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Title: Kumogakure
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"I know you said we have to be discreet and all but... Why?" A short white haired boy asked the White haired girl beside him as he sat inside a spherical ball of ice.
They were currently moving underwater while en-route towards Kumogakure.
"We don't particularly have permission to enter the country of lightning. If we're caught, it could be interpreted as a direct act of war." The girl explained.
"Eh..? How is that possible? We're on a mission to actually threaten them, isn't this a little bit redundant as compared to that?" The boy couldn't help but pout.
He had been forcefully put inside this ball of ice so that he couldn't do as he pleased. He could've escaped but the girl beside him prevented him from doing that.
"Sigh. Whatever, how much longer till we reach land?"
"I dunno, a few minutes tops." The girl said. "Just keep quiet and let me concentrate. Maybe we'll reach sooner."
"Humph!" The boy snorted and crossed his hands across his chest as silence fell inside the ball.
It was so silent that it became creepy in a way. They could hear the breath they each took, despite keeping it on a down low, being Shinobi made them extra sensitive.
It was already silent due to their location being underwater, but the beating of the heart and intake and outflow of air from the lungs and nose made it even worse.
"Agh!! I can't take this anymore!" The boy whined but... "Shh. We're here," the girl said.
"Finally!" The boy cried out and broke apart the ball of ice with his fist and swan out. As soon as he reached the sea surface, he could see land not too far from him.
With a short scan, he knew they were safe for now, but the few chakra signatures a few kilometers away left him puzzled.
According to the debrief he got from the girl, there should be no outpost around this area. No Shinobi would be sent this far out of land.
So either they were Shinobi on a mission, or they were rouges.
After thinking about this for a few seconds, he shrugged and ignored them.
With a little flex of his chakra, he stood on the sea and began taking short and relaxed steps towards land, his pace very leisurely as he took in the fresh sea breeze.
However, before he could enjoy this moment, he felt a hand on his shoulder, greatly startling him, but before he could protest, he was immediately on land.
"We have no time to waste. Remember what you promised yesterday." The girl said as she squinted her eyes at the boy.
"Of course. Of course. I won't go out of line." The boy nodded impatiently with an annoyed look on his face. This irked the girl but she couldn't do anything to her lovely little brother.
"Alright, it should take us a few minutes at our top speed to reach the village. Let's move." She said and picked a direction to move but was stopped by the boy.
"Hey, let's take this route, it's safe, with less obstacles. And also faster." The boy offered. The girl looked at him and then pondered for a few seconds before nodding.
She had scanned the entire area and didn't discover anything special about that place, but considering the boy had a wider range than her, she decided to trust him.
As soon as she turned, the boy smirked and followed behind her. Since she wanted to order him around, he just has to make the trip a little more memorable for her.
A few minutes passed before the girl suddenly paused with a frown on her face. "Shun...?"
"Hmm?" The boy, Shun, tilted his head innocently at the call of his name.
"Did you know there were a few Jounins and a lot of Chunin around here?" The girl asked as she rubbed her temple.
This little brother of hers, despite being adorable, had a way of getting into people's nerves, even in serious moments.
"Of course," Shun nodded his head, his innocent face unperturbed by the exasperated look on his sister's face.
"Why...?" The girl asked. "You promised."
"And I am keeping it. This path is shorter than the path you intended on following." The boy defended himself.
"But didn't you hear me say we're going in undetected?" The girl asked, trying to maintain her calm.
"That's the point. We just have to make short work of these guys over there and we'll be on our merry way." Shun said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"We aren't going to kill them.." the girl said with a bewildered gaze directed at Shun.
"I didn't say we would. Who do you take me for? Some murder loving child?" Shun scoffed. "I promised not to do anything out of line. This isn't out of line."
"This isn't out of line? We just encountered... Sigh. You know what..? Forget it, let's just get this over with." The girl said and flashed towards the camp.
Shun smiled jovially and followed behind her. This smile wasn't one of a killer, but of someone seeking for entertainment.
To him, fighting people who wouldn't hold back against him due to his status was what he yearned for. His sister wouldn't fight with the intent to kill.
