Chapter 20: Endo

Hanano thought and thought yet could not come up with a solution.

She didn't want her or her people to get involved with the shinobi world.

But without the power of Ryumyaku she is helpless, and if she is helpless how can she protect her people?

Ryumyaku does not want to hurt the child in front of her, this had never happened before.

Such a thing had never been recorded.

Since she couldn't chase the boy away, and he somehow is able to control and take away the Ryumyaku then….. 'How will I protect my people?'

"Sighhhhh….."

Hanano raised her hands and clasped the boys hand, her eyes staring in his eyes as she state the next words,

"If my people are ever in danger, I will put them above anything else." 'If he fails to control the Ryumyaku then all the better, but if he does control it then I will see what the future our people have with him.'

Ritsu smiled, "You mean our people, after all they will be the citizens of Kirigakure, the village hidden in the Mist."

'I hope this is the right decision' said Hanano as she let go of Ritsu's hand.

"Though I must ask how do you plan on transporting us all the way to the Land of Water, if it's just you and the clansman besides you then I will have to forgo our agreement.

It's dangerous to transport this many people across a long distance. We'll be targeted by bandits or possibly shinobi."

"Your worries are for naught though we won't leave till I acquire the Ryumyaku's power."

Hanano wanted to ask him how he would do it as she had never seen Ryumyaku's power or used Ryumyau's power to transport people though she held her words as Ritsu had his attention on the Caravan master.

Hanano wanted to go and tell her people what had transpired but seeing how close the crowd was she was sure some of them heard the words that were spoken between them, as she could see the crowd talking amongst each other.

The rest of the village would soon know what had happened.

Now that was all behind she asked Ritsu, "Can they truly control the weather?"

Ritsu turned his attention to the Caravan Master, or more specifically the leader of Yota's clan or that's how he remembered them from the anime.

"Mr….?"

"The names Kinji Endo, though you can just call me Kinji honorable shinobi."

Kinji was still frightened from earlier, though they had been robbed by individuals, bandits, and sometimes shinobis.

At that time they simply gave them the items. 

After all, they could always recuperate.

Other times they suffered some casualties but they always managed to escape and regroup.

But throughout his entire lifetime Kinji never felt such dense killing intent he might have been seeing things but he swore he saw an aura of ill intent wishing all but their death.

Perhaps seeing the Kinji's pale face becoming whiter, Ritsu patted him though he couldn't pat Kinji's shoulder so he patted the side of Kinji's arm.

"Awww don't be like Mr. Endo," Ritsu gave him the brightest smile he mustered, and the most upbeat personality he could put on.

Quite a contrast to the serious attitude he had when facing the Queen of Roran.

Kinji couldn't quite picture the cheerful child in front of him with the serious face he had and the face filled with killing intent.

"I am simply here to offer you a proposition.

You see I am aware that your group has always traveled the Land of Wind selling your service, and acting as a caravan.

But as I am aware your service doesn't sell quite well?"

Kinji was silent, but quickly responded, "It..It does sell occasionally" 

Seeing Kinji's hesitation Ritsu questioned, "When was the last time someone bought your service?"

"I believe it was a year ago.. No, maybe ... .I … I don't quite remember," replied Kinji, quite ashamed.

"It must be hard finding a buyer, especially in such a terrain, with the blazing sun over your back. Your people must be tired of such a scene.

So I will offer you something, disband your caravan group."

Kinji was shocked, "You want us to disband our caravan group? I thought you were going to buy our service?"

"No, no….Kinji don't misunderstand me, although you will disband your caravan group, you will form a clan. 

Although you don't have the teaching or history that a shinobi clan should have, I, Ritsu the heir of the Karatachi, will provide you with that.

However, I wish for your clan to forever support my clan and my endeavors in building Kirigakure where your service comes into play.

If you accept I will hand you this so that your newly formed Clan will be at ease at settling down." said Ritsu as he opened a scroll that showed a big bag as he tossed it over to Kinji.

Kinji who caught the bag however despite being a well built man he couldn't help but lose balance as the weight of the bag caught him off guard.

Sensing the weight Kinji couldn't help but look into the bag, resulting in him sucking in a breath of air.

Kinji had never seen this amount of money before. The amount of money within the bag was way more than the amount they have made since the start of their caravan.

One must know that it's been many generations since the start of their caravan.

