Here's chapter 17: It was Orochimaru all along!
And we're back to find out what dastardly trouble Inohana is in for this chapter.
Although I'm sure Orochimaru, as always, only has the absolute best intentions.
Another chapter or two that will likely be war related is to come next, and then there should be a bit of a timeskip of a year or two - can't keep Inohana at 5-6 forever.
A Shadow's Requiem is already up on Patron, and should be up for all in a few days.
As usual I do not own, or in any way have a right to the characters of Naruto or its world. I'm just a lowly fanfiction writer.
Hope you enjoy it!
***
I think the boys were just as impressed as me with the concept of our mission being a tie in to another mission.
We were already exhausted, and in the case of the boys, emotionally drained from their first kills… So we summarily decided; fuck Orochimaru-Sensei - and took the night off to get rest before we'd tackle this secondary mission.
The mission we have absolutely no knowledge of other than the coordinates scribbled on the back of the note. Thanks for the bevy of information, Sensei…
The likely off the book mission too, since there would be no other reason for this secrecy otherwise, not with a bunch of Genin. But I don't share that little tidbit with Gai and Genma - they have enough on their minds without adding conspiracies and secrets onto the pile.
I might be the youngest, technically, but I'm also the oldest at the same time - and have gone through way more shit. I can handle it, they don't need to have the extra worries weighing down on them.
I especially didn't mention that the Genin they killed might have actually been patsies, poor Konoha Genin of no particular skill, lured in through Genjutsu or drugs or whatever Orochimaru did - to set off this chain of events. In fact I'm almost completely positive that everyone except the ringleader were simply victims of circumstance.
Which means both of my teammates' kills were of people that were likely not actually guilty of treason.
They didn't need to know that the execution of their/our orders - likely weren't delivered to dastardly traitors, just fools who got used by a superior Shinobi for some nefarious purpose. I won't add that kind of guilt onto them, especially on Gai. I can't imagine how he will react to his first kill being a probably mostly innocent Konoha Genin.
The fact of the matter is that none of us can be called innocent, no matter the moral and ethical questions about it - we all signed up for a life of death, including the patsies. No modern society in my old reality would have accepted child soldiers our age as the norm, but here we are - and they chose this. I chose this.
So innocent, we were not.
As it is, we settle down in the cottage our victims had briefly used, after burning the corpses of course. They might not have any specific secrets to them, being lowly Genin and all, but one didn't just leave Konoha Shinobis bodies laying around if one had time to deal with it.
The silence is thick amongst us, as I have no idea how to comfort them, and neither of them seem willing to talk, or do something so unmanly as break down or show emotion over taking their first life. Didn't matter what reality, men, or boys - were not supposed to show emotion or talk about feelings or mental health.
No wonder Konoha is such a picture of mental stability…
Considering our young ages, neither of my boys could remotely be labeled a man anyway. But despite Konoha's 'friendly' reputation, killing your emotions when it comes to missions and critical life decisions - is a prevalent lesson in the Academy. One that is heavily internalized in those who spent years having it hammered in.
Like Gai and Genma.
I skipped through most of that process, but I'm so emotionally and mentally damaged that I am probably worse off than them. I don't feel anything about killing these Genin, now that it's done. I didn't particularly feel much of anything during either.
Except a lingering paranoia about what Orochimaru might succeed in implanting in us. I've surreptitiously been using Kai, on both myself and my teammates through my chakra strings, ensuring Orochimaru-Sensei isn't somehow influencing any of us.
The helpful benefit of having the chakra strings attached - is that as I'm attached to their chakra systems, I do get a good clue on how they're actually feeling from the feel of their chakra.
Which is how I know to begin with that both of them aren't feeling too great right now, their chakra is absolutely churning, without actually doing anything, which isn't the normal steady flow I will normally see when putting my string on someone.
Of course I'm wasting some of my chakra by constantly checking on them, but it's just a hit I have to take.
I'm not sure how Orochimaru-Sensei did what he did with the idiot Genin, but I'm sure as hell going to make sure it isn't happening to us, we aren't expendable lab rats! I know he wants what I can do, he craves the knowledge and the power of such a useful skill, more useful in the hands of such a powerful Shinobi than they are in my hands. My eyes slide over my silent teammates, who are, unfortunately, more expendable in Orochimaru-Sensei's eyes.
Then again, with what Orochimaru-Sensei could do with my abilities… Most of the village is probably expendable to him in the pursuit of my skills.
I'll protect you from him. I swear, knowing as I do that it's a lie, I'll certainly try, but if this mission is any indication, I still can't predict Sensei at all, and that means I'll never be able to know when the red line is crossed and my teammates lives are at stake.
I feel a chill down my spine, as I study their faces, committing their features to memory, as if scared they'll disappear on me suddenly. Because what if this mission is an excuse to 'disappear' me into one of his labs? The entire team 'lost' on a mission…
I can't completely discount it. I don't believe it, not really, but my paranoia wonders if that belief is simply down to wishful thinking. Orochimaru-Sensei has been running into constant interference in the village.
Perhaps he's had enough, and he's making his move.
For all that Genjutsu is fluffed off as not very strong on most levels. The levels Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Itachi play at are completely different. The ability I have…
With enough chakra and practice… I could reach that level. But then, I'll never have that chakra level, not with my civilian heritage, but Orochimaru-Sensei has it. If he is eyeing me as a potential body for the future… Has he gone that far in his research yet? I can't remember if that was ever shown, when he started.
If he can either succeed in learning it, or puppet me, if he could back up what I can do with my chakra strings with honest to god monstrous chakra… He'll be practically unstoppable.
People can't just kai out of my Genjutsu as I slip into their system so perfectly they don't even recognize my chakra as alien, not if I have the chakra strength anyway. If someone of Orochimaru-Sensei's strength could latch onto any Jounin with my ability, he could literally mind control them for as long as he had contact, sow illusions and nightmares, make them kill themselves, friends, allies, family. The possibilities were vast - that is the real versatility of Genjutsu.
Real Genjutsu, not the brute force common types that anyone not an idiot will immediately recognize as Genjutsu and get out of without much effort. All respect to making Jounin for Yuhi Kurenai, but against the monsters, she's about as effective as throwing napkins at an exploding volcano.
The fact that my Genjutsu, like the Sharingans strongest Genjutsu, can't just be fought off… Not once I have the strength… That's why Orochimaru-Sensei is spending so much time and capital on me.
Speaking of the Sharingan… Seeing Genjutsu will be no help if I attach a chakra string to them, hijacking their brain and make them turn their eyes off, or just make them believe they already have. They can't copy that process either, I'm sure.
But on my own I'll never have enough strength to suppress a Sharingan user. As I am, I'll be able to become a Jounin, maybe a little better then Kurenai, but no further.
If I just had the chakra capacity and strength…
That is my first real step to becoming an S-rank monster… And the only way to get that far?
