She surveyed the scene with her byakugan, taking in the damage wrought upon the village by the Gobi's sudden appearance. Beside her, a distraught Naruto looked upon the same sight through the window, sadness evident in her eyes.
"Grandpa Dan, he… he was so nice, how is it that he…"
Hanabi closed her eyes and sighed. She admits that she doesn't like the Senju all that much and she knows that Dan knows as well, but Dan has been nothing but kind and helpful to her and Naruto despite it all. She never wished for his death.
She could remember everything she saw with her byakugan, watching the battle unfold from far away as she was forced to hide on Mikoto's orders and by their ANBU guards. She saw how Dan massacred the invading Iwa-Kumo forces, leading elite teams of ANBU as they prevented the intruders from advancing any further. It was like spectating a deadly and mesmerising dance with how Dan fought and she finally saw for herself what it really means to be S Rank.
Still, he died, outnumbered and was already way past the age to be involved in such a fierce battle in the first place. He was living peacefully in retirement for more than ten years ever since the Third War ended, she was surprised that he could still handle the joint might of the ambushing Iwa-Kumo team on his own and thus allow the ANBU to be able to collectively focus on fending off the Gobi. It was obvious to her that the ANBU involved in that fight were assembled for the very purpose of fending off a Tailed Beast, especially the ANBU Commander who was able to magically suppress the Gobi in an instant the moment the rest of the ANBU managed to restrict its movements. She would have almost missed it, but she was sure she spotted the reflection of the familiar yet foreign sharingan design in the reflection of the Gobi's eyes for a short moment.
So, that would mean that the ANBU Commander is definitely an Uchiha, and an absurdly powerful one too.
"I… I feel so useless, 'ttebayo. Everybody is out there giving their all while we are just… just sitting here, being protected. It's like everyone is out there dying for us while we… we… are unable to do anything!"
Hanabi remained silent. To be honest, she is feeling the exact same way too. Everyone she cares about is out there fighting a war while she is stuck here twiddling her thumbs, being protected and feeling as though she is the reason why this war erupted in the first place.
"Don't say that, Naruto. When you and Hanabi finally manage to tame the beast within, we will be relying on you to protect us then. Besides, it's the job of us adults to protect the children until they are strong enough to take over, right?"
"I don't like it…" Naruto mumbled as Mikoto simply ruffled her hair lovingly. Hanabi looked at the clouds outside, her thoughts carried far away as she cannot help but pray for the safety of her loved ones.
Please, come back safely.
"So this is Kumogakure? Village hidden by the Clouds, it's a really fitting name."
"That's the impression people get on their first time here," Hashirama gave a loud laugh as he gave me an impactful smack on the back, forcing me to use chakra to stick my feet onto the ground if I didn't want to be sent tumbling forward. I gave him a scowl, in which he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head in return when he realised that he had accidentally used too much strength earlier.
"Hmph, the last time I'm here…" Tobirama muttered darkly and it took me a while to understand his foul mood. He was ambushed by the Gold-Silver Brothers during a peace talk with the then Raikage, the Second Raikage if I recall correctly, and only a saint would ever forgo an event like that.
"That said, Kumo was being really careful. Just how many barrier seals and anti-spacetime seals did we take down on our way here anyway? It seems that they have a very healthy fear of Minato and Obito," Hiruzen stroked his chin in thought and I let out a frustrated sigh at the memory.
As it turns out, Kumo isn't as stupid as we thought them to be. They had the foresight to prevent teleporters like Minato and Obito from appearing into Kumo directly using lots and lots of barrier seals and anti-spacetime seals. These seals are useless on the battlefield because it takes too much time to deploy, but useful if you simply want to protect an immovable target which in this case, is the village itself. Like Hiruzen, I had lost count on the number of seals that we had to break down or bypass on our way here. Since their presence is unfavourable to Konoha's war efforts, we had decided to take down any and all of those seals we encountered on our journey. However, since it takes a lot of time and effort to set them up in the first place, the obvious conclusion to draw would be that Kumo had been preparing for a drawn out war against Konoha for a very long time now. There is no way they could have set everything up right after the invasion ended, it had to start way before that.
