AN: Here it is, what I consider to be the most important chapter of all of Wasteland. The truth of the Mayfly. We know the nations ordered a mass execution of the bloodline, but the ways are unknown—until now… PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS BELOW. SERIOUSLY. IF ANY ONE OF THESE WARNINGS DISTURB YOU THEN SKIP THIS CHAPTER. You can safely skip to the end of the chapter without missing any important plot details for the next chapter.

Cat Beats: Haha thank you. I am excited because it's going to be a lot of interesting canon and a new member! And no, thank you for reading and your support! You're awesome!

Enjoy.

p.s. no beta, too lazy to edit. Please excuse any jank.

Major Warning(s): Mentions of Execution/Lynching/Immolation, Death/Murder, Violence/Blood/Gore, Genocide

Minor Warning(s): Genderbend (Med), Language (Low), Out of Character

…

Wasteland

The Akatsuki Arc

Chapter 52

Unfortunately, evening was a ways off, so Zetsu did whatever to distract herself. She must've spent an hour of that time just in the shower alone while trying to wash the snake gunk out of her hair that had glued itself to her emerald strands. Eventually, she addressed it by shaving her hair which wasn't too upsetting as she had been overdo for a cut for awhile now but never got around to doing it. Once that was done and she was the cleanest she must've been and may be in her entire life, she went on to do the one thing she had dreaded since the mission.

By now, Kakuzu was back from his successful heart hunt where he had gathered four perfect condition hearts and set each one up with the earmarked masks he had commissioned from Yui a few weeks back. When Zetsu asked to speak to him and saw how upset she was, he first thought the mission had gone bad or it was Orochimaru, because it always was Orochimaru. Instead, he was surprised when she handed over his sunglasses, one of the lenses of which empty while she blabbered on about how sorry she was for breaking them. He hadn't even known she had them. Zetsu decided to lie and say she had taken them herself instead of telling him it was Orochimaru as he and Orochimaru already weren't on the best of terms, ignoring the helping his escape part, and she didn't want to cause further hostility between them.

While he wasn't angry with her, he did give her a lecture about entering his room and taking his things without permission, which she totally agreed with and offered no argument. Once he was done, he threw the sunglasses in the trash since he could buy a new pair for cheap as though had been and parted the teenager with a smack to the head, Doton included. By the time that was all said and done, it was evening so Zetsu walked to Orochimaru's bedroom.

However, halfway, she caught herself and paused when she questioned if she was prepared to do this. Back there, she had so happily agreed to learning the truth of the Mayfly that she didn't stop and ask herself as she ready for the truth. Would she be able to handle what it was she about to hear? She knew things, heard whisperings and read all the myths and rumors about the Mayfly being executed, or it was a brain cancer that eliminated the Kekkei Genkai but that was all hearsay, no evidence of it. Sure, she couldn't believe Orochimaru either but if the woman was there as she said, that was the best testimony she ever would get. So, ultimately, the question was: would it be better to hear the truth and regret it or never hear the truth and regret that?

She must've been stood there in the hallway for several minutes, just thinking and staring at nothing until finally, she made her decision and so, kept walking to Orochimaru's room.

Orochimaru herself answered after the first knock to her door and smiled down at Zetsu. Zetsu, meanwhile, was taken back as she had never seen the elder without makeup on. "Hello, hello! So, we've come then. Come in, come in!" She opened the door and the girl timidly entered the dark, humid room. "I've made you a cup of hot chocolate. It's going to be a long, long story, afterall. I'll be right with you."

Nodding, Zetsu sat herself at the heated table in the seat a mug of piping hot chocolate had been left. The smoking snake was here again too, except instead of a tobacco pipe, it had a hookah pipe with two hoses, one of which it was puffing from. It offered her the other which she kindly objected to with a shake of her head, knowing better after how much the likes of Kakuzu and Konan had drilled it into her head about how bad smoking was and to never do it, or else. Faskom, who had been napping under the table, slithered out and accepted the smoke instead, brushing past Zetsu and startling her in the process. As the two snakes sat together and got high, Zetsu couldn't help but think this would make great material to share with Yui if she ever wanted to write another book. That and her experience with real life griffin.

"Sorry, sorry to keep you waiting, I had to brew my tea." Orochimaru apologized, walking over with her own mug, and seating her between Zetsu and the snakes.