That possibility lies only in allowing Orochimaru-Sensei to enhance my body. Risking his seal work while I'm unconscious, trusting that he won't take advantage.
So… Yeah… Going to have to find another way to push past those boundaries…
I'll never, not as I am, be able to get enough chakra for utilizing Kage Bunshins to do the surgery and seal work on my real body, to completely bypass Orochimaru-Sensei.
I need more chakra, it's the lifeblood of Shinobi, my civilian heritage makes me severely lacking in that aspect, and it's not something I can rectify by myself.
And even without ever fixing that chakra issue…
I still need Orochimaru-Sensei for my own progress to continue, and I still need the training from an S rank shinobi who despite everything is extremely good at what he does. So I seethe silently, sitting in the cottage, while thinking on the issue, keeping an eye on the boys, part of me wondering if it's heartless of me to just want them to get over it already.
Probably.
Not knowing what's coming next, I don't want them in suboptimal condition, but I also don't have a quick fix, mental health is my own Achilles heel to begin with.
The cottage at least provides us a nice place to rest, each of us had already taken a turn to wash up as best as we could. As I poke the fire in the fireplace with a fire poker mindlessly, Hanako breaks the silence that had persisted ever since we took down the 'supposed' traitors, she is curled around my arm, her head resting in the crook of my neck, having been quietly whining for awhile, only now speaking up so everyone could hear.
"This is boring, why are you all so boring, dooo something!" She whines, flicking her tongue out spastically.
I flick her nose admonishingly, "Enough of that, Hanako, we're all just tired." We all need sleep, somehow I don't think it's going to be that easy…
It's not going to be easy might as well have been the title to the story of my life at this point.
Hanako grumbles, bumping her head into my chin grumpily, "Then sleep, don't sit around and look sad, you should be happy, your enemies are defeated, are they not?"
I sigh, patting her head, rubbing my thumb along the eye ridges, drawing a pleased hiss out of her, "It's not that simple, Hanako." I mumble, glancing at the boys carefully.
Genma flashes a brief smile, although his eyes remain hard, "Mission isn't over yet." He reminds my familiar, "Hard to sleep with everything going on…" He adds onto it, chewing on his lower lip, bereft of senbon for once.
When washing up, I'd seen him spend twenty minutes washing his hands, and he hadn't even gone into melee in the first place, so the mission yet to come isn't the only reason for his lack of desire for sleep.
Again I keep my silence, unsure how to help, without coming off as incredibly insensitive. Calling someone out for lying to themselves probably wouldn't help.
I'm not Kushina-shisou, I can't do for them what she did for me. I still keep having to stop my impatient knee jerk reaction of telling them to just get over it.
It's not fair. I certainly didn't just get over it in the end without some help. But my thoughts invariably keep turning to what else Sensei has in store, and for each time my thoughts turn that way, my patience for their feelings grinds down even lower.
With Orochimaru-Sensei looming over us, it makes everything else seem almost petty. But then only I know how much of a threat he really is.
Gai, who's been unusually quiet, continues on in the same vein as Genma, just nodding silently, eyes on the fire, seemingly lost in thought. Not sharing or speaking up, patently unlike the boy who could go on a three hour soliloquy about a sunset he once saw.
It would likely have moved us to tears, if we had been able to stand paying attention longer than the first fifteen minutes.
I mean I have seen sunsets too, I don't fucking waste time talking about them. They're there, so what?
Gai had seriously told me I have no romantic bone in my body after that. He'd totally deserved the kick to the nuts, everyone had agreed.
Well Genma, but as we were the only ones there, it had been everyone.
I inwardly groan at the issue at hand, mind turning back on our current situation, because why on earth am I the one stuck in a situation like this, and not the Jounin-Sensei…
He's the one who's supposed to guide impressionable young killers on losing their virginity, not me!
I'm useless at emotional support! The token girl on the team is supposed to be the heart of the team or something stupid - according to funny ideas a lot of civilians and non-clan Shinobi have anyway. It's not a role I can fill very well. Or at all.
At least in my opinion.
You'd think with so many years behind me I'd be more capable at this kind of thing, but I'd been a loner after all of my family died, too broken to bother with friends or people in general, just going through motions - emotional support is just not something I'm comfortable being or giving.
And yet it looks like I'm going to have to be the one to do it. The other choice is… Hanako…
I look down at my snake companion, who's busy chewing my collar in aggravation at us being boring I assume. Yeah… She's 'probably' worse as emotional support than I am in this situation.
Her suggestion initially, made to cheer us up, had been that we should eat the bodies of our enemies instead of burning them, that it would make us feel better and fully satiated. She'd been very put out with us wasting so much food…
So yeah… No emotional support snake, I don't want to know what she'd suggest. One word about mating out of her jaw and I'd violently unsummon her.
I sigh audibly, slapping my knees, drawing the attention of my boys, "Alright. So you've killed people, how does it feel? Any questions? Are we all good now?"
"Good right? It feels good to beat enemies!?" Hanako cheers, answering like she is in some kind of game show and is trying to get at the winning answer, I pinch her mouth shut with two fingers.
She gives me a look that's so adorable I would offend her for life if I told her she's cute like this.
I probably need to like… Train her or something, she's acting like a new puppy does when bored, or begging for attention, her tail even wagging as she spoke up.
"Not asking you, sweetie."
Genma looks bemused, scratching his chin, "You really don't do this kind of thing often, do you?"
I refuse to acknowledge the slight pink tinge to my cheeks as I answer him, "Do what?"
"Talk like normal people." He dryly responds, shaking his head. "You don't just… Ask something like that." Despite his words, he looks less pensive, some life returning to his face.
"Well if I don't ask, you guys were just going to sit here and brood in silence forever." I say somewhat irritably, definitely no shame or sheepishness here, nope!
Besides, it totally worked!
Yay me!
Gai looks at me, eyes serious as he nods firmly at something, before addressing me, all of us really, "Yosh, I've decided!" He begins, quietly at first, before building up into a crescendo, "I will respect those that had to perish, carrying their memory with me into further battles, honoring them with victory after victory!" He gave us both a fiery look, fists clenched in front of him, "I shall trust in my FRIENDS AND IN THE WILL OF FIRE!"
At the end of the shout, he stands up, posing, one hand aloft in a fist, crying out into the night, "YOUTH!"
Genma gives me a gimlet look, "See what you did?" He accuses me, lips twitching.
"Looks to me like I fixed everything." I fire back, wincing as Gai only grows louder in his insistence to fight on with the souls of his enemies cheering him on from the other side. This guy is unflappable, really? If they can see us, I doubt they're cheering us on, Gai…
"You're not taking credit for fixing anything with that dumb question." Genma says, leaning away from Gai, a pained frown on his face, "Gai, it's time to sleep, remember team rule number #9?"
