Sealing Salientia - Chapter 1: Destruction - Author: PenSmoke
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.
Author's Note: I have been informed that there are a lot of perspective shifts and that the story tries to focus on too many different characters. I'm working on making it better as I go, but I can't fix this opening chapter any more than I have. There are lots of viewpoints changes, but I have tried to demarc them as best as I could. If it bothers you, it gets better with later chapters, I promise!
There is also a lot of information being dumped, as this world is significantly AU from canon once the changes get going. Please be patient!
Konoha, Village Hidden in the Leaves, October 11th, Year 65 post-Konoha Founding
A gust of wind blew through the perennially open window of the Hokage's office. The glass panes wavered slightly on their hinges, emitting a miniscule creaking noise. A slightly humid burst of air, filled with the scent of the forest, drifted through the room before dissipating into miniscule currents of movement and scent. With the slightest of clacks of sandal-clad feet, a figure appeared in a swirl of leaves. The leaves drifted to a slow rest upon the floor of the office, dotting the plush red carpet therein. A single leaf floated onto a rich mahogany desk and landed on an official looking piece of paper emblazoned with the Hokage's seal. The display was stereotypical to ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, also known as Konoha.
Three figures were already occupying the chamber at the time of this intrusion, though the two adults that were aware of the sudden entrance didn't even bother to look up. Both had already known whom the presence was even before the man entered the premier space in the tower. The entering shinobi hadn't even bothered to mask his enormous chakra signature. It was a friendly and both current occupants were anticipating it. It was a foregone conclusion that he would arrive considering the occasion that had happened the day before.
"Where is he?" came the hoarse voice from the intruder, low and rough from fallen tears and emotion. A long mane of white spiky hair fell in front of his face, both obscuring his identity through hiding his face, and completely giving away who he was to anyone even lightly familiar with him. Reaching his hand up, he brushed away the offending follicles, revealing a long angular face, with red line markings reaching from under the eye and ending on his jawline. An irregular piece of metal was pushed up and secured the hair away from his face. Two small horns and the kanji for "oil" made this particular piece of metal much different than the ones typically seen on standard ninja amongst the ranks of Konoha, who used a leaf symbolized in a swirl pattern as their marking. Wearing an elaborate get-up such as this was one of the many privileges the man found himself able to take, due to both his power and prestige within the village.
One of the other people currently in the Hokage's office raised his head in acknowledgement of the newcomer. In a quiet, somber tone, he spoke. The voice carried both the authority of a leader, and the tone of an adult speaking to a child. "Come here Jiraiya." The man's face looked as if it had gained several new wrinkles overnight, had a large liver-spot adorning the left cheek, and gray hair formed a pointed goatee on the chin. This face, which had witnessed thousands of lives and thousands of deaths, was no stranger to giving horrible news. The wizened man beckoned the member of the Densetsu no Sannin forward.
Jiraiya pointedly ignored the other member in the room, a masked figure clad in pure black who had yet to say anything. The masked figure stepped to the side to accommodate the larger man and his presence. Nothing more needed to be done, as Jiraiya blew past him without even a glance.
Swaddled in cloth, cherub-faced and sleeping, a newborn blond boy rested peacefully in the older man's arms. Three whisker-like markings appeared on each cheek, giving him a foxlike appearance. A small tuft of blonde hair had escaped the swaddling cloth and drooped down the forehead, the shade of which was an exact match for Jiraiya's former student. The babe appeared to be contentedly sucking a thumb and seemed healthy from an initial inspection.
Jiraiya lifted a large calloused hand and dragged a finger along the marking across the cheek. A tear built up in his left eye, gathering enough fluid to slowly roll down between cheek and nose, now partially hidden from view by the great white mane haphazardly flopped in front of his face.
The white-haired man stared at the babe in front of him, being held in his teacher's arms. With the sensation of being touched, the infant cracked open a sleepy pair of eyes, bright cerulean blue, and blinkingly attempted to focus on the hand near his face. Jiraiya wiggled his fingers in front of the child for a moment, letting the innocence wash over him. Then, steeling himself, he brought his gaze up to his mentor.
"I need to see it sensei." The words had hardly left his mouth, when the now revealed sensei made a hand motion to the final occupant of the room. The black-clad ninja disappeared with nary a trace and reappeared a moment later with a table of sorts. Completely silent still, the figure pushed what appeared to be a medical examination table in between the two men, and then stepped back into the shadows to observe, making no further sounds.
"I know you do Jiraiya. And I know what you want to do. It is too late though. The seal is already set and the contract completed. Nothing more can be done. He's gone." Hiruzen sighed wearily. Jiraiya could tell that the man was tired. He could only imagine the events of the past 24 hours alone. The former Third Hokage had likely witnessed the deaths of hundreds of people and watched as his chosen successor was literally consumed by the god of death. Witnessing one of the most powerful beings ever to walk the planet come to try and raze the village he was sworn to protect would tire any soul. The toad sage would wager that the elder just wanted to retire, enjoy his last years in peace and quiet. Not having to send soldiers to meet their end while he sat in an office all day doing paperwork. The stress alone from taking the Hokage mantle back would probably end up killing him before any enemy ninja would.
The infant was placed on the examination table, and immediately started fussing at being set down, the cold metal beneath him earning the first expressions of anger that he had ever shown. Now lacking the warmth of the surrogate grandfather that had been holding him, his tiny mouth cracked open and small sounds started making their appearance, gradually growing louder. The noises only intensified when what remaining warmth the cloth possessed was peeled away to reveal his naked stomach and the black markings found on it.
Jiraiya stared intently at the now visible seal. A simple swirl in the middle twisted around twice with intricate markings both above and below. A design of four spikes running in semicircular patterns a short distance from the outside of the spiral, creating the matrix that encoded the rest of the seals' ability. As he stared for multiple minutes and pieced together all the different pieces of the seal, he realized that something was not quite right. He couldn't place the metaphorical finger on the issue, so he did the next best thing. He reached a finger out and tapped each point of the writing along the seals' boundary.
Something didn't sit quite right with the seal master. He inspected the whirls and loops of the design. It was apparent that Minato had wanted to get it just right. However, there was evidence of the seal being rushed. The edges of the marking were hazy and undefined. Smudges existed on multiple characters. A line looked like it had been blurred by a droplet of blood. It was messy and sloppy, but it seemed to have worked. A quick inspection showed that the seal was apparently stable and had accomplished its' assigned task. After all, the gigantic nine-tailed demon fox that had rampaged near here yesterday was gone and not stomping on the rubble of the city at that point, so clearly the seal had worked in the intended manner.
"Sensei, tell me what you saw last night." came the quiet voice of the toad sage.
A quiet exhalation of bated breath was his initial answer. After no answer was forthcoming after a moment, Jiraiya once again raised his eyes to meet his sensei's gaze, whilst leaving his fingers on the infant's stomach.
"Jiraiya, I don't believe that you are going to like what I have to say." Hiruzen started, attempting to create an air of diplomatic presence. The topic that was about to be broached was going to be difficult in all regards, considering the relationship between sensei and student that Jiraiya had built with Hiruzen's chosen successor.
