I AM SOMEHOW NOT DEAD!
Sorry guys, standard excuses, uni and family shit happened. I'm here now, on uni break for the next 5 or so weeks, we'll see what happens, on with the story
———
Naofumi wasn't sure what he was meant to expect when he was told by Hickwaal about the large amount of herbicide in a place known as Lerno Village, but he most certainly didn't expect to find a recreation of the warring states era, or more specifically, a battlefield left behind by Hashirama Senju.
He kicked himself for not thinking about the idea.
Riding along in the carriage pulled by Filo, Naofumi looks over the carnage of the plants, growing all over the road and the natural stone walls, thick, green vines stretching for ages, further than the eye could see in all honesty. It was a sight Naofumi never thought he'd see. "They're gonna need a lot more than just this herbecide to take care of this problem." he muttered looking over the vines. He noticed something really off about them too. 'Why do they have chakra? Or is this mana?' he asked himself.
"Master Naofumi, look there!" called out Raphtalia, pointing ahead. Naofumi turned his attention to where she directed her finger, laying his eyes upon a circular wall made of wood covered in vines, probably the village that had requested the herbicide if he had to guess. The situation looked anything but good for them.
"Okay Filo, get us up there as quick as you can!" ordered Naofumi.
"Here we go!" called out Filo, picking up her speed as the wagon made it's way towards the fenced off village.
———
"I don't know how to thank you enough." said the elder of the village, an old man with a fairly substancial white beard, wearing clothes that seemed to be two sizes too big for him. "This place was about to fall prey to all the vines too!"
"How about burning them?" asked Rifana, tapping her bow on instinct. "Or did you already try that?"
"Certainly." muttered the old man. "We've tried everything we can think of. We even resorted to summoning adventurers, but the situation is worse than before. Our village was already overrun with the vines. What's worse, the plants turned into monsters and started to attack us!" he exclaimed as a cry of anguish came from the jungle. It was a perishing scream, one that meant certain death.
"Some adventurers went to level up, but when they left the village they had no idea what was ahead of them." mourned the elder. "I begged them to stay."
Adventurers meant plural, and with only one scream, there could be survivors. And when there were survivors, there was valubal intel. "Filo, find the adventurers and bring them back to the village!" ordered Naofumi.
"Okay..." sighed Filo, stuffing 2 berries in her beakbefore standing up, giving a quick 'I'll be back' with her beak full of food as she set off.
That got people talking, and he swore he heard mention of his stupid Saviour of the Heavenly Fowl title.
Naofumi's gears were turning in his head. Something about this situation stank, and he didn't mean the herbicide currently being unloaded by Keel and Raphtalia. The plant growth was way too quick, the only thing capable of doing so at the speed the vines were growing was the Wood Release of the First Hokage. So what suddenly caused the plants to grow like this? Was it a side effect of the Waves of Calamity? No... that didn't make sense, seeing as there hadn't been a wave in this area yet. Rouge magicians were a possibility as well, but then again, not necessarily a stand out.
Then it hit him.
"That fucking idiot did this, didn't he..." muttered Naofumi with a sigh.
"Sir?" questioned the elder, confused.
"The Spear her came through these lands and introduced a seed, didn't he?" asked Naofumi, already feeling the headache of dealing with Motoyasu's shit coming along.
"Why yes! He called it a miracle seed." exclaimed the elder. "Our village was being ravished by famine, until one day, the Spear Hero visited. He went to some nearby ruins when he heard of our plight, and returned with a seed that had been sealed there many years before."
Naofumi sighed. "Dumbass didn't read the warning. He actually didn't read the fucking warning!" he yelled kicking his seat to the side, startling everyone.
"At first we had no idea." said one of the other villagers. "We were overjoyed when we saw how quickly the plants were growing and bearing fruit. However..."
"They grew too much and overwhelmed your village... is that what happened?" asked Rifana.
"Indeed..." muttered the elder. "While investigating our options, we happened upon an ancient legend passed down among our people. A long time ago, an alchemist who'd set up shop in this area created a seed. But for some reason, he sealed it away."
"The legend also said that after only a short while, the plants... would overgrow everything in the region." continued another man.
"Wait a second..." interupted Naofumi. "You're telling me, you have an ancient legend about a seed that outgrows everything, and you weren't the least bit suspicious when the Spear Hero gave you a 'miracle seed' from nearby ruins?" he asked, causing everyone to look away in shame. "I get it, a combination of desperation for the famine to be over and the trust you place in the heroes, right?"
