Standing atop the Hokage monument, I smiled and briefly talked with a few of the partygoers. The streets of the village down below were relatively tame. The 50th anniversary was originally going to be a bigger celebration, but the scars from the Nine-Tails attack were still felt even though they were no longer visible. The Third worked with the merchant union to get Main Street to have a few more stalls and even hired a famous circus from the Crescent Moon kingdom to perform just outside the village walls, but the streets were not any busier than usual. It’s hard to order people to be happy and to have a good time.
“Amon, So glad to see you. What is it you got there.”
“Ahh, Lord Third.” Hiruzen walks towards me, but I don’t see any guards with him. If I had to guess, he sent most of them away to “Guard” some booths and food stands while the rest guarded him from a distance. “This is a freeze plate. I’m making ice cream rolls for everybody. Would you like some?”
“Is it any good?” Hiruzen says, looking at my table and stroking his beard. My Ice cream station had some assorted ingredients I had prepared for the party in small clay urns.
“It’s pretty popular,” I said, lowering my voice not to hide my words but to be respectful to those at the celebration. “Many Shinobi like being able to see their food being prepared in front of them.”
He nods his head in understanding, “I see, then yes, whip me up what ever it is that you think I would like.”
“Putting a lot of faith in me. If I had to guess, even though you smoke a lot, I would say you have a more sophisticated palette. I think a nice Matcha flavor ice cream roll is right up your alley.”
I grab a pitcher of water and pour some on top of the plate while pitching out portions of powders from the urns. Milk and heavy cream powder are first, followed by sugar, and then the Matcha. I mix the water with the powders, not using my hands but with chakra control, manipulating the water and making it ebb and flow. The ice cream begins to take shape as I press the mixture into the cold surface of the plate while incorporating air from the surroundings.
“Impressive utilization of chakra control, Amon. And now that I’m looking at it, this was the Luxury field meals you pitched to the elders during the war, am I right.”
“The same, and in my defense, the product did work as intended.”
Hiruzen Let out a reserved laugh. “The number one rebellious ninja is always creating unique problems. Remind me, what was it that got the elders so riled up?”
A huff escaped my lips as I worked. “The ice cream in a bag, along with a bunch of the dehydrated ready meals I sold to shinobi, were meant to go to supply stations. I worked with the medical, supplies, and intelligence units. The meals were meant for them. But it was popular with everybody. The food pills can stop you from feeling hungry temporarily, but that doesn’t mean good food isn’t missed. So there was reselling here and there and ninjas are ninjas, What they can’t buy, they obtain under different means.”
“Yes, I remember now. But there was one big Incident that occurred during those meals, right? ”
“After a few issues, the bag meals were banned outright. No more hot and ready quick meals while in the field, no more ice cream in a bag. They were all confiscated. Now, the next part was not my fault. I was already heading to the medical base at the time.
Because the intelligence units had access to so many prisoners and good, easy meals, they themselves weren’t allowed to eat. They started trading the meals to the prisoners for more advanced, less easy-to-get information. Many shinobi did not like the idea of enemy shinobi prisoners eating better than themselves.”
I finished the ice cream roll for Hiruzen. I placed one large five-by-three green roll in a paper bowl. “Thank you, it looks delicious. When are you heading up for the show?”
“Well, originally, I thought about being a nice crescendo for the evening. But do you think I should start early? Try to entice more villagers to be more festive.”
“I think that would be for the best. I was hoping the circus I paid for in advance would have done the job, but it would be nice if you could give another nudge in the right direction.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I’ll hop right to it, Lord Hokage.” With that, I manipulated the clay in the urns and resealed them so that they were airtight. Then, once that was done, I took out my flying carpet and departed to the sky above the village.
“Oh, Amon left. I was hoping to talk with him.” A voice spoke up behind Hiruzen, Turning around he saw a man he vaguely recognized.
“Morino right, you are the new addition to the intelligence force.” Morino was a tall young man in a basic chunin garb, on his right cheek was a long scar adding a dangers air to an already serious looking face.
“Yes, Lord Third, it is an honor to be recognized by someone as great as you.”
“Of course, I like to keep an eye on promising talents. What was it that you wished to speak with Amon about.”
“Well, it’s a little embarrassing, but the other shinobi in the intelligence force always sing Amon’s praise. I was hoping to learn how he managed such a feat.”
“Hoping to fit in with your new colleagues, maybe steal a trick or two?”
