Red Riot - Chapter 45 - Red success (Patreon)

Matsu Uzumaki:- person of high interest to other Shinobi Villages. Jonin. Medical/Taijutsu/Ninjutsu/Sensory speciality. Chief Medical Officer of the Kiri Medical Program

Gengetsu Hozuki:- The second Mizukage and trickster Lord of Kirigakure. Master of Illusions and torment. Defeated Mu, the Second Tsuchikage in combat. Lost his left arm and left leg in the fight. Matsu healed him.

Kuroiwa Karatachi - student of Matsu. Karatachi clanswoman. Chunin. Medic. Capitalist! Primed to being Matsu’s second in command of Kirigakure’s Medic Corps.

Katara Karatachi:- Trainee of the Medical Corps. 

Koga Karatachi:- Trainee of the Medical Corps. 

Mizuno Yuki:- Trainee of the Medical Corps

Ala:- Kunoichi that met Matsu during his deployment to the Land of Wind during the final stages of the Second war. Matsu used her as a foil to trick a reluctant teacher into teaching. Matsu’s first pick for his training program of Medics.

Hanahime Terumi:- Matsu’s ally during his years in the Academy. Led the Terumi contingent. Upon the success of the Red Graduation she was ordered to kill the weakest shinobi in their respective groups. She had to kill her cousin and best friend. Hasn’t spoken with Matsu since then. Is the daughter to Nezda Terumi.

Lord Ryoku:- the Chamberlain of the Land of Honey and the man who sees to the day-to-day running of the nation.

Lord Kubisaki:- the Ruling Lord of the Land of Honey. A bit of an airhead but he has competent helpers, like Ryoku to manage his country.

Fuguki Suikazan:- Leader of the Seven Swordsmen. Wielder of Samehada.

Kushimaru Kuriarare:- One of the Seven Swordsmen. Wielder of Nuibari.

Koremei Tendo:- one of the Seven Swordsmen. Matsu met her at the end of his first mission in the Land of Vegetables. Saved her life and let her make her play for Shibuki, the explosion sword.

_____________________

“And cough for me,” I asked.

Lord Kubiskai did just that.. 

He’d gotten good at following my suggestions after initially putting up a small resistance to being ‘ordered about’ whenever I came to give him a physical.

It was rather amusing that it had taken him and Lord Ryoku a few months before a messenger had arrived asking for my expertise. 

Word had gotten around after I’d corrected, returned, and in some cases improved the vision of the serving staff at the facility. Labourers, Architects, and even the teamsters delivering our goods all received perks in the form of their aches and pains being treated anytime they presented to us these days.

Nowadays, I was able to trust such work to my students, allowing them to practise with actual patients.

So when the messenger had arrived the first time, I hadn't been surprised by the summons. 

In fact, I’d been counting on it.

In the feverish planning I’d gone through a year ago, I’d plotted the causes and effects of our healing, and having doors opened to us was the target I’d aimed for with the facilities creation.

Now, at our fifth examination, we had something of a schedule, with visits almost twice a month with the Daimyo and several of his staff.

I made a show of nodding thoughtfully. In truth, I didn’t need to have him do anything, but one of the things I’d taught my students was that allowing patients an illusion of control or a sense of contribution to the process made things easier.

“Hmm, there’s some inflammation, but nothing too serious. It is most likely simply a pollen reaction. I’d suggest some medicine as your body is simply reacting to a perceived infection when nothing is there.”

“Eh?” Lord Kubisaki looked thoroughly confused, and I considered my words. 

“It is like an alarm bell being rung by an overly paranoid guard. Good when there is a threat on the horizon like a true infection, but in this case, it’s merely annoying.”

I considered my options for a moment. I could have had someone grinding up antihistamine medication for him, but that was a bit of a lost opportunity. 

It was time to lay some groundwork for the future. An offer to have a medic here to reduce the inflammation would be an amazing coup for Kiri. It would give us greater access to the courts and establish us as a positive example of shinobi contributing to the world.

Best of all, I could sell it to Kiri as a win for intel.

“Might I suggest that we assign one of the medics graduating from our course to act as a Royal Physician for you?” I offered. “They could treat the inflammation, make medicines, and also provide care for your household.”

Lord Ryoku, the true brains of the Land of Honey, stiffened. “That… will need to be taken into consideration. We already have a physician on call…”

“Hmm, if you’re happy with their methods,” I offered blandly. It was obvious they weren’t happy with his efforts if they had greenlit the project to create more doctors and medics, while also calling for me.

“Oh, Ryoku,” Lord Kubisaki waved his hand dismissively. “I think it might be a grand idea to embrace our newly trained medics! I’m sure the household guard won’t mind the extra attention either!”

I bowed, showing my agreement while also praising him for his ‘foresight’. “I can have them present themselves to you within the day.”

Ala would be a good applicant. She was devouring the teachings I had given my trainees at a voracious pace, applying the knowledge and drawing on her experience to extrapolate how to treat various conditions. 

She didn’t have the head for medical research, but having her out contributing would work wonders for us. She also had the most developed skills of the trainees, having served as a medic during the war. 

Despite this, she was a softer shinobi in temperament and a long-term assignment to a noble court, especially Honey’s, would work well for her.

She was also rather pretty, which I’m sure many a nobleman wouldn’t mind.

“We will take them on… for the moment,” Ryoku stated begrudgingly. The man knew that having people in Lord Kubisaki's inner circle, especially those who might witness delicate situations, was something he wanted to vet.

“How long until the civilian doctors will be ready to graduate from your facility?” asked Ryoku pointedly.

It hadn’t escaped my notice that several affluent second or third sons of various noble families had joined the initial intake that had started two months ago. 

They’d been something of a headache, but I’d loosened several no-nonsense instructors upon them with carte blanche to call idiocy as they saw it.

Feathers had been ruffled, with a good dozen letters decrying my methods, and those of my instructors usually showed up each week. Kuroiwa and I had something of a game going with how politely we replied. The trick was to insult them while making it seem like it was anything but.

Since the civilian doctors had started training, five minor noblemen had been expelled, while three had quit the facility to preserve their honour. They’d been smart enough to understand that they didn’t have what it took to treat people.

The others trudged on, and unlike the shinobi under my care, were given softer, slower courses.

“It will be another two years before they’re at the level that would allow them to graduate with their doctorate.”

This said a lot about the standards of doctors in this world and how much they had to learn.

In my first life, I’d had friends studying to become doctors for over a decade, which might have been longer with them specialising in a field.

