282Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Inuyasha, and I'm not making any money off of this
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Inuyasha, and I'm not making any money off of this. Also, I didn't write the original "Naruto of the Shikon", LD 1449 did, and LD, who gave me permission to write this sequel, doesn't own Naruto or Inuyasha either.
Summary: Sequel to "Naruto of the Shikon." In feudal Japan, 4500 years after the shinobi world fell to the Bijuu, Naruto sets out to rebuild Konoha and create a brighter future. Naruto x Inuyasha Crossover. Naruto/?, Inu/Kagome, Miroku/Sango and others.
Warning: Read "Naruto of the Shikon" first. Also this has major spoilers for both Naruto and Inuyasha.
Naruto of the Shikon - Shodai Rokudaime
Written by - qtar1984
Beta'ed by - LD 1449
Chapter Two: Exodus I: Fleas' Test
Konoha
Koga, Ginta, Hakkaku, and Ayame soon grew bored of simply watching over the area surrounding Konoha, especially when the hidden village was so exotic to them. There were too many new sights and smells there for them to resist.
So they left their wolves with the instructions not to let anyone in the village unless they were with the group that they had been with in Konoha earlier. Game was in good supply. It seemed as though this place had been concealed from human eyes for quite some time.
These buildings were nothing like the primitive thatched roof houses that needed stones to keep their tops from blowing off. Every building seemed to have the architecture of a lord's estate or more modern designs that they didn't recognize. There were strange rectangular buildings made of brick and mortar. A few buildings were strangely round, though these seemed to have some significance because of the large kanji on them.
Koga and his male companions noticed a familiar scent. It was a salty sent too faint for humans to detect that he did not think he would ever smell again.
The four wolf-yokai tracked the scent down to a small building with kanji reading Madate's Grocery, whatever grocery meant, probably something to do with food. Koga carefully pulled on the handle to the building's strange transparent door and found it to be unlocked.
They entered the building they could see packed foods that reminded them of the food stuffs that Kagome had brought from the future.
Then they saw it on the fourth row of shelves. When Konoha and its physical contents had been restored with Kagome's wish it seemed as though this item had been restored as well.
"Instant Ramen!" Koga, Ginta, and Hakkaku cried at the same time. Koga
felt tears of joy stream down his face at the sight of the wonderful tasting noodles.
'All this ramen, and that ninja isn't here to steal it from us' the
three males thought as they grabbed a few of the sealed Styrofoam cups.
"Ayame, you've got to try this stuff," Koga said handing her a shrimp
ramen cup and a pork ramen cup while keeping two of the same for himself. Ginta and Hakkaku both chose a pair of ramen cups for themselves as well.
"Okay, what exactly is this?" asked Ayame.
"It's instant ramen. Kagome brought some of this back from the future.
It's really good. I didn't think this place would have any." Koga said, drooling at the thought of eating the delicious noodles without interruption.
"How do they have any of these anyway?" Ginta questioned in one of his rare moments of insight. In response however, Koga and Hakkaku just shrugged, while Ayame still didn't know the true implications of the fact that they had these things.
"Why is it called 'instant' ramen?" asked Ayame.
"Because for some reason Humans have to "cook" things I think its because they don't like the taste of blood on their meat." Koga explained as he shook his head, at the thought, not understanding how it was humans couldn't appreciate the raw, fresh meat of a kill... "So anyway, cooking meat and rice and things takes time, this stuff though is cooked in just a few seconds.
"Wow that's amazing," Ayame said thinking on how convenient it must be for humans that were traveling.
"Umm… Koga… there doesn't seem to be any water in here," Hakkaku interrupted as he realized that indeed, there was no water causing the male wolves to face-vault.
Koga stood up again and groaned, "Ah man, you're right there isn't any
water in this place."
Then Koga straightened, "Wait a minute, I remember smelling water over by those stone faces on the cliff."
The other wolves brightened at this. It had taken them a few minutes, but they had finally managed to find a pot to heat up the already hot water from the (still active) hot springs in front of the Hokage monument, along with some chop sticks.
They had heated the water over a small campfire they had built.
Koga and the other wolves began to salivate when they began to smell the delicious scent of the ramen as Koga poured the hot water into the first shrimp ramen cup when a voice came from behind them.
"You know Naruto would be mad if you ate too many of those."
The party gave startled cries before whipping around to face the stranger. Their eyes widened as they took in the sight of the woman before them.