Gai immediately deflates, "No speeches after 8pm." He says, jutting out his bottom lip, "But this is a most important moment in our life, it should be commemorated, Genma, Inohana-chan." He protests.
I share a look with Genma, before I speak up, dryly, "That would be more impactful if you hadn't tried that exact same wording last week, when speaking on the importance of fruit in our diets."
Six hours… The fruit he wanted us to eat had time to start rotting before his speech finished.
Yeah there's a reason we keep adding team rules, up to 68 rules now. Most of those reasons are named, Gai.
Gai looks ready to protest, when Genma throws one of the throw pillows from off the couch at him, nailing him in the face, "Shut up, Gai, between you yelling, and Inohana having zero tact, I need sleep to survive dealing with the two of you tomorrow."
Rude, my efforts had obviously worked…
Genma backs up his words by immediately making for the bedroom. It takes both Gai and I a moment to remember there is only one functional proper bed in this cottage and we rush forward, "Hey! You don't get the bed!" I shout, "Ladies first!"
"If we had any ladies on the team, I'm sure that would apply." Genma snarks back, shutting the bedroom door in our faces with a mean grin on his face.
Which does absolutely nothing as Gai immediately batters through it, wooden debris covering me, as I follow in his wake, telling Hanako, "Bite anyone that gets on that bed before me, Hanako!"
Hanako cheers as I toss her ahead, the snake flying through the air, playfully snapping at Genma as she flies over his head.
We all end up in a pile, play wrestling, two of us quickly realizing we picked a losing battle.
The Good news was that no one was stewing in misery and regrets anymore.
The bad…
Getting stuck in the middle of a bed with Gai and Genma at my sides, gave me more bruises in the morning than I usually get from training.
My stupid boys…
***
Next day.
We'd probably get shit from Sensei for being tired enough to fall asleep with only Hanako to keep watch for us, instead of using a proper watch rotation - but it's his damn fault for running us into the ground with training before suddenly dropping this bullshit mission on us.
Two bullshit missions.
Knowing we have about half a day of travel in front of us, we don't take a long time to wash up, eat some rations, and then take off, no one the wiser that the cottage had been used for anything special.
That burned spot on the lawn was totally used for barbecue and nothing more nefarious.
With my chakra sense we avoid any people, as we rush through the foliage, heading deeper into the woods having slightly curved back towards Konoha during our half a day of travel, coming from a different angle and running almost perpendicularly along towards our target, always remaining in the same general distance from the village.
At least we aren't going towards the border, if that had been the case, I would have been tempted to just abandon the mission, no matter what the consequences.
As we keep going, we all start feeling the stress, and notice that something is definitely going on around here.
Genma's brows are furrowed, and Gai keeps frowning as he looks towards our left, towards Konoha. I myself am finding it worrisome that we are keeping this close to Konoha's influence, because anything problematic this close… Should already be within the confluence of the ANBU, and the regular patrols of the Chuunin guards.
And yet… I haven't sensed a single Shinobi. "Keep your guard high, something's wrong." I tell my team, tempting fate, almost expecting someone to attack us for daring to bring it out in the open.
In stories it's always at times like this when the ambushes happen.
Gai jumps off a branch, briefly upside down in the air as he meets my eyes seriously, before he touches off the trunk of a tree, jetting forward again, he didn't ask any questions, because we'd been trained to not be overly verbal in situations like this, but he'd communicated with me clearly enough with just his eyes.
Genma on my other end, flashes a sign at me, asking if I sense anyone. At the shake of my head, he grimly nods, darting forward across the trees, hands never far from his weapons pouches.
With my sensing range, and the fact I manage to pick out most people, unless they're on the level of Orochimaru-Sensei - either this area is cut off from patrols for some reason…
Or the more likely one.
The guards patrolling this area are dead.
The air is chilly as we keep silently flitting from tree to tree, all of us on high alert and straining our senses to get any warning of an ambush as we approach the coordinates. I feel nervous sweat on my forehead the closer we get, the fog slowly seeping out at ground level not chakra based to my senses - but still lending an eerie feeling to the almost silent forest.
We were leaf ninja, we were well aware forests did not stay silent without interference.
As we arrive at the coordinates, we all hide in the upper canopy of the large trees surrounding the clearing, suppressing our chakra the best we can. Which mostly means that I am practically invisible, while the boys are… Well they are better than Naruto would have been at least.
There's nothing special about the clearing. There's no sign of passage, no traces at all of Shinobi, no chak- wait!
I narrow my eyes, staring down at the moss covered hill that takes up the northern part of the clearing. There's just a bare flicker of something…
I draw my boys attention, signing for them to hold positions, letting them know I'd be attempting something.
Without knowing what exactly is going on, I don't want to take the risk to huddle up and talk about what we're going to do, and signing is only useful to a point. For all I know there are some stealth specialist Shinobi or summons just waiting for us to show ourselves.
I slowly reach out with a tendril of chakra, my chakra string snaking down towards the barest little flicker of chakra I can feel.
Honestly, without my chakra sense being as developed as it is, I doubt I would have sensed it at all. And I know most Jounin can't feel chakra as intently as me, from all my testing with Kushina-shisou, Minato and Mikoto.
If Kushina-shisou was here, she'd put me in a headlock and ruin my hair for even thinking of doing this. I can almost hear her voice…
You can't just poke some chakra you found laying around, you don't know where it's been, Dattebane!
I bite my lip, hesitating, my chakra string stopping just before the tiny sliver of sensation I can sense. Orochimaru-Sensei sent us to these coordinates for a reason, he wouldn't just randomly kill us…
Or me at least…
I touch the chakra, my string pulsing with intent, as I try and figure out what I'm sensing. But the tiny sliver immediately begins to unravel, making me curse silently in my head. "Trap!" I call out loudly, jumping back, Gai and Genma immediately putting distance between themselves and the clearing as well.
When no explosion is forthcoming, I poke my head back out from the tree I'd hid behind, frowning. Chakra unraveling like that usually denotes an explosion of some sort. Gai and Genma both look at me for direction, and I bite my lip hard enough to draw blood. I am definitely the wrong choice for team lead…
I don't know that the fuck I'm doing…
I look down at Hanako, who has been keeping her silence, understanding the importance for silence for the mission, "Hanako, go explore the clearing, come back and tell me what's changed." I whisper to her.
She slithers down my body, disappearing into the foliage, the fog ensuring I lose sight of her almost immediately. I sign to my teammates to hold, scouting in progress, getting two stiff nods in return, their higher elevation ensuring they can see me better than I can see them.
The distance between us hopefully makes it harder to take us all out in one decapitating strike.
The wait is excruciating, but Hanako can't exactly move as quickly as we do. I feel slightly guilty sending her in, but as a summon, she's more expendable, I can just resummon her if something happens.
