Chapter 89: Taking stock

Gathered inside the main hall of the Botib, Riku, Hiruzen, Team Kakashi and Team 7 were gathered around the central table. Kushina was fussing over Naruto who apparently died and was resurrected.

Riku took the floor and began asking questions about what had happened ever since both teams had left the headquarters for their mission. Kakashi was the first one to speak. His team had two objectives. One: finding the base of the enemy. Two: capture undead shinobi.

“We were unlucky.” Kakashi said. “The complete team of Jinchuriki found us first.”

“How?” Riku interrupted. “Karin is perhaps the best sensor there is.”

His wife being called out explained herself. “I found Gaara and another jinchuriki, the one from Takigakure. They flared their chakra so much, my senses were overloaded. The Kyubi’s negative sensing helped but they all struck so fast.” she said dejectedly.

“Thankfully, I was there.” Zabuza said with a huff.

Kakashi nodded in agreement. “Zabuza and Haku took the brunt of the ambush from one side, saving Karin. Gai and I weren’t so lucky. Seeing we were being encircled I ordered the retreat, immediately. Not fast enough though as we had to defend ourselves against the Nibi’s and Nanabi’s speed attacks. Our bracelets broke and we were stranded. That’s when you and Mito-sama showed up.”

“Mito-sama?” Kushina finally stopped checking on her son when she heard the name.

“She was acting as keeper of Obito’s headquarters. Jiraiya and I freed her.” Riku replied and signaled Kakashi to continue with his report. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel-fire.ɴet

“We arrived inside the Botib and immediately went back out to resume our mission. We were in good condition to do so, so we did. Ten Kilometers West we encountered a peculiar group. Shodaime-sama, Nidaime-sama, and Tsunade-sama.”

“That was quite the fight.” Gai said with a grunt.

“No one has any business being that powerful. That Mokuton of your first Hokage? Complete bullshit, I tell you.” Zabuza shook his head in dejection.

“Seeing that we were not going to win that fight either but had better odds, Karin had an idea.” Kakashi looked at the redhead in question to give her the floor.

“I use the hiraishin to send a shadow clone to Konoha and… Kidnapped Sandaime-sama.”

Hiruzen nodded to confirm it. “That is correct.”

“Then I brought him back to the battlefield after filling him in on the situation.”

“I’m proud to say, I had an easier time than during the chunin exam.” The old man had a small smile on his face.

“Haku and Gai fought off Tsunade-sama. Karin and I, Nidaime-sama and Sandaime-sama and Zabuza Shodaime-sama. We did rather well and Karin had captured the Nidaime when Mito-sama showed up and… Well… She kicked everyone’s ass to make it simple.”

“She restrained everyone with her adamantine chains and with one finger drew my final seal to break Orochimaru’s control of them.” The Uzumaki explained with awe.

Kakashi took back the lead. “After a small round of healing for Gai and Sandaime-sama, we left for the location of Orochimaru’s hideout that Tsunade-sama gave us. Apparently she was the last of the resurrected and came straight from there. We took him by surprise and despite his new vessel being able to use the Shoton we restrained him. Karin then…” He paused there, a tremor coursing through his body.

“I offered him to the Shinigami.” She smiled brightly.

Naruto couldn’t believe what he had heard. “You did what?! I thought you needed to die to summon the Shinigami?”

“My mother told me something similar. The Shiki Fujin I believe the jutsu is called?” Itachi shared his own information.

“It is the name of a kinjutsu created by the Uzumaki and which summon the Shinigami, yes. He takes a soul and the price is your own.” Hiruzen confirmed.

Karin shrugged her shoulders. “I made a better jutsu where instead of having the Shinigami take a soul with mine as a price, I just offer him one. In exchange If I summon him again for him to take a soul, he doesn’t take mine. You can say I paid up in advance, just not with my own money.” She grinned.

“Karin used that… contract to get back Minato’s soul. Since Orochimaru left a piece of his own in each curse seal, we kind of tricked the Shinigami.” Riku shared further.

“Uzumaki are fucking terrifying. What kind of mad people are doing casual business with the god of Death? No wonder the old timers in Kiri are still spooked by them even after the fall of Uzushio.” Zabuza commented, looking at Karin as if she was a completely insane and dangerous woman. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was why their village was attacked in the first place.”