She had a beautiful face, long red hair, a fanged grin, red slitted eyes, and wore black armor. The wolves found themselves counting; three, six… "Nine tails!" Ginta and Hakkaku cried, realizing whom this woman was.
The Kyuubi no Kitsune
"Um… Hello there, Kyuubi-sama" the two greeted shakily, causing Koga to growl a bit he didn't bow to anyone, least of all any fox. Those little bastards were known tricksters; Ginta and Hakkaku were probably embarrassing them by falling for some kind of illusion.
His body seemed to lock up suddenly however, as the woman's eyes locked onto his own everything fading for a moment as her eyes glowed a fierce blood red, her smirk turning predatory and her fangs glinting.
Before he could react the illusion faded and he found the Kitsune looking at his two prostrated followers with an amused smile over her features. She chuckled as Ayame started prodding them to get up with her foot.
"Even so… you'd better eat that before it gets cold." She said with a small shake of her head.
Koga straightened and quickly poured water into the rest of the ramen cups, trying to pretend that she hadn't so affected him with her power and her managing to sneak up on him.
Ayame frowned at the woman, slightly jealous of her looks.
"Whatever why should I care if I piss off that ningen anyways?" Koga asked as if nothing had happened viciously suppressing the feeling of cold dread that had seeped up and down his spine when she had looked at him. He still didn't understand how the others hadn't noticed.
Kyuubi looked at him thoughtfully before answering, "Besides him loving
ramen and the fact that he could defeat you quite easily… Naruto will be bringing people here, and they will need these instant food stuffs along with the animals in the surrounding area to survive until they can set up proper farms for a city of this size in this time."
Koga snorted. "So what? OW!" He yelled as Ayame smacked the back of his head. "Don't be an idiot." She hissed. While she was less rude than Koga and was willing to give the Kitsune the benefit of the doubt that she was the real thing, if she did indeed turn out to be the demon of myth, the last thing she wanted was Koga pissing her off.
Kyuubi smirked, "If the job of keeping these three in line gets too tiring for you girl, you can always take a soak in the hot springs here, just make sure you stay on the right side. I'd offer to join you but I've got a few errands to run."
The wolf yokai looked at her quizzically before they asked, "What
errands?"
"Nothing big, I just need to get a few presents for Naruto-kun's welcome back party. So to speak." The Kitsune said with her familiar smirk before she turned and left the four to their ramen.
Naruto's Caravan
The make shift wagons (made with the help of hundreds of Naruto clones, to the amazement of both the Inu gang and the migrant villagers) pulled along with the help of the various livestock that Kaede's village had.
Since they had no horses, they had oxen and cattle pulling the wagons as well as goats and pigs pulling smaller carts (those were a rather amusing sight), slowly advanced along the path through the forest.
The caravan was guarded on all sides by Naruto clones (some of which were hidden further away), all wearing masks and hoods to prevent observers from realizing that they were all copies of the young man in the middle of the procession.
Currently said young man was teaching his rapt audience of children, their parents, and the Inu gang the history of the shinobi world that had been destroyed 4500 years prior.
A young boy named Hisame Aoi asked the shinobi, "Naruto-sensei, did they really put great demons into little babies in your time?" with a certain amount of disbelief.
Naruto looked at the boy and answered, "Yes they really did seal great
demons into babies. The villages did it so they could either use the demons as weapons or to protect themselves from those demons when they attacked. The demons, though powerful, weren't very smart back then so it wasn't as hard as you think. But it did have a price."
Naruto paused before continuing, "To seal away something that powerful
unwillingly usually requires that a person give their life for the sealing, though some had developed a methods that did not require it." Naruto thought of the Akatsuki's sealing of the freely roaming Bijuu as he said this.
Naruto got a sad look in his eyes for a moment before he shook it off, "The people that contained the demons invariably lead hard lives. Even though they actually kept the demons at bay and stood between them and the people they might have hurt, the people around them usually either scorned them as if they were the demons or viewed them merely as tools to be wielded by the hidden villages. They were not allowed to live normal lives. This is one reason why the demon hosts where called Jinchuuriki, power of human sacrifice.
"Bwa, How horrible! That must have been what it was like for you, Lord
Inuyasha. 'Slurp'," said a familiar flea before driving his proboscis
into Inuyasha's neck to have a drink.
