11/4/2014 - 267 Reviews, 214 Favorites, 234 Followers

Failed Reset Chapter 35 Soundtrack - lifesbutawalkingshadow

1) Umineko Chiru EP7 BGM - 7-weights

Relevant points of recap:

- Kabuto had his left eye blown out by Hidan.

- Tobi recruited a whole bunch of new people to his group.

- Tobi took Nagato's Rinnegan

- Sasori launched an operation to pull his agents out of Otogakure, taking out many of Orochimaru's bases in the process.

- Zetsu has been killing and replacing people.

- I'm baaack!

Chapter Thirty Five: Eyes

(Kazuko Sound Base - Land of Sound) (1)

The pigeon shot through the air, darting upwards towards the roof of the cavern. A dozen bats pursued it, their high-pitched screeching magnified by the rocky walls. Within seconds they were upon it. The flapping, shrieking mass of bodies tumbled to the floor, the impact sending bats flying off in all direction everywhere.

Rinji, the brown-haired Sound shinobi who was controlling the bats, sighed and raised his hands into a seal. There was a puff of smoke, and the bats vanished. The tiny, feathered form of the pigeon lay still.

Tobi walked over to where the bird had fallen, plucking it off the ground

Its neck was broken.

Tobi tossed it to Spiral Zetsu, who was currently disguised as a sixty-something man the plant had encountered at some point. The plant caught it, then placed it in a wicker basket. He'd probably eat it later.

Tobi turned to look at Rinji. The Sound ninja raised his hands, an apologetic grin on his face. "Hey, this isn't exactly conventional bat behaviour, you know. It's pretty hard to make them do something like this."

"I'm aware." Tobi said. "Next."

"Yessir!" Spiral Zetsu gave him a thumbs up. The plant-man swung open the door of one of the bird boxes, and out came another pigeon.

Tobi watched its flight. They were in a vast underground cave, one of Sound's training grounds. They were currently testing whether Rinji's bats could bring down a pigeon without harming it. And so far, the results had not been promising.

This little project that he was working on was one of the ways that he was considering entrapping Uzumaki Naruto. One of the many interesting events that had caught Tobi's attention recently was the splitting of Konoha into two factions, one that sought refuge in Suna and another that remained in the ruined village. Naruto was one of the ones who'd gone to the Land of Wind, which was unfortunate, as Tobi simply did not yet have the resources to take on Naruto, Jiraiya, Gaara, Konan and the rest of Suna and win. By this point, however, Tobi had a fairly comprehensive idea of how Naruto Uzumaki's mind worked; enough to know that if the people he'd left behind in Konoha were threatened, he'd probably rush straight back to his beloved village to assist.

Suna and Konoha currently had two methods of communication. The first was through carrier pigeons. The second was Nagato's Lantern Technique, which people who held the Akatsuki rings could use to instantly communicate.

Naturally, most of the really confidential stuff would be shared using Nagato's jutsu. Currently, though, the only one in Konoha with a ring was Kakuzu. Eventually, the bounty-hunter would be redeployed or killed or simply leave of his own devices, and then they'd be forced to rely on the pigeons.

What Tobi wanted to do was tap into that network. Rinji Akimoto was an Otogakure shinobi he'd requisitioned from Orochimaru, who couldn't have cared less. The man valued ambition over loyalty, which was good. If Rinji's bats could take down the pigeons, Tobi would position Rinji and Spiral Zetsu somewhere out in the forests of Konoha. If he did so soon, Spiral Zetsu could start bringing down the pigeons even while Kakuzu was still in play; using the time to examine the message system, familiarize itself with the way that the people on either side wrote, and learn how to duplicate it.

Up above, the bats latched onto the pigeon, pulling it down. Tobi watched it fall. This time, there was an element of order to the chaos. The bats scattered, and Rinji stepped forward, lifting the pigeon. He grinned at Tobi. "Oh ye of little faith. Told you I could do it."

Tobi stepped next to him. The bird was, indeed, still alive. Unfortunately, that didn't look like it would be the case for long. The pigeon was covered in scratches, its right wing was broken, and it was bleeding heavily. It wouldn't last a day.

