___________ POV Narration ___________
Ken decided to take his time as he walked through the village unsupervised for the first time.
He was still headed for the gate, he just decided to make the others wait a bit for him, as the Raikage did start the mission suddenly.
The Blind Swordsman took a few moments to admire the brickwork in that village, it was built on a mountain range, reaching all the way up to the clouds.
It was actually a rather impressive structure overall, one that Ken hadn't gotten to admire much when arriving, as he had been too bothered with his thoughts.
Now he could enjoy it all, the wind, the clouds, the strangely cheery atmosphere which reminded him that the Hidden Villages were filled with a lot more people than just Shinobi...
It was rather strange for him to see children playing around in the streets. Especially since he knew that most children would end up as child soldiers in the future, forced to fight in a war they had no understanding of...
Alas, Ken wasn't the arbiter of justice in the world, he couldn't stop wars from happening, and he was far from having the influence to stop Child Solders from being a thing...
Maybe one day he would have the influence to do so, but many had tried and failed in the past, including the 'God of Shinobi' Hasirama, who Ken had only heard about in a few books.
Alas, even the village that said God of Shinobi founded was using Child Soldiers from what Ken remembered, so completely abolishing the practice would likely be almost impossible so long as the wars continued.
'I'll see what I can do about it, but there's no reason to stress over it. Can't control all warmongering lords. As long as there's money to be made from it, war will never truly end.
At least I'll build my own little slice of heaven...'
The Blind 'child' continued walking around for a bit, enjoying the scenery as best he could while steadily getting closer to the gate, where he assumed the Raikage and the others were already expecting him.
The cluster of the city helped dampen his senses, thankfully he could still feel the signatures of everyone around him.
Surprisingly, he also ran into a more familiar face... A woman whose aura Ken could still recognize.
"... Ken?" Even her voice was familiar, coated in the same confusion and wariness that had appeared the first time they had met.
It wasn't exactly something he could forget at the end of the day. The moment he hunted his first bounty, he had technically used the woman as bait.
"Mabui! Fancy meeting you here..." The Blind Assassin nodded towards the Fledgling Jonin as he enjoyed her confusion for a few moments.
Ken didn't know what to think about the woman, the only thing he knew about her was that she was a bit sloppy when it came to actual Shinobi work.
'She's likely more suited for a logistic position... Though I'm guessing all Jonin need to lead a team of Genin at some point...'
"What are you doing here?..." She asked as she turned and looked around them, likely searching for any Anbu that were trailing Ken.
But there were none in sight, meaning he wasn't being escorted personally. Which could've meant one of two things...
1. In the short two weeks she had been missing, Ken had already forged amicable relationships with the Cloud and/or joined them.
2. He had infiltrated the village and had somehow gone undetected till now
At least those were the two options that came to her mind.
"I guess you were away on a mission till now... I've been contracted for a special 'assignment' by the Raikage." Ken smiled underneath his mask as he turned his head to the woman and focused on her a bit more.
She seemed to be wearing jonin garb, donning a long-sleeved shirt this time around, not showcasing any cleavage... Not that Ken would've had any eyes to admire it anyway.
"A contract? With an outsider?" Ken could feel Mabui's eyes widening as she exclaimed out loud, attracting the attention of plenty of people around them.
People were already instinctively keeping a certain distance from Ken since plenty of civilians knew of him already.
His reputation was still not exactly good, as the Grass Village had done a great job of making him look like a madman.
Needless to say, catching their attention in that way certainly didn't help ease any of their nerves...
"Yep, nothing too major, though I am getting paid a pretty penny for it." Ken nodded twice as he walked a bit closer to the woman and tapped her on the shoulder.
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She was either startled, or too scared to react, but Ken had to cut their conversation short, unfortunately, as he assumed that the Raikage and the others growing impatient.
"You'll have to talk to the Raikage directly for more details, but you'll have to do it later. We'll be heading off now, good luck with your students!"
Ken then waved at her a bit and disappeared, leaving only an afterimage behind as he rushed forward to the entrance of the village.
Mabui only got to have a glimpse at his disappearing back. She had many questions on her mind, she was also quite confused and wanted to know more about his side of the 'Grass Village Situation'.
But the first thought that surfaced in her mind after she blinked a few times was completely unrelated to any of her curiosities...
'... Did he get taller?...'
__________ POV Ken __________
It's always nice running into someone you know in a crowd of strangers, even if said someone is nothing more than a brief acquaintance that you once used as bait to fish out a bloodthirsty criminal...
Now that I think about it, that criminal might've been just thirsty in general, but that's not really important anymore, there's plenty of water in the afterlife.
"Ken! What took you so long?!" The Raikage is already in my face from the moment I appeared in front of them.
"I just felt like strolling through the village for a bit, nothing major... Too bad I didn't get to try out any of your traditional foods..."
