CHAPTER 32
The Village Hidden in the Mountains was a miles-long range of tall mountains curved around the southwestern corner of the continent. On the other side of the range of mountains were jagged cliffs and the perilous oceans, too dangerous to be sailed on. Hidden Mountain was so remote and difficult to reach that there were only two rough paths that could be followed to reach the area; braving the desert and cutting through Suna or coming down from the north through Hidden Rock, and even then, those routes were heavily populated by bandits and missing ninjas.
As such, because of the remote nature of their village, Hidden Mountain learnt to be self-sufficient despite the rugged state of their village.
Hidden Mountain was a vassal state of Wind Country, similar to Hidden Sand, but Mountain had generationally been accustomed to the stinginess of the Wind Country royalty, and thrived on their own, reaching a neutrality agreement with Suna. Though, with Suna being the Wind's military and political hub, Mountain was mostly forgotten.
Since Hidden Mountain curled around the edge of Wind Country, green plants scarcely grew in the area, with large rocks casting varying shades of grey and brown across the entire mountain range. The only farms in the village were the terraced fields of barley, bamboo and yams planted in soil imported from Fire Country several centuries ago, regularly rejuvenated and rotated by the current inhabitants to not wear the soil down of all its nutrients at once. The terraced farms resembled large patches of band-aids on the surface of the mountain ranges, with houses precariously built leaning on the side of the face of the mountains and pathways linking each home that was essentially meant to be traversed by mountain climbers.
There was a wealth of steel and leather, so even though it was more "fashionable" to climb without any climbing gear, using climbing gear was popularly encouraged, so much so that the rate of casualties from falling from the mountain was at an all-time low average of ten people a year.
The nature of their village and the distance it was from other nations made the people of the village tough and resilient, evolved with strong fingers and toes to climb the mountain and farm their lands on the steep incline, breathing in the thin oxygen easily and staying attached to the mountain without chakra, but with their strength.
Animals were also reared in the Mountain, but only domesticated mountain goats were allowed free reign to venture the length of the mountain range, while other animals like sheep, cows, and chickens were kept separated in buildings attached to the side of the building, kept upright by strong bamboo stilts, like the residential homes and the farmhouses, and these animals had evolved to also survive the environment, albeit not to the extent of the mountain goats.
Iron ore, copper, coal, and some gemstones were mined from certain mountains on the range, and though it was tempting, the people purposely decided not to hollow out the interior of the mountains so that mining would be easier; it would compromise the structural integrity of the mountains and put the thousands of people living on the surface of the mountain at risk.
Hollowing out the mountain was strictly taboo.
Given the wealth of Hidden Mountain and the uniqueness of the people, it was a wonder why no nation invaded them.
This was for two reasons; the village was naturally defended by the steep mountains they built their homes on, and although Wind Country royalty didn't want to send funds to Mountain, their coffers were filled with gems and produce that came from Mountain, so both the country and Suna would be deployed to assist Mountain on the occasion of an attack.
Except when Orochimaru arrived.
When the Sannin and Sound attacked, they came with illusions, forcing the people into slavery and making them carve into one mountain in particular and establishing a system of caves and caverns in that one mountain; this would have sounded unimpressive, if not that that mountain was among the largest in the mountain range, and reached higher than the clouds and wider than most mountains on the continent.
In this particular mountain, and a particular cave, Madara sat on the hard ground with his legs crossed and his hands meshed into the monkey hand seal. He was facing a wall and his eyes were serenely shut, humming under his breath and regulating his breathing.
Chakra frothed on his skin and clothes, restored a while ago after Kabuto revived him.
His irritation was palpable.
A shadow loomed over him, but Madara didn't react.
"If you don't calm down, this mountain is going to fall on us," Orochimaru remarked with a snide smirk.
"Don't push your luck, Orochimaru," Madara murmured hotly, tightening his muscles and containing a spurt of chakra that lashed against the wall he was facing. "Because I tolerate your presence, does not mean we are acquaintances."
Not in the least bit intimidated, Orochimaru shrugged and strolled into the cave, standing behind Madara without fear of being struck by the steam of chakra ebbing from the Uchiha's pores. "I remember you wanting a challenge." He chuckled and crossed his arms. "And at the first instance of a challenge, we had to revive you again."
Daku's first tackle in Hidden Sound had obliterated Madara, and Daku's punch in the forests of Fire Country erased Madara from the face of the earth.
Orochimaru covered his mouth to stifle his laughter.
Madara opened his eyes and the chakra around him thrummed dangerously, cracking the wall and the ground.
"Now, now, relax." Orochimaru giggled, waving away Madara's outrage and taking a swift step back before the ground he formerly stood on splintered. "As long as you've learnt your lesson~."
"That thing that faced me is not human," Madara snarled, steadily getting to his feet, staring hatefully at the bleak, brown wall. "His body was not bound by human limitations, earthly physics, or mortal constraints. He is a human-shaped abnormality."
