CHAPTER 16

A dark gloom hung over the ROOT Archives as if a large cloud hovered above the expansive shelves of the nearly endless library, choked full of secrets of the continent.

"I killed my dad…I'm sorry," an old, crackly recording of Naruto sobbed, echoing over the silence of the archives.

It was from after Naruto had poisoned his father and some ROOT operatives impersonating police officers took down the child's statement.

A button on the voice recorder clicked and the audio reversed. Exactly a second later, the button was released. The recording started again.

"I killed my dad…I'm sorry…"

The weeping, weak voice of the boy ebbed around the archives, and the person holding the voice recorder again clicked the rewind button and released it.

"I killed my dad…I'm sorry…"

Naruto's words sounded as if the weight of guilt and mourning was crippling him, sniffling and apologising profusely for the crime he had committed.

Written in the large box of evidence that the voice recording had been recovered from were multiple heavily redacted statements from the ROOT operatives that first reached the Hatake clan compound and had helped arrange for the murder to look like a suicide, taking the two Hatake boys away.

The Third War was brewing and the Third Hokage, under the impression that Sakumo Hatake had indeed killed himself due to the grief of failing the critical mission, authorised that Danzo Shimura take in the orphaned Hatake boys; their prodigious skill should not be squandered, especially not when it was in such vital need at the time.

However, Naruto's guilt and misery hampered his abilities and he regressed badly, unable to so much as hold a kunai or form hand seals. Kakashi was just as affected by his father's death, albeit not knowing the true nature of Sakumo's passing; he dedicated his life to becoming stronger and better.

At that time, within two months after recovering the Hatake boys, Kakashi surpassed his brother in all aspects of being a ninja; intelligence, speed, strength, hand-to-hand, weapons use, hand seals, chakra control, and stealth. Naruto no longer displayed the superior potential he bore when Sakumo was alive.

Kakashi was good, but he wasn't good enough to join CORE.

Danzo decided to seal away that particular portion from the boy's mind, rewriting the memories; Naruto was made to forget his crime and believe that his father killed himself.

Then, abruptly, Naruto's skill skyrocketed to impossible and unfathomable heights.

Instantly, Naruto leapt over Kakashi and qualified to become a CORE operative.

The reason for the memory seal on Naruto unlocking was a mystery, but it battered the boy and sank his shoulders as he stood across from his brother.

Naruto's eyes were sunken and he stood with a tired slouch, looking at his devastated brother with glazed-over byakugan eyes. There was a significant gap between the Hatake boys, with Naruto subtly shaking his eyes and shutting his eyes to block the sight of his betrayed brother; tears freely fell from Kakashi's broken eyes, wetting his orange bandana.

Kakashi was holding the recorder so tightly his knuckle whitened, clicking the rewind button and letting it go.

"I killed my dad…I'm sorry…"

Naruto winced as if he had been struck in the back.

He couldn't speak.

Kakashi spoke though, letting the hand holding the recorder droop and said to Naruto in a voice that sounded as if he was coming to a new realization that had just dawned on him, "I hate you."

Orochimaru, standing out of sight around a corner, stifled a snigger.

CORE Operative Ten, or Tenzo, was long gone. Minato, on guard behind Naruto, held up his hands as a sign of peace for Kakashi to see, lost for words and feeling out of place in this confrontation.

Kakashi didn't see his teacher's placating gesture.

The boy's dark stare was levelled on his quietly sobbing brother, who couldn't so much as look him back in the eyes. Kakashi's mind frayed even more and he smashed the recorder in his hand, stabbing his palm with broken plastic and metal scraps. His hands oozed blood and his face didn't show any indication of pain.

It was Naruto who had stopped Kakashi from taking revenge on One for what she did to Obito and Rin. And now, he was the starting point for everything falling apart around his ears.

Naruto had betrayed Kakashi's trust by saving One, and had betrayed Kakashi's memories by killing their father.

His voice was turgid with emotions so deep and malignant that the connection both brothers had—the forbidden jutsu they willingly embarked on—nearly made Naruto's heart stop.

Kakashi was broken, and it was Naruto's fault.

"I. Hate. You, Naruto."

It wasn't Operative Ninety-Nine or Nine-Nine.

Kakashi called him by his name for the first time in years. The same name he had known when he was much younger.