Kumo had been planning for Konoha's downfall for a long, long time. It was never a question if this war would erupt, just a matter of when.
"I know that I didn't manage to reanimate the four of you to your full strength, are you guys going to be okay on your own?"
"Don't worry too much about us, even if it's just half of our original power, four Hokages are enough to level an unprepared and empty village, and you managed to resurrect us at about 80% of our power," Hiruzen reassured me before adopting a sterner tone. "I know you wish for the destruction of Kumo, Haku, but I will let you know that now is not the time to totally raze it to the ground if we want Konoha to remain standing. Do you understand why?"
"Not really."
"You must think of how the other villages will view us if we do indeed destroy Kumo entirely right now. One, while it will show the world that Konoha is indeed powerful, that act alone will be overkill, and too much fear will cause the other villages to react irrationally. Chances are, they will instead choose to band up to fight against us out of that fear, just like what led to Uzushiogakure's downfall. Two, how would the Raikage react when he knew that Kumo is no more? They will have nothing left to lose, and what is more dangerous than a cornered beast fighting to stay alive? They will die trying to annihilate Konoha in revenge and even if we manage to eliminate them eventually, Konoha will be left too weak to properly defend itself from the other neighbouring villages who will use this opportunity to take advantage of us. To manipulate your defeated opponents is to manipulate their illusion of hope. As long as they have something they wish to protect and you are able to control it properly, the cards in your hand will be in your favour."
"Huh, now I see how you led Konoha through three world wars. You really are the "Professor"."
"Usually I would take that as a compliment, but knowing you, it probably is a mixture of something else."
"And an astute Professor too."
Hiruzen let out an amused chuckle.
"I regret not being able to converse with you more when I was still alive. The discussions we had on our journey were very enjoyable. Wouldn't you say so, Tobirama-sensei?"
"Keep quiet, I need to concentrate," Tobirama snapped back while kneeling down on the ground and touching it with a finger. The only response he received was knowing grins from the three other Hokages.
He can deny all he wants, but we all knew that he did enjoy the discussions we had about chakra theory and jutsu inventions. Among the four Hokages, it is well-known that the Nidaime and Sandaime are the more academically inclined ones. They are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to anything chakra or jutsu related and these topics are also my areas of interest. The journey here was boring, so I initiated conversation with Hiruzen about chakra and jutsu, mainly to see if he could help solve some of the roadblocks I had stumbled into in my attempt to better understand chakra as a whole. That caught Tobirama's interest, and he eventually joined in when the topics of discussion were too interesting for him to sit out on despite our mutual dislike for each other. I even got myself a few tips about the Water Release from him for all the trouble.
After a short moment, Tobirama stood back up in his full height.
"I would say that the area around the walls is more heavily defended, followed by the Raikage Tower. No surprises there. Saru did make a point about how we cannot just level the village until nothing is left if we want Konoha to come out as the undisputed victor, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth if we don't get something out of all the trouble they brought to the village. So, here's what I propose. You, brat."
"Hello there, old man. What do you want this brat to do?"
"Your Copy Seal, if it works exactly as you said, I want you to infiltrate the Raikage Tower and copy every single important document that you can get your hands on. I don't care if they are jutsus or information for the Raikage's eyes only or what. As long as they look important, you copy it, and then you hand it over to… what is the name of the Godaime now?"
"Namikaze Minato. Just one question, why can't I just directly steal the documents instead?"
"Are you daft? It's easier to incite paranoia if they knew that their documents were stolen, but have no idea which ones were stolen. Your Copy Seal can do just that. If we just stole the original copy instead, they could easily track which documents we stole based on what is missing and thus, could easily create countermeasures to use the stolen information against us instead."
"I'm just asking, no need to be so snappy, old man."
"I'm just going to ignore you in the interest of time. In any case, after we are done here you handover whatever you copied to this… Minato, I'm sure he can make the most out of this situation with whatever you manage to procure. One of us will send a Shadow Clone with you for your own safety."
"I can do that," Kizashi volunteered.
