Prelude - Azure Morning (Flashback)

Nee-san sat aback a massive green Lizard as it trudged through the desert. The sun had not yet fully rose and yet here he was awaken and alert. The man was wearing a pair of black slacks, a black turtleneck sweater, ninja scandals, and a pair of outrageously expensive sunglasses. In one hand he held a vape pen and in the other some kind of map/compass sort of device. The then Tsuchikage occasionally took a deep drag from the vaporize before loosing out a stream of smoke. He had no right to be here. This was sovereign Land of Wind Country territory and he was currently riding a massive summon straight through it without official authorization. Ordinarily, this would be casus beli, but on this particular day he had secured permission from the head of Sunagakure's military.

The Kazekage and he had an understanding. The two had spoken in private before and had decided that given their lack of resources yet extremely hardy and ferocious shinobi, it was logical that they form an alliance. Part of this alliance would result in the formation of a combined super-state. The plan called for the wedding of the feudal leadership of both nations to create a new political dynasty. One that would be controlled by them and would last for aeons. Nee-san was not sentimental nor overtly optimistic about the future, but he arrogantly believed that he and Shin could and would usher in a new era. Nee-san had gone through his life believing he knew what was best for everyone and that without his guidance humanity was ultimately doomed. His current mission in the desert was in service of that long-term vision.

They had received intelligence (both telemetric and human) that a Bijuu was operating in the area. The creature had chosen a fairly desolate and isolated portion of the world to roam. It presumably figured that it would be able to escape the attention of man, by moving as far away from civilization as possible. It thought wrong.

Nee-san had a row of scrolls attached to a belt that was draped on the side of the lizard like a bandolier. As the monstrosity marched towards the target, he began to wonder where his ally was. He and Shin had agreed to hunt the Tailed Beast in secret. The sources of the intelligence were scrubbed and manipulated. None of their respective intelligence agencies were permitted to know about this operation. As far as both villages were concerned, the Kazekage and Tsuchikage were engaged in matters entirely unrelated to their present mission.

The operation Azure was planned and executed during the golden age of Sunagakure no Sato. During a time when its shinobi and military strength were mighty and capable of fending off great nations. The operation resulted from a wish to become more than that, however. Back then, a less experienced Shin Kazehana believed he could resurrect the old glory of the Kazehana Empire and bring peace to a continent of constant warfare. This arrogant wish was certainly the very first step into the downfall of Sunagakure no Sato as a military nation, and perhaps Shin's greatest regret.

The year was 929, 2 years before Honiko Yoshidara's attack on the Land of Lightning and 4 years before the Sage's Asteroid made itself visible to every soul on the continent. Had these two men, Shin Kazehana and Nee-san Tetsudashi, not taken this task upon themselves things might have turned entirely different. But despite their incredible abilities, neither man could predict the future and what happened, happened. The past is set in stone and while its consequences might be manageable, the events themselves cannot be changed.

Funny how it all started with a wrongfully taken step. Quite literally, too. The giant lizzard upon which Nee-san was riding was heavy and used to crush anything in its path. So naturally the creature was quite surprised when something actually moved under the crushing weight of its right paw. *muffled sounds* The lizzard would stop moving and lower is head, examining what was under him. There appeared to be nothing but sand, and yet upon closer inspection one could see the sand actually moving a little. The giant creature raised its paw slightly, alleviating the weight upon whatever was underneath it.

This gave Shin Kazehana the space he needed to drag himself out of the sand and emerge from it. "-ucking animal, by the Sage I swear I will skin you alive, cook and then eat you! And then your cubs! And if there are eggs I'll eat them for breakfast! And I don't even need to eat!" The First Kazekage grumbled as he shook his body and waved his arms to remove the sand from his clothes, without paying attention to either the lizzard or the Tsuchikage riding it. The weight pressed upon him would have easily crushed a normal person but Shin's body wasn't that of a normal person.

