Chapter 234 - The First, Second, Third, and Fourth, Summoned Back
Iwagakure's palette was relentlessly grey. Grey mountains, grey buildings, almost no green anywhere. What color existed came from the Rock ninja themselves - their clothing ran in warm shades of red and brown, vivid against all that stone.
There was also something notable about the physical variation among Iwagakure's people. They tended strongly toward one extreme or the other - either enormous and broad, built like small mountains, or compact and short, barely reaching most people's shoulders. When both types stood together the contrast was striking.
Today was exactly that kind of occasion.
The Third Tsuchikage Onoki had come out personally to receive the escort unit. He was short - genuinely short, almost comically so. Yet the Rock ninja clustered around him were almost all large, rough-hewn men who looked like they had been carved from the same cliff faces they called home. Among all those rocks, Onoki was unquestionably the hardest one.
When Kitsuchi spotted his father, his feet moved on their own. He broke ahead of the group, crossed to Onoki, and drew the storage scroll from where he had kept it against his body. He presented it with both hands.
"Tsuchikage-sama. The Rinnegan has arrived safely."
His voice came out slightly high. His hands were trembling.
Onoki looked at his son - large as a mountain, hands shaking - and a faint disappointment moved through his eyes. He let out a quiet sigh. That fragile composure under pressure made one thing clear enough.
The Tsuchikage's seat was never going to belong to Kitsuchi.
Not that the alternatives were particularly inspiring. Among Iwagakure's younger generation, Bunka was capable but weaker than Kitsuchi. Han was the Five-Tails jinchuriki, which complicated things in its own ways. Akatsuchi was physically powerful but not sharp enough. They all had their problems, and none of them were ready to carry the village.
He pressed the thought down and reached out to take the scroll. He opened it immediately and lifted out the glass jar, holding it with care.
The Rinnegan floated in its nutrient solution. He stared at it.
His mind wandered in spite of himself. Could these eyes be established as a bloodline in Iwagakure? Could a lineage be built around them, the way Konoha had built its legacy around the Hyuga's Byakugan and the Uchiha's Sharingan? Those two clans inspired equal parts envy and admiration.
The thought was somewhat absurd and he knew it.
He didn't understand research. But Bunka's letters had been plain - Konoha had spent more than two months on the Rinnegan and come away with almost nothing. Their agreement to transfer it may have been driven not only by the threat of a four-village coalition, but also by genuine recognition that the research difficulty was extraordinary and that no one was likely to make meaningful progress.
The letters had also been clear about something else: if Iwagakure actually discovered something during its two-month window, Konoha would simply take the Rinnegan back by force.
Getting the Rinnegan was only the beginning. Whether the two months ahead would produce anything was an open question. If nothing came of it, should he hand it to the Cloud Village per the agreement? If something did come of it, how to protect that discovery - ideally keep it to themselves...
The headaches ahead were many.
He raised his eyes to look over the escort unit. The Sand, Cloud, and Mist ninja didn't earn a second glance. Only one person in the group warranted real attention.
Konoha's White Yaksha.
Among Konoha's current generation - setting aside the established names of the older era - three fighters had made their reputations in the Third Shinobi World War. The Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato. The White Yaksha, Hyuga Ritsu. And the Body Flicker, Uchiha Shisui.
If Minato had built his name stepping over the heads of Rock Village's strongest fighters, then Hyuga Ritsu and Uchiha Shisui had built theirs stepping over a pile of Mist Village corpses. Ritsu had nearly wiped out the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist in combat, then killed the Six-Tails jinchuriki in a direct confrontation. Reports even suggested that the coup which ended the Third Hokage's era had been driven by Hyuga Ritsu, and that the Hyuga clan itself had undergone a profound transformation under his leadership.
According to reports from his own people, the Hyuga clan now seemed to be stronger than it had ever been.
What a waste, Onoki thought privately, that talent like this had been born in Konoha.
Ritsu stepped forward at that moment, smiling pleasantly.
"Tsuchikage-sama. We'll be imposing on your hospitality for the next two months."
The Sand, Cloud, and Mist ninja said nothing. They had tacitly accepted Ritsu's position at the front of the group. Their assembled unit had no real cohesion and probably never would, but someone had to take point on logistics and communication. With Ritsu being the strongest person present, that fell to him by default.
