BSNW CH 076 Village Hidden in Whirlpools is Reborn

Four years later, Land of Lightning

A group of rogue-nin was preparing an ambush for a trade caravan going from Iwa to Kumo, carrying refined chakra metal ingots. They had been stalking the caravan since Iwa, watching all its Shinobi patterns and patrols. They wanted to make sure they could handle the guards employed by the Iwa caravan, consisting of mostly Genin teams, with a few Chunin mixed in.

The caravan's cargo was supposed to be an alliance offering from Iwa to Kumo. Kumo had already provided a member of their Kekkei Genkai clans to Iwa in marriage. Iwa in return was to provide Kumo with their secretly hoarded chakra metal every year. This was their annual alliance tribute in chakra metal ingots along with other resources.

It was worth over ten million Ryo, hence Iwa's caution and the rogue-nin group's interest in the caravan. After finally preparing for the ambush, the rogue-nin group rained down weapons on the caravan like a sudden downpour.

"Ambush!" some Iwa Chunin captain shouted as they all created walls of the earth to protect them. Some of the stronger Chunin retaliated with earth spikes and stone bullets. The rogue ninja group effectively evaded Iwa's attacks, detonating explosive tags on the weapons they had thrown earlier.

The explosions covered the entire area in dust and smoke while also disabling a large number of the Genin and even some Chunin. As the rogue ninja group grew pleased with their ambush, suddenly a slight sound of air being cut through echoed in the area, and a large number of white senbons flew towards the rogue ninja group.

Many of the rogue ninjas fell victim to the senbons, that accurately targeted various chakra points of the rogues. A gust of wind blew away the dust and smoke, revealing a group of three figures standing on top of the caravans, all three in similar form-fitting outfits made with some dark-colored thick fiber.

Each figure had a hooded cloak on themselves, revealing only their mask covered face, with a Pentagon symbol on the mask's forehead. The leader of the rogues grew pale upon seeing the symbol on the mask.

"Oh God, the rumors were true" he muttered in despair "The Shinigami do exist, and this time Iwa hired them to exterminate attackers. We are doomed, Retreat! Retreat all of you!! Save your lives!!" he screamed as he tried to run away, only for a feather made of flames to strike him like a dart and turn him to ashes immediately.

Under the despairing gazes of the rogues, two huge and bright feathered wings emerged from the back of one of the hooded figures. With each flap of those wings, innumerable feathers emerged, that claimed the life of anyone they struck immediately.

Another masked figure created a large dome made of mirrored ice that protected the caravan and its injured members from any stray attacks. The third figure went rapidly from person to person, healing the ones injured greatly and giving first aid to those with lesser injuries.

Within minutes, the three figures had resolved the situation, dealt with the rogues, and healed any injure caravan members. The one with the glowing wings went up to one of the Chunin leaders that stepped forward to greet them.

"Thank you for the help," the Chunin leader said as he gave a smile towards the three figures "the Tsuchikage will be really impressed as always. Here is your payment and here is a letter of recognition from Tsuchikage, should any of you want to find a new place for your talents and find Iwa suitable." the Chunin said while handing a sealing scroll and a decorated letter to the masked figure with wings.

The masked man calmly pocketed the scroll while burning the letter right in front of everyone's eyes. The Iwa shinobi's faces grew grim, some even outright showing hatred at his actions.

The masked man turned coolly and left with his two companions, making Iwa Shinobi grit their teeth in helplessness, as they knew that despite their larger group, they would not stand a chance against one of the three, let alone all three.

They were the silent shinigami, the nightmare the village heads would hire in desperation. Their group of around a dozen people had sprung up overnight a few years ago, completing bounties on rogue ninja rapidly and selling their bodies to villages of the highest bidding.

Soon after they had branched out into mercenary services, forging a name that sent chilling rumors down the spine of anyone who hears about them. They established themselves in the mercenary services with the name Pentagon Federation.

The name was based upon the five terrifying ninjas, from unknown affiliation, who seemed to be the leaders of this group. Every mission the group undertook always had at least one of the Five leading it.

Pentagon Federation had done many impossible things, but their nature of demanding compensation seemed very erratic. For example, they had demanded over a million Ryo for this guarding mission of Iwa.

Yet it was rumored that when a greedy business tycoon had started exploiting a certain village inland of waves, the group had razed his business to the ground in return for a few talented orphan kids.

But their most terrifying achievement of this group was the re-establishment of Uzushiogakure, on the request of a few survivors of the Uzumaki clan. It was said that they found over half a dozen Uzumaki descendants from all over the continent, all suffering in various ways after Uzushiogakure's fall, and gave them home again.