"Good. Since the anti-spacetime barriers have been taken down, I will get everyone into position with the Flying Thunder God, then we will proceed."
Kizashi had seen all sorts of shinobis in his life. Stable ones, unstable ones, the super unhinged ones, and so on. He's used to witnessing all sorts of eccentricities from his shinobis and he accepts their quirks for what it is. Everyone needs some sort of coping mechanism to deal with the kind of shit that arises in their line of work.
Haku's behaviour, however, is plainly creeping him out seeing as he is just one year older than his little girl. He couldn't imagine it if the child beside him right now is his little girl and is acting in such a manner.
The said boy is humming a merry tune as they waltzed around the breached Raikage Tower. In the background, massive explosions lit up the skies and screams filled their ears and throughout it all, Haku didn't seem even the least bit affected as he went about picking scroll after scroll to copy whatever he deemed important, almost acting as though he's browsing through the collections of a bookstore instead of trespassing in the Raikage Office. It's how he is soaked almost entirely in dried caked blood (Probably Kushina's blood as the boy remained by her deathbed, he reminded himself), the slight skip in his steps, the merriment in his tune, how he's simply apathetic at how people around him are being butchered by yours truly and how he acted as if he doesn't care even if he was killed right now, like he's so callous with his life. He had seen such callousness in his shinobis before but usually these are jaded and old veterans, not a child that just graduated from the Academy.
Nevertheless, the Kizashi Clone did his duty in demolishing the defence to the Raikage Tower, allowing them access into it. Even if he is just a Shadow Clone of a reanimated corpse that is barely at their full strength, the title of Hokage meant power. Disposing of their foes was never an issue when their best soldiers were already sent to the frontlines.
Haku picked out a scroll from a nearby shelf, unrolled it, looked at it for about two seconds before dangling it in front of him.
"Does this look important to you?"
The Kizashi Clone gave the scroll a quick glance while crushing the windpipe of a Kumo shinobi with his left hand. He spotted keywords like "trade route", "defences", and came to a decision.
"Copy it down."
The unlikely duo headed further inwards. Any seals obstructing their way forward, Haku broke them within seconds. The most complicated seal they came across only took him only half a minute to break thus far. Seems that Minato and Kushina had taught him too well. As for everything else, the Kizashi Clone will handle it.
"Jinchuriki training programme. Oh, this is important. Turtle Island navigation chart… Yup, this one too. Oh, that reminds me, we should totally steal the Amber Purifying Pot too, that will piss the meathead off."
"Good idea," The Kizashi Clone agreed. "Such items are usually stored within the Kage Tower itself, let's keep looking for it."
"If only one of us here has the byakugan now, things would be so much easier," Haku lamented dramatically and hearing the tone of Haku's voice, Kizashi decided that the screws in Haku's head had been thoroughly loosened after everything he has been through recently. Haku easily sidestepped a struggling Kumo shinobi trying to stab him in his dying breaths without even looking at him before mercilessly crushing his windpipe with a chakra enhanced stomp of his heel. What looked like a half-hearted toss of a senbon from him found its mark, embedded within a kunoichi's eye who was camouflaging from their view and trying to assassinate him. The violent spasm that followed told the Kizashi Clone enough that the senbon had been coated with poison and from the looks of it, probably the nasty Yamanaka variant.
"Minato did mention that you didn't use your senbons as often ever since the one month training he put you through during the exams."
"There's no need for senbons when I have enough chakra to use my ice. I only use them in scenarios like this, where I do not have enough chakra to spam my Ice Release willy nilly. Speaking of chakra, why don't you try overloading the seal on that wall there?"
The Kizashi Clone punched the wall with a ton of Yang chakra, causing the seal to instantly overload and fizzle out. The Fourth Hokage unceremoniously kicked down the wall afterwards.
"And we found our prize," Haku declared with a little too much flair that is usually uncharacteristic of him. He took out one of the many storage scrolls they had robbed from the storeroom before swiftly sealing Kumo's treasures in it.
"Have we left out anything else?"
