Ch. 23: Para Bellum
With a party that included the Uchiha elders and Clan Leader, along with Mikoto, Fugaku and a few young children of his generation, Arashi celebrated the appointment of his Jounin Instructor. Given that the instructor in question was a Hokage meant that the celebration became a public affair, as he had to invite the Senju Clan leader and elders, and the Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi because either his mother was officially a widow of the former or because the Sarutobi clan was the strongest allies of the three Latter clans.
Since the expected invitees became five clan leaders and elders, Arashi had to personally send official invites to the Hyuga, Aburame Sarutobi, Shimura, Hatake, Kurama and Houki Clan Leaders and Elders to avoid political repercussions. This seemed to be the right move, as the clan leaders and elders seemed to be pleased to be invited by Arashi in person and were very cordial and amicable for the duration of his visit to the clan compound.
Since he knew what to expect from the individual clans, Arashi knew how to act around the clans. With Aburame, Shimura, Hatake and especially Hyuga clans, he was stiff polite and spoke little and only when he was addressed. With Inuzuka, clan he was polite but casual. And because he had never seen a member from Houki Clan, he was friendly and cheerful with them, because his mother told him the Houki Clan was an old ally of Senju Clan and primarily merchants and craftsmen who rose to prominence due to their fewer but capable Shinobi.
With that done, he attended his celebration, which ended up becoming a political affair as the stiff elders and Clan leaders kept praising his spars and shamelessly told him how they enjoyed "watching" the spars. They asked him if he had a name in mind for the devastating Lightning Jutsu he used against Jiraiya, and to that he smiled and replied, "I would rather not name it as a Jutsu as it is merely manipulating the weather and environment to suit the user's needs. And the Jutsu is far from complete." With that, he was asked to demonstrate if he knew any Jutsu he created, and he decided to show a few he had copied from cannon. Activating his Sharingan, he marked a few targets in his backyard with his Kunai to tell his spectators where to look.
He weaved the hand sign for a Shunshin, not before he took out a Wakizashi from the Weapons Stand, unsheathing it. With a grunt, he began to use Shunshin with remarkable precision as he landed strikes near instantaneously at five target boards, and bled off the momentum into the strike using chakra. The toughest part of this wasn't the reflexes or the attack, but the continuous cell regeneration he had to keep active on his thigh muscles, his shin, his soles, his heels and his spine. This part he had copied from Kabuto's fight, and since he knew which parts of his body were exerted and injured due to continuous use of Shunshin, he used his chakra with pinpoint accuracy and healed the parts of his body even at a slightest injury. This was a bit draining on stamina, as he had to also use wind chakra in his lungs to supply oxygen to his hyperactive muscles, but the result and tradeoff made this work worth it, when he saw the five boards splintered with numerous strikes from his Wakizashi, and the clan elders and leaders had their Dojutsu active to see what he was doing.
The Uchiha and the Hyuga immediately figured out the trick of the attack, as only someone with remarkable chakra control, possessing a Dojutsu AND knew at least a working knowledge of cellular regeneration, healing and basic Iryojutsu could pull such a maneuver off. But they knew it was worth it, as the attack itself was nigh indefensible if the target could not even react to it. And the user can attack from Blindspots, kill with a single stroke through a weak critical organ or most importantly use it as a surprise attack.
With that he earned himself an applause, but only Arashi knew that this attack had another component to it, 'Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique'. Covering the Killzone in your chakra to render the sensors useless, covering your visual, auditory and olfactory presence by masking your scent and sound, and using clones to distract probably with Earth Style: Shadow Clones, while the original deals surprise lethal attacks while travelling under the mud and earth constructs.
There could be no delay from the Jutsu to the actual strike, because the target should be render confused, shocked or terrified before he can "choose" to react. That meant this technique can only be performed with two Shadow clones. A regular one and a Earth Type one. And this attack had to take place within 2.5 seconds to account for a shinobi's response and reaction time.