And these people would be considered ‘cutting edge’ for much of the Elemental nations.

Barring, of course, shinobi.

Shinobi were faster, stronger, and smarter in more ways than civilians understood. This allowed me to accelerate the teachings I had to give while also making sure they had a basic battlefield trauma specialty in their back pocket.

When the Third Shinobi war broke out in the years to come, I expected my medics to make a good deal of difference for Kiri’s mortality rates.

Now that we were over halfway through the first year and with a cohort of students eyeing ‘graduation’, several were to be assigned roles; either as ongoing teachers at the facility, in the case of Katara Karatachi, Kuroiwa, and Hanahime Terumi. 

While others like Koga Karatachi and Mizuno Yuki were already investigating research goals with the expanded spaces I’d revealed.

Others would filter back to join the regular shinobi forces and support their clans, I had no doubt. One of the Hozuki shinobi were going to be assigned to the Academy full time. I suspected this would correlate with a direct increase in the harshness of the training for students.

If I had any doubts about Hanahime’s long-term mission, they were expunged with her refusal to return to Kiri beyond missions that required reports in person and her desire to stay and teach. She’d instead asked to be assigned as my direct aide.

For the Terumi to have no easy access to a highly trained clan medic spoke of their focus clearly to me. 

Eventually, we’d have a proper hospital set up within Kiri, but that was still months, if not years, away, with several procedures still needing to be tested further before implementation.

I made a show of packing away my travelling kit after handing a selection of pills to manage Lord Kubisaki’s pollen allergy. 

“Lord Matsu,” prompted Ryoku respectfully. “We have been monitoring the markets as you asked us to; there has been a shinobi coming through, but they were from the Village Hidden in the Clouds.”

Kumo eh? I’d been expecting Konoha, but it made sense that I should see more cloud ninja considering their geographical location. From the reports that I had access to, Sky and Wolf were becoming the site of many shadow wars with encounters occurring semi-regularly.

Especially after the recent chunin exams. Hanahime hadn’t won the event, but that was more due to a young shinobi who was terrifically gifted with lightning jutsu by the name of Oh winning the entire event. Despite being on the lookout for him, I hadn’t seen any sign of Killer B after the initial exam.

I’d come away with a sizeable haul of jutsu from the event, an insight into how far I still had to go politically, and in personal strength. Standing next to the eight-tails jinchuriki had rather put things into perspective for me.

“Hmm, that’s still worrying,” I murmured. “We know Konoha is establishing intel networks in the eastern continent, but for them not to have made an appearance yet in the Land of Honey is worrying.”

“Will it be an issue?” Lord Kubisaki asked as he shrugged his robe back over his shoulders.

“No, it’s something we accounted for well in advance,” I explained. “Operations and education will continue as planned.” There was no need for them to know anything about the underground facilities. If either Lord arrived to inspect the facilities, they would be impressed by the three-storey brick, stone, and wooden buildings that had taken shape within the forest.

Which was chump change to the six basement levels underneath the hospital.

“Excellent, on that note, the next batch of test subjects has been organised,” Kubisaki announced with far too much enthusiasm. “Are you certain you don’t want the vagabonds as well? It would be far simpler if we were to lower the—”

“I’d prefer to keep the testing of medical procedures to only those deserving of it,” I declared calmly, cutting off Kubiskai and drawing a hiss of displeasure from Ryoku. 

I ignored the other man and gave Kubisaki my undivided attention. Instead of kowtowing to his whims, I held his gaze and let him know I would not accept the hospital as a dumping ground for the Land of Honey’s prisoners.

It said something about the world that I lived in that sometimes I had to force the nobles to adjust their morality from dark to somewhat grey. For all that Kiri occupied my focus, others could be just as evil with their actions. That they were lawful in this made it somewhat worse.

Which led me to put my foot down and refuse any criminals they’d attempted to foist on me.  They’d complained about my restrictions that only serial murderers, rapists and other ‘hardened’ criminals should be used in test procedures.

If the nobles had their way, my facility would become a dumping ground for the unwanted—the thieves, orphans, and homeless. Political prisoners would no doubt follow.

Sometimes it felt like it wasn’t just Kiri but the world that I was dragging, kicking and screaming into the light.

“With your blessing,” I prompted, hoping they weren’t going to attempt to push the issue once more, only for Lord Kubisaki to wave his hand dismissively.

I left at a dignified pace and didn’t drop the henge I used to interact with Kubisaki and Ryoku until I was halfway back to the medical facility.

When I got a few kilometres out, I approached a large tree and lifted a boulder to reveal a tunnel that disappeared into darkness.

Had I stolen the idea of underground bunker bases from Orochimaru?

Perhaps.

They were still effective for my purposes, and from what I’d been able to test, most Hyuga weren’t able to see through the ground underneath them unless that was a mental blind spot for them.

As I raced along the tunnels, I pondered that.

Konoha had barely sent anyone worth the effort to Kumo, having established that they would run the next chunin exam. It had resulted in a split with Villages sending their genin and jonin sensei to either Konoha or Kumo.

Supposedly, those who favoured teamwork sent more of their hopefuls to Konoha, while non-standard individuals went to Kumo.

In truth, I knew the larger village split their hopefuls and used the chance given to them to attempt to garner intel from both Villages at the same time.

That Gengetsu had kept me away from Konoha wasn’t a surprise. As much as I’d be interested in walking through their gates, I did not doubt that I would be subject to more scrutiny than others.

There was also the issue of how I would handle interacting with ‘canon’ cast members in their natural setting. 

I might end up fanboy-ing a little, which wouldn’t be a good thing.

Passing several security junctions with deliberate twists and snarls that led to traps, dead ends, or, in some cases, what I knew to be ANBU living areas, I gave signals to the watching ANBU.

With the continued development and survival of all my trainees, along with that of other kiri shinobi on missions, had been noted, and the investment into our security had increased greatly.

Now, instead of two or three ANBU teams rotating through, we have six ANBU teams assigned to us permanently. 

In mroe than a few classes, ANBU would silently sit with the others, drawing worried looks at first only for my casual disregard and their continued presence to make them banal to the trainees.

Little did they know that one of the concessions that I’d gotten from Gengetsu with the increased ANBU presence was the authority to order them around as they became attached to the medical facility.

This brought several perks beyond increased security. Improved training sessions for my trainees and me were among the foremost benefits, with my training partners now thoroughly outclassing me in spars in terms of experience and skill.

