Live and Let Die

Chapter Two

The fear was tangible. The Kyuubi hadn't attacked since long ago, and the rumors surrounding the attacks circumstances were rampant. The most prominent of which featured the Uchiha clan as the center of it all. Everyone looked over their shoulders constantly. Particularly civilians. There was distrust of shinobi in general. He had resumed office as the Fourth Hokage, but refused to leave Naruto in the hands of anyone but himself. The days following the attack had been chaotic. An assessment of Ise's seal, as assessment of his own mental health, a great many visits by the Elders, who only parroted the unhelpful "advise" of the daimyo. He felt that he was a broken record, the only thing he could play was the phrase, "We are currently assessing the damage done to Konoha infrastructure." That answer never seemed to satisfy anyone. The daimyo's representative frown and asked again what the estimated repair cost would be in materials and manpower, and Minato simply spit out a nonsense number to make him go away. The elders simply seemed concerned with an investigation into the cause, and decided to have them handle that investigation while reporting to him.

He was cautious, however. He knew there was someone behind it, and mentioned so much to the Elders at their request, but it seemed that although the investigation had not yet started, Danzo seemed to be considering possible sentences for the Uchiha, and seemed to have an overly enthusiastic manner by which he suggested mounting the mastermind's head on a spike.

Cleaned of the dirt and her own blood, the Senju woman looked almost peaceful in death. Her dark hair spread across the rock as the sun dried her. The gleam of the sunlight illuminated her hair, revealing it to be more red than he had initially seen. Tsunade continued in her silent vigil, only breaking it to reveal that the Nine Tails had attacked Konoha and to question where Tobirama and himself had come from. She simply nodded dully in understanding that they were unaware.

Several hours passed before a Konoha patrol came close enough to contact. Hashirama had stayed with Tsunade. She leaned against him with her eyes closed, but he could not bring himself to stop staring at the woman's body. It was eerie how still she was, lying limp and cold on the rocks, as if she simply went to take a nap in the sun and simply gave up all hope of awakening again. She was beautiful, and put up one hell of a fight if her wounds were any indication. What was most shocking was the lack of any flaw in her skin or her physique. She is young. Was young. Too young. He'd been forced to compromise on a number of issues in order to make his dream of a village work. But one thing he refused to concede was regarding children being sent to war. He wouldn't tolerate it. Lying in front of him was a dead young woman. She was either 15 or 16 in age, or she looked young.

Tobirama's return showed a squad of four ANBU returning from a mission. Hashirama had always found those bone white masks to be scary. There was surprisingly little drama after it was established that they had been brought back with the Edo Tensei technique. He couldn't imagine what this world was like such that meeting Edo Tensei'd former Hokage in the woods constituted an only somewhat unusual day. One of the shinobi, a medic, by the look of his uniform, checked for a pulse while the others looked on curiously. He just shook his head sadly and used his thick white cloak to wrap around the body, even covering her face.

"Tsunade seems to be in alright health, but she's clearly experienced a trauma." Tobirama filled in the ANBU team. "She has said that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha?"

"Affirmative." Answered another ANBU. This one had long brown hair pulled up into a sleek ponytail, her face concealed by a mask resembling a bird. "On October 10 at 2136 the fox appeared in the northeast corner of the village. The current date is October 12."

"Have you found the cause of the attack?" Tobirama questioned. He was curiously watching the ANBU medic attempt to help Tsunade to her feet. "And if two days have already passed since the attack, there could be some effect on Tsunade's health that I could have missed. It seems she encountered this woman fairly soon after the attack."

"Her name is Ise. Senju Ise." The smallest ANBU of the group was staring at the figure wrapped in the white cloak.

The bird mask glanced back at him but made no remark. The boy couldn't have been older than 14. Likely a fledgling ANBU in training.

"Hokage-sama will explain what you need to do and help find a way to undo the Edo Tensei." Bird mask stated, "Return to the village with us. Usagi, send a message before us."

