Sealing Salientia - Chapter 8: Revelation - Author: PenSmoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.

Previously on Sealing Salientia:
Fugaku waved them over to the seats across from the Hokage desk, where they sat down. One looking at him with curiosity and the other with barely hidden anger, he took his own seat again behind the old mahogany wood. The newly appointed Fifth Hokage spoke after a moment's pause, "I'm sure you're both curious as to why I called you here today."

Konoha
Late Morning, October 12th, Year 65

Orochimaru was amused. Sitting down on the chair that had been offered, he quickly observed the man in front of him. Fugaku Uchiha was still dressed in the ceremonial robes that he had worn during the service earlier to install him as the next leader, though the hat was now carefully hung by the desk. The man emanated power from his being and it was absorbed, returned and reverberated throughout the room until it suffused with everything within. Coal black eyes stared into him. Many lesser men may have felt daunted by the presence of the man, but Orochimaru was not one of them. He coolly looked right back into the stare, with a gleeful mirth of a man who felt that a child was trying to intimidate him. While Fugaku was highly impressive in the political world, as well as a strong shinobi, Orochimaru was certain he could defeat the man in combat, and therefore held little fear of him. A slight bit of hatred as the man stole what he felt should have been his, but he hated nearly every human that he had ever met, so that was no reason to act any differently.

"Why yes." He said, purposely elongating the 's' sounds of his voice. Combining with known snake-like demeanor and his known summons, whenever he added the lilting slurs into his voice, he delighted in the off-putting look it typically received. Sadly, it did not seem to rile the man in front of him, who remained as stoic as ever. "I would definitely admit to being curious."

The snake-ninja's old sensei to his side shook his head, too used to the serpentine antics that Orochimaru typically displayed to be bothered by then. "Yes, Fugaku, I would love to know why you called us here." Orochimaru noted the way his former sensei bit off the man's name like it was a vile epithet, the curt language, the tone of voice and the posture of the speaker. Hiruzen was upset. Very upset. This could prove for quite the interesting show.

"As the newest Hokage, I'd like to make some changes that I feel are a long time overdue, and that I believe will be in the best interests of everyone in this room. The Leaf Village has grown notably more lax in the past few months since the Shinobi Wars officially ended. Instead of keeping up with the pace of every other nation, we have been falling behind. While our reputation is as high as ever, I fear that our ninjas are getting weaker. Without some of the elite ninja of this village, we would have easily been trounced over the past few conflicts. Rather than be reliant on a few sterling examples of shinobi and having below average grunt forces, I'd like to work out a way to eliminate that weakness." Fugaku ended the first bit of his speech by writing a quick note, apparently to himself, on a piece of paper on the desk in front of him.

"Orochimaru, I'll start with you. All of us in this room know of your experiments." The yellow-eyed man was instantly tense, hand immediately coming to a rest in a pouch that rested on his hip. He noted that the quick movement hadn't gone unnoticed, as both other occupants of the room tensed as well. The Uchiha relaxed again a moment later when it became obvious that the man wasn't going to attack just yet. "Calm down. I am not here to berate you or punish you for it. And besides, that was one of the reasons I called both of you here. You may be strong, but do you feel you could take both of us on at the same time, and then all the ANBU around the tower?"

Serpentine eyes flicked back and forth between the two men who had born the title of 'Kage' and disdainfully realized that while he could probably take one of them individually, even combined with the feeble ANBU pups that were outside, there was no chance that he could successfully fight both of them at the same time. Though, a cough interrupted that thought process.

Hiruzen spoke up and voiced out something that totally surprised the pale-skinned man, "And what makes you so sure that I'd take your side Fugaku?" The venom in his voice was no longer restrained and felt just as toxic as what he had for real venom stored away.

Fugaku looked at the Sarutobi clan head with an icy stare, verbalizing, "I understand you are upset Hiruzen, and I know the reasons why. Rest assured I will be conducting myself in a professional manner while in this office, and as a ninja of the Hidden Leaf, I would expect the same treatment in return. Please allow me to finish, and I will excuse what could be considered treasonous behavior, as well as explain everything."

The temperature in the room felt it dropped several degrees, and the silence that followed was immediately very uncomfortable. Orochimaru loved it, he rarely got to see interactions like this, and watching someone else press the buttons was fascinating in its' own right. His previously held tension now faded, he had to hold back a mirthful chuckle, lest he return to being the target of ire again.

