Next chapter! I'm moving so I don't know when I'll have internet again, hopefully soon.
2. September II
The atmosphere in the Hokage office was definitively colder than the tense excitement at the meeting this morning. The jonin senseis and this time all the jonin senseis not only the ones from the rookies were assembled, a few additional shinobi were lingering in the back. The big surprise was leaning against the back wall, an easy smile on his lips. It had been at least a few years since he had last seen Jiraya.
"Yo." He said and sent a sweeping gaze around the room.
"Good, now that you're all here we will talk" the Hokage began. "We have to address some issues concerning the chunin exam, that's why I assembled you here. Inuzuka Gaku , Kanden Tenkuno, Nara Naoya, Tenshin Kikyo, Hatake Kakashi, Yuuhi Kurenai,Maito Gai, Sarutobi Asuma, Aburame Hatzune , Hyuga Hoheto , Senju Kana ,Kamachi Ton, Akimichi Doto. You have entered your genin for the chunin exam."
So that made thirteen of the seventeen actual genin-teams that would take part in the exam. Good odds. Some years all the genin took part. He knew most of the senseis, especially the younger ones who were more or less of his generation and not that of Shikaku' s and Inoishi' s or even older. A few would have produced interesting students. He really didn' t like that senju-woman, had always found her to placid but she was known to have produced several recognized shinobies. He had only seen the Nara-guy once ore twice but well, a Nara. The aburame woman was young ( almost as young as him) but strong and that woman with coppery hair had been in Anbu when he had begun there.
" Some information has recently been brought to my attention that could change your mind."
Which meant: Jiraya has suddenly appeared after years of absence bringing bad news. Some jonins must have reached the same conclusion because some subtle or not so subtle glances were thrown Jiraya's way. The man just shrugged and approached.
"I' ve spent a good deal of time hanging around sound country and while they do have their own Daymo and Hokage and all, most of the administration and higher brass are controlled by Orochimaru. To say that he is the master of that country is only a slight exaggeration. Maybe you have noticed but for the first time sound asked to take part in the exam and sent a team of genin."
"Who might as well be Orochimaru's representatives, isn't it?" Asuma finished grimly.
"Yes, and in addition there has been intense exchanges between Sound and Grass these last few month."
"We already suspected that Orochimaru had ties in Grass but they might be even stronger than we assumed." The Hokage added.
"So some of their genins may also work for him." An Akimishi guy, whom Kakashi remembered from the third shinobi war stated.
"One thing becomes increasingly clear." Jiraya sighed. "Orochimaru has taken an interest in this exam."
More exactly, Kakashi added in his mind, to someone in the exam. Like a young Ushiha for exemple or, and he looked at Gai wondering if the other was thinking similar thoughts, or to the most talented Hyuga of this generation, or even to a young jinchuriki of the nine-tail, who knew. Damned snake!
"If that was the only cause of worry, we would have carried on with the exam and just raised security but their is something more worrisome."
Jiraya spoke again:
"There were also way to many information exchanged between Sound and Suna."
That prompted a few sharp intakes of breath and Kakashi felt his heart quicken. A few skirmishes with Sound were nothing. Konoha had the resources to crush them. But a break of the peace treaty with Suna, with one of the five great countries. That would mean...war.
The word hang unsaid in the room.
"Our first priority is to protect our young genin. Suna's intentions aren' t clear, it could only be a misinterpretation or it could be the beginning of another conflict but right now we cannot act on our suspicions without going against the treaty. We have to allow the Suna genins to come to Konoha while still keeping an eye on them while also defending against Orochimaru' s plans. To this end the different exam parts will be changed somewhat."
The Hokage turned to the three jonin at the left of his desk.
"This should have been confidential and is not to be discussed with your team. Ibiki Morino, Anko Mitarashi, Hayate Gekkô are the exterminators for the three tasks."
Crap, Kakashi thought, even without the whole Orochimaru-Suna shebang Anko and Ibiki were not a good combination.
"Is there a way to make safer exams for the students where an attack from Orochimaru or Suna would be difficult without it appearing suspicious?"
Ibiki started talking after a long pause ( Kakashi recognized the usual interrogator dramatics).
"I had planned to sent them in the labyrinth of caves under the lake on the western side of the hokage mountain. I could find an alternative that can be held in a classroom."
