Before we reached the village, Jiraiya bit his finger and performed the hand seals to summon a toad.
"Alright, Gamatoksu, you can expel it," he told the summoned toad.
"This is going to give me a sore throat," the toad remarked, beginning to regurgitate the rogue ninja one by one.
After expelling all the men from its stomach, Jiraiya gave it a cookie as compensation.
"I'm too old for this; if this is what you needed me for, I'll be going," and with a puff of smoke, he vanished.
"Alright, I'll go inform the Hokage about our mission; meanwhile, you stay here and guard the rogue ninja," and with a Body Flicker Technique, Jiraiya disappeared.
Once Uncle Toad was gone, I approached the men to check on them.
"What are you doing?" Minato asked, looking at me like I was some kind of freak.
I pulled my hands away from the mouth of the unconscious rogue ninja and looked at him.
"I was just wondering why the mission required us to bring them back alive; they must be important," I explained, which stopped Minato from asking questions.
...
"None of the ninjas you brought were particularly special; they were all ordinary. What a shame. At least they'll serve as sacrifices," Orochimaru said, leaving the ninja's body, no longer unconscious but gagged.
"That's why you brought him, but it doesn't change the fact that you need bloodline limit users to conduct the experiments," Danzo said, looking at Orochimaru.
"In the village, what bloodline users do we have?" he asked, looking directly at me.
"Sharingan, Byakugan, Wood Release; I could include the Kurama clan, but there aren't any others," I said, eating a pie a Root ninja had brought me. "But dōjutsu can be transplanted, and Wood Release was going to use them last, so we'll need to go elsewhere to find fresh specimens."
Danzo nodded at my statement.
"Which one should we start with?" the old mummy asked, and Orochimaru and I just stared at each other.
...
"So you have to go on a mission with Orochimaru, and on your birthday, how lucky. How old are you turning, six or seven?" Tsunade said. I knew she was saying it to annoy me, which she succeeded in doing.
"I'm turning ten, and you're supposedly my mother. What a great mother," I complained at her comment.
"Supposedly? I gave birth to you, and it was one of the most painful things I've ever been through. You're not going to take that pain away from me," Tsunade retorted, but I decided to ignore her.
At that moment, Hitori approached me with some papers.
"And what are you going to do with that land you have in the Fire Capital?" she asked curiously.
"I'm going to open a candy shop," I declared.
Tsunade and Hitori stared at each other, not quite understanding.
"A candy store?" she asked, now confused.
"We need a place to launder money; these things don't exist in the capital. It'll be perfect, and with all the space in the back, we can set up a drug factory," I said, keeping an eye on the papers.
Silence filled the room.
"A drug factory?" Tsunade said incredulously.
"Yes, where else could we set one up?" And with that, we decided not to discuss the matter further.
I needed the drug factories so I could experiment with my weapons and ninjutsu. In fact, with Mokuton, I could grow certain plants with pollen that had quite varied properties, including poisonous ones.
That wasn't written in the books and was never shown in the series; you could say I discovered it accidentally while experimenting more scientifically with the wood element.
I could also get rich selling marijuana, but that depends on how well my finances are doing.
...
I was already at the Hokage Tower with Orochimaru and two guys no one knew, but who were Pedomaru's accomplices.
"I'm sorry to bother you on your birthday, but it's urgent. Danzo told me there's trouble on the border with Suna, and Orochimaru asked me to include you in the formation to go there," the old monkey said with a hint of pity. I couldn't tell if it was genuine or fake, but I didn't care.
"Don't worry, Uncle Hiruzen, my duty to the village is more important than anything." That pleased the monkey, and he smiled at me smugly. I hope that puts his mind at ease and makes him think I'm going to the dark side or something.
Pedomaru chuckled knowingly, since he knew that wasn't the case.
"Before you go, I want to give you this," he said, tossing me a jōnin-rank vest, which took me by surprise.
"The leader of the Senju clan shouldn't remain a Chunin, especially considering your achievements and abilities; you more than deserve the rank of Jōnin; consider it a birthday present," he said, like a great uncle giving his niece a large sum of money.
Seeing this, I couldn't help but smile. Suck it, Minato and Kosuke. I beat you, and especially you, Kakashi. I beat you in the age range to become a Jōnin. It's worth remembering that Minato and Kosuke are turning 14 and 13, respectively.
"Thank you very much, Uncle Hiruzen," I said with a bow.
"Don't worry, you earned it; now you can go and carry out the mission," he proclaimed, continuing with his paperwork, but I knew that the moment we left he'd go for his crystal ball.
When we left the Hokage Tower, Orochimaru approached me.
"Congratulations, Miyu-kun, on becoming a jōnin," he said creepily.
I just gave him a tired look.
"Is there any way I can speak like a normal person, a button somewhere, or do I have to sacrifice 100 virgin girls for you to do it?" I said, somewhat annoyed.
That silenced Pedumaru, who was thinking about what I'd said.
"Well, you can—" he started, but I interrupted him.
