- Orochimaru -
"Are you sure this is the full information, Kabuto-kun?" He asked, reading the file with keen interest.
"Yes, Orochimaru-sama. This is everything I could find. After Danzo's death and the Third Hokage's abdication and Fugaku Uchiha's ascension as the Fifth Hokage, the security of the village has gone up. Everyone is on an extremely high alert at all times and moving anywhere without notice is extremely hard. I was only able to send this clone with great difficulty."
Oh yes. The Third Hokage abdicated… and now an Uchiha was Hokage.
He had the urge to laugh out loudly at the whole thing.
Sensei had shunned him and they had shunned the Uchiha too and yet… now an Uchiha was Hokage while sensei and his friends were all but ostracized.
The First Hokage was Hashirama Senju and after him, his brother Tobirama had taken the seat. No one back then had complained as he was indeed the most suitable person for the job.
The position of the Third Hokage however was not stable from the start.
After all, the circumstances under which he took the seat was anything but ideal.
The guards of the Hokage, escaping and being given the position of the new hokage… obviously he was doubted by many.
It was only due to the support of the Senju Clan, their allies and Mito Uzumaki and later his own strength in the war that he was able to shut up the voices and stabilize his position.
This support however was for various reasons.
Throughout history, everytime someone becomes a leader of a large organisation or state, their family and allies always rise and profit. It is inevitable.
There will always be some dark matters hidden when someone controls a position as high as that of Kage.
It was also one of the reasons why they always want the next in line to be one of their successors. So that they would keep the coffins buried, if not for them then at least to preserve their own credibility which could be questioned due to their relationship.
Poor Sakumo Hatake was also a victim of this. It was the same in other villages too. Sand was the same and so was Water, and Orochimaru didn't think there would be any way this would change. After all, it was very easy for the leaders to control the public's opinion.
A person becomes a kage when they are recognised by the public… what no one ever says is that this recognition… is controlled by the current leaders.
It is very easy to send someone they want removed to a suicide mission or just declare them traitors, completely elimination any chances they have of becoming a kage.
If things were truly fair, Danzo would have been six feet under the ground decades ago.
This time however someone had broken the cycle.
What would you do now sensei? All your failures have come out and now the person you wanted the least has become the Hokage.
Danzo was now blamed for the Nine Tails incident while the Uchiha Clan came out as victims of the whole thing…
What would happen next?
Would Fugaku let the buried skeletons rest or would he air their dirty laundry in front of the whole world?
Would the Uchiha, with their personalities, let everything go?
Orochimaru had planned to take revenge for his sensei's betrayal by invading Konoha one day and taking his life with his own hands…but now it seems leaving him alive was the best revenge.
He shook his head and looked at the file and his expressions turned serious once more.
"Is this really true?" He asked. He had already known some of it from the rumours… but it was so strange that he found it hard to believe… and yet… here it was…
"This was something heard by Tsunade-sama herself… and after seeing their powers I couldn't help but agree with them…" the clone spoke, his eyes staring off in space as if remembering the incident.
Yes… the power…
Indeed, the power that was displayed was beyond anything he had ever heard.
Even the Valley of the End, the legendary site where the God of Shinobi had fought Madara and the Nine Tails paled in comparison…
A country wide trench, the power to instantly freeze everything in the said trench and a large part of the surrounding ocean and finally… the moon…
Dragons and Gods…
They really existed.
All of a sudden, there was a whole new world opened in front of him.
Orochimaru has had a contract with the Ryuichi Cave and even the White Snake Sage of the Ryuichi Cave could only dream of dragons… and yet, now they exist.
Not only do they exist but also have such great power, power far surpassing anything ninjas can imagine.
He had visited the trench which was filled by the debris of the moon and found that it had been covered by forests. Not only that, the entire place was now full to the brim with Natural Energy and a different type of energy. In fact the concentration of Natural Energy in the forests was even better than that of the Ryuichi Cave.
He had even captured some animals from the forests to research them and find out their secrets.
What he had discovered was that the leftover energy in the forests was invading and changing the bodies of the animals, turning them into chakra beasts.
If things progressed like this, it wouldn't be a surprise if another Sage Land rose up in those forests in a few decades.
What kind of existence could bring about such a change with a stray attack of theirs… he didn't know… but he was fully willing to devote everything he had to find out.
"...maru-sama, Orochimaru-sama…" His thoughts were broken by Kabuto's clone's voice and he looked at him.
The clone brought out a packet with a… ramen bowl and several pairs of chopsticks…
"What is this?"
"Apparently, another dragon, a young one… had visited the Ichiraku Ramen with the nine tails jinch… Naruto Uzumaki…" Kabuto suddenly changed his words. "There they had ramen before the Third Hokage and Jiraiya arrived. This bowl and chopsticks… are from then."
Orochimaru's eyes widened as he understood the meaning and quickly grabbed the packet and looked at them carefully. Could it really… could this chopstick really contain the DNA of a Dragon?
- Fugaku Uchiha -
"The situation in the Northern Border is tense. There have been several skirmishes across the borders but they haven't attacked us outright."
"They must be testing our response to see how we react after the… incident in the village." Shikaku responded.
