Bab 17: A Different Step (1)

"Hiruzen! You bastard! How could you?!" Danzo screamed as he struggled against the iron shackles placed on his limbs while he was stripped to the bare minimum. His bandages removed and his right eye taken away. Not only his right eye, but the strange eyes containing red pupils and three tomoes attached to his right hand were also removed.

"How could I?" Contained within one of the interrogation chambers meant specifically for the use of the Hokage, Sandaime spoke coldly as he looked at Danzo with nothing but hatred. Gone was his pity and disappointment for his friend. Danzo's actions touched the bottom line of too many.

"I suppose I can drug you with my smoke without any guilty conscience if you are indifferent enough to disrespect the dead Uchihas and robbing their eyes.

Then again, who's to deny that you weren't the one who orchestrated their deaths."

His piercing words shook Danzo who couldn't help but struggle against the chains carved with chakra suppressing seal. His glare never left Hiruzen, who matched Danzo's glare with his own gaze filled with pent-up resentment and hatred. Through his clenched jaws, Sandaime finally spoke out.

"And how dare you do that to... Kagami! You are the one who's a real bastard! Disgraceful to master's name!"

Hearing Nidaime's mention, Danzo's eye turned slightly maniacal as he screeched while his disheveled hair fell on his forehead.

"You dare mention master? He wanted to eradicate the Uchihas! And yet, he gave his seat to you! You worthless peace-loving trash! You are the one that tarnished master's name and YOU are the one who let the people and the village down!"

With some of his anger subsided, Sandaime took control of his emotions as he gazed at Danzo. No matter how much he hated him... or at least, started to hate him, he couldn't help but pity him in the end.

"How can you compare yourself with master?" Hiruzen started as he sighed. "Nidaime fought a war against the Uchihas before the alliance. Can you not see that? But he kept control of his emotions and did not let his past decide his future actions. I am his future! Can you not see that?!

He gave his life for an ambush for which Kagami UCHIHA practically threw his life in! Do you fail to see that?! Answer me! You had a sharingan and yet, you failed to see what is important! Letting your past dictate your actions! I may have opposing ideals when compared to Nidaime, but you! You are an utter disgrace! A trash not worth a single look from his honoured self!"

Danzo's eyes widened in shock while Hiruzen didn't wish to sour his mood further and went out of the interrogation chamber, facing Minato and another persona with slightly raised jaws, the current head of the Uchiha Clan: Fugaku Uchiha. Gazing at Minato, Hiruzen thought for a moment before speaking out, his words didn't make sense to the Wicked Eye Fugaku, but Sandaime's words pierced right through Yondaime's heart.

"This action... maybe, this will be your mistake..."

He whispered as he made his way out of the interrogation department. His meaning obvious— Danzo's fate was left in Yondaime's hand. Dead or alive, the consequences would be dealt in Yondaime's name only. The only time Sandaime took part in this... 'illegal' action was when he drugged his past comrade-in-arms and found out that Danzo's actions were far more disgusting than he had imagined.

"Hokage-dono... how do you plan to take care of this issue?" Fugaku finally voice his doubts as Minato didn't even look at him, his eyes staring at Danzo's crazed form with a grim expression. He had long realised that he had used his authority as a Hokage to complete an illegal task that should've gone through the proper legal process. The first and foremost step was to acquire enough hard evidence against Danzo, but they forcefully skipped that part. Even now, Danzo was imprisoned because of various circumstances that the ANBU failed to find evidence for.

"I intend to find the source of those Sharingan's before anything else." Minato looked at Fugaku, who didn't shy away from the Hokage's gaze as Minato continued. "And I fully intend to resolve... any unresolved issues between the Leaf Police Department and the Village as a whole."

His words made Fugaku's expression stern while Minato looked at Fugaku and spoke with a slightly raised voice.

"Fugaku Uchiha, you will get one chance to stop all your past actions. The one who is actively suppressing you is right in front of you. Danzo's actions were against the village's ideal. Forcefully suppressing an ally clan was personal and unwise. For this, your clan will get appropriate compensation." Minato took a deep breath before looking back at Danzo and continued with a stern expression, "But if you wish to keep up with your aggression, I will do what is necessary."

"I... understand." Fugaku spoke with clenched teeth. Even though he had his own pent-up resentment and anger towards the village, he knew that if he kept his hatred against the village, the result would only end disastrously. And honestly, with Danzo in front of him, he already found out that his anger towards the Village as a whole was unfair as the reason for the discrimination against their own kind was due to one single person.

***

"It is discovered that the sharingans confiscated from Danzo's arms were not... real. They were more like... created." The supervisor medic-nin spoke up as the glare of the two Shinobis in the Hokage's office shook the heart of supervisor. He quickly reported the details and quickly went out, not wanting to feel that pressure anymore.

"Can't we simply attack Orochimaru?" Fugaku asked with a dark expression. While his indignation was slightly eased due to Fourth Hokage's action of disbanding the Leaf Police Department and allowing the Uchihas to enter the ANBU and their recent sub-division specifically for young geniuses— Root, he still wanted to fully vent his frustrations. After all, he had already made Danzo speak up of his atrocities alongside the cooperation with that freak Orochimaru after he put Danzo under his genjutsu.

