Chapter 71 Dark meeting

Tsunade was starting to feel a bit better this day, the bet was nearly over and from what she could tell the boy wasn't going to finish that move. So all she had to do now was just wait it out and then she would make sure Jiraiya honoured his end and left this village. Then Tsunade planned to leave very quickly in the opposite direction. Of course not everything was going well, when Jiraiya wasn't training the kids he was constantly annoying her.

Joining her for drinks and usually he would make some kind of comment that pissed her off enough to send him unconscious on the ground. She was also starting to worry about Shizune, she was spending a bit too much time with those kids, especially the girl. Every night she would get back to their room as Shizune would go on about how talented the girl was with chakra control. Although it was honestly rare to find someone that gifted for the more subtle arts of ninjutsu, Tsunade couldn't allow herself to get attached.

Part of her wanted to tell Shizune to stop seeing them but the woman was happier than she could remember seeing in a long time. Shizune liked the kids and mainly interacting with others from the village who she hadn't seen in years. Tsunade had to admit that she never really thought about how Shizune might feel about never seeing her home again.

Well what of it, Tsunade wasn't forcing the woman to stay by her side if she had to she would force Shizune to go back if it made the woman happy. Tsunade could stand to be alone for some time again, she was used to it and she didn't want Shizune to start regretting staying by her side. Tsunade sighed, this was getting more complicated because deep down she liked having Shizune around, someone that was there for her when she needed them. The young woman was more than an apprentice and more of a friend. In fact Shizune was most likely the closest friend she had in life currently.

Tsunade was on her way to meet Shizune for lunch but she was wondering if she should tell the woman to not get too close to those kids, it only to make the separation easier on the woman.

She was so lost in thought she didn't notice the dark presence coming up from behind until it was several feet away. Looking around she noticed she was in a small side street, there were no other people walking and it was a good ambush site. She chided herself for letting this happen she knew that a ninja was to never forget where they were or to let their guard down and to always be ready. She had spent too many years getting soft, something she would have to look into soon.

Tsunade paused suddenly as she turned to face them there were two of them in robes and hats that hid their faces. Glaring at the two men she widened her stance as she got ready for a fight.

"Alright why are you two following me, if it's about a dept then you should have brought more than just you two."

A dark chuckle from one of them made her even more on alert as it was a voice she knew all too well.

"Well that's not a very warm welcoming," The man took off his hat showing pale skin with golden snake eyes or Orochimaru. "We haven't seen each other in years and this is the first thing you say to me? And you look like you haven't aged a day either, well your age isn't even skin deep but I don't want to talk about the secrets to looking young."

"What do you want?" She demanded coldly as she flicked her eyes quickly to the other one as he took off his own hat. She didn't know the boy, he looked like a young teenager with white hair and glasses but there was something about the boy that said he could be trouble.

Orochimaru only smiled at her, "I wanted to give you an offer that's all, after all were so such close friends at one point."

"Until you betrayed the village," she told him.

"Please how is that any different then what you did?" He asked.

Now that was pushing things too far for her, "I left on good terms I didn't commit crimes against the village and against everything I stand for as a medic. I learned all about those god forsaken experiments of yours. The things you've done can never be forgiven for the price that had to be paid for whatever you learned from them."

"Oh you might change your mind soon enough," He chuckled again. "You see I have learned a lot even about life and death. It's not such a final thing as you would believe, isn't that what you always wanted to learn, how to battle death and win?"

She paused as his words hit a soft spot in her, and how she had always tried to fight death and how many times she had lost. He also knew that and most likely why he picked those words out.

"Well I've learned how and I'm willing to share that is if you want to listen to my deal."

She remained silent, just the thought of all those horrible things she had learned he had done made her sick to her stomach and the fact that he most likely hadn't stopped those insane experiments. Looking at him now she could see that his age wasn't the result of an illusion like her own, there had been a forbidden jutsu that might have worked but she couldn't believe he might have gone that far. There was also some small part of her that wanted to listen to what he had to say, there was so much death in the world that she was sick of seeing it.

He took her silence to continue on. "If you join me instead of going back to that village, then you can learn all kinds of secrets and to give you added incentive how about I give you back two people that you've lost?"

Her eyes widened as she felt like someone had stabbed her in the heart. "You can't mean..."