Kushina glared so hard at the demon of the mist, that he fidgetted in his seat. The fall of her homeland was still a sore spot for her.

Kakashi finished his report. “Afterward we left the hideout and blew everything up. When we saw a giant statue, South East, we made a go for it. We met team 7 there.”

Riku turned to Itachi who promptly started his own report.

“Team 7 left at the same time as Team Kakashi. While they went East, North-East, we went North. Same mission objective. Find the main base of the enemy and capture as many undead shinobi as possible. We were rather successful in the latter with the second Tsuchikage and Mizukage. We then encountered Obito.”

Naruto interjected then. “And we kicked his ass!”

“Barely.” Sakura nuanced her teammate’ words.

Sasuke finished. “That’s when he summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.”

“Things turned for the worst then.” Kushina unconsciously reached for Naruto’s hand under the table.

“Indeed.” Itachi nodded. “The statue turned into a giant monster with ten tails.”

“The Jubi!” Naruto cut in but said nothing more.

“That’s when Team Kakashi arrived. The Jubi created a lot of small clones whose numbers far exceeded ours. Obito took Kakashi-taicho into another dimension and we battled both clones and the Jubi. Sasuke and Naruto combined their efforts to damage the Ten-Tails and as a result Obito sealed it inside himself. Madara then arrived inside his Susanoo and forced Obito to resurrect him with the Rinnegan. He then proceeded to rip the Yang half of the Kyubi from Naruto. I ordered the retreat here to recover our strength and strategize.”

Riku turned his head to Kakashi. “You used the bracelet to get out of Obito’s dimension, I gather?”

“Yes. I would have been stuck otherwise.” The fake Cyclops confirmed.

Sighing, Riku talked about his part. His and Jiraiya’s deep infiltration of the enemy's territory, the rescue of his great grandmother and the destruction of Obito and Madara’s ability to create new White Zetsu. The fight against the jinchurikis was briefly mentioned to get to the one against the Ghost of Uchiha and Riku’s defeat.

“What now? And how did you come back to life, Naruto? I checked myself, you had no vital signs.” Sakura asked after a moment of silence.

Naruto grinned. “Super Gramps brought me back.”

“Super Gramps?” Hiruzen asked in confusion.

Riku explained, “He means the Sage of the Six Paths, Otsutsuki Hagoromo.”

The shock of the revelation was blatantly obvious in the old Hokage’s voice. “He’s real?!”

“Very much so.” Sasuke answered flatly while looking at the palm of his hand.

“Wait! How do you know about him?” Naruto was confused. As far as he knew, only Sasuke and him met the old man. Riku shouldn’t have been in the know about this encounter.

The reply came swiftly. “He brought me to him while I was dying.”

“I think… The three of you need to give us some context, here.” Kakashi interjected while looking at his students and Riku.

Naruto then began the tale of his encounter with who was considered as a myth and a god. Of course, it was with enthusiasm and many things, many details were glossed over but the core of it was delivered: Kaguya and her possible return. Every adult in the room, which was pretty much everyone, turned to Riku, knowing that Naruto may have left things out.

Sighing the current Hokage spoke up. “She’s Hagoromo’s and his twin’s mother. Hagoromo is the common ancestor of the Uchiha and Senju. Each clan was created by one of his sons after Hagoromo’s death. The Hyuga and the Kaguya clan are descendants of his brother Hamura. The rinnegan can only be obtained through the sharingan of his eldest son’s transmigration combined to the chakra of his youngest son’s transmigration which form Hagoromo’s brand of chakra so to speak.”

“So that explains Sasuke’s rinnegan.” Sakura said it out loud. “But why only one eye?”

“Probably because the Sage only gave me half of his power and Naruto the other.” A thought crossed Sasuke’s mind and he turned to Riku. “What did you get?”

Naruto blinked and remembered his earlier question. “Yeah, he summoned you in the first place so it was probably to give you something but what and why?”

Remembering his training, Riku grunted in frustration. “He summoned me because I was the middle ground between the two of you ideology-wise. Strength and compassion both. As for what he gave me well…” He scratched his cheek, knowing he’d get flack for his answer.

