Operation jump over the fence and find Michiru had officially begun when Kakashi set off an explosion of some kind at the front gate before strolling up the pathway like he owned the place.

While he was distracting everyone the Genin started carrying everyone over the back fence. I managed to climb over the fence on my own without much effort, my physical stats had definitely grown beyond your average human at this point, if only just.

We made it into the castle without being seen.

Everyone had moved towards the front of the building to either watch the chaos or try and fight Kakashi. Korega seemed to know where he was going because he brought us through a series of hallways, staircases, and doors without hesitation.

Kakeru was looking pretty worn down by all the running around, and Hikaru was just too short to keep up with the pace, so we had to slow down to a fast walk to stay as a group. The range of Energy Sense was now high enough that I could feel several floors above and below me.

We stopped at the entrance to a massive room and the soldiers held the door open to check everything. The sides of the chamber had balconies and staircases that stretched to the top of the castle, and the throne room, our destination. Naruto, Sakura, and Lee were all talking quietly to Hikaru, while I was crouched next to Kakeru and Korega.

Kakeru was finally starting to get his breath back, the poor guy.

“It’s clear,” The soldier the doorway announced. “Let’s go.”

He led us to the righthand side of the massive room and up the first flight of stairs. Just as we cleared it I felt Kongo’s energy signature come into range above us, as he slowly made his way down the stairs.

“Incoming!” I called out, “Ninja, three stories up, coming down the stairs, it’s the big dude.”

Everybody stopped right near the stairwell and turned to face me, before turning back to where I was pointing to the roof, tracking him with my finger. The three ninjas spoke quickly to each other before Lee stepped forward.

“I’ll handle it.” Lee said confidently, “Go on ahead, use the other stairs.”

Naruto clapped him on the shoulder before starting to lead us around the balcony to the other side.

“Lee,” I called as we left, “Kick his ass!”

Lee just grinned.

We just made it to the other side of the room by the staircase just as Kongo stepped down in front of Lee. Kongo glanced over at us for a moment before dismissing the lot of us and taking a threatening step towards Lee, but I lost sight of them when we crested the stairs.

Another energy signature popped up a couple of stories above us, clinging to a wall.

“Three stories up, the small one, crawling on a wall,” I called out immediately.

Korega cursed under his breath, and Sakura turned to glance at me intently.

“We can’t go back down, we will have to break through,” Korega said seriously.

We kept on moving until we were on the floor below her.

Naruto and Sakura rushed up the stairs ahead of us in a burst of speed to engage the ninja. We waited on the stairs for almost a minute, and I could feel at least twenty massive chakra signatures appear out of nowhere to engage her.

Naruto’s Shadow Clones I guessed, Sakura stuck her arm over the banister and waved us up. We moved quickly and there was a brief moment when I could see the clones fighting someone on the wall down the hallway before we cut straight past them and up the next flight of stairs.

I realized a moment later that there was still a Naruto and a Sakura with us.

Hadn’t Sakura stayed behind to fight her last time? I could feel the clones getting popped one after another, they wouldn’t last more than a minute at best.

“Those other Naruto’s are getting wrecked,” I called out, “There are only twelve left-eleven now.”

Naruto glanced back before looking forward again.

Oh he got feedback when they popped or something, he already knew, Karen-whatever was going to end up pincering us if we didn’t take her down now, or she might even go down and help Kongo fight Lee.

I could also feel about thirty people up on the top floor, but Ishidate wasn’t amongst them, he must have gone down to fight Kakashi.

“There are about thirty people, probably soldiers, on the top floor and two guys in the middle of the room.” I rattled off loud enough for everyone to hear, “Michiru is out on the balcony? I think?”

Kakeru mumbled his son's name under his breath. Naruto and Sakura had a quick exchange with one another, possibly deciding on a plan.

“His energy feels strong, I’m pretty sure he’s unhurt.” I offered.

Kakeru was panting heavily again, but he managed to toss me a look that I interpreted as gratitude, and then we were suddenly outside. The hallway abruptly became a balcony with a waist-high railing on it, and I could see Michiru from here. He was above us the next balcony up, standing on the end of a long wooden plank with a rope around his neck, it was attached to some kind of pulley system above him.

What the hell was this pirate nonsense?

“Father!” Hikaru called desperately as we came up near the plank.

“Michiru!” Kakeru panted harshly.

Soldiers started pouring out of the glass doors, surrounding us in a half-circle. I could see Shabadaba leaning bodily over the railing and looking down at us gleefully from the next floor up. I heard an explosion down below and glanced over my shoulder.

