctant to start anything with his new supplier.
Chapter 61 - The Coliseum
"...why do you have a pile of copies of Nuibari?" Hinata asked as Naruto reorganized one of the storage areas in the bunker underneath the Uzumaki compound. She'd popped open a storage seal, probably after reading the label stuck to it.
"Found them in Uzushio," Naruto replied.
"They had a bunch of copies?"
"Three different tailor shops had some, yes. There are larger versions in the next seal, and a bunch of smaller versions as well. As far as I can tell, Uzumaki tailors used them as actual sewing needles on large projects."
"...I'm carrying a legendary sword that was literally made for sewing instead of as a weapon?"
"Found a set of tools that remind me of Kabutowari as well in a collection of tools for chopping down trees, but not in pairs. Four different hammer sizes with seals to improve their striking power and eight different ax sizes with seals to improve their cutting power. Makes me wonder if someone in Kiri ambushed an Uzumaki woodsman or something? Giving Kiri a giant sewing needle and calling it a sword sounds like a neat prank though. I've also got a tanto-sized version of Kubikiribocho now too, apparently the fully-functional prototype to prove that the larger one could work. Alongside notes that the larger one was supposed to be the size of a normal sword, so there were probably three different sizes made. No clue where the reasonable one is, but it wasn't in the ruins. Possibly destroyed during fighting."
"And you just stuck them all in storage?"
"Of course not. The tanto-sized Kubikiribocho replaced one of my other tantos in my armbands and I assembled a full set of needles and the tree chopping tools into a scroll for Tenten's birthday."
Hinata blinked a couple of times. "For her birthday?"
"I figure it's suitable revenge for her birthday gift to me last month, essentially giving her legendary weapons that aren't intended to be weapons at all. Even if she swears that her seal wasn't supposed to slam the bowl of ramen into my face at speed."
"Oh."
"Has Shisui told you about wanting us to infiltrate the Coliseum?"
"...no, he hasn't said anything about that."
"Ah. He mentioned it to me when I was reporting on other things and wasn't sure if he'd brought it up with you yet. I've got clones working on getting out there to build a bunker so that we can hopefully do things more easily. Little bit of island-hopping needed to get out that far as I'd only gotten Uzushio bunkers near villages in and around the big five and I'd rather that we not show up flying or on a ship that'll be scrutinized. Hitting a couple of the island nations I'd skipped because they're not close enough to the big five in the process, but that's a side bonus."
She nodded, but frowned. "Why are we infiltrating the place? Is there a sign of someone important having gotten involved?"
"I got the impression that he just wants to shut it down. The bulk of the fighters there are shinobi being treated as slaves by rich assholes and he mentioned that raiding the coffers would be a good start to making the entire thing fall apart even if we don't do anything more than that. Since it's out of the way and completely unconnected to the minor war it's also apparently a fair target right now, and supposedly there's a major event that will have lots of money arriving for wagers that we'd then be able to make vanish. Even better, emptying their coffers is going to be bonus money for us."
"Which is another reason to not be seen arriving. Someone who isn't there couldn't possibly be involved in the thefts and sabotage."
"Of course. We could probably slip in as animals on one of the ships, but I don't think we'll need to as they don't seem to have security barriers protecting the island. As for the timing, I think he's waiting until he has confirmation of the timing of whatever event is happening before giving us the mission."
It took a couple of weeks for the official mission to come in, seemingly coincidentally after Ino had returned from a mission she and Anko had been on. They'd dragged academy students out to make a noble's life hell as a way of seeing how good the kids could infiltrate in a reasonably safe environment. Apparently a few of them had done reasonably well, but the bulk of them had done little more than serve as a distraction for the few good ones.
Hanabi had been included and had supposedly been the best, but she was also the only one with actual shapeshifting available. She'd been very happy about it at dinner after returning, attending in her disguise of a normal civilian boy, but her best work had apparently been done while running around as a cat. Her classmates were largely clueless as to how she managed things as well, but Anko and Ino were well aware.
"This is a reasonably simple mission on the surface," Shisui said after calling them to his office. "The Coliseum is a blight and all villages have lost shinobi to those grabbing people to fight in it. Further, the Daimyo is backing this mission because he suspects that a couple of nobles looking to oust his family are using it as a way to raise funds. Shutting the place down and ensuring that nobody there leaves with their money is the primary goal. Anything that causes further problems for those running the place is encouraged, and ensuring that it can't be reestablished in the same location has been requested."
"But underneath there's the problem of a bunch of enslaved shinobi being made to fight each other," Ino said with a frown. "Which complicates a lot."
"Yes. While these slaves can be bought or sold, they mostly change hands through the actual fights. Our information says that the owner of the winner acquires the loser in most of the match formats. I don't know what to tell you about how to handle the slaves as we have no information on how they're controlled."
"Likely in a variety of ways," Hinata said. "Which will probably complicate things."
"That wouldn't surprise me. On the financial side, as far as we know the money mostly changes hands through the betting, with funds for each individual needing to be deposited before events. Any unspent funds and winnings minus a small percentage are paid out afterwards. My hope is that nobody is going to notice the funds physically vanishing until things are over, no matter what else you do, but it's also possible that our information on that is wrong or won't apply for this event for some reason."
"Or that they have actual security seals worth the name that will slow us down," Naruto added. "There isn't much you can do about fooling some time-based locking seals, so if they use something like that we might not be able to get into the vaults to empty them ahead of time unless we make the vaults themselves vanish."
"...did you just admit to there being security you can't just casually slip by?"
"I can't casually slip by the blood seals on your records either."
"Unless you get access to some of my blood."
"Well, there is that. Think I'm a few years from doing that casually though."
"You did well enough against Onoki."
"Only because he let his guard down and sat on a paralysis seal. Even that might not have been enough if he'd not already released his flying technique because then he could've launched the chair right out the window instead. Before then a coordinated set of piercing attacks could've overwhelmed me, but most of the defenders were intimidated by the Uzushio reputation before I reached the gate and once I showed that I had 'dust release' they didn't dare attack me due to its reputation. Long story short, planning and a healthy dose of luck handled that."
"Getting hit by an attack when you returned probably sold the distinction between you and the Uzushio Anbu though," Hinata pointed out.
"...probably. I don't recommend that method of proving things though."
"It took less than an hour for you to be ready to pull us to the island," Ino said, looking around the field they'd been summoned to. "Most of which was probably waiting for us to be ready. I assume you have a bunker here?"
