Hi guys! Sorry I'm updating this story so late, I got locked out of my account lol. My exams are at the 22nd, and I may be updating a bit more now that I have an excuse to write as a stress reliever . Anyways, as an apology, here's a chapter that's maybe enough to satisfy you guys. :)


Aftermath

Kazuhiko exclaimed a loud, appreciative "Thank god!" as he finished off a few of the last snakes wrecking havoc in the village. How they knew how to throw senbons and kunai and other types of projectiles were beyond him as a few Aburames worked to capture the large number of rogue bugs trying to trap the village in, just a few meters away from him. A few Uchihas were using their signature Great Fireball technique to counter the mass of bugs that were in the air. A group of Akimichis, (sprinkled in with a few Naras and Yamanakas) were all also helping out in driving a few of the bigger, more vicious snakes out.

It was also the time that the Third Hokage received reports of the now discovered and shut-down illegal laboratories under Konoha's grounds (that were used by ANBU and also ROOT) all pointing to Orochimaru and that a certain snake Sannin had been seen in the woods just a few hundred miles south of the village, via Inuzuka ninken patrol. Apparently they let him off as he ignored them and the fight here wasn't able to reach them. They claim to have received no hawk messengers. They also said he had someone draped on his back but ignored it too as they trusted the Sannin with whatever he was doing. They didn't recognise who the person Orochimaru had apparently kidnapped.

He resisted an urge to roll his eyes behind his mask as he looked up to the hawk now circling the sky.

"Village secured, huh?" He mumbled as he cracked a knuckle and checked his little watch, tucked into his in-body storage seal. 5:57 pm. Heh, he still got time to shunshin home. He went on his merry way; greeting shinobi for their hard work and civilians alike as he head to his clan's compound at a fast but still leisurely pace. Once he rounded the corner and passed the Aburame compound, his eyes squinted into slits as a panicked Aburame ran into him, eyes clearly shaken, before pointing at the direction of Kazuhiko's home with wobbly knees and a shaky finger. His palms itched as the smell of blood hit his nose hard, making him narrow his eyes into a cold, dangerous glare as he slowed down to a slow run, not quite a jog but not a sprint. Every meter he got closer to the clan compound, the intense smell of flesh and blood became much more noticeable. Sweat began to form on his forehead as his brain conjured so many bad scenarios, and he sped up the speed of his running so fast, his feet barely even hit the ground, chakra making up for the lack of contact instead.

He shunshined to their living room only to slip and almost slide on a puddle of blood, shock freezing his body as his eyes fell on his mother who laid on the couch. His eyes swept her still form and his mind ran a million miles a minute. There were so many questions running through his head, he wobbled from his shock. Why was she so pale and why was she not moving? He panicked more as he realized Ken was not in immediate reach of his shunshin. His heart threatened to pop out of his chest as panic settled in, his chakra frantically sweeping the house.

Ken.

He cursed under his breath as he sniffed out Ken's scent amongst the others that filled the living room. His nose led him to the garden in the middle of the clan head's conjoined houses, and he cringed as he saw Ken holding onto a corpse's hand. Tear tracks lined his face and his baby brother's eyes were swollen but kept staring forward. A few men were digging up what looked like a grave in the side of the stone pathway, and he rushed to move the earth with a few handsigns. His brother's eyes slowly, lifelessly landed on him, fingers still intertwined with the corpse. He choked on his own breath as he knelt down infront of Ken, who was still unresponsive, to hug and comfort him.

In the corner of his peripheral vision, he spotted Obito tending to a few people who looked like they needed assistance. The young man snapped his attention back to his brother as a small, shaking arm wrapped around his neck, nose digging into the crook of the ANBU's neck. His arms automatically wrapped around his brother's shaking form, making sure to discreetly check for any injuries on his precious.

"Oh, Ken..." He squeezed the child as tears wet his neck and uniform, the smell of blood, death and decomposing flesh mixing into the fireball-smelling air. The smell assaulting his nose went down his throat as he struggled not to cough. His palms itched as his gaze wasn't met by anyone when he swept his eyes around for answers.

"He's Papa." The kid simply said, eyes lifelessly boring into the eyeholes for Kazuhiko's ANBU mask. He heard his heart break. He opted to remain silent and hugged Ken harder, making sure to adjust his body so the child wasn't tugging on the corpse. When he realized that the men who were digging earlier were waiting for Ken to let go of his father, he let go, crouching down low enough so only the two of them can hear each other.