Inuyasha gave his usual response of slapping the nigh indestructible flea flat.
"Myoga, where have you been? We haven't seen you since before Naraku
first attacked us with the So'unga."
The flea yokai puffed up again and jumped onto Inuyasha's shoulder before answering in a pleading voice, "I'm sorry Lord Inuyasha, but I knew that I wouldn't be of any use to you so I left so that could live to serve you another day."
Inuyasha scowled, "Then where were you after that?"
The flea looked sheepish as he replied, "I'm sorry but… well… I'm
afraid of Lord Sesshomaru," the flea confessed.
Naruto chuckled before speaking, "I don't blame you. Inuyasha you
should go easy on the guy, its not like he could do much in a fight anyway, unless sucking blood counts for anything."
Naruto then turned slightly to address the flea again, "You may know that I plan to rebuild my home village, Konoha. If you don't mind I would like it if you set up a flea spy network for me though I'm sure you guys already have one, being as wide spread as you are. I'd just like to be in on it," he finished with a grin.
"Spy network? What spy network?" Inuyasha questioned in the familiar gruff manner. "You must be crazy to think this one's any use?
Myoga looked mildly shocked at the ninja's guess about the flea gossip
network, before he answered, "I'm surprised that you caught onto us.
Inuyasha-sama was never that smart. Squish Urk...I mean, I always believed that I was more secretive than that..." The flea corrected as best he could while he recovered from the squishing.
He shook his head. "I can give you regular updates on situations but only if Inuyasha-sama approves. The flea turned to the Inu hanyou to hear his answer.
Miroku looked thoughtful before he said to the hanyou, "I think it's an
excellent idea. You must admit Myoga has been good at giving us much needed information at times."
Inuyasha didn't need to think much about it. "Fine whatever, do it. I just don't want a whole bunch of flea demons wanting a drink of me," he answered, a twitch in his brow at the though of more fleas trying to drain him.
"Very well milord, but they may want at least some blood in exchange for the information."
Naruto smiled at that and said, "I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult
to have a blood drive or two for the information, I just don't want anyone getting any diseases or getting weak from blood loss."
Myoga looked slightly confused and asked, "What is a 'blood drive'?"
Naruto remembered this wasn't the age of medical science and explained,
"It's an event where several people get together to donate blood by means of tube connecting their arteries to a plastic bag, usually to help other people who need blood because they've either lost blood by accident or because they're sick. It's a thing of the distant past or the distant future."
Myoga looked pleased and nodded his tiny head, "Yes. That should be an
acceptable way to offer payment for the services of the flea gossip
network."
"Gossip network?" everyone said incredulously.
Myoga clapped one of his hands over his mouth before nodding sheepishly.
"What do you expect, we flea yokai don't cause any of the major demonic
historical events so we just watch listen to it and hope to gain something from it," the flea explained.
Naruto smiled and said, "I see, you're all just a bunch of little guy's sharing old wives' tales eh?" Naruto winked at them as he said that
last part.
Everyone smiled in amusement a smile as they said to the flea, "Yes, that's exactly right." Causing Myoga to grumble in disdain, something about 'No respect'.
Naruto then said to the flea, "Now that that's out of the way, was there anything you wanted to tell us before you cried to Inuyasha about my story." He finished with a twitching eye.
"Actually I was going to ask to see if the rumors of Lord Inuyasha pledging his allegiance to a human were true." Myoga gave Naruto a panicked looked of supplication with his four arms flailing as he explained, "Not I that I mean any insult to you Naruto, I know how powerful you are but the other fleas doubt your might and some of the flea leaders' representatives have followed me to verify my claims. They just can't believe that a human can be as strong as a Daiyokai without proof you understand."
"The flea yokai were allied with Lord Inuyasha's father but some doubt
Inuyasha's worthiness of our services and most of us agree that Lord
Sesshomaru is too cold for us to serve him at this point, though both brothers have made recent strides in proving that they are worthy of a full alliance with us should the two of them cease their feud with one another, and it appears as though they have, if only for the moment. We all know that the late Inu-no-Taichou would have wanted for his sons to get along." The flea finished looking up at Inuyasha.
Inuyasha snorted, "Don't get too comfortable, I'm gonna have to put the prissy little prince in his place soon enough. If he keeps insulting me." Inuyasha snarled at the end.
