Chapter 22   - Ch22. Kiri 2

Rei and Konan arrived in Kirigakure. It was all shrouded in a thick mist on the outer parts, most likely due to seals. The closer to the village they got, the sparser the mist became. As Rei and Konan followed Karubo through the gates, giving their doc.u.ments to the guards, they noted that no mist was inside the village. The air was very humid and the village looked... militaristic. It was a dreary place with gloom in the air.

Surprisingly, the merchants and civilians still bustled through the streets, happily trying to sell their wares. They didn't seem to fear shinobi. A healthy dose of respect could be spotted in their eyes every time a shinobi passed by. It was coexistence. The people here saw the shinobi as their protectors.

Shinobi, on the other hand, were the reason for the gloomy atmosphere. They still attempted to look dangerous and stern-faced but it was obvious their mood was down. The village probably lost in a skirmish, Rei surmised. None of his business though.

The place was exactly as one would expect from a village full of killers. After all, Kiri took the most assassination request out of the great five. This was where hunter-nin and assassins thrived.

...

Rei and Konan stood in the office of the Mizukage, looking at a neat, pale man of forty years old with black hair, brown eyes, and a mustache. He wore the Mizukage Robes and the Hat and watched them impassively.

This was the third Mizukage. Rei and Konan slightly bowed in respect but didn't leave each other's side.

"You say you need to be together..." He trailed off as he out of the bat pointed his problem with them. He would call bullshit but then again... he was a leader of the village and had to keep appearances.

"Mizukage-sama," Rei calmly smiled. "All you need is to have a sensor-nin look at our chakra."

"Ah... yes." Mizukage drawled. "Your chakra..."

He narrowed his eyes. The kids didn't have more than a civilian amount of chakra. Yet, his ninjas in the capital of Noodle were beaten by them.

"We will now loosen our chakra hiding, okay?" Rei asked, making the Mizukage nod slowly.

The Mizukage signaled the ANBU on stand-by and marveled as the chakra of the kids in front of him rose to the levels of low-chunin. He narrowed his eyes.

"You... have more than this, right?"

"Yes." Rei bluntly answered.

"... you won't show how much, will you?" The Mizukage stated.

"No." Rei nodded.

The ANBU in the room were staring at the boy talking so bluntly to the Mizukage but... they saw the Mizukage was serious and was nodding in approval at the boy's answer.

"Would you be inclined in teaching that chakra hiding technique? Say, for money? Maybe, women?"

The Mizukage was amused. The kids in front of him were interesting. Boasting of three chakra natures at the tender age of 10? Monsters. If what they say was true then he just acquired two potential future S-rank shinobi. Even if not! The chakra hiding technique was invaluable! Even he could not feel their chakra! Granted, he was not using his chakra sensing actively but his passive senses should be enough to tell him their general reserves. It was mind-boggling for him.

"No." Rei's smile turned sheepish. "Sorry but that is not possible."

The Mizukage's eyes narrowed further.

"Why not." He threateningly asked.

"Ah... when I tried to teach it to Konan, we ended up connected for life."

The Mizukage frowned. He didn't believe in their so-called 'connection'.

"Agai-"

"Just have a sensor-nin look at us, Mizukage-sama."

The ANBU tensed. Interrupting Mizukage was not a good thing! But Rei saw that the man was too interested in him and Konan to do anything about it.

"Fine. I will look." Mizukage told them somewhat sullenly and activated his senses. He instantly blanched. "What the f.u.c.k." He quietly swore to himself.

What he saw was their chakras merging, intertwining, knitting together, it was as if there were two people sewn together in front of him. It was... disturbing, to say the least. He had no idea what to think of it.

"You... say you can't separate?" He resignedly asked in the end.

"Oh, we can." Rei let Konan's hand go and the Mizukage could see their chakras disconnect. "But not for long."

The Mizukage slowly nodded. He had no idea what was going on so he could not judge if the kid was telling the truth but... Even disconnected their chakra was a patchwork of the two. Honestly, he found the sight quite... distasteful. Not because of its appearance. It looked like their aura was made of two colors to him. Two colors forcefully kneaded together in the most brutal way. He shuddered at the image of that happening to him.

The Mizukage had no idea that what he saw was the result of nature energy forcing the chakras and souls to merge. It was erratic, chaotic even. But it had no bad effects on Konan or Rei. On the contrary, this provided them with a lot of benefits. It just didn't look prettiest in the senses of a chakra sensor. It didn't look like a... human. That was what disturbed the Mizukage most.