"Let's see," The Kizashi Clone began to count off his fingers as he recounted what they had so far. "We pillaged the library, the office, every other room we saw along the way, checked for hidden doors and basements and copied everything important we saw and even stole their legendary pot. I think that ticked all the boxes?"
"No, there's something else I want to do to piss him off even further," Haku decided as he exited through the nearest broken window and walked up the wall, brutally smashing the head of another fallen Kumo shinobi who was about to breathe his last for suffering from a crushed windpipe, courtesy of the Fourth Hokage clone. The clone followed after the boy and watched with morbid curiosity as the boy took the corpse with him, went up to the top of the tower, ripped off the symbol of Kumogakure etched on the top of the tower, and in a macabre series of movements which Kizashi would secretly admit is fascinating to watch, drew out the blood from the poor corpse in his hands. The crimson blood gradually gathered and pooled into a large blood sphere floating just above the boy's hands, gradually sucking the corpse dry until it was nothing more but a dried mummy before Haku unceremoniously kicked it off the Raikage Tower. Under the boy's command, the blood moved as though it had a mind of its own, painting the top of the Raikage Tower red in a symbol so familiar to Kizashi in place of Kumogakure's own.
The Konoha symbol. Oh, this is outright mockery. Ay would be popping more than a few blood vessels and the boy would be making an enemy out of the entire Land of Lightning. The boy, on the other hand, looked extremely proud and satisfied with his handiwork.
"I really couldn't wait to see the expression on the meathead's face. The decision to make the trip here was probably one of the best decisions I made in my life."
"Your behaviour is honestly starting to worry me, but I guess you are not going to listen to a single word we say anyway. In any case, we've finished what we came here for, so... shall we?"
"By your leave, Hokage-sama," Haku did a dramatic bow, extending his arm towards the center of the village and the Kizashi Clone decided, heck, why not? He was often remembered for having a goofy and dramatic persona anyway.
So, he decided to do the exact same bow as the explosions outside punctuated the extreme mismatch between the content of their conversation and the reality outside.
"After you, Haku-chan."
"Just surrender, Minato! There's no way Konoha can win against both Kumo and Iwa!"
"You talk too much."
Flashes of yellow and blue criss crossed and clashed among the chaotic battlefield as shinobis from three of the Big Five were trying their best to slaughter each other in the shortest time possible. Far ahead, Obito and Kakashi are doing a great job in holding Onoki back. He could also spot the Slug Sannin slugging it out with the lava coated Roshi with Itachi providing backup. He is also sure that the shinobis he assigned to keep an eye on lethal threats like Killer Bee and Darui are also doing their best in holding them back.
They just need to hold the line long enough for Tsume and her team to reach Kumo, and then the tides will turn in their favour. They can only place their faith in their comrades to complete their mission as they complete theirs in order to win this war.
"We already killed Fugaku and Dan, it's just a matter of time before the same fate befall the rest of your precious S Rank shinobis!" Ay released a powerful punch which Minato dodged by a hair's breadth before he returned a slicing blade of wind in kind. "Our shinobis outnumber yours by at least three to one, there's no way that you can win!"
"A little birdie told me that you and Onoki sent some of your guys to take a stroll by my village's walls," Minato replied as his wind coated kunai clashed against Ay's arm bracer once more.
"What, you like the gift we left behind?"
Minato smirked as he estimated the time based on the position of the sun overhead. Any time now.
"It was a really huge present, so it would be impolite of us to not return the favour, wouldn't it?"
"Don't be a smart-ass, you think we would be so careless as to allow you to use our plans against us? You seriously believe that we wouldn't have contingencies, especially with two well-known teleporters in your village?!" Ay called his bluff as he punched another crater onto the ground when his fist missed Minato once more.
"Not so confident now, are you?" Minato taunted when he spotted the extremely subtle uneasy fidgeting of his archenemy. He was about to head into the fight once more when he felt the long-awaited signal from his messenger toad, and he smiled.
Perfect timing.