"Things took longer than I thought for us to get the mission so I've been doing quite a bit of prepwork," Naruto admitted, popping open a bunker entrance next to him. "I've got a ring of bunkers around the island at this point, connected to each other with tunnels. Only two rigged for coming and going, one as a backup for the other. They do regularly use the time-based locking seals I mentioned as well, which is why I mentioned them, and we've got two weeks before the big tournament coming up to decide how to handle those details. Unfortunately, the bulk of the slaves aren't kept here between events."
"So we have two weeks of waiting?" Hinata asked.
"Two weeks to prepare for gutting the entire criminal industry here is more like it. The Coliseum itself is just the main attraction, with a couple dozen other businesses here peddling in illegal everything you can think of. I figure we prepare for looting everything at once, though we also need to decide how to handle the slaves. Almost tempted to see if we can 'steal' them too, getting them off the island without anyone seeing how. The biggest problem is the Uzumaki helping with seals."
The girls both blinked at that, but Ino recovered first. "The Uzumaki helping with seals?"
Naruto sighed. "Yes. There's one man of Uzumaki descent here that appears to be one of those in charge. He seems to be behind the various seals here, though none of them are all that advanced. The most impressive two are the water summoning seal and the sets of time-based locking seals, both of which he has scrolls detailing and I've already made copies of them. There's also something weird about his eyes, so there's a good chance he either got transplants or is also descended from someone with a dojutsu. Either way he keeps them covered by sunglasses."
"Huh."
"What do we want to do with him?" Hinata asked.
"Well," Naruto said. "That's...diplomatically problematic in a couple of ways. In theory we're outside of the jurisdiction of any of the major countries, but in practice this place runs off of the black markets of said countries. By convention and treaty, the nearest major countries can choose to step in and arrest everyone at any time."
"...which would be Kiri or Kumo, based on the map of where the island is?"
"Indeed, with the Land of Fire being too far away to count. Those same conventions and treaties don't allow us to arrest anyone for crimes committed out here unless they have Land of Fire identification on them, and if it was discovered that we arrested anyone else then it would be a semi-major diplomatic problem. Now, this obviously doesn't stop us from grabbing bounties, but none of the ones we're going to want to deal with seem to have any."
"That seems to give us amazingly few options," Ino said, frowning. "At least without risking major diplomatic incidents if things get discovered."
"No," Hinata said with a sigh. "It leaves us with very clear options. Anyone with no bounty and no Land of Fire paperwork either needs to be left alive and out of our custody or killed outright. Preferably without anyone knowing that Konoha was behind things if we're letting witnesses escape. Unless Naruto wants to stick anyone we don't kill into an Uzushio prison of some kind instead, anyway."
"...didn't build one," Naruto admitted with a shrug. "But 'left alive' doesn't necessarily mean 'unmaimed' or 'with the ability to control chakra' so long as we aren't tied back to those conditions. Oh, and we can rob them all we want first too. Might be interesting if we send anyone we leave alive back to the mainland on a single cramped boat?"
Jiraiya checked his notes on nobles to 'relieve of excess funds' in the coming weeks while they were heading to the Coliseum. Well, technically it was 'suspected of heading to the Coliseum' instead of anything else, and all but one were thought to be going purely to be in the audience and didn't have any slaves to 'participate' with. But that was supporting the whole thing and it made sense to hit them extra hard by ensuring they had problems when they returned. Assuming they returned at all.
It was too bad that the Land of Water was still recovering from the civil war and in no position to go after the island while Kumo was too busy dealing with Iwa and the Earth Daimyo's stupidity for the Land of Lightning to step in. The Daimyos weren't going to complain about the island being shut down though, and had actually given permission through backchannels, but the nobles could cause problems if it was done openly.
These days it felt like it was always a mistake to look into or otherwise get involved in politics. Far too important to ignore, yet still a mistake.
Still, getting the mess cleaned up was worth putting some of his own funds into the mission pool. Funds he fully intended to recoup from the homes of those he knew were going to see and/or participate in the upcoming event. One of whom he just realized had a full signed set of his books...
Perhaps he'd take a cue from Team Yurei and grab a bit more than just the money kept hidden in the houses. An extra set of signed early editions to give to proper fans would be nice too, for that matter, since the ones nobles got generally weren't personalized like the ones his less-wealthy true fans tended to get...
"This entire place is a mess," Ino said as she cleaned up her plate from dinner.
"Far too many things that no civilized group should ever be dealing in," Naruto agreed. "Good on you for spotting the contact poisons I'd missed in my cursory evaluations of the safes though."
"They're not dangerous to us, but it's definitely a clever security measure on most of them, plus a couple of the storerooms. I'm still not sure how you missed it with the shopkeepers all ensuring they had special gloves on to open things though."
"Well, the safes in particular also have seals that attack anyone who makes skin contact with them unless they're the one who put the seal in place. All of them were placed by the resident Uzumaki, so everyone else has to avoid skin contact. The contact poisons might be an attempt to make it harder for him to get in."
"...oh."
"I'm more annoyed at the proliferation of time-based locking seals in the lead-up to people beginning to arrive tomorrow."
"Naruto," Hinata interjected. "You installed linked storage seals in all the safes so that you could empty them at will despite those seals."
"And those are a pain to keep functional around the time-based seals. Not only do I need to keep the linked pairs close, I also need to keep them stationary relative to the safes or the time-based seals will disrupt the connection when engaged. That's why I had to put in small tunnels under most of the businesses and the ones where the safes are on an upper floor I had to put the paired seal on the back wall of the building. If someone with the right dojutsu wanders back there and looks up they'll potentially spot them, and that's without worrying about other kinds of sensors. The focus should hopefully be away from those areas, and most visitors won't be likely to realize that it's unusual, but I need to keep clones stationed to watch all of the seals just in case."
"Ugh," Ino said, grimacing. "I hadn't realized how much trouble that was, just so that we can rob them all blind. Why are we bothering when we already determined that we'd be better off killing everyone that lives here other than the few slaves kept on the island?"
"In case someone like Orochimaru shows up in support of the assholes and we switch to 'vacate the island with all the loot we can carry' mode, hoping that the chaos of all the money vanishing does most of our job for us in the aftermath. With any luck we'll already have everything that isn't part of the buildings themselves or in the Coliseum itself by the time it becomes an issue, though we will have to watch out for anyone else deciding to grab stuff while everyone is distracted."
"Are we sure we haven't missed something?" Hinata asked with a frown. "No guards at all during the tournament is a bit weird."
"All the storerooms have basic security seals, and I'm fairly certain that a large robbery will have those in charge preventing anyone from leaving until the culprit is found. Ino did find out that they control all the ships that come and go instead of letting people bring their own. This is also their largest event yet and possibly the one that they hope will cement their place in the world, so a black mark like that on it wouldn't be allowed to stand. I can't be certain, but I also think those in charge might have mandated that everyone on the island will attend. Based on the new-looking hidden cameras, they probably want blackmail material."