"Ken, you have to let go now." He whispered, hands on the narrow shoulders of Ken. The sky was glum as dark clouds seem to cover the sky. Ken nodded, wordlessly letting go of the man's hand before leaning on him completely, trusting his brother to support his weight, and Kazuhiko gladly took the opportunity to flood Ken's senses with his dose of calming chakra. Kazu whisked Ken away and brought him inside the compound, Obito quietly following behind.

"How Ma?" Ken asked, breaking the silence between the three of them as they all sat in a triangle formation inside Ken's room. Kazuhiko didn't know what to say, because he never did check up on their mother. His priority then was Ken. He almost smacked his forehead as he realized what he just did. Thankfully, Obito came to the rescue and explained to Ken (and also Kazu) about her wanting to be left alone because she was 'tired'. Oh, so she was alive. Great!

"What 'bout Chouza-tan?" Ken cocked his head to the side and made Kazuhiko want to punch Chouza for stealing his Ototo's attention. "He's alright, Ken. He can handle himself." The ANBU sulked silently as he leaned against a wooden pillar of Ken's massive bed. It was good to see Ken functioning like his normal self again, and it helped relax the tensed up ANBU. He was still scratching his palms in an effort to sit himself still, eyes softening as he watched the two children comfort each other. Obito was battered and dirty, clothes barely on on some parts and the side of his lip a little burned. He felt gratitude and pride for the little Uchiha, and he remembered to ask permission for him to shadow their team when they get a mission to Kanabi. That's the way he's gonna repay his brother's little guardian angel, and he'll happily protect the people protecting Ken. Ken hugged Obito loosely, arms laying limply on top of the older's shoulders, and tucked his head under Obito's chin.

It made warmth blossom inside his chest, and he swore to all the gods, he'd protect Ken.


Ken wasn't sure his acting fooled anyone, so he tried to not get disgusted at the corpse he kept holding. No one told him to let go yet and he couldn't break his little heartbroken act- he almost broke character when he felt Kazu wrap his arms around him. He smelled like blood and sweat, but there was something about him that also smelled like fireplace and hot chocolate, of pure familial concern and big brother hugs. How the guy smelled like hugs when he literally is still in his bloodied ANBU uniform, he didn't know. He decided to keep his acting up as no one bothered to tell him to let go of the corpse. He cringe as his palms started sweating, and he pressed himself against his brother. His glazed eyes were scanning the menu which was currently up, wondering when the heck his [Relationship] with one Obito Uchiha went from [0%-Stranger] to [85.75%- Close Friends]. How that happened, he may never know.

Also, Megami seemed awfully sulky, like she was just trying to push herself into one little corner in the back of Ken's mind and it made him uncomfortable. Like there's this one side of a hoodie that keeps on making that particular side so sweaty. He introduced the man, which he knew Kazu must have already realized by hearsay or pure brain. He had access to both.

A little bored, Ken tried pulling on Megami forcefully for the first time, in an effort to make her stop her sulking. He tried to reach for that one warm string at the back of his head and pulled with half of all the mental strength he had and out came a little bit of the goddess.

He tried again, this time though with much more mental force, and half of Megami actually came out and his right side went a few degrees warmer in a pleasant way. She pulled herself back into her little corner and blocked Ken out fully. Why was she doing that?

Don't pull me, brat. I'll fry your brain. Megami snarled and Ken felt his jaw drop. His friend just threatened him. What?

He let the goddess keep sulking as he focused on the mission at hand. Correction, self-assigned mission. He wanted to make himself seem really open for kidnapping to Danzo, so he'd do this 'really lost and confused with life child' skit to draw in the war hawk. He didn't know if he'd land a place in ROOT or in a Yamanaka's office, but he'd try anyways.

If he ever do get an offer, meaning, get abducted or something, he had full confidence in Kazu's brother complex and he was all too willing to gamble with that in mind. Kazu has the Hokage's ears, (and maybe a few key people; future clan heads, a few current clan heads, and ANBU operatives) and he was pretty sure the guy had exceptional fighting skills if it ever came to that point.

So, like, Plan: get Danzo to notice him. Wow, he never thought in both his lives he'd think of ways to get noticed by the old Warhawk, but chakra sure does weird things to your brain. He felt himself get whisked inside their half-decimated house and cringed again as he peered at his undisturbed room, looking like there never was any fighting outside of it.

