Will of embers

Chapter 14

"Ding!!! Quest completed. Congratulations host. You have rescued the children from danger and have apprehended the culprit. Ding!!!"

"Ding!!! For completing the quest, you have received a core memory of the body the host possesses. Ding!!!"

"Ding!!! Congratulations, the memory of your students has been unlocked. Ding!!!"

'Ahh!' Hiruzen couldn't hide his grimace this time as memories flooded his head. At least nobody thought much about it, as he was injured. Hiruzen was too tired to control every bit of his expression. It was already too much to ask for him to ignore the ringing bells in his head. And now he had years of memories shoved into his head.

Still, he had to stay focused as ANBU tore down Orochimaru's hideout. Everything was checked, and not a stone was left unturned. Hiruzen hoped they would be able to find something that would tie Orochimaru to Danzo, but he wasn't that lucky. Well, it was probably because Danzo wasn't foolish enough to leave any evidence of his involvement.

"Ding!!! Hidden quest completed. Congratulations host. You have apprehended Orochimaru alive. Ding!!!"

"Ding!!! For completing a hidden quest please choose your reward. Ding!!!"

-Summoning jutsu

-Random taijutsu

-Random stat increase

Hiruzen was glad to receive another reward, but he couldn't think clearly right now. His arm hurt, his adrenaline was only now subsiding, and he felt lightheaded. He already had difficulty sorting out the memories that he had just received. He really didn't want to think about anything else, especially why it wasn't a random summoning jutsu. But it still didn't tell what kind of summoning jutsu it was.

The only explanation he could think of was that the summoning jutsu was that of what Hiruzen, before he took his body, already knew. It could be Monkey King: Enma. If that were true, it would seriously bolster his strength, but Enma was an intelligent creature who had been with Hiruzen for a long time, meaning that he could discover that he wasn't the real Hiruzen. It also could be Shinigami, another powerful creature. But Hiruzen would rather not sacrifice his life to summon it.

Just thinking about it made his head hurt. He would have to sleep on this and think about it more tomorrow. What was important now was to check on Tsunade and see if the children were harmed in any way. Fugaku had said that they managed to break the seals Orochimaru put on them, but who knows what else Orochimaru could have done to the children.

"Ding!!! New quest: Convince Orochimaru of his wrongdoings and convert him to your side. Ding!!!"

Reward: S-rank ninjutsu and random taijutsu.

Penalty: None

'Oh, would you shut up!?' Hiruzen was at the end of the ropes here. He could barely recover from receiving one message before another came with a head-splitting ringing bell. Once ANBU finished their work, Hiruzen left the site and walked back to the village. He took his time because he didn't want to see the haunted look of the children in Tsunade's care. It also helped him organize new memories.

Hiruzen didn't like them. In these memories, he could tell how much he loved Orochimaru and how much dedication and care he gave him. Hiruzen thought that Orochimaru would succeed him one day. And that hurt deep in his heart since he knew now what kind of person Orochimaru was. It hurt knowing what the boy he loved so much did and would have done if he hadn't stopped him.

…

They were asleep. Hiruzen felt relieved immensely as he looked at the soundly sleeping children. Tsunade was in the other room looking after another child. However, the doctor monitoring these children reported to Hiruzen that they were fine. There was no internal or external damage done to them. Yamanaka would be dispatched to council them in the coming days.

Hiruzen hoped that whatever they saw wouldn't haunt them for the rest of their lives. No child should have experienced what they did. It was difficult to imagine what nightmares would manifest in their minds after seeing people put in test tubs and being done with experiments. They weren't stupid enough not to realize that the same would have happened to them, too.

"Sensei! What are you doing walking with that injury? Sit down. Now!" Hiruzen didn't even have a chance to say anything as Tsunade took him and forced him to sit down on a bed. "Seriously. What were you thinking? You should have come to me immediately."

"The wound isn't too serious," Hiruzen finally managed to speak for the first time after entering the room. "I came to check on him."

