Snap Back To Reality 45

Infiltration was an art in itself. As a member of Orochimaru's sabotage division, I had become adept at it. While other frontier heroes like Minato preferred the ambush and blitz strategy, Orochimaru had a finer touch to his missions. Often times he led teams of ROOT members unafraid to die and sacrifice their lives for the mission and so he had bodies to spare, even if it was not advised to kill too many of them for a plan. I was, thankfully, not one of those dispensable bodies.

Orochimaru devoted enough time and resources into my development to consider me a long-term investment. He would be sourly disappointed in the future if he ever decided to leave Konoha. I had no intention of leaving my family and friends behind unless it was absolutely necessary. But that was beyond the point. The point being that, in our long partnership together, I had essentially been built up as a tool for his missions. That meant my primary skillset, beyond the Taijutsu I had focused on with Gaku, was infiltration-based methods taught to me by Orochimaru. I was a swiss army knife designed to infiltrate and sabotage.

The first technique he had taught me that paired with my body modification was how to wear someone's skin. It was a jutsu Orochimaru created himself, that allowed a person to make space inside of someone. For a brief moment their body was yours, but it was more than that. You were inside of them, and so it was more than just a henge. You could keep their chakra signature, their voice, and even to some extent their mannerisms that a henge could not compare too. I didn't need to master the henge with this. I could wear someone like a new pair of jeans. All it took was a silent assassination and then a much riskier invasion. The body needed to be killed in a discreet method. No kunai to the eye or any such overt wound would work.

Wearing someone like a skin had its upsides. For one, there was less of a margin of error compared to a Henge, in which you could give subtle yet blaring inaccuracies away even as the most astute observer. A kunai holster in the wrong angle, a mole slightly off-kilter, maybe the outfit being a shade darker or brighter—these were all things Shinobi who were worth their weight, knew to memorise about their teammates. In a world where it was common knowledge to be able to take someone else up as a disguise, observation and application were essential. A true master of the Henge, just like a true master of the Kawarimi and Clone jutsu, were often the line between life and death. The Academy Three were underrated jutsu in my opinion.

I sidestepped the potential downfalls of the Henge by learning Orochimaru's personal body-snatcher technique. It wasn't something that could be widely taught, especially considering it required some expensive and risky body modifications before even learning the hand seals.

I had taken over the body of a poor guard on duty near the commission's office. I had no idea how the Mizukage dealt out missions, especially the politically sensitive ones, but now was the time to find out. Danzo would want information on Kiri's future plans. Anything big or small. Intel was intel. I had a vested interest in their plans solely for the completion of my mission. So I took in a deep breath, prayed no one would approach the man I was wearing, and walked into his position. Not wanting to be approached, I kept a certain distance away from others. I tried not to overtly hide, but there wasn't much else I could do but send chakra to my ears and listen in as best as I could.

Most of the conversations were oddly banal. I didn't know what I expected. Maybe talk of murder. These were Kiri Shinobi after all. They were practically famed for their love of killing each other. If it weren't for their ideal geographic location on an isolated island, they would have been long since invaded and overtaken by another Shinobi village. A cohesive village was a surviving village, and so far, Kiri looked to be the most divided I'd seen of any force. I'd heard rumours of the Caste system of course. It wasn't a foreign concept to me. The Caste system still existed in India in my old life. The idea of one group of people holding superiority to another simply because of arbitrary historical events from hundreds of years before didn't sound logical at all, especially when you considered that in the end they were all human and therefore not better or worse than each other.

"What's got the patrols so tightened?" one of the guards finally asked.

I turned my attention back to the conversation.

"Word is that Konoha knows of our weakness and is ready to strike."

I blinked in confusion. No that didn't make any sense. Konoha specifically wanted to avoid a conflict with Kiri… right? My orders were explicit on what it meant if we were caught. I took a moment to breathe as my thoughts flew together and everything clicked. Why send children to do the work even professional Jounin would find risky? Why send Orochimaru's team themselves? Why wasn't Orochimaru here? Then it came to me.