"Just so you know that bag is just over five million Ryos"

Hearing Ritsu's words, Kinji couldn't help but feel that he was dreaming.

He had arrived at this village to trade items they were hauling from village to village and hopefully sell his services.

However they were rejected as no item had caught the villagers interest.

While the village was skeptical about whether they could alter the weather.

Then a child came out of nowhere, confronted the chief of the village which promptly caused both parties to release an aura that caused him despair.

He thought that he was going to die in the crossfire of a shinobi's conflict.

However both parties reached an agreement over something called Ryumyaku, and now he was asked to turn his caravan group into a clan.

He was even given five million Ryos.

"Since you are the current leader of your group your clan should be named Endo after your last name."

Kinji absentmindedly nodded too shocked from the amount of money he had just received. 

The boy hasn't even seen if his group could actually control the weather or not, yet he casually handed out such a huge amount of money.

Kinji was conflicted, but if joining this rich young master can change his people's lives he will take it.

"I, Kinji, the current leader of the newly established Endo Clan hereby solemnly swear that we will forever support you and your endeavor of achieving the Unification of the Land of Water."

Ritsu eyed Kinji who had his head bowed and mentally sighed, 'I guess one can't buy loyalty with money.'

He pushed the matter aside, "Very well I accept this declaration," replied Ritsu as he addressed both Hanano and Kinji, "Depending how long I take with Ryumyaku we'll be staying here for a while. Though if you will excuse me I will be heading back to inform my clans of our agreements." 

Hanano and Kinji wanted to ask Ritsu how he planned to go back as they were sure that if Ritsu headed back directly to the Land of Water it would at least take him two months of traveling to and back.

Though they were thinking from a civilian standpoint.

But before they could voice their question Ritsu was gone, he had vanished.

Riku was sitting under the shade of one of the houses, chuckling at the expressions of both Hanano and Kinji.

'This was the ability that allowed the Karatachi Clan to effectively retreat and attack, there is no warning for their enemy, truly an amazing Jutsu. However there's a limit to what he could transport as long as he had the chakra.'

'Damn bastard' thought Riku with jealousy as his heart tightened once more.

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An hour after Ritsu teleported.

At the Karatachi compound in the Clan Head's office.

Ritsu was currently face to face with his father.

Though his father would have a stoic face with a slight smile, right at the moment his father was jumping with joy.

The reason? He told his father he recruited two clans.

Reading his father's mind Ritsu could tell that his father probably thinks he recruited shinobi clans.

If only he knew that the clans he recruited were non-shinobi at the moment.

"So son tell me how are the shinobi of the Clans you recruited?" his father was practically beaming at this question.

"Well father, the groups I recruited are non-shinobi." Ritsu's words made Nao's face freeze, thinking that he had heard his son wrong.

Though normally Nao would be suspicious that his son had recruited two clans within three months.

After all Shinobi's were prideful they would be unwilling to exist under another's shadow.

He had simply excused those problems away with the answer that his son was a genius.

But now his son is telling him that the people he recruited weren't even clans, they were non-shinobi!!!

"Son I know that our numbers are low however, we can't supplement our numbers with civilians. They don't make excellent shinobi."

Ritsu eyed his father with a straight expression.

Ritsu had arrived an hour ago, before meeting his father he went to visit his family.

He first visited Ena who had grown taller and was now comparable in height to Ritsu.

It was a sad moment of realization for Ritsu that his sister will be taller than him.

Takao was bigger.

His uncle was cheerful as ever.

Now that he recalled, in the Karatachi Clan he doesn't have any immediate relatives.

His parent's family must have all died during the attack.

When he finally looked for his mother, he found her relaxing on the patio with Nao's two other wives.

Though at first she seemed discontent, she was now fine with the two other women.

As she had deemed them worthy of Nao, though she had the final say with any argument the ladies may have.

Through talking with his mothers Ritsu learned that his father had been preparing to train Nana's child. 

That's right, his third mother was pregnant.

Nao was preparing to welcome his third child. A child born from a civilian but he finds it hypocritical since he knows that his father is planning to train the child into a shinobi.

"You know I'm aware of what you've been prepari—"

Nao interjected Ritsu, "This and that is different."

Ritsu chuckled at his father's antic, "Although they are not historically shinobi and have no shinobi arts, the reason I invited them is because of their Kekkei Genkai."

Nao's interest was peaked as he knew what Kekkei Genkai entailed, after all he knew that their Clan has one but no one from their Clan has awakened it in the past decades.

