Inside a remote cave in unknown territory, four men dressed in the same black cloak met. They were divided in duos, and each duo arrived there from opposite directions, though with the same objective as the other one. A man of long, black hair stood right next to a considerably taller, blue-skinned man. In front of them, a seemingly middle-aged man with his back curved was accompanied by a younger man of long, blonde hair.
Within the cave, there was a stone statue of an unidentifiable creature, whose hands came out of the floor. It was on the fingers of these pair of giant hands that the four cloaked men stood. One on each finger.
Soon after they positioned themselves, several projections of several other people wearing the same cloak appeared in the rest of the fingers. Except for one projection, that is. The hologram of a man with spiky hair, wearing the same cloak, appeared over the head of the statue before jumping down in between the two hands.
He glanced upwards and checked that everyone was present. Then, he nodded at them, working as a sign for them to speak.
"We got information related to the boy that fell from the skies, or at least we think he is." The man that resembled a shark said. "Until he was casted into a genjutsu, he managed to handle both of us together, he didn't seem excessively tired when he fell into the illusion either."
"What else can you tell me? Did you take him down?"
"No, since we had to follow the fox kid, and the only reason we met the boy was because some sound-nin slowed us down." Kisame explained, swallowing saliva before continuing, noticing the cold stare of those purple eyes. "We did notice that his speed and strength were probably above what can be expected of the elite shinobi from any of the Five Great Countries."
"I see..." The spiky-haired man put his hand over his chin before nodding once again.
"In our case, we confirmed the location of the five-tails." A younger, blonde man said. "The Leaf offered asylum to the jinchuuriki, so now there should be two in the same village."
"Which makes things easier, in a way." Quickly replied that man of the purple eyes. "We're making progress, and I thank you for your support for our cause. We shall meet soon again, but for now, you can go and continue with your respective missions."
Itachi guessed the information given during the meeting reinforced the objective of invading his native village, and so he was left unsatisfied by the outcome of said reunion. His worry was noticed by the blonde masked man, whose projection was standing next to him.
Soon, all of the energy projections disappeared, leaving only the previous four in the cave. And after exchanging stares, the two duos left the cave through the same exit they has previously used as entrance.
In the middle of a dense and dark forest, with giant trees covered by vines, three men that wore the same black cloak were snapped back into their real background. After projecting one's physical form into another place, it was usually difficult to get inserted back into reality. Nevertheless, they were used to that feeling by that point.
Two of them wore a mask that covered their faces completely. The one of the black hair wore an orange mask, while the man of the long and blonde hair used a blue mask with the same spiral pattern. And in front of the masked pair, a man with pale yet greenish skin, whose head was surrounded by two extensions that resembled a carnivorous plant, was staring at them. However, this green-haired man wasn't entirely pale-skinned, since an entire half of his body's skin was pitch black, and his right eye was a completely yellow sphere.
"So, is that puppet of yours still fully under control?" Asked the man of the green hair, pointing at the blonde man of the blue mask. He got a nod in response from the other masked man, and so he continued talking himself. "Impressive how he's been under the genjutsu for nearly thirteen years now!"
"You always ask the same question." The black-haired man replied plainly. "You said you had new information to report."
"Oh I do." The playful tone of the green-haired man suddenly turned into a more serious one. "Daichi Uchiha has been killed, but you already know that, don't you?. And, most interesting, Orochimaru is planning to kidnap the brother of Itachi, who has been training with the mysterious boy that fell from the skies."
"Just as I thought... When will-" His question was interrupted.
"Next week." The green-haired man said as an impossibly big smile formed on his face, revealing his jaws.
"That mysterious kid will probably be there, so I wonder if Orochimaru will be directly involved as well." He glanced back at the half pale-skinned man, who nodded in response. "Then we'll have to be there. It may be useful to learn more about that kid, and what he is exactly capable of."
"And if the kid kills Orochimaru?"
The man of the orange mask put his hand over his chin as he got his thoughts in order, trying to find the best answer for such question.
"If that kid kills an immortal being, then we'll have to take him down right there and then by ourselves."
"I'll be sure to be around there too, then." His big smile widened even more, though slightly, it was still unusual how flexible his face muscles were. "And while Orochimaru may be immortal, he surely isn't invincible."
After that last sentence, the green-haired man's body started to sink into the ground as if it was quicksand, until eventually none of his body was still visible. Then, the pair of masked men moved into the forest.
A dark pink-haired girl arrived at the entrance of an underground hiding place, in the middle of a dark forest. Apart from the tan tunic and rope-like belt, she wore a headband with a metal plate in it, and on said metal plate there was a carving that resembled a quaver.
She went inside, and what she found was a bunch of tunnels that were big enough to hold what resembled a village in them. She naturally walked through the underground tunnels, and soon enough she started walking by people and buildings. Occasionally she waved at some people that went by, but, mostly, she kept walking forward.
The underground village had several small houses, in which people would live. Apart from said houses, one could point out the presence of a couple of bigger homes, which had been built for the higher ranked shinobi. The tunnels even had a hospital, as well as a bigger building used as some type of market, where wanderers from the forest arrive to sell the objects they collected during their journeys.