He plucked the bird out of Rinji's hands, then snapped its neck with a quick twist of the wrist. He threw it to Spiral Zetsu, who examined it.

"Oh, how useful!" the disguised plant man exclaimed. "I'm sure no one will notice anything strange! Maybe after they die of blood loss, we can sneak into Suna and throw them through the windows!"

"Wow, thanks Mr Fossil, I really appreciate your feedback." Rinji gestured at one of the smears of blood on the ground. "Maybe you'd like to give it a try?"

Spiral Zetsu shook a fist at him, then spat on the ground. "That's Sir Winashikakusamitoshika to you, whippersnapper!"

'Sir Winashikakusamitoshika'. Taking advantage of any opportunity to amuse himself, Spiral Zetsu had thrown himself into character, coming up with a name that sounded like he'd just blended as many letters together as possible. He walked with a cane, constantly grumbled about the temperature and spat as much as was humanly possible. Tobi didn't care, so he just let him do it.

"Again." he said.

Zetsu was in the process of releasing another pigeon when his eye gave a little twitch. He let out the bird, then turned to Tobi. "Oh, by the way, I think Zetsu wanted to talk to you."

Spiral Zetsu had just received a telepathic message from regular Zetsu. Not very subtle, but it worked.

Tobi nodded. "Keep working on it."

"You're leaving?" Rinji gave him a small salute. "Sure, will do boss."

"Alright. When you come back, can you bring me some blankets?" Spiral Zetsu shivered. "It's cold in here."

Tobi ignored him and activated Kamui. The cavern faded away.

x

When the world faded back into focus, he was in a small, sparsely-furnished room. Zetsu was waiting for him, perched awkwardly on the arm of a chair that looked like it was about to collapse at any second.

Tobi nodded in greeting. "Is Hiruko here?"

The two halves shook their head. "En-route. I thought you might like the report first." White Zetsu said.

"Correct. Give me the replacement logistics first." Tobi said.

Zetsu reached into its cloak and pulled out a sheet of paper, handing it to Tobi. "The Daimyo Stratagem is proceeding... slowly. As you ordered, I've been replacing non-shinobi in positions of influence or potential influence, and I've stayed far away from Amegakure and Sunagakure, as well as avoided situations where my real nature could be exposed."

Tobi ran his eyes over Zetsu's report. On it were listed seventeen names, along with location, occupation and a little symbol to indicate gender. The locations varied greatly, everywhere from the Land of Earth to Snow Country and the Land of the Moon.

He looked up. "Only seventeen?"

The white half of Zetsu shrugged. "The initial recon process takes a while, and we've had all kinds of problems. They keep discovering us. Even with the Yamanaka jutsu, seamlessly replacing someone is difficult; they almost always have people close to them who notice something's off. And other times, we just get caught in crossfires. Do you want us to try expanding across Hichigatake? We're stretched pretty thinly as it is, but..."

Tobi shook his head. "No. Everything past Hichigatake is irrelevant to this conflict. Has anybody discovered the truth?"

"Nope." White Zetsu grinned. "Every Zetsu who died was in human form at the time, so there's nothing to trace it back. Plus, none of the regimes are talking to each other anymore. Nobody's going to notice, trust me."

"One woman witnessed the transformation process." Black Zetsu said. "We ate her."

"And she was de-de-de-licious." White Zetsu laughed.

"Hn." Tobi gave the sheet another look-over.

At times, it was easy to forget that Zetsu's worldview was totally alien to that of a human. The two halves were loyal, sure, but their grasp of concepts like good and evil were shaky at best, and it never seemed to even occur to either that killing a person was anything significant. Occasionally, a little flecks of morality would pop up here and there, but there was always something fake about it, almost like a child copying the motions of its parents.

One name caught his eye. "Hikaru Tsuki? Was it really necessary to replace a child?"

"Mm, it was." White Zetsu said. "The kid figured it out. Why, should I not have?"

"Why would it bother you?" Black Zetsu's voice sounded slightly surprised. "You strapped bombs to a baby."