Ishidate was standing on top of a bunch of flying boulders, which were rapidly turning into projectiles that rained down onto the ground, kicking up clouds of dust to cover the area below. Kakashi dashed out of the side of the cloud, his vest tattered but looking otherwise unharmed, his headband was up now and I thought I could almost see a hint of red from all the way up here.

I felt a bunch of signatures burst into existence around us as Naruto made more clones and sent them towards the guards while Sakura was flitting around the clones taking stabs at the solder's legs and feet. Korega was standing defensively in front of Kakeru and Hikaru with his saber out, face stoic. The other soldiers on our side were all fighting furiously but were being overwhelmed slowly by the superior numbers. Karen-lady was almost at our position now, limping slowly towards the end of the hallway she would be able to see us in a moment. I stared at the chaos for a moment before pointing my finger up at Shabadaba.

Fuck it.

“Line Spear,” I said quietly.

Shabadaba’s body hit the stone floor of the balcony with a crunch and soldiers leaped away from it in alarm before the fighting slowly stopped.

Your level has increased by 1.

I distantly heard a shrieking noise in the distance, almost like the sounds of birds.

“Stand down,” Kakeru said quietly to the soldiers. “This has gone on for long enough.”

The soldiers, despite still having us outnumbered three-to-one, slowly dropped their weapons and knelt. I could still feel Karenbana standing at the entrance of the hallway we had exited, just watching us but I couldn’t see her, she was somehow invisible? Korega and the rest of the loyal soldiers started tying up the traitors, who did nothing to prevent it. Naruto and Sakura stayed close to the king.

I kept on staring straight at where Karenbana was standing.

“Hey Kakeru,” I said clearly, “Now that Shabadaba is gone, those ninjas won’t get paid anymore will they?”

Kakeru glanced my way, but I didn’t meet his gaze, I didn’t want to look at the man who’s once-friend I had just murdered in front of him.

“I suppose not,” Kakeru said evenly.

Karenbana stared at us for a moment longer before turning to limp away, I still couldn’t see her, but she didn’t try to kill us again, so I made no mention of her presence to the others. Kakashi joined us a few minutes later, carrying a dead Ishidate who had a fist-sized hole in his chest, and barely a moment later Lee appeared from the other side of the balcony carrying Kongo who was also very dead, judging by how his neck stuck out at a bizarre angle.

Shit, looks like I wasn’t getting a bodyguard after all. I kind of just hung back while the soldiers and the Konoha ninja handled everything from there on out. Michiru was promptly rescued and welcomed back to the group with cheers.

I was feeling pretty out of it.

I was searching for something inside myself that would indicate that I had felt bad for killing the guy, but whatever I expected to be there, I couldn’t find it. I felt bad for Kakeru because it had been his friend but for the act of actually killing Shabadaba?

I felt nothing.

Shabadaba was a bad guy I knew and I still wondered what had happened to those families that were dragged out of the houses by the soldiers, likely on his orders. He had gotten a lot of people killed for his greed, most of which were the loyal soldiers that had died defending the King, but even the two ninjas that had been killed during all the fighting wouldn’t have been here if he hadn’t been a greedy piece of shit. Despite all that, I had still killed a man, so why didn’t I feel bad about it?

For the first time since I woke up on the beach, I was beginning to think something might actually be wrong with me after all.

Kakashi and Korega had spent the last three days vetting each of the soldiers that had betrayed the king. I don’t know what criteria they were using to figure out if they could stay on, but it seemed to be slow going.

There had actually ended up being another pocket of remaining loyalists stationed at the other side of the island, that had been conducting hit and run attacks on the castle since the coup, that’s where all of the soldiers in the city had left to. At least that’s what Kakashi had managed to discover from some of the men. The loyalists had been brought back to the castle and vetted as well, just in case, but they now made up the bulk of the force that was guarding the returned King.

Naruto, Sakura, and Lee had been patrolling the castle as well, and taking turns standing guard for the King, his son, and grandson.

I had kind of been left to myself, and I tried to stay away from Kakeru for a few days in case he held some kind of resentment for what I had done, I may have in his place after all he had known the man for forty years.

The soldiers had provided me a room near the bottom of the castle, and I had even managed to get some of them to teach me some basic combat skills. I got Martial Arts from one of the older guys when he taught me some throws that were pretty interesting and Unarmed Mastery from another younger guy with a lot less technique.

