Hello to my hopefully faithful readers. You already know what the name is. This fic I'm in the process of making will potentially have more than one main character for a good majority of it's runtime. For now I will confirm that there are two characters with that status, and the name of one. Obviously that's Naruto. Another thing worthy of note is that the world where this story takes place is slightly different from canon. For example, there are more summonings, more hidden villages (no extra great hidden village though) and also more characters than there were in the beginning of the canon. Some of said characters are not OC so don't let that discourage you.
Now we have that out of the way, get ready for a metaphorical ride like you never had before.
Chapter 1.
First friend.
2 years before the kyuubi attack.
Night time.
Minato paced through his study, a small cubicle shaped room with rows of neatly arranged books on large shelves that covered a majority of the walls in room. There was a rectangular table in the far end of the room with a chair similar to the one he had in his office. There was not much room for pacing around but he made due. He had to busy himself with some kind of activity or he would lose it. Today was by far the worst day of his life. It had just been a few months since the demise of one of his students; Obito and later on the death of Rin was all but confirmed. If that wasn't enough–
"Minato are you in there?."
Minato was forced out of his thoughts upon hearing the voice of his newly–and secretly–wedded wife, Kushina. The woman in question, one with especially red and long beautiful hair to note, didn't wait for a reply and let her self into the room. Minato quickly schooled his features, betraying his emotions with a fake smile as he exchanged pleasantries with his wife.
"Good day dear, I didn't know you were back. I thought the doctors would have to strap you to a chakra metal bed so you can have your checkup again." Minato joked. Earlier Kushina had made a passing comment about a headache that just wouldn't go away. And since jinchuriki normally never fell ill Minato was able to compel her to go to the hospital to see if anything was amiss. Instead of faking a frown like she normally would to his joke, Kushina wore a real one. Her arms rose up to cross below her bust.
"Good day husband." Kushina said in calm–far too calm for comfort–voice. Minato gulped on reflex and dared not say word back. It was apparent that somehow Kushina had found out what happened and that he was making an effort to keep it from her. However, Minato was not willing to chance it by speaking before confirmation that she did know. Uninterrupted, Kushina went on to speak. "I know you Minato. You're in your 'super thinking study' the same one you came up with the theory to perfect the Hiraishin in. Sweating like the next pig up in the abbatoir–" Kushina said with a finger pointed at the blonde hokage, who hadn't realized he was sweating profusely until she pointed it out. "–all after a group of ANBU and the old monkey came to see you." Kushina finished by placing her hands on her hips and said. "I know you enough to know when you're hiding something from me dattebane!. So out with it. What's got you all worked up?." Kushina asked, giving Minato all the confirmation that she had been in the area far longer than he thought. More importantly, she knew something was wrong. Just not what... At least not yet. The blonde hokage sighed and lowered himself into the only chair in the room.
"First I lost Obito." Minato started, looking down to hide his downcast expression from Kushina. His fist balled up his fist in rage as a bit of his anger bled into his voice. "Then those Kiri scum killed Rin..." he said, leaving an air of foreboding and putting Kushina in a state of suspense. She knew despite the official report and Kakashi"s 'confession' her husband explicitly blamed Kiri for her death when he faced the late girl's family with the news. He blamed himself as well for not doing enough, however he blamed Kiri even more. And even though she advised him against harbouring resent for an entire village for his student's demise so he'd stay true to his sensei's teaching, deep down Kushina blamed them as well. And as well for being the spark of the first real fight between Minato and his sensei. Both husband and wife blamed varoius parties in the deepest darkest parts of their heart, but never Kakashi. He was a victim as well, Kushina often told the boy. "Now Kakashi's been abducted." Minato said, making Kushina's eyes widen in horror. Never did she expect her thoughts would come to a reality and in such a twisted way. "We virtually have no leads. Jiraiya-sensei is scouring the entirety of Hi no Kuni with some toad summons as we speak. I just hope he finds something, cause if I fail at protecting my only surviving student I..." Minato looked up at his wife with tears threatening to escape his eyes. "I... I don't know what'll do Kushina." he said in a hoarse whisper. Kushina spent only a few seconds dazed before she ran to her husband and enclosed him in a warm comforting embrace. She let him sob into her chest and whispered soothing words into his ears while stroking his back.
"Shh... It's alright. I'll go talk to sensei. With him and Ero-sennin out there I'm sure they'll find something." Kushina said. Words that were easily the best thing Minato had heard all day.
With Jiraiya.
7 days later.
Night time.
"Anything?." Jiraiya asked a group of small distinctly colored toads. Mostly used as message couriers, however, these specie of toads were highly useful in tracking. Despite their innate tracking abilities, all in the group of toads shook their heads negative to Jiraiya's question. The sage hissed out a curse. The toads crossed their forelimbs in unison, taking offense to Jiraiya's words. Jiraiya waved his hand halfheartedly at the irate amphibians. "Not you guys. I was just talking to myself." He didn't have time for this. Minato was a few hours away from a nervous breakdown and he was the best chance of finding the blonde's student. 'What the hell Jiraiya. You're supposed to be the best information gatherer in the elemental nations and you can't find a single clue on one mistsing kid. You're failing Minato dammit!.' Jiraiya thought to himself ruefully. The sage made to continue his search even though he was certain he wouldn't find anything of substance at this time of night.
"Give it a rest will ya, Jiraiya-boy. Yer ain't gonna find anything out in this dark." Fukasa, the elder toad said from his perch at the top of a tree branch. Jiraiya was about to contest his words, even though they were a verbal version of what he was just thinking, but stopped in his track when Fukasa pointed something out. "Where's Kane-chan?." the elderly green toad said. Jiraiya surveyed the faces of the toads as they did themselves, and to their shock and embarrassment the toad dubbed Gamakane was missing and they hadn't realized until Fukasa pointed it out. The elder toad sighed and rubbed his chin tiredly. "Another missing youngster. That blockhead Kane-chan probably went off chasing wasps ag–"
"I FOUND SOMETHING!." A croaky but soft voice interrupted Fukasa's words. "Pa Jiraiya-sama I found something!." The voice that could only that of Gamakane repeated. For the first time in his life the words of a toad sounded sweeter than the giggles of any woman he had had the pleasure of making laugh. Jiraiya bolted towards to incoming small yellow and orange toad, Fukasa and the toad group following in tow. It didn't take long for the group and the formerly missing toad to meet.
"What did you find?." Jiraiya said and then grabbed the toad with both hands, squeezing it a bit too tightly. "What did you f–"
Whack!
Fukasa now sat on Jiraiya's shoulder, next to the fast swelling cranium of his head, the offending stick held firmly in his hand and a disapproving expression on his face. "Choking out the lad won't help him talk to ya any faster." Fukasa chastised. Jiraiya rubbed his head in pain, dropping the toad in the process. The young, sufficiently spooked amphibian quickly gathered it's breath and spoke before the sannin got any more ideas.
"When I was on lunch break–"
"You mean chasing wasps." one toad in the group supplied.
"Right." Gamakane initially agreed before realizing what he had admitted to, and when he did he just frowned at the toad. No sense in hiding the truth now, so he continued speaking, lest the impatient Jiraiya resume strangling him. And the young toad suspected that the elder toad would let him this time around. "Anyway I found this." Gamakane said, fishing out what he discovered from a small rucksack he and all the other toads bar Fukasa were wearing. "It has the guy's scent on it. Strangely enough there wasn't even a hint of his scent in the area, just this." Gamakane said, handing the item to Jiraiya.
"Snake skin?." One toad said in a confused tone.
"White snake skin." Jiraiya said, emphasizing on the 'white'.
"Oh dear..." Fukasa said. He like Jiraiya needed to no more information to draw a mental picture of the face of their culprit. To the younger toads in the group it meant next to nothing. The older ones knew better, but instead turned their metaphorical eyes on the entire clan of snakes instead of the real mastermind.
"I told him... I fucking told him this day was coming!. But Sarutobi-sensei wouldn't listen. I knew Orochimaru was going to come around and bite us in the ass eventually!." Jiraiya said in rage. The white haired sage looked towards Fukasa. "The quickest way to get the information to Konoha would be for you to reverse summon to the Hokage manor. But I'm not too keen on that cause who knows how Minato'll react to the news. I have to be there in case he tries anything drastic." Jiraiya said, getting a nod in understanding from the elder toad.
"Me and the younglings will spend the night here and pick up on the search tomorrow. You return to Konoha as fast as you can." Fukasa suggested. Jiraiya nodded in agreement and that was all he did before he dashed off into the trees. A few moments after Jiraiya left Gamakane's voice interrupted the silence.
"Who's Orochimaru?."
Fukasa stared at the curious and impulsive toad. Only a few years ago he was just a tadpole. So innocent. It was that innocence or rather an urge to protect it that caused Fukasa to keep away information on the only summoner of their rival clan from the youngsters. "You don't wanna know." Fukasa shivered, recalling the tales of Orochimaru Jiraiya had told him. Tales he never told Minato. Tales better left unsaid. "Trust me. You don't wanna know." Fukasa reiterated.
With Kushina.
Next day.
Day time.
Kushina sat in her matrimonial home's patio with her friend and ex teammate, Uchiha Mikoto. The two had cups with the famous Yamanaka herbal deaging green tea in their hands. Kushina and Mikoto knew the deaging bit was a cooked up story to sell more boxes and they obviously didn't need it since they were just in their mid twenties. They only selected this particular brand for it's taste and sweet aroma. Kushina felt she needed something stronger after the past days events, but Mikoto wouldn't let her.
"So, have you told him yet?." Mikoto asked, quickly getting tired of the small talk she and Kushina had engaged in. The red haired woman quickly adverted her eyes, deciding the contents of her cup more interesting than the conversation at hand. "You still haven't told him?!." Mikoto said in surprise. Kushina shook her head meekly, still not looking up from her cup. It was funny how her friend seemed to go from a tough confident never-to-be-beaten woman to an unsure tactless and clueless woman-child all in the matter of seconds.
"It's not like I don't want to tell him Miko... It's just that these past few days things have been really crazy." Kushina said. "I walked in on him crying again." Kushina revealed, causing Mikoto to lose her disapproving look for a more solemn one. This was information that Kushina would normally never tell anyone about. Not even Minato's sensei. His image would take a massive blow if the public knew he had been crying himself to sleep for the past week. Kushina trusted Mikoto with her darkest secrets and this was no different. She was sure Mikoto would never tell a soul. "The grief in his eyes. It's different from when Obito-kun and Rin-chan passed on. It's as if the bottled up grief from those two tragedies combined with this one are finally taking their toll on him. He barely eats or even talks to me these days. He's not been able to go to work too. He spends most of his time searching for clues." Kushina said, brushing a stray locks of hair to the back of her ear. She recalled the conversation the Sandaime had with her husband four days ago. According to the aged hokage, there was another 'incident' in the hokage manor and they'd be needing a new squad of ANBU guarding the parameter. Kushina hadn't needed to pry for the details of said incident when she had a brief opportunity to talk to the Sandaime in private. She could work out what had happened on her own. She did know the man she married. And Minato, the sweet and cool headed man he was still had a breaking point. A point he had gone past when no news of Kakashi came in after two whole days. The following day a slackers group of ANBU were the first to get a taste of a rare irate Minato. He didn't do anything like kill or maim them. No, he never lost sight of his principles, no matter how angry or worked up he got. Ironically it was that very thing that became the bane of all those around. His principles. A principle of perfection.
Minato was powerful, many knew him for that. But on the other he was also well known for his finesse in battle. Free flowing taijutsu almost as graceful as the Jyuken. Despite his natural blistering fast pace, Minato maintained a high level of sophistication when he dispatched his enemies. He had mastered handseals to an extremely high level that he could make them one handed, as well as use two jutsu at the same time, without making clones. His chakra control was on a level that was untouchable to most Iryojutsu specialists. Though not one for genjutsu, Minato could easily cast A rank genjutsu and shrug them off even easier. His bukijutsu, mainly his throwing skills where second to none despite not having a dojutsu. His fuinjutsu was said to be 'a thing of art' and he was easily the greatest seal master of his generation and alive. Only his ninjutsu can be stated to be crude, with his favorite the Rasengan being a prime example. All in all, for a powerhouse Minato was surprisingly graceful in his art of combat. So much so that it made people forget that Minato was not simply smart and talented. He was physically heads and shoulders ahead of the average ninja naturally, with a massive chakra reserve to booth. He was no main family Uzumaki or wielder of Samehada but he had a much higher reserve than your average kage. All these natural traits had come unrefined and it took no little amount of effort and willpower for Minato to take them to the absolute peak of what they could ever be. He perfected his speed so it wouldn't be energy consuming nor body damaging nor uncontrollable to the point it surpassed his thinking speed. He went through self invented chakra control exercises to make sure his unnaturally high reserves didn't put him at a disadvantage. He utilized his high IQ to learn perfect and create jutsu. Not a single resource was wasted. In a sense Minato was a shinobi version of a superman. A man who could seemingly do anything. The slackers ANBU got a good taste of that superman. Minato upon noticing their laissez-faire attitudes immediately changed their routine, their training instructor to a hard retired war survivor, upped their training and cut their free time to almost zero. Just one day of the new routine was enough to send them to the hospital. Kushina knew the Sandaime probably tried to chide Minato on his extreme handling of a few slackers. Key word 'tried'. Kushina also knew Minato had responded to his predecessor's words by having a group of his clan members go through the same course as the ANBU had failed to do. Their success in doing so not only proved that the 'punishment' was not extreme, also that the Sandaime had been going soft on the intensity of the training and ultimately defense of the village. Minato just stepped in months ago, and Kushina honestly felt bad for every shinobi under the hokage's command that didn't take their training seriously. The shinobi section of Konoha was in for a rude awakening. Kushina relayed as much as she knew about Minato's current situation and the ANBU story to Mikoto.
"Guess that explains why Fugaku seems so excited about the incoming council meeting. He normally detests those things." Mikoto said with a chuckle trying to lighten up the mood. Kushina smirked at her friend's words.
"And here I thought Fugaku hated my Minato."
"Oh he does." Mikoto quipped. "His dedication to making Konoha stronger makes him tolerable to a major of our esteemed clan." Mikoto said in a faux more righteous than thou voice. Her and Kushina shared a laugh at her joke. The Uchiha matriarch wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke again. "I can imagine you're not too excited to go. Maybe you can get Kotohime-obassan to go in your stead again?." Mikoto suggested. Kushina sighed at the reminder she would be representing the Uzumaki clan in the upcoming council meeting. The last time she went for a council meeting things didn't end well. She had been suspended for a whole year for bad conduct. A blessing in disguise as far as she was concerned. But now she was no longer under suspension and as such would be the first option to represent the Uzumaki. She could ask her aunt to do the honors again, but that wouldn't make her look good after the stunt she pulled. It'd make her appear unremorseful she imagined. Not that she was remorseful, appearances had to be kept. She was Minato's wife after all. Even if majority of the village had no clue.
"Nah. Kotohime-obassan has her hand full with her own clan since her husband fell ill again. It'll be good for me if I go. Minato fought so hard to give my clan a seat in the council, I'd be doing him a disservice if I avoid the meetings." Kushina rationalize. Her expression turned dark in the blink of an eye as she balled her fists, releasing killing intent unknowingly. "Plus I don't want her to think I'm avoiding her." Kushina said with venom aimed at the lady in question. Mikoto rolled her eyes and bonked the redhead on her head.
"Stop leaking killing intent. I get that this is a remote place and you and Yondaime-sama hid it with fuinjutsu, but don't forget you have a century year old demon fox that can take advantage of that." Mikoto chided the other woman. Kushina slapped her shoulder lightly.
"You worry too much. Don't forget I can restrain the 'ol fox even if it breaks out. That's if the takeover doesn't completely erase my existence hahaha." Kushina laughed while Mikoto gave her a dry look. The Uzumaki stopped however when she thought she heard something akin to a snort.
"Just try to restrain yourself in the council meeting this time."
"I will, relax. I'm not gonna let that bitch get under my skin again."
"Good. But remember, Minato will be there this time, and trust me no matter how perfectly understanding he was about it the first time, in person it'll be entirely different."
"I don't think so. I trust Minato to–"
"Take your side when you beat down his mother in front of him?. Yeah, not gonna happen." Mikoto said. "Trust me, the fact he took your side the first time was a damn right miracle. Fugaku would gut me and use my entrails as tribal body ornaments if I spoke out of turn to his mother, rest her soul." Mikoto said. Men were very protective of their mothers, it was just nature. Minato however was an incredibly cool headed and rational guy, who loved Kushina dearly so he saw the situation for what it really was and the incident hadn't affected their relationship. Mikoto however feared that if he did see the situation things would turn out far differently. If Kushina and his mother were evenly matched then probably the Yondaime wouldn't take any rash decisions if the two resorted to blows to settle their differences again. But that wasn't the case. Kushina was casually S rank while Minato's mother was just comfortably A rank. The redhead's stepmother (even though said stepmother had no idea she was) was no match for the Uzumaki clan head. Mikoto also knew Kushina didn't hold back. Fifty years plus Namikaze clan head or not, she wouldn't be pulling any punches if it came down to it.
"Cmon give Fugaku some credit Miko. It's not like his mother was a conspicuous bitch on purpose like that old witch Nami. I hear Uchiha Naui was as sweet as a flower." Kushina argued.
"She was a saint to be honest. Hard to believe someone so soft spoken still had the respect of a prideful clan like ours. I think my little Itachi will be like her. He's just four and he already has the stress lines like his father and grandmother." Mikoto said with mixed feelings. She knew the lines were simply genetic and just a result of stress but she still felt put off by seeing them on her son who she made sure to keep as healthy as a horse.
"Speaking of which, how's the little guy anyway?." Kushina queried.
Mikoto sighed. "Fine, I try to make sure of it. But Fugaku has already started training him and pushes him as hard as his father did when he was three times older than Itachi." Mikoto said. Kushina gave her an incredulous stare which she shrugged at as she said. "You know I wouldn't lie, and you know how Fugaku can be."
"Yeah. But training a four year old as hard as a genin?. Isn't that pushing it a bit too much?."
"Tell me about it. He says Itachi is not only the future clan head but future of the Uchiha resurgence as the world's most powerful clan. Also something about going to be the hokage too."
"Talk about lofty heights. But 'resurgence'?. I thought the Senju were the world's most powerful clan?." Kushina said with a smirk. Mikoto gave her a rare sneer, a real one too. Kushina knew it was an expensive joke, but Mikoto cracked hers once in a while. Why should she have all the fun?.
"The Senju were never stronger than us and never will be." Mikoto said with an unshakable determination.
"I think history already decided who the strongest is. The Shodai did defeat the strongest Uchiha to ever live." Kushina said.
"Blah blah blah. History is never detailed or completely reliable when it goes that far back. Who knows the Shodai may have won out of sheer luck?. Anyway I'm talking presently. Name one Senju that can stand up to my husband or his cousin." Mikoto demanded with a confident smirk. Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Shiro were easily the two strongest Uchiha of the clan and shinobi in the village.
"Slug Sannin Tsunade Senju." Kushina fired out immediately.
Mikoto looked perturbed momentarily before she settled into a calm expression. "She's on voluntary exile. She doesn't count." Mikoto argued. Kushina gave her a dry look but she didn't cave and stood firm on her initial statement. "We're the strongest. And you've yet to name any real Senju that can stand up to us." Mikoto said proudly.
"How about Senju Denkirama?." Kushina offered. To her surprise, instead of being annoyed by the name Mikoto appeared amused. Her slight trembling of shoulders made it obvious she was holding in her laughter. "What's so funny?. Denkirama is quite powerful I'll have you know." Kushina said, feeling the sudden urge to defend the dignity of her distant family and somewhat annoyed at how Mikoto was or–was stopping herself from laughing at the man. Perhaps this was how Mikoto felt when she took a jab at her clan's strength. Or worse since she was directly related to the Uchiha and had their famous pride like every other normal Uchiha.
"I know Senju Denkirama is a powerful man. I doubt Shiro-san would be able to defeat him too. But as for my Fugaku... Well let's just say he's the strongest clan head for a reason." Mikoto boasted. Kushina lost her initial annoyance on the Uchiha's words and focused more on her most recent statement.
"You seem to be forgetting I'm a clan head."
"Nope."
Kushina rolled her eyes. Damn Uchiha pride. Kushina and Mikoto left the argument there before things got a bit too personal and they resorted to ducking it out like they did in their genin and chunin days. Kushina won a majority of the time, but despite the power difference Mikoto always somehow managed to pull off the occasional victory. When you know someone well...
"So have you spoken to sensei about it?." Mikoto asked. Kushina raised a brow in confusion. Mikoto pointed at her friend's belly, bringing them back to the original topic. Well along the lines of it.
"Yeah." Kushina affirmed. Mikoto gave her a look with both of her eyebrows up, indicating 'go on'. "He seemed excited." Kushina said simply.
"Seriously?. Sensei. Excited that you're having a baby?. Cmon I get you were closer to him but I know the guy too and I know for a fact he hates brats." Mikoto said. Kushina took mild offense to that.
"Hey my kid is not a brattebane!." Kushina said.
Mikoto smiled widely. "I didn't call him a brattebane Kushina." Mikoto said with a smirk. Kushina blushed. Damn her verbal tic always making her sound cute when she trying to be serious.
"You know what I mean..." Kushina muttered out, still blushing.
Mikoto chuckled at her friend's embarrassment. "I can't believe you still do that though. What's it like?. Maybe like that occasional fart that gets you by surprise?." Mikoto asked with a sly smile. Kushina swatted at her but she easily avoided the slow swing.
"That's gross Miko." Kushina said visibly trying to stop herself from laughing out loud. "It's nothing like that. Anyways sensei said he'll be going out of Hi no Kuni for a few months." Kushina said desperately trying to change the subject to something less embarrassing. Fortunately for her Mikoto took the bait.
"Just like that?. He didn't even stop by to say goodbye. Well it's probably for the best. Fugaku hates his guts and sensei isn't one to hide his feelings anyway. Sometimes I think if I leave the two of them alone I'll return either as a widow or sensei-less." Mikoto said with a small smile.
"He says he'll send a present for us to celebrate our safe deliveries." Kushina said, looking as amused as Mikoto after listening to what she just said. "And yes, he knows you're not pregnant too."
"Took that bastard four whole years to promise to send me a post delivery gift. I swear I'll burn him when he returns." Mikoto said in faux anger. Her expression turned solemn as she caught the sight of her and Kushina's team's first picture. "Man I miss those days." Mikoto said, recalling vividly the day they met their sensei, their bickering when they had to do D ranks for weeks, their first dangerous missions. The missions were the most thrilling memories, but the time they spent returning from them were her best memories. Her sensei wasn't exactly the mistmost caring or thoughtful man. Nor did he even want to lead and tutor genins when he did. However, time changed them and though it seemed he hadn't changed since he still complained about always having them around. Mikoto knew that he had begun to care for them. The fact that he was going to give her her first present even if it was four years late was evidence of that. "I hope he gets us something nice." Mikoto said with a fond smile. Kushina mirrored her smile as well, and her expression told Mikoto she too had been reminiscing on the old days. Mikoto got up, her memories of her younger days making her feel more alive. She began leaving, beckoning Kushina to follow as she did. "Cmon let's go pay our final teammate a visit."
Kushina smiled and followed after her best friend and ex teammate. They day may have started off gloomily but things were looking up.
Land of Grass
Abandoned Castle Hideout.
Same time.
In the old days, before Konoha came to being then was the era of samurai. It was a time even before the warring clans, beyond Hashirama Senju's time. What were now wasted lands and ruins used to be once a mighty kingdom belonging to a powerful warlord of the Ryu dynasty. They were once a people who ruled supreme over what was now known as the elemental nations. However they like most mortal things were unable to stand the resttest of time. The child of the emperor Ryu and those after them began cultivating other means of survival, and as they grew in dominance they grew vast in variety. Taking slaves and conquering others. Eventually the children of these slaves and foreigners rose to positions of power and soon came the changing of the age held rule of their forefathers.
To live by the blade.
The philosophy once stood unshakable, but time slowly crumbled it to dust. Time was a merciless master of all. Yes time was. But somewhere deep within this evolution of the shinobi society existed a time where everything as they knew it was changed. The emergence of chakra. No one knew exactly how chakra came into being. There was no record of it excluding an extremely vague stories of stone tablets about a man dubbed the Rikudo Sennin. Was the story a simply fantasy?. Did it... Did he actually exist?. How did he usher in the new age of chakra. Was he really God?.
