Once More by ItsHardToFindAPenName

Chapter 37: Past, Present and Future

"What do you mean Orochimaru attacked the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll?" Hiruzen looked at the ANBU who was running next to him while sprinting to the aforementioned chamber himself in full speed. "There is no alarm from the barrier team; how did he even get into the village?"

"I don't know, Hokage-sama," the ANBU member wearing the cat masked answered in a nervous tone. "But it was Orochimaru who attacked; I was there when he came, but Tiger and Wolf told me to go get you when they tried to hold him back; I don't know what happened to them after that..."

The Hokage grimaced. If Orochimaru really came for what he thought the bastard was aiming for...

"Go find Jiraiya at the hospital and tell him to go to the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll immediately," he ordered Cat, "Do not tell him why, and do not let anyone else know about this, especially Naruto Uzumaki."

The ANBU answered with a "Yes sir" and changed her direction towards the hospital. Hiruzen himself also sped up towards the Chamber, his stomach twisted in a sudden dread.

"Jiraiya-sama, Lord Hokage wants to see you in the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll immediately. Please depart as soon as possible."

The Toad Sage looked at the female ANBU who had just entered Naruto's hospital room and laughed. "Ah, Kitty-chan! How is Hayate these days? Is he still good in bed?"

Naturally, she kicked him in the shin. "Please, go immediately. This is an urgent problem."

Jiraiya's face turned serious. He turned back to Naruto. "Right, if that's the case, it seems I have to go now. Take care, brat; good luck on getting used to your new arm."

Then he disappeared together with Cat with a Body Flicker.

"I wonder what happened," Naruto thought. "It is rare for jiji to summon Pervy Sage so urgently. And why the Sealing Scroll anyway?"

"Maybe it has something to do with Orochimaru."

Naruto jerked up in surprise. "What? What does Orochimaru have to do with this?"

"Who else can be so obsessed with that Sealing Scroll?" Kurama answered him with a snort. "There are gazillions of powerful destructive jutsu written in there, and even secrets from the beginning of Konoha. Besides, he already tried to get his hand on it once, remember?"

"Well, if you say so, there are still a lot of other people who would trade everything for a chance to get their hand on that scroll," Matatabi pointed out. "Besides, even if it was actually Orochimaru, there is nothing we could do about it with Naruto in this state, right?"

"That's true," Kokuoh agreed. "And to be honest, it's too late to prevent what that person whoever the hell he is wanted to do anyway. Let's just leave it to the adults. What you need to do right now is resting and getting familiar with that arm; we are going to need you at your full power as soon as possible."

"Well, yeah," Naruto mumbled. "Hope there won't be anything bad happen when I'm locked up in here. Ugh, seriously, I hate sitting around uselessly like this."

"What the hell happened, sensei?"

Jiraiya asked while walking across the corpses of the two ANBU members on the floor into the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll. The Hokage looked up from the Sealing Scroll on the ground, which he was looking at.

"Orochimaru attacked."

The Toad Sage's eyes widened. "What?! How is that even possible?! How could he even get into the village anyway?"