"It's ok." Zetsu said while still trying to adjust to the elder being all-natural with her hair tied back in a loose ponytail and the fact her skin was not white or lips purple. It was like speaking to a different person but not in a bad way. In fact, she thought her pretty if not prettier this way and secretly, she was envious of that.

Orochimaru snapped her fingers and Faskom relinquished his hose to her as she took a long drag. Zetsu didn't even want to think of the repercussions of swapping germs with a snake like that. Once she got her high, she handed it back and exhaled the purple-coloured smoke through her nostrils before waving it away from her own face. Unfortunately, casting part of it into her guest's face who in turn withheld a cough. "Sorry, I'm just thinking where to begin this traumatic tale I've done oh so hard to forget."

"It's ok." Zetsu said again, taking a taste of her beverage and thank god, it was just hot chocolate again. However, with marshmallows as one of the sticky sugar lumps stuck itself to her lip that she flicked off back into her cup.

"It all started before we were sent to Amegakure," Orochimaru finally began. "Our sensei, the Third Hokage, ordered us to see him—we being, Jiraiya, Tsunade and I, back when we didn't hate each other—or they didn't hated me to be truthful. Anyway, turns out that he and the other Kage had themselves a secret Kage Summit—"

"Wait, wasn't this during the Second Shinobi World War?" Zetsu interrupted her.

Orochimaru nodded. "Yes, yes it was. It wasn't the first Kage Summit to happen during a war, mind you. There was one during the First World War also when Konoha handed out the Bijuu as a sign of peace."

"So, what was this one for?"

"To discuss Kusagakure and the Mayfly. You've studied up on the Mayfly, so I imagine you understand why that was," Yes, she did. Zetsu had watched hundreds of hours of documentaries and read collections of books on the Second Shinobi World War where they told in painful detail the depravities the Mayfly committed, including but not limited to, genocide, cannibalism and any and all means of malfeasance you could imagine up. She even once read a book which claimed that 30% of the casualties of the Second War were by the Mayfly alone. "So, the Kage decided for the best interest of all nations and the world that the Mayfly be eliminated entirely."

Zetsu's mouth fell open, thankfully after having just taken a gulp of her brew. "Wha—they—they ordered a mass genocide?"

"Yes. I'm sure you've heard the conspiracy theories that say the nations ordered the bloodline's extermination which is why it disappeared so suddenly, not because of a brain cancer or mass suicide. Turns out, they were correct." Orochimaru casually said, shrugging and sipping her tea while Zetsu was still left horrified by this new information. She had thought she may regret hearing what she may and turns out, she was.

"S-So, how? How did it happen?"

"I'll be getting to that, but it isn't so easy." Orochimaru chided her and the green-haired girl muttered her apologies, staring into her dwindling mug. "So, in order to take out the Mayfly, the best course wasn't to take them out one by one, which by now was shown to be impossible as there were hundreds if not thousands of members, but to take Kusagakure itself. That's where the Sannin came in. Well, before we were Sannin, but you get what I'm saying. Each nation was to send in a minimum of a hundred of their best shinobi and Hiruzen wanted us to lead Konoha. We must've marched with all of Konoha's greatest clans, including the likes of Uchiha and Hyūga. As you can imagine, it was surreal. Here we were, marching with the other four nations against a common enemy as if we weren't in the middle of a World War,"

"Getting to Kusagakure was a war in itself. Mayfly everywhere. The fighting lasted three days as each one we defeated, three more took their place. In the end though, we overpowered them. That whole, 'divided we fall, united we stand' rubbish and all. However, we didn't kill them. No, we kept them alive as POWs as ordered. With little resistance left, we invaded Kusagakure," Orochimaru paused, letting out a grandiose and signing at Faskom so she may take another hit to help mentally steel herself for the flashback of memories she had spent decades burying. "Darling, I'm letting you know now, what I'm going to tell you…if you want to leave, you can. I'll understand. You've heard enough."

Zetsu hesitated because by Orochimaru's expression and the fluctuations of her chakra, she wasn't lying. Whatever is was she was going tell her had even left the Sannin herself deeply disturbed. Should she leave? Afterall, she had gotten the answer she had always wanted on the fate of the Mayfly. Now, as it was the gruesome details as to how it was carried out. It was as Orochimaru implied, she could leave and be satisfied with what she learned thus far. Did she seriously want to traumatize herself by hearing all of it? She thought on it, she thought on it, and finally after a solid minute of thinking, she made her decision—a decision one may think as being a poor one.