The Third Hokage's student clenched his jaw, inhaling a hiss of air as he prepared to speak in return. "I don't think I will like it either. But, respectfully, you need to tell me what you saw. Every detail." Jiraiya knew that this was not going to be an easy task. He already had been informed about what had happened and was still coming to terms with it in his own way. While he would have loved to continue to peek through hot spring bath walls to gain 'perspective' for his books as was his usual coping method, this was too serious of a matter to be ignored in such a trifling method. He knew that there was no chance to change anything that had happened, but he needed to know. He needed to hear the news from a man that he trusted and respected above almost all others.
"To what end?" Hiruzen questioned back. "Nothing you do is going to..."
"Sensei, tell me now." A voice filled with a steely resolve, even though hardly more than a whisper, cut through the Sarutobi's words like a kunai through flesh.
A few seconds passed as the old Hokage sorted through thoughts in his mind. After another moment of time, he again motioned to the only other person in the room. The masked ninja sidled up to the two others at the examination table where the still fussing infant was held in place by Jiraiya's large calloused hand softly resting on his stomach.
The third Hokage's voice coalesced once more. "Gorilla had a better view of what happened than I did as I was busy in the village proper trying to help evacuate civilians. I'll let him tell you what occurred." Taking a small step back, he both allowed room for the masked person to speak and enabled himself a modicum of room to create a quick set of privacy seals. The conversation that was about to happen shouldn't reach the ears of anyone other than the three adults talking then and there.
For the first time since arriving, Jiraiya acknowledged the other presence in the room. He stared at the person and actually took note of them properly as would be expected of an intelligence gathering expert. The mask that the all black figure wore was indicative of a member of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, known colloquially as the ANBU. Each mask was different in design, though similar in style, meant to represent a caricature of a different animal. The design's origin became the agent's namesake while on duty and created both a sense of community amongst the group and a sense of mystery amongst those outside of the group. However, this particular person was not a member of the ANBU, per se. Though his mask was not denoted any differently than any other ANBU, it was present in how the person carried and presented themselves and in how responded to their leaders' commands. The fact that they were alone with the former Hokage in the chambers and were being entrusted to speak in his place meant that this was likely the ANBU Commander. This person was responsible for the entirety of the special operations forces known as the ANBU. Privy to more secrets than anyone but the Hokage himself. The identity of such a person was a fiercely guarded secret, and even a man of Jiraiya's skillset didn't know exactly who the person behind the mask was. The only information available was generic brown spiky hair set behind the stylized mask, which featured some purple shapes highlighting a mostly humanoid face, and the overall build of the person suggested a male.
"Jiraiya-sama," the voice started in a mechanically generated monotone to mask his speech. "Where would you like me to start?"
Using his other hand to rub his chin thoughtfully for a moment the toad sage responded with "Start just before any use of sealing was noticed." Jiraiya then locked his entire focus onto the man, not intending on missing any detail that may be presented.
Before starting, the mask tilted slightly to the side. It was evident that the person in front of him was looking to his commanding officer for a moment. The eldest Sarutobi affirmed his consent, without so much as uttering a sound. The privacy seals were complete and conversation could commence without any unwanted persons gaining access to what would become highly restricted information in the future. Taking another moment to gather his thoughts, the commander began slowly. There was no worry for recalling the details, as the visions that had been witnessed the prior evening were not something that could be forgotten easily. The captain began in an evenly paced, mechanical voice, "Team Ro, with myself at lead, were in charge of protecting the Fourth Hokage to the best of our abilities against the demon. Minato had asked for us to try and delay the creature while he created something that would allow victory. He teleported off-site using Hiraishin. We managed to hold the beast off for about ninety seconds whilst he did something that I am not aware of the exact details. I assume it was the quick copying of the needed seal onto the infant. He then reappeared using Hiraishin. At which point, he faced the demon, made hand seals, held the infant out in his arms, became completely still and ordered us to go behind him. I believe that this was intended to protect us from either being an unintended target for his technique or being caught up by the beast before the technique took hold.
At a small inhalation of air from Jiraiya, the commander paused momentarily. After the quick look from the toad sage urged him to continue, he did so. "Excess energy began pouring from Minato and the demon screeched to a halt, though the roaring continued. Nothing seemed to move for several minutes, at which point the fox dissipated. At the same moment Minato collapsed and this infant tumbled from his arms. We rushed to his side to try and ascertain his well-being. He waved us off, saying to take care of the child rather than of him. We took both to the hospital instantly to try and stabilize them, but Minato succumbed before we arrived.
Jiraiya stiffened at the mention of his student's death and his control over his emotions wavered. A shinobi should be in control of their emotions at all times, but the death of his student, especially one that he had been so close to, affected him deeply still. Unbeknownst to all the adult human occupants of the room, his control over his chakra wavered as well. A small amount of chakra leaked from his fingertips into the seal on the blonde-haired babies' stomach, creating an extra marking hidden in amongst the squiggles.
What the adults did notice, however, was the immediate side effect of such actions. The baby quickly shifting from the whines and cries of being uncomfortable to screaming at full volume as his entire world changed.
Perspective changing events were not common for the being now encased within a cage inside a human infant's stomach. There had now been several in the past 24 hours, and he was really starting to grow tired of them. From being in a prison, to being set free, to being entranced and put under a human's control, to being put back inside an even stronger prison, and now that prison being altered and feeling as if he was being ripped into thousands of infinitesimal pieces. He had been left in silence and rarely disturbed for almost 30 years, while still a miniscule portion of his overall lifespan, he had grown accustomed to the silence and darkness. Indeed, for a time, he had even considered it a welcome respite from being out and about in the world.
Though, with the changes that had happened recently, a multitude of desires ran through the ancient demonic fox. He wished to run free amongst the winds and feel the sunshine upon his fur again. And most fervently he needed to obliterate that pesky red-eyed human.
Through the techniques used and general appearance, he surmised that the insect with the red eyes that controlled him must have been a reincarnation of that blasted Indra. There could be little mistaking the aura that surrounded the man, so similar to his own father's aura, but corrupted with hatred and malice that surpassed even that traitorous scum of an offspring of his father.
While many of the humans thought that hatred and malice would be things associated with the tailed beasts, this was not nearly as true as they believed. While he hated almost all humans with a passion, he had his reasons. He did not hate without cause or reason. His father had sacrificed nearly everything to create him and his siblings and then been attacked and nearly slain by the murderous scum that was the progenitor of what is known to the humans as the Uchiha clan. He detested the members of the Indra bloodline and all of those associated with it. Which included all of Konoha as they housed the disreputable clan.
He had been separated from his brothers and sisters in order to save the pathetic humans and now the maggots dared to use their fathers' art against them and use them to battle each other. While he knew the truth of what could happen if all nine were rejoined again, he had started to wish it would happen. If it would wipe these pathetic mortals off the face of this planet again, it could very well be worth it. They had become a pestilence on the world, a blighted eyesore that he wanted to vanquish with all his power.
What the nine-tailed fox truly wished for though, was for his father's will to be carried out. Asura, his father's youngest bloodborne son, had attempted to follow through on such actions, but had been unable to accomplish them. The mere mortal had been too weak to finish his life goal, and died before seeing it to completion. His failures of reincarnations so far had been unable to do so, if any of them had even tried it fell beneath his notice.