The elder got onto his knees, holding out a bag of coins. "Please, Saviour of the Heavenly Fowl, we'll pay for any treatments, and even for the monster extermination in advance! Anything! Please, just save our village, I'm begging you!"
"Wait... treatments?"
———
What Naofumi walked into was the largest tent their makeshift village had, with stretches along the sides, and around 20 people sick, with plants growing out of them. It was... sickening. It felt like the Wood Release he had been accustomed to in his home, seeing as even 100 years later, Hashirama Senju's chakra could still be detected in the forests around the village, his legacy to his people. But... it felt as though it was contaminated...
Corrupted, somehow.
It made Naofumi sick.
"As you can see, the plants are devouring their bodies." solemly said the elder.
"These things are parasitic?" asked Naofumi, looking over one girl with his sharingan. "It seems to be substituting sunlight with vitality and using the water in the body for some kind of sick photosynthesis. Disgusting..."
"I can't ask you strongly enough, Saviour, please do what you can to heal them!" begged the elder.
Naofumi didn't need to be asked, and went to the first victim, a small girl, around the age of Sasuke or Naruto, maybe a year or two older. "I'll try, but I don't even know if I can save them." he said, before turning back to Rifana. "Go grab a crate of herbicide from Keel or Raphtalia."
"Yes, master..." muttered Rifana, leaving the tent to collect the herbicide. Naofumi took a look at the girl once more.
"You must be in so much pain..." he spoke, trying to comfort the girl, as he looked over at the parasitic roots. "Just hold on a little longer, I'll help you, I promise."
Naofumi's rage began to build, looking on at the absolute disrespect towards Hashirama, his primary jutsu being used in such a way, creating life that sucks the life out of children. His anger increased even further as the roots continued to grow along the young girl's body. Keel and Rifana arrived not too long after with some herbicide, which Naofumi took in his hands, using his Potion Enhancing skill, and increasing the effects of the plant killing agent. He poured it over the girl, and the plants began rotting away into nothing. A quick glance with his sharingan revealed the girl to be free from the plant's hold and safe. The people looked on in wonder and admiration, as the Saviour of the Heavenly Fowl performed his miracle.
"Next one."
———
Filo returned not a few minutes after, with a trio of unconcious adventurers. In no shape to be questioned, Naofumi decided against waiting to question them, seeing as he had no idea how long it would take them to wake up. He instead opted to tread through the forest slowly, carefully and diligently into the old town, covered in vines and root and plants that could kill them.
Filo went bolting in there again and caused a major disturbance. Eventually the group was forced to face off against a small team of around 12 humanoid vines with flowers where the head should be, known as PlantRiwe, which gave a healthy amount of exp to the party. They would also released poisionous pollen from their flowers, which was a pain to deal with. The group also came across immobile enemies with the power to spew acid from their vines, called Mandoragora, but they were easily beatable.
After finishing the last of the monsters off, the group came across a tall tree sporting fruit from it's branches and leaves, with a flower blooming at the top of the trunk. One that soon opened up to reveal an eyeball. This was it, the boss, called the BioPlant. "We take this thing down and it's over!"
"There's nothing to worry about, I'll destroy it master!" yelled Filo as she ran at the mutant plant.
"No! Filo, wait!" called out Raphtalia as the bird rushed forward, running along the vines of the plant. Naofumi, knowing he couldn't stop her, sighed and gave her a boost with his Air Strike Shield, allowinf Filo to kick off the green shield and straight into the eye of the monster, causing it to spew acid. She jumped away before it could get her, but it quickly reformed, good as new.
"Regenation too? You really are a First Hokage rip-off, aren't you?" asked a sarcastic Naofumi. "Since normal attacks aren't gonna work on you..." he began, before throwing Raphtalia a bottle of herbicide. "Spash it right on the eyeball. Rifana, you need to get a flaming arrow there right away to finish it off for good after the herbicide's been planted."
"Yeah! Right away!" exclaimed Raphtalia, jumping on Filo's back. "Okay Filo, let's go!"
"Right!"
Filo rushed off, carrying Raphtalia over to the monster, jumping along vines as they moved from root to root to get closer. Filo jumped over several roots, and as they descended towards some more, Raphtalia slices them apart with her blade, which trips Filo up, as she was going to use them as a platform to jump. They both descended further down. "Come on Raphtalia, don't hold me back!" yelled an annoyed Filo.
"Hold you back?!" exclaimed a pissed off Raphtalia.
"Watch out!" yelled Naofumi, but it was too late.