Naruto looked to Inuyasha, "Has he said any of that in the last few days that you saw him?" He questioned with a deadpan expression.
Inuyasha looked at Naruto quizzically, curling his nose back as he wasn't able to catch the full sentence "What are you on about now?"
Naruto smiled at him knowingly and said, "Nothing, nothing." He said with a dismissive wave.
Naruto then turned to Myoga and asked, "Where are these representatives you mentioned? You'd think that people wanting to take my measure would want to meet me."
Myoga seemed to pale and straitened as if he had just remembered something important. "Naruto-sama, the flea leaders' representatives are coming to meet you. But they're going to be doing it in the form of a test. I don't know what it is but it should be starting any minute now."
Ahead of the Caravan with One of Naruto's Clone Scouts
The clone leapt through the trees, looking about for any potential threats to the caravan when it suddenly spotted one.
In a clearing ahead of the caravan and out of its view due to a curve in the path, were over fifty brigands dressed in battered armor that they had doubtlessly stolen from dead samurai on the battlefield.
The brigands were currently ridding toward the caravan.
The clone noticed something else. The apparent leader had a strangely blank look in his eyes, as if he were being possessed.
The clone dispersed itself.
The Caravan
Naruto straightened as his clone's memories filled his consciousness.
Naruto blinked and raised an eyebrow as he realized this would be the flea's test.
"What's wrong?" Kagome asked, looking worried at Naruto's anger.
Naruto didn't answer her as he addressed the caravan. "There's some
trouble up the road. Stay here while I go take care of it," he ordered.
He then pulled up his facemask and disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving the Inu gang and the soon to be Konoha villagers to reign in the pack animals.
The Clearing
The brigands stopped their charge as leaves began to swirl before them and a masked blond man appeared before them.
Some of the men made sounds of surprise while the dull-eyed leader merely smiled at him.
The dull-eyed brigand turned to his companions and said, "Looks like a
lonely little Nanban (southern barbarian) is playing Ninja. I wonder if he has the skill to back it up."
He grinned and said, "Get him."
The other fifty something brigands urged their horses forward and some called Naruto names not fit for younger ears.
Naruto (idly realizing that he did indeed appear to be European) responded to their charge by tossing a few explosive tag wrapped kunai at the ground at the ground a few yards in front of them.
The tags detonated too soon for the horses to be hurt by the explosion, but Naruto had intended this for now the horses began to panic and reared back and most of the brigands fell from their mounts to the ground. The horses began to run away and Naruto watched as they trampled over some of the brigands before making a cross seal.
"Taijuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he said, and over one hundred clones appeared and immediately moved to capture the panicking horses. 'I can smell the blood and smoke of these men. They've probably just raided a village. I could use these horses. I don't want to kill them, just the men if I have to,' Naruto thought.
As he expected, the de-horsed brigands panicked and began to run.
"What the hell? Is he a demon?" some were saying, while others said that they'd either meet up later. Others simply cried, "I quit!" or something similar.
But the dull-eyed leader, who still sat across his horse, smiled at him again.
Naruto realized why he was smiling when the fleeing brigands stopped fleeing as their eyes went as dull as those of their leader.
The apparent leader dismounted and he along with the other dull-eyed men advanced on Naruto with their katanas drawn.
Naruto shook his head, realizing the fleas wouldn't leave him be till he beat these men fair and square.
Naruto leapt into the air above them spinning as he threw eight shuriken at the group below him. Naruto's hands flashed through some hand seals before crying "Han Tatsumaki no Shuriken (Half Tornado of Shuriken)."
The eight shuriken multiplied into hundreds more, traveling outward from Naruto in downward facing domelike rain of metal. The result was a great bloody mess of shuriken pincushions.
Naruto landed in the small space at center of the heap and leapt to the edge of the clearing between the slain brigands and the caravan. All of the shuriken except the original eight began to disappear in puffs of smoke.
After pulling down his facemask to reveal his face Naruto ordered,
"Alright, come out, fleas. I can sense that I didn't hit any of you."
Little specs began hopping out of the mess of bodies and were soon grouped in front of Naruto in a triangular formation. 'Oh look, it's a flea circus,' Naruto though amusedly to himself.
The flea at the front of the triangle jumped onto the back of Naruto's
right hand that Naruto brought up to his eye level.
Unlike Myoga, this flea wore what seemed to be a tiny suit of samurai armor. The ninja idly wondered how it was crafted.
