Otokage

September

The Daimyou of Ta no Kuni came to her with one small request for her to fulfill.

"Do you see this unoccupied landmass west of us and north of Fire? I would appreciate it if you could claim this as an extension of this country," he smiled. Sakura blinked up owlishly at him.

"... What?"

Day 6

Kakuzu had a reason to hate villages. His own sent him on an assassination mission many, many years ago with the object of interest being none other than the God of Shinobi himself, Senju Hashirama. The mission was fraught with danger and impossibility. Of course he had failed—what did they really expect of him? No one was a match for Hashirama.

When he returned to Takigakure he was met with disappointment and grand disgrace. They jailed him for his "incompetence" and shamed him for not getting the job done. After being given such an absurd task, failing, then being sentenced for that extremely unreasonable demand, Kakuzu began to grow angry. He had been nothing but a loyal shinobi to his Kage. For years, he risked his life for the sake of his village. He listened, never betrayed them, and certainly had offered his entire life to them. After this blatant betrayal, there was only one thing that came to mind. He had to leave.

But not before showing Takigakure the consequences for wronging him.

Kakuzu broke free of his imprisonment and killed the council members that sent him to confinement before taking their hearts as his own. He then stole one of Takigakure's most prized forbidden techniques before accepting his new status as a missing-nin. From then on, he developed a violent hatred for the place he once called home and vowed to never join such a system again.

His answer to coming to Otogakure should have been an immediate "no". There was There was absolutely no way he'd join another village despite everyone before him integrating into the village themselves. Why the others had done so was beyond his understanding, and he had yet to see any reason why they had done so.

Though he had to admit that this Otokage was something strange. The first time he stepped into her office, he walked right in the middle of an argument between her and her right hand man.

"Why can't you understand this simple concept?!"

"Simple?! You just showed me three cards with the exact same thing on each of them!"

"They aren't the same!"

"Bullshit."

"Not bullshit. That one's onyx, that one's jet—"

"Every single one of these cards are black, Kabuto! Only a dork like you would make me pick between shades of black. You're even dorkier for knowing that there's a freakin' difference!"

... Strange was a light word to use for the both of them. The one thing that really stood out to him was how young Haruno Sakura turned out to be. Kakuzu knew that she was the previous apprentice of the Godaime Hokage, as it was common knowledge, but he never really digested her true age. How old was she? Eighteen? How could Orochimaru trust such a young, inexperienced person to take over a crumbling village?

Though she had managed to make changes for the better, he decided to let her particularly young age slide. There was also the Kazekage who was about the same age as her, and Sunagakure was thriving.

Kakuzu glimpsed over to Sakura from his spot on the right window sill. She didn't look like much at first glance, but the more one saw of her the more one noticed how well built and muscular she was. When she pushed up the sleeves of her black turtleneck, her arms showed light scars and a truer extent of her muscle definition.