AN: I really wasn't enjoying writing this chapter, don't know why. And yes, I know it's rushed. Yes, I know the quality ain't any good. Sorry. I will update Lost in Time next.
Chapter 16 - Politics
—
"Boss, the Raikage sent a letter of confirmation," Samui said, giving it to him, "this was the last one, now we have enough funding to at least create the whole nation anew and build houses."
"I told you not to call me that, you're a Kumo kunoichi…" Naruto muttered, taking the letter and looking at the details, "with this much we can probably get a fleet of trade ships too, and if we ally ourselves to every neutral nation we would only go to war when absolutely necessary, besides Iwa nobody has any hostility against us…"
"We did make it obvious they had no Jinchuuriki left, they are preparing for war," Ryuuzetsu comments, "Kusagakure believes that they can attack it as soon as Onoki dies, but I doubt this will be too soon."
"That man should just fly over and crush the whole village," Utakata mumbled, sitting in the corner of the office.
Their temporary office was in Takigakure where they sent Naruto's smaller owls as messengers to every leader that liked him. Which were Jiraiya, Mei, A, Shibari and Mifune. Sunagakure was currently under temporary control of a Jonin council and it would be some time before Gaara becomes Kazekage.
The plan was simple, gain the official ownership of the former Uzu no Kuni island, rebuild what can be rebuilt, destroy what can't, and in the end let neutral clans and people leave wars.
After the Kamagata clan unofficially declared their plan, obviously so that neither Onoki nor the Daimyo hear about it, a few villages decided that it was their time to leave too.
The Fire Daimyo, after Naruto asked him politely, allowed the fugitives to be in camps through the Land of Fire until Uzushio was rebuilt enough for them to live there.
While Naruto sent most of the hired builders there already, he had another problem.
Quest received: Taki Orphan Guruu has lost her puppet, help her find it again.
Namely Fuu deciding she needed to help everyone she could, because they started liking her and celebrated her as hero like Naruto.
She was strange like that.
"FUU!" Naruto called out of the window. "It's nice that you help the kids, imagine we need some help!?"
"How did you know?" she asked wide-eyed, "I'm like twenty meter away and we whispered!"
"I just know," he muttered. Ryuuzetsu and Utakata chuckled at their friends. Samui just signed another document before attaching it to one of the countless owls around.
When another owl crashed through the window and threw the letter and Naruto's face, the laughter stopped.
"Urgent," Naruto read, "Han of the Steaming Fist… what a dumb name, just because of his armor? Uh… fuck."
Naruto's eyes widened and he threw the letter down, grabbing his sword before running to his room for supplies.
"What's going on?" Fuu asked, sitting at the window now.
Roshi went over to the table and picked up the letter Naruto had simply thrown on it.
"Han of the Steaming Fist was captured by two Akatsuki members. One using puppets and the other one being Hoshigaki Kisame," Roshi read, making Utakata and Fuu go tense at the name, "the last known location was them moving into the direction of… Amegakure?"
Quest received: Jinchuuriki of Five - Infiltrate Amegakure and rescue Han
Naruto knew he doesn't have a chance. Not against Pein along with all Kisame.
No, not even Pain. Without Senjutsu he couldn't counter most of the abilities.
Biting his thumb he clapped the hands together and hit himself. A beacon for the Owls to know he needs to be summoned.
—
"Fuku-boss!" Naruto shouted, "I need help, real badly!"
"What seems to be the problem?" Fukugami looked down, not startled by the sudden appearance of their summoner.
"Do you know anyone that could teach me Senjutsu?"
He wouldn't be able to learn it fast enough, and they probably wouldn't be able to rescue Han in that time, but at least he could try to hurry and make Pein revive him.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
"Indeed interesting… you know of this, but who might have told you?" Fukugami asked.
"The world went back to my graduation through the game," Naruto explained, "I knew Senjutsu before. I was the Toad Sage."
"Hmm… then you probably felt it. The lack of Natural Energy," Fukugami hummed, "but that isn't because we don't have a Sage, it's because of what happened once. Do you wish to know why this is called Tree Crown Perch?"
"Sure, but can we kinda hurry that up? A Jinchuuriki was captured," Naruto said as fast as he could and Fukugami picked him up.
After a few minutes of flight the were rather close to the floor, which was nearly impossible considering the tree.
