Things moved quickly after that.
Naruto did not take the presence of thoroughly mutilated bodies too well, so Tobio did something rather unkind to poor Karin. He made Naruto aware that he had a cousin, standing right over there, and signed to Hibachi to do away with the corpses. A few moments later, they were out of sight and out of mind, buried under a simple manipulation of Earth Release. It was at that point Tobio glanced back over to Naruto, bouncing up and down as he badgered Karin with questions. The most important of which was her current status, as the group got up and off the ground.
"Are you joining Konoha?" Naruto excitedly asked, Sasuke slung on his back, as the group sped away from the scene of the crime. If nothing else, the boy's capability to change emotional states on a dime was something to envy. "That's great!"
"That's the plan, yeah," Karin nervously nodded. "So you didn't even know the Uzumaki were a clan…?"
"W-Well, no," he admitted, blinking nervously. "But it makes sense! Why I'm so cool and everything."
"Right," she agreed, keeping whatever hidden thoughts she might have had about the boy's awesomeness to herself. The conversation continued back and forth like that for a while, as the rest of the combined group mostly focused on keeping moving to put some proper distance between themselves and the slaughtered Oto-nin. The Mixed Blood Genin didn't think Orochimaru would even check on their status, but he didn't want to be around if the powerful sannin felt inclined to do so. It was after a good bit of travel, though, that he signaled to the group for them to come to a stop.
"Let's stop for camp here," Tobio interrupted, if only to save Karin from having her ear talked off by Naruto. The boy could grow on you, like a fungus, but his excitement felt like a distraction for himself to keep his mind off the bodies Tobio had cut down back there.
As usual, they were making camp in the driest, most secure spot he could find. Sasuke was laid down, a fire was set out as the sun began to set, and for a brief period of time it felt like things were going a-okay. If anything, better than okay, considering the trouble he should have invited into his life with interfering that much with the timeline.
"Do you have enough food for everyone?" Ami asked, mildly concerned. "It was one thing when it was just Karin, but these extra people…"
Tobio rolled his eyes at her concern. "I always pack extra food. Even over explosive seals."
"Really?" Sakura asked, eyes wide.
"No, no, that's a good thing," Hibachi confirmed, a deeply gluttonous glint in his eyes. "When you taste even his premade rations, you'll understand."
"There's no way it's that good," Naruto doubted, rolling his eyes. "Or at least better than ramen."
"…You'll understand when you get your first bite."
This was quickly confirmed by the happy moans, grunts, and devoured onigiri that was destroyed by the two new genin to their team. Enough so that Sakura was basically out like a light the moment her head hit a bedroll, exhausted from the labors of staying up to protect her teammates. Not that he could blame her, with everyone on his team keeping a pretty grueling pace to search for the forest these last few days. With Tobio taking first watch, Ami, Hibachi, and Karin were trying to follow after her, and catch some sleep themselves.
The only ones left awake were Karin, himself, and Naruto. With the title-character himself fidgeting a bit before approaching Tobio. Settling down quietly next to him, the boy waited for a bit, trying to find his words.
"…Why did you kill those guys?"
Welp. This was a conversation Tobio suspected was coming, but had been trying to avoid. He turned to face Naruto, lips pursed together as he thought over his words. All the while, the blonde, blue-eyed boy stared ahead of Tobio carefully. Being under Naruto's regard like this could be a good or bad thing, though Tobio would have to be truly monstrous to be beyond saving from the boy's perspective. That said, it didn't mean he was going to be careless with his words.
"…Because it was the easiest way to save your lives."
"Because it was easy?" There's an edge in Naruto's voice when he said those words, but Tobio didn't let it scare him. Not before he'd had a chance to explain himself.
"There were so many permutations to that situation that I couldn't assure your life, Sakura's life, or Sasuke's life, if I chose to hold back," Tobio bluntly, honestly stated. "Maybe I could have pulled my punches, and if they were from our village, I would have."
Leaning forward, though, Tobio stared right back at Naruto. "But each and every shinobi in the exam, at this moment, understands they they're taking their life in their hands by being here. They chose to come here, threaten my comrades, and I repaid their violent intentions by putting them in the dirt."
"But killing is wrong!"
"Killing is what shinobi do, Naruto," Tobio sighed. "Killing, stealing, blackmail, we're deniable assets hired by the rich and powerful, and that is the way of the world."
