The cavern stank.
It stank of snakes and dried blood and screams. It was beneath Konoha, the entrance hidden beneath Danzo Shimura's residence. The residence itself had been abandoned ever since its owner's untimely demise, but the cavernous basements and corridors beneath it, the home and heart of ROOT, still thrummed with life.
There were lots of snakes around, because I'd given it to Orochimaru to play around with, using the facilities and laboratories for himself. He'd also inherited ROOT, but very few of the original members of that secret sect of ANBU who were present during the takeover were still alive.
Not that much of ROOT had survived the Ame Massacre either, though.
My muscles twitched unconsciously at the memory of Hanzo the Salamander.
There were two chakra signatures up ahead. I barely felt one as it entered my sensing range and disappeared almost instantly. Huh?
Orochimaru was alone in the center of his lab, leaning over a high steel table. There was a body on the table. I had no wish to go in further, so I stood by the door and watched for a moment. A few snakes on tables and the floor looked up at me, hissing quietly.
Without turning around, Orochimaru spoke, "What can I do for you this time, my dear Hokage?"
"How's your research on the Reincarnation Technique progressing?"
Orochimaru put a pair of bloody scalpels to the side and covered the body with a tarpaulin cloth. He turned to me with a calm, businesslike expression on his face. "It's not."
I raised an eyebrow. "Beg pardon? I gave you all the equipment and time you could need."
He shrugged languidly. "You won't give me live test specimens. I need actual human material and you're not giving me enough. The flaw in the technique is the actual transference of the soul into the new body. I have no idea how the Nidaime managed it, and I can't prove any hypotheses without running a lot more tests. On a lot more people."
"Make do with what you have." I snapped, my eyes narrowing, "I'm not about to give you children or innocent people taken off the streets."
"For the Hokage, you're certainly a squeamish little brat." The snake sannin grumbles.
I had several ideas in mind. I wrestled with them for a while. The war between Iwa and Kumo would definitely produce a lot of displaced people. There would be missing-nin among them. And for someone of Orochimaru's calibre, simply walking to the battlefields and grabbing injured ninja wasn't out of question. And there was one more option, the riskiest and hardest one: capture White Zetsu.
Haha, no, fuck, no.
Screw Zetsu. I'd had enough trouble with him and I wasn't going to involve myself with him again at this time. Even though there was a possibility that Tobi was working with Zetsu, I knew that would be unlikely.
Because I'd buried the motherfucker under half-a-kilometer of glass. It would be decades before he could dig himself back out and find enough chakra to regrow any spores into new bodies.
Finally, I picked the lesser of many evils.
"Orochimaru, drop by the Hokage tower in the next few days. There will be an A-Class Retrieval mission in Earth territory waiting for you."
He smirked. "Now, now, I only just returned from your latest mission. Surely you can give me some time to relax, catch up with old acquaintances, make new ones-"
The slightest tingle of burning scale and flesh wafted into the air.
"-of course, I'll be certain to stay out of places I'm not allowed into-"
I blew away the smell towards the vents with a light whisper of wind.
"Alright," I said, "That's all. But I want some progress on it, and soon." I emphasised as I turned around and walked back out.
"I will make no promises," Orochimaru said after me, "But I can tell you you won't be disappointed." I could hear actually his smirk in his voice, but chose to ignore that. It took me a few minutes to covertly exit the caverns, taking a hidden tunnel back towards the Hokage tower. I'd already reached my office, given a Konan a quick kiss as she sat and did some of my paperwork, and taken my seat, when I remembered that I'd completely forgotten to ask him about that second chakra signature I had just sensed. Eh, I'll do it later.
Was I making a big, big mistake by giving Orochimaru the Edo Tensei? Yes, I was. The fallout could be terrifying down the line. And yet, the technique was too useful to be left rotting away. I had promises to keep.
And feared little, for I was the Son of Ten Suns.
I didn't actually fall unconscious. My head was spinning, but I groggily forced myself to my feet. Jiraiya slowly strolled towards the three of us. I could barely stand when Jiraiya came and stood in front of me.
He bopped me on the nose and I fell back on my ass again.
"Well, well. I'm actually impressed." Jiraiya chuckles, "It's been a while since a trio of academy graduates bought that much firepower. My ears are still ringing"
"We…" I slurred out, "Try."
Jiraiya made a hand seal. Minato instantly jerked awake. A second hand seal had Okita sitting up. Minato looked around, up and down, bewilderedly, taking in the destruction. Then he looked at Jiraiya and groans. "That was disgusting!" He pointed at Jiraiya. "I won't be able to eat ever again!"
The Toad Sage just chuckled. "It's a pity none of you have the bell-"
"You don't either." I pointed out, one finger raised towards his waist sash from which the bell was, in fact, missing.
There was a moment of dead-drop silence.
"How many little strings do you know that can survive a bunch of fireballs and explosions unscathed?" I asked helpfully, plastering a grin over my face.
Jiraiya stared for a moment. Then he let out a loud guffaw. "So that's what it was all about! I thought for a moment you'd forgotten about the bell and were trying to kill me, badly. Bu-ut, you don't have the bell either, which means you fail." He looked down at us.
Minato sighed. "Sorry, Ren, He was just too fa-" I cut him off with a raised hand, a genuine smile starting to creep across my face. Okita glanced at me expectantly.
Huh. Did she figure it out?
I reached down into my pouch and withdrew a single silver bell identical to the one Jiraiya had shown us. I tossed it to our sensei, who caught it with a raised eyebrow.
Then I took out the second bell and tossed it to Minato. The third bell went to Okita. She caught it with a light smile. "I'm surprised you didn't lose them in the middle of the action." She said simply.
