Bone Rakshasa

The interrogation was relatively painless; Pakura and I essentially vomited our whole life story to an entire panel of stone-faced, war-weary shinobi looking to poke holes into any inconsistencies they could sink their teeth into. Mei herself tended to stay quiet as the others asked us everything, seeming only to take cues from Ao. It was most likely his high level experience she was leaning on, but one couldn't discount the Byakugan entirely. Maybe it could read lies or deceptions in minute chakra fluctuations - who could really know? Definitely not Kishimoto.

In the end though our story was deemed satisfactory and so we were allowed to remain to discuss the details of the mission. Zabuza was not admitted into the discussion - he was busy sleeping off Mei's fist.

Mei pointed at the two markers indicated on the map. "After years of remaining willfully ignorant of the atrocities, the Water Daimyo has made the gracious arrangement to finally restart supporting the current Kiri regime after years of relying on the other Daimyos to conduct any military operations for him. Moving in from the capital is a massive supply cache being transported to Kiri. We're talking crops, smith ready ore, and plenty of other raw materials for construction and anything else Kiri could ask for. We cannot let that happen."

Ao took over. "We will be conducting this aspect of the operation. Your purpose is to serve as the diversionary force." He said, referring to the freelance volunteers including Pakura and I. "In order to keep the operation as discreet as possible, Yagura has only allotted a small escort for the supplies; he has however, kept an extensive regiment of shinobi for back up near the outskirts of Kiri proper. It will be your job to attack them while we focus on appropriating the cache."

The meeting continued on in much the same vein, mostly detailing the specifics of the operation laced with a good deal of idealistic propaganda. But as I glanced around, I couldn't help but notice the fairly empty tent. It seems as though Mei was having issues finding job applicants.

"Am I boring you, young Kaguya?" The would-be Mizukage addressed me.

"No, you're fine. Just wondering why you're talent pool looks a little sparse"

"Everyone here is a seasoned shinobi, you shall be in good hands during your mission." Her tone turned a little less harsh, as she incorrectly assumed I was worried about the mission.

"Ah...No, that's not what I meant. Truth is you could send me in alone and I'd do just fine. I meant why you're choosing to tackle the force of an entire village with average thugs."

Her tone immediately returned to it's irritated state. "The root objective of this operation is to secure basic resources for our survival, yet you somehow think I have an entire army. I'm working with the last remaining stragglers of a hunted people - most of whom are women and children. I'll take what I can get - just not your advice."

"You don't need an army, just an army killer. Where's the jinchuuriki of the six-tails? Utakata."

"Ha!" her laugh was mocking, my feelings were hurt. "Don't be stupid. I'm already going up against one giant beast, I don't need my people slaughtered by another."

"He's working against you?" Pakura asked for clarification.

"No." Ao chimed in. "Brat refuses to. According to him it doesn't matter who runs the hidden mist, both would want him dead just the same."

"We had approached him for support a while back, there's no point. He's content spending his miserable life hidden away in his own little bubble." Mei spat. My mouth was open, ready to interrogate them further like any true shinobi, but Mei was having none of it and pushed through. "And neither was he the only one. Our own Daimyo tossed us aside, our allied villages too ignored us. We are alone!" She thundered.

Ao placed a calming hand on her shoulder and took over. "We even considered hiring mercenaries - expensive and unreliable as they are. No one wants to face a bijuu with the support of an entire village at their back." His voice dropped lower, "and the one that would… We fear there may be a deeper game being played."

Pakura, shrewd as ever, clarified the cryptic statement. "You suspect they're already involved and pitted against you?"

"Indeed." Ao confirmed. "My Byakugan was active when we met, there is corruptive influence in Yagura's chakra that I had noticed previously; that same chakra signature was all over the mercenary group.I am certain Yagura is under an extremely powerful genjutsu."

Pakura and I sought each other's eyes. "There are very, very few known genjutsu users out there with the skill to control a jinchuuriki. That number shrinks further when you take into account the sheer chakra requirement of the feat." She said.

