Fugaku hadn't even officially been inaugurated as the 5th hokage yet, and he already had a crisis on his hands. His simple plan to keep tabs on Orochimaru had unveiled a possible terrible secret the snake had been harboring. His protege, a 14 year old chunin prodigy Anko Mitarashi and her parents were missing because of him. "I must be honest Kakashi, something this...dire is the last thing I suspected. At worst I was expecting he had moved that Anko girl into ROOT somehow when you told me she was on some sort of *special assignment* for that snake."

Kakashi sighs as he glares at the 2 captured ninja he had brought in. Members from the interrogation corp made work of them to confirm they were in cahoots with Orochimaru, but the snake was clever enough to leave out any details that could lead anyone directly to him or where he had taken the Mitarashi family from them. Even members of the Yamanaka clan using their most advanced mind invasion techniques would just turn up dead end after dead end trying to get the answer from these guys. "Has Lord 3rd decided what we're doing about this? Orochimaru is-"

Fugaku cuts him short. "Lord 3rd is being informed right now, but as the next hokage I need to take action. Hizashi Hyuga and Shibi Aburame are on the snake's trail and you're coming with me to join up with them Kakashi. Orochimaru isn't a foe to underestimate and I don't plan to tolerate possible insubordination of any kind."

Fugaku motions for Aoba to hurry up and reach Hiruzen to catch him up to the current crisis, while Kakashi has a single bead of sweet drop down his face. The idea he might have to help battle and apprehend Orochimaru...one of the legendary sanin; didn't exactly hype him up. Maybe with the help of Fugaku and the others they stood a chance, but he knew he was still not on the level of these older more experienced jonin yet. He hated to admit it, but he worried that Obito's and Rin's deaths could end in vain if he failed to keep up and met his end early.

"Aoba! Hurry it up!" Fugaku commanded, snapping Kakashi out of his thoughts as he yelled at the lad's peer. "I know you're no Yamanaka but you can surely put in more effort than this!"

"Sir I'm trying!" The young chunin whined as he strained. "I need some cooldown between calls before I can make a stable connection with the mind-link communication jutsu." Fugaku grumbled, glared at the young man and crossed his arms in a display of annoyance and dominance. His intimidation seemed to work instantly as Aoba tightened up more and strained further to the point a vein in the boy's forehead could be seen. "O...kay, I'm reaching Lord...3rd!"

"Good. Once you're done chatting with him, you can wait here for Taika Uchiha to return and catch him up in person." Fugaku of course, like everyone other than Danzo and the few ROOT members he had with him were clueless about Taika's ambush by the shadowy man that rid him of sharingan and his life. "Kakashi, grab 2 shinobi you trust and meet me at the gates. I'll be grabbing some things before we head off." Fugaku then vanished out of the room, leaving just kakashi here with Aoba and a few other chunin he didn't recognise.

Aoba slumped back against the wall looking exhausted. "Gaaah, I've never had to do 2 mind-links back to back before...that Fugaku is going to be a real hardass once he's legitimately the 5th hokage, right Kakashi? No wonder the guy only won by a single vote, I'm surprised he won it all with an attitude like that."

Kakashi coughed awkwardly, being reminded yet again how he felt like the deciding vote that resulted in the Uchiha head's rise to power. It felt all the affirming that it WAS his vote since Fugaku had already personally selected him for this mission, and the task of recruiting 2 more to put to work for it. "So uh, what did Lord 3rd say?"

Hiruzen was visiting the Leaf village orphanage when he got the call from Aoba. He was frank with the boy, a simple "What do you need?" When he felt the link, and a quick "I'll forma plan immediately." Once Aoba informed him of the Mitarashi family situation and the rogue ninja posing as them by order of Orochimaru. He was good at keeping a strong, stoic front but truthfully he was in a state of shock. He worried his old student might try some scheme to undermine this election; but Hiruzen thought he would simply discretely sabotage Fugaku and influence the Daimyo and the Leaf Elders with Danzo to overturn the Uchiha and make himself the 5th hokage.

But this seemed to have nothing with the hokage election...it had been going on for nearly 2 months given what he was told. Hiruzen was scared to think what Orochimaru had done, and was going to do. More than anything, he felt so disappointed...not just in Orochimaru, but himself for failing to see this darkness in his student grow and manifest earlier. Maybe this would have been avoided.