"Of course I mean it," he grinned widely at her. "I'll give you back your lover and you're little brother."

"That's impossible."

"Normally yes, but you see while I was in Konoha for a month I took the time to gather a few special specimens. I've perfected a very old technique that a certain relative of yours created if I'm not mistaken."

Now understanding hit her, it had been a forbidden jutsu created by her own great uncle the second Hokage had developed a technique to revive the dead. The knowledge of that technique had been passed on through the family but not anything about the technique of the jutsu. The only scroll containing all the notes was supposed to be locked up in the most secure are of the Hokage's tower with all the other forbidden knowledge.

When her grand uncle had figured out what that technique was he had ordered the knowledge sealed and forgotten by all, that it was a crime against the world of man and against god. She fought that small part of her that wanted to see them again, they were dead and gone and they should stay like that. But she couldn't silence that little voice that kept speaking all the things she wanted to hear.

"You know when I found that jutsu of your family's I was impressed," Orochimaru stated. "It was brilliant work I can see where you get it from. But it was flawed, the returned were only dolls and it was imperfect. It took me years but I've perfected your family's jutsu, it's amazing what I had to do in order to get it working just right. So what do you say? Come with me to a little field on the west end of the village just outside of the walls and I'll show you."

"You can see them again they'll be good as new."

Tsunade wanted to tell him to go to hell but if a fight broke out here it would be trouble, there were too many innocent people in the way. Was that the reason he was picking a wide open area where no one would find them? He most likely had something else planned there had to be more reason for him showing himself to her. Well if it came down to a fight she was pretty sure she could take him if she had to plus he had a feeling he wasn't just going to let her walk away from here.

"Fine let's get this over with...you lead the way," she told him not wanting to show her back to either of them or to get too close to either of them.

He grinned at her as he nodded her point and they all started to walk.

Kabuto paused for a moment as he looked behind them, he thought he sensed a presence just now but maybe it was nothing. He continued walking with the two others as he didn't want to be left behind. Down the road and hiding behind the corner of a wall was Shizune as she was pressed up against it nearly holding her breath as she listened to their fading footsteps to make sure they were a good distance away.

She finally let her breath out she has heard everything and knew this was very bad. She needed to get help, Shizune knew that Tsunade wouldn't take any deal by Orochimaru but she wasn't sure what her plan was. So Shizune had to go and find help, but there was only one group that she could go to for help. Although she trusted Tsunade to handle herself in a fight, this whole thing was giving her a bad feeling. She ran off to the hotel hoping she could find them there, there wasn't much time.

-Elsewhere-

"Man I can almost get this if I can just figure this out," Naruto muttered. "I mean there has to be a way around it!"

"You've been saying that for two days now," Sasuke sighed getting slightly irritated that he was going on this again. He himself was nearing completing a new jutsu that would allow him to send lightning chakra into his sword. If he could master that then he would start with other objects soon.

"Is it really that hard?" Sakura asked sitting between the two of them. She had learned early on that sitting between them when they both were irritated was the only way to keep things from blowing up between them. Given that they were out of reach of each other was a big help.

"Well it's this last part," Naruto explained to her. "I mean you got to keep the chakra compact but keep it spinning with lots of power. I can only focus on one at a time but you need to focus on both for it to keep it working." He sighed slumping slightly he was running out of time for this bet and honestly he felt like he was slamming his head against a wall with this problem.

"Too bad you don't have two heads," Sakura commented. "That way you can focus on both at the same time."

"Yeah...hey yeah," Naruto perked up as inspiration hit him. "Sakura-chan you're a genius that's exactly what I need!"

"I think he's finally cracked under the stress," Sasuke commented.

"Shut up! I think I'm really on to something here," Naruto got up and was all excited now. "I still got time but this just might work. Come on, hurry up we got to get back to the training area so I can try this out!"

Sasuke leaned in to Sakura to whisper to her. "What idea did you give him?"

"I'm not sure," She replied, she remembered her comment but she had no idea where he was taking it. It had just been a joke but apparently Naruto had seen something in it and Naruto was the type that could see what others missed or wouldn't think about. One of the reasons he was so unexpected she had learned over the years as his friend.

