Chapter 9:
Broken Peace

The Hokage was beyond annoyed with Hatake Kakashi. He had grudgingly accepted the fact that the silver-haired man would never be on time for anything. But this was just crossing the line.

Sasuke had missed the deadline for reporting to the final exam tournament. Normally this would count as a forfeit for the Uchiha. However, there was a great deal of anticipation to see Sasuke, the son of the deceased Uchiha clan leader and younger brother of the clan's murderer, fight in the tournament. So, in order to satisfy the masses (and several important dignitaries), and to avoid punishing Sasuke for his teacher's chronic tardiness, Sasuke was not disqualified and the tournament got underway without his arrival.

Naruto's match had been fantastic. The Yondaime was well aware that he was biased, but he didn't care. It had been a suspenseful match, which pleased the crowd a great deal. Naruto had won, kept his little promise, and not gone berserk with that flare of demonic chakra—which pleased the Hokage.

But Sasuke's match with Gaara was supposed to follow Naruto's match with Neji, and the Uchiha boy still had not arrived. Again, he should've been disqualified, but the Yondaime bent the rules once more. And the Hokage's irritation with the man who supposedly had been his student burned hotter.

Shino's match with Kankuro should have followed Sasuke's skipped match, but Gaara's older brother unexpectedly withdrew from the competition. That had been very worrisome. Kankuro had seemed very confident and was clearly skilled enough to have advanced to where he had in the exams. So why had he withdrawn mere moments before his match was to begin?

Regardless of Kankuro's inexplicable forfeit, the tournament continued with Shikamaru's bout against Temari. Although not as flashy as Naruto's fight, the Hokage found Shikamaru's performance just as entertaining. The Nara clan was known for producing fine strategists and Shikamaru was no exception. His brains handily outdid the Suna kunoichi's brains and her punishing winds. Even though he had quit at the end, the Nara boy's chances were very good for being promoted.

If he gets a high enough score to get promoted, I can't wait to see his face. The Yondaime's amusement died quickly, because with the conclusion of that match, there was no more stalling for Sasuke. I have to remember to have Kushina-san help me come up with a suitable punishment for Kakashi-san…

The Hokage swallowed a sigh and prepared to declared Uchiha Sasuke disqualified to move the tournament along—

There was an excited stirring in the audience and the Yondaime glanced down to find that Hatake Kakashi had finally made his dramatic arrival with his student Uchiha Sasuke.

…I'm still going to punish him. Kakashi-san is a grown man and an experienced ninja; he should know how to be on time. To almost ruin his student's chance for advancement…irresponsible and unacceptable.

The Yondaime Hokage quietly seethed in his seat while trying to hide his ire from the Kazekage.

He was able to set aside his irritation for later as Sasuke finally entered the arena to face down Sabaku no Gaara. The crowd was hushed and tense in anticipation as the biggest fight in the first round—one of the last Uchiha against the deadly child of the Kazekage—was moments away from beginning. Gaara loosed some of his sand…and then Sasuke blurred into motion.

The Uchiha boy was fast—much faster than he had been before. And it quickly became obvious to the Hokage that Sasuke was utilizing elements of Rock Lee's fighting style, which he had copied with his kekkei genkai at some earlier point. With his vastly increased speed, his hard-hitting taijutsu, and the predictive abilities of his Sharingan, Sasuke quickly got around Gaara's sand and started doing the red-headed boy some mild damage.

It almost seemed to be a blow-by-blow repeat of Gaara's fight with Rock Lee. The Hokage watched as the same moves had the same result on the Suna boy. And Gaara seemed to notice this too, which led him to do something different.

Gaara wrapped himself in a sphere of sand, generated a sand globe that seemed to be an eye…and then apparently just sat there. Sasuke tried to attack the sphere, but spikes of sand grew out of the surface of it and tried to skewer him. The Suna genin wouldn't come out or attack, and the Konoha genin couldn't deal a single blow. It looked like a stalemate.

And then Sasuke backed off, scaled a side of the high-walled arena with chakra, and started to gather lightning to one of his fists.

He taught him that?!