"Then the world shouldn't be that way."
Tobio nodded. "I agree."
His open agreement obviously took the boy aback a bit, as he blinked. "What?"
The oni-blooded Genin snorted. "Do you think I like hurting people? I like a good fight, but I am a strong proponent of peace in most other things."
Lying on his side nearby, facing away from them, Hibachi snorted, and Tobio chose to ignore one of his best friends. It was the diplomatic, peaceful option.
"But peace requires both parties to agree to it, to want it, to crave it. At the same time, war requires only one or two dissenting opinions. If I were strong enough as the fourth Hokage, or the first, powerful enough to instill fear on an entire continent or give everyone else pause, I could probably see the sort of peace you and I might like established. Both of us are years away from that sort of strength, though."
Naruto's expression firmed up, cheeks puffing out in a way that made him look precisely his age. "Then…when I become Hokage, I'll change things. I'll change the world for everyone."
"I hope so," Tobio nodded. "Mostly because I'm lazy, but if you change the world, it means that I've got more time for the things I love." Sparring, studying and modifying justsu, cooking. If he had to retire at this moment, Tobio figured he could make a good living as a chef.
"…You think I'll actually do it?" He seemed…surprised by that, and given that the original Tobio had never been a proponent for it, that was a fair take. "Really?"
"Really," he agreed. "If it's a matter of determination and grit, you've got it in spades."
For that, Naruto couldn't help but grin, beaming, and prior murders forgotten under the praise. "Heh. Believe it, Tobi!"
Tobio winced, and grimaced at the nickname. "Let's just stick to Tobio."
"Ah, yeah, alright," Naruto nervously chuckled. "I'll uh, leave you to first watch."
"That's good. Karin might have some interesting stories to tell you of her life in Kusagakure, maybe?" He suggested. Granted, most of the stories were bound to be awful, but hey. It was never too early to spread his disdain for Kusa around.
"Oh, that's a great idea!" Naruto beamed, scrambling off to go bother the redhead right then and there. Tobio felt bad for doing that, though not by much.
His conversation with Naruto was one that had to happen, but now that it was over, Tobio had the first watch to cover while everyone else got dinner and settled in. Sasuke was still unconscious, though, which was…unusual. Wasn't he supposed to have woken up already? Tobio would have to ascribe it to exhaustion brought on by the initial usage of the cursed hickey. Hell, there were a lot of little things that didn't add up, like Team Seven still possessing their original scroll, but he the amount of sheer divergences to the timeline at this point were only racking up with each passing day. If changing things at Takigakure had been the equivalent of throwing a stone in a pond, everything he was doing at the exams was bound to equate to throwing a brick in.
Either way, the first watch was what Tobio wanted, if only because he desperately wanted the free time to drool all over his precious new perk choice. With Five Poisons Sense, he doubted anything with ill intent was going to be able to sneak up on them either.
Which meant there was no better time to crack open his soul for otherworldly power.
The real question was…did he want to spring for a Might perk, or an Artifice? Both were very good, given that he got his sword from an Artifice roll, but that didn't mean the other couldn't have an argument to be made for it. In fact, he'd gotten things like Calcium and Elixir from Might, so in many ways it had been doing some heavy lifting for Tobio.
Yet he could only pick one. Decisions, decisions…
Between the two of them, he felt like the move was to gird himself for the violence to come. So Tobio settled down and allowed his inner space to reach out and bring him some delicious rewards. It was as unusual as ever to be metaphysically filled to the brim beyond words, but he chose to focus on his anticipation instead.
Made all the more enjoyable as the possible reward choices came rolling in for his viewing pleasure.
