Chapter 482: A Relative Falls
No link to plan? Is this going to be an interlude or something to that effect? Was the plan scrapped? Hmmm.....
Meanwhile, Hazō sat at home, teaching summoning, teaching sealing, doing paperwork, and immersing himself in all kinds of safe activities that he took for granted while others died to keep him safe.
Is this because of his clanmates are now doing missions or is this just from the general comradery he has with Leaf ninja?
He'd never been aware of it more than he was right now, as members of his family took turns going out to fight, the results still unknown,
Guess that answers that question.
"I have returned from my mission," Orochimaru announced in a voice so apathetic it made him fit right in as far as this meeting was concerned. "That is all."
Great. Uncle Oro is back.
But there was something different about the Hokage today. His expression was mild, his mouth relaxed, but the muscles around his eyes were tight with concentration. "Welcome home, Orochimaru," he said, and there was something about the warmth in that voice, and the tension, that was not quite right, not quite his. "Please report."
Squints
Is this some kind of friendlyness aura? Some kind of positive mental influence?
Oro is also surprised, apparently.
Negotiations with the Isan Clan Council were brief.
Lucky bastard.
Orochimaru blinked. "The initial journey was uneventful. My escorts were able to dispatch the attacking chakra beasts without my intervention, and finding Isan was trivial with the aid of scout summons. Negotiations with the Isan Clan Council were brief. After three days, I set out north with a force of 214 Isan ninja. As Cloud scouts had no way to predict an assault from the south, our initial victories were overwhelming. However, since my chūnin escorts and I were the only skywalker users, it was impossible to prevent escapees from warning forces further up the coast, and the Isanese's unfamiliarity with the terrain slowed pursuit.
Well damn. That worked like a charm. This was technically our idea right?
"I estimate that we eliminated a quarter to a third of the enemy expeditionary force. The rest retreated north through the archipelago towards Haran Bay, an area outside the scope of the mission."
Holy shit. This strategy panned out outstandingly. Hiniata brought it up (well, we suggested it but she backfilled plausible reasoning to explain it) as a morale crusher. It......it turned out substantially better than that. I don't think we could have predicted a result this good.
A quarter to a third. In one attack. That's.....that's the kind of thing that makes you reevaluate whether this war is worth it. Especially with the morale crusher that comes from Orochimaru leading a group of hither-to unknown ninja straight to you, from an area you thought safe.
Then whatever unusually cooperative mood had seized him dissipated, and his focused expression was replaced with a more familiar faint scowl. "I will send you the usual report in due course. Now, I am weary. Is there anything else?"
Yeah, something is definitely up.
The tone of the meeting changed instantly. Cloud had been repelled. The second front was no more. They might learn their lesson from being punched in the face with two hundred shinobi and an S-ranker out of nowhere, or they might try again without the element of surprise, but either way, the coast was now clear for Leaf to focus its efforts on obliterating Rock as it deserved.
Not to mention that our access to Mist was blocked by the "Cloud-held coast." We may be able to get some allied support. Depends how things shake out, of course. Ninja villages are only "allies" as long as its convienient. It's been less than two years since Mist killed Hiruzen Sarutobi (damn those bad rolls; this would have been such a differenent geopolitical state had he lived), after all.
"I apologise," came the voice of a guard from outside, "but the Hokage is in a meeting right now and can't be disturbed. Please come back later."
"Allow me to present the matter to you from a different angle," an unmistakeable, insolently cheerful voice responded. "You know the Hokage's policies better than me. Which would be worse, the consequences for allowing a foreign ninja to interrupt an important meeting, or the consequences for preventing the emissary of the Village Hidden in the Mist from delivering urgent news that could change the tide of the war?"
Ami is here!
Ha!
"Lord Hokage," Ami said with a bow, "honoured clan heads, I am Mori Ami, here in an official capacity as the emissary of the Mizukage and the Village Hidden in the Mist."
She's officially the embissary again? Maybe this means she's not on as thin of ice with the Mizukage these days. Unlikely, but one can hope.
Ami gave a warm but professional smile. "In recognition of the ancient bonds of friendship between our two villages…"
She paused meaningfully, and the Hokage nodded. Across the room, Shikamaru wrote something down in a notepad.
Was that some kind of code?