Still, my fists clench at the thought, If someone hurts Hanako I'll murder them dead thrice over! I think as I stand and wait in silence.
Eventually she returns, still keeping to opsec, not calling out to me, slithering up my body until her cool nose is pressing against my neck, just under my ear, "There's an opening in the mossy hill, going down, smells of earth and blood." She hisses out quietly.
I freeze on the spot. Did that crazy monster send us to one of his hidden labs… Or to Root?
Either one isn't exactly good for us. There is just no way this could end well.
The clearing at least seems to be safe, so I sign my team, and jump off, all of us arriving in the clearing seconds later, hands on weapons, as we stare at the hidden entrance, now, not so hidden.
"Forward outpost?" Genma asks quietly, watching the dark hole now visible in the moss covered hill.
"Maybe." I say unconvincingly, not believing it for a second, but I could hardly let them know why. Root is definitely not something I'll mention out loud to anyone at this early juncture.
Preferably I'd never run into them at all.
Gai breathes in heavily, frowning as his bushy eyebrows furrow, "If it is we must render assistance, I smell blood." He said, quietly for him, almost boomingly loud in the silent clearing.
"Ah, yes, let's just wander down into the murderhole…" Genma snarks, but he pulls out a kunai all the same. Long distance fighting is less likely to be very effective in such cramped spaces after all, we've all sat through the lessons.
In a tunnel everything would end up in close range melee combat in short order if a fight broke out. Not Genma's strongest suit, but if we were hopefully only attacked from one side, he could support us with his senbons and kunai.
Luckily, Gai and I were well suited for such a fight, him with his physicality and small size, and myself with my Genjutsu and tornado of leaves to confuse and destroy enemies with nowhere to run.
"It's the mission." I say succinctly, for as much as I don't want to enter said murderhole, thank you Genma, auspicious beginning there! We do have a mission, and it needs completing.
Even if I suspect Orochimaru-Sensei didn't get this mission from the Hokage's desk.
I put a hand on Gai's shoulder, nudging Hanako to slither onto it. "Gai, you take point, Hanako if you taste anything weird let him know immediately. I'll take the middle, Genjutsu support and sensing." I tilt my head towards Genma, "And Genma can watch our rears." I finish, slightly teasingly, sensing he feels a bit apprehensive.
I latched on to them with my chakra strings just in case, ready to protect them in case of any Genjutsu or seal effect latches on.
Genma immediately scoffs at me, "You have to have a rear to watch for that to be any kind of thing." He replies mockingly, but he flashes a quick smile, saluting me with his kunai, no doubt understanding exactly what I am trying to do.
Out of all of us, Genma understands people the best. Even me. Just wish he'd teach me how to get me.
Gai seems to almost vibrate, eyes intent on the entrance, if he was here by himself, he'd no doubt have rushed in already at full speed, not the best way to explore a no doubt trapped cramped space.
"Let's go. If you notice something, speak up right away, we don't know what's down there." I say seriously. Half of mind to just send Hanako down there by myself to scout.
With the length of time it would take, not to mention the potential that she'd be destroyed and our presence noticed anyway before she could report back - it made it a choice only made out of cowardice and hesitance.
Unacceptable.
With weapons out, and all our senses stretched to the limit, we slowly enter the tunnel.
Darkness swallows us completely, immediately.
The tunnel is completely devoid of light, making our steps careful as we slowly maneuver down it, our dark vision only barely beginning to set in as we stop at the hissed warning of Hanako.
"Something that smells like a lot of blood around the corner." She warns, from where she's wrapped around Gai's neck.
I close my eyes, stretching my senses, trying to get any sense of an ambush or of life signs in general. "Stop!" I say clearly, grasping Gai's arm as he had been about to go around the corner to check.
Both Gai and Genma brandish Kunai as they prepare for an ambush, I can feel their wary confusion when nothing happens.
"Inohana?" Genma whispers, the slightest hint of unease in his voice.
"Shhhh." I say, tilting my head, eye still closed, as I let my chakra strings carefully pick their way around the trap around the corner. There's seal work there, the body is real, but someone had made it into a trap.
"There's a dead body, right in the middle of the hallway, six feet in after you get around the corner." I mutter, a bead of sweat appearing on my brow as I concentrate, using several chakra strings at once in delicate work, and draining work, due to my reserves.
"Someone placed a fuuinjutsu trap, if we check on the body something happens. We try to move past it, something else happens…" I continue, trying to decipher Fuuinjutsu from afar using a chakra string isn't easy, and I still have to disable the traps too.
Gai moves, and I open my eyes in protest, as my chakra strings pull back, "Gai wai-"
There's a soft plopping sound, then complete silence.
"Did you just throw a rock at the trap?" Genma asks Gai, with clear amusement, nudging me slightly afterwards, "What was your idea going to be, oh mistress of seals?"
I can see Gai's beaming smile clearly, even in the dark, as he gives us a thumbs up, "A simple solution is often the best." He tells us, tossing another rock up and down in his hand, before tossing it around the corner, the sound of small rocks bouncing down the hallway echoing to us.
I huff, feeling slightly silly, "And here I am almost wasting my chakra on disarming the seals when a simple rock will do." I shake my head, "Keep it simple stupid." I chastise myself.
"What kind of trap was it, did you see?" Genma asks Gai, never once lowering his guard, keeping an eye on our rears as we slowly move on. I had given him a slight tap to let him know I didn't sense any remaining seals in this hallway.
"A shadow came up and swallowed everything in the hallway." Gai says with some signs of trepidation, his muscles twitching.
A trap like that isn't one he can fight if we run into many of them, the rock trick is likely to be situational and outright fail against certain seals meant to be set off by chakra or life signs… And if there's one seal trap like this, right at the entrance… Surely there will be more.
"Great… So move at a snail's pace while Inohana checks everything." Genma confirms dryly. "This is going to take forever."
"Better forever than dead." I mutter, "Hanako, smelling anything? Anything at all?" I ask my familiar.
"Just blood, it's everywhere." Hanako grumbles, tongue flickering out, "There's a room with lots of blood up ahead."
"Joy." Genma mutters, and I grimace as well, because no matter if this locale belongs to Konoha or not, the sign of so much blood likely denotes several bodies, and we're probably not lucky enough it's the bad guys that are dead.
"Can you feel a trap, Inohana-chan?" Gai asks quietly, as we begin to get to the end of this second hallway, the darkness abating slightly as we can see signs of light coming from the room up ahead.
I stretch my senses out, there's definitely something funky going on down here, because normally I can sense pretty far, but down here, I can barely sense into the room ahead of us. "Something is… Wrong, in there."
Both Gai and Genma give me a judging glance, and I force back a blush, "Oh, don't start, I know this whole thing is wrong." I tell them, "But something in there is actively fuzzing my senses."
"Enemy action?" Gai asks, cracking his knuckles, some excitement in his eyes at the chance to let loose, instead of all this sneaking around, no doubt.
