Chapter one.
The main lesson I?ve learned out of all of this is to not pay much attention to rumors. Damn things will get you killed.
I suppose the start of this story lies in that night, over twelve years ago, when the Nine-Tailed Fox decided to practice ?Urban Renewal no Jutsu? on the lovely village of Konoha. I wasn?t there, of course, but the stories say that the Fourth Hokage invented a new technique, an incredibly powerful jutsu that utterly destroyed the Kyuubi.
Show off.
Of course, you can imagine that the other hidden villages became intensely interested in the means by which such a feat was accomplished. After expending sufficient resources (i.e. buying the local drunks some sake), they discovered what really happened. Instead of destroying the demon, the Fourth Hokage was forced to seal the demon away, inside a newborn baby. The child would, over time, absorb the demon?s chakra, neutralizing it, and would be known as the hero of the village for finally vanquishing the demon. Rah, rah, rah.
It also meant that this child would have the potential to become an incredibly powerful shinobi? perhaps an instrument of destruction only slightly less powerful than the Kyuubi itself. Pleasant thought, eh?
Well, it was pretty unpleasant for the other great ninja nations, especially the ones that were not too friendly with Konoha. When spies reported that the Hidden Village of Sand, Sunakagure, had duplicated this feat, they became even more nervous. There were only so many of the Biju still roaming around, and not all of them were easily located.
Pretty soon there was a race on. Nobody knew how powerful these ?Jinchuuriki? could be, but nobody wanted to be caught without one if the answer was ?very?.
Iwakagure, the ?Village Hidden among the Rocks? was no exception to this. The Tsuchikage was an ambitious bastard, and he wasn?t about to let Konoha or Suna hold any advantage over him. It didn?t take long before his spies were able to uncover the general means by which the Biju were bound.
His first attempt was a less than stellar success. Luring Hachimata, the eight-tailed dragon, down out of the mountains was the easy part, even though it did eventually cost him thirty shinobi. Either the lives of his men meant little to him, or the Iwa ninja sucked so badly that he wouldn?t miss them much.
But binding such a beast into a seal was another matter entirely.
He knew he needed an expert on seals to enact the rite, so his agents turned the Land of Earth upside down and shook it. Hard. What they found was an itinerant monk who had an encyclopedic knowledge of chakra manipulations, not to mention being pretty spry for an old geezer. Of course, the Tsuchikage had his own ?special requirements? for the ritual. He wanted elements added to the seal that would make this weapon easily controlled. It might make the child little more than an emotionless automaton, but what did he care?
Now, if you?re wondering if I?m portraying the illustrious Tsuchikage, leader of Iwakagure, the most powerful ninja in all of the Land of Earth, a man who made his enemies quake in their boots? blah, blah, blah, and so on as a ruthless, treacherous bastard, well? you?d be right. Before his rise to power, there were several small independent shinobi clans that coexisted with Iwakagure in the Land of Earth. Within ten years of his ascension, they were no more. Their members all disappeared, and their techniques ?mysteriously? appeared within the Tsuchikage?s libraries.
Now, as you can imagine, exterminating a ninja clan down to the very last member is easier said than done. At least one of those ninjas, an expert on seals and ofuda, saw the ?writing on the wall? (forgive the pun) before it was his turn and decided on a career change. Shortly thereafter, the Land of Earth had one less ninja? and one more monk.
Now, this ?monk? was an honest cuss, as honest as only people who have nothing left to lose can be, and he eventually admitted to me that he originally planned to make the seal as ordered? only with a few intentional, minute imperfections. Hachimata would be able to break free within a few weeks or months ? right in the middle of the Tsuchikage?s fortress within Iwakagure.
The only problem with this plan was the old man going soft at the last moment. He didn?t have a problem with the sacrifice initially powering the seal ? that was a pair of Rock Jonins who knew too much. The Tsuchikage could kill all of those he wanted. But the vessel of the binding was, by necessity, a helpless newborn plucked from a brothel. And that was where his remaining scruples intervened.
________
Till chapter 2!