The Hokage nodded and turned to Anko.
The young kunoichi seemed furious but wasn't making half as much noise as usual, which meant that she was worried. Understandable knowing her history.
"Tchh, those brats don' t deserve that much care. I suppose that holding the exam in the Forest of Death isn' t deemed safe enough!?"
The Hokage nodded. Everyone knew that once upon a time, when Orochimaru had still been loyal to Konoha it had been his favorite training spot.
"Pff! Are the Hattori clan ruins still deserted?"
Again the Hokage nodded.
"Well, we will do it there. It's inside the outer village walls so it will be more difficult for outsiders to intrude. Also I have heard that its anbu playground so they should know it well enough."
Well, that was technically confidential but she was right.
"I will ask the Hyuga to stand guard. Also maybe the Aburame could infiltrate bugs onto the whole perimeter." The Hokage said.
For a second he closed his eyes, he seemed strangely old in the evening sun. The light on his face made the wrinkles stand out on his tanned and scared face.
He sighed and stood up.
"The exam will still take place in a week. It would look suspicious if a lot less Konoha genins took part in the exam this year but I will still give you the choice: do you want to withdraw your students from the exam?"
Kakashi looked around the room, several senseis seemed deep in thought. He closed his eyes. It was dangerous but still, he felt he had to risk it. It was to important for the development of his students and the frustration that would result from denying them the chance to test themselves would have negative consequences. Especially on Sasuke.
The older Akimichi stepped forward.
"Terrible things have been done to the children Orochimaru got his hands on. I cannot risk it for my kids."
For a second everyone in the room waited to see if another would step forwards but no one did.
"Very well, the Hokage finished, you can leave."
Instead of doing as he was told Kakashi waited outside the room, leaning against the wall. A masked Anbu guard threw him a suspicious glance but let him be. One of the few perks that came from having been part of the anbu corps was a relative cooperation of its current members. That and in this case the anbu must know that there was no way his presence escaped the notice of the two powerhouses on the other side of the door. If they let him overhear the conversation than they hadn' t wanted to hide it from him.
"It's good to see you again Jiraya."
"It's good to be back. Haven't seen the village in ages."
"It hasn't changed to much I assume"
"No. Only the people." Jiraya chuckled lightly. "You wouldn't have heard of Tsunade, old man."
"Sadly no."
Jirya laughed softly.
"We are terrible students aren't we? Never hanging around to see our sensei."
"In Orochimaru's case I would prefer if he didn't chose to come "visit me"."
A few seconds no one seemed to talk.
"Sensei. It's strange really. For all these years I've kept an eye on him. I accept now that he won' t come back but to a certain point I could still see him in what he did. I could still see the shadow of the man I knew. But all of this? It just doesn't resemble him."
"I don't know why you think that Jiraya. Don' t delude yourself about what kind of man he has always been. He was always amoral and cruel, we were just blind to his faults because we loved him."
"He hasn't always been like this."
"You're wrong."
"I don't think so. How could a man without morals inspire such loyalty in his followers?"
"Jiraya. Is there a point to this discussion? I know that you never came to term with Orochimaru's betrayal. It has left us all shaken and nothing we can say today can change how deeply his choice wounded us back then and I know that you in particular had never been able to accept what happened. You resent me because you think that what he became is partly my fault, and I don't deny my responsibility in his fate but you' ve always been to much of an idealist. Not everybody can be saved."
"Maybe sensei, but sometimes I come to think that you've become to much of a fatalist. There are people we are not allowed to give up on."
"Jiraya, this is neither the time nor the place for this discussion. Go, there's someone waiting for you."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. He can be the one waiting for once."
Kakashi huffed, a second later the door opened and Jiraya stuck his head out of the door and grinned at him.
"You agree to go eat somewhere?"
"Why not."
"You're not quite as scrawny as last time I saw you but still a few pounds more wouldn't hurt you."
Kakashi tsked, sure compared to Jiraya he would probably always look scrawny.
They walked in a comfortable silence to one of the bars in the northern district of Konoha.
"Did you know I only saw Orochimaru up near twice."
"Really?"
"The first time I was still a little kid, just before I graduated the academy. My father was in hospital and I went to visit him. In one of the corridors I bumped into Orochimaru and I couldn't help stopping and observing him. He stopped to and just smiled at me. I think it was the time where most shinobi began to think he was at the very least really creepy."