Naruto's shoulders lifted and dropped helplessly, fighting for the strength to sign, "I'm sorry."

Kakashi's teeth gnashed angrily and capillaries throbbed in the boy's eyes, glaring hatefully at his brother. "You're not sorry," he said in a seething whisper, breathing so much bile and loathing into those three words that Kakashi's utterance stabbed Naruto in the heart. Naruto's knees shook, almost collapsing on the ground as the guilt on his shoulders tripled. He didn't catch the lightning-fast sequence of hand seals Kakashi flicked through. "Chidori…"

The screeching chirp of birds overpowered the quiet of the archives. The blinding light from the Chidori darkened Kakashi's shadow.

"Now, Kakashi…" Minato said tentatively, finding his voice.

The custom jutsu made by the boy, inspired by Minato's rasengan, was yet still incomplete; it gave Kakashi tunnel vision, preventing him from seeing anything else in case of a counterattack. Other than that, Kakashi had the tools to make the assassination jutsu infamous.

Kakashi tilted his head to the side, narrowing his eyes on his wilting brother.

"You're not sorry…not yet."

And Kakashi was gone in a blur, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye.

"Kakashi!" Minato roared, spinning chakra in his right hand and diving around Naruto when he saw that the boy wasn't raising any form of defence, meeting Kakashi's Chidori with a Rasengan.

The effect released a shallow, suppressed shockwave of chakra that toppled the shelves on the right and left back, casting a blinding light that stunned all occupants of the room. It took all within Minato to stay rooted on the ground, grating his teeth in the effort as the boy pushed hard to pierce through his rinnegan.

Kakashi's tunnel vision only saw Naruto, imagining his brother impaled through his arm.

He didn't see Minato masterfully divert the direction of the Chidori downward and drive a concussing knee into Kakashi's forehead, knocking the boy back and deactivating the jutsu.

The boom of shelves collapsing muffled the blaring of alarms.

Kakashi landed on the ground with a boneless thud, bouncing once on his back and messily rolling upright onto his feet. His eyes were rolled into the back of his skull and his back was horrifically arched in horrific unconsciousness, only standing due to the chakra layered on the sole of his feet that stuck him to the ground. His posture was twisted like a broken mannequin, his arms limp at his sides and knees bent, and yet his feet stayed rooted to the ground.

Then after two seconds of chilling silence, Kakashi's eyes rolled down as he forced himself back to consciousness, righting himself and snarling at Minato.

A flurry of shadows fell from the ceiling and perched on the fallen shelves, surrounding them. The ROOT ninjas answering the alarm looked on at the subdued devastation with emotionless expressions, unsheathing their blades from the ruffles of their cloaks and holding them out in preparation.

Kakashi disregarded the ROOT ninjas, looking past Minato at the small figure that was his formerly proud brother.

He pointed at Naruto and swore with all of the hate choking his heart and eroding his soul, "I'll make you sorry." His hands roved over the ninjas surrounding them, turning around in a full circle and swearing to them, though speaking to Danzo, who had covered up Naruto's crime for his selfish reasons and had been the one to send One and Sandy to disrupt Team Minato's mission, injuring Rin and leaving Obito as a vegetable, "I'll make you all sorry."

"Time to go," Minato muttered and grabbed Naruto's shoulder, vanishing in a yellow flash just as the innumerable ROOT operatives fell on them. If they stayed any longer, it could risk Danzo fleeing.

Kakashi didn't flee though, and Orochimaru didn't step in to rescue the boy.

There was no need.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A second later

Namikaze residence

Kushina was upstairs in the baby's room when she heard the front door bang open.

She instinctively reached under her hair to the nape of her neck, pulling out a kunai from a small storage seal inked to her skin and stormed out of the room with the blade in a reverse at her front.

"Minato?" she called carefully and peered out of the room.

As soon as she called his name, Minato was running up the stairs with Naruto on his back.

"What happened to him?" Kushina baulked, sealing her weapon and following Minato into the guestroom, watching as the man dropped the unresponsive, glassy-eyed boy into the bed. He didn't look injured. Not physically.

"It's a long story." Minato sighed, scratching the top of his head.

Naruto slowly moved to his side, turning his back on them and curling up into a ball.