"…and in accordance with the terms of the recent alliance, Lord Mizukage is pleased to send Mist's finest forces in support of Leaf's defence against their ancient enemies. You may expect the forerunners to arrive within the next three days."
All eyes were drawn to the maps and the clear run from Mist to Leaf, unimpeded by Cloud forces. The war had just turned upside down. Hazō could sense that everyone in the room was impatient for Ami to leave so they could grappling with the implications.
Yep! Called it.
The Hokage considered briefly. "If I may clarify one thing…" he said, "Lord Mizukage?"
Oh.
Oh how did I miss this....
"Oh, yes," Ami said. "I suppose I should have mentioned that. I regret to inform you that Kurosawa Ren is no longer Mizukage, as she stands accused of treason against the Village Hidden in the Mist. Fortunately, Lord Utakata has accepted the clans' unanimous invitation to assume the position of Sixth Mizukage in order to secure Mist's safety and stability in these dangerous times."
The clan heads' excited muttering was cut off as if by a kunai. As far as Hazō knew, it was impossible for a Kage to commit treason by definition, since they were the final arbiter of what the term meant and when it applied. In other words, the Six-Tails jinchūriki had deposed the Mizukage in a coup, likely facilitated by the fact that he was an unstoppable superhuman with powers Hazō couldn't guess at, and the primary guarantee of Mist's survival, while she was a diplomat with jōnin-level taijutsu and a compromise candidate.
Well, shit.
What do we know about Utakata? Why did Ryūgamine, one of Mist's sole remaining S-Rankers, allow his daughter to get d.....
Wait nevermind on that one. Mixed up the families briefly.
Anyhow, this complicates things. So much for
this aspect of the Great Seal plan:
- Probe Mist Sealmasters and loremasters (including Tama)
- With Asuma's permission, talk to Aunt Ren and a Kurosawa Sealmaster about the Great Seal and the Dragons.
- Explain how the Iron Nerve recorded details about the z-dimension.
- Ask about Iron Nerve (worth a shot)
- Is everything that gets recorded important?
- How does it know what to record?
- How can it record aspects about the Great Seal that I never saw?
- Is there anything else I should know that would help me prevent the imminent destruction of Seventh and then Human Path?
Having the Mizukage be the Clan Head drastically simplified things. I'm not sure this is going to be possible without it. Wait. Is Hana now in line for clan headship? Bah. I want to know about Mist politics all of a sudden.
Given that Jiraiya had done something very similar, and Aunt Ren was a terrible person, Hazō couldn't find it in himself to be as upset as he probably should have been.
Except…
"Lord Hokage, if I may?" Hazō raised a hand.
"Go ahead, Lord Gōketsu."
"When did the change of Kage take place?" Hazō had a horrible feeling he already knew the answer, but maybe, just maybe, this time he'd be wrong.
"January 26," Ami said perkily, "immediately after Kurosawa's arrest. I'm afraid I can't go into the detail of the charges against her for reasons of natural security, but I can assure you that she is unharmed and will receive a fair trial according to the laws and traditions of Hidden Mist."
January 26th? When was....Let me go check the timeline real quick.
No, I'm not seeing anything from us that would have caused this. What am I missing?
"Nothing particularly relevant to Leaf," Ami said. "Lord Mizukage has named Mori Ryūgamine and Kuroda Shinzō as his chief advisors, and together they're preparing probably the biggest reform package in Mist's history. The Clan Council's been expanded, and it's going to do fascinating things to the power balance. Most importantly, I'm back in charge as the ambassador. That's relevant to Leaf." She gave a brief frown. "Only not, because I'll still be doing the exact same work. Possibly more. Suddenly I feel cheated.
That's two S-Rankers, with Shinzō being an unknown (AFAIK). Great. Oh well, at least they are on our side. I guess our future as a ninja had we not gone missing nin is back to being negative? It keep swinging back and forth.
"Welcome back, Ami." He smiled. Strictly speaking, these days he could get by without his cane, but today he was very grateful for its assistance as he braced himself the instant before a massive hug.
"Ahh, that's the stuff," Ami said several seconds later. "Hugs you don't have to time are the best, second only to hugs from Kei."
I'm totally fine with being a free source of hugs and puppies for Ami. We know she was intereted and now we finially have the contracts ready.
"Is it another special summoner mission with Noburi?"
