Chapter 44 |
We moved through the building like a good scalpel, quickly, quietly, and through all obstacles in our way until we reached the Mizukage's throne room. Not an office, like all the other Kage had, but a full on throne room. I had to wonder how much of that was Yagura and how much of it was Obito.
The guards outside the door died in seconds, without any noise or fanfare. One to my sword, one to Zabuza's.
"How do you want to play this?" Zabuza asked quietly.
"Loud." I didn't see the point in going quiet. The throne room was massive and open while there was almost certainly Zetsu or a Uchiha watching. There was no sneaking through that.
Mei gave her consent as well. Mostly because her powerset was best served as loud and proud.
"Mei. Door. Zabuza, give a big welcome. I'll go in for follow up." I whispered again.
The door had various seals on it to reinforce it and to stop people from doing exactly what we were trying to do. Intricate seal work lay on the door and were currently engaged. The average jounin could pound away for an hour at the door to no effect. Mei blew through with a single focused explosion. The door turned to shrapnel and in the same second, a massive water dragon made of water from a sealing scroll roared into the room towards the small child-like figure sitting on the big chair.
A column of coral rose from the ground in front of Yagura and burst the dragon into pieces. The Mizukage's technique smashed aside the A-Rank ninjutsu like a paper ball, but it also briefly blocked his vision of the door. I extended Kusanagi through the rain droplets of the failed water dragon and just as easily cut through the coral and continued it's deadly intent towards the Mizukage's head.
The coral pillar prevented me from knowing if I had hit my target or not, so I played it safe. I twisted the blade down and to the side, hopefully slicing through his body but also cutting through the entire left side of the building.
Obito.
"Orochimaru. I'm surprised at you. When Itachi humiliated you, I expected you to hide from our organization." He intoned gravely. He wasn't trying to sound like an idiot like he had initially in Naruto.
He intended to claim to be Madara from the beginning.
"Ara ara! There must be some confusion here. I'm not Orochimaru, I'm Orochitama. Someone very different from who I used to be." I said as I retracted Kusanagi and held it loosely at my side. Obito was the major threat here, and he having it in front of me didn't particularly matter, since he could just teleport. I didn't bother trying to attack either, as the man could make himself intangible as well. The only way to hit him was a well timed counter attack, or with something he didn't see coming. "Though it is good to finally meet you, Masked Man."
Obito didn't react to me implying I knew of his existence. I didn't want to reveal my hand and call him Obito. I needed to consider what would happen here if he got away, and calling him Obito would likely have him insure he came after my village immediately. Masked Man was just something the Fourth Hokage used to refer to his last opponent as he died.
"I've heard. You have claimed that you are not Orochimaru, but you have also claimed you are. Which is it, I wonder?" He asked aloud as Mei and Zabuza stepped out either side of me to ensure we all had room to move.
"Both statements are true." I replied easily and with a smile.
Obito stayed silent in response. It must sound very similar to his own situation in his own ears. He was Obito, but he had lived as Madara for more of his life than he had as Obito at this point. The duality of what exists based on perception was not just true of his identity, but his very plan. His goal was to make peace by giving everyone the illusion of it.
"So with this new identity, you decided to help poor pathetic Mist throw off the oppressive yolk of the Fourth Mizukage?" He asked with derision.
"Oh my, no!" I said with a flippant wave of my free hand. "That's why they're here. I'm here for something else."
"Oh?" Obito asked as he stepped forward and space itself began to warp and spiral into the hole in his mask and in the same breath his voice came from behind me. "And why are you-"
He intended it as an intimidation tactic and I could feel his hand reaching out to place his hand on my shoulder. What's the risk to him after all? The moment I went to counter attack he just had to phase himself through it and my own killing intent would inform him of my attempt. I, however, had a plan.
Killing intent was hard for a ninja to work around, but the easiest and best way was simple. Don't intend to kill. Do something that you knew would not hurt them, not even lead them to dying. With high class ninja it was much easier to inconvenience them than go for a kill.