The Hokage was hazy on the details of ninja combat and skills. He mostly operated on instinct for the most part and couldn't recall the fine details of what he was doing or how (except with seals; he really liked those and they seemed more like art than something that was intended to kill another person). But he worked enough with his former student to recognize one of Kakashi's signature moves.

The Raikiri is too high-powered for a genin, even one like Sasuke. It must be the Chidori then…

Straining his ears, he could hear the distant sound of crackling energy masquerading as thousands of chirping birds. The Hokage blinked, and almost missed Sasuke darting into motion. With the aid of his Sharingan, the Uchiha got in close, dodged around the sand spikes, and slammed his jutsu into and through the shell of sand.

There was silence…and then Gaara screamed.

So Sasuke's scored a real hit. The Hokage frowned at Gaara's extreme reaction. With the way that he's screaming, it's almost like he's never suffered any real pain before. But that can't be right. …Maybe he's just surprised that someone got through that sand cocoon of his.

The atmosphere seemed to darken and Sasuke tried to free his arm. After a bit of struggle, he succeeded…and pulled something out with him. It was an ugly yellowish tan color, a marked difference from the sand of the protective shell. Whatever it was lost its grip on Sasuke and quickly retreated into the cocoon.

That thing…what was it? The hair on the back of the Hokage's neck prickled. Could that have been that demon…Shukaku?

But then the sand shell collapsed revealing a bleeding Gaara on the ground. The wound didn't look serious, certainly not serious enough to make the boy collapse. The red-headed boy sat in a pile of limp sand, clutching at his head, and looking to be in some kind of pain.

…Is he having some kind of psychotic break?

It really looked that way. Gaara didn't seem aware of where he was or what was going on. Sasuke didn't know what he should do. And the proctor, Shiranui Genma, chewed on his senbon needle and scowled at the whole scene.

I guess that's it—

And then it started snowing feathers.

What the—

Pain.

Pure agony burst from the seal and stabbed deep into his brain. There was no slow build-up, no gradual escalation. It was zero to full-blown migraine in an instant.

That had never happened before.

There was an explosion of smoke—

Someone had grabbed him, yanked him upwards—

Scaly things coiled around him like ropes…

He had to get away, had to escape, but he couldn't. To use his Hiraishin no Jutsu—to use any sort of escape jutsu—he needed to focus. And he couldn't focus; it hurt too much.

There was no escape.

…Snakes?

The scaly coils were snakes. Large snakes with strangely patterned scales. Summon snakes.

Blinking against the burning, stabbing pains, he squinted at…the Kazekage?

The Kazekage stood on the red roof tiles with his back to the Hokage. The leader of Suna shed his blue-and-white hat, and then his blue-and-white robes. And then he turned around and peeled off his face.

Golden serpent eyes leered back at the Hokage maliciously.

"Hello Minato-kun! It's been such a long time…"

Tenzo—codename Yamato—broke the genjutsu as soon as he noticed it and immediately rushed towards the Hokage. He'd been stationed at the fighting arena in order to deal with Sabaku no Gaara should the boy get out of hand. But the Suna Jinchuuriki was out of commission (his building demonic chakra had collapsed to nothing) and now his leader needed his ANBU.

He was too late.

The Yondaime had been hauled to the roof of the stadium building, and four young mystery ninja formed the corners of a square barrier ninjutsu. One of the other ANBU tried to charge through it before it had stabilized, but he was shocked severely and repelled. There was no getting through.

Through the grayish distorting haze of the barrier, he could see the Hokage limp and bound by serpents. There seemed to be no reason for their leader to not fight back or escape. The Kazekage stood nearby on the roof…and shed his disguise to reveal the rogue Sannin underneath.

"Orochimaru," Yamato cursed behind his mask.

But if Orochimaru was the Kazekage, where is the real Kazekage?

Shunting aside the question (and a good dozen others), Yamato focused on the situation in front of him.

Yondaime-sama…why hasn't he escaped?

Kushina hated to admit it, but she almost fell for the "snowing feathers" genjutsu that some jerk cast over the entire stadium. But she shook it off and broke the illusion's hold over her mind. All around her the civilians and the lesser ninja slumped over in genjutsu-induced sleep, and she pretended to, too.