Turning back to him, Fugaku resumed speaking. "As I said, everyone here is aware of your experiments. The Uchiha Police Force has been building a file on you for quite some time and we are sure of the things you have done, we just don't have much for proof. Yet." Ah yes, those bratty police forces of theirs. He had seen them snooping around in the past, and they were always the ones called when a experiment that had outlived its' usefulness was disposed of and then later found by a panicked civilian. They were observant, he gave them that much. But Orochimaru had always covered his tracks well, and would have known if one of those red-eyed men had breached the lair where he did the really interesting science.

"As such, we know the approximate reason why you have been doing said experiments. You want to make yourself a stronger ninja and learn new things." The snake sannin nodded. It wasn't exactly correct, but it was close enough. Really, he was researching a way that he wouldn't have to worry about death, so that he would have an unlimited lifespan and could learn every technique in existence. But, what the Fifth Hokage said wasn't technically wrong, so he kept his mouth shut as the other man continued. "That means our goals are aligned. I would like to make you the head of a new division. The Scientific Research Division. You will be given as much funding as I can spare, and I will be working on making sure plenty of unnecessary things are removed from our budget as soon as possible. There will be plenty of leeway on what you deem viable, so long as we can get results that benefit our ninja. The primary things I will be asking of you is to stop using members of the populace for experimentation, as we know you have in the past. If you truly need a human target for something that cannot be done in any other way, I'm sure I can arrange for one of the missing-nin that have been captured to be steered your way. The only other thing is that you keep a record of what you do. Everything that you do, no exceptions, no under the table dealings. It will be kept in strict confidence between myself and you, so you don't have to worry about any additional eyes peering into your endeavors."

Orochimaru wasn't displeased by the offer. Head of his own division, leeway to do as he saw fit, and funding that he didn't have to scrounge up himself. Plenty of good things in there. Not being able to use human subjects for things certainly would be annoying, as he preferred the direct results rather than the more traditional science method of working their way up to humans. And having to share his discoveries would be possibly even more annoying, as the entire purpose was to help himself gain true power, not to help random Leaf ninjas. Weighing the pros and cons in his head, he came to a decision. At least for now, the pros outweighed the cons. He could make progress on his research faster, and so long as he provided scraps of knowledge to help the rest, he could get everything he needed without the hassle of trying to do it all undetected.

"I accept your gracious offer, Lord Hokage." He spoke with the extended 's' sound again, simply because he felt like it, and let a sickly smile cross his face as the words left. "We can work out all the details some other time, I'm sure."

"Yes, of course." Fugaku replied, pushing a piece of paper towards him. "This contains a basic overview of what I had in mind, and what we will be able to provide quickly, as well as a few things for short-term and long-term goals. Please read it and sign to indicate that you agree."

The serpent summoner quickly perused the document, as it was just a basic outline summarizing what had just been discussed. The person who signed would be put in charge of a new division that would be formed within the ninja ranks, allowing for shinobi who were less battle oriented to join if they desired. The primary purpose was to develop and discover new technology or new techniques through experimentation. The stated long-term goal was to have the division create enough so that every shinobi of Konoha had at least one advantage that no other shinobi outside of Konoha had access to. Jotting his name, in blood for effect, he returned the paper to the man behind the desk.

He remained seated however, as he wanted to hear why Hiruzen Sarutobi had been called, as it certainly wouldn't have been just to prevent a fight.

The Third Hokage had been building up more and more anger. Starting with watching the ceremony of the man in front of him, to being summoned the way that he was, seeing the newest Hokage poking through the books he had left behind for Minato, and now hearing that Orochimaru had been experimenting on civilians, and now that his student was being put in charge of a full division. Hiruzen was nearly shaking with fury when the first conversation in the office had completed.

"Hiruzen, I have something that I feel would be in your best interests as well. Something that I know you are both acutely aware of and want to fix. Going along with the theme of improving our non-elite shinobi forces, I would like to make it so our youngest are trained more thoroughly and at a higher level. This way they are actually ready for the world of being a shinobi. We've all seen what happens when the likes of Kakashi Hatake graduate extremely early and are tossed into the fray at such a young age. And for every genius such as him that lives, how many enter the field unprepared and die a young death? I understood during the war, we needed to get as many bodies on the battlefield as possible. Even though, in the end, that didn't even matter. What turned the tides was the elites, not a mass of untrained beginners. Konoha has always prided quality over quantity. I'd like to make that tradition even stronger. I would like to put you in charge of the Ninja Academy. I can think of nobody better than 'The Professor' to make it so the children are taught what they need to be and can survive long enough to become elite level warriors."