So, without no twitch and with no malice in my heart I leapt backwards towards him. I grabbed the hand that had been reaching forward and with all my not inconsiderable strength, I flung the man out the hole in the wall I had formed earlier. He could phase himself, and even teleport, but he likely wouldn't do either until he had stopped moving. I followed after him immediately and jumped out of the building, landing on the one across the street. Obito landed lightly on his feet as well and cocked his head at me in confusion.
A glowing purple barrier rose up a breath later as the Sound Four fulfilled their orders. Then a second barrier appeared; one to protect them from what was in the building, and one to protect them from what was outside of the building.
Obito stared at me. Not surprising. I'd touched him. That was likely something that an opponent hadn't managed since Minato. I turned his attempt to flex on me, and instead used it to spook him.
"Why?" He asked.
"The narrative. The new Mizukage must be the one to beat the old one. The foreign elements fight each other as the Mist fights Mist and becomes whole." I answered.
"I thought you said you weren't here to unite Mist." Obito asked, falling into a casual stance. I found myself appreciating it. I so rarely had company that even pretended to be casual around me.
"Oh, I do want that, but that's not the primary reason I'm here. Moving you out here was just to help a friend."
"You saw me teleport." Obtio said flately, "I can just teleport back in there and you'll be the one left out here."
I pressed a hand to my chest and gave a happy gasp. "Oh! Would you? I had hoped to get a chance to see what happens when two folded spaces try to move past each other. I wondered if it would just fail, or if the subject just appeared on the other side with their insides all scrambled and shredded." I gave my most eager voice.
Obito again paused, and I happily stayed quiet as the sounds of explosions and the his of melting stone came from the Kage Building behind me.
"You want me to believe that you already know how my powers work?" He asked, unbelieving.
"Well, it took some research, but I managed to get the report on the last moments of the Fourth Hokage. It was dry and sad, but had very interesting things to say about a Masked Man that could teleport, go intangible, and had a Sharingan."
"You lie." Obito stated, but not without a space of hesitation beforehand.
"As I said. I would love for you to test it for me." I purred before growing more serous, "If one knows the mechanics of a technique, it isn't that hard to counter it. The intangibility and the teleportation are the same technique, just used slightly differently. Once that is known, you just need a little knowledge in space-time ninjutsu and sealing techniques and one can come up with a decent counter. However, if you die here, Pein would likely come after me. I'm not prepared for him yet."
Obito went as still and quiet as a puppet hung up by its strings. He was considering what I was saying. Of course he would, I was fucking Orochimaru, no, better, I was Orochitama. I had all the luster of Orochimaru but the benefit of having spent the last several months baffling anyone of power that happened to even vaguely cross my path. He didn't know what to expect of me and most importantly, he never LEARNED his technique; it was innate, it was something that his blood knew how to do, not his mind.
Which was great for me because I just spilled a whole lot of horseshit. I was one of the most knowledgeable people in matters of space-time ninjutsu in the world and I had no fucking idea if our techniques would interact in any way. There were far too many factors that went into things like that and unless I got a chance to study Obito's technique in depth there was no way I could even begin to guess at how exactly it managed to warp reality as it did. Hell, Minato also probably never had the chance to impart all the knowledge of Obito's techniques to anyone. What matter though, was that Obito didn't know that and I'd managed to pull so very rabbits from a hat that he couldn't dismiss that I had another.
I hated giving a pure lie like this though. I misdirected, I implied falsehoods, but in all my time as Tama I never really gave a bald-faced lie. Though that was likely why it would work.
"So, what? You came here just to stop me from interfering?" Obito asked. I kept myself from smiling. He didn't want to test things, he wasn't sure if I was telling the truth, but he wasn't willing to risk it.
"That, and I came here to let you in on a tiny little secret." I said as I idly began to twirl my sword in my grip.
"Oh? And what is that?"
"Just that the Black Zetsu you have employed predates the First Hokage and is running his own agenda. He plans to betray you in the moment of victory to fulfill his own desire."
"What?" He asked, taken aback.
"What can I say? He's got an Oedipus complex."