"I suppose you will b-,... marry in the future?"

Shit... I almost said breed! ... The Mizukage sweatdropped and was glad he had his hat on so he could cover his face.

He would be a fool to not see the benefits of such a chakra hiding technique. They definitely had to produce offspring if it meant the technique would stay in the village.

"Yes." Konan nodded stoically.

"What are the chances of joining the Clan Creation Act?" The Mizukage carefully probed. He could force them but that would be a fast-track to create nuke-nins. He tried to keep the force out of anything he could. But he would be damned if he didn't try to make a clan out of them! And for a clan they would need more members… The boy would have to get more wifes...

"I..." Rei was stumped at the Mizukage.

The Mizukage smiled knowingly. He couldn't help but mentally scold himself. The boy was just a kid yet he was talking about giving him a harem to produce kids. He almost snorted at himself as he felt stupid.

"Only if the woman is suitable." Konan took the reins, surprising the Mizukage. Thankfully he prevented himself from gaping.

"And the conditions?" He decided to entertain the girl.

"Kunoichi, strong, beautiful, and most importantly, Rei must fall in love with her!"

The Mizukage was about to nod in approval when Rei decided that enough was enough.

"Oi. Stop trying to play a matchmaker for me!" Rei swatted Konan's shoulder with a scowl.

"Mizukage-sama, forget what she just said." Rei turned to the 3rd Mizukage. "I will live here, and if a woman that I like is willing to join us, then why not. But that's only when I am older!" Rei petulantly and very childishly burst out while wildly gesturing.

Rei knew exactly who he would like to have in his 'harem' from Narutoverse. But he wasn't about to woo a girl only because she was a canon character. He decided to first gauge the personality and if he found it likable and they clicked, he would go for it.

The third Mizukage smiled. He could work with that. He was Mizukage and giving a few females a mission to woo the boy when he is older was of no consequence to him. Underhanded... maybe. But if the boy actually does sleep with them then he would have no excuses. It's not like they would be ordered to genjutsu the shit outta him!

Alas, that was still far away in the future.

"Okay, now, you said both of you are proficient in three chakra natures?"

The Mizukage was disbelieving of this fact but when both of them took out three papers, making one wet by just a slight touch, the other crumbled into dust, and then Rei wrinkled the last paper whereas Konan shredded hers...

F.u.c.k... the following years will be indeed a pain!... He resisted the urge to groan as he realized the amount of effort he would have to exert to make these kids feel 'at home' in Kiri.

Three trained affinities at the age of 10. No, three insanely proficient affinities. He knew what the speed which they showed meant. They were already masters at this exercise and most likely had a way to train their chakra natures further. He would actually call bullshit! And thought they were spies except, no idiot would let someone with such a potential do a spywork! And no idiot was ever made a Kage. No matter how the Raikage looked.

Troublesome… He mentally whined.

Mizukage was no fool. The kids either had to create their own clan or join already existing ones. Nobody would teach someone who was not 'family' their every secret.

A plan started forming in his head. A plan he decided to go with. A plan that will inevitably decide much of Rei's future during his stay in Kiri.

"This will be A-class secret from now on." He growled at his ANBU who straightened up.

"You will be provided a middle-class flat, free of charge." There were a lot of empty flats since many died in the war. "Your rank will be genin but you won't have a jonin supervising you. We can't spare anyone for that."

Mizukage was not about to put these two through the genin test. If one of them died, the second would be most likely lost too. No, he would keep them in the village as much as possible, make them loyal, and then make sure they are strong enough before sending them on any mission. As for the instructor… the kids got this far by themselves. He was interested if they could improve further without one.

"Mizukage-sama," Rei nodded. "we would like access to genin and academy student areas in the library then. We will teach ourselves."

"Sure, sure." The Mizukage rubbed his forehead. "You probably do not know kawarimi, henge, nor any regulations and things like that anyway. You will be given half-year to learn it. Then you will be tested on your knowledge of regulations and the basic Jutsu."

Rei nodded.

"That's all. If you have any problems, my secretary can relay it to me."

And with that, they were ushered out of the office.

Alas, Rei didn't care what schemes the old man had. He would go through it at his own pace and if not? There was always defection. Being hunted can not be worse than living in the middle of a war-zone, could it? Especially since he knew what will happen to Kiri in the future.