"Since you don't seem to believe in my claim, how about I go bring back some… souvenirs from your village?" Minato suggested insidiously and with a signal, Kakashi disengaged from the battle he is having with Onoki and replaced Minato's position on the battlefield to face Ay in battle. Kakashi and Obito will be fine on their own, Minato has faith in their skills to each face a Kage solo in battle.
"There's no way-" Ay shouted before his eyes widened when he finally realised that Minato really isn't bluffing, that maybe Konoha had indeed found a way into his village despite the layers and layers of barriers and anti-spacetime seals they surrounded it with months before the Chunin Exam took place.
"NAMIKAZE MINATO!"
Ay leapt towards the Hokage like a furious roar of thunder, intending to do whatever it takes to prevent him from teleporting over to Kumo and reenacting the very same deed that made him so famous and feared in the Third War right in his beloved village. Thunder met lightning as Kakashi's purple lightning forcefully halted Ay in his tracks, allowing Minato to slip away.
That Hatake brat-!
"You heard sensei, he needs to leave for a moment to do a little grocery run in your village. Come to think about it, he still owes me a Kumo souvenir or two. Don't worry, knowing him, he's not going to take very long."
"I WILL KILL YOU!"
"Your mission is to infiltrate deep into the Land of Lightning and find your way into Kumogakure. You will bring along my tri-pronged kunai, plant it in the strategic locations that you will be memorising, and signal to me when your part is complete through the messenger toad that will be following you."
If Inuzuka Tsume has to be honest, the contents of this mission is pretty much similar to countless other missions she had been on throughout her career. For her, her missions are usually either infiltration or tracking because those are her specialisation. However, this mission is simply different because the stakes are so much higher the moment Iwa joined the party. According to the Hokage, the fate of the entire village will be counting on them, that is how important their mission is.
The fight had become a lot more difficult after Iwa allied with Kumo; even the greenest genin can see that. Chances of victory for Konoha are getting slimmer and slimmer as the seconds ticked by. They had lost several S Rank shinobis already and they cannot afford to lose more, and that is not even mentioning how they are being outnumbered by their opposition in terms of military might.
So, Minato had decided to gamble. The main forces will hold the joint Iwa-Kumo forces for as long as they can while Tsume and her team infiltrate the Land of Lightning. Just like how Iwa and Kumo had taken advantage of the weaker defences in their village when everyone was being sent out for war, Minato also had the same idea. However, while Konoha had enough S Rank shinobis to spare Dan, an S Rank shinobi and an ex Hokage candidate to stay behind and protect the village to keep any potential losses to a minimum, Kumo had none of those currently in their village; they had confirmed the presence of every single S Rank shinobi of Kumo in their earlier battle and also from the ANBU Commander stationed within the village during the Gobi invasion. Meaning to say, right now, Kumo is theoretically defenceless against any S Rank threats unless they had more cards up their sleeves that had not yet been shown, which is unlikely.
Their plan to sneak in through the backdoor and strike at the heart of Kumo would be too obvious if any of their S Rank shinobis were to suddenly go missing from the battlefield for extended periods of time, which meant that only Minato or Obito could get this job done due to their expertise in space-time ninjutsu and ability to appear halfway across the Elemental Nations within seconds. There had been preliminary reports that there might be anti-spacetime barriers being put in place within the Land of Lightning itself, and bumping into those would result in a very nasty accident for any teleporters attempting to teleport straight to Kumogakure, so taking these down had also become a priority if they encountered any. Minato had put his foot down and decided that he would be the teleporter to go to Kumogakure, which meant that their job was to get Minato's kunais straight into the village for him to be able to teleport in there and reenact the destruction that the Gobi inflicted on their village in their absence. If there are any anti-spacetime seals that they encounter along the way, they would break it down with the combination of Hizashi's byakugan and the application of a special seal design Minato had given them for this very purpose.
She still thinks that their newly minted Hokage is crazy. Crazy, definitely crazy, but she won't deny how the tides would turn the moment if they succeeded and hey, she had never claimed to be the sanest or the most logical person around. That is Shibi's job. She can handle a little crazy.
