Chapter 50.6- Gamer of the Desert

XXXXXX- THE DARKNESS OF SHINOBI

He stared at the letter in his hands. The missive that a chunin had nearly run himself to death crossing the land of fire in hours to deliver to him. Part of him wished to decry it as a lie. Forgery. But the code that he himself had invented stared at him on the page. The code that he’d taught both of his new students. It was written in Neji’s cold and precise writing. The flowery script the Hyuga preferred cast aside by a man who had no loyalty to clan over village. An entire battalion. Two thousand loyal shinobi of Konoha led by one of his own personal guards. Dead.

Ame. The land of Rain was a gift that never stopped taking it seemed. The descriptions of the shinobi that had coimmmited the massacre made his teeth grind. A nasty habit. But one he’d taken it up more and more after he’d taken up this hat. The thing he’d looked forward to for so long. Oh how Hiruzen laughed at him from beyond the grave. A perfect plan. Years of waiting. Decades of putting the dominos in place. Making sure that every contingency was taken care of. And then when he finally let the first domino fall, his delicate house of cards blew up right in his face.

First was failing to kill the Kazekage. The brat deserved the hat clearly. Especially after the daring first attack on Iwa. He had acted just like a Kage then. Bold, decisive, and effective. A shame that he had not been born in Konoha. A bigger shame indeed that their own Jinchuriki had been so useless. Useless under Hiruzen, and now missing under his rule. Not missing. Taken. By Hiruzen’s accursed students. Orochimaru, Jiriaya, and Tsunade. Nothing would have given the old monkey more joy than watching them begin to work together again. The fact that it was against him probably made Saru even happier.

But at the end of the day, those were just minor irritations. His plan had been going ahead even despite the failures. But now there was another wrench in the wheel. Akatsuki. Sometimes he wished he could visit his past self if only to smack some sense into him. Those children should have been assassinated as a matter of utmost priority. But instead he’d chosen to leverage their lives for a closer relationship with Hanzo. He’d taught that in helping the man dispatch one enemy of Konoha, then he could get close enough to him to dispatch another. It had been a perfect plan in his mind. Two birds with the same kunai. A foolish plan in hindsight.

The brats Jiraiya taught had lived. Lived and become S-ranked shinobi in their fullness, it seemed. A woman with paper techniques that had killed hundreds. Multiple shibnobi with purple ringed eyes. The Rinnegan. If he never saw that accursed doujutsu again, it would be too soon. His memory took him back to that day as a cold feeling ran down his spine. That monster. He would never forget it. The abomination that the Rinnegan user had summoned in his despair. If such a creature was going to be used to levy war against Konoha, then measures had to be taken. Steeper measures than before.

He took a scroll out with a quick movement and began to move his brush across his. He wrote with quick sure movements, never hesitating over a word. Think twice, act one, he recited his Sensei’s words as he wrote the order for both his students to be transported back to Konoha once they were cleared to be moved. Another scroll ordered a medical squad to be sent out to their position on the border. Neji had been well enough to draft the missive himself but the fact that Sasuke was still yet to regain consciousness was a worrying sign.

After writing out both orders, a quick application of his element dried out the ink and he gestured for the Root shinobi who waited in the shadows of the office to send both to their recipients. He stood and began to walk for his next target.

“How is it coming along?” He asked, staring at the boy across from him. His pale skin appeared unhealthy in the dim lighting of the tunnel within the tunnel. The most secret part of his already secret Root Base.

“Very well, Hokage-sama. The jutsu should be only a few weeks from being operational.” He said.

“That is unacceptable, Sai. Unacceptable. This jutsu is vital for Konoha’s security. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Hokage-sama. But I can not learn the seals any faster. Forgive me for my failings, Hokage-sama”

Danzo scowled. He could not fault the boy. The Edo Tensei was the culmination of decades of study from his Sensei, the greatest Fuinjutsu master the world had ever seen. It was a testament to the boy’s genius that he was even able to decode the jutsu after only a year of singleminded focus. But it wasn’t fast enough. It would never be fast enough. The enemies were already at the metaphorical gates, and that had a likelihood to stop being metaphorical the more time they wasted on this.

He sighed. He had to. This was one situation where he had to break his own rules for the good of Konoha. He formed a simple ram seal and focused on the seal he knew was inscribed on the boy’s scalp, beneath his hair and covered with a genjutsu that forced all to divert attention. “Fuin: Kai (Release)”. He said, and he slumped.

Danzo sighed again. He hated having his time wasted. He poked the boy with his cane. A poke, not a stab. All the same, he rose from the floor jolted to wakefulness.

“Hokage-sama? What happened?”

“Nothing. Look at the seal now and tell me how long it will take for you to decipher and replicate the technique” He ordered.

“Oh. This is easy Hokage-sama. I’m almost done. I’ll have it down by the end of the week” was the reply. He smiled, even while inwardly fearing that he’d created another problem to solve the one in front of him. But that was the weight of the hat. It was the burden he bore as Kage.

He turned and retreated from the cavern. Edo Tensei would solve all his problems.

A/N; Yeah, this is it. Couldn’t resist one look into Danzo again