Raphtalia was entangled by vines as Filo fled, placing her in a compromising position. Filo, seemingly finding it amusing, laughed. "Filo! Did you just laugh?!" demanded Raphtalia.
"No, of course I didn't!" retorted Filo. "Nevermind that, just grab the herbicide!"
"Nevermind what?!" she demanded as she pulled out the herbicide, trickling it onto the plant root below, destroying much of the monster's roots, before it regenerated again.
'This thing's regeneration has surpassed Lady Tsunade's even Lord Hashirama's might not've been this good.' though Naofumi with a solem look. 'How can we beat this thing if we can't make it's injuries stick?'
The girl he healed flashed into his head.
'That could work.'
Naofumi rushed forward, running through the hand signs, Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger, before taking a deep breath of air and exhaling. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" he called as flames shot out of his mouth at the BioPlant, which shrugged it off as if it meant nothing to him. But from the flames came the shield hero, with a bottle of herbicide already opened, his skill engaged and his poison dropped. The beast howled in pain as it began decaying, shrinking up and roots turning brown. The group fled away from it as it collapsed, eyeball popped out and all, looking at the tree fall down, leaving behind fruit with seeds.
"Gather up all the seeds. We don't need any more of these things causing anymore trouble."
The group got to work, and whilst Keel and Rifana seemed fine with the work, Filo and Raphtalia were arguing again, and Dra was simply gorging herself on fruit and seeds. "Lord Third, give me strength with these girls..." muttered Naofumi, placing everything he had into his shield.
{Requirements Met - BioPlant Shield}
{+5 Defense}
{Equip Bonus - Plant Modification}
{Requirements Met - PlantRiwe Shield}
{+5 Defense}
{Equip Bonus - Intermediate Compounding Recipies 2}
{Requirements Met - Mandoragora Shield}
{+5 Defense}
{Equip Bonus - Plant Analysis}
{Requirements Met - Wood Chakra Shield}
{+25 Defense}
{+25 Chakra Defense}
{Equip Bonus - Wood Style Jutsu Techniques}
{Equip Skill - Wood Style}
Naofumi choked on air when he saw the last shield that had just been added to his repetoir. Wood Style, combined with his Sharingan that was a combination of power so deadly it could very well spell disaster for enemy villages or the Waves.
Naofumi wasn't going to complain about that one bit.
Another thing that stood out to him was the BioPlant Shield's Equip Bonusof Plant Modification. That was an interesting ability to have, with the potential to become similar to some form of psuedo Wood Style for someone incapable of using it.
Or...
Naofumi picked up a seed, looking over it's specifics and stats, before making some small changes to it as a beta test. He threw the seed on the ground, watching it come to life as a tree, smaller than before with the same, before the eye burst out of it's flower. Before Naofumi could even form a single hand sign, the eye died, and the tree withered away into nothingness.
"Excuse me, but what are you doing?" enquired Raphtalia, walking over with a basket full of seeds.
"I unlocked a skill that's called Plant Modification and did a little experimenting." shrugged back Naofumi.
This seemed to catch Raphtalia off guard, who gasped before looking at him sternly. "We just barely took down that monster, so if you don't mind, please don't be so reckless!" she exclaimed.
Naofumi nodded his head, before looking down at a seed once more. 'This definitely feels like home... like the Valley of the End where I trained with Yuki... always flooded with this chakra...' he thought as he looked down at the seed with fury. 'But this... it's a corrupted version, twisted so bad it isn't even recognisable as his anymore... but it definitely is... it's Lord Hashirama's.'
The only question was who was responsible for this.
———
Yugito looked down the mountain to the entry gate of Kumogakure. Samui held her packed bag, and Mabui the girl herself, who tried her best to look presentable for Naofumi's arrival. She had recieved a message beforehand that Naofumi was coming personally to collect her, and would arrive early in the morning on this day. She touched her pelvis and smiled. She was going to a new place with the man of her dreams, the father of her child, who was now beginning to show himself in her stomach.
The council had tried, oh how they had pleaded, promising riches, power, even the chance of revenge against her mother, but not even sweet revenge could tempt her from leaving with her child. A was quick to put a stop to it, like the supportive big brother she thought of him as.
Killer Bee was nowhere to be found, something very odd. She half expected him to put on a final rap concert for her so she could hear him one last time before moving away. She was thankful, however, as she had the preminition something bad was going to happen.
