Hiashi Hyuga walked the streets of Konoha, smiling assuringly at each civilian he passed by. Konoha's streets were far less crowded than was typical. People were at home, spending time with their loved ones and doing their best to remain out of the way of Konoha's nin. With trade in and out of the village all but halted, freezing the economy, there was nothing else for the civilians to do.
The most recent reports from the front of the war were not inspiring. Shikaku and Shisui were losing ground in the north, the numbers of the Iwa nin overwhelming them. To the west, Fugaku was still holding strong, but he too was under assault from an ever-growing number of nin. One had to wonder where Iwa was hiding these numbers.
Hiashi paused, frowning as his activated byakugan showed him something out of the ordinary. Though they never divulged the information, it was rare to find a Hyuga that was not privy to the identity of at least a single ANBU in the village. Their eyes allowed them to easily see past the masks to the face of the ANBU themselves. For a Hyuga who was involved in as many political decisions as Hiashi was, it was rare for him to see an ANBU he had never encountered before. Why then, had he suddenly come across seven?
There was a group of ANBU huddled together atop a roof several streets over that had just entered Hiashi's range. The ANBU were communicating with hand signs he did not recognize.
'Status?' Hiashi sent.
The ANBU all froze. Hiashi's frown deepened.
'Everything's fine up here. Nothing to worry yourself about.' Hiashi received the reply. His frown deepened.
As the use of Telepathy became more and more prevalent throughout the village, the strict adherence to using as brief messages as possible had waned, but that was mostly when one was using them to communicate with a close friend. To a fellow shinobi asking if you required aid, the reply should have been brief. Hiashi cast another Telepathy.
'Be on guard. Something feels wrong. Watch the ANBU for suspicious activity.'
'Hai.' The reply was immediate, though this came from a different source.
Hizashi Hyuga, Hiashi's brother, had been patrolling the streets of Konoha with him ever since Shikaku's departure. They were not the only Hyuga to do so. Shikaku, Fugaku, Chouza, and Inoichi had all trusted the Hyuga with the security of their home, and the Hyuga would not fail their new allies.
Hiashi marched with purpose towards the gathering of strange ANBU. Seeing the focused look on his face, civilians fled his path, many gathering up their children and rushing away. Hopefully, Hiashi was frightening them for nothing. Surely an enemy had not made it so far into the village? There must be some other explanation for this.
Another team of ANBU entered the range of Hiashi's byakugan. Three nin running side by side, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
Hiashi's frown deepened. These individual's had no expression on their face. They were not tired. Not determined. They were devoid of all expression not unlike a corpse would be.
'Status?' Hiashi sent. Hiashi flinched as, unexpectedly, the casting failed to find a target. That was impossible. He'd targeted all three of the individuals. There was no way that…
'Four ANBU placing explosive tags in shopping district!' The urgent voice of Hizashi Hyuga cut through Hiashi's thoughts.
Immediately, Hiashi sent up a massive chakra flare, simultaneously sending a Telepathy message to every Hyuga he had assigned to patrol Konoha.
'We are under attack! Defend the civilians! Defend our home!'
No sooner had his warning been sent out than a massive fireball erupted in the distance. It was far away, on the other side of the village. Another, equally far in a different direction.
Chakra flares rose up all around him. Hiashi saw ANBU he recognized flickering back and forth, whisking civilians away to safe locations.
'Telepathy is compromised! ANBU has been infiltrated! Show you are Konoha nin!' Hiashi sent them all.
"ANBU, masks off!" the team captain, standing across the road from Hiashi, yelled. As he threw his Leopard mask to the side, the ANBU's eyes met Hiashi's for a brief moment. Hiashi Hyuga and Hiroshi Hayashi shared a nod, flickering away in opposite directions to save their home.
X
It was chaos.
All around Hizashi Hyuga people were screaming; blood was flying. Nin in Konoha ANBU masks attacked civilians. Some civilians drew weapons and whirled around to strike at those nearest them.
Konoha had been infiltrated. How Konoha had been infiltrated was a mystery, one that would need to wait for later.
Hizashi batted away a kunai streaking towards his face, charging up to the nin that had thrown it and striking his tenketsu points, rendering him useless.