If the fights turned lethal… well, I had developed more than a few tricks up my sleeve.

The ANBU presence had certainly helped me further develop my Mind’s Eye of the Kagura technique. So far, I’d been able to keep my secret training facility just that, but I doubted it would last forever.

Some of the jutsu I was starting to test were rather destructive. Not to mention my own chakra pool was growing. After Kumo I’d been able to manage forty-five.

Now whenever I locked in for a no restrictions training session, I could summon sixty. I still had to complete the second stage of earth channelling which was all about hardening and firming up the ground. It had some interesting combat applications with the simple act of hardening the ground as I pushed off it, allowing me to be faster when I ran around. The ground also didn’t give, which let me be stealthier and faster.

Alongside that, I was developing methods of splitting my chakra into yin and yang strands. This created an interesting situation as it was a slight step back in the process of molding chakra. Chakra was naturally created by the merging of these two energies. 

By splitting them apart, I could filter them into specific organs via the chakra nodes.

So far, I’d discovered that filtering yang chakra, or physical energy, through my body allowed me to grow stronger as the cells reabsorbed the excess energy. I likened it to preloading for a workout without any negative issues like weakened bones or heightened aggression. The energy was of my body, filtered, and then returned to it.

Yin Chakra, when filtered into my brain, resulted in my senses sharpening. Colours and contrasts grew sharper. I also had more focus when I completed reports. What had been a grind was suddenly a task that I could handle with ease while taking everything in. It also helped my ability to recall facts, conversations, and numbers.

Which turned out to be a double-edged sword, as earworm songs from my previous life sometimes bubbled up without my say-so.

The other major benefit was that if I preloaded my brain with Yin chakra and then performed the Eye of the Kagura, I had a shield that slowly wore out, allowing me to push my range and accuracy further.

Sadly, yin-yang chakra channelling wasn’t something my clones could benefit from, as they lacked the required organs. But whenever I had to do administration or even teach, I found I could perform better for longer in the intellectual task.

As I’d theorised, filtering pure yin, or yang Chakra, through my coils did see them grow a little more.

Small additive steps that kept building on each other. It helped that I knew there was more to yin-yang chakra interactions, but as always, that would take time.

When I passed the final junction in the tunnel system leading into the medical facility, a salmon-masked ANBU appeared out of the shadows. “Regular session tonight?”

“If the surgery goes well. I've got a double replacement,” I replied casually as I flashed through a handseal to show I was who I appeared to be.

“Midnight then, don’t be late,” the man grunted as he stepped back into the shadow.

“Careful now, your clan’s temperament is showing past the mask,” I warned as I continued to run, only to earn another grunt out of the darkness.

When I reached the underground base, the darkness of the tunnels receded fully to reveal well-lit areas with trees and even light that filtered up from carefully controlled mirrors running through vents leading down to us.

Instead of being a drab, moody space, I had made sure to make the underground facilities as bright and clean as possible. Both to control infection through cleanliness, but also to help manage the mental states of the people working below ground.

Instead of the tight tunnels leading into the base, the entire cavern was large and open, with small buildings being created while large support beams rose up to the roof for what should be a three-storey building. 

The open spaces helped with more than a few of the students being stunned that I’d had all of this constructed under their feet without their knowledge.

Having a bunch of shadow clones working in the construction crews had certainly paid off for me, with none of the workers needing to be ‘silenced’ after construction was finished.

Instead of a glaring hole of information around who built this facility, there were instead many testimonies of the straightforward, if surprisingly large, build that had been required.

Which would be an extreme divergence from Kiri’s usual tactics of managing builders that had ‘seen too much’.

Shadow clones were far more versatile than shown in the original Naruto series.

I entered the research wing of our underground facility. Rather than moving through the set of operating doors that led into a sterilisation room with coats, gloves and masks, I instead positioned myself in front of the viewing window positioned in front of several cells.

On the other side of the window, behind a sturdy set of bars, a man rocked back and forth.

“The insects! The insects are everywhere!” he whispered. A quick perusal of the other cells revealed that most were reacting similarly, while one man sat in the corner of his cell with wide, frightened eyes.

He stared at the window, but I knew he couldn’t see me. To him, it would be nothing but a black mirror.

I moved past the poison testing cells and inspected the next set of rooms. Calling it fortuitous seemed wrong, but I was just in time to watch Koga practise a poison cloud jutsu upon a woman who had lured several men to their deaths in alleyways around the Land of Honey.

She screamed as the cloud engulfed her, and when the cloud faded, her body was a horrible, bloated mess.

Koga hummed. “Dosage appears effective against baseline women,” he stated clinically as he made a note on his clipboard. “Unsure if this will work against shinobi. Further tests required.”

Furher, within the research wing, I found others cutting open several cadavers with hideous birth defects, several of which I suspected were due to the mother being exposed to smoke or alcohol during pregnancy. In another life some of this was also from what lecturers called consanguinity. 

It was harder to judge with some villages being so small. So instead I created reports for Lord Kubisaki about allowing cross-village events to reduce incidents like this.

Mizuno Yuki worked through the the cadavers efficiently, her use of the chakra scalpel being perfectly suited for this. The rooms, chilled through a passive use of her bloodline, allowed for longer-term storage and use of the bodies provided to us.

I continued further in, observing medicines being tested in specific dosages while other rooms were torture chambers in any other setting but for the clinical research notes being collected.

Pushing down the rising vomit I made my own notes where required, knowing that while horrific, some of these studies would save millions into the future.

I made sure to collect the names of each participant, making a note of their lives and how they contributed. I also made sure that each test was clearly documented. I didn’t want to repeat tests simply from clerical errors.

Sadly, their sacrifice was necessary to advance medical understanding. I had a great deal of advantages thanks to my previous life, but I also had a great many glaring holes that needed to be addressed.

Some of it would be blacked out for a good number of years, like the people we were testing the poison and antidote efficacy on. Eventually, they would have a place in history.

It wasn’t much, but it was something positive in what felt like torture with extra steps.

Then again, perhaps it wasn’t for the subjects, but rather myself. 

If nothing else, it helped me sleep at night.

Well, that and all the actual good we did.

With that in mind. I departed the research wing and headed for the ground level of the medical facility. A quick run up a ladder and out through a hidden manhole had me within an innocent-looking supply cupboard where I donned a henge and advanced out into the civilian side of the hospital.

Instantly, differences sprang up with the hallways being noisy with men and women debating the lectures instead of sitting quietly and absorbing what experienced healers had to offer them. 

