Chapter 48 |
Getting into Konoha was laughably easy. ROOT had hidden paths into the village in a multitude of places if you knew where to look, and with Danzo's death, many of those paths remained unguarded. The most difficult aspect was sneaking into my old teacher's home. Guards and complex seal arrays made approach difficult, but hardly impossible. After I was inside, it was a simple matter of knowing where Hiruzen was likely to go after he had a difficult day.
I didn't expect how emotionally impactful the inside of the home would be. The kitchen was familiar, I knew where to find saucers and cups without needing to think. I spotted faded notches in the hallway from when Tsunade had thrown shuriken at Jiraiya for saying something stupid. In the office I set up the tea there was a shelf that held some rambling notes I had given Sarutobi years back on my theories of the origination of chakra.
Despite the people involved still living, I felt the house contained ghosts. Still, I couldn't let the ghosts make me sloppy and I kept my wits about me as I sensed Hiruzen enter the home.
I set the water to boil and prepped all the accompanying plates and tools to make the tea of an acceptable quality to a tea snob like Hiruzen. Filling my time with arranging the the dark-chocolate drizzled mint cookies on the plate, as my mind spiralled in all the ways the meeting could go. I was confident HIruzen wouldn't just attack first and ask questions later.
Then again, the man did just have a day that wouldn't have made him particularly trusting of old friends.
I debated leaving then and having the conversation another time when the door opened, catching me by surprise as I turned and gave my best smile as anxiety fluttered in my chest. Hiruzen's face was not instantly in anger, but in shock. I had seen the man unfazed by a surprise ambush of one-hundred ninja and yet my mere presence had him in stunned shock for several seconds; an eternity for a ninja.
"Sensei." I greeted and gestured to the other side of the table. "Join me for tea?"
The man pinched at the bridge of his nose and released a sigh with the force of a man trying to adjust the weight of the world on his back.
I couldn't help it. I giggled.
"Sorry, I just hadn't seen you look like that since Jiraiya burned down that bridge in Frost." A smile tugged at the corners of my lips.
Hiruzen's face became as unreadable as the stone of the mountain above the village. "Yes, I had another student that was to blame as well."
"I was an accessory after the fact. Jiraiya condemed the bridge, I just put the last nail in the coffin." I replied as I walked over to my seat and slowly sat down onto the towel I had placed there.
Hiruzen glanced at the towel then back up to my face.
"You're not really here. You're a shadow clone." Hiruzen noted.
A full smile bloomed on my face. "Not the Byakugan nor the Sharingan can tell a Shadow Clone from the original, but the great Professor can." I shook my head in wonder.
Hiruzen took the words in and simply watched me. Feet spread and body at the ready to react at a moments notice. He studied me, trying to come to his own conclusions about my plans, my identity, my emotional state. I let him and I did not raise a mask. This was important to me.
Hate is not the opposite of love. If you hate someone, under the right circumstances, all that hate can turn right back around to love as the thoughts of the person, the emotions, the history, it is all held closely to your heart. In some sense, you cannot hate unless you love.
Orochimaru hated Hiruzen quite a bit and I...I had to turn the emotion somewhere. He still was there for the death of my parents. He was there to teach me how to fight, how to think critically, and how to better understand the world.
Orochimaru might be only a part of me, but the Sannin and Hiruzen were the closest I had to a family. I didn't want to have a mask on around them, I wanted them to be able to see the real me.
So I didn't hide my emotion. I wrung my hands in my lap and took a steadying breath.
"Orochitama, I presume." Hiruzen stated more than asked.
I nodded anyways. "Yes."
"Why are you here?" He asked, still maintaing his ready stance.
"I felt it was time you know the truth, and after that, I wanted to make a deal with you. Preferably over tea, but if you'd rather not, that's fine too. I can just dismiss myself and leave you to your night."
He continued to watch me closely, rolling my words over in his head.
"Why are you a Shadow Clone?" He asked.
"Because I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to talk, or if you would just greet me with Enma in his staff form crushing my skull." I answered as I judged the tea to have steeped enough and began to pour it out into the two cups. I turned my eyes up to him. "Are you going to crush my skull?"