…Someone wanted to ignite an international conflict with Kiri, and someone wanted us out of the way in the process.

"What do they think we'll do, sit back and listen to their orders?" the other shinobi snorted.

"Not us you idiot. The bloodline bastards probably. We all know they're the most resentful. If I had it my way, I'd throw them out into more dirty missions. It'll teach them their place."

I felt panic begin to rise in my chest. I had ignored this growing sense of wrongness for so long, so entrenched in my belief that Konoha would have no reason to misinform their own team on a mission. I had the inkling of suspicion but something innately blocked me from really taking this betrayal into consideration. Once again, I had trusted authority and it had failed me. Now I had a team full of children, my children to get home safely and the mission was rigged most likely to let us die. It felt like the world was closing in on me. The sound drowned out and I felt almost like I was suffocating. I body flickered away, behind a tree nearby a clearing with no chakra signatures before I fell to the ground and took a moment to try and catch my breath. I felt like I was dying.

"Wha—"

I couldn't even speak, and it took longer than I liked for my breathing to go back to normal. Once I felt like I wasn't suffocating to death, and my thoughts became clearer, I took a moment to wonder just what the fuck had happened. Panic had never overtaken me so quickly and so hard like that had. It was terrifying to think that for those few minutes I was so overtaken by emotion and panic that I had left myself vulnerable in enemy territory. Even now I felt incredibly tired, like the anxiety had taxed my body. This wasn't good. If this happened again during a mission, I would be compromising not just myself, but my teammates. I needed to keep my emotions in check.

I ran a shaky hand through my face and forced myself to focus. The logical thing to do would be to go back and get more intel. A specific look into how exactly Kiri would retaliate to this supposed intel that Konoha was planning to attack them. I had no idea if it was in fact Konoha or some third-party feeding Kiri false information. It unfortunately made more sense for it to be a mixture of both. Something this big wouldn't have been released to mere guards if it weren't verified information that the Mizukage himself approved of letting out to his people. It was unlikely that this information was false unless whatever third party had done this, had some very good way of falsifying information and feeding it to a Kage of all people.

Who would gain to escalate the war in Konoha but Danzo?

I hit the ground and cursed. I didn't know for sure it was him, but since almost everything always went back to him, I didn't think it was too far-fetched. I had no idea what he hoped to accomplish by doing something like this. Was he simply war hungry or was there more to it that I wasn't seeing? Either way I would personally gut that fucker the moment I got back. No one hurt what belonged to me.

"Focus Hina," I mumbled to myself.

I needed to go back, and this time, I would need to get more than just the words of a few guards.

It was nearing night-time when I finally managed to make my way back to base. I walked numbly into the house, looking blankly at the kunai holster in my hand. I had taken it off the man's corpse after I hid it somewhere discreet. I would need it soon. I sighed and looked up at the roof, hoping to calm down my nerves. I would need to inform everyone of the grim news. Rui and Anko, who I had managed to keep out of ROOT business so far, would have to know as much of the truth as I could physically give them with the seal. After taking a moment to gather myself I walked up behind the door and paused when I heard voices. It was Kohachi. He was talking to Anko and Rui. Whatever it was they were discussing could wait. I strode into the room with an urgency that demanded attention.

"I have bad news."

Their expressions fell, except Anko who crossed her arms and snorted as if she expected it.

"You all might want to sit down for this. Rengoku-san, can you get Satomi-san here for this."

Rengoku nodded. I turned to Kohachi and swiped the sake he was drinking from his hands. No one commented. I probably looked like shit, and even they knew I needed this. I took a swing of the alcohol, hating that it barely even made a buzz. It was probably for the best. Even if I wanted to get shit-faced right now, I couldn't risk being too drunk.

"I think we broke vege-senpai. She's going to turn into an alcoholic because of us," Anko said dryly to Rui.

"If that were the case, I'd have already drunk myself into the grave," I said raising a brow her way.

Before Anko could make a witty retort of some kind, Satomi walked in with Rengoku and Komizawa. I gestured for everyone to sit down before I took in a deep breath. Once all eyes were on me, I began with a solemn tone.