Hizashi focused on the expanded awareness granted to him by his clan's signature eyes. There was pandemonium in every direction. Fighting had broken out in the streets and on the rooftops. Fortunately, the invading force did not appear to be very large. Konoha's true ANBU had quickly regrouped and were now chasing down small, isolated groups of infiltrators. Konoha nin and civilians alike lay dead on the ground, but nothing could be done for them now. Once the threat was dealt with, they could be buried, but before that–
Hizashi's eyes narrowed as he noticed a minute detail, invisible to anyone without a byakugan. Drifting away from one group of invaders fleeing Konoha's nin were thin threads drifting up into the air – chakra strings. Now that Hizashi was looking for them, he noticed dozens more, drifting up from over half of the invading force.
'All Konoha nin! There is an enemy puppet master in the area!' Hizashi sent to every Konoha nin he could feel in his range.
'Where?' Hiashi replied immediately.
'The strings extend beyond the northern wall of Konoha. You are on the other side of the village. The puppeteer is out of my range.'
'They are strong then. Do not engage them alone. I am coming.'
'Understood, brother. I will–'
Hizashi's head snapped to the right. Konoha nin had engaged a lone infiltrator. They were losing. Badly.
The intruder wore a long, dark cloak with red clouds gathered near the ground. In his hands was a massive sword with a depression in the blade in the shape of a human neck. The man had a large, x-shaped scar on his right cheek and grinned evilly as he swung his sword back and forth, carving into the Konoha nin around him.
'Enemy nin giving ANBU trouble.' Hizashi sent to his brother.
'Stopping the puppeteer is more important. I see the chakra strings. I will meet you at their source.'
Hizashi frowned, but moved to follow the threads. Konoha's ANBU would need to deal with the threat on their own. If the puppeteer was allowed to continue controlling his army, far more damage would be done that anything a single nin could manage.
Hizashi leapt up onto a roof, running towards the source of the chakra strings. He had only taken seven steps when he spun around, already sprinting towards the enemy nin. The nin had dispatched the ANBU around him and was moving at speed towards a mother desperately fleeing with her son held in her arms, moving far faster than a civilian would be able to.
When Hiashi had told him of the duty the Hyuga had been charged with, he had made it clear that their clan's allies had left the security of the village, their clans and their families in the Hyuga's hands. Even now, Fugaku and Shisui Uchiha fought on the front line, holding back a terrifying force that sought to destroy Konoha, trusting the Hyuga to safeguard their home in their absence.
The Hyuga would be forever shamed if the Uchiha Clan Head's wife and son were killed under their guard.
'Mikoto Uchiha and her son are in danger. Attack near Akimichi Grill. I am intervening.' Hizashi sent his brother.
'I am turning back. Hold on, brother.' Hiashi sent. Hizashi did not have time to wait, the enemy nin was almost upon Mikoto Uchiha.
Hizashi flickered into the road between Mikoto and the striking nin, slapping the flat of the large sword descending towards her to deflect it away.
"Flee with your son." Hizashi said, curt.
Hizashi saw Mikoto's eyes boring into his back, her sharingan spinning in her eyes. The woman nodded curtly, then was gone, dashing away from the confrontation.
The enemy moved to follow her, but Hizashi stepped into his path, lunging forward towards his neck.
This man was far better than the other infiltrators, snaking back away from his attack, countering with the hilt of his sword.
Hizashi leapt backwards, falling into a practiced stance as he faced off with the swordsman.
"A Hyuga, huh?" the dark-robed nin said, hefting his sword up to rest it on his shoulder. With a cocky grin, he said, "I heard your eyes fetch a good price in Kumo. I'll be sure to pluck them out before I get the bitch and the brat."
"You will not harm them while I live." Hizashi said.
The man's grin widened. "Good." His body turned into a blue as he sped towards Hizashi.
Without his byakugan, Hizashi was uncertain he'd have been able to track the man's movements. He was fast.
Hizashi sidestepped the strike, lashing out with a kick. The man ducked under the strike, charging forward with his shoulder.
Hizashi leapt up to avoid the blow that would have thrown him off balance, leaving him suspended in the air. Far in the distance, Hizashi saw Hiashi enter his byakugan's range, rapidly charging towards his position. He'd likely seen Hizashi before Hizashi had seen him. Hiashi's range had always been bigger, his skills better. Hizashi did everything he could to keep up with his brother, but Hiashi outshone him time and time again.