In return, it seemed that they had been rewarded with the secrets of the Uzumaki Clan, making the group even stronger. Now it was rumored that at least three of the five heads of the Pentagon Federation are always guarding Uzushiogakure secretly.

Some even had rumored that of the many ninjas being trained in Uzushiogakure, over ninety percent belonged to Pentagon Federation. Whatever the truth is, the result is that in mere two years they had made Uzushiogakure self-sufficient.

It had its own self-sustained food, water, and basic resources, only trading with minor villages for various weaponry and specialized equipment. There were often black market deals nowadays for Uzushiogakure produced exploding tags and run weapons.

The sudden rise of Uzushiogakure had begun worrying the Five Great Villages, especially after the new Uzukage refused the Leaf's demands that Uzushiogakure renews the Alliance terms between them and Leaf based on the conditions the previous Uzukage had followed before his fall.

Instead, Uzukage had rebuked the Hokage about not being able to take care of its own allies, pointing out the current state of Senju, Uzumaki, and Uchiha clan, who had recently suffered a massacre after one of the Uchiha Prodigy went rogue.

Currently, Leaf could only boast of having one descendant each of Senju, Uzumaki, and Uchiha clan within its ranks. When one of the Leaf's elders attacked Uzushiogakure with an elite force, he was thoroughly defeated, with only him surviving at the cost of sacrificing his subordinates.

Uzukage had this time mounted a counter-assault on Konoha in revenge, demanding proper compensation and apology if Konoha wanted to prevent an all-out war. After seeing that Iwa and Kumo were preparing to take advantage of this, Konoha had relented.

They made a public announcement to Konoha residents of Elder Danzo's actions before dismissing him as an Elder and rescinding all his privileges as a Konoha Shinobi, making him a civilian. It was stated that he had gone behind Hokage's Knowledge, an obvious lie to protect the Hokage's reputation.

They also signed an Alliance with Uzushiogakure that put both Uzu and Konoha in an equal position, unlike the previous alliance where Konoha had higher rights and could demand things from Uzu.

Konoha also had to create an embassy in Konoha for Uzu-nin and would assign 20% of all missions Konoha receives to Uzu-nin stationed in Konoha. This included missions of all the grades except S or above, as the involved village secrets.

Konoha also had to promise that no Uzu-nin, no matter their past before joining Uzushiogakure, would be discriminated against in Konoha. Any discrimination or malicious attack by Konoha on Uzu-nin had to be responded to by Konoha Elites with the swiftest action, else Uzushiogakure would retaliate.

In return for following these conditions, Konoha got Uzushiogakure's help with supplying the new runed weapons and artifacts that were seen in black markets recently, which was Uzu plainly declaring to Konoha that they were the ones who produced these weapons for the black market.

Uzu also supplied Konoha with Five A-Rank Ninjutsu, an A-Rank Kenjutsu, and an A rank Fuinjutsu technique, shocking Konoha elders and leaving them sweating.

The fact that Uzu could produce these simply as an exchange in the Alliance, meant that they have at least ten times as much that they have not revealed. Yet, Danzo had not reported seeing any techniques of this magnitude when they defeated his force.

Danzo's forces had mostly been taken out with thrown weapon ambushes, exploding tags, and a few B Rank Ninjutsu of various basic elements. If they had used these techniques that they had provided, then it was possible that Danzo would not even have been able to come back to Konoha.

This was another smack on the Hokage and Konoha Elder's cheeks. Uzu had wanted Danzo to come back to Konoha to protect his worthless skin, giving them a chance to counter and forge a better alliance with Konoha on Uzu's terms.

Now they had managed to completely raze an Elder's reputation, defeated Konoha morally and politically, while also lowering the reputation of Konoha elders in the eyes of Konoha residents.

The effect of these actions was seen soon enough, as all the clan heads of Konoha started looking into Konoha Elder Council's past actions, after Uzukage's barbed statement about the state of Konoha's Senju, Uzumaki, and Uchiha clans.

The clan heads, especially Hiashi Hyuga, were furious that such despicable actions of the Elder Council had gone unnoticed because of the rivalry between clans. After weeks of furious protests and threats by the clans, Hokage was forced to put out a decree, limiting the Elder council's authority to the same level as Clan Heads in Konoha.

Though Third Hokage hated that he had allowed Konoha's reputation to be sullied like this by one of their allies, he was glad secretly that he could now function freely as Hokage without Council or Danzo butchering and sabotaging his actions.

The new batch of Genin was soon to be graduated in a few months, the same time frame in which Uzu will be sending its two teams to Konoha as representatives.

