Mokuton Root Agent #12

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Mokuton Root Agent

Chapter 12

Shinnosuke “Monkey” Sarutobi

He came back to the land of living with a gasp as he felt something electric slam into his face with incredible force, surely leaving a bruise on his forehead.

“Wake up, brat. It's not your time to croak just yet,” he heard the same female voice from before say to him.

Opening his eyes blearily, he was greeted to the same vision he had seen before he fainted.

Remembering his previous circumstances, he immediately jumped to action, looking for any weapons on his body as he looked around for an escape. He found all his weapons still on his body but he could not, for the life of him, find a way out of this white landscape.

“Don’t bother. I might not be around anymore but that doesn’t mean that just any shinobi could break out of my Fuinjutsu,” he heard the person who was impersonating Mito-Uzumaki sama, speak.

He ignored her as he believed with all his heart that, outside of the Impure Reincarnation Technique, there was no technique that could summon the dead.

“Oh, who do you think invented the technique for summoning souls, forming the basis for that technique, huh brat?” he heard her say as if she had just read his mind.

A chill ran down his spine at that thought. He hurriedly checked his mental defenses that were personally built after he went through multiple sessions with Inoichi Yamanaka himself but didn’t find a hint of a breach in them.

“This is an utter waste of time. We don’t exactly have enough time for this, Mito-san.” He heard the other impostor speak up.

Finally giving up on finding any other way out of this place, he looked up at them, only to jump back in surprise as he found them floating much closer to him than he remembered them being.

“This has gone on long enough. If I am right, you are Little Saru’s son?” the impostor asked him.

He found himself nodding begrudgingly if only to get out of here faster.

“Then you must know that the only person in my time who could do this was me?” the impostor said while a rotating ball of shining water formed out of nothing, more precisely, it formed while drawing water from the very air around them.

His eyes widened as he looked at the spinning ball of water and back at the ethereal form of what was supposed to be the Nidaime Hokage of Konoha.

He soon recovered his composure and kneeled down, “Hokage-sama”

“At ease, shinobi. I am neither alive nor the man you knew as the Nidaime Hokage. I am but a remnant, a chakra imprint if you will, of him that he created in his most paranoid times when the war was at its peak and survival was not guaranteed.” Nidaime Hokage-sama said.

“Yeah, we made this to be used only for the most dire of emergencies and the only way you could have opened the seal array is if you had the advanced codes I only told Kushina about. Seeing that she is not here, I assume that she was not the one who helped you decode the seal? I know you didn’t do it because I can sense that you don’t have a lick of Uzumaki blood within you and only those with the blood of Uzumaki clan could even hope to solve the grandest of seals I left behind.” Mito-sama said.

“No, it was Kakashi Hatake who helped me decode the array who was in turn taught about it by Kushina-san,” he replied to their unasked question.

“I see. So I take it that she is dead?” Mito-sama asked him.

He nodded a little hesitantly.

“How?” Even though her tone didn’t change, the entire space he was seeing started to shudder as she asked him that question.

Before he could reply though, a sigh interrupted him and the dimension soon began stabilising itself.

“Mito-san, you know we don’t have enough time and energy for these tantrums now. Leave that to the living, please. Now, young man, I hope that you can explain to us about the major events that happened in Konoha ever since we passed away. It would help us in making the right decision in helping you prepare.”

Prepare? Prepare for what?

Shaking his head, he got his thoughts in order and began explaining to them about the wars that happened after Nidaime-sama passed away and the fact that his father remained Hokage throughout those two wars, also while bringing Konoha to the forefront of those wars.

Then he explained to them the tragedy of the Kyuubi attack and the fact that they lost Yondaime-sama to that attack.

“Hmm. This Minato fellow seems quite talented of a shinobi to actually learn and even improve on my jutsu. Mastering a Fuinjutsu-heavy technique like that. Tell me, what was his hair color?” Nidaime-sama asked him.

His hair color? Why did that matter?

Without letting his inner feelings reflect on his face, he replied with a straight face, “Yellow, sir.”

For some reason, Mito-sama smirked triumphantly at that.

“Any other Fuinjutsu masters in the village?”

“Yes, one. His name is Jiraiya. He is the only alive Fuinjutsu Grandmaster in Konoha.” he replied, still utterly confused about their line of inquiry but very much happy to oblige.

“And what color was his hair?” again with the same question.

