Chapter XXXIII
A/N: Many thanks to apooooop, Halberdier, HoratioVonBecker, Meneldur, and Paneki for beta reading help.
-o-
From the meaningless and all-too-temporary luxury of the Hokage's private box, Hiruzen watched the match like a hawk. Occasionally, he glanced at the guest of honour seated in the special chair by his side, but the Kazekage hat completely concealed the man's expression.
Hinata, the Hyūga heir, was never supposed to have made it this far. Every simulation had predicted that her gentle temperament would shatter like a wave against the cliff of her cousin's bitter resolve. Even in the aftermath of her almost-draw with Neji, Hiruzen had wavered. But in the end, the Chūnin Exam was about actualising potential as much as projecting strength, and Hinata had surprised them all with potential in spades.
He was close to regretting it now, as he watched Hinata waste one of the world's greatest ninjutsu, which he'd once suspected she might never master, on stalling for time, seemingly unaware that she was playing right into her opponent's sands.
And her opponent… whereas Hiruzen knew as much about the Hyūga arsenal as anyone outside the clan could (and a little more), the powers and limitations of Gaara's silicokinesis were a mystery. The boy–or one of his teammates–had managed to not only identify but block the cameras that would have provided the Tower with the necessary data, and his performance in the so-called "Stage 2.5" was over almost before it began, raising far more questions than it answered.
Even watching in person, Hiruzen could glean precious little. Controlling sand as Gaara did, with no apparent ninjutsu, hand signs, or even visible effort, was the domain of a high-rank Bloodline Limit. But the only one in Hidden Sand that even came close was the Magnet Element, used by multiple Kazekage to transform granular substances into lethal weapons, and the common sand Gaara used was far from magnetic. Besides, the Kazekage having a secret third child groomed to be his heir was the stuff of tabloids in the Wind Country, on par with Bigroot, the half-plant half-man said to roam the desert at night. So what was the true nature of Gaara's power, and where had he come by it?
But it was not Gaara's power that truly troubled Hiruzen.
Hiruzen was too old to have any illusions about the purpose of the Ninja Academy. It existed, it had always existed, to take innocent young children and condition them into being ruthless, efficient killers, and simultaneously to apply a second layer of conditioning to mitigate the inevitable trauma of the first. Leaf's genin were not children. Their innocence was eroded almost to destruction in accordance with the old ways, evolved over centuries of warfare in which even one more shinobi could make the difference between a clan's life and death. Then it was clumsily patched over using lessons learned from the sanest of those who survived to adulthood in the modern age. Leaf's genin looked like children. Most of the time, they sounded like children. But a man who'd followed as many generations from the cradle to the urn as Hiruzen could instantly recognise the subconscious alertness, threat assessment, and switch waiting to flick between human and target that dwelled just beneath the surface of their gaze.
Gaara was a child.
The Third Hokage, a shinobi who had lived to old age, could sense killing intent like a bloodhound could scent blood. He could not literally read minds–he knew enough people who could, and did not envy them for a moment–but elite shinobi battles were decided at the speed of thought. If you were merely watching to see what your opponent
did, you were already dead.
He could sense no killing intent from Gaara. He could see nothing in the boy's stance or behaviour that spoke of violence simmering beneath the surface or fear of death imperfectly suppressed. Were Gaara a spy, he would have been one tattoo and one gourd away from slipping past even the likes of Morino Ibiki as an ordinary civilian child. And yet here he was in the Chūnin Exam Finals, and a girl with the world's most powerful sensory ability had taken one look at him and instantly hidden herself behind an absolute defence.
Hiruzen felt a touch of the fear that was every Kage's daily companion: "You have made a mistake, and the price will be paid in lives". Worse, he knew that it was too late to change anything. People would
definitely die if he deviated from the plan without warning.
Down below, Hinata made her move. Gaara made his. There was a cruel elegance to it: by carrying a finite container on his back, he'd presented an intelligent opponent with an obvious exploitable weakness, even as he made sure her estimate of how much sand he had was catastrophically inaccurate.
He could see surrender on her lips. That was that, then. So far, Sand was dominating Leaf, and Hiruzen tried not to think of it as an omen. If memory served, the next match would finally be–
What was Gaara doing?
From here, Hiruzen couldn't make out the details. But Hinata had surrendered. Gaara shouldn't have been doing anything at all. Unless…
Hiruzen watched Genma come to the same conclusion and start making hand seals for a restraining ninjutsu. He watched Genma fall where he stood, because Gaara was not a genin and had not come here to become a chūnin.
