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Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Also this story is a lemon fiction therefore is intended for people of a legal age from wherever they come from. So if these type of stories offend then stop reading now. Thanks.

Eroninja: Little Black Book

Chapter 7: Left Shattered

There had been a moment of pure bliss as she connected with a person in a way that she had never experienced before, even when she had taken other men into her bed. When they had separated she had still been left with a sense of contentment that normally would have faded as she searched for a means to escape since most of her encounters had been simple one night stands. Yet now, she found that she wanted to escape in a different way, from the duty that had forced her to get close to the man whom she had just shared such a special moment with, and was now demanding that she execute. She reached under her pillow to grab the kunai that she had stashed there while, and also felt her headband. She ran her fingers over it feeling the Iwa symbol as if to remind herself of her allegiance to the village.

Her target returned to the room having needed to release the pressure his bladder had been putting on him. Having donned a robe for the quick journey, he now moved to the window with a look of happiness and satisfaction as he looked down at the bar where most of the town was still partying.

“What now?” she asked, desperately hoping he would finally drop his mask and reveal himself to be working towards his own ends. That his efforts to get the two factions within the town to work together weren’t just because he was a good person, but now that he had achieved his goal he was planning to cash in on it in a big way.

“I’m not sure,” he had responded looking back at her for a moment with a little half smile, “I thought I’d cease to exist before we ever made it to this point. I still can’t believe that they plan to make me the village leader.”

She had found his way of describing his dying to be a little strange, but she hadn’t focused on it as the sincerity that she had heard caused her heart grow pained. He had turned away, and knowing if she hesitated any longer she would abandon her mission. She leapt from the bed. The blade she had stashed away was in one hand and her headband in the other. She had tied the sheet around her so that it fluttered as she landed at the foot of the bed, and then charged towards her target. He had heard her as he turned to face the threat, but she didn’t see as she had kept her head down. She had known that if she met his blue eyes she’d freeze, so imagined that if he had wanted to, he could have easily sidestepped her and she would have thrown herself out the window.

Yet to her surprise, her kunai buried itself into his stomach and to her horror was soon coated in blood. Her shoulder hit his chest and pushed him into the window that he had just been looking out of and for a moment she felt his arms wrap around her. In that moment, he could have tightened his hold on her and carried her out the window with him. But instead she felt his grip lessen and then the window shattered carrying him out of it.

Their eyes had met then as it seemed as if for a moment everything was moving in slow motion. She expected the confusion and betrayal that she saw, but then his eyes shifted into a quiet acceptance almost as if he had already forgiven her. She had dropped the henge that she wore partially so that he would know who it was who had killed him, but also so that he might believe it hadn’t been the persona that she had adopted to get close to him. But, then her perception of time sped up again and he was claimed by gravity and the darkness of the night.

*****************************

Kurotsuchi sat up with a gasp as the dream faded although her memories took over replaying the awful thud of D’s body hitting the pavement followed by a people’s screams from below. While the townspeople had left Otose’s bar, she had quickly gathered her belongings before slipping out of the building even as the town’s residents began filtering into it in order to find D’s killer. Although, the tears that had been running down her face while she had escaped Paradise City. They would have been hard to notice due to the rain. She suspected that was why she hadn’t exactly realized just how much the mission had left her shattered inside until later.

She looked over at the clock on her nightstand to see that only a few hours had passed since her attempt to fall asleep. Her eyes then drifted to the pill bottle next to it which contained her prescribed sleeping medication. Not for the first time did she consider taking them all so that she would never need worry about waking up again. But, she feared all she would achieve in doing so, would be putting herself in a situation where she would never be able to escape her dreams or the guilt they signified.

She began to shiver and realized it was because she was covered in sweat as was most of the bed. She groaned wondering if she should just purchase bedding made of plastic since it was almost a nightly occurrence. She pulled herself from it, and quickly changed the sheets and pillowcases since she would be too exhausted to do it later. But, rather than going back to bed, a futile effort as experience had taught her, she headed to the kitchen to begin brewing some coffee. As the beverage began to percolate, she looked at the calendar and was reminded that she needed to go to the hospital for a check-up. Although she already knew the answer, she made a mental note to ask if she could be prescribed something stronger to make her sleep.