I have to know.
A young girl appearing no older than six peeped through the small crack between the door and wall into a room where they were keeping him. She had purple neck length spikey hair and dark green eyes, the same as the skin of the small snake curled up next to her. I have to know. Her sensei seemed to have been saying that more than anything else these past few days. She guessed it was just an adult thing. But the timing of his excitement was too curious and so was she. She didn't dare question the powerful man on why he was so giddy these days, but she did pay attention when it counted. She noticed he had cleared out his main lab, the one he was using to study a particular kekkai genkai and brought in something else. Rather someone else. She hadn't seen him but she knew he was male. Sometimes he and her sensei got into a fight and though she couldn't make out what he was saying or even hear her sensei say anything back, she was still able to tell a boy's voice from a girl's. Just like most things that happen in the main lab, her sensei said was for his eyes alone. She hated that she did trust her enough to let her work with him on the important stuff. She was young but she was already more powerful than most genin. It wasn't like she couldn't stomach what he did either. She'd watched him fromhidden places when he worked sometimes and learnt a thing or two. Now would exactly be like that except, her sensei was in his private quarters and she was supposed to be doing more chakra control exercises.
"I don't think this is a good idea young mistresss." The girl's camouflage skinned reptilian partner said.
"Grow a pair Guinevere. It took us hours to figure out sensei's schedule and even longer to dispel all the genjutsu and escape all the booby traps he left all over this place and you want to chicken out now?. The snake called Guinevere hissed at her mistress with her slit eyes narrowed.
"I'm female in case you forgot. And even the males of my kind don't have 'pairsss' as you so crudely put it." Guinevere said in annoyance. "The point Anko-sama isss that Orochimaru-sssama may have other hidden ssurprissesss in here. We must leave before they turn up or worse he turns up." The small reptile advised.
Anko shrugged off the warning of the summoned creature. "What's the worst that can happen?. Sensei punishing me for snooping around?. Doesn't seem that bad. I'm already getting used to his poison punishments. Hell I take some of that purple stuff he once gave me to relieve some stress after I train." Anko said offhandedly. Who'd have known something that could kill a man would feel so good. Having poison resistance rules.
"You shouldn't be doing that!."
"Why?. It's hardly poison to me anyways."
"Not for that reason you... I mean you shouldn't be taking things to alleviate stressss like that."
"Oh because it can like become an addiction?."
"Yesss."
"Well whatever. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Life is hard to deal with sometimes so I need something to make it easier every once in a while."
"...You're sssix. You don't go through sssquat."
"Sure I d–" Anko's comeback was interrupted by the sound of a groan coming from inside the lab. Anko disregarded her argument with Guinevere and pressed her face into the door and wall, trying to see the source of the noise. "Shit. I can barely see a thing." Anko said, pulling away then leaning back in to try one more time. The girl sighed and pulled away again. "This isn't working." Anko said with a frown. Guinevere sighed in relief. That was that then.
"Good. Now can we go?." Guinevere asked. The snake took small glances at their backs, just in case Orochimaru showed up. They could both commit suicide before he could kill them first. Guinevere noticed Anko poking her tongue into the space between the door and wall. "What are you doing?." Guinevere asked.
"Ammh sichking ma tahng uhn tah ohl o–"
"Ssstop doing that!." Guinevere yelled, wrapping around Anko's arm and pulling her away from the door.
"What are you doing?!." Anko yelled. The snake uncurled itself from her arm and got up in her face.
"Ssstopping you from killing usss both!. Orochimaru-sssama probably hasss that lock binded with fuinjutsu and who knowss what nasssty kind of ssseal he put there?!." Guinevere snapped. Anko just stared at the snake blankly before grinning.
"Dunno. Only one way to find out." Anko said and made for the door again, only to be intercepted by her summon. "Get out of the way Guinevere!." Anko demanded.
"Not happening misstress!. Have you ever heard of the sssaying that curiosssity killsss the cat?!. You're curiosssity and I'm the cat!." Guinevere said
"Except I'm not trying to fucking kill you!." Anko yelled as she charged at the snake. "Now get out of the way!" Guinevere easily dodged the girl's lunge and warped herself around her legs causing her to trip. Anko fell flat on her face and quickly made to get up but Guinevere was already wrapped around her neck and an arm before she could.
"Curiosssity didn't pick up a kunai and ssstab the cat, it lead the cat to it'sss death!. I have my doubtsss but you ssseem convinced that Orochimaru-sssama will never harm you but it'sss different for me!." Guinevere yelled, her freight at the snake sannin visible in her eyes. "Orochimaru-sssama isss ssspecial. He constantly abusesss the sssummoning contract that wasss gifted to him but for sssome reason the great sssnake elder has not dissmisssed him or even isssued a warning. That'ss weird!. There have been whissperss that the great elder fearsss your massster." Anko's eyes widened at Guinevere's statement. "You may think you know how great of a man your sssensei is but the truth isss you have no idea. He sselected me asss your familiar when you were jussst three out of a thousssand othersss. When I wasss chosssen my mother sssaid it wasss desstiny, that I wasss ssspecial. But the fact isss I didn't feel sspecial. I felt like one out of a thoussand other optionsss. Like if I failed there wasss an almossst inexhaussstible amount of of replacementsss." Guinevere said and released the purple haired girl from her grasp. Anko rose to her feet but made no move to go towards the door. She just stared Guinevere in the eye. "If you go through that door then I've failed." Guinevere said. Anko nodded and they both silently turned away from the door and began leaving, ignoring the occasional sounds coming from the room. "Thank you." Guinevere said.
"Hey no need to thank me. Whatever is in there isn't worth risking your life, at least not to me." Anko said. Guinevere smiled to herself at her mistress' words. "I gu–"
Boooom!
Suddenly the door was blasted down along with a good portion of the wall. Anko and Guinevere instinctively jumped out of the way and stayed low, eyeing the smoking torn down wall where the door once stood. A figure appeared to be behind the billowing clouds of dust. Anko stared at the silhouette as it steadily increased in size and darkness. First came a leg, piercing through the thick cloud of dust and denting the stone floor as it met the ground. Then a small of a right hand, electricity visibly coursing through it. Anko assumed the person used a raiton jutsu to break down the door. Next was a knee and then the whole leg stretched forward as the figure took a step. In another he was completely out of the screen of smoke and Anko saw him in all his glory. Literally. Despite being in the nude he walked with an air of power and intimidation. Right passed her like he didn't know she was there. But she did. She knew who that was. He was a war legend all things considered.
"Ha... Hatake Kakashi."
With Orochimaru.
The snake sannin sat with a stack of papers in front of him, but none of them were currently of interest to him. Written on a corner of the file was the name 'Hatake Kakashi '. Orochimaru licked his lips and let out chuckle escape his lips as he read the contents of the files. A week ago he was able to capture Hatake Kakashi alive. Under normal circumstances it would've been quite easy to kidnap a single rookie jonin, but circumstances weren't exactly normal in his case. He may still be a resident of Konoha in person but his ninja lincese has had long been annulled, secretly of course. Some, perhaps most would say he got off far easier than he should however Orochimaru was not satisfied with the present condition of things. That was why he began his preparations to leave. But as fate would have it, while he on his way to Kiri to procure some blood limits, he ran into the unconscious form of none other than the Yondaime's best and only remaining student. Orochimaru wasn't a religious person but even he would admit that run in felt like a divine intervention. A sign telling him it was not yet time to leave Konoha. Even though the village had done nothing for him but waste his precious time. In Orochimaru's opinion he benefited more from the war than he did from his time doing missions for Konoha. People gave the Sandaime the praise for bringing up the sannin but the reality was he only set the foundation for them. It didn't take much to see the professor was not exactly the super teacher everybody thought he was. Aside from mud jutsu Orochimaru was fairly certain he hadn't learnt anything from the old man. Same could be said for his teammate Jiraiya and for Tsunade it was painfully obvious that he didn't have much impact on her as a ninja. Physically though. The old man was more of a philosophical teacher than an actual ninja trainer. Being trained by great teachers doesn't automatically make you a great teacher as well. The Nidaime was a legendary teacher in the elderly hokage's words. He on the other hand was a woeful one when it came to the ninja arts. He spent more of the time he was supposed to be using to drill the concepts of being a shinobi into them discussing about the importance of the will of fire and how it defined Konoha. The strong foundation the sannins had coming up was as a result of the wartime system set up by the Nidaime. The academy in those days taught proper lessons worth learning. These days only a handful of teachers were qualified to be in the building. The mighty system Sarutobi Hiruzen bragged about was slowly crumbling. Yet again time triumphed. Yes, it seemed time was the only truly unbeatable enemy existing in the elemental nations. Even Hanzo, the man who had marked their improvement, a result of the war, not Hiruzen Sarutobi's tutorship. That once mighty Goliath had been slain by an unassuming David. Things would soon begin to change and the ripple caused by Hanzo's killer, Orochimaru was sure would trigger a reaction. Wars begat wars. It was a concept the old man preached to him and his teammates. Coups begat coups. That was just the way with anything associated as evil. The first incident served as an example, an invitation that the norm can be gone against. It beckons the evil hopefuls to the other side, and then nature takes its course. Weeding out the weak until the strongest defiers remain standing. Orochimaru was no prophet but he would predict that something would come to rock Konoha and all its populace to wake. But that was of no concern to him. He would be long gone by then, hopefully establishing something of his own, something that would never crumble after the test of time. Something he would be proud to call his own.
"Unfortunately Kakashi-kun you I'll have to mark as a failure, but I must say...The results are astonishing. Well, for a second rate." Orochimaru said, setting the file down still smiling after announcing his own failure. Failure was something that used to irk him. Then he was younger, inexperienced. But now it was different. Failure was the gateway to success, and the less bad the failure the closer you were to success. He had long since craved the sharingan and upon finding an intact one in Kakashi's skull Orochimaru was honestly tempted to gouge it out of his head and see what the world looked like through that magnificent orb. And it was for that reason exactly that he didn't do it. No. If he wanted to have a true experience of seeing the world like an Uchiha he would need two of those eyes, identical ones as well. He was a twisted man but he had principles. If you want to do something, you do it right. So Orochimaru took a gamble, one he would've never took when he was younger. He proceeded on an experiment to replicate a sharingan, risking losing a completely healthy one if he failed. And he did. Now it was gone. He wasn't too bothered about it though. Massive progress had been made in the process. "Indeed it has." Orochimaru said out loud with a string of chuckles following. The sound of an explosion interrupted him and instead of getting up to check what it was, the sannin smirked and remained sitted. "Let's put you to test then, my cute little test subject." Orochimaru said and soon after his door was kicked down. The person he was expecting came through it eyes blazing with righteous fury.
"You are a man who simply must die." Kakashi said.
Orochimaru ignored the silver haired rookie jonin's lack of clothing, he was responsible for it anyway, and instead smirked at him, resting his chin on his fist. "Tell me which one are you right now?. Little Hatake or..." Orochimaru's eyes lit up with glee. "His new tenant?."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the snake sannin, slowly gathering his chakra and preparing for a fight. "You're a sick man. Doing this to a kid just simply out of curiosity. But you will soon find you were a fool to pick me as his side personality." Kakashi said.
"Is that what you're calling it?." Orochimaru said in amusement. His smile got even broader, causing his eyes to squint at the sheer widness. "Just so you know, you weren't my first choice. Naturally your elder brother was." Orochimaru said causing the boy to scowl "But no less I'm happy to have you. You're my personal best, Nidaime-sama."
Konoha.
Hokage manor.
1 day later.
Day time.
Hiruzen Sarutobi considered himself a wise man. He had lived longer than most shinobi who reached the highest professional level could dream of. Over the years he's spent as an active shinobi Sarutobi found that knowledge was an even more powerful weapon than any jutsu or kunai. A great deal of time it was his knowledge of the shinobi war that had saved him from certain death. That was why as a young man he was almost obsessed with acquiring knowledge. He studied the terrain of various hidden villages, their culture and followed up on their current affairs closely. He also knew that in a fight not only knowledge could save him so he absorbed various jutsu like a sponge and trained hard to master all the fire elements. By the time he was fourty Hiruzen was a master of all elements with over a thousand jutsu in his arsenal. That was the reason they called him the Professor. For his vast knowledge on all shinobi aspects. That was why he felt he was a kindred spirit. Because they both had a thirst for knowledge and a powerful willingness to learn. That was why he loved him and perhaps favoured him over his other students. Why he turned a blind eye even when the writings were clear on the wall. And as Jiraiya had warned him a small while ago his decision had come to bite them in the ass.
Sarutobi despite his shame didn't avoid the gaze of his last loyal student. He was a war veteran and despite what many thought he was a hard man and stubborn in his ways as the next shinobi legend. Jiraiya didn't bother hiding his anger at his sensei and wore a deep scowl on his face, releasing the occasional wisp of killing intent. Hiruzen easily shrugged the killing intent off. He had been in the presence of men with far more intimidating chakra than Jiraiya, however there was a bit of discomfort from being looked down on by his own student like that, naturally.
"You know Tsunade never complained about it since she had a clan with a great history and people to teach her whatever she needed to know. Girl got personal tutors from the Nidaime, how can you blame her?." Jiraiya started. He could speak freely since t Sandaime had sent the ANBU outing his request. "For me and Orochimaru it was different since we were both orphans. I will admit my natural talent didn't hold a candle to his but I was always, always will to learn. There was no time I tried to take the easier root, I always thought to myself; if I work hard enough sensei will notice me and concentrate on me more instead of just letting Orochimaru have all his attention. I'm sure you know how that went. You always wanted to be with your precious star student. I don't get it sensei. It was obvious to even my dumbest toad summon that Orochimaru wasn't what you thought he was. I mean the guy hardly ppretended to be the loyal shinobi you were so convinced he was. Yet you, the Professor got played like a fiddle for over two decades. I have to ask, having ignored my warning and let Orochimaru off the hook yet again, how does it feel to find out the student you cared the least about is the only loyal one you have left?." Jiraiya asked. Sarutobi's eyes looked sad the entire time Jiraiya spoke but the elderly hokage didn't say anything to defend himself or interrupt the toad sage while he poured his heart out.
"I had no idea you harboured such resent for me Jiraiya." Sarutobi said. Jiraiya snorted and crossed his arms across his chest.
"Really?. That's just pitiful. Nice try though. You know perfectly well I don't hate you, if I did I'd have deserted like Tsunade to escape being under your rule. I didn't all these years, and I damn well won't be leaving because of Orochimaru's treacherous ass. The r–" Jiraiya started saying but was interrupted by Hiruzen whispering something that sounded so odd he had to do a double take on it. "Excuse me, what did you say?."
Hiruzen sighed. "I said we don't know whether he's really a traitor" he said. Jiraiya just stared the old man in the face, his anger rising and his respect for the hokage slowly disappearing.
"How can you still defend him?. Jiraiya asked in a whisper.
"I'm not defending him. I'm merely stating the facts. You only found a snake's skin, for all we know it cou–"
"Could be what?!. Another snake summoner with access to the rare white snake family?!. " Jiraiya snapped, pounding his fist into the table and smashing it like it was made of glass. The Sandaime wasn't moved or intimidated by the show of violence. "It had Kakashi's scent on it and you know how cuckoo crazy Orochimaru is about the sharingan, what more evidence do you want?!."
"Real evidence, Jiraiya. If it were you I'd do the same thing. I can't sanction the arrest of a sannin with the only evidence being a stray skin of a reptile." Hiruzen said.
"You know what, I believe you." Jiraiya said. Hiruzen sighed in relief and was about to thank the sannin for understandin, but Jiraiya had other things to say. "You've gone too soft for the job. I'm just glad Minato took your place when he did if not we'd probably have Orochimaru kidnapping clan members in broad daylight and still being charged not guilty on grounds of lack of evidence. Oh wait, he already did." Jiraiya said and was welcome to rare image of Sarutobi Hiruzen showing his pain in his face. The gama sennin was not sure nor did he care what light the hokage held him in but he was sure those words hurt even more coming from him. Hiruzen quickly schooled his features and pit pu the uncomfortable conversation to a close
"I'll look into the situation and if Orochimaru is truly guilty I won't be letting him off the hook this time." Hiruzen assured.
Jiraiya turned to leave. "Oh your better. Cuz I dunno how Minato'll react to the news when he finds out."
"Finds out what?."
Jiraiya and Sarutobi turned to window to find Minato sitting by it a kunai twirling in his hand. The bags under his eye showed that he hadn't slept in a while. His hair appeared more unruly than it normal was with a leaf sticking to some of the locks. The Yondaime hokage had a dead serious expression and a dangerous look in his eyes. Jiraiya guessed he hadn't taken his advice and still went ahead to go looking for Kakashi and beat himself up about the sharingan eyed Hatake's sudden disappearance. Jiraiya and the Sandaime shared a look while Minato raised an eyebrow at their clear nervousness.
"Listen Minato. " Jiraiya started. He knew if he didn't the third would probably try to hide it from the young hokage. And while he saw merit in that endeavor, Minato deserved better. "Don't freak out or do anything insane when I tell you this. This isn't exactly incriminating evidence and we– I could be wrong." Jiraiya said, finding himself now agreeing with HHiruzen'sinitial statement. Minato expression returned to it's former cold look.
"Speak." The Yondaime ordered.
And they did.
Minato didn't facially react to his sensei's words or say anything. He just remained silent, allowing the sannin to speak, staring at nothing in particular. After Jiraiya had explained what he had found and the Sandaime adding that they should approach the matter discreetly and not blow things out of proportion without getting concrete evidence first. Minato sat attentively. He gave a nod that the elderly hokage mistook as an agreement before he disappeared in a yellow flash.
"Shit. "Jiraiya and Hiruzen said in unison.
Shit indeed.
Orochimaru's hideout.
One day prior to Jiraiya's return.
Few minutes later.
"Kukuku that was exhilarating." Orochimaru said said in the center of the destruction that had been left after he and Kakashi's clash– or should he say he and the Nidaime's clash. Not too far from him was the barely conscious form of his opponent. Orochimaru grinned as a flash of the battle went through his mind. His creation was magnificent, absolutely magnificent. The sannin winched as he grabbed his left shoulder of his left hand that had been reduced to a stump with his right and begun chuckling. Kakashi looked up at the snake sannin in disgust, choosing not to say anything after his defeat at the man's hands. "Subarashi!. Absolutely amazing!. To think you would be that strong in your first minutes using this body. Many heap praises on your brother but you were a monster in your own right. Weren't you, Tobirama Senju?. You are a true hokage, not these pitiful excuses Konoha have been electing." Orochimaru complimented. "I can't wait to see how powerful you will be in the future. I've created something terrifying, haven't I?." Orochimaru said.
"You have no idea what kind of power you're playing with. Mark my words snake, I WILL KILL YOU. That's a promise." Kakashi said.
Orochimaru smirked and walked over to the host of the Nidaime, crouched in front of him low enough to whisper into his ears. "I highly doubt it." Orochimaru whispered, then chuckled in his usual sardonic tone, making the teen growl in anger. "Time to leave. It's been fun but I can't take the risk of Konoha not finding this place after what we both did to the landmass." The sannin said. They had torn apart most of the tower and the surrounding areas were in no better condition. dust billowed from the earth, occasionally wisping past them and half concealing the image of the sannin standing over the rookie jonin. He then returned to his feet and turned to leave but was intercepted by his youngest student. "Oh Anko, did we disturb you with the noise?. Apologies, we had a small misunderstanding and my friend insisted on settling it right here." Orochimaru said gesturing at Kakashi who was slowly losing his consciousness. Of course Anko didn't believe him, Orochimaru knew that. He hadn't raised a daft student, and even he was at times amazed at how quickly the girl picked up things and how she seemed to be naturally in tune with the ultimate predator reptiles of the snake kingdom. She wasn't on his or Namikaze's genius level of course, that was a level unattainable to most if not all of the world. She was comparable to the likes of Kakashi -before he 'blessed' him that was- and perhaps his ex student from the Yuhi clan. Anko to her credit didn't let her emotions reach her face, but the expert eyes of a seasoned sannin could still pick out the hints of what she was feeling from her tiny gestures. "I'll be going for a while, Anko." Orochimaru said. He also burst out laughing when he caught the brief change of Anko's expression from blank to worry and then settling in fear. An expression Orochimaru knew all too well. Knew, not experienced. Contrary to belief due to his obsession (personally he'd call it a motivated Interest, but who cares?) with immortality, Orochimaru was not afraid of dying. The opposite actually. Orochimaru was a proud intellectual, but deep down his animal side knew it was an apex predator and that in turn had somewhat affected his psyche. He was never afraid. Not when his parents were murdered, not when Sarutobi-sensei got upset, not when he was at death's door, not when he fought the mighty Hanzo of the salamander. Not ever. He wasn't fearless due to life experiences like his team had become. No, he had something akin to the fearlessness that came when an overconfident youth was in over his head. Fearless to a fault, because he saw himself as the prime of it all. The strongest. And no matter how much he was proven wrong in his thinking, he still maintained it. It was just how he was programmed. Stubborn to a fault. It was for this very lack of fear that Orochimaru almost seemed thrilled in the face of a despairing prey. The smell of them was intoxicating, invigorating and divinely close to bliss. It turned him on, literally. His appetite for this feeling, he had found was insatiable. It was like a bottomless pit that craved to be filled, curious -and he was curious to a fault- so he craved to know what sensation could surpass the one he felt now, to know what went beyond this state of euphoria. He wanted to find that one sensation, raw and delicious and greedily consume it so it would be forever with him. Greedy to a fault. Orochimaru smirked as Anko took a step back when he made to approach her. Her pair, the anaconda he had chosen for her bravely stood it's ground next to it's summoner, giving Anko the confidence to remaining standing. But alas it was meaningless, but not in the way she expected. Because Orochimaru walked right past her like she wasn't there. Anko and Guinevere stood frozen to the spot, their tongues failing them, in silence. What just happened. Yes, they did know what had just happened, but comprehending it was the main issue. Perhaps one of them did comprehend what had happened but was too afraid to accept– no, even think along those lines. A minute or so ago, the snake sannin was everything to her. Her teacher, her mentor, her obsession, her goal... Her future. She didn't want to think about it. How it was possible after a few minutes, how in one move her sensei had thrown away everything they had, everything that could've been, everything she wanted without even looking back or thinking twice. She couldn't accept it. It couldn't be possible, could it?. Could it be none of it mattered to him in the first place?. Did she mean less than nothing to him?.
The answer was clear. And without realizing what was happening, Anko lost consciousness.
Then the rain came. Baptising the potentially damaged child for the troubled times that would come.
Konoha: Shinobi Section - Clan District C - Gate Entrance.
With Kushina and Mikoto
Same time.
"Halt!."
Kushina and Mikoto giggled as they outran a squad of ANBU that appeared more motivated to run away than to chase the delinquents for jonins. It appeared today the Uchiha matriarch and konoha's resident Uzumaki had woken up with an urge to cause trouble in the village. After having a lengthy and enjoyable conversation -for them- with their old teammate, both women for no logical reason decided to break the law. It wasn't a major crime at first sight but what it could lead to can spur into a serious offence. Konoha was a massive village and resident to the most prominent and powerful clans in the world. Konoha in fact had 17 shinobi clans, more than any other hidden village in the world. These clans ranged from head to minor with varying areas of specification and political influence and benefits. However what every clan in the village shared in common was confidentiality. Konoha was ran by a military government, with the head of state being the hokage and by shinobi. This made secrecy a big part of their lives, as was the power of secrets taken with complete seriousness. It was for this reason that residential and commercial areas in Konoha were banned from putting up fences, so the Hokage -through his means- could monitor the entire village.
Obviously fences weren't the oonly way to conceal one's indoor activities. Doors and tinted windows existed, as did privacy and security seals for shinobi. However, certain infrastructures along with the clans were given the right to fence as a symbol of respect, and a representation of the nigh absolute confidentiality the clans possesses once the gates are crossed. At least that's what the public knew. The Hokage still had his ways to snoop around every building in the village, aside from a few of Course, the clan compounds/estates included. The area of settlement of Konoha was divided into two sections. The civilian section and the shinobi section. The civilian section, contrary to it's name was were most shinobi along with the entirety of the civilian residents of Konoha resided. It also contained a good majority of the food stores, market place, parks and other commercial infrastructures along with the base for the village's Military Police and the ninja academy. The Shinobi section was the smaller of the two, and by a good margin. This was were the shinobi clans took residence as well as the location of almost all shinobi related bases and lodges, also including the more dangerous training grounds. In these sections there were various districts, more specified for the shinobi section, that contained different structures and buildings varying with the district.
