"What do you mean Orochimaru attacked the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll?" Hiruzen looked at the ANBU who was running next to him while sprinting to the aforementioned chamber himself in full speed. "There is no alarm from the barrier team; how did he even get into the village?"
"I don't know, Hokage-sama," the ANBU member wearing the cat masked answered in a nervous tone. "But it was Orochimaru who attacked; I was there when he came, but Tiger and Wolf told me to go get you when they tried to hold him back; I don't know what happened to them after that..."
The Hokage grimaced. If Orochimaru really came for what he thought the bastard was aiming for...
"Go find Jiraiya at the hospital and tell him to go to the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll immediately," he ordered Cat, "Do not tell him why, and do not let anyone else know about this, especially Naruto Uzumaki."
The ANBU answered with a "Yes sir" and changed her direction towards the hospital. Hiruzen himself also sped up towards the Chamber, his stomach twisted in a sudden dread.
"Jiraiya-sama, Lord Hokage wants to see you in the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll immediately. Please depart as soon as possible."
The Toad Sage looked at the female ANBU who had just entered Naruto's hospital room and laughed. "Ah, Kitty-chan! How is Hayate these days? Is he still good in bed?"
Naturally, she kicked him in the shin. "Please, go immediately. This is an urgent problem."
Jiraiya's face turned serious. He turned back to Naruto. "Right, if that's the case, it seems I have to go now. Take care, brat; good luck on getting used to your new arm."
Then he disappeared together with Cat with a Body Flicker.
"I wonder what happened," Naruto thought. "It is rare for jiji to summon Pervy Sage so urgently. And why the Sealing Scroll anyway?"
"Maybe it has something to do with Orochimaru."
Naruto jerked up in surprise. "What? What does Orochimaru have to do with this?"
"Who else can be so obsessed with that Sealing Scroll?" Kurama answered him with a snort. "There are gazillions of powerful destructive jutsu written in there, and even secrets from the beginning of Konoha. Besides, he already tried to get his hand on it once, remember?"
"Well, if you say so, there are still a lot of other people who would trade everything for a chance to get their hand on that scroll," Matatabi pointed out. "Besides, even if it was actually Orochimaru, there is nothing we could do about it with Naruto in this state, right?"
"That's true," Kokuoh agreed. "And to be honest, it's too late to prevent what that person whoever the hell he is wanted to do anyway. Let's just leave it to the adults. What you need to do right now is resting and getting familiar with that arm; we are going to need you at your full power as soon as possible."
"Well, yeah," Naruto mumbled. "Hope there won't be anything bad happen when I'm locked up in here. Ugh, seriously, I hate sitting around uselessly like this."
"What the hell happened, sensei?"
Jiraiya asked while walking across the corpses of the two ANBU members on the floor into the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll. The Hokage looked up from the Sealing Scroll on the ground, which he was looking at.
"Orochimaru attacked."
The Toad Sage's eyes widened. "What?! How is that even possible?! How could he even get into the village anyway?"
"That's what I'm wondering," Hiruzen answered him. "It might be possible that there are hidden pathways in his old hideouts within and at the border of the village. I already sent ANBU to check all the hideouts known to us; hope there will be some clue..."
Right on cue, an ANBU body flickered into the chamber. "Sir! We found a hidden pathway in the collapsed hideout a kilometer to the northeast of the village! It reaches very deep underground and leads to the main sewer system of the village; it is possible that Orochimaru used this route to go into the village without being seen or tracked by the barrier. There were also very new traces of Orochimaru's chakra in the pathway; he must have passed through it to enter the village and escape."
"Did you destroy that hidden pathway?" the Hokage asked sharply. When the ANBU nodded, he ordered. "Good. Send word to the other divisions to check clearly and destroy every other found pathways like that just in case. Also, contact the barrier team and tell them to extend the barrier down to at least twenty meters underground; we cannot let something like this to happen again. Dismiss."
After the ANBU had departed, Jiraiya shook his head. "Well, at least Orochimaru didn't manage to steal anything important."
"Actually, he did manage to steal something important, Jiraiya."
Those words actually sent Jiraiya into a stupor. "What?"
"Yes," Hiruzen looked at him and answered in a grim tone. "What he managed to steal... was the Mask of the Shinigami."
For a while, there was only silence in the room. Then...
"What the hell is that?"
Hiruzen sighed. "I forgot that you don't know about that. Remember during the Sound Invasion, we prepared the Reaper Death Seal as the last resort against Orochimaru, due to the fact that it was a dangerous but effective sealing jutsu which no way to unseal it exists?"
When Jiraiya nodded, the Hokage continued. "Right. During the time you went and trained Naruto and Fuu, I dug deeper into the jutsu itself, and found out a very interesting information. There actually is a way to unseal something sealed by the Reaper Death Seal, and only the Uzumaki clan knew about it. No document ever writes about that at all, except for a very small footnote I accidentally found when reading through a basic sealing book on the bookcase in the First's old house. It was seemingly written by Mito-sama herself; had I not wandered into the house and took that book out by chance, I wouldn't have found it. The best way to keep a secret is to leave it out in open air, it seems..."
"And that way was that Mask thing you talked about?"
The Hokage nodded. "Yes. That mask was stored in the Mask Shrine of the Uzumaki clan at the border of the village. After finding out about it, I immediately took action and moved all of the masks in the shrine here, and put three ANBU members guarding it all the time," he waved his hand towards a corner of the chamber, where Jiraiya could see a case with about twenty masks lying on. There was an empty slot; it must have been where the Mask of the Shinigami had been lying on prior to the theft. "I don't know how Orochimaru found out about that secret, but from his action today, I think he is planning to do something with the Reaper Death Seal."
Jiraiya's face started paling. "If he manages to unseal the Reaper Death Seal... you don't think he's going to..."
"Yes," Hiruzen nodded with a deathly grimace. "If what I guess isn't wrong... he is planning to bring back the old Hokages, and this time, all of them."
Then suddenly, he snapped the Scroll of Sealing close and started walking out of the chamber.
"Where are you going, sensei?"
The Hokage answered while disappearing behind the entrance of the room, not even turning his head back. "Going to do what I need to do. This time I'm definitely not going to let Orochimaru summon all the old Hokage back again."
Utakata groaned.
He knew that he was saved; if he weren't, he wouldn't be alive by now. And the light which was piercing his eyelids right now was too bright to be in a cave. And if he was dead, there was no way his body could feel this tiring and painful.
He groaned again, and cracked open his eyes.
"Ah, he's awake," the voice of a woman rose next to him.