"How could you possibly know that?" Obito demanded as he leaned forward, his body language radiating aggression for the first time in our confrontation.
"I read a lot." I answered with a shrug and continued to spin my sword.
I had nothing to back what I was saying. The Black Zetsu had been keeping his presence muted for hundreds of years and not a scrap of paper I could find ever so much as hinted at his existence. The only way I knew this was meta knowledge, but if Obito got away or worse, killed me, then the seed of doubt could possibly stop him from making everything worse at the last second like he had in the story from my memories.
"You benefit from causing us to have infighting. I have no reason to believe you." Obito responded.
"Doesn't make what I say less true." I said with a shrug. He wouldn't be able to ignore the seed I planted. He'd watch him closer now one way or another. All I needed to do was give him something to confirm the paranoia with. "He wants to use the technique to bring back Kaguya, his mother and the mother of the Sage of Six Path's and thus the grandmother to Ashura and Indra. Insult her in his presence and he will have a reaction."
Behind me, the battle for Mizukage continued to rage, the sound of explosions and the roar of displaced water sounded loudly through the barrier, and Mist Ninja were starting to approach the barrier. Many of them caught on hesitation of supporting their leader, or go support to the outside edges of the city where Mei's rebels and Kimimaro were fighting. The sight of the occasional spear of bone generally seemed to coax most of them to fighting on the outskirts.
Especially after a few ninja tried to breach my barrier and got a severe case of being-on-fire.
Now, I had my own problem. Obito had to be the one attacking for me to hurt him. He could just stay out of phase with the world and avoid all the attacks I sent after him, or even just decide to leave. The only way I could hurt him was in a counterattack and he didn't seem intent to attack me after I spooked him in so many ways. Hell, I was tossing my weapon around in a way that would be child's play to disarm me, and he hadn't budged to capitalize on it.
I needed to figure out how to get him to attack first.
A problem that I was pretty sure those I set up to fight Danzo in Konoha wouldn't have.
xxxxxx
Shimura Danzo was suspicious by nature, but even were he not, Tsunade calling him to a meeting for just the two of them would have struck him as worrying. Tsunade hated him and never once hid that. It was extremely unlikely the woman would ever purposefully try to spend time in proximity to him regardless of the level of urgency involved. Despite that, today she had asked to meet him in a remote location.
It smelled of an ambush, though that didn't make a lot of sense either. To what benefit would it serve? She had no allies to speak of, and they were both in the bounds of the village. If he were killed, the full force of Konoha would descend upon her in short order. She might get out of the village, but the retaliation after the fact would be epic in scale.
However, it also presented an opportunity. Years ago he had managed to secure the Sharingan eye of Uchiha Shisui, and with that a way to implant memories and control a person's actions regardless of their power and ability, such was the power of the Kotoamatsukami. Tsunade, who spent most of her time outside of Konoha, would be an extremely useful asset to have working for him. People had long stopped watching her closely and that would allow her to once again serve Konoha rather than waste her life drinking and gambling as she did currently.
Thus, he showed up at the meeting point with his two body guards, Torune and Fu. They could easily subdue Tsunade's assistant and have Fu make her forget the incident, not as quickly or as effectively as the Kotomatsukikami, but once he had Tsunade, they could take their time with the apprentice.
Though when he showed up to the meeting point, his paranoia raised further; she didn't have Shizune with her but instead had Sarutobi's son Tadaomi by her side and he wore no mask. He didn't like the situation.
"Why did you call me here, Tsunade?" Danzo called with a glare. Even were this actually innocent, he was not an errand boy that could be called on a whim.
Tsunade approached him with a displeased expression and a casual walk. "I'm not exactly happy to bring this to you either, but it's sensitive and I can't bring this to the Old Man while he's in front of thousands of other people."
Her attitude was typical for her, and her reasoning was sound, but everything was so very convenient. IF something did happen though, he had one other secret as well. His arm was implanted with dozens of Sharigan that he could use to preform Izanagi, a genjutsu so powerful it could warp reality and cure even the most severe of his wounds.
