Interlude: Sarutobi Hiruzen
Sarutobi Hiruzen had been hokage of Konohagakure for a very long time before standing down in favour of Namikaze Minato, his student's student. After young Minato's premature death scant years after his ascension to Yondaime, Hiruzen had reluctantly reassumed the post as there really was nobody else. His second term in office had weighed very heavily indeed: he had needed to restore the village after the Kyuubi attack and the death of his wife as well as protect young Naruto, who had spent the first sixteen months of his life in ANBU custody due to the lack of infrastructure, large numbers of orphans and dearth of available trained personnel. Keeping the baby jinchuuriki in ANBU headquarters meant the village's most vulnerable asset could be guarded every hour of the day by the village's finest while they were between missions, which was a more expedient use of his elite forces in a time when Konoha had to but on a strong front.
Then, barely a year after Naruto had finally been placed in an orphanage, the Kumo ambassador visiting to set up a treaty had attempted to abduct the Hyuuga heir and been killed. As the village was not yet recovered enough to face even the possibility of war at that point Hiruzen had allowed Kumo's demand to stand and not intervened as Hyuuga Hizashi died to save his twin. Konoha had over the next few years recovered to its full former strength and all had been well, until word reached him that the Uchiha clan were plotting a coup.
The hokage had been furious with his advisors when he learnt –too late, far too late– that they had gone behind his back and ordered the clan heir to murder his entire family, ruining the boy's future forever. Hiruzen had had high hopes for young Itachi: the teenage prodigy had had the makings of a fine hokage and the elderly Sarutobi had fully intended to step down in the boy's favour within the decade. By the time he became aware of the massacre there was nothing he could do but promise Itachi that Sasuke would be protected and publicly declare the thirteen-year-old a missing nin while the quiet genius went out to spy on an emerging nukenin organisation that Orochimaru had recently joined. Reorganising the police force had been a chore and by the end of it Hiruzen had heartily wished there was someone –anyone– in the village he trusted to become Godaime.
Sadly, there wasn't. There were plenty of strong and capable ninja but none with quite the right balance of qualities needed in a benevolent dictator. Hiruzen was getting so old now he was having difficulties keeping up with his duties and was no longer as fit as he had been; Naruto would never have fallen through the cracks like he did if he himself had been thirty years younger.
Hiruzen was regretfully aware of having failed Minato. The bright, gentle and fiercely protective Yondaime would have been furious to see how the village's inhabitants abused his beloved son and how little Hiruzen had actually done for the boy. In the orphanage the young blond had been belittled and shunned until the matron actually evicted him. Hiruzen had not even discovered Naruto's plight until six months later! The hokage had of course found the boy an apartment to live in and ensured he had enough money to live off, but had not done anything about the way Naruto was treated by civilians and no few ninja. He had felt at the time that he could do nothing, but he knew in his heart that was not true.
When Naruto had entered the Academy Hiruzen had been relieved to see that the short blond had his mother's fiercely optimistic nature in spite of his past suffering and believed that his teachers would at least treat him fairly, but that hope had been cruelly torn away after meeting Amemai-san, Naruto's 'kaa-san', and discovering that Minato's son had been severely discriminated against even by his teachers, to the point that the bulk of his education had been provided by the geisha of the village's small yet heavily patronised Hanamachi.
After graduating the boy had abruptly ceased being bright and loud and never mentioned again his ambition of becoming hokage. On the place of the hyperactive knucklehead prankster was a mature, conscientious and well-educated boy that was so clearly his father all over again that it made Hiruzen nervous, with flashes of his mother's volcanic temper and the warped sense of humour that made the Uzumaki clan infamous across the Elemental Nations. However, unlike Minato or Kushina, Naruto was politely aloof and emotionally distant, rarely showing genuine emotion except in the presence of the few he trusted, elite the aging hokage was no longer numbered upon.
Hiruzen bitterly regretted his mistakes but it seemed unlikely Naruto would give him a chance to explain himself anytime soon, unexpectedly showing his mother's ability to hold onto grudges. The hokage had tried once, but seeing Naruto standing stiffly to attention, eyes staring blankly forward and being called 'hokage-sama' by the spiky-haired blond who only weeks before had addressed him as 'jiji' had killed Hiruzen's voice in his throat and rendered him unable to continue.
Now, as he had seen his bodyguard struck down and been trapped within a barrier by the man he had thought was the kazekage but was in truth his own wayward student Orochimaru, Hiruzen wondered briefly if he would ever get the chance to beg his surrogate grandson for forgiveness.
"I thought this day would come eventually," the elderly hokage sighed as Orochimaru ripped from his face the mask he had made of the kazekage's skin. "But you will not kill me that easily."