He was then shaken out of his thought as he heard the infant Naruto crying in his crib. Hiruzen let a pained sigh escape his mouth as he watched the baby jinchuriki. He hated how he hadn't decided on what to do with the boy. For now, he was stuck away in a small room alone at the orphanage only being given what he needed. Hiruzen knew this place wouldn't be his long term option; no once he was old enough to walk and talk on his own they were going to send him off. It was going to entirely come down to Hiruzen to take care of little Naruto when that time came.

He shuddered to think of the possibility that Danzo and Orochimaru may be planning to use him for their own goals...a thought that brought him back into a sadness. Hiruzen had failed to save Orochimaru from the darkness, and now the 3rd hokage was living to see this failure. He had to take care of this first, Naruto's fate could be held off a bit longer. He gently rubbed the little blonde head of the lad before taking his leave.

Hiruzen rushed for his private residence, pushing away the worries for Naruto and focusing back onto his former pupil. He carried this feeling of unease, of dissappointment, and self-loathing as he dreaded the possibility of needing to trade blows with Orochimaru. His star and favorite pupil, his greatest failure.

In the Stone village, Kitsuchi and his acting right hand men Gari who led their specialized explosion corps and his cousin Roshi who hosted the 4 tails Son Goku; were in the midst of formulating their plans for a swift takeover of the Lock Village and the Land of Keys. Unbeknownst to the other villages, the sole reason the Stone could even attempt such a campaign was because they were the first to capture a Lock ninja alive and found a way to undo their seal of silence. Their Daimyo's request of conquest was only viable safely now thanks to this. The ninja they had captured was a specialist from the Lock who had tried to abduct the Stone's 4 tails jinchuriki, Roshi.

They were oblivious that Roshi was on his way to meet with Kitsuchi as the two intended to have a day of training when this attempted kidnapping transpired. Roshi and Kitsuchi may have been aggravated over this attack, but Onoki saw the possibility to turn this into an advantage. The hidden Lock has always been a mystery to the other villages. They never attended political hearings, never attempted negotiations or alliance, and were rarely seen. It's no wonder the other villages were so willing to allow the Stone to crush them and take their lands. If anything, getting the Lock out of the way was doing everyone a service.

"I will lead the assault," Kitsuchi explained with a stern tone. "I'll take about 50 of our shinobi with me directly and tear through their center to tackle and keep their main defenses busy. While I'm handling them, Gari you'll take the explosion corps and protect our rear. Prevent any reinforcements from jumping us. Roshi, I'll need you to take a squad of at least 30 and take advantage of my forces distracting most of their fighters. You're to start rounding up their civilians. It's imperative you especially ensure the children of the Lock are kept out of harm. They're young, and so they're going to be far easier under our rule and converting into proud Stone shinobi."

Roshi chuckled, rubbing his beard as he looked Kitsuchi dead in the eye. "You're already thinking ahead like a kage cousin, but are you sre you want to put the job of civilian round up on me? If something were to happen during the invasion and the beast comes out-"

Kitsuchi cuts him off with firm assurance, "Won't happen. You haven't lost control in years. You're no perfect jinchuriki, but you have a firm grip of control on it. You won't slip up Roshi." The jinchuriki smiled softly at Kitsuchi's trust. "Gari? Do you have any objections?"

The explosion corps captain shrugged and appeared generally uneasy. "I was the only other one between the 3 of us who was at that meeting of the 5 kage and Hanzo...I can't help but shake something about us being given free reign to do this feels off. Even if the other major villages hate the Lock as much as we do, why didn't Hanzo speak out against it? Was he simply happy to be given such a generous sum for hosting that meeting that he was willing to turn a blind eye to the destruction of a village even smaller than his own?"

Kitsuchi grumbled, and furrowed his brow. "So you picked up on that too, eh? Hanzo The Salamander renowned for his defense of the Rain and preaching against the major powers abusing the minor villages dared to only give an unsettling look as my father was granted blessing to demolish the Lock. I think my father is suspicious of it as well, but he hasn't said a word of it to me. If I were to guess..." Kitsuchi scratched at his beard and seemed to be growing uncomfortable as he worried, "Hanzo may use this as a calling card to the smaller villages to finally rally behind him. Perhaps form an alliance of sorts between all of them."

