Capítulo 58: Scars (1)
{A/N: As interesting as the idea of Hanzo is... trying to hype him with a variety of skills and then not probably use him later would just be a bad way so I'm taking the canon route with a bit more conversation than before because 1) It's Easy. And 2) I'm a lazy, lazy being.}
***
"Summons, techniques, physical strength, spatial awareness, and honor, the three of you are outclassed in everything. And those unfortunate shinobi are now dead because of you," the distorted voice emphasized under heavy rain, "However, I commend your ingenuity. Orochimaru... Senju Tsunade... and you, Jiraiya of the Sage," Hanzo narrowed his gaze as he observed the trio. Each of them... had a certain level of body modification jutsu which are quite rare. Especially Orochimaru.
"It would seem that the only difference between us is years of growth and experience. No wonder... the rest have to resort to such measures. It's not just the Kekkei Genkai that makes Konoha, it would seem."
The man stood atop a brown-grey salamander with no eyes as his gaze bore down on the barely standing Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. Their heaves were loud, and their gaze laced with despair.
'Should I summon them...' Jiraiya frowned with a thought. He wasn't exactly exceptional in that technique. His tired gaze momentarily drifted over to other shinobi and a few Ninken who now lay on the ground, their bodies showing signs of extreme poisoning. The bulging veins over the entirety of their bodies were now black as his gaze grew a tad bit... complicated. He couldn't even compel himself to be angry since they were the assaulters. But he wanted to feel angry and thus there lay the conflict.
Even he and Orochimaru only survived thanks to Tsunade.
They barely cared what Hanzo had to say and were ready to retreat. Yet, the man surprised them as he crossed his arms with quite a cocky look. Maybe dignified?
"The three of you... show promise. Promise to become better if you do manage to overcome that conflict."
"Huh?" Orochimaru was the first to react. His body was battered but he still looked up with an incredulous expression in his snake-like yellow pupils.
"I predict Konoha will have enough strength to not only survive this war but win it. The forces at play are not something you could imagine nor the actual prey. For that very reason, I shall let you live today. However, from here on forward, the three of you MUST claim yourself to be the three Legendary Sannin of Konoha. Beings of admirable strength and admirable reputation that failed to defeat ME, Hanzo of the Rain."
"Don't you mock us—" Jiraiya growled for it was a mockery. To be named by the enemy that could kill them at any time. Yes, they fought admirably but their summons, their skills, and their own experience weren't something that could be matched up to the ridiculousness of chakra reserves and skills that Hanzo revealed.
Yet, with an unusual coldness in the rasp of his tone, Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, "We accept. And you shall keep your word, is that it?"
"Since when did the pathetic excuse of this ambush gain the ability to doubt the honor of my word?" Hanzo drearily narrowed his eyes as Tsunade only looked dazed at this point. There were some strange and telling signs on her body but even Orochimaru couldn't pay attention to her just yet.
Hanzo grew quiet after that. Only regarding the remaining trio alive silently with his gaze as Orochimaru gave the gritting Jiraiya a signal to retreat. Yet...
"Tsunade... let's go..." Jiraiya frowned and whispered as Tsunade looked at Jiraiya blankly before following them. They could already feel the unrest from the town that is supposed to be their point of retreat but what surprised them was a special talking Ninken in the form of a tiny grey pug that led them elsewhere.
---
"How about we give it a rest?" Sakumo sighed and looked at the older woman almost half his height as she wore a wide blue-grey robe with a small-cap over her head. She silently controlled ten different white-robed puppets, each with their own individualistic features with one of them even having only one eye.
The duo was close to the outskirts of the town as the older woman with deep wrinkles forming over her face scoffed coldly, "Even if I don't kill you today, I'll at least destroy this clone. Don't you insult me with being this casual!"
"You need to use your strongest technique to fight a clone like me... besides," Sakumo narrowed his eyes coldly, completely uncharacteristic of how he has been around Kai and the group of children now following him, "I killed your son and daughter-in-law, being casual is an understatement to the term insult, don't you think, Chiyo-san?"
The woman's eyes snapped wide open with the most hateful glare Sakumo had seen as Chiyo issued a sharp whistle with five different kunoichi and shinobi flickering in her direction. All of them wielded at least two puppets!
"Ganging up, are we?" Sakumo's blade glowed in white before chakra started to ooze out of his tenketsu with his expression turning utterly blank as his pupils dilated to the point that he looked more like a focused animal than anything else.
"Even if a clone, that man is still the White Fang, destroy him and secure a path to retreat," Chiyo grew more cautious than reckless as it is known to everyone in the higher ranks of the various shinobi village to never fight against an utterly expressionless Sakumo if possible.
Cornered beasts are dangerous but so are the beasts that have human intellect and focus befitting natural predators that would rather die than let lose of their prey.
---
"Kai-boya! Read this. It's from Sakumo and all you need to know about me and the situation."
As Kai looked at the cute grey pug bark in a human language, the summon itself disappeared with a poof of smoke and left a tiny scroll. Still cautiously eyeing his Sensei and her teammates, Kai slowly picked up his scroll while not even bothering to focus on how broken Tsunade and Jiraiya felt at the moment. From his sensory empath skill, only Orochimaru felt... frustrated for better or worse.
Once Kai unsealed the scroll in the same pattern that was his and Sakumo's secret code, he deciphered the message and couldn't help but raise his right brow in surprise.
"Do come in," Kai looked at the drenched trio with a plain smile and added, "And don't scare the owners of this cave."