The stakes involved meant that the Hokage had sent the best of the best within their village for this mission. It's just the three of them; her, Hyuga Hizashi, and Aburame Shibi. The typical tried-and-tested never before failed Inuzuka-Hyuga-Aburame infiltration and tracking team wonder that is the mimic of her son's very own genin team. With Hizashi's eyes, Shibi's bugs, and her and Kuromaru's noses, they evaded every single person in the Land of Lightning, becoming figurative ghosts as they sped towards Kumogakure on a time limit.
Even then, with three seasoned jonins on the team who are the best in their jobs, none of their experiences had ever prepared them for this when they finally reached their destination. She had figured out that something was very wrong when they encountered none of the theorised presence of the anti-spacetime seals, and that feeling grew when her nose had picked up the heavy scent of blood coming from Kumogakure itself when they are closing into their destination, something which is also confirmed by Kuromaru, and Hizashi had also immediately used his eyes and confirmed that yes, Kumo is on fire for reasons unknown, but seeing is believing only when she finally saw it with her own two eyes from where they had hidden themselves high up on a nearby mountain just right outside Kumogakure.
"Oi oi, tell me that I'm not hallucinating. How on earth are our prayers answered?"
On one side of the village are massive water dragons steamrolling through the Kumo shinobis left behind, still desperately trying to stop whoever had invaded the village from causing more collateral damage. Massive trees and flowers had magically sprouted from the other side of the village and that is impossible, because that definitely had to be the work of the Wood Release and the sole Wood Release user is still on the frontlines and there's no way that the wood boy could make trees grow that big in the first place. If she squinted her eyes and looked, aren't those… monkeys? Monkeys causing mayhem in Kumo? But the only person who could possibly call upon so many monkey summons into the human world had recently died trying to defend the village.
"Call me crazy, but why do I feel as if our past Hokages had somehow come back to life and decided to help us?"
"It can't be, we were told that the Sandaime had sacrificed his life to seal the Shodaime and Nidaime, ensuring that they couldn't be summoned back ever again," Shibi rationalised. "But… I agree, it does feel as if this is the work of our Hokages. Hizashi, what do you see?"
"That's…" Hizashi's eyes widened in surprise upon finally getting a visual. "Sandaime-sama?"
"Are you serious?!"
"Wait," Hizashi spoke up, and it didn't escape his teammate's notice regarding how alarmed Hizashi is, as alarmed as a Hyuga could be. "The sclera of his eyes, it's an Edo Tensei! It's a reanimated Sandaime-sama!"
"While I like to see Kumo burn, this isn't funny. If it's indeed the Edo Tensei then there has to be a controller, who on earth is controlling them?"
"I'm searching," Hizashi replied, a little frantic at the implications of what it means to have a deceased Hokage reanimated without Konoha knowing about it. "They spotted us."
Tsume and Shibi were immediately on guard and true to Hizashi's words, the reanimated Hokages flickered to their positions just mere seconds later. On closer inspection, their worst fears were true, their Hokages were indeed being reanimated.
"Brother, I told you I wasn't imagining it when I said I sensed Konoha shinobis here. See, Hyuga, Inuzuka, Aburame; I would pick up any of their chakra signatures anywhere."
"Oh, don't sweat the details, it just sounded ridiculous when you told me that there are Konoha shinobis right here in Kumo and hey! More Konoha shinobis! It's always nice to meet people from the future generations! Hi there, are you guys winning the war?"
"Yon...daime...sama?" Tsume muttered, unable to respond to Hashirama's words as her eyes fixated on a familiar figure. She was slack jawed at the sight of the Hokage which she had been working under for more than a decade.
"Yo, Tsume. Oh, Hizashi and Shibi are here too. Uh…this is a little awkward but... hi? Long time no see?"
"Glad to see that the three of you are still alive," Hiruzen added with a smile before turning back in the direction of the village burning in the background. "This should allow the village to hold some bargaining power in the war we were told about, so tell Minato not to worry and to focus on the things at hand, we already have things settled here."
