Chapter 30 – Scars That Never Felt a Wound
Jiraiya's visage was grim. Shortly after that damn demon had torn poor Koto Tadeshi to shreds, Uchiha Fugaku working with his assistant Uchiha Yakumi and the promising young police officer Uchiha Inabi had managed to combine the power of their sharingan and temporarily trap the beast in a vortex. While the victory was short lived it had given the creature pause and the Kyubi had torn off in another direction away from Konoha. The shinobi were glad to have turned the beast from their home but still could not allow it free passage into neighboring ninja villages, or worse yet small civilian towns with no protection at all, so those with ample chakra were being led by the toad sage and had been sent after the biju. Their mission was to keep it turned from their home and at the same time herd it to locations void of people. If they could keep it contained away from human settlement and battle it out in a forest or an empty field the loss of life would be far less. Already casualties numbered in the thousands and with hundreds of them being ninja the cost to Konoha would be felt for years to come.
Following the monster had proven more difficult than the Sanin would have liked. While it was next to impossible to lose the thing, its wake of destruction left no doubt where it had headed and it's demon aura could be felt for miles hours after it had departed, the fox was far quicker than they could have imagined and traveling at top speed they were still at least an hour behind the damn thing. Looking at all the destroyed terrain Jiraiya wondered if the landscape would ever recover from beating it was taking at the hands of the Kyubi. Forests were burning in what seemed to be an unstoppable inferno, mountains crumbled, and the earth was ripped from its home and turned upside down. Those trees not turning to ash were flipped upside down, their roots now drying in the sun where once their leaves had reached for the sky. Just ahead of them the nine-tails had ripped completely through the great Mount Iwao, where he had once spent days training and goofing off in the shadow of the mountain with Tsunade and Orochimaru while sensei Hiruzen looked on in amusement, there was now a great chasm torn through the center of it the only things remaining were two crumbling spires on either side of the breach.
Passing through the gap in the spot of his childhood memories Jiraiya noticed something amiss in the rubble. While there was mostly brown and red dirt and rocks and too much dust to even contemplate how long it was going to take to get out of his hair, he was pretty sure he'd just seen neon blue and green lights glowing beneath the debris, and from the way others were looking around they too had seen something. Maybe they were wrong, but if they were right it was definitely something worth checking out.
"Fugaku!" Jiraiya shouted to the overbearing Uchiha, it was true the man was arrogant and often rude but there was no denying he was a powerful and capable leader that the Sanin could trust to finish their mission. "Lead the group, continue the mission. I'm going to check this out."
"Hai, Jiraiya-sama," Fugaku bowed, showing uncharacteristic respect for his superior officer, and took off with the rest of the team.
"Hiashi-san!" Jiraiya called over to the head of the Hyuga clan. "Stay here with me; your eyes will be most helpful."
Hiashi nodded and leapt to his side, "What are we doing Jiraiya-sama?"
"We, my good lad, are going to find out what those glowy lights are under there. Any possibility you know some kind of jutsu to get rid of this dust so we can get a look in there?"
Shaking his head in affirmation the Hyuga suddenly blasted out a large amount of chakra promptly spinning rapidly; creating a whirling vortex that made quick work of the lingering dust as it was blown up and away from the two shinobi. Jiraiya thanked himself for picking the Hyuga to stay, he was proving to be more than just a pair of eyes and the Sanin hoped he'd continue to be just as helpful, if they could figure out what was going on here quickly than they could get back to helping Fugaku and the rest of their squad subdue the Kyubi until Minato arrived.
Now that the area had been cleared they could see that the there were indeed neon lights emanating from what appeared to be a room in the side of the mountain about five hundred feet up from where they now stood.
"Can you seen in there?" Jiraiya asked.
"Byakugan!" Hiashi activated his family dojutsu in affirmation. "It appears to be a series of rooms with connecting tunnels running through the mountain on both sides, I assume they ran through the middle of it too before the Kyubi tore it down. I can see a lot of electrical wiring throughout the place and what looks like beds and maybe medical equipment. I think it may be a lab of some sort. We'll have to go in to get a better look."
When Hiashi said "lab" Jiraiya felt an involuntary shudder up and down his spine and the hairs on his arms rose up straight. The toad Sannin had seen first-hand what kind of things went on in labs hidden in the earth. In his experience if a lab was secreted away far from prying eyes than it was less like a lab and more like an evil lair for committing horrible atrocities against your fellow man in the name of science or immortality. Hidden from sight it was easier to convince yourself you were just doing "experiments" and people you were horribly maiming and torturing who were crying and shouting and begging for mercy, were merely "test subjects reacting negatively to stimuli." Jiraiya didn't know if he was ready to come across another hideous workshops, the last one had scarred him far more than he ever wanted to admit, and he was pretty sure there was nothing else this could be.
