It didn't take long to move from that tiny village to where Kusagakure itself was found. The village was a pale imitation of Konoha, shielded by wooden walls that looked more like the ones walling off a Konoha war camp than those used by a proper shinobi village.
Still, it was clear that they tried to imitate Konoha, with the look of the gate and everything. At least they weren't stupid enough to use real stone walls — or maybe they were just too poor?
Given that they had just tried to capture me and turn me into a breeding vessel, I was hesitant about subscribing to their intelligence.
After all, they had no way of knowing that in the future the Kaguya clan would get killed off, which meant that, logically, it would be all but impossible for a minor village to ever show off the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai without being annihilated by angry Kaguya shinobi.
Using stone to build a wall around your ninja village wasn't always the most brilliant move, not when any half-bent shinobi could manipulate stone. Even Konoha had covered its walls in seals, and they were, in fact, hollow, hiding a wooden wall made by the First Hokage inside.
This was the true secret of the Konoha great wall, though a secret that should be known to all. As for Iwa and Kumo, they had their own seals to prevent someone from manipulating the village beneath their feet.
Something a small place like Kusagakure could never hope to match.
They were clearly going for appearance over real substance.
Not that I believed this shabby attempt fooled anyone; this was nothing more than a third-rate shinobi village at best. Their only noticeable fact was the cheap price they charged — something they only did because they knew they couldn't compete on quality.
Though from what little I know about them from my interactions with them since leaving Konoha, I didn't even think they realized just how outclassed they were.
Truly arrogant to the extreme, thinking themselves equal to the large villages, yet little more than a joke.
Even now, the only way they could keep their prices this low was by sending their shinobi out on as many missions as possible; they were riskier, leading to more injuries — something that would take those shinobi out of active duty for a while.
At least that was how it worked in other villages; Kusagakure had something up its sleeve, a secret tool that allowed it to ignore this restriction — to heal their shinobi quickly and cheaply.
A bright light in this dark village.
Quite literally.
With the Byakugan, I could see a chakra source shine far stronger than the rest, one that shone with a gentle, almost greenish hue — a chakra thick with healing energy, a gentle chakra. One that was infinitely beneficial, yet still a curse on the one owning that chakra signature.
I could see other chakra signatures around that gentle one, no doubt guards keeping their precious asset from running away. Another shackle was the small signature held in the arms of the larger one.
I didn't know when Karin would be born, only that she was around the same age as the main cast, though her age could easily have been a few years off — which seemed to be the case, as I didn't think any of the golden generation were born just yet.
And given how Obito planned to make Naruto's birth into a grand reunion with his sensei, I doubted I wouldn't have heard of it if all that had happened yet.
Though this was a reminder that all of that was getting closer. No doubt, Obito was now growing stronger, training to use his new eye and shaping his fighting style around it.
He might also be planning to take control of, or revenge on, Kiri.
The world was facing a chaotic future; it needed its Goddess to bring peace once more.
"Hey, you! What are you doing there?" A harsh male shout brought me out of my thoughts.
Given that I had been standing not too far from their village gate, the shinobi on guard had spotted me. I had not paid them much attention, as they were far beneath me, but clearly they decided to be the first to suffer my wrath.
"You may call me Kaguya-hime, and I have come for something that belongs to me," I said coldly, barely even turning my head toward the lead shinobi.
The man's jaw tightened. His voice tried for bravado, but it frayed at the edges. "No one takes what Grass claims! State your business, woman, or be gone."
"Hey, Captain, isn't that the one Team Raini went to capture?" one of the others said, making everyone take a closer look at me.
The name hung in the air like a dropped blade. For a second, the captain's bravado cracked. Raini — the village's most visible bounty team, the ones who'd boasted about snagging a "rare specimen," one matching the village's treasure.
It was also one of the village's strongest teams, and now, their prey stood there… but where was the team meant to bring her here? They couldn't help but get a bad feeling about this.
The captain's hand hovered over the kunai strapped to his leg before relaxing. "Ahh, there must have been a misunderstanding, Miss. You took a mission from our village, didn't you? Well, I'm afraid to say you were supposed to meet with a team somewhere else, but maybe you got lost?"
I couldn't help but be surprised at the sudden shift in him — from hostile to friendly in one moment. I could only begin to imagine the line of thought that led to this.
"I already met them… and they were rather unfriendly, acting like bandits, so I slaughtered them where they stood, and now, I came to collect what is mine," I said once more, this time unleashing my bloodlust.