Sparring did provide some EXP towards leveling, but it wasn’t very much, or it might have just been because I was so crap at the moment that I couldn’t actually gain much from it. I assumed the experience would increase based on my own performance during the spar, and to some extent the level of the opponent. These guys were only in the high thirties range, still in training, or just inexperienced I wasn’t sure.

They still routinely kicked my ass, either way, I was almost as strong as the weaker ones physically, but I couldn’t fight for shit yet, it led to a lot of laughing and jokes, but I was a big boy, I could take it.

I was getting cabin fever though, I hadn’t been outside of the castle walls since we broke in here, and I didn’t want to ruin the walls or floor with training, so I was stuck training physicals and non-combat mana stuff.

I was intending on leaving soon anyway, I’d had plenty of time to think. I had until the Suna-Leaf chunin exams before I had to fight Akatsuki and I knew exactly what I was going to hunt down in the meantime. I was going to find me a legendary weapon, and I doubted it was the one you might expect.

Occasionally I would feel one of the ninjas enter my range and observe me for a little while before they vanished back to whatever they were doing. The next time it happened I waited for them to leave and then got up.

I headed straight out of my room and headed for the front doors.

Surprisingly, nobody stopped me, as I made my way out and down to the gate, the soldiers guarding the gate gave me a once over but made no move to apprehend me. I headed off down the winding road to the city.

The birds chirped, the trees danced in the wind and the sun shone brightly, so this was the power of freedom. My happiness was infringed upon when Kakashi appeared right outside what had been the edge of my range three days ago.

How he had figured that out I have no idea, but it was too perfect for it not to be on purpose, and he clearly didn’t know that I’d gotten better in the meantime. I made it to the city without him ever revealing himself, no doubt watching to see if I tried to do anything suspicious.

I have no idea why, it’s not like I was trying to sneak out of the castle, I walked out of the front doors after all. The city was pretty lively now, but not quite as lively as it had been before the coup. People glanced around wearily as if the soldiers might suddenly reappear for a second attempt.

I made my way through the town until I found who I was looking for.

“Sora-kun!” Yuna said happily.

I smiled.

Kakashi was a total pervert.

The guy didn’t stop following me until I was on my way back to the castle, and I finally cracked.

“Kakashi,” I said annoyed, “Will you stop fucking following me?”

Kakashi didn’t even respond to the question, staying hidden in the same spot behind me. I had to turn around and point directly at him before he finally responded.

“Huh.” Kakashi said calmly, “I thought I had your range figured out.”

Kakashi hopped down from the tree and threaded his way towards me, a small red book in one hand, I should have known.

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Kakashi said curiously.

I sighed.

“I didn’t really care at first,” I said dryly, “but you were starting to piss me off, why were you following me anyway, do you still think I’m going to gank you?”

Kakashi hummed at the strange word.

“I was just curious to see if you were leaving,” Kakashi said easily.

I like how he completely avoided the other part of my question.

“I am going to leave soon, a day or two at most,” I admitted, before cheekily adding, “Besides, you saw how happy Yuna was, I couldn’t just leave without saying goodbye.”

“Happy enough to give you a discount at least,” Kakashi said dryly.

“Hey,” I said offended, “I earned that discount fair and square.”

Kakashi gave me an amused look.

We walked back to the castle taking verbal jabs at each other and when we finally arrived I decided to bite the bullet. I couldn’t keep avoiding the guy, I had shit to do, and a future to prepare for. I asked Kakashi to take me up to see Kakeru and he agreed easily enough, although he clearly intended on being there during the discussion.

I could feel several signatures inside the throne room, one of which was Lee, another was Korega. I guess it was his turn to guard the King, there was no sign of Michiru or Hikaru. Naruto and Sakura were likewise missing, they were probably guarding the others.

I stepped into the throne room.

“Hey, Kakeru!” I said cheerfully, “I’ve come to make sure you weren’t becoming a statue again before I go off on an adventure.”

Kakeru paused his conversation with Korega.

“Sora-kun,” Kakeru said kindly, “It has been several days since I saw you last, I had wondered where you had gotten to.”

The last time I had seen him was the night I had killed his oldest friend, but he didn’t sound mad at least, I guess he didn’t blame me too much. Lee was watching us with wide eyes, and I gave him a wave. He smiled brightly before returning it but didn’t move from his post by the wall, he was still on the job.

“I’ve been avoiding you,” I said honestly, “but life has brought us together one last time, let us make the most of it buddy.”

Korega blew a sharp breath out of his nose at the comment, but Kakeru just laughed.

