The Hated Town [solo,nk]

Kozai stood at the end of a small hamlet. While this region was technically within the range of Hoshigakure's village borders properly, it had somehow sprung up a meager existence of its own. Wooden houses (more like shacks) had sprung up, their ramshackle forms blighting the landscape like warts on the face of a beggar. The place stank like a cesspit, and its inhabitants looked fairly bad as well. Still, this new "Walltown" had sprouted up over the course of the past six months as a settlement for the destitute and scum of the village. Like attracted like, so it seemed.

Kozai himself didn't have a grudge against any of these people. He wasn't like the heads of the civilian population, who gazed down with contempt at the poor. It wasn't really their fault. Still, he didn't have any sympathy for them either. Their vulnerable position made them more available and open to exploitation from people like him. Good. The best subjects for what he wanted to try out were the ones who nobody would miss. Hell, he could probably release the full power of his Rinnegan and wipe this place off the face of the earth, but such wanton destruction and violence availed him nothing.

It would avail the people living there nothing either, in a manner of speaking. In a way, that was what he was here for. If he managed to succeed in his mission, he would be able to set Hoshigakure on a course to increased power within three generations, or maybe fewer. Hell, he could kickstart this evolutionary process right now, if he got desperate enough. There was some need for subtlety here, of course, but not the kind that he was accustomed to using on entities like The Church or the new kage's shinobi force.

He'd had to leave his paths at home, of course. This was the kind of operation that he wanted to be VERY visible for, if only for the public relations value. While he could have planned this out a little bit better, time was of the essence. Catching the population at this stage was crucial if he wanted to kickstart the founding that he needed. Briefly, he considered bringing one of his paths here, just for the extra hands that one would provide, but better not to take any risks. The two that he had shown in public might be recognized, and the others could very easily be remembered later.

Kozai entered the hamlet, making sure not to seem stealthy or subtle at all to other eyes. He eyed the homes around him. Erected in a hurry, with few to no utilities. He wondered what their access to information would be like. Did the newspaper routes even come here? He sighed and succumbed to the temptation, activating his Human path. The body of the woman stood, then proceeded to make her way out of the Archives and toward the newspaper station. He might as well find out everything he needed to in town. This path had been seen, an had already been noted by several as an agent of the Archives, or at the very least, an employee. Good enough for him.

The people around the shanty town gave him strange looks. Naturally, he expected them to be suspicious of him. The well to do rarely had anything good in mind for them, and Kozai had to admit that he was no exception. It wasn't like he hated them, or anything, they just happened to be the most vulnerable around. The most safe option, the fastest option, and as it turned out, the most high quality option. Poor areas like this were like a veritable melting pot of people from around the country. High genetic variety was important.

In the meantime, his Human path had entered the office and was engaging in an interrogation of sorts, figuring out the details of the newspaper routes from the brains of those who knew them well. Since the path body was just an extension of his will, the information came directly to him, instead of to the path, unlike shadow clones. Handy, as it turned out. So, newspaper routes didn't come here at all. In fact, many mail agencies and couriers avoided places like this entirely, placing them on a blacklist of areas of ill repute. So, these folks were deprived of most flows of information. Still, if his experience told him anything, it was that word of mouth counted for a lot down here. Word of his arrival and meandering around the area would probably be the subject of much speculation come nighttime. While this was, in part, one of his goals here, it also meant that this place wasn't as isolated as he might have been led to expect. Its close proximity to the city meant that they would at least be able to hear of major events and the like as well.

A settlement like this wouldn't have been able to thrive for this long without a source of clean water. Were they leeching it from the city? Unlikely, but it would have to be checked up on. Kozai had his Human path leave the newspaper office and begin the trek over to the Archives on foot. He was thankful that he didn't have to take a trip to the water company for this one. The Archives had plans of the city's water utility network, which were updated regularly. These would simply give him the answer he wanted, but he already had his suspicions about where this particular area got its source of water from.

A few minutes later, he had part of his answer. This place was not connected to the water line, as he had expected, but the shanty town itself seemed to gather its water from a central well. Kozai tried to ask around about how the well was bored to begin with, but nobody wanted to tell him anything. It was obvious that they had already marked him as an outsider, and had tacitly agreed to tell him nothing. Such was community, he supposed. Inconvenient, but not too much of an obstacle. His Human path retreated to the storage room deep beneath the Archives, where it deactivated and went inert. Kozai shivered a little bit as the powers returned to him. It was time to do a little "investigative journalism" of his own.

