Chapter 51
SASUKE UCHIHA
He would never say it to his face, but he had been looking forward to Naruto's return. It had been two years since their team had broken up, and each of them had gone their separate ways, so having the three of them together under one roof was a welcome surprise.
Each of them had changed a lot in the years that had passed. Both he and Naruto had been apprenticed to two of the three Sanins, and Sasuke could only now understand his own misgivings from two years ago. Back then, he had been weak and overconfident.
He had been like a frog trapped in a well, yet now he finally understood some of the truths of this world. Before, he had known only how to take a life, but his time at the hospital had taught him the true value of a life. The joy and hope that it brought.
He had seen people hail him as a deity for saving their loved ones, and he had them cry in his arms as he told of their loved ones' passing. It was an entirely different side of the shinobi world that he was not privy to before, and it brought with it its own set of techniques and advantages.
His Sharingan had made it easy for him to memorise all of the texts, so he had been able to push forward into the more practical side within a month of his training, and in that, he learned much from the woman commonly called the greatest Healer ever born, and for good reason.
Tsunade Senju was a miracle worker, and apart from that, she was also the scariest shinobi he had ever faced. Her singular attack had the power in it to level a mountain, and in the two years of their tutelage, he had learned all that he could from her.
Still, he was owed a secret. For two years, now he had begun growing suspicious about the exact nature of the events that had transpired during the Uchiha massacre. He had a feeling that there was more to that night than he knew as of now, and the only person who could provide him with those answers was that old hag.
Still, seeing the jounin commander sitting in her chair did not sit right with him, as they stood surrounded by the most influential and powerful shinobi of the village. Jiraiya-sama stood to their right, while Kakashi and Shizune-sensei stood behind the Hokage chair, each having a grave expression on their face.
"What is going on?" he asked, breaking the silence, as the Nara clan head opened his mouth.
"Around ten minutes ago, we received a very brief message from one Ino Yamanaka," and they were all very familiar with that name. Ino was their classmate, and more than that she was their friend.
The entire village was rather excited for her upcoming engagement with Hikari, and from what he could remember, she was part of Lady Tsunade's guard unit for the negotiations with Kiri.
"But wasn't she with Lady Tsunade?" he asked, and the jounin commander nodded.
"Yes, indeed. She was part of a two-man cell sent with Tsunade-sama to guard her during the negotiations with Kirigakure's Mizukage," and so the reason for the alarm became apparent.
"What did the message say?" asked Hinata from the side.
"She asked for reinforcements. She said that they were under attack," Kakashi-sensei answered, as the room grew silent.
"Then what the hell are we doing here?" Naruto stepped forward.
"We should go and help them at once," and he doubted they would have called for them if it were really so simple.
"Shut up, you idiot!" Sasuke snarled as he slapped him on the back of his head.
"HEY!" Naruto complained.
"Why else do you think they summoned us, you fool?" he pointed out, as both Hinata and Naruto's eyes widened in realization. They had not just summoned them to inform them about the attack, but they had chosen to send their team to rescue them.
"We accept," he answered, and Hinata gave a nod as well.
"As he said. We will take the mission and save Ino and old granny Tsunade," Naruto chimed in.
"We are ready," Hinata answered resolutely as well.
"Good. Because the truth is that we do not have any other team suitable for this mission. Though one thing I must mention is that while the message ended abruptly, we believe that the attacker is none other than the leader of the Akatsuki himself," and that explained the somber mood.
Sasuke had thought that Kiri had betrayed them, yet this was worse. Far worse.
"That is why I will be leading the mission," Lord Jiraiya stepped forward, and his expression was serious, as he looked all three of them in the eye.
"You three will do exactly as I say. We don't know much about this person, but what little we know makes it certain that he is in a class of his own. I personally know just how strong Tsunade and Hikari are and yet still they were forced into calling reinforcements, and so we must be prepared for anything. Is that understood," and they nodded.
"We are wasting time here. We need to go," Naruto added, as he turned towards the door, and Sasuke, for once, agreed with the blonde idiot.
"There will be no need for that," the Jounin commander added, and with those words, a trio of shinobi appeared in the office, and he recognised them at once. They were the Hiraishin squad. This trio was part of the Yondaime Hokage's guard unit.
"Lady Tsunade had a Hiraishin seal inscribed onto her body for such a scenario. We will teleport all of you to her using that," and he knew of this project and was surprised that they had managed to make it work.
"Just come and huddle up. We don't have much time to waste," and they surrounded Lord Jiraiya, as Sasuke came and stood beside him, and both Hinata and Naruto joined him.
"Hiraishin? What is that?" the blonde asked.
"I will explain once we come back," Jiraiya-sama answered as he gave Shikaku Nara a nod.
"Good luck," and with that, the trio bound their hands, as a sealing formula spread out on the ground underneath.
"Hiraishin!" and he felt the world shift, and then in the blink of an eye, he found himself in a dark new place, and before he could ever look around, he felt his skin burn as alarm bells began to ring.
"Corrosive mist," he whispered, as he cycled through a set of handseals and used a quick futon jutsu to push it away.