The nine-tailed fox had spent several hours raging against the bars of his newest prison. He had only just recently ended the tirade against the immovable bars as he came to the realization that this cell was even stronger than the last, saturated in the essence of the god of death. It had become apparent that even he stood no chance at breaking it from the inside. He had come to a rest on the floor of the cage, slowly subsiding from the angered state he had been in previously. While he may be a chakra construct with nearly endless rage, he also wasn't a mindless storm of anger. He possessed the clarity to understand the predicament he found himself in. Since a full-on assault wasn't working, he decided to probe the cage in a more controlled manner, sending out thin tendrils of chakra in various directions.
The first tendril, aimed at the seal itself, was instantly destroyed as it attempted to cross the barrier of the cage. Some may have marked it as foolish, trying something so direct. But the obvious should be ruled out first. He tried a small thread between each bar of the 'door' to the seal, but each was met with the same fate. He poked and prodded at each square inch of the floor and the walls, receiving no progress or movement at all. Resorting to the ceiling, he had already accepted that it was most likely fruitless. Unexpectedly, the thread did have a noticeable reaction. The ceiling, which had previously been almost perfectly pitch-black, flickered for a moment. The being peered closer and observed incredibly thin blue lines, no bigger than the width of a hair, which had previously escaped his notice.
Upon a closer inspection, the thin blue lines flared when his chakra thread came near, as repetition proved. Watching the interaction of the dark bubbling red of his own chakra and the wispy blue strands flowing through the ceiling, he could see the blue taking in the tiniest little bubbles of the red energy and continue to move along with their own current, slowly dissipating into the stream.
Thinking this may be a weakness, he took a considerable chunk of energy and slammed it against the tiny filaments running across the roof of his confined space. To his dismay though there was no additional actions to be noticed. Insignificant bubbles of his chakra melted into the meager ribbons above him and disappeared after a few seconds. Retracting the mass of chakra back into himself, he tried an experiment. He created the smallest possible segment of chakra that he could and carefully measured the amount. Replicating that one more time and forming them into two separate spheres, he then took the two diminutive globules and sent one to rest against the floor and the other to the canopy of electric turquoise shimmering above him. Leaving the two objects alone for a few minutes, he then pulled the two small blobs back to him. As he had expected, the one from the ceiling was now even smaller than the one that had been resting on the floor.
The pathetic human was stealing chakra from him! This thought incensed him and he almost went into another extended rage session. That was when he noticed something else that had appeared during his experimentation. He could smell... something. And... was that a sound?
Eyes closing, as it was nearly pitch-black anyway, he concentrated on his ears and nose. He strained to try and perceive what had caught his attention just a moment ago. Slowly moving around the enclosure, he kept his senses open to try and ascertain the location.
There! He had heard it again. Murmurs that sounded like human voices. And the faintest whiff of oil and toads? What a strange combination, but it was definitely there, if only ever so slightly.
Opening his great eyes once more, he focused his sight on the darkness in which the sound and scent had originated but did not see anything. After straining to see anything for several minutes, he had a thought. Previous to pushing those tiny amounts of chakra into the apparent network of the child, he had had no stimulation to any of his senses. Immediately after his analytical observations of the chakra, he was able to perceive the outside world. He doubted that the two phenomena were coincidental.
Curious, he covered the ceiling in a thin layer of chakra as a trial. Making sure that the chakra was slowly being absorbed into the translucent bands above him, he then concentrated entirely on his sensory abilities. Such chakra manipulation was nothing for a being of his power and took no effort to maintain. As suspected, the faint hints of scent became stronger with energy expenditure. The murmurs became louder. The scents became clearer. In front of him, he could start to see vague squiggly lights and blurry shapes, appearing like a screen in front of his eyes. Keeping the chakra against the roof seemed to continue to strengthen the sensory perceptions. It seemed that he could only sense what the infant could sense, which wasn't very much.
Still, this was far more than the last container had availed to him. That fiery red-headed woman had completely shut him out for the entirety of his stay, save a couple of moments where she demanded power from him and used her loathsome chains to restrain him even further. And the accursed container before that had him locked in complete darkness for what felt like an eternity. Being able to see, smell and hear was going to be a vast improvement over his previous experience.
At least, until the crying started. The moment the whining of the infant started and assaulted his eardrums, he laid his ears flat wished he had never opened such a link. He started to pull his chakra back from the cerulean veins above him, when yet another unexpected occurrence happened to him. Shooting like a specter across his gaze, a faint wave of white energy shot from top of bottom completely washing over everything around him, flooding the veins above and the cage momentarily.
The combination of the seal, the infant's chakra, the demonic chakra, and the new intruding chakra created a chain reaction around him. The cage suddenly morphed in strange mannerisms, expanding in some areas and contracting in others. Previously smooth floors and walls started to bend and warp, the chakra seal construct being mercilessly torn asunder with the new development. What was his reality appeared to be breaking apart at the seams, with little to no sense as to why. He used his agile reflexes to dodge around weaving steel posts, batted away crumbling concrete, and slashed through a gigantic chunk of wall that tried to pin him.
Wait.
He slashed through that wall. Previously his ability to damage any part of the seal construct was unnoticeable, at best could be considered infinitesimal. Now, he was free to wreak havoc amongst the debris-filled enclosure, and so wreak havoc he did. Picking a direction, he blasted forth chakra bombs and slashing claws to try to make headway while the seal was unstable around him.
A few moments passed, and the nine-tailed fox felt he was making headway, when a substantial length of prison bar slammed into his side, pinning him down. In the chaos, a multitude of other detritus immediately followed and piled on, to the point where he was nearly unable to even move. Gathering his chakra to overpower the fragments that had him pinned, he noticed a sudden change. No longer was the intruder's chakra there, and just as immediately, everything around his stopped moving. The seal chamber was in absolute disarray, he was completely trapped in rubble, and he could no longer make any dent against the construct that now engulfed him in offal.
Howling in a mix of desperation, annoyance and frustration, he let loose a gigantic burst of energy, blasting it wherever he could.
In less than an instant from when the blonde newborn's ear-piercing screams started, the three other people in the room startled and became aware of a massive problem. The noxious red energy that had flooded the village just a short while ago now was cascading forth from the infant between them. A river of malignant red chakra poured out of the tenketsu of the child, sickening all present with the perversion of energy that it was composed of. The wrapping around the head had fallen off at the burst of energy, revealing blonde hair stood up in a feral manner. Previously crisp blue eyes had corrupted into a red tinged iris, with a vertically elongated pupil creating a bestial look on the formerly cherub-looking child.
Sarutobi thanked whatever deity may have been present that he had just put up privacy seals, including a chakra barrier, so that nobody outside of the room would be alerted to the event and rush into the office believing that the demon had been let loose again. But he wasn't so sure that hadn't just happened. The miasma that spilled forth was clearly coming from the chakra of the nine-tailed fox, there could be no mistaking.
Glancing over to the other occupants of the room, he saw Jiraiya standing directly over the infant, an intense look on his face. And the ANBU Commander had taken up a position between the former Hokage and the potential threat, brandishing his tanto blade in a defensive posture. Concentrating on making sure that the seal that guaranteed their solitude was stable and present, he quickly motioned his ANBU Commander down from attacking.