There were 3 districts belonging to the shinobi clans. The first and largest, home to only three clan compounds was 'District A' or 'Shodai's District'. The second district, 'District B' or the 'Nidai's District' was the largest, not only due to housing seven shinobi clans and their compounds but also the largest (in number) clan in the village. The final was the 'Sandai's District' or 'District C' the smallest district and area of settlement of six clans. The clan districts were named after the previous hokage before the current ruling fourth hokage. The shinobi section was naturally more secured than the civilian section of the district, with the clan districts having various defense systems in place to keep up that freedom of confidential that their walls symbolized. One of the rules kept in place to protect the privacy of the clans was the one the ones Kushina and Mikoto had just broken for the heck of it. Don't exit through the entrance gate or enter through the exit. It was a simple rule but nonetheless a core factor in the all round security of the clan districts. Security seals that scanned for weapons and hidden seals were placed on the exit and entry gates and walls. Before entry visitors were scanned and ridded of all weapons and possibly dangerous seals, and for the exit they were scanned once again, to counterattack the possibility of theft and if cleared their weapons and other possessions were returned at police checkpoint half 200 yards away from the exit.
This system however had a big flaw, which was if a visitor were to exit through the entrance then persons and possibly stolen items could be seriously damaged, due to the electromagnetic seals that activated if anything out of the ordinary was detected. The back gate also had a similar seal, but it wasn't as aggressively powerful as the entrance, since clan members could forget to deactivate the seal when transporting a clan artifact. That was part reason why the exit had a checkpoint and the entry didn't, because then potential thieves would still have to face the policemen guarding the exit. The thinking was to eliminate any possible threat entering into the clan district with extreme prejudice and to prioritize the safe retrieval of any stolen clan property that illegally made it's way through the exit, also avoiding friendly fire due to the thoughtlessness of clan members. Why did they take the risk of friendly fire by making illegal entry or exit through entry so ruthlessly countered?. They didn't. All members of the clans were registered in the clans' security system, so it actively ignored the presence of weapons on a clan member's person. Seals and other complex possessions that could possibly throw the security seal off had to be registered separately under the shinobi's name.
If a clan member had a seal applied on a mission or out of his district then exit entry was allowed to avoid complications, after proper clearance was given from the clan however. To simply put it simply, hostile entry or exit meant being turned into spasming toast. Unclarified exit meant triggering an alarm and having policemen and potentially clan members on your ass in a matter of seconds. So far the system had stood impregnable, with little to no incidents due to fear of either having multiple clan members chasing you or being electrocuted almost dry. Only one person in the village could possibly enter a clan district without clarification and that wasn't through the political authority but through force.
That person was Minato Namikaze even before he became hokage (obviously the kage can demand that the seals be put down. It is still a dictatorship after all). And this was only possible due to the Hiraishin. The security seal was seen as impregnable, thus breaking the exit and entry laws were not serous laws as far as the capital was concerned, because it was seen as impossible, the repercussions for triggering the seals the were already steep enough and lastly, it was clan business. However all beliefs on the infallibility of the security system were smashed to pieces when Uzumaki Kushina and Uchiha Mikoto exited through the entry, triggering the seals and an alarm but somehow not suffering even a bruise. An ANBU unit posted to guard the south-south area of the district were the first to spot the kunoichi and gave chase. It was their job after all.
Since clans wanted confidentiality, only ANBU related to the clwndclans in the district were allowed to guard it. ANBU squads guarded the areas their clan were situated in and neutralized any threat that got passed the gates or walls. These ANBU were part of a subdivision under the main organisation called CGD (Clan Guard Department). They were selected at tender ages and given the ANBU training, or a level of the ANBU training before being released back to their clan's service. They only guarded the district monitored the area and weeded out traitors from the clans, they were restricted from taking black ops missions due to their split loyalties between the hokage and their clan. They were not restricted from taking regular missions however, but they would have to be under their registered shinobi rank and name. They were dressed differently from the regular ANBU. They wore modified versions of the ANBU uniform depending on the clan they represented and wore clothes over their heads and their lower faces (AN: like the kazekage's guards in Naruto part 1).
Currently, the CG chasing after Kushina and Mikoto were members of the clan closest to the entrance. The Inuzuka ANBU-CG. To avoid giving up their true identities these Inuzuka were raised and trained without a ninken partner and disguised as disabled or inactive clan members. Why was hiding their identities important?. Because then they wouldn't be suspected when investigating traitors. If you were a traitor and a known CG tried to get close to you that would be more than enough to tip you off that you were being investigated.
"I said halt!."
Kushina and Mikoto turned to find the CG squad was gaining on them. The expression showing in the visible eyes of the CG chasing them made Kushina almost burst out into laughter. They looked scared to death. Why?. Possibly something to do with the annoyed Inuzuka Tsume chasing after the two non Inuzuka clan members. Kushina couldn't blame the poor suckers. On her day Tsume was a real scary person to deal with, and it was far worse when you worked for her. Tsume like most alphas was strict and demanded the autmost performance from her pack in their specified roles, all day everyday. And with Kushina and Mikoto having them on the run for close to twenty minutes, the CG members knew their clan head well enough to know she would interpret this as incompetence. And in the long list of Inuzuka punishment ranking from lightest to worst, incompetence was frightfully low as far as they were concerned. So they ran. They ran after the two elite jonin with all they had. They ran with so much fear inspired determination that they soon reach a level of speed that should've been physically impossible for them to reach. They ran towards Kushina and Mikoto, knowing she had a temper worse than their clan head, but she was in a good mood so that meant as of now she was the lesser evil. Running away from Tsume and abandoning Kushina and Mikoto would be suicide. And with Uchiha Mikoto's popular bipolar tendencies that could anger her as well. No, they only had one option. Run past Kushina and Mikoto. That way Tsume would run smack dab into the other two elite jonins and all of them would be too worried about dealing with each other to pursue them. They could just wait in the sidelines and tell Tsume they were letting her handle things after it was all over.
"Halt and let us run past you!." one CG member choked out between sobs. "Please!." he begged. This wasn't how he envisioned his first foot chase as a CG member. 'Why are am I here?!. Why didn't I just opt to be a regular ANBU.' he thought. But that wouldn't be any better. News was the fourth had been manhandling ANBU stationed anywhere near him if they showed any sign of incompetence. Apparently some were in the ER and when they woke up refused to leave the hospital even though they'd been discharged. Scary. Nothing was more scary than an angry Minato Namikaze. The crying CG put the thoughts of the hokage aside and focused on not falling behind, last thing he'd want is to get caught by Tsume after saying that.
"Ooooooh you look mad Tsume-chan!." Mikoto cooed sardonically. The Inuzuka clsbclan head's scowl somehow got even fiercer and veins bulged on her now reddened face. "Is it because your clan members are..."
"Don't you fucking say it!." Tsume said, lowering her self more in preparation to run on all fours.
"Don't say it!." a CG pleaded.
"We're begging you!." another added.
Kushina just cackled in glee while Mikoto smiled sweetly, putting the Inuzuka at ease. 'Oh thank God she's not gonna–' but then her iris shrunk to a dot and her expression became sadistic and borderline crazy'The fuck?.'
"Are you mad your clan members are getting dog walked?!." Mikoto taunted with a semi-insane cackle.
"SHIT!."
"Shikyaku no Jutsu/Four-Legged Technique!."
"S-She's running on all fours, we're fucked!."
Tsume's appearance got wilder as she activated the Inuzuka exclusive jutsu. Her nails grew longer, her canines became more pronounced and her hair got longer and wilder. Chakra wisped out of her body occasionally and her already angled eyes appeared sharper. The only thing that changed however was not just Tsume's appearance. She shot forward at almost double the speed she had been going. The CG members eyes widened in shock and mixture of horror when they looked up to find their clan head above them with a predatory expression that they could only translate to 'you're dead'. 'Holy fucking shit she's fast!.' they all thought in unison. Of course they did know their leader was fast, but not that fast. Inuzuka Tsume was famous for being one of the fastest kunoichi of her generation, only behind six others. Senju Tsunade topped the list naturally. The remaining four were Uzumaki Kushina, Sabaku no Sari, Namikaze Mina and finally Lo and Li Zheng of Tetsu no Kuni. In that list of speedsters Tsume was the youngest, and what scared her clan members more was the fact that she hadn't fully transformed.
They were still in the process of realizing just how close Tsume was when she descended on them. In the blink of an eye the CG squad was dismantled like a broken down equipment. Blood and spittle flew out of their mouths in a silent scream as their eyes rolled to the back of their head as unconsciousness brought them to a lullingly bliss.
Kushina and Mikoto and turned back to survey the strewn out bodies of the defeated CG Inuzuka with halfhearted pity in their hearts. They weren't incompetence as Tsume seemed to convince herself, and honestly couldn't be blamed for the situation. They were elite jonins who took the rookie ANBU squad by surprise and they were far faster than your run of the mill jonin, so it wasn't like the CGs just let them have the lead.
"You're next!." Tsume growled at Mikoto in particular. The black haired feigned fear before flipping the clan head off. This only served to infuriate Tsume even more and spur her on to catch the two jonins. Tsume easily closed the gap between herself and the other women now she was running like she was naturally used to.
Kushina may have been the faster of the two, but her speed was more centered on burst movements and better suited for combat than a foot chase. Tsume however had no such limitations as her running speed was just as good as her combat speed. Tsume couldn't help but grin evilly as she closed in on her targets. She leap at them and made a claw with her right hand in an attempt to swing it down on the slower of the two. However before she could do that she was interrupted by a voice.
"KUSHINA!."
Both Mikoto and Kushina's playful demeanors changed upon realization that that wasn't the voice of their chaser, and just who's voice that had been. Kushina was the first to react, and quickly used a nearby roof as a springboard to lunch her self to another bringing herself to a halt. Mikoto did the same as her friend and landed not too far from her while Tsume let herself drop into an alley, easily landing on her feet. She then shunshined to building Kushina and Mikoto were atop, joining the two who were staring at the direction the sound came from.
There was a man approaching them at a frightening pace from that direction. Her improved eyesight made her recognise the man as the Yondaime. 'Explains the insane speed but why is he approaching us like that?.' Tsume thought. She didn't know the hokage that well on a personal level, but she had been on a few missions with the blonde so she knew. Namikaze Minato didn't approach people he was looking to be friendly with that fast. And that confused her since she was one of the few people who were included in the secret that Minato and Kushina were dating. Did Kushina do something to offend Minato?. Tsume didn't know why but she let her curiosity get the better of her, even though her animal instincts were screaming at her to get away from the possibly hostile SS rank shinobi. It didn't take long for Minato to arrive.
The first Tsume noticed was that the hokage had dark bags under his eyes making him look tired, however his eyes still managed to appear sharp despite it. It made the glare he was giving them far more unnerving than it should've been to see him glaring. Tsume quickly regretted her decision to stay behind and face the hokage along with her 'friends'. Yes, that was what this was about. An inner part of herself must've identified the hokage as a treath thus she couldn't flee despite her instincts screaming at her to do so.
Inuzuka were a loyal people, almost to fault. Today would be a testimony of that. Tsume glanced at Kushina and Mikoto to see how they were faring against the hokage's stare. Unsurprisingly Mikoto was putting up a brave front at the stare down, but the visible glittered on her forehead told a different tale from what her demeanor did. Uchiha pride wouldn't permit the woman to cow even in the face with possibly the strongest living thing in the world. Tsume was then surprised to find Kushina in a far worse state than Mikoto or even herself. Kushina had none of Mikoto's pride but Tsume thought she would be doing a lot better than they would. Minato was her boyfriend after all, so wouldn't be used to seeing his mad face?. Or was he such a sweetie that he had never got upset at her until now?. If so then what exactly did Kushina do?.
Tsume was still in thought when she realized why Kushina looked so horrified. She literally smelt it in the air, and wondered how she had missed something so... Overwhelming. Then it hit her, assaulting one of her more latent senses, bringing it to full awareness and allowing her to experience 'it' completely. Tsume's eyes widened in fear and sweat profusely poured down her face as her sight began to become bleak.
"You look tired hokage-sama." Mikoto spoke first. From the expression of her friends they weren't in any condition to do any talking. Mikoto wondered why her friends, Kushina to a larger, looked like they just saw a ghost. Despite herself she took a small amount of pride in the fact that she was able to face an angered Minato when even her friend who was Minato's wife could not.
"Where is he?." the voice of the hokage sounded hoarse as though he hadn't opened his mouth for a long time until now. His words were directed at Kushina, so was his stare and upon realization of that Tsume managed to stop herself from fainting and looking more pathetic than she already did. Mikoto raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms under her bust.
"Who?." she asked. Despite the question being innocent, Minato seemed to take offence to her words. Mikoto suddenly found herself on the floor, an invisible force putting her on her knees and even cracking the earth around them. Mikoto eyes widened in fear and realization. So that was why Kushina looked like she had seen the shinigami. The hokage was releasing enough chakra enhanced KI (killing intent) to kill an inexperienced genin if they got too close. 'Both Kushi and Tsume are sensors so they must've picked up on it before he used chakra to enhance it. If it's this bad for me how much worse would it be for Tsume and Kushina?.' Mikoto thought.
She turned to her friends and found that Tsume was unconscious, she couldn't blame the woman, that was what she wanted for herself the most at this moment. Kushina on the other hand was doing better than both of them were and hadn't been grounded. To be expected. Kushina had the largest chakra for a shinobi in the village, possibly in the entire planet so it was doubt someone had enough chakra to bring the Uzumaki to the floor. However she wasn't simply withstanding the massive chakra output of the hokage. Mikoto noticed her friend's eyes had turned red and slit. 'The kyuubi!.' Mikoto thought. It appeared the beast wasn't going to take intimidation of it's host lying down. Mikoto found the weight on her shoulder ease as Kushina's demonic chakra fought off the hokage's, but she had to deal with the added KI from her friend now, thankfully it wasn't focused on her.
"Don't waste my time." Minato warned. It was a response to her question but his eyes remained on Kushina.
Kushina finally got back to her senses and frowned at her husband, still allowing the kyuubi chakra to run through her system. "What the hell are you doing Minato?!." Kushina demanded.
"Your sensei." Minato repeated in a monotone voice, but the rise of his chakra told Mikoto and Kushina that he was beginning to lose his patience. Kushina easily matched the chakra output of her husband and took a step forward, and another until she was in front of him. She grabbed his t-shirt for lack of a collar and put her face in the face of the taller Minato.
"I said what the hell are you doing?!." Kushina said louder this time. Mikoto -who had activated her sharingan on reflex when she sensed Minato's KI- was able to pick out the brief change of Minato's expression from blank to slightly worried back to blank. The hokage grabbed Kushina's hand, lightly enough not to hurt her but hard enough to get his seriousness across.
"Where is your sensei?." he asked, sounding a lot more calm and stable than before but still angry nonetheless. Kushina's growl came out sounding more animalistic than she had intended it to.
"Why are you looking for sensei?." Mikoto herself saying. She didn't want to speak in a situation like this. Now Minato's eyes were on her for the first time, and for the first time in Mikoto's adulthood she felt her underwear getting wet outside a sexual situation. He wasn't going to make her, Uchiha Mikoto, piss herself, was he?. 'Please God...' Mikoto begged.
"He took Kakashi." Minato said in a calm voice now, dropping his KI as if he had heard Mikoto's wishes. Mikoto greatly relieved he did but her surprise was even greater as was Kushina, who also reeled back the kyuubi's chakra and let her husband go. Mikoto noticed Minato was reluctant to do the same but did after a brief delay.
"H-He took Kakashi-kun?. What do you mean?." Kushina asked. She had a sense of foreboding, something that terrified almost as badly as Minato's answer.
"It was him. He was the one that took Kakashi." Minato said. Kushina and Mikoto's eyes widened in disbelief. The Uchiha stared at the ground with a horror stricken face as she processed the hokage's words. Kushina took a step back, suddenly feeling light headed. Minato made to help her but she gestured for him to stay back. She fell on her knees and held her face in her hands.
'My sensei kidnapped my husband's only living student.' Kushina thought. She wanted that to come out as a question, she wanted to doubt what her husband had told her. She wanted to give her sensei a chance in her heart to prove this accusation false so when he was cleared she could tell him she didn't believe any of it. However, she knew Minato would never lie about something like this. She entertained the idea it could all be a misunderstanding, but that didn't last for long. She knew her sensei better than most of the village, and that was why she knew he could do it. Her fear for Kakashi made her heart race, but still it made her sick to her stomach that she had so little fate in her sensei.
"Orochimaru-sensei would never do that!." Kushina heard Mikoto protest and the sensation in her stomach felt even worse. Her body became stiff and her throat went dry, but that was okay because she had no plans to say anything back to her teammate or to her husband. Thankfully Minato ignored Mikoto's argument and instead moved closer to Kushina and knelt beside her.
"Tell me please... Kakashi's Life could be in danger." Minato said. Kushina jerked a little as she felt her body come to life from the thought of Kakashi getting hurt. Kushina bit her lip as she heard Mikoto continue to protest against Minato's accusation. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see Mikoto's face when she spoke.
"Promise me you won't hurt him." Kushina said. Mikoto looked stunned at her best friend's words, but obviously Kushina couldn't see that, yet she knew exactly how Mikoto looked right now.
"You can't tell me you believe him!." Mikoto said in disbelief.
Kushina didn't respond to her ex teammate and instead grabbed Minato by the hand firmly and opened her eyes to look at his. "Promise me." Kushina insisted. Minato stared at her and hesitated before nodding. Kushina hugged him tenderly while Mikoto watched, a feeling of fear gnawing at her heart. In a flash she saw an image of what seemed to be the future. This was unlike the precognitive ability of her sharingan, it was far to vivid to be. She had no idea if it was fear inspired or another ability of the sharingan she didn't know, but she saw an image of a drenched Minato standing over the bloody corpse of her sensei. "Don't tell him anything!." Mikoto said almost out of reflex to what she saw. Again Kushina didn't acknowledge her words.
"I put a chakra marker in his bag." Kushina whispered but Mikoto was still able to hear due to how silent the rest of the world seemed to be. The Uchiha's expression ebbed with every word that came out of her friend's mouth. The fear in her heart turned to complete terror when Kushina spoke again. "It's your Hiraishin marker. The last I sensed him he was travelling south." she said. Mikoto could almost feel her heart break to a thousand pieces as she watched the couple. That was it. The situation was officially out of their hands. Out of Kushina's hands. Mikoto watched the hokage release himself from Kushina's hug, rose to his feet and began leaving. "Wait!." Kushina yelled after the blonde. Minato stopped but didn't turn to face her. "D-Don't kill him. Please, Minato." she begged.
Instead of answering Minato raised his left hand up somewhat. Kushina hoped to see him give a thumbs up, anything that signalled affirmative even though she knew it was out of character for her husband. Instead to her's and Mikoto's horror chakra began to swirl over his palm until his famous jutsu the Rasengan was formed.
"I'm sorry Kushina." he said and disappeared in a yellow flash before she could say anything.
'No.' Mikoto thought as she felt a drop of rain hit her nose. Then her ear, then her calf, then her shoulder. It continued to increase in tempo until it began to rain furiously. 'NO!.' Mikoto screamed in her mind.
"What have I done Mikoto..." Kushina whispered out, but the sound from the rain stopped her words from reaching her friend.
Kusa no Kuni
4km North of Abandoned Ryu Castle.
Orochimaru navigated through the thick tall grasslands of Kusa no Kuni with a single two strapped bag on his person. He would've liked to carry a lot more but he was in a hurry. It may have just been paranoia but Orochimaru's instincts were telling him to get as far from his hideout as he possibly could while he could. He never questioned his instincts and went along with them always, and that was one of the reasons he was still alive after making so many enemies and got away with almost anything. He would miss his hideout and the wealth of guinea pigs Konoha provided him with but it'd at all lived past it's usefulness. Kakashi was bust, it was time to move on. Orochimaru pulled out a goodbye letter that he'd found in his bags when he arrived in his hideout from Konoha. The rain rapidly soaked the sheet of paper. It was from one of his cute little students. Oh, how they had grown and that too without any modifications. It was almost a pity, if he had known what he did now back then they would've even become greater shinobi than they were now. Taking a team was something Hiruzen had forced him to do as punishment for breaking a village law, and honestly even though they didn't mean anything to him now, Orochimaru was glad he had the experience. It made him a better man in the long run, and thanks to the missions they had gone on Orochimaru discovered a lot of things he normally would've not. The poor children would undoubtedly miss the presence of their all knowing sensei, but it couldn't be helped. He had far more important things to do than to keep on playing substitute dad for all of them, no matter how fun it was, especially in Mikoto's case. He had grown bigger than the man he once was, he no longer saw the world as he used to. To him now it was a large unorganized lab with limitless specimen and secret treasures hidden in selected genes. Frankly Konoha was too small to be his lab. He deserved more. He wanted more and only everything would satisfy him.
'The world as my personal lab?. I guess that'll do for now.' Orochimaru thought with a chuckle. The sannin read through the letter again and couldn't help but smirk at the foolishness of his red-haired student. 'Like hell I'd postpone my work to go for some child's birthdays.' Orochimaru thought with a snort.
He was about to crumple the piece of paper and throw it away when he noticed something. The paper was reflecting light, visibly. That was odd. The sannin examined the paper closely, and not long after he found what he was looking for. He scratched at a corner of the paper then peeled off a transparent nylon like material, something he wouldn't have noticed had the sheet of paper not gotten wet and caused the upper layer to stick out. That was a concealing sheet. A basic ninja tool used to hide the true contents of a scroll by spreading the transparent sheet on the scroll and infusing chakra in it. Rookies normally didn't write on top the concealing sheet once it hid the information they wanted out, however it was a common trick for experienced shinobi to write false or substitute information on the concealing sheet to throw off any suspicion that information was hidden in the scroll. It was extra work but it was worth it as this trick could fool anyone. Even a sanin.
Orochimaru almost snarled in annoyance when he saw a symbol that he couldn't decipher but was very familiar with. He was an accomplished fuinjutsu master but this particular seal was just in a realm of it's own. A realm above his knowledge or understanding. This wasn't the time to get upset about his inability to understand anything again, he told himself. He quickly moved to tear the paper to pieces, but... It was too late.
Orochimaru felt every fiber of his been screaming at him to escape when he felt his presence. Instead the snake sannin turned to face the newly arrived threat, too proud to do anything that could be interpreted as cowardice. His rational side and animal side were in complete agreement that he should escape while he still had the chance. That piece of paper was the only link this man had to him. Once it was out of the picture he was home free. His human side reigned supreme, pompously and stubbornly.
"If it isn't Jiraiya's prized little student. How can I help you Minato-kun–" he feigned worry "–Oh dear I almost addressed you improperly. How can I be of use hokage-sama?." Orochimaru asked in a mocking tone. Minato just stood there, letting the rain soak him and glaring at Orochimaru. "What's the problem Minat– I mean hokage-sama?." Orochimaru said with a smirk. He hid a hand by his side and made quick one-handed seals.
"Where is he?." Minato whispered out. Still his expression was blank and he made no move to move from the spot.
"Who?." Orochimaru asked feigning innocence, but internally he was laughing his ass off. He really didn't believe Jiraiya when he was complaining about Minato's state of mind after he took Kakashi. He thought the perv was just being paranoid, no way a kage level shinobi would be so damaged by the loss of one measly student after facing war. But here he was, on the verge of breaking down, right in front of Orochimaru's eyes.
'Oh I see through that calm facade Minato-kun, you can't fool me. You're on the edge, and pity if anything should happen to Kakashi-kun because then your fragile mind won't be able to take anymore before it completely breaks.' Orochimaru thought and had to reel in his gleeful laughter at the prospects. This situation was absolutely delicious, he was so glad he didn't run. It seemed the invincible Minato Namikaze could be broke after all.
"Don't play games." Minato said, some venom making it into his words. He balled his fists in anger. "Tell me where he is and I'll make your death a quick one."