While she was slumped over in false sleep, she kept her senses alert. She caught a glimpse of a turban-wearing Suna-nin prowling nearby. And then there a ninja with a musical eighth note—an Oto-nin—that darted past her.

It's one of the worst-case scenarios, she thought grimly as she slipped her Leaf hitae-ate out of an inside pocket of her light vest and loosely tied it around her neck. Oto is an enemy. Suna is back-stabbing us. And they're working together to try and cut Konoha's throat.

Easing one of her concealed kunai blades into her hand, she carefully watched and waited…and lunged at the back of a nearby unsuspecting Oto-nin.

He never knew what hit him.

She hadn't been in the field in years. She hadn't admittedly kept her training up the standards of a field ninja of her rank. But she trained with Naruto, she kept in shape, and she retained the experience. In this emergency, it would be enough.

Releasing the corpse, she retreated towards the back of the stands. With a solid wall at her back, there was no way someone could sneak up behind her. And if she could find some Konoha-nin to join up with, all the better.

As she vaulted up the stair-step rows of seats she tried not to think about Hinata and Kiba. The strange ANBU had carried Hinata off for treatment and Kiba and his puppy had followed. The Inuzuka boy had briefly returned to the seats to watch Shino's match, and when it didn't happen he left to check on the Hyuuga girl. He hadn't come back.

She's in the stadium infirmary. He's still with her. They're fine. Focus on the present!

Kushina managed to knock off another Oto-nin, and a Suna-nin, before she Kawarimi'd away from an enemy attack, reappearing on one of the higher balconies where the dignitaries sat to watch the fights. Her new position gave her a great view of the various small skirmishes going on in the arena and stands below. It also gave her a glimpse of part of the red-tiled stadium roof.

What's that? She frowned and squinted at a grayish rectangular pillar of…something…that rose off the rooftop. A…barrier? But why? What for?

Shrugging it off, she left it for the ANBU to deal with and looked down again to try and determine where she should go next.

There's Kakashi, she noted. …And Gai. And look at all those ninja who are trying to kill them…

Might as well head in that direction.

Before she ditched her spot on the balcony full of snoozing nobles and their entourages, she looked towards the Hokage's balcony where the Yondaime and the Kazekage sat.

It looked like a small bomb had gone off there, and there was no sign of either 'Kage.

Crap.

While she had held her distance from the Yondaime in the earliest days of his reign, and in his earliest days of amnesia, Kakashi had spent most of his time trying to be his addled sensei's shadow. After she had found herself drawn back to the mind-wiped Hokage's side, Kakashi would occasionally drop by to talk with her about the old times. And sometimes he'd share little horror stories of trying to deal with his precious sensei who didn't know him anymore.

When it was discovered that the future Yondaime still retained his ninja skills and abilities, it was necessary to test him to see how much he could still do and how well he could do it. And the best way to test that was to engage him in practice spars. This led to a lot of problems…

The confused man didn't want to fight. He had to be coaxed into sparring with other ninjas and he was always terrified of hurting his opponents. When he was sneak-attacked with no warning, he would react instinctively and appropriately for a ninja. But once he had subdued his attacker and it caught up with him that he had hit or hurt the person, he would immediately fall apart and start apologizing.

Reacting that way in actual combat was a good way to get killed, and so he had been pulled from active field duty up until the time that he'd been installed as the next Hokage.

If he gets into a tight spot where the ANBU can't protect him, he can run away. He still can use the Hiraishin. He will run away and let the rest of us handle this…

She shook her head and dropped from the mid-level balcony to work her way towards Kakashi and Gai.

…Please run away.

The Hokage wheezed as the snakes tightened slightly around his helpless body.

"Ah, it's so nice to be back!" Orochimaru purred as he lazily paced around his captive on the rooftop. "The village looks the same…except for that addition to the Hokage monument. Hmm…I think I'll blow it up."

The entrapped Hokage tried to ask a question, but could only croak out: "…How?"