Not even his son had shown if he had the power, though he didn't doubt that his son wasn't capable of using it.

It's just there was no way of knowing after all related documents regarding the Kekkei Genkai were lost after the Karatachi Clan was attacked.

Nao regained his focus and asked the important question, "So what's their ability?"

"One of the groups is capable of controlling the weather, and the other group guards a chakra vein for centuries until they were able to control and use said chakra. 

Also the amount of chakra is comparable to a tailed beast, although I have not met one, I am sure it is."

"Though their abilities sound great, are they any good offensively?"

Ritsu laughed at his father's question, "Father surely you don't think that shinobi only need offensive power?"

Nao looked at his son confused, 'A shinobi needs offensive power to ward off their enemies, and keep them in check. 

If they simply gather clans that didn't have an offensive capabilities then they were asking to be killed.'

"Father, let me ask you a question: when you fight, do you simply stand still and swing your sword. Do you fight with only using one hand? Do you have to think when fighting or should we just act on instinct."

"Of course not when you fight you must use your entire body, all your skills and experience."

"That's right. For the moment we are the sword, in the future we will relegate being the sword to another clan.. But for now what we need is clans to act as our hands and feet.

Separate we are useless but together we will be strong."

"That is indeed true but how will their powers be used? I can see controlling the weather being capable of use, but the other group didn't you say they could control a chakra vein? How are they going to bring it here? They're useless without it."

"The chakra vein as far as I am aware is sealed underground to prevent it from leaking. However, I plan on sealing that chakra inside of a giant pot until I figure out where I can put it."

"But if you seal the chakra vein inside of a pot then that would make the group useless unless they can draw power from the pot."

"Not exactly, if they were only capable of controlling Ryumyaku then I wouldn't have recruited them.They have other uses such as Fuinjutsu, since I realized the clan seems to have some talent. I plan on teaching them Fuinjutsu as they seem to have some talent for it. After all they have to be since they sealed such a massive chakra vein."

As Ritsu was talking to the Queen of Roran he made sure to check the talents of her people, those were descendants of the first Queen of Roran all had varying degrees of talent in Fuinjutsu not outstanding as Hanano, but it was better if they did the grunt work than himself.

Nao was aware of how difficult it was to learn Fuinjutsu as he asked his son if he could teach the rest of the clan, including himself.

But within a day at least half the clan gave up, to them it seemed like a bunch of gibberish mashed together, Ritsu had even told them that what he taught was the basics.

Since then no one volunteered to learn.

So Nao was excited when Ritsu said that they had some talent for it, 'They can relieve some of my son's burden, that's more than enough. 

After all, Nao witnessed how Ritsu would spend countless hours writing Fuinjutsu to supply the clan members all by himself, no one to help him.

Now I can simply send my request to this group.'

"Father, I need you to make accommodations to around eight hundred people as they will staying in the compound. Also I need you to start expanding the compound as I am not sure how big the future Clan or groups I will be bringing back will be."

Nao sweated at the idea that all future clans were going to stay at the same compound as them.

Since they took the Fuji Clan compound it was enough to accommodate their clan and the cursed servants they had but if bigger clans migrated here then they would run out of space.

"Ritsu we don't have the mon—"

Nao stopped his words as Ritsu dropped bag after bag from a storage scroll as they jingle, Nao could tell what they contained.

Five bags were in front of Nao, "Each bag contains around five million Ryo, use the money to expand the clan and supply the Clan's needs.

I need to head back as I need to figure out how I will contain the Ryumyaku inside of the pot. I will probably have to study the seal they use to seal it, so I don't know when we will be back.

But before I leave I will make an array at the center of the clan so people should avoid that spot if they don't want to be fried.

Farewell father."

As Ritsu turned to leave, "Ritsu, don't forget to take a moment to enjoy life around you." 

Ritsu smiled, as he looked at his father, "I will have plenty of time to do so, when my dream is realized, so make sure you take care of yourself till then."

Ritsu walked out of his father's office with a smile on his face, as he headed to the center of the clan.

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A/N: I expected to this story to not be rated as it is at the moment. Since this was the first story I have ever written I expected to not do so well. Seeing all the praise and the reviews made me not want to fail in writing, so I kept postponing on posting the chapters as I tried to find anything that was a problem, but I have come to realize that I shouldn't care and just update.

Sorry for making you wait.