Primal AmuletMtG - IxalanA jade amulet, this amulet gives the benefits of the Jade used by the Merfolk, intensifying your strength and magical prowess by a measure that grows greater when in the untouched wilderness beyond a town, or city - the farther from the nearest settlement you are, the more efficient and effective this Jade is, though small as it is, it has limits - as a normal Merfolk, you would not be able to grow beyond the might of five of your kind, even in a completely pristine valley of Ixalan.MoonveilElden RingThe masterpiece of a Sellian swordsmith, this katana is forged wholly of glintstone. Light wreaths it when sheathed-and when swiftly drawn for a few seconds, it can be used to launched waves of light following the motion of its slashes. A sorcerer's weapon, first and foremost, while the strong and the dexterous handle it well, it is one gifted in intellect that brings out its full worth as a weapon.Hot WitchBen 10Sorcerers and witches have a sort of exotic charm behind them compared to ordinary humans and you're no exception. Not only are you quite attractive in terms of appearance, you have a special quality that adds to the sort of 'mystical' look befitting your heritage...colorful eyes, hair, perhaps some tattoos or skin without a single blemish. Careful, you might charm someone with that.The Primal Amulet was useful, objectively, in this situation. But any kind of civilization would see the use cases for it begin to dwindle precariously. Even if it wasn't going to be used by Tobio, though, it'd be a good gift for any of his friends. And if he could plant the seed of a Balance Breaker inside of it…
Well, that'd be even better.
A part of him that was a fervent Fromsoft fan was already freaking out at the appearance of the Moonveil katana, however. He would barely have to lie about where it came from, even if he didn't really need to use it. It'd be a good gift for any of his allies. And again, very good for candidate for Balance Breaker in the future.
…Hot Witch was what it said on the tin. It would make him more attractive, if in a supernatural sort of way. A very vain part of him didn't mind that sort of thing, even if it wouldn't hold the same appeal as the other objects he could snatch up.
Tobio would have hesitated to say there was anything he would have struggled to take, if given the opportunity. Hot Witch would boost his attractiveness, albeit in a way he might not have expected. Perhaps not the best thing to screw around with when everyone was on edge already.
And if he was going to have people like him…he'd like to do it the old-fashioned way. By getting so ripped that women looked at him for his muscles, like the Sage intended.
Yeah, that sounded right.
In the case of Primal Amulet, there were just too many cases of combat occurring inside a city for it to be the best pick. It was useful, to be sure, but best served when truly in the depths of the wild, where the touch of civilization has never been seen. For that alone, it was something that he was going to have to decline.
However, Moonveil…was a special kind of power-up. Especially if he could combine it with his Zanpakuto. Working like how it worked in the game, it'd scale off his intelligence, dexterity, and strength. Not to toot his own horn, but Tobio was certainly above average in terms of raw smarts these days. So it'd work out pretty well, if properly used.
He huffed, a nervous smirk crossing over his lips. "Fuck it, we ball…"
Tobio pulled the trigger on his newest perk and allowed his soul to bloom with a new, curious power. All while his sword was changing before his very eyes. Engravings and strange, glintstone additions being warped onto the metal, as it evolved into a new shape.
"What doth my fucking wielder hath done? Am I bound to a fool?"
Did he just hear something? It felt like he'd heard someone talking, briefly, nearby, but it wasn't anyone from the camp. Maybe he was just tweaking a little from the odd sensation of how it felt to have the Zanpakuto shift for the first time.
Either way, it was going to be exciting to get to try it out in the future. Surely, his sword spirit would be fine with all these strange and unusual additions to the functions of his soul and sword.
Surely.
Tobio's dreams were rarely all that complex.
Most of the deep, psychological issues someone might have presumed on a child who engaged in regular acts of violence…just weren't present. Whether that was because he could draw on the wellspring of resolve from his past life, or Mixed Bloods were just different, he couldn't say. But there were times like this when his dreams could get strange.
A gathering of sharp-toothed and horned figures, that danced, drank, and ate. But the specifics were never the exact same, and the figures changed shape on a dime. All he could get was that there was an alien feeling of excess that went beyond the human range of desire. Urges, unbidden, to sink his teeth into flesh, and live like these monsters with the faces of men.
Sometimes it was a feminine figure, blurry, who he got the feeling was trying to tell him something. But that was a brief flash, before his dreams moved onto something more entertaining, like cooking, or an exaggerated fight where he cut through a mountain.
Nightmares were absent, as was anything that he could recall in crystalline clear definition. Which made his latest dream all the more unusual.
Typically, it was something that was far less clear and coherent than this. But he found himself resting on a vast shore that stretched on to the horizon. A sea of stars was off in the distance, but what drew his attention was the dominating presence before him.
The moon.
It hung there in the sky like a watcher. But not an unfriendly one. More curious than anything else, as he stood in the middle of the shore, and watched the moon rise on the horizon. And then, with a susurrant whisper, a voice he could barely make out spoke from behind him.