"I… Don't know." I say, honestly not sure. I send a chakra string forward and it's plainly rejected at the entrance. "I can't even push my chakra through…"
Genma shuffles his feet nervously, "Are we even safe to go through the entrance, if you can't feel for seals?" He asks me, eyeing our surroundings warily.
I waver, not sure what to say, because common sense would say that if there is already one seal trap, there is more. And if it was me, I'd definitely trap the hell out of any entrance or exit.
Hanako pipes up, "I can go through, if it's something bad you can just resummon me!" She offers from atop Gai.
We all share a look, none of us having any better options. Throwing a rock through is unlikely to be enough of a cover. Albeit, before we try, I crouch down, picking up some loose gravel, and toss it through, just in case.
"Alright, Hanako, but call us immediately if something gets set off." I tell her, feeling uncomfortable with it, knowing if anything could actually hurt her, permanently, it is Fuuinjutsu.
Ideally we could just leave, but with Orochimaru-Sensei as our sensei, I don't really think abandoning this mission is something that will end well for us.
We all watch silently, wound as tight as a spring, as Hanako slithers through the empty entranceway, no traps setting off, no explosions, no chakra drain, nothing.
"Hanako?" I call out softly, when she doesn't reappear or call out for us.
Only silence answers us, and I can feel my heart dropping into my stomach. "Hanako… This better not be a joke, answer me." I call out, more insistently.
Again nothing is forthcoming, and I tense, ready to spring through, when both Gai and Genma put their hands on my shoulders. "I'm going through." I tell them, daring them to hold me back.
"Of course." Genma says, like it is obvious.
"Us first, Inohana-chan." Gai offers, giving me a blinding smile, light practically pinging off his teeth even in this darkness.
"Right… Meat tank first." I say distractedly, eyes fixated on the entrance way, still no sign of Hanako. I can feel my link to her, so she hasn't gone back to the summons realm.
And she isn't dead.
So just… Breathe…
"Let's go."
Gai rushes through the entrance way, as I follow right behind him with Genma, both of us ready to fire off projectiles over Gai's shoulders.
After a small antechamber-like room that previously blocked our view, we enter the main room. It is cavernous, and shaped almost like an arena style kind of space, targets and dummies pushed up against one wall, confirming my thoughts that it is a place for training.
Our rush comes to a stop almost immediately as we enter, the more well lit room showing us a Shinobi standing in the perfect center of the room, holding Hanako in his right hand, one thumb pressing down on her skull.
Immediately my chakra string lashes out, the enemy is by the stringy appearance and height, an older teen, so likely much stronger in chakra, so control is out without a lot of time and effort which I don't have. So instead I try an illusion to change his perception of time. Slowing it down markedly.
With a gesture from me, Genma and Gai know which illusion is in place, and break off into their positions, Gai advancing on the older boy, Genma firing off paralytic senbon at the hand holding Hanako.
This all takes place in a second or two of time, which is why I'm only now registering that the boy ahead of us is wearing gray ANBU style armor, and a completely featureless white mask.
"Break off!" I shout, too late, as my Genjutsu gets broken with contemptuous ease, the enemy Shinobi flinging Hanako in the way of the paralytic senbon, which pepper her slim body to my and Genma's horror. She falls down, unmoving, but not damaged enough to return to the summon realm.
With a curse I reach into my pouch for shuriken and kunai and throw a brace of both over Gai's head, my only quick fix to the problem of my teammate running straight into someone likely out of our league.
Gai launches forward, striking against the likely Root agent, who flows around his strike with ease, managing to draw a tanto and cut Gai from hip to shoulder in one swift movement. None of my thrown weapons even inconveniencing him.
"GAI!" Genma and I shout, as our teammate stumbles and jumps back, thankfully not sliced through, the damage only skin deep. Still, that's a lot of blood he's losing, his uniform already growing red.
Running forward as fast as I can, Genma flanking, we assault the Shinobi, Genma going high with kunai and senbon while I strike against his extremities with kunai in my hand, my physical strength not enough to do enough weaponless against someone stronger than me.
Having to block Genma's weaponry, the Shinobi barely manages to dance out of the way of my quick swipes, his pants taking a cut that just barely misses skin. Then he flickers away to get distance, tossing his tanto in the air as he goes through a set of hand seals.
As per our tactics that we've drilled over and over, when possible, interrupt enemy jutsu, we're too far away, but Gai and his freakish physique had been underestimated by the enemy, who has to break off his jutsu as Gai barrels into him from the side.
Already injured, Gai doesn't achieve much, as the enemy immediately kicks him away, moving for his tanto, which he misses by inches as it falls through the air, away from his outstretched fingers as Genma nails it with several kunai, putting it off course.
Before he can go for it again, Gai and I are on him, pushing our muscles as far as they can go, straining everything, the enemy managing to deflect most of our strikes, but taking some glancing hits from Gai.
I try Genjutsu again, having chakra strings already attached to him, but something about his chakra is making it so difficult. At the same time, my chakra strings draws kunai out of Gai's pouch and sneakily launches them at the enemy Shinobi's face when Gai gets knocked back.
To my frustration, the enemy manages to get away with only a scratch to his white mask, contorting his body in ways that should be humanly impossible. Suspicions flaring in my mind that I have no time to think deeper on.
Genma attempts to take advantage to the enemy being on the backfoot briefly, launching a barrage of weapons, cutting off his escape as we press on, keeping him hemmed in.
Or so we thought. As without warning, suddenly his speed picks up, and he ducks under all our attacks, slapping hands against the ground, a pillar of earth shooting up and right into Gai's torso, the injured torso, widening his wound, his eyes going white as he spits out blood, flopping to the ground.
He needs medical assistance, and he needs it soon, or he'll lose too much blood.
Yet I have no time to heal him, as the dark haired enemy flickers forward, and before I can react, is within my guard. Fast! I can't help but think. Faster than before!
I desperately attach as many chakra strings to him as I can, before I'm kicked in the gut so hard I bend over completely, before I'm launched across the room so hard I crack the wall when I hit it, flopping down onto the ground, knowing I have at least one broken rib.
And bruises on my bruises, I'm lucky I didn't crack my skull, but either way it's likely the hardest I've been hit outside of Orochimaru-Sensei.
I lift my head off the ground, flinching as I hear Genma's cursing and yelling, as the enemy casually beats the shit out of him with the flat end of his tanto, not even trying hard now that he has only one Genin left.
Apparently he held opinions on our ploy to take his weapon away from him, punishing the culprit, Genma, playing like a cat with a mouse, doing no serious injury.
He's not trying to kill us… I think, my head dizzy, as I reach out through my chakra strings. At least not right away.. He's playing with us. That's not… That's not the Root way.