Finally, he raised his head. From his tiny weight, standing at one and a half meters, Shin faced the giant lizzard, the Tsuchikage on top of it, and the sun above them all. "Oh...it's you. Still as bald as ever. You were gonna take a while to get here, so I came to watch the bijuu and ended up taking a nap." The fact that Shin didn't need to eat nor was affected by thirst came in quite handy. And while he didn't necessarily need to sleep he still enjoyed it. The young Kazekage would frequently nap at the desert, many times only to dig himself out of a sand dune after a sandstorm passed.

Nee-san felt the lizard rock beneath him as it encountered an aberration in the terrain. The man silently prepared his Steel Release chakra as his eyes followed that of his lizard's, searching for the source of this unexpected bump in the road. Shin arose from the desert like a mole and began to curse the Lizard, whom in turn, snarled and bared its teeth. The animal lacked the sophistication of his cousins but he was a true beast of burden and well suited to climates such as these. Nee-san had rode the steed through the desert, but he had no illusions of the beast's inability to reason with whatever intelligence they may cross paths with.

Fortunately, this particular intelligence was one they need not fear. Nee-san said nothing as the Kazekage cursed and threatened the lizard. He raised his vape pen to his lips, inhaled, and blew out a single ring which wafted into the air. The horizon was beginning to brighten and the scorching sun would soon be upon them. Despite the drama the misstep elicited, Nee-san was glad to see the Kazekage. He didn't think he had been set up but when it came to matters such as these there was always the possibility of foul play. Shin made a cavalier remark about the timeless nature of his body. A curious thing. Nee-san had long known (or rightfully suspected) that Shin was not fully human and had used his village's secrets to augment his body with mechanics. The Tetsudashi never asked about it because he knew that if he did, he'd only serve to massage the boy's ego. This would make him even more disinclined to share such secrets. Like a child whom thought nothing of a certain toy until his peer or rival expressed interest in it. Better to say nothing for the time being and then make a play for the jutsu when an opportunity presented itself.

Nee-san snorted softly in response to the jape about his baldness. It was a Tetsudashi tradition to shave one's head. The Tetsu of old worked in hot forges where long hair was a liability. They shaved their heads out of functional utility and the custom persisted despite the clan's transition to being a military force. He kept a neutral expression as he replied to his ally:

"I'm not surprised. You've always struck me as someone who is easily bored."

He tapped his foot on the animal's side and the beast backed away from the Kazekage. He moved to a standing position and walked up the length of the animal. He placed a foot on the lizard's head and the creature's prehensile tail moved to grab the bandolier of scrolls before danging it close to its master. Nee-san always kept his toys within arm's reach.

"The data says the Bijuu was last seen a few more miles south, but this is your territory and I trust your sense of direction over numbers and figures.....assuming of course you are awake enough to guide us"

Nee-san was the only person Shin had ever seen actually smoking a vape pen. While he wasn't entirely sure how the object worked, it awakened a certain fascination within the Kazekage. It was odd how, out of everything that Nee-san had brought to the table: Steel Releases a giant lizzard, an army of puppets, it was the Vape pen that fascinated Shin the most. Perhaps it was because he had already seen one of everything else. Steel Release he had fought before, although none as capable as Nee-san. Kuchiyose animals were fairly common and puppets were something which Shin studied daily. The Vape pen on the other hand...that was one of a kind.

The instrument was only ruined by Nee-san's bland face. "Annnd still with no taste for my excellent jests, I see." The Kazekage responded to Nee-san's remarks about him being easily bored. To be fair, they were not entirely false. Shin did get bored quite easily, and often jumped from one project to another. This had a tendency to leave a series of unfinished projects at his workshop. The ones he did finish however, tended to be masterpieces. But Shin would never admit to having been easily read by the Tsuchikage. "You'd know about boring people alright..." he grumbled as Nee-san advanced towards the lizzard's head. Shin would look in the same direction he did, and listen to his words.

"I'm awake, I'm awake. That thing has been giving us more trouble than I first guessed it would. Apparently it breathes fire. And turns out that putting out fires in the desert is as every bit of complicated as it sounds, several oasis and settlements have been decimated, as if the creature is attempting to make it impossible for people to cross the desert. I've ordered the evacuation of every smaller village in the creature's estimated territory and declared the area as of forbidden access. Nobody will be troubling us there." Little did he know that it was this very order that led to the internal struggle and downfall of Sunagakure. Nobody knew where the Kazekage had actually gone, and yet they respected his orders even after his disappearance. This meant the two of them would never be found by Sunagakure forces in the area.

