บท 27: Chapter Twenty-Seven
A/N- Hey guys. Here's the chappy. Expect the following update on Wednesday next week, and know you can skip the wait and read the following three chapters and continuous updates on Pa-treon right now. Since I now qualify as an unemployed member of society, all subscribers on my pa-treon are much appreciated. If you enjoy my writing, please don't hesitate to support it. For Pa Treon, you can remove the hyphen between Pa and Treon and Google it, then search for my username—Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting it in your address bar. Note: Please subscribe to my pa-treon using the website directly instead of the IOS app. It's cheaper on the website.
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After Tobirama's last breath, it felt like everything took place in a blur. The therapist assigned to me says it's a symptom of shock. She's impressed I could even remember things as vividly as I did. But I would never forget what he looked like when the life left him. For the first time, I realised just how old this man was. Chakra had done a good job of hiding it, but this man had been a full adult when Konoha was formed, and that had been decades ago. His white hair, darkened by time had lost its life as he lost his, with his head falling limply against the floor and his hair fanning out around him. I could see it on his skin, the darkened remnants of a seal. The cause of death revealed itself to me in no time, Shiki Fuin. One of the seals I was forbidden from even looking at. Now, all the secrets of it were bared before me and I could not even care less.
The first time I looked upwards, it was her eyes I met. Kushina. She was weeping. Maybe it was the pain of the sealing or just grief, but she was wailing nonetheless. I took a step back from Tobirama's cold, lifeless, dead….breathe. I opened my arm, and she fell into them and I tightened the hug around her, breathing in deeply the smell of life that came from her. I wanted to examine the seal. To see what had been done to her, but her grip around me was not loosening, and I left mine around her just as tight.
With my byakugan, I could see Tsunade approaching. The tears around her eyes had not stopped, running down her cheeks with abandon as she walked towards us. Her face, on the other hand, it was furious. Her eyes were narrowed, her nose was flared, and she glared at every living thing that crossed her space as she made the walk between the distance that separated us. Her lips remained pressed into a thin line. Jiraiya and Orochimaru stumbled after her, eyes watching her every movement as if careful to make sure she did not fall or collapse suddenly.
"What happened?" I asked once she was close enough that I did not have to scream and risk startling Kushina.
"Where were you?" She asked instead.
"What?"
"Where. Were. You. Shorirama?" She asked again, nose flaring even wider as she took quick breaths.
"I reverse-summoned myself to escape the explosion" I told her.
"Your regular bullshit" She said, and her tone was the opposite of fond. The words were almost spat out.
"What happened, Tsunade? How did Kushina get here? What's going on?" I asked.
Instead of answering, she just huffed and moved to pull Kushina from me to begin examining the girl, clearly deeming the question beneath her. Pissed as she was, I was still certain she'd never hurt her, so I smiled at the red haired girl to make her acquiesce to Tsunade's pulls. I turned to her teammates with an expectant gaze.
"The Third Mizukage. He had some sort of genjutsu ability that worked on the tailed beasts. After you killed the Three tails, and we resealed the six tails, he somehow managed to do something that unsealed both the six tails and eight tails again. Killed their Jinchuriki as well. We were able to kill the Six tails. Well, I say we, but it was Hokage-sama that did the bulk of the work. Haven't seen lightning release like that in my life. The Eight tails was a different beast, though. He said he was running out of chakra and couldn't manage it. Next thing I know, he's disappeared and he comes back with the kid. He called Sensei and Tsunade aside for a bit, and then he sealed the Eight tails into the kid somehow" Jiraiya explained. I nodded, even as the revelations hit me like a truck.
"He knew he was going to die. He named Sensei Hokage after him. He thought you were dead. We all did. He named me the Head of the Senju Clan" Tsunade spoke out from her position next to Kushina, and I felt the weight of it crash down on me from that point.
XXXXXXXX
In the end, therapy was one of the few things I found myself looking forward to on a daily basis.
"So what do things look like now., Shorirama?" She asked as I floated in the water and stared up at the sky above us. She was one of the few whales whiling to come to the surface. It was probably because she was one of the smaller of her kind. Boss said she was still older than me by a fair margin, but had slipped that the two of us were somewhat close in age. I guess that was why he felt that she would be the best placed to relate to me and my problems.
"Well, Tsunade insists that she doesn't blame me for everything but we both know that Granduncle would not have used the Reaper Death Seal if he felt I was still alive" I said and then prepared to continue before she made a sound from deep within that told me to stop. It was what we used to show that she had a question. I had the choice of continuing or stopping to let her ask her question. That bit of agency was everything to me. And I gestured for her to ask.
