Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Kishimoto-sensei.
Chapter 14
"Naruto."
"Haruo-nii-san?" Rat uttered in shock. He could not believe his ears. Leaning against the wall of the earth dome, he shut his eyes closed as he tried to sense the chakra of the figure outside. His mind, however, was a mess.
Please no. Please no. Please no. His eyebrows burrowed in dread. Rat prayed silently that his intuition was not true.
Kurotsuchi frowned when she saw the look on his face. Nii-san? Naruto? Is it your real name?
"Naruto." The voice called a second time.
Rat finally opened his eyes in dejection. His body shook in suppressed anger. It really was him. It was undeniable. Rat clenched his fists as he cursed the Snake Sannin. I will chase you to the end of the world and kill you myself.
"What should we do, Rat?" Kurotsuchi carefully asked. She was fairly confident in her abilities and was ready to face the enemy together, come what may. But seeing Rat's unusual body gestures and unstable mood had made her worry for him.
"Please let me out." Rat replied.
"What?"
"This is my fight. I must do this on my own."
"No, I'm staying with you."
"Please, Kurotsuchi." His pleading shut down her attempts to offer her help. "But I have a favor to ask of you." The Iwa princess reluctantly nodded. Rat continued, "Please go find Machi and make sure she's safe. Can you promise me?"
"I promise." Kurotsuchi answered resolutely. Rat's back was still facing her as he stood firmly, seemingly looking at where their adversary might be outside. Kurotsuchi could feel that Rat wanted to resolve this matter on his own. She wanted to grab his hands to reassure him, but she lightly touched his shoulders instead. "You promise me that you stay safe too, alright?"
When she saw Rat nod, she deactivated her jutsu. The earth dome then sank into the ground, and they finally could see the outside again. Kurotsuchi could see the one who attacked them earlier standing a few feet away from them. However, he stood unmoving, locked in a stare down with Rat.
"Don't you die on me... Naruto." Kurotsuchi said her guardian's real name for the first time.
"Don't worry. I'll see you soon."
With that, the Iwa kunoichi turned around and dashed off toward the direction of Machi's apartment. Since she could not personally help him with this fight, she vowed to protect his remaining family.
"Naruto."
"It really is you, Haruo-nii-san." Rat said to his former ANBU teammate and brother, Boar, who went missing during their mission in Iwagakure. The resemblance was uncanny, except the grey tone and cracks on his skin.
"How's-... how is Machi?"
Rat felt a lump in his throat. The first question his brother asked was about his wife. After all, he loved his wife more than anything in this world. The younger ANBU took a deep breath before answering, "She's doing well."
"Good. And the baby?"
"The baby's doing well too. She's due next month."
"Good good. You'll be an uncle soon, huh. Can you believe it?"
Rat wanted to say that his brother would be a father soon too, but he found no word. He felt a sharp pain in his chest as he was hit hard with the reality that Boar would not get to see the birth of his daughter. "Her name will be Yuki. Did you choose it yourself?"
"Yes. Machi loves snow, so I picked that name for our baby." Boar chuckled. "I hope your sister hasn't been lonely ever since I was gone."
Rat shook his head. "No. I'm staying with her now. Kakashi and Yugao have also been visiting her more frequently. And she's got a new company too."
"Oh? Is it that Iwa girl earlier?"
"Yes. The one that we saved. They've become good friends now. Thanks to her, Nee-san isn't as bored anymore."
Boar snorted in disbelief. "I can't believe the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage could make friends with shinobi of the Leaf."
Rat hummed in response. Then, the conversation fell into silence. Boar took a good look at his younger brother and noticed Rat's right pointing finger was scratching his right thumb incessantly. He immediately recognized that tick. Whenever he did that, it meant he was feeling restless. It seemed the younger ANBU was trying to avoid the elephant in the room, but Boar would not let it.
Boar sighed, "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
Rat flinched at the impending situation he knew he could not avoid.
Boar continued, "I believe you already know about this technique that was used on me. With your extensive knowledge in sealing techniques that Konoha possess, I'm sure you know what to do."
Rat nodded in confirmation. "I must seal you away soon before Orochimaru takes over control of your body completely. I guess he must be very distracted right now. The technique's command is temporarily weakened. That's why you could stop your body from attacking me for the time being."
Boar inspected his hands. He tried to clench them, but they barely moved. He had to exert a significant amount of effort and focus to even speak. Suddenly, his body stiffened, alerting Rat. "Crap, he's noticed. Quick! Seal me awa-"
"?!"