"What is this intel?" He demanded as Tsunade walked yet closer. She was but six paces away.
"Orochitama approached me and I have evidence she's about to attack the exams. She wasn't pretending." Tsunade said, again sounding merely annoyed, but she kept approaching. Torune stepped forward to deter her from getting closer.
"That's close enough." He stated.
Tsunade held up a scroll in response. "I'm just going to hand him-"
She didn't finish. Torune went to stick out a hand to stop the approaching Sannin but two sources of killing intent began to scream at Danzo as the scroll turned to pulp in Tsunade's hand as Torune was pinwheeled away while Tadaomi tacked Fu.
She was attacking him! Why?
An obvious answer jumped to his mind. Orochitama managed to turn her. How?
He had a more concerning problem though. Tsunade could kill a man with even a glancing blow. He needed to release the seal on his arm so he could activate Izanagi!
He leapt back and reached to unseal his arm and-
Screaming lightning sounded behind him and before he could react an electric coated hand severed his right arm at his shoulder. The arm that held all his sharingan eyes.
Then a fist impacted his back, sending him forward. He was old, but he was still good enough of a ninja to not be sent stumbling, but he barely managed to get some space between himself and a Tsunade that was intent on shattering his skull. His only saving grace was that she hesitated.
Hatake was here trying to kill him too. Someone else who had been in contact with Orochitama. What was causing this? Kakashi was a mass of wasted potential, but he was loyal. It was like-
Like his own Kotoamatsukami! He knew that Orochimaru had been in Akatsuki and got kicked out for attacking Itachi. Had he stolen Shisui's other eye? Was that how she was doing all these things?
It was a frightening idea.
He had to push the idea out of his mind. He had a more important decision to make. Though it wasn't much a decision. They had removed his arm before he could unseal it and thus all those reality warping eyes would do him no good. Hell, the arm that Orochimaru had made him out of cloned cells couldn't even bleed and trigger Tsunade's hemophobia. He could chose to fight without it, or use Shisui's eye to trigger Izanagi, something he was loath to do. Izanagi demanded a high price; the permanent destruction of the Sharigan used. Shisui's eye was a treasure and his most valuable asset. He would sooner sacrifice all of ROOT before he would sacrifice that eye.
But he was facing Kakashi, Tsunade, and Tadaomi. He had Fu with him, and Torune, if he was still alive. He wouldn't survive this without sacrificing Shisui's eye. So, with a curse and a flash of chakra, he blurred as he he established an image over reality of him being a dozen feet back and his arm reattached and whole. With a flick of chakra the illusion became reality and Shisui's eye died and the chakra in it died.
"These traitorous actions will not be allowed!" Danzo growled.
Another flash of killing intent had Danzo whirl around at the incoming Matarashi Anko who threw two kunai at him, targeting his just unsealed arm. The knives were easily deflected before she landed next to him and slashed at him with a third. The attack managed to graze his arm as he had to duck to avoid shuriken thrown by Tadaomi, who was again drawn into battle with Fu. The scratch was small and the cloned cells of the arm rapidly closed the wound in a blink of the eye. The kunai might have been poisoned, but the Hashirama cells could make short work of any poison on the planet and he didn't have blood in the arm for it to transmit to the rest of the body anyways. A superficial blow.
"You as well. Unsurprising." Damnzo snorted. Orochimaru was involved in this, his old student finally turning traitor was a matter of course.
"You're one to talk about traitors. Way I hear it, you didn't just go traitor, you tried to go full puppet master!" Anko said snidely as she twirling a kunai in hand.
"Everything I have done is for Konoha!" He growled back. "Someone has to make the hard choices to ensure our safety!"
"Yeah? Well I'm going to make the easy choice for Konoha." Anko snarked back as Danzo noted Tsunade getting into a fight with Torune's bloody form beginning to engage against Tsunade, who stood stiff as a board as the man charged her. Kakashi leapt to fight the man in her steed. "I'm gonna kill an arrogant old ass-hat."
With Tsunade out of play he had a better shot now. Now he just had to face Anko and Anko alone?
"You will try." He intoned.