After a few seconds, the polluting vapors that emanated from the child lessened to mere wisps of energy. And moments later they completely ended. The boys blood red irises faded back to their previous blue hue and then closed. The whisker marks shrank back to a singular line from the rough edged markings that they had become during the episode. The hair cascaded back down in a yellow waterfall. All three elder occupants of the office breathed a collective sigh of relief. The village could hardly stand the demon being released within the middle of the city in its' current state. The boy's fierce bawling slowly subsided into whimpers of discontent again, as Jiraiya snatched him up and swaddled the cloth around him once more. Comfort resumed, the whiskered jinchuriki's noises slowly dissipated into the air, leaving only the silence of the shocked ninja gathered.
Jiraiya looked at Sarutobi questioningly. "Has this happened before?" he inquired.
The Third Hokage shook his head in the negative. "Not to my knowledge, and I can't believe that it wouldn't have been perceived before now had it occurred. Gorilla?" he beckoned of the officer standing between them, receiving a response of a headshake in the negative.
"Thank Log for the security seals you had in place." The toad sage mumbled quietly. Continuing in his thoughts, "Had the village felt that, we'd likely see a panic on a scale we've never seen. And if the populace knew it came from this?" he gestured towards the only blonde in the room. "They'd be screaming for his blood." After finishing, he noted that his former sensei had averted his gaze and would no longer look at him in the eyes. "What is it?" he demanded.
Sarutobi sighed painfully, "The Civilian Council has already called for the death of the fox's jailer. Whilst I would never agree with it, I am hard-pressed to find a way around such a request. I have managed to stay their hand on the topic for now. Thankfully the Shinobi Council voted with me in overriding the civilians demands. I am not sure of what may happen in the future though. Many of them seemed out for blood, and I can't say that I blame them. I fear that they will try to kill the child through any number of means."
Jiraiya looked enraged, face flushed with blood as his emotions boiled over yet again. "WHAT?!" he yelled at a almost deafening volume.
Naturally, this outburst caused the subject of all this talking to resume his wails again, disturbed by the noise amongst all of the other things going on. Returning to paternal instincts that Jiraiya had thought lost years ago, he comforted the child, and felt the rage bloom into anger in his chest. His student was gone and the only remnant of him that was left, they wanted to put to death? Not on his watch. His brain whirled into action as he thought of a plan. He had always thought best under pressure, and even now the beginnings of a plan were forming in his mind.
He cradled the fussy infant in his large calloused hands, passing over the spiky blonde locks in a soothing gesture. As he thought, he walked in circles within the barrier's boundary. At one point, he approached the village leader, making sure that his back was to the ANBU Commander while making direct eye contact with the elder Sarutobi. He quickly made the hand signals for "Question" and "Trust" while using the hand on the child's head to gesture with a finger towards the only other denizen within the room, indicating whether or not the other shinobi in the room could be trusted with whatever plans he had come up with. Receiving a firm nod of approval from his childhood sensei, he walked back to the place where he started his pacing.
Jiraiya cleared his throat to garner attention, though he already had it as soon as his movement stopped. Seeing one face and one mask paying rapt attention to him, he started. "I have an idea. We let them sacrifice the kid."
Jiraiya had chosen the wording on purpose, intuiting that the comment would elicit a reaction of disgust from the elder Sarutobi. That wasn't surprising though. What he wanted to judge was the reaction from the other participant of the conversation. The toad sage wanted to gain some insight as to the ANBU Commander and see if the idea was met with revulsion or joy. He was many things, but one of the foremost was that he was excellent at reading people. It was how he managed to flirt with every woman ever and get out of dozens of sticky situations from angry ladies that had caught him peeping. He could tell the difference between a recoil from hatred at the idea and if the there was a desire to rid the world of the child that contained the demon within.
Hiruzen immediately scowled, but didn't say anything, knowing that the impetuous elite shinobi in front of him wasn't nearly as cold-hearted as to actually be agreeing to kill an innocent child. They both knew seals well enough to understand that the child was the container of the demon, no more a part of it than the glass vial is the same of the poison within. He waited for the least wayward of his students to continue.
While the emotions would never show through the mask perched on his face, the ANBU commander couldn't help but have a barely perceptible shudder of abhorrence at the thought of murdering an innocent newborn child. Jiraiya had been staring intensely to perceive any reaction and probably would have missed it otherwise. The cloaked and masked figure followed his superiors' lead and remained quiet, waiting to see what else was said.
Jiraiya wrinkled his nose a bit. He was not getting as much information as he would have liked from his rousing comment. Since the target was a battle-tested and hardened shinobi that had risen to the rank just below the Hokage that he was, Jiraiya was going to have to try a lot harder than that to get him to break character in a highly noticeable way. He felt relatively confident in his judgment from the small reaction he had noticed though, so he plowed ahead.
The oil and toad scented man continued. "Give me a short while, and I'll create a substitute 'infant' that we can present to the council that will have the correct chakra signatures and will deceive all but the most trained of seal masters. Whilst there are shinobi in the council, none of them are particularly adept in seals outside of the Hyuuga and Uchiha clan heads. I know that I can deceive the Byakugan with the appropriate seals, as they can only really perceive the chakra network and the Byakugan doesn't afford much in the knowledge of what a seal is supposed to look like, only that it exists. I am doubtful that Fugaku would turn on the Sharingan during an execution, and even if he does, I don't believe him to have the knowledge necessary to detect a counterfeit."
Hiruzen thought for a moment, the concept had merit, but there were some obvious issues that immediately arose. "How will you create a body double of an infant? And how can you ensure it has both a demon and human chakra network?"
"While it isn't something that I would care to repeat, I have a variant of a disguise technique up my sleeve that allows me to appear in any form I wish. It even changes the appearance of the tenketsu, and would allow me to take 'lethal' damage in the form of an infant, that would really be nothing more than a stab wound to me in a rather non-vital area, able to be healed at a later time. It'd still bleed and be painful, but a stab to the leg or arm would be worth the price to save an infant. Additionally, using Sage Mode and applying a similar looking but defunct seal to the area that would be perceived as the midsection of the disguise, I can mimic a secondary chakra underneath the first, similar to what you would expect in a jinchuriki," Jiraiya explained further.
The aged Hokage mulled the option over. Nearly anything was better than the unnecessary slaughter of an innocent, and an innocent newborn at that. He would hate to order someone to be stabbed for the sake of someone else normally. In this case though, not only was that basically a shinobi's standing order, but he had a trustworthy and capable person volunteering for such a task.
"The only reason I can see this not working is if anyone on the council has seen the boy yet and being able to spot any differences." Hiruzen arched an eyebrow at his ANBU Commander, the actual question never needing to be asked.
The ape-faced man spoke up at his boss' behest, "I can confirm that the child came directly from the site of the sealing to the ANBU medic corps to ensure he was uninjured, and then directly here to your office. No person outside of ANBU and the medic corps who examined him should have seen the child."
While the wizened man was satisfied by that answer, fully trusting in both his lieutenant's skills at reporting accurate information, and his student's expertise in the shinobi arts, he was still bothered by something else. "And, after this deception has taken place, assuming it is successful, what will happen to the boy?"