Sometimes I had shinobi filter in to observe the different scenarios, both for infiltration training as well as to see if there was any gems being thrown around worth investigating.

For now, I ignored the noise, along with the myriad of small chakra signatures that moved about in an agitated fashion. Instead, I marched into the surgical suites, going through the decontamination procedures and marching into the room to find two young women comforting a girl about my actual age, and not that of my illusion.

“Hello there!” I greeted the trio. “I’m Chief Surgeon Matsu, and I’ll be seeing to your needs today. I understand that you suffered a terrible accident that saw you lose both of your eyes.”

Before either of the two older women could talk, my patient spoke up. “Hello, Chief,” Rei said with a brilliant smile that brightened the room.

 I wanted to smile back just as brilliantly, but played it safe. For all the two women wouldn’t know me, or rather ‘my persona’, well enough to comment on it, they might make a stray remark later. There was also the small chakra signature that had slipped in behind me and was now hiding behind an illusion.

ANBU protection details, it turned out, were quite good at sticking to their targets. So far, the only times I ever gave them the slip were when I went to train by myself.

So instead of hugging Rei and letting her know everything was going to be put right, I adopted a professional smile. Within my chest, my heart thundered, forcing me to control it with chakra. 

Months of work had led to this moment, and I wanted it to go perfectly.

There weren’t going to be any accidents with Hanahime ‘bumping’ upon Rei while she was here, thanks to the mission she’d left on two days ago. None of the others had ever met Rei, nor would they make the connection to her if they did.

To them, Rei was just another patient.

I ran through an explanation of the process, along with how we were going to use donated eyes that were ‘genetic matches ', with Rei having taken blood samples during a previous consult.

In truth, Rei was going to get one eye of a brilliant blue hue that was rare in the Elemental nations. It would make her striking in a good way, while her other eye would be the single Byakugan I had stolen all those years ago.

I’d conducted several tests in secret to test the genetic compatibility of the eye, and I’d been disgusted to discover that it was perfectly viable with any human I put it in.

She’d have to cover the eye going forward, but just returning her eyesight wasn’t the end of my plan for Rei.

“You’re still planning to attempt a foreign ‘parade’ instead of staying within the Land of Honey?” I asked, with a concerned tone.

“A madam within the Land of Vegetables has reached out. While I am known as damaged within the Land of Honey, I hope to have greater success in the Land of Vegetables,” she commented, like she wasn’t reading from a script I’d come for her months ago. Shoto must have passed it along.

“A shame, we will miss out on the sweet woman you will become! Ha!” I remarked with a loud laugh, playing into my persona.

“Hmmm, she wants me there straight away… will my eyes be healed by the time I arrive?” she asked, worry tinging her words.

“They will be working perfectly, but if you have any concerns, you can come back,” I replied easily. This very much wasn’t standard procedure, not that the ANBU monitoring me would know, but I usually made sure to monitor eye surgeries for at least two to three days after surgery.

I directed the two women who had accompanied Rei to sit in a waiting area.

Rei settled against the surgical bed. She couldn’t see me, but her smile hadn’t dimmed in the least.

“Ready to go to sleep now?” I asked gently as I put my hand on her chest.

She put hers on top of mine. “I’m ready to wake up,” she replied, her voice thick with emotion as I sent her to sleep with the coma jutsu.

A small shudder threatened to run through me. It wasn’t lost on me how familiar this moment was.

Thankfully, this was a good thing rather than a potential roll of the dice. Rei’s breathing and heartbeat faded to almost nothing, and I began the surgery.

I had things already laid out, but it was the work of a moment to slip the byakugan eye out of a seal and cover it with a tiny illusion. From where the ANBU was positioned, they had no idea that it wasn’t the right colour.

It felt a little too easy, and my heart continued to want to beat faster only for me to exert control over my body with a deft twist of yang chakra into my heart. Instantly, I felt myself relax.

My mind wanted to be afraid as this felt too easy. A simple sleight of hand and a trick to get Rei to Honey, and here we were, finally? I didn’t want to believe it. It felt surreal, and I wanted it to be true more than anything.

Which was always the most dangerous time. So instead of relaxing into complacency, I performed the surgery like I was about to step into the ring against the ANBU Kaguya downstairs.

You couldn’t be too tight, or too loose. I found that happy medium where I was completely in the zone with the surgery while also tracking everything and everyone around me.

Nothing went amiss.

Rei’s blood pressure didn’t spike or drop. Her eyes, what remained of them were cleanly scooped out and replaced. Her blood vessels and chakra nodes were repaired and soon flowing smoothly, resulting in healthy amounts of blood and chakra to filter into the eyes.

Then I delicately connected the nerves. 

I brought Rei slightly out of the coma, not enough to be fully cognizant, but enough to see how her eyes reacted to light, movement and other stimulus.

I was as delicate as a man sketching a masterpiece on dry rice paper. My control was that of a conductor in a concert while also being each musician within the band.

My performance was to a single person who had no understanding of what I was doing. The ANBU merely kept watch.

But that was alright. This performance was for me and for Rei, and failure wasn’t even a consideration.

___________________

Rei awoke slowly.

It was a strangely familiar experience that was rather comforting to her.

She blinked her eyes slowly, only to pause.

She could blink her eyes…

Then she stiffened as she realised she could only see darkness. Fear rampaged through her before she could stop it and she reached for her chakra only for a hand to squeeze hers and a voice to whisper to her.

“Easy there, easy, it’s diorientating, I know. I have put some blockers on your nerves as they are only fresh. Now I’m going to release them and you’re going to be able to use your eyes, but we’re keeping the lights down so we don’t strain your eyes.”

“Oh,” relief chased fear away and she squeezed Matsu’s hand in thanks. She’d almost cycled her chakra just now. “That would be wonderful.” That had almost been a disaster. She could feel a slight itch in her left most eye but she knew not to spike her chakra into it. Matsu must have an illusion on the eye to hide it.

Something shifted behind her eyes causing her to blink yet again.

Then slowly, blurry shapes began to take shape, and her mind twitched.

“I can see,” she murmured, uncaring of how blurry everything was right now. 

“Hmmm, good. Oh, your tear ducts work, that’s also good,” Matsu said with a warm, if clinical voice. His hand, however, conveyed how happy he was as he squeezed her back firmly.

He talked her through how to work the eyes to get proper visual acuity back, and she could feel his chakra working on both eyes steadily as small shifts accrued.

