201. All hell broke loose
“A left here.” Hearing Tomoka’s voice in her mind, Nozomi dashed to her left. Currently she was on a warpath to finish her revenge. Danzo, the main culprit of the massacre, was dead, Itachi, she would let Satsuki hunt down. The others though, they were her prey.
Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane alongside Hiruzen Sarutobi had been aware of Danzo’s plan to some extent. As of this moment Tomoka was dealing with the Kage and so only two were left. Tomoka had planted summons and phantoms on them so Nozomi could hunt them down.
The duo of cowardly elders had been moving for a while now as they escaped towards a private bunker with an escort of three ANBU each. She would need to intercept them before they reach the bunker otherwise things would become far more troublesome than they needed to be.
Finally after another minute of dashing full speed she saw Homura a good two hundred meters from her. Not wasting a single extra second Nozomi took a scroll from her waist pouch. This scroll was a gift from Tomoka. One she had enjoyed using for the last month.
Unrolling the scroll Nozomi infused it with a bit of her chakra. The next second after the poof of smoke disappeared a red metallic construct appeared. The weapon was a weird mechanical contraption that could turn from what Tomoka called a rifle into a scythe. She had said that its name is crescent rose.
Taking the rifle in hand Nozomi couldn’t help but feel a connection with the cold metal as she aimed through the telescopic sight. Taking one deep breath she concentrated on her heart bit. One beat, two beats, three beats then she squeezed the trigger. A loud bang followed as Nozomi felt the recoil on her shoulder. She didn’t care for it as instead she admired the sight unfolding two hundred meters from her.
“Beautiful.” Nozomi saw with clear clarity how the bullet impacted against Homura’s head making it blow up like a popped balloon. The way the blood splashed around was reminiscent of the red petals of a rose. She admired the sight for the single second it remained before focusing back on her task.
Now that she had lost the element of surprise, taking down Koharu would be a bit harder. Not to mention six ANBU had noticed her. Three of the six, those who had been guarding Homura, dashed towards her. Meanwhile two of the other three took defensive positions. The last one began dashing away alongside Koharu.
It only took two seconds for the attacking ANBU to reach her position. With her sharingan working at full throttle Nozomi analyzed the situation. One was currently waving hand signs for a fire jutsu, one was in the midst of throwing shuriken and kunai, the last one held a tanto ready to cut her down. Good team work, a three pronged attack: first the thrown weapons would force her into a defencive position by either dodging or blocking. The melee fighter then would have an easier time holding her down for a second or two before a fire jutsu would be flung her way. It wouldn’t work.
Pressing the necessary button while infusing her weapon with chakra the rifle quickly changed from turning into a scythe almost twice her height. During the transformation she had twirled the thing around blocking the thrown weapons as with a swift move combined with her mangekyou the melee fighter found his legs and head missing. The fireball that had been sent her way exploded right in front of the poor ninja as Nozomi strengthened and destabilized the thing with her eyes.
Not wanting to waste any more time on the ANBU, Nozomi slammed the blade of her scythe on the ground as she once again aimed the thing towards her target. Deep breath, one beat, two beats, three beats, she had to move out of the way as the last ANBU sent a new barrage of thrown weapons her way.
Annoyed Nozomi Stood on the head of the scythe before pulling the trigger. The knockback sent her alongside her weapon spinning towards the last ANBU who barely managed to dodge the overhead swing. Unfortunately for the poor sod, Nozomi wasn’t done yet. Pulling the trigger once more sent Nozomi into a horizontal spin cutting the guy into three parts after an equal amount of spins.
The two ANBU members that had stayed back to act as defense couldn’t help but sweat seeing the masacre unfolding. To make matters worse they saw the Uchiha girl slamming the scythe to the ground once again preparing to kill their charge. Not wasting a second the duo got to work.
The first ANBU slammed his hands to the ground after waving the necessary hand signs creating a wall of rock just in time to deviate the bullet from its path. Unfortunately said bullet deviated into the poor ANBU’s chest perforating his lung. The second ANBU had tried to sneak attack Nozomi only to be cut in half vertically.
“Fucking nuisances.” Nozomi couldn’t help but curse seeing as Koharu was now more than seven hundred meters from her. Her current record in practice was six hundred meters. She wasn’t sure she would be able to make the shot. Closing the distance wasn’t an option either seeing as more ANBU were closing the distance.
