CHAPTER 68:  REVELATIONS

The revelation that Kushina knew the masked man had shocked Riku and stopped his movement for half a second. He acted the other half, putting a suppressing tag on the guy and knocking him out. He then put his sharingan inside a container he had prepared beforehand (hoping it would be the Rinnegan instead) and sealed them in his BoS. Afterward, he pulled out a crate and put their prisoner inside and sealed it in a page.

“Questions are for later. I’m going home, you’re free to stay here or not.”

He sealed the Botib too in his book of seals and offered his hands to the trio. Each grabbed one or his arms and Riku flashed everyone away back to the Senju Manor. Arriving in the living room, Riku quickly went to his bedroom and entered the Botib. He found who he was looking for inside the infirmary. His clone, still suppressing the Kyuubi the best he could and immediately went to assist.

“Look, you want out and I get it but you need to stay inside for everyone’s safety including yours! So stop trying to break the seal, damn it. We’ll make it more comfortable for you and less like a prison! Better a safe golden cage than the whole shinobi world on your ass.”

He could feel right under his finger tips the rage and the hatred of the fox kept pushing but after a few minutes the feeling  subsided. Just to make sure he kept stabilizing the seal despite no more tremor then removed his hands. Looking up to his favorite redhead he gave her a tired smile she gave back.

“Told you it would be alright.” he said leaving forward and kissing her forehead.

“You’re lucky that I love you or I would have used my chains on you. Now move, I want to see our daughter!”

Chuckling, Riku pulled back a bit and let Tsunade approached with their baby in her arms. The little thing had a small mop of red hair and seemed quite pleased when she changed hands to be laid on top of her mother’s chest. Riku used his index to carassess her little cheek but the lass turned her head and tried to put it in her tiny mouth.

“Definitely mine.” Riku joked. Ever since Karin had asked him of it he kept biting her during their love making time. He thought that after what Kusa did to her and her mother she would hate it but it was actually quite the opposite.

“So… What’s my granddaughter’s name?” Tsunade asked.

Riku and Karin looked at each other to have a silent conversation then looked at their daughter.

“We couldn’t decide.” Karin began.

“So we made Shizune the godmother and she came up with something nice.”

“Can you stop beating around the bush!”

““Kamiko.””

“Fragrant ocean child, huh? Why am I not surprised?” she said looking at her eldest apprentice.

“She’s an Uzumaki.” was Karin’s smug answer.

“And we can’t really name her after you, mom. You’re still alive and way too young to give your name to someone else.”

“Dibs on Nanny duty!”

“What?! You can’t Tsunade-sama! I’m the godmother!”

“You snooze, you lose, Shizune.”

Both Riku and Karin ignored the two women’s bickering and looked at their child with awe and joy.

“I hope she gets my personality because she looks just like you.”

“I hope she has your eyes. I’d be fine with just that.”

After such a physical exertion, it wasn’t a surprise that Karin’s eyelids began to drop. She had to give birth and endure the Kyuubi trying to get free. Uzumaki or not everyone would be dead tired after all this. That was why, Riku picked Kamiko in his arms, delicately, kissed his sleeping fiancee and left the room after making sure she was alright. When he arrived back in the main room of the Botib the tense atmosphere that he suspected was due to the identity of the masked man, shifted for a more joyful one.

“Here’s little Kamiko.

“May I?”

“Sure.”

Riku gave his newly born daughter to Minato who was smiling from ear to ear.

“Redhead, hm?”

“Thank Kami for that. My dirty blonde hair is unoriginal next to it.”

Kamiko fussed a bit when she changed hands but quickly settled down and fell asleep. Riku created a shadow clone when his mother entered the room and sent him to lay down Kamiko in her crib. He was supposed to watch her while everyone else talked. The heavy tension in the room was back.

“You got him?” Tsunade asked, switching from happy and proud grandmother to Godaime Hokage of Konoha.

“We did.” answered Riku and looked at Kushina briefly.

“Does T&I already have him or…”

“It’s Obito.” the Uzumaki in the room revealed and three people turned to look at her. Gai, Kakashi and her own husband Minato.

“Kushina, Obito is-”

“Very much alive. Half his face is messed up but it’s him, Minato.”

“I saw him die! He can’t…”

“Just like we can’t, Kakashi?”

The redhead’s blunt rebuttal was effective and the fake cyclops quieted down on the spot.