He tried to make himself look as small as possible, Kushina realised. It was a stark contrast to the proud child she had spoken to not even an hour ago.

The woman sat down on the side of the bed and felt the boy's neck with the back of her hand. "His temperature is fine." She looked up at her husband with concerned eyes, having also checked the boy's chakra network for some sort of interference, saying, "Nothing wrong with his chakra either."

"He's…" Minato faltered, frowning, "going through something right now."

Kushina's eyes became serious. "Tell me what happened."

Minato shook his head. "Outside."

Kushina followed the man out of the room, closing the door after herself and crossing her arms. She was already defensive of her husband's young friend, waiting for the man to tell her exactly what had happened between the time she last saw Naruto to now.

Minato ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not sure how to begin…" he spoke in a low voice and Kushina nodded once, leaning in a little. "Sakumo didn't commit suicide. Naruto…"

A short moment passed after Minato's hesitant, implied words, before Kushina withdrew with large eyes and a gasp, covering her mouth in horror. Words escaped her. Her head started to spin and she placed her hand on the wall to stabilise herself. "H-How…?" she breathed out, looking at her similarly grief-stricken husband, both at the death of one of their shinobi inspirations and at the thought that the boy on the other side of the room could do such a thing; Kushina had seen firsthand how defensive the boy was of those he treasured and Minato knew how much Naruto loved his brother. It didn't make any sense. "They must have been five when Sakumo…died…" Kushina uttered in a small, pained tone. "How did Naruto do it? Why did Naruto do it?"

"My best guess is poison." Minato shrugged limply. His face then contorted in a mix of frustration and disgust, reluctant again to tell the whole truth to his wife. "And Kushina?"

She saw the alien look on Minato's face, and Kushina wilted; she had only seen that look once before, and it was when Danzo refused to allow them to marry the first five times Minato sought out his permission.

The man came up to her and supported her with his arms.

"No…" Kushina whispered pitifully.

"Kushina—"

"NO!" the woman screamed, futilely beating against Minato's chest with weak fists. Tears flowed from her eyes and she cried.

Minato looked down at her with sorry eyes. His voice was controlled and compassionate. "Danzo…hand a hand in Sakumo's death. The poison came from him and ROOT. He authorised it."

Two blows in five minutes.

Minato felt bad, but he could never hide anything from Kushina, not for long and not willingly.

Sakumo's death had hit both of them hard; the man had spoken to their First-Year class in the Academy on Chakra Theory, and he made the objectively boring topic extremely interesting to a class of fifty or so children. He was a celebrity in the sense that his feats as a ninja were undisputed, more so when the Third Hokage admitted that Sakumo was equal in strength to him.

A score of children looked up to Sakumo Hatake, likely more than they did Hiruzen Sarutobi.

However, the second blow for Kushina was the thought that Danzo, her teacher, had a hand in the man's death. Worse yet, Danzo had done so through the hand of someone Sakumo loved dearly.

The door opened and Kushina whipped around, wiping her reddened eyes of its tears and clearing her throat. "Naruto, hey."

The boy's eyes were on his feet and his shoulders were slack with weariness.

Kushina's heart crumbled at the sight.

It was difficult to believe that this same boy had pushed both her and Mikoto Uchiha to the very brink, even breaking Mikoto's nose and outmanoeuvring her chakra chains.

Now, Naruto truly looked like his age, and he looked lost. Hopeless.

His glazed byakugan flicked up and he signed, "I would like to go to home, please."

Minato stammered, "Of-Of course." That was where Naruto had been picked up from, after all. "We'll strategize our next steps later."

"Thanks."

Kushina shook her head and blocked Minato before he could go around her to grasp Naruto's shoulder. "Wait."

The boy sighed miserably, and Kushina's resolve frayed; if she decided to harm him, he would resist.

"Listen, Naruto." She bent down to Naruto's level and tilted his chin up to meet her glistening purple eyes, lightly red from crying. "I can't possibly begin to understand what you're going through right now, and I'm sorry." The boy didn't move to answer, his pale, sunken eyes blinking once. "I don't think you killed your dad, Naruto."

He blinked at her again, briefly looking down, then back again into Kushina's eyes. A glimmer of reflection somewhere in his byakugan.

Kushina grinned cheekily. "You're too nice to do that."