"This is a branch of the Shinju, the tree that gave Kaguya her powers," the great Owl said, pointing towards the giant thing that housed all Owls, "the continent you are roaming, living in, it had no water before all this. When the Sage banished the true body of the Shinju into the sky - that was when he took most of the earth on your realm. And the branches fell down. And the branches became trees."
Naruto stared wide-eyed at the tree now, this was a part of the real Juubi?
"Indeed, the tree bears no kind of Natural Energy. Natural Energy existed before Chakra did - here, where the origin of all Chakra exists in part, there exist nothing after the Juubi left." Fukugami continued.
"So should the Juubi return… this tree here will be full of Bijuu Chakra?"
"Yes," Fukugami nodded, "which is why we want to help you. We do not know what this branch turned tree might end up doing. Awaken? Keep sleeping? The Tree Crown Perch is our home."
"So… you can teach me Senjutsu?" Naruto asked hesitantly.
"Yes," he nodded, "listen well boy, at the roots of this tree the old Sage's live. They are hundreds of years old and doing nothing but meditating allows them to ignore food and water. If I send you down, you will never reach the surface without learning Senjutsu."
Naruto gulped.
"I will try that the next time," Naruto said, nodding, "not today. In a week I will return. I have to try saving Han now, and I can't risk being stuck there."
"Very well," Fukugami raised one wing and with a swipe Naruto vanished back to where he was summoned.
"Some things even we don't know the full scale of," Fukugami muttered, "I will kill you, Otsutsuki Kaguya. Even if it is the last thing I do."
—
"Naruto, let's go!" Fuu didn't even hesitate to ask him why he went to the Owls before grabbing his collar and pulling him towards the others.
"I have thought about a strategy, I doubt we will win against someone like Hoshigaki Kisame if he has backup," Samui said, "and we don't know how many besides them are there. Currently we have three Jinchuuriki here that can willingly transform, Ryuuzetsu who knows a bit about healing, myself and my black lightning and Naruto. The only way to deal with Kisame would be to attack him with enough Chakra that Samehada can't keep up. So You three try to take him."
Utakata, Fuu and Roshi nodded. The latter had a glint in his eye. Han was a friend at best, a former comrade at worst.
"Travel to Amegakure will take at least 4 days without flying," Naruto said as they stepped out, "we are going with Samui's plan. We are not going to fight with Akatsuki though. A direct confrontation would most certainly mean death."
"So simply go in, mess the place up, flee with Han?" Fuu asked, to which Naruto nodded. They needed to hurry.
"The rain of Ame will mess with our sight if we try to fly, but we will have to risk that." Roshi muttered. "What scares me more is the possibility of Hanzo being alive. That guy is a monster on the level of old Onoki."
Naruto wanted to tell them that Pein was a worse foe. That Hanzo was a joke right now even if he was alive. And that Hanzo was dead.
But no, he couldn't.
"We can reach it in a few hours if we use the owls," Naruto summoned one for each of them, "if you get tired tell me."
The Owls nodded and shortly thereafter all were mounted and ready to go.
"Don't hesitate, if you see the possibility, do whatever is necessary!"
All nodded to his order.
Charisma increased.
Morale of the group rose.
—
"Naruto…" Kurama muttered, "there is Chakra in the rain."
"They know we are here," Utakata confirmed, "I can feel it, whoever controls this rain knows we stepped into Ame."
"It's ugly," Fuu shivered, "this feeling."
Their Bijuu didn't show much confidence either it seems, going by Roshi's grim visage.
"Nobody here will talk with us," Samui said, "so we have to use the goo-"
Naruto's eyes widened and he grabbed Samui's shoulder, shoving her to the floor as a barrage of paper shuriken flew towards them.
Samui was about to ask why he did that before she saw the paper cut through a building.
"Ryuuzetsu," Naruto said, his shoulder bleeding, "stay behind us, you three," he looked at the Jinchuuriki, "wherever that came from must be the right direction. We will distract the attacker, get Han."
They nodded and quickly transformed, moving at impossible speeds through the buildings as Konan showed herself.
This wasn't a weak version, this was the original.
"Not helping your comrades extract the Bijuu?" Naruto asked as Samui got ready to use the Black Lightning.
Konan
15000 HP
5000 C
Class: Paper-User
Perks: Origami Ninjutsu
Body of Paper
Impossible High Chakra Control
She wasn't weak. But she was far from the worst they have met.
