Tsunade gave her battle brother a sour glance and continued. "Two and a half miles away. Hazō and his clones do the finger-wiggly thing and make the blanks. I lug them to about a mile away from the target, the assault group in tow along with Hazō's shadow clones. The Hazō clones infuse the things and then immediately pop to reduce the number of people on the field while we're doing final prep. Fewer bodies, fewer chances of being spotted."
"I'm afraid you'll need my clones to activate the runes," Hazō said, keeping his face as straight as possible.
"Truly? How fascinating. Please, dear nephew, explain why you are the only one capable of triggering a rune."
"Seriously. Show us how, we'll do it, brat. We don't need to be tripping over a passel of chūnin clones."
"First, special jōnin, not chūnin. Second, firing the remote explosive runes isn't a simple thing. I can't teach it quickly, so I'll need to be the one taking the shot."
In point of fact, he needed to be the one taking the shot because there was no way in all the Paths known and unknown that he was going to allow this battle to happen without him. He had given up everything to be where he stood and he was not going to be brushed aside and sent off to the kids' table while the grownups played with his toys. Sure, Hazō was too young to hang in a fight between the Sannin and their peers, but when Jiraiya was eventually fished out of the afterlife, Hazō was going to be able to say that he had made a difference in the battle that saved him.
The two Sannin stared hard at Hazō. He held himself as straight as possible and met their gazes. Beside him, Mari showed only the cool composure of an experienced infiltrator watching an op right on the edge of going south.
Hazō, Deceit: 24
Tsunade, Deceit: ??
Orochimaru, Deceit: ??
"You are so full of shit," Tsunade said. "Trying to grab some glory for yourself?"
"Well said, sister. You are not nearly the liar you think yourself, nephew. If this is your best effort then I am disappointed in both you and your teacher." He looked down his nose at Mari.
Mari offered only an easy smile and a shrug. "What can I say? He's way too honest for the likes of me to help."
Hazō forced his jaw to unclench. "That's an uncharitable way to put it, Lady Tsunade. Yes, fine, I could teach you to activate the runes quickly enough and I could explain the aiming process and how to time the shots for best effect. Despite that, I have the most experience aiming and firing them and we need the first attacks to hit in exactly the right pattern for maximum effectiveness. So yes, I need to be the one taking the shot."
The mountain began to shimmer into existence around them as Tsunade's anger mounted. "Look, brat—"
Invisible fire wrapped itself around Hazō, burning away the in-pressing stone. Snakes glinted on the edge of visibility, swatting the mountain back into unreality. Tsunade twitched slightly in surprise, her eyes narrowing at Orochimaru and then Mari.
"Stand down, Sunny. Let the boy have his fun. It is true that he has more experience firing the things than anyone—unless you have spent time practicing with them? No? I didn't think so. Nor have I. He will either be better at it than we are or at least no worse. We shall need every tiny advantage for this battle and the extra risk his presence creates should be acceptable. If on the day we discover that it is not then we will revise this decision in more direct fashion."
"Revise it with my fucking fist."
"I believe that is what I said, yes. Granted, I have far too much couth and education to be as...plainspoken as you. Yet still the point was made." He turned to Hazō. "Very well, boy. You shall have your chance to raise a weapon on the day. What next?"
Wow. That had actually worked?! Cool!
"Um...right. After the RERs are fired, the assault group blitzes the target. The RERs should have cleared any traps from the immediate area of the fortress, as well as splotched any lookouts and outside guards. It may or may not have demolished the fortress itself, depending on whether it's reinforced with chakra effects or not." He grimaced. "Well, if they built it really heavy then maybe it would survive, but that's unlikely. I'll be overlapping the RER blasts so that the explosions reinforce one another. It's very unlikely that they've built something so strong that it won't be flattened. No, unless they've reinforced it with Five Seal Barriers, Force Walls, or something to that effect, the fortress will come down. Hopefully killing anyone inside and leaving nothing for the assault group to do, but the world is never that kind."
Tsunade snorted in agreement.
"The larger issue is what defenses Sasori may have set up," Orochimaru said. "The world has had two years to learn about and prepare defenses against the so-called Zoo Rush that we used to acquire the Arachnid Scroll from Rock. Were I in Sasori's puppet-worn shoes, I should have produced seal arrays that would pop chakra constructs in the vicinity, as protection against shadow clones and summons. Since such things will be the vast majority of the combat power in the assault group, this would be a problem."
"We could send forward a sacrificial vanguard," Hazō suggested diffidently. "Some genin-level summons, maybe one of my shadow clones since they won't have anything to do after the firing. Well, unless you want them to fire multiple times. The runes can fire multiple shots, but there's a short warmup period before each firing."
Tsunade considered it. "No, I think it's better to use the runes to clear the path, then we get in close. The idea of a vanguard isn't bad, though. Sure, we can send one of your clones in the lead. We'll be right behind him; if he pops then we know to watch out."
"Actually," Mari said, "there might be an option to consider there. May I ask, how are you two at singing?"
The Sannin cocked their heads in unison.
"Singing." Orochimaru's voice jammed a lengthy treatise of disdain into a single word.
"I'm assuming you know not to joke around at a meeting like this, so what's your thought?" Tsunade asked, brushing Orochimaru's further words aside.
"Well..." Mari smiled and laid out an utterly ludicrous plan that caused Tsunade to let a sincere laugh escape from her eternally grouchy face, and even caused Orochimaru to snort in amusement.
"I sing fine," Tsunade said. She jerked a thumb at her battle brother. "He can at least croak along on tempo. Sure, let's try it once to see if it works. If it doesn't work in practice, we don't do it on the day. On the day, if we see the ground and decide it's not a good idea, our sacrificial vanguard can pop and carry the message back for us."
"What about the approach?" Mari asked. "Miles through the woods, heavily laden. Easy to get spotted if they have any sentries pushed far out."
"We've done this once or twice," Tsunade said, although there was a hint of a smile in the words. "We've got some stealth jutsu and various stealth-specialized summons that can clear the road for us."
"And I have this," Orochimaru said, pulling a small box off it was fastened to his belt at the small of his back. He placed it on the table and lifted the lid so the others could see in.
"Is that..." Tsunade asked, the sentence trailing off as she studied the box's contents.
"Just so. I put quite a lot of work into it."
"Where'd you get it?"
"It has been on my person since well before you met up with us. The fact that you didn't notice should tell you all that you need to know."
"Huh." She made a complicated face—surprise, pleasure, relief...something? Guilt? Hazō wasn't sure. "You're sure it'll work for a whole group?"
"Yes, it will work," Orochimaru said, closing the box and hanging it back on his belt. "Despite that, we will still take River Run level precautions."