Orochimaru couldn't stop the laughter now. He laughed so hard he had to grip something for support and ended up shredding the piece of paper to bits as he used his knees for support. He laughed so loudly animals a distance away could hear him despite the rain. Minato just remained where he was watching the semi-insane scene of the snake sannin laughing like there was no tomorrow. "This is priceless." Orochimaru wheezed out after his laughing fit finally calmed down. Orochimaru smirked at the hokage, still using his knees for support. "I won't waste both our time and deny it. Yes, I did take Kakashi-kun. He had a peculiar eye you see?, an I I have been wanting to closely study for years. I have to say I'm disappointed though, since Kakashi's genes were not as powerful as I needed them to be so the experiments I carried out on him were a total failure. I had such high hopes for the boy." Orochimaru said snidely. He examined Minato's body language and almost went back to laughing his ass off when he saw the hokage visibly twitching. "It's a pity really. Just a few doses of the serum killed him, what a disappointment tsk tsk." Orochimaru clicked his in faux disappointment.
His words were enough to get through Minato's calm facade, and the blonde hokage sneered deeply at the snake sannin who returned his glare with a smug smirk.
"You despicable bastard..." Minato growled out.
"I try." Orochimaru said looking flattered. Honestly he was, and he did try. "I'm glad you've begun to see my qualities Mina– Ohohohohoho dear me!." Orochimaru said, covering his mouth with a hand. "I mean ho-ka-ge-sa-ma." he said with a devilish grin.
"I'll fucking kill you." Minato said and made to pull out one of his special kunais, however he was stopped by multiple snakes that burst out from under him and wrapped around themselves around his limbs and sunk their fangs into the surprised hokage, paralyzing him.
"Fool." Orochimaru said. His demeanor was no longer cheerful and was instead serious and disappointed. "You let the demise of your students bring you down to this pathetic state. We're shinobi and death and loss is part of our lives. I learnt and understood that as a boy, but here you are. The fourth hokage. Beaten down to this pathetic person that stands before now, all because of the deaths of people who weren't even your blood. For all the idiotic things Jiraiya has done, I still respect him. Do you know why?." Orochimaru asked and began stalking to the hokage. "Because he was a true shinobi!. He understood pain, betray, loss, and he never let it hold him down. Never let it define him!. Orochimaru said furiously. "But you." he pointed at Minato, now just a few steps from him.
"You are a disgrace!. You can't handle it. You let it weigh on you, worse, you let it rule over you, turn you. Now you're this pitiful man who's afraid to move on." Orochimaru spat out. "Perhaps I expected more from that idiot Jiraiya. A shinobi with constitutions like his would never teach the hard tough and ugly to his students like I did mine." Orochimaru mused before scowling once more. "To think Sarutobi-sensei chose you as hokage ahead of me." Orochimaru shook his head. "Konoha will be better off without a weak minded leader like you. Now die." Orochimaru said as his throat swole up. "Kusana–ghack!" Orochimaru's words were cut out by a strong grip finding it's way around his nape. The snake sannin turned his head to a physically impossible angle and to his surprise he found another Minato, this one with a Rasengan in his free hand. The glare on this one was more pure, more unforgiving. "How?." Orochimaru asked dumbly. The other Minato disappeared in a poof of smoke, answering the sannin's question. 'Kage bunshin!.' Orochimaru thought.
"Pretty common trick. But it tends to work when your kage bunshin doesn't disappear after taking some damage. I'm surprised it worked on you though." Minato said, tightening his grip on the snake sannin's neck. "Jiraiya-sensei told me you were quite the obsessive reader. Pop quiz. What is a kage bunshin?." Minato waited a moment, knowing Orochimaru would never answer such a condescending question.
"Okay, I'll go. A kage bunshin is a solid living and breathing clone that is created by splitting ones chakra to equal parts in various ratios depending on the number of clones. Key word would be living. Other bunshin, even the solid ones are never truly alive. They are just elemental chakra molded to a doppelganger of the user. They do not breathe, neither do they have organs to keep them alive. That is why they are often more durable than kage bunshin, because they do not have pain receptors thus pain can not disrupt their chakra and dispel them like it those for shadow clones. You'd have to physically disrupt the chakra by inflicting serious damage. People often do not know the reason why clones dispel how they do, but you do. You're the great Orochimaru, aren't you?." Minato asked rhetorically.
"Back to the lecture." Orochimaru scowled at that. "Kage bunshin are a whole lot powerful not just because they can have a lot more of the castor's power than other solid clones can. But because they can be improved. Not the technique, no, that'll be the same as being able to make more clones which is achievable for all types of cloning jutsu. No. They can improve. Because they are alive, kage bunshin can increase their tolerance for pain, as long as they are active they can learn. Why?. Because despite of their fragility, they are still alive. They can breathe, excrete, reproduce even and for some bizarre reason, the great Orochimaru forgot that they can bleed as well." Minato said. "Mere snake bites and nonlethal poison aren't enough to destroy my clones." Minato concluded. He then let go of Orochimaru and began to leave. "Kage bunshin are also perfect for information gathering. I've found my student." Minato said, turning to face the sneering sannin who remained rooted to the spot for a reason. A reason he knew. That he was responsible for.
"This is the last time we'll ever see each other again Orochimaru. For what it's worth, you were a good sensei to my wife, for that I'm thankful." Minato said and continued leaving.
"This isn't the last time we'll see each other hokage!." Orochimaru yelled. Minato didn't stop in his movement. "You think you've won?!." Orochimaru clawed at his nape, struggling to get something off. Something that Minato had put on him. The more his efforts failed, the more aware he became of how foolish and pathetic he must have looked and the angrier it made him. He wasn't a fool and if there was one thing he despised, it was being made a fool out of. "I won't end like this!. One day I promise you, one day I'll have my revenge on your and your God forsaken village, mark my words Minat–"
Orochimaru's words were cut out by Minato's Rasengan suddenly appeared at the back of his head. The spiralling ninjutsu ground his hands with ease, and to his credit he didn't scream in pain or show any signs of fear. The Rasengan then expanded in its usual fashion and Orochimaru's head exploded into a bloody mess, his brain particles staining the grass as his body dropped to the ground.
"Hiraishin Dōrai/Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder. And it's hokage-sama to you." Minato said.
Konoha: Shinobi Section - Hospital
Night
After the encounter with Orochimaru, Minato had found and Kakashi where his clone had spotted the rookie jonin along with a young girl who's snake partner claimed was a citizen of Konoha. The girl appeared to be deep state of shock, like she had been traumatized by something. That was no surprise, if what he found in Orochimaru's labs and basement was anything to go by. He quickly teleported the two to the village after promising the snake he would look after her summoner. The girl's name was Mitarashi Anko, she said. And though Minato felt he could trust the snake, he still had to run her name through the system to make sure she was actually a part of Konoha. Fortunately she was, though unfortunately she had been orphaned. That bit of news did not upset Minato as badly as when he found out from the doctors that the deceased sannin had conducted experiments not only on his student but the poor little girl as well. Orochimaru was truly the lowest of the low and Jiraiya was right to always antagonise him. Thankfully nothing that Orochimaru had done was life threatening, though the seals he found on both Anko and Kakashi greatly troubled him. He planned on finding out what they were first thing in the morning after making sure the two would be alright. Right now, however, he was having very worrying conversation with the doctor.
"A coma?." Minato said in disbelief.
"Yes." the doctor affirmed gruffly. He was the best doctor Minato could find at the moment and the third best Konoha had produced. Though he wasn't as skilled as Tsunade or as reassuring and gentle as his younger sister, Matsuda was a neither a tall or short man, he had a stout build an greying hair held in a pony tail. He was one of the few ninja that were comfortable in suits. He wore a lab coat over it and a stern expression. Matsuda was still a skilled doctor and med-nin in his own right. "Whatever was done to him put young Hatake-san under a lot of stress, I'm honestly surprised he didn't fry his brain own with the amount of activity it was bombarded with and tried to process. Kakashi's brain is in what you can call a standby phase and will remain so until all the random information is sorted out." Matsuda said.
"How long is that going to take?." Minato queried worriedly. Matsuda shook his head, signalling bad news was all he had to give.
"We don't know. The amount of information is astronomical so I would guess it could take no less than a year for young Hatake-san to wake up, but it could be more." Matsuda said, not sugar coating it a bit. He was a man who preferred to go straight to the point and not delude patients or himself by trying to make light of a serious situation. That wasn't to say he was a pessimist. A pessimist would never follow the medical line of study. A realist, however, would. Minato was distraught at the news of his student's condition, unbeknownst to him Matsuda was not done giving him the bad news. "I'll be honest hokage-sama. He has a slime chance of waking up at all." Matsuda confessed.
"But you said–"
"I know what I said. I told you he could wake up not he hundred percent would. Kakashi's brain is currently in a very fragile state, and there's a high chance the stress could cause him to develop aneurysm. If that happens he most certainly would die." The doctor said. Minato paled. After weeks of searching, he finally found Kakashi and this was it?. It could be all for nothing and his student would die after everything?. Minato immediately felt his hate for Orochimaru triple and he wished he had made the snake sannin suffer more than a Rasengan to the head.
"I see." Minato found himself saying. It seemed finding Kakashi had helped him restore a bit of his usual self again as he didn't lash out at the doctor like he would've a couple hours ago. "You'll do your best, right?." Minato asked weakly. He really didn't know what to say. Medics weren't miracle workers and he was sure even Tsunade wouldn't be able to force someone out of a coma. From what doctor Matsuda had explained that wouldn't be the best of ideas too, since the brain itself put Kakashi in a coma in an attempt to try to salvage the situation. Matsuda glanced at the defeated looking man who was also his commander in chief and the strongest shinobi Konoha had ever created.
"Of course." Matsuda reassured firmly. "If there's any way we can wake young Hatake-san up we'll find it, rest assured." Matsuda said. Of course that was a lie. They wouldn't be finding anything as there was factually no other way. He just had to say that to try to cheer up the pitiable young man in front of him, his sense of reason and preferences be damned. This man needed it right now. Minato managed a weak smile, it was fake but a whole lot better than acting like a drone and showing no emotions. At least now he was trying, even though he was just feigning them.
"I'll be on my way. Keep me posted on both Anko and Kakashi's development, doctor Matsuda." Minato said and rose up from his seat. The doctor nodded, after a brief shake of hands Minato left the room through the door, home on his mind, forgetting that he could use Hiraishin for the second time today. The first being when he went out looking for his wife when he could've just teleported to her. Minato walked through the isolated parts of the village and eventually made it out of the gates to a location a few kilometers away from the village. He and Kushina's secret home was hidden here by powerful seals that they had come up with together. They both had homes in Konoha in their clan compounds, but when they truly wanted to be together this was the place to go. Minato walked under the rain, not bothered by the wetness or cold. His mind drifted from his encounter with Orochimaru to Kakashi's situation to the little girl he'd found then to the promise to his wife before going back to Orochimaru. He never let himself settle too long on anyone of them since they were all ridden by bad news. Minato arrived at the door of his home and tapped it lightly, knowing despite the rain the sound magnifying seals would adjust to the interference and make his knocks louder on the inside. It didn't take long for Kushina to open the door, her eyes looked puffy, telling Minato she'd been crying. She moved to the side, allowing him to pass. They both remained silent as Minato changed his clothes.
Once Minato was completely dry, he settled at the fireplace to warm up after spending the last couple hours under the rain and in an air conditioned office. Still they said nothing. Kushina brought his dinner without asking if he wanted it. He ate in silence and she watched him in silence. She returned the dishes and still they found it impossible to use their tongues. After almost an hour, Minato rose up and said goodnight. He'd be sleeping in the spare room. He couldn't sleep in the same bed with Kushina with the way things were. Hell, he wasn't even sure he could sleep.
"How's Kakashi?." Kushina asked. Minato stopped just before the flight of stairs.
"He's in a coma. He might not make it." Minato replied, sounding more bitter and angry than he intended to. Kushina remained silent for a while, he was about to resume leaving when she spoke up again.
"Did you kill him?." Kushina asked. Minato turned to face her and to his surprise he didn't find anger at him in her eyes but anger directed at someone else. It didn't take much to guess who it was. "Is he dead?." Kushina asked again.
"Yes."
"Good."
As though it didn't matter Kushina brushed it aside and smiled at the hokage and beckoned him to follow her to their room not the spare. Minato followed in silence, pleasantly surprised that his wife wasn't angry at him for breaking his promise. However before he could appreciate the thought of it too much a memory of Orochimaru's words to him replayed in his mind.
"Perhaps I expected more from that idiot Jiraiya. A shinobi with constitutions like his would never teach the hard tough and ugly to his students like I did mine."
Minato retched as the image of a horrific mixture of Orochimaru and his wife flashed in his mind. Kushina heard the gagging noise and rushed to the man to support him. The strain of the last few weeks was beginning to take it's toll on him. Minato had to use his wife for support as his legs now felt like noodles and his head was pounding as though someone was smashing a mallet his brain from the inside. Despite his sudden weakness, Minato couldn't stop himself from asking the one question on his mind.
"Orochimaru... He said he thought you how to deal with loss. How to deal with all this. Is that the reason why you're handling this so well?." Minato asked, surprising Kushina. The woman got over her surprise and gingerly carried her husband to their room. She only begun to answer him when she had lay him down on the bed.
"I was crying all day and still was until I heard you knock." Kushina confessed. Minato immediately felt bad for killing Orochimaru, even though he knew it was the right thing to do, because it hurt his wife. He hated to make a bubbly girl like Kushina cry, a woman like her was always supposed to be happy. Those eyes that glowed in determination and sparkled with mischief should never shed tears. And knowing he was the cause hurt Minato deeply than she would ever know. "Orochimaru may have done something terrible, perhaps even more terrible things I don't yet know about, but, he was still my sensei and I bonded with him and loved him." Kushina said, making the self loathing feeling Minato was experiencing worsen. "We couldn't talk to each other for hours so I don't know about handling anything well dattebane!." Kushina said with a sniff and a light smile that Minato mirrored.
"I knew you were going to kill him even before I told you how to find him. And I knew he had it coming, cuz let's face it. If Ero-sennin did something so terrible to one of my loved ones I would skin him alive no matter what you or anybody had to say about it. And I'd like to think you'd stand by me after it, because you're such an amazingly understanding guy Minato." Kushina said with a warm smile. She lowered herself to the bed and laid down next to her husband. "I'm sure sensei boasted about how he did a better job with us than Ero-sennin did with you. And I'd be lying if I said his training and influence doesn't make this a lot easier than it normally should be, but..." Kushina trailed off.
She rose her upper body to look Minato in the face. "It just makes coming to terms with it the way I am possible, but it is not the reason why I have decided to move on." Kushina said then gave Minato what he would say was the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen in his life. "I've decided to move on and be strong for the both of us, because I know that's what you'd do. And that's why I love you, Minato Namikaze." Kushina said. Minato stared at her in awe and admiration. Nothing looked more magnificent than she did right now, nor anything sweeter than her words. Minato did the only thing he could do, and pulled her close enough for their lips to meet.
Next Day.
Minato woke up earlier than he expected due to his filled bladder. It was just an hour past daybreak, the early morning sun shone lightly into the blonde's matrimonial room. Minato spared a second to glance at the gentle sleeping face of his wife before getting up from the bed. The hokage made sure to wake his wife up as he rose from bed. He watched as Kushina stirred slightly but settled back into slumber. Minato didn't have to spend much time in the toilet, but did so when he caught a glimpse of his reaction. He stood in front of the mirror, inspecting his face. He had tired black marks under his eyes. His hair looked a lot paler than usual and even his normally sharp azure eyes looked dull. 'I really did a number on myself, didn't I?.' Minato thought, tugging at a stray hair he had just noticed on his cheek.
"Hokage-sama."
There was suddenly a voice and Minato's eyes widened briefly before calming as he went through a blur of handseals. Minato turned to the source of the voice at blinding speed, lightning chakra coursing through his hand. "Raiton–"
"Hold it Minato!."
Minato cut off the chakra from his jutsu when he heard his wife scream at him. The lightning dispersed across the room, sending a light buzz and small flashes all around. Minato looked up at the person he had almost killed and found a shock stiff ANBU in a white monkey mask. The hokage quickly identified the individual as Saru, a close ally and the ANBU that he had guarding Kushina whenever she was alone in the house or away from the village. Saru was one of the few who knew about the true status of her relationship with Minato. Minato groaned in annoyance at himself and went back to the sink to wash his face. Kushina just stood by the door in silence. She had never seen Minato this jumpy. He had this few spells of annoyance, but he had never been so out of it that he a threat to others.
The redhead didn't want to think about what would have happened if she hadn't shown up when she did.
"I'm sorry about that Saru." Minato apologized. The ANBU, who had managed to regain his wits just gave a curt nod. Minato went on to speak. "Why are you here at this time of the morning?."
"I bring news of autmost importance from Head Doctor Matsuda." Saru answered. Minato's heart immediately skipped a beat and the words of the elderly medic played through his mind. Like Minato, Kushina had a pensive expression, remembering what her husban had said about him, and fearing something bad may have happened to Kakashi. Minato suddenly remembered that Anko as well was in the hospital and hoped to God that the news was on her, since she was in a far better condition than Kakashi, and not his student.
"What did doctor Matsuda tell you?." Minato asked. The time it took Saru to speak felt longer than it actually was. Minato waited for the ANBU to speak while saying a prayer in his mind. He couldn't lose his only remaining student, not this way.
"Kakashi-san has awoke and is acting in an odd fashion. He asked for you hokage-sama, and doctor Matsuda recommends you come to the hospital right now, sir. " Saru added the 'sir' as an afterthought, after realizing how commanding his words sounded even though he was just quoting the doctor. Minato, however, couldn't care less if the man had called him by his middle name even, the news of Kakashi's resuscitation made it feel like his heart would explode from joy. Minato wanted speak but choked on his words. So, instead he bolted out of the room as fast as he could, leaving the slightly worried ANBU behind and he's wife following in tow.
"We'll be there as soon as possible!." Kushina yelled in benefit of the ANBU and disappeared into another room with her husband. Saru felt a little confused on what to do, caught between staying behind and waiting for them or going ahead and meeting them in the hospital. He decided on the latter since he didn't want to do anything that would put him at the risk of procuring the hokage's wrath. He'd heard enough 'evil Yondaime' stories in a week to make him sufficiently scared of the man. Saru disappeared in a cloud of smoke, beginning his journey back to the hospital with a shunshin.
Hospital - Head Doctor's Office.
Minato and Kushina both sat in the office of the head doctor, a place Minato had been only a few hours ago. Minato glanced at Kushina briefly, and quickly averted his eyes when she caught him staring. He had tired to talk the Uzumaki woman out of following him to hospital, telling her to get some rest. However Kushina had quite firmly told him to shut his trap and Hiraishin them there. Minato couldn't help but feel a little happy about the whole thing, since for the past week things had been rough for the two of them and Kushina was far too afraid for his well-being to be her usual stubborn and forceful self. Minato was almost glad she yelled at him, he'd missed this side of her more than he'd realized before. There was a smirk on Kushina's lips as she somehow seemed to sense what Minato was thinking about. The two sat in comfortable silent as they waited for the doctor's arrival. Few minutes later, doctor Matsuda came with in. He had the same stern expression Minato had seen him with yesterday, but today it looked slightly different as though he was... Disturbed?.
"Hokage-sama, Uzumaki-sama." Matsuda offered a polite bow which the two high ranking shinobi acknowledged with a nod and a 'hi' respectively. Matsuda settled down on his seat and pulled out a few files before opening a blue one. He didn't waste any more of their time and went straight to the point. "After our conversation yesterday I felt a bit more motivated, so I decided to run another scan on young Hatake-san to see if there was anything I may have missed. I only got the results this morning. While it turned out there wasn't, to my shock I found something of far more importance, something not humanly possible." Matsuda said.
"What did you find?." Kushina was the one to ask. Minato just remained silent, letting the doctor speak at his own pace. Matsuda pulled out a piece of paper with a graph on it. The graphical representation of whatever this was was definitely on a high, Minato and Kushina could tell.
"That graph represents young Hatake-san's brain activity as of yesterday when we ran the first scan." Matsuda said, pulling out another piece of paper with a graph on it before the couple could say anything. He rose this one in the air for them to see. He pointed at the graph as he spoke. "This is young Hatake-san's brain activity as of today. It's just a few levels above the regular shinobi and under an eight of what was the peak yesterday." Matsuda said. The shinobi couple just stared at the paper with awed expression, not knowing what to say. Luckily for them, Matsuda did know what to say. "This doesn't happen. This is abnormal even for a shinobi. The way Hatake-san's brain sorted through that much data it's like it's some sort of super computer. But that's not the most surprising event of the day." Matsuda said. The hint of a disturb expression that Minato had spotted was now more visible on his face as he recalled what happened an hour ago.
"Then what is?." Minato asked.
The doctor rose to his feet and went to the door. "Why don't you come see for yourself." Matsuda said, opening the door. Minato and Kushina shared a look before shrugging and following the doctor to the patient rooms. When they arrived at Kakashi's room, the elderly man tapped multiple parts of the door in a blur of speed before making a final seal. Kushina and Minato easily identified the security seal and ironically it was a seal that Kushina had created herself. The redhead flashed a smug grin at Minato after recalling how exactly her seal had made it's way to konoha's central hospital. It was a year and a few months ago before Minato had become the hokage. The blonde hokage was tasked by his predecessor to create a seal that could keep unruly patients in their rooms without use of excessive force. Obviously it was child's play for Minato to create the seal, however, Kushina had begun working on a seal of her own when he told about the assignment.
The Uzumaki ended up creating the superior seal and Minato being the rational man he was used her own ahead of his. That was what set him aside from other men. Minato didn't appear to have an ego and was never bothered by anybody doing something better than him. Which was why it wasn't as satisfying for Kushina when he just smiled off her attempt to rile him up.
The door clicked open, responding to head doctor's chakra. As soon as the door opened they found Kakashi crouched in front of it. The Hatake wasn't wearing his mask and his scarred eye no longer carried the sharingan that he he had gotten from his late teammate. However, that wasn't what surprised Minato the most. No, what shocked him was what Kakashi was doing. The handwriting was shoddy since he was writing on the bare ground, using his chakra as a makeshift laser pen Minato guessed. The issue was what he was writing, and that was–
"...Fuinjutsu. Kakashi doesn't know fuinjutsu." Minato said the last part in a whisper, his eyes glued to the teen who had wisely backed away and went back to his bed. Kushina inspected the fuinjutsu carvings and to her surprise it was an incomplete version of a formula that only she and her husband should know.
"Minato this is..." Kushina said, calling the attention of her husband. With on glance Minato told her he already knew.
The blonde hokage returned his stare to what should be his student, a stone serious expression now on his face. "Who are you?." Minato demanded.
Kakashi met the hokage's gaze for the first time since he stepped into the room. Minato eyes widened slightly at the look Kakashi was giving him. Those weren't the eyes of a teenager, even though he wasn't the average teenager. Those weren't eyes you'd normally see around more than a couple times in your lifespan, eyes that he wasn't sure even he had. The eyes of a seasoned veteran and an undisputed leader. Minato had only seen such eyes twice in his years and on those two occasions he was being stared down by an elderly kage. The first was when he faced the Nidaime Tsuchikage during the seize fire when Konoha, Suna, Ame and Iwa met up for peace negotiations. Minato could remember being slightly unnerved by the stare Onoki had settled on him in particular when he lamented about extreme measures in war.
The second time was when he was giving hokage version of the 'talk' by his predecessors. The similarities of both occasions were apparent so Minato was even more unnerved now by what he was seeing.
"I was expecting Saru to come in since I could sense his chakra in the location I planned on having the new hokage manor situated, and since he is still alive really." Kakashi said. Although the voice was his, the pattern of speech was most definitely not his own. "I assume the Namikaze is the hokage, even though the Uzumaki as well appears powerful enough to be." Kakashi said, now directing his words at Matsuda who nodded affirmative. Matsuda had already gotten passed the shocked part so he could speak freely, even though he was still greatly disturbed.
"...Who are–"
"Please." Kakashi interrupted Minato's words, raising his hand slightly. "Unless Sarutobi is immortal and we're in a much much further time from my own, I'm sure there village I and my brother created still has records on me." Kakashi said, then he smiled what looked to be a proud smile as he pointed at the carvings on the ground. "You two also recognized that formula so I'm sure it shouldn't be a hassle to figure who I am." he said.
"Tobirama Senju." Minato said immediately, his shocked demeanor unchanging. The possessed teen nodded, confirming Minato's answer. "Wha... How?." Minato asked dumbly. Tobirama Senju. He was talking to Tobirama Senju who had somehow taken over Kakashi's body. Minato had seen a lot of strange things despite his age, but this was just another level of strange.