"What makes you so certain? From what you know, there was no other way to disable the eight-tails." She asked. It was a fair question.
"Did he really need to disable the Eight-tails, though? He could have just taken the Konoha shinobi and what remained of the Uzu forces in batches with the flying Raijin while Hiruzen, Kagami, and Danzo delayed the beast. He could have even brought Mito over. She was able to seal the Nine Tails after all. Even at her age, I'd give her good odds of managing it. I think he just lost hope and gave up a bit, so that's why he did what he did."
"That's a very arrogant way of seeing things"
"Well, Tsunade agrees" I replied instantly, slightly aggravated by the accusation.
"And you know this how? She told you."
"Never explicitly. But she's made it more than clear with her actions".
"How?"
"I don't know, okay. Just the vibe of things. She struggles to meet my eyes. Doesn't bring Nawaki around as much. Doesn't spend as much time training with me or inviting me to training sessions as she used to" I replied.
"Have you ever considered that there could be other reasons for that?"
"What possible other reasons could there be?"
"Assuming that the changes in behavior are actually signs of a larger thing, then what if she feels guilty?"
"What?"
"You think she blames you, and you feel guilty about it, but what if she herself feels guilty"
"What in the hell could she possibly feel guilty about?" I struggled to see where Kumiko was going with this.
"You said that when your Uncle thought you were dead, he named her the heir to the clan and that she now rules as clan head, right?"
"Yes. But that doesn't matter".
"Doesn't it? She might feel like she's stolen your birthright. I and Genji don't get along much with how boring the Baka is, but I would feel terrible if Father named me Boss over him, especially if it's over something that wasn't even his fault."
"So you think that's it? She feels guilty?" I asked.
"I think it's a possibility, but you won't know until you have a conversation with her. "
"I told you she's basically avoiding me."
"Uh-huh. And you can't force the situation?"
"Well, I could."
"Good, then go do so." She said finally.
"Alright then" I replied, preparing to be sent back. I closed my eyes, bracing for the sudden change in environment, but then nothing happened.
"What?"
"Have you forgotten that you were supposed to join Jinpei and the others for training today?" She asked with what sounded like a giggle, and I flushed at the realization before I turned away from her and began to swim downwards.
"Same time tomorrow, Shorirama" She called after me and I nodded at the dismissal.
XXXXXXX
"No, no. Idiot, knead your chakra like this not like that" Jinpei said and then proceeded to do exactly what I'd just been doing with a few extra steps.
"My way is more efficient" I instantly refuted his suggestion. With my eyes, I could see the best path to achieving what he wanted to be done, but for some reason he had no trust in it.
"Your way does not work. You need the steps to make it work, idiot" He said, showing me the technique again.
"No. I'm achieving the same thing," I said, showing him my own version of the technique.
"Did those two things even look remotely similar to you?" He asked in a deadpan.
"You have way more chakra than I do" I pointed out tersely.
"And I used less than you did. Watch me again." He said, kneading his chakra in a series of motions and contortions before it reached his throat and he spat out a veritable vortex of water that disappeared in no time as it travelled quickly even across the depths of the ocean.
"Your turn. And do what I did. Make those hand signs of yours if you think they will help, but your chakra must move as mine did" He said, and I nodded at the elderly whale. He had truly used less chakra than I'd expected to achieve his goal and while my theory was that the difference in our techniques came from his undoubtedly higher water release affinity and the different forms of chakra we were using, there was nothing to be lost in showing him that fact.
I contorted my chakra just as his as I brought it from my stomach to my throat, and this time instead of breathing a whirlpool that was about the diameter of a needle that died out a few feet from me, this one was easily big enough to dwarf my head, and it rushed beyond the range of my vision in no time as well. Fuck.
I looked up at the whale teaching me, and it was clear he was smug. "You were right" I admitted easily.
"Humph" a grunt was all I got in response.
"I'll call that the Sea Dragon's Roar" I said.
"Still keen on naming everything and anything?" He teased.
_
"Good to hear your time with my children is being spent so profitably" The Boss Whale summon said. He was easily the largest of his clan. There was a massive gulf between him and the next largest whale, his brother. The fact that the largest whale as named the Boss of the Clan and gave up their name to bear the title of Boss was something that seemed to just suit the large creatures.