'Hold on.' Hiashi sent.
Hizashi smiled as his eyes tracked the grin of his opponent, the upward arc of the large sword held tight in the grasp of his foe.
'I love you brother. Please watch after Neji.'
Hizashi would not be able to dodge the strike in time. He had underestimate the swordsman. He was too strong. Hizashi could not beat him, but he could ensure the swordsman's defeat.
Rather than attempting to spin away from the strike as he was sure the swordsman expected, he rotated towards it.
With his eyes, he saw the swordsman's eyes widen as he attempted to move backward.
There was a squelching sound. Hizashi felt a slick fluid running down his stomach and legs. He stared challengingly across at the swordsman wrapped tight in his arms, preventing him from moving.
The man was only able to struggle for a moment before a kunai was buried in his throat. The swords man collapsed, his blade clattering to the ground. Hizashi's legs felt weak.
Hiashi caught him as he fell, hands frantically tearing away at Hizashi's blood-stained white robes to try to get at his injury. The nin his kunai had killed lay forgotten behind the frantic Hyuga Clan Head.
"Hizashi, hold on." Hiashi said, desperate.
Hizashi felt himself being scooped into his brother's arms. He was moving. He could not tell where. Strange. His eyes always showed him the entirety of what occurred around him. Now, his vision was fading. He felt tired.
Hizashi Hyuga closed his eyes.
X
'All Konoha nin! There is an enemy puppet master in the area!'
"Kaito! Can you find the puppeteer?" Hiroshi demanded in the wake of the Telepathy casting, wrenching a kunai free of the throat of one of the infiltrators. There was a small black seal at the base of his neck. Hiroshi made a mental note of the seal for later, but he had other, far more pressing concerns at present.
"There's a large chakra signature beyond the north wall." Kaito, the sensor of Hiroshi's team, called back.
"Everyone on me. We're going for the puppet master." Hiroshi ordered, already leaping up to a nearby roof. Kaito led the way, the rest of his team falling in behind him as he ran towards the source.
A nin leapt up onto the roof ahead of them. He recognized the man. Why was Kakashi Hatake here? He was supposed to be on the western front.
'Hold. My team is dealing with the puppet master.'
Hiroshi motioned for his team to hold, landing around the Copy-nin. 'Where is the puppeteer? Does your team not need assistance?'
'They will be fine. Shinto Nara is able to protect them all with shadow armor.'
Hiroshi frowned minutely. To anyone else, those words might have been the end of the conversation. Not Hiroshi. While he may have been a horrible excuse for a jonin sensei, he'd made certain to keep tabs on his one-time charges as they grew over the years. He knew that Shinto could not shroud others in his shadow armor.
"The roots beneath the trees." Hiroshi prompted, eyes narrowed, hand drifting towards his weapon pouch.
Around him, his team tensed, sensing the shift in Hiroshi.
Across from him, Kakashi's only visible eye narrowed. He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "It was worth a shot, right?" A cloud of smoke erupted around Kakashi, obscuring his movements. Kunai and shuriken flew out of the cloud in all directions.
Hiroshi quickly summoned a clone, swapping places with it to avoid the torrent of steel. Pai wasn't so lucky. She fell with a shuriken in her eye as the rest of Hiroshi's team leapt back. Four figures leat out of the cloud. Kakashi Hatake was not among them.
Each body had crimson red skin and horns protruding from their foreheads. The bodies leapt away in different directions, their nails lengthening into claws. Three of the figures charged towards members of Hiroshi's team. The last one leapt high over them, fleeing towards Konoha's wall.
'We've got this, captain! Go!' Kaito sent with Telepathy.
Hiroshi needed no more prompting. He trusted his team. He took off after the other figure, giving chase. The enemy could not be allowed to escape.
Hiroshi followed the demonic shinobi over the wall, hurling shuriken and kunai throughout his pursuit. Several of his kunai scored hits, but the demonic man didn't seem perturbed by the injuries. If anything, they made him run faster. Still, Hiroshi had been training nonstop for years. He was steadily catching up to the shinobi. It wouldn't be long before he caught his prey.
Hiroshi felt a prick in his arm. Immediately, he summoned a clone and swapped places with it. The clone exploded the moment he'd switched with it.