His father wouldn't, neither would his mother. The kids who would, didn't have what it took to make him go all out. They couldn't even make him break a sweat.
Arriving at the scene, he saw his sister already in a battle with the group. Ninjutsu flew around as they all tried to kill her. Yusano also didn't have any intention of letting any of them leave here... Consciously at least.
As he watched the spectacle of elements and weapons flying around, he couldn't help but notice that these group of people were very uncoordinated.
"Shun watch out!" He heard his sister cry in warning, but it was not actually necessary as he already saw the trio trying to sneak up on him.
"Nihility." Shun said, as all their weapons phased through him.
One had a katana, one a Kunai and one a spear..? It was a naginata actually but weird looking.
Nihility, was a technique Shun had created in his attempt to recreate the Kamui centuries ago. It became redundant as he grew stronger, similar to most of his other techniques.
The principles behind it was banishing yourself to another plane of existence, or rather, the mirror dimension, for a certain duration.
Unlike Obito, he didn't have a separate dimension in his eye, and his domain wasn't exactly built on that concept, so he had to make due with the mirror dimension.
As the weapons all passed him, Shun stretched out his hand to use his domain ability on them but paused as a smirk appeared on his face.
"It's been a long time since I had a satisfying dance, I sure hope you lot can satisfy me." He said and took a Tai-chi stance. "Here I come."
Swish.
In a burst of speed, Shun appeared in between the three men and in fluid movement, struck at them, hoping for some form of retaliation or obstruction.
However, what he got was an uninterrupted access to their vital points.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The three all flew out while spurting out blood. "What the fuck!?" Shun shouted after a few seconds of confusion.
"The gentle fist? Are you a Hyuga?" One of the men coughed and asked.
"Huh? Don't overestimate those fools, they couldn't possibly achieve this level of expertise." Shun said in disdain. "You three on the other hand... Why are you this weak?" He asked.
"What?"
"C'mon, get up, you can't have possibly reached your limits right? I am already fired up for this fight, don't make me angry right now." Shun said and took his stance once more.
The three men remained lying on the ground but Shun merely stumped on the ground and they were all shot up to a standing position.
{A/N: Classic Earth-Bending.}
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Shun took slow and steady steps forward, but weirdly enough, the three all felt themselves being pulled closer to him.
Exchanging eye contact with each other, they all shouted and pulled out their weapons while rushing at Shun who smiled and expertly dodged them by crouching on all fours.
Without wasting much time, he picked the one closest to him and delivered a punch to the jaw. Unfortunately, this punch seemed to knock the fellow out.
"How pitifully weak." Shun muttered before bending down to evade a katana swing aimed to lop off his head and caught the hand. "You've got some bite, huh?" He said and pulled him back, unbalancing the man.
"Wha-" the man said but was interrupted as Shun's palm covered his face, slamming him into the ground, and knocking him out.
"What a waste of time." Shun muttered and turned to the other guy. "Are you going to do it or should I?"
"Huh?" The man tilted his head in confusion. "Sigh. He's stupid too." Shun said. "Domain Expansion. Room!"
The man instantly appeared in front of Shun, with Shun grasping his head. "Night. Night." Shun said before also slamming him into the ground.
"Humph. What a bore." He said as he turned around, only to see Sister rounding up the group of bandits. He stood by the side as her clones rounded them up and tied them.
They could t risk allowing news of their presence to leave this place afterall.
Shun however was deep in thought as he analyzed the short fight he just had. 'Is it that I'm just too strong or they were pitifully weak?'
Although he was proud of his Domain, everyone who's seen it knows that it's only capability was for teleportation and telekinesis. Nothing else.
It had no other use other than support. Although he had taken the concept from the Op Op fruit, he didn't have the ability to reject death like Law, but he has the total manipulation perk.
Everything within this Domain was his to control. Space and Time included.
{A\N: Law doesn't have time manipulation. His space manipulation is something like exchanging places with anything within his Room.}
"Meh. Guess I'm just too strong for this world right now. And I was thinking of adding Limitless to my arsenal... Wouldn't I be invincible then?" Shun muttered to himself in a low voice.