Gaara was about to assassinate the Hyūga heir, and there was nothing Hiruzen could do.
No, that was a lie. Hiruzen could abandon the plan. He could leap down there, casting protective ninjutsu as he fell, and eliminate Gaara in the nick of time. Gaara was no genin, but nor was he a Kage–and even if he had that strength, a Kage, too, could perish in a single strike if taken by surprise.
But Hiruzen's mission was simple. Clear. Necessary. If he rose from his seat, so would his counterpart–and keeping that man sitting was a task that could save hundreds of lives. Silently, Hiruzen apologised to Hinata, and to Hiashi, who understood that his daughter might not live out the day, and still allowed himself to be deployed where he was most needed.
A series of explosions echoed in the distance. Several columns of smoke began to rise from key points in the distributed command network, their sequence of colours confirming which contingencies were in effect.
Almost instantly, delayed only by the reaction time of the operator far below, unbreakable metal clasps snapped out of the other chair and around the arms and legs of the special guest. The face turning towards Hiruzen melted away, Orochimaru unable to maintain his disguise technique as his chakra poured into the chair and away through the cables concealed under the floor.
Less than a second after that, the members of Hiruzen's ANBU escort were behind Orochimaru's personal guard. Four blades slashed in unison across four throats.
Perfect victory.
But instead of the wet gurgling of severed tracheas, Hiruzen heard only the hideous screech of metal on metal.
By the time he was on his feet, it was too late. Orochimaru's minions were alive and barely bleeding. The ANBU, at a disadvantage after a failed surprise attack, were struggling to keep them contained, much less execute them and pivot to supporting Hiruzen. The officers were the village's elite, trained and equipped to handle any challenge, but Orochimaru was familiar with ANBU assassination doctrine the way only a veteran Leaf ninja could be, and he had apparently prepared his minions specifically to counter it.
Hiruzen's priorities reoriented immediately. Capture was no longer viable. Orochimaru had to die before he could find a way to break free.
Orochimaru strained to raise the fingers of his left hand in a signal. Hiruzen lunged.
"Earth Element: Multiple Earth Wallbreaker!"
The largest of Orochimaru's minions raised a leg wreathed in shards of glowing rock, then stomped down hard. Waves of destructive vibration expanded across every flat surface, blowing out the box's wooden walls and ceiling, but worse, wrecking the floor–and with it, the network of cables plugged into the chair.
Hiruzen buried his kunai in the back of Orochimaru's chair an instant too late as the man slid out of it like a stream of water–or like a snake whose captured limbs were only there for appearance's sake.
Instead of seizing the opening, microscopic as it was, Orochimaru leapt away, to the roof of the barracks that served as the competitors' preparatory area. He gave Hiruzen a "well?" look that took no effort to decipher. Either Hiruzen would follow Orochimaru to his chosen battleground, or they would battle here, in the middle of an evacuation only just beginning, with horrific collateral damage.
It was no choice at all.
A second later, the minions joined them, not taking battle stances, but instead deploying a barrier from the four corners of the roof, then walling themselves off to maintain it. No one who had lived through as much carnage as Orochimaru would engage in a duel on his enemy's home ground without taking steps to obstruct reinforcements.
(The ANBU were nowhere to be seen, gone either to seek barrier-breaking aid or to a far more distant place. For that matter, neither were Gaara or Hinata.)
The urgency of the moment was gone. In many ways, it would now be to Hiruzen's advantage to stall. Leaf was full of capable shinobi ready to take charge if he was unavailable, whereas Orochimaru would be the invasion's trump card and keeping him from contributing his leadership and firepower until it was too late was as good as a decapitation strike. Once there was room to divert troops and Orochimaru's barrier was surrounded by the village's finest, Hiruzen might even be able to force a surrender. He had many,
many questions to ask his wayward apprentice.
"When
I wished to indiscriminately harvest the public's chakra to calibrate a universal chakra drain device, you rejected the proposal as unethical," Orochimaru commented, brushing the clasp indentations out of his sleeves. He did not seem to be in a hurry to take Hiruzen's life either–perhaps he had made his own calculations and concluded that
his forces would triumph as long as the enemy commander was kept out of play. Orochimaru had never truly appreciated the strength of the Will of Fire.
"I spent too long dismantling the surveillance state the Second had begun to build in his later years," Hiruzen said. "I couldn't allow any perception that I had changed my mind. On the other hand, when young people with a world's worth of different chakra types are desperate to feed as much chakra as possible to the harvesters, who are we to say no?"