Hm. So he had. For a second, Tobi wondered how might things have gone differently if the explosive tags he'd put on an infant Naruto Uzumaki had gone off. He blinked, bringing him back.

"Keep working on it. What's the status on the bijuu?"

"Tracking down the jinchuriki has been a nightmare." White Zetsu said. "We've devoted about a third of our number to it, and one, seven and nine are still the only ones we have a lock on. We think the rapping guy is out in the islands somewhere, but the rest seem to have gone to ground completely. The last sighting of Han is from Kusagakure a month ago, and Yugito and Ukataka haven't been seen at all. We haven't heard any news of the monkey reforming yet, either."

Could they know? It was possible that Konoha and Sunagakure had been able to get in touch with the rest of the jinchuriki before Tobi had been able to act. Or maybe the bijuu had come back with the rest of them. Either way, this made things difficult. Gaara and Naruto were in Suna together, and Fu was right in the middle of Takigakure's military. The Sanbi was hiding at the bottom of a lake somewhere, Bee was out in the swampy, labyrinthian nightmare known as the North Sea Islands, and the rest of the jinchuriki could very well be dead. Tobi hoped that his new group would be up to the task, because this would be a baptism of fire.

White Zetsu froze in place. "Ah. Hiruko is here."

Tobi clicked his tongue. The bijuu would have to wait. He had bigger fish to fry.

Zetsu melted down into the ground. Seconds later, the door swung open and Hiruko stumbled inside, almost slamming his head into the doorframe. The man had his hands in his pockets, and looked like he was about to have an anxiety attack. His face was pale, and Tobi could see beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Oh, um, sorry." Hiruko stuttered, stopping in place. "I'm... I'm not usually... um... like this."

He reached into a pocket with shaking hands, and drew out a small, metal tin. "Do you, uh..."

"No, Hiruko, I do not want a peppermint." Tobi said.

"Oh."

Tobi had yet to introduce the majority of his new recruits to each other. There were several reasons for this; for one, he wanted to be reasonably certain that the more useful ones weren't going to immediately kill each other. Plus, if Tobi himself had to kill someone during the evaluation period, he didn't want the rest of his new subordinates to start asking where the dead one was.

Of those new subordinates, Hiruko was one of the most still had no idea whether the man's outward manner was a pretense or not. To be entirely honest, Tobi didn't care if Hiruko was a sadistic, self-interested murderer, he just wanted to know that that was the case. But Hiruko was making that difficult.

See, on one hand, the notes he'd retrieved in the future had described Hiruko as an arrogant, malicious warmonger without an altruistic bone in his body. That had seemed like some fairly damning evidence. On the other, though, the man wrote long, detailed checklists about the pros and cons of absorbing the 'evil' Uzumaki woman, then sat up reading them until three in the morning. For God's sake, he kept a collection of ceramic cats on his bedside! It was like Tobi had recruited the world's most banal clerical worker, except that Hiruko absorbed people.

The thing was, it was actually weirdly plausible. The autopsy had said that Chimera was altering Hiruko's mind, and the man didn't pretend that he wasn't powerful, often muttering about how he 'wasn't usually like this' and 'would prove himself when the going got rough'. Perhaps Hiruko's current state was a result of Chimera, or maybe this had actually been Hiruko's real personality all along. After all, was it really possible that someone would go to such extreme lengths for something that didn't actually seem to serve any logical purpose? Tobi understood the situational advantages of not appearing a threat, of course, but to go that far? Ceramic cats?

"The... uh... the woman." Hiruko rubbed one foot on the other. "She... where, uh... yeah."

Tobi stepped toward the door. "Follow me."

He strode out into the hallway, Hiruko trailing after him like a lost puppy.

Tobi felt for the jar in his pocket. He'd been putting this off for a while now. When they'd first arrived at the base, Orochimaru had watched him like a hawk, demanding justifications and concessions every time Tobi did anything. Ever since he'd received Hidan's head, however, the demands had started to trail off. Orochimaru was really, really interested in Hidan. So interested in fact, that he'd started to neglect everything else. These days, he barely ever left the lab.

