Chapter 253 - 257: Pakura and Uchiha Mikoto

Natsuki ran back through what he remembered of the original story.

Every Otsutsuki living out among the stars possessed strength at Six Paths level or above.

Which was precisely their problem. At that altitude, getting any stronger became nearly impossible.

Hence the God Trees.

A God Tree, once matured, bore fruit. Eating the chakra fruit raised your power. Eat enough of them and you ascended into something else entirely — an Otsutsuki god, operating on a tier of its own.

So when the clan found the shinobi world, they dispatched Otsutsuki Isshiki and Otsutsuki Kaguya to plant one.

Planting a God Tree — more accurately, bringing its fruit to maturity — required the energy of an entire planet, plus the sacrifice of one Otsutsuki.

Standard practice was for the lower-ranking of the pair to be the offering.

Sacrifice didn’t mean death, exactly. The Otsutsuki were functionally deathless; before dying, one could leave behind a Karma — their body and consciousness rendered into data, ready to be implanted in a compatible host and overwrite them.

Kaguya had been the junior of the two. She was meant to feed the tree.

Instead, she ambushed Isshiki and fed him to it.

Isshiki fled with barely half a body left, found a monk named Jigen, converted himself into a Karma, implanted it, and took the man over.

Natsuki stroked his chin.

Isshiki’s story ran almost entirely through Boruto, and Natsuki’s knowledge of Boruto was thin.

What he did remember: Isshiki had founded an organization called Kara, still chasing the God Tree project.

And critically — he still had a God Tree in the ground. One that hadn’t finished growing.

With infinite magical energy on hand, Natsuki could push that tree to maturity and fruit without breaking stride. Eat the fruit, gain the Rinne Sharingan, and his own ceiling moved again.

Better still, Jigen — or rather Isshiki now — hadn’t recovered anything close to his peak. He didn’t measure up to Kaguya. He could be handled first.

The only obstacle was finding him.

Natsuki’s first instinct was to send White Zetsu out looking. He discarded it a moment later.

Isshiki was an authentic Otsutsuki. He knew Kaguya intimately, knew the Infinite Tsukuyomi inside and out, and stood a real chance of spotting White Zetsu for what it was.

Better to do it himself.

And then a second thought landed.

Finding Isshiki would mean sweeping the entire shinobi world.

So he might as well clean the place up along the way. It would keep Isshiki guessing, for one thing.

It might also unlock the Everdistant Utopia from the Emiya Shirou template.

The condition there was to bring true peace to the shinobi world. Natsuki had assumed ending the war and founding the Alliance would satisfy it. Apparently not.

The wars were over, yes. But there was still disorder across huge stretches of the map — especially in the small countries with no hidden village to shelter them.

"Konan," he called.

The door opened shortly after and she came in.

"Notify the Alliance leadership. Meeting tomorrow, nine o’clock."

That meant the Five Elders, among others.

Under ordinary circumstances, none of the foreign Kage could reach Konoha by morning. Circumstances had changed. The teleportation formations were live now — built on the Flying Thunder God Formation and installed at key sites across the shinobi world, including all five great villages.

"Yes, Natsuki-sensei." Konan nodded and left.

The afternoon rolled on.

Natsuki was working through documents when he raised an eyebrow.

Someone had leaned against his back.

"Guess who."

Pakura’s voice.

"Lord Kazekage. Since when do you go in for schoolgirl tricks?" Natsuki turned his head.

She had draped herself over him like a cat and was gently rubbing her cheek against his shoulder.

"Is that a complaint?" Pakura’s mouth twisted.

"With that tone, I’d say you’re asking for something." Natsuki caught her wrist and pulled her around into his lap.

"I wouldn’t dare," she said, settling in.

He touched his fingers to her lips, and she kissed them.

Looking at her, Natsuki thought — for no obvious reason — of Uchiha Mikoto.

An idea surfaced.

"The meeting’s tomorrow morning." He paused. "But since you’re already here, stay tonight."

"At your place?"

"My place isn’t convenient." He shook his head. "I’ll find you somewhere else."

"So there are other women." Pakura snorted.

She’d assumed as much for a long time. It still stung slightly. But her position was what it was, and she put it out of her mind quickly enough.

"Come on. I’ll take you over."

Natsuki scooped her up, left a note on the desk, and opened a doorway.

They came out in Uchiha Mikoto’s room.

"Why do I get the feeling this room gets a lot of—"

Pakura didn’t finish. Natsuki had wrapped his arms around her from behind.

She turned her head to look at him, and whatever she’d meant to say stopped mattering.

The door closed on the rest of the evening. By the time it opened again, the three of them had reached an understanding of sorts, and Pakura had made rather more peace with the arrangement than she’d expected to.

9:00 AM, the next day. Conference room, Hokage’s building.

Ohnoki, Mabui, Terumi Mei, Pakura, Yahiko, and Nagato had all taken their seats early, alongside the Leaf contingent — Tsunade, Nawaki, Mikoto, Minato, and the rest.

Pakura’s eyes drifted to Mikoto without her meaning them to.

The two of them had never exchanged more than a nod before last night.

Pakura sighed inwardly.

She had her pride. Under any other circumstances the answer would have been an immediate and unambiguous no.

She was going to have to think very hard about how she felt regarding the fact that it hadn’t been.

Then the door opened, and Natsuki came in with Konan. Every head turned.

"Alliance operations have been progressing smoothly," Natsuki said, smiling.

Which proved the obvious thesis: development requires peace first.

With the shinobi world under Alliance control there were no more wars, and with Natsuki holding the leash on every Daimyo, nothing the Alliance attempted ran into resistance.