Sighing heavily the Sannin shook off his reservations, pulled himself together, and grinned at the Hyuga, "You ready to go in? Let's do this."
Utilizing chakra to anchor themselves vertically the shinobi began their ascent up the highly unstable and still crumbling mountainside. About halfway up Hiashi found himself sliding right back down on a river of tumbling rock when he took a misstep onto an unsettled patch of stone and inadvertently set off a landslide of the precarious detritus left in the demons' wake. Much to Jiraiya's surprise, while the Sannin was deciding the best way to save his companion from a pancake ending, the Hyuga managed to save himself through a series of acrobatic maneuvers, using the larger stone fragments to leap and spin himself back up the mountain to his spot at his comrades' side.
"Impressive," Jiraiya praised the young man.
Hiashi smirked slyly in response and they finished their climb to the lab without incident.
Once inside though it was another story. Jiraiya choked down rising bile in his throat as they entered the first room off the tunnel. This was indeed another evil lair in fact, he was pretty sure it was one belonging to his lost teammate. The sterile condition of the equipment reeked of the snake Sannin and the young man cut open on the table, his skin peeled back to reveal his intestines, and the look of horror on his face at what was most definitely a vivisection without anesthesia screamed Orochimaru. Jiraiya filled with rage at the thought of his former teammate, the man was pure evil as far as he was concerned. Visions of the previous lab he and Tsunade had helped the Third dismantle came to his head unbidden and Jiraiya preyed to Kami that this one would be far less gruesome, though with what he was currently looking at he held little hope for it. To his right Hiashi looked about as ready to throw up as Jiraiya felt, to his benefit he seemed to be holding up better than both he and Tsunade had on their first viewing of Orochimaru's despicable work.
"Do you think anyone is alive in here?" the Hyuga asked with disgust in his voice. It was obvious the young man did not want to continue looking through this loathsome hideaway, and Jiraiya couldn't say he blamed him, especially taking into consideration his last experience in one of these places, but they had to continue. If anyone was left alive in this place they deserved to be rescued after what they had been put through.
"It's possible, Orochimaru kept most of his captives alive until he couldn't find any other use for them. I imagine little has changed."
Hearts heavy with the knowledge that those who had found their way into Orochimaru's cave of horrors had most likely suffered unspeakable pain and torture before they met their ends the two shinobi continued picking their way through the intricate cave system. After the first three rooms where they found subjects cut up in various states of decay they discovered this side of the mountain must have been used to for the snake sannin's personal quarters. While they found a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and library, once past a long hallway from the third torture room through a very thick wooden door they found no evidence of the torture that occurred beyond it. However in the library they did find notebooks full of his "research" and a basic schematic of the mountain. It looked like most of the test subjects had been housed in the center of the mountain, where Orochimaru thought them to be the most safe from anyone attempting a rescue and also the most difficult to escape from. The winding tunnels and dead ends built into the mountain would have made it next to impossible for someone to find their way out. Without Hiashi's eyes Jiraiya doubted he himself could have made it out expeditiously. Unfortunately it seemed that if anyone had been alive the Kyubi had taken care of it.
Jiraiya was about to call it a day when Hiashi brought his attention to what looked like cells on the other side of the mountain that housed what Orochimaru had noted simply as "Project Senju". Of course that didn't mean anyone was alive but the shinobi decided they owed to all the other "projects" that hadn't survived the demon's attack to at least take a quick look. With the help of Hiashi's Byakugan they moved swiftly back through the tunnels and out through the hole they had come in. Back down the mountain and immediately up the mountain again, they moved nimbly over the unbalanced rocks and found an entrance into the other side that they had previously missed. Coming upon the first examination room in this side of the mountain they found what would be their first survivor.
The young man was tied to a hospital gurney, his head held down extra tight with a thick brown belt-like strap, his eye lids were held open with pins that had been clipped to his own flesh. What looked like red watercolors painted down his face were blood trails diluted with tears that had long since gone dry. Unable to create anymore tears with his eyelids pinned as they were the sclera of his eye were not longer white at all, veiny and bloodshot his nearly completely black iris sat on a yellowed dry eye. His mouth was gagged and as Jiraiya and Hiashi entered the room the man tried futilely to scream. He was terrified, and Jiraiya could only suppose that Orochimaru was not the only one conducting experiments on the people trapped in this place of horror. Hopefully the other "scientists" had all been destroyed in the Kyubi attack with the poor prisoners they had tortured.