Tobi, naturally, intended to take full advantage of this. He'd held off on doing anything major for a while now, letting Orochimaru get nice and wrapped up in his work. He'd even refrained from asking for a sample Hashirama's DNA (though he'd have to do that soon, as the new statue was nearly complete). Requesting Rinji had been a trial run, and Orochimaru's apathy had exceeded expectations. Now that he was sure that Orochimaru wasn't paying attention, he'd be able to start preparing for the man's betrayal.

It was inevitable. Hidan wouldn't keep him occupied forever, and sooner or later, Orochimaru would decide that he was tired of sharing power. When he did move, though, he'd find that several of his former underlings had switched sides. Tobi would have to start small; a base commander here, a sleeper agent there, but in time, he'd be able to wrest away control of Otogakure.

There was, however, one individual who stood in his way. And as Tobi rounded a corner, that very same individual was waiting for him, glasses gleaming in the torchlight.

Kabuto shot him a smile dripping with false friendliness. "Welcome, Tobi."

Tobi didn't bother returning the pleasantry. "Is she ready?"

Kabuto nodded. His left eye-socket was covered by a square piece of white gauze, held in place by straps that ran around the back of his head. "She's waiting inside. She thinks she's here to see Sasuke Uchiha."

Kabuto blamed him for the loss of his left eye. It was an understandable accusation. It was also the window Tobi intended to use to be rid of him.

Tobi pulled the jar out of his pocket, then held it out. "Here's your payment."

Kabuto looked down at the jar. "An eyeball?"

"Yes. One of Nagato's."

Kabuto went very still for a second. "One of Nagato's?"

He blinked several times, then his eyes narrowed. "The Rinnegan? You're giving me the Rinnegan. Why?"

Kabuto suspected a trap. Which, seeing as it actually was a trap, was a logical position to take.

"Karin Uzumaki holds value for me, more than you know." Tobi said. "More than that, I am responsible for the loss of your eye. It may not seem like it, but I do have honour, Kabuto. Think of it as a gift."

All utter crap, but this was a hard sell.

Kabuto started to lift a hand, then stopped. "I don't believe you."

Tobi shrugged. "Believe what you want. I'm generous to the people that serve me, more so than some. You should remember that. Think on where your loyalties lie."

That was the kill. Kabuto wouldn't accept the Rinnegan simply as a gift, he was too smart for that. But as an attempt by Tobi to subvert Kabuto's loyalty? That might work.

Slowly, Kabuto reached out and took the jar. He licked his lips. "I serve Lord Orochimaru. This Rinnegan goes to him."

"It's yours. You can do whatever you want with it." Tobi said.

Kabuto nodded. "Are we done here?"

"We're done." Tobi said.

Kabuto turned and walked away. Tobi watched him go. Kabuto's walk was slightly less controlled than usual, enough to betray the fact that he was uneasy. Hopefully, his suspicions about the strength of Kabuto's loyalty to Orochimaru wouldn't prove groundless.

Tobi would never be able to bring Kabuto over to his side. He might, though, be able to bring out the medic's selfish side. Tobi thought back to that night in the Chiyubasa Clearing, where Kabuto had lost his eye to Hidan's jutsu. For someone as observant as the medic, it couldn't have escaped Kabuto's notice that when he'd been writing in the dirt with blood pouring out of his eye-socket, Orochimaru had completely ignored him. And now, Orochimaru had taken the extra step of neglecting what was supposed to be his right hand man completely for over a month, which Tobi expected rankled Kabuto to no end. Hopefully, this was all driving home just how little Orochimaru cared about him outside of his use as a military asset.

Assuming the explosive seals on the eye went undetected (and Tobi was certain that they would), Kabuto would do one of two things. He would either give the Rinnegan to Orochimaru, or he would keep it for himself. Either was good, but Tobi was rooting for the former. Orochimaru was a danger, certainly, but at least Tobi knew where he stood with him. But Kabuto? When he'd first got a taste of power, Kabuto had absorbed the DNA of about a dozen people, mastered Sage mode and resurrected about half of history.