On another bed lay a boy. He was eight years old and various equipment was monitoring his condition. Hiruzen didn't understand them, but they weren't peeping too often or loudly to cause any concern. Tsunade wasn't listening to Hiruzen as she started to heal his wounds. From her trembling hands, he could tell that she still couldn't handle direct contact with blood.

"The boy is fine," Tsunade said after finishing treating Hiruzen's wounds. "But sadly, the good news ends with him. The rest of the people you took from that place. They won't last long. Their internals are messed up. They will die within days."

"Do any of them families?" Hiruzen asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

"Some did," As expected, Hiruzen would have to tell the families his condolence. "But most of them were orphans. Even his boy has a nobody. Once he wakes up, he will be alone in this world."

"How did he survive?" Hiruzen asked as he started to suspect the identity of the child. "Did Orochimaru spare him? Or did he survive his experiments?"

"Latter," Tsunade replied. "It is still too early to tell what was done to him. But his DNA was changed, and it is still changing. But unlike the other children, his body seems to accept that change. Like he is compatible with whatever Orochimaru did to him."

"Who else knows that?" Hiruzen asked, focusing on what he should do.

"Only me and you."

"Keep it that way," Hiruzen said. "If anyone asks, even Danzo, Orochimaru did not do any experiments on that boy. And delete any reports of him being one of the children we found today."

If he was who he suspected, then his identity must be kept secret, especially from Danzo. Otherwise, Danzo would make the child a soldier and force him into servitude. This time, the other members of the Council would agree with Danzo. But Hiruzen knew that the child didn't deserve to experience any more hardships.

"I will report to you once he wakes up," Tsunade replied. "Now, leave. Not only do you need rest, but your presence will only interfere with work in the hospital."

Tsunade shoved Hiruzen out of the room. It was already past midnight. The streets of Konoha were empty. And when he returned to his home, his children were already sleeping. Hiruzen knew that tomorrow, or rather later today, he would be busy. Still, when he cleaned himself and got into bed, he felt good. He had not only saved the children, but he had captured Orochimaru. Something that the real Hiruzen couldn't have done. It meant a lot to him, the fact that he managed to change things with his strength.

…

As expected, Hiruzen had to attend countless meetings. But the hardest one was with the families of those who have perished. He didn't give a shit about the Konoha's council, neither about Danzo or others. All of them cared about the consequences of Orochimaru's crimes. Well, Hiruzen couldn't blame them as it was their job to care, but he was just tired of this.

"This amount would let the families live comfortably for years," Homura commented on Hiruzen's policy. "I think it is too much. It isn't our responsibility to compensate them for their losses."

Hiruzen didn't say anything. He just stared at Homura. The man with glasses couldn't take Hiruzen's stare and shut up. Hiruzen knew that no amount of money would be enough for these families, so the least he could do was to give them enough for them to focus on grieving. Money wasn't an issue Konoha faced yet. They had more than enough to spare.

"Orochimaru's betrayal and his actions against the village were mostly suppressed," Danzo said, breaking the awkward silence. "But it is already known to most of Konoha citizens. We can only negate the information getting to the other villages. But just like with the Demon Fox attack, the information will leak one way or another."

"There is no need to suppress it," Hiruzen sighed and got his act up. "Let people talk about it freely. If we try to suppress this incident, the citizens will start suspecting that we are hiding something, and their trust in us will plummet even more."

"Then there is only one thing left on our agenda," Koharu said, but everyone knew what it was. "What shall be done with Orochimaru? The people will want justice. And he holds too much information and secrets of the village to be ever let go. I say we execute him."

"I agree." Homura didn't shy away from Hiruzen's gaze this time. "The sooner we do it, the better our image will be to our citizens."

"There is no advantage in keeping Orochimaru alive," Danzo agreed with the other Konoha's Council members. "And to keep him alive in our custody, we would need to put him in our most secured prison. It will only cost more and more with each day we keep him alive. And there is still a chance he might escape."

Of course, Danzo wants him dead. Even though his arguments made sense, Hiruzen knew that Danzo only wanted to get rid of anything that might tie him to Orochimaru. And Hiruzen didn't really have any argument against it. He had already forgone the possibility of converting Orochimaru to his side. He didn't possess Talk no Jutsu.

