Chapter 70 - Ch70. Shocking Iwa 2

Rei's adaptation of rock clone jutsu ravaged the Iwagakure, doing nasty pranks all around while using their numerical advantage to the fullest. Rei had actually prepared around fifteen hundred of these rock 'monkey' clones so some parts of the village were completely overrun. Rei was very careful when planning this little 'surprise' and spent the entire night going through every bit of knowledge he gained from Barbo's interrogation about the defenses and set-up of Iwagakure. These were pivotal in his quest for justice! That was the reason why the rock clones could rampage for an hour and still, no organized resistance was... well, organized. The places that were hit first had either insufficient personnel and were too preoccupied to send a message about their problems with a request of reinforcements or it was a place that was out of hand, and it would take time for such requests to reach the Kage Tower. And when they did... the tower would be buried in large quantities of them so it would be a pain in the ass to react.

These 'monkeys' were 'failed' attempts at rock clone jutsu. But even then, just because in the eyes of others this was a failure at creating a rock clone, it didn't mean that it didn't have its uses! After all, failures were a perfectly usable Jutsu too. They just didn't have the desired effect, hence were called failures. Just a bit of deformity through tweaking while creating a rock clone and voila, Rei had a fully functioning clone that did NOT look like him, therefore his identity was safeguarded. The best part? Henge could be seen through. The rock clones could not as there was literally nothing to be seen through. The rock monkeys were just that. Pile of rocks in the form of a monkey wearing Hokage attire that was held together and moved by chakra and initial intent of the user. Even the coloring on them was done through chakra. It was obvious they were clones but it would be next to impossible to discern who made them. But they functioned exactly as normal rock clones except Rei was quite good at earth release. He obviously added a bit of a bonus and made them all enhanced with earth chakra! They would be a terror to take down after that. That's why Rei spent an entire week prior to their mission making these clones and filling two whole scrolls with them to the brim. It was his small personal portable army, Sasori-style.

While various parts of Iwagakure started to have problems with Hokage monkeys, Rei and Konan used these exact parts to slip through the village. The monkeys always started rampaging and then, both Rei and Konan would henge to civilians while adjusting their chakra reserves to slip through. They were obviously seen by ninja and even other civilians but the people had more pressing matters than to look closer. Even if henge could be seen through, it would need a deeper look even if the person is experienced. It was all in the details. Details that nobody had time to look at.

Part by part, street by street, they advanced in the middle of the chaos until they reached their first objective. The headquarters of the Explosion Corps, quite nearby the Kage Tower. It actually took them thirty minutes to follow the monkey clones up here and it was just in time. The Iwa shinobi started to realize this was not just some common prank, nor anything that was meant well. Too much damage was caused by it to be anything but hostility and they started to react in kind. The ninja of Iwagakure started carefully fighting back, trying to prevent more damage from being caused to their village.

Rei and Konan entered the wide-open door to the building that was half-broken, clearly due to too much force applied as 'someone' banged on them. They casually walked through the hall, holding hands while noting the empty reception with the side of their eyes. They walked in without a care in the world as if they owned the place. All around them was a mess caused by the wild rock monkey clones. The shelves were overturned, the papers all over the floor, the furniture was broken, and the place had clear signs of struggle.

"They are quite effective." Konan stated. "The surroundings look like a warzone and yet, we both know the monkey clones would at most cause a few bruises. Tell me... why again did you order them to not kill people?" She frowned as she didn't understand Rei's reasons for that. Iwagakure sent fifty ninjas to kill them. If anything, they SHOULD be out for their blood!

"That's easy." Rei quipped. "I plan to use this in the future. Maybe not the exact same variant but close and people will eventually come to know the user is me. I don't need to be known as the man who massacred Iwa shinobi in their own village. That would paint an incredible target on me and it wouldn't be just Iwa shinobi vying for my blood." Rei said, trying to portray the situation to Konan. She might have been incredibly strong and very resourceful and innovative but she didn't really have the brain for thinking what her actions would cause in the future.

"But... won't they actually resent you anyway?" Konan asked with a frown. Rei was basically trashing the village so she didn't think not killing would actually save him from being hunted.

At her question, Rei smirked knowingly. "Oh, they will... but this would inspire respect at my ability to do it and a healthy amount of fear. I have no delusions that I won't be in the upper tiers of bingo book due to the reward Iwa would offer for my head for it but they would also not be out for blood. Merely butthurt like a sullen child. They may pout, rave and rake but they won't go too much out of their way to get me. That would be a waste of resources for such a 'small' matter, after all." Rei said but seeing Konan's furrowed brows he sighed, stopped for a moment, and as she turned to him, he patted her head. "Don't worry your little pretty head over it." Konan slowly nodded.

As they walked through the Explosion Corps headquarters, they suddenly were stopped by a battered man with a tired look. "Who are you!" He asked. Rei blinked at him in confusion for a second before promptly facepalming.

"Of course!" He turned to Konan who tilted her head. "We are still wearing civilian attire!" He told her, making her go 'oh'. "I knew I forgot something!" He then turned towards the man and gave him a thumbs-up. "Thanks, man!" Obviously, the man didn't know what to think but the display managed to make him put his guard up very quickly. Weird was not good. Weird was dangerous! But he didn't have the time to ponder further as from behind, one rock monkey suddenly ran into him, flinging his body forward. Both Konan and Rei flinched as they saw him roll on the floor, clearly breaking something. The man didn't wake up after that. Rei gulped as he turned to Konan. "That was an accident!" He told her. "That can't be taken as a kill!"

Konan showed him an unimpressed look. After such a lengthy lecture about no killing and then he goes and makes a man into a living ragdoll. "Sure... whatever suits you best." She dryly said, making Rei scowl. How should he know the man was so... fragile!?

"A-anyway," Rei averted his gaze. "Let's continue." He shamelessly exclaimed and started dragging chuckling Konan forward. It was time, to get what they came for. They finally reached the storage room with explosives and Rei grinned. "Now... let's see the stash of the best demolitionists!" He giddily hopped towards the first crate he saw and stored it in his dimensional storage. "Shooo many treasures!" He stated with a shit-eating grin. The explosives and gear in the storage room were something extremely important and expensive. Iwa guarded the knowledge about them almost as fiercely as Konoha guarded their bloodlines. And here they were, in a room full of them and Rei was pretty sure somewhere amongst the pile of books Konan just stored is a manual on how to create them. They didn't really have the time to look into what they were storing into the dimension as they were pressed for time.

Ten minutes later, it was finally done and Rei wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead. "Well..." He turned to Konan with a nasty smirk as he gestured towards one unstored crate. "Shall we give Iwa a greeting?" For the last ten minutes, the monkey clones were trying to chase people away from the building and now, it was empty bar Konan and Rei. Getting his meaning, Konan showed a slight but very telling smile.

Five minutes passed and the duo was safely waiting on the roof of a building two streets away from the headquarters of the Explosion Corps when the fireworks started. The entire building the Corps used since their establishment, disappeared with a booming sound, leaving behind only a wide crater and deafened, bewildered Iwa-nin around it. This marked an hour since the beginning of mayhem in Iwa and in the Kage Tower, a certain old midget was currently staring at the paperwork strewn all over the floor with a longing wistful look of utter horror.

So far... Rei was satisfied with his self-imposed mission.