She first caught sight of the group when a mop of bright blonde hair came running up the path, smiling and laughing in an accursed and disgusting orange and blue jumpsuit, worn by a child no older than 13. Yugito actually felt the urge to throw up upon seeing the abomination.
What shocked her even more is when A muttered "Namikaze...".
Yugito's eyes widened as she looked at the boy, seeing several similarities to the 4th Hokage. Long deceased, the boy was about as old, maybe a little older than when the blonde Kage had died. And the appearance was uncanny. She knew then and there that this boy was the legacy of the Hokage, and one Naofumi had told her about during their second escapade, Naruto, his brother.
Following him was another young boy of a similar age with black hair, Sasuke if she had to guess, Naofumi's younger cousin and adopted brother. He looked remarkably similar to Naofumi, with the same cold glance that she first saw on his face.
Then came the other three. All 3 were women, one a girl around their age with long, pink hair, and the other two were both women older than her, if only by a few years, one with purple hair, and the other with green and orange hair, distinguishable as Anko Mitarashi and Pakura of the Scorch Style from the BINGO book.
Finally, came her husband. Or future husband once everything was finalised and they had their wedding. Naofumi came walking up the the mountain, the picture of confidence, glaring hard into the crowd as his sharingan span wildly. His black hair blew in the wind, his mouth a cold frown as he looked over the foreign ninja.
But Yugito... she knew better. Or at least, Matatabi did. She could tell it was a genjutsu. That wasn't Naofumi.
Keeping up appearances, she smiled and went to hug him. The false Naofumi smiled, somehow exactly like Naofumi, before wrapping her in a hug. As if to confirm the point, there was no butterflies in her stomach or heat across her cheeks as she enveloped the one whom she 'loved'.
"Who are you?" she demanded. "I know you aren't Naofumi."
"Kakashi Hatake." responded the intruder, the Copy Ninja. "We'll explain the whole situation when we're on the road, and prove it once we return to the Leaf." he said as he stepped back, allowing him to meet the Raikage. "Lord Raikage-sama."
"Who the hell are you? You aren't Naofumi." demanded the Raikage, in equal tone to Yugito.
"The Copy Ninja, Lord Raikage." introduced Kakashi.
"Ah, Namikaze's sole surviving student." muttered A. "That explains the brat then."
The whole area became cold as major KI was emitted from Kakashi and the two elder women who overheard. If looks could kill, not even the Raikage would be able to stand against the three of them. They were easily recognisable shinobi, all either at or on the bridge of S Rank, were certainly skilled, Kakashi famous for his Lightning Blade that could even cut actual lightning, but even they would have a hard time against someone like A, and the same could be said for the Kage.
Should a fight break out between them, there'd be no clear winner until the very end.
A took the KI well, responding with his own that his chakra began flaring up and destroying the ground he stood on. People watched with weighted breath as the two sides glared down at each other.
A sighed and relented. "Look, I just want an explanation."
"SS Rank Village Secret. I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to disclose it to you, Lord Raikage." responded Kakashi, before turning to Yugito. "We have a carriage set up for you, as we have reports that you've been unable to move well on your own lately." he said, before dragging the two boys closer. "Naruto and Sasuke here are going to take care off all your needs for the 3 week journey to our village, no task to big or small for these two."
The two boys seemed less than pleased at that notion. Yugito couldn't exactly blame them for it, D Rank missions were the worst, especially escort missions with privilleged and snobby assholes as clients.
A thought struck her head.
"Anything?" she asked with a coy smile. Anko seemed to catch on immediately and began nodding her head rapidly.
"Oh, anything at all. And I'm in charge of punishment if they do anything to upset you or aren't up to your standards." she responded with an eager smirk.
Yugito roughly translated it to 'Please give them an impossible task to fuck up so I can fuck with them.'
And who was Yugito to deny her new comrades?
———
"Thank you so much, Saviour of the- I mean, Shield Hero." said the village elder.
"I took care of the monsters, but I'll have to leave the vines and such up to you." responded the Uchiha.
"Yes, of course." replied the village elder.
Naofumi yawned as his eyelids became heavy. 'Tired.' he thought to himself, remembering he hadn't had sleep in approximately 38 hours, and probably needed to rest up from all the stress over those last few days. "I'm going to sleep." muttered Naofumi with another yawn. Raphtalia said something to him, but it slipped by as he walked into the carriage, throwing his cloak over the leaves and wrapping the Cloth Shield around his arm so he could go to sleep comfortably.