Jiraiya responded without the slightest bit of hesitation, which surprised every adult in the room, himself included, "I'll raise him." After the immediate reply, seeing Hiruzen's somewhat shocked expression, and even the monkey-masked ninja tilting their head curiously, he felt that he owed them a slight bit of further explanation. "I know, I'm not exactly the picture of fatherhood. But who else will raise the child? If the three of us are the only ones that know of the truth, he must go with one of us, or be completely left alone. Leaving him alone to grow up with nothing would be nearly as bad as just letting them murder him now. Growing up as an orphan within Konoha, when there are already so many, will just end poorly. Who knows what resentment may brew if the boy is left with nothing? And if another outbreak such as what just happened occurs again happens while he is out in the village, I don't think any of us need to be convinced of how bad an idea that would be. Sensei, you are likely going to be far too busy, and pardon me, but too old to raise an infant."
Whilst both other men present wanted to bristle at the accusation that the God of Shinobi could possibly be ill-fit to be a parent, a moment of introspection gave sight to the truth that Jiraiya wasn't wrong.
Aware of the reaction that comment received, but choosing to ignore it, Jiraiya continued on, "And I highly doubt that the commander of the ANBU has the free time to raise a child. And, even if either of you did have the time, any incident like that would still cause panic in the populace and guarantee that this charade is discovered."
The Sannin started to pace, whilst counting reasons on his fingertips. "One, I have been wandering the world for years already, nobody is going to even think twice about me leaving again a day after arriving. Two, I've been known for womanizing for years, would anyone really say they are unusually surprised when I turn up with a kid one day? Three, I know as much about seals as almost anyone alive and would be able to ensure his seal is stable going forward. Four, if he lets off a demonic chakra burst out in the wilderness, I can pack up to leave before any high level threats close in on the situation, without inciting a panic of the Konoha population. Five, he's Minato's son. Without Minato and Kushina, I'm the closest thing to family that he has left."
The eldest Sarutobi lifted the infant into his increasingly frail arms, sat down at his desk, took out his pipe, slowly filled it with tobacco and lit it with a minor fire jutsu, all while seemingly contemplating the idea. "That settles it then. Jiraiya, get to work on the preparations for the techniques needed. Stay in this office with young Naruto, if you need any outside materials, Gorilla here can fetch them for you. I'll look it over myself first before we announce anything. If we go through with this plan, I don't think it needs to be mentioned that this information is never repeated after today and is considered a secret of absolute highest order."
Jiraiya immediately plopped down onto the large sofa couch that was present within the confines of the office and waved the gorilla-masked man over. He retrieved a small storage scroll from a pocket within the confines of his outrageously overdone wardrobe and released the contents of it. Sealing supplies spilled forth, tidy and organized. Taking stock of what he had in stock, and mentally noting what he was going to need to complete the array, he relayed the list of supplies he assumed that he was going to need, which included a couple extra vials of sealing ink and an extra scroll of sealing paper. As Gorilla headed out to acquire the components, the Toad Sage began his preparations by uncorking an empty vial, taking the sharp end of a kunai and slicing a cut just into the radial artery on his wrist, and letting the oxygen-rich blood drip into the glass, quickly filling the small vial. Covered the fresh wound for a moment, and uncorking another vial, he continued to fill the clear receptacles. The blood would be infused with his chakra and used as the medium in which the seal was applied, after mixed with a small amount of sealing ink to help it remain in place. A few handseals and a puff of smoke later, and a medium-sized orange toad with blue flame markings popped into existence. Handing the toad a brush, the sage disrobed to expose his torso for the process of seal creation on his body.
After the Commander returned with the appropriate paraphernalia several minutes later, the now shirtless Jiraiya took the proffered goods and resumed his endeavor. The production was coming along as expected, the base sealing matrix on his chest and abdomen to help camouflage the part of his body that should not be visible. Each tenketsu was covered in a dot of the ink/blood mixture, Jiraiya ensuring that the front was done properly, and with the help of Gama, his summon, and a mirror the back was completed as well. Hesitating on starting at his shoulder, he looked to his sensei for a moment, seemingly pondering something.
Halfway through the high-quality tobacco that he had lit inside his favorite pipe, Hiruzen opened his eyes from his reverie and glanced up at the cessation of noises from his former student, thinking that the work was completed. Finding Jiraiya with a questioning gaze, shirtless and covered in blood and ink wasn't exactly what he had expected, though it wasn't a complete surprise either. Jiraiya opened his mouth, closed it, opened it a second time, and moved his jaw around, seemingly searching for the correct thing to say. Finally, "Would you rather be stabbed in the arm or the leg?" the voice of the perverted author questioned.
"Arm." "Arm." Both voices rang out at once, Gorilla and Hokage speaking simultaneously. A quick silence followed by Hiruzen adding "You can always run away to be healed with two working legs. If a leg stops working, you are a sitting duck, even if you do have all your skills." Nodding his assent, the Commander added, "And no matter how many attacks you have, being locked down in one place will mean a battle of attrition that you stand no chance at escaping without comrades nearby.".
Jiraiya thought for a moment and decided that the argument made sense. Besides, he could use his non-primary arm as the target, get stabbed, and have a medic-ninja from the hospital heal him up later that day without any issue.
The intricate seal work continued for quite some time longer, symbols being traced across everywhere except his left arm, which was still blank. When he was finally finished with the camouflage matrix, he then started on the second aspect. Creating what appeared to be an entire child's chakra network in the span of his forearm. Laying out the paths with the inky coppery mixture and creating slender threadlike lines with a brush was difficult, but Jiraiya had a steady hand and a purpose filled mind. After a few more minutes, the structure was integrated into his skin, and was given a double-check to ensure it looked correct. Now there was only one step left.
The toad sage sat still for a minute to begin to gather nature chakra from around the area. He didn't need much, only enough to match an infant's chakra signature, so it only took a few seconds once he entered his meditation. With the nature chakra gathered, he activated the patterns on his forearm to mimic a secondary chakra network using different chakra to his own. Ensuring that the entirety of nature chakra had been expelled into the seal, he then used his own chakra to activate the masking seal. Immediately, he disappeared, and a near mirror image of the infant that rested in the Hokage's arms appeared on the ground.
Intrigued by the development, both other adults in the room walked over to the newly apparated child. It looked nearly identical to the infant Hiruzen held in his arms, right down to the swaddling cloth and the whisker marks. The only difference was the expression on the face was one of satisfaction, rather than infantile discomfort. The voice of Jiraiya sounded out, even though the mouth of the replica Naruto did not move to follow the words. "What do you think, sensei?"
The wizened man examined everything, poking and prodding at where the sage's body should be, but receiving no feedback from any sense that anything existed outside of the wrapped baby at his feet. He then handed off the real Naruto to his lieutenant, and then bending over and picking up the duplicate. To his surprise, it felt correct in both shape and weight. "Convincing. Why wouldn't this technique be more common? The applicable uses for infiltration would be amazing."
His student spoke up again, the disembodied voice wrapping around him. "Several problems, really. It takes an advanced set of seals that must be painstakingly applied by a seal master. Small errors could end up sending the entirety of your body into another dimension, stranding you there. As this is, I leave a hook to bring myself back with. The functionality is similar to the Uchiha Mangekyou Sharingan ability Kamui, though with huge limitations on speed and ability to use, due to the sealing array. You also must pre-set your entrance and exit points from the dimension you are hiding in, unlike Kamui, which means that infiltration and extraction in even just a tiny variance of locations could rip you to pieces. I've set it for this particular spot here in the office, as it should be secure no matter what. And, it requires an immense amount of focus to maintain, which is why I'm not even trying to move that part of my arm, as that could easily break the camouflage."