Shin raised a finger, and then placed his ear to the ground. "A moment please..." He listened carefully. Someone as familiar with the desert as him was able to detect the movements and steps of the gigantic creature just by listening to the vibrations of the sand particles. More perceptive sand ninja were able to detect the steps of individuals over many miles, and now that was difficult. But detecting the steps of a gigantic cat over a few miles? That was child's play.

Shin would stand up again, with a scorpion attached to his ear by one of its pincers. "Okay so two things I have learned. The first is that scorpions are terribly ungrateful even if you're all ears to them. " he flicked the creature off with a wave of hand.

Shin would then jump on top of the lizzard, but making sure he was quick and far away enough from his head to prevent the creature from biting him. He trusted Nee-san wouldn't allow it. After all, Shin was his precious ally in the upcoming fight against a bijuu. "The second is that the creature is in that direction!" he would point towards the horizon. Shin and Nee-san could not contrast more with each other. While the Iwagakure veteran held a calm look and straight face all the time, Shin often had the attitude and general goofiness of a child.

"Man I've always wanted to ride a lizzard. Let's go Nee-san, we'll find us a bijuu yet! And maybe some hair for you too... Oh oh oh, maybe we'll find you some sense of humour and you'll even crack a joke too!" This was going to be a long journey, even if not that physically long.

Nee-san did not even bother to roll his eyes. With his shades on, the Kazehana wouldn't have been able to see it anyways. The short young man gave a brief report of the beast's current antics. Apparently it had already laid waste to several small settlements. The Kazekage had wisely evacuated the area and declared it off-limits. This would give them ample space to "work" without interruption. He asked for a moment and Nee-san stayed silent as he quite literally put his ear to the ground. The older man raised an eyebrow as Shin listened to the desert itself for clues. It was fairly impressive and Nee-san himself had employed similar acoustic tactics in the mountains of the Earth Country. Using the smallest of echos and vibrations of the mountain range to ascertain enemy movement. This was not his home turf though, so he'd need to rely on the talents of his ally to read the terrain.

Nee-san did not laugh at the scorpion situation. Shin's read on him was correct. The 2nd Tsuchikage's sense of humor was lacking, or just very different when compared to most people. Perhaps it wasn't so much that it was odd, but more sophisticated and refined. It certainly wasn't primitive enough to react to base situational comedy.

Shin mounted his beast without permission and the creature let out a loud roar in annoyance. Nee-san was a bit ticked that the lad had come aboard without even asking, but he allowed it. He firmly pushed a foot down on the lizard's scaly back and the creature calmed down.

Shin boldly pointed in the direction where the Bijuu could be found and Nee-san nodded solemnly. Shin was indeed goofy but Nee-san had learned that despite his childish nature, he was a warrior and a tactician that was just as dangerous as the Tsuchikage himself.

"Don't get used to it, Shin"

Nee-san remained in a standing position and tapped the side of his lizard's body. The creature moved its tail closer to Nee-san and maintained the scroll-bandolier in its grip. Shin was very enthusiastic about their mission but that could just be his personality, or maybe he was just masking his fear. Everyone had their own way of coping with the sense of dread one felt when heading into the unknown. Nee-san crossed his arms, not even cracking a smile at what Shin had said. He continued to smoke quietly as the lizard trudged in the direction that Shin had indicated.

"Relax, I'm not gonna steal your lizzard. This is not as fun as I expected...doesn't it go any faster?" While Shin seemed to be inspecting the lizzard for his speed capabilities, he was actually carefully analysing the structure of the animal. Where the main bones were located, the tissues, the tendons that pulled the limbs and the muscles. He often studied animals for his puppet designs, but he had never had the opportunity to study this kind of creature from up close. Lizzards of this size and kind weren't all that common in the desert. Besides, the fact that it was gigantic made it a lot easier to study.