"I want to hear all of it."

Orochimaru chuckled at her answer and inhaled long from the hookah pipe until she was lightheaded from the high and her lungs burned with the smoke before leaning her head back and slowly huffing it out through her nose and corners of her mouth. If she was so sure on wanting to hear it all, then who was she to say no?

"We invaded Kusagakure," She carried on from where she stopped, speaking to the ceiling as she did as she kept her head back. "Turns out, having seen the writing on the wall, their entire government had offed themselves during those three days we battled the Mayfly and without ordering the village itself to evacuate. So, when the Five Nations suddenly invaded, the citizens were taken by surprise and left defenseless. After locking the village down so no one could get or out, we started searching for other members of the Mayfly,"

"How could you tell who had the Mayfly and who didn't?" Zetsu decided to ask since unlike the Sharingan or other Kekkei Genkai, there was nothing to identify a Mayfly user from anyone else when it wasn't active. At least, not that she knew or had pointed out to her.

Orochimaru's head fell back down at she took swallow of tea. "Can you give me a smile, darling?" Zetsu, while initial confused, obliged as she smiled. "No, no. Larger. Like this." She demonstrated as she grinned, snake-este fangs glistening eerily in the red room. Taking her lead, Zetsu smiled large so her lips parted back over her canines and Orochimaru wiggled a finger at them. "That's how. There's only one other clan with teeth like yours that I've seen and it's clan of ningyo that live up in Kiri," Interesting, she never knew that but all of sudden, Zetsu found herself self-conscious due to this fact. Should be hiding her teeth so not to be identified as having the Mayfly? Or to be mistaken as a ningyo? Whatever that was.

"We checked everyone's teeth, even if we had to break their jaws to do it, and if they had signs of the Mayfly, they were taken into custody. Men, women, children, even babies, it didn't matter. If a mother or father had it, it was trusted their children did too. We apprehended whole families. It mattered not to us if they weren't showing any signs of insanity like their brethren," She paused again and glared into her empty mug as she realized she should be drinking for this instead. "Have you ever seen pictures of Kusagakure before the Second War?"

"No, I haven't."

"It was beautiful, let me tell you. They used to have this grand tree in the middle of it. Not as large Takigakure, of course but large. It was rumoured to have been grown from a seed of the God Tree, like Taki was. Anyway, it was beautiful, so beautiful…until we decorated it with bodies and burned it down. Faskom, could you please go see if there is any sake in the fridge?" Faskom nodded and glided to the door where he nudged it open with his muzzle and slithered through. In the meantime, Zetsu just stared at her, not sure what to think or say to that statement.

Faskom came back a few minutes later, having been successful in his search as he had a bottle of ice-cold sake that may or may not be someone else's grappled in his tail. After giving it to his master, Orochimaru popped the cork but instead of pouring it in her cup, she just drank from the bottle itself. She must've chugged half of it down before slamming the bottle on the table and sighing, startling Zetsu.

"We took the Mayfly and lynched them," Orochimaru suddenly exclaimed, one hand clinching the bottle while she cradled her forehead in the other, staring down at the table. "We strung them up from that tree by their necks with nooses, but we made the rope too short, so it didn't break their necks. Instead, it left them kicking and thrashing while their faces turned purple and eyes bulged and bled as they slowly suffocated to death. All were hung except the children and babies. They were too light for the rope, so we burned them instead—made a fire and threw them in while they were alive. The crying, the screaming, the smell, I'll never forget it,"

If Zetsu wasn't horrified by what she was hearing, then she was that while explaining this, Orochimaru was crying, tears dripping off her face and pitter-pattering on the table, louder than the permanent rainfall upon Ame. Then she started laughing but obviously, a sad laughter to disguise the sobs. It was genuine too, not a lie to sell a story as the Mayfly user felt the anguish dripping from her very soul.