Hazō rolled his eyes. "How do you even know about those?"
"Hazō," she said, "hundreds of genin were involved in a massive operation that involved doing something really weird and ended in a legendary victory that was all thanks to them. You'd have better luck covering up the fact that Rock Lee believes in Youth. Why do you think the Hokage's had all his pawns spreading disinformation to confuse enemy spies?
Oh well. At least this OPSEC breech is not on us this time. Guess our official excuse for leveling Noburi's Deceit isn't as strong as we thought.
"But forget that. Is Kei—relatively—safe?"
"I am unable to either confirm or deny the details of any ongoing Hidden Leaf mission, regardless of that mission's implications for my sister's safety," Hazō recited, taking care not to use an Iron Nerve poker face.
Ah, smart.
"I'll take what I can get," Hazō said, silently hoping it was an improvement on the other kind. "More importantly, Ami…" He glanced around. By this point, they were near the wall, with clear lines of sight that did not conceal any watching ANBU. "Did you depose the Mizukage?"
Ami beamed. "Nope. Lord Utakata deposed the Mizukage. The very idea that I, a humble jōnin who'd mostly been away for a year, should have set up a youth organisation that was able to offer a traumatised ex-missing-nin a place to belong during the chaos after Nagi Island, when he had no connections whatsoever in Mist, while Kurosawa couldn't afford to publicly reject Yagura's legacy of missing-nin hatred because the sharks were still pissed at you guys for existing and also for humiliating Mist before the world at the Chūnin Exams? Laughable. Next you'll be suggesting that my deputies built on his fear and loathing of Yagura and his regime, which Kurosawa was taking too long to dismantle because she couldn't afford to alienate the traditionalists, needed the toolkit to reinforce her fragile rule, and wasn't taking my people seriously enough as political actors whose demands mattered. What a wild imagination you have, Hazō.
Yeah, this is no where near enough OPSEC to ask this kind of question.
"Well, no," Ami admitted. "Lord Sixth wants the Kurosawa under his thumb, not out for blood. The beauty of those Yagura-style trials she failed to abolish is that you can plausibly convict anybody of anything. She'll have her charges of treason downgraded to heinous malefaction—say what you like about Yagura, he had rhetoric—and then he'll pardon her as an inaugural act of charity, putting the Kurosawa in his debt. Obviously, the Kurosawa can't have a clan head who not only failed to hold onto the hat but got convicted of heinous malefaction by the new regime, so by this time next month she'll be just another jōnin, only with an aura of failure and disgrace that will follow her around for the rest of her life.
"Just another jōnin," she says.
"On a more interesting note…" Ami grinned. "How was the commitment ceremony? After all the time we spent planning it, it had better not have gone off without a hitch."
"'We'?" Hazō asked. "Ami, please tell me that this at least wasn't one of your master plans."
You mean Hazō wasn't aware that Hagoromo was going to show up and get humiliated? Why not?
"Three girls," he repeated. "Kei, Tenten, Snowflake."
"Well sure," Ami said, "but only Kei and Tenten were…"
She broke off to stare at him. "Hazō, don't tell me…"
Hazō studied Ami's rare and delightful bemused expression. "Yeah, they're a lawfully not-married triad now. I guess they were going to surprise you at the ceremony, only then you couldn't make it."
Ami continued to stare. "They pulled off a three-way not-wedding involving a shadow clone in a way that was lawful enough to satisfy half of Leaf's power-holders and the Hagoromo."
Aren't you proud of your little sister?
The only way to save Leaf was to distract Ami with something very interesting and completely unrelated, just like Mari had distracted Orochimaru with… with… ah, crap.
Hazō realised, with perfect clarity, that if he did not tell her about the Orochimaru incident right now, then Ami would go away and hear Kei's version of the story first. And if he did tell her about the Orochimaru incident right now…
In his mind, Ami and Kei held each other atop the shattered ruins of the Hokage Tower. Mari's corpse lay at their feet.
Oh yeah, right.
This chapter is set during the Chapter 481 timeskip, and thus receives no extra XP.
So......
Full disclosure? Minus the Shadow Clone OPSEC and the Iron Nerve OPSEC and the......
Hmmm.....
There's not a lot of this story that we can actually tell Ami. I'm also a little worried about whether Kei will consider that right now.
