Chapter 21: Yumegakure

Walking through the gate, I looked around, admiring the dream-like scenery.

The fog shrouded the buildings in the distance, while making those visible stand out more. The dark blue curved shingles contrasted against the pale white walls. The buildings were simple and unadorned, yet each had a character of its own.

Following the shinobi in front of me, I continued to admire the village, taking in not only the scenery but also any potential escape routes. Turning my gaze to the man leading me, I observed him, gauging his strength from any small tell tale signs I could see.

His stride was tense, the hand holding the torch clenched, and the rest of his posture was rigid. Smirking slightly, I continued following him. Obviously, he is just a gate guard; most villages offer the job to Chunin whose strength has started to plateau or who wanted a more peaceful life. However, the 'Kage' of this village would be mid Jonin level at best, with the rest of his 'elites' being low to mid Jonin as well.

Sighing slightly, I hoped this would be a peaceful delivery. Trying to flee from any Hidden Village does not sound like a fun time.

We eventually made it onto a road adjacent to a wide river, likely the source of the fog. Towards the end of the road was a small tower, three stories tall. The land around it was unoccupied, grass and some trees filling the empty space.

Quickly reviewing the information about this village, I remembered the current leader was one Enzo Tenro, and he was the head of the Tenro clan. Thinking back to the nukenin from Sora-Ku, I guessed they were like the Inuzuka clan in a small sense; proficient in Taijutsu and transformation Jutsu's.

If I remembered correctly, the village had three clans; the Tenro, Hirasaka, and Amagiri. All three were strong clans, each specialized in something different.

The Tenro were the warriors of the Village, as they used transformation Jutsu and Taijutsu to fight their enemies.

The Hirasaka Clan used chakra sealing techniques and seals, making them perfect guerrilla fighters. However, they also were experts in Taijutsu, allowing them to create deadly traps and ambushes.

Finally, the Amagiri Clan was reminiscent of the Aburame Clan, as they utilized poisonous insects to fight, manipulating both the insects and the poisonous gases they emitted. Additionally, they were proficient healers, as they had to be able to counteract their insects poisons.

Eventually, we made it to the tower, where two presumably ANBU stood guard. Like always, they wore a full face mask. Unlike Konoha, which uses animal masks, the ANBU of Yume have a blank blue mask, the only differences between the masks being the slits for the eyes.

The ANBU on the left had vertical slits, whereas the ANBU on the right had an X over one eye while the other was covered.

Seeing the relaxed posture of the two guards, I nodded my head slightly. As always, any ANBU member from any of the Hidden Villages were quite skilled, even if they weren't the strongest.

"The messenger from Konoha is here."

Hearing my guide speak, I looked at the two ANBU members, who had turned their gazes towards me. Tilting my head slightly, I stayed quiet. The ANBU with the X mask nodded, raising their arm to gesture towards the Tower.

Moving forward, I followed them, entering the tower.

When we entered, I was stunned at the amount of artwork that decorated the walls. Each scroll was masterfully painted, and there seemed to be no theme, as one painting depicted a rolling landscape and another was a portrait. Continuing down the hall, I kept observing the paintings, noticing that some seemed very... bizarre. One of the scrolls was a portrait of a person, however instead of the normal method, the artist had created the person by repeating the word "Insanity" over and over again.

As I continued to admire the numerous artworks, we eventually reached a door. The ANBU guard moved forward, knocking in a specific pattern around the door. Furrowing my brows, I observed the guard repeat the knock, which prompted the person inside to yell "Enter!"

Opening the door, they gestured for me to move inside. Shrugging, I entered the room.

A large desk sat in the back of the room, the windows behind it covered by curtains. The walls were also covered in scrolls, however they followed a theme of nature, unlike the sporadic placement from outside.

Sitting behind the desk was a tall, bulky man. His wild grey hair was only held back from his face due to his Hitai-Ate, which was shaped like a face guard, similar to the one the Second Hokage wore. A red mark was under each eye, giving the man a serious look. His grey kimono with a dark fur collar made his overall appearance slightly wild. Leaning against his desk was a large, ornate staff.

Standing behind him was a young woman with similar red markings under her eyes. Her spiky lavender hair was contrasted by her dark face guard. Wearing a sleeveless pink kimono with a cream fur collar. A large necklace hung around her neck, consisting of large stone rings connected to one another by red string. Her hands and forearms were covered in furry gauntlets of some kind, her fingers the only exposed skin I could see, as the rest of her arms were wrapped in bandages.