Against his own will, the undead Boar threw a kunai at Rat. The younger ANBU reflexively pulled out his own kunai to deflect it before bringing it to block another strike as Boar had blitzed toward him with a short tanto aimed at Rat's head. Rat gritted his teeth, straining against the pressure. He then sneakily pivoted to his left and kicked Boar's right foot to trip him. With Boar now off balance, the young ANBU could have easily swung his kunai down and struck the undead shinobi in the back. But his hand froze.
Taking advantage of Rat's hesitation, the undead shinobi lashed out with his tanto again while he was tumbling to the ground. Rat hopped back in response but not without a slash wound on his right calf. The younger ANBU gritted teeth, biting down a groan of pain. Although the resurrection had not restored Boar to his full strength, it had achieved its mental effect of messing with Rat's state of mind.
"Do not hesitate, Naruto. This is not me," Boar commanded, noticing his brother's hesitation. Although this was hard for the both of them, Boar knew he had to be rational. They were shinobi; they could not be overwhelmed by emotions in the face of danger. And now he was the danger. "I'm already dead."
Rat silently cursed at the cold hard truth.
"Jump back! I'm using Bottomless Swamp." Boar continued.
Rat followed Boar's words, immediately jumping backward as the ground under him indeed turned into mud. He glanced at Boar and saw the undead ANBU holding a Snake sign before switching to a combination of Dragon-Ox-Dog-Tiger hand seals.
"It's Flame Bullet." Boar yelled out, revealing his next attack.
In response, Rat summoned a wall of water as soon as he found his footing to block the incoming fire bullet.
"I can't stop my body, but I will tell you what it will do. You must quickly find a way to seal me immediately!"
Rat sucked his teeth, "It's easier said than done." As far as he knew, there were very limited ways to counter the Edo-Tensei (Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation). Just dealing physical harm to the body would only result in the reincarnated body regenerating. He had to either force the user to end the technique or remove the soul entirely from the body.
Rat once heard from the Third Hokage that there was a forbidden technique created by the Uzumaki clan, the Dead Demon Consuming Seal. With that technique, he could seal away Boar's soul by borrowing the power of the Shinigami. However, his own soul would be consumed by the Shinigami too at the end of the technique. That also meant their souls would not be able to enter the Pure Land as they were supposed to after normal death. Rat faltered at the idea of using it. He did not want to die yet. Not until he could exact his revenge on Orochimaru. Not until he made sure that Machi and her child were safe... Not until he gave his answer to Kurotsuchi.
After several evasions from successive attacks with Boar's help, Rat materialized his signature sealing chains. The way things were going, he could not keep evading forever. He had to at least neutralize the body first. Rat then threw three kunai with explosive seals at the approaching Boar. When the kunai almost reached the target, he activated the seals and detonated them mid-air. Clouds of smoke surrounded Boar and obstructed his vision. Rat didn't intend to hurt him; it was of no use anyway. He only wanted a brief distraction while his chains soared to grab Boar from his blind sides.
"Good idea. Your chains may be able to hold me down for now." Boar exclaimed as the smoke dissipated. The undead ANBU indeed struggled to move from the leash of the golden chains. He could also feel his chakra being nullified; he could not perform any jutsu. "But now what?"
Rat frowned at the dilemma. "I don't know either." This was only a temporary solution. He might have bound Boar, but he still had no way to release the technique and free Boar's soul from the reincarnated body.
As he was thinking about soul extraction, an epiphany hit him. Rat remembered there was a shinobi in Konoha's Tactical and Defense Division, named Sabiru. During the discussion about the defense plan for the invasion, Rat was able to meet Sabiru. Rat found that the shinobi was very intelligent and quite proficient with sealing techniques as evidenced by the Third Hokage's praise for his efficient security system.
As someone who specialized in Fuinjutsu himself, Rat had a deep conversation with Sabiru. After Rat shared some of his knowledge about Seal-Barrier concepts, Sabiru returned the favor by telling the young ANBU about his recently developed sealing technique that could, in theory, extract a soul from a person and seal that soul in a sealing tag. At that time, he showed Rat the formula, and as luck had it, Rat examined the formula and gave a few pointers on how to correct the seal arrays.
It might work. Rat walked toward the bound Boar before taking off his Boar-mask.
"Have you found a solution?" Boar asked.
"Technically, yes." Rat answered before he grabbed a brush from his knee-pouch and began scribbling seal arrays in Kanji characters on the surface of that mask. "I learned a jutsu from someone. With it, I can theoretically extract your soul and seal it within your mask. But that also means you will be stuck here in this mask and not be able to move on to the Pure Land."