"This mission was rigged from the start. I'm ninety percent sure someone sent us on a suicide mission without our explicit permission."

That was enough to get everyone to shut up and pay closer attention. I began recounting my time infiltrating the basic ranks. I had no time to do more than that, but from what I gathered there was something bigger on the way, and I had an inkling of what it was they were going to do. I barely used my future knowledge much, but once in a while it gave me a good indicator of things to come, and for once I had information that could save countless lives and damn others in the future. It all felt a bit too heavy of a burden to bear for one single person. Thankfully, I felt no urge to save thousands of people, just the people that mattered.

Once I finished going over my findings and what I assumed to be my inferences from things. It was Anko that spoke up first.

"So you're telling me a Councilman has it in for us? Why?" she asked.

"Not us, maybe Orochimaru-sama," I said, although it wasn't entirely a lie.

"Konoha does not wish to take the Kaguya Clan in for asylum?" Satomi asked.

"I'm not entirely sure why they wouldn't. Your Clan is strong and any Kekkai Genkai is worth at least ten shinobi," I replied, hoping to ease her tensions, but it seemed to hold no effect.

"I think you are mistaken Hina-san. You see, any normal Clan would be worth ten shinobi, but the Kaguya Clan is dangerous by nature. Those of us who can activate the Shikotsumyaku are often driven by an unquenchable thirst for blood and death."

I felt both myself and my team stare at Satomi in shock. What the actual fuck? Wasn't that something you lead with at the start of a mission instead of the middle of it? I rubbed my forehead. That was certainly both unusual and more than a little disturbing. I couldn't wilfully bring members of a bloodthirsty Clan into Konoha, even if I did somehow manage to get them out of Kiri. I tried to ignore the shitstorm I knew would happen at Konoha's gates, with both Shikaku and Danzo breathing down my throat respectively for my loyalty. I didn't want to play their games. I just wanted to come out of this with everyone alive.

"Satomi-san, I can't bring you to Konoha if—"

"—My children bare no such curse," she said sharply.

"How can I believe you?"

"My hair is white. What did you notice of the other Kaguya Clan members at the Village Square?" she asked.

"They all had black hair and distinctively different faces," I said carefully.

"I am of mixed blood. Both of the Yuki Clan and the Kaguya Clan. I don't know which Kekkai Genkai my children will manifest just yet, but surely Konoha will find them useful."

Even she couldn't hide the tinge of desperation in her voice as she bartered for the lives of her children. I wasn't exactly heartless enough to leave them here to die anyway, even if she seemed to perceive me to be so.

"Then the mission still stands," I said. "We leave 9pm sharp in our caravans to give the impression we are leaving together. Kohachi you will take Satomi-san and her boys to the Shrine while we do so. Kusari and I will circle back and pick up our clients."

"You should take us too," Anko interjected.

"No, you two are at best high-level Genin. If we are targeted by Jounin, or multiple Kiri-shinobi then I will require Kusari and myself to have both the speed and the freedom to retreat. This is non-negotiable. I will talk to you two later for a private debriefing. For now I need to talk to Satomi-san."

Despite all the childish whining and complaining from before, when it came down to it, both Anko and Rui knew when to throw it aside to concentrate on the mission. It had been so engrained into our heads that a disobedient shinobi was a dead shinobi, that now that I was leading, I found myself questioning that notion entirely. It was easy to forget how fallible leaders were, when it was Orochimaru leading you into missions. While he was an irredeemable douche, he was also smart, and I knew with him I wouldn't be allowed to die. I had afforded the same trust to the missions we were dealt, and even more stupidly to this mission. Wasn't the most shinobi phrase in existence "look underneath the underneath". I had been so naïve not to do so.

I gestured for Satomi to follow me out and I couldn't help the somewhat irritated look that took my face. I managed to reign it back when we went out for some privacy.

"You withheld that information from me," I said, my voice coming out dire and harsh, even though it sounded too young to hold any real authority.

"It seems your superiors did too. It wasn't exactly a secret, so why weren't you told about it?" she asked.

