NRaO Chapter 39 (Patreon)

BOOM! The aviary exploded! The birds were stolen but the people inside wouldn’t know that. Even still many guards and shinobi rushed in that direction to help put out the fires. Two of the guards inside the greenhouse left to see what was happening. That is when I made my move. Jumping up I used a paralyzing poison on the female guard with the good ears.

She heard me but I was too fast for her to do more than turn in my direction. I began to seal her body as the green-haired assistant screamed. Woah she’s younger than I expected. Maybe between thirteen and sixteen. Still, a hand came across her mouth before I whispered in her ear. “Before I blow this place up, are there any plants about to go extinct that need to be taken out so they don’t?

Her eyes go to the special-looking plant that was separated from the rest. The few other clones I had began to seal everything, taking special care of the extremely rare plant. I whispered in her ear again. “Well, I don’t know how to take care of that plant so I’ll have to take someone who knows what it is with me.” A chop came down onto her neck knocking her out as I began to seal her. 

She was weak but knowledgeable. The problem was she was taken care of in the village so might have some loyalty. The same went for the guard woman. I needed both for now but if they fight the process too much it wouldn’t end well for them. I finished gathering what I could until the guards outside noticed something was wrong and barged in. I escaped out as they began to pile in.

Getting three buildings away I exploded the explosive seals and grenades I placed inside blowing the building up. The main body with the seals ran towards the exit while more clones were formed and headed to take some shots at the leadership. The main three headed towards their jinchuriki. I didn’t think any would succeed but I had the best chance with him.

A knife came out as guards got in the way and my clones cleaved through them like butter. A few dozen genin fell at my feet before one was taken down. Even still I kept running forward causing havoc in the village to draw attention away from the group escaping. A knife came out and stabbed into the neck of an old man. He turned towards the knife pinning it with his chin and taking out that clone.

The only clone to see the jinchuriki was overwhelmed by his bodyguards and I could only throw a single kunai toward him. The jinchuriki would have been struck but a bodyguard got in front of it taking the hit himself. What would have been a potentially fatal wound for the jinchuriki was just a small wound in the guard's arm. I could only laugh at my luck.

The two sent for the kage were only for distraction purposes. I had no hope they would reach the kage let alone be able to do anything. As expected I only killed about ten shinobi before they were overwhelmed. That had pulled enough away for the last clone to slink away toward Chiyo and her family. There wasn’t much in terms of guards in the area.

It was near the back and in the opposite direction of the kage which most had gone to protect. It was also just me walking like normal not trying to draw attention. I just walked up to her door and knocked before being let in. Granny Chiyo greeted me confused as I asked if I could be let in. As we walked into the living room she questioned. “What’s going on out there?”

I sipped at the tea that was prepared for me as I casually mentioned. “Oh, I attacked the village and targeted key areas, everyone is freaking out because of that.” Granny Chiyo only sighed as I spoke. “I thought you were too good to be true. It’s unfortunate that our puppet techniques have already been stolen.” I sipped again before speaking. “Yes, I just wanted to thank you again for teaching me before offering you and your family a position in the hidden leaf village.”

She took a sip of her tea before stating. “I’m sorry. My family's place is here. If the worst is to come, I hope that offer still stands.” I could feel the poison in the tea finally kick in. What a truly impossible thing to do. She knew I was a clone and put in enough poison to have a small talk before I was puffed. I coughed before giving her one more out. “That offer will always be there. If the worst does come, I’ll greet you openly Granny.”

Poof My shadow clone dispersed. I thought I might have seen her false smile drop before I did but it was too hard to tell. Our trip back to Konoha wasn’t sunshine and rainbows. They were mad, mad enough to keep attacking us the entire way to the border. Hundreds died as they were relentless, as we crossed the border I had to hand off the scrolls to my followers before my snake clone poofed out of existence.

My main body greeted them halfway to Konohagakure. It was a very close call. The skinny girls were in bad shape and would need days if not weeks of recovery time to function again. Still, I couldn’t help but be happy. This was my second clone that made it back. While the bounty wasn’t as big it was because the hidden sand village was already picked clean. If I had gained the puppet blueprints and hadn’t had a clone there for years then the results would have been as good if not better.

I was still interrogating the group that came back from Hidden Stone but… I fucking snagged the kage’s little sister! That pink-eyed beauty was planning a rebellion and I thwarted it by taking the key member from them. The rebellion would have failed anyway, I had seen his particle release, and while the sister could possibly use it in the future she hadn’t bothered to learn.

Her lava release was good but not great, the glass and obsidian variants were better for building than fighting if I was being honest. Still, in the long run, I was happy to get my first kekkei tota member for my harem. It was in her blood, she had the elements for it she just hadn’t been taught or learned it through training. Even if I had to steal the training method from hidden stone it would be a tremendous pull for my clan going forward.

I wanted to build a clan that had staying power compared to others and I think I was working towards it well. As most clans had a specialty mine wouldn’t. The entire purpose of my clan was to incorporate other clans into ours. If we saw injustice or another clan being bullied we could absorb them into ours in the future. A message was sent to the hidden mist and the Yuki clan was already told they had a place in Konoha if they wished.

Rolling everything together we could perfect techniques and come up with an evolving style as more members gained combination powers. I was going for a Senju with Hyuga eyes or Uchiha with Uzumaki chakra pool as my grandchildren. As we made our way into the village I breathed a sigh of relief that we were safe again.

It was at that point that one of my clones was canceled and signaled that something terrible happened.