"I knew I should have lingered to investigate the obelisks," Orochimaru lamented. "My best counters were for much more prosaic possibilities: the classic chair filled with explosive tags, perhaps, or a ballista pointed directly at my seat from a camouflaged location. As the Uchiha used to say, lack of curiosity killed the cat."
Hiruzen was glad he had opted for Prof. Kurogane's proposal over Mitarashi's. At least the chakra drain would give Hiruzen a minor advantage if it came to combat.
Outside the barrier, the arena's evacuation was proceeding apace, guided by the younger genin who had not been recommended for the Chūnin Exam, and thus had not received their invasion briefing via the genjutsu. At the very least, Hiruzen had to keep Orochimaru focused on the conversation until it was complete.
"You do appear to have had a counter for a cut throat, however," Hiruzen observed.
"Subdermal plating," Orochimaru said with a grimace of distaste. "A dead end of research, actually harmful to the user, at least with the materials available at our level of technology. It will take me hours of surgery to remove it again once we are done here."
So confident in his victory, even after finding that Leaf had anticipated his attack–indeed, that they had exploited the Chūnin Exam to ensure it happened on their schedule–and that every imaginable contingency was in place. Could Root, whose discovery of Orochimaru's plot had been their greatest triumph in a decade, have missed some crucial detail after all?
"Why are you doing this, Orochimaru?" he asked. "Surely this is not mere revenge for your exile?"
"Revenge?" Orochimaru repeated. "Come, Sarutobi-sensei, have you ever known me to set my sights so low? I will not deny that I was, for a time, bitter to be deprived of my home for no greater crime than an irreconcilable difference of opinion on research ethics. You overlooked Tsunade's failures and tolerated Jiraiya's antics. But when I, the one seeking to make a difference, crossed a line, you banished me, and that only because I was not fool enough to sit and wait for capture.
"Still, with the benefit of hindsight, I possess multiple reasons to be grateful for your unprovoked aggression, and it must be acknowledged that my ethical stance has grown more nuanced since."
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "You will forgive me if the superior ethics are not obvious from where I'm standing."
Orochimaru shrugged, and in that familiar movement Hiruzen recognised an awkward boy about to insist that his embarrassing mistake was no mistake at all, but in fact an act of genius being viewed from the wrong angle. He had to remind himself that that cherished student had long since perished in the crucible of war, and that Hiruzen's belief that he understood the adult who replaced him had turned out to be grievously mistaken.
"My time in Akatsuki," Orochimaru replied, "taught me well the difference between knowledge and power, conflated as they often are by fools fancying themselves wise. Knowledge
begets power, but power does not beget knowledge. Knowledge is the means by which humanity elevates itself, whereas power devolves men into beasts that crave nothing but survival and domination. I shudder to imagine what might have become of me had I remained in a village that holds 'the power to protect' as its highest virtue–or, indeed, in Akatsuki, with its goals more ignoble still. Or will you claim that it is in service of human progress that 'chakra user' is synonymous with 'soldier'?"
Hiruzen considered available stratagems, both martial and verbal, even as he mentally dissected Orochimaru's words for clues that might lead to a weakness. If he was tempted to sincerely discuss philosophy, he could do so with Orochimaru safely ensconced in the maximum security ANBU holding cell affectionately known as the "killbox". Here and now, they stood on the battlefield.
Tactically speaking, refutation was an option, even at this early stage, and offered opportunities to strike at his target's composure. Then again, he knew from his futile arguments with Danzō that there was no surer way to play for time than to encourage a zealot to preach their ideology.
"However," Orochimaru continued, "at times knowledge requires sacrifice as much as power does–more, even, for knowledge is the fruit of trial and error, and with every trial the cost must be paid anew. I ask nothing of my subjects that I would not do myself–the sine qua non of leadership that
you taught me–and that must suffice until the coming of a more enlightened age."
Hiruzen suppressed a shiver, for no sign of weakness could be permitted. He had personally observed the experiments and notes that Orochimaru had been in too much of a hurry to destroy. They occupied a prominent position in his hierarchy of nightmares.
"Then why?" Hiruzen pressed. It was the wrong move, a failure of manipulation that closed off more conversational pathways than it opened. But Hiruzen was only human, and witnessing the growth of his apprentice, and then that growth inexplicably turned to the foulest of ends, was a reprise of one of the most painful experiences of his life. This time, could he not have answers, closure, before the inevitable end?
"If you are not blinded by vengeance," Hiruzen asked, "if it is the greater good that drives you, then what has possessed you to make war on the village you once loved so much?"