"Ah. And if this is well-known enough for Konoha to take advantage of then who knows who else will show up."
Ino shivered. "Which is why the backup plan is to mysteriously vanish with all the money and supplies."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. On the other hand, we also have to be on the lookout for those that might make our task easier because they're looking to do something similar. I'm not about to complain about someone else helping to free the slaves or take out those in charge. If someone like Orochimaru shows up and we can tell that they have similar goals then we can potentially leave a lot of the dirty work to them."
Kisame shifted a little on the bottom of the ship full of wealthy idiots, annoyed at how slow this was. But he didn't actually know how to get to the Coliseum, so he was tagging along instead. It wasn't the kind of thing he'd expected to be doing a few years ago, but he was pragmatic enough to realize that when circumstances changed? So did plans. Uzushiogakure appearing out of fucking nowhere and killing the tailed beasts had scrapped all plans to use them to try to force some kind of lasting peace through violence, so more subtle plans needed to be used instead. On top of related details such as the Eye of the Moon plan needing an intact moon.
The old plans were, well, completely fucked. Either entirely by Uzushiogakure or by them and whoever the hell had a way to implode the moon.
So instead he was doing things like ensuring that the Coliseum and its whole slave fighters deal didn't continue. Most of those involved were the worst kind of people anyway, even if they were 'respected' from a civilian point of view. Liars and charlatans, pretending to be what they weren't and making the world worse because of it. By comparison, shinobi were generally far more true to themselves, at least usually admitting that they'd lie for money. That didn't make them better, admittedly. No matter his own long-term desires, he knew he was trash in his own way. But there was still plenty of violence needed before then, and he was good at that. Very little left in the way of secrets to protect though, which was mildly annoying...
...and he wasn't good at being patient and keeping his chakra suppressed while underwater for days, making this almost a form of torture. If he could've hidden in Samehada then it would be different, but that wasn't an option in this case. But he could also tell that other ships were nearby again, so they were almost certainly getting close.
Utakata looked out over the water at the other ship the one they were on was approaching, frowning slightly before speaking softly to make it harder to be overheard. "We aren't the only ones slipping in."
"Oh?" Hotaru asked, equally softly, from next to him.
"I do believe that Kisame is riding the bottom of that ship. He's doing a decent job of hiding, but I'm too familiar with him and Samehada."
"Ah."
"Very good chance that he'll either be willing to help or at least won't get in our way after explaining what we're trying to do. I doubt that he's here to do something that would be in direct opposition to us, anyway."
"There are more slaves than we expected on this ship alone."
"Yes, so we could use the help if he's willing to provide it. Kakuzo spoke highly of him when he stumbled upon us."
"When he helped you save me from being used as a living weapon, you mean."
"And from your own stupidity in asking to have a kinjutsu embedded in your body, yes." He gave her a look, still unsure about the change in her attire. Since his...merging with Saiken had begun, giving him a slimy slug tail and a tendency to occasionally release slime from other parts of his body, she'd switched to clothing that was better suited to occasionally being slime-coated...and also happened to be tighter-fitting.
He was reasonably certain that the latter detail had been her primary consideration, no matter how embarrassed she'd been when first wearing the things. She'd claimed it was because it kept his slime from getting trapped under the clothing, but as far as he could tell she didn't actually care about that. Instead, she spent more time teasing him whenever she caught him looking, and seemed to use that to get over the embarrassment.
"Do you think anyone else is looking to do the same thing?" she asked after a moment.
"...possibly," he conceded. "But there may also be those who merely wish to take over. We should've considered that before deciding to come out here."
"Huh. I wonder if anyone else was looking for that death god cult that Kakuzo was hunting down? He seemed happy when Tonbee had information on them..."
"Nine different individuals or groups wanting to cause trouble," Naruto said. "Six want to take over, one wants to steal the slaves, and the last two are discussing teaming up to kill those in charge and free the slaves."
"Do you think we can approach them?" Ino asked.
"It looks like two Kiri missing-nin and an unknown," Hinata said. "Konoha...probably shouldn't openly associate with them, for a number of reasons. But Naruto could probably approach them as Uzushio?"
"I'd likely need to do so in the next thirty minutes," Naruto noted with a frown.
"Just use Kyo again. She's a known entity, and it looks like one of the big problems they have is figuring out how to get the slaves off of the island. They're also strong enough to handle a lot of the fighting so we hopefully don't need to step in as much there."
"...true."
Fifteen minutes later Naruto was in the Kyo guise again and she was floating along. Her approach was only somewhat disguised, there being enough chakra signatures on the island now to make her hard to pick up at range for most sensors unfamiliar with her chakra. Despite that, it was obvious when Kisame and Utakata realized she was approaching, the unknown woman being shifted off into a flanking position in the bushes.
"Good evening," Kyo greeted as she entered the small clearing the three had been speaking in.
"Oh shit," Kisame whispered upon getting a good look at her, likely unaware that she could hear him.
"May I ask who you are?" Utakata questioned, obviously not fully recognizing the signs of an Uzushio Anbu.
"You may," Kyo replied.
He waited a moment before frowning. "...well?"
"Well what? I gave you permission to ask."
That was enough to cause Kisame to snort. Utakata seemed to be biting back a groan, but after a moment he recovered. "Who are you?"
"I am Kyo of Uzushiogakure. My understanding is that you are Utakata, formerly of Kirigakure, and your companion is Kisame Hoshigaki, preferring to go simply by Kisame, also formerly of Kirigakure and more recently of Akatsuki. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have been provided information on your female companion hiding in the bushes."
"...you don't know everything?" Kisame asked, seemingly surprised as Utakata seemed to be reevaluating things.
"We cannot be everywhere at once and must focus our attention on those items that we deem to be immediately important. For example, the Uzumaki we found was part of the group running this island, bringing shame on the family name."
"So you aren't going to kill us?"
"We prefer to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, but fear that there will be no rehabilitation of those in charge here."
"My personal concern is getting the slaves off of the island," Utakata admitted, nervously glancing at the bushes the woman was hiding in. "...or at least those willing to go. Some I believe are only slaves for the purposes of the island and are otherwise treated as equals off of it."
Kyo nodded. "We have ways on and off of the island that do not depend on their boats."
"Some of your teleport seals?" Kisame asked, taking Kyo by surprise.
"I was not aware that you knew of those," she admitted. "But yes, those are an option."
"Leader-sama claims to have seen, but not used, a pair. He didn't elaborate where, but warned us that they made it meaningless to follow your people."