He continued to stare me down but I could see the small twitches at his eyes and mouth that showed the war going on inside him, though I couldn't rightly say which direction the man was leaning until finally, he dropped his ready stance and sat down across from me.
"The molded chakra making a facsimile of your skull shall remain intact so long as you don't give me a reason to do otherwise."
"Thank you, sensei." I said in clear relief before taking a sip of the tea before me.
"So. You continue to claim to be Orochimaru?" Hiruzen questioned as he picked up his tea and gazed at it questioningly; likely he was trying to see if it had been poisoned somehow.
"I am Orochimaru...but I am also not Orochimaru. You see, it all started back when I very stupidly tried to use an experimental technique on Uchiha Itachi, the master of magical-eye bullshit and found myself sorely lacking." I started, fully and totally telling the truth with no regard for what it would give me. Just the chance to maybe have something resembling a bond with another person without having to worry about anything else. Well, other than the long history of betrayal.
It was liberating.
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Sarutobi Hiruzen was beginning to wonder if he had a psychotic break. The person across from him broke into his home, served him his favorite tea and cookies, and then claimed to be an amalgamation of the souls of his traitorus student, a prisoner that had been broken into a shell of her former self, and a third more dominant soul that absorbed the other two to become a woman with a figure that 13 year-old boys drew while giggling to themselves with nosebleeds.
The worst part was, she was making sense. The longer she talked, the more he found that her version of events made everything else that happened make sense.
"This...dominant soul. Who was she?" Hiruzen asked.
"No one important really. Her life was so very different from anything that people could consider normal here. She might be from the far past, perhaps the future, or even another world. I honestly can't say for certain. None of her memories really match up to this one except for some fictional stories she read that resemble events here to a great degree. Other than that, she was from a life in which war never touched her."
Hiruzen marveled at the idea. He had long dreamed of it himself. A world in which children could go their whole lives without the bloody hand of war leaving an imprint.
"So, no war in her time? How did they accomplish that?" Hiruzen asked, hoping to perhaps gain wisdom.
"Oh...I'm sorry I gave you the wrong idea. Her world had war, for sure, but it did not affect HER. She was born into a nation that decades past had the best industry and they used it to make the most powerful military and there after open confrontation with her nation was the height of foolishness by the time she was born. There were times their military was deployed and small skirmishes they fought in, but never to the point the nation was hard up for troops." She explained.
Unfortunate, peace only through superior arms and economy was not a revolutionary thought. Many had tried for it in the past but it wouldn't be the key to things for the Hidden Villages.
"You keep refering to this person as 'she,' why do you not use 'me' instead?"
Orochitama placed her cup back down and tapped pouted lips with a single finger as she considered the question. A gesture that Orochimaru would never pull, and certainly would not have looked as good doing it. There was no question in Hiruzen's mind that the next Icha Icha book by Jiraiya would feature someone with full purple lips.
"She might have been the one to win out, but who I became is not who I was. She was younger than Orochimaru, and I honestly have more raw memories of Orochimaru than for her. She was afraid of snakes, she was so reluctant to take life she hesitated killing rats that invaded her home, and she lacked the organization and drive neccessary for me to accomplish the things I have now. I tried to deny it at first, but I am not that person anymore either. I am something new. I am all three, I am none of them. I am Orochitama."
Hiruzen hummed in acknowledgement. The being across from him was not one he could confidently give an identity for either. She was not Orochimaru anymore and he couldn't recognize her as such, but he'd often felt the same about Tsunade. There was little in his blonde student now that was her twenty years previous. It is in the nature of people to change over time, and he couldn't rightly say this person was not Orochimaru either.
She was a living paradox, assuming she was telling the truth. This could be a means to manipulate him. He couldn't bring himself to trust Orochimaru again, despite his longing to be able to, but this person could be different enough to gain that trust.
But not tonight. Trust was earned over time, and he had his suspicions about the timing involved in his psuedo-student's arrival.
"Did you have a hand in Danzo's death?" Hiruzen asked pointedly, a sudden swerve in the conversation from Orochitama's perspective, but the woman barely blinked.
"Yes." She answered.
Hiruzen's jaw clenched and it took everything in him to not growl his next words.