The bounty hunter social circle was a terribly small one, and tight-lipped with all major powers. Even foregoing my advanced knowledge of the plot, with the few clues presented here it was obvious who we were talking about. "So, you've met the Akatsuki." I reinserted myself into the conversation for the first time after Mei spanked my behind.

"Not to mention they have a sharingan user, solves your mystery." Pakura added.

Ao was quick to rebut. "Considered but highly unlikely. Itachi Uchiha's inception into their ranks following the Uchiha massacre was barely four years ago. Our war has lasted much longer."

"We never said it was Itachi, only that it's the sharingan. Could be some other Uchiha defector from years past, or even just someone who implanted the eye in themselves. We know it's possible from Kakashi Hatake, and plenty of Uchiha shinobi were dead or lost during the last few wars."

The Kiri shinobi were skeptical, so ever reliable Pakura once more bolstered my argument. "I don't know how reliable your intel may have been a decade ago, but given Suna's alliance with Konoha during the Kyuubi attack on the leaf, my position as an S-rank shinobi gave me a certain level of clearance. Our spies made us aware of the fact that the Kyuubi was being controlled by a sharingan."

"Wouldn't that just be attributed to the Uchiha clan itself? Far-fetched to assume it was a rogue-nin." Mei argued.

"No. Konoha's losses were catastrophic. If the Uchiha clan were truly behind it they'd have been culled immediately after, no sane shinobi would leave a threat so severe at their back. They were merely ostracized. Someone else was the puppet master." Pakura returned, after all, how would I know? I was still stuck in my old cage at that time.

"Isn't that just wonderful." Mei sounded really frustrated. "We have some shadow sharingan user, who actively tried and nearly succeeded in bringing down two major villages, using their own jinchuuriki against them. Tell me, is this same person somehow responsible for Suna's recent troubles too? What about Cloud and Stone?" Her tone seemed sarcastic, but it was clear that the seed of possibility had been rooted.

Pakura waved away that concern with utmost contempt. Her face twisted with the same disgust whenever her old village was brought up. "Don't worry about the sand village. All their problems are their own fault. What with a shitty Daimyo and the world's most vicious idiot, Rasa as their kage. Suna does their enemies' work more than their own."

"And as far as Kumo and Tsuchi go, I'd argue the pragmatic mindset they have towards their jinchuuriki probably makes them harder to approach, and subsequently use them to destroy their villages." Mei could spit lava, and, at my comment I was sure she wished she could shoot it from her eyes too.

"Be that as it may, none of this matters. We have the resources we have. Our plan stays the same, the attack on the supply train and the diversion will go ahead as planned." She ground out through her teeth. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some steam I need to blow off and a convenient, sword-carrying punch bag."

Mei stomped her wait over to the tent's entrance, but Pakura was quick to appear in front of her and stop her with a hand on Mei's chest. Pakura was bored from doing nothing for too long, Mei was clearly agitated, they glared fiercely into each other's eyes. "Why settle for a dummy, when you can have a sparring partner?"

The tension was thick. One of my wet dreams was coming true.

Without a word they both marched on to the nearest training area. It was on.

Ao panicked and raced after the pair, his mouth running as quick as his legs. "Don't be ridiculous! We have an attack to conduct tomorrow, we need every single drop of strength. Not waste it on frivolous fights, otherwise we'll be doing this forever! If everyone behaved so callously it wouldn't be long before we're left defenseless and manless!"

You could almost see Mei listening to the words she really didn't want to hear from his tirade. Single? Forever? Manless? Her face darkened even further. "Ao. Shut up. Or I'll kill you."

"Wh-wh-what'd I say!?"

The spar started quick and escalated quicker. Mei was no slouch, but when it came to pure taijutsu, Pakura was a beast. She had to be, to compete with me.

As Pakura superiority in hand-to-hand became evident, they rapidly switched to throwing around chakra. I always loved the tickle of it on my skin as massive bursts of water and fire collided.

A ring of onlookers had formed immediately; a very large and spaced ring - more than adequate social distancing.

A single hand sign, Mei's cheeks bulged and spat out a truly massive mizurappa. Pakura disappeared as the water crashed where she stood. The water quickly flooded the ring and the area beyond it. With a little hop and application of chakra the earth beneath my feet was suddenly blue and very wet.