"I did say you should have picked a successor," the snake sannin smirked, "because you will die here, Sandaime."
Hiruzen tried to keep Orochimaru talking and to appeal to his student's better nature, but it seemed the younger man had permanently buried that part of himself. The snake sannin declared that life was dull when things came to a standstill, so he intended to set events spinning by destroying the village of Konoha.
Recognising that at this point violence was inevitable Hiruzen discarded his kage hat and cloak, revealing underneath his battle armour and prepared himself to fight his once-favoured pupil.
"So, you have your funeral shroud prepared," Orochimaru sneered. The Sandaime glanced again at the barrier imprisoning them, but unfortunately the four ninja holding the purple walls in place had set up a secondary, internal barrier. His ANBU were all outside, unable to interfere.
As the elderly Sarutobi let his chakra levels climb he noticed that Orochimaru's chakra flow was slightly erratic, sometimes spiking and sometimes responding a little sluggishly. It was something he might be able to take advantage of.
The two opponents attacked simultaneously, Hiruzen launching a Shuriken Kage Bunshin barrage at Orochimaru as the younger shinobi used Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei.
"One, two, three!" Orochimaru called out mockingly from behind the trio of coffins he had summoned. The third coffin however simply toppled over forwards and lay there. The two labelled 'First' and 'Two' however creaked open to reveal the animated bodies of Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama, the late Shodaime and Nidaime.
"It's been a long time, eh, Monkey?" the Nidaime said gruffly. Under any other circumstances Hiruzen would have been overjoyed to see his old jounin-sensei again; that Orochimaru was using two of Konohagakure's honoured founders in his vile plot to destroy the village angered the Sandaime greatly.
"Oh, so it is you," the Shodaime agreed amiably. "You've grown, haven't you Sarutobi?"
Grown old you mean. Death hadn't changed Hashirama's sense of humour one bit: it was still terrible. Hiruzen knew perfectly well he was not so much as an inch taller than he had been when the Shodaime had died, which had been when the now elderly Sandaime was a barely teenage chunnin.
It is regrettable, Hiruzen admitted; "I would never have thought I would meet you two brothers again in a situation like this." He sighed. "Please prepare yourselves to be defeated."
"Edo Tensei, huh," Tobirama-sensei mused, turning to glance over his shoulder at Orochimaru as the snake sannin moved the upright coffins out of his way. "Summoned us with kinjutsu, huh. He is quite something."
"If that is the case, Sarutobi," Hashirama pointed out, "I guess that would mean we have to fight against you, hmm?" The undead Shodaime sounded less than pleased with the situation, not that Hiruzen could blame him.
"How about you leave off the old folks' chatter and get started?" Orochimaru interrupted, seal tags hanging from the kunai he held in each hand.
"No matter how much the world changes, there is always fighting," Hashirama said with a faint frown.
"You like the idea, don't you!" Orochimaru laughed, proving he was not as observant as he claimed to be.
"Making tools of the dead," the Sandaime spat. "Nothing good comes of playing with time." He was a little curious as to why the third summoning had failed: the fallen coffin likely contained the former Yondaime's body. Perhaps it was because, despite being dead, Namikaze Minato's soul had not returned to the pure world and was instead wandering the Elemental Nations as a spectre. After all, summoning only worked if whatever you were summoning hadn't already been summoned by someone else...
"Well then, shall we begin?" Orochimaru said with a cruel smirk, driving the kunai and attached seals into the heads of the former hokages. "But before that I really must have both of you returned to your true forms." With a crackle and a hiss the dirt and decay fell away from the Senju brothers, restoring both to the appearance they had had in their prime. "Complete!" the snake sannin chuckled, though the Sandaime detected a hint of strain in the younger man's voice. "Do you know the joy and sense of accomplishment you gain when you have a chance to hurt the one you once called master? I thought I'd have you share that pleasure, so I prepared this situation."
Hiruzen scowled. Orochimaru was truly lost.
"Please: enjoy yourself!" his pale student smirked, chakra not as steady as it might have been.
The Sandaime charged as Orochimaru activated the seals within the summoned bodies to animate the two Senju and force them to bend to his will. The living hokage launched a Katon: Karyuu Endan at the trio as the bodies' eyes opened, blank white disks set in black sclera.
Tobirama-sensei created a Suiton: Suijinheki around the three of them, protecting himself, his brother and Orochimaru from the fiery blast, then followed up with a Suiton: Suiryuudan. Hiruzen countered the water dragon with a Doton: Doryuuheki, creating a massive earth wall that the water splashed off harmlessly. Then Hashirama joined the fight, calling up one of his unique wood release techniques:
"Mokuton: Jukai Koutan!"
