Saiken was exploring the Capital of Wave. He liked this body, it was a lot easier to move around in than his Tailed Beast form. A little inconvenient at times, though, since he needed to eat and sleep now.
He had already mastered the Transformation Jutsu, and while he lacked the Chakra of his old form, he still had more than enough to keep up the transformation the whole day. That left him free to wander about and observe humans as much as possible.
He spent most of his time watching people go about their lives; merchants haggling over prices, children playing games with each other...
It reminded him of life when Father was still alive, before the Sage separated them. Back then, he would sometimes sit atop the roofs of buildings and watch over Father's family from above.
This felt similar in some ways: It made him feel content, knowing there were still those who followed Father's and Asura's teachings.
But he was sometimes confused by the actions of other humans, like these two men currently standing in front of him.
"Listen up, boy." The man growled menacingly. "I know you're hiding some money under that little shirt of yours."
"Yeah, and if you don't want us to get angry..." The second thug added as they both loomed over Saiken menacingly.
Should Saiken be scared right now? He could easily fight them off. They were far weaker than even a young Utakata.
Saiken slowly looked around, the alley they were in was narrow, so there was no way out unless he went through the thugs.
That seemed rude, so he didn't want to do it.
"No thank you." He finally replied politely after a few seconds.
The first thug scowled at him. "What did ya say?"
"No, thank you." Saiken repeated himself again, maybe this was one of the humans with defective hearing?
"No, thank you?" The second thug asked incredulously before stepping forward aggressively. "Listen here, boy, either you give me your money, or we beat it outta ya!"
Ah! Now Saiken understood, these men were... 'robbers' was what they were called? They wanted his money so they could buy things!
Well, he didn't have any money. When he needed food, he just went to the Watcher's Shrine and asked for some.
"I do not possess currency." He replied truthfully, before brightening up. "I know where you can acquire some, though!"
"Currency can be acquired by exchanging goods or services with other humans. There are multiple places where humans gather to do that, one such place is-"
Saiken didn't get to finish his sentence because the first thug punched him in the face.
It didn't really hurt, it felt more like a light tap against his cheek.
"Oi, you trying to piss me off?" The first thug yelled out, raising his fist again. "You think this is funny?!"
"Halt, criminal scum!" A voice yelled out from above them, everyone looked up to see a... crow?
It was twice as big as a normal crow, the only notable thing about it was that it wore a black scarf with golden stars on it.
"Men of ill deeds, behold your reckoning, my vengeance is now upon you!" The crow squawked loudly as it jumped off its perch and landed between Saiken and the thugs.
The two robbers just stared at it in confusion for a few seconds before the first one started warily backing away.
"My dark arts shall shatter your bones, and send you screaming into the pits of hell!" The crow declared proudly.
"I'm getting the fuck outta here." The second thug spoke up nervously, running out of the alleyway without looking back.
The first thug hesitated before following his friend.
The crow huffed angrily and dashed forward, fast enough that Saiken had trouble keeping track of it, easily blocking off the entrance to the alleyway, causing both men to stumble backward.
"Fools! Do you really think you can escape from me?" The crow taunted haughtily. "My claws rend steel, my beak is as sharp as a sword, I am a creature of death incarnate!"
Saiken couldn't help but feel confused, was this creature lying? It didn't seem that powerful... It was fast, but if Saiken could still see it with this new body, he would have easily been able to swat it out of the air with a tail swipe in his old form.
One of the thugs screamed loudly as he tried to kick the bird, who simply dodged effortlessly.
"You dare try and harm my dark feathers? Fool, you do not understand the pain it took to forge myself into a demon of terror!"
The crow jumped forward and headbutted the thug right between the legs, causing him to double over in pain.
"Even in these lands, blessed by the Watchers light, darkness dwells in every corner! I-"
"Akuma." A voice interrupted the crow. Saiken turned around to see one of the people that worshipped the being he met. This one wore a suit of leather armour and the same white blank mask most wore. "I thought we talked about this?"
The crow huffed defensively before it spread its wings dramatically.
"I am but a humble servant of The Watcher, bringing justice wherever I may go." It squawked out in an affronted tone.
The masked man sighed audibly under his mask.
"Akuma, stop monologuing to random criminals," He scolded firmly. "You have a job to do, don't forget that."
The crow hung its head in resignation at the reprimand. The masked man shook his head as if he had seen this many times before.
He then turned his attention to Saiken.
"Young man, are you alright?" He asked kindly. "These men didn't hurt you, did they?"
"Hello, they tried to hurt me by striking at my face." Saiken replied politely. "It was unsuccessful."
"...Oh, well, that's good, I guess?" The masked man replied, clearly confused. "Anyway, just be careful next time, okay? There are more dangerous people than these two idiots out there."
Saiken nodded agreeably, and the masked man walked over to grab the two thugs, one tried to struggle but was quickly restrained.
"Alright, let's go now, Akuma." He ordered the crow, who chirped excitedly and took off into the sky.
The masked man started dragging both men behind him with surprising ease, considering they were bigger than him and weighed more.
Saiken was confused once again, humans really are interesting creatures...
***
I seem to have misplaced a Jinchūriki... Oops?
In my defense, I spent the last half a day just making sure everything was fine in Wave, dropping a meteorite on the island was a pretty big event.
I had to deal with panicked worshippers, damages from the earthquakes and a couple forest fires, which in hindsight probably were Kakuzu's doing.
DP:6342
I had enough DP to maybe teleport to Kakuzu and steal back Utakata... But that would leave me with little to no DP, and then any other member of Akatsuki would be able to capture Utakata anyway, and then I was stuck in a constant back and forth until Pain flattened the Capital.
It was frustrating, I didn't care much for Utakata, he wasn't my friend or my worshiper, but it was still irritating to see that he got taken away.
I had the choice to either enter conflict between Akatsuki and Wave or not, and both options have pros and cons.
On one hand, if I saved Utakata I would start an early conflict with Akatsuki. They would know about me and treat me as a threat, but it would mean that if I convinced Utakata to stay in Wave, then I made sure that Kaguya didn't resurrect.
On the other hand, did I want Kaguya to stay dead? If I let her get revived, I had the opportunity to interrogate her about her clan, and maybe even recruit her into working with me. Having someone with her powers would be invaluable if her Clan does somehow end up invading.
It was a choice between betting on my ability to stop Kaguya from going on a rampage, or betting on the threat of the Ōtsutsuki being something I could handle on my own.