Onoki looked at him, and his reply was not particularly warm.
"You Konoha people held onto it for more than two months."
Ritsu's smile didn't waver - if anything it deepened slightly. He met Onoki's eyes directly.
"If your Rock Village had our capabilities, you'd have been welcome to try holding onto it longer too."
Entirely unambiguous. No pretense at diplomacy. Just the plain truth of how the shinobi world worked - strength decides.
Onoki was caught briefly without a response.
But the old man had been forged in decades of hard politics, and he reset within a heartbeat. A smile spread across his weathered face.
"You're right. Konoha's fist is biggest, so naturally everything Konoha says is correct. Whatever you put out, it must smell wonderful."
"That's going a bit far. We have no interest in calling wrong things right."
"...Confident, aren't you."
There was something close to genuine respect in the way he said it.
Ritsu smiled quietly.
"Enough talk for now, Clan Head Hyuga. You've all had a long journey. The village has prepared a welcoming banquet - please, everyone, come in and rest."
Onoki gestured for the group to enter.
Ritsu looked up at the gate of Iwagakure, then walked through it in long strides. Kakashi, Akiba, and Aika fell in close behind him, followed by the Sand, Cloud, and Mist ninja.
Of everyone in the group, the Cloud ninja received the coldest reception from Iwagakure's people - even colder than the Konoha ninja. The Cloud ninja harbored deep resentment over the death of the Third Raikage. The Rock ninja harbored their own corresponding bitterness: in the battle where the Third Raikage had fallen, Iwagakure had also paid a tremendous price, losing more than a thousand of its own fighters.
But the welcome banquet was a genuine welcome banquet, not a trap.
However much Iwagakure resented Konoha and the Cloud Village, they were also perfectly aware that harming any of these people would mean war - against both Konoha and Kumogakure simultaneously. A village that had already bled heavily in the Third Shinobi World War was not in any position to invite another conflict.
After the banquet, Ritsu and the others were assigned quarters and settled into their extended stay in Iwagakure.
Deep in the night.
On a mountain peak outside the village walls, four figures stood looking down at Iwagakure below. Three of those four figures had crimson eyes.
"Tatsuhata. What if I just take the Rinnegan for myself?"
The one who spoke had crimson eyes and blue-black comma-shaped earrings hanging from both ears.
"If you genuinely have the ability to take it on your own, I'll let you hold onto it for a while. You have my word - if I break that promise, may I die without a grave to my name."
Tatsuhata said it easily, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
In his opinion the question was meaningless. He didn't believe Orochimaru could recover the Rinnegan alone. But he needed Orochimaru to commit fully, to pin down Hyuga Ritsu - that troublesome piece - inside Iwagakure. A generous promise cost him nothing.
Of course, if Orochimaru somehow beat the odds and actually pulled it off, Tatsuhata would break his word without a second thought. He didn't particularly care whether he died without a grave. If it meant achieving his dream, he would accept any cost, up to and including his own destruction.
"Die without a grave."
Orochimaru gave a small laugh and ran his tongue across his lips. "Fine. Whatever scheme you're running, I'm not going to worry about it. I'll do everything I can to take the Rinnegan. You go do what you need to do."
He stopped paying attention to Tatsuhata after that.
He brought his hands together, formed the seals, and drove both palms hard into the ground.
Forbidden Art: Reanimation Jutsu.
Four coffins erupted from the earth.
Each was marked with a character on its lid. The first read "First." The second, "Second." The third, "Third." The fourth, "Fourth."
The coffin lids swung open. Four dead figures stepped out - unsteady in appearance, but absolutely immovable in the way they carried themselves.
"Madara?"
Black hair, red battle armor. The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, saw Uchiha Madara standing there and his expression became grave. "What is this?"
"This is... Iwagakure?"
White hair, pale blue battle armor. The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, surveyed the surroundings and identified the village in an instant.
"Orochimaru?"
The Third Kazekage fixed his eyes on Orochimaru. "You're behind this?"
"You - you! Tell me. What happened to Sunagakure?"