The flea seemed to bow to Naruto in supplication before saying, "I am
Myoto, representative of the Flea no Taichou. Please forgive us for attacking you Uzumaki Naruto-san. We had heard the Lord Inuyasha had entered your service. Myoga's claimed that you were worthy of this and that your power was comparable to that of a Daiyokai. We were, understandably skeptical of him, so we decided to test you."
Naruto looked the insect on his hand, feeling a bit like Shino, before
replying, "I know, Myoga told me of your intentions just before I became aware of your attack."
Myoto said "Yes, we gave him permission to reveal that just before the
test. As for what we were testing, we wanted to judge your ability to react to a situation quickly. You seemed to have been able to reach us before we thought you would, something I believe has to do with those copies you've spread through the forest."
"We were also testing your ability to judge a situation by possessing the brigands. You passed that by the way, when you attacked in spite of the possession. They were the worst sorts. They had just destroyed a village when we jumped onto them. There are survivors for you to recover if your capture of the horses is any indication of your intentions. You get extra marks for that."
Naruto looked like he agreed with the flea's logic before asking, "I get all that but why did you just get human brigands to attack me instead of using something more powerful? Weren't you trying to gauge my power as well?"
Myoto twitched his proboscis in what seemed to be annoyance before he
replied, "We didn't want to cause a lot of collateral damage. Your power was to be judged on how easily you dealt with the brigands. While many demons could have defeated them, few would be able to do so quickly and with a single technique."
Naruto felt his eyebrow twitch as he said, "You thought Myoga was
exaggerating weren't you."
The fleas drooped in embarrassment. Myoto replied, "That might have been a factor. We didn't want the attackers to be able to get past you to hurt your company."
Naruto beamed and said, "Thanks for your courtesy anyway." Naruto frowned as he looked at the bloody clearing. 'I'm, going to have to clean this up before I bring the caravan through here, and the scent of blood must be driving Inuyasha crazy, as well as the horses,' Naruto thought as he looked up at his clones guiding the horses back to the clearing were they began to neigh and rear slightly at the smell of their shredded former riders.
Naruto placed Myoto on the ground and stepped around the fleas. After a
moment of thinking, 'What should I use? Normally one uses fire jutsu to
dispose of bodies but that smells. Oh, I know.' Naruto walked over to the bodies and collected his eight shuriken before returning to the edge of the clearing.
He began to go through a series of hand seals and then slammed his
hands onto the ground.
"Doton Yomi Numa (Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld)"
The ground beneath the corpses softened into a swampy bog into which the bodies sank.
When they were completely submerged in the ground Naruto canceled
the jutsu, causing the ground to solidify again.
Now that the bodies were out of sight and the smell had lessened, the horses calmed and the clones were able to get them in order. Naruto told them to keep the horses there and wait for the caravan.
As Naruto exited the clearing to return to the caravan, he absently noticed Myoto jump onto his leg as the others left in different directions to spread
the news.
The Caravan
Inuyasha growled in agitation. "Why did he tell us to stay here? There's so much blood in the air," the dog hanyou complained.
Kagome looked at him worriedly and asked, "It isn't Naruto's, is it?"
"No it isn't," Inuyasha said before he paused. "Wait a minute, the
smell just got a lot fainter!" Inuyasha exclaimed.
Miroku looked thoughtful as he asked, "How could a smell just get fainter all the sudden?"
"It could if I just covered it up," came Naruto's voice from behind
Miroku.
Miroku jumped and the others tensed.
Clutching his chest, Miroku spun around and yelled, "Stop doing that!"
Kagura and Kaede ignored the monk and asked, "What's going on
Naruto-san?" the older women questioned.
Naruto grinned at them and said, "Oh, nothing much. I just had to kill
about fifty brigands for the flea yokai leaders' test."
"What!" the Inu gang cried simultaneously.
Naruto noticed the villagers, whom had been uneasy since he left, begin to show the signs of a coming panic and spoke, "Don't worry the threat is already past. Not only have I dealt with the brigands, I've commandeered their horses."
They calmed down again and Naruto continued, "The brigands have attacked a village up ahead. So it looks like we'll be picking up our first recruits today."
The people of Kaede's village voiced their sympathy for the plight of the other village's victims. They had experienced attacks themselves, though the most recent attacks on Kaede's village were brought on by yokai not men, and those had been repelled, a fact for which they were most grateful.