Throughout it all, Hizashi's attention was very quickly drawn to the blood soaked figure that shouldn't be within the ranks of the Hokages, someone that he and his brother had been trying to find ever since he and Kushina were declared missing in action. He is covered in so much blood, hair so unkempt, and just looks so overall ragged that if it wasn't for his byakugan confirming his identity through the unique colour of his chakra, he wouldn't have recognised the boy immediately on sight.
"Haku, is that you?"
"Oh yes, the brat, you can have him back."
In one swift motion, Tobirama picked the boy up by the back of his shirt before he could protest and threw him towards the little group. Haku managed to land gracefully on his feet and shot the Nidaime with a very irritated glare. Hizashi could care less as he immediately knelt down and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders, systematically checking the child for any injuries. From the looks of it, he's physically fine other than the obvious signs of chakra exhaustion that he is barely recovering from.
Tsume, being the more cautious out of the three, immediately pulled Hizashi back.
"Wait, I don't want to be the one raining on your parade, but is it really him? I mean, he went missing for about 48 hours now."
And could possibly be an imposter went unsaid.
"There is no disguise that can escape the notice of the byakugan," Hizashi argued, but relented upon seeing Tsume's stubborn gaze. Fine, it doesn't hurt to be careful in times of war.
"Haku, tell me something that only the two of us would know."
Haku gave a tired sigh, but complied nonetheless.
"The dumplings you and otou-san folded are atrocious, and the lame excuse you guys gave was, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder."
"That's him alright," Hizashi immediately confirmed before Haku could divulge more about the dumplings he and his twin tried to fold. Tsume would never let him live it down if she ever learnt about it. Hizashi released a sigh he never knew he held, at least he managed to find him.
"Haku, where is Kushina?"
The mood plummeted almost immediately upon Shibi's question.
"She died," Haku stated, his voice holding almost no emotions as though he was talking about something insignificant, but the blank and hollow look in his eyes told a different story. "Her last act was to release the seal over the Hokages' souls and to give me what was needed to use the Edo Tensei as a last resort. I decided that ending the war would be faster if I could use the Edo Tensei to summon the Hokages and launch a preemptive attack on the village itself rather than heading for the frontlines. The Hokages agreed with my idea, and here we are."
Tsume exchanged looks at her teammates, then back at the boy.
"Funny, that's what we are here for," Tsume brought out one of the tri-pronged kunais that she was tasked to bring over, showing it to everyone present.
"The anti-spacetime seals were already taken down, so that kunai is your ticket out of here, you wouldn't need us any longer. In that case, our jobs here are done, so we will leave Haku and the village in your good hands. Thank you, everyone," Kizashi said with a big smile as his reanimated body began to glow white.
"You don't want to see Sakura one last time?" Haku asked, to which Kizashi shook his head as the rest of the Hokages began to be enveloped in a shine of bright white light as well, choosing to head back to the Pure Land now that their task is complete.
"I had already said my goodbyes. Saying them twice is just… not cool. And Haku?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad we got to talk. Thank you, for everything, and also sorry, for everything."
"I think we are past that point now. Anything you would like me to tell Sakura before you leave?"
"Just… tell her to not be a couch potato, I guess?"
"... That's it?"
"That's it."
"Don't ever call on us ever again. The next time, I won't be so lenient," Tobirama warned, arms crossed with his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"The next time, I would make sure to put in a control tag before summoning you, how about that?"
"You are just asking for it now-"
"I think he's got spunk! We need more youngsters like him!" Hashirama laughed in his booming voice before turning to Haku. "While we may not see eye to eye on many things and your views regarding shinobis certainly does worry me, I still view you as one of our own. You said you are not welcomed in the village because you are an outsider. My wife was one too, and if she could integrate herself into the village, I believe you can too. You said that you do not understand the Will of Fire, which is fine, but I will tell you that what you are doing now is already exhibiting what it means to believe in the Will of Fire. Your godmother died, yes, and it is truly regretful that you have to go through such an ordeal, but she is still living through you. Her legacy, her hopes and dreams, she had passed it down to you and that to me, is the Will of Fire, and I believe you will understand it eventually."