"We must've have executed hundreds of them—hundreds! And once we were done, we burned the tree down…burned it down with all of the Mayfly so nothing was left, just like ordered. Let me tell you, there's nothing like it—having this huge tree with hundreds of bodies hung from it burn down before your eyes yet you can't look away, none of us could. I remember Jiraiya, Tsunade and I squeezing each other's hands and just…watching it burn down,"

Laughing, Orochimaru lifted her head up and took a swig from the sake. "That must've been the closest we ever came to world peace. Just, hundreds of shinobi from all five nations standing there with this sound of silence no one dared disturb,"

"It burned all through the night and once morning came, all of Kusa was white with the ash that fell from the sky like snow. And just like that, the Mayfly was dead," Finishing of the sake, she placed the empty bottle on the table and sighed with her chin in her hand whilst staring off at nothing. "The Five Nations didn't want anyone to learn what had happened there so I, and others skilled in Fūinjutsu sealed off everyone's memories and tongues so it may never be spoken of, all civilians and shinobi in Kusa that day. All but myself, of course. I just undid the seal after we left. I know later on Tsunade went to the Yamanaka clan to have the memories erased and Jiraiya…I don't know if he did the same. Obviously, I didn't because I never thought I'd have to speak of it, until now. After that, they made a lie of the Mayfly dying off due to a brain cancer or mass suicide or whatever else people would believe, and we all went back to fighting each other in the war like it never happened. Then, we Sannin were sent to Amegakure to fight Hanzō. And yet, it was that battle which finally broke us and caused us to go our own ways. I went back to Konoha, Tsunade kept serving in the war and Jiraiya stayed in Ame to play babysitter to the future leaders of the Akatsuki and Ame itself,"

Finally, she looked to Zetsu, her face dry with no evidence of her breakdown except an outline of pink around her golden orbs that left the teenager asking herself if she imagined it. "And that, is the truth of the Mayfly. Obviously, we didn't get all Mayfly users that night. Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting here in front of me right now," Zetsu didn't say anything to that, even if she could, she didn't know what to say. What could you say after hearing the genocide of your bloodline and the brutal fashion to which it was accomplished? So, she just sat there, looking an idiot staring with her mouth opening and closing like a fish.

Zetsu wasn't the only one skipped over that night, but it left her to speculate how it was she survived. She was just a baby, that she knew, so her parents, whomever they were, had managed to hide her before being caught. It made her mourn for the parents she never knew, nor ever would as she imagined them being strung up and left to asphyxiate as well as all the other Mayfly users who paid the ultimate pay due to the sins of their bloodline.

"Since then, I've been back to Kusa once or twice while on mission for the Elders," Orochimaru suddenly mentioned, grabbing her mug and standing up to make herself a refill of tea. "Where the tree was, that part of the village was abandoned and labeled as Old Kusagakure. You could still see where it was and the burn markings on the ground and buildings, but you can't get a straight answer from the citizens as to why. They don't even speak of the Mayfly so the Fūinjutsu was successful, give and take a few that we missed but they were either labeled as insane or silenced by the nations. The nearest thing you'll ever hear to the truth are Kusa nursery rhymes sung by children. Have you heard them?"

"I…don't think so." Zetsu rasped out, her throat feeling like sandpaper and tongue shriveled, so she gulped down the last of her hot chocolate which by now was cold chocolate.

"Oh, how did one of them go? Hmm…they strung up a man, they say who murdered three?" Orochimaru hummed, trying to remember the ditty she had heard last she was in Kusa.

It was just like that, it hit Zetsu and she too started humming. "Are you, are you, coming to the tree? Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me."

"Yes! That's it. So, you have heard it." Zetsu nodded but she couldn't explain how or where she had heard it. Yet, she knew all the lyrics and could hear it with perfectly clarity in her head like a haunting. But where, where had she heard it? "Anyway, that's everything and I do apologize for my overreaction there. I may've been in a war and I have killed hundreds, maybe thousands of shinobi but that? Never have I experienced anything quite like that nor do I ever wish to again. Even a person such as myself has limits. And I get emotional when I drink so I try not to do it. Oops."

"It's ok, I understand and…and thank you for telling me, but…" Zetsu trailed off, staring into her empty cup and the wet marshmallows stuck at the bottom of it.

"But?"

"I still have so many questions left."

Orochimaru sat down with her new cup of tea and had a hit of the pipe to calm her nerves. Faskom nested himself around his summoner's neck for a nap. "Like what?"

"Like…what is the Mayfly's connection to the Wasteland?"

Orochimaru piqued an eyebrow. "The Wastelands?"

Zetsu shook her head though the Sannin's bewilderment was answer enough. "No, the Wasteland."

"And what would be the Wasteland?"

"It's…I cannot describe it without sounding mad."

"Oh darling, what I just told you was mad. I'm mad, you're mad, we're all mad. So, try me."