That...implied that someone had broken into one of the bunkers or 'Leader-sama' was an Uzumaki and had been able to get access to the bunkers that way. Nowhere else would there have been 'a pair'. Being an Uzumaki felt more likely right now, and definitely needed later investigation.
"An option?" Utakata asked.
"Tobirama Senju was a genius and created a number of incredibly useful techniques, even if the most famous are not attributed to him. Others are less known for good reason."
"...okay..."
"You can get the slaves that wish to leave off of the island without boats," Kisame said. "That's the important part for Utakata's purposes. My concern lies mostly in that you seem unlikely to kill me just because I'm here to kill those in charge."
"That is indeed the case," Kyo agreed. "We haven't had time to evaluate the slave owners though, and as such haven't decided what to do with those that are merely playing along. At the same time, there are others that are here to do their best to kill off the current island leaders to take over." She pulled a stack of pictures out of a seal, copies of ones sent back to Konoha to have the more complete set of bounty books checked, and tossed them to the shark-like missing-nin.
"Target-rich environment with a need to be somewhat careful around the visitors if they aren't attacking me. Don't normally have to worry about the latter, but I can handle it." He flipped through the pictures, nodding. "I recognize a couple of these assholes too."
"Then the only other concern is the island itself," Utakata said. "It's possible that someone else will come in and set up similarly, even if the buildings are leveled."
"There's limited fresh water here," Kyo pointed out. "At least without seals that won't exist when we're done. But otherwise that's a good point. We may be able to make it less useful as a location for criminals going forward." Perhaps by setting it up as a bit of a secondary Uzushio outpost? But with the defenses turned on...
Orochimaru frowned as the resurrection failed, the sixteenth that had done so. Originally he'd thought that his samples were just unsuitable, but eventually he'd decided to kill two proverbial birds with one proverbial stone and kill a traitor before trying to bring them back with a second traitor as the sacrifice.
"I do believe that something has happened," he finally said. "I know this worked before the moon was destroyed, and a lot of other things changed around the same time...but how would this be connected?"
"Perhaps something was holding open the path to the afterlife," Guren noted.
"Possibly, but I have no clue what that could be. Being unable to resurrect my dead assistants and scientists to find out what they might have left out of reports is annoying."
"You just wished to be able to punish Kabuto after finding out that he'd been sabotaging your work for years."
"...that is part of it, yes, but Amachi's work on Isaribi seems to have stopped her body's aging entirely as well. Something that he didn't document and that didn't seem to be part of what he did to himself. I was hoping to question him on that, to see if it was intentional or if it was happenstance."
"Ah. And you expected him to tell you, even after modifying himself and failing to get revenge when you showed up to check on things?"
"I had hoped that a combination of the technique and accusing him of being an idiot would work. Sadly, this also means that I'm going to have to send you off with Isaribi. I was able to fix the obvious mistakes he made with her, which I honestly believe to have been intentional to control her, but that isn't the potential reversal of what he did that she wants. Though she can now look fully human, she isn't."
Guren frowned at that. "That's an...unusual amount of care for others for you."
"Seems wrong from someone who once had you kill the very woman that had taken care of you when you fell unconscious attacking their village, I assume? Or for that matter that wiped out the entire village that had been mistreating you, perhaps? I may cultivate the impression that I do that kind of thing for fun, but wanton killing for the sake of wanton killing is a waste. No, I was paid to kill the adults of both villages. The one where I tested you as a warning to the country's Daimyo from the one that permitted me to set up my hidden village, for example. I just attempt to accomplish more than wanton killing in such cases."
"Oh. So that's why you gathered the children, because you were only being paid to kill the adults?"
"In that village, yes, though admittedly I was also following rumors of a clan with a connection to the three-tails. When I picked you up I was testing a couple of others while cleaning up an attempt at creating a plague, the three weeks of work I did on you and the two others collected that day being needed to purge the infection from you. Still, in this case it is less care and more keeping my personal word. After killing Amachi I promised the girl that I would do everything in my power to restore her to normal to get her assistance in collecting the man's files and to return with me, and as it stands I have to admit personal defeat."
"You...are a bit reserved with outright promises. Far more likely to let others make assumptions."
"I am, yes. And when I can't follow through on my promises for whatever reason I do try to be honest about it, such as being unable to use you as a host body."
"Due to whatever caused you to 'settle' into your current one more completely than expected?"
"Yes...and come to think of it, that happened after the moon's destruction too...hmmm. Still, for Isaribi I have one last option available, but one that I can't do in person. I'm wanted in Konoha and thus can't personally deliver the girl to a superior medic. With any luck, Tsunade will figure out how Amachi stopped the girl's aging too and document it so that I can grab a copy of the notes in a year or two."
Guren nodded, and he suspected that she was reevaluating her views of him. Given that she was proving to be more loyal than Kabuto had been, if less skilled in the ways he'd been skilled, that was okay. "So, given Amachi's successes, why did you pull your funding for his projects?"
Orochimaru shrugged. "His methods had already proven to only work on those with strong water nature, and rendered other elements difficult to use. My original goal was to improve the ability for all my subordinates to function in water, but it was obvious that he was ignoring that they'd need to also remain effective on land. A fact that I demonstrated quite nicely when I pulled away from the ocean and then easily finished him and his created 'summon' off when they were no longer able to use the water to their advantage. Besides, he really should've been grabbing bandits and pirates instead of getting lazy and taking townspeople. Doing the latter drew far too much attention to what he was doing, and I feel more justified after seeing how crappy his notes actually were."
"Found them in Uzushio," Naruto replied.
"They had a bunch of copies?"
"Three different tailor shops had some, yes. There are larger versions in the next seal, and a bunch of smaller versions as well. As far as I can tell, Uzumaki tailors used them as actual sewing needles on large projects."
"...I'm carrying a legendary sword that was literally made for sewing instead of as a weapon?"
"Found a set of tools that remind me of Kabutowari as well in a collection of tools for chopping down trees, but not in pairs. Four different hammer sizes with seals to improve their striking power and eight different ax sizes with seals to improve their cutting power. Makes me wonder if someone in Kiri ambushed an Uzumaki woodsman or something? Giving Kiri a giant sewing needle and calling it a sword sounds like a neat prank though. I've also got a tanto-sized version of Kubikiribocho now too, apparently the fully-functional prototype to prove that the larger one could work. Alongside notes that the larger one was supposed to be the size of a normal sword, so there were probably three different sizes made. No clue where the reasonable one is, but it wasn't in the ruins. Possibly destroyed during fighting."
"And you just stuck them all in storage?"