These all added up to why this wasn't a practical choice for use in infiltration, so Sarutobi left that thought flicker and die out. "Well, I agree that this seems pretty convincing. Let's get on with it. Gorilla, take care of the real Naruto while we go see the council. I'll take down the security barrier for us to leave. Please erect it again the moment we have exited, so that the identity of the real Naruto is kept secret." Gorilla shifted the cloth-covered burden in his arms to free up a hand and snapped a crisp salute to his commanding officer. "Yes, sir!"
"Jiraiya? Are you ready to go?" the elderly man inquired.
"As much as I ever will be. Once we leave this space, I'll have no way to communicate with you, as my link will remain here, and it will take almost the entirety of my concentration to maintain the disguise. Best of luck to you, sensei." The ethereal voice of the man replied.
Hefting the babe carefully in his arms, and swooping his ceremonial hat to his head, the Hokage cancelled the security barriers around them and strode forth, the man behind him immediately disappearing behind another set of barriers erected a moment later.
"I'm going to need it" he thought to himself as he walked with his cane down the hall towards the Council meeting hall within the Tower.
The masked man held the blonde infant named Naruto in his hands. He had not yet had any children of his own, and therefore, felt a bit uncomfortable with the situation, but like any good ninja he soldiered through as best he could in unfamiliar territory. While he had a younger brother, he hadn't really cared too much about taking care of babies, because he was already deep into his ninja training. While busy training to be a ninja, and his father and mother often being busy trying to balance their own duties and being a parent to two kids, he had gotten lost in ninja training, and basically never been back home after entering the Ninja Academy. Thus, he had never really taken part in the baby stage, and really didn't know too much. He knew just enough that the head and neck of an infant were very weak, and to support them, and that they tended to cry a lot, but not much more.
While he had received quite the scare from the vile chakra burst earlier, he could sense nothing at all dangerous now. His knowledge of seals was more than basic, but it wasn't an often-practiced art of the shinobi. He knew the standard arrays for sealing weapons into scroll, making explosive tags and security barriers, as those were standard knowledge for most shinobi and a requirement for ANBU. However, the prior display from the living legend astounded and confounded him both. Having no idea what was happening wasn't a familiar feeling for him, and he didn't care for it in the slightest. He resolved to study on sealing, and work on implementing a program into the corps for further practice in the art. He recalled stories from Konoha's old ally, the Whirlpool hidden ninja village, where seal master's reigned supreme. They had been renowned for the art, but much of it had been lost since the village's collapse. The few survivors that had fled weren't much for seal masters, as he had known one personally, Konoha's own Red-hot Habanero, Kushina Uzumaki. The mother of the child he now carried in his arms. Sadly, she would not be a viable resource for information, and she had perished during childbirth and subsequent attack by the nine-tails.
As nobody was watching, and there was little point in keeping pretenses up, he laid carefully down on the couch, and shifted so that the young lad was fully supported in his arms in a comfortable position. Apparently quite tuckered out from the earlier explosion of activity, Naruto's eyes immediately began to waver and close, sleep not far behind. Humming a gentle tune that he remembered his own mother humming to him, he quietly and slowly rocked the baby to sleep in his arms.
"Naruto, huh? Well, you're going to definitely be something special one day, aren't you?" He verbalized in hushed tones as to not wake the child. "For our sake, I hope that Jiraiya raises you well, and you came back to protect the leaf. Wouldn't that make a sight. Poor Kyuubi, forced to defend the village he tried to burn." Soft laughter echoed under the blanket of the security dome.
Wrapped in iron bars, buried in detritus, unable to move, and screaming his rage into the void was not how the nine-tailed fox wanted to be right now. He could tell that the struggle was pointless, and that everything he tried to do had absolutely no effect on the environment around him. Taking a few moments to try and rationalize the situation led him into calming down slightly. Though, he was still furious at the oil and toad smelling human for whatever he had done screwing up the entire system, that was beginning to pass into more of a cold revenge than boiling anger. This was due to that the audio coming in and the visuals he was able to perceive were now clear enough for him to understand what was occurring in the outside world.
The arrogance of that man to have inadvertently destroyed the seal, and then claim that he, alone, could protect it. It was laughable. If he wasn't so crushed by debris, he might have even barked out a laugh at the white-haired man's expense. "Pathetic mortals, always thinking that they know exactly what they are doing, and always believing that they are so strong and in charge." The words came rumbling from the great beast's throat. He was purposely avoiding the fact that he had been caught and trapped by these pathetic mortals' multiple times over the past 50 years.
With nothing else to do but send his chakra to the thin blue lines above, watch and listen, he continued to do so. The feeble human attempt to recreate a skill from Indra's bloodline was met with another outpouring of white-hot rage. That traitorous scum should be wiped from the earth, and the fact that these humans playing at chakra manipulation continued to use the techniques of his most hated enemy and his bloodline further confirmed for him that this village should be razed to the ground.
As two of the humans departed, he was left with an ape that had a face of another ape on as a mask. Chuckling at the stupidity of trying to disguise a monkey with a monkey, he watched as this individual human seemed to care about another human being, with no spectators and nothing really to gain from it. While the words were mostly meaningless to him, emotions were able to be read clear as day, and that a human felt pity for him was an odd occurrence that he had never imagined conceivable. But the feelings were genuine, and it left the fox with some very conflicted emotions of his own.
The Hokage had sauntered through the halls, taking his time, enjoying the thought of making the Council wait on him. He knew that they had been assembled over an hour ago while discussing what exactly should happen after the attack, from the fate of Naruto, to the next Hokage, to recovery and construction efforts, to trying to slow down the spread of the news to the other shinobi villages. They had named him acting Hokage for the crisis as one of the first actions, and then immediately proposed to have 'demon child' executed.
As Hokage, even if it was only 'acting', he had the responsibility for the safety of the people in the village and had objected to the pointless death. The entirety of the civilian side of the council voted against him, and a good chunk of the clan heads had joined them. This disappointed the aged man greatly, as they should have been able to tell the difference between the container and the contained. But, the horror and trauma of the previous day had amazing tenacity in creating an attitude of fear and hatred. And, as often does, once a vocal minority gets fear going, a majority of people can be blinded into panic and follow falsehoods right down a path of questionable morals and poor decisions. Even if he had been full Hokage, he was not in complete charge of the entire village, just the ninja. Bureaucracy be damned, but political capital was in short supply at the moment, and while he could have potentially prevented this had it occurred during his term of being the Third, with Minato having taken over more than a year ago, he had lost a large chunk of what he had previously had in that department.