"Did I?" Orochimaru asked, a touch of melancholy in his voice. "No, I suppose I must have, to so hate being forced to leave. But you have answered your own question, Sarutobi-sensei. You unilaterally severed my remaining bonds with your own hands and condemned me to an existence outside the village system and the morality it preached. Later, Akatsuki cured me of the dangerous delusion, inculcated by that system, that power was itself a worthy goal so long as one's principles were sound. With that, I was free–but also empty.
"There are unimaginable treasures in the world, Sarutobi-sensei, and unimaginable terrors, plain to see for those not blinded by an agenda. Answers I could never have found in Leaf.
Questions I could never have found in Leaf. And when I glimpsed the truth of this world, I was faced with an inescapable choice. Do nothing and let it all end in silence, or…"
Hiruzen waited, but no elaboration came.
"Knowledge begets power begets responsibility. Nobody had warned me. And so I come full circle: to the pursuit of knowledge for the greater good, and now to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, for whose sake I commit atrocities."
There was too much there to process. Was Orochimaru insane? Exposed to data so corrupt that even the most rational mind could find itself gradually led to impossible conclusions? Or had the ravenous knowledge-seeker truly stumbled upon some truth beyond Hiruzen's imagination (though, of course, no truth existed that could justify an assault on Leaf)? Identifying the correct answer here was no less critical to Hiruzen's success than recognising whether an unfamiliar enemy specialised in melee combat, ranged combat, or chakra techniques.
"
How," Hiruzen demanded, "could all this destruction possibly be for Leaf's sake?"
"I do not believe I can offer an explanation that would satisfy you," Orochimaru said. "There are vast layers of background context needed without which my reasoning would seem incoherent."
Both tactical considerations and Hiruzen's pressing need to
understand compelled him to wrest away control of the conversation before Orochimaru could dismiss the subject.
"Try me," Hiruzen said coldly. "My people are dying out there even as we speak. If you believe I owe you a moral debt for your exile, then the one you are incurring now is hardly smaller."
Orochimaru gave a humourless smile. "If you insist, Sarutobi-sensei. I do so tire of the shinobi world's dedication to keeping important truths under lock and key.
"Concisely put, Leaf's global dominance is the surest guarantee of humanity's extinction, and we are out of time for civilised solutions."
-o-
Sakura and Sasuke were both already at the evacuation site. Alive. Safe. Unharmed. (Sakura did look somewhat like she'd been put through the wringer, but Naruto doubted an invading army would have let her off with bruises and a limp.) Sakura was busy guiding groups of civilians from checkpoint to checkpoint at regular intervals, each time Sasuke gave the all-clear from the rooftops.
There was no lame excuse for Naruto not to use his clones this time. How many ways was it safe to split his (improved!) chakra reserves, weighing the risk of being vulnerable before a sudden enemy against the safety benefits of getting the evacuation finished faster?
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
It was still Phase 1 of the evacuation, so four clones split up to run door-to-door, seeking civilians with poor mobility and/or terminal brain deficiency that meant they were still in their homes and failing to follow the protocols designed to save their lives. Prime decided that the need for intel was enough of an excuse to quickly catch up with his teammates.
"Hey, guys. Everyone OK?"
"As I can be," Sasuke grumbled. "I hate having to put off our showdown. I was looking forward to taking you down with the
true power of the Uchiha I've been mastering over the Month from Hell."
"You had one of those too, huh?" Sakura asked. "Ebisu-sensei is a monster. But I got to break his nose in the end, so I'm all good now."
"Uh," Naruto said while Sasuke seemed to be staring at her with naked envy. "Isn't that assaulting a fellow member of the armed forces? You know, that thing you're on thin ice for?"
"Nah," Sakura said. "It was the reason he declared my training complete. He did charge me ridiculous hospital fees, which wasn't great considering I've gone a month without any missions, but it was
so worth it."
"
I had to do the bell test for my graduation," Sasuke complained. "Except on my own, with two broken arms, and with the kunai held in my teeth as my only weapon."
Naruto gave the arms Sasuke was waving to give all-clear signals a sceptical look.
"
Obviously I saw through the genjutsu eventually," Sasuke said. "All the Uchiha powers I used to think were so amazing? Child's play compared to what I'm capable of now."
"Oh, yeah," Naruto said. "Speaking of Uchiha powers, do either of you know what's going on now that we're for real? Is it actually Akatsuki?"
"I think it's Hidden Sand," Sakura said. "I heard Gaara of the Desert killed the judge and tried to murder Hinata, but then she used a secret Hyūga ninjutsu and he ran away."