"Of course not. The tanto-sized Kubikiribocho replaced one of my other tantos in my armbands and I assembled a full set of needles and the tree chopping tools into a scroll for Tenten's birthday."
Hinata blinked a couple of times. "For her birthday?"
"I figure it's suitable revenge for her birthday gift to me last month, essentially giving her legendary weapons that aren't intended to be weapons at all. Even if she swears that her seal wasn't supposed to slam the bowl of ramen into my face at speed."
"Oh."
"Has Shisui told you about wanting us to infiltrate the Coliseum?"
"...no, he hasn't said anything about that."
"Ah. He mentioned it to me when I was reporting on other things and wasn't sure if he'd brought it up with you yet. I've got clones working on getting out there to build a bunker so that we can hopefully do things more easily. Little bit of island-hopping needed to get out that far as I'd only gotten Uzushio bunkers near villages in and around the big five and I'd rather that we not show up flying or on a ship that'll be scrutinized. Hitting a couple of the island nations I'd skipped because they're not close enough to the big five in the process, but that's a side bonus."
She nodded, but frowned. "Why are we infiltrating the place? Is there a sign of someone important having gotten involved?"
"I got the impression that he just wants to shut it down. The bulk of the fighters there are shinobi being treated as slaves by rich assholes and he mentioned that raiding the coffers would be a good start to making the entire thing fall apart even if we don't do anything more than that. Since it's out of the way and completely unconnected to the minor war it's also apparently a fair target right now, and supposedly there's a major event that will have lots of money arriving for wagers that we'd then be able to make vanish. Even better, emptying their coffers is going to be bonus money for us."
"Which is another reason to not be seen arriving. Someone who isn't there couldn't possibly be involved in the thefts and sabotage."
"Of course. We could probably slip in as animals on one of the ships, but I don't think we'll need to as they don't seem to have security barriers protecting the island. As for the timing, I think he's waiting until he has confirmation of the timing of whatever event is happening before giving us the mission."
It took a couple of weeks for the official mission to come in, seemingly coincidentally after Ino had returned from a mission she and Anko had been on. They'd dragged academy students out to make a noble's life hell as a way of seeing how good the kids could infiltrate in a reasonably safe environment. Apparently a few of them had done reasonably well, but the bulk of them had done little more than serve as a distraction for the few good ones.
Hanabi had been included and had supposedly been the best, but she was also the only one with actual shapeshifting available. She'd been very happy about it at dinner after returning, attending in her disguise of a normal civilian boy, but her best work had apparently been done while running around as a cat. Her classmates were largely clueless as to how she managed things as well, but Anko and Ino were well aware.
"This is a reasonably simple mission on the surface," Shisui said after calling them to his office. "The Coliseum is a blight and all villages have lost shinobi to those grabbing people to fight in it. Further, the Daimyo is backing this mission because he suspects that a couple of nobles looking to oust his family are using it as a way to raise funds. Shutting the place down and ensuring that nobody there leaves with their money is the primary goal. Anything that causes further problems for those running the place is encouraged, and ensuring that it can't be reestablished in the same location has been requested."
"But underneath there's the problem of a bunch of enslaved shinobi being made to fight each other," Ino said with a frown. "Which complicates a lot."
"Yes. While these slaves can be bought or sold, they mostly change hands through the actual fights. Our information says that the owner of the winner acquires the loser in most of the match formats. I don't know what to tell you about how to handle the slaves as we have no information on how they're controlled."
"Likely in a variety of ways," Hinata said. "Which will probably complicate things."
"That wouldn't surprise me. On the financial side, as far as we know the money mostly changes hands through the betting, with funds for each individual needing to be deposited before events. Any unspent funds and winnings minus a small percentage are paid out afterwards. My hope is that nobody is going to notice the funds physically vanishing until things are over, no matter what else you do, but it's also possible that our information on that is wrong or won't apply for this event for some reason."
"Or that they have actual security seals worth the name that will slow us down," Naruto added. "There isn't much you can do about fooling some time-based locking seals, so if they use something like that we might not be able to get into the vaults to empty them ahead of time unless we make the vaults themselves vanish."
"...did you just admit to there being security you can't just casually slip by?"
"I can't casually slip by the blood seals on your records either."
"Unless you get access to some of my blood."
"Well, there is that. Think I'm a few years from doing that casually though."
"You did well enough against Onoki."
"Only because he let his guard down and sat on a paralysis seal. Even that might not have been enough if he'd not already released his flying technique because then he could've launched the chair right out the window instead. Before then a coordinated set of piercing attacks could've overwhelmed me, but most of the defenders were intimidated by the Uzushio reputation before I reached the gate and once I showed that I had 'dust release' they didn't dare attack me due to its reputation. Long story short, planning and a healthy dose of luck handled that."
"Getting hit by an attack when you returned probably sold the distinction between you and the Uzushio Anbu though," Hinata pointed out.
"...probably. I don't recommend that method of proving things though."
"It took less than an hour for you to be ready to pull us to the island," Ino said, looking around the field they'd been summoned to. "Most of which was probably waiting for us to be ready. I assume you have a bunker here?"
"Things took longer than I thought for us to get the mission so I've been doing quite a bit of prepwork," Naruto admitted, popping open a bunker entrance next to him. "I've got a ring of bunkers around the island at this point, connected to each other with tunnels. Only two rigged for coming and going, one as a backup for the other. They do regularly use the time-based locking seals I mentioned as well, which is why I mentioned them, and we've got two weeks before the big tournament coming up to decide how to handle those details. Unfortunately, the bulk of the slaves aren't kept here between events."
"So we have two weeks of waiting?" Hinata asked.
"Two weeks to prepare for gutting the entire criminal industry here is more like it. The Coliseum itself is just the main attraction, with a couple dozen other businesses here peddling in illegal everything you can think of. I figure we prepare for looting everything at once, though we also need to decide how to handle the slaves. Almost tempted to see if we can 'steal' them too, getting them off the island without anyone seeing how. The biggest problem is the Uzumaki helping with seals."
The girls both blinked at that, but Ino recovered first. "The Uzumaki helping with seals?"
Naruto sighed. "Yes. There's one man of Uzumaki descent here that appears to be one of those in charge. He seems to be behind the various seals here, though none of them are all that advanced. The most impressive two are the water summoning seal and the sets of time-based locking seals, both of which he has scrolls detailing and I've already made copies of them. There's also something weird about his eyes, so there's a good chance he either got transplants or is also descended from someone with a dojutsu. Either way he keeps them covered by sunglasses."
"Huh."
"What do we want to do with him?" Hinata asked.
