Catching Up

Sat Jan 05, 2019 2:56 am

The stitched and scarred form of The Monster could be seen overlooking his temporary domain with a dark smirk fixed firmly upon his face. Taking control of the Black Markets of Shadow Country had been much easier than he had anticipated, as the little known country was filled with more bandits than actual Shinobi. The current ‘Overseer’ of these Black Markets was little more than a B-rank Shinobi that hailed from Sunagakure that had managed to flee during the chaos of the Kumogakure takeover. While he was indeed stronger than most of the fools that called the market home, and even a good deal of those that could be found within the walls of any of the Shinobi villages, he had been no match for Kenshin. He had allowed the man to live and keep his position as overseer, but for the most part he was little more than a puppet that Kenshin ruled the markets through to keep himself out of the spotlight.

He had used his puppet to gather a fair bit of information regarding what had been happening in the various markets during his rather dull stay in Hoshigakure, and in the end he had been more than a little disappointed in just how little had actually changed. The stronger Missing-Nin that dwelled in the markets were more than happy to simply swim around as the big fish in their little ponds and stagnate. He had heard tell of a small group of stronger than average shinobi that had come together around a year or so ago, but the motives and identities of those within this strange little group were unknown to both Kenshin and the puppet. The group had vanished almost as soon as they had appeared, but the true question was whether this meant that they had perished, disbanded… or were simply good at staying under the radar. In the end The Monster chose to pay little mind to this mysterious group, as even if they were still together and were simply hiding they had done absolutely nothing of note in the past year.

Whilst within the walls of Hoshi he had heard the news of Kumogakure’s expansion into other countries, but other than the news that the leader of expansion effort had publicly beheaded the Daimyo of each of the conquered countries not much was known. Here, amongst the shadiest elements in the world, much more was known about their expansion efforts, and what Kenshin heard made his respect for the rotting village rise. The sheer ruthlessness that Maku had operated with was something that Kenshin respected immensely, and the strength of the villages forces was properly demonstrated when their force of only a few dozen ruthlessly decimated an army of hundreds that had been gathered by the Daimyo of Tornado Country. All in all Snow Country, Rain Country, Tornado Country and Sand Country belonged to the forces of Kumogakure, making them the proud owners of around 1/3rd of the elemental nations if one were to look at landmass alone.

The silver haired youth had to admit that he was confused as to why they hadn’t also taken Moon and Waterfall Countries, what with their close proximity to Lightning Country and their lack of Shinobi forces. He could understand why they may have been hesitant to take Earth, as the rather large country bordered Haven and Hoshigakure… but on the other hand he couldn't understand that hesitation when they had so brazenly walked in and conquered Sunagakure. His puppet was obviously missing some rather crucial information, but at the same time he hadn’t expected the fool to know everything. Due to his former high ranking position in Hoshigakure he knew that the village had received a rather large sum of ryo from Kumogakure before they had begun their conquest of the nations… but he had no clue why they had given so much.

Hmm… perhaps that was why Takeo had killed the Kazekage? Could Kumo have given the money to Hoshi in exchange for the villages help in conquering Sunagakure? He supposed that such a deal would make sense… but at the same time would Akihana have taken such a deal? She had been the Kage at the time and… surely there was no way that she had agreed to help conquer another village for money. Yes, she was a shinobi… but she was the most kind hearted person that Kenshin had ever met… no, there had to be some other explanation… there just had to be.

Kenshin would turn to face his puppet, who knelt silently behind the teen as he overlooked his newfound territory.

“I am leaving. Continue to run the area as you have been until my return.” the half-blood Uzumaki would say simply as he walked past the lightly shaking form of his puppet

He had no need to say anything else, nor did he need to remind the man just who was truly in charge. If his puppet planned some form of rebellion while The Monster was gone… well, that would only make things more fun upon his return. He wouldn’t even kill the fool for the attempt if it were to happen, he would simply kill the men that he had gathered and punish him until he remembered why he was happy to accept the role of puppet leader.

He had no idea when exactly he would be returning to this particular corner of the Black Markets, but he had a good idea of where he was heading. The tales that he had heard of the village of Rots conquests had ignited a dark fire within the depths of The Monsters mind, and right now he wished to test if their might truly lived up to the tales that he had heard. Out of all the countries that they had conquered Rain was the second closest to Lightning Country itself, and as such Kenshin felt that was the perfect place to perform a little test.

The people of Kumogakure were going to learn to fear those that dwelt within the shadows.

WC: 1014

[Insta Travelling to Rain Country from Shadow Country]