“That doesn’t tell me anything at all except you know him.” noted aloud Tsunade. She didn’t like being out of the loop one bit and subtly made them understand that.

“Uchiha Obito was my student.” confessed Minato.

“Wait! He’s that Obito?” Riku inquired, looking at Kakashi but got nothing. The man was lost in his thoughts, clearly perturbed by the revelation. It was Gai standing at his rival’s side that nodded in confirmation.

“It changes nothing.” Tsunade announced with the poise of her status. “Whoever he is, he’s responsible for the Kyuubi’s attack twenty years ago and is responsible for trying to do the same tonight. Once we get everything from him, he dies. Now, it’s late, we had a long day and I suggest everyone to go home and rest.”

Without further ado everyone present left for home. Riku stayed by his mother's side all the while and only spoke to her once alone.

“I’m ripping his soul out of him and giving it to the Shinigami.” he told her point black. “No-fucking-body threatened my family like that and go rest in the Pure Lands afterward.”

“Fine by me.”

“Really?”

“I don’t really care in truth but that wouldn’t be undeserved.” she answered and led Riku to her bedroom for a cuddling session.

Walking home the silence between husband and wife was broken by the latter. They had difficulties comprehending or accepting the revelation from earlier. Obito had always been a kind young kid. A screw up and a bit of a scaredy cat most of the time but he had been good. To know that he was the one responsible for the entire misery of their family which included their death, was more than shocking. Minato didn’t want it to be true and hoped that Kushina had been wrong but he trusted his wife above all and knew she wouldn’t have mistaken someone else for Obito.

“I always prided myself for forgiving people, Minato but I don’t think I can forgive him.”

“…”

“He was dismissive back then… As if I was just a tool, a vessel to house the Kyuubi for a time. Tonight he was smug and gleeful when he spoke to me.”

“...”

“I don’t know what happened but he’s nothing like the Obito that we used to know.”

“Life happened and… I don’t think I can forgive him either for his actions.” he had made his choice. He had already mourned his student years ago, whoever Obito was now didn’t matter anymore

“I’m worried, Minato.”

“Everything will be fine, Kushi-chan. Obito is locked up and-”

“I’m not worried about him. I’m worried about Naruto.”

“What about?”

“I… always wanted Naruto to grow up to be like him. Full of life, of kindness… And Obito turned like that. What is to say Naruto-”

“He won’t. Naruto has us. He has his friends. He won’t fall into darkness.”

“You don’t know that! Did you not notice his change in behavior and mood since his house arrest? It did not get much better.”

“He made progress, he matured.”

“To the point of understanding that things are what they are but he did not accept it! He may have understood that Mikoto’s son was not his friend, but he did not totally accept it. Deep down he still believes that he could be saved by just talking with him and that they could all go back to the time they were a team. Then there is his other teammate of his. He refuses to open his eyes to the truth and it will only devastate him further the longer it lasts. Rejection and a broken heart.”

“He’ll recover from it.”

“Let’s say he does because I have faith in our son, what about his jealousy towards Riku?”

“Jealousy? What jealousy?” he asked her a bit confused and surprised by what she had just said.

“If Tsunade was to retire now, Riku would be the one to replace her. Sarutobi is clearly behind him and so are the elders. Heck! Probably the whole village! He replaced his mother for a whole month at the head of the village, it’s almost a done deal at this point. Naruto… Naruto hides it but not well enough for me to not notice that he’s jealous and more than upset with that. He trains hard, everyday. Always gives his all but he can’t help but notice the gap between the two of them and he doesn’t understand why, despite having the same childhood, Riku is better.”

“Riku is not-”

“He is! As a shinobi he is. He’s stronger by leaps and bonds. Hiraishin or not, Naruto would not win in a fight. I have faith in our son, Minato but I’m not blinded by it to not see the truth. Everything seems to go well in Riku’s life while it doesn’t for Naruto. How long do you think he can handle that? And that’s what scares me, what if… What if Naruto snaps and changes like Obito did?”

“He will not and even in the unlikely chance it happens, we’ll bring him back.”

Minato said nothing more. The conviction in his voice and words were genuine and leaving not a hint of doubt. They reassured Kushina a lot but the worry was still there. The conversation stopped there and they both entered their empty house.