To evade the grasping roots and shoots sprouting from the tiled roof beneath his feet and the earth wall he had just created Hiruzen was forced to leap up on top of the wall. Even then the branches around him lashed out, drawing blood and coiling around his body to hinder and strangle.
"Ku ku ku! You're in a bit of a bind, aren't you sensei?" Orochimaru mocked from behind his undead puppets.
Thinking quickly, Hiruzen summoned the monkey king Enma, his personal summon. Enma was not impressed to be called upon to fight someone the Sandaime had simply allowed to escape almost fifteen years previously, but still agreeably transformed into the Adamantine Bou staff so the elderly Sarutobi could destroy the branches binding him and free himself.
Seeing his sensei armed Orochimaru drew his own sword from a snake that emerged from his mouth: the legendary Kusanagi. Hiruzen noted that his old student's chakra was growing steadily more erratic with every jutsu he used; whatever the cause, the instability would soon become damaging to the snake summoner's chakra coils. With this in mind he charged Orochimaru directly, but failed to score a hit before the two Senju kicked him away. The Sandaime did however manage to plant explosive tags on Hashirama and Tobirama-sensei's legs.
Unfortunately, despite each losing a leg to halfway up the thigh, the damage simply repaired itself. Hiruzen was not as young or as spry as he used to be and wielding Enma's Kongounyoi form was awkward and a great deal of effort. However Hiruzen felt it his duty to somehow release the souls of his former sensei and said sensei's brother, though he still wasn't quite decided on how.
"Your breath seems to be coming rather fast, you know?" Orochimaru commented. "Well, what will you be doing next?"
Hiruzen decided. He would have to use the Yondaime's final technique to end the Edo Tensei and defeat his former pupil. Unfortunate, but it could not be helped.
"You've grown old, haven't you?" Orochimaru taunted. "I've never seen you strain so much." He laughed, high and unsettling. "It's so pitiful, you know, that even you who were hailed as the 'Shinobi no Kami' cannot defeat old age." With that the snake sannin ripped the skin away from his face to reveal another visage, that of an unfamiliar and much younger woman with Orochimaru's own slit-pupilled eyes.
"Who the hell are you?" Hiruzen couldn't help asking.
"Is it that much of a shock? It's still me, your student Orochimaru!" The woman announced.
Hiruzen stilled. This meant his former favourite pupil had successfully completed his immortality kinjutsu. A great weight descended upon the hokage's heart; if only he had killed Orochimaru before he could flee the village then this abomination would never have occurred.
As the snake sannin was gloating about how he would endure forever, moving from one young body to the next, the Sandaime realised Orochimaru's reasons for placing his Juin Jutsu on Uchiha Sasuke. Of course, due to Naruto's interference Sasuke was now well out of Orochimaru's reach, but Hiruzen had no intention of letting that information slip. If he failed to stop his wayward pupil today, that seal would be a perfect trap for the rogue nin, one he would never think to suspect.
Then Hashirama re-activated his Mokuton jutsu and the elderly hokage had to concentrate on defending himself. As he did so he noticed the outer barrier rippling and flickering erratically; was someone trying to break through? If so, he had to end this fight quickly or Orochimaru would set the undead Senju on the village.
Panting heavily, Hiruzen made two shadow clones and then ran through the handseals for the Shiki Fuujin. He would die, but he would take Orochimaru and the two former hokages with him!
However, rather than the grotesquely masked Shinigami a very different individual materialised behind him. Hiruzen blinked.
"Ame-san?"
I am acting in my capacity as Shinigami no Miko so only you are aware of my presence here, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure, said the unearthly being, words echoing inside his mind, black and white miko garb fluttering gently around her with wild, snow white hair roiling and floating around her head like tentacles. Shiki Fuujin is a summoning technique, though the contract now has two different beings listed upon it. Your chakra was insufficient to call upon my master and so here I stand in his place. The bargain I offer is also different: I grant balance. Little remains of your own lifespan to bargain with, so what is it you would have me take away in exchange for it?
Hiruzen recognised that bargaining with the Shinigami no Miko was an entirely different prospect to dealing with the wife of Hatake Kakashi. There would be no beating down and coming to terms here, so he would have to determine exactly how much he could achieve with what he had to sacrifice.
Can you remove the two Senju? He thought as clearly as possible while Orochimaru started gloating again.
I am duty-bound to do so without cost if so requested; they do not belong in this world as they are. What do you desire removed in exchange for the remains of your life?
Can you kill Orochimaru? He asked, hoping fervently for a positive reply.