The trip went on uneventful for a while. Aside from the occasional whistling of tunes, Shin didn't say a word and Nee-san was even more quiet. The duo advanced through the sea of sand one step at the time, as the sun rose above the horizon and the heat began to settle in. Shin of course had no problem with this, as his body was cleverly crafted to resist temperature. But he wasn't entirely sure the lizzard or even Nee-san would hold. He considered the Tsuchikage to be smart enough to come prepared but even the toughest of Sunagakure no Sato's veterans sometimes made the fatal mistake of underestimating the sands.

"Oh, hey I know!" Shin casually said, sort of jumping suddenly a bit. "We could play a game to pass the time! Let's see...Oh! I see something yellow!" Truth to be told there really wasn't a huge colour variety in the desert. There was sand, the sky, more sand, the sun...and sand. Occasionally, travellers would pass by oasis but the majority of nearby ones had been destroyed by the beast.

Eventually, whether Nee-san agreed to play the game or not, the duo would find themselves deep within Matatabi's territory. The beast was not yet in sight, perhaps it was resting somewhere. "So, how do you suggest we use the bijuu? Other than for phenomenal BBQs, of course."

Shin's observations of Nee-san's lizard did not escape his attention. The young man didn't even try to hide his fascination or play it cool. Even though his body was timeless, his mind was young. The journey was rather uneventful and aside from Shin's occasional whistling, the desert was oddly quiet. It was scorching hot but that didn't particularly bother the Tsuchikage. He occasionally used the Yin Wound Healing Destruction variant known as Equilibrium to regulate his body temperature such that he'd be immune to the effects of heat stroke. The man's skill with the Ijutsu technique was so proficient that he felt no discomfort despite wearing slacks and an actual turtleneck sweater. Every now and again a bead of sweat dropped from his dome which he dabbed with a piece of cloth from time to time. Other than that, Nee-san appeared to be holding up just as well as his Suna counterpart.

Shin blurted out a desire to play a guessing-game out of the blue. Nee-san didn't reply as it was obvious he had no interest in playing games, but even if he was inclined to play there wasn't much to "spy" other than sand. Shortly afterward, Shin asked how the Bijuu should be used. He joked about phenomenal BBQs to which the man shrugged.

"The quality of a barbecue is determined by the type of metal grill used....not by the nature of the heat source."

Nee-san indulged Shin on this particular subject of idle chatter because it was one in which he had surprisingly strong opinions on. He then switched to the true topic at hand.

"I have given that subject quite a bit of thought actually. I think it would be remarkably uncreative of us to place it within a host. While ancient texts seem to suggest this is the more traditional solution to the Bijuu problem, our predecessors lack imagination and a proper understanding of chakra physics. The creation of jinchurikki was a primitive method used by primitive people. I have been researching alternative uses...the most promising of which is the development of an machine which could harness the power of a Bijuu to produce marvelous feats. I know that Sungakure has methods which allow a puppeteer to bring a fleet of puppets into battle....but I'm certain such methods have their limits. This hypothetical Bijuu-powered machine would be able to transcend past the known limits of Kugutsu. Imagine an entire army or city.....powered by a near limitless reservoir of demonic energy."

Nee-san took a drag from his vape pen and blew a cloud of smoke into the air.

"I propose we use this Bijuu as the fuel for our Empire. Imagine a great city floating in the heavens protected by an innumerable army of puppets. Breakthroughs in medicine and engineering occurring on the daily. There is only one way to save humanity from destroying itself Shin: transcendence. And what better way to begin humanity's evolution than by putting these beasts to work for the betterment of the many as opposed to the few."

Despite Nee-san's arrogance, anti-social elitism, rampant misogyny and messiah complex, the man had noble intentions. His ideal world was one where humans lived forever. He wanted to birth a Shinobi Singularity, one that would eliminate the need for war and waste. He thought that such a world was there for the taking, but it needed the right combination of leaders to make it a reality.