"Do you still want to go through with it?" After finishing the seal, Rat slowly raised the mask and showed it to Boar. "Or I can find another-"
"Do it." Boar nodded. He slowly turned his sight to the south, toward the direction of his and his wife's apartment. Rat could see a relieved smile on his brother's face. The look of someone longing to return home. "Who cares if I'm stuck here or not. I didn't want to leave in the first place."
Rat closed his eyes, and a stream of tears fell down his cheeks. "I will avenge you, nii-san. I vow on my life."
"Promise me you'll take care of her and Yuki for me." Boar showed his usual lazy grin. He would have patted the young blond on his head if he could. "Eat well, sleep well, and live well, Naruto... I'm proud of you."
Rat took off his own mask and gave his brother one final smile before performing a half-ram hand seal. "Soul-Body Separation Technique!"
With a flash, a light blue apparition exited Boar's body before being sucked into the mask in Rat's hand. The seal arrays on the mask shone for a brief second then faded until barely noticeable. Boar's resurrected body warped back to the appearance of its original owner as tiny pieces of paper and dust started to peel off the skin. The body abruptly dropped onto the ground with no sign of life.
Rat took in a big breath to calm his mind. Even with a slash wound on his calf, his physical condition was still fine, but the mental exhaustion was quite taxing. However, chaos remained. His eyes sharpened; his fists clenched. The night was not over yet.
The One-Tail beast's gleeful shriek sent shivers down the spines of the Leaf shinobi as it kept spitting rounds and rounds of wind bullets which leveled the surrounding buildings. The fate of civilians who had not been evacuated remained unknown. The scene was a reminder of that fateful day thirteen years ago. The day that the Nine-Tail Fox laid destruction upon the village.
Atop a building, Jiraiya glared in anguish. He was enjoying his nightly hot spring bath when the explosion happened. As soon as he arrived at the scene, the image of his pupil's tomb flashed across his eyes. He did not make it in time that day to help Minato and Kushina. He did not make it in time to save his godson from his cruel fate. But he would be damned if he let the tragedy of that day repeat itself once again.
Several Konoha Jonin and Chunin on the ground had thrown fire and earth attacks upon attacks at the One-Tail, but they did little damage as the beast's body was made purely of sand and could easily heal itself. The beast's attacks only intensified; a number of the Leaf-nin could not escape in time and perished as a result.
One ANBU with a dragon mask, seemingly a squad leader, appeared next to the Toad Sage. "Jiraiya-sama, what's the plan to handle the One-Tail? Tenzo and Rat are not here yet. Most likely, they are already engaged elsewhere in isolated battles."
In their counter-invasion plan, the current two sealing masters in Konoha would work in cohesion with the Wood release-wielding ANBU to suppress the One-Tain in the occasion that the beast was released. However, this unforeseen change of event had thrown a wrench in their plans. He was now left alone to deal with the problem. Without the sealing chains and the wood release to bind the One-Tail, Jiraiya had the work cut out for him.
"Obviously, we need to stop its rampage, or it'll destroy the village." Jiraiya handed Dragon four seal tags. "Plant these tags around the beast. I'm using Four Flames Formation to seal off the area and deal with the beast right here. Let's hope I can reseal it by myself. If not, at the very least we can do damage control."
According to information from his high-ranking shinobi-spy in Sunagakure, the current Jinchuriki of the One-Tail had not had perfect control over his tailed beast yet. However, before he could get any more intel, he lost contact with the spy days prior to this sudden attack. He reckoned that the spy either went into hiding or got eliminated. That explained why they were not aware of this change of plan.
Thus, now the Toad Sage had to base his decisions on his knowledge of Jinchuriki's power. For the Suna Jinchuriki to fully transform like that, he had to hand over control to the beast. Jiraiya believed it had to be only temporary. Although it was an open secret that the Kazekage's son had lost control a few times, the Kazekage was able to recover the situation and suppress the beast. There had to be a way Jiraiya could replicate that ... unless the Jinchuriki boy was truly suicidal enough to give up his life and let the tailed beast free this time.
"Get four strong shinobi to hold the seals. The rest rescue as many civilians as possible within the area and get to the corners of the barriers. Then cast any jutsu to cover themselves up."