"What are you standing around there for? We got somewhere to be." Yusano's annoyed voice rang out, interrupting Shun's thoughts.
"Hai..." He said and followed her.
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The Raikage's Office is located in the tallest tower of the village and has the kanji for "Lightning" on the front. It also has a boxing bag and a painting with the kanji for "muscle" across the chair that the Raikage sits on.
The Fourth Raikage has a tendency of bursting out of the windows and walls, rather than using the doors, something that Mabui, his assistant, reprimands him for.
Mabui was a dark-skinned young woman with green eyes. She wore very formal attire consisting of a long-sleeved, high-collared dress shirt and skirt, along with a pair of long earrings and high-heel sandals.
She wore her light gray hair pulled back into a bun with two bangs that fell on either side of her face.
Today, her usually calm demeanor was nowhere to be seen as anyone empathic enough could feel the amount of stress she was going through.
With the scheme to get a Hyūga clan member over to their side failed, numerous council members have voiced their complaints to the Raikage who as usual, left the talking to her.
Today, as she was walking up to the Office above, a Chunin called out to her. "Mabui-dono."
"Hmm?" She turned with an annoyed countenance as she didn't appreciate the interruption.
Knowing she was not in the right mood, the Chunin hurriedly apologized and said. "Forgive me Mabui-dono, but we have important visitors asking to meet the Raikage."
"Tell them to wait, I'll get back to them in a bit." She said and turned around to resume her walk but the Chunin said. "I'm afraid they're very important visitors, Mabui-dono. It'd be wise to meet with them before coming to a conclusion." The Chunin said.
"Hmmm?" Mabui turned around and looked at the young man. Her expression was frostily cold. "Are you now telling me how to do my duties, Hirako-kun?"
"I wouldn't dare, but I also wouldn't be here if it wasn't of utmost importance." The Chunin felt like crying but unfortunately, couldn't.
The two had a stare down for a good full minute, and seeing the distress in Chunin's eyes, she sighed. "Take me to them."
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Mabui POV.
I always ask myself this question... Why did I ever accept this job?...
I honestly have no idea. One moment I was comforting my friend over the death of his father, the next he was asking me to be his right hand man...or woman.
Stupid me... I accepted without thinking of the consequences. Now, I have to pick up where this muscle headed Ai and Bee messes up.
For over a month now, we've been in a very precarious situation concerning Konoha-gakure.
I had honestly asked Ai not to do something stupid, but he as usual, lept before looking, now, the threat of another war is over the horizon.
It's not that we fear war... No. We actually welcome it. Afterall, we currently have the strongest military might amongst all Great Villages... Hanagakure excluded. That village will never cease to amaze me everytime I think about them.
In the case we went to war against Konoha, we would undoubtedly win, but the cost would be too much.
No one likes seeing their loved ones die. The Third was a prime example of that. He fought off Iwagakure Shinobi for three days and threw nights just to make sure his people survived.
No one would want to tarnish that sacrifice he made. Especially not Ai, his own son.
We all felt that with the Kyuubi rampage, we would be able to strong arm Konoha, but who would've thought they'd be this adamant.
Although I didn't support this plan in the first place, I wasn't totally against it. Afterall, it would be good for Kumo to have the Byakugan.
However, with the plan failed, all those old codgers are out for blood. And what does Ai do? Nothing. He just leaves it all to me to handle.
I honestly need to consider retiring... This Shinobi live doesn't suit me.
"There they are." The Chunin who had to add more work on my plate said and pointed to an area outside the building.
Looking over, I saw something that made me feel as though a pit appeared in my stomach.
A certain sense of foreboding washed over me but I suppressed it and approached the two...one who was looking around with an intrigued look on her face.
As for the younger one... I wonder why he's blindfolded... Was he blind? But that's impossible. There's no way a member of that clan could ever be blind right?
"Seems like someone important has been called over." The blind boy? said without even looking back.
As expected. They're as dangerous as rumored...and there's no way that brat is blind.