He let his mind run once again as he situated himself in Obito's arms, his own wrapped around the older child. If Obito is still a genin, and Itachi is somewhere near his age, when does Kakashi get promoted to Jounin? He should set the Hatake's promotion as a deadline for Plan A to D with contingency plans for the contingency plans. The Kanabi Bridge mission is after the promotion, so it would leave Ken about 2 years at most to keep the Uchiha and Nohara alive. The Uchiha had yet to fail his chuunin exam, was it? If Ken remembered correctly, he failed it maybe twice. Or maybe just once and he was being stupid and can't remember. But when Obito got promoted to chuunin, that's around the same time Kakashi got his rank up too. He honestly had no idea and now he's regretting skipping a few parts of Kakashi Gaiden. Good Lord.

"-en? Ken? Are you alright?" Black, worried eyes peered into his own bright pair, and he shifted his weight so he was no longer leaning his body on Obito's torso. "I'm okay. Tired." He mumbled as he rubbed his eyes, acting no more. He was legitimately tired from all the sudden events to his little acting skit to his sulky tenant and all the planning and remembering he had to do. He lifted his arms up and let Kazu's warm arms pick him up, letting go of his worries for a little while. He had the technical right to act like a child because in this world he was one, and the him from Before was no more, no matter what he does. He let his eyelids droop down and let the darkness envelope his consciousness.


Sarutobi Hiruzen, Konoha's Sandaime Hokage, was not happy. Not one bit. In fact, he was fuming, and he almost swore steam was leaking out of his ears. After receiving reports of experiments that spoke of extreme inhumanity by his prized student, Orochimaru, he rushed away from the clean-up, went straight to the old passage way leading to the underground tunnels of Konoha at the basement of the Hokage Tower. With his secretary, Aso Suitaka, hot on his heels, he stormed off to the 'supposed' underground laboratories, he just could not believe what once was his student did. Experiments on children, from the youngest according to the Hyuuga that sent the report, who was 2 years old, to the oldest who was 14 years old. Not even finished with puberty, the poor children.

A man with a close relation to the Hokage, raven haired, as old as the Sandaime was, appeared beside the tired man, hand clamping around the other's shoulder. The Hokage snapped his head to the side to look at the person that dared touch him at a situation like this, and immediately tensed up way more as his brain processed just who was touching him in such a casual manner at a time as urgent as this.

Danzo. His brain sent him lots of warning signals and he acted on it, slapping away his friend's hand away from his shoulder, huffing as the other's eyes turned to steel and darkened.

"You, of all people, should know that no one should ever sneak up on an angry shinobi, Danzo. Who knew what would have happened if my rage was redirected at you?" He said to the raven-haired man with a level voice, letting his frustrations be known to both his friend and his secretary, who visibly scowled at the sight of the Hokage's friend and "advisor". Everyone knew the only reason he still had power was because he was a known friend of the currrent Hokage.

"I am well aware of the consequences my action would have elicited." The man said, arms crossing into an arrogant cross ontop of his chest. A show of defiance. That made Hiruzen's blood boil a little bit hotter before he extinguished it with a subtle sweep of his chakra around the lower ground levels of the Hokage Tower. 'That would put him in his place.' The Hokage thought to himself as his eyes met with his still scowling secretary. Said secretary was now grumbling to himself, eyes bravely meeting the Hokage's gaze before shutting his mouth up, knowing not to aggravate the man any further.

"Why are you even here? You are obliged to help with the clean up, as you are a shinobi." He inquired, eyes boring into Danzo's own in a deadpan, voice as level as the first word he had spoken in the conversation.

Hiruzen turned around once again, now a little bit more calmer, to go down and see for himself the experiments the Hyuuga claimed his Byakugan saw. His fingers, he knew, were twitching. The more the twists and turns he had to take, the more he felt his irritation spike up. He was not angry anymore, but he became irritated the longer the man followed him and his secretary to the scene of crime. How long did he think he was allowed to follow the Hokage in his private investigation? There was obviously a reason why he was not helping with the clean-up of Orochimaru's supposed summons outside, and he had legitimate reason to excuse and relieve himself of the task of helping the others, as obviously, as one with a common sense would know, He was the Hokage and he had the right to abuse it every once in a while to do his own work.