"Where... am I...?" he croaked; his eyes still couldn't see anything because of the harsh light. He blinked a few times, and finally, when his vision was clear, he saw a red-haired girl standing next to where he was lying, looking tired but triumphant.
"You are back at Kirigakure, Utakata," the familiar voice of Zabuza rose next to him. "It was thanks to Konoha's help that we managed to rescue you from the Akatsuki."
"Ko... noha...?"
Utakata tried to push himself up with his right arm, but the redhead standing next to his bed immediately pushed him back down. "You have just barely come back from death; you must not force yourself until you are completely fine. Doctor's order," she scolded him with a voice he amusedly thought to be the voice of an annoyingly caring mother.
Then he heard another voice, and this time he felt a wave of relief washing over him. "Oh, Utakata-san is up? You are awesome, Karin-chan! I told you you could do it!"
He chuckled. "No wonder... Konoha really did send their best, after all..."
A few seconds later, the familiar face of Fuu appeared above him. "Morning Utakata-san! How was the sleep?"
The male jinchuriki gave her a slight smile, and this time, he pushed himself up, ignoring Karin's protest. "Hello, Fuu. I'm fine now, I guess... but somehow I feel my body to be a bit... disturbed. But I guess that's normal, after what the Akatsuki did to me..."
"And that's what I'm talking about, mister," Karin snapped in annoyance. "Your body in overall is okay, but due to the sudden expansion of your chakra core from the intake of chakra thanks to the seal on your stomach, your chakra network is mostly ruined. You are not allowed to do any ninja work for at least three months, and don't you dare try to access your Tailed Beast's chakra if you don't want your body to explode."
Silence ensued.
"I didn't think it would be that bad when I asked Jiraiya-sama to apply that new seal on me," Finally, after a few seconds, Utakata uttered.
Karin shook her head. "I can't believe someone like Jiraiya-sama could even agree to help you do that to yourself. Oh well, since it was already done, there's nothing I can even do about that anyway. But remember, do not do anything related to using chakra at all for at least three months, do you remember?"
Utakata's shoulders sagged in defeat. "Fine. It's not like I can do anything about it anyway. After all, there is nothing I can do with my Tailed Beast without Jiraiya-sama unlocking the seal..."
"Wow, Karin-chan has become such a scary medic, huh," Fuu whispered to Tenten who was standing next to her.
"Nah, this is nothing comparing to Sakura when she is at work," Tenten whispered back. "Trust me, when she tells you that you have to rest, you'd better rest, or else..."
Right at that moment, the voice of Haku, who was running towards where the group was at, broke the moody atmosphere.
"Everyone! Lady Mizukage has awakened!"
"Thank you very much for coming to help us in this difficult time so promptly, Konoha shinobi. I, as the Mizukage, would be honored to do anything within my power to repay you for this."
"Do not fret about it, Mizukage-sama," Anko waved her off. "Hokage-sama told us not to ask for anything from you, at least for now, so you can just focus everything on fixing the damage coming from the assault. He would welcome it if Kirigakure send their assistance when Konoha gets into trouble, though."
Mei Terumi smiled. "That will do. Once again, thank you for giving us your help."
Everyone looked at the female Mizukage. While awake and clearly alive, the wounds on her head, face and body still hadn't completely healed, and the bandage everywhere on her made the woman look like a mummy. Her face still held a tired expression from the exhausting battle with Pain which nearly took her life. Hard to believe the beautiful and sultry Mei Terumi could someday look so... pathetic.
She narrowed her eyes at Itachi. "Uchiha-san? I thought you are already forbidden from doing ninja missions? Why are you here?"
"I'm not here for a ninja mission, Mizukage-sama," Itachi answered her, still utterly stoic. "Hokage-sama only told me to deliver a bowl of ramen to Pain; this rescue mission was just something I happened to stumble upon on my way."
Everyone facepalmed. "Yeah, as if there was such an overpowered ramen deliverer in this entire shinobi world..." Karin snarked.
Itachi glared at the girl. "This is serious business, Karin-san. That battle took away my chance of delivering the ramen successfully to Pain; there is no way I would get the tip from that failed delivery."
Everyone facepalmed again.
"Right, so if everything's done here," Zabuza raised his voice, "I have to go assist in the recovering of the village. Have a lot of work to do here..."
"We can help with that," Fuu offered. "Karin-chan here is a very good medic, and I can use the Shadow Clone Jutsu in a large scale; I think we can do a lot more to help. After all, Hokage-sama told us to provide assistance to Kirigakure as much as possible..."
"Yosh! Time to go out there and help!" Lee pumped his fist enthusiastically and rushed out of the room, forgetting even his teammates, who were rushing after him in annoyance after giving a hasty apologize to the Mizukage.
Gai was the last one who exited the room. However, after everyone else was already out, he suddenly stopped on his way and turned back to Mei. He looked at her with a serious face no one had ever seen on him before.
"Actually, there is one thing I want to ask from you, Mizukage-sama. This is not an official request from Konoha or something; it is more like... a personal favor. But if you cannot fulfil it..."
Mei frowned in surprise. "This is quite unorthodox, but if it is within my power, I would be more than glad to fulfil your request, Gai-san. What do you need me to do?"
Gai's sharp eyes met the opposite woman's. "It is just some information I want to know. I want to know what happened to a kunoichi of Konoha, who was captured by Kirigakure during the Third Shinobi World War. Her name is Rin Nohara."
"There you go. All done! Your arm is as good as new now. But remember, don't do anything too hard to hurt it again, all right?"
"Thank you, pretty nee-chan!"
Karin sighed pleasantly and stood up after the little boy she just healed ran away with a bright smile on his face.
It had only been three years since she left Orochimaru to join Konoha. And yet, the village had changed her so much she couldn't even realize herself whenever she reflected on her own past. Before, she was a bratty girl whose sole purposes were to prove herself worthy of Orochimaru's attention. But now, living in Konoha, surrounded by comrades and friends, she realized that there are things that are more important than just stubbornly holding on the pride of a clan she barely knew about thanks to the words of Orochimaru. Things like love, friendship and family, and the joy of helping people, for example.
Although, sometimes things like those were very tiring. Just like at this moment.
"Want a drink?"
She turned, and saw Juugo standing next to her, holding out a bottle of water. She smiled and took the bottle from the man's hand.
"Thanks, Juugo. How is the reconstruction?"
The man of Team Anko chuckled. "Pretty good, actually. We managed to rescue all people stuck under the collapsed buildings at the west side of the village. Some of them..." his face suddenly fell, "...well, there was nothing we could do for them, but a lot were brought out safe and sound, and Kirigakure's medic team is tending to them right now. I guess they would be all right."
Karin sighed and smiled. "Well, guess there are still works for me to..."