A ghost of a smile lifted the corners of Naruto's mouth. He crossed his arms and furrowed his brows in disagreement with her statement.

"I'm not lying!" she exclaimed, still grinning. "Out of all of Minato's friends, you're my favourite. You're a good influence on him."

"You flatter me, Kushina." Despite his signed words, Naruto still beamed proudly, looking around at Minato and waggling his eyebrows at the man's terse, yet harmless, frown. "You're not so bad yourself. He's a lucky guy."

"Alright, alright, break it up," Minato interjected with faux jealousy as if his childhood sweetheart could get swept off her feet by a thirteen-year-old boy. He pulled Kushina away, and the woman giggled as she stepped away, holding her hands up in defeat. "What would Lio think if she saw you flirting with my wife?"

The boy's teeming smile rose a little more and she shrugged, though the couple still saw the glimmer of fear in the boy's expression.

Minato smirked half-heartedly at his houseguest and said, "Either way, we'll get to the bottom of this. Together. Ok?"

Naruto nodded, depressed but agreeable.

He shook Minato's hand firmly.

"You're always welcome in our home, Naruto," Kushina said from Minato's back, unsealing post-it notes and pen from the storage seal at the nape of her neck and scribbling on it. She tore out a single note and presented it to the boy. There were three sets of digits on the note, and they were labelled accordingly. "That's our landline, the fax number, and our emergency contact."

Naruto's expression brightened ever so subtly, rubbing at his eyes and sniffing.

"Don't ghost us, Naruto," Kushina warned, and this made Naruto chuckle breathily, sniffing. He collected the note from her and folded it into his pocket. "I mean it."

"I won't," Naruto assured them sincerely. He pursed his lips, stifling the emotions that wanted to bubble out of his eyes. "I'm grateful for everything, and I'm sorry for how things turned out."

"No apologies needed," Minato said with equal assurance. "We'll find Kakashi and bring him back."

"Yes." Naruto agreed. "Now…"

"Right." Minato bit his thumb and flicked through a short series of hand seals, and a burst of smoke erupted on top of Naruto's head. "I'll stay back in case the alarm in ROOT leaks out into the village. It's no good if the people start thinking we're under attack."

Naruto was half-smiling; Iwa's Last Roar wasn't that long ago, and Konoha was still on edge. "I don't envy you."

"Me neither."

Minato nodded to the toad and the creature saluted, vanishing in a yellow flash.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Whisper Group Auction Hideout

Little Whirlpool

The money counters stopped abruptly when Naruto appeared in the room, and the four guards at the sole entrance to the room drew their weapons in alarm. Even seeing that it was their boss, they didn't drop their weapons. They approached slowly and carefully, and the money counters quietly eased away.

Naruto understood their caution; he had vanished with a toad two hours ago and the last time they saw him, he was unkempt and hadn't bathed in days.

"Identification, sir," one of the guards asked formally, in case the person who appeared in the room was indeed their master and not an imposter.

Naruto held up his hands. He pointed to his lips with his right hand and opened his mouth, letting his tongue hang down. On top of his tongue was tattooed his CORE serial numbers.

CRE-099-142177676619

Imposters scarcely knew the set of numbers since Naruto didn't often open his mouth wide enough for them to see it.

The weapons went down and so did the guards, falling on their knees and pressing their foreheads to the ground in subservience.

"Our apologies, boss!" the four guards shouted, and the group members that were assigned to the money counters snapped to attention and joined the guards as they barked, "Welcome back, boss!"

Naruto clapped his hands twice and the guards raised their faces, and he smiled genially at them. "I'm glad you lot were cautious. Well done." He waved to all of the money counters. "Well done, everyone."

"Thank you, boss!" the guards and money counters exclaimed. The guards scrambled back to their feet and sheathed their weapons. The money counters sat back down at their stations and continued their monotonous tasks of counting several bundles of money. More money was being carted into the room inside wooden boxes, and money left the room inside backpacks, handbags, rucksacks, and inside the lining of some clothes.

Naruto inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell and sound of money. He perched his hands on his hips and proceeded to the entrance, idly nodding to the money counters that bowed to him.

"You run a tight ship," Gamahiro said on top of Naruto's head.

Naruto honestly forgot the toad was still there. He didn't respond, smiling and nodding to more greetings as he left the room.