"How can I trigger that seal on your forehead?" Golden eyes glittered in wicked glee. "It's very simple, Minato-kun. I put it there."

"W…why?"

"Relax," the rogue Sannin purred. "I'll explain everything. With my 'Sound Four' holding up their barrier, no one will be able to interrupt…"

One of the binding snakes shifted and sank its fangs into the Yondaime's neck.

"Don't worry, the venom won't kill you," Orochimaru smirked, noting the fearful widening of his victim's eyes. "It just paralyzes you and interferes with your chakra. I can't have you escaping before I finish…like you did last time."

The traitorous Sannin ran his long dark tongue over his thin lips and leered at his prisoner.

"As you once knew—and I'm sure that you've been told—I live to learn new skills and discover new things. During one of my old missions, I came across the ruins of a dead civilization and I took the time to collect some writings and artifacts for further study at my personal leisure. And from my research, I discovered a seal that they had developed for the punishment of criminals. I kept this to myself—saved it for a rainy day, as some might say."

Orochimaru chuckled darkly.

"And as you once knew—and you've surely been told since—my aspiration was to ascend to the office of Hokage. You, too, desired the position. At first, I did not see you as a serious rival. I was the favorite and most powerful student of the Sandaime Hokage, experienced, successful, and well above any other pursuer of the post. You were a student of that oaf, Jiraiya; you were young, inexperienced, over-eager, foolish… But you began to grow strong, build a reputation, and become a threat."

The Sannin's arrogant, smug demeanor congealed into something darkly angry.

"At first I was certain that Sarutobi-sensei would still choose me to succeed him, but he began to show you more favor…more favor than me. As much as I disliked the idea that my dear old sensei would betray me and deny my greatest dream, I had to acknowledge that the possibility existed. So you had to be eliminated."

Smirking again, the snake-like man moved to stand directly in front of the Yondaime and gently stroked his cheek.

"Killing you would've been the simplest solution. But just to kill you would be such a waste. So I endeavored to make your end useful to my research. I made you one of my…experiments."

The trapped Yondaime couldn't help but recall scraps of the horrors he'd seen as he'd followed Jiraiya through Orochimaru's hidden lab on the fringes of the village. To think that he was just like some of the poor souls he'd seen there… He tried to shiver, but the paralyzing snake venom prevented it.

"Reading about that ancient seal that I had uncovered was intriguing. I desired to see it in action. So when you drew that mission escorting that paranoid noble back to his home in the Land of Rice Paddies, I intercepted you before you returned to Konoha and shared some drugged water with you." Orochimaru shook his head as he chuckled. "It was child's play to ensnare you."

The Sannin reached up and carefully removed the hitae-ate from the Yondaime's head and tossed it aside to clatter on the hard roof tiles. The whip-thin tail end of one of the serpents moved to push up the fringe of blonde bangs and bare the partial seal emblazoned there. Orochimaru traced the marks thoughtfully for a minute or so before speaking again.

"Unfortunately, I made a minor miscalculation and you woke up before I could finish applying the seal. You employed that dratted Hiraishin no Jutsu that made you famous and escaped me. But I must say, my experiment wasn't a total failure…

"When you stumbled back home all addled and confused it was quite fortunate for me that you acquired that amnesia. I greatly looked forward to studying you and your broken seal, and perhaps find a way to perfect it into something more than a very cruel execution method. The full seal was named something along the lines of 'the eternal torment' and was designed to wipe the victim's memory, lock him in a catatonic state, and wrack him with excruciating pain until his body slowly give out and dies. Imagine: to not know who you are and know only agony, unable to scream or react in any way…until death creeps in and takes it all away."

Orochimaru ran his long tongue over his mouth again, as if tasting the described torment…and savoring it.

"Regrettably, I grew a little too aggressive in acquiring test subjects for some of my other experiments and my extra studies were uncovered by Sarutobi-sensei." He sighed and shook his head regretfully. "One of my sensei's greatest weaknesses was placing too much value on human life—a weakness I had long since rid myself of—and he drove me away. And so my chance to study you was taken from me. Such a pity."

The dark-haired man brushed some long strands of hair from his eyes and scrutinized his captive audience for a moment.