"Correct." Tobirama said in case his nodded confirmation didn't do the trick. His decision however turned out to be an anticlimactic one as Kushina began shrilling at the top of her lungs like a scared little girl. But unlike a scared little girl she didn't run away from the object of her fears, she ran to it. Going through handseals as she did. Handseals Tobirama recognized since, well... he created the damn jutsu they activated!.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu/Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!." Kushina yelled as a massive water dragon seemed to conjure itself from an relatively large aquarium in the room. Minato's eyes widened at the actions of his wife, he quickly shook off his surprise and was about to throw a Hiraishin kunai to the possessed teen, but to the surprise of everyone in the room the water dragon came to an abrupt halt, a feet away from Kakashi. The water dragon began to morph, it's head turning into a tail and the tail a head until Kushina's jutsu was now literally turned on her.
"It seems you are able to magnify a body of water with your water natured chakra. Your prowess for suiton is quite high. Not all that surprising for an Uzumaki woman of your caliber." the possessed Kakashi said. He then shook his head in disappointment before he spoke again. "However, using suiton jutsu on one such as me is like giving a Hyuuga a peep hole. A monumental waste of time." he said. Kushina however was not done, and with another scream she charged at the teen again, this time with her adamantine chains peeking out from her lower back. Minato wasn't to be outdone the second time and quickly teleported to his wife and held her back from the posssesed teen.
"Calm down Kushina!." Minato yelled.
"How?!. There's a ghost in the room!." Kushina said, trying to point at Kakashi but couldn't with Minato restraining her. Matsuda just stood by the door warily, hoping the Uzumaki and returned dead hokage would take their fight somewhere else.
"I'm not a ghost." Kakashi said dryly.
"He is not a ghost!." Minato seconded the teen's statement. Kushina didn't respond to their arguments however and still struggled to break free of the hokage's hold so she could exterminate the ghost hokage taking the form of poor Kakashi. "That's still Kakashi, Kushina!." Minato said. That seemed to be enough to bring the Uzumaki to her senses. Kushina settled in Minato's hold, the scared but murderous look on her face fading out of existence.
"Well, now we're all calm." the possessed Kakashi started. With a wave of a hand, he dismantled the water dragon and demagnified the water before returning it to the aquarium, much to the fishes delight. "We can have an adult's discussion. Though I'd prefer Sarutobi to be here, but there isn't much time." he said.
"What do you mean?." Minato queried, releasing his wife from his hold.
Instead of giving a verbal response, Kakashi pulled his collar down till his right shoulder was visible. There was a seal on it, the same one that Minato had seen on Kakashi when he found him, but now appearing a bit different. The seal was no longer black but now blue, still maintaining it's tri-tomoe form but appeared visibly smaller and stretched out. Now having their undivided attention, the reborn hokage dived into the matter he had wanted to discuss with the hokage for hours. "You two must know about seals if you recognized the Hiraishin formula I carved into the ground, so you'd know what this is." and they did.
However, the voice of Kakashi went on speaking for the benefit of anyone who didn't. "The curse seal of heaven. Originally created by a clan of mad men who were obsessed with the power of the Rikudo Sennin. They first tried to harness the legendary sage's power through senjutsu, but it's an incredibly hard skill to master on your own. The only human to ever fully master senjutsu was my brother, and even he for all his power couldn't compare to the great feats of the Rikudo Sennin." the reborn hokage said, recalling some of the texts about the sage he'd read. "However that failure not deter them. I'm not sure if this is entirely accurate, but seemingly a summon had taken a student as a student and sought to teach him the way of the sage. As I have said, senjutsu is extremely difficult to learn, so it was no surprise the man died in training. However the attempt was seen as something of a miracle to these men. It meant learning senjutsu was possible, difficult but still possible. So they gathered as many summoning contracts as they could and reverse summoned themselves to the homes of different summon creatures. Most of them didn't know the art but the few of the creatures who did know turned them down. This men didn't stop there. They decided to take the power by force and gathered the heirs of the 6 great summoning animal clans, experimented on them, then used their DNA to create an abomination. A mixture of both man and beast. Naturally, ninjutsu found it's way into the equation and thus was the creation of the cursed seal of earth. It was imperfect however, there were various problems with the transformation, ranging from premature loss of transformation, psychological issues and murderous tendencies, deformation and most commonly, death after transformation. For years they searched for a solution, and while the succession rate curse mark of earth improved, the psychological toll it had on the test subject was even greater than the improvement.
–Then one day, by pure chance or be it relentless searching, they stumbled on a clan. One that didn't learn senjutsu or achieved it by the test tube, but had sage chakra naturally like summoned creatures and could use it similar to a mastered senjutsu user. That clan was the key. And soon after the curse mark of heaven was created. Not based off animals anymore, but off something else... something more sinister. I don't know how, but somehow the curse mark died off after some years and the only records you'd find are the ones I personally wrote. But that isn't the case anymore." the reborn hokage said, staring at the seal on his host's shoulder.
"It appears somehow, the snake-gaki found a descendant of that special clan and developed the curse mark as best he could. There were some modifications made, however." he said.
"What modifications?." Matsuda asked, intrigued by the story the hokage had told. It wasn't everyday you'd hear stories about experiments that sought to mimic the Rikudo Sennin's power.
"The original curse mark of heaven was flawed as it only manifested when the user was under great stress, much like an untrained member of that special clan. The snake was able to counter attack this by placing a more powerful chakra into the seal, one that would restrain murderous urges and only let whisks of them through when he wanted it." the Nidaime explained.
"He can control the curse mark?." Kushina asked.
"Somewhat. But it's not the way you're thinking. The snake himself can force activate the seal to an extent, causing severe pain but he can't force a transformation. However, what can encourage a transformation is the presence of his consciousness within the seal."
"I don't follow." Matsuda said. The ninja couple were also looking as confused as the doctor. The possessed Kakashi sighed.
"Chakra is our world and it's inhabitants' source of life. An extracted piece of that life-force carries a piece of your conscience as well as a small piece of your soul. If you seal your chakra within a living organism, chances are your 'ego' will influence them and take over unless they are mentally stronger than your 'ego'. However, that doesn't mean you can remotely control that ego. It has complete independence and can turn on you if it choses, however, it's just a small piece of you so it's hardly a threat. Also, the chances of you turning on yourself are horribly slim. This on the other hand is where the snake made his most brilliant modification. He somehow harnessed senjutsu to an extent himself and not only does this magnify the power of the curse mark, it also allows this ego to grow via absorbing senjutsu." the Nidaime revealed. Matsuda's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, Kushina's mouth was left hanging open while Minato had an serious and slightly angered expression.
"Are you saying..." Matsuda trailed off, not able to finish his words.
"That Orochimaru-sensei can come back?." Kushina said, causing the possessed teen to raise his eyebrow in confusion.
"No. It's worse." Minato said, getting the rooms attention. He clenched his fist in anger. "He's saying that bastard can make a perfect clone of himself... perfect clones of himself." Minato said. Kushina felt light headed instantly, and quickly went for a chair to sit. Her sensei was dead one day and the next they're saying he can come back as multiple doppelgangers of himself?. It was scary. Extremely scary.
"Oh, so the snake is dead. I wanted to kill him myself, but good riddance." the Nidaime said with a shrug.
"Nidaime-sama." Matsuda said, calling the posssesed teen's attention to himself. "If what you say is true, then young Hatake-san is in grave danger." he said. All his test were beginning to make sense now. All that brain activity couldn't possibly belong to one person.
"That he is. But don't worry you got the lesser evil as far as curse marks are concerned. This boy's case was different and the snake probably never planned to make him a host, I believe he was just an experiment for sheer curiosity." he said. Minato almost lost it at that. Experimenting and endangering the life of a child just for the heck of it?. What sort of sick bastard was that Orochimaru?. Minato didn't regret simply killing somebody with a Rasengan like he did now. If that bastard snake returned as a clone or whatever, he swore on his mother's life he would– "Kid." the Nidaime said to Minato. "You're leaking killing intent, get a hold of yourself." he said.
"Oh, sorry." Minato apologised, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Anyway like I was saying, he didn't make himself the 'ego'. You're talking to the 'ego' of this Hatake boy's curse seal." the Nidaime said.
"You are?." Kushina asked dumbly.
"Yes, and lucky him too since I don't want to take over a young boy's body. It's great to be alive but I have morals." the reborn hokage said. "Thankfully the snake's attempts to use my brother as the 'ego' failed. If it had succeeded Hashirama's powerful will would've crushed this young boy's mind in mere seconds."
"It's sort of like a jinchuriki." Kushina said, unafraid to hint at her status. Everybody in the room already knew about it. Doctor Matsuda's sister was her doctor and sometimes she had sessions with the man so he knew her status.
"To an extent." the Nidaime glanced at her stomach indicating that he did know she was a jinchuriki. "Your name is Kushina correct?." he asked. Kushina was surprised but still nodded nonetheless. "We never met, but I was there when Mito-sama chose you as our next when you were still a month old baby." the hokage revealed, shocking Kushina. "I'm happy to see your stay in Konoha hasn't been completely unpleasant. Mito would be pleased as well." he said, smiling for the first time since he opened his eyes.
"T-Thank you Nidaime-sama..." Kushina said, not sure what exactly to say to that.
"Is that the right way to address me?." the reborn hokage asked.
"Huh?." Kushina said dumbly.
"Anyway, it is something like a jinchuriki, however–" Kushina watched him go on speaking as though he hadn't just said anything something confusing. "–the key difference is bijuu chakra is far too corrosive to force into the host in an attempt to take control, it could kill them, in turn killing the bijuu itself. We've seen that happen multiple times with the ichibi. The 'ego' of the curse mark possesses chakra that is contaminated by the curse seal, no matter how 'pure' the 'ego's' chakra is. However it isn't half near as corrosive as bijuu chakra so the size of the 'ego's' chakra expanding is a whole lot safe and won't kill the host if the 'ego' matures enough to try to take over. What I was able to do for this boy was to stop my 'maturity', though I was only able to succeed just before a complete take over since whatever else the snake did to the boy made me 'mature' at a ridiculous speed. However, it's only a matter of time before his consciousness fades since I've already taken up so much of his mindspace. That's why I asked for the hokage, so I can get the best seal masters to get this thing off, pronto. I would do it by myself but as you've seen my calligraphy skills in this body are mediocre at best."
"Well lucky for us, since we're the best seal masters in the village." Kushina boasted while Minato was just relieved there was a chance to save Kakashi and possibly help Anko too.
"Then I don't need to tell you what we're going to need." the Nidaime said with a smirk. The two seal masters nodded. Minato grabbed Kushina's hand and they both disappeared in a yellow flash. 'So that's how far he's gone with the Hiraishin... impressive. Nothing I couldn't do if I hadn't died so prematurely, but still impressive.'
"Um. Nidaime-sama, what should I do?." Matsuda asked, feeling disturbed again now he was alone with the reborn hokage.
"Make sure nobody interrupts us once we start." the possessed teen answered. They couldn't risk any distractions.
1 week later.
Kushina took her pot off the stove and turned it off. She gave her cooking one last look and nodded her head in satisfaction before leaving it to cool. It was a special meal she made for Minato, but it'd have to wait in the freezer since the blonde hokage said he would be home late today. Kushina smiled lightly at the memory of her husband, he was finally getting back to his old self. In fact these days he was completely like his normal self, the only difference was his handling of the shinobi aspects of the village remained firm. Kushina liked the idea, but she hated the fact that he got it from his mother and praised the old witch about it. He was such a mama's boy, but thankfully she was his favorite mama. Kushina giggled girlishly at her thoughts. She would save that line for the council meeting. The original date had change, due to circumstances, Orochimaru's betrayal and death, all that. The new date for the council meeting was set for tomorrow and Kushina was going to enjoy making it a living nightmare for Namikaze Mina. Oh how upset Mina would be when she let the woman know all about how Minato called her momma too. Kushina giggled again, this time it sounded more sinister. It wasn't long before her giggling turned into a full blown insane cackle.
"You're a really weird lady, no wonder he picked you."
A voice interrupted Kushina's laughter. The redhead blushed in embarrassment at being caught in one of her moments. She turned to the direction of the voice and found the small purple haired girl who'd been living with them for the past week. Mitarashi Anko was her name and Kushina thought she was just the sweetest girl. The poor kid had been involved with her late sensei and had a curse mark put on her without even realizing it.
Orochimaru used a basic concealing seal and deactivated it after he abandoned the girl. Probably to double her despair, that's the kind of thing he would do. Kushina knew that and had accepted his cruelty and sadistic nature a long time ago. But whatever he did was supposed to be done to the enemy, never an innocent and even worse, a child. Kushina was surprised at how quickly she had moved on from her sensei, it was as though deep down, some part of her always knew he was bad news. Or maybe what Minato implied a week ago was true and she was the most like Orochimaru, and knew how to deal with situations like these?.
Whatever it was, she and Anko seemed to share it in common. The purple haired girl was content to pretend her episode with Orochimaru never happened. She hardly spoke about him and when she did, she never addressed him by name. The name 'Orochimaru' became something of a taboo in their house, and the occupants would all agree he was their least favorite person.
"If not being myself is normal then I don't want to be normal." Kushina said with a smile. Anko just shrugged.
"What's for dinner?." Anko asked. Before Kushina could answer, she hopped on the slab to take a look at what Kushina made. Before she could take the lid off completely though, she felt a chain wrap around her midsection and drag her away from the pot. "What?." the snake summoner asked in annoyance.
"That's not dinner, don't go touching stuff. And didn't you just had breakfast a couple minutes ago?. You're being very naughty Anko-chan tsk tsk tsk." Kushina clicked her tongue as she chided the girl.
"Well I have a big appetite. And stop talking to me like that, I'm not that little!." Anko protested. Her words however had a different effect on Kushina than she wished as the woman began laughing in amusement.
"How cute!." Kushina squealed, glomping Anko, much to the girl's irritation.
"Let me go bitch!." Anko yelled and soon found a bar of soap being forced into her mouth.
"What have I told you Anko-chan?." Kushina said in a chiding voice while the girl struggled to break free from her hold and get the soap out of her mouth. "If you're gonna be a potty mouth then be ready to get washed." Kushina said. When she felt the girl had learnt her lesson, which she probably hadn't, she released her and let her rinse her mouth. No matter what the taste of soap wouldn't be going away anytime soon. She wouldn't be bothering anybody about food for at least an hour. Kushina smiled at her success at both correcting Anko and taking food off her mind. "You can decide what you want to have tonight since Minato won't be having dinner with us today. Let me go get my purse so we can go to the market." Kushina said, not bothering to ask for the girl's consent before deciding for her.
Anko was too occupied with getting the taste of soap off her tongue to argue or care at the moment. Kushina smirked in victory and was about leaving the room when she heard a knock on the kitchen door. Kushina sighed. Did he have to be so polite about everything?. Kushina of course knew who was at the door, and she wondered if just why Anko who hadn't known her and her husband a week ago could act more normally than a person who was basically family to them.
Kushina was the one who had suggested that Kakashi moved in with them. After all the masked teen had gone through he needed a place where he could lay his head and get over it with the support of people who loved him always a knock away. Minato had readily agreed to her suggestion and also included Anko since he now thought her to be his responsibility. Minato was very protective of those who he felt he was responsible for. That was why he made sure that news of things like the curse mark never saw light.
After Kushina and Minato successfully removed Kakashi's seal, the hokage declared news relating to the incident, outside what he made public an S rank secret. That meant the Nidaime's 'ego', the Orochimaru doppelganger theory and Anko's involvement weren't to be spoken about by anyone who knew. Right now only six people did. Minato, the doctor, Matsuda and herself who were present in room at the time. Kakashi, Jiraiya and the Sandaime, who they told after the ordeal. Safe to say the aged former hokage was skeptical about the news. But it being untrue would make Minato, Kushina and their head doctor insane, and that was something he didn't want to believe. Kushina pulled the door and found Kakashi standing behind it. He had gone back to wearing his mask, something the Nidaime's 'ego' found intolerable.
Kushina wasn't present when Minato had told the teen what had almost happened to him. But according to the blonde he seemed to have taken it quite well. The only thing he did appear sad about was the loss of his sharingan, not because it made him considerably weaker now, no, but because it was the last thing that he had that connected him to Obito. The silver haired teen didn't say much about the man who'd caused all this, but Kushina knew Kakashi harboured a deep distaste for the late sannin.
"Kakashi-kun. How many times have I told you you don't have to knock every door that leads to a room?. That's reserved for just private areas you know." the redhead said. The rookie jonin, who had been placed on an indefinite leave apologize for the umpteenth time, but Kushina knew he would be repeating his actions in the close future.
"An ANBU dropped by with a message from sensei." Kakashi said, handing an envelope with the hokage's seal on it.
Kushina broke the seal and pulled out the letter. She read the contents, her expression curious before she broke into a soft smile. 'Oh Minato!.' Kushina thought. She put the letter back in the envelope and stopped Kakashi from leaving, feeling a bit disappointed that he wasn't curious what it said. Anko appeared curious, on the other hand, with the way she stared at the letter intently. Now she had stopped him, Kakashi looked at her expectantly. Kushina smiled, maybe he was actually curious?.
"They've located Orochimaru-sensei's bases in the country." Kushina said. She didn't care if she disliked the sannin now or that he was a traitor, she wasn't going to lie to herself in pretence that he wasn't her sensei. Also, she was already used to calling him that and didn't care to stop. "They've gathered up most of written research, unfortunately the data on all his computers had been deleted long before they got there." Kushina said.
The sannin probably did that himself when he decided to leave the country. "Some of his belongings have been gathered in the TI vault. Minato wants you two to go there and pick whatever you want as compensation for all he put you through." Kushina said with a proud smile. Minato was a really admirable person, and she loved the way he always paid attention to small details.
"Wouldn't it be too premature to go around things connected to Orochimaru?. It could affect our therapy." Kakashi said. She was against it, but Minato had convinced Kushina to sign Kakashi and Anko up for therapy with her Yamanaka Hanae, the wife of the chief of psychological interrogation in the TI. According to Hanae, Kakashi was showing good signs since he accepted that he had gone through a lot for one person and he needed help dealing with it. Most shinobi normally had issue with accepting that they needed help, especially from a non-shinobi. Many of them weren't aware, but their ability to use the ninja arts made them feel superior to civilians and automatically repulsive to any attempts from a civilian helping them on a professional level, as though civilians were incapable of grasping the happenings of the shinobi world.
Hanae said Kakashi's reaction was rare and most shinobi often disregard the fact that her husband was a jonin who had experienced war and the took the dirtiest jobs Konoha had to offer, just so they could assume she didn't know what life for them was like.
Anko, however, she said was the actual opposite of Kakashi. She didn't accept she had been through a lot, and was deluding herself that she had it easy. She flatly rejected any attempts of external help and preferred to bottle up what she was truly feeling, using her brash character as a smoke screen to hide the truth that everything was definitely not fine. The girl was stubborn and refused to discuss anything about Orochimaru, however, she appeared somewhat attached to Kakashi, like a kindred spirit and that wasn't a surprise, Hanae told Kushina. So it was quite the surprise when the redhead heard Anko say...
"Who cares what that dumb therapist says?. He always had the coolest weapons. I don't know about you, but I want to see what I can find. Who knows it can be pretty useful in the future." Anko said, hopping off the slab. She sent Kushina a dirty look for her actions early, but quickly got over it. "Let's go. If scarecrow is too scared to come, that's he's problem." Anko said, moving towards the door.
"I'm not a scarecrow." Kakashi said dryly.
Kushina walked by the Hatake, intentionally bumping into him. "Oh sorry, didn't see you there scarecrow-kun." Kushina said with a giggled. Kakashi just gave her a flat look but wasn't planning on saying anything back. "Come on, Kakashi-kun, it's gonna be fun." the woman said. The teen rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop his sensei's wife from pulling him along with herself and Anko. "Great, we're on an adventure dattebane!. But first, we need to get two other people since Minato didn't extend this opportunity to just ourselves." Kushina said. Their location, the clan districts.
Shinobi Section: Shodai District - Uchiha Compound.
1 hour later.
Mikoto sat by her bed with a picture album on her lap and even more stacked up next to her. She stared at one picture longer than she had the others. There were four people on it, with only one of them actually looking happy to be there. The other appeared stoic to borderline emotionally dead, while the other two looked irritated, especially the adult in the picture. Mikoto smiled at the face the adult, who was her sensei, was making. Her team's first picture always held a special place in her heart. It reminded her of the old times and how much she had grown over the years. She was once a mean rebellious girl who was mad at the world and her clan for her betrothing her to the Uchiha heir. Mikoto knew she wasn't that girl anymore. She knew she had grown, and a week ago she'd say she had let go of her anger and became a powerful kunoichi with a loving family and friends.
But now she wasn't really sure what she was now. What her team was now. Mikoto didn't have the best family growing up, so her team was like a haven to escape the tedious life of a betrothed future Uchiha matriarch to be. She loved every one of her teammates deeply and cherished their time together. The fact that they had all been alive to experience adulthood together was a blessing, she had known multiple teams that were broken up by the death of a teammate on missions, so she felt incredibly fortunate. But now her sensei was dead. He was gone forever and Mikoto didn't know what to call them now, how to move on knowing the man who she'd seen as a surrogate father was gone. 'You two seem to know just how to move on.' Mikoto thought bitterly, staring at the younger versions of her teammates.
After the incident with Minato on the roof, she had quickly left without saying a word to Kushina. They hadn't spoke since the incident, and she was unsure if she could even look the redhead in the eye. Perhaps she was just looking for someone to blame, but Kushina always seemed to overly trust Minato. Normally it was her business and she had warned the Uzumaki about being too trusting and how it would make disappointment cut a lot deeper than it normally would, but this time she had put other people at jeopardy when she yet again put everything in Minato's hands. Then fate picked that time of all times for Minato to fail her, them. Their sensei was dead now, by his hand and nobody, not Kushina nor Minato had even had the decency to apologize to her. The second worst thing that occurred in the week wasn't the lack of an apology, no. It was the reaction of her other teammate to the death of their sensei. He stared Mikoto in the eye, with his usual stoic expression, but this time it appeared different, more cold.
"So our sensei has moved on. If his sins are true and he actually committed those atrocities then I say, good riddance. For how much he has poisoned the world his death is hardly enough retribution to sate the cries of those he has wronged. If anything our sensei should be joyous wherever he is that he received punishment at the hands of our esteemed hokage. It's far more than such a diabolical man deserved."
Mikoto was stunned stiff in silence at those words. She couldn't remember vividly what she'd said after them since she had been so angry at the time. Her teammates words however would never leave her memory, that much she knew. 'With sensei dead now it's just me and those two Yondaime lovers left, oh joy.' Mikoto thought sarcastically.
She had had a bit of a likeness for the hokage before, he wasn't a terrible person if she was being honest. But the way her two teammates seemed to fall in love with him completely confused her. Kushina had a romantic love for the blonde hokage, while her other teammate worshipped him like he was Kami on earth. It was always Minato this, Yondaime-sama that with those two. 'If I don't miss Orochimaru-sensei for anything else, I'll surely miss the way he badmouthed that damned Minato just to get under their skin.' Mikoto thought with a snort.
The Uchiha shook out of her thoughts at the sound of someone approaching her matrimonial. She could already guess who it was despite not being a sensor. Itachi was already in the academy so he wasn't home and there was only one other who'd dare enter this room.
"I'm coming in." a voice said. Mikoto rolled her eyes at the words. Her husband Fugaku came through the door with his usual stern expression on his face. Why he always had to say 'I'm coming in' before entering his own room, Mikoto did not know, but she knew it annoyed her immensely. "You're still reminiscing." Fugaku said, glancing at Mikoto's team picture before she quickly put it away.
"You wouldn't understand." Mikoto said, feeling oddly embarrassed at being caught looking at her team photo... At her sensei.
"I know I wouldn't. I never did understand what you saw in that ignoble man. He was not worthy of yours or your teammates time, nor is he worthy of your sadness." Fugaku said. Fugaku ignored Mikoto's groan and roll of eyes again. Fugaku didn't like Orochimaru, but his stand against the snake sannin was a lot less noble than others, despite his statement.