Roshi scoffed, "Even if they all got together, their combined powers would still fall short of our numbers-"

"And that's a sizable force we don't need to start accounting for!" Kitsuchi shook his head, ridding any doubts in the moment for himself. "Regardless, we have our order from the Earth Daimyo himself. We'll complete our mission, I'll become Tsuchikage and my father will surely form some sort of plot to tackle whatever Hanzo might be planning."

Gari narrowed his eyes at the large man, reminding him that "You mean YOU will formulate a plan to deal with anything Hanzo might be plotting? Don't forget sir, YOU will be the Tsuchikage once your father steps down."

Roshi pats his cousin on the back to show support, "You'll be a good one too, but Gari has a point. I know it must be weird, thinking of a future Stone without Onoki's stubborn leadership guiding the way, but you'll be the one calling the shots soon."

Kitsuchi clenched his fists for a moment before relaxing. "Right...right." He sounded unsure of that. He felt like he was going to ultimately just be Tsuchikage in name only. After all, he would still need his father's advice, he would still need to follow his father's example and abide by the treaties and pacts his father made while in office. Including the agreement that still made his stomach so uneasy. "I'll just be a Tsuchikage with a daughter trapped in an arranged marriage to some enemy village in the hopes of an alliance through their children decades from now."

Roshi and Gari both looked empathetic for the man. It couldn't have been easy watching your father agree to trade your only daughter's romantic future for the mere possibility of taking advantage of some agreement. Kitsuchi breathed heavily and recomposed himself into a stern expression. "That's a matter I can worry about after this mission; when I wear the robes."

Five minutes. Five whole minutes since the Ino-Shika-Cho trio arrived and confronted the ROOT members currently holding Hiashi Hyuga as a hostage. The 2 trios had been silent this whole time, waiting for the other to make a move. Waiting for an opening. Waiting for the excuse to use deadly force if needed. A swarm of bugs from the Aburame ROOT member still hovered over Hiashi, as well as another swarm in plain sight to no doubt keep their focus split. Shikaku figured there had to be at least one more swarm hiding somewhere, either in the Aburame's body or possibly spread out amongst the trees. The Inuzuka ROOT was simpler to read. He was without a ninja hound companion, so easy to assume he was saving it as a trump card of sorts. Then there was the 3rd ROOT member, whose status as a Hyuga was unknown to the Ino-Shika-Cho group.

Shikaku smirked and fdinally asked the ROOT members, "So what exactly is your goal here? We just want some basic info on you guys, straight order from the next hokage and approved by the 3rd. We have authority to arrest you lot now that you're openly defying their wishes. Before you answer, I already know you can't say anything so save us the time and trouble and GET your boss to have a nice little sit-down with Fugaku."

The Hyuga ROOT shook his head, "The hokage's authority ends here. You are lucky to be alive at all."

The Aburame nodded his head, stating rather emotionlessly that, "The 3rd hokage giving our location away is practically a violation. Turn back, and tell the next hokage that he will meet our master only when our master deems it fit. We'll even return this man to you, but only if you leave."

Chouza groaned and Inoichi communicated to his 2 comrade through a mind-link. "These guys don't give a damn about the hokage's wishes. I know we were all suspicious of this foundation already, but something is OFF about them. It's like they value this Danzo guy more than the village."

Shikaku communicated back through the link, "Yeah, couple a slaves to his will it seems. Bummer. Well, I really wanted this to be an easy job. I thought Danzo would be cooperative enough to give us at least basic info to report to Fugaku with...but I'm happy to take it by force. Formation 11 boys."

Shikaku quickly began weaving hand signs. The Inuzuka lunged at him with his Tunneling Fang, but Chouza had intercepted the attack and blocked the attempt to harm Shikaku. His expansion jutsu allowed him to tank the heat, and smack the canine shinobi away. The openly lingering Aburame bug swarm flew towards the Akimichi head, but the bug caster was shouted at by the Hyuga ROOT to, "Move! Yamanaka is forming hand signs behind the Akimichi!"

All 3 ROOT members leapt away from their positions, knowing they couldn't sit still and be a target for the mind transfer jutsu. Chouza smirked and performed another expansion jutsu, this time only on his right arm. He used his now utterly massive hand to grip and rip a tree out of the ground before he began to swing it around to further keep the 3 at bay.