I'm so confused…
We'd already be dead if he took us seriously. He was definitely at least low Jounin in speed. Not something we could match yet. Not without preparation and traps. Time to catch him in a proper Genjutsu would have helped.
I try again, crawling forward, fingers digging into the cracked ground, flinging Genjutsu at the man beating my teammate.
I flinch as my first Genjutsu is broken right after I inflict it through one of my strings on him, then my second, my third. I can feel my chakra burning right through, this isn't working…
Quietly I let my seal open, sending my leaves into every which direction, low to the ground, so it isn't obvious what is happening.
For one heart stopping moment, I think he's noticed, as he turns my way with his blank mask, but he only grabs Genma by the hair, and starts dragging him towards me.
To keep up the illusion that I'm still trying desperately to stop him, I waste some more chakra on one of the few chakra strings I still have attached to him, trying to induce an illusion of nausea.
Gai, having somehow been knocked down further, and closer to me, during my flight to the wall, is carelessly kicked over to my side with a grunt by the enemy. He flops down next to me, his eyes unfocused, his face pale. He's losing a lot of blood and likely has a concussion at the very least. Fantastic, could it get any worse? I think, trying to desperately keep the accumulation of leaves quiet as they gather slowly behind our enemy.
Genma is tossed down before me, the likely Root agent putting his tanto at his neck, staring down at me almost curiously. "Kill your other teammate and this one will live." He intones monotonously.
There's something off about his speech, not entirely emotionless just… like a reverberation I can't quite pick out.
I spit out blood, "What the hell!? Where do you get off on saying something that insane, who the fuck are you even?" I shriek out, trying to let it drag out just a little longer. I need volume, a few leaves isn't going to cut it.
I miss, or it doesn't cut deep enough, we all die. Or whatever the plan is with this situation.
No pressure.
The enemy tilts his head at me curiously, "If that choice is too difficult I can even offer a deal, I kill one of them, but you choose which one, then you go free."
I blanch, what kind of fucking game is this? I stare up at him in horror, realizing a root puppet is definitely not going to even understand or care about anything I can say.
"M-me" Gai blurts out, a bubble of blood and saliva in the corner of his mouth, and I turn my head his way feeling like I'm going to get sick.
You did not just tell me to kill you, Gai! I rail internally.
"Pick me, Inohana, I'm already up against the sword, makes sense, we had a good run." Genma says, eyes filled with fear, but a sort of what can you do kind of smirk on his face. The asshole would have probably shrugged, if he could.
In what way is a couple months a good run! I want to scream. And can my stupid boys stop telling me to get them KILLED!
"Choose now."
My heart thunders as I make my move, trying to hide it by throwing one last desperate Genjutsu. The agent throwing it off with ease due to me not having the time to properly get into his flow, but it did its job, distracting him for one moment.
His fingers go limp, dropping the tanto as his other hand raises up slowly, incomprehensibly, towards his throat, where a small storm of razor sharp leaves has just cut a giant trench through his neck.
Oh thank fuck! I think in relief. Already scrambling over to Gai, burning my last chakra on the mystical palm jutsu, healing him up.
What the fuck is this even?
Genma removes the mask in tired curiosity, and curses. "Fucking Kumo…" He spits, kicking the body for good measure.
"What?" I say, dumbfounded.
I look over at the dark skinned teen I just killed. Genma saying Kumo is kind of racist but… It's what someone without any knowledge of Root might say.
Root surely has orphans from other countries if they were interesting enough.
Then again, this base, this entire thing… It feels maybe Rootish, but that guy hadn't. For all that he was masked, he felt… Off.
"Check the room, now that I'm in here I don't feel any seal traps, we can't move on as we are, we have to fortify and hold." I tell Genma, who despite his beating, looks the best able out of all of us.
Thankfully Hanako hadn't been injured in the brief tussle, and shouldn't be under too long under paralysis. I need to save my chakra to heal Gai and then myself, wincing as my broken rib speaks up, poking my insides.
Luckily I'm already extremely well versed in ignoring pain.
I slowly heal Gai, feeling my chakra reserves protesting, just wishing that for once, someone in life could just be in my corner.
***
Kushina's house,
It was a mostly somber gathering, friends and allies, united primarily around one child.
A child not present.
The war had gone into a slight dip, which was the only reason they were all here in the village at the same time, at least half of them likely to be deployed again within the week, if not days.
Kushina set down a bowl of snacks, finishing the small spread on the living room table, scowling slightly, "There must be something we can do, Dattebane!" She cried out in frustration, the discussion having been revolving around the missing Inohana.
Minato pulled her down into his lap, and she blushed slightly, looking around the room furtively, before allowing it with a gentle sigh. It's not like anyone here didn't already know anyway.
Plus she really needed her cuddles right now.
"It's not that simple, Kushina, there's more than one side to the problem." Minato told her gently, squeezing her midriff, trying to soften the impact over the fact they still had no good solutions.
The fact was that Inohana was paradoxically important, (due to the people she was involved with) but not important enough - she was right in the sweet spot for the Hokage to continue to ignore her plight like this.
She wasn't projected to be powerful enough to be a future threat, what with her low chakra reserves and allergy to medical jutsu, so there was no real danger in the minds of the administration in not fighting for her. Not with her clan and Orochimaru on the other side offering immediate benefits.
Kushina knew Inohana would definitely grow up to be better than their stupid projection, but she also knew what Konoha Shinobi, especially the older types, thought of female Shinobi with low chakra capacity.
Mikoto, who was sharing the other couch with Dan and Tsunade, grimaced, "It's not the first time people in the village have run into issues with the Hokage…" The bitterness in the statement obviously made Tsunade uncomfortable, the sannin looking away, as if to refuse that she'd heard anything at all.
She usually didn't react well once they got to talking about her teacher.
After what she did, Kushina didn't really give a shit what she felt about it. If it weren't for Dan, she wouldn't even be invited.
As it was, Kushina would punt the woman out of here if she even made one comment she didn't like…
As for what Minato and Mikoto said…
Kushina knew there were issues, she loved the village, she really did - but kami, did it have issues. The constant small slights from the administration when it came to the Uchiha, was only one facet of it. And despite Mikoto's views, only a minor one.
"It still shouldn't be this hard." She whined, cuddling into Minato. "Almost everyone in this room are Hokage candidates, Dattebane!"
There should be some kind of benefit there!
Tsunade scoffed, drawing eyes to her, the sannin obviously not having intended to speak up, but with everyone watching her, her lips curled in distaste, her eyes sad, she felt pressured to answer, "You say that like being a candidate gives anyone real power. Ask Hatake Sakumo how much power he wielded in the village as a potential Hokage."
Kushina scowled, because old jugs had a damn point, Sakumo had been of a clan, a clan head, even if only a clan of two - he'd been S-rank, a Hokage candidate, and yet still he'd had absolutely no say, or even any assistance, when he needed it. On paper, he should have been able to get the Hokage to help, in reality, nothing had happened.