"Impossible!" the captain whimpered. "That team is the village's elites! No way one blind woman can kill them all!"
He screamed, but it was the scream of someone drowning, not fighting — the kind of noise men made when the mind realized what the body already knew: it was too late.
I could smell the fear radiating from him, the faint tang of sweat and iron. My Byakugan showed me their chakra getting chaotic as they panicked.
"Blind?" I murmured, smiling faintly. "No. I see more than you ever will."
The captain slashed the air in front of him, kunai trembling in his grasp. He lunged forward, but his attack was sloppy, desperate — the strike of a man trying to convince himself he still had control.
I didn't move.
The moment his foot hit the earth, a sound like cracking bone echoed — because it was. A white spear burst through the ground and straight through his thigh. He didn't even finish his next scream before the second spike impaled his shoulder, pinning him upright like an insect under glass.
The rest of his men broke immediately.
"Run—!" one shouted, but his command was swallowed by the sharp whistle of another bone piercing the air. A heartbeat later, his head snapped back, a neat hole drilled through his forehead. He fell where he stood, still clutching the hilt of his sword.
I took a single step forward.
The wooden gate groaned behind them as the air around me warped with the surge of chakra. My hair lifted slightly in the invisible wind that radiated from my body, each strand rising like the white tails of a storm.
"Grass dared to touch my blood," I said, my tone calm but heavy enough to make the air itself tremble. "You dared to extend your hand toward me… wanting to use me, and now you will pay the price!"
I didn't lower my voice — in fact, I made it extra loud, filling it with chakra and throwing it toward the village, alerting everyone to what was happening.
Despite being a little third-rate village, it was still quick to react to what seemed to be an attack. Grass shinobi quickly came running to see what was happening.
The sight that greeted them was a grim one. Half their guard squad was dead, bleeding out of holes in their bodies.
Those were the lucky ones. The others… alive, moaning, groaning in pain as bone spikes pierced their bodies and lifted them into the air, the white bone quickly turning red as they bled from their wounds.
And in the middle of all that carnage stood a woman of unparalleled beauty, dressed in a fine robe that would belong to a noble's ball, yet here she was standing surrounded by pain and death.
For a long moment, the new arrivals didn't move.
They simply stared — at the half-slaughtered gate squad, at the forest of bloodied ivory jutting from the ground, at me — the so-called blind woman standing serene amid the ruin.
One of them whispered, "What… what is she?"
No one answered.
I turned my head slightly toward them, letting the faintest smile curl my lips. "I am Kaguya, Kaguya-hime, and you have all angered me. Your trick — your attempt to capture me — has angered me, and those who invite my anger shall face it," I said, my voice laced with chakra to make every word hit them hard.
The group stiffened — half a dozen, maybe more, wearing flak vests far too pristine for the filth that led this place. Their captain, a tall man with an ugly scar running down his chin, tried to hide the fear in his eyes behind a soldier's snarl.
"You dare attack Kusagakure?!" he barked. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Clearly not enough," I replied, and took a single step forward.
That step was enough.
The man flinched back, chakra flaring around his arm as he began a set of hand signs. I watched every line of movement in his coils — too slow, too predictable — and before his jutsu even formed, a bone blade shot from my palm. It passed through his chest like paper.
He looked down at the white spike impaling him, mouth trembling in disbelief, before collapsing in a lifeless heap.
Once more, the others froze. They paused in confusion, seeing one of their so-called elites fall so easily — most of them unable to even see what happened — and those who could saw no way to react to an attack so smooth and fast.
Fear descended upon them once more, as another of their leaders, this one far less confident and arrogant, spoke up, though he wisely didn't step forward. "Please, Miss Kaguya-hime, this is just a misunderstanding," he tried.
But I just snorted — the sound as loud as thunder and with the same gravitas.
The sound made him flinch as if struck.
A few of his subordinates stumbled back, hands tightening around their weapons, though they didn't dare raise them.
"A misunderstanding?" I repeated slowly, my tone sharp enough to draw blood. "Your people hunted me like an animal. They intended to chain me, use me, breed me like livestock. Tell me —" I tilted my head, the faintest smile ghosting my lips, "— what part of that did you misunderstand?"
He opened his mouth, but the words died in his throat. Sweat beaded at his temple.
I could see his chakra trembling — erratic, uneven. Fear made his control slip.
The others shifted nervously, the weight of my chakra pressing down on them like a mountain.
"Miss Kaguya-hime, I swear—"
"Swear to your graves," I interrupted coldly. "You will not find mercy here."
(End of chapter)
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