Tsunade groaned. She had been waiting for Sarutobi-sensei and Jiraiya to arrive for almost an hour now. They had a B-rank mission to scout out the size of an invading Iwagakure army. They weren't exactly ideal for stealth, but Konohagakure, with the defeat at Bear Valley, was hard-pressed for manpower. Her other teammate had arrived, though. In fact, Orochimaru arrived even earlier than Tsunade. He always did.
The ever-pale boy spoke up from his seat beside the window. "They'll arrive soon, I'm sure." Tsunade walked to the window, leaning on the sill. "They'd better…… Hokage-sama said that this was a B-rank mission," she mused, "and that army sounds pretty serious." She sneaked a glance at Orochimaru. He was lost in his own thoughts, as usual. He had been very quiet for as long as she knew him. Sarutobi-sensei said that Orochimaru was the only survivor of a snake attack.
A breeze wafted into the room, blowing a strand of Orochimaru's long hair across his face. For some reason, ever since Tsunade knew Orochimaru, since the bell test about one year ago, she had been strangely attracted to him, even when he showed himself to possess something of a sadistic streak. "Orochimaru……"
Someone muttered into Tsunade's ear. "What are you doing, Tsunade-chan?" She started and jerked sideways, nearly stumbling. When she regained her composure, she saw Jiraiya's grinning face upside down outside the window. "Jiraiya! Stop screwing around, jeez!"
The boy with two lines painted below his eyes burst out laughing. "I scared you, didn't I, Tsunade-chan?"
Sarutobi-sensei walked through the door. "Sorry we were late, we had, ah, important business."
Orochimaru smirked. "Yeah, right. I bet you and Jiraiya were peeping at women again, sensei."
"You're just sour because you don't like women," huffed Jiraiya.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. It had hit a nerve. "Say that again, and I'll kill you."
"Alright, alright. Let's get going already." Jiraiya said. As Orochimaru exited the room, Jiraiya stuck out his tongue at him.
The ANBU captain looked around warily as he landed on a tree branch. No danger. He nodded to his team as a signal. His team appeared in front of him. "I've scouted ahead, and it seems that the Iwa army has already crossed and is holding the bridge. We'll need to find another way to cross that ravine." The four-man ANBU cell had been tasked to deliver a vital message to a Konoha army in a fort about ten clicks north of the Iwa army. If the army could coordinate itself with a shinobi force massing just outside Konohagakure, the Iwa army could be caught in a pincer movement.
"We could overpower the squad guarding the bridge-" one of them began.
"No. If we do that, we will alert the enemy to our plans. We are ANBU." another said. "We could use genjutsu, though,"
"Not that either," the captain said. "There are too many unknowns, like the skill of the shinobi guarding the bridge, and the number of them. We take the other bridge about half a day's journey from here."
"Understood, Danzo-taicho." his team confirmed in unison.
Danzo threw a kunai to deflect one aimed at him. Booby trap! An expert trap-layer himself, Danzo was extremely alert of his surroundings, constantly assessing spots that might be useful for laying traps. This quality, along with an unyielding militarism, had caused his meteoric rise among the ANBU ranks.
However, that trap was only the first one. There was a telltale deep whoosh. "Duck!" he barked at his team, himself jumping down from the canopy. One of his team was too slow. Dozens of kunai struck the ANBU. Danzo's eyes widened as he saw the explosive tags attached to the end of all the kunai. Before he had a chance to shield his eyes, his teammate exploded in a dazzling flash of light.
"Shiro is down," he said matter-of-factly as he and the rest of his team landed on the ground. Suddenly, a voice boomed out. "Doton, Doro Kasui! (Earth Element, Mud Spikes!)" Numerous deadly-looking stalagmites erupted from the ground, impaling the two remaining ANBU that was his team. Fortunately, Danzo was near the edge of the jutsu, so he quickly leapt away.
"Doton, Kekkai Doroutoumu! (Earth Element, Destructive Mud Prison!)" A solid dome of mud grew from the ground, trapping Danzo's entire left arm and leg. Shit! I should have seen this coming! He felt the scroll in a pocket on his shoulder. Good. It's still with me.
"Gotcha, you irritating little Konoha worm. Now hand over that scroll, and I'll grant you a quick death." a ninja with an Iwagakure forehead protector said. Even in his state, Danzo counted at least two dozen, but probably more, shinobi hidden in the trees around the clearing. He smirked in his ANBU mask. "You will never lay your hands on the scroll, slime!" Before the Iwa-nin could do anything, he reached into a pocket, and got an explosive tag between his index and middle fingers. Still smirking, he formed a one-handed seal. "Katsu!" Danzo yelled, infusing chakra forcibly into the explosive tag.
There was a deafening blast, accompanied by excruciating pain. Danzou gritted his teeth. Yes, I did it. The scroll's secret is safe. His entire right arm, with the scroll, had been blown off. Although he couldn't see, hear, or move very much, he chuckled defiantly, tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
As his sight and hearing returned, Danzo knew that his right eye had been incapacitated. The Iwa-nin brought down his ninjato on him, his face twisted in anger. This is the end, I guess. He closed his eyes. He had lived a good life. Now he would die a good death, for Konoha.
But the blow did not fall. Danzo opened his eyes weakly. A man was standing in front of him, blocking the Iwa-nin's katana with a long staff. That's…… "Sarutobi……" he acknowledged his saviour before passing out.
A/N: I made some changes to this chapter, mostly minor, such as changing "Danzou" to "Danzo", adding or excising some sentences, etc. Otherwise the chapter remains like it did before.