Gamahiro read his mood and dispelled himself.

The next room after the money counters contained two desks and two group members; they were two of Naruto's best accountants. People bringing money from the auction area checked in with them on the total money in their crates, as determined by the accountants in the auction area, before they then proceeded to get the money formally counted, after which the money would pass through them again, though this time inside smaller cases like handbags, upon which they were to Whisper Group branches across the continent.

On reaching those branches, the money would then be invested into legitimate or semi-legitimate means, like dry cleaners, restaurants, and a sporting equipment manufacturing business in Kumo, among many other investments. For the most part, anyway.

Money laundering was a way of life in Whisper Group.

The two accountants in the room gave each group member who reported to them a designated branch for which they were to carry their ill-gotten gains.

They shot to their feet and bowed on seeing Naruto.

"Boss!"

"Good work, both of you."

Naruto came up to their desks and the accountants readily held out their record books with both hands, keeping their bodies inclined in their formal bows. A short line began to form near the desk of group members holding different bags and waiting for their assignments, saluting to their boss all the while.

Naruto took the record book of flipped through some pages, but his eyes weren't focused on any words or figures in particular, pretending to skim their work. He returned their book with a bright smile.

"Good work, gentlemen."

They thanked him profusely but Naruto was already bustling out of the room, passing through the open doorway and trekking down a busy corridor, where group members wheeled in crates of cash. The boy sidled up to the right side of the corridor, offhandedly nodding to greetings and keeping his expression neutral yet pleasant.

No matter how small, insignificant, and forgettable Naruto tried to make himself look, he was easily spotted and recognised by his group members. He walked out of the corridor into an open area populated by group member accommodations; there were dozens of one-bedroom, one kitchen and bathroom, self-contained accommodations, and two large barracks that were currently empty, as group members were actively enforcing the auction.

A large artificial light hung over the group member accommodations area, widely illuminating the area.

Naruto tucked his hands into his pockets and kept his head low, strolling across the open area to one of the barracks. As a personal policy, he made it a point to not separate himself or Lio from his people, so at that moment he was bunking with Lio in the barracks, eating in the same mess hall, and showering in the same bathhouses, albeit in the respective age-restricted areas, since it wouldn't be proper for a middle-aged person to undress around a teenager.

It shouldn't be a big deal with Naruto lives the same as his group members, but it improved morale among the people to see their boss sleeping, eating, and living life in a similar capacity.

Naruto's expression didn't change as he walked to the front entrance of the barracks and he saw the door was locked with a padlock. He inhaled slowly and shut his eyes, exhaling even slower and allowing himself to lean his brow against the locked door.

He didn't have the keys.

"Hey," an airy voice said behind him.

Naruto's eyes blinked open and he sniffed, realising the buildup of tears that prickled his vision. He stood upright and rubbed his eyes, running his hands down his face. He cleared his throat and tossed a smile over his shoulder.

"I'm not with the key if that's what you're asking," Lio said matter-of-factly. Naruto chuckled and her next words dripped with consternation. "Look at me, Naruto."

Naruto coughed into his fist and rubbed his nose, whipping around with a dramatic flourish, only to meet an unimpressed pair of neon pink eyes. She was wearing the uniform of a server; a black vest and pants, a long-sleeved white dress shirt, and polished formal shoes. The illusion of uniformity and professionalism was broken by the girl's grey beanie and her electric pink eyes.

She surveyed him head to toe, taking firm steps forward until they were nearly nose-to-nose, then Naruto took a step back and bumped into the locked door. He scoffed and waved his right hand in front of his face, mocking her breath.

Lio crossed her arms. "Huh." She didn't look angry, or disappointed. Her face was even and emotionless, more so when Naruto rolled his left hand and a scroll appeared in his hand in a burst of smoke. Wispy pink mist oozed from the scroll and Lio's eyes were drawn to it immediately. Every sense in her body verified that the contents of the scroll were indeed her lost limbs. She said both in awe and disbelief, "She just gave them to you?"

Naruto nodded, still holding the scroll of Lio's wings to her.

Lio blinked, confused. Her emotionless façade twisted into bewilderment. "I—" she fumbled for words to say. She had dreamed of this moment when she would regain her wings and bear them on her body like she had done for years before they were taken, but the abruptness of the event jarred her.

