Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter, coming in right on time. Next three chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
The ground was a mess. There were several massive scrolls cutting through the courtyard in the clan head's house within the Uzumaki compound. Between them were quite a few smaller scrolls as Grandmother Mito directed what looked to be a small army of Kushinas from place to place. I could spy some familiar bits of script and knew they were working on my project. But with how little I found familiar, I could see that they had gone far away from my initial plan.
"Lo, Grandma, Kushina," I said, dropping in from above and landing next to the woman that had raised me in this life. She looked up at me, irritation visible in her gaze.
"Why didn't you tell me you were working on something like this?" she asked.
"I wasn't. Not seriously, at least. It was just something some clones were looking into in case the worst ever did happen. What happened to Iwa isn't likely to happen to us with me here, but there's a chance," I said. She hummed in response.
"Tobi did have a plan for if the village was ever attacked, but nothing this... ambitious," she said. Nothing in her voice said whether she thought the ambition was a good thing or not.
"Ambition is what we need. We're going to be facing a threat at the level of nothing that my Granduncle could ever have foreseen," I said.
"And how exactly do you plan on powering this? I don't even know if we can safely build it. But I know that if we manage it, it would be the largest seal in the recorded history of the Clan," she said.
"A tailed beast has a lot of juice, no? Just get the seal done, please. I'll find you the battery you need," I said, and then I was gone in a flicker of space once she gave me that assertive nod.
Minato did not flinch as I appeared in the middle of his apartment. Instead, he finished the set of pull-ups he was working through. He was shirtless, revealing an impressive physique. Around his waist was a belt with several seal scripts on it. Something to increase his mass when he had to move it while preventing that increased mass from affecting anything else. Clever. I doubted that bar would have been able to support the fifty tons of weight he was pulling up.
He landed with a thud once he was done, and I tossed him the towel on the chair next to me before I took a seat.
"Need anything, Sensei?" he asked.
"I think at this point you should be aware that you are the one I have chosen to succeed me in the position of Kage," I said. He nodded. It wasn't much of a secret. Basically the whole village knew it at this point. He had competition, of course, but my implicit endorsement would make him the forerunner if I passed right here and now. But that came with an issue. Strength.
"You lost to Madara. Barely even made him work for it," I said. He scowled but didn't contradict me. In a way, it was unfair, expecting a teenager to kick about on even footing with one of the most dangerous beings in the world. But I didn't expect it, to be honest. Even I hadn't been able to manage it.
"But that's fine. I lost to him as well. Without Uzume, he would have killed me. I didn't have any answers to him. My fighting style has tended more and more towards breadth rather than depth. I have many answers for every problem and not a single answer for the really hard ones. You have the exact opposite problem. Your barriers are something special, but they cannot be the only answer you have to combatants above a certain level. The Wind armour is a good lever. I want you to keep pushing it, but I also want you to look into these for me," I said, and handed him two scrolls.
The first one he unrolled and gasped, near taking a step back. The second made him go take a seat on the bed.
"Sensei?" he asked.
"For the second, show it to the toads and see if they can help you with learning how to make it useful. I'll see if I can help Kushina and Mikoto learn it as well, but their summons don't have the tools to teach it so I would have to handle their training myself. As for the first, I trust you to figure it out. Something tells me you'll have a knack for it," I said, and then I was gone from there as well.
The Konoha Fuinjutsu R&D division was always in a state of perpetual chaos. Today was no different. Two explosions went off upon my entry, and I heard Reiji's voice ring out and followed the sound to find him scolding a pair of women with the smouldering remains of what looked to be a lot of silk behind them.
They bowed with all of his words, giving apologies while he kept on going. He didn't stop until my hand was around his shoulder. Both of the women gave me grateful looks as I started steering the older man away.
"Shori? What's going on? We're still working on the barrier. Nothing to report on that end," he said as I guided him back to his office.
"I know. I can see it. But that's not what I want you to work on for now. I want you to make something for me," I said.
"Make something? What do you want? A weapon?" he asked.
"Don't worry. Nothing so unambitious, I assure you. Are you familiar with the kohaku no johei?" I asked.
"The mythical tool of the Sage that can seal anything? The Amber Purifying Pot?" he asked.
"Precisely that," I said.
"We can't make something like that," he said almost instantly.
"Don't worry, I'd never ask you to make a treasured tool of the Sage," I said, and waited for his sigh of relief before I said,
"I want you to make something better."
His eyes widened more and more as I explained just what I needed. I gave him a scroll with a few ideas I had about how he could go about making it, and he accepted it before nodding.