The ANBU nodded at Jiraiya's order before taking off. The Toad Sage bit his fingers to summon his toad companion, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
The area was plummeted in a ginormous cloud of smoke within which a silhouette of an enormous toad summon appeared. After the smoke cleared, there stood a giant magenta-colored toad with black markings on his face, arms and legs and horn-like protrusions on his head. The toad was almost 20 meters tall and wielded a Sasumata (Spear fork polearm) and a sake cup-like shield.
"Ken-san. I'm asking for your help today." Jiraiya greeted his summon. "I hope you don't mind my request."
A deep voice bellowed from the giant toad, "Jiraiya-san. Though I'm pretty weak, I'll try my best."
Like his name's sake, the ever humble and reliable Gamaken accepted his summoner's request regardless of the opponent they would be facing. Jiraiya nodded in gratitude as he braced himself atop Gamaken's head when the giant toad took a big leap toward the One-Tail.
Noticing the new arrival, the One-Tail turned to face Gamaken and shot three successive wind bullets at the oncoming toad summon. Gamaken immediately raised his shield to block the wind attacks. The highly concentrated balls of wind were strong enough to stop the giant toad's momentum as he landed further back than intended. Not allowing longer reprieve, Jiraiya readied a combination jutsu. "Give me oil, Ken-san!"
"On it!" Gamaken yelled before spraying a large stream of toad oil at the One-Tail. On cue, Jiraiya spat his own flame bullet to ignite the oil. The Toad Oil Flame Bullet combination technique overpowered the next round of wind bullets from the sand tailed beast and continued soaring toward its target.
The psychotic One-Tail still cackled in the face of the powerful combination attack as it swung its tail at the oil-enhanced flame bullet. However, the flame was so hot that a section of the tail that it touched turned into glass.
Seconds later, Gamaken leapt forward again with his sasumata poised. The polearm exploded upon contact with the glass-turned sand. Now within range, Gamaken then bashed the One-Tail in the face with his shield, momentarily stunned the tailed-beast. The magenta toad giant raised his polearm again to strike the One-Tail's midsection. But the bigger tailed beast recovered very quickly and grabbed the polearm shaft with its left hand.
The One-Tail grinned mockingly as its regenerated tail wrapped around the giant toad. Despite not being in the vicinity of natural sand, the tailed beast's sand manipulation was nigh invincible. Soon, the sand on the tail quickly spread, holding Gamaken in a cocoon within seconds.
Seeing his summon in danger, Jiraiya launched into the air with a big jump, "This will be it, Ken-san. Dispel NOW!"
Gamaken hummed before disappearing with an explosion of smoke, signalling the end of his summoning. Still in the air, Jiraiya bit his finger again to initiate another summoning. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
This time, a giant, dusty red-skinned toad summon appeared in a plume of smoke in the air, a tanto poised in his right hand. The newly arrived toad giant let gravity pull him down as he was in free fall and dropped on top of the One-Tail, causing a powerful impact that shook the ground like an earthquake. The toad struck his tanto down the tailed beast, piercing through its back. The One-Tail shrieked in pain, twisting and turning to shake the giant toad off its back. The red-colored toad summon jumped off the sand beast.
"Good one, Bunta!" Jiraiya yelled from atop his new summon in excitement. Unlike his previous polite greeting with Gamaken, the white-haired Sannin addressed the chief toad summon informally.
"Jiraiya, you better come up with a good reason for summoning me at this troublesome time." Gamabunta, the chief toad of Mount Myoboku, reprimanded. "What are you doing, fighting this vicious beast, the One-tail?!"
"Can't explain now, my friend. I know it's a bad time to meet. But can you do me this one favor?" Jiraiya replied. While the One-Tail was battling Gamaken and when he was in the air earlier, the Toad Sage caught sight of the Kazekage's son's sleeping form atop the One-Tail's forehead.
It seemed the Jinchuriki actually surrendered control of his body to the tailed beast. The fact that the tailed beast ran rampant while its host was sleeping meant that the Jinchuriki's consciousness was the key to their connection. The Toad Sage let out a sigh of relief. It was not a full release after all, just a transformation with partial control that was induced by the host's forced sleep. Thus, Jiraiya theorized that One-Tail's transformation could be broken once the Jinchuriki was woken up and got his chakra sealed.
That made it much easier to deal with. "Bunta, see that little guy on its head? Take me there. I need to wake him up."
Gamabunta squinted his yellow eyes. The One-Tail was writhing in fury. The tanto strike likely did not hurt it that much, but its ego was most definitely trampled. The beast swiftly willed its sand body, shifting the tanto from its back to its tail before throwing the giant blade away.