Then something clicked in her mind as she got a better look, though not at the scroll but at Naruto's hand. His body was trembling, subtly but more so than ever before; Naruto hardly shook in the cold, not unless he was being dramatic, and the boy was never afraid of anyone or anything.

"You're shaking…" she said in shock. She came closer and grabbed his hand, feeling Naruto's rapid heartbeat from his wrist. Her eyes lifted to meet his. "What happened in Konoha?"

Naruto's smiling mask cracked and his eyes slipped down to the ground.

Lio's eyebrows creased and she absentmindedly tucked the scroll into a pocket of her waiter's vest. Her hands cupped his cheeks and she searched his eyes.

The boy's grin wavered and the corners of his eyes crinkled, visibly fighting back his grief.

His shoulders slumped and his arms hung weakly at his sides. He mouthed voicelessly, his eyes filling up with wetness and a hiccup in his soundless words, "I'm trying to keep it together."

First, it was One starving herself and refusing to see Naruto's side, wanting him to surrender himself to Danzo, and now the revelation that he had been the one to murder his father…

It was a lot.

Naruto broke down in his friend's arms.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

ROOT Archives

Kakashi grunted and rubbed his face with his right hand, wincing at a sharp pain in his index finger. He looked at his hand and grimaced; his pointer and middle fingers were dislocated and his knuckles were a mess of blood and bruises.

He spat on the ground and scoffed, giving the disembowelled torso at his feet a parting kick and surveying the damage around him, while he idly pulled at his fingers, popping them back into their sockets.

The archives were a mess of broken bodies and blood. The red liquid soaked into every surface, whether it was the fallen shelves, the torn documents and books, or the stone floor.

Pained wheezing and groaning softly ebbed from around those who were unfortunate enough to survive their wounds, struggling to keep their intestines from spilling out of their guts or fighting to stifle the bleeding ebbing from their necks. There were some with their heads crushed against the hard floor, their craniums popped open and their brains messily spilling out, in the faintly twitching throes of rigour mortis.

A small fire burned on one side of the archives, consuming fragile, old scrolls. The fire was on the body of a dead ROOT operative, lying on his back with his skin seared off his bones and his blood boiled into a faint red mist.

Two shinobi were impaled by their heads in the stone ceiling, and blood lazily leaked down from their smashed heads and trickled down to their feet, dripping on the floor.

The archives were now a grotesque sight of death and misery.

There was scarcely any surface of the archives that didn't contain a body, dead or alive, complete or chopped up.

"This isn't enough," Kakashi murmured under his breath. He turned around and regarded Orochimaru as he approached. "I want him to hurt. Badly."

"Me too." Orochimaru agreed with a pleasant smirk.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Is that all you want?"

Orochimaru chuckled and made a flippant gesture. "I also want him dead, but that can wait."

"Hn." Kakashi chewed on his tongue and idly nodded, clenching and unclenching his hands, using the pain to keep himself conscious, like he had done when Minato kneed him in the temple. The pain kept Kakashi lucid.

"You two best get lost before Danzo sends us in." Kakashi whirled around at the voice, having not sensed the person before, and saw CORE Operative Ten sitting on a small pile of dead ROOT ninjas. His fingers were laced and his face was a sheet of impassiveness as he carefully watched Kakashi and Orochimaru.

"I see," Kakashi breathed out, a slow, sleepy smile growing on his face. "Naruto would hurt after I kill you, Ten."

A daring smirk cracked up Ten's face and he hopped onto his feet. An immense amount of chakra brewed in Ten's chakra coils, so much so that it caught Orochimaru's attention; Wood release aside, Ten was in CORE for a very good reason. "You want to try?"

This was Kakashi biting more than he could chew, Orochimaru realised. At least for now.

"I was going to hang back because your Naruto's bro, but screw that. I've wanted to do this for years." Let it be said that a vast majority of CORE had wanted to get their hands on Kakashi because of Naruto's "unfounded" loyalty to his brother. Ten cracked his knuckles and flared his chakra, blasting away the bodies and shelves in his immediate vicinity. The boy beckoned to Kakashi with both hands. "Let's do this, pretty boy."

"Gladly," Kakashi said with a wide grin, taking a step forward.