She couldn't finish her sentence before starting to stagger forward. Fortunately, Juugo managed to catch her before she could collapse on the ground.
"You're running out of juice," he scolded her. "Surely it won't be good if you collapse here before we can finish our mission. So just take a rest for a while first."
Unable to refute, the girl had to sit down on a rock nearby, albeit a bit unwillingly. She weakly chuckled.
"Heh, it must be pathetic to see an Uzumaki run out of chakra, huh."
Juugo chuckled back. "Don't say that. Even though you are an Uzumaki, you are still a human, not a limitless tank of chakra. You can't blame yourself for getting tired, right? Sometimes you need to think about yourself before worrying about others, you know."
Then he sat down next to Karin, relaxing himself.
The two continued staring into the blue sky, on which clouds were floating across their view lazily. Even though they were in a battle zone right now, moments like this still managed to bring a soothing and calm feeling to their hearts.
"You know, before, I didn't think I could ever see sunlight again, being with Orochimaru and things," Juugo suddenly said. "I didn't think I would ever say this, but well... I'm kinda glad Orochimaru took me with him to the Konoha invasion three years ago. Living at Konoha actually changed me a lot."
Karin laughed. "Nah. You are always a good guy at heart; it's not like living in Konoha changes you, it's more like it brings out the true you which had been suppressed inside you living with Orochimaru. If there is someone who changes... I think it would be me. When I was still with Orochimaru, I... well, have to say that I was a bitch. I didn't care about anything other than what Orochimaru told me, that I was a member of the prestigious Uzumaki clan, and by serving him with all I have, I would prove myself to be worthy of that name. Now, I have to say... even though it was the past already, I still feel embarrassed whenever I think about it."
"Everyone has their good and bad sides, you know," Juugo chuckled. "You are a good girl too; it's just that you don't know it. You are better than a lot of other girls I've ever known."
"Aww, are you flirting with me?" the Uzumaki girl teased him with a grin. The man only chuckled.
"Nice try, but I already had a girlfriend. Besides, don't you also have someone who you're going for?"
Karin pouted. "You're no fun."
Right at that moment, a voice boomed behind them.
"Hey, the two over there! Are you going to help, or just sit there like a couple of lazy asses and watch clouds all day?"
"Ugh, what kind of jerks...?" Karin muttered in annoyance. She snapped her head back, preparing to deliver a torrent of insults to the face of the one who had just spoken...
...and her eyes met a pair of violet eyes.
The eyes of a certain Suigetsu Houzuki.
Silence filled the air for a few seconds. Then...
"YOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU!"
The next thing Karin saw was a huge black iron blade coming down on her head.
"Now, Naruto, try to flex your index finger. Gently."
Naruto tried. But just like before, it was useless. The only thing he could do right now was to twitch the finger a little bit.
"Ugh, this is hopeless," he complained loudly. "This is even more difficult than with the fake arm! At least the fake arm could still move around."
"You still haven't changed at all, Naruto," Sakura shook her head, her face frowned up in annoyance. "You should be glad that you already managed to twitch your finger. You've just received the arm for a single day, for Kami's sake! Just be a little bit patient, will you?"
"Easy for you to say," Naruto muttered. "You're not the one who had to do everything with a fake arm for three years and then got it cut off to replace with something which is no better than a piece of wood at the moment."
"Naruto, I swear to God, if you say another word, I will..."
Sakura's threatening was cut off when someone knocked on the door.
"Naruto-kun? Are you in there?"
Naruto glared at Sakura. "You really did that, didn't you, Sakura?"
Sakura snickered. "Now let's see if you dare acting like that in front of your girlfriend. Come in, Hinata! Don't worry, we're both dressed properly!"
A squeak of protest could be heard outside. A few seconds later, the door opened, and Hinata poked her head in; her face was blushing like crazy.
"Uhm... I heard that you are having a surgery, so I'm here to visit you... If I'm interrupting something, I'll leave..."
"No, no, Hinata-chan, no!" Naruto hastily waved his working hand. "Sakura is just helping me practice with this new arm! Seriously! We're not doing anything bad!"
The Hyuuga heiress couldn't help but letting out a small giggle at the antic of the boy she loves.
Only now did Naruto noticed what the girl was holding. "What are you carrying in that box, Hinata?"
Hinata's cheeks turned pink again. She placed the steel box on the table next to Naruto's bed, opened it and took out a bowl of ramen.
"Uhm... it's nearly lunch time already, and from what I heard, your arm might not be able to work properly after the surgery, so..."
Naruto shot a glare at Sakura. The pinkette just grinned back at him cheekily.
"Uhm... so... do you want me to... feed you...?"
Naruto stared dumbly at Hinata, whose face was getting redder and redder by seconds. Sakura's snicker was also getting louder and louder.
"Oh..." the Hyuuga girl looked down dejectedly when she saw Naruto's reaction. "If you don't want me to..."
"No, no, no!" Naruto panicked. "I really want you... oh god that came out wrong... I mean... I would be glad... what..."
Sakura couldn't hold herself back anymore. She collapsed on the ground, laughing her ass off while the couple's faces became two giant cherries.
"Screw you, Sakura!" Naruto yelled at her in embarrassment. "Just get out of here and leave us alone for a while, will you?"
Sakura retreated from the room, still laughing like a mad woman.
The couple turned back to each other, now that the annoyance had been kicked out of the room. The bowl of ramen was steaming innocently in front of the two blushing faces.
"So..." Naruto swallowed, "let's do it?"
"Uhm..." Hinata nodded meekly. "Th-this is my first time, so..."
If anyone standing outside of the room right now managed to hear this without looking into the room, there's no doubt a very indecent rumor would break out about the princess of the Hyuuga clan and the Uzumaki brat.
And unfortunately for them, there was someone standing outside of the room right now.
"Naruto, you bastard! What the hell are you doing to Hinata?!" Kiba kicked the door down and burst into the room, yelling furiously.
"Meep!" the poor girl yelped, and the bowl of ramen on her hands flew upwards into the air in her attempt to hide her embarrassment. Naruto's eyes widened; his precious ramen's gonna be...
"No!" he yelled, leaping up from his bed, his hand reached out towards the falling bowl. But it's too far from his left hand's reach; there's no way he could get it in time...!
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
"What the hell is going on here?!" Sakura ran into the room upon hearing the screams. Then she blinked when she finally realized what was going on.
Naruto was lying face-down on the ground. His hands were holding the steaming bowl of ramen she saw Hinata brought him earlier. Hinata was sitting like a statue on the bed, mortified, and next to her, Kiba was fuming and snarling, and Shino had to do his best to hold him back from tearing Naruto apart.