Hashirama grew anxious as they drew closer to Konoha. The Kyuubi had attacked… what would he find when he got there? What would the village look like so many years since his death? How much damage did the attack do? Two of the ANBU handed over their cloaks to them to cover their appearance as they got closer.

It was busy even on the outskirts of the village. Several farms that they passed on the way had been rained down on with debris, damaging crops and buildings. The closer they got to the village, the more shinobi activity was found. Temporary guard outposts had been set up, piles of rubble, rebar and splintered wood were heaped high as the city streets were cleared. At last, they reached a high point at which the village could be looked down on. Many buildings and roads remained intact, but a gash through part of the village sections had been cleared out. Shinobi swarmed over it, searching for survivors, checking the stability of the wreckage, and hauling out debris. Part of the surrounding wall had been seemingly run over by something, as long streaks in the ground revealed freshly churned earth. Konoha's surroundings were also quite the spectacle, as debris was scattered out among the countryside for almost as far as could be seen from their high point. To the North, a crater could be seen. Hashirama recognized it from their trek back to the village. Only tailed beast balls were capable of doing such damage.

Rather than entering the village through the main gate, the ANBU team led them to a tunnel which had been carved through the mountains that comprised the Hokage monument. When they emerged, they were in the courtyard behind the Hokage tower. Up on the cliffs, there were a number of small buildings stuck against the rock, and Hashirama wondered about the extent of the tunnel system they had traveled through. As if reading his thoughts, Tobirama answered, "I had a tunnel and bunker system carved out for emergencies. All of Konoha's population can fit inside the network."

"That must have taken a while to construct, Konoha is not a small town."

Tobirama shrugged, "I wasn't much focused on making it large, I was focused on making it effective. Yes, all of Konoha's population can fit in there, but not comfortably. There are minimal supplies, but some nonetheless. The records are also kept there. It's meant to be a temporary shelter for not more than a few hours. Nobody could survive for any significant length of time in the tunnels."

In their conversation, they hadn't noticed one ANBU break off from the group, but he announced his return by clearing his throat. "The Hokage will see you now. The area has been secured." The medic nodded and began guiding Tsunade out into the streets of Konoha, and another followed carrying Ise's body, presumably to take both to a hospital.

Hashirama counted the faces on the monument. Four. The portrait of the fourth seemed to imply that the current Hokage's hair managed to be more spiky than Tobirama's, but he still held a secret childish belief that if his brother's hair were any more prickly, he would be a porcupine. He was wrong. The Fourth Hokage's hair was bright yellow and spiky enough that it could be used as a weapon.

"I am Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage." The man spoke loudly, but gently.

Tobirama respectfully replied, "It's a pleasure to meet you," but Hashirama was so busy studying the room that he forgot about slight pleasantries, which earned him an elbow to the ribs, but the Fourth only looked amused.

"Pardon the mess, it's been a chaotic few days, as you might imagine." Hashirama did understand. He understood the stacks of files as tall as he was, and the overflow of records as shinobi files are pulled and updated, but not put away until the stacks reached a height that threatened to bury everyone in the room with paperwork. He understood the dark rings under the Fourth's eyes, and he understood the tense, official air with which everyone went about their duties. The Fourth continued, leaning back in his chair with a sigh, "I suppose I'm glad that we're meeting as friends. How much do you know about the situation?"

"Not much." Tobirama admitted, "What do you mean when you say that we're meeting as friends?"

"During the attack two days ago, I suspect there may have been involvement from an outside source, that it wasn't simply a natural disaster." He appeared lost in thought for a few moments, pausing to take a breath before continuing, "There are many unknowns about that night. The appearance of shinobi reanimated by the Edo Tensei technique is one of those mysteries. In any case, as of now, we know very little of the events of that night, although the event itself was highly significant. It'll take a while to sort through the rubble and compile evidence. I am sorry to say that until we have recovered from this, there aren't many village resources I will be able to dedicate to undoing Edo Tensei as we are not sure about the circumstances in which it was cast in the first place."

"That's quite alright," Hashirama interjected into the conversation. "It's not as if we have anywhere better to be. Any way that we are able to help, we will. However, in this instance, I do not think it would be wise to let many people know of our presence."