Well, nothing good anyway.
Dan grabbed her hand, squeezing it, a pained expression on his face, "The problem is that we don't have the same kind of leverage as the other side in this fight."
Kushina frowned, even as Minato and Mikoto both slowly nodded, agreeing with Dan, "What do you mean? We have tons of leverage!" She protested half heartedly, already somewhat knowing where they were going.
It was a subject she'd been thinking about constantly in the trenches so to speak.
Dan slowly shook his head, a pithy look on his face, "The thing is… We really don't. The Hokage knows none of us are about to go missing nin, has psych profiles by the Yamanaka on us confirming it, our ties to the village are too strong - so while we gripe and complain, he's not actually losing anything at all by stonewalling us." Dan frowned distastefully, "Except perhaps our respect. But he's the Hokage, so we obey in the end, so what does personal respect matter? He'll be Hokage until he's not, and when he's not, it won't matter to him that we dislike him either."
Unsaid was that most Hokage retired into a coffin, so any bad feelings wouldn't necessarily worry them.
Especially as none of them were the type of people to do something crazy like go after the whole Sarutobi clan because they personally disliked one member.
Kushina's countenance grew darker the more Dan spoke, because she knew he had a point, they didn't have anything other than empty threats to use against their leader.
Being the Jinchuuriki should in theory make her incredibly important, right?
Except she'd never really had a say in anything politically, and any leeway she had with the old man was all something he deigned to give, not something she could demand. Damn him, he knew Kushina wouldn't just pick up stakes and leave. Leaving Minato and his dream behind, leaving Mikoto to suffer alone in the Uchiha clan without her best friend to save her from the dreariness. None of that was something she'd do.
Even if she took Inohana with her, she'd still lose everything else. Not a choice that was easy to make. Not a choice she would make.
Leaving Konoha was never an option. And the Hokage knew it. Which left her with not much choice. Refusing orders would be treason, and how would she help Inohana from a cell? She'd be kept locked up until they could replace her…
It was Konoha, but it was still a military village in the middle of a war.
Mikoto joined in on Dan's point, with a chilled facade, eyes flashing with anger behind it, "And what does the other side have to call on? Orochimaru, the favored son who can do no wrong. Inohana's father, the clan head of a very lucrative clan, albeit civilian, and one who agrees with what's happening… And lastly, it seems elder Danzo might be involved as well." Mikoto waved a hand daintily like, that's that.
Minato held Kushina tighter, using his chakra to caress her skin to keep her calm, as her emotions were boiling under the surface. "We can't get the Hokage to change his mind, not with those two in his corner, we can do like the Uchiha have already achieved," He gave Mikoto a thankful nod, receiving a small smile in return. "We find some avenue to assist Inohana until she makes Chuunin, then she'll be free of Orochimaru and of her clan, in technicality anyway for the second."
"So you're saying we're basically useless, Dattebane!" Kushina complained, slumping down against their boyfriend. She hadn't found a good way forward either, but she'd hoped someone would have something.
Waiting until she's Chuunin was hardly a solution.
"The only other option is to push for a new Hokage." Mikoto said stoically, not a hint of what she felt, on her face.
Tsunade immediately reared up, amber eyes diamond hard as they glared at the Uchiha, "I'll rip your pretty little Uchiha head off if you let words suggesting a coup pass through your lips again, Mikoto!"
Dan pushed Tsunade back down, giving her a warning look, tilting his head towards Kushina who's hair was rising in the air as she glared at the slug sannin. "That's not what she meant." He said with surety, giving Mikoto a chance to defend herself.
There was silence for several long moments, before Mikoto smiled, cold as ice, "Of course not, there's no need for something so violent, I'm speaking of convincing him to step down."
"If he did right now, Orochimaru would be the likeliest candidate." Dan immediately cautioned, again squeezing Tsunade's hand, warning her to not defend the snake sannin in this situation.
She gave him a hard look, but with her situation as it was, and owing everyone in the room, she kept her lips shut, looking away again.
"As potentially helpful as it would be for our situation." Minato said slowly, giving Kushina an apologetic look, as she turned around in his arms to preemptively glare at him, "We're in the middle of a war on almost all fronts, we can't afford the morale drop or chaos that would ensue in a regime change."
Kushina scowled, "You're saying Inohana isn't important!" She accused, jabbing him in the chest with a finger.
Minato winced, looking reluctant, already divining the couch in his future, "Sweetheart… Compared to the potential loss of the war… She just isn't." He said gently.
Kushina knew logically her boyfriend was right, but emotionally, she wanted to claw his eyes out. She kept her mouth shut, not wanting to make everything worse, knowing she was compromised in this.
Still, in the back of everyone's mind, the thought lingered.
Is it time for a new Hokage?
***
Hidden outpost.
It took hours for Hanako to wake up, surprising me at how effective the paralytic had been on a summon. At least it had been enough for me to get enough chakra back to at least get us all on our feet. With some help from a chakra supplement.
Gai and I would definitely need to be at least checked over properly after this, my skill in healing being rudimentary at best.
Our exploration of the area we'd found ourselves in hadn't added much useful info, except for a room with hundreds of Konoha headbands…
Because that isn't suspicious at all…
I'd done a quick and dirty autopsy on the probable root agent (or mind controlled patsy?), and found the reason for why my chakra was having absolutely no luck at all with him. Beyond the fact it was hard to get into the chakra system of someone much stronger than me.
Someone so much stronger to me being able to throw my Genjutsu off, isn't too surprising, but to be able to do it in less than a second, had been, seemingly without even any conscious effort.
Cutting into his brain (Thanks for the skills I guess, Orochimaru-Sensei) had revealed a ton of foreign chakra in his brain. Honestly, it made me think Yamanaka…
Expendable meat puppet?
Did this make it more or less likely that Root was behind that agent?
At least made it less likely he was an agent, but didn't make it clear whether he was used by them or not.
Although frankly it stank of Orochimaru-Sensei.
It takes us most of the day to rest up, and explore the rest of the underground base, running my chakra to the very edge as we run into over a dozen seal traps.
I no longer love Fuuinjutsu.
Seals can go fuck themselves. Sorry Kushina-shisou…
We finally reach a large set of double doors that feels like it's the end, I can sense that something is behind them, but not what, the feeling muted, like something is suppressing the entire room. I tell my team as much, as we come to a stop.
"Fuuinjutsu?" Gai asks, taking a step back from the door, watching it with wary respect.
After all the traps we'd already run into, he no doubt wanted nothing to do with another.
I hum in thought, not seeing anything on the doors, but that doesn't really mean anything, for all I know every wall of the inside of the room is painted with seals. "Maybe, but I don't sense anything on the door."