Wait a minute. His hands?
"You... after so much effort we spent in vain... managed to use your new arm to save a bowl of ramen?"
Five minutes later, the group was sitting in Tsunade's office, while the legendary medic checked out Naruto's arm.
"Hmm... interesting," Tsunade mused. "So basically, when Naruto felt that his ramen was in danger, he somehow unconsciously used his new hand to catch it without even knowing how?"
"Yeah... basically that," Naruto reluctantly admitted. "But it's kinda useless; I cannot do it again after that..."
Tsunade walked around the room, pondering something. Then she walked towards Hinata and whispered something into her ears. Naruto didn't know what she told the girl; he only saw Hinata's eyes widening after hearing it.
Tsunade left Hinata, then started to walk around Naruto again, this time stopping at his right side.
Then without any warning, she cocked her fist back and sent a punch at Naruto's face. The strike was too fast and powerful, no one around him was able to react in time. Naruto felt his life flashing through his eyes; nothing's gonna stop his head from being pulverized by that monstrous punch...!
And the punch stopped right before it could land on his right arm, which was now being raised in front of his face, just one single centimeter.
No one could even say anything for a few seconds. Then, Naruto exploded.
"What the hell is that, baa-chan? Are you trying to kill me?!"
Ignoring Naruto's angry shout, Tsunade turned back and asked. "So, Hinata, have you found the problem?"
"Ah... uhm, I-I think I did, Tsunade-sama," Hesitantly, the Hyuuga girl answered. "It seems there is a problem with the nerves inside Naruto-kun's arm. At the moment, they are all lying dormant without any activity, but when you punched him, there seemed to be some forced action from his body which made the nerves active for just a few seconds. If there is a way to jump start those nerves, I think it might be possible for the arm to work properly..."
Tsunade smiled in satisfaction. "I knew I didn't make a mistake saying that you would make a promising medic in the future. All right, now that you have found the cause of the problem, I guess you would want to be the one who solves it?"
"M-me?!" Hinata was startled. "B-but I-I don't know... I mean... I'm not as good as you or Sakura-san..."
"I believe you can do it, Hinata," Sakura grasped her on the shoulder. "Besides," she added with a cheeky grin, "this is your chance to show your Naruto-kun what you can do, isn't it?"
Hinata turned beet red at these words. However, she took a deep breath, and nodded confidently.
"Yes! I will do it!"
Luckily for Karin, Juugo had reacted in time. The black blade of Shibuki was stopped dead on its way by a blade formed on his arm right before it could cleave the Uzumaki girl in half.
"What is wrong with you?! We... urgh..." Karin tried to protest, but before she could even push herself up, she had fallen flat onto the ground. Her effort in healing as many people as she could had drained her body completely, and in her thrill, she hadn't even realized it.
"Karin!" Juugo glanced back at her, but that was the only thing he could do, because the swordsman in front of him was not only skilled, but was also coming at them with the intent to kill.
"Did Orochimaru send you two here to take me back to him?" he heard the opposing swordsman growl. "Well, too bad! You are not going to bring me back, or at least, you are not bringing me back alive!"
He thought we're still with Orochimaru?!
"W-wait!" he hastily said. "We're not with Orochimaru! We're here to..."
Suigetsu didn't even let him finish. "Bullshit!" he snapped. "I know who you are, Juugo of the Scales! And that bitch Karin over there... I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO OROCHIMARU AGAIN! WATER STYLE: WATERFALL BARRAGE!"
Crap...!
Juugo immediately raised his arms, and a pair of shields formed around them right before the jutsu slammed into his body like a torpedo. He staggered back, his arms trembling like crazy. And that opening was enough for Suigetsu to push on his assault. In a blink of an eye, he appeared at the left side of Juugo and Karin, his sword raised high.
"DIE!"
Exploding tags poured out of the scroll on the blade and swirled around on the air like a dragon. Juugo's eyes widened; if this hit, then not only he and Karin, but the whole section of Kirigakure which had just been fixed behind them would be blown into smithereens...!
He started gathering all of his chakra into his palms. There is no other choice; countering the move with an attack of the same level would just make thing worse. He needs to shield everyone from it with everything he has, or else...!
But before he could even do anything, something else had already stopped the incoming attack. It was a giant needle with a very thin, but sharp string of ninja wire at the end: one of the legendary swords of Kirigakure, Nuibari, the Longsword. It cut through the dragon made of exploding tags easily, and wherever it passed through, the tags were frozen immediately into cubes of ice.
"What...?!"
"That's enough, Suigetsu!"
The voice of Zabuza cut through the air, immediately stopping Suigetsu on his way. The commander of the New Seven Swordsmen walked towards him; with the usual bandage off his face, everyone could see the stern scolding expression on him right now. Next to him was Haku; it was obvious that she was the one who launched the sword to save them.
"What is going on here?" the swordmaster demanded. "I didn't teach you to attack guests of the village on sight like that."
"Guests of the village?!" Suigetsu pointed his sword at the two opposing shinobi angrily. "THEY ARE OROCHIMARU'S LACKEYS! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK TO LET THEM WALK AROUND THE VILLAGE LIKE THIS?"
Zabuza immediately understood the situation just from those words. He shook his head.
"I don't know whether they used to be Orochimaru's minions or not, but right now, I can assure you that they are not. They are Konoha shinobi now, and they're here to help us save Utakata."
Suigetsu's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"That's what we're trying to tell you," Karin groaned. She had managed to push herself up. "See this?" she pointed at the hitai-ate around her neck, "I'm a full-fledged Konohagakure shinobi now! I don't have anything to do with Orochimaru anymore!"
"Me too," Juugo nodded and pointed at his own hitai-ate, tied around his left bicep. "And thanks to Konoha, I'm not the mad monster I was before, and I'm serving them willingly without any regret."
Suigetsu was taken aback at this development. He looked back and forth at the two ex-Oto, now Konoha shinobi, unable to say anything. Then he clicked his tongue in annoyance and jumped away without even a word.
Everyone looked at Suigetsu's retreating back for a few seconds. Then, Zabuza turned to Karin and Juugo.
"As the leader and commander of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, I humbly apologize to you for this trouble my subordinate caused you. Anything related to Orochimaru, Suigetsu always took very seriously. The time he was captured and locked up at Orochimaru's place was a very hard time for him."
To his surprise, Juugo waved his hand. "It's alright. After all, I know how it is to be under Orochimaru's grip. I used to be one of his victims, too; had he not brought me together with him to the invasion of Konoha three years ago, I might have never been able to see sunlight again, to be honest."