Tobirama nodded, "I concur. The village has been through a lot already. If it was known that we're stuck here, it might cause unnecessary stress and become a distraction."

The Fourth was scribbling on a notepad on the edge of his desk, "I have just the idea. It'll take a few hours to organize, so you may stay in the Hokage Tower until then."

"Thank you, Yondaime." Tobirama bowed deeply. It was good to know we had allies. They seemed to be in over their head.

"Please, Minato is fine."

Hashirama smiled, "If I might ask, are there any reports or files that we should read to be up to date on the happenings of the shinobi world since our deaths, or anything on what happened two days ago?"

"I can have someone bring some history books and make copies of the reports of shinobi who played an integral role in the Kyuubi attack, but as I said, we're stretched quite thin at the moment."

"Of course. Thank you for accommodating us."

The room they were placed in was small, but not completely cramped. The wall to the right of the heavy wooden door was a window that spanned nearly the entire wall, and offered a decent view of the barren stretch in the village with all the shinobi, who continued to buzz about like bees on this hot October day. Whereas outside the village seemed to comprise mostly ANBU operatives, the crews working to salvage this stretch of the village were all comprised of shinobi wearing the standard Konoha uniform. On the side of the room was a booth style table, with padded chairs meant to seat perhaps four to six people. Shelves lined the wall opposite the door, a library for reading simply for the enjoyment of it, with many fantasy and adventure novels. As they waited, Tobirama studied the bookshelves, taking note of prominent authors whom he did not recognize. Hashirama simply sat at the booth and stared out the window, watching the slow progress on the village.

At last, the bird mask ANBU entered the room holding several boxes. They were stacked on top of each other such that she had to bend to one side to see where she was walking. She set them on the table, and upon being relieved of the weight, rolled out her shoulders and stretched her arms over her head. "Well, there's all the records and books that could be pulled at the moment. Should keep you busy until you're able to go look for information yourselves."

"Thank you for taking the time." Hashirama said respectfully, but his attention was already focused on the boxes. Boxes of knowledge. The contents would tell how his village model had withstood the test of time. The bird mask nodded and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Hashirama took the two top boxes off the pile and set them to the side, opening the bottom box, which had no label. It was partially full of history textbooks and miscellaneous collections on the history of Konohagakure.

Tobirama had abandoned his examination of the bookshelf, and had pulled a generic textbook from the box that was probably meant to be used in Academy classes. "Alright, I think the best way to approach this will be to take a systematic approach. I'll look through this book and make a general timeline, you look at all the random books and see if you can figure out what subject they're about." Leave it to Tobirama to take the overly organized approach.

Hashirama glanced at the clock and with a sigh, went about his assigned task.

The textbooks were somewhat informative, but they didn't end up spending too much time, simply identifying events they assumed to be important and using the other resources to gain an understanding. The Third Shinobi World War, establishment of the Konoha Police, switching the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki a few years back, the Legendary Sannin, and an event in which an Uchiha boy who died had one of his sharingan transplanted into a non- Uchiha which Tobirama found quite fascinating, even making a mental note to find this shinobi later and question him about his experience.

The other two boxes were both labelled. 1010_001 and 1010_002 respectively. Both contained unorganized reports from the Kyuubi attack. Most of which were horribly uninteresting. Civilian accounts of seeing the monster from across town, complaints of missing pets, or knocked down fences. A special file folder in the second box, however, contained many of the most interesting reports, by the Hokage, by the clan heads, and Konoha intelligence and barrier officials.

Tobirama pulled out several sheets of unlined paper and laid out the contents of that file folder. "Let's get to work making a time table." Hashirama glanced at the clock once more and swore to himself, as he was positive it had been the exact same time when he last looked at the clock over an hour ago. Desk work is so not my thing. He grumbled to himself about boredom, knowing that Tobirama didn't want to hear any of his complaints, no matter how badly Hashirama wished he could simply go take a walk about the village to clear his head as he used to do. But nonetheless, he resolved himself to work diligently to get the chore over as quickly and painlessly as possible.