A few streets away, Shizune had entered her boyfriend's apartment. She had checked Karin one last time to make sure she was alright then left to offer him comfort. She found him sitting on the ground, leaning against his bed. On one hand he had an opened bottle of sake, on the other the photo of his team. She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. She knew that there were no words that would make things better.

Shizune simply walked to him and gently took the bottle from his hand. He didn’t fight it. The bottle was put on the ground and she pulled him up on his feet then pushed him down the bed. He didn’t fight her either. She picked the picture and put it on his night stand, his eyes not leaving it. Finally she joined him in bed and embraced him. After a few moments of stillness, he embraced her back and buried his head in her chest. They fell asleep like that.

Anyone that had been close to Obito had their mood down in their socks for the following week. It didn’t get better when Tsunade had summoned everyone, including the elders to share what T&I had learned from their captive.

“Let me get this straight, sensei. He did all that, because the girl he loved, even though she didn’t love him back, died? So he went through with the actual Madara who had survived his fight with great grandpa and his plan to use the nine biju to power up a powerful genjutsu which would reflect on the moon and which  would enslave everyone in the world in a dream of bliss. Just so he could be reunited with the girl he loved and that I bet would love him back this time. He couldn’t do that to himself alone or take his own life, no he had to involve the whole world, start a civil war and a purge, release the Kyuubi and kill an incalculable number of people for a genjutsu that would kill everyone in three days.”

“Pretty much. Although he did it for peace in the world too.”

“... the Genocide of the entire human race and every other sapient species in the world is not a peace that I want, personaly. Not like we could enjoy it, we'd be dead.” Riku replied in a flat tone.

“Is there more information on this… ‘Infinite Tsukuyomi?’” asked Hiruzen.

“Remember that weird stone tablet we found buried in the former Uchiha district?”

“The one we couldn’t read?” remarked Koharu.

“That one. Apparently only Uchiha can read it and only pieces of it.”

“... It depends on how developed the sharingan is? Does the rinnegan-”

“Yes and yes, Riku. You were right, the rinnegan is either an evolution of the sharingan or the sharingan devolved from the rinnegan. It talks about this genjutsu in detail among other things…” revealed Tsunade.

“Among other things? I don’t like that, Hime. It sounds like there is worse.”

“Yes, although T&I is not quite sure if the information came from Obito himself or from the tablet. That’s why… Kakashi.”

“I’ll read it.” the fake cyclops said with a nod. There was no way he wouldn’t.

“But won’t Kakashi only be able to read a part of it?” Gai wondered aloud.

“Everything but the rinnegan part.” replied his rival.

“You have…”

“Since Obito clearly had developed the Mangekyo sharingan, you should have too. I still don’t understand why. Uncle Tobirama’s notes talk about a special chakra that the Uchiha produces to awaken it, yet when Obito’s was awakened you were already in possession of half of it. That makes no sense to me.” Tsunade commented. “As for the rinnegan…”

She looked at Riku briefly but he understood what this look meant. Tsunade was in for recreating the rinnegan. He didn’t know which way she had chosen for that but what mattered is she was in.

“We’re taking care of that. There is one more piece of information that we got from him. Now two more pieces of news. First: During the night Obito had escaped from his cell.”

“That’s impossible! I removed his eyes! I even put the barrier we used to nullify his teleportation inside of it.”

“And yet, he’s gone. Probably broken out by his last friend in the Akatsuki.”

“Then his friend is not using space-time ninjutsu.”

“He could have broken the barrier.” wondered Koharu.

“It can’t be done from the inside. You need a space anchor from the inside but the barrier is specifically designed to make that impossible by constantly shifting the space.” Riku explained.

“With a point of origin which is unstable he can’t pinpoint any point of arrival. Clever.” commented Minato, rubbing his chin pensively.

“The barrier is still there, so no, he didn’t break the barrier. It’s not important right now. What’s important is that Obito is at large with another accomplice which brings me to my last news: Orochimaru is still alive.”

“Oh! Come on! That guy is no snake, he's a cockroach!” Riku exclaimed.

“There was someone else with his cursed seal?” Hiruzen stated more than asked.

“Yes but that’s not really the problem. The problem is that Orochimaru perfected the Edo Tensei and began grave robbing.”

“You don’t mean…”

“I got the confirmation this morning, sensei. My grandfather, My uncle, but also my grandmother's remains were stolen.” Tsunade revealed with barely controlled anger.