The air was thick with that corrosive mist, and an earthen dome covered them from all sides, and before they could do anything else, the familiar voice of Lady Katsuyu cut through the air.
"Sasuke-kun," and he was able to locate her at once.
"There," he said as they spotted Lady Tsunade's form, and his heart broke as he saw her. And the skin had literally begun to melt off of her muscles, and she was only alive because of Lady Katsuyu's efforts.
"What the hell happened here?" he asked as he began healing her at once.
"The leader of the Akatasuki attacked us. All of us faced him, but in the end, he proved himself to be too powerful. Even with the Mizukage fighting beside us, we barely managed to fight him on even footing," and her condition was far worse than he could think.
"Hinata, use the Byakugan and locate the rest," Jiraiya-sama ordered, and she saw the veins around her eyes rise forth.
"Naru..."
"On it," the blonde answered as a green orb emerged in his hand and began to swallow up the entire corrosive mist, making it easier for them to breathe.
"The Mizukage is alive, but she is also heavily injured. She is that way," she said, pointing towards the South, and Sauske nodded, yet he remained focused on helping the old hag. He could not let her die.
Not yet. She still had not told him the truth of that night. She still had to give him the answers. She still had that pile of paperwork to get through. She could not die yet. She could not!
"What about Pain and Hikari?" Jiraiya-sama asked, and suddenly he saw Hinata pale as she glanced at the wall in one direction, before she rose quickly, before lightning began to arch around her body.
"Raiton:..." he heard her whisper without answering anyone as the lightning formed a bow in her hands, and she pulled on it.
"...Raikiri!" and the lightning bolt rushed forth and tore through the stone wall, and even at the distance, his Sharingan allowed him to see exactly what was happening.
He saw the lightning bolt tear through the metallic rod headed for Hikari's head, just as Lord Jiraiya vanished from behind them, yet he was not focused on the man. No, his eyes remained rooted on the person wearing an orange mask with a cutout for a singular eye.
A singular eye that glinted with the same red hue as his own.
"Impossible," he gasped.
"That is the Sharingan....."
.
.
.
Konan met Jiraiya-sensei gaze, and unlike his teammate it took him but a second to realise who she was.
"Konan," he gasped out, just as the ground under Madara's feet tore up, as Naruto Uzumaki jumped up with a blue orb of chakra in his hands.
"Rasengan," yet like the rest of the attacks, the blue orb of chakra simply passed through his body, as another Hyuga girl joined her sensei.
"So, she was able to get the message away," Madara whispered, and suddenly she heard Nagato's voice ring through her ears.
"I need you," and in their years of alliance, he had never asked for her like this.
"We need to go," she said to Madara, who gave her a nod.
"As you say," and there was something wrong with Nagato, and he must have noticed that as well.
"Wait! Is that really you, Konan! Yahiko!" Jiraiya-sensei asked.
"Who are you?" the blonde Uzumaki boy shouted as he looked at Madara.
"And why do you have that eye?" and so he recognised the Sharingan.
"Me," Madara began as the world around them began to shift.
"I have many names. But you can call me...."
"...Madara!"
And with that, they vanished, before emerging from the cave where Nagato was controlling his paths, and nearly all six of his paths were destroyed. Such a thing had never happened before.
"GUGHHH!" Nagato coughed up blood as she immediately rushed to his side.
"My back," he eeked out as blood dripped out of his mouth, and she glanced at the chakra rods and saw his skin turning into stone.
"What is this..." she gasped, and she had never seen anything like this. yet before she could do anything, Madara appeared and pulled out the rods without any warning.
"AGHHHH!" Nagato screamed.
"What are you doing!" she tried to stop him.
"Saving his life," Madara answered as he continued to pull away the rods, as Nagato's screams filled the room, and she noticed how the skin stopped turning into stone.
"Thank you," Nagato eeked out, in a weak voice, as she turned towards Madara.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Senjutsu chakra," Madara answered.
"There is a reason that despite everyone knowing about the legendary power of sagehood, few shinobi ever even try to obtain that power for themselves," and she shook her head.
"While the chakra requirements are brutal on their own. Learning it comes with a great risk of turning one's self into stone. It is why, despite it being nearly a century since Hashirama Senju first showed the world what it meant to be a Sage, we still have but one other shinobi who has been able to replicate that feat," and now it made sense.
"Not anymore," Nagato whispered back.
"Indeed," Madara agreed.
"I never imagined that the Hyuga boy would learn Senjutsu. But this must have been his last gamble to get back at you for killing that girl. He must have used those rods to send out as much senjutsu chakra as he could, and given that you lacked the training to control it, it began to turn you into stone," and Konan grit her teeth.
"We should have killed him sooner," and Madara nodded.
"He is proving himself to be quite a menace. Still, this is troubling," for now nearly half of his back had been turned into stone, and without it he would not be able to send out chakra to his paths as efficiently.
"We will need to heal this," the purple-haired girl added.
"We have just attacked and killed two kages and a clan heiress from Konoha. In other words, we have declared war upon Konoha, and they will retaliate, and Kiri and Suna will join them," and the question was who else would come to their support.
"I can think of only one shinobi who could help us with this?"
"Who?"
"Orochimaru...."
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