"I am here not to distract you," Konan said, "I will kill you."
Her voice was cold, her skin had papers in her skin color sticking away.
"Die." A hail of paper was sent downwards and Naruto got out his sword fast.
"Iaido!" Most of the paper was cut apart, protecting Ryuuzetsu but the wound on his shoulder got a bit worse. "This isn't healing well. This rain kills my Chakra before it can gather in the wound."
Ryuuzetsu's hands glowed in a bright green and the wound closed fast when she touched it. Still, she looked visibly exhausted.
Pushing the sword back into the scabbard he pointed the hilt at Konan.
"On three," Naruto said and began mentally counting as Konan prepared her next attack.
One.
Samui's black lightning gathered around Naruto's sword when he started concentrating Chakra into it.
Two.
The hail came down and Naruto barely dodged to the site.
Three!
"Iaido: Black Sword!" His sword shout out with impossible speeds and hit Konan right in the face, the black lightning burning papers over her body and the fact that the rain made her wet didn't help.
She came crashing down.
8000 HP left.
She had an unnatural resilience, probably coming from her strange biology due to her special Jutsu.
If she wanted, Konan could have created a whole clan with this.
"Black Panther!" Samui didn't hesitate, even though her arms were going numb from using the Raiton in the Chakra dense rain, and a black panther crashed into Konan.
But the woman just split apart into thousands upon thousands of papers and reformed above them. Only this time she had wings of papers too.
"Shit!" Naruto shouted, grabbing Ryuuzetsu and Samui. They yelped as he dodged a wind with Kurama's Chakra and he picked up the sword that has fallen down.
"She uses Wind!" Naruto shouted over the loud tornado Konan created. "Raiton's bad against it!"
"THANK YOU, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!" Samui shouted into his ear. Konan didn't expect the black lightning combo and the sword bullet itself is an unexpected technique
"Ryuuzetsu, I will drop you off somewhere safe!"
—
The others didn't have it easy either. No, what they expected came true. A fight against both the puppeteer and Kisame.
What their enemies didn't predict was the fact that they would come fully transformed and ready to shoot their asses with Bijuudama.
Only Naruto would have probably told them to avoid destroying all buildings around them, but they didn't even know where Han was so that would be their best bet.
"Bijuudama!" All three of them hit Sasori dead on, and there wasn't really much heard after it. Kisame in comparison…
He just dodged and any excess Chakra that would have hit him was absorbed into his blade.
"Fuck." Fuu summed up quite nicely. Any rats would be in danger from the blade, the Chakra that they needed to return to their world would just be absorbed.
—
Ryuuzetsu was hidden under a broken bridge. Naruto and Samui had to coordinate themselves better now, at least the Owls had some innate understanding of each other's tactics.
"Samui, I got no Katon Jutsu to use!" Naruto yelled over the winds that got stronger. Konan was much, much stronger than he expected, "coordinate your attacks with the Owls, they can collaborate with you!"
Samui nodded, luckily having heard him and patted the Owl on the head as it flew upwards. A few seconds later it started using a lot of Fuuton Chakra through its wings.
"Katon: Great Fireball!" Samui's fireball and the wind met before it turned at Konan violently, the rain vaporizing at coming close to it.
"Hyoton: Ice Sword Barrage!" Naruto threw the resistant Hyoton through the flames.
Victory.
Quest completed: Jinchuuriki of Five.
Bonus Boss unlocked: Konan of Amegakure
Bonus Boss unlocked: Han the Steaming Fist
Bonus Boss unlocked: Kokuo, the Five Tails.
Naruto's eyes widened, he really hoped Konan was still alive when the dust settled and his friends came up behind him. Before he could ask them what was going on he saw Han in Roshi's arms.
Still breathing at least.
The dust went and Konan was stabbed into a wall by her shoulder, her injuries not as bad as he expected. At least Pein won't kill them now… why wasn't he here? He should have beaten them easily…
"- NOW!" Fuu shouted and Naruto realized he didn't hear any words she said before. She grabbed him before transforming and flying as fast as she could away from the Land of Rain.
—
"He didn't survive," Roshi said, "somehow he got revived, but the Bijuu is gone. A man with strange eyes didn't even stop us taking his body."
Naruto wondered how they managed to extract it this fast, considering a member they had the last time was dead.