The Hyuga root shouted to his comrades that, "The 2 behind the giant are done with their hand signs! Be ready." The Aburame swiftly weaved just 3 hand signs and the bugs over Hiashi engulfed him once more. The bug swarm held the Hyuga up in the air, reminding the Ino-Shika-Cho they were the ones with the hostage here and not them.

Ionichi then jumped out from behind Chouza, his palms formed for one his clan's special techniques that served niche capabilties. The ROOT agents all jumped again, easily getting out of his line of sight, much to Inoichi's delight. He hadn't been aiming for any of them, he was aiming for Hiashi. "Mind Berserk Jutsu!"

Hiashi's eyes opened sharply, the white of his sclera reddening as a rage so severe overtook him and forced him awake despite the amount of chakra lost. He lost all sense of self preservation, and quickly unleashed what he could out of a Rotation jutsu. He dispelled the bugs, killing majority of the swarm that held him and plopped to the forest floor as he was now totally devoid of chakra. He quickly fell asleep due to the immense toll his body took from performing such a strong rotation with so little chakra, but Shikaku and the others were sure he wouldn't be too mad about doing this to him.

The Root ninja were shocked to see such a tactic used by standard Leaf forces. No doubt Hiashi would be Out of Commission for days, possibly over a week from the amount of lost chakra that took from the man. It was an extreme call, and one that greatly handicapped the Root trio as the Aburame had only half his bugs to work with now and no spare swarm to hold their hostage. A shadow then launched out from under Chouza, using the shadow the giant cast to reach farther, and farther even more thanks to the shadow of the tree Chouza gripped. This gave him MORE than enough needed darkness to reach Hiashi, grabbing him and yoinking him away while he split his stretching shadow up and sent 3 streaks headed for each Root member.

The 3 once again were on the defensive and had to keep away from their attacks, while being mindful of Chouza swingign the tree around AND having to keep track of Inoichi and his jutsu. The Inuzuka landed in a tree out of the shade and quickly stabbed his thumb. "Summoning Juts-" The Inuzuka then froze as Inoichi dropped down from the tree Chouza had been swinging around. "Mind Posession Jutsu Success!" Inoichi thought as he wasted no time, and took advantage of the Inuzuka's superior taijutsu skills and physical strengths. He slammed against the Aburame, knocking him in range of Shikaku's shadows.

"Shadow Stitching Jutsu!" The bug master was quickly crucified by the shadows. Dealt with and hung up by the leader of the Ino-Shika-Cho by his shadows stabbing him in enough non-lethal spots to restrain him but keep him alive to avoid anymore inner village political troubles. Inoichi still inhabitating the Inuzuka then landed inside the range of Shikaku's shadow, and allowed the shadow possession to head his way, just before he released the jutsu and returned to his body.

Just as the Root ninja awake to having his body again, he was trapped and caught by the shadow.

Only the Hyuga Root was left, and he had spent all this time avoiding Chouza's massive attacks while failing to get a good counter in. He was in no state to handle Inoichi launching kunai and shuriken his way. He used a rotation to deal with them and swat away Chouza's incoming tree swing. However, his rotating defensive wasn't going to last as Chouza popped a food pill. "SUPER EXPANSION JUTSU!" Using his gargantuan size, Chouza needed only to kick the rotation, shattering it's defense completely and sending the Hyuga flying through the forest before he crashed against a tree.

Shikaku smirked, and ordered his giant friend to, "Knock out these other 2. We're bringing these guys in to MAKE Danzo come talk and spill his guts."

Inoichi cleared his throat, gesturing at the still unconscious Hiashi Hyuga. "Relax Inoichi, we'll drop him off at the medical unit on the way." At least one of the 2 teams dispatched by the 3rd and Fugaku was doing well.

Kakashi waited for Fugaku at the front gate for the Leaf village as the Uchiha had requested. He was anxious wondering why the soon to be 5th hokage hadn't gotten here first. Kakashi knew he said he was grabbing something before the mission, but he was able to find 2 of his peers as instructed and brought them here already.