Maybe some other Kage would've been a bit warier of me strolling around their village, but the Raikage seems quite unbothered...
He's either really confident that I am an ally and has no plans of antagonizing me, or he's so sure of his strength that he's not bothered by me...
"Well... Try to do that some other time. It ain't my fault that you decided to spend all of your free time till now sitting on your ass and meditating." He still seems a bit critical of how I spend my free time...
To the Raikage's words, I just nodded, can't really refute them after all...
What can I say? I really enjoy peace and quiet... Maybe because of my enhanced hearing? It does make it annoying to be near some people...
People like Killer B and even A, who both seemed to be quite loud during our first meetings, but now seem to be rather quiet...
I guess that little spar left a strong impression on them, though I don't get why B is also affected by it...
Still, I feel dissatisfied at not getting to test out that final slash...
It's not even a named attack, but I'm quite sure it's my strongest... Though some attacks in my Scaled Sage Mode might be able to match it.
No reason to cry over it though... I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to test it out in this little mission...
___________ POV Narration ___________
The 4 shinobi dashed through the barren wastes that comprised the Land of Lighting.
It wasn't exactly a land filled with lush forests, the forests were actually few and far between, so it was mostly open terrain and caves.
Ken was fine with it... Though it did feel a lot quieter than he was used to. He had gotten so used to nature all around him that he hadn't even realized just how much noise it actually made.
It was only then that Ken realised he mostly enjoyed the ambience of nature more so than actual quiet...
But he wasn't the only one caught up in his own thoughts. Everyone else was also the exact same.
The Raikage was pondering on their mission, as well as trying to imagine what other curses they might end up encountering while facing the Cult of Jashin.
Meanwhile, both A and B sometimes glanced at Ken, who was easily keeping up with them.
Neither of them was truly focused on the mission, as they both seemed to focus more on Ken...
A for one was still a bit annoyed at having been grounded in his room as a 30-year-old, but he didn't voice out that frustration, nor did he plan to ever try and take it out on Ken.
Instead, he looked at Ken with a more respectful gaze now, hoping to be able to use the Blind Swordsman as motivation and strive to become stronger.
Meanwhile, B was having an entirely different internal debate.
'I still don't get it... Why exactly are you this wary around this bounty hunter?' Killer B's thoughts lacked the usual rhyme that his voice would've had.
The voice that responded was a lot different, sounding more monstrous, and inhuman.
'I'm telling you... Never try to antagonize this thing... This bounty hunter of yours is not even human, he feels more like a Tailed Beast... But it's not chakra that he's made out of...'
The voice that responded was the 8 Tails that was still sealed within Killer B. Also named Gyūki.
The large monster was a mix of octopus and bull. It was one of the 9-Tailed Beasts, arguably the second strongest right behind the 9-Tailed Fox.
Like all tailed beasts, Gyūki was a being made out of Chakra, normally impossible to kill, but also too powerful to be left to its own devices.
That was the main reason why the villages sealed the Tailed Beasts... That and personal power.
After all, the Jinchūriki, the tailed beast carriers, were all valuable assets to villages.
As a Jinchūriki, Killer B still had a bit to go before completely mastering the use of the tailed beast's chakra, but Gyūki did speak to him quite often, and the two of them were somehow managing to get along.
The second that the Tailed Beast had sensed Ken though?... That was when things went awry.
It was just something off about his presence, the Tailed Beast couldn't quite put its large finger on it at first, but the more Ken stayed at the Raikage's mansion the more the Tailed Beast was able to figure a few things out.
At first, Gyūki thought that Ken seemed to be a bit similar to the 'father' of Tailed Beasts, Hagoromo.
But after taking a better look, that clearly wasn't the case.
Ken didn't seem to have any special bloodline limit or any actual connection to the Sage of 6 Paths... At least no connection that the Tailed Beast was able to detect.
So, it ended up realising that instead of being similar to Hagoromo, Ken was a lot more similar to Gyūki himself...
The Tailed Beast was able to notice an overwhelming amount of nature energy inside Ken's body, on the surface, it didn't look any different from a regular human's body, but it couldn't be more different.
His state was something that the Gyūki would describe as 'A tailed beast, but it seems he is made out of Nature Energy more so than Chakra...'
That was about the extent of what Gyūki could tell from observing Ken, but it was already a lot more than Ken himself knew...
In the end, Gyūki did also care for Killer B, despite his sometimes odd mannerisms. And that care was what prompted the Tailed Beast to advise him against getting involved too deeply with Ken.
The silence stretched out for the entirety of the journey, which only took around two days, as the 4 moved at rather impressive speeds.
After a while, the Raikage did inform Ken that they were approaching the mountain. He could even feel it in the distance, a rocky and jagged mountain that felt more like a giant earth spike than anything.
So, they were getting closer and closer to their objective, eventually even reaching the base of the mountain, stealthily.
There was a problem, however...
'Where is Akira?'