But he left those thoughts and rumblings at the back of his mind, as he took part in mindless conversations and endless discussions which were mere prelude to the veiled questions regarding his ambitions, his political inclinations, his desire and expectations and possible allies if and when he earns himself a seat on the Shinobi Council.
As the night creeped at a petty pace, Arashi found himself comfortable in maneuvering around the party and enjoyed the small talks with the elders. He met his sensei and his teammates only briefly, as he had to entertain his guests like a cordial host, and his mother enjoyed him being dragged around the halls far too much, since he saw her giggling along with the Uchiha Matriarch and Inuzuka Matriarch when he was out of earshot.
But after the dinner and a round of dessert, Arashi was comfortable enough to not jump around when a stranger tapped his shoulders every waking second. He had been saved the celebratory drink since he was still a young child no matter what anyone said. And that meant he knew someone else was getting drunk on his behalf. Given that no one can force the Hokage or his mother to drinks, the burden fell on either the scowling angsty teammate or the loony grinning white haired young man who enjoyed attention from the older women who enjoyed teasing the blushing pervert.
This made the entire party to Zero in on Jiraiya who would sip a drink at someone's compliment, only to take another sip when a woman encouraged him coyly. By the time the clan leaders and elders flushed out of the raucous party, Jiraiya was passed out on the table grabbing absently in the air with a pasted drunk face smiling and giggling with his drool spilling on the table.
Orochimaru had avoided such a situation by politely refusing or escaping from the celebratory drinks altogether. Tsunade was hugging her grandmother with a tight grasp and buried her face in her ample bosom complaining about her own flat chest. And Hiruzen sat with his friend Danzo, the two left alone, when the Hyuga clan head politely asked for his leave since he had his newly born twins and his tired wife to take care of.
Arashi on the other hand, was surrounded by older women who were appreciating his small yet firm build as he was the cute and smiling Uchiha with his raven locks, ivory eyes and gorgeous face. He was blushing and furiously looking for a way to escape as the Inuzuka Matriarch saw the opportunity of her husband, the Inuzuka Clan Head, leaving for home, and she found and excuse to stay and spend some time with the other clan heads' wives. She had snaked her hands amongst the many which surrounded Arashi and found her prize, his stiff and tight ass which she cupped appreciably and groped as the boy squeaked in shock. Other ladies saw his surprise as another thing to tease him about, and saw the Inuzuka woman groping his pert ass. After hours, when the morning swept the tired and smiling attendees out of the house, with the bevy of ladies giggling and whispering about their wonderful time, the Yamanaka Clan Matriarch stopped and looked back at the flushed boy who stood at his door. "Thank you for being such a wonderful host Senju-sama. I hope Arashi joins our small tea parties when he finds time. We enjoyed his company very much."
Mito scowled inwardly, but greeted back with a polite smile. "Of Course Yamanaka-san, but Arashi would be quite busy for the foreseeable future with his tutelage. Thank you for attending. Hussy!" Of course, the last part was whispered as only Arashi heard her mutter that with utmost annoyance. And for once, he agreed with her. He was all but molested by the greedy and grabby ladies, and as a man, while he enjoyed their attention, he was but a boy, and not even an adolescent yet. Needless to say, he would have his 'revenge' when he gets old!
The days passed by, and after nearly a year Arashi had grown into his role as a capable support for Team Seven. He knew what the support was required for, as he was always the Swiss Army Knife of the mission.
Need a spy? I'll do it.
Need a Contact? I'll find one and blackmail them.
Want to store weapons away due to diplomatic goals? Don't worry, I can tattoo storage seals on my arms and cloak them in chakra.
Need entertainment? I'll find the best watering hole and Onsen in town.
Want to confirm mission parameters? I'll send clones and test the accuracy of our intel.
Want to charm and seduce the client's wife? Don't worry, I'll find her favourite perfume, and be your wingman.
Need access to classified files and scrolls from client's vaults and hidden safehouses? I can use my Sharingan and wring the truth and location out for both our sakes.