"Nope," Orochimaru interjected and chopped a nerve on Kakashi's neck, catching the boy as he crumpled, backing away when the boy forced himself awake once again and jumped away from Orochimaru's reach.

Orochimaru began to regret his decision to ally with Kakashi.

Everyone who came from the Hatake clan was outrageous.

"What—?" Kakashi's confusion was interrupted when Black Zetsu, melded into a corpse on the ground, pricked Kakashi's heel with a needle. The effect was immediate, as the boy began to slur his words and sway uncertainly. Five seconds later, he topped onto his face and Orochimaru's eyes snapped to Ten.

The boy narrowed his eyes at the scientist. "Don't even—"

Orochimaru raced to Kakashi and scooped the unconscious boy up, only to be encased in three trees that exploded out of the ground and wrapped around him and Kakashi. The trees swelled up and melded together, twisting and writhing till their trunk resembled one sphere with dense roots digging deeply into the rocky ground and a thicket of branches pushing against the hard ceiling of the archives. It was so quick that Zetsu was cast away, losing an arm to the spherical trees. A massive, complex fuinjutsu hissed onto the surface of the wooden sphere.

"Wood Release: Heavenly Woodland Containment Seal." Ten's fingers untangled and he ran to the wooden sphere, stumbling back when he saw that the sphere was swelling. The pressure inside the sphere built up and engorged the wooden enclosure, pushing the branches against the wooden ceiling and breaking the ground as it got bigger and bigger. No matter how large the sphere swelled, it would undoubtedly contain Orochimaru and Kakashi. That would have been ideal, except that their present location made things difficult.

Ten gnashed his teeth and cursed, releasing the trap jutsu before it could cause the ceiling the archives to cave in.

The sphere split open suddenly and white snakes with golden, serpentine eyes of all sizes and lengths spilt out in a violent frenzy, hissing and snapping at anything that reached their venomous jaws. Most surged after Ten with dizzying speed and the boy bound away, jumping from shelf to shelf as the snakes rushed him, shredding bodies and wood to pieces wherever they stampeded over. The wave of snakes grew so large that it eclipsed the entire section of the archives, blotting out the lights and rolling over anything in its path.

Ten blindingly flicked his hands through a series of 43 seals as he got closer to the exit. He couldn't risk destroying any more of the precious documents in the archives, so he did the next best thing. He used a jutsu one of his sisters, Four-Hundred-and-Fifteen, showed him.

"Lightning Release: Thunderclap!" he bellowed and finally slammed his hands together, and a deafening shockwave of sound and electricity roared from his mouth in the form of a transparent tunnel, and collided with the stampede of snakes. The collision could best be described as if a train rammed head-on into a similarly moving train.

On impact, the snakes dispelled in one massive burst of white smoke.

Authors note

Jutsu List

Wood Release: Heavenly Woodland Containment Seal: This is a B-rank wood release jutsu that was created by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. The initial intention was to contain the Kyuubi if the beast ever escaped Mito Uzumaki, Hashirama's wife, however, it was soon deemed too weak to contain the beast after a practical test run when the One-Tailed beast used brute force to escape the seal. The downside of the seal is that once the trees have encased the target, they do not actively absorb the chakra of the target, only swelling up larger to contain the person without increasing the thickness of the containment. The jutsu was then recycled into effectively containing exceptional shinobi, like Kakuzu of Hidden Waterfall, though only after being mercilessly subdued.

Lightning Release: Thunderclap: This is a B-rank lightning technique of unknown origins, though it is used by CORE Operative Four-Fifteen. It was showed to Tenzo, and some other siblings, during a ninjutsu exhibition; it does not fire visible lightning to the target. Instead, the jutsu generates a storm of lightning in the user's lungs and they exhale the sounds of thunder and the air pressure to the target in the form of a continuous, transparent cylinder. It can also serve to confuse and disorient enemies around the user. It is an extremely concussive jutsu with a high fatality, though with an equally high chakra requirement per use. Reportedly, there are no survivors of this jutsu except Orochimaru of the Sannin, though only barely.

Done

Well, damn…

Yes, all chapters in this story are very important, but this is a pivotal chapter in this entire story, mainly because of the cascade of events that would result due to everything that happened so far.

What do you think of this chapter, and the story so far?

See you when I see you.

Foy.