Don't own Naruto, never will.
(Excerpt from Advanced Seals, 23rd Edition)
From Chapter 14: An overview of forbidden seals
Call Orochimaru what you will, but his blackened legacy is well known. Amongst his most vile creations is a curse seal that was derived from the blood and bizarre abilities of a young man named Jugo.
It is unclear if any of Orochimaru's papers and research about the cursed seal he created has survived, but it should be burned upon being found if it hasn't already.
(End excerpt)
--ooo--
It took a month, but Hizashi managed to remove the curse seal from Anko's neck, and then turned his discovery for what his brother wanted to do: remove the Branch House mark. It would take time to do, but he was sure he now had a good lead on how to get rid of that seal on his forehead.
Kaemon was glad that some good was coming out of this mess, but he regretted not seeing sooner what was going on. Orochimaru had always been power hungry, and giving him a genin team was probably the worst idea Kaemon ever had.
Jiraiya chose that moment to wander into his sensei's office.
"Oi, sensei." he said, "You hear about Hatake?"
"Which one?" the older man asked.
"The older one." Jiraiya replied, "His team just reported in. Looks like they found enough evidence of foul play to sink a Wave Country tanker, but he didn't make it back."
"Were they seen?"
"The team's youngest member got captured, and Sakumo went back to get him. A Hatake isn't exactly hard to identify." Jiraiya said, "Minato's with the kid now, trying to limit the damage. He's taking it hard. His mum died when he was a toddler, and now his old man's gone too…"
"What kind of evidence did they get?" Kaemon cut in worriedly.
"Enough to prove that Suna's been stockpiling weapons, poisons and other dangerous stuff to try and hurt us and the other villages." Jiraiya replied bluntly.
"So we're truly going to war." Kaemon sighed, "I hoped not to face what my ancestors faced, but it seems fate has decided to toss trouble at me and see how I cope."
"Probably." Jiraiya admitted, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "By the way…I'm going after Orochimaru."
"He won't come back, you know." Kaemon said, expecting this.
"Don't want him to. I'm going to make sure he doesn't do any more damage than he's already done." Jiraiya replied, "I'm better off out there."
"What of Tsunade? She needs you here."
"Dan's here. He'll look after her."
Kaemon doubted it, but didn't say anything because he knew nothing would change the man's mind.
"Hey, remember that mission to Rain a couple of years back? The one where we found those kids?"
"I remember them." Kaemon said, "What of it?"
"The kids are gone. Probably dead. I got the message yesterday."
"Don't count on that." Kaemon said, thinking of what the secret history books said.
--ooo--
Two months later, with the death of her fiancé, Tsunade left Konoha with Dan's niece Shizune in tow.
It was debatable if she would ever return to Konoha.
Ack! Even shorter chapter!
This is really little more than a filler chapter to set up why some people aren't alive or in Konoha right now, so bear with me. It gets better...I hope.
For the record (and because people have asked me), I realise that the story seems bewildering. Back in chapter 1, Kaemon Sarutobi is "recently inaugurated as the Juusandaime Hokage of Konoha". That means he is the thirteenth Hokage rather than the third. In the same paragraph it also refers to Kaemon's "namesake ancestor" the Professor, that being Sandaime.
This is my first attempt at publishing a chapter fic, and it's driving me crazy too. The short chapters are because of my incompetence, and I'll probably be putting up a few oneshots soon to help me get into the swing of writing longer pieces and such. Sorry for the bad quality of work in this piece.