Bonus Chapter (030 - Distractions)

Somewhere Along The Eastern Border. The Land of Fire.

“Tora…”

“Hebi.”

“Inu. Tatsu!”

“Iikkō suru!” Hands came together in a sharp, audible clap. Danzo’s chakra churned and the living sacrifice in the centre of the seal array screamed in torment as dust and ash slowly swirled forward to encase their body. The grey mass twisted and moulded their form, altering it, as a skilled potter would wet clay.

Slowly the sacrifice's chakra signature was completely overwritten by another; a stale, musky aura of ages gone past rising to subvert theirs.

“Sensei,” Danzo greeted falling to his knees. The two ROOT operatives behind him copied him.

“Lord Second!” they said in chorus.

Tobirama’s ashen gaze panned across the assembled Konoha-nin. “...Danzo?” he intoned before glancing down at his decaying body. “Edo Tensei? What have you done, you this unruly disciple?”

“Forgive me, Tobirama-sensei,” the withered shinobi replied, his head dipping further in self-reproach. “My hands were forced.”

“...What happened? How is the village?”

“The village thrives, Sensei, but I worry for its future.” Danzo gestured and one of the ROOT operatives crouched by his side rose and walked forward to pass a scroll to the Second Hokage. Tobirama received it, his gaze erratic as he skimmed through its contents.

“...Uchiha Sasuke,” the undead Hokage breathed a moment later.

“The boy's hatred burns pure and true, sensei; unmatched in potency by any in his accursed clan before him… I fear the rise of another Madara. One in a future with no Hashirama to subdue him when he eventually grows unruly.”

Tobirama tossed the scroll back to the ROOT operative. “Mangekyō at age six ... Danzo, why is the boy still alive?” the second Hokage asked, pinning his former student with a reproachful glare.

“...My hands were tied,” the withered shinobi replied, his head dipping further. “His older brother is loyal, valuable, yet misguided. Overt action on my part would lead to repercussions from him that Konoha would struggle to survive. Hiruzen has grown soft and refuses to see reason; he has made it so that direct intervention on my part is near-impossible for a number of reasons.”

Tobirama stared in silence as he mulled over Danzo’s words.

“So you used a Jutsu I had explicitly forbidden… to summon me… just to kill an upstart Uchiha brat?”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to discount the boy, Sensei,” Danzo replied gravely. “Our analysis showed that even crippled as he is, the Uchiha is at least, Jonin-level. He survived an encounter with two S-rank missing-nin, leaving one at the very least incapacitated and only losing an arm in return. If the Yamanakas are to be believed, one of his Mangekyo abilities can completely obliterate a person’s soul. To this day, we have no information on what his other eye is capable of; it could be as insidious as the first, or even, worse, for all we know.

“Currently, I have no shinobi on my roster capable of assuring a guaranteed assassination on the boy; one of my best was killed when he was still six. I doubt any single one could be relied upon to complete the task now. Pulling the theoretical minimum number of ninjas required to guarantee the boy’s termination from the workforce, regardless of how briefly, would draw Hiruzen’s attention and ire. I would prefer to avoid doing that at the moment; there’s just too much at stake now to allow infighting to fester.”

“...Very well,” Tobirama replied moments later. “I will deal with this matter. Your work on this reincarnation is quite shoddy and I am not at full strength, but it should be more than enough to deal with some upstart Uchiha brat regardless of how potent his eyes are. Where is the boy now?”

A small smile graced Danzo’s lips. The Septuagenarian gestured to one of his cloaked henchmen who presented a mission scroll, a grey cloak and a featureless white porcelain mask to the Edo Tensei. “I managed to pull some strings and had the boy sent on a roundabout mission to the Land of Wind,” Danzo said, as Tobirama received and donned his effects. “He should reach the capital in about three weeks. The details are in the scroll.”

“I see. And the Mangekyo?”

“They would prove useful in securing Konoha’s future, Tobirama-sensei. Please retrieve them.”

“Very well then,” the Hokage replied. “I am off.”

And the next moment he was gone; not a trace of his presence left behind.

Simply.

Gone.