"Well," Naruto said. "That's...diplomatically problematic in a couple of ways. In theory we're outside of the jurisdiction of any of the major countries, but in practice this place runs off of the black markets of said countries. By convention and treaty, the nearest major countries can choose to step in and arrest everyone at any time."
"...which would be Kiri or Kumo, based on the map of where the island is?"
"Indeed, with the Land of Fire being too far away to count. Those same conventions and treaties don't allow us to arrest anyone for crimes committed out here unless they have Land of Fire identification on them, and if it was discovered that we arrested anyone else then it would be a semi-major diplomatic problem. Now, this obviously doesn't stop us from grabbing bounties, but none of the ones we're going to want to deal with seem to have any."
"That seems to give us amazingly few options," Ino said, frowning. "At least without risking major diplomatic incidents if things get discovered."
"No," Hinata said with a sigh. "It leaves us with very clear options. Anyone with no bounty and no Land of Fire paperwork either needs to be left alive and out of our custody or killed outright. Preferably without anyone knowing that Konoha was behind things if we're letting witnesses escape. Unless Naruto wants to stick anyone we don't kill into an Uzushio prison of some kind instead, anyway."
"...didn't build one," Naruto admitted with a shrug. "But 'left alive' doesn't necessarily mean 'unmaimed' or 'with the ability to control chakra' so long as we aren't tied back to those conditions. Oh, and we can rob them all we want first too. Might be interesting if we send anyone we leave alive back to the mainland on a single cramped boat?"
Jiraiya checked his notes on nobles to 'relieve of excess funds' in the coming weeks while they were heading to the Coliseum. Well, technically it was 'suspected of heading to the Coliseum' instead of anything else, and all but one were thought to be going purely to be in the audience and didn't have any slaves to 'participate' with. But that was supporting the whole thing and it made sense to hit them extra hard by ensuring they had problems when they returned. Assuming they returned at all.
It was too bad that the Land of Water was still recovering from the civil war and in no position to go after the island while Kumo was too busy dealing with Iwa and the Earth Daimyo's stupidity for the Land of Lightning to step in. The Daimyos weren't going to complain about the island being shut down though, and had actually given permission through backchannels, but the nobles could cause problems if it was done openly.
These days it felt like it was always a mistake to look into or otherwise get involved in politics. Far too important to ignore, yet still a mistake.
Still, getting the mess cleaned up was worth putting some of his own funds into the mission pool. Funds he fully intended to recoup from the homes of those he knew were going to see and/or participate in the upcoming event. One of whom he just realized had a full signed set of his books...
Perhaps he'd take a cue from Team Yurei and grab a bit more than just the money kept hidden in the houses. An extra set of signed early editions to give to proper fans would be nice too, for that matter, since the ones nobles got generally weren't personalized like the ones his less-wealthy true fans tended to get...
"This entire place is a mess," Ino said as she cleaned up her plate from dinner.
"Far too many things that no civilized group should ever be dealing in," Naruto agreed. "Good on you for spotting the contact poisons I'd missed in my cursory evaluations of the safes though."
"They're not dangerous to us, but it's definitely a clever security measure on most of them, plus a couple of the storerooms. I'm still not sure how you missed it with the shopkeepers all ensuring they had special gloves on to open things though."
"Well, the safes in particular also have seals that attack anyone who makes skin contact with them unless they're the one who put the seal in place. All of them were placed by the resident Uzumaki, so everyone else has to avoid skin contact. The contact poisons might be an attempt to make it harder for him to get in."
"...oh."
"I'm more annoyed at the proliferation of time-based locking seals in the lead-up to people beginning to arrive tomorrow."
"Naruto," Hinata interjected. "You installed linked storage seals in all the safes so that you could empty them at will despite those seals."
"And those are a pain to keep functional around the time-based seals. Not only do I need to keep the linked pairs close, I also need to keep them stationary relative to the safes or the time-based seals will disrupt the connection when engaged. That's why I had to put in small tunnels under most of the businesses and the ones where the safes are on an upper floor I had to put the paired seal on the back wall of the building. If someone with the right dojutsu wanders back there and looks up they'll potentially spot them, and that's without worrying about other kinds of sensors. The focus should hopefully be away from those areas, and most visitors won't be likely to realize that it's unusual, but I need to keep clones stationed to watch all of the seals just in case."
"Ugh," Ino said, grimacing. "I hadn't realized how much trouble that was, just so that we can rob them all blind. Why are we bothering when we already determined that we'd be better off killing everyone that lives here other than the few slaves kept on the island?"
"In case someone like Orochimaru shows up in support of the assholes and we switch to 'vacate the island with all the loot we can carry' mode, hoping that the chaos of all the money vanishing does most of our job for us in the aftermath. With any luck we'll already have everything that isn't part of the buildings themselves or in the Coliseum itself by the time it becomes an issue, though we will have to watch out for anyone else deciding to grab stuff while everyone is distracted."
"Are we sure we haven't missed something?" Hinata asked with a frown. "No guards at all during the tournament is a bit weird."
"All the storerooms have basic security seals, and I'm fairly certain that a large robbery will have those in charge preventing anyone from leaving until the culprit is found. Ino did find out that they control all the ships that come and go instead of letting people bring their own. This is also their largest event yet and possibly the one that they hope will cement their place in the world, so a black mark like that on it wouldn't be allowed to stand. I can't be certain, but I also think those in charge might have mandated that everyone on the island will attend. Based on the new-looking hidden cameras, they probably want blackmail material."
"Ah. And if this is well-known enough for Konoha to take advantage of then who knows who else will show up."
Ino shivered. "Which is why the backup plan is to mysteriously vanish with all the money and supplies."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. On the other hand, we also have to be on the lookout for those that might make our task easier because they're looking to do something similar. I'm not about to complain about someone else helping to free the slaves or take out those in charge. If someone like Orochimaru shows up and we can tell that they have similar goals then we can potentially leave a lot of the dirty work to them."
Kisame shifted a little on the bottom of the ship full of wealthy idiots, annoyed at how slow this was. But he didn't actually know how to get to the Coliseum, so he was tagging along instead. It wasn't the kind of thing he'd expected to be doing a few years ago, but he was pragmatic enough to realize that when circumstances changed? So did plans. Uzushiogakure appearing out of fucking nowhere and killing the tailed beasts had scrapped all plans to use them to try to force some kind of lasting peace through violence, so more subtle plans needed to be used instead. On top of related details such as the Eye of the Moon plan needing an intact moon.
The old plans were, well, completely fucked. Either entirely by Uzushiogakure or by them and whoever the hell had a way to implode the moon.