So that was the plan. He had to admit, it was a good one. Dangle the carrot of doing something he had always said he wanted to do, reform the Academy so kids could still be kids, and that less genin would be sent off to their unneeded deaths.

Except Fugaku hadn't realized just how angry he was at the whole situation. It hadn't even been 24 hours ago when the man had had the gall to show no remorse at the thought of slaughtering an innocent child. This man had purposely used fear and hatred to spin people into giving him power. This man was going to tear asunder the notion of this village's honor and bury it.

He glanced sideways. "Out." Even though it was barely more than a whisper, it easily received the attention of both whom heard it. It was his 'I'm done kidding, now I'm pissed off' voice. He was aware that Orochimaru was familiar with that voice. And while he was angrier at the party on the opposing side of the desk, he still had a decent amount of enmity towards his former student. So, he didn't particularly care if the member of the Sannin took it badly. Said former student took a look at him and his face fell. The man was probably hoping to have stayed to watch the fireworks, but he wasn't having any of that. He wanted to talk with Fugaku. And he was going to.

Orochimaru got up and bid his farewell in his usual, somewhat disgusting, manner of flicking his snake-like tongue out while over pronouncing his 's' in tat irritating manner "So long." Once the man had left the room and shut the door, Hiruzen spoke again.

"Under the desk, right side near the corner. There are two buttons. Push the one in the back." Hiruzen Sarutobi commanded. His successor looked somewhat perturbed, but followed through with the command. He could feel a slight pulse and a light sheen of energy applied itself to the chamber's walls.

"That's a sound-proof barrier seal. It doesn't let anything in or out. Now I can yell at you for being the idiot you are without anyone hearing it. What in the absolute hell are you thinking? Have you gone psychotic? Did that damned Sharingan destroy your brain and you went mad with power? Murdering innocent children?" He noticed an eyebrow quirk at that comment, perhaps he had hit a nerve. Good. "Taking power by fear? And the pretending that giving me one little meaningless concession would make it all better? To hell with that. Tell me one good reason I shouldn't execute you for treason right now." He stood up and entered a defensive stance, his walking stick that he had carried in poofing into smoke and transforming into a long bo staff.

"Ah. I see. I thought that might be why." Fugaku scratched at his chin, seemingly unmoved by the leap into action. "I thought you might have that reaction to it. To be honest, I didn't want to have to kill an innocent child."

Slightly dumbstruck by this, the elder Sarutobi quickly swallowed the silence away and lashed out, "Then why did you do so, you arrogant ass?"

"Well, I was hoping to figure out something that would allow the child to live and grow up to be a shinobi, but still made the civilians happy. I had even turned on the Sharingan to use it to attempt to coerce the councilmen to deal with it. I had got so far as to start layering a little genjutsu trick on that half of the room. Imagine my surprise when the child in your arms turned into a tattooed arm under my vision."

Hiruzen sucked in his breath. He remembered that Fugaku's eyes had been red before, but nothing had been said, so he assumed that the original plan had gone off flawlessly. Apparently, that was incorrect.

"I have no idea what you did with that arm to make everyone else think it was a child. That wasn't your basic Transformation technique, as we all would have seen through that in a heartbeat. I don't know what it was, but it was impressive. When I saw that, I realized quickly that I wouldn't have to bother with finding some complex solution to the child, and could appease the civilians easily, all while gaining their trust. So, in one swipe, I eliminated all the problems. The civilians think I'm on their side. You can keep your plans with the child safe. And I get to be Hokage to make the village better." The Fifth Hokage concluded, leaning back in his chair. "I'm sorry that you felt so strongly about it, but surely you can see why I did what I did."

The entirety of the anger that he had been feeling over the past hours instantly melted into nothingness, as he felt a metaphorical pit open up beneath him. He stumbled back to the seat he had initially taken and sagged into it, looking every one of his 57 years of age, and then with a few more years added on top. "No." Similar to earlier, the word was just barely a whisper, but this time for a much different reason than before. His plan had failed, and Fugaku knew. Though he didn't know everything, he knew enough that he could bring it crashing down. The only relieving factor was that he didn't detect any falsehoods from the man when he said that he had no desire to kill an innocent child.

The Sarutobi clan head wilted further into his chair, the now spent ager having drained him emotionally.

Watching a man that he still respected go from calm to upset to anger to distress to collapse in such a short span did worry Fugaku a bit. Perhaps Hiruzen had been taking this harder than anticipated. While Fugaku had considered this a political ploy, he hadn't considered the other man's feelings. And judging by the overt reactions he had witnessed, that had been a mistake.