"Yeah," Karin agreed. "I knew him during the time I was with Orochimaru; he was one of the experiments who suffered the most in the hand of that snake. I didn't pay much attention to him at that time, but now that I think about it..."
The four people didn't say anything for a while. Then, Zabuza sighed heavily.
"I've never known being a leader would bring so much headache."
"I can't believe it. So this is what you mean when you said that you won't let Orochimaru summon the three previous Kage?"
The Third Hokage answered his student's question, while not even lifting his eyes from the scroll he was working on. "Yes, there is no other way. I really don't want to do this, but it is something I must do if we don't want things to go pear-shaped."
He finished the final line on the scroll, then put something inside it and snapped it close. He turned his eyes towards the two other figures in front of them; the two White Zetsu which had been captured by Naruto and his team in the previous mission.
"Ready, Jiraiya?"
The Toad Sage grumbled. "Even if I'm not ready, there's no way to stop now. I swear, you're getting crazier and crazier by days."
"I really don't know if that's a compliment or an insult anymore. Now..."
Hiruzen flashed through a series of hand seals, and slammed the scroll on his hand to the ground.
"Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation!"
"!"
Naruto nearly jumped when he felt the sudden emotion surging from inside his head. 'What's wrong, Saikyo-chan? Is someone attacking us?!'
"No!" Naruto was startled; the voice of the normally timid Tailed Beast was now full of joy and excitement. "I... I remember this chakra... it's... it's him!"
'What?! Who is him?'
Suddenly, Kurama butted in. "Naruto, this is a big problem," she said urgently. "That chakra signature Saikyo has just felt... it was of the First Hokage. Someone has brought him back from the death again."
Naruto's eyes widened in horror. He jumped out of the chair he was sitting on, and forgetting about his currently useless right arm, and the fact that he was wearing a hospital gown, he dashed out of the room before anyone could even stop him.
"What the...?!"
"WHO DARES SUMMON US BACK USING MY FORBIDDEN JUTSU AGAIN?!"
The voice of Tobirama Senju shook the room. Chakra and killing intent flooded the air; if the people in the room were not extremely powerful shinobi themselves, they would have choked to death from the sheer pressure.
Even Hashirama Senju, the one who was considered nicer and more cheerful than his brother, was also exuding malicious killing intent. His eyes glanced around the room, looking for someone who seemed to be bad enough to have dared using the wicked jutsu to summon him back from the death. But in front of him, there were only two people, who were his student Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin, whom he had met a few years ago during the invasion of Konoha.
"Saru, you'd better give me a good explanation for this before I kill you and your student," he cracked his knuckles threateningly after knowing for sure no one else could have done the work. To his surprise, the expression of his old student didn't change.
"Lord First, Lord Second, I'm really sorry for summoning you two back using this vile jutsu," the Third Hokage bowed and said in a gravely tone. "But I can assure you that I didn't summon you for any malicious reason. I summoned you to prevent Orochimaru from laying his hand on you again, and if you want to ask, yes, he is alive, and is definitely stronger than ever, as there are not only one, but six of him right now. If he manages to get you under his hand, I'm afraid it won't be as easy for you to break away as before."
The eyes of Tobirama narrowed. "How could that even happen? I remember seeing this guy blasting him to shred with my own eyes," he pointed at Jiraiya, who unconsciously took a step back. Hiruzen shook his head.
"We thought so too, at first, but turned out Orochimaru knows a jutsu which can split his soul into parts, and hide those parts in different vessels for him to take over when a part dies. After he was 'killed' by Jiraiya, the other parts of his souls awoke and turned into copies of him with all of the original's memories, skills and jutsus. And those vessels he had were also his loyal servants with powerful kekkei genkai of their own. We tried to stop him... but..."
Noticing the two elder Hokage still looking at him with suspicion in their eyes, the Third Hokage continued. "I didn't summon you for any reason other than preventing Orochimaru's action, so you're completely free to do anything you want, as long as they're not immoral. The only thing I want to request from you... is that you are not going to dispel yourself until after Orochimaru is killed or captured. I cannot risk him calling you back from the dead again."
The three Kage and Jiraiya glared at each other for a few more seconds. Then, Tobirama sighed.
"Hmph, if you had to go that far just to bring us back... I guess I would give you the benefit of a doubt this time. But if I find out you were lying..."
"Then you are welcome to do anything you want to me; I won't fight back," Hiruzen answered smoothly.
"Well, now that every problem has been solved, can we start talking about why that boy over there contains the chakra signatures of not only Saikyo and Kurama, but also those of the other seven Tailed Beasts?"
Hiruzen and Jiraiya snapped their heads towards the direction Hashirama's finger was pointing at. Naruto was standing right at the entrance of the room, mortified by what he was seeing.
"Well..." the Third Hokage said awkwardly, "this is a long story..."
"That... is actually the most absurd story I've ever heard in my life... and death."
Naruto looked at Hiruzen upon hearing those words from the Second Hokage. "Déjà vu much, huh."
Right now, the group was sitting in the secured Hokage chamber.
"I mean, who the hell can believe that?" the white-haired Hokage continued his rant. "Madara was brought back; sure, maybe it was possible, but soloing an alliance made up of all 5 Great Villages by himself? And time travel? It is scientifically impossible! No living thing in the world could survive it, even if there actually was a way to do that!"
"Don't ask; he's always like that," Hiruzen shook his head.
Naruto sighed. "Well, maybe you will believe me if you meet these guys."
In two puffs of smoke, two other figures appeared in a room. And Hashirama was immediately tackled by a blur of white.
"Yep, this is Saikyo, indeed," the First Hokage nodded while absently rubbing the hair of the bawling girl on his lap.
"That girl is always like this when she's with you, huh," Kurama, the second appearing figure, chuckled in amusement.
Tobirama suddenly made a strange movement of his body, as if someone had just shocked him with hundreds of volts of electricity.
"Wait a minute..." he said with a strained voice. "You mean... this woman... she is..."
"Yep," Hashirama nodded before Naruto could open his mouth. "She is Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox."
The Second Hokage's mouth flapped open and close like a fish. He glanced at his brother, who was smirking, and to Naruto, who just looked confused, then to his student, who was scratching his head. Finally, his eyes landed on the woman, who had just been revealed to be the Tailed Beast of Konoha.
"Hi, dear," she waved at him cheerfully.
Tobirama fainted.
Naruto blinked. "What's wrong with him?"
"Well, let's just say he kinda had a very big crush on Kurama here when he was still alive," Hashirama chuckled.
"Well, that was awkward," Jiraiya, the one who hadn't said anything for a while, gave his opinion.
"I can't believe it. My own brother, tricking me into falling for a Tailed Beast..."
