"Tell me everything you can about Danzou. He ordered this, right?" you asked, kneeling to get a better look at Tezaki.
"Heh...fuck off. Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't..." Tezaki weakly stated before sticking his tongue out at you. At first you thought it was just a childish insult, but then you saw what looked like a seal planted on his tongue. "It'll stop any attempt to spill the beans..."
"Then you're worthless. Dosu, you can finish him off," you muttered. Tezaki took a deep breath and closed his eyes, awaiting his death. Dosu slapped his metal gauntlet with a kunai to make a loud ringing sound, then roughly grasped Tezaki's face. The ROOT member screamed as Dosu flowed his chakra throughout Tezaki's skull. After a moment, Tezaki's eyes rolled into the back of his head as blood popped out of both his ears. With a few more convulsions, Tezaki perished.
"Finally..." Azasuke sighed. "I suppose you two ain't gonna tell my why you're walking around with those injuries, yeah?"
"Nope," you plainly stated.
"Whatever, Lord Orochimaru will figure it out soon enough," Azasuke shrugged. "Let's go home. We finished the mission."
"That I can agree with," Dosu muttered. You nodded, very eager to get out of the damned desert. But first, you gathered Tezaki and Ota's corpses (which Azasuke for some reason cut off a finger on each of them and put them in his pocket) and you burnt the bodies until they were nothing but ash, scattered to the desert winds.
---
The trip back was thankfully uneventful. You refused to go back by boat, so you walked through the desert and through the Land of Rivers, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, and finally the Land of Iron to reach the Land of Sound. Since everyone was rather focused on just getting home, it made the trip thankfully quick, just under a week. During this time, the wounds you and Dosu acquired had healed, though they would leave some nasty looking scars. Azasuke found one of the many secret entrances to the Otogakure and after a few miles of seemingly unending hallways, you reach the village itself.
"Here," Azasuke muttered, thrusting the scroll containing Ibuki's remains into your hands, along with the fingers of Tezaki and Ota. "I'm gonna go sleep on my couch. Lord Orochimaru will come for you two eventually."
With that, Azasuke vanished with a puff of smoke. Both you and Dosu knew you weren't going to get any rest until you met with Orochimaru, so you two waited silently until a familiar looking man with glasses appeared.
"Follow me, you two," Kabuto commanded coldly. Uncaring, you followed Kabuto through the village until you reached the same place where Orochimaru had trained you before, a large, square room with a second floor balcony. Standing on the balcony was Orochimaru, who had an amused grin on his face.
"Here." you bluntly said, throwing the scroll and the fingers at Orochimaru. Without missing a beat, the Sannin extended his tongue and caught everything, bringing it back to his hands. "Ibuki is in the scroll, Azasuke cut the fingers of Tezaki and Ota for you, two ROOT guys."
"Gross..." Dosu muttered under his breath.
"Very good. Very good indeed, Kurama, Dosu..." Orochimaru chuckled, his eyes gleaming in excitement. "I believe you two need a suitable reward for helping my plan move along."
"And what would that be?" you asked, curious, if a bit cautious.
"You have four options," Orochimaru began. "I can give you one of my Cursed Seals. It draws in ambient demonic energy in the air to power up the user. Perhaps you saw Azasuke use it? Of course...there is a risk. There's a 1 in 10 chance you'll die. But, the power is quite worth said risk. Second, I'll give you a contract with the snakes. Snakes are a powerful ally to have, but you need to earn their respect. The third is simple, you may ask for a custom made weapon or tool using all the resources the Sound has, for no cost. Finally...I will grant any request if those three don't sound appealing. Of course...I have no time for foolish ideas, so put some thought into it, hm?"
You didn't particularly care what Dosu wanted, but your mind was swarming with options. As you saw with Azasuke, the Cursed Seal looked appealing, and the risk of death was null due to your Jashinism, but did you really want to be branded with Orochimaru's mark? You could see the use of having snake summonings, it would only make you more versatile...but admittedly, summoning allies goes against your burn it all fighting style...
The third option of having something useful made for you was a neat concept, but you'd need to really think on it before answering, if you wanted it. And finally, there was the request. A way to freely choose your own reward...
Well, what will you choose?
[] The Cursed Seal. You need all the power you could get.
[] The snake summonings. Having more options never hurts.
[] The custom made tool. Technology in the Sound is rather advanced, you'd gain a powerful weapon. (Write in on what tool/weapon it should be)
[] The request. But what did you want? (Write In)
---
Congratulations, you completed the very, very, verrrrrrrry long prologue! As another additional reward, you can increase one of Kurama's stats by one.
Which stat will you increase?
[] Ninjutsu
[] Taijutsu
[] Genjutsu
[] Intelligence
[] Strength
[] Speed
[] Stamina
[] Hand Seals