*****************************
“I’m sorry Kurotsuchi,” the doctor looking her over said regretfully, “but there really isn’t anything stronger that we can give you to sleep.”

“There has to be something Isane,” Kurotsuchi asked sounding a little desperate. “At this point, I would be happy if you could assign someone to come by to hit me in the head to knock me out every night.”

The tall silver-haired woman gave her a soft smile for her attempt at humor, but it never reached her grey eyes. Isane Kotetsu frowned before standing to say, “Have you tried talking to someone…?”

“Of course I have,” she snapped in response. “I’m tired of talking about it. They all say the same thing. That it will get better in time. But, I need something that will help me sleep now.” After a moment Kurotsuchi sighed as she knew Isane didn’t deserve her ire so said, “I’m sorry. I’m just so tired of it all.”

“It’s understandable,” Isane replied calmly. “I’m sure you’ll get back to your old self soon enough.” Korutsuchi nodded so the medic said, “Outside of the sleep issue. I can’t find anything wrong with you so you are cleared for duty.”

“Limited duty you mean,” Kurotsuchi replied dismissively. She gave a weak smile before excusing herself to step out of the room in order to return to the administrative tasks that she had been assigned shortly after returning from a mission in The Land of Bears. It had been the mission that she had taken immediately after her one in Paradise City. The main reason she was assigned such duties now was due to her being unable to handle certain high stress situations without freezing. Particularly any mission that might require her to take a life. A truth that she had learned the hard way when she had literally nearly lost her head to a Hidden Star Shinobi’s blade on a similar undercover mission.

She wasn’t really in a hurry to push papers around so wandered the halls of the hospital for a few moments. She came across her grandfather stepping out of one of the rooms cautiously, making her wonder why the Tsuchikage would act in such a manner. Even though she figured he had thrown his back out again and didn’t wish people to know. Yet, she came to understand the reason for his sneaky behavior as from behind her came the calm voice of the woman in charge of Iwa’s Medical Program.

“I believe I told you to stay put, Lord Tsuchikage”

Kurotsuchi watched her grandfather stiffen before he looked over with an uneasy expression etched on his face. An expression which made her feel as if there was a terrifying demon standing behind her. Yet, when she looked over her shoulder all she saw was Retsu Unohana standing there looking serene as ever. The woman smiled at her, before focusing on Onoki to say, “Please return to the room. I will dismiss you once my treatment is finished.”

Kurotsuchi could tell her grandfather was slightly annoyed at being told what to do by a subordinate as he said, “I don’t have time to dally here. I’m already late in making my rounds to gather the information I need for my meeting with…”

Unohana though wasn’t concerned as she stated, “Return to the room…please.”

Despite being delivered in her usual serene tone, Kurotsuchi having turned back to look at how her grandfather would react to his concerns being dismissed, found that it felt as if the temperature behind her was dropping. Again she had the feeling that something terrible was standing behind her, and would be unleashed if her grandfather didn’t respond to the woman’s request. He decided not to risk it as he said, “Okay, okay. Let’s just make it snappy as I do need to have my ducks in a row for my meeting with the Daimyo’s representative since he isn’t pleased with how slowly we are progressing in advancing the Daimyo’s request for expansion”

He turned in order to reenter the room that he had been trying to escape from, but not before his gaze focused on his granddaughter. His usual gruff demeanor softened for a moment, and he looked like he wanted to ask her how she was doing, but Kurotsuchi figured her tired eyes held the answer to his question. So instead he simply stepped back into the examination room as Unohana walked by. She turned towards Kurotsuchi to ask kindly, “I trust Isane saw to your needs?”

“As well as can be expected,” Kurotsuchi replied politely wondering why the healer seemed capable of emitting such a disturbing aura at times.

Retsu nodded her head, before following after Onoki and closing the door behind her. Kurotsuchi waited for a moment half expecting cries of pain to start being uttered by her grandfather. Yet, when none came, she began heading to her office in the Administrations building. She busied her mind by wondering about Retsu Unohana since she couldn’t deny that there was something unsettling about her at times. Yet, strangely enough it only seemed to be at times when she was challenged in some way, such as having a request ignored. Otherwise, she was almost universally beloved in Iwa, although Kurotsuchi did notice how veterans of the Second Shinobi War, and a few of those from the Third seemed more than willing to give her a wide berth. She had consider asking some of those veterans why, but she got the sense that they would give her the run around since even her grandfather seemed afraid of the woman.