Suddenly a new person ran up as all three young teens turned to look at Shizune. She had seen them on the way to the hotel and was thankful that she had found them. She had pushed herself hard to run here but thankfully although she hadn't been on any missions in years, she kept up her physical strength. So she wasn't out of breath but now that she was here she didn't see Jiraiya. Now she was worried if he wasn't here she wasn't sure they would have the time to find him.

"Hey Shizune-neechan, is something wrong?" Naruto asked he had gotten to like the older woman in the past few days. She was really nice to him even when she scolded him for going overboard with his training. She was like a big sister that he never had so he got to calling her that. She didn't seem to mind and honestly she was kind of cool too with how she knew so much about medical stuff. He didn't understand it but Sakura was taking it up like she was a natural at it.

"Where's Jiraiya?" She asked looking around.

Three faces seemed to take on the same deadpan expression, "He said he needed some time to think." Naruto told her. That meant he was getting depressed over that he might have to let Tsunade go and was currently off at a certain bar drinking and 'having fun' as he like to say.

Shizune cursed her luck, "We need to find him fast, he's the only person I know that can help Tsunade out of the trouble she's in."

"What trouble?" Sakura asked her seeing the fear on the woman's face.

"Orochimaru is here and she went with him outside of the village," She told them as all three of the genins froze in place. They all remembered encountering Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. Sasuke's hand felt the mark on his neck the ever constant reminder of that man.

"Please, we have to get Jiraiya as fast as possible," Shizune asked of them.

"We know where he is but why is Tsunade with Orochimaru?" Sakura asked worried how this sounded.

"I think she plans on doing something dangerous," Shizune told them. "She might have gone into this thinking she could handle it but I just don't know."

-Field outside of the Village-

Tsunade looked around her, the village was just out of sight and some woods were in the opposite direction. The place was pretty barren actually and no one seemed to come this way. That didn't surprise her, the main roads were on the other side of the village so there wouldn't be much traffic here. She had no idea what he had planned but even if she believed him in his claim that he could bring them back, she couldn't do it.

She knew what a crime that jutsu was and she would stop him. He had perverted too much medical knowledge for his own gains, hurt too many people and there was no forgiveness in her. She still remembered when they brought in that girl that had been his apprentice, she couldn't remember her name but Tsunade had been brought in to help out. The poor girl had lost so much of her memories that even Tsunade had failed to bring back.

They finally stopped roughly around the center of the field that was fine with her it was time she wanted to get this over with.

"Well no one should get in our way out here," Orochimaru smiled. "So then, where were we?"

"I believe you were going to tell me something that I wanted to hear and then try and convince me to join you but let's just say we did that and get to the real point of all of this?" Tsunade told him clearly not wanting to drag this out anymore than was needed. "I highly doubt you actually thought for a moment you could convince me of all people to join you and just ignore all the things you've done or will do."

"I figured the reason you wanted us to come out here and it wasn't just so that you wouldn't have privacy for a chat."

He chuckled just then, "I'm not surprised you figured that out. I was hoping that I could talk you into joining me but I also knew it was a long shot. I figured that I had nothing to lose even if I tried. So you won't join me, pity I really could have used your talents. Oh well, you see even though I know that you might not rejoin the village, I can't take the chance that you would go back."

"I took a long time in order to weaken the village as it is now, if you return it might give the village some hope and we can't have that. Plus if I get you out of the way then my other targets would be much easier to deal with."

"Other targets, what other targets?" Tsunade was thinking that maybe he could be talking about Jiraiya but he said there was more than one. She didn't think he meant Shizune, sure she was a great medic, one of the bests but was she really worthy to be killed for that?

"You see there is a young boy that I've marked that I want," he grinned licking his lips. "His eyes are something that I need with them I could learn so many jutsus in just a few years. The power I could have with them is nearly unimaginable. I hope that he'll be more willing for my offer of power after all I know what he wants most and I can give it to him."

Tsunade figured out he had to be talking about the Uchiha boy and it didn't sound like he was out for the boy's best interests. "Who's the other one?"

"A certain jinchuriki boy," he told her. "You see I used to belong to a certain group and that boy and others like him, well they're important. I never did learn the full reason, I knew it was more than what the leader of this group told us but I was only there for my own reasons anyway. Fact is we parted not on the best of terms and they need all nine of them. So if one were to say...die, well then they wouldn't be too happy about that." He laughed then as Tsunade looked at him in anger.