Taking a deep breath, Zetsu did her best at illustrating her madness. "For as long as I can remember, I've seen the Wasteland. I used to go there when I slept or had a breakdown. That is, until Sir Leader fixed it so I couldn't have them anymore." She ushered at the black chakra rod jutting out from the back of her neck.

Orochimaru leant over to get a better look. "Oh, so that's what that is. I thought it the quirky fashion statement you had picked up from Yahiko." Yahiko? Zetsu had heard her address Sir Leader—Pein, as such before. Was that his real name? But she thought it was Pein. Ugh, too many names. "But please, do carry on."

"It's…I don't know, a nightmare? Except it's so real. I can tell you how it smells, the temperature of it, what I've heard and seen. It's like I've physically been there. I've been told it's just my schizophrenia, but it can't be. It's just too real for it all to be a hallucination. A-And what you described in Kusa; I've seen it there!"

"That so?" Orochimaru asked, having yet to pull back as she stayed leant over the table, supported on her elbows as she listened. Zetsu was too caught up in her explanation to notice the violation of her personal bubble.

"Yes! That's the Hanging Tree! It has bodies hung from it, hundreds, maybe thousands!" All of sudden, she was hit with an epiphany as she blinked at the table and muttered to herself. "That's where I heard it…"

"Heard what?"

"That nursery rhyme you talked of. I heard it there, in the Wasteland—by the bodies." But how was that possible? How could she possibly imagine up a melody she never heard outside there? How is any of it? She asked herself, rubbing her fingers against her eyes. It was exhausting just thinking of it.

"Oh my, that is interesting, isn't it?" Orochimaru said, finally leaning back to heighten her high with the hookah and blowing the smoke away from the other woman. "Whatelse have you seen? Or heard? If I may ask."

"There's the Monster," Zetsu replied. "It lives under the Hanging Tree. I've never seen it except its eyes and teeth. I don't see it everytime, because it is sleeping, or I think is, but when it's awake, it sings."

"And what does it sing?" As much as she thought on it, Zetsu couldn't for the life of her remember the lyrics to any of the songs despite having heard them perhaps a hundred times each, just the inflections. She hummed one, hoping it would trigger a memory deep, deep inside her but she got nothing. "Hmm, can't say I've heard that one."

"I can't remember it." Once Zetsu heard mention of dream journals that people kept at their bedside so they may write their dreams after they've had them. Perhaps she could get one also? If just for the purpose of recording the Monster's lullabies. "There's also the Priest but I've only met him once."

"You met him?" Orochimaru emphasized.

Zetsu nodded to confirm. "Yes, I spoke with him. Or…he spoke at me. He didn't say much but he sings too, like the Monster," When she tried cite the hymn hummed by the Priest, too her surprised, she remembered it. In fact, she remembered all of it. "Hush now, oh dear child. For death is upon us, the ending of times. Welcome blood red skies, and in the light of the dying day, the waking of a world in an endless night."

"Oh my, that one I believe I have heard."

Zetsu perked up. "S-Seriously? Where?"

"Oh, I cannot remember at the moment. It may've been a long time ago, but I recognize the words. Not sung but read?" Orochimaru itched her head then threaded her fingers through her black hair to the end of her ponytail. "If I remember, I'll definitely let you know."

"Please do." Afterall, it may be the key to the Priest's identity. "But anyway, I read this book that talked about Yggdrasil and the Nidhogg—the Nidhogg, it looks just like the Monster! But then, who is the Priest? There's just too many coincidences and I just…I just have so many questions left." Zetsu sighed, placed her head in her head.

"May, those are questions, aren't they? Sadly, I cannot answer them," That wasn't surprising, Zetsu hadn't expected her to. She probably didn't have a clue on half of what she just finished babbling on about. "But I may know someone who can."

Zetsu instantly picked her head up and looked at the elder, taken aback. "Y-You do?" Orochimaru nodded, sampling her tea and affectionally petting her feather companion. "Who?"

"Someone who was there at the very beginning of it all."

…

AN: Welp, we went from a huge chapter to an itty-bitty one but don't fret, next chapter should be larger. Unfortunately. I'm also going to have to do research for it (by watching the Boruto anime,meh) so it may take a little longer but not much longer. Btw, I finished this chapter the day after the last but decided to a week to post it.

Next Chapter: The White Snake Sage.

Until Next Time.