The entire situation had clearly worked his predecessor up into a frenzy and was a very sore spot for him. He pondered why for a moment that the man would have been so attached to a lump of flesh when the realization hit him like a brick in the face. Sarutobi didn't know that he knew, and so had thought that Fugaku was going to kill a child. And based on the reaction, a child important to him. Either he was related to the child or very close to the family.

He quickly perused his memory for anyone that Hiruzen might have been close to that could have had a baby within the past few days. Hiruzen's own children weren't known to be involved with anyone, and Asuma was probably too young to have kids yet anyway, so he discounted that it had been a grandchild as a possibility fairly quickly. His own wife had been pregnant recently and had been friends with a few others who had been pregnant recently. He did know that several other big names amongst Konoha clans had had kids very recently. The ending of the war had caused a lot of celebrations with a lot of unplanned accidents popping forth from all corners. There had been an endless supply of people that were pregnant, or so it had seemed. The Hyuuga, Nara, Aburame, Inuzuka, Yamanaka and Akimichi had all had children recently, but he didn't think the former Hokage had been all that close with any of their families. In fact, the only people that Hiruzen ever seemed to socialize with were his former students, Fugaku himself, Mikoto, Minato and… Kushina. Frantically, he tried to recall the image of the child before the Sharingan had dispelled it without his awareness. Since the eye-based bloodline had removed it before he was even aware of it, he didn't have a perfect recall of the imagery from the time. But, he thought he remembered some blond hair peeking out from under the cloth.

The second metaphorical brick to the face in less than a few seconds actually had physical pain associated, as this time his own hand had slammed up to meet his face in accompaniment. Kushina and Minato. Of course. Minato wouldn't ask a random villager for an infant to seal the Nine-Tails into. The man wasn't that type of person. Of course he had his used his own flesh and blood, not wanting to make another family suffer. The boy was Minato's. And Hiruzen, being close to the family, had probably been a godfather to the child. The man had just watched someone he trusted appear to be willing to kill his own godson and been able to do nothing to stop it.

This was going to require a long talk and explanation. But he would make it right.

Iruka Umino had been surprised by where the conversation had gone with the bespectacled woman in front of him. He didn't exactly want to tell her the whole truth, because he didn't want to appear to be weak. She was still a stranger, even if she was a nice stranger. But, she was also the exact person whom he needed to find right now, and through lucky coincidence, he had found her. She was both a ninja and ran the orphanage in town. Even if it was by getting knocked over.

He swallowed his pride and said, "I suppose I can come with you, I don't have anywhere else to be." He finished scooping up the rest of her belongings that had fallen into the dirty street around them, and then followed a step behind and to the side of her all the way to her destination

The boy followed the young woman to the hospital, where she explained who he was and why he was following her, introducing him as an Academy student who had taken an interest in medical ninjutsu, never once telling anyone anything negative about him. He gathered that her name was 'Nono', as that was what the lady at the front desk and several of the nurses greeted her with. She escorted him back into the operating rooms, where there was a line of several patients that needed work, though thankfully none of it looked to be urgent. While he was training to be a ninja, he still wasn't fond of blood and guts and gore and death.

She set Iruka up in the corner of the room with strict instructions not to touch anything. And after that, she began to explain. "With medical ninjutsu, we have a different purpose for chakra emissions than what you probably learned about in the Academy. While you are taught to use it to defend yourself and protect your allies, we use it to restore and rejuvenate bodies. Hold your hand out in front of you, and concentrate on your chakra flow. You only need a small coating to flow around your skin, like this." As the first patient entered, whom needed the fragments of a broken bone coaxed back into place after the cast had been set, she set her hand aglow with the green colored energy. "I picture calming and soothing imagery while using the technique, it helps the energy to heal. The calmer that you are, the calmer your nature and by extension your chakra."

Nono set her hand on the woman's arm just next to where the cast was placed near her wrist. The luminous jade chakra swelled and covered the skin of the patient all the way down into the cast and Iruka could see the woman's face relax and smooth out, with just the tiniest contortions of the lips. He suspected that was due to happen when something moved inside the skin. After a moment Nono continued, "Right now, I am using the energy to locate and push the small pieces of bone that had been broken off into place for them to heal naturally. A highly advanced medic, more skilled than I, could fuse the bones whole, or even regenerate the bone to its' original state. Some can do even more than that" Iruka noticed a slight flinch, as if the woman was disappointed in herself, though he had no idea why. She seemed to be doing her duties perfectly from his standpoint. Iruka continued to watch in barely disguised fascination as people streamed in and out of the operating room to avail themselves of this lady's abilities.