Besides, Hito was with him anyways, and that was an indication as bright and obvious as the Sun that he was going away to do work. Why did he have to invite himself to everything Hiruzen does anyways? Did he think that Hiruzen was easy? Did he think Hiruzen would always let him get away with everything? If Hiruzen didn't know any better, he would've have accused Danzo of being a stalker of a High-Profile shinobi such as himself, and had gotten him off of the Council. Seriously, the man seemed to know every place he was in and almost everywhere he went, Danzo was also there. He was always knew what the Hokage was up to, and was always there to antagonize him and his decisions, pulling the other two members of the Council into his personal mission of making the old man's blood pressure go off the charts.

That, or he would have have deluded himself with the idea that his friend was simply being overbearing and overprotective, wanting to see and know every move and every thing that he was doing. But that would signal the apocalypse and the Tailed Beasts would dance cha-cha while the Elemental Nations crumbled.

He turned around once again and spoke.

"For the last time, Danzo, why are you here?" He huffed and readied himself in a blink of an eye for a verbal comeback or a physical retaliation. He never knew how the man's brain worked and he just learned to adapt to it. There were many reasons why the Nidaime's chose him and not the Warhawk.

The Shimura stared at him and he stared right back. The staring match became a match of Dominance, where the Hokage was sure if he so much as shifted his gaze a little or blinked, he would have have surrendered verbally to his former teammate rather than stare him down but he refused to back down, no matter the opponent.

He opted to just ignore the other man, turned around, began to run and sensing Hito hot on his heels once again, he up and went to speed up his running, knowing Hito could keep up with his sudden increase in speed, what with having to run after him whenever he escapes to spend time with his books. He ran through twists and turns with surprising ease for his age, (he certainly knew his fellow Kage from Iwa, Onoki, was not blessed with a body as durable as his in their old age) and finally reached his destination. He barged right in and his heart broke. The Hyuuga was not lying. The experiments were haphazardly hidden, but the most horrifying fact has yet to hit the Hokage. His eyes roamed around the room that extended almost up to a hundred meters more. On one side were shelves upon shelves of documents that were flipped, in almost what looked like an effort to find certain documents.

Children were hudled at the far corner, all naked and shivering, in fear or cold (or both) he did not know, and he did not want to. Slowly, like a parent trying to soothe their child after yelling, he went forward, arms high up in the air in an extreme form of submission. A child with dark, beady eyes, shaking and obviously afraid, stepped up and shuffled to the front in an effort to shield the smaller children. His pale complexion seemed so unnatural and his brown hair seemed so limp and lifeless, as lifeless as some of the eyes that dared peer at the Hokage and his company. He swiftly started a headcount, startling even himself as he second guessed his own mathematics skills and ability to count.

Sixty. Sixty children, and most (if not all) of them were children that were reported to be missing to the Uchiha Police Force, some even filed as long as almost a year or two of absence. The Hokage almost thought he heard his heart being crushed before he realized the sound was coming from the Earth, slowly rising up to form a little, wobbling wall between him and the children.

He took a step backwards slowly, as to not spook the children, motioning for the men behind him to leave him alone with the kids. He heard hesitant shufflling behind him and when he finally could not sense (and his gut feel told him so) that anyone was behind him, he craned his head to look behind him just to be sure.

The child at the very front, stood firmly in his spot, staring at Hiruzen with unblinking monolid eyes, which, no lie, got the Hokage a whole lot creeped out and feel pity both at the same time. He took a step forward once again, and again, and a few more before he stood a few centimeters right in front of the wall. His eyes widened and his brain stopped working for approximately 5 seconds before his eyes landed on the boy with the big, beady eyes.

In front of him was not a wall made out of the Earth, that, was certainly not and Hiruzen was so sure of it. The Hokage may have been confused at first but the more he stared at the wall, the more it became clear to him. The wall that served as a barrier between him and the children was not made out of the Earth, but of wood.

'Of course, a child had to have the same kekkei genkai as the Shodaime Hokage.' He thought to himself as he stared at the almost magical wobbly wall of wood infront of him. He may not have noticed it earlier, but the texture was different to earth jutsu. It was smooth and not a rocky slab of soil, as to what one might expect a child to make out of a intermediate jutsu. It certainly had the same smell and overall chakra signature as the Hashirama trees that littered (and surrounded too, of course) the village. He was both shocked and scared, as a child performed and shown him the exact same jutsu the Shodaime Hokage was known for. And he had mistaken it for an earth jutsu too!

