Akatsuki's Interference

Refreshed from the good scrap he had just been in, Shiki happily took care of the rest of his duties while humming a tune.

Replacing Son Goku with his image, wiping Roshi's memories of their encounter, and tossing him back in the wild as if nothing had ever even happened.

Son was not at all displeased with the amenities granted but being a core member of Mugetsu and usually spent his time hanging out with the normally reclusive Shukaku or conversing with one of the jinchuuriki.

Still, as a fellow that valued manners, he always gave other members of Mugetsu the courtesy they gave him when they communicated and so, settled in quite nicely, as did all the jinchuuriki.

With all if this done, Shiki once again had some free time on his hands. This would last until he got a call from Nagato or one of the two movie plots he was waiting for hatched.

But, in the meantime, he was free of work and so, rather that tossing himself at his research as per usual, Shiki decided to just relax and hang out with his subordinates, especially the new ones that did not yet knew him that well.

It was quite the fun time and Shiki had to admit, he meshed with Han quite well and adding hanging out with the big man just sampling some tea and chilling to his list of favourite downtime activities.

Fu often barged in on that time though, badgering about something she found cool or interesting to both of them before rushing off again like a hamster on coffee.

Yugito was quite the serious person and, seeing how well she was treated and the respect and care she had received from all of the other core members, she dedicated herself to repay that debt as best she could.

This type of attitude meant she got along with Guren surprisingly well as one of the more duty driven members that wanted to repay Shiki for the grace he had given them and they often hanged out together in their free time or simply paired up for missions.

In part, this resulted in Yugito being treated to shows of affection between guren and Shiki or being battered with "how great Shiki was" speeches by Guren but the former Kumo kunoichi just took it in stride while shaking her head.

Like it was said before, Shukaku was a bit of a recluse but, seeing he was quite welcome in Mugetsu, he started getting into playing pranks on on the other core members and laughing so hard he could be hear across the entire fortress when he succeeded.

This normally resulted in huge fights in the training rooms when he target people who were not so chill but no grudges where held and everybody was friends again afterwards.

Shiki also spent some time in Suna, seeing the changes his actions had brought in. Both it and Konoha were far more technologically advanced than they would have been in the original and he was proud for being the driving force behind it all.

Although he could be said to be self centered and looking out only for himself and those he cared about, for Shiki, it didn't change the fact that he was making the world a better place. Or, at the very least, a more comfortable place.

Train tracks were set up beneath the desert, allowing people to travel in and out of Suna without facing the harsh environment. It was a massive undertaking, especially due to the various security measures necessary to ensure the tunnels could not be compromised by enemy shinobi.

Also, numerous security measures had to be put in place to ensure the trains could not be used by outside forces to infiltrate the village.

Once it was fully operation, it made trade with Suna far more viable than before and helped the village stock up in goods and made the economy far more prosperous.

With Shiki's name as the main sponsor behind all of this change as he was the one with connections to the Land of Snow and Spring where all the technology had supposedly come from, it was an understatement to say he was popular with the citizens of Suna.

Even most of Suna's shinobi thought very highly of him, to the point that some shinobi who were strictly anti Konoha made an exception to their policies to not include Shiki as a target of their discrimination, owing to the great contributions he had made for the betterment of Suna.

Still, seeing how better the village were when compared to before, such hardliners were a dying breed as most shinobi of Suna had come to see the changes and something good for them and their home.

Shiki's efforts had also net him another kind of benefit . . . His popularity with the ladies of Sunagakure was at an all time high and he could always find one or two making eyes at him as he walked in the streets.

Temari was not too thrilled about this however and had taken the stance of an angry lioness marking her territory. She knew Shiki had others outside Suna and if they could coexist, so could she but she wasn't just going to stand by and let that number increase before her eyes.

To this end, she started looking for allies she would not mind getting closer to Shiki in order to prevent whom they considered to be "undesirables" from approaching him in that manner.

She knew Saya and Ameno got along with Shiki quite well already, the former coming as quite a surprise to her so she recruited them first.

When Saya was approached by Temari for this "plan" of hers, another great idea came to mind for the goth girl who fancied herself Shiki's loyal servant.

While Teamri wanted to block other Suna girls from approaching Shiki, while Saya agree that some unworthy characters should not be allowed such chances, she also got the idea of scouting a few talented girls and preaching her ways to them

Ameno was quite attracted to Shiki both to the character he showed as well as his appearance and simply thought of Temari's offer as a way to get some official recognition of someone whos was already known to be in a relationship with him.

Temari herself had been reconnecting with some of her childhood friends, in part due to Shiki's encouragement, and in part due to the more free custom starting to permeate Suna. As such, shee recruited Sen and Yome, two of her long time friends to help her in her endeavour.

Seeing this however, Saya took them as two lost lambs that needed to be "shown the Way" as prospective candidates for Shiki's growing harem.

Needless to say, all of these undercurrent went by unnoticed by Shiki. Mostly due to the fact he didn't want to be paying that much attention to his surroundings during his off time.

He did notice the number of flirting gazes thrown at him in Suna seemed to be decreasing but simply thought of it as the fad wanind and women moving on to others and not some secret group discouraging said women from making passes at him.

Time passed and Nagato was taking his sweet time to the point Shiki wondered if he would have to take care of the other two matters before finally hashing things out with him and, in the meanwhile, Mugetsu's activities continued.

While Nagato seemed to still be in deliberation, Obito had already focused his sights on Mugetsu a threatening opposing force with the power to severely hamper their operations and had been trying to figure out ways to bring the fight to his enemy rather than simply reacting.

As a result, skirmishes with the Akatsuki had been increasing. Normally, a pair of Akatsuki members would strike at one of Mugetsu's operations and, when a core member intervened, they decisively retreated rather than attempting to fight.

It was quite effective of a plan. While the akatsuki would have a tough time beating a core member, they had no problem in bullying most of the peripherals so they could hamper Mugetsu's operations while bearing very little risk towards themselves.

However, Aion, who was in charge of organizing most of said operations and overseeing Mugetsu's overall functioning, was getting irritated by these interlopers and figuring out a way to make a devastating enough counterattack that they would rethink their current course of action.

Aion had massive computing power and, by processing all the information gained from investigating previous attacks, the possibilities of where the next attack might come were narrowed down to the point a few core members could cover them all.

The jinchuuriki had to stay on the downlow for now, as such they were not called in but most of the others were.

Guren and Chino on one location, Zabuza and Haku covering another, the Tatsumaki and Fubuki covering a third and the last location was actually covered by Tayuya and Isaribi. It was a small island base so the latter was totally in her element.

And so, they hiddenly waited for the day of the next attack, ready to dish out some righteous payback.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

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

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.