Star Guard Mission III

In the bedroom of Natsuhi's hidey hole, she and Shiki stood face to face as she once again asked.

"You wanted to talk, so . . . Let's talk." She said.

"Hmm, yes . . . Well then, it's safe to assume that you want Akahoshi to be punished for his crimes no?" Shiki started.

"How do you know that!?" Natsuhi asked with pure shock.

"You'll find it's very hard to keep secrets of that nature from me but back to business. Akahoshi is a tumor that must be removed for the good of your Hoshigakure, right?" Shiki pressed.

Natsuhi gave up and honestly answered.

"Yes but I don't see a way to out him so that dealing with him becomes a just matter." She said.

"Ah! Leave that to me. All I need is your agreement that he must be removed."

"O-Okay." Natsuhi was a bit disturbed by how easily the boy in front of her talked about "removing" people as if it was a very easy matter that he was extremely used to.

"After that, based on your position in the village during the rule of the Third Hoshikage, as well as your skill as a Kunoichi, it stands to reason that you'd be the perfect candidate for the position." Shiki continued.

"What?" Natsuhi said.

"Did I say something inaccurate?" Shiki countered with another question.

"No but . . . There are . . . Other problems . . ." She said with difficulty as if carrying a big secret.

Detecting what she was worried about Shiki simply said.

"If It's about the side effects of that Star Training of yours I can easily deal with them so no worries."

"H-How can that be . . ." Natushi said in a low voice filled with disbelief.

Rather than saying anything, Shiki just used a senjutsu enhanced Mystical Palm jutsu to clear Natsuhi's body of the radiation poisoning incurred from the Star during the special training.

The kunoichi immediately felt the changes in her body and knew the mysterious boy in front of her was telling the truth.

"Not only can I deal with the side effects, I can also create a better Star Training to allow anyone to harness the power of the Star at low to no risks at all. Not to mention the various application the Star's energy may have."

Saying this, Shiki withdrew a Refined Star produced in the Desert Fortress. Unlike the normal Star, not only was the Refined Star's energy stronger, purer and more effective, it also no longer caused radiation poisoning, thus eliminating the single biggest risk of the Star Training.

Giving it to Natsuhi who was shocked beyond belief by both his words and the Star he produced out of seemingly nowhere.

As he held the Star offered to her, her shock only increased as she immediately realized that the ill feeling brought by the Star was no longer present and, despite that, its power was even greater.

"As you can see, Hoshigakure has a lot to benefit from this deal, you most of all." Shiki said in a calm tone.

"This is far too much . . . What do you want? It seems even our greatest treasure is nothing to you by this point. So what could you possibly want?" Natsuhi asked.

"Everything." Shiki then revealed his identity after he activated a Soul Contract Tag and explained that he wanted Natsuhi to lead Hoshigakure under his rule.

Although one might say that he was trying to take over the village for his nefarious purposes, it was also true that the village stood to benefit even more than him since he already managed to not only create another Star but also one even better than the original.

In the end, Natsuhi promised to help on on the matter but in regards to the village's leadership and if they would join him in his cause, it had to be discussed with the village's elders.

After this Shiki was left frowning but then relaxed once he heard Natsuhi's next words.

"Regardless of whether the village chooses to follow you or not, I will." She declared.

"I was living on borrowed time, not knowing when I'd finally die from the Star's poison but you saved my life and even offered me such bountiful propositions."

"As such, so long as you wish for it, my life is yours." She solemnly swore while going down on one knee.

"Very well then! Currently, you're more valuable to me than the entire Hoshigakure anyway so that's fine." Shiki accepted her vow of loyalty.

'Truth be told, although I'm rather fond of the village's location, there really is not much of worth left here since I already have an unlimited Star supply.

The only thing of value left would be the Kujaku Myoho but Natsuhi herself is the greatest master of it to have ever lived so having her is enough. Not to mention that I already had a clone scour the place for graves of previous users of the method to steal their knowledge from the afterlife.

With a deal in place that left both parties reasonably satisfied, Shiki quickly hatched a plan to trick Akahoshi into revealing himself based on his knowledge of the original series.

A lot of influential people of Hoshigakure were putting pressure on Akahoshi due to him letting us stay around the Star, even if it is to protect it. This was mostly due to that shitty kid Subaru, continuous defaming, further enabled by Shiki's arrogant words during his meeting with Akahoshi.

But it was all according to Shiki's plan. After he returned to Hoshi with his real body and convened with Akahoshi to discuss the attack, Shiki would "bow" to the pressure and keep his distance from the Star's pavillion but would not take responsibility should the Star be stolen due to that.

When he did so, there was backlash from several people who said that since they were hired to protect the Star, the would of course be responsible for its theft, should it occur.

To which Shiki merely replied.

"If you let me protect it, then I'll obviously be responsible should it be stolen. But, since you want me to stay away from it, my response time to an theft attempt will be delayed, thus giving the thief the opportunity to escape."

With this, the dissenters immediately shut up. Establishing this was important because he didn't want to leave a failed mission of his record, mostly out of vanity but he did not care.

He was a bit worried that the idiots of the village, suddenly grew a brain and actually let him protect the Star up close but fortunately, they were far too stupid for that to happen.

And so, all plans were a go and Shiki just had to wait for Natsuhi to strike again and this time, he would very unfortunately fali to stop her. All due to the village's stupid conditions of course.

The very next day, Natsuhi successfully stole the Star without a single problem and the village higher up all went to Shiki to complain.

"Like I had said, your conditions made protecting the Star quite impossible, so long as the thief was minimally competent." Shiki calmly declared.

"Now all I can do is make an effort to retrieve the stolen object." Shiki declared.

Hoshigakure's higher ups could only grit their teeth in regret for their poor decision making skills but it was far to late for such regrets since their Star was gone.

Now, for the purpose of retrieving the Star, Akahoshi who knew the thief's identity as the right hand woman of the previous Hoshikage, would try to use Subaru, her estranged son to lure her.

The first step was to kidnap Subaru while disguised in the same outfit as the thief so as to deflect the blame but, what Akahoshi was unaware of, was that Shiki was just waiting for him to do so.

Using hsi silvery tongue, Shiki had already convinced some of the higher ups that Akahoshi himself was suspicious. Now, all he had to do, was capture Akahoshi on the act and plant the stolen Star on his body, along with some evidence to incriminate his co-conspirators.

The plan was simple but effective, the next day, Akahoshi disguised as the thief attempted to kidnap Subaru but, in that very instant, Shiki used a Flying Raijin Mark he had left of the annoying kid to teleport behind Akahoshi in a flash of white light and immediately broke his neck with a twist.

In the end, before a lot of witnesses, the thief's gas mask was removed to reveal his identity as Akahoshi. Not only was he still carrying the stolen Star around in a pouch, he was also carrying an incriminating piece of evidence that allowed the village to eventually realized his plot.

And so, Akahoshi's two co-conspirators were charged with the sin of murdering the Third Hoshikage and imprisoned to await judgement while Shiki's team received a stellar performance review on their mission.

Rather disillusioned by the sheer idiocy and general lack of talent in Hoshigakure, Shiki decided to not even bring up the matter of bringing them under him. With how they dealt with the matter of the Star's protection, Shiki was quite sure they would stupidly refuse his great offer so he didn't try.

Still, he got the Star and a new talented and capable subordinate in Natsuhi so he was plenty satisfied. As for the kunoichi herself, she was glad with the way things turned out and left Hoshigakure with everyone thinking her long dead.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

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You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

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