Taking a deep breath, Minato shook his head and replied with a somber expression.

"I have already committed a crime under the Hokage's name. That won't happen again. All the slave-trading channels have been destroyed under the immediate commands and the corresponding institutions have been confiscated under the Village's name and the... representing councilmen have been executed. But that is it for we have the evidence of their actions.

What about Orochimaru? No trails, no clues, nothing! If Orochimaru even gets a slight inkling that we are also onto him, it will be a lost cause." Minato looked at Fugaku with a serious expression before picking another topic.

"I think we should discuss the event of a... peculiar Uchiha."

Remembering the orange-masked Uchiha, Minato looked at Fugaku, who in return, frowned heavily and took a seat. A serious discussion ensued between the two S-Ranked Shinobis.

***

In the deep corner of the forest of death, Orochimaru set up another meeting with the infamous Uchiha, whose presence has already been cautioned to the current Uchiha Head. Gazing at Orochimaru with his narrowed sharingan eye, Madara focused his attention as he suddenly stepped on a slithering and short white-scaled snake whose fangs were moments away from biting his heels.

"Enough." Madara grunted as a cold pressure emerged from his body. Hostility evident in his presence as this meeting only meant one of the two things— Cooperation, Death. With actively seeking out Orochimaru, Madara was determined enough to remove the reptilian of a researcher who is capable of producing working sharingan eyes... or at least, he was capable of crafting the infamous kekkei genkai of the Uchiha clan until his renowned partner left him. But his prodigious mind was enough for the infamous Uchiha to fear the incomplete sage.

"A set of byakugan and sharingan." Orochimaru's sudden demand caused the masked assailant to frown as the mad scientist continued. "I agree to join your... adventure. But that is my price. A set of working sharingan and byakugan. I won't settle for less. Of course, your presence can be gracious enough to sweeten the pot." His dry chuckles spread through the empty patch of forest as the surrounding bushes started to rustle.

Gazing at the surrounding bushes, the Uchiha frowned as he could 'see' a lot of short snakes, just like the previous one, surrounding the duo. But he failed to understand the motive. Gazing back at the complacent humanoid serpent, the Uchiha's tomoes rotated, getting into action as a snake immediately appeared from Orochimaru's feet and bit on his ankles. His dull gaze immediately gained clarity, startling the arrogant Uchiha.

"Now... we have equal grounds to discuss our future cooperation." Orochimaru's raspy voice caused the Uchiha to glare as he snorted. "You seem confident enough." A suction emerged from the opening of the mask. The Uchiha's eyes had already changed their pattern as the tomoes were replaced by a connected triple-bladed shuriken-like pattern.

"Summoning Jutsu: Venom Spray."

Orochimaru smirked as he immediately slammed his pale white hand on the ground as a pitch-black pattern spread akin to a spider's web and immediately connected with the surrounding snakes. The inked patterns on the back of snakes immediately brightened as they all were replaced with a big smokey poof as viscous green liquid fell on the ground, drizzling like rain. While Orochimaru remained unaffected, even letting out a comforting expression, the Uchiha's gaze widened as the tip of his toes came into contact with the droplets of poison.

The body of the Uchiha completely disappeared before appearing away from the affected region, that immediately absorbed the poison as if nothing had happened in the first place, removing all the traces of poison from the area. Even the trees and the plants remained unaffected. Only the masked Uchiha felt different. His heart raging as his breaths turned heavy, trying their best to calm the anxious body, simply wanting to rip that arrogant smile off the serpent and skin his muscles.

"I thought that you should understand that I am not helpless... without you. My price is known. That poison will activate after a month... at least, you will lose your entire leg. But I am sure that you can find a way to remove that poison. The one I summoned was one of the most basic, slow nature poison.

When you have my compensation, we can leave." Orochimaru spoke before turning away. As he stepped away, he suddenly remembered something and looked back with a smile.

"Oh, one more thing. I suppose that you know about Kushina's pregnancy, right? I may be able to find out the location... but of course, I would need to play with your eyes... just for a bit, though."

He slowly left as the Uchiha snorted coldly before vanishing away. It wouldn't be wrong to say that he was quite surprised by the new summoning jutsu created by the mad scientist. As they are now, the snake did have the right to demand equal treatment. But such a demand only made the Uchiha more furious. After all, this particular demand put his glorious self on the same level as that deranged maniac. Something he wasn't willing to see.

"This isn't over." He snorted coldly.

***

Meanwhile, the whole village was hyped in preparation for the upcoming meeting in the village. After all, the delegates of the different villages meant that there is a chance to come up with a peace treaty that will eventually reduce the number of attacks during their travels and deliveries to other villages.

Eio, on the other hand, kept up with his meditation, Chakra Manipulation training and his regular stretching. Even till now, he didn't dare train his Ki. At this moment, he was still aware that he didn't possess his previous heritage of saiyan. Training his Ki, at this moment would require great care and focused training.

But even when he faced with such troubles, Eio wasn't depressed. Instead, he felt the whole situation refreshing. He didn't have to simply steamroll through his training as he did previously. This time, he could go through each step of training with patience and fully gain the experience he wasn't able to accumulate in his previous life due to constant fights.