"He
what?" Naruto growled. That was number three for the devastating vengeance list–not counting Itachi's four elite generals, which would be a favour to Sasuke–and in this case Naruto wouldn't stop to interrogate him before tearing him to shreds.
Sakura took a step back when she saw his expression.
"She's fine! I guess she kind of lost but also kind of won? Again?"
Of course she did. Everyone always underestimated Hinata. Naruto had been half-convinced she'd clear her first match or two on that alone.
But Naruto was disturbed to find this new chink in his armour. Ordinary pain he could handle. History of accidents aside, he could hardly be a ninja otherwise. Pain happened. Injuries happened. You finished the mission and then you healed up before the next one. Mortality sucked, but Naruto didn't curl up in a ball when he reflected on the Zabuza fight and how it had nearly ended, so he got full marks there as well. But thinking about Hinata nearly dying somewhere outside his reach, somewhere he should have been… He had no defence against that guilt, or the fear that it could still happen for real, here in the middle of an invasion where there was no promise of rank-appropriate encounters.
He knew, rationally, that it was dumb to feel that way. Hinata could handle herself. He believed in his girlfriend, didn't he? Hinata was awesome, even if he was the only person on the face of the planet who could see it. It was an insult to her to think that she needed him to save her, or that, after signing up to be a kunoichi in full knowledge of what that meant, she couldn't be trusted to handle an ordinary evacuation without getting herself killed.
These feelings were wrong. They weren't in line with what he believed, or what he wanted to believe. Why couldn't they just shut up and let him go back to the Naruto he'd been not that long ago, who'd known better than to worry about other people when their fate wasn't in his hands anyway?
He wanted–he needed–to think about something else.
"Why Sand?" he asked. "I did my–"
He hesitated.
No, Sakura and Sasuke already knew. They were his friends. They hadn't turned their backs. He didn't need this old reflex anymore.
"I did my reading," he said loud and clear, "the Chūnin Exam being a major political event and all, and Sand's been our ally since the last war. If they stab us in the back, that's a bad look that'll make it hard for them to get allies in the next one. Worse, Wind imports a ton of food from the Fire Country because they don't have much arable land, and what happens if the Fire Daimyo gets pissed off and declares an embargo?"
"They don't have to care about that if they just take what they want," Sasuke observed. "Maybe it's a land grab and all they want is the arable land near the River border. If I was them, I certainly wouldn't want to depend on other people for my food forever."
"Leaf has got to be one of the world's hardest targets, and it's not even anywhere near the border," Naruto disagreed. "It would be like trying to mug Zabuza for his wallet. It makes no sense."
"It could be part of a bigger plan," Sakura suggested after taking a minute to drag a cluster of reluctant housewives to the next checkpoint. "Remember what we learned in history class: Hidden Rock tried to destroy Leaf during the Third World Ninja War because they've always hated the Will of Fire and they think the entire continent should belong to them. They're very rich because of their mining industry, so maybe they bribed Sand into becoming their allies instead. I mean, we don't know that it's
just Sand attacking right now, or maybe Rock is giving them logistical support in the background, like Mist did for Cloud before Cloud realised they couldn't win against the Will of Fire and sued for peace."
"Maybe," Naruto said uneasily. He hated not knowing, even if he understood why the Hokage had chosen to prioritise efficiency over getting them briefed. This way, all those senior ninja who'd spent time coordinating them in the genjutsu could move straight to responding to the invasion themselves, freeing up a ton of manpower in the crucial early stages. Getting the evacuation done earlier, before collateral damage could become an issue, also cancelled the main disadvantage of fighting a defensive battle in an urban environment (infrastructure could be rebuilt, the Night of Tragedy had taught them, but human losses were forever), as well as a variety of others, like spies being able to steal the evacuation plans and draw conclusions about Leaf's defensive strategy. He hated to admit it, but in some ways it was a move worthy of Uzumaki Naruto himself. Still, it meant that Leaf's next Hokage was standing in the middle of what might be the opening stab of the next world war, and he was just a pawn with no idea what was going on.
Then again, he
was Uzumaki Naruto, master of the ultimate information-gathering ninjutsu.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
The clones formed with a slight delay between them, as part of Naruto's mind was still pondering where to send each one.
Naruto Five to the Tower. Naruto Six to the northern gates. Naruto Seven to the southern gates. Naruto Eight to the nearest emergency command post. Naruto Nine to the–
The sense of bloodcurdling, nauseating
wrongness came a second too late to prevent disaster.
A white mask covered with rings of every colour began to draw itself into existence in front of Naruto Nine's face.