"To what extent?"
"Well, as Orochimaru, I was the one that created the arm from Hashirama's cells. I did not personally implant the eyes nor attach the arm, but I wrote the notes for the person who would."
Danzo had been working with Orochimaru? Behind his back? For how long? Hiruzen's mind raced at the implications. Had Orochimaru been a victim of Danzo as well this entire time?
"As Orochitama, I took Gato of Gato Industries and used him as a sacrifice for an Edo Tensei to bring back Danzo's former student, Yakushi Nono to obtain information from her on Danzo's betrayal and where to find proof. I then held the fair on your doorstep with the express purpose of luring your grandson, Konohamaru, into the fair. There coded information could be passed to your son, Tadaomi, without any of Danzo's agents noticing it by slipping it into Konohamaru's pocket."
Hiruzen stared at the woman, barely believing his ears.
"In said message, I also slipped in a poison I had created to effect Hashirama cells by making their healing factor be used against the person, resulting in an aggressive and instantly metastasizing cancer. I included directions and cautions on the poison in the message as well. After that, your son and whoever else he gathered to help were the ones to handle things." She finished before taking a bite of one of the cookies, humming happily.
"You are trying to ingratiate yourself to me and you are claiming that you used my family to your own ends, used a ninjutu that is forbidden for extremely good reasons, and making a poison that causes horrific cancer?" Hiruzen questioned.
"Would you rather I lie?" She asked back.
Hiruzen found he didn't have an answer for that.
The woman openly admitted to manipulations and actions that even the average ninja would acknowledge were underhanded, but she said them without shame nor hesitation. Much the same way that Orochimaru would.
Still, there was much in her statements that could be examined and questioned in finer detail to understand the underlying psychology of the woman across from him, but he didn't have it in him on this night. His mind cared far more about a much more selfish question.
"You mentioned that Orochimaru had dealings with Danzo. Was he- is it possible-" Hiruzen began.
"No." The woman cut in, a sympathetic look on her face as she placed her tea down on the table. "Danzo did not push Orochimaru towards the atrocities he committed. Danzo didn't gain the Sharingan eyes until well after Orochimaru had left the village, nor did Danzo come up with any of the horrific experiments done while in Konoha. It was all something I had decided- he had decided for himself. Danzo knew of it, but he did nothing more than turn a blind eye."
Hiruzen wasn't sure if that was a relief or yet more pressure placed upon his soul, but he could appreciate the honesty. Assuming it was honesty, and not an attempt to gain his trust.
"Danzo's death is why you are here now. You did not want to meet with me while Danzo was still alive." Hiruzen stated confidently. The context clues of the conversation made the statment practically obvious. The woman clearly had a distaste and distrust of his now-dead friend and traitor.
"Yeah, well that and the whole new country thing." The woman said with a laugh and a shrug of her shoulders.
New country? Hiruzen's mind played over the events of the conversation so far and confirmed to himself that there was nothing so far that she said that would explain that statement. Was she dropping a hint? Was it some sort of trap? He couldn't think of a way that it could be used against him.
"You will have to explain that one to me." Hiruzen stated.
"Hm? Your Daimyo didn't contact you?" The woman stated in confusion.
The Fire Daimyo had called him earlier that day, but in the face of Danzo's death and the storm rolling in that interfered with the signal, he hadn't managed to actually speak with the man. He hadn't thought much of it, since the last time the Daimyo needed to speak with him it was to discuss a new calligraphy artist. If that was something important...perhaps this meeting was actually about digging for information?
"Why don't you tell me what he reached out to me for." Hiruzen said firmly.
Orochitama just smiled at him cheekily in response before answering, "Sure, I relish being the one to tell you."
That did not bode well.
"So, earlier today, likely somewhere at the bottom of your important notices list, it was mentioned that Shiyuki, the Daimyo of the Land of Valleys married Hirohito, the son of the Daimyo of the Land of Hills. The wedding seemed rushed, especially with Shiyuki having recently gained just a little weight and the wedding being extremely rushed, it seemed so very obvious why the wedding was happening. Plus, with the Chunin Exams, the Coup in Mist I assisted with, and both Iwa and Cloud experiencing a Chicken Pox Pandemic, this wedding could be ignored for far more important and nefarious sounding things." The woman said with a measured excitement that rather reminded Hiruzen of the teachers that taught at schools for those too young to go to the Ninja Academy.