So instead he was doing things like ensuring that the Coliseum and its whole slave fighters deal didn't continue. Most of those involved were the worst kind of people anyway, even if they were 'respected' from a civilian point of view. Liars and charlatans, pretending to be what they weren't and making the world worse because of it. By comparison, shinobi were generally far more true to themselves, at least usually admitting that they'd lie for money. That didn't make them better, admittedly. No matter his own long-term desires, he knew he was trash in his own way. But there was still plenty of violence needed before then, and he was good at that. Very little left in the way of secrets to protect though, which was mildly annoying...
...and he wasn't good at being patient and keeping his chakra suppressed while underwater for days, making this almost a form of torture. If he could've hidden in Samehada then it would be different, but that wasn't an option in this case. But he could also tell that other ships were nearby again, so they were almost certainly getting close.
Utakata looked out over the water at the other ship the one they were on was approaching, frowning slightly before speaking softly to make it harder to be overheard. "We aren't the only ones slipping in."
"Oh?" Hotaru asked, equally softly, from next to him.
"I do believe that Kisame is riding the bottom of that ship. He's doing a decent job of hiding, but I'm too familiar with him and Samehada."
"Ah."
"Very good chance that he'll either be willing to help or at least won't get in our way after explaining what we're trying to do. I doubt that he's here to do something that would be in direct opposition to us, anyway."
"There are more slaves than we expected on this ship alone."
"Yes, so we could use the help if he's willing to provide it. Kakuzo spoke highly of him when he stumbled upon us."
"When he helped you save me from being used as a living weapon, you mean."
"And from your own stupidity in asking to have a kinjutsu embedded in your body, yes." He gave her a look, still unsure about the change in her attire. Since his...merging with Saiken had begun, giving him a slimy slug tail and a tendency to occasionally release slime from other parts of his body, she'd switched to clothing that was better suited to occasionally being slime-coated...and also happened to be tighter-fitting.
He was reasonably certain that the latter detail had been her primary consideration, no matter how embarrassed she'd been when first wearing the things. She'd claimed it was because it kept his slime from getting trapped under the clothing, but as far as he could tell she didn't actually care about that. Instead, she spent more time teasing him whenever she caught him looking, and seemed to use that to get over the embarrassment.
"Do you think anyone else is looking to do the same thing?" she asked after a moment.
"...possibly," he conceded. "But there may also be those who merely wish to take over. We should've considered that before deciding to come out here."
"Huh. I wonder if anyone else was looking for that death god cult that Kakuzo was hunting down? He seemed happy when Tonbee had information on them..."
"Nine different individuals or groups wanting to cause trouble," Naruto said. "Six want to take over, one wants to steal the slaves, and the last two are discussing teaming up to kill those in charge and free the slaves."
"Do you think we can approach them?" Ino asked.
"It looks like two Kiri missing-nin and an unknown," Hinata said. "Konoha...probably shouldn't openly associate with them, for a number of reasons. But Naruto could probably approach them as Uzushio?"
"I'd likely need to do so in the next thirty minutes," Naruto noted with a frown.
"Just use Kyo again. She's a known entity, and it looks like one of the big problems they have is figuring out how to get the slaves off of the island. They're also strong enough to handle a lot of the fighting so we hopefully don't need to step in as much there."
"...true."
Fifteen minutes later Naruto was in the Kyo guise again and she was floating along. Her approach was only somewhat disguised, there being enough chakra signatures on the island now to make her hard to pick up at range for most sensors unfamiliar with her chakra. Despite that, it was obvious when Kisame and Utakata realized she was approaching, the unknown woman being shifted off into a flanking position in the bushes.
"Good evening," Kyo greeted as she entered the small clearing the three had been speaking in.
"Oh shit," Kisame whispered upon getting a good look at her, likely unaware that she could hear him.
"May I ask who you are?" Utakata questioned, obviously not fully recognizing the signs of an Uzushio Anbu.
"You may," Kyo replied.
He waited a moment before frowning. "...well?"
"Well what? I gave you permission to ask."
That was enough to cause Kisame to snort. Utakata seemed to be biting back a groan, but after a moment he recovered. "Who are you?"
"I am Kyo of Uzushiogakure. My understanding is that you are Utakata, formerly of Kirigakure, and your companion is Kisame Hoshigaki, preferring to go simply by Kisame, also formerly of Kirigakure and more recently of Akatsuki. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have been provided information on your female companion hiding in the bushes."
"...you don't know everything?" Kisame asked, seemingly surprised as Utakata seemed to be reevaluating things.
"We cannot be everywhere at once and must focus our attention on those items that we deem to be immediately important. For example, the Uzumaki we found was part of the group running this island, bringing shame on the family name."
"So you aren't going to kill us?"
"We prefer to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, but fear that there will be no rehabilitation of those in charge here."
"My personal concern is getting the slaves off of the island," Utakata admitted, nervously glancing at the bushes the woman was hiding in. "...or at least those willing to go. Some I believe are only slaves for the purposes of the island and are otherwise treated as equals off of it."
Kyo nodded. "We have ways on and off of the island that do not depend on their boats."
"Some of your teleport seals?" Kisame asked, taking Kyo by surprise.
"I was not aware that you knew of those," she admitted. "But yes, those are an option."
"Leader-sama claims to have seen, but not used, a pair. He didn't elaborate where, but warned us that they made it meaningless to follow your people."
That...implied that someone had broken into one of the bunkers or 'Leader-sama' was an Uzumaki and had been able to get access to the bunkers that way. Nowhere else would there have been 'a pair'. Being an Uzumaki felt more likely right now, and definitely needed later investigation.
"An option?" Utakata asked.
"Tobirama Senju was a genius and created a number of incredibly useful techniques, even if the most famous are not attributed to him. Others are less known for good reason."
"...okay..."
"You can get the slaves that wish to leave off of the island without boats," Kisame said. "That's the important part for Utakata's purposes. My concern lies mostly in that you seem unlikely to kill me just because I'm here to kill those in charge."
"That is indeed the case," Kyo agreed. "We haven't had time to evaluate the slave owners though, and as such haven't decided what to do with those that are merely playing along. At the same time, there are others that are here to do their best to kill off the current island leaders to take over." She pulled a stack of pictures out of a seal, copies of ones sent back to Konoha to have the more complete set of bounty books checked, and tossed them to the shark-like missing-nin.
"Target-rich environment with a need to be somewhat careful around the visitors if they aren't attacking me. Don't normally have to worry about the latter, but I can handle it." He flipped through the pictures, nodding. "I recognize a couple of these assholes too."
"Then the only other concern is the island itself," Utakata said. "It's possible that someone else will come in and set up similarly, even if the buildings are leveled."
