what a nice house you have
He'd been given an imperative S+ class mission by the third Mizukage.
By all means, Yagura knew he was some sort of prodigy. Becoming a special jounin at the age of twelve. But he could tell this wasn't the reason he'd been chosen. No, it was something else.
Very recently, about a month or two ago, the Sanbi’s previous jinchuuriki had passed away. This wouldn’t normally be an issue, the third Mizukage would have just ordered for the next person in line to be its host and sacrifice some lower caste genin and chunin to the beast to keep it occupied during the ritual, but that didn’t happen. Instead, not a single word about the topic came about. Not a scream from the sacrifices or even a jinchuuriki to be heard. Following this logic, Yagura could only assume there wasn't a current jinchuuriki of the Sanbi. That, instead, they were able to capture the Bijuu another way.
To Yagura, this was a pretty fucking big deal. He might have been just thirteen, and therefore thought of as inferior to a number of older assholes in kirigakure, but he was also smart. He could connect the lines. There was no current Jinchuuriki of the three tails, and Yagura was currently running towards the Mizukage’s building–flanked by two ANBU–to receive an S+ class mission from the biggest big shot in the village himself.
Now, this could have all been a big misunderstanding, but Yagura had heard about the forming of a list. A list of all the possible options to become ‘human sacrifices’, to hold onto the title after the six and three tail holders died. A special jounin would never be given such a high level mission. But what if they were to become a Jinchuuriki?
.
.
He was right.
Of fucking course he was right. Surrounded by too many ANBU to count, Yagura wondered if he should have just tried to live an ordinary life. Having an evil chakra construct inside of you is not great in literally any way . Lying chained on a raised stone table, with the best fuinjutsu specialists in kirigakure surrounding him, he has to push the panic down.
“Don’t worry, Yagura-kun.” the fuinjutsu user with the crazy eyes and a big nose said. He only succeeded in making the younger panic more.
“As long as you remain in control, the Sanbi will be under your control.”
Two ANBU carried a fairly large turtle shell towards the stone slab, laying it directly next to Yagura. There was so many seals on the shell that it almost looks black. Someone placed a hand on his forehead, and the tell-tale sign of iryo-jutsu pushed Yagura towards sleep.
Assholes.
Aside from the constant ANBU surveillance, Yagura’s life had starting to become pretty boring. He'd spent two weeks in a hospital bed, being given daily physical and mental evaluations before they marked him as okay. Yagura had also been given a horrifically large sum for ‘completing’ his mission. He called bullshit on the Mizukage caring so much.
In fact, the guy cared so little that within a week of Yagura’s release the majority of Kirigakure knew he’s a jinchuuriki. It pissed the younger ninja off. How was he meant to know that the Sanbi killed twelve ANBU that night? Stupid Mist ninja and their gossip wheel. Yagura moved in with Daisuke sensei, since his landlord refused to renew their contract. It’s only meant to be a temporary fix, but the elders are suggesting it’s better for the older ninja to be close just in case, “to supervise” . Yagura desperately wanted to hit them with his staff.
The food sellers sneered at him whenever he walked through the streets, refusing to sell him their wears. No subtle violence convinced them. What would civilians know about his dilemma? This slowly started to piss Yagura off as time went by, because now he was not being allowed into any building. Not even bars or the numerous family owned restaurants. Suddenly fishing for food in one of kirigakure’s numerous creeks was a lot more appetising.
As he sat on the rocks near the creek, nibbling on the tail of his roasted fish, Yagura did something extremely stupid. He meditated and went into his mindscape. Suddenly the creek rised and Yagura could feel the water surrounding him, even through closed eyes. It took a horrendously long time for him to open them. Instead of sitting, he was standing. The water flowing infinitely around him going up to his knee, rouge water lilies bumped into him as they floated away. In the distance he could hear a waterfall.
The scenery was in actuality, pretty calming. Yagura couldn't see past the foggy horizon, but he could tell there's an end, somewhere. It took him five minutes before he spotted the massive turtle far off in the distance. Which, honestly, what the fuck? It should be obvious , it should have been obvious to Yagura, the massive fucking chakra turtle being held down by chains. But from this far away, it looked meek and shy. A look one would never expect from one of the nine evils. Yagura was drawn to it, he waded through the water with surprising difficulty as the turtle became more visible. The chakra from the beast created intense, yet forcibly calmed emotions.
He stood in front of the Sanbi, no words yet to be spoken between them. “Er..” Yagura stumbled. “Hello?”. The turtle moved slightly out of its shell, head peeked downward to look at Yagura. If it weren’t an amalgamation of all the evil in the word, Yagura would have called it cute. The silence continued on as the two make eye contact, he couldn't tell if this was going well or was just extremely awkward.
“Hello.” The turtle replied. The silence continued to drag on, the sound of the waterfall staggered as if to mock them.
This feels weird. The turtle’s chakra is suffocating yet withdrawn, it doesn’t really feel like he’s talking to an immortal, evil chakra beast. He didn't know what to say, because how do you even talk to a Bijuu? Yagura didn’t mean to come here with intention, he doesn’t have any demands or worries to bring to the Sanbi. If anything, he only struck up a conversation out of curiosity.
“How.. are you?” This is stupid. This is so, very stupid. He didn't know how to talk to the chakra turtle so now he's turned to ordinary, human conversation starters. It seems the turtle was also shocked, because he takes a full minute to respond.
“I am.. Well,” The turtle demon chortled. “Your mindscape is quite calming, it’s unlike any I've seen before”.
That's nice? It maked Yagura worry, the way he found himself preening at such a simple compliment. “Thank you”, he said, instead.
This is one of the nine evils? The turtle demon, who haunted sailors and merchants, aided the evil and ate children straight from their cradles? When he put it like that, it felt stupid.
Ninja are not necessarily evil, but they are cruel. Ninja aid whoever pays them, ‘evil’ or not. Ninja sometimes get hired to kill or steal babies. But that doesn’t make a ninja a demon. Is this turtle really a demon? Or is it just a title? In one of the most foolish acts known to man, Yagura asked the chakra turtle exactly that.
“I have many titles”, it instead quarreled. “I am a turtle, a tailed beast, a bijuu, a brother, a son” He spoke with conviction.
A turtle demon, both a sibling and a son. By sibling did he mean the other tailed beasts? And what the hell is this about being someone’s son? Yagura pondered this to the chakra turtle. But instead of getting offended, he chuckled. Giggling, slowly turning into a fit of laughter. For some reason, it made Yagura embarrassed.
“Hey!” he sputtered, “Don’t laugh at me! I was only asking, I’ve never heard of such a story– it sounds impossible for one of the nine evils to have had a father." Finally, the turtle stopped laughing at his expense, the chains around him ceasing their rattle. “Oh, but I did. My Father was the Sage of Six Paths, and my siblings are the eight other bijuu.”
Yagura decided not to touch that concept with a ten-foot pole, not until he's slept on the idea. The water lilies in the area fled towards the mist, as if to gesture towards Yagura’s unwillingness.
“My last Jinchuuriki’s were quite brash, we never got along that well.” The turtle of the two shifted. Yagura didn't know if he likes this topic better, or worse.
“But I think you and I are going to get along quite well, no human before you has ever bothered to be so polite.” The Sanbi jittered with joy, the chains around him clattering from the force “Please, call me Yagura. Karatachi Yagura ”. If the turtle could, he would have been jumping up and down in glee.
“Then you can call me Isobu . It was the first ‘title’ ever given to me.”
Yagura wondered if all turtles were this friendly.