"Thou art not prepared yet. Sleep."
And then he opened his eyes to the cracking of the dawn.
Whatever that dream was, or what it meant…felt like a tomorrow problem. Maybe it didn't mean anything at all. Looking too much into what could be nothing at all, or something to do with the dubious wisdom of implanting glintstone into his soul felt like too much work. Sure, Tobio could reflect on his actions and probably point out some instances where he could have made wiser choices, but what would be the point?
Introspection? Self-reflection? What is that? Could he eat it?
That said, there was some unequivocally good news! Sasuke awoke the following morning. Which was good, Tobio was beginning to worry that he'd fucked the timeline beyond all recognition. Characters weren't coming into certain 'scenes' when they were supposed to stumble into, and he was murdering all sorts of people well before their time. That the timeline wasn't totally borked was…a good thing.
Hopefully.
"It was like I was just watching it happen," Sasuke stated, voice quiet, as the group settled in for the morning repast. "Like I barely had any control over myself, and I was just…on a hair trigger the entire time."
"Explains why you went off on me," Tobio murmured.
Sasuke scoffed. "Not like it did anything. Even with that power-up and whaling on you, you still won."
Tobio wasn't keen to tell Sasuke exactly how tight that victory had been. With the curse mark, Sasuke had been fighting at a much higher level of physicality and brutality than he'd usually engage with. The fact that he'd been only holding back to taijutsu, and hadn't rushed Tobio with some ninjutsu, was the biggest reason why he only walked away with some bruises.
And those were already healing nicely, even if his ribs did twinge a little.
"You still managed to land some good hits. But trusting in some cursed seal that a missing-nin gave you is…"
"Idiotic?" Hibachi offered. "Dumb as fuck, considering what could have been inside of it?"
"Orochimaru made it seem like it'd be a gift, before he gave me it," Sasuke sighed, reaching up to rub his neck.
"He also attacked us and knocked us out, teme," Naruto pointed out, being the voice of reason in a shocking amount of sense. "That's not exactly trustworthy behavior."
Even Sasuke had the good sense to look a little abashed when Naruto of all people was making sense. He just looked like he sucked on a lemon, rather than admit it. Fair. In his shoes, Tobio wouldn't want to admit that much in his shoes either.
Now that the snake hickey wasn't active anymore, the kleshas that had been overpowering Sasuke weren't as prominent either. Tobio checked, and found that the intensity had been brought to a simmering low. Though Aversion was still sky high comparatively. If someone murdered his entire family, though…
Well. The Last Loyal Uchiha's spiritual development was bound to be a long, winding road through that trauma.
"Are you guys even going to be able to make it to the Tower…?" Karin asked, blinking owlishly.
Sasuke looked toward the redhead, as if seeing her for the first time. "…Who is she again?"
"My cousin!" Naruto excitedly exclaimed. "She's uh…defecating to Konoha!"
"Defecting," Karin hastily correcting, shooting Naruto a small scowl. "I am defecting to Konoha."
"Yeah, that. What's the difference?"
With a pause, she leaned in and whispered in his ear. It was amusing to watch Naruto's features turn shocked in real time. "That's what defecating means?!"
The lone Uchiha gave his teammate a slow, languid blink, before turning to address the rest of the group. "Anyway, it might be tough, but I think we should be able to make it the rest of the way to the tower. Thanks…for the extra mission scroll."
"It was no problem," Tobio assured them.
He'd thought about not giving Team Seven the scroll, but…he didn't have a reason not to? Sure, if he was someone so utterly gutted by a drive for perks that he'd do anything for them, that was probably worth a hidden quest completion. Tobio wasn't, though, and it'd be a real asshole move for utterly no gain.
That said, did he want to leave them to try and make the journey by themselves, or head out alongside them to the tower? In terms of mission objectives, they'd mostly accomplished everything they'd set out to do.
In the end, they decided to just go together. There was no reason to dally, and between Tobio's new technique and Karin, they were not getting ambushed anytime soon. Though Naruto and Sasuke had to adjust to their individually sealed states.
For Sasuke, that meant basically no active chakra usage. Naruto's reliance on clones was curtailed as well, massive group of Genin made their way through the forest.