The main lesson I?ve learned out of all of this is to not pay much attention to rumors. Damn things will get you killed.
I suppose the start of this story lies in that night, over twelve years ago, when the Nine-Tailed Fox decided to practice ?Urban Renewal no Jutsu? on the lovely village of Konoha. I wasn?t there, of course, but the stories say that the Fourth Hokage invented a new technique, an incredibly powerful jutsu that utterly destroyed the Kyuubi.
Show off.
Of course, you can imagine that the other hidden villages became intensely interested in the means by which such a feat was accomplished. After expending sufficient resources (i.e. buying the local drunks some sake), they discovered what really happened. Instead of destroying the demon, the Fourth Hokage was forced to seal the demon away, inside a newborn baby. The child would, over time, absorb the demon?s chakra, neutralizing it, and would be known as the hero of the village for finally vanquishing the demon. Rah, rah, rah.
It also meant that this child would have the potential to become an incredibly powerful shinobi? perhaps an instrument of destruction only slightly less powerful than the Kyuubi itself. Pleasant thought, eh?
Well, it was pretty unpleasant for the other great ninja nations, especially the ones that were not too friendly with Konoha. When spies reported that the Hidden Village of Sand, Sunakagure, had duplicated this feat, they became even more nervous. There were only so many of the Biju still roaming around, and not all of them were easily located.
Pretty soon there was a race on. Nobody knew how powerful these ?Jinchuuriki? could be, but nobody wanted to be caught without one if the answer was ?very?.
Iwakagure, the ?Village Hidden among the Rocks? was no exception to this. The Tsuchikage was an ambitious bastard, and he wasn?t about to let Konoha or Suna hold any advantage over him. It didn?t take long before his spies were able to uncover the general means by which the Biju were bound.
His first attempt was a less than stellar success. Luring Hachimata, the eight-tailed dragon, down out of the mountains was the easy part, even though it did eventually cost him thirty shinobi. Either the lives of his men meant little to him, or the Iwa ninja sucked so badly that he wouldn?t miss them much.
But binding such a beast into a seal was another matter entirely.
He knew he needed an expert on seals to enact the rite, so his agents turned the Land of Earth upside down and shook it. Hard. What they found was an itinerant monk who had an encyclopedic knowledge of chakra manipulations, not to mention being pretty spry for an old geezer. Of course, the Tsuchikage had his own ?special requirements? for the ritual. He wanted elements added to the seal that would make this weapon easily controlled. It might make the child little more than an emotionless automaton, but what did he care?
Now, if you?re wondering if I?m portraying the illustrious Tsuchikage, leader of Iwakagure, the most powerful ninja in all of the Land of Earth, a man who made his enemies quake in their boots? blah, blah, blah, and so on as a ruthless, treacherous bastard, well? you?d be right. Before his rise to power, there were several small independent shinobi clans that coexisted with Iwakagure in the Land of Earth. Within ten years of his ascension, they were no more. Their members all disappeared, and their techniques ?mysteriously? appeared within the Tsuchikage?s libraries.
Now, as you can imagine, exterminating a ninja clan down to the very last member is easier said than done. At least one of those ninjas, an expert on seals and ofuda, saw the ?writing on the wall? (forgive the pun) before it was his turn and decided on a career change. Shortly thereafter, the Land of Earth had one less ninja? and one more monk.
Now, this ?monk? was an honest cuss, as honest as only people who have nothing left to lose can be, and he eventually admitted to me that he originally planned to make the seal as ordered? only with a few intentional, minute imperfections. Hachimata would be able to break free within a few weeks or months ? right in the middle of the Tsuchikage?s fortress within Iwakagure.
The only problem with this plan was the old man going soft at the last moment. He didn?t have a problem with the sacrifice initially powering the seal ? that was a pair of Rock Jonins who knew too much. The Tsuchikage could kill all of those he wanted. But the vessel of the binding was, by necessity, a helpless newborn plucked from a brothel. And that was where his remaining scruples intervened.
________
Till chapter 2!