"There's limited fresh water here," Kyo pointed out. "At least without seals that won't exist when we're done. But otherwise that's a good point. We may be able to make it less useful as a location for criminals going forward." Perhaps by setting it up as a bit of a secondary Uzushio outpost? But with the defenses turned on...
Orochimaru frowned as the resurrection failed, the sixteenth that had done so. Originally he'd thought that his samples were just unsuitable, but eventually he'd decided to kill two proverbial birds with one proverbial stone and kill a traitor before trying to bring them back with a second traitor as the sacrifice.
"I do believe that something has happened," he finally said. "I know this worked before the moon was destroyed, and a lot of other things changed around the same time...but how would this be connected?"
"Perhaps something was holding open the path to the afterlife," Guren noted.
"Possibly, but I have no clue what that could be. Being unable to resurrect my dead assistants and scientists to find out what they might have left out of reports is annoying."
"You just wished to be able to punish Kabuto after finding out that he'd been sabotaging your work for years."
"...that is part of it, yes, but Amachi's work on Isaribi seems to have stopped her body's aging entirely as well. Something that he didn't document and that didn't seem to be part of what he did to himself. I was hoping to question him on that, to see if it was intentional or if it was happenstance."
"Ah. And you expected him to tell you, even after modifying himself and failing to get revenge when you showed up to check on things?"
"I had hoped that a combination of the technique and accusing him of being an idiot would work. Sadly, this also means that I'm going to have to send you off with Isaribi. I was able to fix the obvious mistakes he made with her, which I honestly believe to have been intentional to control her, but that isn't the potential reversal of what he did that she wants. Though she can now look fully human, she isn't."
Guren frowned at that. "That's an...unusual amount of care for others for you."
"Seems wrong from someone who once had you kill the very woman that had taken care of you when you fell unconscious attacking their village, I assume? Or for that matter that wiped out the entire village that had been mistreating you, perhaps? I may cultivate the impression that I do that kind of thing for fun, but wanton killing for the sake of wanton killing is a waste. No, I was paid to kill the adults of both villages. The one where I tested you as a warning to the country's Daimyo from the one that permitted me to set up my hidden village, for example. I just attempt to accomplish more than wanton killing in such cases."
"Oh. So that's why you gathered the children, because you were only being paid to kill the adults?"
"In that village, yes, though admittedly I was also following rumors of a clan with a connection to the three-tails. When I picked you up I was testing a couple of others while cleaning up an attempt at creating a plague, the three weeks of work I did on you and the two others collected that day being needed to purge the infection from you. Still, in this case it is less care and more keeping my personal word. After killing Amachi I promised the girl that I would do everything in my power to restore her to normal to get her assistance in collecting the man's files and to return with me, and as it stands I have to admit personal defeat."
"You...are a bit reserved with outright promises. Far more likely to let others make assumptions."
"I am, yes. And when I can't follow through on my promises for whatever reason I do try to be honest about it, such as being unable to use you as a host body."
"Due to whatever caused you to 'settle' into your current one more completely than expected?"
"Yes...and come to think of it, that happened after the moon's destruction too...hmmm. Still, for Isaribi I have one last option available, but one that I can't do in person. I'm wanted in Konoha and thus can't personally deliver the girl to a superior medic. With any luck, Tsunade will figure out how Amachi stopped the girl's aging too and document it so that I can grab a copy of the notes in a year or two."
Guren nodded, and he suspected that she was reevaluating her views of him. Given that she was proving to be more loyal than Kabuto had been, if less skilled in the ways he'd been skilled, that was okay. "So, given Amachi's successes, why did you pull your funding for his projects?"
Orochimaru shrugged. "His methods had already proven to only work on those with strong water nature, and rendered other elements difficult to use. My original goal was to improve the ability for all my subordinates to function in water, but it was obvious that he was ignoring that they'd need to also remain effective on land. A fact that I demonstrated quite nicely when I pulled away from the ocean and then easily finished him and his created 'summon' off when they were no longer able to use the water to their advantage. Besides, he really should've been grabbing bandits and pirates instead of getting lazy and taking townspeople. Doing the latter drew far too much attention to what he was doing, and I feel more justified after seeing how crappy his notes actually were."
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- Location
- Tatum, Tx
Wow. It's Orochimaru, but somewhat sane.
Zebrin
Don't bread on me.
- Location
- Wherever you go, there you are.
He's always been dangerously sane. He's just enjoyed a certain lack of morals.
Well if he can't get a new body as it sounds like and Edo tense doesn't work he'll also be a lot more cautious and consider consequences a lot more then he would in Canon also he's still part of the Akatsuki in this one (I think, or was a lot longer a member) so there is different kind of character development for him
- Location
- Scotland
He always struck me as being a bit on the impatient side of things as well.
Need more smart evil like this in my life.
"Don't grab townsfolk, people care about townsfolk. If you want to do human experimentation grab a bandit, nobody gives a shit! Hell they might even pay you for it!"
Too many bad guys are what I think of as Chaotic Stupid.
"I'm a go kick puppies, cause I'm evil!"
"Why?"
"Cause I'm evil!"
"That's a plot hole, not a reason. What do you get out of it? What personal gain? Also are said gains larger than the draw backs of being known as Asshole McPuppykicker?"
"I, Um."
"And that's why you've got a bounty, and I can still go out in public."
Y'know, at this point I'm fairly sure the Uzumaki remnant is actually going to turn up soon, from what we've seen naruto do and what things they've left behind such as the mask and robots the fact that their village still stands as ruins is mighty suspicious. Konoha has a few kinjutsu kept for dooms day scenarios which would have caused massive damage against a siege such as resurrecting the previous kage as immortal beatsticks and there's no way uzu didn't have their own, so the fact that they didn't do something entirely excessive like summoning an outer god or turning everyone into a pillar of salt is incredibly suspicious.
- Location
- no
The obvious solution is for everyone on the island to suddenly gain Land of Fire identification cards
- Location
- Georgia
A lot of what seems to us to be stupidity or insanity on his part could also be explained by the fact advanced knowledge appears to have been reinvented from first principles in the wake of the Juubi's rampage, so he doesn't have little key ideas like the scientific method. Much of his experimentation style has plenty of parallels with older natural philosophies. It reminds me of one of the Groundhog-style stories where Sakura brings Sasuke to Orochimaru in exchange for training, only to fix a number of the things that he wasn't doing intelligently thanks to lacking the knowledge she'd already picked up from looping.
sainen
Elder Lich
We've known that Edo tensei didn't work since Naruto visited the Uzumaki Mask Shrine to gather the Masks back in chapter 7, and found the Death Mask broken
- Location
- Michigan
Well there was that suspicious time shenanigans happening around then, so...