Thinking of her grandfather, she knew that she owed him a rather large apology. Particularly since he had fought tooth and nail to prevent her from taking the mission in Paradise City. He had claimed that she didn’t know what she was getting into, particularly since it may have required her to kill some of the targets that she had needed to get close too. But, she hadn’t heeded his advice since her ambition was to replace him as Tsuchikage, and she felt that the best way to acquire the kind of record necessary to prove that she was worthy of his title was to take part in the Western Expansion Campaign. Instead, all she had ended up proving was that her grandfather was right and that she hadn’t known what she was getting into.

Reaching her office, she felt a fresh sense of disappointment at the trajectory of her career, but couldn’t help feeling the bureaucratic hell that she was now trapped in was more than she deserved. After all, at times she couldn’t even hold a kunai without her hands beginning to shake uncontrollably or without her feeling the urge to scrub them due to the blood that she knew still coated them despite how clean they appeared.

*****************************
“Sir, Lady Kurotsuchi is requesting a moment of your time,” Nemu Kurotsuchi said respectfully while bowing politely to the leader of Iwa’s Research Institute.

A gesture that was wasted on the eccentric man as he dismissively replied to his daughter, “Tell her to go away, and stop wasting my time,” all without even bothering to look away from the large computer that he was typing at.

Kurotsuchi felt her skin crawl at being in the man’s company and at times hated how her name was the same as his family’s. Still, despite her desire to be out of his presence even as Nemu moved in front of her to relay his response as if she hadn’t heard it, Kurotsuchi pushed past the woman to state, “I’d stop wasting your time if you would actually make an effort to attend one of the meetings that I’ve already scheduled. I can’t accept your brush off this time since the Tsuchikage needs the report I’m working on for a meeting he has later.”

Mayuri Kurotsuchi made a loud put-upon sigh before spinning his chair around to face her. He studied her for a moment making her feel as if he was thinking of the many experiments that he would like to perform on her. Despite her distaste for the man, she would probably consider letting him if he could promise to rid her of the recurring dreams and guilt she carried. Yet, rather than making such a pitch to her, he said, “Let’s make this quick. What do you want?”

“It isn’t what I want,” Kurotsuchi replied annoyed with the man, “But what I need. Which is an explanation for all these outrageous charges that you have been incurring recently.”

“You’ll have to be more specific,” the man replied his painted face giving him the appearance of a skeleton due to the darkened room.

Kurotsuchi looked down at the clipboard that she had brought to the meeting before listing, “Six hundred thousand ryo in gold leaf sheets. Almost a million in food. That doesn’t even begin to mention that you are over your quarterly budget in regards to for your department’s standard operating costs. Did you open some sort of restaurant or something.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Mayuri said sounding wholly serious, “We could offer the food free of charge while filling it with various performance enhancing supplements.” Noticing the disbelieving look that appeared on Kurotsuchi’s face he added, “Naturally we would have them sign a waiver so we aren’t held liable for any unforeseen side effects.” He then turned away to face the computer again and she saw him type the idea on an open document. But then addressing her concerns while returning most of his focus to the screen he explained, “If there are any complaints about the costs take them up with the Tsuchikage. He’s demanded that I have one of the projects my department has been working on finished by the time the Operation in Bear Country reaches its critical phase. I suppose having the Paradise City Operation fail so spectacularly makes him desirous for my proposed solution to the Namikaze problem to be in place before then.”

Kurotsuchi bit her lip as she would have preferred to call it the Uzumaki Problem, but could understand why it was referred to by the Fourth Hokage’s surname. She saw a picture of the Uzumaki on Mayuri’s screen and felt her blood boil since she attributed many of her issues to the fact that due to his interference it had meant that she had killed D for no noticeable gain. She knew it was likely that even had their plans for Fang and Claw gone perfectly, she would still likely be a wreck. But, she found it easier to blame the Uzumaki since she couldn’t even claim D’s death had been for the greater good. She focused on his eyes, and although from the picture he appeared to be smiling as it was taken from a distance while he reveled with the people of Paradise City. For some reason she began to feel panicked as if she was back in the hotel room as D stared at her while falling from the window.

