Chapter 55: Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 55
With Tobirama and Sasuke
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"Hokage-dono, it's such a pleasure that you made a trip all the way here…." the Raikage greeted warmly, not that it did anything to fool the two in front of him.
Both Sasuke and Tobirama glanced at each other, before narrowing their eyes on the large buffed up man in front of them dangerously.
"How could we have refused such a warm invitation?" Sasuke asked sternly, his voice as emotionless as the one that would have made his companion proud any other day.
But today wasn't one of those days.
The Raikage's smile slipped for a moment before it rushed back even wider than before, finally turning into an amused laughter that echoed throughout the silent clearing around them as if they had just cracked the joke of this century.
"Where are they?" Tobirama asked, his voice barely above a whisper. But the Raikage's booming laugh ceased in an instant upon hearing his icy cold words, even his guards stiffened seeing his lifeless eyes and expression that would have made a corpse shiver in his coffin.
"Ah you must mean our two guests…" at Tobirama's narrowing of eyes he trailed off before continuing on undeterred. "…they are back in the forest under the watch of my finest jounins." just with those simple words, Tobirama felt as if a mountain's worth of weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Relief washed all over his eyes before he nodded curtly, doing well to hide all hints of happiness he was feeling on the inside.
Sasuke though wasn't as hyped as his Senju comrade beside him. Something just wasn't clicking right, if it weren't for the massive army of Kumo's finest that the Raikage had assembled, it was his expression that was sealing the deal in his mind.
Something was off, and it was rubbing him the wrong way.
But he digressed at the moment, staying silent and letting events unfold naturally for now. It was too late for retreats, not that there were going to be any in the first place no matter the outcomes.
"Shall I escort you to them?" the Raikage asked, and Tobirama nodded curtly. Sasuke clenched his jaw shut quite tightly, Tobirama was clearly not in his senses right now. The thing he despised the most in the world was happening to him right now. He wasn't even sensing how many things weren't making any sense whatsoever right now.
His emotions had completely clouded his mind.
Sasuke eyed the two guards with the Raikage, who stepped behind him while one stayed with the Raikage in front of them in a pincer-three-point scouting position. His fingers twitched for a kunai but he held himself back, just for Tobirama's sake and walked with their new 'escorts' into the middle of the forests or whatever trap they had laid out for them.
The jounin walking by the Raikage's side glanced at his leader for a second before smirking and looking on ahead at the path that lay in front of their eyes.
The Raikage had a bloodthirsty smile plastered on his face, and he knew the reason why. Soon enough those Leaf trash would know it too.
For a few minutes, the only sound in the forest seemed to be the occasional chirping of birds, coupled with the soft crunching of leaves beneath their sandals with each step they took.
"How much longer?" Sasuke finally asked to break the thick silence that had befallen the party of six and Ei glanced at him with a lone eye for a mere second, that felt like an hour to the elder Sarutobi before looking on ahead.
"We are almost there." his voice was curt, quite unlike the warm voice a few moments ago and huge bells were going off in Sasuke's head. He was barely holding himself back from cleaving that bastard's head off, it would only take a moment and all of this charade would be ended in a swift strike.
But Kami damn it, Tobirama was completely out of his zone and he had to keep his head leveled.
Suddenly, they entered a clearing devoid of trees for a radius of ten meters, with nothing but a lone pine tree in the middle of the circular clearing.
"We are here." Ei whispered simply, and Sasuke's heart skipped a beat when his eyes narrowed in on a small patch of grass near the base of the Pine tree.
The grass patch had turned black.
He closed his eyes, and looked down for a moment. His teeth were gritting themselves, almost grinding them with each other while his fists were shaking as he clenched them shut tight enough for his nails to dig in his flesh and draw out some blood.
"Where are they?" Tobirama looked around completely oblivious to the agony that had befallen his friend, finding nothing but trees all around them. He finally fixed his eyes on the Raikage's back who was grinning like a psychopath out of his eyesight.
"Why, they are in front of you Lord Hokage!" Tobirama's eyes narrowed upon his loud response, but he looked on ahead at the Pine tree. His eyes glanced sharply when the Raikage raised his hand put of sheer instinct, but followed the finger the large man was pointing to the top of the tree.
His neck slowly raised, the Raikage turning around to see what he had been waiting to see all this time for a week, no scratch that, for years now.
Tobirama's eyes traveled through the foliage of the tree, before they reached the top and suddenly, in a twist of reaction his face went blank.
The scene was anything but the nightmare that he had been expecting ever since news of their capture had hit him a week ago.
Misa and Roku were tied to the top branch with barb wire clenched tightly around their wrists. Their clothes were in tatters, while bruises, cuts and several signs of inhumane torture; including discoloring of skin, most probably the result of poison torturing methods were upon clear on their bodies.
Bloody streaks ran down the bark of the tree, obvious signs of blood trails, dripping for hours on end while their lifeless bodies must have been tied there for Kami knows how long. Out for the vultures to dip their beaks into, or for the predators and scavengers of the jungle to dig their fangs and claws in their cold flesh.