"Hey, what's wrong with falling for a Tailed Beast anyway?" Kurama complained indignantly. "We have feelings too, you know."
"Buh... but... you are... you... isn't it... ugh...!"
"Whatever," the Tailed Beast in human form waved her hand dismissively. "I've never said you're good enough for me anyway."
"Ugh... that burns, you know."
Ignoring the couple in front of them, Hashirama turned to Naruto while still petting Saikyo on the head, making the slug girl mew in bliss. "So, Madara came back, huh."
Naruto nodded solemnly. "Yes. He was so powerful even the whole Shinobi World couldn't leave a scratch on him. How did you even defeat him before anyway?"
The First Hokage chuckled. "Well... if you ask me, I have to say that I was lucky, I guess. He was incredibly powerful even in my time, with the Mangekyo Sharingan, Rinnegan and everything. Comparing firepower, he might have exceeded even me in that aspect; I had to use all the skills and experience I had just to survive against him. But sometimes, even a lucky hit would make all the differences in the world."
Naruto's spirit deflated like an empty bag. If someone like the First Hokage himself cannot be sure that he could defeat Madara, how can he do it?
Then something popped up in his head. "Can you teach me, old man? If I want to stop Madara, I need to be stronger! As strong as you, believe it!"
Hashirama blinked. That catchphrase... Heh, so he is an Uzumaki, just like her...
"No, I cannot."
Before Naruto could protest, he continued. "At least with you at this condition," he pointed at Naruto's slacked right arm. "I could feel a little bit of my chakra mixed in that arm. Did someone who made that arm for you use my cells or something in it?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Tsunade-baachan did it; she said that there was no other way to make the arm work, so she had to do that..."
"Tsuna-chan has really become a great medic as she wished, huh," the eldest Hokage chuckled. "But anyway, that arm is not working right now, so you are not in any condition to train or work as a ninja. Come back to me when you manage to get it work, then I will consider. Now..." he stretched on the chair he was sitting on, "...it's time to enjoy my undead life again!"
The three living people in the room sweatdropped.
"He's really weird, huh," Jiraiya nudged his teacher. Hiruzen nodded solemnly.
"Yes, yes he is."
And during the whole conversation, Kurama and Tobirama had still been bickering nonstop.
Hiashi Hyuuga blinked when he saw his eldest daughter sitting in the clan library, reading what looked like a bunch of scrolls about the usage of Gentle Fist in battle.
He knew that his daughter didn't like fighting, and she preferred to use her Gentle Fist skills in ways that allow her to disable her opponents in non-lethal ways. That's why he encouraged her to become a medic, knowing that she wouldn't have to use her power to harm people if they didn't attack her first. And she was very happy with that choice, too.
So why was she in the library now, researching about techniques of Gentle Fist that could only murder people in the goriest ways?
"What are you doing, Hinata?"
The poor girl nearly had a heart attack when she heard her father's voice right next to her.
"A-ah... Father... I... uh..."
Hiashi looked at his daughter sternly. "You don't have anything to fear. I already told you not to be afraid of everything like that. Besides, why are you researching battle techniques? I thought you don't like fighting."
"Uhm..." Hinata lowered her head. "This, uh... it's actually... not for fighting, Father."
When she saw Hiashi raising his eyebrow, she hastily added. "It's just... Naruto-kun has just received his new right arm from Tsunade-sama. But it isn't working at the moment, so Tsunade-sama assigned me to find a way to make it work. And I thought... since the Gentle Fist can be used to shut down tenketsu and nerves, maybe there would be a way to reverse that effect... to jump start dormant nerves instead..."
The Hyuuga patriarch nodded. "I see. So it is for the sake of the boy you like."
Surprisingly, Hinata shook her head. "Naruto-kun's arm is just one thing, Father. I'm hoping... that if it's possible... I want to make it a way to heal people. If it could help Naruto-kun... then it could also help other paralyzed people, bring them back to normal lifestyle. If I can do it..."
That answer took Hiashi by surprise. Even though Hinata had advanced so far during those three years, he still didn't expect his daughter to be able to give him such mature and incisive words.
For a moment., he felt like he was seeing, in place of his daughter, the image of his beloved deceased wife.
"You're not going to find anything like that here," Finally, after a moment of silence, he said. "Follow me."
Hinata blinked when instead of leading her to a hidden chamber or a vault, her father just led her to his room.
"Um..."
Hiashi opened his wardrobe and took out something from the top shelf. It was a book titled "Gentle Fist for Medical Purposes". The book looked very old; even without activating Byakugan, Hinata could still see dust and spider webs clearly on the cover.
"Gentle Fist is an art developed by the ancestors of the Hyuuga clan for battle, not for healing," Hiashi said, throwing the book towards Hinata, and she hastily caught it. "Therefore, when anyone proposed the idea of using it as a way to heal people, they are usually laughed at by other members of the clan, and most of them gave up before they could even do anything to develop their ideas... except for one person."
"Who?"
Hiashi stared into Hinata's eyes with a strange look. She could somehow feel a hint of grief and sadness in his eyes.
"Your mother."
Hinata looked at the book on her hands in awe. "So this is..."
"Yes," the Hyuuga patriarch nodded. "This is all of your mother's research about the use of Gentle Fist in medical treatment. When she... well, died, I moved it here, since I thought no one could, or was worthy of following what she wanted to achieve. I have to say that I was selfish. But now... I think I found the one who is worthy of inheriting her achievement."
Hinata couldn't even say a thing. Her father walked towards her, and clapped his hand on her right shoulder.
"I'm proud of you, Hinata."
She could swear that she saw a ghost of a smile crept across his face when he said those words.
"You had some problem in the past with that Suigetsu guy, don't you, Karin?"
Karin looked up at Juugo in surprise. "How do you know that?"
"Anyone can see that with just a glance," the shinobi of Ryuudou clan shook his head. "There's no way anyone would try to cut your head off in just a glimpse if you didn't do anything to them in the past."
Juugo's statement hit bullseye. Karin had no other choice but to sigh.
"I did. It was a story of six years ago, when I was still Orochimaru's underling..."
The white-haired, purple-irised boy was thrown to the ground in front of Karin. He looked up at her with an expression full of hatred.
"Orochimaru-sama? Who is this?"
Orochimaru answered her with a smirk. "This is a prisoner we captured in the mission. He is a pretty famous shinobi of Kirigakure, and he has quite an interesting ability. And since you are practicing that sealing jutsu... he would be the perfect vessel for you to practice on."
Suigetsu's eyes widened in horror. In contrast, Karin's eyes glinted menacingly.
"Really, Orochimaru-sama?"