Arashi had fit in perfectly in his role, due to his fingers stretched in so many metaphorical jars. He also made use of his cannon and metaknowledge to find out about various secrets and hideaways.
Arashi had a vague idea of various tidbits of information, and where he failed to find the secret location of Sage of Six Path's Treasures, he found a lot of other interesting things to keep him company. He had a sealed Totsuka Sword and Yata Mirror, for his Susanoo, and found so many veins of Chakra Ores that he gleefully surrendered the locations of, to Konoha in exchange for various favours later on, obviously after stashing a good load for future use secretly! He wasn't all philanthropic, or generous about readily available wealth.
But keeping a supervision of the mines themselves, while managing the labourers and the supervisors, while having to report such a find to the village and offer commissions and discounts and innumerable sanctions imposed due to the location of the mines being outside the Land Of Fire. Instead, taking what you can, recording their location for future, and 'gifting' it to the village generously shows your loyalty to the village, curbs any suspicions of betrayal when he acts against the Hokage's orders or Village's interests, or falls from grace due to some unforeseen circumstances. These mines would be a worthy investment to hand over to the village, and since he was an orphan with nothing to his name, this action of generosity was lauded in the Shinobi Council and despite fewer people knowing about it, due to safety and security of the mines themselves, those who knew about it, mostly in the village's upper echelons, were looking at Arashi with favour and acknowledgement.
Since he was adopted by Mito and tutored by Hokage, Arashi had found he was not so drawn to material wealth when he had so much personal power to look forward to. He had taken a few trips to Senju graveyard and extracted DNA samples of Hashirama, his first son, his granddaughter, and finally his brother. He had extracted the chakra and remnants of DNA and chakra not common to his brother or his son.
Arashi knew that the ridiculous prowess and strength of Hashirama came not of his Senju lineage, but from his reincarnation of Ashura Otsutsuki. The Otsutsuki genes transcended the physical and spiritual, tangible and incorporeal. This meant that despite the body dying, the spirit which resided inside Hashirama gave him his vitality and chakra.
Armed with that knowledge, Arashi spent the eleven months under Hokage's tutelage perfecting his Iryojutsu and medical knowledge. Things like Gene Splicing and genetic manipulation was a thing of future and mere speculation during this era. This meant a lot of his experiments were not illegal, despite being frowned upon, but only if he was found out.
He had continued to inject Hashirama's extracted and refined chakra and DNA into his body, and wanted to find an opportunity to find Madara's DNA. He had found his bloody clothes in Uchiha Clan's Museum and since he had not married and had no children, he found the next best thing: his brother. This allowed him to separate the generic Uchiha DNA and the Indra's chakra and DNA which influenced Madara until his end.
He had cloned that isolated chakra and DNA, and began to insert it into himself regularly. This did nothing and he found no changes despite seeing with absolute certainty that the chakra and DNA, he isolated were in fact, foreign and wired differently.
Apart from that, he even sealed the Ryuumaku and the Source and used Genjutsu to erase all its records from the people who knew about it. The Ryuumaku was merely a cut branch from the Shinjuu, the Divine Tree, and the location and terrain appeared to corroborate the fact that the war and battle between the Twin Otsutsuki Brothers and their Mother had its repercussions globally since Roran is located closer to the Land of Wind border, while the fight took place in the north near that barren Graveyard place.
Which meant that, Arashi got easy access to the researchers and medics who also trained Tsunade, as he became well acquainted with all fields and tradecraft of Shinobi life.
As the fall approached once again, leaves turning red and yellow, Arashi sat besides his mother as they enjoyed tea watching the rays of the setting sun illuminate her garden.
"Have you received your new mission Aa-kun?" Mito asked as she saw the relaxed face of her son. He had matured a lot in the past year, and became more stable, calm and sharper, than when he was a overactive, hypercharged super baby-boy! He was now quieter, observant of everything around him, not with curious eyes but with predictive miind and analytical thought.