Finding it hard to breathe, she turned her back to Mayuri as if to leave, but stopped as she asked, “So which expense is associated to that project?”

“The Gold Leaf naturally,” the scientist explained as if to a moron. “Do you truly think we plan to counter the Leaf’s jinchuriki by feeding him? The food is for those Heavenly Kings. They are quite the gluttons. The BC cells they were injected with require a vast amount of energy which means they eat on average four times as much as a regular person. So much so, that the Protective Services Department that was responsible for feeding them before has demanded that we assume it. But, if you are going to nitpick me over it, then have your Father or Grandfather set aside the required funds. They are the ones that aren’t allowing them to go on missions to provide for themselves, after all.”

“Is that disappointment that I hear?” Kurotsuchi asked over her shoulder although she could still feel the pure blue eyes of the Leaf’s Jinchuriki burning into her back. For a moment she wondered why she would think of his gaze in such a way.

Yet, she didn’t ponder it long as Mayuri replied, “Why naturally there would be some. True, they have been tested, but nothing on the level that I feel would justify them as Jinchuriki Killer, or even worthy of being thought of as the Four Heavenly Kings that the Daimyo’s Propaganda machine has labeled them as. It will reflect poorly on my department should they fare poorly in the role for which they were created. The fact that the procedure which created them seems mostly suited to be performed on children is no excuse not to properly vet them.”

Kurotsuchi frowned since it also had a rather high mortality rate and had only produced eight candidates that could be considered highly successful before her grandfather had shut it down. Since the experiment had also been performed by Mayuri’s predecessor, she knew the man was likely hoping that they would fail so he could convince the Tsuchikage to let him reexamine the process. Since, the experiment had produced so few successful candidates, four of them were being kept in reserve and unofficially were called the Underground Heavenly Kings. She also imagined the secrecy around them allowed those four to be used for more unsavory missions that the official kings wouldn’t be tasked with to remain media darlings.

With the explanations that she needed to finish the report that her grandfather expected her to have ready in time for his meeting with the Daimyo’s ambassador she concluded the meeting by saying, “Thank you for your time.”

“You look horrible you know,” Maryuri said causing her to stop in her tracks. “I imagine you haven’t been sleeping well from the looks of it. A guilty conscious eating away at you perhaps.” Having been about to lay into him about how her appearance or sleeping patterns were none of his business. She was stopped short as he stated, “I could help you with that.”

Despite her knowing the man was hardly ethical she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “How?”

“It’s a simple matter really,” the man replied turning to face her again. “I could create a genjutsu which would effectively overwrite your experiences in Paradise City making you feel different about them. You’d emerge from it stronger and perhaps even find you enjoyed killing your target.”

“If it’s so easy,” Kurotsuchi asked suspiciously, “Why wouldn’t the hospital staff recommend such a procedure?”

“A very astute question,” Maryuri replied quickly, “Since, it would make it so that you are no longer wasting your talents. You are hardly the only shinobi to have cracked under the pressure. Yet, that damn woman who runs the hospital claims it destroys what makes people who they are. I’m sure you would agree that it would only be beneficial to change your core memories of the incident, if only so you could move forward again.”

Kurotsuchi would admit that she was extremely tempted to take the scientist up on his offer. Yet, she didn’t like the idea of him messing around with her memories since a part of her still cared deeply for D and the other people that she had met. She just had put a premium on her loyalty to her village. Having her mind twisted so that she would emerge from the genjutsu thinking a hundred and eighty degrees differently about her time there, did make her feel like the person who would emerge from it would be completely different. Not exactly desperate enough to trade in all the principles and feelings that had guided her this far in life, she politely replied, “I’ll need some time to think about it.”

Mayuri quickly lost interest since she wasn’t going to allow him to experiment on her using genjutsu to alter her memories and behavior. Turning back to his computer he said, “Then that should conclude our conversation.”

Kurotsuchi couldn’t help but agree so allowed Nemu to guide her from the room.