Orochimaru's smirk widened. "Of course. But I expect you to have result in a week, or..."
Karin giggled giddily. "Oh, I promise, Orochimaru-sama!"
"And yeah..." Karin finished with a deep sigh. "You know I wasn't a very good seal user at that time. And I kinda... got his body stuck in his own jutsu."
Juugo blinked. "Like how?"
"Well, the Hozuki clan has a special jutsu which can liquidify their body to make it immune to all physical attacks, as well as increase their strength and everything," Karin sighed again. "And you know what happens if you mess with seals without knowing what they do. He ended up being a blob of water, and couldn't stay in human shape until a few years later."
Juugo winced. "Yeah, I can understand that. So... I guess you didn't manage to do anything to him afterwards."
Karin shook her head. "Nope. I deserted Orochimaru before I could even do anything. You know how bad Orochimaru's teaching was; I couldn't learn anything much from him besides a few basic seals. Besides, you know how bratty and Orochimaru-worshipping I was before; even if I'd had the necessary skills, I wouldn't have thought of doing that to a guy I barely knew."
"So basically, you ruined a person's life without even bother trying to do anything to fix it."
Both Juugo and Karin nearly jumped out of their skin. Neither of them even knew when Itachi arrived behind them.
"Itachi-san..."
The newly arrived Uchiha just looked at her with an expression of someone looking for confirmation. Karin sighed.
"I know, but... at that time, we were at war, and..."
Itachi raised his hand to stop her. "You don't need to explain. I understand you."
Karin blinked. "You do?"
The Uchiha nodded. "I, too, had a time when I acted like nothing else mattered, that my way of thinking was the only thing right in this world. I didn't care anything about other people who might get hurt on my way of achieving the greater goal. But now I realized that the world doesn't just revolve around me. And I found that instead of just sit around mourning about what we did in the past, it is better to find a way to fix what we did using what we have at present."
Karin looked at him in surprise. "You think it might work?"
"Whether it works or not, I don't know. But considering your past with him, I think that is the best thing you can do right now. After all, countries aren't built in a day with words alone."
Karin bit her lips in silence for a few seconds. Then she stood up, bowing at Itachi.
"Thank you for your wise words, Itachi-san."
Another tree exploded under the rain of exploding tags coming from Shibuki.
"Damn it..."
Suigetsu leaned on his sword, breathing heavily. No matter how they insisted, and what other people in the village said, he could never believe it. He would never believe that those two would stop being Orochimaru's lackeys. Whenever he saw Karin's face, the terrifying past always came back and struck him like a giant hammer.
He could never forget that face. That accursed girl... Even thinking about it made rage boiled inside of him. That little bitch, abandoning Orochimaru and switching side? Like hell he could believe that!
"Suigetsu Hozuki."
He lashed out without even thinking. That voice which had just rose... it was by no doubt the voice of that bitch. He had listened to it for years; there's no way he could mistake it for anything else. The torrent of exploding tags rushed towards the target, aiming to turn her into a bunch of chunky salsa.
However, the attack couldn't land at the intended target. Chains had sprouted from the ground and formed a dome around her, effectively stopping the exploding tags and the incoming explosions from reaching her.
"You...!" Suigetsu snarled and lowered his stance, ready to leap forward...
"Please stop. I'm here to talk to you, not to fight you."
Suigetsu couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Talk? TALK!?" he screamed. "After what you already did to me? Well, too bad! I don't have anything to say to you! Eat my blade and die!"
He jumped forward, and his blade once again descended down Karin's head. The Uzumaki girl tensed up, ready to launch her chains again to defend herself...
But this time, he didn't even have a chance to touch her. A green blur suddenly appeared from nowhere and before Suigetsu could even react, had kicked the blade of the sword so hard it was ripped from his hand and wedged itself deep into the body of a tree nearby.
Karin's eyes widened. "Lee-kun..."
"No matter how deep your hatred towards her is, I cannot let you harm Karin-san," the taijutsu specialist of Konoha said in a low voice no one had ever heard from him. There was no hint of anger or hatred in his voice, but for some reason, Suigetsu felt himself involuntarily taking a step back. But he recovered almost immediately.
"You don't know what you are doing, Konoha," he snarled. "Back off before I..."
"Before you do what?" Lee cut him short in a sharp voice. "Killing both of us? That would be a gigantic violation of our alliance, especially after we saved your jinchuriki from the hand of the Akatsuki. And Karin-san is our precious comrade; there is no way I can allow her to be murdered by the hand of anyone if I can help it."
"Precious comrade? Ha!" Suigetsu sneered. "Once Orochimaru's minion, forever Orochimaru's minion! Just wait until that bitch stabs you in the back!"
"I believe that Karin-san will never do that to us or to anyone," Lee said in such a confident tone that even he had to feel surprised. Suigetsu's eyes narrowed.
"Oh yeah? And why are you so sure about that?"
"Because I'm here to ask you for a chance to redeem myself."
The two men turned towards Karin, who had just said those words. She continued, solemnly but confidently.
"I know what I did before were hideous and unforgivable, and I'm definitely not looking for your total forgiveness. But I want to ask you to let me do something to fix what I did before. I was a terrible person in the hand of Orochimaru, but after leaving him for Konoha, I understood a lot of things I couldn't even imagine about before, and I have also learned a lot of things. I'm confident that now I can even fix the faulty seal which put you in your misery. If you allow me, I will try my best... no, everything I can to fix it."
Silence filled the air in a few seconds.
Then Suigetsu... laughed. Not a happy, cheerful laughter, but a cold one, full of maliciousness and hatred.
"Even if you might really want that..." he said in a tone Karin could feel the venom dripping out of it, "...why do you think that I would let you do it? Jiraiya-sama already fixed my body years ago; there is no place for a bitch like you to lay your hand on! Just take your grief and uselessness with you to the grave!"
Then he snatched his sword off the tree trunk and walked away, not even throwing back a glance at the two Konoha shinobi.
Disappearing from Karin and Lee's view, he nearly jumped when a voice rose right next to his ear.
"That's not a nice thing to do, Suigetsu."
He turned. The one who had just said was his teammate and fellow swordsman, Shiro Ichigaki. He scowled.
"You don't understand anything."
"Probably," Shiro nodded, leaving the tree he was leaning on. "But humans are better than animals because they can change. If I could change from a loser of the village into a member of the prestigious Seven Swordsmen, then there is nothing saying that other people cannot. What matters of a person is how they will be in the future, not how they were in the past. You should think about it before doing anything I know you will regret."
Then the white-haired man walked away, leaving Suigetsu alone with his thoughts.
"Tsunade-sama, I found it!"