Many viewed the Kage as the end all authority for their respective village, but between councils, elders, paperwork and the damned bureaucracy, there were plenty of other factors in leading. Not to mention the dark connections, such as black ops, yakuza, and rogue divisions all cutting anything down for a grab at power. The Hokage was basically a figurehead who sent the ninja troops under his command out to potentially die to try and raise money for the lord of the country, the daimyo. Unable to push the correct buttons so soon after being thrust back into the role, he watched powerlessly as they voted to kill an child whose only crime was being born to parents who happened to be the only people with a method to stop the real demon. He had left shortly after the vote and been asked to retrieve the demon child on his way out. Biting back many choice words, and a couple of choice jutsu, the God of Shinobi had agreed, only so that nobody else would be sent that might be less than gentle.
Innocence was so hard to find, and young Naruto was one of the only sources of it in the entire damned village. So, he would use every last drop of power that he had to protect this child, even if it meant serving out the rest of his life as the Hokage again. Besides, there weren't many other suitable candidates that were willing to serve anyway.
A door slammed in front of him, rousing him from his thoughts. He found himself a couple steps away from the entrance to the room where the Council was still in session, judging by the guards in front of the door. Locating the source of the noise, he saw a very familiar face with a look of disappointment, and possibly even hatred, glaring from underneath a head of stringy long black hair. The pale complexioned man underneath belonged to another of his former students, Orochimaru. While the man had been a prodigy, Sarutobi had noticed as of late the elite ninja's growing level of instability, and he been looking for a time to try to work with his former student on what may the matter. While the snake-like ninja had always been cold and distant, he had been moreso since Minato had been named as Hiruzen's successor, perhaps feeling somewhat betrayed by the man who was his sensei. After all, the Second had passed the title onto him, as his former student. He raised his voice in a greeting, "Orochimaru, what happened?" The man paused in his stride for a half-second, turning to look at him, an expression of utter disgust appearing on his face.
"You'll find out in a just a moment, I'm sure." replied the serpentine man, even slightly elongating his 's' vocalizations in the stereotypical manner. He then turned back to face his original direction and continued his storming out. Shrugging his shoulders, as he could see that his former student was not in the mood to talk, and now wasn't really the time for it anyway, he resumed his own original path.
He looked at the guards that had watched the small exchange, and they quickly snapped to attention, pretending they heard nothing, gave a salute and opened the chamber doors. An instant barrage of noise blasted through the now opened doorway. A couple of seconds passed as the Sarutobi patriarch strode forward across the marble floors before he gained the attention of multiple members of the Council. A hush fell over the previously arguing crowd, as the target of their hatred was being brought forth.
The killing intent quickly escalated as the ninja focused on the blonde bundle held between grandfatherly arms. As he reached the podium and speaking platform, he used a quick hop up to the microphone to begin his last-ditch desperation effort, and to also sell the ruse. They would be suspicious if he just gave in. What would sell the deception ever better is that he was truly speaking his mind.
Drowning the current killing intent with a wide-area blast of his own, he noted the civilian side of the council shrinking in the chairs. 'Good' he thought to himself. They wanted death so badly, they should feel a little bit of it. If he was honest with himself, he had wanted a reason to terrify the civilian side of the council for years now. It was filled with petulant shopkeepers and whiny aristocrats that had never actually worked as a member of the ninja force that kept them so safe and cozy most of the time. Most of their families were likewise sheltered from the ugly stench of death that their freedom was paid with.
"I have brought the infant, Naruto, as you requested. Now, which of you here wishes to execute a defenseless, helpless child?" He let the question hanging in the air, while glaring daggers at the civilian side, daring anyone to speak out. They cowered in their seats exactly as he had expected.
However, a scraping of wood against tile on the other side of the chambers indicated someone else wasn't cowering. A slow turn of the head revealed a brown-haired shinobi dressed in the standard Jonin flak jacket, with a long-sleeved blue shirt underneath. On the arm was a red-topped, white-handled fan symbol indicating the Uchiha clan. "Sarutobi-dono, I believe there is a decision that you should be made aware of."
Hiruzen waved the man forward, as it was a friendly face that he knew well. Fugaku Uchiha had just recently ascended to clan head status and was a good friend of Hiruzen. So good of a friend that Fugaku had asked him permission to name his second born son after Hiruzen's father, Sasuke. He had gladly indulged the expectant father, and the new clan head's wife Mikoto had born the healthy boy a short while ago. The family had entertained him amongst others for a formal tea not a couple days ago, and he had spent some wonderful time bonding with his father's namesake.
A faint blossom of hope bloomed in his old heart. Perhaps they had changed their minds and cooler heads prevailed. After all, the elite shinobi amongst here should have understood the difference that Minato's seal made distinct between demon and human. Konoha had had jinchuriki previously, and they had been productive shinobi, even if their status had been mostly secret. But Mikoto and Kushina had known each other well, a pregnant Kushina was at the same gathering, animatedly talking about how Sasuke and Naruto were going to grow up as best of friends.
"Please enlighten me as to this information, Uchiha-dono." He hated using the honorific for someone so familiar, but it was a council meeting and formality ruled.
"The Council has agreed to name a new Hokage." Fugaku stated evenly.
"And whom have they chosen?" Hiruzen stared directly into his eyes, a sickening knot forming in his stomach, the previous feeling of hopes sinking.
"While there were some dissenters that felt Orochimaru would be acceptable, as well as a voice for you to return to power, the majority of the council has designated myself to take over." Fugaku stared back. "And as my first action, I will do what our previous leader has failed to do and acknowledge the orders of the council to act." Whilst the words were said with a voice that gave off all outward appearances of hostile, the familiarity that the elder statesman shared with the speaker meant he could read the undertones. This was a political play. Hiruzen knew that Fugaku had tried to maneuver himself into being considered as a possible replacement for himself when he had stepped down from the position, but the meteoric rise of Minato Namikaze had ruined his aspirations. This was his opportunity to step right back in where he was before and cement his place. A political ploy to gain the backing of the sycophantic civilians, whilst most of the ninja clans already were cowed by the Uchiha being the military police. He could rule without the political struggle that Hiruzen had to deal with, and the power vacuum right now at the top was his only chance to gain that power.
Hiruzen breathed in, about to launch into a diatribe about how it was an innocent child, and how the Uchiha clan shouldn't be in the position to command both the shinobi and the police, and many other things. Before the first word was spoken though, he noticed something different. His arms felt lighter. Blinking, he noticed the red irises of the man in front of him. Genjutsu. Shit. And he had been making eye contact with him, meaning the effect was instant and barely perceptible. Fugaku of the Wicked Eye indeed.
Fugaku already had grasped the infant and had set it down on the table in front of Hiruzen. Unsheathing his standard issue katana, he raised it high above his head in a clear demonstration of showmanship rather than skill. "May Konoha prosper with the death of the demon." This terrified Hiruzen that his friend could act this way, but what terrified him more was the way he was holding the sword. As opposed to the standard way of executing captured enemies that were too dangerous to let live with a stab through the heart with a piercing blow, he had the blade poised to strike horizontally. Sarutobi realized in an instant that he meant to decapitate the child as a piece of theater.
"NO!" He yelled out while moving to try and stop the sword strike. But the combination of the genjutsu, being surprised, and that Fugaku had already been in motion made his actions meaningless. With a clean slice, the blade went straight through the infant's neck, severing the head from the body in a spray of blood. Turning his attempt to stop the blade into a recovery effort, Hiruzen scooped up what appeared to be the remains of the child, all while glaring with as much intensity as he could in the direction of Fugaku. A tense moment between the two lasted for just a second, until cheering erupted around the chamber as the civilians rejoiced at the death of the demon child.