Fuuinjutsu is the most likely culprit, the rest of the underground base likely didn't need much chakra suppression of this kind, so could explain why I haven't seen any so far, but perhaps this room was made for training? If so, it would need heavy duty seals.
With Konoha's emphasis on clans able to sense or see chakra - any outpost near Konoha needed to have good defenses for that sort of thing, even this deep underground.
"Only one way to find out." Genma says, chewing on a senbon, rolling it around in his mouth as he readies himself, a senbon needle between each finger of his right hand, ready to throw, the purple tips denoting them as his more useful ones.
As long as he didn't hit Gai with those paralytics again…
I might know some medical jutsu which therefore classifies me as the go to person for first aid, but I do not want to have to pick needles out of Gai's ass again.
I meet the boy's eyes meaningfully, "Formation 13." I order softly, gesturing for Gai to push the doors open.
Formation 13 is basically code for throwing everything you have immediately at the enemy. We don't know if anyone is hiding behind the effect of the room, but there is no need to give them the extra second of hesitation before letting loose if they are.
We've already run into one Shinobi…
With a loud smash, Gai kicks the door open, ripping the large iron knocker off the door in the process and throwing it across the room hard, Genma's senbon and my kunai following it unerringly even as I send my chakra strings after the projectiles, all of us jumping in ready to crush anyone in our way.
"Ku ku ku…" Is all we hear before a large tail deflects all of our projectiles with easy contempt, a large dark green snake summon just lounging at the feet of a throne, its tail still flicking through the air as it hisses coldly at us.
The room is filled with darkness, a single flickering light just barely lighting up the front entrance and the bottom of the throne, the rest cloaked with darkness to different extents.
Hanako of course, being her, hisses back at the giant snake, rearing up on Gai's shoulder, I quickly grab her, shoving her inside my robes, don't need that right now, sweetie… I think, warily watching the danger ahead of us.
Oh, and the giant snake summon too, I suppose.
Orochimaru-Sensei is lounging on the throne, just barely visible in the oppressing darkness, chin resting on one of his hands, his long hair flowing down the sides of the high backed throne, as his golden eyes glitter at us in amusement, "Is that how you greet your Sensei, children?"
"Excuse us for our impertinence, we were under the impression we were on a mission…" I drawl out, not wanting to push too far, but also not willing to just let it go, because this? This is just pure bullshit.
If all he wanted to do is grandstand at us, he could have done it back in Konoha without this bullshit!
We'd fought and beaten a low balling Jounin! Mind controlled or not!
Orochimaru-Sensei grins languidly, tapping a nail against his thin lips, "Ah, but you've succeeded, have you not? You've reached the end, none worse for wear."
"We've had to kill several people to get here, sensei." Genma says, with barely hidden anger to his tone. He still hasn't sheathed his kunai, and I send him a warning look.
If this is all another test, it's a shitty one… I can't help but agree. With Orochimaru-Sensei waiting at the end on a damn throne… It made this all seem utterly pointless.
And does he literally bring thrones with him in a summoning scroll or something? No way this hole in the ground has a throne set up.
"Oh?" He answers lazily, his tongue flickering out briefly to lick his lower lip, "You've killed have you? Good."
"Sensei, can you please tell us why we were given this mission?" Gai asks politely, even as his hands clench into fists at his side. His bushy brows are drawn tight in consternation as he stares at the uncaring visage of the Snake Sannin.
"We'd all like to know." I add my voice to it, Genma nodding stiffly.
Orochimaru-Sensei smirks coyly, "Ah, my pupils are getting inquisitive, a scientist's dream, is it not?" He asks, but he doesn't appear to be speaking to us.
I freeze so hard I think my heart stops beating for a moment, as a cold weathered voice answers from the darkness behind the throne.
"Hmpfh, they should let their betters worry about intelligence, they need simply to obey, like all soldiers." A stern and cold voice echoes out of the darkness. "Although I suppose they achieved your objective."
I barely keep myself from panicking, no, not that! Anyone but him!
We aren't ready for him!!
A quiet tap echoes across the room, then another, until out of the darkness a cane appears, followed by an elderly man swathed in bandages, wearing a plain utilitarian robe, two men with masks following in his wake.
Masks all too similar to the man we'd had to kill to get this far…
This has been a root base all along, kami I didn't want to be right… Fuck! Why sensei, why!?
And what the fuck was the Shinobi back there? Root, plant? Your experiment?
"I suppose your point has been proven, Orochimaru. They are cleared for deployment with you in the war effort, you may return to the front immediately, I'll clear it with Hiruzen." Shimura Danzo says, eyeing us with no emotion.
"Die well, young ones."
***
Author's note:
Inohana is slowly getting closer to her team, while realizing she is actually not the best at being the 'token' girl on the team.
Maybe she can teach Hanako to be some sort of emotional support snake?
Orochimaru has been itching to get out of Konoha, but he doesn't want to give up his little project - solution! Take the kids to war with you!
Now who does he know who gives absolutely zero fucks about childrens well being…?
Enter Danzo.
And no, they're not joining Root. Orochimaru was proving a point.
With this chapter, I officially reached 1 million words posted throughout my stories, all posted in ten months - so not too shabby, as I'm taking from reviews I've gotten that my stuff isn't all pure dogshit, so I haven't just been posting random masses of words.
Thank you for those hanging around for my mad scribblings so far, here's to another million words!
… Review response, anyone else can ignore it if they don't care :)
Tony McNucklz (thanks for reviewing literally everything I have, cheers! But get the fanfic app so you can see my PM's!) - The Hokage sending Kushina away or not immediately acquiescing to Kushina/Minato/Dan requests is pretty on point for him really.
Some of it I explained in the chapter and I hope it shed some light.
Here's the thing, legally, Ichimaru, her father and clan head has a lot of say over her, then we have Orochimaru, the Jounin-Sensei who again, legally, has a lot of say.
Hiruzen has reports saying the girl is never going to be anything but an average Jounin due to her medical restrictions, why should he go against the legal guardians because some other ninja are complaining. She'll never be a threat even if she becomes disloyal, or so he thinks, and other ninja have gone through worse without ever becoming a traitor.
Appeasing the Jinchuuriki who has nowhere else to go anyway and heavy ties to the village - while pissing off his most favored student and another clan who has legal rights on their side? He isn't going to do it for nothing.
And they haven't offered anything but it's wrong, and bad. To a military dictator. Their thoughts right now - he doesn't expect those to become anything, while if he took a child away from a clan and against a top Jounin like Orochimaru, many of the other clans would definitely not just sit there, because whether it is a civilian clan or not, it sets a precedent.
The Hyuuga for one would be dead seat against it, full stop.
He's killed more kids in his career than there are in the village. Pleas of - for the children - ain't going to work on Hiruzen.
Might be bananas, but also fits the power structure of the village and the war time, as well as the Hokage's huge blindspots around Orochimaru and Danzo.
Cheers
JollyHippopotamus