More and more, Tobi was coming to understand just how lucky he'd been to handle Kabuto so easily the first time around. He'd waited until the man was occupied with remotely orchestrating a particularly complex battle, then yanked the man into Kamui's dimension, blown his right hand off and sent everything he had against him until he finally fell. Dragon Sage Mode had made him like a cockroach, and twice the man had climbed out of his own mouth in a completely new body. Tobi had had to repeatedly sever Kabuto's hands to stop him dismissing the six Rinnegan-manipulated jinchuriki or summoning Nagato or Itachi, and even then Kabuto had put up a hell of a fight.

Of course, there was also another danger to consider. Two months ago, Tobi had returned to the great underground chamber to retrieve and resurrect Madara Uchiha. He hadn't planned on bringing the man back fully; sacrificing himself for Madara Uchiha's resurrection wasn't exactly a tempting option, but the man's powers were great enough that it was worth reviving him as an empty, mindless shell.

But Madara had been gone.

Tobi had interrogated Kabuto in the future about how he'd acquired the body. Apparently, a group of spelunkers had discovered the cave at some point, and Madara's body had been removed, sold, and passed around for a while before Kabuto had stumbled across it by accident and recognized it for what it was. Tobi had made attempts to track it down himself, but to no avail, and he couldn't use Zetsu to do it, because ultimately, their loyalty still lay Madara.

As far as Tobi knew, Madara's body was just drifting around the continent, and anyone in the world might pick it up, including Kabuto. Hopefully, Tobi would have an opportunity to blow the smarmy medic's head off before that happened. (1E)

"Ahem."

Behind him, Hiruko nervously cleared his throat. Tobi looked back at him, making a motion towards the door. "You heard him. She's in there."

Hiruko took a deep breath. "You're... you're sure she's a bad person. Really sure?"

This was almost getting annoying. "What would you do if I said no?"

Hiruko swallowed. "I... I, um, might have to leave."

He wasn't going to risk that. "She's a bad person."

"...Okay. Please, don't come in. I don't want you to see this." Hiruko said quietly, then opened the door.

There was a woman seated on a chair inside, with bright red hair and purple clothes. "Well, it's about time. Where's Sasuke?"

Tobi quietly stepped out of view. Hiruko shot him one last anxious look, then stepped into the room. The door closed behind him with a click.

"Okay, what's the deal here?" The loud, irritated voice of Karin Uzumaki boomed into the hall.

"I... I'm sorry." Hiruko's voice, much quieter. "Please forgive me."

"What? Hey! What are you..."

There was a loud crash, then a scream. Then, a huge red chakra chain punched through the thick, wooden door like it wasn't even there, slamming into the stone wall next to Tobi's head. The masked man leapt to the side, then went for the door.

"Don't come in!" Hiruko's frantic scream stopped him. Tobi thought about it for a second, then settled back against the wall. If Hiruko couldn't handle Karin Uzumaki of all people, then Tobi didn't really have a use for him anyway.

He heard some more of Karin's screams, full of rage and fear, and several thuds. Then Karin went silent. There was a soft slurping sound, a tinkle of breaking glass, and then nothing.

Tobi waited patiently. Five minutes later, Hiruko emerged. His poncho was shredded, his eyes were wide, and he had a big bruise on his cheek. He was pale, out of breath. But as Tobi watched, a small smile flickered across his face.

"Thank you. I... I feel... you... it's still there, but I think I'm better now." Hiruko closed his eyes. "That poor woman... but a deal is a deal. I am yours to command."

"Good." Tobi turned to leave. "Then I have someone I need you to heal. You'll need to use the dragon bloodline."

At long last, Ketsueki Yuuyake was coming together. And Deidara would finally be able to reattach his arm, too. He'd appreciate that.

xXx

It tingled.

That was Hiruko's first thought after killing, compacting and absorbing Karin Uzumaki. His skin felt tingly, like there were little butterflies dancing under the surface. It was nice.

Hiruko looked around the shattered room. The chakra chains had been unexpected. It hadn't been all that bad, of course, but she had managed to tear his poncho. He'd also allowed her to clock him across the face, for appearances' sake. He wanted to appear powerful, but hesitant and weak-willed, and definitely not invulnerable.