"Not yet mother", replied Arashi, "We are called to Sensei's office tomorrow for debriefing." Arashi had allowed a moment to spare, by using Shadow Clones to write After Action Report.
"Then we don't have much time for your Fuinjutsu lessons, do we? That seal matrix you wanted to use to modify Tobi's Hiraishin no Jutsu needs work." Mito insisted, as she wanted to ensure Arashi does not get reckless to achieve faster results.
"Don't worry, I don't need it in a hurry, and using it as a chakra transceiver was a honest happy accident." Arashi tried to reiterate.
Despite wanting to leave the development of Hiraishin no Jutsu or the Flying Thunder God Technique to Minato, when he does it in a few decades, Arashi wanted to try and use the Uzumaki knowledge of Mito and his contemproraries, as he knew as an orphan Minato should have neither the skillset, the expertise with sealing and Spacetime Ninjutsu, and ready access to Senju library, Uzumaki tutelage and Tobirama's research journals.
This meant with enough brute force, he could theoretically replicate the jutsu and use it in this war, which he knew was fought like a battle royale between five great villages on the minor villages' territories. And if he is not mistaken, a lot of casualties from Konoha were to Sunagakure's Puppet Corps and Chiyo's poisons, Hanzo's salamander before Konoha struck a non-aggression treaty, and against Kumogakure's ambush and Kirigakure's Swordsmen. This meant, the battles were fought between all the villages, against each other and no front was secure from aggression. This assured Arashi that the actual casualties of this war would have exceeded the Third Shinobi World War's numbers, if Minato did not kill the thousand men of Iwagakure at Kannabi Bridge, Obito did not slaughter hundreds in his Mangekyo Sharingan fuelled rage due to Rin's death, and the Jinchurikis were not unleashed during battles to gain strategic advantage against Army-killers.
To that end, Arashi wasn't sure, if all his preparation and current and progressing skillset would be sufficient to face the War, where the hidden monsters came out to hunt. So, as a gamble to brush up his Fuinjutsu, and aim to improvise on the seals, Arashi approached his mother with a project to improve and modify the sealwork of Hiraishin no Jutsu. He was sure that the seal formula can be modified, and he wanted to see if the seal size could be compressed further.
His mother was sceptical, but she allowed free reins with whatever her son needed to experiment. As a result, he found out a way to replicate the unique signature jutsu of Mabui of Kumogakure where she transferred inanimate objects at the speed of light, the so called, "Heavenly Transfer Technique". The jutsu was, or rather will be, merely conversion of the object into chakra, and transmitting the chakra with Raiton or Lightning Chakra like Radio Waves. There were a lot of factors involved there, as Arashi found out that the mistake he made during modifying the seal formula can be used to transmit chakra at short distances, usually in visual range. Adding a few components to the matrix and adding Lightning Chakra as a modulator allowed the seal formula to act as a transmitter and receiver, hence transceiver, of chakra. Tuning the seal to receive only a single type of chakra signature, Arashi was able to use the seal to send inanimate objects, but not living things.
The drawback of the seal, compared to Mabui's jutsu was that Arashi needed the seal to send the objects, and a seal at the receiving end. But that meant that whatever the distance and shape of the object, the seal bore the burden of transferring it, and besides supplying chakra, there was no focus or concentration needed to perform the jutsu. After that, Arashi wanted to work some more, since being able to send inanimate objects was like the penultimate step before sending actual human beings, and using the seals on a fly.
But, the seal was another weapon in his arsenal, one which he has kept hidden to prevent his enemies, spies and potential opponents from ever learning about. Along with another of his secret. He had already activated his Mangekyo Sharingan!