"I think what needs to be said has already been said," Hiruzen said with his usual grandfatherly smile. "It was enjoyable discussing chakra theory with you, Haku. You have always been a strong child, so I have faith that you can pull through eventually. Just don't forget that you are never alone, I'm sure that you have friends and loved ones who are always ready to support you."
The remaining four living Konoha shinobis watched as the souls of their deceased Hokages gradually separated from the living sacrifices that they were bound to by the Edo Tensei. They watched, enraptured by the sight, as the souls rose into the sky before dissipating into the Pure Land.
As if a string had been cut, Haku stumbled on his feet, but was swiftly caught by Hizashi before he could really fall.
"You've been reckless with your chakra usage again," He pointed out, seeing very clearly with his eyes that there were telltale signs in Haku's body that he had forcefully replenished his chakra before depleting it all almost immediately, and had definitely done it repeatedly. It is not a very healthy process and could possibly cause irreversible damage to the chakra pathways.
"The war is even more reckless," Haku snarked before gesturing to the four corpses of the living sacrifices who were used as vessels for the reanimated Hokages and lying on the ground. "Are we going to do something about that?"
"I will clean up the mess," Shibi volunteered. "Tsume, you might want to call the Hokage over."
"Yeah, I hear you," Tsume grumbled as she fished out the scroll Minato had given her and unrolled it, took out a vial of his blood and dripped the blood onto the seal inked on the scroll before using a summoning jutsu. A small messenger toad popped into existence as it waved her a hello with its webbed feet.
"Is it time, ribbit?"
"There are… some change in plans, but yeah, we need him to get us out of here and preferably soon. I'd imagine the Kumo bastards would eventually locate us given time, we are too deep in their territory and too close to their detection range."
"I'm on it, ribbit."
The toad poofed out of existence and Tsume threw the tri-pronged kunai in her hand a few feet away from her, letting it stab into the ground. Seconds later, their Hokage appeared before them in a yellow flash.
"Tsume- Wait, Haku?"
Their Hokage is obviously shocked by Haku's presence and Tsume honestly can't blame him. The boy looks like an utter wreck right now.
"I wasn't able to save her," The boy croaked in a raspy voice the moment he saw his godfather. "I… I… I'm so sorry, I…"
She saw. She saw the look of shock in their Hokage's eyes, which very quickly morphed into sorrow and subsequently understanding and acceptance. He walked up to the boy without hesitation and drew him into a hug, not even caring how bloodied and dirty he is right now and how it had stained his Hokage cloak.
"Don't be. You are alive, and I'm sure she is happy that you are alive. Don't be sorry, I'm sure you tried your best. You did very well, Haku, leave the rest to me from here on out. We will make Kumo pay, we will make them bleed."
Haku remained motionless, unresponsive to all stimuli. Minato gave a quick sweeping glance at the burning village down below, silently asking his subordinates for an explanation because the original plan was to let him be the cause of the burning village. This sight of Kumo being razed is a pleasant surprise, but still unaccounted for in the original plan.
"From what we know, Kushina left Haku with the Edo Tensei and somehow freed the souls of the Shodaime, Nidaime, and Sandaime before she… Anyway, the boy had the same idea you did and led the reanimated Hokages here. This was what we were already greeted with when we arrived, we even had a chance to talk a little to all four of the reanimated Hokages before they decided to, uh, pass on."
Tsume gestured towards the burning village at the last part of her sentence before pointing to the used vessels that Shibi is currently removing from existence using his bugs.
"I see now," Minato nodded his head in understanding. He did give the scroll to activate Edo Tensei to Kushina for safekeeping, he just wasn't expecting it to be used in such a manner. He carefully passed Haku over to Hizashi, who had fallen unconscious from exhaustion shortly after Minato pulled him into a hug, disappeared for a short moment, teleporting away in a yellow flash before reappearing before them once again.
"I've finished what I came here to do. I'm getting us out of here, we need to head back to the frontlines and discourage Ay from waging a war for any longer," Minato ordered as he left a discreet Flying Thunder God seal on a nearby rock just in case he needed to make a return trip in the future. The Konoha shinobis gathered around their leader upon his signal.
In the next second, they disappeared in a yellow flash.