"That idiot."
Tobirama grumbled, irritation flickering in his narrowed eyes as he watched his elder brother scurry off like a child trying to escape discipline, a pillar of wood sprouting under Hashirama and slinging him into the air.
After Hashirama vanished, Kakashi and Tobirama exchanged glances, then entered the forest together.
- Inside the forest -
Hiruzen confronted Orochimaru: "Give it up, Orochimaru. You sense it too—the barrier is gone, and I have backup. Escape is impossible; victory even more so."
Hiruzen said, Adamantine staff grasped in his right hand and behind his back as he crouched in a branch, left hand in a half ram-seal.
Orochimaru couldn't afford to chat with his sensei; every bit of his concentration was on Gai's thunderous kicks and punches. Each hit left trees toppled and air pressure bearing down on him as if he were the focal point of a storm, using his snake-like flexibility to dodge and counterattack with the Kusanagi blade, the blade being the only reason Orochimaru had yet to take a full force punch or kick.
Orochimaru swiped the lethal blade in a horizontal slash as Gai leaped up, blade expanding as it glowed a bright white.
Guy spun mid-air and rapidly punched towards the ground; the air pressure from his punches acted as a geyser, pushing him above the slash.
Finished building up his chakra, Hiruzen expelled a large fireball that burned white-hot, the moisture in the air evaporating as it descended on Orochimaru.
Quickly retracting the blade, Orochimaru leaped back while weaving signs, slamming his hands on the ground, and blocking the fireball with an enforced earth wall made from the tile rooftop.
A sense of danger tickled the back of Orochimaru's neck, escaping with the use of a mud clone as he jumped back to see its head be kicked off by a kick to the bottom of its chin.
Orochimaru, at this time, regretted not preparing a countermeasure for Gai, having put little stock in his strength; a pure taijutusu wasn't much of a threat in his eyes, but he was wrong, and he knew now that Gai didn't apply to that generalization.
"Hey, Saru!"
Hashirama arrived, distracting Gai as he appreciated the dramatic entrance.
Orochimaru used this distraction, weaving the seals to release the souls of Hasirama and Tobirama before Orochimaru's lower jaw expanded unnaturally to the ground, an uncountable amount of snakes pouring from his mouth in a mere second.
Hashirama glowed white and started to weave seals, forming a sturdy encasing wall around a portion of the snakes before his body fell apart, revealing a member of the genin sound team, and his soul was sent back to the pure lands.
Tobirama, running alongside Kakashi, of course, recognized what was happening, being the creator, how could he not? Weaving seals, Tobirama cut the connection with Orochimaru fully and remained in the living world as a reanimated without anyone puppeteering him.
Tobirama smiled, a cruel and cold smile that promised pain.
"This brat has some nerve."
Arriving at the battle, Tobirama threw a kunai in the path of the remaining charging snakes, reaching into his own chest and tossing out a few paper tag bombs. The few became many, the many became hundreds, and then the explosions from the tags amplified each other and spread, engulfing the charging tsunami of snakes, the rooftop caving in and collapsing under the abuse of battle and countless explosions.
Spreading out his haki, Kakashi's eyes widened.
"Lord second, he used the distraction to escape!"
Tobirama retrieved his kunai from the ground.
"Can you sense him?"
Tobirama could still sense Orochimaru, but he was curious if Kakashi could.
Kakashi nodded, hand snapping up to catch the kunai tossed to him by Tobirama.
"Good, throw it and I'll do the rest."
Tobirama nodded, pleased with the confidence, and even if Kakashi threw the kunai in the wrong direction, Tobirama was confident enough to deal with Orochimaru before he could get far.
leaping up to the tallest tree in a single bound, Kakashi channeled haki and lightning through the blade, carefully calculating the route of the snake that Orochimaru chose to embody.
'There!'
The kunai whistled out of Kakashi's hand, streaking over the chunin exam arena and flying like a shooting star across the village.
Tobirama didn't remain on the ruined rooftop, jumping up to land behind Kakashi, placing his left hand on his shoulder.
"Now!"
The two vanished from the tree tops, appearing just as the kunai landed in front of the escaping snake.
Water gathered from the air with two hand seals, rapidly forming a small water prison around Orochimaru.
Kakashi's right hand lit with purple lightning, using the opportunity to thrust it into the water and fry Orochimaru alive, only stopping the flow when the white snake was charred and breaking apart, large chunks of the snake gone due to the intensity of the lightning jutsu, water jutsu falling a moment later.
Kakashi ignored the all too familiar soft chime, using his observation to feel out the village situation and verify for himself if he killed Orochimaru or not.
"The village Jonin has driven out the Sand and Sound envaders; the remaining enemies are either fleeing or already dying."
"And the Leaf ninja?"
Tobirama felt the situation out for himself, coming to the same conclusion as Kakashi at the same time.
"Lots of dead and dying, the hospital is full of minor and the more critically injured."
Kakashi replied,
"Utter fools."
Tobirama knew well the environmental struggles of the Sand, but he hadn't expected their economy to struggle so badly so quickly.
Kakashi could guess what he was thinking.
"The Wind Daimyo cut funds to the Sand; the previous Kazekage was using the gold dust from his magnet release to keep the village operational. The sour relationship between their Daimyo and the Kazekage worsened when the Daimyo started giving the missions meant for the Sand to the Leaf despite Lord Third's attempts to moderate."
"That explains the resentment needed to start this war, not that it was needed, just an excuse many would cling to. Konoha has many enemies. Our geological advantages are too enticing for the other villages not to fly overhead like waiting vultures."
Tobirama spoke, but something had been bothering him for a while now.