Fugaku was a proud man, far more proud than his wife was, and felt that a commoner like Orochimaru was not worthy to teach his wife. He had been against it from the day their team was assigned, but was told to drop the matter by his now late father since Orochimaru was still a sannin. The elders too thought it was enough, and Mikoto's fast growth under him only served to solidify their stance. Fugaku had no issues with her clan though. He had already said that only nobility was fit enough to work with nobility, despite the Uchiha nobility reaching absolute culmination, unlike the rest. An Uzumaki and Yuhi weren't bad for teammates. They both proved their worth as well, becoming one of konoha's finest in their adulthood. As far as Fugaku was concerned, Mikoto had a good team and now her sensei was rightfully six feet below it was even better.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't address my sensei like that now he's late, Fugaku." Mikoto said. She didn't sound forceful or even angry, but she knew Fugaku would respect her wishes. He may have hated her sensei but he was a honorable man.
"Hrnmph." Fugaku said, giving his own version of their famous Uchiha grunt. "By the way, you have visitors."
Mikoto raised an eyebrow. "Who is It?." she asked.
"Uzumaki-san, the young Hatake your sensei kidnapped and a purple girl I don't recognize." Fugaku said, not able to resist the urge to take a jab at his wife's sensei. Mikoto glared at him for a few seconds before going back to her albums. "Are you not going to see what they want?." Fugaku asked.
"No." Mikoto answered in a heartbeat.
"I strongly advise you should." Fugaku said, but the woman remained silent as though he hadn't spoke. The Uchiha clan head sighed. Why did this woman have to be always difficult?. Fugaku place a hand on her shoulder that Mikoto mistook as a comforting hand. That was until she found herself in their living room, face to face with Kushina who decided to stand despite being offered a seat.
"Hi." Kushina said awkwardly.
Mikoto spared the redhead a glance before turning to her husband, glaring at him with such intensity Kushina was scared he'd spontaneously burst into flames. "I told y–"
"Mikoto will speak with you now, Uzumaki-san. I'll be outside, please take your time." Fugaku said, cutting into Mikoto's words and not acknowledging them at the slightest. Mikoto tried to shake off his hand off and leave, but Fugaku tightened his hold on her and glared back at her. His sharingan spinning to life. "You will talk to your friend and I'll be in the other room." Fugaku said firmly. Mikoto tried to hold her ground against his hard stare but found her defences were not up to scratch.
"Whatever." Mikoto said, finding herself reverting back to her favorite word as a teenager. Fugaku nodded released her shoulder from his grasp before disappearing in a poof of smoke.
"Wow." Kushina said, breaking the silence. Despite herself, Mikoto blushed at the woman's words. "I'm surprised Miko, I didn't know you–"
"Just stop." Mikoto interrupted her. She restored her cool easily -a trait of an Uchiha- and folded her arms under her bust and stared expectantly at Kushina. "So. What do you want?." Mikoto asked.
"Um... Well I..." Kushina trailed off, now unsure of what to same. 'Damn it!.' she had though deeply about how she would face Mikoto when they finally met. Now here they were, and all her ideas had left her and she just stared dumbly at the Uchiha.
Mikoto was now beginning to lose her patience. After being forced to talk with Kushina by her husband, now Kushina refused to say why she was here and just stared at her like a complete buffoon. "Look Kushina if you d–"
"We're here to invite you to the IT vault." Anko said. Mikoto stared at the child who interrupted her. She must've been the purple haired girl Fugaku talked about. "The Yondaime's goons gathered the snake's shit there and we're supposed to pick up what ever we like from the pile, wanna come?." Anko said, sounding so casual as though she and Mikoto had been talking for years.
Mikoto was a little surprised at the girl's brazenness but shrugged it off and focused more on the real issue at hand. "So he's already auctioning off Orochimaru-sensei's belongings. Great." Mikoto said sarcastically.
Kushina quickly shook her hand defensively at the brunette. "No no no no, it's not like that–"
"Yeah. Yondaime is handing it out for free so it's definitely not an auction. More like a handout if you ask me." Anko said, interrupting Kushina now. Mikoto's expression only got worse after her words and Kushina sent her a glare which she shrugged off.
"He's not just giving it to anybody Miko!." Kushina yelled defensively. "It's just to the people who–"
"Whose lives he fucked up. Lucky you, you're a victim." Anko said, with a proud grin, telling Kushina she knew exactly what she was doing.
"Language, Anko." Kakashi said from his seated position. Anko halfheartedly flipped off the masked teen. Kakashi just sighed and returned to a book he'd found in his room when he was cleaning. For a book about animal discovery, like the cover said, there was a lot of human romance in it.
"Victim?. So anybody who was involved with sensei is now a victim?." Mikoto said in an eerily calm voice. Instead of Anko, her eyes were on Kushina who wore a worried expression.
Kushina knew Mikoto, and so she knew silence was never a good sign with her. It was just like the calm before the storm. "Miko I'm sure Minato didn't mean it like that." Kushina said.
"Oh, then what did he mean then?." Mikoto asked, but not sounding the least bit curious know.
Kushina saw Anko about to speak again and clamped her mouth short with a few small chakra chains. "Minato just wanted to use this as a way to compensate those who Orochimaru-sensei may have hurt." Kushina said gently, doing her best to sugar coat the sins of her teacher, so not to offend Mikoto. But the frown on her face told the redhead that she was offended nonetheless.
"I'm sorry Kushina, but I don't need to be compensated for being involved with Orochimaru-sensei. Unlike you I actually treasure the time we spent together." Mikoto said, pointing an accusatory finger at her old teammate.
Kushina felt a little hurt at the accusal of her teammate. She took a step back as if to get away from the black haired Uchiha's scrutiny, but stopped herself before she took another. "I see, you're not in the mood to talk. We'll leave." Kushina said and turned to go, her chakra chains carrying Anko along while Kakashi followed quietly. The Uzumaki clan head stopped just before the door, turning slightly to look at Mikoto. "For the record I just wanted to spend some time with you because I miss you Miko. I also wanted you to find something of sensei's that you can remember him by with." Kushina said and was about to leave, but Mikoto would not allow her have the last word.
"I already have a lot to remember him by. I'm not like you or that bastard who calls himself our teammate. Orochimaru-sensei will always be precious to me, no matter what he's done, he'll always be the one who saved me. He's my hero!." Mikoto said with conviction.
Kushina turned away, not wanting to say anything and lead her company out the door, but to her surprise Kakashi refused to move. "Kakashi-kun?." Kushina said. The boy had a blank look in his eyes. Kushina began to sense the subtle bits of KI whisping from his form and immediately went on alarm at how potent it feel. 'He's angry. But this killing intent... it's of no child's making. I have to calm him down quickly before he does something stupid.' Kushina thought. "Kakashi-kun. We're running late."
"It's easy for you to say that Uchiha-san." Kakashi whispered out, ignoring Kushina's words. The killing intent was quickly increasing in it's presence, Anko's widened eyes was a clear indication of that.
"Excuse me?." Mikoto said. 'What's up with this kid?. He's giving off really weird vibes.' Mikoto thought. She wasn't the best sensor, but her sixth sense was incredibly sharp.
"You know..." Kakashi started. "I've never had to see a therapist before, nor have I hated myself more than I have this past week. The man you're so vehemently defending, he did this to me. And only God knows how many people else had to suffer because of his sickness." Kakashi said. Kushina placed a hand on his shoulder, thankful that the killing intent began settling down as she did. "Yes. Orochimaru was a sick man, he was not well. That's what I've had to tell myself every morning, I needed to. I needed that to justify his actions, even only a little bit. Because if I didn't have that I'd probably try to murder every single person who knew that man's true nature for ignoring it. That man. That snake Orochimaru, he made me consider killing the Sandaime because Minato-sensei told me that he knew all along. THEY ALL FUCKING KNEW ALL ALONG, AND THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!." Kakashi snapped, shaking off Kushina's hand as he looked up at Mikoto for the first time, startling the woman with the rage in his eyes.
As rapidly as it had dwindled, the intent to kill return. "THEY LET THAT PSYCHOPATH GO FREE, KILLING FOR SPORT AND EXPERIMENTING ON HUMANS, YOU ALL LET THAT HAPPEN." Kakashi said jabbing his finger at Mikoto, who had to take a step back for safety.
"Do you know why none of it bothers you, why you still stand by that son of a bitch?." Kakashi asked, his voice dropping a several rings till it was calm. "It's because you're just like him. He took Obito's eye from me, and you have the gall to defend what that man did to my face?!. HOW DARE YOU?!." Kakashi said, his anger finally getting the most of him as he charged forward at a speed foreign to him. However, before he could reach his goal he chains and an arm wrap around his neck.
"Calm down kid." Kakashi looked up to find Uchiha Fugaku holding him back from Mikoto along with Kushina's chakra chains. "That's my wife and an important member of the Uchiha clan." Fugaku stated as though he didn't already know that.
"Let me go!." Kakashi demanded, fighting in vain to break free. But the adamantine chains and Fugaku's hold proved too powerful to overcome.
"I'm afraid I can't do that." Fugaku said. He was surprisingly calm for someone who'd just walked in on someone attacking his wife. Probably an Uchiha trait. The Uchiha clan head turned to Kushina who was now approaching them. "Uzumaki-san, he's unstable right now, I hope you don't mind me putting him to sleep."
"Please, go ahead." Kushina said.
"Let me go!." Kakashi demanded.
"No." Fugaku said. His sharingan spun to life again, casting a sleep inducing genjutsu on the boy. However, instead of closing their lids Kakashi's eyes did something else entirely. "What in... My word..." Fugaku said in rare surprise as the Hatake boy's eyes spun similarly to his own and spawned into blue versions of the sharingan with a single tomoe. "Impossible!." Fugaku said, not even knowing when he released the boy. Kakashi unceremoniously dropped on the ground, appearing to be unconscious but his eyes were still wide open. Kushina and Mikoto -and she was not sure why- rushed to the teen. Their questions for Fugaku died at their tongues when they caught the sight of what the man had seen.
"I-Is that the sharingan?." Kushina questioned the two Uchihas. She of course knew what a sharingan looked like, but she had never seen a blue one and they were the experts.
"No it's not." Fugaku said, appearing to have regained his cool. The two woman looked at him expectantly, while Anko watched from the door, still restrained by the chakra chains. "It's a copy cat." Fugaku said. "An eye appearing to mirror the sharingan but fundamentally different."
"How's it different?." Mikoto asked.
"How do you know that?." Kushina asked.
"The sharingan can see on a microscopic level. It's a basic ability but most Uchiha's don't even know about it's existence. And since I've studied a lot of sharingan, I definitely can tell a sharingan apart from a fake." Fugaku said, eyeing the azure sharingan. "On the flip side it's not too different from the sharingan so it's highly possible that this... version may have similar abilities." Fugaku said. Kushina and Mikoto were both amazed by the revelation and how Fugaku had figured out what the strange new dojutsu was with just a look. Sometimes they both forgot that Fugaku's genius was only second to Nara Shikaku's and he even had higher grades than Minato in written tests while they were in the academy. Fugaku was the greatest prodigy the Uchiha clan had seen since Uchiha Madara, though the man argued that he wouldn't be remembered for that since his children would surpass him.
"So what should we do now?." Mikoto asked her husband.
"Take him to home and have a trusted medic inspect the eye for anything I may have missed. I recommend our clan's doctor but as his caretaker it's your decision to make." Fugaku said to Kushina who nodded in understanding. "For now we should close his eyes. Dojutsu consume a lot of chakra the first time they are awakened. Though there's something about this one." Fugaku said, reliving his first time seeing through the sharingan for a brief interval. Kushina nodded and did as the Uchiha instructed. "Mikoto, make sure to place him a genjutsu that'll calm him down, just in case his dojutsu is an abnormal." Fugaku said. Mikoto nodded while Kushina gave the Uchiha clan head a questioning look. "An abnormal dojutsu is one where the user is psychological influence by the power of the dojutsu to a detrimental level. It's an incredibly rare occurrence so I wouldn't worry too much." Fugaku assured the Uzumaki. Kushina nodded, though she was still worried. She had more questions to ask but time was of the essence, so she filed them away for later and carried Kakashi in a piggyback fashion, setting Anko down after telling the girl with her eyes to behave.
"Let's go." Kushina said to Mikoto. With that the two women and child took off with the sleeping Hatake. In a few minutes they were not too far from Kushina's home. Mikoto had to carry Anko, much to her chagrin, since the purple haired girl was not able to keep up with them. Kushina landing in front of her house's door, Mikoto landing soon after.
The Uzumaki quickly deactivated the seal and unlocked the door. Anko immediately jumped away from Mikoto as they entered the house. Mikoto snorted at the girl's antics and followed Kushina to the first floor of the house and into Kakashi's room. Anko remained the the base of the house, opting to find herself something to eat. The Hatake's situation was really of no concern to her.
Kushina lay Kakashi on his bed gently even it appeared the boy wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. "Should we wake him up before getting Minato?." Kushina asked, her hand tenderly stroking Kakashi's hair.
"No. He might hurt himself if his dojutsu turns out to be have the abnormal deficiency." Mikoto answered.
"What's that like?." Kushina asked, looking up from Kakashi.
"I don't have the deficiency, why're you asking me?." Mikoto said snappishly.
"Because you're an Uchiha and this is a dojutsu related question." Kushina deadpanned.
"Uchiha's don't know everything about dojutsu." Mikoto said sounding offended. She felt offended by something, she didn't know what, just that she was. "Could you quit it with the question and answer." Mikoto said.
Kushina sighed. She thought she was a hardass but Mikoto took the whole damn cake. "I really don't know what your problem is Mikoto. It's not like I killed Orochimaru-sensei myself." Kushina said, tired of avoiding the discussion. Mikoto had enough having the high ground long enough, and she was now fed up of acting like she did something wrong.
Mikoto felt something in her head snap. The nerve this woman had to say that in front of her. To call his name as though she hadn't defiled the essence of a teacher student relationship in the worst possible way. "You have some nerve Ku–"
"No you have some nerve." Kushina said, interrupting the brunette with an equally ugly expression as her. "Are you going to lecture me about what's proper and not after what you did in your house?. Are you that much of a hypocrite, Mikoto?." Kushina asked.
Mikoto frowned. "What are you talking about?."
"You were about to yell at me about how wrong it is of me to talk about Orochimaru-sensei in your presence weren't you?." Kushina asked. Mikoto's silence was all she needed to decide on her answer. "Exactly. However you did the same thing and defended Orochimaru-sensei in front of two people he'd put through a lot." Kushina said.
Mikoto immediately got defensive and waved her hands at Kushina. "Hey, I didn't know the girl was one of his... his..." she trailed off. Now they were talking about that, she was unsure what to call them or anybody her sensei had... 'Sensei has...' she felt Kushina place a hand on her shoulder.
"You never thought of it huh." Kushina said gently. Mikoto didn't respond, she just shook off her hand and walked to the window, glancing out of it and seeing a family of squirrels running up a tree. "Why do have to be so stubborn Miko?." Kushina asked, approaching her friend.
"Because you were involved!." Mikoto snapped. She turned to Kushina, who wisely stopped her approach. "Your husband killed Orochimaru-sensei, and it was because of you he got to him!." Mikoto said angrily, her sense of reasoning which was returning to her losing it's way again. "I told you not to Kushina. Why did you betray me, why did you betray your team?!." Mikoto yelled with tears in her eyes.
Kushina stared down at the ground in silence for a whole minute before speaking. "So you wanted him to escape." Kushina said, catching Mikoto by surprise with her words.
"W-What?." Mikoto said dumbly.
Kushina looked up and dead into her friend's eyes. "Did. You. Want. Him. To. Escape?." Kushina asked, stressing on ever word to get her point across clearly.
"I... I..." Mikoto trailed off.
"Assuming you did." Kushina said. Mikoto was about to argue but Kushina rose a hand to stop her. "Let me finish. Assuming you did want him to escape and he did, who would be responsible for all the crimes he would commit?." Kushina asked.
Mikoto looked perturbed before sayin; "We don't know whether–"
"Really?." Kushina said dryly. Mikoto immediately felt really stupid for trying to make such a nonsensical argument. "If sensei had gotten away, who would take responsibility for all the people he'd hurt?." Kushina asked again.
"We would." Mikoto said. It was the obvious answer. The students of the teacher would take responsibility for his actions when the teacher was gone. That explained why their other teammate was always to at odds with their sensei because of his extreme handling of their enemies. Kushina wasn't exactly thrilled by it as well, but she seemed the more accepting between their male teammate and herself. Mikoto felt sick in her stomach, recalling how she was by far the most welcoming of her sensei's quirks and worse, how she'd joined in sometimes. Back then it felt like student teacher bonding, but now... Everything was different. Who would take responsibility for Orochimaru's actions now he was gone. That was a question she had never asked herself, didn't want to ask herself. She was so soaked into her anger at his demise that she forgot that his affairs were in their hands when he could no longer handle them. 'Kushina's already started.' Mikoto thought. The Uzumaki was taking care of two of the snake sannin's victims. Yes, that's what they were. They weren't just 'involved' with him as she'd been telling herself, but victimized by him. And they were not the only ones. There were possibly hundreds more like them.
Kushina watched her friend go through multiple emotions in the span of seconds. Kushina was sure she had done enough to convince Mikoto about their late sensei, but it seemed the woman's devotion to him hadn't been overcame just yet when she spoke again.
"But still... Did he have to die?. Maybe the hokage could've punished him, sent him to prison maybe."
"I doubt any prison of konoha's could've held Orochimaru-sensei." Kushina said with a snorted. Mikoto turned to face her and she got more serious. "Even if Minato brought him back to Konoha for a trial, do you think the council would let him get any thing less than the death sentence?." Kushina asked, knowing the answer to that question already. As did Mikoto as she looked away. "Even if Minato managed to imprison sensei, do you think people like Danzo, the elders or his mother would let so many heinous crimes committed against the village go just like that?." Kushina asked.
She'd told Mikoto a lot about those four and adding what Fugaku must've told her the redhead was sure Mikoto didn't have a pretty picture of them in her head. "I'm sorry to say this Miko, but Orochimaru-sensei was a dead man walking the second the top found out he took Kakashi-kun." Kushina said. "Also try to understand where I'm coming from. Kakashi-kun is like a son to me. What if it were Itachi-kun he took, what would you do then?."
"I'd rip his fucking throat out!." Mikoto said in sheer reflex. Her eyes widened in shock and she clamped her mouth shut, unbelieving of what she had just said. "Of course sensei wouldn't d–" Mikoto tried to say but then remembered that Orochimaru did know how close Kakashi and Kushina were and yet he still... 'He still... did it.' Mikoto thought, and just like that, the metaphorical last line of defense protecting the image of her sensei in her head crumbled down to a million pieces.
The picture in her head slowly turned into a picture of herself standing over her sensei's bleeding corpse in the rain, much like she'd seen Minato do in her vision. Mikoto broke down in tears and allowed Kushina to comfort her. She'd been so foolish and she allowed her mislead devotion to her sensei blind her from reality. Just like her last teammate had said.
"You've deluded yourself with the image of a loving and caring father figure even though Orochimaru-sensei showed you the monster he truly was. Your foolhardiness will fade away along with your faux images of that man, and then your eyes will be opened. For your sake I hope that doesn't happen after you become the monster he wanted you to be."
Thanks to Kushina it wasn't too late. After minutes of relentless wailing, Mikoto finally settled down. She only gave the occasional sniff, allowing herself to be cradled like a baby. Mikoto then remembered something that made her jerk and almost leap out of Kushina's hands. "Kakashi!." she said.
Kushina smiled at her teammate's worry and that she had actually forgotten about the boy. "It's alright, from what I'm sensing now his chakra is relaxed. I can call Minato here at anytime so it's no problem really." Kushina said.
Mikoto sighed in relief. She didn't want to be the reason something bad happened to the teen. He'd already suffered enough. 'So has so many others.' Mikoto thought. And right at that moment she promised herself she would right all the wrongs of her sensei. How she wasn't sure, but she would.
Several hours later
Night Time
Mikoto had stayed a while after Minato returned before having to leave so she could make dinner for her family. Minato was immediately put on alarm when he saw Kakashi sleeping by that time of day, but after a lengthy explanation of the situation by Kushina and Mikoto he settled down. The doctor Fugaku had recommended had been sent for immediately. After a few check ups the doctor looked fascinated when he explained the dojutsu was like a variation of the sharingan that worked like the byakugan, in a sense that it minimised chakra required for keeping it active. He said it was very possible it's abilities would be a perfect copy of the sharingan's though Minato felt as though he was holding something back from how he continuously stared at Mikoto before speaking. The brunette had called him out on it, but he excused himself with some flimsy reason. Minato was at least sure Mikoto didn't know what the man was hiding, not yet however.
"Whatever he's hiding he doesn't want to say it in front of non Uchihas." Minato said to his wife. Kushina was changing into her night wears while Minato was enjoying the show while still thinking about the ophthalmologist. "Maybe I should ask the Hyuuga clan's ophthalmologist to have a look?." Minato thought out loud.
"Their specialty isn't the sharingan Minato, and I doubt Hiashi's stiff ass would be willing to hand his clan's doctor without proper explanation. And we're trying to keep this a secret, right?." Kushina asked.
Minato stroked his chin. "I don't know... The Nidaime thing can definitely never get out, the council will lose it if they find out just how Orochimaru bastardized the name of the second. Don't forget how Danzo feels about the Nidaime." Minato said, reminding his wife about the scarred man's deep obsession with the Nidaime and his 'vision for Konoha'.
"Right. Definitely can't tell them about that. But why do you want to reveal Kakashi-kun's dojutsu though?." Kushina asked.
"There's no point in keeping it secret. The village can't ostracize him for having a powerful dojutsu, though we should try to make sure the public doesn't know exactly how he got it. I don't want them calling it the 'eye of Orochimaru' or any other stupid thing like that." Minato said. Remembering in annoyance how the villagers avoided an innocent child like Anko, calling her 'spawn of the snake' and other inappropriate names like 'snake whore'. He had decided to have faith in the village and let them know about Anko's story, but it turned out that faith was misplaced since the villagers ignored everything he'd said about Anko being a victim and instead focused on her being a former student of Orochimaru. Minato almost retched at the public calls for her imprisonment. Idiots. The whole lot of them. And now because of that misplaced trust Minato had earned the hatred of the person he promised to keep safe. The look Anko gave him when the villagers began loudly protesting Konoha giving her sanctuary and allowing her freedom was one he would never forget.
'What's done is done I guess. I have to focus on making sure nothing unpleasant happens to Anko or Kakashi.' Minato thought. "I'll make the announcement in the council meeting before telling the public. I want to see how they shinobi clans will react to a possible resurgence of the Hatake." Minato said.
Kushina sat on her side of the bed and gave Minato a questioning expression. "What do you mean?."
Minato smirked. "Guess you don't know much about Konoha's history huh?." Minato joked. Kushina huffed and turned away from the blonde, feigning annoyance. "I was just joking!." Minato said with a laugh, pulling Kushina into a hug which she halfheartedly fought to break free from. The couple enjoyed a brief 'wrestling match' before settling in for the night.
1 week later.
Konoha Shinobi Section: Hokage Manor - Hokage Mansion - Council Room.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed in content, enjoying the feeling of viewing a council meeting from his clan seat rather than the hokage seat on the platform ahead of him. The meeting was about to begin and all konoha's clan members had shown up, all that was left was the hokage and his advisors. Hiruzen wondered about those advisors and why Minato had forgone the option of selecting his own advisors. It was obvious that it wasn't because of the weak threats Danzo had made about how Konoha would turn out without a person like him with an influential post. The Sandaime knew Minato wasn't scared of Danzo or anybody and had proven so on numerous occasions, especially when he was a stand-in clan head for the Namikaze. Whatever Minato's reasons were, he had decided to respect them. It wasn't like they were bad advisors, a bit stubborn and wily but nothing a smart hokage couldn't handle. Hiruzen turned to the other clan members and shared a brief smile with Kushina. He then turned to the ever stern Namikaze Mina and her equally stoic rival Uzumaki Kotohime.
Namikaze Mina was not a tall person unlike most of her clan. She stood at a full height of 5'3. She had greying light brown hair that was held in a bun and light green eyes. She had multiple wrinkles on her face but none were too defined, giving her an aged but still beautiful appearance. She was dressed in a an orange, yellow and red flower patterned jacket with the Namikaze crest on the back, over a white and blue garb that went past her ankles.