I sighed. An intervention was turning quickly into an interrogation, and I really didn't have the energy to fight back. I just wanted to get out of here with everyone alive. I couldn't bring myself to put her situation lightly for her to ease her worries. It felt both disingenuous and actively harmful to do so.

"They never had any intention of this working, although if it did, I don't think Konoha is as clean as you think it is. They will turn your children into weapons."

Satomi looked grief stricken for a moment. I felt a little bad for how callously I had put the fate of her children down, but the truth was often times hard to swallow.

"I never wanted them to be Shinobi," she whispered with a faraway look. "I had dreams, of running away… away from my godforsaken Clan that lived on blood and death, and away from a Village that fostered and encouraged such terrible atrocities. We would live secluded in the mountains in a shrine, start a farm, live a simple life away from death and war. I would teach them the Shinobi arts and hope for a chance that they'd never have to use it."

I hadn't known Satomi for long, but it felt like every hour that went by, her cold mask of indifference was breaking. Behind that veneer of unfeeling callousness was someone grieving terribly. For the first time I wondered if it was her Clan that made her this way. To feel like she had to put on a cold air of apathy to survive. I couldn't imagine. As much as I stayed clear of emotional moments, tried to live in the world of pure logic, I was allowed to feel, encouraged to do so actually. For how much Konoha also valued the ideal of a shinobi throwing away their emotions, they also valued family and bonds and unity. You couldn't have those things without emotion.

"You know very well that your dream is impossible. No sane village would let two Kekkai Genkai wielding children out of their grasp," I said logically, although I kept my voice softer.

"I know," she sighed. "Which is why I sent word to Konoha, specifically to the Nara Clan who take in children of all sorts. I've heard of your Will of Fire. It's a powerful force of unity."

It was in theory. Many leaves, one tree and all that unity bullshit. In the end it didn't matter how many of the leaves were connected, as long as the roots were festering with rot. I wanted to give her hope, that even if I brought her boys back to Konoha and they wouldn't be forced to be Shinobi, that they would live happy lives. I couldn't promise her a lie. She would be politically married of in exchange for her safety. Her bloodline was too precious to waste away with only two children. They would have her as a glorified baby machine to some Clan, entrenched in politics. Her sons wouldn't fare much better.

Maybe if there were a few more living Kaguya Clan members, things would be different. They could start a proper Clan within Konoha, and while their rights would be restricted during their first and second generations, the children after that would be considered proper Konoha citizens. Even as a restricted partisan in Konoha would have been better than being the lower caste in Kiri though. As it stood now, she was faced with the decision of death in Kiri and living caged in Konoha. As an individual I knew someone like her would have chosen death, but as a mother I doubted she would risk her life because of her children.

"You spoke of a third-party escalating tension here with the Kekkai Genkai holders. What would Konoha gain from that?" she asked.

"From what I can gather it's one of two options. Either the persecuted Clans hear word of Konoha offering refuge to its Kekkai Genkai wielders and we get powerful bloodlines, or it starts a Kekkai Genkai purge here and Kiri is too entrenched in a civil-war to pose a threat."

"What's to say Kiri doesn't take the fight to Konoha. Why would this Councilman of yours risk it?" she asked.

That's what confused me too. As much as Danzo was power-hungry, he also had Konoha's safety as an entirety at heart. He wouldn't risk Konoha. No this was a move against someone else. Someone was here before Danzo escalating the tensions between Konoha and Kiri, likely to get Kiri to join in the war and overwhelm Konoha with enemy on, not two, but three fronts. Danzo was likely playing a bigger game of chess, using this mysterious enemies move to his own benefit. Maybe it was Madara… maybe it was Zetsu or it could possibly be Kiri and Iwa finally playing things smart. I had no real way of knowing, but the move was an alarming one. It didn't come without risks though. I knew what was coming next, and the fact that I knew it would directly affect Kakashi, Rin, and Obito was enough to make my anxiety spike.