"Kiri is in a Civil War after the war with Konoha stopped just two years ago. Iwa won't be the first one to make any moves, knowing Onoki's character, he would sit on the fence and watch. Suna is officially in alliance with Konoha so they have better ways to test waters than to send someone to cause trouble at the borders. It was mainly Kumo who had been waiting for a chance." Hiashi said, a dark glint passing through his eyes was not missed by Fugaku.
The incident with the Kumo Head Ninja must still be a thorn in his side. While a politically correct decision, something which had avoided much bloodshed, handing over Hizashi Hyuga was probably the last thing Hiashi wanted personally. It was no wonder that he accepted standing against the Third Hokage and his regime so easily.
"We have managed to crush each and every one of those skirmishes. Might Guy, Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya-sama are personally leading the defences so the borders are stable."
"Good. Make sure any attacks on the borders are repelled with extreme prejudice. We must not give anyone any chance to think that Konoha has weakened due to… the incident." He completed.
"Yes Sir."
"What of the investigations of the Yamanaka's investigation of the captured Root Members?" He asked Shikaku.
Shikaku frowned. "It's not good. There are just too many things which could drag Konoha's reputation down through the mud, even have the Fire Daimyo ban us as an organisation if it comes out. We cannot disclose many of those or Konoha would be ruined completely. If it hadn't been Inoichi himself leading the project, I would be having second thoughts about removing the ones involved completely."
"Have the information sent directly to me. Is it enough to have the previous advisors brought under custody?" He asked.
"More than enough."
"Good… make sure they don't commit suicide when they are brought under. Have every Yamanaka sign a confidentiality contract, if possible reinforce it with Fuinjutsu."
"Hmm, I will talk to Inoichi about it."
As they talked there was a knock on the door.
"Come in."
Tsunade entered the room and sat down in one of the empty chairs, letting out a sigh.
"The Daimyo?" He asked.
She nodded. "Yes. They are getting impatient."
"How is the matter of the shrine going, Hiashi?"
"The construction has been completed with the help of the Wood Style ninja Yamato they were hiding. I personally assigned him to finish the shrines before moving to other parts of the village. The rest is the decoration and idols of the… Gods… that will be taken care of by the monks of the Fire Temple. I expect the work to be completed by tomorrow or the day after." Hiashi reported and Fugaku could also see the four shrines in place of the four heads of the Hokage on the mountain. The stairs to the shrines were still being constructed.
"What does the Daimyo want now?" Fugaku asked.
"He wants the shrines to be under the monks of the Fire Temple."
"... that's not possible." He denied immediately.
The Fire Temple was a force of its own. They had their own ninjas and while they didn't participate in any conflict except protecting the Daimyo, it didn't change the fact that they were a force different from Konoha.
Letting another force, one not under the control of the Hokage, take room within the borders of Konoha would be the same mistake as Hiruzen Sarutobi who allowed Root to take hold. Moreover, these Fire Temple people wouldn't even be answerable to the Hokage, making them even more of an unstable factor.
"Well, the Daimyo is still playing around with the idea. It is not exactly an order… yet." Tsunade continued.
"Shikaku?" He asked.
"Hmm… it's troublesome. Let's see. Daimyo is currently scared out of his mind. I don't blame him. Even I have nightmares. If we downright deny his request… he could make things difficult for us… and we cannot afford that to happen. Especially now when all villages are looking at us from all sides. We need the Daimyo's complete support. Hmm… we could propose a middle ground. The Fire Temple monks could stay here but they will have to sign a contract with Konoha… something we can decide to term however we like. If they deny it, it would prove that they have other intentions and the Daimyo can then be swayed to our side. If they don't… well, having a few monks monitored in the village wouldn't be such a big deal."
Fugaku thought about it for a while and nodded. "Then let's go with it."
There was another knock, this time on the window of the room.
He turned around to see… a toad.
Ah, Jiraiya's toad.
He opened the window and received the message scroll from the toad.
The toad nodded and disappeared.
He opened the scroll and read the contents and a frown appeared on his face.
"What is it?" Tsunade asked.
He passed the letter to her, letting her take a look.
She read and sure enough there was a frown on her face too. "Mutated Animals in the forests of the moon trench? Natural Energy… this…"
"Do you know about Natural Energy?" He asked.
"I have some ideas." She explained the basics and soon enough the whole room was silenced.
"Send Jiraiya a message to investigate the whole forest. Have some of our people capture some animals from there. Tsunade, since you have a contract with the Shikkotsu Forest, you will be in charge of inspecting the changes in their bodies. We need to deal with it as soon as possible. Since the entire trench was destroyed and recreated the number of animals there would be quite low. We need to act quickly before it becomes a bigger problem."
"Yes."
It was just one thing after the other.
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Author's Note:
I am back with another chapter of 'Isekai Restaurant'.
Several things happened in this chapter.
Silas and Sakura had a moment.
We had the party and finally the System Level Up.
As promised here is the Orochimaru Pov as well as the struggles of Fugaku Uchiha as the Hokage.
The trench made by Milim has magicules from her which are known to mutate animals and plants. Sure it was covered up by Lucoa's magic, one belonging to a Goddess of Creation but that also means the place now contains remains of her magic mixed with the Magicules.
How will this change the Land of Fire and the Elemental Nations as a whole…
Next chapter we might see the much anticipated meeting between the servants of the 'Supreme Beings' and I might write something about the Dxd side of the story.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Good Day, Peace Out.