He'd heard about the coup in Mist but there were a few things in there that set off alarm bells.
"Iwa and Cloud are experiencing a pandemic?"
"Yeah. Chicken pox. Very contagious but very mild effects. Not central to the story." She said dismissively.
An impending pandemic was not central to this story, but just a mild detail? Maybe he should have started the conversation with killing her.
"Now, as I'm sure you are very familar with a map of the Elemental Nations, you'll be aware that the Land of Valley's and the Land of Hills have a small little country in between them."
"The Land of Rice." Hiruzen stated instantly and relization began to dawn on him. The Hidden Village in Rice was the Sound Village, the one that Orochitama had just been working with and commanding.
"Yeah, Sound was an Orochimaru product that I spent almost a year turning into something other than a depraved den of barely controlled psychos. I think I gave you all the pieces though. Would you care to finish it for me?" Orochitama offered with a proud smile.
"The Daimyo of Rice is far too young to rule and the new couple graciously announced adopting him at their marriage ceremony, turning the three nations into one, making a single country with three hidden villages: Waterfall, Grass, and Sound." Hiruzen stated with dawning horror.
They were minor villages, but they were some of the stronger minor Hidden Villages, though Sound was still largely an unknown, the impact from the recent fair on Konoha's doorstep and subsequent assistance with the Coup in Mist would make them a celebrated and respected village in it's own right. Especially with the reports coming in of one particular ninja with a Bone based bloodline technique that was in the fighting and showing himself to be in the consideration of being declared as S-class ninja. Waterfall also had a Jinchuriki; the Seven-Tailed Beast at that.
"If you can get the other two villages to cooperate with you with pressure from the Daimyo, you could-"
"Sorry, Sensei. It's not could. The agreement has already been made. They have given me express cooperation and we aren't three separate villages anymore. We are one village. The sixth Hidden Village that has the power to declare it's leader a Kage." She finished with a grin that he believed Jiraiya would describe as 'shit-eating.'
A Sixth Kage? A few have tried to lay claim to that level of power but no one had truly gotten close since the time of the Shodaime Hokage. However, if all three genuinely joined forces, they would have the raw power of Orochitama, the Bone User, a Jinchuriki, and the Leader of Hidden Grass was no slouche either. They could field more power than Sand or Mist could in both raw total numbers and jounin.
"It won't last. The other Hidden Villages won't stand for so much power appearing on their doorstep. You would need-"
"A very public statement from the new Mizukage that I helped place into power that she would support my village if something went wrong? Rumors circulating that I secretly control the leader of the Hidden Sand village due to him helping to run some distractions during the fair and some lipstick in my favorite color smeared all over his face? I do happen to have both of those things."
She was right. He'd read the rumors that the Kazekage had found a mistress and there was theories floating around that Orochitama had been the source. It was a risk, but with those two factors it might be enough to convince both Stone and Cloud that an attack wouldn't be worth the trouble, but it was theoretically doable.
"How did you possibly get the Daimyos to agree to that?" Hiruzen asked in wonder. Most Daimyos tended to have one major view shared across them: don't rock the boat. Actions like this resulted in assassinations and wars and most of them weren't up for that kind of risk.
"I made them an offer they couldn't refuse." Orochitama said sweetly as she picked up another cookie.
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at her.
"Money." She responded before popping the treat in her mouth. When she swallowed, she continued, "Some months back, I managed to steal all the assests and connections of the Gato Shipping Business. I used those to make another business known as The Pink Canoe."
"You own controlling interest in a company? There is no way that the Hidden Villages will let that stand."
"You are absolutely correct. That's why I sold all my shares and used it to bribe the Daimyo and bankroll a bunch of changes in my village."
"You can't have gotten that much money from a new business. Unless..." Hiruzen pondered the statement and remembered another report he had read. "The Pink Canoe is the only place that you can buy all those instruments and specialized cooking machines from the fair you put on. A fair attended by many of the most influential people in the world. You created a buzz of demand that would be hot currently and inflate the value of any business able to offer the product immediately."