"Tobirama, you look after my children alright? You're the only one I trust their lives with, Mito is just too much like me to be considered as reliable as you…" Hashirama's laughing voice, along with his stupidly grinning face flashed into his mind when realization settled in upon his mind.
His eyes widened to epic proportions, as the flashbacks of Roku's childhood, to finally the day he had married Misa flashed across his eyes and a lone tear prickled the corner of his eye.
For the first time in decades, his eyes started brimming with tears.
The memory of a weak and tiredly smiling Misa, sitting in the hospital bed flashed in his mind. His daughter in all but blood, holding a little blanketed bundle with a soundly sleeping spark of life within her arms.
The warm feelings he had felt upon taking that bundle of blanket from her, when she had tried to hand a little Tsunade to him instead of a violently protesting Hashirama strangled by Mito's chains while she had laughed her heart out at the fuming man who was crying hysterically at not being able to be the first one to hold her was still the happiest memory he had cherished in his heart for so long.
Finally the dam broke, and like rivers, his tears flowed down his cheeks.
He had failed.
He had failed his brother, he had failed Mito, he had failed Misa and Roku.
But above all, he had failed Tsunade and Nawaki.
How would he stand in front of her? Tell her how powerless he was while he still breathed breath and buried her parents right in front of her eyes? How would he tell little Nawaki when that toddler would ask where his Mummy and Daddy were and when they were coming back home?
"Ahahaha! Finally I've done what countless others have failed to do before me…" Raikage laughed a full blown laugh seeing tears drop from Tobirama's chin and wet the grass near his feet. All the while his horror stricken face stared at the two hung bodies on the tree in a trance.
"…I've broken the iron will of the Nidaime Hokage, the man said to have absolutely no emotions, cries in front of us like a pathetic infant all due to the fruit of my efforts, and look finally he realizes his place..." he chuckled hilariously, and Sasuke shook in pure fury when Tobirama fell down on his knees with the last of his words.
But no one had expected what happened next.
The two jounin behind Tobirama, going in to restrain the fallen man flew back like rag dolls and straight into the trees behind them with large slams to their heads.
The ground around Tobirama cracked, his body bursting forth with a sheen of purple chakra that exuded a pressure upon the clearing, like none it's residents had ever felt in the entirety of their lives.
Sasuke turned to Tobirama, a look of startled disbelief etched upon his face only to be shocked even further seeing Tobirama's violent change of expressions.
He had been his friend for more that three decades now, and never before had he seen Tobirama angry.
But right now he was beyond angry, or even furious for that matter.
The man was absolutely livid.
The insane blood-lust he was letting out, made the three teams of jounins shiver in their hiding spots, upon seeing the flashes of deaths pass through their visions.
The aura of the man was making them feel as if they were back in their genin days again.
He was showing them the power of a true Kage right now and the difference between their strengths had never been made more pronounced that this ever before.
Tobirama's hand raised, coming towards his chest at blazing speeds that made the Raikage and the jounin still standing by his side jump back on instinct from the delirious man on instincts of self defenses within their veteran subconscious minds.
His palm clenched the metal armor protecting his chest, clenching it's alloy into a twist, as if it were made of simple cloth and the bindings near his shoulders broke making the armor fall lose from his right shoulder.
He tore apart it's other end by pulling it forward as if it were made of simple cotton and threw it aside swiftly.
He put his foot forward with a small thump that was as clear as a bell to everyone in the vicinity, and his chakra spiked with his movements when his other hand went down to his hip to grab his trusted blade's hilt and pull it out from it's holster.
The blade blazed to life, it's yellow lightning cackling with the intensity of a lion in harmony with the blue lightning that now surrounded it's wielder, Tobirama Senju.
He put his palm upon his raised knee for support to stand up. and once more his chakra spiked once again with each and every breath of his movements.
Even Sasuke took a hesitant step back, when Tobirama stood up fully and his hair flailed around wildly along with his chakra sheen that had formed a small vortex around his body.
"I swear…" his whisper made every pair of eyes snap to attention at him.
Sasuke gulped softly, he had forgotten how powerful Tobirama really was after years of the two staying silent. Especially if the opponents he was facing ever managed to rile him up.
But these fools had woken up the beast.
No beasts, was more like it. He himself spiked up his chakra to allow a coat of pure blue chakra, nowhere near as dense or powerful but almost comparable to the man in terms of quantities as Tobirama's, to let out of it's confines and match his friend's for what was to come now.
"...on the blood of my ancestors and forefathers that runs through my veins. I swear on my honor as a Senju, not one of you…" he raised his blade up to the Raikage to assert his point to everyone, with a glance of death flashing in his eyes, which was met by Ei's own furious ones equally spitefully.
"And I mean none of you, will leave this place alive. You'll all wish for death by the time I am done with you.
Mark my words, for they shall be your last." his stern statement made each of the Cloud ninja's blood run cold while Sasuke merely smirked, a feeling of nostalgia washed over him when he too unclicked his chest plate and threw it aside.
Those would only get in their way today.
The Cloud ninjas could feel only one outcome from this battle, be it theirs or for their foes.
And that was Death.
...
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