Uzumaki Kotohime was just a foot taller than her nemesis and had paling red hair. Her face was not as creased as Mina's making her look younger despite being five years older. Her eyes were honey brown and despite being a woman of 63 years she maintained a beautiful appearance. She wore a deep red cloak with a large golden swirl pattern on the back. Under her cloak she wore a black kimono with multiple tiny quarter moon patterns and a black choker. Despite not needing one she carried a wooden walking stick.
Hiruzen till this day did not know why Mina and Kotohime kept their clan seats next to each other despite being offered a rearrangement numerous times.
The Sandaime turned to the man next to him, a man he deeply respected and one of the few who shared his virtues. Senju Denkirama or Denkiyama as it was properly spelt. According to the man his father had a stubborn R-factor that made him pronounce 'Y' as 'R', so he called him 'Den-ki-ra-ma' instead of the normal pronunciation 'Den-ki-ya-ma'. The mispronunciation eventually stuck and even people who could pronounce the name normally began calling him Denkirama. The man was one of the emerging talents of his generation along with Minato, Mikoto, Fugaku, Kushina, the Ino-Shika-Cho combo and more. Denkirama was a tall man, taller than most shinobi and almost as large as the Gama Sennin. Denkirama stood at an impressive 6'4 and weighed over 95kg. He had brown curly hair that flowed down to his upper back. His eyes were a vibrant silver and he has a full thick beard with tattoos covering his neck. Denkirama wore a sleeveless version of the jonin under shirt with a wooden armour over it and a mesh short sleeved T-shirt under it. He wore black pants that he tucked into his steel toed boots, finally he wore leather gloves and four green crystalline earrings on his right ear. His large muscled arms were covered with tribal tattoos as was parts of his face (the right side to be specific). Despite his intimidating or perhaps severe appearance, Denkirama was quite the soft spoken person.
The next clan head sitting behind Denkirama was the a man Hiruzen knew well, a member of the team he'd forced Orochimaru into taking years ago. The boy was special and despite not truly being a Yuhi by blood, he'd raised the clan's standing enough to have the right to be voted for in their clan elections. The younger generation may have been aware but a decade and more ago the Yuhi clan hadn't even existed. The current clan head was once a citizen of Kumogakure who Orochimaru had saved on a mission and brought back to Konoha. Why Orochimaru did so and why the boy seemed to have hated him for it till this very day, Hiruzen didn't know. But that hatred didn't stop the former Kumo citizen from falling in love with the village, in particular a large family which had adopted him.
He had changed his first name to Yuhi after little consideration, and due to his rare bloodline he was liable to start a clan, so he did under the Yuhi name, rather than his own. Despite starting the clan, since he wasn't a Yuhi by birth he had to merit the right to take the mantle as a clan head as the law had stated, which wasn't much of a problem for the jonin at the time. He became their first and current clan head, maintaining the seat for about seven years now.
He was dark skinned like a good minority of Kumogakure was and had raven black long hair that reach the middle point of his back. His hair was twisted into multiple braids that went around his head into a ponytail, while some hug freely carry various expensive accessories. The rest of his untouched hair flowed down to his back, giving him an almost feminine appearance. He wore an orange Chinese gi with white star patterns focussed on the left side and sleeve. There was a black belt with it's knot tied at the left side. He wore black Kung Fu shoes and finally a large black and white rimmed robe with Yuhi symbol on the back (two yin symbols attached together, appearing like horns).
The Yuhi clan head always had his eyes closed, not to hide a dojutsu, but because of it's abnormal appearance similar to the Hyuuga's. The difference, however, was he was actually blind. This was Kaname Yuhi, formerly Kaname Tousen of Kumo but now the clan head of the Yuhi clan. Next to Tousen was his closest friend and fellow clan head, Abrume Shibi followed by Inuzuka Tsume and with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio behind them. In the other row for the clan heads, Uchiha Fugaku sat in the front with Kushina by his right and Hiashi by his left. Behind him were the the two elderly rivals, Mina behind Hiashi and Kotohime behind him. There was a free seat by Kotohime's and one more behind him. On the last column of seats by the right was Dr Matsuda representing Konoha's number one medical clan.
The civilian clans occupied the right side of the room, with various seats organized for the rich merchants, traders, land owners and one chair at the front for the spokesperson. Haruno Sara.
After much delay Minato finally came in, dressed in his usual hokage garb and forgoing the suitable and more formal attire. He wasn't about to wear that silly hat. Yes, Minato was a well known fashionista and that kage hat was nothing short of a fashion blunder to him. The occupants of the room rose up in greetings to the hokage. The elders followed behind the hokage with their usual stern/blank expressions. Jiraiya trailed behind them, glancing around the room before going to take a seat next to the head doctor. The free seat belonged to Danzo's Shimaru clan but the bandaged man always used his advisor chair by the side and just ahead of the clan seat row Sarutobi was in.
It wasn't a pathetic attempt to place himself ahead of the man, but Danzo making a public statement that his affairs as an advisor came first. The man sent Jiraiya a glance, which the white haired man blissfully ignored. That was a terrible act of disrespect to the clan head and many would've reprimanded the man, but he was a sannin and since Danzo didn't say anything they all just left it at that. Danzo and the other elders took the seats, not before the hokage had done so a permitted everyone to sit down.
"The council meeting is about to commence, may we have silence." Koharu said, mostly to the enthusiastically chattering civilian council members. Sara as the spokesperson did her job and hushed down the noisy civilians. "The council meeting has now officially begun. If you would, hokage-sama." Koharu said, offering Minato a small bow which he responded to with a nod.
"I'm sure a lot of you have been hearing various rumours circulating across the village, so you must have many questions. I promised to do my best to sate your curiosity. But first, I would like to address whatever doubts about my continuity as the hokage. I apologize for not informing the council but I wasn't at the best of health, but as you can see I'm fine now." Minato said, jokingly flexing his biceps and making the women in the civilian council squeal girlishly, aside from Sara. The pink haired lady had a light blush but contained her self nonetheless. Koharu sighed as the hokage gave her an apologetic smile, which only worsened the issue as the squeals got even worse. Koharu knew her ears weren't what they used to be, but she knew what frothing sounded like.
'To think they'd have seizures just from seeing your smile. You're a more dangerous man than you know, hokage-sama.' Koharu thought as she, with the help of Sara, calmed the civil council down once more.
"Um, apologies for that, hokage-sama." Sara said, not sure how to face the hokage or the shinobi council after that disgraceful act from her fellow civilian council members.
"It's quite alright. Anyway, let's move on to matters of more concern. Orochimaru." As he said the name, the whole room tensed up and the atmosphere became ill. Most of the people present faces twisted into a frown, the most notable being Jiraiya and Tsume while Sarutobi had a dissapointed look in his eyes. Minato news of Orochimaru's betrayal would surely leak since the raids on his hideouts were not lead exclusively by the ANBU. Jonin and chunin that joined the missions had no obligation to keep it a secret, so even before the announcement the entire village had already identified the late sannin as a traitor and Anko as their scapegoat.
"Orochimaru was caught red handed violating multiple rules in our constitution. He ran multiple illegal facilities, were he conducted unauthorized experiments and practised studies of various kinjutsu. The number of citizens of Konoha we found in his dungeons range in hundreds." The council gasped at his words in horror. "While the number of foreign shinobi were almost double the amount of the latter. Among Orochimaru's various experiments, the most concerning is a kinjutsu study under fuinjutsu known as the curse mark of heaven." Minato said.
"What did you just say Minato?!." Mina said, rising to her feet. Her rival, Kotohime appeared equally distressed but managed to contain herself enough to remain sitting. "The Ten no Juin is a lost juinjutsu that hasn't been seen or heard of in centuries!. There are virtually no records of it, so how could that snake get his hands on it?." Mina asked, unknowingly implicating herself.
"Actually there is one scroll that makes mention of it." Denkirama said, his large arms crossed across his broad chest. "A most treasured Senju scroll written by our esteemed Nidaime. I wonder how Mina-dono knows about something that hasn't been spoken of in centuries." Denkirama said, eyeing the woman without an ill will but intensely enough for his words to come off as dangerous.
"We're straying from the topic." Danzo said, to Mina's eternal gratefulness. "Hokage-sama was talking about this Ten no Juin. I am a fuinjutsu specialist in my own right but this is a seal I have never heard of." Danzo confessed.
"Yeah right." Jiraiya whispered out with a snort but his deep voice made sure everybody heard him. Danzo didn't pay mind to the sannin's words, as did the sannin pretended he hadn't said a thing.
"I advise all members of the council and esteemed visitors..." Minato said, directing a stare at Jiraiya. "...to put aside their differences so this meeting can be held accordingly. Thank you. Now to further explain, the Ten no Juin is a juinjutsu that was created to imitate the senjutsu used by great summon elders. It is a pseudo version of the renowned sennin mode used by the Shodai." Minato said, shocking the council again, as well as Denkirama. It seemed the muscly man hadn't read much into the scroll. For lack of understanding on fuinjutsu or fear of the dark arts, Minato wasn't sure but he knew that would change now the infamous seal had resurfaced. "Intelligence on the seal has been made available in the TI division." Minato said and wasn't sure if he imagined Danzo rubbing his hands in anticipation or not. Probably the former, Danzo would never do something so suspicious in public.
"Of course, Orochimaru didn't write down the formula for the seal, thankfully. However, we were able to find one of the victims of this juinjutsu and I hope she's the only one." Minato said, remembering how much pain the curse seal put Anko true and hoping no other innocent child had to go through that.
"You mean to say somebody survived having such a vile juinjutsu etched on them?." Kotohime said. While they had information that Orochimaru took yet another student, they had no idea what he'd actually done to said student.
"Yes, that's what I'm saying Kotohime-dono." Minato said. The woman fell into silence and waited expectantly for the hokage to go on. "The unfortunate victim of this juinjutsu is a young girl who I found in Kusa no Kuni called Mitarashi Anko. She's no older than eight years but is remarkably skilled for her age and has quite a high chakra reserve, even for an adult." Minato said, hoping to win Anko some merits by flaunting her potential to the shinobi council. If the village refused to accept her as a citizen, then he would do his best to make her a respected member of the villages military. His words served it's purpose as many of the shinobi were intrigued that the hokage would openly commend an eight year old. The child must've been something special.
"Does hokage-sama speak of the new purple haired girl that's been raiding every sweet store she comes across?." Sara asked after getting various request from her council to confirm the girl's identity.
"I didn't know Anko did that." Minato said with an amused smile. However, this time it had an opposite effect on the civilian council than it did the last time. The council members rose to their feets in an uproar, screaming for the 'snake bitch' or 'snake worshiper' to be detained. The shinobi council appeared mostly confused and irritated at their response to news on a single little girl.
"What the fuck is up with these bastards?." Tsume thought out loud.
"It's normal human reaction. What we don't know often scares us because we don't know better." Kaname said while Shibi nodded in agreement.
"Young Mitarashi will certainly have a hard time settling into the village if the villagers stay true to their feelings." Shibi said.
"Poor kid." Tsume said, recalling her first sighting of the girl who was eating a bowl full of dango at the time.
"ENOUGH!." Sara said, using her naturally high pitched voice to pierce through the noise made by her fellow civilian council members. The woman sent them a frosty glare. "Do you not realize you're being unacceptably rude to our hokage?." Sara said, gesturing at Minato who had a hard expression on his face. The civilians cowered at the sight and settled back into their seats. "If you have something to say on the matter, relay it to me as you normally have or find another spokesperson who will condone such misconduct and another council where it can go unpunished." Sara said firmly. The civilians shrunk in their seats and offered their sincere apologies to the hokage and spokesperson.
"Thank you Sara-san." Minato said, the woman gave him a respectful bow in response. "Let it be known that I will not excuse any form of misconduct from anyone henceforth. Speak out of turn and you'll be sent to the TI division immediately." Minato warned. "We'll take a ten minute recession before continuing. Use that time to say all you want to your hearts content, because I will not overlook interruptions any longer." Minato said and left the room to get some water. The council members cleared out of the room in a minute and went to have their refreshments. Nine minutes after they returned to the council room and retook their seats.
"The council meeting is hereby resumed!." Koharu said.
"I've stated all I can about Anko, but I will add that any villager that is caught molesting, assaulting or abusing young Mitarashi in any way will be promptly imprisoned." Minato declared.
"But hokage-sama!." one council member yelled, springing up to his feet.
"ANBU!." Hamura yelled. Two masked ninja appeared next to the offending council member and quickly restrained the man. "Take that man to Ibiki right this minute." Hamura ordered. The ANBU disappeared in a poof of smoke along with the struggling civilian council member. The other civilians looked scared out of their wits while Sara palmed her face in annoyance.
"Thank you elder Hamura." Minato said.
"I'm just doing my duty, hokage-sama." Hamura said as meekly as he could manage. Truth was he enjoyed doing that. It'd been a while since he had the opportunity to show these pompous civilians their place.
"I hope my warning is now fully taken?. If so, let us continue. Orochimaru was responsible for a lot of crimes, the most recent being the kidnapping of my student, Hatake Kakashi. Thankfully Orochimaru didn't place the Ten no Juin on Kakashi so he came out of the ordeal mostly unscathed. However there is a recent development which caused me to call this meeting a bit earlier than it should've, it is also the reason for the extra seat next to Kotohime-dono. On it there is the symbol of a clan that has been lost for a century, one that is part of Konoha." Minato said.
"Excuse me, I am unable to see so I can not decipher it. What clan might that be hokage-sama?." Kaname asked, respectfully after Minato had spoken.
"Apologies for not considering your condition before speaking, Kaname-dono." Minato said, looking slightly embarrassed by his words. Kaname nodded his head in understanding, not taking offense in the slightest. "The symbol is that of the Hatake clan. Kakashi, please come in." Minato said, skipping the build up he had planned for the moment for concern that some of it may come out as offensive to the Yuhi clan head. Kakashi stepped into the room as requested, gave him and then the council a deep bow before settling on the platform. He remained standing, prepared for the inevitable QA that would be upon him and his teacher.
"Apologies hokage-sama, but am I right to assume that Hatake-san is to be the clan head of this reemerged Hatake clan?." Danzo queried.
"That is correct." Minato affirmed.
"May it have skipped hokage-sama's mind that shinobi clans without an inheritable kekkai genkai can not be established, unless it possesses members in a large quantity such as mine." Danzo said, referencing the reformation of the Shimura clan. A clan that had joined Konoha during the village's formation that had gone close to extinct during the first Shinobi war and was reformed decades ago by none other than himself, using the children that came through his orphanage without being adopted as their official clan members. Currently the Shimaru clan was the second largest shinobi clan in the village just behind the Hyuuga, with it's members ranging in the several hundreds.
"No it didn't skip my mind, and no, I am not reconstructing that law." Minato said.
"The civilian council is curious how a Hatake clan can form without a bloodlimit or required clan members." Sara said.
"Because Kakashi has awakened a bloodlimit. Rather, Kakashi has awakened a mutation of a known bloodlimit." Minato answered, confusing and shocking the collective council members.
"Pardon me. Are you saying the boy has somehow awakened a mutated version of a kekkai genkai we already know?." Koharu asked.
"That's what I said." Minato said with an amused smirk, that Kushina couldn't help but mirror. Mina caught the red hair expression when she turned to look at the other council members and frowned.
"Minato. If you're done having your fun, I'd like to see a demonstration of the kekkai genkai Kakashi-kun has." Hiruzen said, causing the hokage to pout. Sara had to glare at her fellow female civilians to stop them from squealing at the sight.
"As you wish Sandaime." Minato said. 'Goddammit, I was enjoying watching them squirm.' he thought. "Alright, Kakashi, if you'd do us the honours."
"Hai." Kakashi said, closing his eyes in concentration, something he had never had to do with the sharingan since it was always active. He channelled his chakra into his eyes as Mikoto had instructed him to this morning before he left his sensei's place. He feeling a slight burning sensation as his dojutsu spun to life. He opened his eyes, bringing his blue dojutsu to the sight of everyone for the first time. The civilians backed into their seats in intimidation while the shinobi's gasped in surprise.
"The sharingan?!." many clan heads yelled in unison. Hiashi activated his byakugan and stared into the silver haired teen's eyes, unsettling the boy as he did.
"Not exactly. It appears to be a blue version of the sharingan you're familiar with. However this one appears to utilize far less chakra and has next to chakra visibility ability. However this dojutsu is still a mutation, just like the Shodai's mokuton so it's highly unlikely that Kakashi will be able to pass this dojutsu down to his children." Minato said, confusing the council members again. Then why would he want to start a clan with a dojutsu that couldn't be inherited?. "However the doctors that studied Kakashi's dojutsu have assured me at due to it's strange chakra stability it's possible that Kakashi would be able to at least pass on some of the traits of his dojutsu." Minato said.
"What exactly are this dojutsu's abilities?." Jiraiya asked, sounding intrigued by the revelation.
"Well for now we've confirmed that it expands the chakra coils, causing a monumental increase in the chakra reserves but still minimizes it's usage to the bare minimum. It had heightened sight, not on the level of byakugan. It retained the it's predecessor's ability to copy ninjutsu through memorizing hand seals, however this is nowhere near the real dojutsu's level since it is unable to see chakra flow. It has a high detailed sight like the sharingan but is unable to cast genjutsu like it. It retains the precognition of the sharingan and is a step higher since it has the ability to predict actions on the spot. Lastly it gives the user and sixth sensory, chakra sensory on the level of an Uzumaki and a high water affinity." Minato said, conveniently including the abilities Kakashi got from Tobirama's chakra melding with his own as his dojutsu abilities. He also skipped how good his sensory made copying ninjutsu a lot easier for him when he used it in tandem with his dojutsu.
"That's quite the amazing dojutsu. I second hokage-sama's decision to reestablish the Hatake clan. However, the dojutsu appears to have the draw back of immaturity without training like the sharingan does. The boy would have to be trained if he hopes to use those eyes to their full potential." Danzo said.
"Let me guess, you're offering to do the honors?." Jiraiya said snidely. Danzo bore him no mind and continued.
"Yes. I've gone on various missions with many Uchihas and I've studied the sharingan sufficiently enough to know how it works. Also, in the old days My clan used to be close allies of the Hatake, so Kakashi would right at home with us. My first choice would be the Uchiha clan of course, but we know such an esteemed clan wouldn't lower themselves to train a shinobi to master a copy of their might sh–"
"I'd advise elder Shimura to not assume what is an what isn't below the Uchiha clan." Fugaku said in an expressionless voice and Minato couldn't help but smirk at the Uchiha's words. He knew there would be a cluster between the clans to 'train' Kakashi. After everyone had seen a wealthy clan that was a shoe-in to join the civilian council like the Yuhi become a Shinobi clan all thanks to their adoption of one boy with a bloodline limit, the clan heads would figure if they could convince Kakashi to train under them they could convince them to join their clan and potentially add another kekkai genkai to their ranks and increase their political standing. "The Uchiha would have no qualms teaching Kakashi-dono how to use his unique sharingan." Fugaku said, addressing the teen respectfully as if to say he already acknowledged him as a clan head.
"This new dojutsu isn't simply a unique sharingan, but something else entirely, mind you Fugaku-dono." Hiashi said. Fugaku didn't spare the man a glance and instead went on speaking.
"Our dojutsu are similar, thus I think we would be the perfect candidate to tutor Kakashi-dono." Fugaku said, addressing the hokage as though Hiashi hadn't spoken. The Hyuuga frowned but didn't rise to the obvious insult.
"I won't kid myself and say we're the best candidate for the boy, however, I do believe we're the best candidates to train Anko-chan since we're the best fuinjutsu users in the village, dare I say the world." Mina said proudly.
"My foot." Kotohime spat out, glaring at the brown haired woman. "The Uzuki and Uzumaki clan together are by far the greatest fuinjutsu masters in all the lands, not your glorified band of copycats for a clan!." Kotohime said, offending not just Mina but Minato as well.
"How dare you!. The Namikaze clan are a most noble clan, and we don't need to join hands with an almost extinct clan like the Uzumaki to be the best!." Mina said.
"Don't you dare badmouth my clan you hag!." Kushina said, rising to her feet and turning to face Mina who did the same. Not to be left out, Kotohime rose to her feet as well.
Minato began sweating bullets. Danzo, Fugaku and Hiashi arguing was one thing, but these three going at it was a nightmare come true. Minato watched as his sensei and doctor Matsuda wisely backed away from the three women. Fugaku and Hiashi remained in their seats, too proud to show any sign of fear for the three women. They knew they could come to regret their decision, but they were prepared for whatever the repercussions were. Pride came first. Minato shared a look with Hiruzen, who just grinned at him. He knew what that meant. I'm no longer hokage so this is your problem now. 'Goddammit.' he thought. "Ladies, while don't we calm down a bit." Minato suggested.
"I see only one lady." Kotohime started. "A beautiful Uzumaki lady with vibrant red hair and a figure that can kill." Kotohime said proudly.
Kushina grinned. "Thanks Kotohime-obassan!."
Kotohime frowned. "Who the hell are you calling old you brat?. And I was talking about myself. I see one lady." she pointed at herself. "A hag." then at Mina who scowled at her. "And a disrespectful brat." finally at Kushina.
"Fuck you!." Kushina yelled.
"No, fuck both of you!." Mina screamed as she swung her fists at Kushina and Kotohime. It didn't take much for a full blown fight to break out. The council room went into chaos, civilians ran for their lives, while the shinobi clan heads backed away from the women.
Kakashi watched the slug fest with concern. 'They're really not pulling any punches. Those sound like they really hurt.' Kakashi turned. Kakashi's eyes bulged as he saw the women begin to prepare ninjutsu. The silver haired teen quickly turned to his sensei. "Minato-sensei what do we d–" Kakashi started to say but realized that Minato wasn't on his seat anymore or even the platform. Kakashi caught something moving fast at the corner of his eyes and found Minato and of all people, Shimura Danzo haul-assing out of the room, Jiraiya and the Sandaime weren't too far behind.
"Shit they're leaving without us!." Shikaku yelled and soon the rest of the clan heads, jonin, ANBU and elders , even the stubborn Tsume followed the hokage's example. The only people that remained were the three fighters and Fugaku and Hiashi, the two remaining men furiously glaring at each other, willing the other to run away first.
'Goddamn you Fugaku, I won't lose to your damn Uchiha pride.'
'On my father's grave you will run before I even think about running Hyuuga!.'
Two proud men stood in between three furious women, none willing to back down or run.
1 year and eleven months later
Kushina took one last look at the mirror and smiled as he eyes focused on her large belly. The stomach that had been carrying her precious child for almost two years now. Naruto, which was the name they were going to call him, was a special boy. A boy so special that it'd take an extra fifteen months for him to fully develope. Kushina's smile turned sad as she recalled how she had almost lost her child due to the high level of chakra poisoning he'd been exposed to due to sharing the same environment with a bijuu. 'If not for the 'present' Orochimaru-sensei had left behind for me Naruto would've died.' Kushina thought.
The snake sannin predicted the complications that would come with a kyuubi jinchuriki with her type of seal (which was far more lax that the Shodai's wife's seal), so he developed a nutrition plan that would strengthen the child enough to handle the bijuu's tainted chakra. How to survive being a kyuubi baby (for idiots). Kushina wasn't a fan of the name, but when doctors had all come back with the same conclusion that Naruto wouldn't make it, it was all she had.
Minato was against it at first, since he didn't trust the sannin and was scared the diet would affect both Kushina's and his son's health, but when the results came out positive he quickly put aside his fears and helped her gather the strange ingredients needed to keep their child alive. Kushina was initially scared the book was a prank when Mikoto showed it to her, due to the random looking dishes and wild ingredients. Anybody who was asked to eat steamed Mt Myōboku crickets, grilled turtle fish from Kumo or Suna sand bat would be skeptical about the authenticity of the diet. However after Mikoto pressured her into doing it, Kushina found the results to be rapid and in just a week Naruto was back to full health.
The doctors were at a complete loss at how it was possible and wrote it off as a miracle. But it wasn't a miracle to Kushina, it was her sensei. And even though the things he'd done were inexcusable, he was still the reason her child was still with her. Kushina dressed up and went to the living room to find Minato and Anko passing the time playing shogi. Even when Minato held back and tried to let her win, Anko was so bad at the game that she always found a way to lose. Kushina was glad to see the two getting along, which seemed like an impossibility during the first year of Anko's stay. However it only took time for the Namikaze to worm his way into the snake summoners heart.