"Oooh, you can say more than a few phrases at a time. I was starting to wonder, you know?" Shin couldn't help but appreciate the desert as they walked through it on top of the giant lizzard. Most people disliked the desrt and the sand...it was rough and got everywhere. But not Shin. Without the need to feed or hydrate himself, the Kazekage saw the desert as nothing more than his own gigantic amusement park. And the fact that there was sand everywhere only made it better, and he would often entertain himself by using the Kazehana bloodline to make gigantic constructions. It made for good training and good fun. He wondered if it would be fun to make a giant statue of Nee-san's bald head...but how would he make it as shiny as the original? Hmmm...now there was a challenge to think about!

And Shin could afford to spend time thinking about these silly challenges because the one Nee-san had proposed had already been solved. Well perhaps not the mystery of how to fuel an entire city with bijuu chakra, but he had certainly found a way to transport bijuu in something other than annoying people. Jinchuuriki often got too ambitious, too sure of themselves and too drunk with power to see the bigger picture. So Shin had always been hesitant on hunting Bijuu to give to people. Plus there was always the fact that he was often a goofy Kage who never seemed to take things too seriously. And that made space for someone with sufficient power to try and take his role from him. Which meant that there was a chance that he'd eventually need to be fighting a Jinchuuriki...and that was sooooo bothersome. Just thinking about it made him frown,

He would take a small orb from one of his pockets and hold it up high so Nee-san could see it. "I have the solution to allll of your problems baldy-san!" He would cheerfully say. He knew he could afford to tease the Tsuchikage a little because this was an endeavour neither of them could accomplish alone, and the way Nee-san spoke about his dream city made it clear that this was a subject of great importance to him.

"I call it... Pokeball Shin's-Awesome-Bijuu-Sealing-Device!" he made a small pause. Truth to be told he wasn't all that good with names. His very first puppet had been named Butter, and it had killed hundreds. "If we somehow managed to seal the beast into this thing, it can hold it for years without maintenance and allow us to extract its power without deteriorating the orb itself. Like you said, Sunagakure had its limits on bringing puppets to battle... No more than a thousand. But if my calculations are correct- and they are, this would have allowed us to bring over one hundred thousand toys into the battlefield!" He sounded so proud of his creation.

"I was gonna use it to conquer the known world, but your ideal city plan sounds better. Saving humanity and all that...is a really noble purpose! Maybe you are a good guy after all! Personally I don't think I need to be saved. I have transcended long ago. But I suppose saving the meatbags will grant you a good place in the after-life." his phrase was followed by an innocent whistling.

Shin joked that he was shocked Nee-san was capable of lengthy speech. Many had remarked similarly but the Tsuchikage merely shrugged in response. Few people were worthy of more than a cursory response from him. Shin was one of the few individuals that could actually get him to open up. Partially because the Kazekage was smart enough to see and appreciate his vision, and partially because the Kazekage was one of the few people with the courage to ask. Nee-san blinked from behind his shades when Shin presented him with an orb. If allowed he'd take it out of Shin's hands and examine it, turning it around feeling its design. The Tetsudashi was a master engineer much like his Suna counterpart and it didn't take him long to come up with a ironclad theory on how the device accomplished what Shin boasted it could. Shin had, without even speaking to Nee-san, come up with 50% of the solution to their problem. The man smirked.

"This is a good starting point" he complimented the Machine-Man. "Tolerating your rank immaturity has its benefits I suppose"

Shin was quite proud of his invention and rightfully so. It was an absolute breakthrough in sealing technology. Harnessing it however would be very difficult. Fortunately, the Tsuchikage had already begun working towards a solution of his own. The designs were back in Iwagakure and he had not yet fully developed them. With their combined genius the "Village Hidden in the Heavens" was becoming less of a fantasy and more of a reality.

Shin bragged that he had transcended years ago but he lauded Nee-san on his high minded goals. In the same breath mocked Nee-san, saying that this would guarantee him a place in heaven. Nee-san didn't believe in an afterlife and he was certain that after the Shinobi Singularity occurred no one would either. Why hold out hope for a paradise after death when you could live in paradise and never have to die?

"Conquest is a base desire. True power comes from saving others not subjugating them Shin."