“Now, as you’re quite young, I’ve made it so that certain markers are going to be present to allow for growth with both eyes. It wouldn’t do for your skull to keep growing after all, and your eyes to be too small,” he remarked, causing her to shudder at the thought of her eyes falling out of her head.

“Wow, that’s a new nightmare right there,” she murmured, unable to stop herself.

Matsu chuckled. “It’s something that the eye thankfully mostly adjusts for itself, but can still happen. So we help it along the way. Now, for the next week, I suggest wearing wraps to limit the amount of light you view through the eyes. Also, it’s not uncommon for the eyes to sometimes shift colours. Don’t be surprised if they even turn white.”

Rei’s lips twitched. She already knew what to expect, and while she couldn’t shift her chakra here thanks to the ANBU present, she knew that once she’d gone through her rehab, she was going to test out her new ability. 

Matsu had several theories about the use of the byakugan and seals that he wanted her to test. It still saddened her that the only way they’d been able to talk over the last year had been through Shoto reading letters to her, and now that she was going away, she might not get more than the rare letter.

Still, she’d agreed to this plan, crazy as it was.

She was to be a hidden ace for the boys. She was to go and learn everything she could from the Uzumaki in the Land of Vegetables. She was to hone her craft and then, when they called, she was to return.

When Matsu was finished detailing how to care for her eyes going forward, he stood and took his hand out of hers. “Well, this is goodbye for now, young Rei,” he said, playing into his illusion.

“Thank you, for everything, Boss Matsu,” she replied, slipping slightly by calling him an old nickname. The tears hadn’t stopped since she’d first realised she could see, and they didn’t stop for a good long while.

Her two friends from the nearby Okiya collected her and led her back to her temporary home.

While the tears stopped after an hour, Rei couldn’t stop smiling for days after the surgery. She was well on her way to the Land of Vegetables by then.

_______________

“This was a triumph,” I sang to myself as I read a report on a horrific attempt to replicate the Yamanaka Mind viewing technique.

The attempt had backfired upon Mizuno and nearly fried the idiotic kunoichi’s brain while leaving the subject a brain-dead vegetable whose only use was for harvesting organs.

I signed off on the order to take the organs for further transplant studies while denying any further study into the Yamanako jutsu pending further understanding of psyche, yin conversion techniques and other items that I felt needed to be explored before any other attempts were being made.

“I’m making a note here,” I continued to sing to myself as I moved on to read the next report about blood vessels being restricted in specific points, causing excruciating pain. An effective torture and interrogation method, supposedly.

“Huge success,” I sang as I continued to work through the feelings of horror.

“It’s hard to overstate my… satisfaction,” I murmured as another grim report outlined how nerves could be targeted with a jutsu to disrupt coordination and control. I grimaced, recalling the details. Instead of Koga of Mizuno, I’d performed this particular study.  The point of it had been to once more chase after a future jutsu that Kabuto would be capable of.

There were also some slightly more abstract uses for nerve control, but those would require much more understanding than a simple scrambling ability.

“Medical science~” I sang before feeling a wave of disgust rise upon viewing the next report about how we could weaken ligaments with a jutsu that had resulted in several subjects collapsing as their skeletal system failed them. 

I approved the jutsu for use but made a note that it would be most effective as a birthing aide. Kuroiwa would be pleased with how lucrative that possible jutsu could become. I kept a small warmth in my heart knowing I’d ease a lot of women’s suffering during childbirth. The trick would be to disseminate it. I made a note to review potential pharmaceutical benefits to reach a wider market. We’d never teach a civilian doctor this type of jutsu, not for many years, but a directly applied drug? That we could benefit from greatly.

“We do what we must, because we can!” 

Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to sing ‘still alive’ while reading these? My mind sharpened as a chakra signature I was extremely familiar with crept into range and continued towards the medical facility at a downright relaxed pace.

Part of me worried about his appearance here a week after Rei’s surgery but fear wouldn’t do me any good. This had been planned for. I’d completed the first batch of trainees and was now diseminating them back to Kiri.

Also, the letter she’d sent me had all the agreed upon secret marks that showed she wasn’t under duress and had reached the Land of Vegetables safely.

I toyed with the idea of stopping my singing as Gengetsu crept like a shadow through the domain I’d built from nothing. A team of ANBU travelling with him indicated this was an official visit.

If it had been just him, or a larger group of ANBU I might have been worried.

As he drew closer, I reviewed the reports on the surgery training, detailing how we’d been able to cut limbs off people, put them on ice, and then reattach them hours later with so far minimal to no loss of function after three days of recovery.

We were going to have to push that further, attempt to clone limbs but for now, mass trauma and battlefield wounds were possible to heal.

The next report detailed tests that I’d created to attempt resuscitation with lightning jutsu. I wasn’t sure how many pigs would survive, but it would be better than throwing prisoners and test subjects into the meat grinder.

Unable to review any more reports, I spun in my chair to face the back wall of my office where several poorly made pottery pieces sat alongside others that were much more artistic. Wooden carvings and specific puzzles with tight joinery were also displayed seemingly innocently on shelves. 

I didn’t focus on them however, but instead stared at the wall of letters that I’d stuck to a corkboard.

It was a tableau of terrible handwriting, sketches, and promises of eternal gratitude. Some had pressed flowers and sent them in, while others had offered their prize goat as thanks.

A new letter had arrived from Rei thanking me for the return of her sight. The calligraphy was beautiful.

It was one of over a hundred other letters, but it had pride of place at the front and slightly to the side. 

This board… it was a sign of positive change.

For all the horrors that I might be unleashing while steering the ship towards a possible brighter future I was also sending out small acts of good into the world. 

A light in the darkness that I wanted us to steer towards while also using as a lantern to hold back the monsters lurking in the shadows.

Gengetsu entered my room, and if I hadn’t been ready for it, I might not have noted the door opening and closing while the ANBU waited outside.

To stop singing or not?

Eh, it was catchy and somewhat fitting.

“For the good of all of us!” I droned robotically, still facing away from him as he slunk closer. What was he going to do? Was he going to take the bait?

“Except the ones who are dead,” I sang, finishing the last verse of the first part of the song, turning so that I could lock eyes with Gengetsu.

Rather than stare at me, his eyes roamed the room. “My, this is a quaint little kingdom you’ve built for yourself.”

“It suits my needs for the moment. There’s still a lot of teething issues.” Inclining my head to the side, where a couch sat for more informal meetings. “Tea and crackers?” I offered, playing the part of genial host.