"Come on," Utakata sighed and patted him on the shoulder, "we accomplished what we wanted. Two Bijuu might be in their hands, but we have four. And three others are friendly at least."
"Right…" Naruto sighed, "Fuu, we have to go to Konoha, Tsunade might be able to help Han."
She didn't say anything, but she changed her course.
—
Quest Completed: Akatsuki
Bonus Boss unlocked: Yahiko
Bonus Boss unlocked: Obito
Naruto's eyes widened when they got the message about Han's certain recovery. Now he warned all Jinchuuriki, two of those weren't Jinchuuriki anymore.
"Naruto, he wants to talk with you," Tsunade said, patting him on the shoulder. He managed to get out of his shock at the chance to fight Obito. Right now he had no chance. No possibility to beat Kamui.
He stood up and went into the room as the eyes of his friends followed him.
"Uzumaki Naruto…" Han without armor was a strange sight, Naruto decided. His mouth was wrapped in bandages but his body seemed very thin and weak. As if every bone could break at the slightest touch, "thank you for helping me. Whatever Onoki spread about you, I know it can't be true."
"It is nothing," Naruto shook his head, "if we had been faster nothing should have happened to you."
"No, you made a mistake," Han turned, his face eyes looking much older than the rest of his body, "he wanted to see how much power you have. That man with the Rinnegan - he will attack the nation you are about to build to get you all at the same time."
"And I dare him to come," Naruto clenched his fists, "he won't hurt my friends. I will show him that peace can be achieved without absolute control."
"You and him, you are not so different at all," Han coughed and turned around again, discomfort obvious, "but you want to destroy evil and he wants to subjugate it, even if he has to hurt the good. I will aid you, but understand that nothing will be easy."
Charisma leveled up: [Good Charisma]
Han joined the party!
Naruto bowed and left the room.
"Of course it won't be easy," Naruto muttered to himself, "Kaguya… as long as we avoid the creation of the Shinju…"
—
Quest received: A man called Garashishi is attacking a nearby village, protect them!
Naruto's sword hissed as he pulled it out and cut through two men.
He sent Fuu and Roshi towards Taki again, Ryuuzetsu and Samui are visiting Kumo. Roshi and Han, the latter not yet really able to fight, are helping along the border of Iwa for the evacuating clans and civilians.
That means right now he was alone and he had to train.
"Suiton: Large Projectile!"
Large Projectile leveled up. (Lv.6)
Naruto stopped a blade with his own and quickly kicked the attacker away.
That were all.
Quest completed.
Received Puppet
Naruto glared at the puppet in his hand. He need weapons! Scrolls he could give people to defend themselves!
Throwing the puppet on the floor he quickly began to regret it as it turned into a boss summon sized monster.
As the shadow loomed over him and the puppet glared down with an unchanged face he lifted his hands to show he was unarmed right now.
"Peace?" He tried. The puppet didn't react to him and instead looked around. Upon not finding what it searched it just turned back into its small body again.
"They won't believe what happened…" Naruto muttered, sighing in relief.
—
"What do you mean nobody dares to stop those traitors from leaving!?" The Daimyo of Earth shouted loudly. Unknown to him, Onoki's reaction has been pretty much the same.
"It's Roshi and Han, sir." The messenger squeaked out nervously. Nobody knew that Han couldn't transform, his mere presence was spreading dread through them all.
The Daimyo gulped loudly, understanding on his face. If those two were protecting the civilians and clans from leaving the country then the only one who could stop them was Onoki, and if he did that they could easily take his village out.
"Gather the soldiers," he ordered, looking at one of his ministers, "if Onoki leaves for the border, we will get rid of that eyesore that refuses to bow down to us."
The minister nodded wordlessly and went his way.
"Young messenger, do you play Shogi?"
—
"What is your name?" a worn traveler stood in front of Naruto, his eyes showing his age even more than any gray hair on his head could.
"Uzumaki Naruto," he answered him, stepping back slightly. 'This guy smells of quest event…'
"Uzumaki Naruto, I am Omikoda," the old man said, pointing at him with thin fingers, "I have seen the future, my eyes are the eyes of the long lost."
"A Dojutsu?" Naruto asked, looking at the old man with even more wary than before. Omikoda didn't answer. "What do you want?"