"We will try not to fail you," he said, referring to the entire R&D division that was now being reassigned from the barrier to this other project. Making the barrier better wouldn't work as even something like the Four Crimson Ray Formation, which was the pinnacle of defensive barrier techniques, required four Kage-level shinobi to perform and even then had been broken by Obito, the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. If we would be facing opponents on the level of Kaguya, then we would have to think differently.
Once I was sure there were no follow-up questions, the Flying Raijin took me to my next destination, the hospital.
Kagame did not look up at me as I appeared in the morgue, but she definitely knew I was there as she began speaking.
"They are terrifying," she said. When she looked up from the body she was cutting into, there was a wide smile on her face.
"Are they?" I asked, even if I did agree with her assessment, I wanted to see what she had noticed.
"Their bodies are something else. Evolved to survive on a planet with orders of magnitude more gravity than ours. Their bones are stronger, their skin tougher, and their cells? Out of this world," she said with a smirk. I gave her a chuckle at the joke. It was bad, but not the worst I'd heard from her, sadly. Not even close to it.
"On a more serious note, their cells are almost alive independent of them. This man has been dead for so long, and rigor mortis has not even begun to set in. I've had the body out without sealing it up for half a day now and not even the vaguest signs of decay have begun. They have so much yang. More yang than you. More yang than Kushina or even Mito," she said.
"More yang than Hashirama?" I asked.
"Maybe. I never got to heal your grandfather. His wounds closed themselves of their own accord more often than not," she said. I nodded.
"I want to do something. I'm not even sure if it will be possible. But if the yang is as strong as you reckon and as I suspect, then I wonder if we could..." I said, trailing off.
"Transplant some of the cells to yourself?" she asked, catching the drift instantly. Sharp as ever.
"Would it be possible?" I asked.
"It would. Most likely it would. Your genes are surprisingly compatible, you know? There's some overlap here even despite the alien nature of his. Enough that it lends some credence to the story that Ishiguri fellow spun for you," she said.
"But then the benefits would be marginal. Maybe if it had been done at the moment of your birth we'd have seen something, but to be blunt, you're too damn strong for it to do much now," she said.
I sighed, part of me having expected that answer. The Otsutsuki had genetic gifts that even my own blessed heritage could not measure up to, but he was still not stronger than me despite them. His yang chakra was stronger than mine, but not strong enough. But then the question inevitably became, what if he was stronger? This was a scout. What could be done with a General? Or even better, a Royal?
"And if I managed to get a stronger specimen? Let's say several orders of magnitude stronger?" I asked.
Kagame looked into space for a second, putting her thoughts together in real time.
"Then we'd be talking about something transformational," she said. Lovely. I just had to kill a fucking god. And make sure I didn't lose all my people in the doing, and speaking of that...
"What about for the weaker shinobi? Could something be made out of this one's cells? A serum or something of the sort that gives our shinobi a boost. Even 10-20% could mean the difference between life and death," I said.
She looked down at the body again.
"Theoretically. But I won't be able to figure out how to make something like that in time. My expertise is not in things like this and you know it," she said. Fuck. Fuck me. There was one option. Orochimaru had not outwardly done any of the bullshit he would get up to in canon, but he was a genius when it came to science. If I put his prodigious talent and Kagame in the same room, then what could they build together?
But that would require trusting a man that I knew was fucked in the head. A man that wanted me dead. But the village was more important than me, and the earth even more so. If Orochimaru could help, then he had to. I had to trust in his love for the village, and there was only one way to leverage that.
"I'll get you the help you need," I told her and then marched right out of the hospital afterwards. I had seals all over the Sarutobi compound, but there was no point in broadcasting that fact. Just appearing in their midst would be seen as a threat, which would only be a useful way of going about things if my plan was to threaten or intimidate them. I wanted Orochimaru's help willingly.
When I reached the compound, I was met with guards at the gate. Two of them wore old-fashioned armour that served as their uniform, a grey plate that covered only the vital areas.
"Hokage-sama," they greeted in unison, bowing but not swinging the gates open instantly. Interesting.
"I intend to see my predecessor," I said to them.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. Haru here will go check if Sandaime-sama is in," the older one said. He had black hair that was tied back at the shoulders and a severe appearance made stately by the wrinkles that framed his face.
"There is no need. I can see him well enough. I'll make my way to him. You can follow if you want," I said, stepping past them and straight for the gate. This was a gamble, of course. There was a chance that they would not open the gates. In that case, I would either have to bypass the gates or break them down. Either would be an escalation. Thankfully, the gates swung open at my approach. The one named Haru and the older man that had named him fell in step behind me.
The Sarutobi compound was middling when it came to size. It was one of the larger clans in Konoha, but even its hundreds of members were a fraction of what the Uchiha and Hyuga could boast. They outnumbered us Uzumaki by some margin, of course. But basically everyone outnumbered the Uzumaki. At least they didn't have that Hyuga trait of basically everyone looking the same. The Clan head house was at the end of the road that the compound opened up to.