The 2 friends he selected were among the best of their generation just as he was. The young man to his left looked rather bored as he played with the toothpick like ninja tool in his mouth and adjusted his durag that bore the Leaf's insignia. He didn't protest at all when Kakashi asked for his help with this. The lad was already personally chosen as one of Minato's bodyguards thanks to his skills and was already accustomed to being asked by a hokage to drop everything on a whim from the village boss. Kakashi knew that Genma was probably the best person to ask to tag along, and besides Genma probably enjoyed the fact he could make an early good impression on the soon to be 5th hokage.

The other peer of his he asked to come along...lacked any of the cool or calm that Genma displayed. Might Guy excitedly jogged in place, a fierce look of determination on his face. "Kakashi! You're FOR REAL that Fugaku wants help with this Orochimaru business?! RIGHT?! It's not some prank! We're gonna have to duke it out you and me if it's a prank!"

"Guy I told you already, this is urgent and legit. We have at least 3 missing people, including a chunin girl younger than us that's the direct protege to Orochimaru. We have 2 elite jonin already tailing him and we need to back them up in case things head south." Guy shook with excitement and kicked the air a few times in excitement. Kakashi sighed as he felt a bead of sweat dropping down his face. Normally Guy's enthusiasm didn't bother him, but given how serious this was it was growing old quick. "Genma you were on the same genin team as him, how do I calm him down and make him realize how deadly serious this is?"

Genma looked Kakashi dead in the eyes. "Ya can't." He then smirked and decided to tease Kakashi, "Hey Guy, think you need to open anything past the 3rd gate for this?"

"OH FOR OROCHIMARU YOU CAN BET OUR COMBINED REMAINING DAYS OF YOUTH THAT I'LL HAVE TO!"

Kakashi rubbed a hand over his face in exasperation as he began debating if Guy was the right person to ask for this while Genma chuckled at how easy it was to get some fun out of this. The young bodyguard let Guy work a bit more of his excitement off before reminding him, "Seriously though Guy, don't cha wanna be a lil more proper for our next hokage? He might kick you from this if he thinks you're as excitable as a puppy."

Guy then froze stiff as a board. "Oh my GOD you're right! I have to show him my strict DISCIPLINE!" He was now standing straight as humanly possible with his hands tucked to his sides and legs practically glued together.

Kakashi whispered a quick, "Thanks." To Genma who simply winked back at him as they waited for Fugaku to arrive so they could head out before Orochimaru could leave the Land of Fire. Kakashi wasn't sure what could be worse for his hidden anxiety. Is it better if he got here later or sooner? He tried to push those thoughts away as there was a comrade possibly in danger. He had to stay resolved for her sake.

It wasn't long until Fugaku finally arrived, clad in his jonin uniform and carrying a large scroll on his back. "Kakashi, these are the 2 I presume?" The young jonin nodded his head once. Fugaku looked over Guy and Genma and noted how they each had a chunin flak jacket on. That was good. "We won't waste time on small talk now. We need to hurry and catch up with Shibi and Hizashi before Orochimaru ventures too far. You 2 can introduce yourselves on the way."

Fugaku quickly took off at the lead and the 3 young shinobi followed after him. As Guy enthusiastically introduced himself, Kakashi eyed the large scroll Fugaku had brought along. He assumed it had to be one of those armory scrolls carrying dozens of ninja tools and weapons, but he had never heard of Fugaku being a master of weapons. Perhaps it was a summoning contract of sorts? It bothered him not knowing what factor Fugaku was bringing along this mission.

"Lord Fugaku!" Kakashi rose his voice to be ehard before moving momentariyl faster to be right by his side as they jumped through the tree tops. "The scroll you've brought along, what's it for?"

Fugaku kept his gaze ahead, and simply told Kakashi that, "It contains a great ninja tool. A powerful sealing jar called The Jigoku no fuin. Should Orochimaru prove problematic, we will trap him inside to return him back home so we can get our answers. There are few ways to break loose of it, hence why I also seal it away in such a powerful scroll. Only someone as well versed in sealing jutsu as Lords 3rd and 4th could counter something if fallen victim to it."

The 3 lads seem impressed hearing their leader was bringing along such a powerful set of items. It...brought some ease to Kakashi. Still, he thought to himself that "Even with the number advantage, and a set of powerful sealing tools...all this won't matter much if the worst has already happened to that Anko girl..." Quick flashes of the last times he saw Rin and Obito raced through his mind as he pressed on with the others.