Although strong-willed and apathetic, Gamabunta was highly aware of how powerful the tailed beast was. Partial control or not, it could not be underestimated. "You better get me some good'as Sake next time."
Not wasting any second, the toad chief spat out a highly condensed jet of water at the One-Tail. The tailed beast covered its face with its hand and screamed in annoyance, "I hate water!"
Gamabunta grumbled, "Thought you couldn't speak." However, the aim was not to hurt the sand beast, but to push it toward the seal barrier that was erected by the ANBU earlier. The barrier was made of red flames that instantly engulfed anything upon contact. Seeing that the One-Tail was still meters away from the barrier, Gamabunta dug his feet into the ground, readying his hind muscles for a powerful leap. "Buckle up, Jiraiya."
Understanding what his summon friend was doing, Jiraiya squatted, preparing the final touch of their offense. All five fingers on his right hand began to glow in green color, each character of the Five Movements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) appearing on each finger respectively.
With a powerful leap, Gamabunta crashed into the One-Tail like a bulldozer. The impact caused a rumbling as the sand Tanuki stumbled back and fell onto the red flame barrier. Surrounding buildings crumbled by the collision between the two giants. The back of the tailed beast burst into flame upon contact.
Meanwhile, the legendary Sannin flew with momentum, letting out an exaggerated gleeful cry, "Here comes the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!" With a thud, Jiraiya safely landed on the One-Tail's sandy forehead. Two steps from him laid the One-Tail's Jinchuriki. The boy's slouching body was barely visible from afar, but now up close, Jiraiya could clearly see his dark red hair, a trait the boy got from his Kazekage father.
The brewing anger inside Jiraiya minutes earlier slowly subsided now that he was standing face to face with the Jinchuriki. Jiraiya frowned at the pitiful sight. He looked to be at the same age as Naruto. They were born with the same fate, to be their village's weapon in human form. The only difference was that his blond godson was able to control his demon, but this Suna kid clearly was not.
In quick action, the Toad Sage punched away the sand that covered the Jinchuriki's midsection. He then lifted the boy's shirt to inspect his stomach where he suspected the Jinchuriki's seal might be because the abdomen usually was the anchor point of body seals. But there was nothing there. Jiraiya looked at the boy again from top to bottom. There was a Kanji character for 'Love' on the boy's forehead. Jiraiya squinted his eyes as he looked closer at the character.
"So, this is the Iron Kettle Seal, huh? What a wacky job. No wonder the boy's insane." He could feel a faint chakra emitting from the brush strokes of the character, but the structures of the seal matrices were barely cohesive. Such loose cohesion largely affected the integrity of the seal which allowed the tailed beast to influence the mind of the host. The One-Tail was literally and figuratively in the boy's head all the time. "Time to wake up, kiddo."
With fluid motion, Jiraiya planted his glowing fingers on the forehead seal of the Jinchuriki. Immediately, the Suna shinobi awoke with a painful cry as his seal burned. The Five Elements Seal had successfully taken effect, disrupting the Iron Kettle Seal and blocking the boy's access to his own chakra. With the chakra flow blocked, the sand replica body of the One-Tail created by the Jinchuriki started to disintegrate, and the tailed beast's consciousness and personality began to recede.
In a puff of smoke, a small, gourd-shaped toad appeared next to Jiraiya. Without delay, the toad lashed out its tongue and wrapped the fallen Jinchuriki's body in a tight bond. It then dragged the body before swallowing inside its stomach. Jiraiya crouched down and grabbed a cork that the toad was handing over to him to plug its mouth. "Well done, Hyotan Gama. Keep the boy safe for now. I'll come back later."
The gourd toad nodded before disappearing the same way it came. The Barrier: Toad Gourd Prison would detain Suna's Jinchuriki for the time being. He would be a key negotiating piece for reparation later. Looking around at the destruction caused by the One-Tail's rampage, Jiraiya could guess how much compensation they could extract from Sunagakure with the Jinchuriki in their hand.
That was how it usually worked with the Big Five to keep the power balance. The current status quo was maintained to prevent any one of the five great shinobi nations from overpowering the others. If one nation conquered and overtook another, a power vacuum would occur, and the world would be plunged into chaos again. Decades ago, the First Hokage disseminated the tailed beasts that he captured among the respective great shinobi villages to keep peace, albeit at a price. However, three Great Wars erupted and threatened to destroy the peace. The tip of the balance was barely maintained due to consequential circumstances that each of the five great shinobi countries suffered. Fire, Earth, and Wind countries' strengths were constantly drained by relentless skirmishes and cold wars between its respective shinobi villages. Lightning country and its Cloud village were embroiled in internal instability, their tailed beasts' loss of control, and numerous failed attempts at encroaching on nearby minor countries. Water country and its Mist village's unity were destabilized by civil wars after civil wars, completely preventing their sole dominance over naval control. Were these mere coincidences? Jiraiya was not naive enough to think so. The works behind the scenes by the five great shinobi countries always made sure to keep each other in check.