He swept over to the couch and draped himself across it, the expectation of being served hanging heavy in the air. His eyes, however, roamed the room, taking in everything.

His gaze swept over the pottery attempts, lingered on the board of letters, and then shifted to the way I’d set up my desk.

Without comment, I set up a small tea service and had it arranged for him within a few minutes.

Gengetsu took a long, slow sip of his tea, and it was only after setting it down that he spoke.

“I’d like to revisit our deal,” he began.

That got a raised eyebrow from me. “I’m sure you would,” I replied. “What could you have to offer me that would be worth such?”

“I could assign you a fuinjutsu teacher,” he announced.

That gave me pause only for me to sigh. “Sadly, I know that the moment I give up any leverage I have, you’re going to attempt to kill me.”

“Hmmm, well, I had to make the offer,” he shrugged like it wasn’t a big issue for him.

“You certainly gave me pause,” I bantered back, having grown used to Gengetsu’s attempts to trip me up.

“Heh, you’re more transparent than you think Matsu,” he replied with a pleased smile. “You Uzuamki are rather straightforward with your desire to scribble on bits of paper for some smidgeon of power.”

That got a snort out of me, even if my heart had lurched at his transparent comment. I knew it had been coming, but it still got a reaction from me. 

Damn this man and his constant need to make oblique statements to frighten people.

It had always bothered me that he hadn’t noticed Rei’s survival. For a man able to fight an invisible man, he’d allowed Rei to go without comment.

As possible as it was that he was toying with me, the longer he went, the more I considered the true issue to be that Gengetsu simply… hadn’t cared to check. He’d been too certain of his control of the situation.

Why should he care for an ant’s reaction?

“The ANBU have been reporting back that you’re able to beat some of them in straight fights, along with your other… training methods,” he prompted.

“Which are you referring to?” I asked back with a pleased smile.

Gengetsu nodded slowly. “Hmmm, that’s the catch, isn’t it? You’ve created a good many of them with your expanded facility.” He made a show of turning his head and looking around. “When I signed off on this project… I never expected…” he waved a hand in a slow circle. “This.”

“Good,” I bit back as my teeth crunched into a cracker. Keeping my mouth turned into a polite smile that didn’t show teeth just yet I gave him a pointed look. “This facility has to be more than anyone expected.. The Kiri facility will be more streamlined while also being bigger, better, and more established. Give me another year to get it built, and we can scale back our set-up here. Keep it as a research outpost primarily.”

“Hmmmm, indeed, bigger, better, but is it what we need?”

“You know it is. It will see our forces supported in ways that other Villages apart from Konoha haven’t fully grasped.”

Gengetsu nodded. “Yes, you read the report from the teams that attended the Konoha chunin exams? Their take on Konoha’s hospital?”

My lips curled downward. “Yes,” I replied tersely. 

The reports were interesting for all the little insights they’d garnered from Konoha’s system, on how security had worked with changing shifts that overlapped and sometimes appeared to vanish entirely, how nurses were always within sight of certain rooms while foreigners received open wards assigned to their nations.

To get insight into the facilities, Kiri genin had been brutal in their fights, throwing themselves into fights recklessly with Inuzuka and Uchiha. Nobles had apparently been throwing up in their seats while others roared with praise for the show Konoha had put on.

It had been labelled the Bloody Leaf Exam by some and the name was spreading, causing Konoha’s friendly mask to develop some cracks. From the intel reports I received, Konoha was countering by pointing out how they’d healed up some of our genin while trying to make out like Kiri was full of slavering madmen.

Jokes about skewering Kaguya and other Kiri nin were supposedly all the rage in the Land of Fire’s court.

I wasn’t sure the intel we gathered from such a display was worth it, but it certainly had Konoha confused for a few days. When questioned about it Gengetsu had supposedly told the nobles that the brutality of the fights was the point he was getting across, that Kiri would go that far in contracts and in defense of their home. 

This had been quite a popular line… according to the intel fed to me by Gengetsu.

“Have they connected the dots yet?” I asked. Knowing the vaunted intelligence of the Nara, they would have had to work out our true target.

Gengetsu nodded. “It’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. I have a mission for you,” he declared, pulling out a scroll from inside his robe and laying it down between us. 

He didn’t make a move to touch it, instead forcing me to extend a chakra string to pick it up. I had it hover to the side as it unrolled. A quick scan of the contents made me hum and turn to Gengetsu.

“We need you there to sell the situation,” he began. “We’ve previously been using henged ANBU but that won’t be enough when Konoha forces truly arrive.”

I set the scroll down and rubbed my temple. “So… you’ve been creating copies of my facility in Sky, Wolf and the land of Water for a few months and need me there to sell the illusion that these are actual points of tactical significance?” 

When he merely nodded and took a all too smug slurp of his tea I glowered openly at him.

“Is this what that facility to the north and south are?”

Gengetsu’s smug expression flickered before a shrewd look took over. “Noticed that did you? Good to see my lesson in Kumo stuck,” he gushed.

It didn’t escape my notice he was praising himself for slapping my ignorance of world events in my face.

“Yes, yes, you were extremely clever and yes, I adapted to make sure I stayed aware of any developments in my surroundings.”

That my surroundings included the entirety of the Land of Honey was not worth commenting on.

“Matsu, you’re a known medic, and Konoha isn’t stupid. They must know by now what we’re hoping to establish. The Land of Water site is facing the most scrutiny. We expect Konoha to strike within the week. You need to be there, but we will also be assigning some of our strongest shinobi.”

That drew a moment’s consideration from me. “You’re not playing a game of keep away or hiding the prize. You’re trying to make it so that each base they assault is too dangerous for them. They’ll try to take a bite out of us only to be savaged in turn,” I suggested.

Gengetsu nodded proudly. “Indeed, and who better than you to be there, leading the charge?” he declared as he mimed a heroic charge derisively.

Setting his teacup down, Gengetsu drew himself up. “Your absence, while known to the true movers and shakers, has started to be noted by the rank and file. Your reemergence for the chunin exams is causing widespread speculation. If you want to be Mizukage one day Matsu, you cannot shy away from the big fights.”

“Nor can I offer nothing to Kiri,” I countered, only to sigh a moment later. “But… I understand. Do we have any idea who will be assaulting us?” I asked.

Gengetsu shook his head. “Konoha won’t send any big names such as the Sannin, or the Uchiha. Even an Inuzuka would be too risky. No, this will be ANBU deniable assets.” He locked eyes with me. “They will not come at you straight Matsu. They will fight only on their terms.”