"I am the one responsible for the Senju clan assimilating into the village population. This assimilation created a larger number of civilian ninja and a handful of talented individuals in every graduation class, but…. why is it that I only sense a single Uchiha next to what I believe to be the nine-tails jinchuriki and… the one-tailed jinchuriki?"
Tobirama turned to fully face Kakashi.
Kakashi sighed, leaning against a wall.
"The short answer is that they were planning a coup d'etat. 13 years ago, the nine-tails was freed from the wife of my sensei. My sensei, the fourth Hokage, sacrificed his life to seal the nine-tails into his son, Naruto. The nine-tails went on a rampage throughout the village before it was sealed, and many claim that the fox's eyes were like those of the sharingan, with three tomoe. After the incident, Lord Third took over and once again ran the village, but the elder advisors and Danzo made the situation difficult. The blame fell on the Uchiha, but it wasn't handled properly; perhaps it was intentional, well, that's my thought anyway. Rumors spread about Naruto and the Uchiha, too fast for Lord Third to quell them. The villagers ostracized Naruto and treated the Uchiha like the criminals they were tasked to arrest. Under pressure from the advisors and Danzo, the Uchiha were pushed to the outskirts and were blatantly monitored by Danzo's Root operatives."
Tobirama took a few moments to let everything sink into place, sensing that there was definitely more to this; it felt orchestrated by someone, someone with considerable power, influence, or both. Even the escape of the nine-tails felt off to him. The one in front of him was a student of the fourth, so the fourth couldn't have been a pushover, right? The following events felt more like internal struggles; someone used the police system and turned the people of Konoha against the Uchiha. Danzo…. this Root.
"What is Root?"
"The private Anbu force of Danzo is responsible for the darker missions and village security. Root ninjas are trained from a young age to be emotionless killing machines with no regard for comrades' lives or loyalty to anyone but Danzo."
Tobirama blinked, and blinked again.
"Is Saru a dumbass?"
Tobirama muttered to himself.
"So, this Root, they were the ones responsible for the monitoring? What of my student, Kagami Uchiha? Surely he tried to…."
Tobirama stopped as Kakashi shook his head slightly.
"Kagami Uchiha is dead, has been for many years. He died from mysterious circumstances, and so did Kagami's son and Grandson."
Kakashi's reply floored Tobirama.
"His son and Granson both died young?"
Tobirama was putting the puzzles together, and he didn't like it, but he also felt that Kakashi knew the details of their deaths.
Kakashi nodded.
"I don't remember Shisui's father ever being there, so he must have died before Shisui was born. Shisui, Kagami's grandson, died at only 16 years old before the entire clan was massacred by the young heir to the clan, Itachi. As a previous Anbu Captain, I am aware of many things, but one thing that can't be ignored is the corpses of the dead Uchiha. Those who had obtained the Sharingan didn't have eyes. This was, coincidentally, when the Root was supposedly disbanded."
Kakashi watched the reaction and expected the follow-up.
"How do you know all of this? And do you mean to say that this Root wasn't disbanded and absorbed back into the regular Anbu forces?"
Tobirama crossed his arms, chakra wafting off him in anger. The village was crippled, and by its supposed 'leaders', furious wouldn't even begin to describe the fury.
"No, Root is very much still a thing. Less active, but it's still there. I would know, because I was once a Root operative, on a mission from Lord Third to spy on Danzo. On a mission ordered by Danzo, a Root anbu attacked me and tried to steal my eye."
Kakashi raised his headband, revealing his Sharingan.
"This was given to me by my dying Uchiha teammate after I had lost this eye, saving him from a sword slash."
Kakashi explained before continuing.
"This Root operative was young, and he wielded Wood release. His name is Tenzo, and he served under me in Anbu after Lord Third, and I freed him from Root. He was an experiment using Lord Hashirama's cells. This experimentation and many like it is what led to Orochimaru being labeled an S-class missing-nin. But he was under Danzo's care… another coincidence, I'm sure."
"Out with it, speak your mind and only your mind."
Tobirama wasn't a fool; he could see where Kakashi was leading him, and he didn't like it whatsoever.
"There's a saying I go by: If anything goes wrong, blame it on Danzo. I'm sure you can feel it, but try to feel for the ninja with dull chakra… You won't feel these ninjas anywhere near the many battles that took place in the village. A branch of Anbu responsible for security, nowhere to be seen during an invasion. They weren't there during the nine-tails rampage 13 years ago either. If you want the truth, even though you know this yourself, I'll say it. The Root is rotten and only serves to fan Danzo's ambition. He's obsessed with the Hokage title. Search, and you'll feel them, but they'll be safe and secure while the ninja in the light do what the ninja in the dark are supposedly responsible for."
Kakashi spoke without restraint, watching Tobirama reach a boiling point before he leaped towards the hideout of the Root.
Behind his mask, Kakashi smirked, having waited for this day. Hiruzen was too exhausted to interfere, and Danzo was too confident in himself. Kakashi knew Orochimaru wasn't the one who dug up his father's grave, and that's why he didn't mind giving the bastard some payback, but Kakashi would make sure the one to kill Danzo would be him. Pinning the Second Hokage on Danzo was a spur-of-the-moment change of his plans, but he had changed his plans before by interfering with Orochimaru. Orochimaru truly stabbed himself in the heart with a kunai when he used Kakashi's father.
With a flicker of lightning at his feet, Kakashi was gone, staying a distance behind Tobirama to let him carve through the Root operatives.
- Chapter End -
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Can't wait for a break, tired of writing essays and doing exams. Another chapter should be expected soon, just depends on what I have to do.