Jiryra snorted.
"And, how did you react?"
"Well... When I finally arrived to my father's room I told him that I had met a very, very pretty woman. He was intrigued and asked me what she looked like. You know how he...was. I told him that she had beautiful inky black hair, pale skin and violet markings around the eyes and that she looked like the high priestesses of the legends he told me about. That last bit about the markings must have given Orochimaru away because my father was suddenly panicked."
Jiraya was laughing and Kakashi felt happy to have gotten such a reaction out of the man with his silly story.
"I can only imagine the white fang's reaction at hearing that his five-year old son had a crush on Orochimaru."
Kakashi smiled. They had arrived at the bar and sat down at a table in the back.
"The second time was years later when I was in anbu and when we were sent to apprehend him."
Jiraya's expression turned sour. He looked at the people around them but his gaze seemed to be fixed on something far away. Then he talked and the usual warm mirth had left his voice.
"Once I had a discussion with him about you, well not you in particular but the kids of your generation. It was one of the last we had before he left the village and just after one of the worst fights he had with sensei. He was pissed, and that didn't happen often. He is a pretty even-tempered person, well, he was at least. Sensei had told him that the experiments he was doing were horrible, that he was doing it for his own well-being and that sacrificing people for such endeavors could only be the act of a monster. At that time Orochimaru had been trying to create a way to regrow limbs. I don' t know how much of it you remember but at the beginning of the third war we had many casualties and soldiers who were permanently injured because of the explosives Iwa had developed. The test subjects were volunteers but still, in the first few experiments all of the people died. We asked him to stop but he thought it was a necessary sacrifice for winning the war. He never managed to find a way to regrow the limbs but he was the one who discovered the limp protection jutsu that we all used for the rest of the war. When we talked after the fight he told me that he thought sensei was a hypocrite. Yes his experiments had killed people but it would protect others. It was a necessary sacrifice. And how was that different to sending children under ten to the front. How was that more moral than sacrificing people for experiments."
Kakashi looked down, these children had been him, and Rin, and Obito and all the others.
"Nee, Jiraya are you trying to convince me of Orochimaru's innocence."
"Certainly not of his innocence but you're clever enough to have your own opinion."
"I think it' s no use to talk about morality as a shinobi..."
Jiraya looked up from his drink.
"...I think, there is an inherent immorality to the shinobi world. As you said, I fought in the war before I was ten, I killed for the first time when I was eight, I became an anbu at fourteen. I certainly know that I have done terrible things. I know there are some people who are able to remain true to their beliefs. People like you or Minato-sensei but I never managed in quite the same way. At this point I can only fight to protect the people I care about and the village to which I belong. I acknowledge that the people I'm fighting are doing the same thing but that doesn't stop me from defeating them."
A heavy silence settled between them. Then Jiraya smiled.
"And still I believe that things one day will be different."
Kakashi did not say anything.
They ate and exchanged smalltalk but the mood wasn't as light as it had been. Finally they left and wished each other goodnight.
Changes from canon:
1. Jiraya comes back to the village earlier: Jiraya is supposed to have the best spynetwork in the whole shinobi world, he is supposed to keep an eye on his old teammate turned missing-nin and he didn't realize that Orochimaru was planning an attack with Suna. I mean Sunna was preparing an army! Also I really like Jirayaand I wanted him to be there earlier :).
2. More Jounin senseis and more teams: its just not possible to produce an army as big as the one we see if there are so few genin. also I will add a few older Konoha team who advance to the second part. It's just unrealistic that almost all Konoha genin who advance to the second task are rookies. So there will be a few minor OCs in the next chapters.
If you are interested I have a whole folder on my computer on worldbuilding and a big part about how Konoha's shinobi system has to work. Maybe I'll add more info in the end notes if it interests anyone.
3. Orochimaru accusing Sarutobi of beeing a hypocryte. Remember a few things that happened during the third' s reign : a man who had saved his teammates was ostracized by the village and he did nothing about it. A founding clan was ostracized and he did nothing about it. Children were sent to war...
Of course, he often was forced to take those decisions but still I think its interesting to discuss this. Also villains are way more interesting if they aren't purely evil (and I find Orochimaru especially interesting).