It took them nearly an hour to sift through the most important of the reports and to identify the key players in the village's operations on that night, and another five to track each person's activity throughout that night. As it turns out, the Fourth's wife was the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, and October 10 was her due date. Uzumaki Kushina was taken to a location outside the village with ANBU guards, where Saru's wife acted as a midwife and Minato held the seal stable during labor. Additionally, Senju Ise, the dead woman from the Valley of the End, was present, as an additional layer of security for the seal and to monitor the barrier raised around the location. This was familiar to Hashirama. He had, of course, been forced to face the same role when Mito gave birth to their second son. The question was, what had gone wrong this time? When Hashirama had helped Mito through it, it was difficult and stressful, particularly for Mito, but they had gotten through it and the birth had no complications. The answers soon began to flow in. Minato describes a masked man with command of a space-time ability greater than that of Hiraijin no Jutsu. Recent ANBU reports of the scene describe it as a massacre. The only ones there that were not found at the scene were the Fourth himself, who survived, and Senju Ise, who had been killed at a different location.

The attack began at approximately 2130 on October 10 and the crisis was declared mostly contained at 0800 on October 11. For some reports, it was easy. The then retired Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was lead the offensive on the Kyuubi inside the village, and all reports on it agree unanimously that he took his last breath somewhere between 0230 and 0300 of a large piece of shrapnel from an exploding building. Others were mostly accounted for, such as Minato, who was witnessed in Konoha at the battle for only brief moments. Long enough to block a tailed beast ball from exploding on the village, which had caused the ugly gash in the city center, and then later to use Hiraijin to transport the monster to a location far from the village. The end for Minato had been from his own report, where he simply states that discussing options with Senju Ise resulted in a decision to create a new jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi, as it was too late to simply seal it back inside Kushina. However, as a weak newborn would not be able to handle the entirely of the Kyuubi's chakra, Ise split the tailed beast in two, the Yang portion inside baby Naruto, and the Yin portion inside his father, Minato.

The unknowns that Minato discussed are abundant when attempting to understand Ise's actions during the course of that evening. She is accounted for briefly at 2130-2145, then again from 2230 to 2300, and then no one sees her again for another four to five hours, where she seals the Kyuubi and once again disappears. Sealing the Kyuubi was the last time she was seen conscious, and Tsunade was the last to see her alive, presumably discovering her the next morning. The only hint of what she could have been doing away from the main battlefield for such a length of time are in miscellaneous reports of chakra disturbances from outside the village at certain times suggest that she was engaged in battle that whole time. If so, it could be assumed that she was engaged in a death match with the masked man described by Minato, although she unfortunately did not survive to confirm this assumption.

Even Tobirama seemed overwhelmed. "He was right. There are so many unknowns here, it makes it nearly impossible to fully sort out what happened and tack an identity and a motive onto that masked man. There are indeed several reports that describe Edo Tensei shinobi, ourselves included, but did the masked man cast that jutsu as well? It would have been a lot for him to be doing at once, to orchestrate this whole thing on his own. And what about Senju Ise? What's so special about her that she was present while Uzumaki Kushina was giving birth? What was she doing for the nearly six hours that she's completely unaccounted for? Where were the Uchiha during all this? Their report states they were ordered to assist in the evacuation of Konoha citizens, but there were also many Uchiha seen on the front lines that night." He made a growl of frustration in his throat and sighed, leaning back and scrunching up his eyes.

Hashirama understood his frustrations. There seemed to be no easy answer to any of this. And what's more, everything accomplished by the masked man, from his abilities, to his statements, suggested that he either literally is Madara, or he was close enough to Madara to learn how to do all those things. Neither are likely. Madara has been dead nearly 70 years, so it couldn't be Madara himself, and any apprentice that he might have had would be old enough at this time that it's hardly believable such an old man could stage such an elaborate plan on his own. "There's something that we're missing here. There has to be."

"Unfortunately, Brother, it doesn't always work out that way in reality. Sometimes there's just not enough information."