They also knew that most villages didn't have guardians the likes of Naruto, Inuyasha, Kagome, and their friends. That they did was another fact for which they were grateful. It was because of this that no one voiced any objections.
Naruto cleared his voice and said, "I've already cleared the scene of the battle. My clones are waiting with the horses in the clearing up the road. Now, lets get moving again."
With that, the soon to be Konoha villagers began to pick up their packs and get the pack animals, large and small, moving again.
They passed through the clearing where Naruto's skirmish had taken place earlier and none but those of greater olfactory abilities realized anything amiss until they saw the many Naruto's mounted upon the horses that he had 'liberated' from their former owners. The clones urged their horses forward from the clearing into the forest path.
The flea, Myoto, which had remained hidden in Naruto's armor until this
point, leapt onto the shinobi's shoulder, unintentionally mimicking Myoga whom was perching on Inuyasha's shoulder.
Myoga looked at the flea in surprise, "Cousin, what are you doing here?"
Everyone that could hear the flea's question suddenly looked between the two insect yokai in surprise, trying to see if they could identify any common features other than the obvious insect traits. It was of course a futile effort.
All they could tell was that this new flea looked younger than Myoga and that he was better dressed (they also wondered about how the fleas made such tiny armor) and had his 'hair' a traditional black topknot and traditional samurai bald spot.
Kagome leaned in to get a close look at the flea and asked, "Who are you Mr. Flea and are you really related to Myoga?" To an observer Kagome would have seemed to be speaking to a spot on Naruto's shoulder.
The flea puffed up its tiny chest and proudly said, "I am Myoto the flea and I am a representative of the high flea council. And yes I am a cousin to Myoga."
He looked to the aforementioned flea with some distaste, "Cousin, you owe me. I kept Shoga from finding out where you are right now. She gave me quite an ear full for keeping her out of this mission."
Myoga looked panicked at the thought of the female flea that was still trying to get him to marry her. "I'll pay you back, Myoto, I swear!" exclaimed Myoga.
The Inu gang's brow's twitched as they remembered that particular
adventure.
Iga Province – Training Ground
Hatori Hanzo looked at the sword in his hand. He was more of a spearman, but the scaled weapon could serve him well.
He wore the traditional loose black body suit worn by shinobi. The shinobi was young, only seventeen, yet he had been in his first true battle less than year ago. He had killed many men that day and was recognized even more for his prodigious skills by the rest of the Iga clan's ninja.
The already Master Ninja of Iga thought back to how he had acquired the Jian sword.
Hanzo was running though several Hozoin-ryu katas when he sensed the presence of an apprentice level ninja to his left. He could tell their skill level by how far they were from him when he noticed them.
He turned to face the boy and saw that he was an Iga-nin, and that he was carrying a cloth wrapped sword, a straight bladed sword with a hilt that appeared to be covered in large reptilian scales.
The boy ran to Hanzo and held the sword up for his inspection.
"Hanzo-sama, my comrade and I were resting after training when he stood up and said that he noticed a glow in the sky to the north. And then… this sword fell from the northern sky. It ran him through and drove him into the ground."
"He did not survive, I'm sorry to say. I saw that there were no enemies near and so I drew the blade to inspect it. Then I realized that this sword was too much for a mere apprentice like myself. This sword belongs in the hands of a strong shinobi like yourself."
Hanzo gazed at the boy evenly before asking, "Boy, what is your name?"
The apprentice looked up at him, as if surprised that the man wanted to know the name of such a lowly ninja as he, before answering Hanzo before he could get annoyed, "Maki sir."
Hanzo scowled at him, "Maki, why did you bring me this sword instead of reporting your comrade's death to your superior officer and turning in that blade for inspection by our clan's priests?"
Hanzo snatched the sword away from the boy with his right hand, making sure to hold it by the cloth and not to make direct skin contact with the weapon.
Maki looked horrified as he realized that he had indeed violated proper shinobi protocols and wondered why he hadn't done what Hanzo-sama had said he should have done. He knew the rules and he knew them by heart... why had he disregarded them so?
Hanzo slapped him to get his attention. "Come with me now. I'm going to turn you into the trainers for your punishment. I'll tell them to go easy on you if it is found that this weapon was affecting your judgment."
Hanzo thought to what the head priest had told him about the jian sword after he had turned in the errant apprentice and gone to the shrine to have the blade inspected.