My gaze lingered on her, slightly taken aback by her contrasting beauty. Her face was serious, her eyes a deep amber. However, even though her outfit should have made her look wild, it instead made her elegant. Realizing I was staring, I turned my gaze back to the man, Enzo Tenro.

"I am Enzo Tenro, Chief of the Tenro Clan and leader of Yumegakure. This is my daughter, Ryuka. I welcome you to our village, Leaf Kunoichi."

Bowing slightly, I replied "Greetings, Chief Tenro. My name is Kokoro Kanei, and I have come to deliver the scroll you requested."

Saying so, I took the scroll from my vest. The girl, Ryuka, moved forward. Her gaze wandered over me, before gently lifting the scroll from my hands. Turning around, I found my gaze drawn to her, admiring her wide, swaying hips.

Mentally slapping myself, I focused my attention on Chief Tenro. Inwardly, I was slightly ashamed. It had only been a few days, but I missed the touch of my two girls back home. Feeling the familiar clench coming from below my abdomen, I grit my teeth slightly.

The Chief had unfurled the scroll, reading it. Furrowing his brown, he frowned slightly. Turning to Ryuka, he handed her the scroll, allowing her to read it. Looking back at me, he sighed.

"Miss Kanei, this is unrelated to your delivery, but... have you seen any nukenin from our village in your land?"

Raising my eyebrow, I contemplated what I should do. If I said no, he would be none the wiser, but it would lead to him potentially requesting either Konoha to hunt them down or allowing him to send a group of ANBU after the nukenin. If I said yes, I wouldn't have the proof of completion for the mission in the form of the heads, which not only proved my mission, but also allowed the Medics and R&D teams back home to learn something from the corpses.

Thinking it through, I decided to hand the heads over. As of current, the Land of Noodles, and by extension, Yumegakure, were on good terms. Quite a few shinobi from both nations were on friendly terms, and there were a couple of instances where shinobi would transfer between villages to marry.

Sighing, I took out the scroll, handing it to him. "I did indeed see them, Chief Tenro. I regret to inform you that I had to deal with them, as they had turned to a life of banditry inside our borders."

Unfurling the scroll, he summoned the heads, flinching slightly when he saw the Tenro girl. I saw Ryuka bite her lip before returning to her serious expression.

Sighing, he placed them back in the scroll. Taking out a blank scroll of his own, he started writing. "Thank you, Miss Kanei. I am aware that you could have kept this hidden from me. As such, I wish to show my gratitude for allowing us to know their fates. This scroll will be the proof of not only your delivery mission but also for the elimination of the nukenin. Ryuka, go grab 50,000 ryo from my safe please."

Well now I am definitely happy that I was honest with the man. Any amount of money was helpful currently.

Watching Ryuka leave the room, Chief Tenro stopped writing, a grave look on his face. "Miss Kanei, I wish to hear your opinion on something. If I ask anyone from the village... well, an unbiased opinion, a view from the outside, is currently what I need. May I have your opinion?"

Seeing his grave expression, I pursed my lips before nodding.

"Well, that scroll you delivered..."

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Alright, sorry for not updating in a few days. Prime Week really had it out for me...

Anyways, we should be in the clear tomorrow! At least if my managers actually learn how to manage a facility correctly...

Well, that aside, I want to know what you all think about this. Yumegakure and these characters are all in a game, specifically 'Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive'. I want to know if all this is understandable and 'realistic' to the Naruto world. I never played the game (to be honest, I saw Yumegakure on a map, looked it up, and liked the way the characters looked) so there isn't much about this location and the characters. I'm taking liberties with this (Ryuka is now much older than she should be, like 5 or 6 years older...), and want to know if I should do more stuff like this, going into areas really unexplored from the main story, or just stick with what we know (Konoha, main characters, and so on). I have many ideas floating around, but also saw a map that had like dozens of countries west of the Lands of Earth and Wind (Dont think they are canon though, but it sparked many ideas).

So, let me know. Again, I have ideas for both staying close to what is guaranteed canon and is from the main story, but also have some ideas for doing missions and the like in these new areas. I feel like they would enable much more creative freedom, where I could go about creating my own everything, but that also is a lot of work.

Other than that, I would just like to remind people that if you want to comment things that might be censored by web novel, please place a '.' or a space between letters to allow the comment to be seen and published. I have multiple comments that simply dont exist now because of either a curse word or something web novel considers bad, like 'Fut.a', 'a.dult', and 'h.orny'. I wanted to reply to some of these but I can't because the comment gets deleted, so this is a reminder to everyone.

Anyways, I hope you continue to enjoy!

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