Chapter 46.3- One Thousand Hands

“You don’t have any reason to believe in me, and I have no reason to believe in you. All we share in common is this headband” I said, pointing at the Konoha Hitai-ate with my thumb and smiling at them.

“Let’s work to make our village proud, and maybe along the way we’ll learn to trust each other.” I said before turning away from them. They would follow me, I had no doubts about that. Someone different more personable, would have managed to charm them easily but that just wasn’t me. Kurama was right. They would learn to trust me once they saw me fight.

We began the journey to Taki easily. As with the first time I shipped out, we left close to mid day. The land of Fire was large, and the Hidden Waterfall was far to the edge of the NorthWestern end of our border. Farther from Konoha than Rivers. And this was a much larger force than I’d taken then so it was even more important that we make camp. We ended up stopping only a few miles out of one of the many merchant settlements that were popping up in the Land of Fire now that SHinobi ere no longer fighting and burning the land willy nilly like they had in the warring states era. I took a place next to one of the trees after setting up a rotating group of Hyuga, Uchiha, and Aburame to keep watch. The three clans were easily the best when it came to sensing threats and enemy shinobi.

I laid near the tree, marking it with a hiriashin seal before slumping against it as I returned to my seal. Or rather, what remained of it.

“What do you want?” Kurama asked on seeing me.

“To talk” I said.

“You already know everything there is to know about me” He said.

“Yes. But l want to talk nonetheless. Tell me about your siblings, Kurama” I said, taking a seat and making myself comfortable.

—

“I am Shino, Jonin Head of Takigakure. Please state your name” He said, appearing from the waterfall in what might have been an impressive gesture if we didn’t have Hyuga capable of spotting hum from miles away.

“I am Shorirama Senju, Jonin of Konohagakure. We were sent here to reinforce you against Iwa’s aggression.”

“Finally” A woman sighed, coming out of he waterfall as well. The jutsu they used to hide within the flowing water was a fascinating one to my eyes, but nothing that could fool the kind of sensory power Konoha could bring to bear. It reminded me of the Secondary Purpose of this mission beyond stopping Iwa.

“If possible, find the location of the village hidden in the Waterfalls” Hiruzen had told me a day ago when I’d been summoned to relieve my final orders.

“You guys sure took your damn time, didn’t you” Another woman said, this one purple haired and stern in contrast to the black hair sported by her compatriots. Purple was a completely normal hair colour in this universe for some reason.