“Outside the box, traps, ambushes, and more?”

“I was more referring to swarms of bugs filtering into your facility over the course of days if they get close, going unnoticed until the Aburame in charge of the swarm has them come pouring out. Are you capable of shielding yourself from such? Or what of having birds acting as scouts with Yamanaka? Or indeed when they jump from birds to that of your own men! Will you be able to cut down your own people, Matsu?”

“Yes,” I replied calmly. It wasn’t something I’d like, but I could do it.

“Good, expect that and more. Konoha are not fools. They do not want us to establish a rival hospital to their own. You’ve begun to prove its worth, now it’s time to defend it.” 

He slammed his metal fist into the armrest. “Make them bleed and choke on their attempts. Draw a line in the sand Matsu, and cut any that so much as look at it!” 

I nodded once more, and Gegnetsu relaxed.

“Excellent, now, show me around your charming little facility. I’ve heard the most wonderful of things about it!” he gushed. 

As I led him around both the public and private facilities, he took on everything. When we entered the research wings of the underground facility, his grin turned delighted at the cages with weeping, broken criminals. The tests saw people convulsing and losing control of their bodies with invisible gases, while others stood in the midst watching on in horror as they remained unaffected. 

“Ohhhh? What’s this test?” Gengetsu asked like a child who had discovered a new toy.

Koga, who was standing at the observation window, bowed low. “Lord Mizukage, this is a test for both poisons and antidotes. A blind was performed with several of the subjects being fed supposed antidotes. So far, only one man is showing resistance.”

A scream erupted from the room. Gengetsu watched on gleefully as the final man began to convulse. 

“We’ll work on the dosages,” Koga remarked as he made a note of how long they survived. 

For the rest of the tour, Gengetsu’s grin didn’t leave his face. When I made to pass by a set of doors, he paused and wrenched them open only to blink in surprise.

The room was stacked high with body bags we had laid out for later transport.

“What is this?” he asked, eyes roaming the room like someone had presented a masterpiece to him.

I stepped up next to him, pushing down the revulsion I felt looking at all the bodies. “Oh, these are the bodies of the subjects that perished. We’ll get them transported off to be destroyed later.”

Gengetsu turned and stared at me like he’d never seen me before. There was a glint there that I’d only seen once before.

He approved of what I was doing.

I felt another ripple of disgust wash through me. His praise was not something I’d come to desire, and yet twice now he’d looked proud of me.

That the first time was when I’d announced how I’d trapped him with my medical ninjutsu spoke loudly of his character.

“When I’m done in the Land of Water, I’ll be returning to Kiri to start setting up the hospital proper,” I said calmly.

“Yeeeees,” he whispered. “You will be. A seat on the board of Kiri is ready for you. But don’t be surprised if I have you head to those other facilities we discussed. I don’t expect Konoha to learn their lesson the first time after all.”

“How many do you think it will take?” I asked thoughtfully.

Rather than answering, Gengetsu gave me a wide smile.

Ah. 

My gaze flickered across the stacked bodies.

Time to increase my kill count and infamy it would seem.

_____________________

That facilities that had been constructed within the Land of Water were only superficially like that of what I’d created within Honey.

There were buildings certainly. There were lights, and people moving about, but the heart was all wrong. No one was coming and going, receiving treatments that would see them better off from this facility's inclusion.

No, this was more like the darker research wing.

Sadly, even there it fell short.

The tests were in truth just torture sessions with no true eye for documentation or true understanding.

It didn’t advance us, so much as say us sprint backwards towards barbarism.

It was like someone had taken my plans and warped them while tainting them with oil and blood. 

My arrival drew sneers from some of the other Jonin as I set about making changes straight away, like doing away with the torture. Lights were installed. While I might have joked of copying Orochimaru’s notes, the tunnels were far too dark for my liking.

Rather than walking, people skulked around, flitting from shadow to shadow.

It took less than an hour for someone to challenge me on the changes.

I made sure it was in public. 

“Less kid this isn’t suppose—” 

My chakra spiked as I opened a single gate to accelerate what came next.

My hand cracked against his face, sending him twirling through the air even as he tried to evade my strike.

He landed heavily and started to get up. Before he could muster his chakra to do anything, I had knelt by his side and put my hand to his neck.

My chakra flooded through his, igniting nerves and clenching blood vessels.

His body clenched in a silent scream as his eyes began to tear up with blood. The smell of his bowels releasing filled the room.

No one moved to help hi,m and no one said anything.

I held his gaze, forcing him to look at my blank face. 

“I gave an order,” I stated, my voice a whisper that carried to everyone’s ears. There was no question that they heard me, as I made sure of it with chakra. 

“This is my mission, and my facility. When I step into even a dummy hospital, it is mine to command,” I growled. “All of you? I don’t care who you are; you answer to me.”

I swept my chakra through him again, only this time, relief swept through his savaged nerves, giving him a euphoric feeling. I fixed up some lingering aches in his body with a flex of my chakra. 

“Do you understand?” I asked seriously.

“Yes, sir,” he gasped, eyes staring at me like he wasn’t sure if I was a devil or an angel.

Standing, I continued about my business like I’d seen to a minor chore rather than dealt with a fellow Jonin. My first gate sealed shut a moment late,r and I exhaled through my nose.

“Get yourself cleaned up,” I commanded before turning my gaze to the others. “Now, I want some wooden flooring set up to stop Konoha from—”

The rest of the assigned shinobi fell in after that.

The actual threats I approached privately, and with precautions in place.

Fuguki Suikazan sat munching on some dried fish. He nodded as I approached him. 

“Lord Fuguki,” I acknowledged with a bow. 

He considered me for a moment. “Chief Matsu is going to be your title no?” he smirked and nodded back. “Been wondering what Gengetsu had you hidden away doing. Nezda and Gengetsu, of course, have been strutting like peacocks.”

“Hmmm, I’ve had my work cut out for me,” I replied, unsure if he knew all the details of the hospital I’d been developing. 

His fellow Swordsman, I gave another nod to. “Kushimaru,” I greeted, watching as the tall, thin man observed me.

His masked face made him look like any other ANBU, but the sword resting on his shoulder was too famous to be mistaken. The nuibari was one of the Seven Swords.

With two of the Seven Swordsmen at this facility, there could be no question that it held something important. I suspected the other Swordsmen were at other false bases and, deciding to probe, asked, “Who drew the short straw?” 

Fuguki chuckled. “The newbie, Koremei.”