“Screw it.” Taking a deep breath, Nozomi prepared, one beat, two beats, three beats, and squeezed the trigger. Another bang resounded as she tried her best to correct the bullet’s path with her dojutsu by modifying certain parameters such as air resistance, gravitational pull etcetera.
After a second and a bit a new flower of blood bloomed from Koharu’s chest as the bullet found its mark. Nozomi would have liked to go for another headshot however she wasn’t sure she would be able to pull it off. Hitting the heart however was still a good option as she doubted anyone currently in the village would be able to heal such a wound.
Having accomplished her objective Nozomi folded crescent rose back into its rifle mode so she could store it back in its scroll. It took but a second to do so and the next Nozomi could be seen dashing away with some more ANBU hot on her heels.
Hiruzen wondered where did things go so wrong. Perhaps when he didn’t kill his student back when they had found his misdeeds. Or when Minato died a few years before that. It didn’t matter, not really, not now. One thing he couldn’t understand was why, why had Tomoka betrayed the village?
“You see Orochi, I am a fan of your knowledge and I very much would like to make a deal with you. I will give you a new laboratory with all the toys you could imagine as well as an unlimited amount of test subjects. In exchange you teach me what you know.”
Orochimaru felt curious, skeptical and intrigued. This girl was a box of mysteries, he very much wanted to know what that armor that had allowed her to ignore the barrier was. He didn’t believe her about the lab and subjects or rather he didn’t want to. It sounded ridiculous and yet the girl’s confidence said otherwise.
“I know trust is in short supply in our ninja world so how about I take a show clone of yours, show you around and what not. Though for now I guess you would want to kill the old man first.”
“I will admit I am interested.” In the end Orochimaru had nothing to lose by accepting. If she was telling him lies then he would just kill her, if not then he wouldn’t mind working with her for a while.
“Good, I am guessing you want to deal with the old man by yourself so just consider me a spectator.” To tell the truth, Tomoka didn’t want to fight the old man herself. She could do so of course, but there was no need. Not to mention that should things follow cannon she could ingratiate herself to Orochi by saving his arms. Orochimaru for his part didn’t answer as he instead just gave her a small nod alongside his ever present creepy smile.
“Tomoka! What is the meaning of this!” Hiruzen, who had been silent in surprise, finally came out of his stupor with anger visible on his face. He couldn’t understand, he couldn’t believe why such a bright kunoichi would choose to betray Konhoa. Yes, she had shown some dissatisfaction here and there but that wasn’t unusual. He just couldn’t understand.
“What this means old man is that I am done with your stupidity. I have lived in this village for thirteen years and not once have I seen you doing things right. For fuck’s sake the Uchiha clan’s massacre hapened in your reign. Uzumaki Naruto suffered under you for your stupid decisions. Let’s not mention how Orochimaru, a genius rarely seen, fled the village because of your stupidity.
Kill the man when you got the chance or make him an ally but the thing you did was the most idiotic of them all. You let him flee so he could become a problem later on. I am done with you and your group of old fuckers that can do nothing more than sit and biker while taking every wrong decision possible.
I killed Danzo a while back, something you should have done seeing how the old bastard was a fucking cancer to this village. I have given you chances left right and center for you to prove to me that you are a good leader. You have squandered each one of them.
Remember that message way back? That was me telling you about this very attack. You prepared nothing! How about the conflict with the Hyuga clan, you could have pushed them hard, you could have brought them to their knees and made things right. You did nothing!
I am done with your bullshit about peace in this world of carnage and death! You don’t have the power to be spouting such nonsense. If the snake doesn’t kill you, trust me when I say I will. I will make sure that you bunch are dead, all four of you. Danzo is dead, Nozomi is hunting down Homura and Koharu and you will die here.
I also have an extra gift for Konoha. Think of it as my last fuck you to you and your ilk. Remember the Hyuga bastards. Well, I have been preparing for this for a while now. I have cracked their shity slavery seal and now every single branch Hyuga member will be set free. As for the bastards of the main branch. Every single one of them will lose what they hold dear. I will take their Byakugan, I will take their sight, I will take their chakra.
You have failed old man, you have failed me, you have failed your students and above all else, you failed Konoha.”