****************************

Several hours later she was finishing up her report when the man who supervised the accounting department that she had been assigned to stepped into her office. Before she could ask what brought him, he explained, “I’m hoping that you finished your assignment. It looks like the Daimyo’s representative arrived early. The Tsuchikage wants you to deliver it in person.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t ask,” he said quickly already retreating from the small cramped room, “Just get going as soon as it is done.”

Kurotsuchi sighed as she pulled the final page from the typewriter and placed it with the others. Collecting the pages, she maneuvered herself out of the room due to the multitude of boxes filled with papers that had piled up in the time since her being assigned to the basement where the accounting was done for all departments that supported the village’s shinobi operations. She had to give her grandfather credit since his desk was always so clean, although to be fair he only really saw the top level versions of the reports that graced it, while it was people assigned to the departments like the one she was working in that had to dig through everything to compile them.

Making her way to the elevator, Kurotsuchi could feel the eyes of the other people begin tracking her. The scrutiny made her feel rather self-conscious since she imagined more than a few were taking delight in her assignment. Although, she did suspect she deserved some of it since she had dismissed much of the work they did, before having to do it herself. Still, it was a relief when she stepped into the elevator and the doors closed to begin the ascent to the top floor where the Tsuchikage’s office resided.

Upon stepping out the secretary on duty simply waved her in so she knocked and then entered the office in time to hear the Daimyo’s Representative say, “…your excuses for why you are failing are noted. But, it doesn’t change the fact that his Excellency is most displeased with your progress. Thus far your most notable success was in the Land of Noodles and that was due to an independent contractor you brought in. Perhaps we should hire him.”

Onoki shrugged his shoulders as he replied, “Be my guest. However, I think you’ll find that you will probably have to find a psychic medium or use that abominable jutsu the Second Hokage used in order to do so. While it was true he was effective in distracting Noodle’s Daimyo from effectively countering us. His methods seemed to hinge on seducing women close to those he targets for ruin. I doubt that I need to tell you this could come back to bite him if he targeted the wrong man’s woman.”

Kurotsuchi couldn’t help chiming in as she found the idea that her grandfather was equating a woman in such a scenario as a possession rather insulting so said, “Or, the wrong woman.”

Her grandfather used to her unabashedly sharing her opinion in the past didn’t seem perturbed by her outburst. Which considering she had been rather demure over the past months actually seemed pleased by it. The Daimyo Representative though was less so as he said, “I wasn’t aware that secretaries in Iwa were permitted to speak their minds so freely to their superiors. Women should really know their place.”

Kurotsuchi wanted to lay into the man by stating that one day she would be calling the shots in the village. But, considering her current situation knew it would only come off as empty boasting. Yet, to her surprise her grandfather levitated from behind his desk and with his hands folded behind his back floated to stare the man directly in the eye as he said in a warning tone, “That secretary could snap you in half if she was so inclined. In the capital you may be used to women being treated as second class citizens considering the Daimyo’s tastes in lifestyles, but here they are equals. A fact that I apparently need to be reminded of from time to time.” He focused on her as he floated around the man who looked shaken causing her to suspect the Daimyo Representative had been reminded from the hard glare that he had received that her grandfather had faced Hiruzen Sarutobi and lived to tell of it.

He favored her with a warm smile while the man quivered slightly. Returning to the matter at hand he said, “Kurotsuchi since our guest decided to arrive early I didn’t get a chance to read your report. Please share with us the pertinent conclusions that you arrived at in regards to our current activities.”

Kurotsuchi having heard her grandfather complain about them many times over the last few years knew what he wanted to hear. Which from her looking over the villages books the past several weeks she would have to concur with him so reading her findings said, “Over the past several years Iwagakure has found itself in a difficult situation financially from the strain placed on it by the Daimyo’s demands for expansion.”

“Which would be easily remediated if you stopped insisting on such ridiculous methods to pursue his request,” the Representative said quickly. “The biggest threat you would face would be from the meager Hidden Star Village. Instead you insist on slowly weakening these countries rather than outright conquering them.”

The Tsuchikage waved the man’s words off as he said, “If we did that they would just turn to one of the other village’s for protection. Before long we’d be embroiled in a Fourth Shinobi war which with the current Alliance of Konoha, Suna, and Kumo would only quickly turn against us. Our only hope would be for Kiri to act in its traditional unpredictable manner, but they would likely focus on us due to our past betrayal. There are other factors as well. Continue Kurotsuchi.”