He dreamt about forests that night, he heard the chirping of the birds and the whispers of the wind, smelt all that nature had to offer with grass, trees and bushes, and saw the light of the sun shining through the foilage of the trees. It was a peaceful dream, until it became engulfed in black flames, a meniacle laughted filling his dreams as the air turned icy cold and two eyes stared through the flames. Lavender, Byakugan eyes.
Naofumi awoke with a jolt. Realising he wasn't going to get any more sleep, he sighed and got up, grabbing a few seeds to experiment on, before flickering out of the cart so no-one could hear him. He equipped his Mandoragora shield and began practicing with plant analysis, before switching to the BioPlant Shield and trialing his new Plant Modification skill. After a few attempts with no success, Naofumi eventually mastered both shields, and got the seed he was hoping to create. Smiling, he planted it, and waited.
He didn't have to wait too long, after an hour, the plant had not only blossomed, but also produced the fruit he saught after. He smiled to himself as Raphtalia awoke, always the first one up amongst their little group.
"Master Naofumi?" greeted an inquisitive Raphtalia, as he heard Filo behind her yawn, and Keel snore away. In her hands, she carried his cloak, obviously wanting to give it to him and keep him warm. A kind gesture.
"You can keep sleeping if you want." responded Naofumi. Most ninja definitely slept in where they could, conserving strength as well as allowing for moments of rest between the high stress levels of missions.
"No, I'm okay, thank you. What are you working on?" she asked.
"Raphtalia, what do you think is the most important part of leaving a place after a mission?" asked Naofumi to his genin, who shrugged her shoulders. "Impression. If you make a lasting good impression, then people will hire you again and again and bring in more revenue to the village, or to our merchant business."
"And that, my dear genin, is what I'm going to teach you now, Hearts and Minds."
Small bits of charity that requires not much work on their part but left a lasting effect on others. His teachers back in the academy taught him as much back when he was still a student, even if the economics lesson went over his head, he just learnt about it being the right thing to do. Even if they were contract killers, they could still have a heart and compassion when the mission allowed for it.
And so, as the sun rose on a new day over Lerno Village, so too did it bear the fruit (no pun intended) of Naofumi's lessons. Not only had the plant continued to blossom and grow more fruit, but Rifana had joined the HAM lesson not long after Naofumi began it with Raphtalia. From there, as the sun began beaming down on the village, and the villagers awoke, they were greeted by the new plant.
Naofumi showed it off to them. "I curbed their breeding and mutation levels, and increased both productivity and their growth rate. With this, they should bear plenty of edible fruit and not turn into monsters. Your village will never know hunger again." said Naofumi, smiling to himself.
"Oh, thank you, sir Shield Hero." exclaimed the village elder, arrousing a loud applause from the villagers. "Not only did you save us from danger, but you've given us the most wonderful gift we could imagine."
"Yeah... about that..." muttered Naofumi. "I'd like to ask for something in return."
The village elder looked at him startled.
———
"What did they think I was going to ask for, more money?" questioned Naofumi, on the road once more, biting into a lush and juicy fruit. It reminded him greatly of a Momo, but shaped like an extremely large and red Hatsukoi. He had exchanged 1 basket of safe seeds with the remaining 3 baskets of unsafe seeds he was going to mess around with later, as well as 5 baskets of the fruit collected from the original vines.
"We have so much fruit!" celebrated a gluttonous Keel, eating her full in the sweet taste of fruit.
"Shame most of it is probably going to rot before we can eat it all or find any buyers." muttered Rifana, looking over their stock. "The seeds should keep well, but we only have around 6 or so more days before the fruit goes bad."
"Not to worry." responded Naofumi, as he looked ahead. "I know where to find us a buyer."
———
"This is certainly an impressive seed." said Hickwaal, looking at the seed through his magnifying glass. He looked up again and smiled. "I'll be happy to take as many as you can give me, including all the produce."
"Then we have a deal, my good friend." smiled Naofumi as he shook his merchant friend's hand.
"My compliments on how you showed off several attractive products to create an advantage." praised Hickwall. "You are a shining example of the Trader's Spirit."
"Couldn't have done it without my great teacher." replied the Uchiha.
"Actually, if you aren't busy at the moment, can you assist me in a little job I have?"
Naofumi smiled.
"Anything for a friend. What can the Saviour of the Heavenly Fowl do for you?"
———
Hope this was worth the wait. The writing for the next chapter has already begun, so hopefully it gets out to you quickly. But let's be real here, when was the last time I ever got something out to you guys quickly?
That's all for now, hope you enjoyed, vote and comment if you did, and for now, this is Striker777, over and out.