Arashi learnt that grief, pain, despair and self-loathing were all triggers for Sharingan's power. The so called Curse of Hatred was merely the illusion of the mind. As a man of science, he knew that emotions are merely cocktails of hormones and chemicals in the nervous system. With that in mind, he had a Uchiha held prisoner and experimented with Genjutsu to push his mind to "feel" the right emotions to activate his eyes. Against Orochimaru's genetic manipulation and experimentation, Arashi knew what was written on the Stone Tablet in the Uchiha Hideout. He knew what activated the Sharingan's power, the Mangekyo Sharingan's power and its curse of eventual blindness, and the remedy for it.
Arashi had already planned his path, the moment his Sharingan activated jumping steps of progression. He also wondered why Obito's eye never deteriorate, despite the cannon spiel. And even if one advocates Kakashi's minimal usage, Obito himself used his jutsu almost as much as he breathes. Therefore, to begin with, the moment Arashi felt he had good control of his Sharingan under the tutelage of his Uchiha teacher, Arashi began to perform reconnaisance of the Uchiha District.
After Arashi's Sharingan and by extension Uchiha lineage became known, Uchiha clan tried to extend support to clan orphans and even took care of orphans from other Orphanages where black haired, fair skinned and black eyed children were seen. They bet on another orphan becoming strong like Arashi and wanted to reel the children in, to bolster their clan strength, political and social power. With this one move, the Uchiha broadcasted that they wanted to do something for their village, which they helped founded, and since the clan was rich and prosperous, this kind of philanthropic work made the Uchiha clan very popular and admired in the village.
The fear and loathing was replaced by respect, and this in turn mellowed the clan members out. The clan leader ensured that the members never lorded their superiority over the masses, and explained that the actions should speak for themselves instead of needless boasts and baseless posturing.
But this also meant that the clan's security was a bit lax due to busy members with shortage of patrolling Uchiha Clan Police in the district.
Using this to his advantage, Arashi managed to spot people who were loners, outliers and had not many visible connections or friends. Uchiha were always stiff and scowling, though many exceptions were found with increasing numbers.
This allowed Arashi to recon a few of their patrolling duties, and in a moment, when opportunity presented itself, snatched five Uchiha members.
He purposely selected those who had been lower on the rung, since he knew he could activate their Sharingan by himself.
Kidnapping the five members three men and two women, Arashi had set up a hideout using his Earth Jutsu and secured it with barrier seals which prevented Byakugan users from looking through. He had found innumerable seals and barrier jutsu which blocked sight, sound and smell from being detected, which especially countered the Hyuga, Inuzuka and even Uchiha clans. He knew how to prevent the chakra from being sensed, and with barriers erected, he was free to experiment freely.
He had within a week evolved the Sharingan of all three of his subjects, by using Hashirama's isolated Ashura Chakra to stabilise his subjects, and used Tobirama's A-Rank Genjutsu at full force, to push his Subjects into a state of despair and anger which triggered their Dojutsu.
But to evolve any further, he had to directly affect their brains, as a Three Tomoe Sharingan could see through the Genjutsu, no matter its rank, and only a Mangekyo Sharingan can fool Sharingan wielders.
With that hypothesis confirmed, he set out to directly affect their brains and used Yamanaka clan secrets and methods to trigger their brain stem directly and push their minds to the limit.
It was difficult, and two of the subjects were on the verge of breaking down mentally, when he saw the progress finally. Using the feeling of self-loathing and despair together, Arashi managed to trigger the eyes as they changed into Mangekyo Sharingan.
He immediately removed all their eyes, before the subjects could escape or use their eyes' special abilities whatever they maybe, to free themselves. Thankfully, Arashi had kept the subjects at a suspended state of consciousness, where they experienced whatever Arashi wanted them to, but they weren't fully aware or conscious to act upon it.
After extracting the Mangekyo Sharingan, Arashi replaced their eyes with regular Uchiha eyes, and saw that the Optical nerve was often stressed and enlarged whenever the Mangekyo Sharingan was triggered. Implanting Hashirama's cells and chakra on his optical nerve, and using the Stem Cells to heal and graft in place, Arashi made a Earth Style: Shadow Clone, and laid down on the bed. His clone did the necessary procedure, and when he was awake again, he felt a stinging sensation in his eyes as he tried to focus more.