So, for the Sand village to threaten the status quo by working with the smaller Sound village to invade the Leaf, what exactly did they have in store? Furthermore, the Fourth Kazekage was never a reckless person. He was not only a dangerous shinobi but also a slick politician, showing enough objectivity to seek a peace treaty with Konoha and openly support the Wind Daimyo's trade agreement with Fire country after their resources ran dry following the Third War. Then the question was how did Orochimaru manage to convince such a man to take this risky path? Destroying a section of the Leaf village by sacrificing their own living weapon? Rasa would never take that trade off.
Unless...
His train of thoughts was cut off when a sudden chill went down his spine. Jiraiya quickly looked in the direction of the Hokage Residence. A sinister aura erupted, freezing him and the remaining Leaf shinobi in the area. His hands were shaking slightly as a bad feeling invaded his mind.
Such foul killing intent. What is happening over there?
"Dragon!" The white haired Sannin stabilized his breathing to regain his composure. The dragon-masked ANBU reappeared next to Jiraiya in a swirl of leaves, now looking more labored than before. Jiraiya continued, "Go to the Information and Receiving Center and relay this new order to the returning shinobi. Inform those who can arrive by tonight or tomorrow morning to pick up their speed. For those who can't do so, tell them to hold their position, set up protective parameters and wait for further order; do not return yet."
Dragon looked at the Sannin in confusion, "Jiraiya-sama, what's the reason behind this? Is this from Hokage-sama?"
Jiraiya yelled, "We've got no time for this. Do it now! I'll go talk with Sensei later."
Dragon was yet to move as he was still deliberating the information with uneasiness. Per protocol, ANBU received orders only from the Hokage. For such a high-stake order, it had to be decided by the Hokage. However, the white haired Sannin was indeed a trusted confidant and the remaining loyal disciple of Lord Third. With the Hokage now occupied, the Sannin's prestige and loyalty could be enough for him to issue emergency orders.
"What are you waiting for?! Quickly before our returning forces get decimated on their way back! Sunagakure and Otogakure forces have likely infiltrated the border and could now be waiting in ambush to pick us off."
Finally understanding the severity of their situation, Dragon immediately bowed and flickered away.
Jiraiya grinded his teeth in frustration at the shithole they had found themselves in. They had been taken by surprise and reacted one step behind. He hoped the new order arrived fast enough to minimize the damage. Today just could not get any worse. Without delay, the Toad Sage took off toward the Hokage Residence's direction from which the foul aura permeated.
"Machi-san!"
Kurotsuchi quickly entered her care taker's apartment. "Machi-san?" The Iwa kunoichi looked around but found no one inside. She must have been evacuated.
Kurotsuchi approached the window and looked outside. Fortunately, this neighborhood was untouched by the attack, but the surrounding buildings looked to be abandoned. It seemed the evacuation process had already started. She then left the apartment and wandered the streets. After walking past a few blocks, she finally found a long line of civilians being escorted by a group of shinobi. They were headed for the far east side of the vast rock formation where the mountain met the village's wall. Seeing the several carvings of faces at the center of the rock formation, Kurotsuchi assumed that must be the Hokage Rock. Rat had taken her there once, but he had never told her that place contained many shelters for evacuation during times of attack.
She walked toward the line of people. But a male Leaf shinobi noticed her and blocked her way. The long black haired, white-eyed shinobi looked at her apprehensively when he saw her Iwagakure headband on her forehead. "Stop. What are you doing here, Iwa shinobi?"
Then another shinobi approached her, this one female, looking much older and higher ranked too seeing as the first shinobi stepped aside to make way for her. There was a dark blue cloth with an insignia of the Leaf symbol wrapped around her left arm. "Iwagakure delegate, you are not supposed to be here. You should be at the special shelter for foreign guests."
Kurotsuchi raised her hands in surrender. "I'm just looking for someone. I want to make sure she's safe."
The senior Leaf shinobi objected, "No. Please return to your designated shelter. Although you have come on official mission, we cannot be held responsible for your safety." She then relayed an order to the lower ranked Leaf shinobi, "Shinji, take her to the foreign guest shelter."