"I had one bell." Jiraiya said flatly.
"You said whoever has a bell by the end passes." I replied flatly. "We all do, hence we all pass."
"Where did you even get those?" He asked.
I thought back for a second, "You see, there's this little shop, off the third road from the market street at the west end of the civilian sector. I just asked Biwako-baasan where could I buy some little bells. Maybe you should've marked your bell or something or had it custom made?"
A few moments of tensed silence passed as I stared down my would-be sensei. He didn't react for a few moments. Then he started roaring with laughter. "You pass! You all pass! Damn, if you aren't the best team I've seen come through in a long time. Sensei was right to put you all in Team 7."
He pulled us all up. "Come on. We're going to have lunch."
Over some fancy sushi, Jiraiya began to talk. "Team 7 is always Konoha's best team. This is the team whose star shines the brightest. The first was Tobirama Senju, the Nidaime Hokage. Sarutobi-sensei, our Hokage, was a part of his team then, along with Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, both of whom are in the Konoha Council now. The Hokage then went on to teach the next generation of Team 7-"
"-you, Orochimaru and Tsunade Senju." Minato finished. Jiraiya nodded. "It's your turn now. I'll push you hard, and I expect you to keep up. You two," He turned to me and Okita, "are younger. You'll be at a disadvantage for a few years against your peers in terms of physical strength. But that shouldn't be an issue for you, should it?"
"No." Okita affirmed.
"We're not that young. And Minato's the one who got his ass kicked back there."
"Hey! Why, you-"
"You took Kushina-nee out instead of me with your bet winnings!"
"I should never have agreed to your plan!"
Jiraiya sat back and watched, sipping his drink. Okita ate quietly, the haunted ghost of a smile on her face.
It was nice and peaceful day, with no inkling of the fact that in less than a year, the Second Shinobi World War would begin and our sensei and his teammates would earn their legendary titles amidst the rains of Ame and blood of Konoha.
I didn't set out to meet Nagato until I'd received confirmation that Dan Kato was back in the village from his mission as the Leaf Ambassador to Mist. I met Tsunade's white-haired husband at the foot of the Hokage tower, tossed my hat to him with a wink and swept out.
"Catch!" I'd said, "Report later. I'll be back in a few days."
Well, he wanted to be Hokage, he'd get to be Hokage for a few days. With Minato and Jiraiya both out of the village and Konan at my side, there were only a handful of people left in the village I'd trust with the position temporarily. Dan was one of those people. I'd catch up with him later and wheedle any information about the new Yondaime Mizukage when I got back.
"You left quite a backlog of paperwork." Konan observed.
I chuckled, "Anything to get out of doing them."
She smiled. "Tsunade won't be too happy about that. I'll put in an order for replacement furniture now." She gestured and a large cloud of paper drifted off towards Konoha's best carpenter's shop (who also claimed to be a distant Senju relation).
"You're the best."
Meeting up with Tiger and Ram at the gate, the four of us set off west towards Amegakure at full speed. Nagato had agreed to meet us at the border before escorting me into the village. I had my guard squad at half strength simply because even an acting Hokage needed security, and Konan was the strongest kunoichi in the Elemental Nations. She was as strong as any Kage in her own right.
Okita would've been stronger, were she alive. A traitorous little voice at the back of my head said. I ignored it.
Our journey through the Land of Fire was eerily smooth. There were no missing nin, no bandits, no dangerous chakra animals, nothing to break the monotony of continuous travel. We avoided villages, sticking to forested path we could traverse at ease. Konan had a massive net of paper scouts all around us but caught nothing either.
With the war between Cloud and Stone still raging, the border posts along the northern side were understandably at full alert and many more outposts deeper into the Land of Fire had been manned at short notice. They were shocked for the most part to find their Hokage at their doorsteps, but I digress: they were infinitely more comfortable than sleeping outdoors.
Konan left multiple paper scouts at each of them. She'd been meaning to do this for a while now but never got a good chance.
Eventually, we reached the border. I sensed four chakra signatures up ahead. Exiting the forest, I told the ANBU to stand back via handsigns as I went ahead with Konan. It was nearing evening. The clearing was covered in rain, the ground drenched and full of puddles. There was a low mist over the place and Nagato wasn't visible until we came in close.
Hanzo the Salamander's empty face loomed out of the darkness at me. Konan flinched, her hands moving to hurl a stream of explosives at the man who had crippled Yahiko, but she stopped herself in time. This wasn't him, for his eyes were a a shade off white, ringed in concentric circles.
"Nagato," I asked simply, "Why have you activated your paths?"
Nagato hadn't been crippled here as in canon. He wasn't fully capable of utilising the Rinnegan's various powers yet, but had the Outer Paths down pat. Normally they were kept deep within the vaults of Ame, bought out only in times of great need. Why now?
Hanzo's body, The Sixth Path of Pain, replied in Nagato's voice.
"The situation has changed. Ame is in danger. I need your help, Renaro, Konan."
Konan stepped forward, "We'll help, what's going on, Nagato?"
"There are over five hundred Iwagakure ninja approaching from the north. They'll reach Rain's borders in an hour or two at most. I've taken Four Paths and the Akatsuki to meet them. Most of my ninja are stationed in the village itself.
The Fifth Path of Life spoke up. He was a young man, a full head shorter than me, with pale hair and dark skin. I didn't know him at all, which meant he was a local criminal. All of Nagato's paths , save the first, were criminals who had been executed in Amegakure. He wasn't unhinged like in canon; he didn't even consider using a healthy ninja as one of the Paths.
"Iwagakure still remembers you, Renaro. They won't dare raise a blade in your presence. Will you come to the northern border?"
I spoke without hesitation, "I'll come."