"I would not hurt you." He whispered, making no move to take a step forward. "I mean you no harm, children." He said in a soft voice, hoping he came out as gentle and as unharmful (is that even a word?) as he could, milking all the grandfatherly aura he could to coax the children to come near him. He let his arms down and slowly reach one open hand forward as a child, almost four or five years old, peeked behind the brown-haired child at the very front reached an arm out and held one of his fingers.

Another child soon followed, and another after the other, until the little Mokuton boy had to disintegrate his little wall so they could all huddle around the Hokage for warmth. He released a compressed sphere of charka, big enough to envelope all sixty-one of them, as he open his arms to keep as many children as he can close to him.

He ended up sitting in a lotus position on the floor, children surrounding him, (and a few of them clambering to get closer to him too) the oldest ones keeping the most distance between them and the man, but wordlessly sat where the kids would at least be able to still see the Hokage. They shyly accepted the warmth the Hokage's summons gave as they went to cuddle with the ones that were shivering.

The Hokage ripped his robe for his supposed off days, into little squares so the children had something to atleast clean themselves up with for the meantime. He whistled, and in came Hito, once Shimura Danzo nowhere to be found. He ordered the man to get clothes and robes and anything to cover the children up so he could take them to the Sarutobi Residences to help take care of their mental and physical health.

With a quick nod and a shunshin later, he found himself the object of amazement as children poked and booped and pinched him, as if they had just seen a real, live person for the first time. He smiled at every single one of them, extremely proud that these kids survived such an inhumane environment.

"We will wait for other people to come and get you all out of here, alright? We will then try to contact your parents that you are found now and certainly safe in our hands." He said as he pat the boy with beady-eyes head fondly, sweeping his gaze over the mass of children that listened intently and hung onto every word he said. Now, he could say for sure that he heard his heart get crushed.

"Alright, now. Let's get ourselves ready to greet the others so we could go cleaned up in our house." He said and stood up, slouching a little so the children don't get intimidated. Slowly, he rose to his full height, which was not much to begin with, and ushered the children out of the damned room to meet the others halfway. He created a shadow clone of himself and took the job of leading the way and protecting the back. The older ones kept to the outer parts of the line they haphazardly made, holding and supporting the much younger children. The youngest ones were herded to the middle, in a silent way of protecting them that made Hiruzen smile.

A few minutes later, they met up with a gorup of shinobi that brought what the Hokage had asked for and gently, (or as gentle as some gruff looking people could) take the children by the arms or asked for permission to carry them to the Sarutobi residence, where his wife, Sarutobi Biwako and one of his sons, Asuma, were waiting.

Upon arriving, his wife was quick to inspect the thinnest children, worry and her mother hen mode shining bright and as clear as day. They did all they could to contact the parents of some of the children, where almost 53 of 60 children were returned to their respectful families, along with profuse thanks and apologies from each of the parties involved. The remaining 7 were orphans from the orphanage or simply thought to be orphaned because of the lack of files concerning them to be missing at the Uchiha Police Force, where no one would claim them. Hiruzen thought of sending the children to the Orphanages but decided against it as the mental health of the children required them to be with a responsible adult at all times and he was sure that the Orphanage had enough on their plates right now, what with the war ending and looming as well.

He sighed, knowing that sooner or later, he'd have to make a choice, whether he wanted to or not. Whether he was ready or not.

Now the only thing left is to decide what to do with the little beady-eyed boy that stuck himself to his son. The child may be more trouble than he is worth.

"Don't talk about my friend like that!" He heard a small voice yell at him, and he turned around to see his son, little Asuma, holding the child's hand with the other pointed at him. He almost sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, so sure of the incoming argument his son is going to try to start. Guess he'd just have to let him be for once.

He hid his smile as he watched his son take care of the remaining children, all of whom were what looked like ages 3 to 8. He knew his son was destined for great things as he looked on the happy scene in front of him. Asuma has the youngest, on his hip, held firmly by his right hand while the other held the brown haired boy's small hand. The others were following him in a straight line like little ducklings and images of Asuma with the Hokage hat and robe made his heart swell even more at the sight.

It made all the hard work and sleepless nights overcomeable to him. And just like when he was out on the battlefield, he remembered the little promise he made to himself.

That he would protect the children, nurture the teens and lead the adults to the right path through The Village Hidden in the Leaves' Will of Fire.

He just wished that his shortcomings absolutely do not come to bite him in the ass in the future.