"I need time to think about it," Was the only thing Hiruzen could say.

"Hogake-sama, we have no time to waste," Koharu replied, clearly unsatisfied with the answer she received.

"I said I would think about it," Hiruzen was having a harder and harder time controlling his emotions. "I will consider all actions first before making a decision."

"Then we're done for today." Hiruzen didn't need an Emotion-Sensing seal to know what Danzo was feeling.

"You are all dismissed," Hiruzen said, letting them go even though he knew Danzo would use his opportunity to diminish Hiruzen's credibility.

At this point, Hiruzen was just too fed up with all of this. He really wished he could just retire. But there wasn't anyone suitable for the position right now. And before he could even think about it, he had one more thing to take care of. Anko Mitarashi, the only pupil of Orochimaru, was now highly suspected of treason. At least Shikaku was kind enough to lock her in her home and not in the prison.

But the question still stood: what should be done about her? Inoichi could easily disperse any suspicion towards Anko, but Hiruzen was hesitant. He could only imagine what it would feel like for someone to enter his mind and dig into all the secrets one might have. Especially when Hiruzen, for a fact, knew that Anko was innocent.

-Summoning jutsu

-Random taijutsu

-Random stat increase

Hiruzen looked at the choice of his rewards to distract himself for a moment. He had as much time as he wanted to think of what he should choose, but now, with a clearer mind, he could see the disadvantages of two of the choices. Summoning jutsu was out of the question. Not only would it be bad for him if Enma found out about his secrets, but it was a jutsu he thought he could learn on his own.

Well, if it were a Shinigami, it would be useless to him as he would never use it. And as tempting as the stat increase was, the random aspect of it scared him. There was just no way of knowing which stat and by how it would increase. Hiruzen didn't like to trust his luck. Even if it hadn't let him down yet, there was a limit to his luck, and he didn't want to test it.

And there was another reason why Hiruzen didn't want to choose that. He had not given too much thought about his stats before, but after his fight with Orochimaru he realized that he wasn't using his stats properly. He could quite easily overpower Orochimaru with his strength, and even though it was his first fight, he somehow managed to keep calm and analyze the situation he was in.

It could only be attributed to his strength and intelligence stats, which were pretty high—so high that Hiruzen hasn't been using them yet. Well, his intelligence was probably a great help in adjusting to this world and his new job, but what about speed? He should be faster than most shinobi, but the question still stood: How can he utilize it?

Stamina, speed, strength—all of those stats could only be used with a taijutsu style. So far, he only knew the drunken fist, but it could only be utilized while he was drunk—or not. He remembered how he fought while he was drunk. He was so relaxed that his body almost moved on its own. He was like a leaf blown by the wind, changing directions and speed at the will of the wind, or more specifically, at the will of his opponent.

Who said that he couldn't replicate it while he wasn't drunk? It was him, wasn't it? Hiruzen told himself that, but now, thinking about it, it might not be as impossible as he thought it would be, especially now since he had another memory. He remembered all about his students, the Sannin. And that included everything he taught them.

He couldn't replicate everything he taught them, but using those memories, he could learn it. It was like having the real Hiruzen in his head teaching him. But there was one problem: he couldn't just start learning basics while there were eyes on him. There was only one choice; he needed to take a student under his wing and teach them while simultaneously learning with them.

The question was who he should take as his student. Kakashi was out of the question; he was already a Jonin and knew everything a shinobi needed to know. He needed someone fresh out of the academy or, better someone who never entered the academy. If he could teach someone who knew nothing like him, it would be a lot easier to make progress, and nobody would be able to question him. But was there such a kid?

"Hokage-sama," Shizune shyly entered the office after a few knocks. "Tsunade sent me to inform you that the boy has awakened."

And the answer to Hiruzen's dilemma has come.

A.N. As always, If you want more, up to seven advanced chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852. And if you have any requests for stories, I will only take them on my pa treon.