Iruka and Nono spent the day together, he sat watching from a corner while she did her healing work, accompanied by her explaining everything that she was doing. She paused throughout the day to give him a quick test on various things that she had said, and he quickly and accurately remembered each thing she had explained. Nono was an excellent teacher, in his opinion, and he found the way that she talked about the way to mold the chakra and feel it coalesce around him absolutely fascinating. He had been experimenting himself to try and push his chakra out and think healing thoughts to make it turn green. Though, it never seemed to work.

As she ended healing the last patient in her line a couple hours later, he followed her out of the room to the canteen inside for lunch, where she even purchased a nice meal for him as well. They sat and exchanged words about the way to do the Mystical Palm technique, thought she explained that it was a high-level technique that required very precise chakra control. The way she said it, he felt that she thought he wouldn't be able to do it at all.

Iruka may have been just a student, but he was a smart student who paid attention and wanted to learn. He asked for books to read on the technique, and Nono had provided him after the end of her volunteer work. He immediately stuck his nose inside the book and started reading, ravenously devouring the words like they were the ramen he had consumed the night before.

When she declared that she was ready to go home, he didn't even have a second thought and followed her all the way to the orphanage, where she had set him up with a bed in a room that had another empty bed, but no other occupant currently. Not that he really noticed, as his eyes didn't leave the book until they slowly drifted shut that night.

It was late at the Sarutobi household and Masuya was starting to get worried. He had spent the day after the ceremony dressed in his work uniform, taking care of various things at HQ and awaiting the inevitable summons from the new Hokage to dismiss him. But it had never arrived.

He had spent the whole day finishing up what loose ends that he could think of, as he had fully expected to be removed as ANBU Commander as soon as Fugaku had taken over. Minato had kept him on as a gesture to his father, and because Minato wasn't well-versed in many things yet, and had seen having the Sarutobi there, already capable of handling the issues of ANBU, as a blessing. Fugaku was not the same, and surely had replacements already in mind.

But when dusk started rolling in and he had escaped the HQ building for home, his title was unchanged. He removed his cloak and uniform, stashing them safely out of sight, and went to find his father. Entering the main house, he heard noises, but they were younger and more rambunctious than his father would have been.

Locating the disturbance, he found his younger brother and teammates lounging around, eating and drinking and hanging out after what looked to have been a long and dirty day. Asuma was digging through the fridge, apparently searching for beverages for himself and companions. Kurenai was sitting primly on a stool nearby, glancing at the youngest Sarutobi while she thought nobody was looking, and Raido was sprawled out on the couch chowing through a bag of chips. Flinging a handful of crumbs, Raido waved at him as he made his appearance, sounding out a crumb muffled "Yo!".

At the sound, he noticed Kurenai quickly look away from Asuma and check to see if anyone had seen her staring. Making sure he caught her eye with a smirking face of his own to indicate he knew what she was doing, she turned a brilliant shade of red to match her clothes, which she seemed to be trying to shrink back into. Asuma had looked up also, and noted his appearance with the greeting of "Hey big bro! Seen pops?"

Masuya responded with a, "Not since he left with that ANBU escort earlier. I wonder what's going on." He was genuinely slightly concerned. While he knew that his father could handle himself in mostly any situation that could come up, that didn't mean the man was invincible.

It proved for naught a scant second later as the front door crashed open, driven by a ninja kick from the oldest Sarutobi. The old wooden door rotated on screaming hinges that protested the sudden movement, smashed into the wall that it was hinged upon and snapped the metal cleanly off at the impact, falling to the floor in a huge 'whump'. As every single person in the house grabbed at a nearby weapon to prepare to defend against an enemy attack, Hiruzen hiccupped loudly while pointing at the door in a conspiratorial manner. "SSSSSSHHHHHH! Ahm supposed ta be QUIET!"

AN: I promise back to Jiraiya and Naruto soon. Several things need to be set-up in Konoha for my storyline to make sense. Many of the standard characters are NOT going to be like canon. There are different allies and different enemies than what I've read in any other fic. But, since I'm trying to tell this story in a chronological order, I want to hit the points that need explanation WHEN they happen in the timeline. And plant the seeds for other things now, rather than going back through and retconning later.

Mystical Palm Jutsu

Classification: Ninjutsu (Healing)

Rank: A

A medical ninjutsu that allows the user to speed up the body's natural healing process by sending chakra. Can be used at a minimal level to merely close wounds, or by more advanced practitioners to do things up to and including full regeneration of body parts.