A Couple Steps Back

Chapter 54

Third person pov

"Look Sasuke, we found him." Orochimaru whispered in a not-so-quiet tone of voice. Danzo stared at them with wide eyes. He wasn't a man who was easily fazed, but Orochimaru had just rushed into his room along with a toddler who was missing an arm. Fugaku Uchiha's youngest son, to be exact. He thought that maybe he had the right to be just a bit surprised.

"No shit. Hurry up and kill him." Sasuke urged. No doubt around a dozen or so ROOT members would come crashing through the door any second. The boy, one armed and not as dangerous as he wished he was, wasn't too confident in Orochimaru at the moment. The man looked like he'd just walked out of an abandoned homeless shelter in a part of town known for being infested with child predators and shady figures of the like.

"Orochimaru? What are you doing back in the village?" Danzo stood up abruptly, eliciting a scream of surprise from the well renowned snake-like sannin. It was rather high pitched, and it earned him two very blank and very un-amused looks from the two other males present. He cleared his throat slightly.

"I came here to... that's a good question? Why am I here? All you guys suck." Orochimaru realized. "You're so mean to me."

"Don't be so immature. How old are you? Like, seventy? Just throw a kunai at him or something and be done with it." Sasuke scoffed, gesturing vaguely in the council member's direction. Danzo felt himself grow annoyed at their lack of attention. They acted carelessly, as though he would sit quietly.

There was a loud bang, and the door jolted against Orochimaru, who'd been leaning against it. The sannin's eyes widening in surprise as though he hadn't been expecting it, and he looked to Sasuke for answers. He was a sannin, but he was a sannin who'd seen some shit in that war. Shit that changed you and your brain. Messed it up real bad. That, and he'd felt so weird after that whole time travel thing. It was like being put through a blender. A really squishy, mind-boggling blender.

"Why're you looking at me? What do you expect me to do, hold the door?" Sasuke scoffed, rolling his eyes. The life seemed to seep out of Orochimaru's eyes as he realized just how fucked he was. He looked at Danzo, shaking his head slowly, as though scolding the man one last time before he d-

"Hey, don't you have your Sharingan still?" Orochimaru's realized, his gaze snapping right back to Sasuke. The boy pursed his lips, tilting his head from side to side as though considering whether or not he had it. The sannin pressed his lips together. He would either no or he wouldn't. There was absolutely no inbetween.

"Yeah, I guess I have it." Sasuke sighed, shrugging.

"You guess? Wow, what a definitive answer. Thanks for that, kid." Orochimaru hissed. "If you've got the eyes, set him on fire."

"What?" Danzo muttered.

Neither responded, but Sasuke's dark coal eyes spun into a crimson. A black pinwheel spun threateningly in the center as he turned to look at the man. Danzo's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the eyes. He'd heard of them only a few times, and the color absolutely drained from his face at the sight. This was not good. This was not good at all.

Black flames erupted all around him, climbing towards him rapidly.

'Shit.'

~

"What do we do?!" Naruto panicked. "Do we kill it?!"

"Maa, maa, Naruto. Calm down." Kakashi gave a closed eye smile, earning dry looks from everyone in the room. Absolutely nothing was "calm" nor was it going to be "calm" anytime soon. Not with the way things were going. What would happen next, huh? Would Killer B come crashing through the window, and very rappily, ask Rasa to wrestle?

"Oh, yeah. Not like the you who wasn't actually you just melted into some small boy with really weird glasses who won't stop laughing like a fucking psycho. Nothing to worry about." Rasa waved an airy hand.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on here?" Hiruzen stressed. Fugaku and Shikaku, although numbly, somehow managed nods of agreement.

"We'll let you know as soon as we figure that out, Lord Third. In the meantime, will somebody please kill him? I'm trying to think." Shikamaru had climbed all the way onto Hidan's bed and was sitting on the man's legs. The ex-cultist didn't particularly care. He did feel a bit drowsy, however, from the surgery.

"Gladly." Tsunade cracked her knuckles, and Jiraiya stepped forward. Kabuto paused, having not fully thought this plan out. He should have been here by now. While it was possibly that Obito, who had been widely known as Madara at one point, could have run into some issue, he saw that it was unlikely.

"Wait a moment! You're going to kill a child?!" Shikaku gasped.

"That thing isn't a child. Don't worry about it." Jiraiya assured. Shikaku didn't seem to calm. The man's already open mouth gaped wider, and he stared as the boy became more and more frightened, realizing just what had happened. Obito didn't need him, and wanted him out of the way. In a way, he was a sacrifice. Wonderful.

"Oh my God, can you hurr- thank you!" Naruto cried out when Tsunade grabbed the boy by the neck. "Snap it!" 

"Naruto!" The Third gasped, although he shouldn't have been surprised. "Tsunade, put that boy down this instant!"

Everyone in the room groaned. "Look, old dude, this slimy little bastard isn't a kid and he certainly isn't innocent enough to keep his live. He's an asshat, a spy and like... I don't actually know, but he probably did some other bad shit too!" Hidan proclaimed.

"Yeah." Shikamaru mumbled, massaging his temples. Where had Sasuke and Orochimaru gone? If they had Sasuke's Sharingan, in theory, they could alter the memories of Hiruzen, Fugaku and Shikaku. They were three people. It surely couldn't be too hard to... reverse their suspicion a bit to simpler times when they only thought their kids had been raped and had absolutely no other suspicions. 

"Wait, Tsunade. What if he can give us information?" Jiraiya realized. Kakashi plopped down at the foot of Hidan's bed, reading idly. He'd just do whatever he was told, he supposed. Somehow, even with all these immensely powerful Shinobi, all of which just so happened to be on the same side of this battle, and so far failed miserably at saving the future. It was almost comical.

"Kakashi-sensei, it's been so long." Naruto hugged the man's legs while Tsunade and Jiraiya debated. Rasa and Gaara stood awkwardly by. "Your death sucked."

"Thanks. I thought so too." He responded in his usual, laid back tone of voice. He flipped a page in his book. Naruto smiled. It was really nice to have all these people back. To have his sensei back, with all his knowledge and memories of their time training together and such. Naruto as sure Kakashi would be willing to make even more memories. Particularly ones that involved him buying Naruto food, or any of that sort.

There was a loud snap, and Fugaku stumbled back in surprise. Shikaku was frozen.

"Oh, shit." Rasa whispered.

"You killed him." Gaara sighed, shaking his head. "Father, let's go. They have this handled." He decided. Suna was probably reeling without them, and from what he remembered, their economy was rather dry. They needed to become more open. Some treaties would be nice, and allowing in more traders would up tourism considerably. 

"Bye, Gaara." Naruto, Hidan, Kakashi and a thoughtful Shikamaru chorused as the boy dragged his father towards the door. They had this handled. It was just Obito, the man who'd destroyed millions of extremely formidable shinobi single handedly, without remorse. 

"Um, I'm leaving too." Rasa scoffed. "Whatever. Ya'll won't be gettin' none of my casserole. Nuh uh. Have fun being deprived. Losers." He flipped them off. The Hokage watched the man, the man he'd known to be extremely stoic, rude and cold, stick out his tongue at them.

Too old for this, and too tired, Hiruzen allowed his brain to overload and fall backwards, right into Shikaku and Fugaku. Passing out around so many questionable figures wasn't usually something that was suggested, just, in general. But he did it anyway.