"No thanks, I don't feel like it; let's just complete the mission," I said, turning to head for the village gates without paying any attention to his expression, since I didn't care what happened to this being with human skin—if you can even call his eyes, skin, and build human—what happened to him.
...
As we traveled along the road toward the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, I pondered the plan we were about to execute.
The idea was to search the Land of Wind for a bloodline user, specifically a Magnet and Embrace user; from there, we'd go to Iwa, pass through Kumo, and finally end up in Kiri.
It would be a long journey, but Danzo was already there backing us up, and since the old monkey likes to follow the mummy's tail, we should be fine.
We were traveling in a diamond formation, with me at the front and Orochimaru at the rear.
Everything was going well, or so I'd like to say; I felt as if Pedomaru's two NPCs were ready and waiting to attack. Even if there was nothing there, I was nervous; something smelled fishy.
Out of nowhere, a snake appeared beneath me and swallowed me whole.
I should have suspected it.
Inside the snake, I felt it trying to crush me, which bothered me most of all because of the lack of oxygen.
I sensed the three outside standing there, doing nothing.
I see; if she wants it, she'll have it.
Drawing the Etto, I infused the chakra with the Mokuton element, transforming the sword into wood, and made a hand seal.
The sword expanded, becoming a tree with several branches piercing the snake, killing it instantly. But I didn't stop there. The branches that sprouted from the snake went straight for the three, piercing them as they were taken by surprise.
I emerged from the snake's mouth to see the two dead NPCs. The first had a branch through his skull, and the second had a branch through his entire ribcage, drowning in his own blood.
I also saw Pedomaru emerge from the mouth of his own corpse, looking as good as new, or at least that's how it appeared.
At least 5% of his chakra was gone with that. I always wondered if I could do that infinitely, but I see I can't.
"I always suspected you liked playing with children, but it never crossed my mind it would be like this," she said, trying to provoke him.
"I just wanted to see the Mokuton in all its glory, and let me tell you, it's quite terrifying," he said, looking at the jonin's corpses. Perhaps he attacked them while they were off guard, but that doesn't diminish the immense power of the wood element.
"Something tells me you're lying," I said, holding Etto in a fighting stance.
"Clever," he said, doing the same. "The truth is, I don't understand why we have to search for specimens when we have the best one right here to study and dissect; doing this is foolish."
"If it bothers you so much, talk to Danzo; see if he agrees with you." I may have brainwashed Danzo, but not Pedomaru. I didn't think he'd be so warped so quickly, but the fact that he's working alongside the mummy is a sign.
"You plan to attack your squad leader; that would count as a minor desertion, Miyu-kun, kukuku," the snake said.
"The mission is to seek bloodlines from another village, but if you're not going to do it, then you're not the leader of this mission; so what I have in front of me is just my enemy, nothing more." And with that, I lunged forward with a swift slash.
Pedomaru quickly blocked with a kunai; in response, I changed the nature of the sword to wind, making it sharper, cutting through the kunai and Orochimaru's arm in the process.
But he didn't flinch. From his severed arm, several snakes emerged, ready to attack me, so I had to jump back to create some distance.
"Kukuku," Pedomaru laughed, gathering the snakes to form his new arm. This tells me that if he's capable of doing that, it's not his main body.
(Note: I don't remember much about Pedomaru's combat abilities, especially his ninjutsu, since he had damaged arms for most of the series, and when they were working, he used Edo Tensei. But that's just my perception; it's not how it actually happened.)
Quickly, I threw a kunai with several explosive talismans, which created a shockwave that threw me off balance because of how crazy I was.
As soon as I passed through the shockwave, I sensed the snake's presence behind me.
I quickly kicked it, which caught it, but my strength was enough to send it flying backward.
"Kukuku, is that something from the wood element or is it something from Tsunade?" he asked curiously while opening and closing the hand that had blocked my attack.
"I'll tell you if you shove a burning iron pipe up your ass and pull it out through your mouth," I said, a little annoyed at the sound of his laughter—or maybe it was just his voice.
"Kukuku, I expected nothing less from his daughter. She has almost the same vocabulary, but I think you swear more than she does," he declared, launching himself at me in a taijutsu match.
Being so close, I could only respond quickly, blocking his attacks and counterattacking with Etto.
Pedomaru only responded with a kunai, showing that he didn't yet have the Kusanagi.
"Nice sword, what if you give it to me?" he offered.
"Over my dead body," I replied.
"That's the idea," he said, kicking me so hard I crashed into a tree, breaking it in the process.
I spit out a little blood. I have to admit, this guy is better than they at hand-to-hand combat. But taijutsu isn't my specialty.
As my body healed naturally, I stood up again to see the snake looking down at me with a superior air.
I glanced around and smiled, something Pedomaru noticed.
"Despite being called the Land of Fire, the place is full of forest; you know what that means." At my statement, the snake's smile vanished. I buried the sword, now in its wooden form, and spoke. "Wood Release: Birth of a World of Trees Jutsu."