Hiruzen had quickly changed into his battle attire once he had reached his home. He wanted to waste no time and join the pursuit of Orochimaru. He was trying to stay optimistic that the snake shinobi hadn't gone too far yet and could still be pulled from the darkness. Just as he was exiting out his window, he felt a pit in his stomach as he saw 2 of the last faces he wanted to look at right now.

"Sarutobi, we need to talk. You can not avoid us any longer." Homura Mitokado one of the Leaf council heads stood on a nearby rooftop with a stern, almost spiteful expression. The man may have served under Tobirama with him and was a close advisor, but anyone who saw him now would think he hated the 3rd hokage.

"Your actions since that meeting with the other villages have been nothing but shameful and foolish." Koharu Utane, another of the Leaf's top councilors and an old teammate to Hiruzen as well glared down Hiruzen as well. "You never consulted us about any of this election nonsense and now there's word of a hunt for Orochimaru? You must explain yourself at once."

Hiruzen furrowed his brow and sternly told them, "Whatever complaints you have to moan about can wait. I'm needed at the moment; so drop this for the time being.''

Koharu shook her head, "You will hear us now Lord 3rd. You have allowed ultimate authority to fall into the lap of the man who very well may be responsible for the 9 tails attack. Need I remind you we're still rebuilding?"

Hiruzen scoffed and was growing more and more impatient. "Rumors and gossip built on no foundation other than prejudiced fear!" Hiruzen wanted to waste no more time arguing and took off, but the 2 councilors pursued. They were adamant he hear them at last.

Homura shouted as he tried catching up, "This isn't JUST about Orochimaru and Fugaku being the next hokage Sarutobi! You've already allowed him to investigate ROOT as well!" Hiruzen felt his heart speed up for a moment. How did they already know about that? "If that man figures out a way to surcumvent Danzo and take ROOT for himself, we will live in a tyranical Uchiha state! You must revoke the election and-"

Hiruzen began weaving hand signs, landing on a nearby rooftop to allow them time enough to catch up so they'd be in range. He leapt off the building, flipping in mid air so he could turn around and cast his genjutsu on them so he could escape this troublesome berating. "Bringer Of Darkness!"

The two councilors fell victim to the powerful technique. Both losing their ability of sight and crashing against the roof tops as they were left helpless in their own abyss of black. Hiruzen wasted no time and had already flipped back around; picking up greater speed as he rushed to leave the village.

Shibi and Hizashi remained at a safe distance on Orochimaru's trail. Thanks to their combo of the byakugan and his insects, they could stay far away from his own sensory abilities while observing him discretely. For their own safety though as an extra precaution the two jonin also adopted disguises as simple civilians to better blend in and avoid drawing attention.

Ever since that Aoba boy had contacted them on behalf of Fugaku, their wariness towards the sanin had grown exponentially. Sure, so far they'd only seen him parous an art gallery and purchase some food but now that they knew he was up to something possibly diabolical put an intense fear in them about this whole thing. There was a family missing, at a minimum and they still had no clue where he was headed so casually all alone. He was still traveling along a main road, passing civilians, samurai and even another ninja squad and remained totally calm. Hizashi and Shibi hoped nothing incriminating that needed them to jump into action against him would occur until their backup arrived.

To make finding them possible, Shibi had been placing small swarms of his bugs to behind to form a trail, and considering the fairly normal pace they were moving at it shouldn't be too long before a hurried group of ninja would catch up and ease their worries about a possible battle with Orochimaru.

Hizashi in the meantime however, had to turn his byakugan off and give his eyes a rest. "Shibi, you have to keep track of him alone for a while. Can you handle that?" The bug master nods his head, sending a few extra insects out to catch up and supply some more eyes and ears on the serpent shinobi. "As far as I can tell, I still doubt he's aware of our pressence. I believe him killing one of your beetles at the art gallery was merely him being annoyed by a bug. Unless he somehow recognised it as an Aburame insect and he's leading us into a trap with a level head."