This was the whole mess that escalated into a Bijuu being sealed into Rin so Kiri Shinobi could throw her into Konoha and unleash a tailed beast. Had that meant that I had missed Obito's 'death'? Had Madara already gotten a hold of him while I had spent months on the road to Kiri? No, he knew the Shunshin now… and all he needed was that little edge in speed for things to play out entirely differently. Also I existed which meant things would never play out the same way even if I hadn't taught him to move faster.

"Hina-san?" Satomi called out, and I snapped my attention back to her.

"Sorry, no you're right about that, but I don't have an answer, just speculation at this stage. I can tell you one thing though. A civil war is on the way and you don't want to stay here any longer than you have to. When we escape, I need to know if you can keep up."

"I don't look it, but I am a Chunin," she said resolutely.

Well that was better than nothing. I nodded. My stern expression softened a little.

"I know this doesn't mean much, but I have two brothers and I understand. I have killed for them, and I would do more. You're not any weaker for protecting your family."

Her expression turned determined, and a fire lit behind her red eyes.

"You are mistaken Hina-san. I love my children, but there are things beyond them worth dying for. A world of peace is possible. There is a prophecy of a child to come."

Naruto

I blinked up at her, and her eyes were full of unbidden hope. She would be sorely disappointed. Things would take decades to even reach the place she wanted to see, and in this world, there was no guarantee you would see past a month, let alone decades. But maybe it was the hope itself that kept people going.

"You have the look of someone entrenched in blood Hina-san. It's the smell of a killer that surrounds you. I've been around people with the same scent long enough to smell it instantly."

I frowned. Ok, so what? I'd killed a few people… well a lot of people, some in more horrible ways than others, but it was for the most part not personal. I was simply carrying out orders. I didn't enjoy it, which was the only thing I would allow this world to expect of me.

"I don't see how these observations pertain to our mission," I said dismissively.

"It's always more than that Hina-san. One cannot simply blame their deeds on their job. Morality is not somehow put on a standstill because it is written as an order to be carried out. My children… I need someone to tell them that, which is why I am telling you, otherwise I would have kept the Sage's edicts to myself for now."

"You're talking like you aren't going to be there to tell them yourself."

She smiled sadly.

"It's wise to know one's limits. I am no killer."

It was entirely unfortunate because she believed every word she had said. I nodded. She could tout her pacifism, but I was not some broken soul to be mended. I did what I had to. I was not proud of it, or what I had become, but it was something born out of a necessity, and the bright ideal of a world where one did not commit evil was impossible. I should know. I had killed many people begging for their lives on a metal table in the name of scientific progress, but the reality was much more brutal than that. I hadn't killed them for any specific goal. It was just something I did to ingratiate myself with Orochimaru. Maybe there was some method I could have taken that didn't implicate me in crimes against humanity, but I'd never been afraid to take the safest route when it came to my family even if it meant I'd forever be stained by blood.

"Well you're in luck because I'm one. I don't fail my missions. I take pride in getting a job done, and luckily for you, your children and your safety is my job. We leave at night. Take whatever weapons and take only what you need."

I had a job to do and I would darn well do it.

A/N

Things are ramping up. People will die, blood will be spilt, tears will be shed.

（ ^_^）o自自o（^_^ ）

I'm so sorry for the long wait! I've written quite a few chapters up in my break. Thanks to everyone for being patient.

Also whoever Korst is—yeah fuck of man. If you don't like my story, why the heck did you suffer through the entire thing? Jesus Christ some people are whiney fuckers XD Also at least if you're going to spam the review section with flame comments, have the balls to turn your private messaging on so I don't have to waste space in my authors note section. Damn you're such a piece of shit :)

Anyway I probably shouldn't have done this buuuut I began another si/oc story as well, this one's a lot more on the crack side and very light-hearted. It's a Harry Potter si/oc reincarnation with the mc being a chaotic mess of a parsletongue. It's called Good Ol' Fashioned Razzmatazz for anyone who wants to check it out. Snap Back to Reality still is my number one priority for story updates, so as usual you can expect faster updates here than in my other story.

Thanks to everyone for faving/following and being so patient for the next update! Hope you like where this story is going!