“Right,” she replied before picking up where she had left off, “Currently, most of our active duty shinobi are wrapped up in these operations. This also means we are more dependent on the Daimyo’s tribute to sustain our operations since we are limited in the number of requests that we can accept. Then there is also the issue of how that tribute has continued to decline over the past several years.”

“Which the Daimyo has made more than abundantly clear is due to your lack of progress,” the ruler’s representative countered. “You can’t expect him to provide you with more money when he feels you are underperforming.”

The Tsuchikage scoffed as he replied, “I’m well aware the man is upset that I’m trying to keep us from getting in a war that would only end in his being dethroned and my village destroyed. I do not understand why he is so confident this is a fight that would not have long term consequences for him or the Land of Earth.”

“Nor is it your place to question his will,” the man quickly fired back.

“But it is my place to make sure I do not waste my shinobi in a hopeless conflict,” Onoki barked back. “I was fine with the lack of tribute, but that was until he broke the deal with the Land of Spring. Because of the embargo Daimyo Koyuki has slapped on us the prices for the resources they were providing has tripled. Resources, which an army needs to sustain itself. Not only have the costs gone up, but to get around the stipulation she tacked on that none of them go to military uses we needed to purchase ours through local sources. Sources which are drying up now because Koyuki has stated that she will not continue any future shipments until she gets to film in the Land of Earth.”

“A request the Daimyo has refused because of security concerns.”

Again Onoki scoffed as he countered sounding completely dismissive of the concern, “She wants to film at the base of a mountain in the middle of the wilderness. What is she going to learn there? I’ll assign a few shinobi to watch them.”

“I’m surprised you find our country’s security so easily dismissed,” the Daimyo’s representative replied quickly.

“Watch your tongue boy,” Onoki replied reminding the young bureaucrat of his place. “I’ve defended this country’s security when even our esteemed Daimyo was just a potential stain in his father’s underwear. I can see no strategic value for either Spring or the Land of Fire in learning about a damn mountain. But, I have a real value for the resources that I can get for allowing them to shoot there. So you run back to your master and tell him that he either lets Koyuki shoot that picture or I’m calling my shinobi home. I’m not going to run my village into the ground to fulfill an objective that I already feel tempts a potential war for little gain, especially as it seems to be for no reason other than to create a country which might be big enough to contain his ego.”

“You dare much by insulting our Lord, Tsuchikage,” the man said gravely although Kurotsuchi thought she detected a hint of admiration in his eyes. It led her to believe that the Daimyo was not very beloved even by his servants. She wasn’t all that surprised considering how lavishly he and some of his court lived even as most villages in his domain were far poorer than those in the other Elemental countries.

Her grandfather though acknowledged neither the warning or the unspoken admiration as he said, “Tell him that I expect to know his decision as soon as possible.”

The man bowed politely and despite his aggressive tone during the conversation, Kurotsuchi imagined a bit deeper than the one he had delivered upon first coming before her grandfather. He still didn’t acknowledge her presence though as he walked by, although she couldn’t say that surprised her. She waited until the door closed behind him before asking, “Do you think the Daimyo is going to agree?”

“In truth, I would prefer that he doesn’t,” Onoki said floating to stare out his window. “Even going as slowly as I have, that Uzumaki brat has made it that they know we are the flame of unrest gripping the nations along our Western Border. My hope was that if we turned up the heat slowly we would achieve our objectives before the Daimyo sitting in the pot noticed the water was getting warm. But now eventually one of those Daimyo will swallow their pride to ask for assistance and before we know it we’ll be embroiled in a new great war.”

“We might be able to turn Kumo to our side,” Kurotsuchi suggested. “Rumors are swirling that it was the Uzumaki who helped their two tails defect. If we can convince the Raikage to abandon the Alliance…”

“They will just convince the Mizukage to join in his place,” her grandfather countered. He turned to face her before replying, “Changing where the pieces on the board rest when the game starts isn’t my objective. It’s to stop the game from being played in the first place. I know you youths think there is something glorious to be had in war, but take it from someone who has seen countless battles. Only death walks away the winner in the end.”