And of course he did. Hiruzen and Kakashi, well used to Riku’s shenanigans and bouts of what they considered insanity, spoke in the same accusatory, tired but also flat voice.

“What did you do?”

With all the innocence he could muster, Riku gave a feeble “Turned his gift down?”

“WHAT?!”

Most of everyone at the table, Uchiha excluded, exclaimed in shock and outrage, while Kakashi just face planted repeatedly on the table. After years of dealing with Riku and Naruto he had reached his limit. Even Karin cuffed the back of Riku’s head.

“You stupid, idiotic, retard! WHY?! Why did you-” The redhead was lost for words and instead used her chains to tie him up tightly.

“I can’t believe he’s our Hokage.” Sakura muttered.

“Perhaps we could let him finish his side of the story?” Kushina intervened with grace, putting a hand on Karin’s shoulder. Her tone was firm and calm but her face told another story. She was holding back to make a comment. Karin loosened her chains a bit but did not retreat.

“It better be the best reason in the world.” Zabuza said, already fed up with the Konoha-nins bullshit.

“I don’t accept hand me down,” Riku said, reminding everyone of the fact or teaching it to the ignorant. “That’s why I asked him to train me instead.”

Naruto’s face palmed loudly, and Sasuke let out a particular ‘hn’ full of angry disappointment and judgement. Neither of them had thought of that.

“I mean… Time didn’t pass where we were. Of course I would exploit this.”

“And?” Hiruzen asked.

“And I’m half away from being a sage of the Six Paths.” Riku began to channel Yin chakra into his hand and make a reproduction of Konoha’s at ants scale in the middle of the table. “I got the Yin release down. It took a while because as a Senju, I’m naturally more inclined towards Yang. Also, since I was just a soul I wasn’t able to train Yang release but I’ll get it down in no time. Hagoromo taught me the theory thoroughly for that.”

“Do we have the time for you to train?” Haku spoke up for the first time. “I understand that in here time passes faster but not fast enough. Madara and Obito only need a few minutes which would be a dozen hours, perhaps a day for us.”

It was Karin who answered this one. “You don’t have to worry about it. I can charge the Time Seal with the Kyubi’s chakra. It would sustain the seal for far longer allowing us to increase the speed even more. I have calculated that we can spend a year here and only ten minutes would have passed outside.”

“Then it’s settled. We train like mad.” Riku ordered. “Itachi, Zabuza and Haku. Since training won’t do anything for you, you can go back outside and help with the white Zetsu.”

“Thank Kami!” The demon of the mist stood up and went to grab his Kubikiribocho which was leaning against the nearby wall. “I’m done with you guys’ insanity. What’s it with making a deal with the Shinigami and meeting the Sage of the Six Paths?”

He kept rambling as he made his way towards the door. Haku followed him but not before landing a kiss on Naruto’s cheek, making the blonde blush a storm and all his friends snicker. Kushina grinned too, having spent some time with the Kiri kunoichi and liking her very much. She was only a step away from fantasizing about grandchildren.

“Mah~ My student is becoming a man. I’m so proud.” Kakashi swiped an invisible and very fake tear from his lone eye. That made everyone laugh.

Naruto’s answer was immediate. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“It seems you were too hasty, Kakashi.” Riku joked.

“Now, now, don’t listen to them, Naruto-kun! Let the flames of your youth burn bright! Haku-chan is a lovely young lady!”

“Of course you’d say that, she’s from Kiri.” The green beast’s eternal rival gave him a flat look.

Gai’s thick eyebrows turned from neutral to a frown. “And what's that supposed to mean?”

Kakashi’s reply was nothing but infuriating with how loaded it was. “Nothing.”

“Gai-sensei, everyone knows about you and the Mizukage.” Sakura didn’t even bother to sound diplomatic. “Even Naruto and Sasuke noticed and you couldn’t have more dense than those two regarding romantic matters.”

Riku inwardly agreed with the statement but to his surprise his brother did too. Even Sasuke, who was miraculously still there, ‘hn’ with a nod.

Now it was Gai’s turn to blush. Nothing as obvious as Naruto but it was still there on his cheek. Hiruzen, for his part, looked around and felt happy that despite the situation his family could still find the opportunity to joke and relax.