Shibi rubbed the bottom of his chin, contemplating if that was the position they were actually in. "I'm not sure he would stick to the main roads for this long if it were true. Furthermore, I think he would have sneakily summoned a few snakes to look out for my bugs and dispose of them to make our pursuit more difficult. Also consider-"

"He could also be leading us somewhere entirely safe if he knows we're on him." Shibi gave him a mean side eyed glare for the interuption but the younger Hyuga twin went on. "He might continue doing harmless, nonchalant things until we think he's clear. Although he has no clue we have this intel on the Mitarashi family and the fact he's somehow begun employing rogue ninja. No...he thinks he's perfectly safe out here without any followers." Hizashi finished, truly thinking they had the upper-hand on the sanin...at least in terms of their pursuit.

After a short while Orochimaru longer of tailing him from a great and safe distance, one of Shibi's bugs returned to him. Landing on his finger, the Aburame head listened to what the insect had to report. "...Someone is walking beside him now. They're conversing apparently." Without hesitation, Hizashi activated his byakugan once more to confirm this. His vision shot through the distance until he identified Orochimaru's chakra signature again, and sure enough there was a mysterious figure with a chakra signature he couldn't recognise walking side by side with the sanin.

"You're right. Shit...do you think you can safely get some of your bugs closer to eavesdrop on them?"

Shibi let a worried sigh escape as he thought it over in his head. "To get a good, clear listen in on them I need to make sure a few land on them. Given how Orochimaru killed the beetle I had hovering over him in that art gallery earlier, I don't think it's possible. It could potentially expose us and ruin our chance to keep tracking him. You don't get to his level without being keen to every oddity."

Hizashi gulped, realizing they would have to keep following him as they were or risk getting closer just to gain possibly some more intel. To top it off, now they have to worry about whatever factor this mystery man brought to the table. Hizashi felt a weak smirk come to his face. "Alright. You stay back. I'll hurry on ahead and figure a way to find this man's identity at the very least."

"What?! Hizashi you can't be-" Before he could finish protesting, Hizashi body flickered away and went on ahead with his ballsy idea. "-serious. Shit."

The Kazekage's chambers were quiet, tense, and crowded. Rasa the 4th Kazekage was accompanied by Lady Chiyo and Lord Ebizo as well as a handful of the Sand's anbu. It wasn't just them, the Kazekage's wife and his first 2 children were in bed with her. The kids were hugging their mother, simply telling her goodnight as they were clueless about what was to transpire once they left the room. Their mother hugged each of them tightly, assuring they each knew she loved them so much.

Rasa felt a lump forming in his throat, debating if he should cut the moment short and order his kids off to bed so they could begin. The thought crossed his mind. It wouldn't take long, and they would all be back to normal ideally once it was finished...should the beast sealing be a success. He had no way of knowing what if any effects would come from this. No one had ever attempted a tailed beast sealing into an unborn child before. There was a good chance something could go wrong. Rasa swallowed hard at the thought.

"Kankuro, Temari..." Rasa finally spoke up. "Give your mother another hug, and then it's off to bed." The toddlers did as they were told. Rasa watched as his wife tightly held them before she uneasily let go, knowing she couldn't delay this. Her brother Yashamaru gave her an encouraging hug as well, before he took the hands of his niece and nephew to take them to bed. The kazekage eyed the massive jar across the room that held the dreaded 1 tails Shukaku before he looked back at his wife. "You're still certain you're alright with this Karura?"

She gave her husband a trusting look as some doctors and nurses came in, on standby should anything go wrong during the sealing effort. "I am. For the Sand village's future, and so our baby can become a great hero for our country one day. " Karura gently rubbed her barely visible stomach bump that showed she was only a few months along her pregnancy. "He'll be so strong, like his father."

Rasa inhaled deeply, and turned to Chiyo and Ebizo as he ordered them with a strict tone. "We'll begin now."

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio stood guard over the 3 ROOT members they had apprehended earlier, watching them chained up and locked behind a cell deep in the village. They had to drop poor Hiashi off at the hospital due to his lack of chakra from the battle, but they were thankful Danzo's forces seemed smart enough to not attack them so openly in the village.

"So what's the plan now?" Chouza asks impatiently. "We can't watch over these guys forever. Do we just WAIT until Danzo or more of his goons come for them and make our demands for him to just sit down and talk with Fugaku? This all is starting to seem like a waste of time."

"Don't be too hasty Chouza." Shikaku responds as he leans against the wall, keeping a close eye on the captured ninja. "We're still in the dark here. We don't know anything more than when we started this. What we do have, is a bargaining chip. Danzo spends a real long time training his ninja. They're awful valuable cuz of that. He'll wise up and listen once he hears we have 3 of em."