Smooth progress was the natural outcome.

"There are still problems, though. A great many caravans are being robbed — by rogue shinobi, by bandits, by ordinary thieves." Natsuki paused. "I intend to establish a new department to handle it."

Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan all felt an immediate flicker of recognition. The Hidden Rain had done exactly this in the Land of Rain.

Anticipation showed on all three faces.

Cleaned up, the Land of Rain had become peaceful and genuinely prosperous.

If the whole shinobi world could look like the Land of Rain, that would be real peace — the kind where nobody bothers picking up what they find on the road and nobody bothers locking their doors at night.

"The department will be called the Shinobi World Police Force," Natsuki continued. "Namikaze Minato and Nagato will head it. The major villages will each contribute personnel. One thousand to start."

The Leaf had its Military Police Force. The other villages had their equivalents. Nobody in the room needed the concept explained.

A thousand sounded like a great many people until you weighed it against the sheer landmass of the shinobi world, at which point it sounded like almost nobody.

But their quality was more than adequate. Outside the great villages, the average rogue ninja rarely cleared Chunin, let alone Jonin. And with more teleportation formations coming online every week, a thousand shinobi could cover the entire map.

"Yes, Lord Hokage." Minato was on his feet immediately.

Nagato took a beat longer, then stood as well.

Neither of them minded the assignment in the slightest. They both wanted the same thing out of it.

Tsunade watched Natsuki with something distant in her expression.

Everything her grandfather had failed to finish was taking shape in this man’s hands, step by step.

She truly had no idea what the future was going to look like.

"Try to have the Police Force operational within the week," Natsuki said after a moment’s thought. "Start in the far north. The Land of Snow."

"Yes."

"Meeting adjourned."

Natsuki had barely reached his office when Pakura followed him in.

"I came to say goodbye."

"Goodbye to what?" Natsuki smiled. "With the formations up, you can come whenever you feel like it."

"I can come. Last night is not happening again." Pakura glared at him.

Natsuki blinked at her.

He had always been a firm believer in the principle that "no" and "yes" were closer than most people admitted.

"Until next time." He stepped in and kissed her forehead.

"Mm." Pakura nodded, turned, and left — with visible reluctance.

Less than a minute later, Mikoto came in.

"Mikoto." Natsuki beckoned.

She crossed to him.

"I should have told you about last night in advance. I hope you’re not upset with me."

He raised a hand and rested it against her chest, feeling her heartbeat.

"It’s... it’s nothing." Mikoto flushed and spoke softly. "As long as it made you happy."

"You’re too easy on me."

He pulled her in and stroked her cheek, and she looked up at him with an expression of complete gentleness.

"I need to head out for a while." After a quiet moment, Natsuki stood, settled her into the Hokage’s chair, and added, "If you need me, I’ll be at the ninja tool shop."

"Mm."

He left, and went back to reforging the Uchiha Gunbai.

A week went by fast, and the Shinobi World Police Force was formally established.

Land of Snow.

A thousand shinobi stood in the snow without a flinch among them, Minato and Nagato at the front.

"You two take three hundred each. East and west," Natsuki said. "The remaining four hundred come with me and sweep the center."

"Yes."

Minato and Nagato moved out with six hundred between them.

"Shisui." Natsuki turned to Uchiha Shisui. "Follow the route on the map."

"Yes, Natsuki-sensei."

Natsuki drew Minazuki.

At Shikai, the blade became an enormous manta ray.

"Konan." Natsuki smiled. "Let’s take it up and see if anything unexpected turns up."

Konan leapt aboard, then turned back and — after a beat — held out her hand.

"Thanks."

Natsuki paused fractionally, took it, and stepped up onto the manta ray.

The two of them ended up standing face to face, and Konan’s heart tripped over itself. She withdrew her hand.

The manta ray climbed, and kept climbing, and stopped only when they were very high indeed.

Natsuki’s eyes shivered as he brought up the Byakugan and Observation Haki together.

He had no idea where Jigen was. This was the only method available to him.

Konan looked at the Byakugan and couldn’t hide her surprise.

As far as she knew, the Byakugan was a bloodline limit exclusive to the Hyuga, and she had never heard the faintest suggestion that Natsuki carried Hyuga blood.

She didn’t ask.

In her mind, Natsuki was already something close to omnipotent. One more doujutsu hardly registered.

A while later, he let both drop.

Jigen wasn’t in the Land of Snow.

Natsuki had never seen the man, but the gap between the strong and the weak was wide enough to make identification straightforward. Particularly with Isshiki riding inside him.

Isshiki would be masking his presence, obviously. But against Natsuki’s current sensory range, holding a perfect disguise would be extraordinarily difficult.

"Let’s sit down." Natsuki produced a rug. "Once they finish the sweep, we’re done for the day."

Konan settled onto it, kneeling formally, the way Mikoto did.

Natsuki had never gotten comfortable kneeling, so he simply sat, cutting a considerably less dignified figure.

Konan didn’t seem to mind.

"Your birthday’s in two days. I’ll take you to the Hidden Rain," Natsuki said.

"Thank you, Natsuki-sensei." She paused, then asked, with some hesitation, "Will we come back to Konoha in the afternoon?"

"No hurry. If you want, we can stay until evening."

"I’d rather come back in the afternoon," Konan said.

"Then we come back in the afternoon." Natsuki looked briefly thrown, then shrugged. "It’s your birthday. You decide."

"Will Natsuki-sensei go along with whatever I decide?" Konan asked, eyes on the ground.

"Sure," he agreed easily.

Konan let out a small, private breath of relief.