"About damn time!" the demonic man shouted, his voice gnarled and low.
"Did you accomplish your objective?" a cold, emotionless voice asked. A young man with red hair and a blank face emerged from between the trees. His fingers, just poking out of the sleeves of his dark cloak, twitched back and forth. The puppetmaster.
"Got sidetracked. I'll head back in a bit."
The red-haired man frowned. "It is too late. They are on guard now. You wasted our chance. And you brought a loose end with you."
Hiroshi inspected the man's face, his fists tightening as he realized who he was facing. He'd read every single Bingo Book entry published in the last five years in its entirety. There was no way he wouldn't recognize the man before him.
'Sasori of the Red Sand is controlling the puppets to the north of Konoha's wall. Requesting immediate assistance.' Hiroshi sent to every nin in his range with Telepathy. It was possible he'd contacted some of the infiltrators, but enough Konoha nin would have received his message to pass it along.
Sasori frowned. "And now they know I'm here. Well done, Ito. I'll be sure to inform Orochimaru of your ineptitude." Sasori turned around, walking away.
Hiroshi didn't hesitate, reaching into his weapon pouch to hurl a kunai at his enemy's exposed back. Hiroshi tried to grab a kunai…but his hand wouldn't close around the weapon. Looking down, Hiroshi saw a gleam of silver. There was a senbon sticking out of his arm.
Suddenly feeling irresistibly tired, Hiroshi staggered on his feet, falling heavily into a nearby tree in an attempt to remain upright. His vision was swimming. The world was spinning.
"Deal with the leaf-hugger then lets go. With both you and Juzo failing, mine was the only objective accomplished today. I will not allow our victory to be wasted because of a rat." Sasori said as he disappeared into the shadows of the trees.
The gleam of metal was the last thing Hiroshi ever saw.
X
If he had the energy, Danzo Shimura would have been furious. As it was, it was taking every ounce of strength the aging man possessed to hold the concentration on his technique.
"Shimura-sama! We've found three more infiltrators with seals at the base of their neck! An ANBU called.
"Place them inside the circle." Danzo commanded, managing to keep the tremor from his voice. It wouldn't do to show weakness.
This attack shouldn't have happened. It should have been impossible. Preventing events such as this was exactly why the ROOT existed. Konoha could not be threatened from the shadows if the shadows protected Konoha. That had always been the purpose behind his actions. Though Hiruzen often disagreed with his methods, Danzo had always done everything he could for the village. It seemed his efforts were nearly spent in vain.
"Can you contain them all?"
Without losing concentration on his technique or moving his hands from the seal he was holding, Danzo turned to look at his old friend.
"This is not a permanent solution, Hiruzen. Orochimaru keyed these seals to release a massive amount of chakra upon the host's death, perhaps even the ability to spread to other victims. The bodies must be dealt with immediately. My knowledge of sealing is insufficient to disarm Orochimaru's machinations."
Hiruzen pursed his lips as he looked over the mountain of corpses stacked within the dark sealing circle Danzo had painted onto the floor of ANBU's headquarters.
"You are sure this is Orochimaru's work, then?"
"There is no one else that could create such a complex seal, nor who would use it in such a way."
Hiruzen inhaled a long drag of his pipe, slowly exhaling the smoke. "How did they infiltrate the village?"
"I believe Orochimaru caught one of our nin unawares. In addition to the more destructive aspects, the seals contain a modicum of mental influence. If continuously applied in addition to other members, I believe it was possible that Orochimaru compromised one of our nin."
Hiruzen's eyes were hard. "And once he had one, he used them to get more, leading their allies into traps. They then would be able to help smuggle in Sasori's puppets. But they would not have revealed their infiltration without a goal. What did they seek to accomplish?"
"I do not know. I will investigate as soon as I have dealt with the seals."
"Very well. Do what needs to be done, Danzo. I am needed elsewhere." Hiruzen said, turning to leave.
"This is not the end, Hiruzen. The other villages will see this attack as proof of the Leaf's weakness. They will sense their opportunity and act on it."
Hiruzen paused. Without turning around, he said, "I know. It will be dealt with. Please dispose of my wayward pupil's vile projects." Hiruzen walked away, a host of ANBU descending around him as he moved, coming to give their reports and ask for further orders.