"You will bring misery, death. Your way is the way that brings the worst out of yourself," Omikoda said, "and if you spend your life fighting monsters, one day you will realize you became one too."
Naruto gripped the coat around him as a sudden wind came towards them.
Roshi sent him a messenger that all evacuations had been finished and the construction seemed to go along nicely. He was on his way towards Konoha before leaving towards Uzu, but this old man suddenly appeared on the way.
"I know," Naruto sighed, "believe me I do, I have seen that happening. But I have told myself that should it come that far I would end myself."
"And how many before you said that?" The old man's eyes shifted. His face twisted. His chest stopped moving.
"…" Naruto stared wide-eyed at the old man who apparently stopped breathing.
Pure white eyes. Horns.
"Do you not see what I see?" Kaguya's voice asked from the old man. "Do you not see that the only way to stop war is to stop power?"
Naruto didn't hesitate drawing his blade and rushing forward, but as quick as Kaguya stood in front of him she was gone again, and his blade stopped barely a millimeter near Omikoda's throat.
"Who are you?" Naruto hissed, hoping for the right answer to get the satisfaction of kil-
No, he realized. This wasn't what he worked for. He didn't want to have an excuse for killing. It was wrong, and unless he did it to protect someone…
"Her ghost follows the past," the voice was normal again, Kaguya nowhere near, "the past as it was, the present as it is, the future as it will be. I have seen the future, do you believe you can change it?"
Quest received: Kaguya's Spirit - Monks on a pilgrimage are seeming to gather around places that once were great battlefields. Search for them and learn more about Kaguya.
Naruto fell backwards and gripped his chest. His heart beating stronger than ever. All this for a quest? This still was a game for someone?
What would happen if he finally won? Would it be another game over?
—
Iaido leveled up (Lv.7)
Naruto sighed as he cut through the last bandit just an hour or so away from Konoha. He was about to leave just as he saw something shiny in the chest pocket of the bandit.
It was a letter, addressed to the man, telling him about the death of his wife and his daughter being in some orphanage in the Land of Fire.
"Fuck." Naruto muttered. He couldn't just ignore this. Maybe take the money from the bandits and throw it at the orphanage?
Quest received: Bring the orphanage in the south of the Land of Fire money.
"I really can't say no," he whispered to himself.
—
"Narutooooo," Fuu jumped him the moment he entered Konoha, "look what I got!"
He couldn't really see it, but he felt the spikes of her boots digging into his shoulders.
"Fuu, I can see under your skirt," Naruto said dryly, making her jump down and blush. He didn't actually see anything, the clothes she wore now were too long anyway.
"Sorry," she muttered but began smiling again when she held up a letter, "look! We got the official deed for the islands of Uzu! Which means you are now a Daim-"
"I don't want to be a Daimyo," he said, "let Han or Roshi take that place, someone old who knows his stuff."
"You calling me old, brat?" Roshi and Ryuuzetsu arrived, both of them grinning too.
"I'm calling you old, geezer," Naruto said.
Quest completed: Uzushiogakure
Bonus Boss unlocked: Uzumaki Mito
Clan Seal received.
[Uzumaki Clan Leader] Perk unlocked.
Sealing library unlocked.
Achievement: A Leader - Become leader of a Nation, Clan or Village. (+1 Permanent Perk Point)
"Just be the Daimyo or something, deal with the other ones," Naruto sighed, "I will talk with the Kage, as the Uzumaki Clan leader, maybe we can call out or something to get some of them to join us in Uzu."
"Sure thing brat - just don't go crying when you are unhappy with how I control my nation, gahahahah," Roshi laughed with his hands on the hips.
"I think you made a mistake," Ryuuzetsu whispered to him.
"Not the first I make, but he won't start something too bad."
Fuu just shook her head while Ryuuzetsu sighed and prayed.
In two weeks time Uzushio had a big casino. Naruto wasn't amused because Tsunade wanted to visit. He hoped the repair costs wouldn't be too high.
—
AN: Sorry for the late chapter, I had stuff to do - an actual book to write.
Also, because it was asked: He has 9 PPP (Permanent Perk Points) now, 2 of these he has to use for the affinity stuff, that means he has 7 compared to the 3 he had before should he die. Which I'm still not planning right now, it would be too sudden, wouldn't it?
I planned when to kill him already though, which might reset this thing. Hopefully I can keep my promise of not abandoning this because I don't want to be too repetitive.