"Wait!" yelled Machi as she broke away from the line of escorted civilians. Even though she was an active Chunin herself, she could not contribute much to the evacuation effort due to her pregnancy. "I know her."
"Machi-san?" The shinobi escort leader exclaimed.
"It's okay. She's my friend." Machi replied.
"Alright. There will be no delay. You can talk on the way there."
Machi nodded in gratitude. She was then grabbed on the shoulders by Kurotsuchi as the younger girl frantically inspected her for injuries. Machi chuckled, "I'm fine, Kuri-chan."
"Are you sure? Did they do a check-up on you?" Kurotsuchi fretted. "Naruto told me to come look for you. I'm also worried you might be hurt, 'you know."
Machi raised her eyebrows. "You know his real name?"
"A-" Kurotsuchi's words got stuck in her throat. The scene of Naruto facing his brother popped into the Iwa kunoichi's mind. She deducted he must have been Machi's husband who was assumed to be killed in action. "It's a long story."
The pregnant woman sighed, "Alright. Anyway, let's get going." Kurotsuchi nodded, wrapping her arms around Machi's shoulders as the two followed the evacuating crowd. "Can you tell me the situation now?"
Although Machi was on maternity leave from her shinobi duty, Naruto had briefed her on the possible invasion by the Sound-Sand alliance. It was just that they did not expect it to happen this soon. Fortunately, much preparation had already been set in place. Konoha shinobi force had been incredibly well-drilled in emergency protocols for attacks on the village, managing to timely take control of the situation and de-escalate the fear and panic of the populace that initially broke out when the attack started. Konoha Military Police force were responsible for evacuating every civilian to the nearest shelters throughout the village with the support of shinobi at Genin rank as well as cadets at the Shinobi Academy. Meanwhile, shinobi at Chunin rank and above would engage the enemy units with full force.
"I was at a restaurant waiting for my Iwa Genin teams when the explosion broke out. I went outside to check and saw the One-Tail beast rampaging. When I was told that Rat- Naruto went to confront the enemies, I followed him. When I got there, he was preparing to battle three giant snake summons," Kurotsuchi recounted the details of what she was doing. Soon, they reached the foot of the mountain where there was a stairway that was hidden from sight by the canopy of the surrounding trees. The Iwa princess noticed that there were lots of tree inside and outside the village befitting its name of hidden in leaves.
Kurotsuch continued while helping Machi climb the stairs, "But before we could start, there was another enemy who attacked us from our blind side. I wanted to stay and help, but Naruto asked me to find and protect you. He said he wanted to deal with the enemy alone."
Machi listened attentively before asking, "Who's that enemy? Did you know who that is?"
Kurotsuchi gulped nervously. She was a straightforward person, so she was not good at beating around the bush. But since this was a sensitive topic for someone who had started to become dear to her, Kurotsuchi debated with herself whether to tell her friend the truth or not. "I heard Naruto call him ... Haruo-nii-san."
Machi stumbled when she heard the name, almost missing a step of the stairs. She looked at the younger girl in shock. Kurotsuchi quickly helped her from falling. "Is it true? You didn't mishear it?"
Kurotsuchi shook her head, gently rubbing Machi on the back. Seeing the look of her pregnant friend, the Iwa kunoichi was even surer about her assumption of that enemy's identity. It was indeed Machi's missing husband.
"So, he is alive?" There was a hopeful look on her face, but it soon fell apart when Kurotsuchi averted her eyes.
"I don't know. While we were fighting, I heard Naruto mention something about a sealing technique because a wound on Haruo-san healed too quickly to be the work of a healing technique. I'm sorry, Machi-nee-san. That's all I know before I left."
Machi absentmindedly gripped Kurotsuchi's hand that was supporting her. She looked worriedly at the village center where the sound of explosions and rumblings could barely be heard. They had arrived quite far from the danger zones. "It's okay. I've already prepared myself for the worst. It's just ... I'm worried about how Naruto will handle it."
"Have faith that he knows what to do. Come on. Let's get you to safety first. I'll go check up on him later, alright?" Kurotsuchi reassured her friend. Machi subtly nodded. They soon reached a platform where they saw a squad of Leaf shinobi guarding a door, most likely the entrance of the shelter. It seemed the crowd of civilians had made it inside before the two.
Kurotsuchi could recognize the evacuation team leader that she met earlier. The female Konoha shinobi was talking to another shinobi with spiky light blue hair when they noticed her and Machi approaching. The evacuation team leader then went inside while the light blue hair shinobi stepped forward and greeted her with a smile. "You must be the delegate from Iwagakure. Although I'm surprised to see you here."