Danzo watched the display for only a moment longer. A bead of sweat dotted his brow as he turned his attention back to the pile of bodies in front of him.
The seal Orochimaru had placed on these nin truly was marvelous. A shame Danzo would not have the opportunity to reverse engineer it, but the safety of the village came first.
X
"Are you certain?" the burly form of Kumo's Raikage asked, glaring at the small, elderly man seated at the table across from him.
Onoki huffed, insulted at A's question. "I would not make a claim like this without certainty. Fugaku Uchiha is dead. Konoha is vulnerable."
"So long as Shisui Uchiha lives, Konoha still has a Susanoo." A countered.
Onoki grinned. "Then we remove Shisui Uchiha."
A's lips pulled into a thin line as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I am listening."
X
Rasa stared down at the stranger in his court with narrowed eyes. "I do not remember inviting you into my home."
The man was leaning up against a support column a short distance from the Kazekage's chair in the audience hall Where Rasa met with dignitaries or dealt with other official ceremonies. He wore a long dark cloak with red clouds above the lower hem. Dark, spiked hair poked up from behind his bright orange mask. There was only a single eye hole in the mask, revealed as the man turned to look at Rasa.
"Apologies, Kazekage, but I believe you will want to hear what I have to say."
X
Orochimaru had an excited gleam in his eye as he carefully worked with his tools, teasing flesh apart ever so carefully.
"Marvelous," Orochimaru said aloud, the bright red eye in his right eye socket showing him greater detail than he had ever been able to ascertain. "I did not expect so many to still be viable."
With careful precision, Orochimaru removed each precious project one after another, placing each into a separate dish. Some were placed in beakers filled with solutions of various colors. He had enough for redundancy, so he was willing, excited even, to experiment a little to see if he could find a combination that would enhance the genes even further.
With each sample secured, Orochimaru carefully closed up his prized project and sealed it away. Orochimaru did not consider himself sentimental, but he was not ashamed to admit that this subject, the Uchiha he'd recovered after killing Fugaku, was his favorite. It would have been positively perfect if he had been able to recover both Fugaku and the woman. He would have been able to do so much more with his prize if he had a male and a female subject, but he would make do. The woman was already a treasure trove.
Orochimaru organized his samples, cataloging them in journals, recording which genes were crossed with which samples to watch the effects as the subjects grew.
Once the eggs he'd harvested matured, he would use the data he recovered from finding which subjects survived to attempt a lower casualty rate when next he harvested material from the Uchiha woman.
With each consecutive group, casualties would continue to decrease. All the while, the previous generation would be injected with hormones to induce rapid growth and thrown to the pits. Those that failed to awaken sharingan or perished would be recovered for study to determine what went wrong in their growth. If any subjects were able to awaken a sharingan, they would be used to create repeat successes.
Orochimaru could not wait.
X
Jiraiya of the Sannin frowned, looking over the scroll in his hands, delivered by a toad, with a scrutinizing eye. While communicating through summons was the fastest method available, it wasn't instantaneous. The information he'd received about the attack was likely a day out of date by now. He needed to finish things here soon or all of his work these past months would be for nothing.
With a pulse of chakra, the scroll burst into flames. Jiraiya stood up.
"Jiraiya-sama? Was the news you received unfavorable?" Might Gai, known to many as Konoha's Blue Beast asked, his bushy eyebrows drawing together in concern.
"There's nothing we can do about it now but make sure we succeed." Jiraiya said, motioning for Gai to follow him away from the fire they'd been seated at. Jiraiya led the way past rows of tents to a large tent easily five times the size of the others, pulling the flap aside and entering without announcing himself.
Three sets of eyes fell on Jiraiya the moment he entered the tent.
"Is the seal ready, old man?" a man with medical wrappings around his arm and over his face like a mask, Zabuza Momochi, asked gruffly, arms crossed over his chest, glaring at everything he looked at.
"It is ready. Will you hold to our deal if I use it?" Jiraiya asked.
Mei Terumi frowned, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she said, "Kiri will hold to the deal. The other nations believe we are weak from this civil war. We will remind them why we are called the Bloody Mist."
"But," a silver-haired man with an eyepatch over his right eye, Ao, cut in. "We must deal with Yagura first."
Jiraiya smirked, cracking his knuckles. "Then let's quit standing around and go get the bastard!"