He looked at his clone, "So what did you do?"
His clone replied with a large smile. "We found an easy solution for your troubles. After using the Triggers, we successfully evolved your eyes. We are happy to report that your eye pattern in symmetric. I saw that the optical nerve swells after the eyes change, but in your case the swelling subsided with the help of the grafted cells."
Saying this, the clone showed the pictorial image of the location of the swelling. "We, in a moment of forethought, interchanged your eyes with your left and right, and kept you under while the chakra from the left which was slightly different from the right, perhaps due to different abilities, merged with the chakra of the optical nerve. We saw something happen, but we are not sure what changed. But, your eyes have gained no visible trait or anomalies, but clearly your eyes are different from the other subjects. Their optical nerve is weak and after the swelling subsided, their new Sharingan eyes seem to not evolve into Mangekyo Sharingan, but stay at their Three Tomoe Stage."
Arashi nodded and asked for a mirror and looked at his eyes. He didn't feel any different, as the stinging sensation went away. He was interrupted from his thought, "So feel any different, boss?" He nodded, "Yeah, there is a stinging sensation in the back of my eyes. I expected the grafted cells to heal quickly as we have noticed already so what's with the itching?"
His clone nodded, and replied, "Don't worry boss, just as a precaution, you were injected with thrice the regular dosage of Ashura Cell and Chakra into optical cavity, muscles and optical nerve, right after you evolved your eyes and interchanged the eyeballs from left to right. The heavy dosage, as we found out is leaking continuously in your eyes and pushing the chakra against your own. For three hours, I would suggest you not move or use any chakra. We have a few tests to perform yet."
The rest of the day, Arashi slept in, and waited as his clones had finished their work and *poof*ed away.
Come Morning, Arashi woke up well rested, and with a bright smile. He had asked for a vacation of two weeks to proceed with the experiments and he still had five days off.
After storing the five pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan, he had the Uchiha members use their Sharingan and saw that the chakra in their eyes was just on the precipice of changing into Mangekyo form. He saw their Sharingan saturated with a lot of Yin chakra, and now he had an idea of what to do to push this transformation in the right stage.
But as always, nature finds a balance, and Arashi saw that the subjects would not live any longer, if they activated their new eyes into Mangekyo form. There was chakra imbalance and no matter ho much he used the Hashirama's DNA and chakra, he couldn't stabilise the subjects.
Something happened which drained their will to live, and the people looked okay, but he could see they were dead men walking. The five subjects had to be terminated and he used a blunt strike to their sternum to induce Cardiac Arrhythmia.
With that done, he extracted their eyes, which were now on the verge of evolving, and stored them carefully. He already succeeded with his objective, as he had gained a pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, by manipulating his body, chakra and self-transplanting his eyes.
There was no issue with his sight, as his left eye was switched with his right, but eager and curious, Arashi came to the Valley of the End, and sent chakra to his eyes. With a mental indication, he could feel his eye sight got clearer and richer, until like a switch he knew he had activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.
He sent more chakra to his eyes and like a switch flipped in his brain, he instinctually knew his ocular abilities. As a boon, he was now made aware of his limits with normal Sharingan, which his new eyes didn't possess.
He was astonished that the abilities are somewhat cycled through, as he expected his eyes to have cool and unique Jutsu. His left eye had the ability to wield and manipulate any form of Fire Jutsu, including Amaterasu. But it wasn't Blaze Release like Sasuke's, since his left eye could also supply the Amaterasu flames themselves. He knew this ability was called Hinokagutsuchi.
His right eye had the ability to "look" at any point in space and teleport there at will. It was called Fujin. Like the God of Wind, it allows him to appear anywhere he wishes in a small gust of wind, along with a secondary ability to float in the air.
He realised that the ability was a better version of Flying Thunder God Jutsu, as it allowed him to travel even across barriers and sealed spaces. He could see across lands and seas, and travel even above skies, but he could not yet travel to the space above the lands, or even to the moon or other dimensions.
