With the girls directions we eventually arrived at a village called Kokonami that was a place that had the bloodline resistance members stationed as it held the noncombat members of some of the clans. Craftsmen, ordinary folk and those unfit for combat resided here but that didn’t mean that it was ill protected but the exact opposite in fact. I sensed no less than thirty chakra signatures at the jonin level like Shizunes and many more at the chunin or genin levels. As we approached four of those jonin level chakras surrounded us warily.-
“You are approaching a village under the protection of the hidden mist village, state your identity and purpose here!” one of the shinobi barked out.
I desummoned Ren which let the shinobi relax a bit and we let the girl explain the situation. One of the shinobi rushed back into the village to get someone who could verify the girls identity while we were told to wait. Still at least they weren’t acting as hostile anymore and had put away their weapons. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the ninja who left to return with an old man who asked the girl a bunch of questions before smiling and giving the all clear.-
As it turned out it was her grandfather who was in the twilight years of his life and unfit for combat as a result. That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t powerful as to be blunt the man reminded me of the Hokage almost in terms of the danger I felt from him. Once that was taken care of we were escorted into the village and given lodging until someone from the resistance leadership could come to discuss things in an official capacity.-
That meant over the next few days we mostly treated the common injuries or aches and pains of the villagers or waited patiently. When not helping as a medic I myself spent the rest of my time honing my taijutsu near the village with the Jonins who were willing to help out of boredom. My self created style was still full of flaws that needed to be worked out per form and I had only removed them from the first four forms to date. That was the scorpion, cat or tiger, wolf and snake forms that had been honed to an acceptable level.-
The Bear, cricket and turtle forms were still very flawed and I hadn’t even bothered trying to copy the sheep since it had a similar movement style to my wolfdog. The only real difference was that it was more evasive with it’s movement compared to the wolfdog that was predatory. The Jonin of the village made excellent sparring partners as once I proved I could take the hits they fully exploited my taijutsu forms in our spars. For a normal person those hits would be dangerous but my skin, flesh and bones were so dense that i shrugged them off easily.-
That alone gave me quite the reputation amongst the shinobi of the village as an iron body. Obviously i held back in terms of speed and power during the spars but my durability wasn’t something I could really hide when I took next to no damage from any physical hits I took. Funnily enough most people in the village seemed to think I had some sort of kekkai genkai which made them more friendly than before they got that misunderstanding. It wasn’t surprising since they were being hunted for having that exact thing by the Mizukage faction of the hidden mist.-
My sensei, Shizune and I didn’t make any moves to correct this misunderstanding as it clearly helped us politically here and so we just didn’t say whether or not it was actually true. The person who was sent to discuss with us was a rather poor choice in my opinion, Ao the Byakugan killer. Ao was the only ninja in recent memory to successfully manage to kill a member of the Hyuga main clan and steal the prized dojutsu from his slain foe. Sending him to discuss the details with us was little more than a power move from the resistance as it was a subtle insult.-
“Seems Konoha is doing well to send it’s jinchuriki out of the village so easily.” he said as he scanned us with his byakugan.
“You are mistaken, Kenzo here merely possesses a large amount of chakra naturally much like Raikage.” Tsunade said calmly.
Ao frowned but didn’t argue about it and moved on to trying to negotiate the cooperation that Konoha would be offering to the bloodline resistance faction. I shot down any attempt made at political marriage between me and them which he brought up more than once. It was easy enough to see that he was trying to bolster the hidden mists future with the attempt because while I may be loyal to Konoha there was no telling what any children I may have would hold loyalty to if a political marriage went through.-
Before anyone says something about me being eleven the way this world worked was that children such as myself would be paired up politically in these situations and only actually be wed when they turned sixteen. It was a cultural thing as even the first Hokage met his wife Mito in this way though they were thirteen and fifteen at the time.-
Ao even told me that it wasn’t up to me at one point which made the following statement from my sensei saying the exact opposite rather funny. Still I had to admit that the man was a skilled negotiator as even with that taken off the table he simply asked for more resources in exchange as a “show of sincerity” which made me wonder if he even wanted me as a bargaining chip to begin with. The rough draft of an agreement was finished after about a day of negotiation and we promptly left the village.-
I was glad to be leaving too as I could feel gazes on me the entire time i was in the village regardless of whether I was inside or outside. I couldn’t exactly just command some bugs to attack those watching us either since that would not be good for a political mission like this. Ao was the worst though as even when he was talking with my sensei I could feel him constantly scanning me with that byakugan as if trying to memorize my chakra signature, which was probably what he was doing now that I think about it.-
Annoyingly he kept staring at us until we were far far away and left his sensory range. Even then I could feel some shinobi following us from a distance and convinced my sensei to speed up to lose them. It might have just been caution from them but it was annoying in my opinion and i wanted to be done with it, needless to say I wasn’t a fan of shinobi politics.
‘Naruto is going to be miserable if he every actually becomes Hokage.’ I thought with a smirk as we ran.