"You're probably wondering why I've come back. What I'm planning to do. …I'll tell you, Minato-kun.

"When I fled the village, I resolved to return and show Sarutobi-sensei the error of his decision. When that foolish old man killed himself in subduing the raging Kyuubi I was without a target. And when you—my crippled victim—replaced the Sandaime as I had first worried that you might…I found a new focus for vengeance."

Orochimaru sneered at him.

"I cannot have this village, so I will smash it. I cannot strike out against my sensei, so I will settle for you instead. I could not have the seat of Hokage, so you will suffer."

The Sannin flashed him a smile that looked almost kindly.

"But don't worry, Minato-kun. I won't kill you."

He produced a small ink pot and brush.

"I'm just going to finish what I started…"

Naruto gulped hard as he sprinted after Pakkun, the ninja pug that his sensei had summoned. He and Sakura and Shikamaru were following the dog as it led them after Sasuke who was chasing Gaara and his two siblings. Kakashi wanted the three of them to back Sasuke up.

Why is this happening? Naruto wondered as they ran.

One moment Sasuke looked like he had been about to win against Gaara, the next it was snowing feathers and Naruto was out like a light. When Sakura woke him up, it was a different world. The exams had been replaced by war as Oto-nin and Suna-nin clashed with Konoha-nin all over the stadium littered with unconscious civilians.

This was way worse than the misclassified mission to Wave. This wasn't just his team—himself, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi—risking their lives against Zabuza, Haku, and Gato and his thugs. It was his entire village against two other villages—one army against two other armies. This was so much bigger.

He was worried for a lot of people, but most especially his mom. Sure, she used to be a ninja and had taught him most of what he knew about being a ninja. Sure, she was tough and could be really scary, especially when she was mad. But…she was his mom and she'd stopped being a ninja the day that he was born.

What if she was too out-of-practice? What if she wasn't in good enough shape? What is she got hurt?

…What if she died?

Gah! Naruto shook his head fiercely. I can't worry about that now! I need to focus on the mission! I need to pay attention, otherwise Sakura-chan or Shikamaru might get hurt. My job is to go help Sasuke!

After that I can go back and help Mom…

Orochimaru smiled as his snakes lowered the Yondaime Hokage to the roof and uncoiled from him before vanishing in puffs of white smoke. The blonde man lay limp, his eyes half open, unfocused, and glassy. The Sannin checked his victim's vital signs, found them to his liking, and then took a moment to study the completed seal before he stepped away.

As he had told the Yondaime, Orochimaru would not kill him. He would let his former rival live…so that he could suffer the full power of the tormenting seal. The dark-haired Sannin was most curious to see how long Namikaze Minato would last against it.

Taking a moment, he seethed against his old sensei and the village. Sarutobi Hiruzen had favored the wrong candidate, and then dashed his greatest student's dreams by banishing him. Then the old man had the gall and go and martyr himself and the village had chosen to make the mental cripple the next Hokage.

It really wasn't fair.

But today is my day of vengeance.

For years he had worked and planned for this day. He had started up his own small village of ninja: Otogakure no Sato. He had ensnared Suna, Konoha's ally, into his plans. And now he was finally putting into play the plan he had slaved over for so long.

The Yondaime Hokage had been punished. The village was beginning to be punished. And now it was time to punish a dead man.

One of the techniques he had developed in his exile could raise the dead—his Edo Tensei. He would resurrect the first three Hokages and use them as weapons. The Shodai, Nidaime, and Sandaime would have to obey him and help destroy the village that they had founded and protected with their lives. The village would fall prey to its greatest heroes.

Yes, revenge was sweet.

Come to me, Sarutobi-sensei!

Orochimaru began making the necessary hand seals—

A blast of black flames slammed into Sakon's (and Ukon's) corner of the barrier. The chakra barrier held briefly, and then crumbled. The twin Oto-nin were quickly incinerated. With one corner destroyed, the entire barrier wavered and collapsed.

Staring beyond the lingering black flames that crackled and burned the patch of roof where the barrier had been, Orochimaru's yellow eyes widened.

"…Itachi!"