"Calm down, relax," Hiashi said in a surprisingly soothing voice as he moved toward the captive. "We're going to get you out of here, but you have to remain still so we don't hurt you further."
Hiashi's hand began to glow with chakra and the almost calm man began to struggle and breathe heavily as he attempted to get away.
"What are you doing?" Jiraiya shouted. Couldn't he see the man was terrified?
"I'm going to hit a nerve with the juken so he won't feel it when we pull out these pins. He may be scared now but he will feel instant relief once I do it," Hiashi explained. Without another word he quickly tapped the man's head right below his temples on both sides of his face and the boy's body once extremely ridged with pain visibly relaxed. From there they made short work of the needles, untied the prisoner from the table, and removed the gag from his mouth. Having been gagged for an indeterminate amount of time he was having difficulty talking due to the dryness of his mouth, and the words that did manage to come out made little sense. Chocking it up to shock Hiashi utilized the juken to put him to sleep, Jiraiya hoisted him upon his back and they continued into the cave.
This side of the mountain had decidedly less excavation. The tunnels were short and straight with no dead ends and few room; very unlike the long winding maze of corridors they'd found on the other side. At the end of a single slightly windy tunnel, the only one on that side of the mountain at all, they found a large thick steel door with a several large locks in place. Fortunately Jiraiya had some tricks up his sleeve and after almost an hour of careful maneuvering he'd picked all the locks and flung the door open.
The smell of rotting flesh suddenly filled the air and Jiraiya swallowed bile for the second time that day. It was too dark to see in the room and this side of the mountain had lost power after the demon fox tore through all the electrical wiring so the Sannin could only imagine what lay beyond. Hiashi unfortunately could see it all.
"It's disgusting. There's got to be at least 50 kids hanging from the wall rotting. Some of them are deformed, I think all of them are dead," Hiashi spat venomously.
"No!" the Sannin cried out with despair. "That can't be right, are you sure?"
Jiraiya couldn't believe it. 50 kids? Could Orochimaru really be that cruel? Yes, of course he could, he'd seen with his own eyes the kind of horror's his former teammate could inflict on others in his quest for knowledge and immortality, so why was he having such trouble believing this?
He knew he was going to regret it for the rest of his life but he also couldn't stop himself from doing it.
"Senpou Goemon! (Hermit Art Boiling Oil) he shouted and the room lit up from his fire technique. Kami how he wished he'd just taken Hiashi's word for it. In front of him, hanging from metal shackles hammered into the stone wall were the at least 50 kids Hiashi had told him about. In various states of decomposition it was their bodies that were causing the repulsive smell that now filled the air.
Tears fell from Jiraiya's eyes as he thought about Orochimaru's departure and his inability to kill his old teammate. When it had come down to it neither he nor Tsunade had been able to finish off the snaky bastard. So in effect this was all his fault, the blood of these children was on his hands. If he'd just had the strength to take out his childhood friend when he'd had the chance none of this would have happened. About to leave the cave Jiraiya suddenly turned around and decided to burn it all to the ground. When Orochimaru returned to his hideout he would know Jiraiya had seen enough and was coming after him. After blowing a giant fireball into the room he left to join Hiashi in the hallway when he heard a choking coughing sound from it. Someone was still alive!
Hiashi had heard it too, before Jiraiya could put down the body of the young man the Hyuga had flown into the room Byakugan blazing in an effort to see through the smoke and rescue the poor kid inside. Jiraiya could see nothing inside the room, smoke poured out obscuring his vision completely and the crackling of the flames kept him from hearing anything. Minutes dragged on for what seemed like hours as the Sannin waited evermore impatiently for Hiashi to get out of blaze.
Finally the Hyuga emerged carrying a filthy little boy who was coughing and sputtering from smoke inhalation. His hair looked brown, it could have been blonde but it was impossible to tell for sure, it was matted down with dirt and possibly rotting body fluids from others. He was impossibly skinny and malnourished and it appeared to Jiraiya that his wrists were broken; a fact that Hiashi confirmed when he explained it had taken so long to find the boy in there he'd had to break his wrists to get him out of the shackles before he died from the fumes. Racing from the caves the two despondent shinobi rushed back to Konoha each with precious cargo in their arms. Hopefully they'd get back in time to insure Mount Iwao's survivors remained alive.
A/N: Sorry to only put up one section of the story but I felt like it was too long between updates and I wanted to get something out for those of you who continue to follow my story. I hope you'll understand and review. Let me know if you'd rather I wait next time until I've written all three or if I should just do one at a time if it keeps them coming out faster. Thank you for reading!