“Um, white, Mito-sama,” he replied dutifully.

His questions must have been shown on his face as Mito-sama said, “Oh, don’t worry. It's nothing serious. It's just the fact that to be a Fuinjutsu Grandmaster, Uzumaki bloodline is not an advantage, it is a necessity.”

He tilted his head in confusion at that statement. While it was true that the Uzumaki clan was known for being the foremost experts on anything Fuinjutsu-related, there were plenty of other Fuinjutsu masters spread across the world.

“Ah, it’s right in front of you and yet you don’t see it. Honestly, has the quality of shinobi come down since I died?” Mito-sama said.

Then she explained to him that Uzumaki clan members didn’t have just red-colored hair. They came in all shapes and colors.

Yellow, White, Silver, Pink, Red, and even more colours indicated being the members of different lineages within the Uzumaki clan. Each and every color symbolises the potential that each member held for a certain aspect of Fuinjutsu.

Every one of them would grasp Fuinjutsu in its entirety very easily but there would be a certain area, something special, that they would become an absolute master in.

“In fact, I bet the person who helped you with the array also had some Uzumaki blood in him.” Mito-sama said to him.

He nodded, dumbfounded at the revelations. Though, in hindsight, it would explain a lot.

The fact that nearly all the Fuinjutsu Grandmasters that Konoha had access to, had different hair color. Red, Yellow, White, and Silver being some of the few.

As he was still going over those facts, Mito-sama started to tell him about the secret that had been kept so close to their chests that they had erased their own memory about it and kept it enclosed only in chakra imprints that they spread throughout the globe.

After asking the reason why, both of them clammed up and refused to explain any further. They only told him to find more of their chakra imprints who would have a better idea regarding the situation.

He then continued regaling them with the outside situation and after telling them the entire story, right up until his last mission to dismantle Danzo’s forces, he stopped and took a deep breath, his throat dry from speaking continuously.

“Danzo, what had he done? Disturbing my brother’s eternal slumber like that? Please tell me he is dead.” Nidaime-sama asked him.

He didn’t have the heart to tell him that his father originally only planned for him to be imprisoned for life but now with him dying due to Danzo, death was guaranteed for him. So, instead, he just nodded and confirmed his question.

“Wait a minute. Am I dead? Am I going to become just like you? Is this permanent?” he asked them hysterically.

He only breathed a sigh of relief when both of them nodded and Mito-sama even rolled her eyes.

Just then, something seemed to rock the world they were in, creating cracks on the flooring.

Their faces were grim as they said, “Listen to me. We don’t have much time here. Look for the village hidden in the stars for the next chakra imprint. With that out of the way, you have to make sure that nothing happens to the Uchiha clan. If they are wiped out, it might set into motion a chain of events that could destroy your world as you know it.”

What?!

“Yes, even when I was Hokage, I had noticed a disturbing pattern. If you had access to the old Senju records, you would realise that the Sage was real and most of the prominent clans we are aware of descended directly from him. And somebody was hunting these clans down. I have some suspicions of my own but I’ll reveal them to you the next time we meet. The clans with the strongest direct connection to the Sage were the three clans: The Uzumaki clan, the Senju Clan, and the Uchiha clan.” Nidaime-sama said.

“Yes. And as you can see, they have already wiped out the Uzumaki clan and the Senju clan. The next in line is the Uchiha clan. I cannot stress it enough, you cannot let it happen. The power to save the world literally rests or will rest in the hands of someone from the Uchiha clan.” Mito-sama said.

He nodded, a bit overwhelmed at the sudden onslaught of information but still committing it to memory due to the importance they put into it.

“There was a prophecy passed down from clan head to clan head. It said, ‘The power to save the world or destroy the world rests in the hands of the reincarnations. The power of the Sage’s sons is needed to do so. Save them, guide them and they will fight the rabbit for you. Shun them, destroy them and they will destroy the world for her.’ The sons in this means the sons of the Senju and the Uchiha clans. You must find them and train them for they are the future.” Mito-sama said.

“Who are they? How will I find them?” he shouted his question over the rapidly forming cracks in the dimension they were in.

“Trust the process. You will fi–” The voice of Nidaime-sama was cut off there and a white flash followed a banging sound as he felt his body being flung away violently.

His eyes closed as he felt his head hit something hard.

The last thought that went through his mind was ‘ What an absolute shitshow of a night.’

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Word Count - 1842