The priest looked at Hanzo and shook his head, "This sword is not possessed by either demon or spirit. It seems however to possess the essence of a person in much the same way the legends say a blade forged by the great Muramasa was able to imbue every blade he made with the essence of someone's soul, or the way a blade can take in the essence of it's wielder."
"Either way, the blade gains a will of its own. Because of this, it is not too unbelievable to believe this blade could have influenced the child of Iga... Such a blade can only subtly suggest an action to the one that holds it. But the suggestion is a strong one, most especially to an undisciplined mind."
"And what does the sword suggest then?" Hanzo questioned.
The priest thought for a moment before he replied. "The sword may give a worthy warrior a suggestion as to how to wield it. At worst, the sword will give faulty suggestions to someone it finds unworthy in order to get them killed so the blade can be wielded by another. I imagine that the boy that brought this to you received a suggestion to give the sword to a stronger warrior and he thought of you."
Hanzo straightened and said, "It looks like I'll have to get the boy's superiors to go easy on him after all."
"Indeed," said the priest, and then he frowned. "There are a few things about this that do bother me though. The first is the fact that this blade killed one of our ninja by falling from the sky."
"The other is that this sword is made from demon parts, a large snake yokai I believe, which is rare. And I've never heard of a sword like this being imbued with a human's essence. Yet it doesn't seem to have any demonic aura at all. It seems to have a human aura, but one stronger than a human's. This probably once belonged to a great warrior. Its aura is rather fierce."
The priest then handed the wrapped blade back to Hanzo and said, "I believe that you should be the one to wield this sword. Just be careful, and tell me if anything strange should happen when you are using it."
Hanzo took the weapon with a bow.
"I will," the shinobi replied before making his exit from the shrine.
'I don't know the blade's actual name. What shall I call it?' he
asked himself.
What the priest said came back to him.
"I shall call you 'Kiba no HebiFang of Snake)," he said to the sword.
Hanzo felt a sense of acceptance from the blade at the name.
Hanzo ceased his musings as he suddenly heard many screams off in the distance.
He stood, tightening his grip on the blade before he rushed out of the training site's clearing. Soon enough he found several of his clan ninja facing a Yokai, lizard by the looks of it.
Hanzo reached into his side pouch and with a snap of his wrist, threw three shuriken at the demon. They bounced off its tough hide, bringing the beast's attention to him.
The Hebi no Kiba pulsed in Hanzo's hand. 'You wish to be used,' Hanzo
idly though to he sword.
As the creature launched itself at him, Hanzo ignored his fellow ninja's shouts to get out of the way, before he lifted the sword as he quickly stepped to the side and swung the blade in a horizontal arc.
It passed through the hard scales of the reptile with little resistance.
Hanzo felt a surge of new strength fill him as the blade parted the lizard's head and shoulders from the rest of its body. Blood splattered on the right side of his body as the lizard's parts fell to the ground.
Hanzo took a closer look at the demon and realized that it had been a
salamander yokai.
Hanzo slid the Kiba no Hebi back into the loose cloth he'd been using as a sheath.
Looking to the now dead salamander he spoke.
"Carve out its bones, and make them into a proper sheathe for my new blade," He ordered, and at the ninja's nods he turned and began making his way back home.
The thought of reporting to the clan priests the sword's messages, and most of all, the surge or power he felt come from the blade when he had killed the yokai never once crossing his mind.
TBC
Please Review, and at least make it a little detailed, please.
AN:
-Yes Myoga is back, something that was missing from the first NOTS. The idea of a flea gossip/spy network may seem weird to you but it makes sense when you think about it. The fleas, being so small, and lacking any real battle power of their own except the ability to possess others, could only talk about what goes on in the world about them. Why do you think they are allied with the dog demons anyway?
-That's right, the Kusanagi is not Orochimaru but an impression of him.
There's more to it than there seems, as you'll find out later.
Jutsu List:
Han Tatsumaki no Shuriken (Half Tornado of Shuriken): This jutsu makes shadow shuriken that fly out in a 180 degree or less spread from the user. This is a variant of the Tatsumaki no Shuriken (Tornado of Shuriken), which itself is a variant of the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu, which is was featured as the Shuriken no Tatsumaki in Rise to Power, by crashtestdummy. That jutsu throws the shuriken in all direction from the user.