Orochimaru grinned, the corners of his mouth flickering up and down, fighting to remain light-hearted. "That's Daku for you." The man's lips tightened into a painfully wide smile. "He's my biggest obstacle to getting to the brat."
"I will be the one to end him," Madara swore through clenched teeth.
"Get in line," Rai said, stepping into the cave. Her metal boots reverberated with each firm step, standing behind Orochimaru out of arm's length and crossing her arms; the gauntlets on her hands and the metal braces on her forearms popped with live electricity, arcing off her body and singing the rocky ground. Her grudge against Naruto's dark shadow overcame her self-restraint, lighting her eyes white with electricity. "Me and Daku have unfinished business."
Although Rai's fight against Daku during the invasion of Wave had ended in a stalemate, in the end, she had been the one to retreat. Now she was hearing that this new iteration of Daku was ten times more powerful than the previous one, and it enraged her that the person she had battled was not even using their full strength.
At the mouth of the cave, Kisame stood without speaking, festering in his boiling emotions.
Daku had broken his arms back in Tanzuki town when he and Itachi had been dispatched to retrieve the nine-tails holder, and he had to be wrestled into a retreat by his then-partner; it was a sore spot how badly Kisame had been humbled.
Madara glared over his shoulder and his rinnegan flashed, sending a shallow shockwave of chakra, only for it to batter against the sheen of lightning shrouding Rai, pushed to both of her sides as if her mere existence was a knife, cracking the walls of the cave.
Kisame remained unmoved.
Rai turned her chin up and exhaled smoke from her nose.
Orochimaru tittered, turning and leaving the three powerful ninjas to argue about who would be the one to crush Naruto's dark shadow.
Outside of the cave, the radiant light of the world rushed into Orochimaru's eyes; they were dozens of miles off the ground inside the side of the mountain Orochimaru claimed, overlooking the sand-eroded line that was the Sand-Mountain border, and the single file line of hundreds of Mountain people lazily lumbering to the border, collapsing on the ground one after the other and gradually forming a wall of living, groaning humanity interspersed with boulders and climbing tools, slowly spanning the entire length of the border.
A hundred metres into Hidden Sand was a large, blue bubble, one that froze anything that ventured inside.
Their bodies were withered away and what remnants of the sanity were left behind their hollow eyes screamed for the sweet release of death.
On the ground as well and harshly shoving the listless illusion victims were Sound ninjas, kicking the people down and arranging them into a tall wall curving along the border; a human shield.
Orochimaru beamed at the progressing human barrier.
'You haven't seen anything yet, 'Sannin Slayer',' he thought with a mocking sneer.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Elsewhere on the mountain, Kabuto scrambled in a panic, rushing about his quarters and packing all of his clothes, notes, and secrets.
The undead shinobi he had planted inside each of Wave's allied villages were frozen and deactivated by one of Wave's large seals. It had wiped out a large portion of Sound's reinforcements and had essentially boxed them into Hidden Mountain with no escape route, as traversing the ocean behind the mountains was suicidal, even for his regenerative bloodline ability.
Iwa had pulled out of the conflict all of a sudden, some months ago, and neither he nor Orochimaru knew why. They recalled all of their ninjas assisting Sound in setting up the signal magnet towers and closing their borders.
Iwa was their largest ally, and they were now no longer interested in erasing the last Uzumaki and his country from the face of the planet.
Then to add to their miseries, their base in Grass Country had been overtaken by Wave Country; all of the ninjas assigned there had been eliminated, the prisoners were rescued, their medical resources were looted, their treasury in that base was ransacked, and the region was annexed by Wave. The medicine in that base alone, not to talk of their five other bases around the continent, was enough to half-replenish the depleted resources of a small nation, such as Wave.
Orochimaru didn't want to admit it, but Kabuto knew they were trapped.
This was their last stand in fighting for Orochimaru's wounded pride.
"Naruto has been able to recruit Nagato and Konan to his cause," Zetsu droned from the ceiling. Its tone was dry and sarcastic. Wave, Rain, Iwa, Iron, and a few small villages were the only places on the continent that weren't covered by hundreds of Cryo-Stasis seals, so Zetsu had to be extremely careful with how it moved. "Wave forces are coming from the land and the air, there Wave seal freezes everything it touches, Daku is drawing closer by the second, and Naruto is pissed; how do you hope to escape?"
Kabuto sent a scalding glare in Zetsu's direction, taking a moment to spit at the ground. "If I hide long enough on the other side of the mountain range…away from the water…I'll have a chance at surviving."