Kurotsuchi was slightly surprised by the relatively warm welcome from the Leaf shinobi. Her trained instinct told her there could be something fishy about him. However, she told herself that she must have overthought since his main priority at the moment should be on the safety of Konoha's populace, not her. The Iwa kunoichi returned the courtesy with a slight smile of her own. "I'm Kurotsuchi. I just want to make sure my friend here is safe. No other reason."
When he saw Machi's pregnant belly, he brightened up and pressed an invisible seal tag on the wall next to the entrance. The door swiftly opened. "Quick! Let's get you guys inside. By the way, my name is Sabiru. I'm the security head of this shelter. I suggest you stay here until the situation is stabilized, Kurotsuchi-san." As he watched the two women entering through the door, the edge of his mouth twitched. There was a knowing look on his face as his eyes lingered at the disappearing sight of the Tsuchikage's granddaughter.
"Without your two arms, you won't be able to cause any more harm." Sarutobi Hiruzen exclaimed, his chest heaving with heavy panting, as he stood slouching in front of Orochimaru.
Early on when the surprise attack started, the Third Hokage had ordered an immediate execution of the emergency protocols. As he finished putting on his battle gear and was about to head for where the One-Tail was, he sensed a familiar presence atop his residence. When he arrived at the rooftop, Hiruzen saw the bodies of his ANBU guards laying lifeless on the floor. Then, the sight he never imagined he would see appeared in front of his eyes. First came a deep shock, followed by an immense disappointment at the shameful act of Orochimaru for daring to use a forbidden technique to resurrect the founding Hokages of the Hidden Leaf village.
Their ensuing intense battle had almost completely destroyed the Hokage Residence; however, it was successfully concluded after the Third Hokage summoned the Death God to seal away the souls of his two mentors, the First and Second Hokage, and the arms of his student. But at what cost?
Orochimaru snorted, but there was no humor behind it. The Snake Sannin gritted his teeth in unending pain and anger of his loss. He nearly spat as he mentioned the name of the person he once revered. "Do you think the peace that you have been working so hard to keep will last any longer, Sarutobi-sensei?"
The Third Hokage looked at his estranged student dejectedly. His energy was being sapped as they spoke. The Dead Demon Consuming Seal technique had essentially claimed his life in exchange for borrowing the power of the Shinigami. Now that the deed was done, it was time for the Shinigami to consume Hiruzen's soul, forever imprisoning him inside the Death God's stomach.
"Don't give me that look, sensei. I know you regretted failing to kill me," Orochimaru grinned mockingly despite both his arms dangling lifelessly to his side. "Although my arms are gone, others will continue my work to destroy this peace that you love so much. What do you think will happen when the other three villages know that Konoha is now in possession of the One-Tail beast?"
Hiruzen widened his eyes in shock as he began to understand Orochimaru's intention of initiating the invasion prematurely. Laying destruction to a section of Konoha was not his only purpose. The aged Hokage knelt on one knee, having difficulty breathing and barely staying conscious with the little energy he had left.
"Will they stand by and do nothing while Konoha is gaining strength? Do you think that little revised piece of paper called 'peace armistice' that the old coot Tsuchikage gave you will hold meaning if something happens to his granddaughter?"
"What are you doing to her?" Hiruzen uttered with a strained voice.
"You can wait and see. Oh, I forgot. That's not possible 'cause you'll die soon." Orochimaru cackled like a man gone mad.
"Orochimaru..." Hiruzen felt a pang in his heart as he looked at the subject of his failed teaching. He had seen with his own eyes how this prodigious shinobi with a bright future had now walked down the wrong path due to his painful childhood memories. Still, it was a hard pill to swallow because that shinobi was once his student after all.
The Snake Sannin laughed before shuddering as pain flared up in his now useless arms. "Soon, the world will be plunged into chaos. And when everyone is busy fighting for greed, I will have free reign to do whatever I want. Doesn't that sound great, sensei? Wasn't that what you always used to ask me? What do I want? ... I want to live forever! I want to learn all of the world's secrets! But first, I want to see Konoha suffer!"
Author's note:
Naruto has found closure with his brother's death. Jiraiya successfully pulled off the One-Tail heist. Kurotsuchi and Machi are safe in the shelter, ... or are they? Meanwhile, Orochimaru is hysterical with his highly costed victory.
What will happen next? Give me your thoughts in the review section.