Eventually Anko came to take Minato as a father figure and she more like a big sister figure, along with Mikoto and Tsume. Anko had settled into Konoha as well as they could hope. The villagers continued giving her the cold shoulder, not hampering her access into stores or markets but always attending to her last or outright ignoring her as if she wasn't there. The girl had taken it in stride and instead focused on her shinobi career. As Kushina and her husband had expected, Anko breezed through the academy and became a genin in no time. There were still difficulties here and there, and though she tried to hide it, Minato discovered that Anko's teammates refused to acknowledge her and often left her to fend for herself on missions.
She'd been abandoned in numerous dangerous situations and only survived due to her skill or the curse seal activating when she was in dire need to preserve her life. The jonin sensei of her team was promptly executed and her teammates were kicked off the shinobi force. Minato decided Anko would be better under apprenticeship rather than in a team, so decided to place her with whichever jonin that he trusted enough. As Kushina and he had expected various jonin from the Namikaze and Uzuki clan came offering their services, and while they were trustworthy, Minato didn't want Anko being roped into clan politics just because he wanted to keep her safe.
Eventually Minato had to settle for specialization in torture and interrogation under Morino Ibiki. Kushina almost lost it when the blonde said he'd be letting their 8 year old ward apprentice under the scarred jonin, but she was forced to see reason since there was no other option since Kakashi had decided to join the ANBU and the other rookie jonin they could trust were either too green or out of the village or too youthful. Anko and Ibiki seemed to get along like they'd known each other their whole lives and despite being a genin (borderline chunin) Anko was already one of the most important people in the IT division.
Kakashi was doing better than they'd expected. The ANBU rookie was fast becoming one of the very best the village could offer. After receiving a year's worth of training under Uchiha Fugaku himself, Kakashi could now fully utilize a matured three tomeo Aoīrugan (Blue Wheel Eye). The eighteen year old was already high A rank in the bingo book for his sheer ninjutsu prowess, more specifically his suiton jutsu. Currently the scarred jonin was out of the village on a personal mission with his strange best friend Maito Gai. The past two years had been a mostly happy one for the four person family and Kushina couldn't wait to add in the fifth member of their family. And she didn't have to. Today was the day Naruto was due to come, and today her two years of hard labor would finally pay off.
"I'm ready." Kushina said, getting Minato and Anko's attention.
"Don't distract Minato-sama Kushina-nee-chan or he'll say he lost to me cuz he was distracted!." Anko said with a grin.
"I wouldn't." Minato assured. "Cuz you never win anyway." Minato added with a smirk. Anko frowned but was too excited about today to keep it. The blonde and purple haired girl broke into rather stupid looking smiles. "Let's go get this baby!." Minato said excitedly and high fived Anko who whooped. Kushina giggled at the pair of enthusiastic airheads. She wouldn't have her life any other way. Everything was perfect and today everything would go on perfectly.
However not too far from Konoha a masked vengeful man stood on a tree branch eyeing the village menacingly. He had other plans for the day than Kushina. Her paradise would soon turn into hell and Konoha would remember. Misfortune and loss. Pain and anguish. They would remember that this flawed world was a friend to none and suffering was inevitable.
"And you will be the one to remind them... Kyuubi." the man said before disappearing in a swirling distortion of space.
With Kakashi
Mizu no Kuni: Kirigakure Outskirts - Death's Dive - 1000 feet below ground level - Sea God's Spring/ Kaiōsei no mure
The Sea God's Spring. Suijin no Haru. The divine ground, sanctuary to the people of kirigakure no sato. A utopia located in a glowing crystalline cave a thousand feet down the mighty cliff known as the Death's Dive. The Suijin no Haru was one of the most prized possessions of the land of water and one of the few places that held an accumulated amount of natural energy comparable to that of the mighty Mt Myōboku. The Suijin no Haru went by different names, but the most known and notorious of them was the name it was given by a legend of the Hōzuki clan.
Kaiōsei no mure.
Neptune's Trove.
Despite being situated in a cave and being called a spring, Kaiōsei no mure was a massive body of water that spread almost throughout the entirety of the land of water. The cave was simply the spring's entrance a the narrowest safest point of the deadly ocean. Kaiōsei no mure spread from the cave and ran down to the depths of the earth. The divine spring had never been seen at it's full glory by any man and it was said that the rest of Kaiōsei no mure existed in a dimension of it's own. A dimension far different from our own, home to various dangerous aquatic creatures. According to an ancient folkore of the Mizu people, Kaiōsei no mure and it's inhabitants were ruled by a mighty sea king recognised as king Neptune, but according to legends this was monster of gargantuan proportions. An immortal sea beast like no other, said to cause death and suffering wherever it went.
"...the name of this creature is a taboo in most areas in the mist despite there being no proof of it's existence. It's name–"
"Do you think it's a good idea to say that name while we're in the cave?." a voice interrupted the reader. It was Hatake Kakashi, dressed in a black jonin like attire without a flack jacket. Since he was on a personal mission he decided not to put on the village's jonin uniform. They didn't need to advertise where they were from anyway, not in a place like this. Kakashi was speaking to one of his companions on his personal mission, a bowl cut haired teen with extremely thick eyebrows, dressed in a green spandex and orange leg warmers. He was a rookie jonin who had only passed the exams a month ago but Kakashi knew that Gai had what it took to take on even the more seasoned jonins in the village. Gai was a pretty nice guy and a loyal friends, but there were sides of him Kakashi would rather not have to deal with.
"That's right!. Oh, who knows what misfortune would've befallen us if you hadn't warned me in time my eternal rival!." Gai said in his usual boisterous tone.
"Hmm. Did you say something, Gai?." Kakashi said, taking a page out of Uchiha Fugaku's book and snubbed the rookie jonin just how the Uchiha had done to Hyuuga Hiashi.
"Argh!, curse you and your hip attitude my rival!." Gai said in frustration. This wasn't the first time Kakashi had done this to him and he knew it wouldn't be the last either.
"Are... Could it be that Kakashi-senpai actually believes in the tales of the Kaiōsei no mure?." the last companion Kakashi had taken on his mission said. She was a chunin among a group of others who the ANBU general commander had cherry-picked from multiple seasoned chunin. The selected chunin were placed under ANBU seniors, this was the ANBU shadowing program. Kakashi was elected among twenty others to be shadowed by a chunin despite having joined the ANBU program a little over a year ago. The commander said that he'd impressed them enough in his short spell for them to consider him a senior member, a rank just a step away from ANBU captain.
The shadowing program served for two purposes. The first was the one which was public information to everyone associated. A program for ANBU hopefuls to earn the rank and the second more secret purpose was that it served as a mock ANBU captain exam for the senior ANBU agents. Kakashi was well aware of this secret test and so planned to do everything in his power to help his kohai (junior) transition into the ANBU program. Kakashi had developed a rather close relationship with the girl (compared with the miniscule relationships he had) and decided to bring her along since she knew more about Mizu's layout than he did.
The kohai in question was a blue haired girl who claimed to have blood ties with kirigakure and was probably right since she had a strong water affinity and quite a unique hair color, as far as Hi no Kuni was concerned. She was a tall individual, already the same height as Kakashi despite being two years younger. Her hair was wavy, almost appearing like a literal wave and fell down to her lower back. She had pale red eyes and had a blue tribal looking tattoo streaking down her left eye and decorating half of her face. Despite her age, she had a mature built. She had a figure that could kill, wide hips and a generous bust.
She was dressed in a blue star night themed kimono and wore heels, which was irregular even for kunoichi. Her name was Suiren. No last name, just Suiren. Depending on the language her name was translated with, it was either a very ironic or very generic name, considering her affinity for water and Suiren never failed to make jokes and puns using her name.
(AN: In Japanese Suiren means "Water Lily" while in Chinese Suiren means "Fire Maker".)
"No Suiren-kohai I don't." Kakashi said dryly. "It's just that Gai has terrible luck and I don't want to jinx it." Kakashi said, causing the girl to giggle and Gai to loudly protest.
"Funny as always senpai~" Suiren said with a wink. "Anyways, why are we here senpai?. Is there some super important dangerous and powerful weapon of mass destruction hidden here?." Suiren said in a voice too even for the words she uttered. Gai and Kakashi sweatdropped.
"No." they said in unison.
Suiren shrugged. "Oh well. Then what are we looking for?." Suiren queried, looking around the crystalline temple themed cave for anything of value... that wasn't a crystal.
"We're looking for a scroll." Kakashi said simply and recommenced his searching.
'Must be one hell of a scroll.' Suiren thought and joined the masked teen and the green freak in their search. And it was. The scroll Kakashi was searching for was one that was said to be linked to the monster king of Kaiōsei no mure, a summoning contract that surpassed all other known summoning contracts. It wasn't a surprise to Kakashi since according to what he saw, the monster was worshipped as a god. What were great toads and snakes to a god?. He wasn't a power thirsty individual but for years a voice in his head had been telling him to look for certain artifacts. A voice he'd told his sensei about, and it turned out it was a voice from the will of the Nidaime hokage.
The Yondaime promised that it wouldn't be permanent and over time Kakashi felt the voice fading in both occurrence and loudness. He had wanted to just let it fade out of existence, but his curiosity won in the end and he instead went on various missions, trying to find whatever it was the Nidaime had been looking for in his time. Out of all those adventures only two bore fruit, but none of them were like the one he was embarking on now.
This time it felt different. Power radiated from the earth, from the crystals, from the charred, minced and battered corpses of the giant guard crabs that had attacked them on what looked to be the beach of the divine spring. Power radiated from the sand, but all of the mentioned were nothing in comparison to the power that oozed off the water. They hadn't reached the water itself but they could already hear it in turmoil, crashing waves hitting rocks birthing a reoccurring roar of a unarguably living aquatic god. Kakashi could feel it.
The three man team moved out of the temple-like area and deeper into the cave. As they went the beach continuously expanded and seemed as though it would go on forever. The trio glanced around the sandy beach, looking about for anything akin to a scroll even though they knew the area was far too vast to be surveyed with the eyes.
"It's like a different world." Suiren said in awe. The crystals had changed their vibrant green glow to an aquatic blue now, making her feel like she was inside the world's largest aquarium. Kakashi and Gai as well marvelled at the sight. It wasn't everyday you saw something so surreal. Then they finally saw it... The spring.
"Kami..." Gai said with a gobsmacked expression. Once the spring was in sight they were assaulted by bright sunlight. After they got to the change of brightness, they realized they had now reached the end of the cave, which had turned out to be more massive than they thought. And now, they were in the true entrance to Kaiōsei no mure. The beach was even more vast, and when they looked ahead into the ocean it was only water they could see. There wasn't a sign of anything else but sand and water, not to the eyes and not to Kakashi's sensory. There was a massive stone wall in the middle of the beach, facing the ocean. The wall took the form of a gargantuan stone tablet if looked at from afar and cast a massive shadow over a good portion of the water.
'Is this place really a different dimension?.' Kakashi thought. "I think we should go back." Kakashi said, eyeing the water that looked too alive for comfort.
"What?!. But we just got here!." Suiren said.
Kakashi kept his eyes on the raging ocean. "I know but... Look, let's just go. I'll be honest, this place is freaking me out and that water is sending out pretty unsettling vibes." Kakashi said, knowing he sounded really stupid. As he expected, both Gai and Suiren gave him weird looks. He would've done same to himself if he was in their shoes. "I know it's sound moronic and I'm sorry for dragging you two here for nothing, but we got to go." Kakashi said, glancing at the water between words.
"Well if you feel that strongly about it Kakashi then–" Gai started, wearing a rare serious expression.
"No!. I let you bring me on this really dangerous mission even though I'm not even a jonin, I followed you into enemy territory. We have gone days without proper nutrition or a frigging bath and you expect me to just turn around when we find drinkable water and possibly food?. No way senpai. You brought me here so you'll be taking responsibility." Suiren said with a sly wink before bolting off towards the massive stone tablet. Kakashi groaned and gave chase with Gai following in tow. The thick eyebrowed teen could easily catch up with the girl if he wanted, but he found the situation far too amusing to do that. He couldn't also refute the fact that Suiren made a solid argument. The spring was said to contain fishes of all shapes and sizes and was drinkable. The girl would've seemed completely crazy since she was trying to fish in a raging ocean, but when she ran towards the stone wall, Gai noticed the portion of the water that was covered by the wall's shadow was as calm as an actual spring. Now, normally something out of the ordinary would raise a red flag, but they were shinobi. They just found a somehow underground beach, ocean and sky. A calm spring in the middle of a storm wasn't so hard to believe now.
Kakashi knew he could catch Suiren if he wanted, but yet again his curiosity was getting the better of him. After a few minutes they reached the stone wall. Suiren didn't waste anytime and jumped into the water. Kakashi watched her disappear for almost a whole minute worriedly. He had sworn to himself to never lose a teammate on a mission, even it was such a reckless one, he would still blame himself if anything happened to her. It didn't help that he was the one that brought her here too.
Fortunately Suiren burst out of the water with a fish her own size wriggling under her grip. A kunai had been embedded into its skull and fresh blood oozed freely out of its wound. "There's fish!." Suiren said with a laugh. Kakashi sighed and gestured Gai to help the girl with the fish while he remained on the beach, looking up at the stone tablet. It wasn't like any tablet he'd seen, it was easily the largest, but it's message was...
'I haven't seen any tablet with such a direct message.' Kakashi thought. 'Whoever... Whatever made this must be a real straight forward person... thing.' Kakashi thought as he mouthed the message on the tablet.
[Read out the words and you will see me. Don't read out the words and you won't die.]
Kakashi already knew which option he'd be leaning on.
"It's quite a confusing riddle." Gai said. Kakashi turned to the bowl cut teen with a questioning look. Gai was carrying the dead sizeable fish as though it weighed nothing and studying the tablet like Kakashi had been.
"It's a pretty clear message Gai." Kakashi said.
"You mean you can read that?." Gai said in awe.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow in confusion. "It's in our language. How couldn't I?." Kakashi said, now confusing Gai. The rookie jonin looked from the tablet back to Kakashi multiple times and even squinting his eyes to make sure of what he was seeing.
"No it's not." Gai said.
"Ara~ you must not be feeling well senpai. That's definitely not in our tongue." Suiren said, shamelessly changing into dry set of clothes she'd stored in a scroll in front of the two. Gai of course was a gentleman and didn't turn to look at her. Kakashi on the other hand...
"What are you doing?!."
"Changing. Can't you see I'm all wet... and not in the fun way." Suiren said with a shit eating grin not at all suitable for a lady. Kakashi blushed and did his best to look away. "Anyways, that text is in an ancient language belonging to the Hōzuki clan. According to records it hasn't been seen or heard of in well over a century. Luckily I know the basics!. Now... what does this say... Read– No. Read out these words and you will see me..." Suiren started.
Kakashi's eyes widened as his senses were assaulted by a powerful spike of chakra. The ocean seamed to roar even louder "Don't finish that!." Kakashi said, quickly moving to the semi dressed Suiren and clamping his hand over her mouth. "It's bad news!." Kakashi said with more certainty than he thought he was capable of possessing. When he was sure the girl would shut her mouth he let her go. "Get dressed." Kakashi said, quickly turning away.
"Ara, sensei... I know you're a secret perv and all but did you really have to use your aoīrugan to memorize my body?. I feel so violated." Suiren said with a giggle.
"What?. I didn't activate the aoīrugan..." Kakashi trailed off and his eyes widened. 'Was that how I was able to read that tablet?. If so then...' Kakashi's bad feelings got worse and worse the more his mind wondered. "We're leaving now!." Kakashi said in a firm voice, leaving no room for argument. Gai was about to second him again but was interrupted by a booming voice.
"No. You should stay."
The trio's eyes widened in shock at the source of the words.
"T-The water... d-did it just talk?." Gai said in fear. He and his companions watched in horror as the water that had been spinning haphazardly somehow found rhythm to turn into on single massive whirpool before it rose Into the air, turning into a full blown hurricane. Gai wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but the hurricane seemed to have two red eyes and a two large horns. "My God..."
"Yes. Yes I am." the hurricane said. The powerful spin of the mighty sea king was more than enough blow away the sand of the beach all across the land. The eyes of the aquatic creature landed on the trio. Gai and his companions couldn't move at inch, they didn't dare move an inch. Not when they were up against this... this thing.
"You didn't read the entire text, but as you humans say, half a hundred human sacrifices are better than none."
Gai spoke up against his better judgement. He was scared to the bone, but a stupid side of couldn't just let that misinterpretation go unanswered to. "We don't say tha–"
"Silence." the creature boomed. "Like I give a rat's ass what you vermin say. What I was saying is that, I'll accept your sacrifice even if it quite meagre." it said.
The trio looked appalled at the creature's words. "S-Sacrifice?." Suiren squeaked out.
"Yes. I must say for a boobed having... Fu... What was the word again?. frightened? fickle? free to die? Fu-fu-fu-FUCK! Goddammit!. Shit, right –I am God." the creature murmured to itself and cleared it's throat... Wherever that was. Even though the creature sounding goofy for a few seconds, the trio were anything but amused. The water creature remained intimidating even when it was goofing around. "Whatever. It's insignificant what you creatures call your female selves– oooh... Anyway, the female vermin offered herself to me, so I'll be taking her." The creature said and slowly made it's way toward the trio who were still frozen to their spots.
'Shit!. He wants Suiren-kohai!. I can't just stand here like a fool, we need to leave now!.' Kakashi said, screaming at his body to move but it remained frozen stiff. 'Move!.' Kakashi roared at himself, but will power was not enough. This intimidation it was something different, something that overrides his natural senses and demanded that he did not move an inch. It was something...
"Primal." the creature said with a dark chuckle. "Don't struggle so much youngling. It's impossible for man to even behold God, talk less move in his presence." it said. "After all that was your flaw as well as your power upon creation. Your flesh is moved not by bones but by your emotions. And when that emotion is at it's primal peak... It is absolute." the creature said, breaking into a sudden high spread, aiming to crash into the trio. "You had your chance to flee, now I will collect!."
Kakashi watched the massive cyclone tornadoing towards him and his companions in slow motion. He wasn't sure if it was because of the aoīrugan or simply the slow of time before death. All he knew was he had to move. No matter how futile he had to do something!. He had to do it now!. 'MOVE!.' Kakashi roared one more time and it seemed as though nothing would happen, but then he heard a familiar voice in his head. The voice that had lead him to face his death. The Nidaime's voice. This time he could hear it clearly and now Kakashi was sure the Nidaime's will hadn't been talking to him all those other times. It was the words of a desperate man.
'We can not go on like this any longer!. Our clan's numbers dwindle with each passing day because of this wretched war!.'
A man who was fed up of war.
'I don't care what you say brother, I am going!. If I can find 'that' then we'll be able to finally rid ourselves of the Uchiha!.'
A ruthless man.
'I do not care if the others think it's just a myth. I will find it brother, I assure you!.'
A determined man.
'...I can't give up. Not like this... Sorry Izuna you won't be taking my life today, not until I find it.'
A stubborn man...
'I will bring back the treasure within Kaiōsei no mure, then none of my comrades will have to die again!.'
...Who refused to watch his friends die!.
"I WONT LOSE THEM!." Kakashi roared in unison with the voice of Tobirama Senju. The same conviction the man had in his heart that day, in Kakashi's very own heart. The slowing effects on time became a mere memory and everything became fast once again, but the creature saw. How could he miss something as glorious as that. A mere human pushing him away with sheer will. The water creature landed back into the depths, causing a loud splash. Kakashi panted suddenly feeling drained. He had no idea what he'd done but it had taken almost tge entirety of his chakra. But right now, none of that mattered to him. All that mattered was that his friends were alive, and that was why– "We have to go right now!." Kakashi yelled, pulling his shocked friends along.
"You really can't." the creature said, easily ascending from the depths of the ocean once again. Kakashi ignored it and focused more on running away. "I'm serious. You're in a separate dimension, there's only one way and it's the way in." it said. Kakashi came to an abrupt halt and quickly spun to the creature, his eyes burning with fury.
"You're lying!."
The creature narrowed it's red hollow eyes at the silver haired boy who not only pushed it back but now stood tall while addressing it. "That's quite the gaze... Ah of course. It's no wonder you're so powerful. It looks flawed but there was definitely an attempt to recreate God's eye on you." the creature said, it's body split to form a broad grin. "Ohohohohoho, it's appears there's a human who's figured out the formula, how amusing. It's a complete failure but your eyes are already augmenting your abilities. You surely have a powerful affinity for water and your pseudo God's eye amplified it a several million times more powerful to command me back. How bold of you!, to dare to command God!."
Kakashi was now completely confused. First the creature wanted them dead and now it was spouting nonsense about a god's eyes or something. Kakashi however, did not feel good about the mouth the creature had instantly developed. "What are you..."
"Hmm?." the creature looked down, taking notice of Kakashi's confusion. "Ah, of course. Trust the most remarkable human to be born in the last thousand years to not even know what he is. I'll simplify things for you, youngling." the creature said. "You have a failed imitation of God's eyes. However, this fake is not to be trifled with, if the fact that you were able to push me back is anything to go by. In conclusion what I'm saying is, I don't wanna kill you anymore." the creature said and started retreating into the water. Kakashi and his still dazed companions looked on in shock. "I'd let you guys out, but that's impossible for me, even from here. However if you do want to leave... The only way out is down." the creature said and with that it disappeared into the ocean again.
Kakashi didn't know what to say or do and instead collapsed into the sand and was soon joined by his friends, who were finally working off the weight on their tongues. "What the..." Kakashi begun but trailed off, lost at the words to describe what had just happened. The trio were glad to be alive and just spent the next thirty minutes in silence thanking their lucky stars that they had survived the scary encounter with... Whatever that was. The sea god?. Probably. But that monster looked more like a devil than a god.
"We should get out of here." Gai said, rising to his feet.
"I second that." Suiren said and made to stand but Kakashi held her hand with a gloomy look in his eyes. "What is it, senpai?."
"That creature wasn't lying. I can't feel anything in the direction we just came from, it's like we've been cut off from our world." Kakashi said. Gai and Suiren paled in shock.
"That can't be..." Gai whispered out.
"Yeah, he's right!. That's impossible, we we're just there right, so how could our world just disappear like that?. Hehehe you almost got me there Kakashi-senpai. I thought y–"
"Suiren. It's true." Kakashi said. The girl fell on her knees and stared at the ground in horror. If she had just listened to Kakashi when he said they should've left then this wouldn't have happened!. "It's not your fault, Suiren-kohai." Kakashi said as though he could read her mind. "'He' said there was only one way and that was the way in. So most likely the second we set foot on this beach we were immediately cut off from our dimension. This one's on me, so don't worry kohai, I'll fix this." Kakashi said with his famous eyes smile.
"Se-senpuwaii!." Suiren yelled in a choked sobbing voice and wrapped her arms around her ANBU senior. Gai smiled at the scene, and the slight return of normalcy allowed him to tune into his dormant hard shinobi side.
"What do we do now, Kakashi?." Gai said. He didn't like being that guy but in this situation he just had to be. (AN: Pun definitely intended:) )
Kakashi patted the blue haired girl's back comfortingly and reluctantly stared at the ocean, specifically the area where the monster had both ascended from and descended to.
"You can't possibly mean..." Gai said.
"Got any better ideas?." Kakashi asked, hoping that the bowl cut teen somehow did. He was disappointed when the green obsessed teen shook his head. "What about you Suiren-kohai?."
"Whatever senpai decides is fine." Suiren said.
"Well then it's settled then. We'll move after we've gotten something to eat and rested enough." Kakashi said, getting a nod from Gai and a squeak from Suiren. Gai left to go get them dinner while Suiren remained firmly attached to him. 'Guess the whole team is on board. I wonder what he meant when he called the aoīrugan God's eyes. What exactly are these eyes... And what secrets do they hold?.' Kakashi asked himself. He channeled chakra into his eyes and instead of the usual aoīrugan spinning to life, it was a literal wheel looking version of it that made the tomoes come together to form one shape. Kakashi didn't know why but after that ordeal and right now he felt really powerful, like there was nothing he couldn't do. The mission however, right now, was to make sure he and his team came out of this alive. 'I won't fail them this time. I swear it!.'
Little did the Hatake know, all that was about to happen to him was etched in stone and he could control only but a little of his destiny.
End.
Yeah imma just go out and say it, since I know y'all are thinking it. Kakashi and Minato ain't the other main character. Sorry if you feel like you were led on.