"You really are worthy of the title Professor, Sensei." She stated with a shake of her head.
The level of planning and contingencies in front of him frankly shocked him. With it all being layed out in front of him, each action fed into the creation of this new Hidden Village, but none were independently required for the plan to succeed. It was only possible because no one was directly looking for it, but that was likely counted on from the beginning. If the coup in Mist failed, Orochitama just had to survive and a little pushing would have Cloud choosing to put down the chronically unstable Mist in short order. If any of the Daimyo refuse the plan it wouldn't have been hard to set up an untimely accident and find someone more amendable to the plan. If Konoha got fed up and attacked the Fair during the exam, everyone would be focused on getting their pound of flesh from Konoha for violating the agreements of the exams.
It was a level of planning, deception, and sheer guts that meant Orochitama would likely not ever be underestimated in the political realm for the rest of her life.
One thing was certain though. If she actually did plan out everything she was claiming to have, then she never did anything for just one reason. Every single action had multiple objectives and he had no doubt her visit was the same.
"Why are you here?" He demanded.
"To have tea with my old sensei. A part of me needed this. To see you and figure out my feelings about...well, a lot of things." She said, a look of emotional constipation on her face.
"That might be true." Hiruzen said with a dismissive wave. "However, why else are you here?"
She opened her mouth to give a denial but visibly stopped herself before speaking again with resignation, "Yes, I have something else I would like to talk to you about, but it isn't required. We can keep this a personal visit and not be just me talking politics. We don't have to make this business."
"I think we both know there is no keeping business out of this." Hiruzen's words were ash in his mouth, but he didn't let it show on his stony countenance.
For but an instant, Orochitama closed her eyes and sagged. When the eyes reopened, they were bright and teasing.
A rare mask among ninja, but not an unheard of one.
"I want Konoha to also throw it's support behind this new village. If you agree to support it's existence for just the next three years, that will be enough that I can count on Hidden Cloud not interfering."
Hiruzen leaned back in his chair and wondered what the hell this woman thought would entice them to actually perform such an action.
"Why would we offer our support to a known traitor of Konoha and a new rival that landed on our doorstep after publicly making fools of us during the Chunin Exam?" Hiruzen asked with genuine interest.
"Mist allowed me to collect the Three Tailed Beast after the defeat of Yagura. Isobu further gave me permission to seal him away into whomever I chose in order to ensure his safety from Akatsuki."
Isobu? Hiruzen wasn't a fool and could recognize what she was saying. She not only had the Three Tails, but she knew its name and had its willing cooperation, if she was to be believed. Hiruzen had heard rumors of Bee, the brother of the Raikage, also coming to a common agreement with his Tailed Beast, but for this woman to claim she could do the same? That was too much power appearing too suddenly in the same place. Stone and Cloud would need to unite and put down-
"That is why I would like to offer to seal it into a Konoha ninja, in exchange for a publicly sworn alliance." Orochitama finished.
Hiruzen's eyes widened. She was willing to give it away? To them? The military advantage couldn't be denied and he'd be a fool to turn it down.
"I can gather a list of candidates for the appropriate volunteer." Hiruzen began, thinking through possible candidates.
"I'm sorry, but I'm only willing to hand it over if it goes into one particular ninja." She said as she leaned forward and gave a teasing smile, as if reminded of a happy memory. "Hatake Kakashi."
"Oh? Why him?" Hiruzen asked in curiosity. Had the woman's past interaction with the Copy Ninja resulted in romantic feelings? He did question previously if the two had a romantic tryst. It would have been out of character for the jounin to participate in such a thing, but not out of character for him to conceal such a thing happened.
"Kakashi is a brilliant ninja. He has the raw talent, ability, and knowledge to be able to stand toe to toe with most Kages. However, he lacks the raw chakra stores to keep in the fight. Giving him a tailed beast will change him from being a powerful A-rank Jounin into the upper ends of the S-rank ninja of the world." She replied before taking a delicate sip of her tea.
"Why would you make sure we had such a powerful weapon in our village? We have many incentives to turn on you." Hiruzen asked, wracking his mind.