The desire to absorb was still there, but it was weak now. He closed his eyes. Haplessly homicidal Hiruko would terrorize the good people of the Nations no more. Humble, helpful, high-strung Hiruko would walk in his place, doing the good work and taking lives only as a necessity. Perhaps he'd buy some more of those delightfully awful ceramic cats.

His mind had snapped back to its usual wonderful state. Hiruko looked down at his hands. They were soaked with blood. He felt a small pang of distaste, as well as a flash of irritation towards Karin Uzumaki. Certainly, she'd been in the process of being murdered, ingested and assimilated, but that was no reason to be messy about it.

He stepped out of the room, sliding on his out-of-his-depth clerical worker impression. Hiruko made it a policy not to get attached, but he had to admit, he did like this persona. Smart, weak-willed and a heart of gold.

His beloved leader, the terrifically-tremendous Tobi, was waiting for him. Hiruko a smile shine through the carefully-crafted conflict on his face, as if he were overwhelmed by relief. "Thank you. I... I feel... you... it's still there, but I think I'm better now. That poor woman... but a deal is a deal. I am yours to command."

Tobi, as usual, deigned to visibly react. "Good. Then I have someone I need you to heal. You'll need to use the dragon bloodline."

Ah. The dragon bloodline. The delightful ability that could heal any wound, at the cost of draining the life out of him like crushed grape.

Or would it?

"The... dragon bloodline? I..." Hiruko swallowed.

No. Somehow, Hiruko knew with absolute certainty that that was not the case. It was just a feeling, of course, and Hiruko usually placed the same value on feelings that he did on drunken rantings of random men in the street. This feeling, though, was far, far too strong to be a mere hunch.

The instant he'd finished absorbing Karin Uzumaki, a number of other certainties had sprung into his mind, too. Hiruko knew, for example, that if he decided to allow someone to sink their teeth into his flesh, something interesting would happen to the other person. He wasn't quite sure what that was, but he had to admit to a certain level of curiosity.

But dangerous experimentation could wait.

"Could I, um, get out of these, uh, clothes first?"

Hiruko needed to change. Karin Uzumaki had evidently just been some sort of human-shaped balloon filled with blood, because his poncho was ruined.

xXx

Next chapter comes tomorrow! Once again, I lied about ending here, but it's still pretty close! Also, it will include a list of all the new factions who showed up.

In anticipation of the next arc, I've put together an anime-esque opening. Aside from anything else, it'll give you an idea of what to expect next. It's under the somewhat lengthy name 'Failed Reset - Shadow Of Konoha [Naruto Opening MAD]', though just searching "Shadow of Konoha" seems to do the trick.

This took a very long time to write, mostly because university semester has resumed, and all the essays and such leave me all written-out. Plus, I've been following Twitch Plays Pokemon fairly heavily. So much time chewed up.

Now, some of you might be asking how spelunkers would be able to get into Madara's underground chamber and take the body without Tobi knowing. Surely, you'd say, would he really leave it unguarded? Would its absence not be noticed by Zetsu?

To that I say, I COULD ASK KABUTO THE SAME QUESTION! AND IF KABUTO CAN DO IT WITHOUT MR HIVEMIND SUPER-SENSOR ZETU NOTICING, SO CAN SPELUNKERS!

I thought it was a bit odd (reality-wise) that Spiral Zetsu, who has been around since Obito fell into that cave, didn't crop up again until the middle of the war. Surely, he must have been doing something with his time.

Karin just bit the dust. For an Interlude section, the list of deaths is turning out kind of huge.

Also, should you want a less serious take on time travel, I've written about three chapters of a much, much shorter story called Eye of the Chicken. It seems to have gone down fairly well, so if you're short on things to do...

But enough shameless self-promotion. There was originally going to be an extra section about Hiruko and his Chimera, but it didn't really fit with the (semblance of) story flow. So there are explanations for the stuff that goes on with him, they'll just show up later down the track. Maybe in, like, a flashback or something. Everyone loves flashbacks!

Failed Reset is brought to you by the letter C: For C4!

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