"Yes. Now just for you to live up to your end of the deal and cough up sage mode" I replied. Thankfully, unlike with the Frogs and Toads, the Great Sage and the Boss of the Whale clan were one and the same. The reason for that was simple. At their size, there was virtually nothing the whales could eat that would give them any sustenance. That meant they survived by feeding on chakra itself. Not just any form of chakra, but nature chakra. Their unique form of Sage Mode meant that the ability to draw in natural energy would accelerate and sustain their growth until they hit their natural limits.
Therefore, the larger the whale, the more nature chakra they had. And what was a Great Sage if not a fountain of nature chakra. When it came to natural energy, he was the undisputed expert as far as the Whales were concerned.
"Like I've told you half a dozen times, you're not ready."
"And yet, you haven't explained why not" I pressed.
"You weren't ready for that either"
"Weren't?" I pounced on the phrasing immediately.
"Quiet down, Gaki. Let me speak."
"Kumiko says you're in the right headspace now, so allow me to explain a few things to you. I'm sure my children have already told you a fair bit of how Whale Sage Mode works. But the first thing I know they haven't told you is what separates us from the Snakes and the Toads and the Falcons and what have you. We have the power to gather nature energy even as we move." He said, dropping the revelation like it was a hammer on red-hot steel. My eyes widened to comical levels as his words sunk in. The one weakness of sage mode didn't exist for them?
"But that is because our bodies are different. The other animal clans can teach you to gather natural energy with their methods simply by staying still and not moving, but for us, we will have to change your body as it presently exists to allow you to have access to our form of Sage Mode" he said.
"What do you mean by that? Change my body?"
"Think of it more like a metamorphosis. What we propose doing for you, we have done for one other in recent memory. The process is simple. You enter my mouth and spend three days there. Thereafter, you come out a different person. Expect your skin to darken a fair bit, and you will develop some physical differences in line with our clan. And then you will gain the power to constantly use sage mode," He said next.
"What's the downside?" I asked.
"The process. Well, it essentially kills you more or less"
"What?"
"My saliva is going to destroy and remake you. Your chakra capacity will cease to grow naturally, and things like your strength and speed will be capped off at the level they reach when you complete your process. You might get more efficient or gain more control, but being a Sage of the Whales means accepting that your growth shall come to an end from that point." He said.
"No growth?" I echoed the words. It felt unreal to me, the concept. I could not understand it for true. Not more growth didn't make sense to me. Like training and not being able to make any progress at all. If it was just regular sage mode, then I would have told Boss that the costs were too great and left to see my fortunes elsewhere, but it wasn't. It wasn't regular sage mode by any means. The power to take in natural energy even while moving meant that the only bottleneck on my sage mode duration would be my ability to balance that natural energy with my own chakra to create sage chakra. Considering I had virtually perfect chakra control and a doujutsu that made it even easier to do, that meant that bottleneck was going to be virtually non-existent in my case.
The only issue was that the prospect of being locked at this level of power forever was something that I did not want to even consider.
"Two years" I finally decided.
"Ho, ho. What do you mean?"
"I'll take two years to train my body until the point where I'd be comfortable forfeiting future growth for present benefits. War is coming. I have to be ready" I said in reply.
XXXXXXXX- SARUTOBI HIRUZEN
FIVE YEARS (DAYS) BEFORE THE SECOND GREAT SHINOBI WORLD WAR
The old man sighed. He looked at the person across from him and he sighed again. Old man, he thought with a chuckle. He'd begun referring to himself as that out of a sense of irony. He was still in his thirties and had decades in front of him to live, but the young Kushina Uzumaki had taken one look at him and christened him 'old man'. It had made him chuckle at the time, but now the term was beginning to become more and more true with time. There was a heaviness to his body now that had not existed scarce months ago. He knew what it was. The Hat. It weighed a mere two kilos on any scale he put it on to check, but on his head it was like that weight amplified itself a thousandfold. The weight made him feel many things at many different times, but now he just felt old.
"When is your birthday again?" He asked the boy, searching for anything to talk about that would mean something. He had watched his Sensei, the boy's Granduncle die before him while he stood unable to do anything, and now he was going to have to ask him to give even more.
"A month away. I'll turn fifteen on the seventh of next month." He said with a raised eyebrow.
Hiruzen searched for a way to discuss it. An easy way to have the conversation he had been putting off for so long. But he could not think of a single way that avoided the reaction that Tsunade had warned him to expect.