"I trust you won't mind if I at least bury the child with his parents?" The eldest Sarutobi spoke in a frigid tone that the brown-haired clan head could have sworn had a little water jutsu thrown in for the visual effect.
No response was immediately forthcoming, though he could see the red-eyed man opposite him staring intently at the bundle in his arms that was quickly saturating both the cloth around it and Hiruzen's robes. "It is dead." Fugaku stated emotionlessly as he then walked back towards where the podium for the Uchiha clan stood.
Sarutobi gathered the body parts with tears in his eyes from betrayal and loss on multiple levels, and stormed out of the room, vowing never to return inside the marble-lined room.
It had been almost 20 minutes of holding the baby Naruto in his arms, and his arms were starting to fall asleep from the combination of the alien activity and not wanting to disturb the cloth-wrapped package he held. He could see himself drifting off to join young Naruto in his sleep had he not been on-duty, as it was nice and warm and comforting to sit there and listen to the gentle in and out of the baby's breath.
He had started to contemplate how much trouble he could get in for actually falling asleep on the job, when a guttural scream of pain burst out of thin air and into his eardrums. Immediately alert to danger, he quickly set Naruto down, trying to jostle him as little as possible whilst trying not to provoke him enough into waking up.
Once that task was accomplished and in a defensive stance in front of the couch, he quickly double checked the security seals to ensure they were still active, which they were. Pushing a slight amount of chakra to his ears to augment the sense, he could now perceive labored breathing, though he could not locate the source.
On guard to the fullest extent now, he drew his blade, taking up a protective detail around the child. A couple more agonized, but muffled, cries issued from the empty room before he recognized the voice. "Jiraiya-sama?" he queried.
In an instant, the white-haired shinobi, covered in blackish red sealing matrices poured forth from the void, blood spurting through clenched fingers. A quick observation found one arm that was much shorter than it should have been. In amongst the continuous curses that emerged from the mouth of the famous author the Commander could clearly hear the phrase, "BASTARD CUT MY DAMN ARM OFF!"
He wasn't the best at the skill, but every ANBU knew medical ninjutsu. He quickly performed the technique and his hand started glowing green to try and stem to gushing crimson liquid. The energy flowed out of his hands and quickly knit closed the major arteries in the arm, eliminating the biggest risk of bleed out for the moment.
A moment later a swirl of leaves at the desk combined with the sharp order of "Drop it now," made him cancel the medical technique to drop the barriers that surrounded him.
The now former Hokage held a bloody bundle of cloth in his arms that contained the split remnants of the arm of the toad sage. Quickly placing the severed appendage where it should have been located on the body of the hermit, he let the Commander do a quick patchwork medical technique to stabilize the wound enough to quickly get Jiraiya to Konoha General for the more intensive healing he now needed. He couldn't afford to be seen with an injured Jiraiya immediately after the "execution", or people may put together what happened. Someone needed to stay with the real child too.
Another round of Leaf Shunshins to appear at the hospital, and the ANBU Commander helped the Sannin into the building before quickly disappearing to find the lead medic on duty. Perusing the listed medic-nin available, the highest ranked one not currently involved in surgery was one Nono Yakushi. He asked the nearest orderly for where he would be able to find such person and was pointed in the direction of the on-call room. The ANBU Commander made great haste down the hallways, opening the door to the area in which his target resided. The medic-nin inside startled at his entrance. It appeared that she had not yet been sleeping, simply trying to charge her energy. After a quick explanation that Jiraiya had been found injured a short while ago from a seal gone wrong, she immediately joined the Commander in his rush back down the maze of arrived with haste at Jiraiya's side, where she led him to the nearest medical jutsu operating room.
He watched as she started the procedure. She requested the he stand out of her vision, allowing her to concentrate without distraction. After laying Jiraiya down, and stabilizing the arm so that it could be put into place properly, the medic-nin placed the severed appendage at the site if the injury, pressed flush against the wound. She then held green glowing palms up to the breach. Reconnecting the arm itself was not entirely lengthy, as the skin seemed to reconnect with relative ease. He was certain that more was happening under the surface though. When the look on her face went from calm to confused to slightly panicked, he started to worry. He watched as sweat started forming against her brow. He inquired quietly, as not to disrupt her focus too greatly, "Is there anything I can do to assist?"
She responded in the negative with a shake of her head, and then apparently reconsidered as she spoke, "Please retrieve a soldier pill from the supply cabinet."
He accomplished the proffered task and watched as she consumed the battle supplement. Her chakra spiked shortly thereafter, refilling itself in moments. The soldier pills were handy for a quick boost, but they left the user drained after their boost wore out. This meant that the medic-nin probably had been working most of the day and was running low on available energy. It also meant that whatever was wrong was going to take everything she had left.
After the repletion of her energy, he continued to stare on helplessly as she attempted over and over to do whatever it was that she was trying to accomplish. After cementing her face into the worried position, she spent the next 30 minutes continuing to pump energy into the toad sage . Finally, she fell back, green energy dissipating from her hands, heavy breaths coming from her lungs as the effects of the pill ran out.
She looked up at him. "The arm reattached just fine, he should be able to use it normally in a few days. There was an unexpected complication though. I tried get the arm to reconnect to his chakra network, but it was as if the chakra system in his arm had been completely separated from the physical system. That's something completely unheard of from my experience. I'm assuming that something with the complex seals all over his body caused his chakra network in his hand to separate. The tenketsu end at the injury site, and there is nothing beyond it. There is no fixing what is wrong with that arm by someone other than maybe Tsunade herself. I can't recreate a chakra network from scratch. I'm sorry, there's nothing more I can do." The lady bowed her head, hiding behind a curtain of sadness and shame.
The ANBU Commander felt slightly hopeless. Trying to get Naruto safe from the council had proved incredibly difficult. Explaining to one of the Sannin that he wouldn't be able to mold chakra in his left hand ever again. Meaning that he couldn't use any ninja techniques or handseals. That was going to be even more difficult, nigh impossible.
Author's Note: This story has been bugging me for weeks to be written. Now that the premise is complete, we shall see where it goes from here. Constructive criticism welcome, I've never written a story this long in my life before.
Salientia is another word for Anura, which is an order of tailless amphibians that includes frogs and toads. I wanted something that meant toad that had an alliteration with seal. Voila.
Summary/Description: Like so many of the most interesting stories out there, this story begins with a mistake. A rather small, insignificant error made on the part of a supposed legend in his field. The man responsible for the entirety of the story to follow is renowned for many things. A world-class pervert. A member of the legendary group of ninjas called the "Sannin". Owner of the summoning contract and primary summoner of the toads. A spymaster with his informants in every ninja village. An author with his books spread across the Elemental Nations. But, most connected to the subject at hand, Jiraiya was a master of seals. Practically the foremost expert available in today's world, his overall knowledge on seals was matched by nobody currently living, and only by very few that currently resided in the realm of the dead. He could draw up seals suited to almost all aspects of ninja life, create masterful traps, and level any battlefield to make a decisive blow in nearly any battle.
However, nobody is perfect. And on the day after the Fourth Hokage's sealing of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Jiraiya was just careless enough.