Chapter 46.2- One Thousand Hands

He settled for a growl, not bothering to reply to what I said.

“Either way, we need to do this now” I said. I had spent the last few weeks getting used to having Kurama’s chakra in my system for one key reason.

“You do know that there is no going back after this” He said. He wasn’t discouraging me, just making sure that I knew what I was doing here.

“There hasn’t been going back for a long time. If I opened the seal between us like I was about to, Whale Saga Mode would be gone. I’d asked Boss about it and he had been very clear. If there was a seal, it was possible. If there wasn’t, then it wasn’t. But it wasn’t like there was much of a tradeoff there. Sage Mode would have made me one of the strongest humans on the planet. Doing this would make Kurama and I the indisputable top dog. I pushed off from the wall and knelt against the line in the ground that represented the seal.

__ ‘Twelve Uchiha, Sixteen Hyuga, Eight Inuzukas, Four Aburame, Nine Naras, two Yamanakas, six Akimichis, seven Sarutobis, and Five civilian born chunin, making a combined force of Sixty-Nine chunin’, I counted in my head as they lined up before me at the Village’s gate watching my every movement with careful eyes as they whispered to themselves. I wasn’t sure what Hiruzen was pulling by having my departure be so public. My best guess was that it was to give Iwa some sort of warning from the spies they undoiubtedly had within the village.

If he warned them I was coming to Taki, then they might end their advance in Kusa with the hopes of stalling me in Taki. It would be tantamount to using me as bait though, and part of me was unwilling to believe that my Granduncle’s favourite student had fallen so far.

“Attention” I called, and everyone straightened up. They were staring at me, judging me. I wore a Jonin vest over the standard Konoha combat fatigues. Shedding the armour had been something Grandmother Mito had vehemently opposed. My argument that the people I led needed to see me as one of them and that my partnership with Kurama would give me more protection than any armour ever could hadn’t done much to convince her. Even now I could see her pursed lips as she stood with Kushina by her side off behind the gathering of shinobi. Kushina was quietly huddled against her skirt. That had been a more emotional goodbye than I’d expected but I couldn’t dwell on it.

“Our orders are clear. I am to lead you in combat against those from Iwagakure who would dare incur our wrath. To do this we need to be one unit, so I would beg that you put whatever clan allegiances you hold to the side for the time being. Out there we are not Uchiha, or Senju. We are Konoha shinobi, and we will act as such.” I began, trying to come up with words to say to make this clearly doubtful lot believe in my leadership.

“Actions speak louder” Kurama’s gruff voice echoed in my head.