"I am placing you on the active list" He said in lieu of any of the more subtle ways of bringing up the conversation. Shorirama Senju had never seemed one to enjoy beating about the bush. With how little the boy spoke, it was no surprise that he liked to keep conversations short and appreciated those who did the same. Unless they were Sensei, his mind whispered that fact to him, and he acknowledged it with a nod. Sensei and his Grandnephew would spend hours in this very office speaking about anything and everything. It was the kind of relationship he longed to have with his own children whenever Biwako conceived. But that was going to be sometime away.
"I refuse"
"You cannot. The Hokage has the power to place any fit shinobi on the active list and from what I've noticed, you're more than fit." He replied.
"I'm mourning. I know my rights." He replied instantly.
"And if you were the Senju Clan head or even heir, then you would be right." He winced internally as he said those words, and even further as he saw the way the words hit the boy like a cart left to run downhill.
"As you lack both positions then you will be treated as any other Konoha shinobi and that means that your mourning period is limited to one month. You've had six times as much time out of respect for the grief you suffer" He soldiered on regardless of the impact he knew his words would have. War was coming to the Elemental Nations one way or another, and it would be silly for Konoha to have one of their most powerful assets out of the running because of grief, of all things. Even beyond that, there was something to be said of the morale effect that having the Grandson of Hashirama on the battlefield with them would have on his shinobi.
His Granduncle's death and the fact that he had killed both the three tails and the second Raikage had done wonders for Shorirama's reputation. The detached boy who received special treatment had been elevated in the eyes of many to one of Konoha's loyal bastions to be looked upon in the times to come.
"I see," He said in reply.
"I would rather not do things this way. And if I had any other choice, I would not. But the world around us stands on the precipice. Kumo has elected a new Kage and their two tails jinchuriki has submitted to him. Iwa remains as militarized as ever. Suna stands unharmed from their lack of participation in the battle of Uzu. Kiri lost both their jinchuriki and their kage, but a new Kage has been elected, and the seven swordsmen remain a threat capable of immense damage as a unit. In opposition to all that arrayed against us, we have lost our Second Hokage, the Greatest of us all, our ANBU Commander, Kagami Uchiha, and several promising Jounin. We stand stronger with the inclusion of the Uzumaki clan in our village, but until they are able to elect a new head, we are unable to utilize their military might." He said, laying down the depths of the situation and watching the way the boy winced as he calculated, just how deep in it, they were.
"So what would you have me do?"
"You will be going on the first mission of what might be considered this war. We have received word of a meeting between Kiri and Kumo. We suspect that Kiri is hesitant to join in on the forces levied against us and will be relying on assurances made by Kumo to commit their forces. Expectedly, we need a team to sabotage that meeting and, if possible, engineer a conflict between both sides." He said.
"You want me to lead a mission that important?" Hiruzen nearly laughed out loud at that thought.
"Lead the mission? Oh, heavens no. You will be a cog in the machine, but an important one nonetheless. Welcome to your first S-ranked Mission, Shorirama. Let them in" His last words were spoken in a louder tone to ensure that he was heard beyond his door.
The door swung open seconds later, and in they came. A team he'd personally chosen for this dangerous mission. They were practically guaranteed to enter into conflict with either Kage or their chosen representatives, and he'd designed the team with that in mind.
The first in was Hatake Sakumo, a dangerous shinobi and one who was quickly building a name for himself outside the village. After him came the second member of the team. In contrast to Sakumo's proper march, he seemed to slither into the room with the way he prowled. Orochimaru wore that smile of his that told of his nerves. The way it failed to reach his eyes. The way his hands never left his sides as he moved.
The last to come in, the leader of this team, was his best friend. Danzo Shimura. Everything about him was still as a statue. Non-expressive as the perfect shinobi ought to be to his flawed estimation. He probably thought himself unreadable. But Hiruzen could see the way his eyes flashed to the hat every few seconds. He coveted the position Hiruzen now held, and if not for the love he held for his Sensei and his village, he would have allowed him to have it. Such was the love he had for his friend.
"The Four of you have all been briefed. Go forth with the will of fire in your hearts. Do whatever is necessary to see this foul alliance broken. The meeting is in five days. Godspeed." He said finally, as all four kneeled before him.
Important Announcement: Changes made to my pa-treon structure mean its now cheaper to read the very next chapter with a lower-tier subscription. I'll be placing a discount on yearly memberships for a week or so to support this
A/N; And that's the chapter. Did I stick the Hiruzen POV? As I said earlier, the next chapter comes up next week on Wednesday, or skip the wait and read the next three, along with daily uploads on pa-treon. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon, google it, and then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. You could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting it in your address bar.
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