“Hasn’t she been wielding Shibuki for over a year now?” I clarified.

Kushimare scoffed, the sound harsher through his mask. “And she will remain the newbie until she is no longer the newest, or she kills someone worth a damn.”

Fuguki chuckled. “Just so.”

“Ahh, I see,” I replied, tucking that little piece of Swordsmen culture in the back of my mind, sunure if it would ever mean anything. “Any issues with my reining  in the others?” I asked.

“Kill more of them,” Kushimare growled.

Fuguki snorted. “Making him bleed from the eyes was new,” he commented, only to pat the blade at his side. Thankfully, it didn’t wiggle or move, instead remaining perfectly still with the bandages unchanged.

“Be careful activating the gates. I didn’t notice, but my blade did,” Fuguki declared with a fanged grin. 

This drew a slight scoff from Kushimare, but I knew all too well that the Samehada, unlike the other blades, could be considered sentient.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied.  

“Good, if you do, be prepared to run. My girl got quite the taste of Uzumkai blood and chakra in the last war,” he remarked casually as he glanced towards Kushimare with a smirk.

The taller man merely clicked his tongue. From that, I gathered he hadn’t taken part in Uzushio’s downfall.

Fuguki brought another three fish to his mouth and began chomping. “That being said, do make a show of it when Konoha actually shows up, eh? I’d—”

“Oh, about that? They’re already here,” I remarked, pointing to the east and slighty up.

Both men perked up at that. Fuguki shoved the last of his snack into his mouth. “Well, I’ll give you a headstart, let you get a kill in before we get up there,” he announced.

I smirked and dispelled myself.

_______________

The clone dispelling itself of its own came as somewhat a surprise, but I didn’t react to the memories. Instead, I continued to slink through the mist that I’d been releasing into the surrounding area.

As a trio of chakra signatures drew close I slipped into the ground and burrowed quickly into another position as a clone of me continued onwards.

When I popped up I locked onto one of the ANBU.

They were kneeling on the ground where I’d slipped into the earth making handsigns to their fellows.

Before they could react I launched a brace of kunai empowered with wind into their backs, cutting through them.

I had to follow that up with a fireball a moment later as from one of the corpses a large swarm of kikaichu surged upwards.

Urgh, Aburame were annoying to fight. You couldn’t just kill them and leave them as all too often their swarm would either send out hidden warnings of your appearance, attack, or be inherited by another Aburame when they encountered the swarm.

They were sort of like kill switches like that, with their behaviours preprogrammed in.

The flash of flame incinerated the swarm and the body but it also gave away my position. 

Instantly, I had several ANBU closing around me.

Kunai began to fly through the air, and I had to dodge backwards.

I formed a trio of shadow clones to divert attention, only for one of the shinobi to copy me with earth clones.

“Surrender! If we can take you alive, we will!” barked the lead ANBU.  

“Pass,” I replied instantly.

“You’re outnumb—” one of them tried to point out, only for Kushimare to rocket out of the mist and punch Nubari the needle blade through their head. 

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to last,” I replied conversationally as Samehada tore through another.

“Shit! The Swordsmen! Retreat!” ordered the captain with explosions going off around them as kunai were launched. Others dove into the ground with hiding like a mole jutsu.

Chaos swept the battlefield as one threw herself at Fuguki, hands flashing through seals. 

“Forbidden jutsu—” she screamed, only for Fuguki to punch her with Samehada’s tip and drain all of her chakra. A shrivelled husk hit the ground within moments.

 As other Kiri shinobi joined us, I had to hunt down the clever ANBU that tried to hide with a henge among our men. That caused them to lash out, with one of the men I was commanding going down with a kunai in their throat. 

A quick shunshin allowed me to catch the man, kick away the Konoha shinobi, and begin healing. 

The Kiri nin got his hand up to his neck only to blink when he touched a closed wound. “Careful, it’s going to be tender for a day or two,” I told him as I rose to see to the other threats. 

When we caught two of Konoha ANBU, they clenched their jaws, only to start frothing at the mouth.

I raced up and tried to cleanse one of them of poison, only for my evil extracting jutsu not to be quick enough. 

“Tch!” I clicked my tongue and rose to inspect the other before turning away. 

Kushimare stalked up and surveyed the field, the head of the kunoichi he’d speared in the opening exchange still attached to his blade. 

“Hmmm, didn’t we need to send a message?” he mused.

Allowing the mist to fade, I glanced up towards a pair of soaring hawks that had chakra within them. Despite the distance, I locked eyes with one in challenge.

“We only need one to survive,” I stated coldly, as I flicked a kunai up at the hawks. 

Their chakra faded an instant before I nailed one out of the sky, causing me to click my tongue in annoyance.

Fuguki chuckled at my frustration. “Don’t be too worried! Konoha are tenacious! They won’t leave it at just one raid! Next time might even have someone worth a damn!” he bellowed as he reached into a pouch to draw out more snacks.

“Yah,” I replied blandly as I surveyed the destruction. 

Why couldn’t we just let each other have nice things?

Oh, right, cause this was a death world with a thin coat of shounen orange paint slapped on top.

“You did well,” Fuguki praised, eying me thoughtfully. “Maybe that rumour going around about Gengetsu nominating you as the next Mizukage isn’t all hot wind.”

That got my attention. “What?”

Fuguki smirked. “Hadn’t heard that one, eh? People have been murmuring that Gengetsu’s favouring you, and some people have the idea that he’s grooming you to take over.”

He began to chuckle with his mouth full of food. “Those people don’t know Gengetsu, though!”

That drew a slow nod from me. Why wasn’t Gengetsu crushing these rumours?

My return to Kiri suddenly had a lot more tripwires to watch out for. I just knew that, for all it was good to lodge the idea of me as Mizukage in people’s minds, the clans weren’t going to take that sitting down.

Somehow, I just knew Gengetsu was sitting back in Kiri, smirking to himself.

Running a hand through my hair, I sighed in annoyance. Damn him, and me for thinking he was going to make this easy in any way, shape, or form.

I’d have to stick around here and see who Konoha sent next. As much as I detested Gengetsu, I knew he was right.

There was a fight coming my way, and I couldn’t dodge it.

Time to see how I measured up.

_____________

A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for your continued support!

Feel like I need to have Konoha and maybe even Kumo come and try and wreck things, cause letting Kiri have nice things doesn’t sound like something they’d do.

Now I just got to play with who will show up next to guarantee the destruction of this facility.