Inoichi chuckles as he feels a sense of pride. "You know we may be the first folks in the village who got an upper hand on that bastard! We should celebrate and get WASTED once we don't have to be vigilant about this ordeal."

Shikaku and Chouza both appeared excited about that idea. It was definitely well deserved. Shikaku stretches some and takes a seat nearby so he wasn't wasting so much energy standing around waiting. "Maybe we can get some junior to be a messenger for us. Have them grab those old ags on the council and give em an update to all this."

Inoichi nods, "That would certainly speed things up. I'm the most familiar with the intelligence building and it's members so I'll take a look around and see who I can find." The Yamanaka head rushed out of the room, not wanting to leave his friends alone with 3 ROOT members, even if subdued, for too long.

Once he was out of the room, Inoichi searched for the first Leaf Ninja he could find. In his search, he passed by the cellroom holding the 2 rogue ninja that had been employed by Orochimaru to pose as the Mitarashi parents. Of course, he was currently unaware of that whole situation. Quickly enough, he came across a tired Aoba on his way to grab his food from the break room. "Hey! Young man, excuse me!"

The chunin groaned as he felt rather disrespected at one of the top members of this corps not recognising him. "Oh, Inoichi sir...do you need me for something?" He asked rather tiredly as he was still worn out from being hooked up to their mind-link extendor machine so he could reach Shibi, Hizashi and then Lord Hiruzen to catch them up earlier. He figured Inoichi wouldn't need him of all people to do that given the Yamanaka's mind skills were far superior to his own.

"Yeah, I've got a development some people need to know about. Can you rush to the hokage's building on my behalf? Let Lord 3rd, the soon to be Lord 5th and maybe those councilors know that we have an in to force a certain someone into talking now."

Aoba cringed at the request. "Sir, Lord 3rd and Fugaku Uchiha aren't in the village." Inoichi blinked a few times with an owlish expression. How could that be? Had something drastic come up that needed both of them? He was only given this mission a few hours ago what could possibly have transpired in that time? "There's, an incident involving Lord Orochimaru..." The sunglasses wearing chunin caught Inoichi up to speed, leaving the man rather shocked.

Inoichi acted fast, performing a mind-link with his teammates to let them know as well. Thankfully they were still in the same building as him so there was no need for a machine of any kind for greater distance linking. After getting Shikaku and Chouza caught up, Shikaku immediately jumped to what they needed to do. "Seems Fugaku wanting to gather up dirt on Orochimaru and Danzo was a great call from his gut afterward. We can't rule out that Danzo isn't somehow involved. After all, you guys might not be privy to this, but Danzo proposed Orochimaru for the 4th hokage originally and seems generally like minded with him. Our goal to get some basic info out of the man has changed. We need to make sure he and his ROOT thugs stay inside the Leaf Village. We can't have them possibly link up with Orochimaru. Inoichi, stay put here to watch these 3 we already caught and be ready to send out any messages I need you to. Chouza and I have some work to do."

The Akimichi head worriedly asked, "Hold on Shikaku what are you thinking up exactly? We still don't know how many guys Danzo has under his thumb or where he even is! How are you gonna get something like that done?"

"It won't be easy, but with Hiruzen and Fugaku gone...I'm the next in charge. Consider me the acting authority. Inoichi, try to reach out to as many shinobi you trust that might still be in the village. Tell them to meet me on the hokage's monument in one hour. Chouza, you're coming with me."

Inoichi sighed and briefly spoke to Aoba who was still beside him. "Boy, you have some communication jutsu don't you? Familiar with similar jutsu to my clan's?"

Aoba groaned as he knew exactly where this was going already.

Shikaku went on, wrapping the mind-link up with a confident, "We still haven't finished rebuilding since the 9 tails attacked, so we can't let one more disaster befall the Leaf. We need to hold down the fort and put an early stop to whatever the hell those shady bastards are up to."

Author's notes: Holy shit thats the longest chapter yet but very needed. There's only 3 chapters left for the prologue and then we'll be in the next part of this story. Let me know what ya'll think so far and what I can do better to improve the story or general writing, and hopefully I can finish this little prologue arc before July begins. And yes next chapter we'll see the Cloud and Mist since they weren't in this one lol