Said market became an ideal place for adventurers to make a business, since most villages wouldn't let them in to sell if they weren't living there. The Hidden Sound Village offered them more freedom not only to go in and sell their products even when they didn't live there, but also on the types of products they sold. This meant that it soon became a haven for slave trade and other dark businesses that were outlawed on most of the other feudal realms. And that worked for the village too, that established a small tax on the sellers in exchange for such freedom.
She planned on going there later, even though she was unsure if she would be assigned another mission or left to rest until the following week, when they would go back to the Leaf. For now, all she could do was arrive at the biggest building in the village and inform about her previous mission, and then, find out whether she had new instructions or not.
The village was still considerably smaller than the Five Great Shinobi Villages, so it didn't take long for her to be facing the gates of a temple with a roof made out of purple tiles. The temple, or rather palace taking on count its current use, had long and white walls, with some windows that were mostly closed from inside. And on both sides of the entrance, as well as all around the roof, torches lit the building, just as they did all around the tunnels.
For a moment, she thought of fixing her untamed hair, but she ended up figuring it was pointless since she'd never done it before. And so, she opened one of the giant wooden doors and entered the palace.
The first thing a person found when entering was several guards, mostly teenagers, all around the main hall. However, whoever entered shouldn't be afraid, since if they managed to step inside the palace, it was because they were allowed to in the first place. It wasn't obvious since the dark tunnels weren't fully illuminated by the torches, but in every dark corner, sound-nin stared and made sure everything remained under control.
At the end of the main hall, there were some long stairs that led to the next floor. She followed the wooden stairs, though she just didn't stop in the next room. Instead, she stopped walking only until she reached the last floor. In that floor, there was only one room, and it was decorated with a desk, some wide windows that gave a perfect view of the center of the village, and a fireplace that kept some warmth in said room.
Behind the desk, a man of long and black hair was sitting on a chair. He was staring at the entrance of the room, as if he had been expecting the girl. His smile was wide, inhumanely so, which was unsettling even for someone that had known him for years at that point. She quickly walked through the room and soon found herself standing right in front of the desk.
"Lord Orochimaru, the letter was successfully delivered."
"Nobody followed you even, great job once again," he said as his smile somehow widened even more, "as expected from one of the Sound Four..."
"Are there any further instructions, sir?"
"No, you can rest until the end of the week, then I'll need you all to be ready, because it won't be easy to accomplish our mission."
"I understand, thank you," she bowed at him, and before turning around, she clenched her fist.
Orochimaru noticed her fist and raised an eyebrow, while under his tunic he prepared his snakes. She bit her lip, hesitating to hold her question back once more. Her fist loosened and her hand opened once again. The Sannin remained silent, and focused on her every move.
"Lord Orochimaru, may I ask how I ended up here?"
The man of the pale skin laughed out loud at the question of the girl, who, even though her life had become the one of a mercenary, cared about her past. It was really an irrelevant detail for the future, and he was unable to understand why one would care about it.
"Well of course you were abandoned to die as a little girl, and then I offered you help and raised you, like I did with mostly everyone in this place."
"Ah... I see, thank you again, Lord Orochimaru."
"You can leave now."
And so we're set. One more chapter till we get started.
I'd like to know your thoughts, if you have any and want to share that is. But anyways, I'll now reply to some reviews, so if you want to you can skip this, since it really isn't that important, the important clarifications I made them last chapter.
So, Guest Reviewer, I let your review go through as an exemption, but remember to make an account, because I don't allow guest reviews. First of all, am I really sticking to the plot when the last arc I literally made it up? And yeah very very canon to have Itachi and Kisame fight Gohan, which even though no one died, it does have an important domino effect for the future. To your second point, yeah you could argue that if I didn't just make Ki and Chakra two different things, so yea; and of course I can assume so, because Gohan never deals with illusions as complex as genjutsu in Naruto, nor with genjutsu itself, until he deals with the Tsukuyomi. About your third point, it wouldn't be believable since what you suggest implies he knows perfectly every enemy he could face in the Naruto world, when no of course he does not; Gohan isn't a god, come on. On your fourth point, so according to you if he falls into the Tsukuyomi he can just raise his Ki and escape? That would be very shitty mate, and make very little sense since chakra and ki are different things in the lore i made up. On your fifth point, again, sticking to the plot and not changing anything how? 40 and 41 are made up shit dude, stop with this meaningless argument, you're outright lying. On your Sixth point, his physical prowess is impressive for the people in that world, yes, but by no means does that make Gohan automatically immune to every technique in Naruto, especially genjutsu and since he doesn't know it very well. Patience, he'll learn with time. And the difference between Kakashi and Gohan is physical prowess and experience, guess whom is better that the other in each aspect.
Now, hellcage14, first of all, thanks for reviewing! And second of all, I wonder if you say so because I went over Tsunade's arrival and all very quickly? Maybe I shouldn't have, but I just decided to omit it because I didn't feel it would be ideal to spend a whole chapter in it. If you (not just hellcage, everyone can give their opinion here) think I should've taken my time with it, then please tell me, so I improve in that sense in the future.