“Then why not join the Alliance?” Kurotsuchi asked confused if her grandfather truly believed such to be true.

“I’ve seen those come and go as well. Not to mention, have been the reason a few of them have fallen apart. This alliance will tear itself and the paper it was formed upon to shreds in time. The fact that Kumo was so quick to blame Konoha for their Jinchuriki’s defection based solely on looks of the operative, when a halfway decent shinobi would have just henged himself is proof enough of that. The Raikage after all, is an old dog like me, and is just up to his old tricks again. I’m sure he’ll settle matters quickly enough if they gave him a Byakugan or more likely in this case the nine-tails.”

“I doubt the Hokage would go along with either this time around,” Kurotsuchi replied.

“Most likely not,” her grandfather admitted, “But, there is more than one way Ay could try to get his hands on it. Particularly since in spite of being aware of his nature, they’ll keep him close in order to keep up appearances that their Alliance isn’t falling apart. It’ll make the calamity that follows all the more spectacular when his nature takes hold and he makes his play for the nine tails. The best part is, if things play out as I expect then we’ll be able to sit back and reap the benefits of the coming chaos.”

Kurotsuchi knew there was a time when she would have looked forward to such a time, as it would have allowed her to prove herself. But, she found now, that a part of her was actually disgusted by the thought of gleefully waiting for the Alliance to tear itself apart. Particularly since she knew there were likely good people within it, hoping to genuinely bring the different factions together. The only consolation that she could find in the idea was that this time, she wouldn’t be the cause of those good people’s deaths. Yet, considering her current sensibilities, she doubted that she’d be anywhere but behind a desk when everything fell apart so her thoughts on the matter hardly mattered. As such, she turned to walk away knowing that she’d be haunted by her actions to achieve an objective that as it turned ou,t even her grandfather wasn’t all that dedicated to achieving. Which considering how Kurotsuchi felt that even had Claw and Fang tumbled into chaos after D’s death so Iwa could swoop in to restore order as planned, it would have been at too great a cost. She couldn’t help feeling that maybe it was for the best that she simply continued to withdraw from the world since in her greed for advancement. She had stolen something from it before she had realized how precious it was and once she had, was left shattered as a result. The truly ironic part of it all though was ultimately what she had stolen to achieve her professional goals had been her happiness, and now there was truly no way to get it back. A fact her dreams continued to punish her with.

Author’s note: Hello everyone, I know it has been a while since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been rather distracted lately considering my current addiction to the Division. As such most of my normal writing time ends up being consumed by that. But, I have still been writing and currently have around 20,000 words done for chapter 78. But, there are quite few more scenes that I want to do. I did consider releasing it, and then make the Revenge Arc come out on an even 80. But, ultimately even though it would be a partial chapter with a continuation, it would have felt kind of incomplete with where it would have left off. So ultimately I decided to release this LBB chapter this week to show that although my releases have kind of slowed due to my writing taking a backseat. I’m still working on releases and building the Eroninja world.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this look into Iwa. I wanted to take the opportunity here to preview what I have planned for Kurotsuchi when she reappears in the story. Plus, give a glimpse of some of the outside characters who will be filling in the limited ranks that canon provided for Iwa. Also, it kind of plays into the idea that while I have kind of showed Iwa to be the villains considering their actions. At the higher levels, those actions are because they believe a more aggressive expansion would lead to open conflict, so in a sense the shadow war they are waging is for the greater good. At least from a certain point of view. Naturally, as Kurotsuchi’s situation proves this doesn’t mean this greater good doesn’t have its share of good people that end up getting eliminated as a result.

In any case, I hope this chapter serves as a nice appetizer for when I do finally finish the main course. Also, there is also a Rock Lee chapter in the works which will clarify where he finds himself. I’m not sure whether to post it under LBB and just post it to FicWad. Or, under Limelight. I’m leaning towards LBB since I kind of want to keep Limelight about the women of the Family. Anyway, thank you to everyone that reads and reviews. I promise I’m still working on my stories, but at the moment it isn’t the only hobby that captures my attention so please be patient with me. So until next time, take care. Sincerely, The Lemon Sage.