"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Demon Talking"

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 19: Of Snakes and Sand

In a secured area within the walls of Sunagakure, four ninja stood at attention. Before them stood a short figure hidden by the shadows. Said figure soon spoke up.

"What have you found?"

Each ninja gave a report to their supposed superior. Although all ninja had male builds, their voices carried a distinctively female tone. Listening to every word said, their superior found everything to be already within his knowledge until a certain statement piqued his interest.

"You say that your charge works in the restricted areas of the archives?"

"Yes, that's correct Naruto-sama. Barakon and I are friends who both mainly work in the archives."

"Interesting." White teeth glinted in the darkness as their superior smiled. "That's perfect."

After dismissing the kitsune and thanking them for their help, Naruto had created a clone, and together, the two of them transformed into Kitsubaki's and Barakon's former charges. The true Suna nin were sealed in a stasis scroll where he knew they would stay quiet.

Now, his clone and he were casually talking while acting out all the tips that the kitsune had described in their charges' behaviors. Honestly, he was glad that the kitsune were on his side. It was all thanks to Kurama – whether he admitted it to the fox was another thing altogether.

The shinobi of Suna were in a slight frenzy. Whether it was increased training or stockpiling weapons, the overall bloodlust in the air was unbelievable (though, it didn't faze Kodanuki). He knew that they were preparing for war, but even his slightly sadistic self still thought that this might be a little over the top. Actually, it probably wasn't ludicrous considering that Konoha had been stea- receiving missions from the Land of Wind's daimyo lately though the missions most likely belonged to Suna.

Entering the Kazekage's tower, he was fortunate to be able to pass by without greeting anybody. The other ninja in the general vicinity were just so uptight that they didn't seem to care that he and his clone walked past. It also helped that Naruto and his clone looked like any other uptight ninja.

The Konoha ANBU entered the archives per Kitsubaki's detailed directions and soon found himself upon rows and rows of file cabinets and bookshelves. 'Where to start?' he mused.

Taking Cat's advice to be a bit more organized with his document search, he first skimmed through all of the many labels and instructed his clone to do the same. However, a rustle to his right soon startled him out of what he was currently reading.

Peeking around the corner, he found another shinobi placing file folders into a drawer. Approaching the poor fellow who was to be subject to his presence, Naruto smiled and waved.

"Hey, I have a question."

The other shinobi looked up, smiled, and waved back. "Ah, Nibu-san, nice to see you. What's up?"

"I was asked to gather some files on that thing since it is going to be an integral part of the plan."

His interlocutor frowned. "Why would anyone be interested in that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Beats me. I'm just doing my job."

Snorting, the Suna nin responded. "Aren't we all. Anyways, I'm sure you'll find them in aisle 13. That's where they have always been."

"Thanks." With a quick boost of chakra in his legs, Naruto shot forward and knocked out the shinobi. Weaving a sturdy memory illusion in the man's mind with a layered sleep illusion for good measure, Naruto set the man down and rushed to aisle 13.

Finding what he was looking for – thank goodness that Suna felt the need to organize their archive well – the phony Suna nin flipped through file after file until he found exactly what he needed.

'Are you seeing this Kurama?'

A growl reverberated in his mind. "This is sick. Considering this is a demon talking, that's saying something."

'Who would seal anything into a fetus? That's bound to lead to trouble considering a weak seal would need to be used to compensate for the low chakra levels and lifeforce of the fetus. Well, perhaps they could have supplied chakra from elsewhere, like the mother, but still.'

"It still doesn't explain why my brother is in pain."

Naruto turned the pages until he found a detailed account of the seal used. He was glad that Suna was open to sharing knowledge of their jinchuuriki with the entire shinobi force; otherwise, it might have taken him longer to find this exact information.

'Well, we know how to fix your brother's container now.'

"Great. Let's get out of here now. This desert is going to give me chronic dry eyes."

'Idiot, we can't leave until we take care of the other problems.'

"Right…" Kurama grumbled. "Then get on with it, so we can get back to the forest."

'You know, fennec foxes how no problem with the desert.'

"Shaddup."

Snickering to himself, Naruto dismissed his clone and disappeared from the archive room.

"Sir, Shinobi 105462 was found asleep in the archives. It seemed he felt a dire need to nap on the job."

Kodanuki watched as the bogus Kazekage dealt with the issue of "slacking" subordinates by assigning him to the front for the assault on Konoha. Cringing a bit, he wondered if he should feel bad for the poor fellow who was subject to Boss' heavy sleep illusion.

After Boss had sent him off to tail Orochimaru, Kodanuki had found a plethora of reasons to hate the snake even more. For one, he was subject to watching the snake and Kabuto converse directly after the preliminary battles. Then, he was forced to tail the snake to Suna where the former Konoha nin assumed the role of Kazekage.