One of the things that Tobio loved about his new life was the speed and ease with which shinobi could travel over terrain. Dense, living forests like this would have required at least a well-paved road to make it anywhere in a respectable amount of time in his old life. Here and now, with a body like this, it wasn't even comparable.
The kilometers they needed to traverse to get to the tower were onerous, and he'd had to cut down a few curious predators that had mistaken them for meals, but it was never a question of whether or not they'd make it there. No, it was merely how long it'd take for them to get there that day.
Navigating around what dangers Karin could sense, and having Tobio cleave through what she didn't, the motley group of genin found themselves approaching the massive tower within a few hours of travel. It was a tall, imposing construction, jutting out above the skyline with wires branching off from it every which way.
Each side even had their own series of doors and passages. Judging by the fact that each one was labeled for a different, team, though, it wasn't rocket science what the event organized initially wanted from their examinees.
"I guess that's it," Sasuke huffed, sweating more than ever before. Then, he turned to Tobio. "…Thank you. For stopping me when I was…"
"It's cool," Tobio assured him. "Everyone has a bad moment. Maybe let someone know about the rogue sannin's hickey on your neck, though?"
"I will," he assured Tobio, nodding sharply.
"Oh, can you really praise us too, when you're talking about how we swooped in and saved your team?" Hibachi asked. "It'll look good on our records."
That got a more begrudging nod from Sasuke, as he turned to leave. Naruto, though, gave Karin a happy, excited wave. "Don't worry about a thing! Jiji is gonna sort you out before long, alright?"
He had an earnest gleam in his eyes, and Naruto's personality was the type that was hard to rebuff for long. Especially when he genuinely and wholeheartedly longed for family ties. That much was clear from his every interaction with Karin, grinning from ear to ear, even while he boasted his future aims.
"I'm sure," she nodded, smiling softly in return. "I'll see you later, Naruto."
With that, Naruto followed Sasuke into the tower, and Sakura paused before heading in after him. Meeting eyes with Ami, her mouth opened, and the closed, before giving the girl a nod. Ami for her part blinked in surprise, before nodding back.
As to whatever girl-to-girl telepathy just went on, Tobio didn't know, or care. They had bigger fish to fry, left alone and going around to their own private door.
Though it didn't stop Hibachi from asking an important question. "…Are we even allowed to take Karin in with us to our door?" Hibachi asked.
"Probably not," Tobio admitted, before the boy shrugged. "But we're already kind of bending a lot of rules, trying to get her to defect during an active exam. It isn't a huge deal if we end up breaking a few more."
"I'm right here," Karin stated, giving Tobio a deadpan expression.
"If you can't joke about defecting to the superior village, Karin, what can you joke about?"
That was enough to get a snort out of the girl, which was for the best. As good as she'd been at keeping up with Team Eleven, there was a gulf between her and Tobio's teammates, and even Team Seven. For all that he'd tried to rope her into their little friendship, she still was a little tense and a bit out of sync with the rest of them.
He didn't even feel that familiar tug with Karin yet, the kind that presaged the capability for her to be added to the Sworn Brotherhood. Hopefully, that'd come in time, as he gained her trust in earnest, and she saw that Konoha was remarkably different from Kusagakure. Mostly in that it wasn't going to eat her alive, like her previous home.
As the four of them entered into the space, it was well-lit, clean, and with a set of instructions printed on a poster against the wall. To open their scrolls, at last, not that any of them had been particularly itching to do so.
"If we get failed on some technicality, or trick, because we weren't supposed to open them…" Ami grumbled.
"That's unlikely," Hibachi shot back.
"But not impossible! Let's just crack em' open, and if we fail we can blame Tobio."
"Agreed."
Tobio clicked his tongue, as the group of them gathered around their two scrolls, squinting at his teammates. "You two are ingrates."
"Giving you a hard time is how you know we care," Hibachi chuckled.
Shaking his head, Tobio rolled his eyes and finally cracked open the seals, which erupted in an explosion of smoke, before revealing…
"Funeno-sensei?" Ami asked, in confusion.
"That's right, Ami-san!" The familiar face of one of the 'background' teachers at the academy smiled out at them. "And…company?" He blinked, looking over at Karin.
"Oh, she's an Uzumaki defector," Tobio reassured the man. "It's all good."
"…What?"
Hibachi shrugged. "Tobio said it's all good, bro. Don't know what else to say."
It turned out that it was not, in fact, all good.