The Fourth Kazekage Rasa stared at Tatsuhata with killing intent leaking from every part of him. His body was restrained - otherwise he would have moved on Tatsuhata already.
Orochimaru had reanimated four figures: the First Hokage, the Second Hokage, the Third Kazekage, and the Fourth Kazekage.
The first three had been sourced from Orochimaru's own collection. The Fourth Kazekage's cells had been provided by Tatsuhata.
"Rasa? What happened to the village? How did you die as well - did Sasori betray you too?"
The Third Kazekage stared in surprise at the Fourth Kazekage standing beside him.
"Madara! Tell me what is going on here."
Hashirama raised his voice at Madara, demanding answers.
In an instant, everyone on that peak was talking simultaneously. The noise was considerable.
Orochimaru snapped his fingers.
All four reanimated figures went silent by force. The Second Hokage Tobirama's brow furrowed as he attempted to form seals and dismantle the forbidden technique he himself had originally created.
He could not move.
The quality of the vessel he had been summoned into was too poor. His strength was below half of what it had been in life. Resisting the caster's control was not feasible.
"Hashirama. In the state you're in right now, you're too weak to even be worth fighting."
Madara stood with his arms crossed, looking across the years at his old rival. His emotions were difficult to name - complex and layered in a way that resisted simple description. But reason won out over feeling.
"We have actual work to do. Next time I have the opportunity, I'll put you down myself."
Hashirama's brow set hard. "Madara. What are you planning now?"
Orochimaru startled.
He moved quickly, forming seals to reinforce his control over Hashirama before anything else.
Hashirama glanced at Orochimaru, then at his own reanimated body. The power available to him was far below what his body had carried in life - less than a tenth of it. Breaking free from a caster who carried both his own cells and a Uchiha Sharingan was not going to happen quickly.
"Suppress their minds."
Tatsuhata's instruction came out flatly.
Orochimaru walked to each of the four reanimated figures and pressed a prepared talisman into the base of their skulls, one by one. The moment each talisman entered, the light behind their eyes went out. They stood in place like standing corpses, still and waiting.
"The First Hokage is genuinely dangerous," Orochimaru said with a light laugh. "I nearly lost control."
"Hmph."
Madara looked sidelong at Orochimaru with poorly concealed contempt. "Neither of you truly understand what Hashirama is capable of. If the vessel you chose had been even slightly higher quality, we would have needed to fight him before doing anything else."
Orochimaru's mouth curved. He said nothing.
Tatsuhata spoke. "Enough. Madara. Orochimaru. No more talking. Our window is limited and it's time to move. If we miss this, everything that comes after will be harder."
He extended his right hand.
In the cool silver light of the moon, pale lines of chakra thread poured from his palm, twisting around each other. Within moments the threads had woven themselves into a human shape - white hair, a fur-trimmed pale blue battle coat. A perfect match for the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama standing just a few meters away.
A replica of Senju Tobirama.
His Mangekyo's Toyoakitsushihime technique copied another person's chakra signature and used it to reconstruct everything that person had ever known - every technique, every ability - then wove that chakra into a replica body using its living threads.
Until recently, he had focused that technique on living fighters who were still active in the shinobi world.
But reading Madara's notes had broken that habit of thinking. There was no reason to restrict himself to the living. His technique copied chakra. As long as there was chakra to copy, it didn't matter whether the source was alive or dead.
That realization was what had driven him to hunt down Orochimaru. He had been gambling - gambling that Orochimaru possessed the Reanimation Jutsu. And that gamble had paid off.
He had found Orochimaru. He had built the working relationship. He had obtained the Reanimation Jutsu. After that, he had used the Reanimation Jutsu in combination with the Toyoakitsushihime and copied the chakra of multiple dead fighters in succession. If time had permitted, he could have raided more graves and gathered more.
But what he had now was already considerable.
For what came next, the odds were good.
Tatsuhata looked at Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru. Taking the Rinnegan - that's your task."
He reached out and gripped Madara's shoulder.
At the same moment, the replica Tobirama - moving under Tatsuhata's control - reached out and gripped Black Zetsu's shoulder.
Flying Thunder God activated simultaneously.
All four figures vanished from Orochimaru's sight.