In all of his time as an infiltrator, Kodanuki had the privilege to do jobs in high-ranking places, but he had never seen leadership as bad as Orochimaru's. It was like the snake was consumed with himself.

Another thing altogether was the disturbing collection of bodies underneath the Kazekage tower. Apparently, the snake needed to feed his summons with something, so Kodanuki often found himself watching as innocent civilians and rebellious shinobi were fed to the gigantic snakes at night. It was awfully disconcerting, especially considering that there was not a high level of panic about the disappearing citizens. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if the snake had somehow put the entire village under some kind of genjutsu.

The clone was honestly glad that Boss finally finished everything he needed to do in Suna. This meant that he could take the last step to eliminate the snake once and for all and hightail it back to Konoha. (It was mainly because the clone was tired of being a mouse, but he would never say so.)

Because he had been watching Orochimaru for so long, he understood the other's routine, and at this current moment, the snake was going to feed his pet summons. Using this opportunity, Kodanuki scurried off to the chamber where he knew the snake would return to once he was done with his current task.

Finally being able to undo the transformation after who knows how long, Kodanuki took a few steps to get reoriented with his size before getting to work. He whipped out his brush and ink and began to paint the tedious seal on the floor. Other clones along with Boss had been working on perfecting this seal for just this occasion. Frankly, it didn't take that long to modify an existing seal, but extra security measures had to be written into the seal to ensure that it would not miss a single scale of the slimy snake when it came time to use it.

Finalizing the first seal, the clone quickly set off into making a secondary seal that would siphon just a sliver of what they needed in order to completely complete this task later on. It was bothersome that the snake had devised the cursed seal and had found the ability to divide himself.

Kodanuki smiled to himself as he observed his final work. It was perfect, and he was sure that it was to work. Now, the only action left was to hide himself and observe. There was no way he was going to go back to being a mouse, so he opted to climb into a nearby vent and entirely mask his presence.

Now it was time to sit back and enjoy the show.

Orochimaru added 'Collect more villagers' to tomorrow's list of to-dos. Even a genius such as himself needed some way to organize himself. He chuckled as he walked down the hallway towards the room where he would retire for the night. Mentally doing calculations, he realized his summons ate much more than he anticipated, but it would all be worth it since they had agreed to tear Konoha to the ground.

Entering a simple door that he had fortified with his personal security seals, Orochimaru found himself trapped in a barrier the moment he had shut the door. He didn't quite understand what was happening, but he soon would.

Pain coursed throughout his body with no restraint. His knees gave out as he tumbled to the floor. He vaguely noticed that his mouth was open although for what reason he did not know. What in the world was happening?

Then it hit him (somehow, he was still able to think while in a state of great torment): the pain felt the exact same as when that ANBU had meddled with Sasuke-kun's cursed seal.

Curse his sensei and his sensei's ANBU. They were nothing but fools to think that they could keep him down for long. They better not think that this will stop him from enacting his revenge.

Those were the last thoughts of Orochimaru as his body had taken to spasming sporadically until it finally ceased.

.

Kodanuki jumped down and stared at the pale body of the former Sannin. It was just as entertaining as he thought it would be to watch the snake writhe and squeal in anguish until it finally perished. Now all that was left to do was to collect and leave.

Creating a clone and dispelling it, Kodanuki relayed the events of the night to Boss and summoned Boss to his location.

Not even five seconds later, Boss was standing in the middle of the room frowning disapprovingly at the corpse.

"That was surprisingly anticlimactic. I thought he would put up more of a fight."

Kodanuki shrugged at Boss' comment. "Well, that was the plan. I enjoyed watching the torture as his soul was ripped out of him and shoved into a pocket dimension." It was fun watching Boss cringe at his comment too, though he would never say so.

"Right," Boss drawled. "Anyways, let's clean everything up." His original self threw him a scroll, and he promptly sealed the body away. Leaving no trace of the seals or that Orochimaru was ever in the room, Boss had done a great job at cleaning despite despising the menial task.

With everything packed away, Boss turned to address him one last time. "I don't want to hear you complain about being a mouse again. A month is totally not that long." Not a second after hearing the sentence end, Kodanuki poofed out of existence.

.

"Finally, you're done. Does that mean we can go back to the forest now? This desert is going to leave me dehydrated for weeks."

'Oh, quit your whining. Yes, we are going back now.'

"Well then hurry it up already."

'You know you can be such an ass sometimes.'

Naruto glanced around the room one last time to ensure that there was no evidence left from the snake. Nodding his head in approval, he deactivated the barrier that kept everything inside in and everything outside out – not including himself.

Without the help of hand signs, he once again disappeared, this time from both the Kazekage tower and Sunagakure. It was time to return home.

Updated: 27/4/20