Walking through the many rooms of the underground Root base, Kakashi navigated most of them with familiarity, the many glass jars full of labeled clan parts. Some read Yuki clan, Hozuki clan, Hoshigaki clan, Terumi clan, Kaguya clan, Karatachi clan from the Land of Water alone. More clans from various nations numbered the shelves, but the Land of Water was the most prominent one, being that of Kiri's blood-mist policy.
Tobirama took all this in, following along. letting his eyes wander over every label, the names of the ones whose bodies were collected, their age, chakra levels, and if they had awakened a clan Kekkei Genkai or not.
Kakashi unsheathed his sword and slashed through a suspicious wall, which collapsed to reveal the bodies of Uchiha clan members suspended in a liquid solution. Their eyeless sockets made the scene especially disturbing.
Even more disgusting was the newborn babies, a sight that wasn't uncommon in the ninja world, but nowhere to this degree all at once.
'Itachi, you're truly crazy.'
Kakashi sighed, looking away from the mangled corpses of the Uchiha young.
"This…"
Tobirama's gaze paused over a young Uchiha boy, his mind remembering the death of his brothers at the hands of the Uchiha in the warring state.
'This is not the paradise you hoped for, Elder brother. It's hell, no different than our time.'
Kakashi and Tobirama continued exploring, discovering rooms filled with bodies of young Root trainees. These trainees had been subjected to unsuccessful cell injections from various clans, resulting in death. Many victims were Konoha orphans pressured into Root, with those lacking talent forced into experimentation to serve Danzo's goals.
Tobirama read over every clipboard of the subjects in the tube; every child found with even a sliver of Senju DNA was injected with Hashiarama's cells, and surprisingly, his own cells, as his were less violent and potent.
"You talked about a young man who survived the experiments. What was his name?"
"Tenzo, but he prefers me to call him Yamato when he's working."
Kakashi replied with amusement, showing that he never calls his friend by 'Yamato'.
Tobirama nodded, setting down the last clipboard after reading through everything.
Kakashi walked to a cabinet and opened it, seeing some spare Sharingan in glass containers. He grabbed one with only the preserving solution, opened it, placed Shisui's eye in it, and stored it safely in a storage scroll he stole from a drawer of this twisted lab.
"I'm sure there's more, but we'd have to explore deeper."
Tobirama shook his head and walked out.
"No, that's enough."
Kakashi waited a moment before following along silently, making their way back to Danzo's corpse.
"It should be burned, right?"
"Yes."
Tobirama spared the body of his student one last glance before Kakashi's fire jutsu enveloped the body whole.
Kakashi paused before leaving, remembering something about Torune being used in the war later on, turning and burning his body as well, leaving nothing for anyone to resurrect him, even the ground where his blood once puddled was scorched black.
Leaving the base, Kakashi and Tobirama discarded the Root robes. Tobirama picked up his armor, and Kakashi slung the rags of his vest over his shoulder, and they left casually.
"You got what you wanted."
Tobirama spoke up as they were tree-hopping.
"What did Danzo do to you?"
"He leaked my father's mission to other nations, spread rumors after he failed to complete the mission, leading to his suicide, and then handed over his body to Orochimaru to use against me in this invasion. And that's all just my father."
Kakashi replied simply.
Tobirama nodded, remembering all Kakashi had explained about the late Fourth Hokage and the events following his death.
"You're strong."
Tobirama complimented genuinely before they both went silent as they headed back to the Hokage tower.
- Hokage Tower -
Arriving and entering the Hokage's office, Hiruzen looked up, Jiraiya sitting on the window behind Hiruzen's right shoulder.
"You look ragged, Kakashi."
Jiraiya said teasingly.
Kakashi nodded with a small smirk.
"Father is strong."
"Sakumo was brought back?"
Hiruzen coughed in the middle of a deep drag of his pipe.
"Yeah, the Fourth Kazekage too."
Kakashi blinked, having forgotten about Rasa entirely.
"Hahahah! So that's why he was found without his limbs just lying in a street."
Jiraiya laughed hard, having been the one to seal Rasa after he was discovered by the older Ino-Shika-Cho.