But he could feel that the limitation could be overcome, if and when he evolves his eyes further. Gaining abilities for both his eyes allowed him to access his Susanoo, which was dark green in colour. It manifested as a spine, then the skeletal hand, and Arashi stopped immediately when he felt his eyes were getting strained by gaining a more complete body of Susanoo in a single attempt.
He stopped for the week, continued his medical self-examination using his clones, injected the Ashura chakra as he had begun to label the isolated chakra and DNA from Hashirama's. Within two weeks, after gaining a break, Arashi left to a quiet place during his mission outside the village, and activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.
With focus, he willed the Susanoo to wield a spine and two arms, and unsealed the scroll with the Sword of Totsuka and Yata Mirror sealed within. Holding the sword and Shield-like Mirror in his Susanoo arms, he saw that the two legendary weapons had resized and become the same colour as his Susanoo.
With that, he willed the Susanoo to dispel, and then reactivated it again. He saw his weapons had gone with the Susanoo and appeared with them too. As a forethought, he dispelled his Susanoo, and called for the Sword of Totsuka in his hand.
In a puff of smoke, the legendary sake bottle appeared in his hand at a normal size, as he found in the temple near Land of Snow. The sword was actually the sake like liquid inside the bottle, which was inconvenient to hold as a handle as the bottle had a round profile. But the liquid acted like a high velocity water jet stream, and cut through anything he held against the blade. Willing the sake jar sword to go to his Susanoo form, he saw the bottle disappear.
The Yata Mirror was a novelty and a sight to behold. When it was found at a shrine to a goddess that looked eerily like Amaterasu no Ookami. Confusing as it was, since despite seeing the Buddhist elements of Monasteries and Fire Temple Monks, there was no reference to Shinto Gods in this world.
But assuming the history before the arrival of the Otsutsuki must have been erased after innumerable people were converted into fodder for the Divine Tree and turned into White Zetsu, the history before and the culture must have been erased or pushed into oblivion.
Be that as it may, Arashi had managed to secure a weapon against the true threat, and he had swore to himself not use his Susanoo and the Sword of Totsuka until he is faced with Black Zetsu. With that done, he now wanted to ensure that he could use his right eye abilities with ease and confidence.
Hence, he had applied for a Bandit Clearing mission on the borders between the Land of Hot Springs and Land of Fire.
When Arashi reached the Hokage Office, he saw on the way that the administrative staff was on a sugar-rush, while the office looked busier than usual. He saw that his Chunin Team of future Sannin looked serious and waited for his arrival, and when he entered, he saw Hiruzen raise his eyes and glance at him.
"Ahh, Arashi-kun, we were just waiting for you. Come in!"
"Pardon my Intrusion! Greetings Hokage-sama." Arashi replied respectfully, as he had begun to address his teacher as Sensei in informal settings or on a mission where his teacher accompanied him, which happened very seldom. But in the office, he was not a teacher, but the leader of the people, and as such he always addressed him as Hokage.
"Arashi-kun, I have already explained to your teammates, but let me explain in brief. Your request for the Bandit Clearing Mission has been rejected given the current circumstances. As you must have noticed, something happened last night. We just received a missive from the Land of Iron, that Sunagakure has declared war on Konoha. As of this morning, we are at war with Sunagakure no Sato, and Land of Wind. Given the current situation, you are promoted for your contribution and exemplary work ethics in the field. Congratulations Chunin Arashi Uzumaki-Uchiha, serve your village with the same dedication and loyalty you have displayed till this day. I am having you report to the Medical Corps for training and eventual deployment. You are taking a break from Team Seven to hone your medical skills. Report to Hiruko in the Shinobi Hospital today. Dismissed."
'Well well, and the game begins!' Arashi had to bury his excitement to prevent people calling him a battle junkie. 'And the name sounds familiar, must be a side character or a villain in making. Let's see for myself!'