"Even if that were the case," Kabuto returned to blindly throwing clothes and books into a big duffle bag, "what makes you think Naruto, or anyone for that matter, would forget you exist? They hunt you down like an animal and squash you like a cockroach. What awaits you, and Orochimaru, is a fate worse than death—"
"They know you exist too!" Kabuto shouted, his eyes bloodshot and spittle flying from his mouth. This seemed to lessen Zetsu's mirth. Kabuto repeated himself, punctuating each word with a short pause, "They. Know. You. Exist." The teenager abandoned his bag and stalked to Zetsu, standing under Zetsu as the plant creature. "They'll get you before they get me."
"Oh yeah?"
"I don't have time for this." Kabuto went back to his bag and hiked it onto his shoulder. "I have better things to do with my time than get taunted by a plant." He marched to the door and threw it open. "Have a nice life—oof!"
He bumped into someone as if colliding with a brick wall.
Kabuto stumbled back and his glasses toppled from his face, squinting up with how mouth agape at whoever could be standing so close to his door, as he went down, blindly patting the ground for his glasses.
"Who the—" Kabuto blubbered, fumbling on the ground and cursing. "Help me find my glasses, damn it."
"Master Orochimaru says Wave forces will be here within the hour." The person went down on one knee and Kabuto's bleary vision saw the person's smudged outlines grasp the ground and pick up something, shoving it onto Kabuto's face and restoring his vision. Kimimaro Kaguya stoically stared at Orochimaru's right-hand man with his pupilless, milky white eyes, telling him, "Master is looking for you."
Kabuto gnashed his teeth, regarding the younger teen with a glare. "I'll be with him soon."
Kimimaro got to his feet, straightening his purple kimono and tightening the large brown sash around his waist, holding his hand down to help Kabuto back to his feet. "Now, Kabuto."
Kabuto frowned, slapping Kimimaro's hand away, grunting, "I can get up myself."
Kimimaro hummed and pulled his hand back, watching Kabuto as he eased himself up and nudged away his duffle bag with his foot. He made to walk through the door, but Kimimaro held his arm across it, stopping Kabuto from leaving. He pointed at the bag that had been pushed aside and narrowed his eyes at Kabuto. "I don't recall Master asking us to begin packing." His stare gradually reddened. "Where are you going?"
Kabuto scoffed. "That's none of your business."
Kabuto made to dip under Kimimaro's arm but was instead grabbed by the scruff of his shirt. Kimimaro snarled, his compound eyes becoming a deeper shade of red. "You are trying to escape."
"Get…off," Kabuto spat, gripping the hand holding his collar, wincing at the tightness of the hold, constricting his throat by only squeezing his shirt collar.
Kimimaro shook his head, faux downhearted. "Master will be disappointed…"
Kabuto's eyes widened and he held his arms out to give him some distance from Kimimaro, even as Kimimaro's hand never let up against Kabuto's collar. "Wait—" he front-kicked Kimimaro's gut and pushed, tearing off his shirt as he parted from Kimimaro. He limped out of the door, wincing in pain as his attack was like bashing his heel against a concrete wall, travelling up his leg and ending at his hip. A glance behind him and Kabuto saw Kimimaro thoughtlessly discard Kabuto's shirt. Kabuto stumbled out of the room, panting and holding his right hip at the pain, hobbling and pleading, "Kimimaro, don't do this."
He heard a sharp, mute whistle incoming and he clenched his eyes shut, coughing out blood as a fingerbone impaled his back, cutting into his body and stabbing his right kidney.
The entry point of the bone gradually began to harden and turn brown, spreading outwards up his torso and below his waist. His skin changed to rough, bumpy bark, with his feet digging into the hard, rocky floor and his silver hair lengthening into leafless branches, scratching the ceiling of the cavern. His arms were outstretched as if chasing something, but his arms were changed to wood.
Kabuto's eyes bugged out and his mouth opened to scream but the transformation covered his face, changing it to wood and forever freezing his expression into that of endless torment. Meanwhile, while his blood thickened and slowly changed to sap, his heartbeat shallowly, sent golden sap to each part of the tree. His brain vibrated helplessly, unable to communicate with the rest of Kabuto's body, and Kabuto's consciousness declined, groaning as the tree that used to be his body arched forward.
Kabuto died there, petrified in the form of a ghastly tree.
In the future, when people discovered the human-shaped tree wearing a pair of pants and no shirt, it could only be identified by the shape of the horrifically protruding face on the tree and the pair of broken glasses at the foot of the tree.
Presently, Kimimaro walked past Kabuto to report his comrade's demise to their master.
Zetsu snorted. "Rest in piss, shithead."
Authors note
That's that for this chapter. Short and sweet, I say.
I'm having a bit of trouble writing the last three chapters of this story. My MSc internal defence is in June, and thats what's been bothering me. I'm essentially done writing my dissertation, but my mind has been picking it apart. I'm antsy. If I somehow make it past the defence, 90% of the stress on me would be gone.
I'm looking at Sunday to resume uploading. Till then, I'll be updating Whisper Group.
Please check it out :D
See you when I see you,
Foy.