We talked for a while, and he told me how they were recovering from the coup. Michiru and Hikaru were apparently in the city with Naruto and Sakura. Apparently the last of the wandering ninja had been seen hanging around the docks still injured and looking for a ride back to the continent but she had made no aggressive moves and so the guards had left her well alone, even an injured ninja could kill them all with ease.

“You said you were going on an adventure,” Kakeru said curiously, sometime later. “Where do you intend to go?”

I knew where I wanted to go, kind of, but I didn’t know if it existed here or not. It was a mountain in one of the video game spinoffs of the main series that I couldn’t remember the name of, but it supposedly had a very noticeable effect on chakra.

“Maybe you can help me with that, Kakeru!” I said hopefully, “I can’t remember the name of the place, but I’m looking for a mountain that stops all Chakra from working near it, ring any bells?”

I noted that Kakashi tilted his head in thought.

“A mountain that stops Chakra?” Kakeru murmured, “Was there anything else noteworthy about it?”

Well, that wasn’t good, was it not well known or did it just not exist. What else had the game been about? Dragons? Dragons.

“Dragons!” I said cheerfully, “Water, Fire, Earth, Lightning, Wind.”

I ticked them all off on my fingers, one after another.

“Ah,” Kakeru said immediately, “Mount Koryū, in the Land of Mountains.”

I knew that was the name as soon as I heard it.

“Your amazing, Kakeru.” I said honestly, “I’m pretty sure that’s it, it sounds familiar at least, where is the Land of Mountains in relation to here exactly?”

I grinned sheepishly at him, and he looked amused.

He ended up sending someone for a map and Kakeru pointed it out, he also pointed out where we were, right in the middle of the fucking ocean. I was so far away from the Land of Mountains I was almost better off trying to travel to the moon instead.

“Kakeru,” I said resignedly, “How long do you think it would take me to get there?”

Kakeru looked even more amused the bastard, I couldn’t believe this betrayal.

“Six months? More depending on the route, ten is more likely.” Kakeru guessed, “I don’t know exactly how fast you intend to travel.”

Six-to-ten months to get there, or more, I glanced over at Kakashi.

“How long would it take you to get there at ninja travel speed?” I asked curiously.

Kakashi glanced over at the map again and did some rough calculations in his head.

“Straight through no breaks? A month from here, that’s including the ship back to the mainland.” Kakashi said thoughtfully, “Casual travel speed would take two-four months?”

Interesting. I could cut the time down as long as I continued to get faster along the way. I had two years before I needed to be near Taki. Where exactly was that? I studied the map but couldn’t find it.

“Where is the, uh, waterfall place?” I stumbled, was it actually called the Land of the Waterfalls? I couldn’t say Takigakure because I shouldn’t know what it was called.

“The Land of Waterfalls is here,” Kakeru said curiously, “Takigakure is somewhere around here, I could be wrong it is well hidden, supposedly.”

Kakeru, I fucking love you.

I studied the map, the Land of the Waterfalls was not quite between the Land of Stone and the Land of Fire, but it was close. I bet they were happy about that if they were just a little bit further down they would have had a hell of a time during that stone-leaf war, the Land of Rain wasn’t so lucky, however.

Six-to-ten months to Mount Koryū, and then it was only about a third of that same distance between the mountain and Taki. So a year and a half if I wanted to be safe, I think that was just before the Suna-Leaf exams? It fit together almost perfectly, provided I didn’t die somewhere along the way.

Looks like I was going after the Dragonblade after all.

Quest Unlocked

Acquire the Dragonblade.

Reward

???

Failure

None.

There was no capture, enslavement, or death for this one, I’ll take what I can get.

I nodded decisively and stood back up.

“Well looks like I’m going to Mount Koryū.” I said cheerfully, “When’s the next boat back to the mainland?”

Kakeru smiled at my cheer.

“Tomorrow, I believe,” Kakeru said thoughtfully, before glancing at Korega for confirmation.

Korega nodded in agreement and I smiled at the man.

“Well its been fun Kakeru, but this is where we part ways,” I said dramatically, “Try to get out more often will you? Staying up in this stuffy castle all the time can’t be good for your health.”

Kakeru just laughed.

Quest Completed.

Save the King.

Reward

$10,000.

Reputation with Land of the Moon – Exalted.

Reputation with Kakeru Tsuki – Exalted.

Reputation with Michiru Tsuki – Exalted.

Reputation with Hikaru Tsuki – Exalted.

Reputation with Rock Lee – Exalted.

Reputation with Kakashi – Good.

Reputation with Sakura – Good.

Reputation with Naruto – Friendly.