Morino scratched the back of his head shyly. “To be honest, yes, I’m new to my division, and even though people say I have a talent for it, I would love the chance to pick the brain of others like him.”
“Amon will be back in roughly ten to fifteen minutes. In the meantime, I might be able to answer some of your questions.”
“Oh, I won’t dream of wasting your time, Lord Third.”
“No waste at all. They don’t call me the ninja professor for nothing. Your question was why he was so popular with the intelligence force, correct?”
“Um, Yes, Please.”
“Well, before the war, Amon already had some fame and a little infamy.”
“Yes, I heard of some of the rumors.”
“Best not to dwell too much on those. No, Amon got popular once he got back from the capital.”
“He came back right before the war?”
“Yes, I went to the capital myself to retrieve him.”
“You did?”
Hiruzen barked out a laugh. “The daimyo was not inclined to let him go. Amon made a mistake in his youth. To make up for it, he was employed by the daimyo and was a part of his guardian twelve for years. I can’t recall how long specifically, but it was long.”
“You pulled Amon from the daimyo’s protection detail. I can’t imagine he was eager about that.”
“No, he was not, but the war was on the horizon, and even the daimyo realized Amon's talents were used elsewhere. So he came home and got straight to work. Amon has the nickname of the Paper Lantern, you where in the war, you should no why.”
“Yes, Amon used paper lanterns for long-range communication with ninjas who were out in the field.”
“Oh they where used for munch more than that, you where only a genin back then. It was the enemy villages that gave Amon that nickname because they didn’t know what he was doing before. Amon had a name that was making the rounds at the start of the story: Amon, the abductor. Before the war started, many rival villages sent the less advanced shinobi out to scout ahead. A decision they learned to regret. With Amons flying carpet, bandages, and stasis tags, often many genin would go out on a scouting mission, blink, and from their perspective, woke up on a steal chair with one of your colleagues standing in front of them. I can’t recall the exact numbers, but I know before the end of the war, Amon was responsible for the most enemy combatants captured, and second and third places combined did not match him.”
“Wow, no wonder he is so like, but… low-ranking ninja.”
“Yes, because of Amon's actions, we were not only able to get a lot of information about the enemy villages but denied them information as well. But that was not the best part, Amon didn’t want to fight such young shinobi on the battlefield, that is why he removed so many form the war at the start. Later in the war, we started using the captured shinobi as bargaining chips for our own captured people. It incentivized other villages to capture our people rather than killing them so that they could trade with us later.”
Before Morino could ask any more questions, he spotted lights starting to appear in the night sky. It started with one, then two, four, and soon dozens, and eventually hundreds of lights bobbing and weaving high above. Morino recognized them, but this was the first time he saw them so close. They always danced over the far and distant battlefield. Seeing them now causes a mixture of emotions, on one hand they where beautiful and inspired a sense of wonder upon anyone who gazes on them, but on the other hand, it reminded him of the war.
Suddenly, the lights began to move like they were being pulled by a string in one direction and began to form a train. Slowly, the lights separated and formed a constellation of the Senju clan's symbol. Morino could hear people clapping at the performance.
The clapping slowed down when the constellation changed to the Uchiha’s fan. Some lanterns circled the fan just like with the Senju’s symbol. After that was Uzumaki Whirlpool, and then it went down the major founding clans. More and more people went outside to check out the display of lights.
The lights took the form of the major clans of the village and then the Leaf symbol for the village. With that, Amon dispersed the lanterns across the sky and slowly began to reel them back into the Hokage monument. Morino saw Amon touch down a little ways away from the rest of the partygoers and made his way to him. Before he could open his mouth to great Amon, a hand grasped his shoulder.
“Apologizes, but I wish to discus some matters with Mr.Amon, you don’t mind do you.”
Morino turned to face who had grabbed his shoulder and froze in place. “Um, no, of course. Go right ahead. I’ll take my leave.” With that, Morino decided to go elsewhere; he could always book an appointment with Amon later.
I landed my flying carpet and used the chakra strings to pull the lanterns back in. Hopefully, I can use these lanterns next year. The show was fine for a first live performance, but next year, I will definitely put up a more impressive show.
“Amon, well done. What a lovely spectacle. It is always nice seeing such unique usages for chakra.”
I turned around and saw who was speaking. “Orochimaru, Long time, no see. If you liked that, then I have to ask. How do you feel about ice cream?”