Tsunade looked at the Hyuuga girl who had just run into her room with a bright smile full of hope and confidence.
"Excellent, Hinata! So when are we going to start?"
Hinata answered her with a similar smile. "As soon as possible, my lady!"
"All right, Naruto, I have to warn you that this might hurt a little bit."
Naruto looked at Tsunade with terrified eyes. "What do you mean, a little bit?"
Tsunade waved him off. "Oh, you'll see. Just remember to brace yourself first. It can't be as bad as when you had your arms chopped off, can it? Hinata?"
The aforementioned girl gulped. "Y-yeah. N-naruto-kun, it will hurt a bit, so can you try to endure it for a while?"
Naruto looked at Hinata, his fear started fading away under the girl's gaze. "If you're here with me, I'm sure I can do it, Hinata-chan."
"Ugh, this is so sweet I'm sure I'm gonna get diabetes later," Sakura, who was standing next to them, wrinkled her nose in mock disdain. "Can we start it already?"
Naruto took a deep breath, then nodded. "Okay, I'm ready."
Tsunade looked at Hinata. "Then..."
The Hyuuga girl nodded, meekly but confidently. Then, she raised her right hand, and delivered swift pokes to ten exact points on Naruto's right arm.
"Huh? That's it?" Naruto blinked. "I thought it would be..."
Then, pain.
Naruto screamed when utter agony wrecked his right arm, coursing through his body and piercing his brain. The pain was so intense, so terrifying; he couldn't breathe anymore, thousands of tiny sparks ignited in front of his eyes like a storm of fireworks. He couldn't see anything; he tried to say something, but words seemed to stick in his throat, not a single sound was uttered out of his mouth except for choked screams of agony.
Then everything went black.
A few seconds later (or that's what he thought), Naruto groggily opened his eyes.
"Ugh... what hit me?"
"Technically, it was Hinata who hit you," Tsunade's voice answered him from above. "But it seems everything was a success. Sit up, will you?"
Naruto groaned. He pushed himself up from where he was lying, now confirmed to be the sofa in Tsunade's office. "My body feels so sore... was that supposed to happen?"
"Um... it was supposed to happen, Naruto-kun," Hinata, who was standing right next to the sofa, smiled apologetically. She sat down next to him and reached out her hand, squeezing his right hand.
Naruto's eyes widened. He could feel Hinata's warm hand with his new hand!
It seemed Tsunade also realized it, because she smirked and said in a mirth voice.
"Naruto, try moving your right arm."
Hesitantly, Naruto tried to lift his arm up. And to his surprise, the new arm shot up to the sky upon his command; while still too much comparing to before, at least it was much better than the useless state it had been just a few moments ago. He could now move it around freely without any restriction.
"Yosh! Now I have both of my arms again! I feel stronger than ever now!"
"Um, Naruto-kun... actually, even though you can move it now, you still need some time to get accustomed to your new arm, since it used to be an alien object, you need time to learn how to channel chakra properly into... Kyah!?"
Hinata couldn't finish her sentence. Naruto had engulfed her in a big, hearty embrace.
"Thank you Hinata-chan! I owe you a big time!"
Then, he kissed her on the cheek.
Tsunade sighed and rubbed her nose bridge when the poor girl went out cold in Naruto's arms. "Hiashi is gonna make a gigantic fuss about this, isn't he?"
Sakura waved her off. "Nah. I heard that he already approved of Hinata and Naruto. Hell, now I can even say that he's one of the biggest shippers of them, to be honest."
"Hinata-chan!"
The task force of Konohagakure was standing in front of the main gate of Kirigakure, ready to leave. Together with them was the Mizukage, and the members of the New Seven Swordsmen.
"We wish you good luck on your way home," the female Mizukage said with a smile.
Anko took the hand Mei was reaching out with with her own cheerful smile. "Thank you. We also wish you good luck on your effort to rebuild the village."
"Oh, and by the way," Mei suddenly remembered. "About what you asked me, Gai-san... here is all the documentation I could find about Rin Nohara in the currently salvaged documentation chamber of Kirigakure," she gave him a folder she was holding on her hand. "According to them... the prisoner named Rin Nohara was captured during the event of the Third Shinobi World War, and was held in custody of the village for three years. However, she was released at the end of the war when the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, took over the hat, and whatever happened to her after that was unknown."
Gai took the folder from the Mizukage's hand with a grimace. "I see... Thank you very much, Mizukage-sama."
Meanwhile, a heated glaring battle was breaking out between the members of the Seven Swordsmen and the Konoha team. No, more like... Suigetsu was throwing a glare full of seething anger at every member of the Konoha task force. It seemed he was losing his trust on Konoha for taking in Karin as well.
"Don't bother with him."
Before words could escape her mouth, a voice already rose. Not from Suigetsu, but surprisingly, from Haku.
"Letting him become like that is our fault as his teammates and superiors," the girl bowed apologetically. "I ensure you we will reprimand him for that behavior."
"No, please don't do that."
What Karin said surprised everyone.
"Why?" Haku blinked.
"What happened to him was my fault, and after a night of thinking, I realized that it won't be that easy for him to forgive me for what I did," the girl answered confidently, but her eyes weren't focused on the person she was answering, but on Suigetsu himself. "So please, you don't have to punish him for what he righteously did. I will do everything I can to gain his forgiveness on my own, and I won't stop until I reach it by myself. Believe it."
Even Suigetsu was taken aback by those words.
"Therefore, you'd better prepare, Suigetsu," she continued, now looking straight into his eyes. "Someday I will make you see that I have changed, that I am not the person who obsessed with Orochimaru and would do anything for him anymore. I will show you that I deserve your forgiveness, no matter how you think of me right now, and you should prepare for that day to come."
Then she turned and walked away. Zabuza stared at her back, which was becoming smaller and smaller on the dirt road.
"Wow, that girl could even turn an apology into a death threat. That's actually a talent."
"Don't encourage her, dad," Haku deadpanned.
"So," Anko coughed, "I guess it's time for us to depart. Hope we'll see each other again in the future."
"Yeah," the Mizukage answered her with a smile. "Good luck on your trip back, friends. Please give Lord Hokage our thanks and best wishes."
The good-bye waves of the Kirigakure citizens still followed the Konoha shinobi even after they disappeared at the horizon. Another crisis was averted, and the bond between Kirigakure and Konohagakure had become tighter and closer than ever. The Village Hidden in the Mist would need quite some time to recover fully, but with what they had just experienced, they knew that it is possible for them, as well as the shinobi world, to overcome anything which might be waiting for them in the future.
But that's a story of the future. Right now, it's time for them to rebuild and reborn.