It was Orochimaru's and Jiraiya's turn to frown at the information but Tsunade barely looked in the right state of her mind as she passed by Kai and entered through the cave's open entrance before sitting near one of the boulders under the stunned gazes of Chibi and the rest of the three kids. She proceeded to curl her knees and just... stare at the wall in front of her blankly.
"Um... sure... welcome?" Yahiko uttered with a weird expression as Kai walked in with Orochimaru and Jiraiya following after him, "Hey guys, that's my Sensei. She... just had something strange so yeah, should probably leave her alone. And this is Orochimaru-san and Jiraiya-san. They're just here for a couple of days to rest. They have enough food for themselves so don't worry about that."
This visibly relieved Yahiko and Konan but Kai now felt an even greater sense of conflict within Nagato as the boy kept staring at them and with his eyes covered, Kai wasn't sure what attracted the boy's attention.
"War Orphans?" Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, "I should kill them and save them from witnessing the horrors of war."
This made the three kids flinch while Chibi was stunned due to his animalistic instincts screaming out of a sudden.
"Orochimaru-san likes to joke," Kai interjected with an easy-going smile before turning to Orochimaru, "And Sakumo-san intends to bring them along with the immigrants."
This made Orochimaru roll his eyes slightly.
But...
Kai could easily deduce that the next couple of days were going to be rough as Sakumo cleans the town not far from them and the boy himself sealed the cave with concealment and hidden seals that just worked well in such a gloomy environment.
---
Land of Fire, Konohagakure.
A thin, red-furred humanoid beast with ape-like features wearing a white bandana over his head sat across Hiruzen and spoke with a nod, "Enma-kun wanted to me to relay the news he got from one Sakumo Hatake's ninken summon— Your disciples are safe and Orochimaru wished to warn you about Kumogakure and the fact that a hidden conspiracy is at work. Hanzo believes that Konoha will win against three villages which means that either Konoha will receive a great boost during the war or the other villages will suffer major losses for some reason.
A detailed report will be sent later. Ah, Enma-kun wished to let you know that Sakumo was almost finished with the next assignment but Hanzo intervened and made him retreat. He sent relevant information alongside his Ninken to his young partner. Even this emergency message would have been relayed through a scroll but Konoha War Camp is being besieged by Ame Shinobi and Suna Shinobi alongside Kumo's ken corps."
Not waiting for Hiruzen's reply, the red-furred humanoid monkey summon disappeared with a puff of smoke as the middle-aged man grew silent.
"So even the trio alongside a platoon cannot bring down Hanzo... although not as destructive as the Third Raikage, that man has clearly retained everything even to this day... now that is highly troublesome. Not to mention if Orochimaru can ascertain that shinobi villages are plotting something against another target then Tsunade will, too... maybe not before but she has shown enough political awareness by now."
Leaning back on his chair and exhaling in exhaustion, Hiruzen called out lightly, "Hawk."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," a masked shinobi with spiky brown hair flickered in front of Hokage and knelt on one knee while lowering his head.
"Bring this letter of assistance to the Uzu contact near the coast of Land of Fire..." with a thoughtful look, Hiruzen added, "These are troubled times. If you are unable to make contact the first time... return without hesitation."
The Hokage presented the Anbu shinobi with a scroll and let him leave.
With this task done and now a mission noted that Konoha officially sent to Uzushiogakure a contact to assure support, whether it is accepted or not was easy to guess and also made Hiruzen clear on many accounts. He truly couldn't help Uzu with even the Daimyo of Fire breathing down his neck which made it clear to many what would be the main event of the Second Shinobi World War.
A target whose product offended the high-ranking members of all the elemental nations and now, the same target refusing to even reveal their position on the matter which happened to be one of the richest lands filled with 'human resources' along with many others... yeah, this was a set-up conspired for years and now utilized.
But this also made Hiruzen frown.
Uzumaki was a distant ally. It was made clear years ago that they themselves would never settle in Konoha so even Hiruzen was a bit cautious of this clan. But the major issue was that Tsunade revealed someone was trying to hunt the Senju, too.
Of course, Hiruzen understood that these clan matters won't be revealed fully by Tsunade but ever since she reported this, Hiruzen investigated the matter and the patterns of death, including the death of Tsunade's mother and father who were the backbone of the Senju Spy network and personally raised by the Second Hokage within the clan, made it clear that someone... had intimate knowledge on the clan.
Hiruzen didn't need Tsunade to compromise her position by revealing that she suspected someone within the village behind these actions if not only selling the information to the various parties.
And there was a certain someone in Hiruzen's mind who could be behind this but... the only evidence that would have tied the suspect down was the fact when the certain Root members attacked Team Tsunade.
Yet... it was true that they could be traitors themselves and Danzo did disband the root and sent the remaining forces to Anbu. Of course, Hiruzen had no doubt Danzo either made a few key individuals commit suicide to prevent loss of information about the inner workings of the Root but most of the fresh talents were sent over.
"It is either Danzo, Koharu, or Homura... or I am thinking too deep into this and it's that hunched humper Onoki..." Hiruzen frowned. He wouldn't have resorted to making such speculations but the evidence and track record of the matter were simply too short to follow any concrete suspect. Not to mention Danzo's behavior had only gotten better after losing the Root as if it was a poison that had corrupted his old friend long ago who was only recovering now.
"Still... Sakumo was partnered with Kai-kun. I hope nothing happened to him..."
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