More remains of his life than yours. The Sandaime recognised that as a 'no' just as Hashirama cast the Kokuangyo no Jutsu, forcing Hiruzen into utter blackness.
"Take all you can from him then," the Sandaime said desperately. Nothing had gone to plan so he would take all he could possible get in such desperate circumstances.
The Shinigami no Miko inclined her head gracefully and split into two, a technique Hiruzen had not seen since the Second Shinobi War. Both ghostly priestesses drifted forwards, seemingly unaffected by the genjutsu and brushing past him towards his clones. As one clone staggered, pierced by many kunai, the apparition to his right leaned over the bunshin and the genjutsu fell apart.
Hiruzen blinked as he saw the twin mikos each standing before one of the Senju brothers, a hand gently pressed over their hearts.
"Sorry, Sarutobi," Hashirama murmured as the miko to Hiruzen's right pulled him closer.
"Shodaime-sama, Nidaime-sama, please forgive me," the Sandaime whispered.
"We've caused you so much trouble–" was all Tobirama-sensei managed to say before the miko in front of him planted her mouth over his and breathed in. As each miko pulled away from her target, the tail-end of each luminous soul sliding down their throats, the two former hokages collapsed into dust. The two priestesses merged back into one as the dust settled to reveal the faces of two Oto genin Hiruzen recognised from the preliminary matches at the end of the second phase of the chunnin exams.
"What is that!" Orochimaru gasped as the Shinigami no miko drifted across the roof towards him. Taking advantage of his opponent's distraction Hiruzen charged, knocking away the Kusanagi with Enma's staff form. The snake sannin used Sen-eijashu to prevent Enma from hitting him but was then immobilised as Hiruzen grabbed him. Orochimaru struggled frantically as the priestess of Death drifted closer.
"Die!" the word was a duet, both shinobi shouting as Orochimaru flicked his fingers in the instant the miko paused behind the Sandaime and reached out to touch the snake sannin's arms.
There was a high, agonising scream, a deafening explosion from off to one side and piercing pain through Hiruzen's chest. The hokage glanced down to see the Kusanagi blade protruding through his upper ribs, then up: Orochimaru's arms had exploded, ragged shreds of muscle tissue loose and limp over shattered bones while strips of skin dangled here and there. In his head Hiruzen heard a soft feminine sigh of disappointment and turned his head to see what had caught her eye.
Orochimaru had tried to stab the priestess when he summoned his sword, but her currently insubstantial nature meant the blade had gone through Hiruzen instead. The Shinigami no Miko reached out again and tapped Orochimaru between the eyes just as a group of ANBU entered the hokage's line of sight; the explosion had been someone breaking through the barrier. He smiled as Orochimaru's subordinates carried him off, the sannin's arms utterly useless, and let darkness take him. Perhaps he wasn't about to die just yet, but it would be coming soon enough.
Notes
Hanamachi = flower district; part of town where the Tea houses and geisha are
jiji = grandpa; informal 'old man' or 'gramps'
Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei = summoning: impure world ressurection; forbidden summoning technique to ressurect a dead person. Requires a living human sacrifice to work.
Katon: Karyuu Endan = fire release: fire dragon flame bullet; B-rank offensive fire technique
Suiton: Suijinheki = water release: water encampment wall; B-rank defensive water technique
Suiton: Suiryuudan = water release: water dragon bullet; B-rank offensive water technique
Doton: Doryuuheki = earth release:earth-style wall; B-rank defensive earth technique
Mokuton: Jukai Koutan = wood release: nativity of a world of trees; kekkai genkai technique
Kongounyoi = properly called 'Henge: Kongounyoi', Monkey King Enma takes on this form to act as a weapon; translates as 'Adamantine Staff'
Shinobi no Kami = god of shinobi; one of Sarutobi's Bingo book names
Shiki Fuujin = dead demon consuming seal; is actually a specialised summoning technique to call upon the Shinigami or his chosen priestess. A kinjutsu
Shinigami no Miko = priestess of the death god
Kokuangyo no Jutsu = bringer-of-darkness technique; A-rank supplementary illusion technique
Sen'eijashu = hidden shadow snake hands; C-rank offensive technique available to those who have signed the snake summoning contract
A/N: Sakura's parting shot takes effect, a few minor changes and we get to see what being a miko of the Shinigami really means. Plus, my first blow-by-blow battle! I've got the whole invasion written already, but typing it up is a chore so it's taking me a while. We will get to see how and by whom the barrier technique was taken down by in an upcoming chapter, as well as how the fight with Gaara went.
This chapter is about seeing things from the Sandaime's point of view; I hope I've got it right...