“Shit.” Riku said.

“I couldn’t have said it better.”

“I wasn’t referring… Sensei, he’s going to start a war for the eight and nine tails. I doubt he will stop at just taking corpses from Konoha.”

“You think he’s going to rob the grave of other Kages?” asked Homura.

“Not just the kages but as many powerful shinobi as he can. He wouldn’t have taken Lady Mito otherwise.” Kushina corrected him.

“If he starts to revive the Uzumaki…” Hiruzen spoke with dread.

“Was the clan that strong?” Gai asked.

“Iwa, Kumo and Kiri allied themselves to take Uzushiogakure down and they barely succeeded. Ten thousand shinobis supported by jinchurikis against 1000 shinobis of Uzushio. They nearly lost.”

‘Holy shit! That information wasn’t as detailed in the history book. Damn! The uzumaki were insanely strong.’ Riku thought and he wasn’t the only one in the room. Everyone was affected by the Sandaime’s words.

“And only because the village’s barrier failed from what Lady Mito told me.” Kushina commented in a sorrowful voice. No one was surprised by that, her whole clan, her whole family was slaughtered after all. “I still don’t understand how that could have happened. The barrier was impregnable or perhaps I was just told it was. I was a child back then; adults didn't really give details about it.”

The look his mother exchanged with Hiruzen told Riku everything he needed to know.

‘Konoha was involved?! That’s not… The old monkey wouldn’t… Danzo!’

The realization on his face was not missed by the two he had been observing. Taking a deep breath, Tsunade sighed and made a decision.

“Danzo was at fault.”

“What?!”

“Danzo wanted the control of the Kyuubi for Konoha. Or rather himself.” Hiruzen began, looking at Kushina with shame. “Only an Uzumaki has enough vitality to contain the fox and a very special type of chakra, that was why when Mito-sama was near the end of her life she asked for a member of the Uzumaki clan to be sent to Konoha.”

“I’ll have it known, we didn’t know at the time about that fact regarding the Kyuubi. Its first sealing happened when we were barely genin at the time.” commented Koharu.

“We thought that anyone could handle it but Mito-sama quickly disabused us of the misconception.” Homura added.

“As such, you were sent to us because Uzumaki Ashina knew that the fox couldn’t be let free to roam the world. Not after what Madara did to it but also Mito-sama. Both Konoha and Uzushio would have been in danger of its reprisal. While I saw this as a gesture of friendship and making stronger bonds with your clan, Kushina, Danzo saw a liability, a weakness. His goal was for Konoha to be the only village in control of the Kyuubi and its jinchuriki and not depend on someone else. That’s why he started a power struggle between Ashina and his son. Ashina proned isolationism and his son didn’t. Quite the contrary, he wanted for Uzushio to be a leading figure in the Elemental Nations like the big five. As such when your home was attacked it was in the middle of a civil war. We don’t quite know what happened on our sister village’s side, this old fool’s files never mentioned it but we know that he leaked false information to Iwa which sparked the plan to attack the island.”

“How long… How long since…”

Kushina was held back by Minato. Rage was coursing through her and she wanted nothing more than to hurt Hiruzen and the elders blaming them for the destruction of her home.

“We found out? A month.”

The redhead deflated and Minato switched his hold on her to take her in his arms. They left outside the office for a moment to deal with the news.

“Speaking of Danzo, is his body still in Konoha? I hope it’s not because I want to arrange a meeting with the Shinigami.”

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at her son's words but said nothing. Silently she agreed with him but that was her personal opinion which was private and nobody else's business.

“Iwa had stopped sending troops to make advances into Ame. I doubt they will stop trying so they must have gone through another country we don’t have surveillance in. It’s possible they may have allied themselves with Obito. I doubt Kumo would because of the eight-tails. Regardless of who our opponents are, we’re going to fight a war and now that we got information out of him, I doubt he’ll stay hidden for long. If we’re to fight an army of invincible undead we need to know how to deal with it. Riku, see if you can do that with Karin and Kushina. Jirayia I want you out there gathering information. Do not engage in battle. I don’t want another Ame incident happening. Kakashi, Gai, I may have a task for you later. The same for you, Yugao. You can’t take a mission even inside the village until further notice. Now, you’re dismissed.”

Left in the office were Tsunade, Hiruzen and the elders. They had a lot to talk about regarding the on coming war.