Chapter 30.4- One Thousand Hands

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We entered the village with little fanfare, and with my eyes io could see that the whole village was abuzz. There were dozens, if not hundreds of shinobi scurrying from place to place. It was like someone had kicked the hornet’s nest and the insects were trying to get their bearings. In one second, a group was dashing towards the Hokage tower and they crossed another group leaving the tower and heading to the Academy instead. From the academy came a group heading to the hospital and from the hospital another group heading to the Anbu barracks. It just flowed like that. Shinobi moving from place to place, most of the time being too quick for the civilian’s underfoot to notice. I knew now why the Ninja wars were referred to as Secret Wars.

Even as Shinobi scurried from place to place, the civilians seemed none the wiser to anything that went on around them. T=Our squad of Four noticed all this as we passed but did not allow it to slow us for more than a second as we rushed to give our report to the Hokage.We cut a straight path to the tower, not even pausing to use the ground floor entrance, but instead jumping straight through the window. OF course, Danzo had flared his chakra in a pattern I wasn’t familiar with before we did so it was no surprise that the window parted before us and anbu blades weren’t at our necks even if I could see them stir and become alert by our sudden arrival.

“Report” Sarutobi commanded, on seeing us and our states. That was when Danzo began to weave the tale of all that had happened since we stepped out of the village on our mission. He spoke of us separating into two cells to lay a trap for them and then he spoke of the trap being turned around in our expense. That was the first time I got the explanation of why he’d left me alone on my island. He’d adjudged that I was most likely facing the lesser threat and left to understand what was going on in the other island. He had no idea that the girl was a Jinchuriki and felt like I had the resources to hold off Kubo and the Jounin since I’d killed their Raikage six months earlier. Then he went to what was going on with Sakumo and Orochimaru.

The Gold and Silver brothers had encircled them with their jounin and basically embarked on a running chase through the island’s forest. Danzo had stuck to the edges of the encirclement and attempted to break it by disposing of a few jounin and then when he’d killed about four of them, a Kumo sensor managed to get wind of him and all the Jounin not engaging Sakumo and Orochimaru converged on him. In the end, it was Kitsuchi who did him in and captured him. From there, Sakumo took over without much prompting and began to speak.

Danzo’s presence had given him the chance to take Orochimaru and escape. Both Orochimaru and Kinkaku had dealt nearly fatal wounds to each other and Sakumo had been able to fight off Ginkaku and his jounin escorts for long enough to allow him escape with Orochimaru and then he’d sought me out after being assured that Orochimaru would be safe. I waited patiently, and then it got to the time where he made the decision to trade the young iwa jinchuriki for Danzo. Hiruzen nodded approvingly at the situation even while Danzo scowled furiously.

“Danzo is an asset the village can deploy now. Training a new jinchuriki will take years and with war at our doorsteps, we must prioritize the resources we have at our disposal in the here and now. While the loss is a shame, preserving our existing assets must be our priority.