With her rant done Tomoka walked to the top of the roof in between Orochimaru and Hiruzen. Sitting down in the gray tiles she took a deep breath to calm herself down. She had been keeping that one in for a bit too long and now she felt way better after letting it all out.
“Looks like I am not the only one to notice how decrepit you have grown sensei.” Orochimaru’s mocking voice held within a note of glee. He felt vindicated hearing Tomoka’s words. Not to mention that the girl had recognized his genius. He could see it, she was like him, a soul in search of knowledge. A soul willing to do what it takes for their goal. He could see himself working with the girl as long as she shows herself intellectually his equal.
Hiruzen for his part was stunned stiff. He would be the first to admit that he had made many mistakes in his life but having them aired out like this hurt. Of course that hurt was mixed with the rage he felt for the death of his friend. Not to mention the peril his ex-teammates were in now.
“Heh, the two of you were seeing how a bunch of kids were beating the shit out of each other for the sake of entertainment and spectacle. How about now? Orochimaru vs Hiruzen both contestants seem ready, begin.” Tomoka announced as she held her right arm up in the air. Once she finished she let her arm fall.
Seeing this as good as any signal to start Orochimaru transformed his tongue into a snake sending it towards Hiruzen. Meanwhile, the old man spat a few mud bullets which were easily dodged by the snakes. Thanks to Tomoka’s involvement the fight began going full force from the start.
Hiruzen would attack and defend using fire and earth jutsus respectively while orochimaru responded using snakes until Hiruzen decided to use the shadow shuriken jutsu like in cannon. The next moment Orochimaru summoned the dead using the edo tensei.
Through all this Tomoka sat by the side analyzing each move using her Kinagan. That is until she saw the edo tensei. As the coffins appeared she saw a spectral image of the previous kages entering the coffins. This surprised her since she could guess what she had just seen was the souls of said kages.
Concentrating a bit Tomoka looked towards Hiruzen and Orochimaru seeing a similar spectral form inside of them. Yet, when she tried to see her own she saw nothing, it wasn’t like there was no soul there, instead it was like there was absolutely nothing there, like the very concept of nothingness was there instead.
“What the fuck.” Tomoka murmured under her breath. Did this mean she didn’t have a soul? No, that wasn’t the case, her instincts were telling her that she did have a soul. The problem wasn’t about having a soul or not. It was about the very essence of her soul.
Tomoka’s reverie was stopped by the loud sound of the coffins’ tops falling against the ground revealing the first and second Hokage. The third summon had failed; however, Tomoka knew that Hiruzen's involvement wasn’t the reason for its failure. Instead it was because no soul was summoned. If she had to guess, Orochimaru tried to summon the fourth hokage whose soul is sealed inside the reaper’s seal.
“Edo tensei? Nice, though by the looks of it, you haven’t perfected the jutsu just yet. From what I can tell they are only around ten, maybe twenty percent as strong as they were while alive.” Tomoka commented while looking at the resurrected hokages.
“Oh? You recognized the jutsu. I do have to wonder, what do you think?” Orochimaru said while turning towards Tomoka. The girl kept on surprising him. This jutsu was a forbidden jutsu created by the second Hokage. Originally the resurrected couldn’t do much more than talk. He had modified it so they could fight as well. Unfortunately the girl was right, the jutsu was still incomplete.
“Yup, I memorized it when Naruto stole the forbidden scroll. Yes, he stole the thing, can you believe it? He managed to make a fool out of everyone guarding the thing including Hiruzen who got knocked out by a jutsu the twerp created himself called the sexy jutsu.” Hearing this Orochimaru couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow while giving Hiruzen a mocking grin. The Kage for his part had the decency to feel embarrassed about the blunder.
“I have also made my own modifications, let me show you.” Once she had given enough time for Hiruzen to feel embarrassed she decided to drop the next bomb. With her deranged grin Tomoka began waving hand signs before performing the jutsu.
“Edo tensei.” From the ground a set of two coffins began to appear. Hiruzen, seeing this, wanted to stop the girl. Having to fight against Orochimaru and the kages was bad enough. He didn’t want to fight against whoever Tomoka summoned as well. Unfortunately for him Orochimaru wanted to see what Tomoka would summon so he had the first and second hokages intercept the third.
Soon enough the coffins tops fell showing who Tomoka had chosen to bring back to the world of the living.
“Say hello to your failures Hiruzen.”