"Don't worry, I'm not blind." The boy said. What? Could he also read my mind? That wasn't in any reports concerning the clan.
"I'm not reading your mind, if that's what you're wondering. Your emotions are just there for me to observe." The boy said and finally turned around.
"Wow... You really are beautiful." He said and damn… Was he one beautiful piece of work? How could a boy...no a human be that beautiful?
Wait. Is this a Genjutsu? Focus! Mabui. Focus. "Huff. It's a pleasure to meet you two. What may have brought you over to our village?" I asked in the most neutral tone I could muster.
"Don't worry lass, we didn't come with I'll intentions. We just need to deliver a message to the Raikage and we'll be on our way." The girl behind the boy finally turned around and said.
'The White Ice Princess.' It's really her. I never thought I'd get to see someone as strong as her this early. In my generation, only she could be hailed as a genius.
Not even Yugito with the Two Tails could go toe to toe against her... Right?
{A/N: Mabui was around 29 years old during the Fourth War with Kakashi and Mei being 31 and Killer Bee being 36... So when Shun was 5, Kakashi was 14, Mabui was 12. With MC being 9, Kakashi is 18 and Mabui is 16. Don't mind her being the secretary at such a young age. I have no idea who was secretary before her so... We'll make do with her.}
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General POV.
""Don't worry lass, we didn't come with I'll intentions. We just need to deliver a message to the Raikage and we'll be on our way." Yusano said as she turned around.
She was lost admiring the cloud skies of Kumogakure. This was something not even Hanagakure in all its beauty had.
The skies over there were always clear. There wasn't any wrong timing when it came to weather.
Iwagakure had its rocky lands and mountains, Kirigakure had its mists and water bodies, Konoha-gakure had its lush greenery and forests, Sunagakure had its hot and windy deserts and finally, Kumogakure had its high mountains, literally hidden in the clouds.
As for Hanagakure, when it was winter, it snowed, when it was spring, temperature began to rise as day grew longer, when it was summer the temperature got hotter, and when it was autumn, the days grew shorter with everyone preparing for the cold winter.
It was beautiful that way yet it lacked the constants other villages had.
"Hmm, please follow me." Mabui said after receiving Yusano's greetings.
She didn't have it in her to order their apprehension. She wasn't that tired of living. As someone privy to a lot of information, she knew the dangers a single Tengen posed, not to mention two.
Records were kept for the sole purpose of guiding the future generation after all.
"Hmm." The two nodded and followed behind her.
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Knock. Knock.
"Huh!? Who's there!?" A loud shout resounded from within the room where Mabui had just knocked on.
"Raikage-sama." Mabui entered and greeted with a calm countenance, as though what she had experienced so far hadn't affected her at all.
"Oh, it's you." Raikage, Ai, said as he continued lifting the enormous barbells in his hand.
Ai was a dark skinned muscular man with blond hair combed back, a small mustache and goatee adorned his face. His face has pronounced cheekbones and tear troughs under his eyes, and a prominent crease across his forehead.
He has pointed canines and his top lip also has a darker hue than the bottom one; traits he inherited from his father.
"Raikage-sama, I'm Sorry to cut you short in your workouts, but we have guests. Important ones." Mabui said calmly, and despite Ai's violent reaction to the report, her calm face didn't even falter for a second.
"Is it about the Hyūga incident? Tell whoever came that we won't be reconciling this time around. They either give us what we want or prepare for war!" Ai shouted as he threw the barbell on the ground causing it to shatter.
Mabui didn't even react and said with her eyes closed. "I'm sorry but it's not about that..."
"No... It's surely about that." Yusano said as she barged into the office, interrupting Mabui mid speech.
"And who the hell are you!?" Ai shouted looking at her.
"Yusano. Tengoku Yusano, and I've come with a warning."
***
Alright. That's that. Tomorrow I'll complete this conversation and move on with my Timeskip.
If there's any incident that happened between this time till Naruto's graduation, feel free to let me know, so I'll add it to the Timeskip.
3.3k words...Enjoy