"Now that Danzo is dead, Konoha is near the bottom of the list of people I am worried about attacking me." Orochitama said with a laugh and a wave.
"Akatsuki. You claim they are after the Tailed Beasts. If Kakashi has one, their objectives are made that much harder while you also create a motivated ally against them."
"Just so! Akatsuki has multiple members that I'm not confident I can defeat in a fight, and with this the chance they die to a Konoha ninja before they get around to settling a score with me increases greatly."
"Yes, you mentioned that Itachi had defeated Orochimaru previously." Hirzuen said with a nod.
"Oh, well if we're allies I don't have to worry about him, but others there too, yes." Orochitama said in a matter of fact manner that made confusion run through Hiruzen.
"Why would Itachi care that we are allies? He is a missing-nin."
Orochitama copied his confusion for a moment before shock ripped its way across her features.
"You don't know!? You knew the truth of the Uchiha Massacre, so I assumed you knew." Orochitama said tapping a finger against her chin, eyes racing back in forth in thought, as though reading an invisible book infront of her; on old trait of Orochimaru's, Hiruzen noted with a small pang of regret.
"Itachi did not leave the village out of digust of his orders, did he?" Hiruzen asked.
"No. Danzo ordered it. I was reasonably certain that Itachi was sending information back to Konoha and you were just keeping it quiet but it would appear that Danzo was concealing the information for his own ends."
If that was true, if they could gain the information from Itachi and have him act on their interest and combine that with Kakashi becoming a Jinchuriki...Konoha would be in possession of more S-Class ninja that any other village. They would have to attempt to make contact somehow first, but it was a powerful opportunity.
One he didn't trust himself to be in charge of.
"You have brought me much to consider. You promise me power, friendship, and leverage against my enemies; all for mutual benefit. However, I will need to think on what you're offering. I need to confer with others I trust to make sure I am not making a mistake." Hiruzen stated firmly.
For too long he had been controlled by his Danzo. The mistakes he had made through his reign also loomed heavy on his mind as he began to wonder if he should continue to wear the Hokage's hat. He had failed on almost every level and even the sanctity and origination of his own thoughts were called into question.
Rather than seeming upset, Orochitama smiled in approval at his statement and gave a nod of her head.
"I think it is wise of you to take your time and consider things. You had a mentally trying day today and wise council is always helpful." Orochitama said as she drained the last of the tea in her cup. "However, don't take too long, Sensei. I can give you one week before I put Isobu in a ninja of my own. The world will not wait for us to figure out the best decision."
Hiruzen nodded his head, shocked at how reasonable she was being. If she had pressed for a decision right then, she might could have convinced him. After all, the choice between gaining a Jinchuriki or having a hostile neighbor having one seemed at a glance a very simple decision.
"One last thing, Sensei. When you go to seek council on this, perhaps don't seek it with the same people that were likely to be as controlled by Danzo as you were." She said before disappearing in a puff of smoke. The tea she had been drinking and a few chewed up cookies dropping onto the towel the woman had placed on the chair.
She was correct. The main advisors he tended to use were Danzo, Homura, and Koharu. If Danzo had been manipulating Hiruzen's mind, he almost certainly was doing the same to the other advisors. Or, more frighteningly, he wasn't because they already agreed with him and worked with him.
Hiruzen let out a weary groan as he stood up. The tea and cookies completely untouched as he wasn't stupid enough to touch food given to him by someone that just claimed that she had created and used an extremely lethal poison recently.
He left the room of his sentimentality to go to a room of much greater importance to his continued sanity. The lounge where he kept most of his liquor. If was going to have any hope of sleeping that night, it was going to be by virtue of getting drunk enough to fall asleep.
There was far too many emotions and factors that he didn't know, couldn't know, about the mysterious figure that was Orochitama. There was but one thing that Hiruzen was confident of about the Snake Woman.
The way her plans had so many contingencies, fail safes, and motivation to just make the person act in their own self-interest so that thing would turn out in her benefit was terrifying. He would have loved to never have to fight against the woman, but if the Konoha ever did go to war against her he would institute a rule to kill or run on sight.
Because never ever under any circumstances should someone give her time to talk.
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