Hiruzen had stepped down as Clan head in favour of his son, and so he stayed in the house right next to it. It was a Japanese-style bungalow. Massive, but still somehow humble from the outside. I stopped at the door and it slid open before I could knock.
"You're the Hokage," a boy said, looking up at me. He looked to be close to his ninth or tenth year. Old enough to be in the Academy for sure. Asuma Sarutobi. Third in his class, my mind supplied. He was in a stacked class with a lot of names that I had recognised from canon the last time their grades had crossed my table.
"Yes I am, Asuma-kun. How are you?" I asked. The boy's eyes widened as I said his name. And then he was gone, running back into the house.
"Asuma, I said no running in the house," a voice called out and then she came into view. Biwako Sarutobi.
"Oh, Shori. It's you," she said. I smiled. She was friends with Grandma Mito despite the somewhat large age gap between them so I offered her a greeting as she waved me into the house.
"I mean to see your husband," I said.
"He's in his study. Let me take you," she said.
"I haven't seen Mito in a while. Last time we were talking about the fabrics for the decorations of the wedding venue. Has she been able to sort them out? I told her Aburame silk would be too expensive but she seemed adamant. Please tell me someone was able to sort that out. For my son's own wedding, we used silk from the Fire Capital and it was beautiful," she said. I smiled and bore the questions about a wedding that I would probably have to postpone once more. A wedding when aliens were coming was bad taste.
When we finally reached the study, she slid it open and there he was. Hiruzen Sarutobi. The man was in his early forties and should have just been middle-aged considering how long chakra could keep you going for, but he looked like an old man already. His skin had wrinkles, and while most of his hair was still the black of youth, there were grey strands to be spotted here and there.
He was in the middle of a painting on his desk. It was a landscape of the village. Looking around the study told me that this was far from his first attempt.
"You have a guest, Hiruzen," Biwako called, making him look up from the painting. His face was worn. He gestured for me to take a seat opposite him.
"Thank you, Biwako. You wouldn't mind giving the Hokage and I some privacy, would you?" he asked with a kind smile sent her way.
"I will put some tea on the fire," she said, turning to leave.
When she slid the door of the study closed, Hiruzen turned his gaze to me. I met it.
"What do you want, Shorirama?" he asked. I smiled at the attempt to get under my skin. If only he knew that I didn't mind being called by my name at all. Titles were boring, and my name was the most respectful thing he could call me. Why? Being Shorirama Senju was greater than being Hokage, far as I was concerned.
"Your help, Hiruzen," I said. His lips twitched at the use of his first name, but he said nothing about it. The hypocrisy would be astounding if he did.
"To what end?"
"I met Madara, you know?" I said. He flinched backwards at the name.
"Madara Uchiha, rival of my own Grandfather, but young and at the peak of his powers. I saw him, I fought him, and I almost beat him," I said. His brow rose higher and higher as I gave him the story of what had happened.
When I was done, he cleared his throat and took a sip of the tea that Biwako had brought in during my tale.
"And if that is all true, what business do I have with it? I am no longer the shinobi I once was, as you are well aware," he said, and to his credit the bitterness in his tone was almost imperceptible.
"Orochimaru is who I need," I said, taking a sip of the tea and enjoying the heat and the taste.
"Are you not his Kage? Command and he would follow," he said. I scoffed.
"This is a delicate topic, and a delicate hand is needed. Getting straight to the point, we know that you steer the reins. I want Orochimaru to bring his best efforts to a project of mine that would see a good amount of our shinobi saved. You can ensure that happens, so I am here," I said.
"In that case, I am persuadable towards the cause. Saving our planet is a worthwhile goal, of course. But I would be remiss to not push Orochimaru's interests forward at the same time," he said.
"And what are those interests?" I asked after taking some time to take a longer sip of the tea. This was nothing unexpected. Hiruzen was the kind of man that could never stop himself from playing the game.
"He desires the hat," he said.
"I will not cede my seat," I said. Hiruzen scoffed.
"I would be a fool to ask. But should it ever become empty, then you will write a will saying that the choice for the next Hokage must be left to the Clan Council. You will name no successor," he said. I smiled at that.
"Deal," I said, almost laughing at the victory in his eyes.
When the time came, Minato would be the obvious candidate. No other outcome would be possible.
"Orochimaru will report to you by tomorrow," he said.
A/N: Shori isn't really giving anything that he cares much about here. Minato is his chosen heir and he has his whole lifetime to ensure that the Clans see no other choice. Next chapter comes on here by Wednesday night. Next three chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.