Pakura suddenly appeared at Mei's flank, six orbs of scorch chakra orbiting her. Three of them shot forward, Mei hurriedly flipped away, the water instantly turning to geysers of steam upon the orbs' impact.

Haku abruptly materialized beside me on the sidelines. "Zabuza-sama is most displeased. He incorrectly assumes Pakura-sama means to usurp his conquest from Mei Terumi."

"And woke up angry enough to not assess the situation before jumping in."

"I fear his concussion is more severe than initially thought." Was Haku's polite way of saying that there was no way for him to get through Zabuza's thick skull.

"Well, that's probably going to be the least of his problems after butting in between those two." Haku nodded slightly, certain of Zabuza's loss.

"As always, I shall be thorough in my medical treatment." We focused back on the right.

Dancing through a handful of signs, Mei capitalized on the available steam, sucking the clouds deep into her lungs and billowing it all out as a wall of highly corrosive vapour. The kekkei genkais were coming out to play. And with a third source of familiar chakra, forming a water dragon aimed straight for Pakura's back, so was an enraged Zabuza.

In inarticulate rage, Zabuza came skating on the water, his gigantic sword ready to swing. Pakura spared the water dragon and swordsman a brief glance before turning back to the plume of skin searing smoke. The average chuunin or jonin would consider Zabuza fast. But to the like of Pakura and Mei - they had an age to respond to his clumsy assault.

Two scorch orbs were palmed, leaving only one. Pakura leapt forward, crouched low, gently skimmed her fingertips on the water and unleashed her scorch chakra at Mei's attack.

A bright orange wave of dense, nearly fluid, scorch chakra swallowed the vapour. But Mei wasn't idle. From the empty side, with both Zabuza and Pakura both in her line of sight, Mei spat out her own balls of molten chakra.

Devastation ahead of her, lava to the left, water dragon at her back, and a psycho at her right; Pakura was hemmed in.

"Let's take this up a notch then shall we?" Rapidly the temperature rose around the camp, I felt the familiar presence of her arid chakra caressing my skin, as it exploded around her.

Her skin glowed. White and yellow and orange - like pressing your finger against the lens of a lit torch. Her flesh visible through her skin, especially around her hands and feet. The Raikage had lightning chakra flow; Pakura has the same with her scorch.

As Zabuza's came cleaving down at her neck, she ducked languidly - the steel unable to scratch even a strand of her hair.

She caught the blade with her bare hands, the blade turned red-hot in an instant. Using his momentum against him, Pakura flung Zabuza into his own attack.

Pakura dipped left, palming the final scorch orbs, transformed it into a sharp, thin rod that was hot enough to contend with lava as it sliced through Mei's attack. The last ball of magma splashed harmlessly beside her in two halves, Zabuza crashed soaked and comatose nearby. Pakura shouldered her scorch lance and hurled it at a stunned Mei.

Couldn't blame her, chakra flow was an exceedingly rare and difficult technique.

Mei had no time to react at the blistering speed, the lance sailed past Mei's side, just licking her armour and stabbing into the ground behind her. The lance burst into a pyre of scorch chakra on impact. The heat it generated flash evaporated the watery platform. Haku rushed in and pulled Zabuza's unconscious form before he could be boiled. The collective audience cried out as they were buffeted by the blaze.

"Well, that was fun. At least until the idiot decided to butt in." Pakura's chakra flared, the scorch chakra ceasing it's flow.

Mei was panting and puffing - not exhausted, but certainly nervous. A light sheen of sweat on her brow, that was on it's way to jump over her hairline. Pakura, to the Kiri nin's disbelief, was pristine. "If-" Mei took a deep breath and steadied herself, her eyes darting between Pakura and myself. "If the Kaguya is even half as dangerous as you… I'm suddenly liking our mission's chances a lot better."

Pakura lifted her chin high, and her lips rose too. "My Kimi and I could conquer the world all by ourselves. We just choose not to."

Current Timeline: 2 TC (Till Canon)

Kimimaro ~ 16 years old

Pakura ~ 26 years old

Naruto ~ 11 years old

Haku ~ 13 years old

Mei ~ 29 years old