The Return Of The Meddler

IN THE LAND OF GRASS

I ran forward and ducked under the bear's swing, jumping upwards and slamming my knee into its jaw, knocking it out instantly.

I brushed the dust from my clothes and turned around.

"See? Aren't I awesome? Much better than a Shinobi."

The small group of kids stared at me with awe.

"No way! Can you fight a Tailed Beast?" One of them asked.

A grin stretched across my face.

"Hell yeah, I can."

I found these kids in one of the outposts, guess they were 'material' for one of the many human experiments Otogakure did.

Thankfully, I arrived early enough that none of them suffered any more than some cuts and bruises from when they were first kidnapped.

I didn't ask how they got kidnapped, I had a pretty good idea, they used to be part of a small village, the village was now ashes.

I could see that most of them were barely holding it together after their ordeal, so I decided to distract them by showing off and boasting until they relaxed.

"Alright, everyone, gather up." I ordered cheerfully. "I'm sending you somewhere where you can become as strong as me!"

Most of the kids cheered, but some of them were less enthused.

"Will... Will mommy be there?" A kid with a dirty green jacket asked quietly.

The question killed the mood hard, damn, I was trying to avoid something like that.

But I guess this was needed.

"No, she is having her own adventures right now." I explained softly. "You'll see her again someday, but for now, I need you to stay strong."

The kids quieted down even more, fuck.

"Listen." My tone went a little more cheerful again. "Just hold on a bit longer, ok? Things will look up soon."

They nodded reluctantly.

"Then let's go on our own adventure!" I announced cheerfully. "Who wants to see a giant tower?"

The mood lifted slightly, and I grinned, that was better.

***

A FEW HOURS LATER

I watched as Noriko talked to the children, the orphanage was a far cry from the simple one they had when I arrived in Wave.

It was bigger now, every kid got their own room if they wanted, food was abundant, and they had teachers come around 4 days per week to teach them to read and count.

The Order was probably going to investigate this whole thing, a bit more than a dozen children showing up from the Land of Grass would raise some questions, but I trusted them to not bother the kids too much.

This whole thing has firmly shown me that my decision to destroy Otokagure was completely right.

But enough about my indecision, I used some of my Divine Power to teleport back to Grass Country, specifically the base I had found.

LATER

I ran forward and ducked under the Shinobi's swing, jumping upwards and slamming my knee into his jaw, knocking him out instantly.

A hail of arrows came raining down on me from behind, forcing me to slap my hands against the ground and raise an Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall to block them, taking cover behind it.

This was pretty easy, I expected Osamu to be strong, but at this point I had already killed like 13 Shinobi from the biggest base in Kusagakure.

They were weak to be honest, one Jōnin, a handful of Chūnin, and the rest being Genin or worse.

But I think that was all of them, the base was pretty small compared to the cardinal hideout or the main base.

And since I already killed the stronger ones, I shouldn't expect them to show me anything good, Otogakure Shinobi were a mixed bag, sometimes they pulled out some weird ability that impressed me, other times it was just 'Look at how much I can harden my skin!'.

I gathered Chakra in my lungs, my latest attempt at recreating Bloodlines with pure Chakra manipulation.

Snake. Tiger. Ram. Ox.

One lung was full of Wind Nature Chakra, the other Fire.

"Combination Release: Hellfire Breakthrough!" A stream of bright blue flames burst out of my mouth, wide and fast enough that the remaining fighters had no time to dodge, incinerating them instantly.

It also set fire to the base itself, but honestly, I was fine with it burning down.

I stopped my Jutsu and got up, stretching for a moment.

That was pretty good, it was basically Fire Release but better in every way, if I hadn't burned my lungs and throat far too many times when practicing it, I would have added it to the Order's Jutsu archive.

But as of right now, if someone didn't have some sort of regeneration or access to very good healing, then they would just choke on their own burned flesh after trying to use it.

Speaking of which, I examined my body, seeing how much damage it did this time, and I was pleasantly surprised that while the inside of my mouth felt uncomfortably hot and itchy, there wasn't any damage besides that.

Almost good enough to use constantly, that's pretty good.

A crystal formed around my feet, I raised an eyebrow as it expanded, engulfing my lower body.

"Crystal Release: Jade Crystal Prison."

So, she finally shows up, I knew she was in the Land Of Grass, but since I was going to destroy every base I found, I didn't bother wasting DP to find her exact location.

Guren walked out from one of the base's buildings, she looked... frustrated and depressed, dark bags around her eyes.

"You must be the one called Osamu." She said coldly, glaring at me. "You will pay for your interference."

"Orochimaru is dead." I told her plainly.

She paused, her face morphed through a variety of emotions, disbelief, denial, anger, before returning to cold fury.

"Liar."

I examined her closely, she was the strongest Otogakure Shinobi left alive, once she was dealt with, all that would remain are stragglers and remnants and maybe an odd scientist here and there, nothing even close to an actual organization.

But looking at her, I felt pity, what a sad person, tying their entire identity to a single man like Orochimaru? That was just depressing.

Hmmm, I guess, like always, I'd give her one chance.

"He was killed a bit more than a week ago, alongside about 1000 others and Kabuto." I clarified for her. "I'm sure you noticed the lack of communication from the main base by now, no?"

Her hand twitched, and I felt the crystal start spreading further.

"You could leave, or join another village, there's still a choice to be made here." I continued, staring into her eyes. "You can try to build something instead of trying to stand on the corpse of Orochimaru's dead ambitions."

She snarled at me.

"Enough." She clenched her fist and the crystal prison around me grew further upwards, completely engulfing me.

"Hmm..." I hummed as I felt the Chakra try and flow into my skin, what an interesting ability, if someone didn't know how to stop it, they would be dead in seconds.

Sadly for her, I knew that to counter it, you just had to form a layer of my own Chakra to prevent hers from crystallizing my body.

"Crystal Release: Giant Hexagonal Shuriken."

A giant hexagon made out of Crystal manifested on top of her hand, what an appropriate technique name, incredibly creative.

She threw it at the crystal prison she had trapped me in.

It smashed into it with incredible force, sending cracks through the crystal and breaking it apart.

But instead of me disintegrating like I should have from her Crystal Prison Jutsu, I stood there unharmed, only wearing a bored expression.

"You...!" She looked surprised for a moment before quickly forming more seals.

"Crystal Release: Shuriken Wild Dance!"

Crystal Shuriken began materializing around her in large quantities, spinning in orbit around her.

"Enough." I said quietly. She must have heard me because she paused for a second.

I raised my hand, gathering Chakra into my palm, fire mixing with it.

"Fire Release: Rasengan."

I was proud of this one, I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out how to combine Nature Transformation and Shape Transformation, but eventually found a solution that was good enough.

A bright orange ball of spiraling flames formed in my hand, and I threw it at her.

The Crystal Shuriken all moved to intercept it, but were melted instantly, the Rasengan still going strong as it impacted with a hastily raised earth wall.

It exploded violently, destroying the entire area around us, engulfing everything in flames.

Shame, but sometimes people don't take the offered hand.