He knew their intentions, as it was very obvious. They had obviously placed spies to keep an eye on Naruto Uzumaki. He was in a way one of the heirs of the Uzumaki clan, as Kushina had been from the direct line of the previous Uzumaki head.

With Kushina being an Uzumaki Princess like Mito Uzumaki before her, it was no surprise the Uzu would send teams of similar age to Naruto to most probably befriend him and watch over him from shadows.

But he had no problem with that, as Uzu would only be inadvertent, protecting Konoha's Jinchuriki for free, A fact that they knew for sure. But Uzu would do it regardless, as Uzumaki took care of their own, no matter the circumstance.

It was one of the reasons Uzushiogakure had fallen in the secret ambush by the Great Villages, due to Konoha's Root disabling their defenses from the inside. It was a secret known only to the Elder council and Third Hokage. He had not even told Minato of this when he became Hokage, deluding himself that he was protecting Konoha when all he was doing was cleaning Danzo's filth.

The Hokage had already changed since that time and now with Danzo gone, he swore to remake Konoha in the image his teacher Tobirama and his teacher's brother Hashirama had desired.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

In a secret hideout inside Uzushiogakure, a bunch of teens was gathered to relax. Some reading books, some singing and playing musical instruments, while others playing some games. In one corner, a buxom blonde beauty was playing with a quiet teen's two-toned black-white hair, smiling teasingly while making braids with his hair.

If one looked at this scene, they would not guess that this was what Pentagon Federation, which shook the Ninja world since their arrival, consisted of. A bunch of innocent and playful looking teens, yet each hiding a deadly power underneath their innocent persona.

A mother-daughter duo entered the hideout, the mother wearing a white Haori with orange whirlpool designs framed with Fuinjutsu runes. She also had a Kage Hat, which she currently held in her hand while holding her teen daughter's hand with the other.

She went to the teen who was getting pampered by the Blonde Beauty before glaring at him "I have had enough Jun-Kun. I became a Kage to help you and repay you for saving Karin and me, yet you want to dump all on me now while running off to play a ninja in the Leaf with your childhood friends?���

After pausing to see his reaction she continued "This is not acceptable. I won't be able to function here as a Kage without you, Tsunade sis, and the Pentagon helping me out. I was a civilian before for god's sake. Look, I have started getting white hair despite being an Uzumaki, White hair, I say!!"

"I am still in the prime of my life for crying out loud." the tough Uzukage who had stared down Konoha's Elder Council and Hokage no stared to cry like a baby while clutching Jun's arm "Please don't do this to me, even my lovely Karin-chan says she would be following you there in one of the teams, I will be left all alone here, booo hooo!!!"

Jun looked at the bawling red-headed Uzukage who was clutching his arm with one hand and holding out a single white hair on her head with a grievance with the other hand. He smiled amusedly at her before patting her head gently.

"There, there! You are an Uzukage now with the power of a Village at your disposal, act like it. And I feel that rather than truly despairing at the work, you are just upset about Karin wanting to visit Konoha."

"If you truly were worried about work then you would know that Jugo and Tertia do most of the desk work, while Kimimaro and Quintin take care of espionage and assassination. Primus, Secunde, Quarto, and Haku usually take care of the mercenary missions." Tsunade scoffed

"All you do is pose as the Head, that too with Jun and me supporting you from behind in saying the right dialogues," Karin said while holding her head to suppress the migraines "Seriously mum, grow up!"

"Waah!!" Kana, Karin's mum clutched Jun against her bouncy chest and cried "Tsunade-sis and Karin-chan are bullying me Jun. Please console me tonight by staying with me instead of Tsunade-sis tonight. I really need a cuddle bunny to soothe me tonight, please!!"

Tsunade gave a mocking glare as she tore Jun away from Kana's hands while Karin bonked her mother on her head before dragging her away.

"Seriously, grow up and act your age, you foolish mother of mine!!" Karin said blushing in embarrassment as she dragged a wailing Kana away. Tsunade and Jun looked on in amusement before Tsunade went back to braiding Jun's long two-toned hair of his Bahamut form.

Jun was often in Bahamut form, mostly because Bahamut loved experiencing the real world in his own form, but also because maintaining this form took even less chakra than a basic transformation Jutsu.

Since he was planning to visit Konoha soon, being in his actual body had a high chance of Konoha's forces recognizing his previous identity. Hence he was often in his Bahamut form, to make it instinctive and also because this form could not be dispelled under any circumstance unless Jun wills it. It would stay on even if he fell asleep or unconscious, making it perfect for his needs.

"I wonder how Naruto, Ino, Shika, and others are" Jun mused as he relaxed while feeling Tsunade play with his hair.