In no time, he'd discovered that this well had just been an upgrade to a natural spring. Of fucking course. Of course it had to be here, in this place. Curse you, Akihana, for burdening us with this knowledge. Now he had to deal with the consequences of knowing that this place had been built on top of *that* reservoir. He still remembered the map that he had been given. There was no doubt in his mind that the underground sea stretched this far, and that someone had placed this well here on purpose. He'd have to destroy it, at some point.

Kozai didn't know why he felt angry. Normally, he didn't get upset at obstacles in his path, but with this one, he just didn't understand why. Did it have something to do with Akihana? No, of course not. They hadn't had any sort of antagonism. No, it was about violence. Kozai didn't have a problem massacring hordes of the innocent, but the fact was, he didn't *want* to. Destroying this well would disrupt everything that he was trying to do. So, then, how to get rid of the well without getting rid of the shantytown? His talents were more suited to mass destruction, or to, well, poisoning the fucking well. This was something he would need to think about. For every action, there was a reaction. For every cause, a consequence.

There was a plan forming within his mind, now. All he had to do was hook up this hovel of dirt and filth to the city water line. Of course, doing this on his own was highly illegal, of course, but he was willing to risk it if he had to. Anything to prevent the power that was in that underground sea from leaking uncontrolled into this unregulated population of misfits. This wasn't quite fear or panic, but just a sort of strange, subtle apprehension. He... actually didn't know what would happen if he let that power through, but he sure was averse to having something interfere with what would be one of his largest scale projects yet. Eliminate external variables, and all that.

Well, he could also bludgeon the water company into connecting a line through here, but the time it would take to get them to lay the pipe and hook up the area, even if they agreed to what he demanded from them, it would definitely take too long. Time was of the essence, but when was it not? All his life, he'd always been rushing. Every time he sat down to rest, something picked him back up and put him right back on the treadmill.

No rest for the wicked.

Kozai calmed down, the old mantra of the prime numbers repeating through his mind. Two, three, five, seven, so on and so forth. Finally, with a cool sense of mind, Kozai stood up straight. He walked toward the well, and breathed in deeply, filling himself with wind chakra. He made sure all his paths were deactivated. He was going to need everything for this one. Looking around and making sure he wasn't observed, he wrapped himself in a bubble of air held by telekinesis, and dove into the well.

The water grew dark quickly. Kozai wasn't really afraid, but it would certainly make what he was looking for harder to find. He was not as blessed as those Hyuuga who could perceive everything in pitch black night for miles around. The chakra vision of the Rinnegan wouldn't help here. The thing he was looking for wasn't alive. Luckily, due to the surveys and charts that Akihana had provided him, he knew exactly how far he needed to go. Down and down he went, and the underground sea swallowed him whole.

Any way you looked at it, Kozai thought a few minutes later as he made his ascent, this had turned out to be a most fortunate day. The thing that he was looking for was not there. In other words, Akihana or one of her associates must have retrieved it. Kozai's mind temporarily strayed to thoughts of Maku, who had manipulated and used him. Who was laughing now? In time, he'd confirm Maku's death by attempting to summon his ghost. It astounded Kozai that he could do something like that now. Come to think of it, the consequences for interacting with such an unknown force and the cultural stigma behind speaking with the dead could have been part of what had caused Echo to warn him against researching the Rinnegan.

What powers could there possibly be in this so called pure realm that he should be afraid of? Everything that he had tried up until now seemed to be safe enough. Echo hadn't had this doujutsu either, as far as he could tell. He had to discover what these other figures were in his life, these paragons of the so called "Fire Nation" that Denkiteki's memories told him of. So much information to process, and no way of verifying how much of it had been manufactured. Memory was a cursed power.

Kozai burst out of the well, landing on firm ground and dissipating the bubble of telekinesis around him. Clean air, again. A comfort, to be sure. Well, it was back to business, now. Now that he knew that there was no risk of any kind of power leaking into the water that these people drank, he could proceed with his grand trial. He still had a few samples left over from his old Seed repository, and he planned to use these as efficiently as he could.

It didn't matter who the new kage was, or what sorts of warriors of good came from the civilian population or the shinobi force. Nothing would stop him from changing the face of Hoshigakure's population dynamics for generations to come. The more people who mysteriously discovered that they had "innate ability", the more people would become shinobi. The most people became shinobi, the more power that faction would gain within the village. Ultimately, all Kozai wanted was for that paramilitary force to be an established part of Hoshigakure.

Kozai headed home to the library, reactivating his paths as he did so. He felt the power leave him in a rush of exhilaration. Lots of work to do, lots of genetic samples to prepare.

[WC 2125
2125 toward Chibaku Tensei
EXIT, CLOSED]

Nicely written. Approved.