"Rasa didn't say anything?"
Kakashi asked after Jiraiya controlled himself.
"He forgot about me."
Jiraiya replied.
"He said that one time, then refused to talk after that, just lying there with a blank stare."
"It was a little funny."
HIruzen agreed.
"So, where were you two anyway?"
"Killing Danzo."
Kakashi replied as if telling the weather.
Jiraiya nearly fell back through the open window.
"You killed Danzo?"
Kakashi shrugged.
"Lord Second did most of the work; I just punched a hole through his chest."
'My special move'
Hiruzen stayed silent, meeting his sensei's gaze as if he were a genin again.
"I know-"
"DO you?"
Tobirama raised a brow, pinning his student with a gaze that he often ran from in his early years, mostly because it came with a stinging water whip.
Jiraiya stiffened and jerked his head towards the window, Kakashi nodding slightly and following along, leaving the aged Hokage to the sharp tongue of his sensei.
Hopping a good distance away from the tower, they landed and leaned back into a shaded wall.
"How bad?"
"About as bad as bad can get."
Kakashi replied.
"Lord First's cells made into an arm that stored Sharingan in them for a secret Uchiha jutsu that allows one to sacrifice an eye to rewrite their death. He had 10 Sharingan embedded in his arm and one in his eye, which was always wrapped in bandages."
"Lord, second had to kill him 11 times?"
"No, I didn't let Danzo use the last eye, ripped it from his skull after punching a hole through his chest."
Jiraiya hummed.
"Eventful day."
"For the whole village."
Kakashi nodded, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
"How are my students?"
"Safe. Naruto managed to defeat that Garra kid, and he let the boys' siblings get him. Sasuke is fine, just low on chakra, and Sakura was helping evacuate the civilians with some other genin. They were guarded by Gai and Kurenai after you left."
Jiraiya explained, looking at Kakashi strangely.
"Isn't that eye draining your chakra?"
Kakashi hummed, enjoying the breeze before both eyes snapped open.
'The Sharingan….. It isn't sapping away at my chakra anymore. Why? It's not sealed.'
"I have no idea… I haven't really been relying on it lately, so I haven't really noticed."
'I haven't used the Sharingan since gaining Yin/Yang release… was the bloodline more than I thought it was?'
"I plan to take Naruto to go find Tsunade. Sensei has gotten too old, and I doubt he'd want to continue being Hokage with Lord Second scolding him right now."
Jiraiya laughed softly.
"It was not a pleasant sight."
Jiraiya could only imagine what the two discovered down in that base.
"I don't really want to know, but it would be wrong of me not to."
"Lord Second said something along those lines as well."
Kakashi explained everything found in the base: the various body parts belonging to clans across the Elemental Nations, the eyeless Uchiha bodies, babies, and failed Root experimental trainees.
"That's just the stuff we decided to explore. There was more, but that alone was enough."
"Orochimaru and Danzo, dead in a single day."
Jiraiya muttered like he couldn't believe it.
"Orochimaru is dead, but not fully. The curse marks, remember? Each one has a piece of his soul, and we don't even know how many he has placed."
Jiraiya groaned.
"Of course it couldn't have been that easy, never is with him."
Jiraiya let the topic drop and returned to the matter at hand.
"Like I was saying, I'm going to take Naruto on a trip with me to bring back Tsunade. After we return, I want to take you to see the Great Sage in Mount Myoboku. He might know more about your situation with that eye of yours."
Kakashi nodded, eager to meet the Sage as well after what Jiraiya had previously told him.
"Did you ever make contact with Terumi Mei?"
"Ah, yes, the smoking hot resistance leader. It's a shame that she could melt my balls."
Jiraiya briefly relented at not being able to gather material while in Kiri before he stopped joking around.
"Yes, I have informed her of the potential alliance that we can form, and that while we wouldn't be sending a full force, we could arm them with weapons and fuinjutsu. She was accepting of the deal, but she requested you after one of her resistance captains specifically mentioned you by name. I believe he was that demon child… No, demon of the mist, Zabuza, yes, that was it."
- Chapter End -