He truly had fallen from when they had been kids, that young boy she had known would never have done any of this. This was just the proof that he had gone totally insane in the years she had last seen him. But it was a old calculating insanity of some kind, he was fully aware of himself but he just didn't care how his actions hurt others. He had always been a bit cold and distant but it was like she was seeing a totally different person in the body of her once friend.

Well this was going to be easy then, a part of her worried that maybe there was some old part of him still left but by the looks of it there wasn't. The old Orochimaru was long gone and dead, replaced by this monster in his flesh. She didn't know this person and the fact that he was threatening children made her blood boil in a cold rage. She didn't care about Konoha, at least that's what she always said, but the thought of any kid, even if they were genins and should know what kind of world they live in, they were still kids in her eyes. She kept seeing her younger brother's body under that bloody sheet in her mind.

He had gone too far this time as she dug in her heels preparing for the fight. She wasn't sure what that boy with him was or what he could do but she would keep an eye on him just in case. Her main focus however was Orochimaru.

"I'm going to do what the old man should have done to you a long time ago," she told him coldly.

He only laughed, "Ah there's that old fire in your eyes let's see if age has slowed you down a little shall we?"

-Blue Room-

Jiraiya had found this establishment a couple of days into their time in this village and honestly he was glad for the distractions it gave him. Oh sure he had been trying to train the kids as best he could, give advice to Naruto but the only way for the boy to learn the rasengan was to learn it yourself. You could know the steps but it was up to the person to discover how to put it all together and get it working.

Jiraiya believed that in order to make a jutsu your own you needed to discover it yourself, to learn through failure and achievement, to really get your hands dirty and through hard work to finally master it could you truly understand a jutsu. It was one of the things he always argued with against Orochimaru while on the same team.

Although now he was wondering if he should break that rule and try and get the kid to learn the rasengan but despite all his flaws he wasn't a cheater. Plus the boy was eager to learn it himself and prove that he could master it. The deal line was fast approaching and he wasn't looking forward to returning to Konoha empty handed and having to face the Hokage with failure. He also hadn't been able to get Tsunade to see reason either.

So of course he was feeling depressed and maybe a little old, so he did what he usually did to cheer himself up. Go out drinking and find some pretty girls to keep him company, hence why he was now in the Blue Room as the place had decent drinks and decent women who all seemed to be dressed in blue.

Currently he was on another drink as he had three women around him, they smelt nice and they had nice skin. He knew that the only reason they were with him was because he was paying for their time, not that he really cared. When you got to his age and didn't have someone in your life, when you felt empty inside in those dark times alone with a broken heart, you would cherish even the illusion that he was indulging in.

So he just went with it, enjoying himself and maybe in a way he would feel like he was actually enjoying his time. Well maybe it wasn't that hard given that these were pretty ladies he was with and he did enjoy pretty girls.

"I must say you ladies are sure are something," He grinned like an idiot.

"Aww that's nice of you to say," The woman on his left said cuddling up to his side.

"Yeah you're a lot of fun to hang out with," The other spoke up.

Jiraiya wasn't sure if they were telling him the truth or just telling him what he wanted to hear but he didn't care.

"So how much longer are you staying?" the third asked. "We hope you're staying for a long time."

"Well ladies my time in this place is nearly gone, I got to head back home soon but before that how about we really party?" He laughed if he was going to get into trouble when he got home be might as well enjoy himself before he had the old man got to him.

"There he is!" a very loud and familiar voice was heard among the crowd.

Jiraiya groaned what was he doing here? He turned to look to see Naruto and the other two trying to make their way in, although given their ages it was no wonder that the doorman was trying to hold them off. He was also surprised to see Shizune was here with them that was odd. Naruto was yelling up a storm as he sighed, he better see what the kid wanted or else they might kick him out for all the trouble this was starting to cause.

"Excuse me ladies," Jiraiya said before getting up and walking up to them. "Okay what's so important that you kids might end up getting me kicked out of here?"

"Jiraiya you need to help Tsunade," Shizune told him frantically. "She's in trouble and we need your help."

Now he was getting serious, "what trouble?"

"It's that snake freak again," Naruto said.

"Snake freak?"

"Orochimaru," Shizune clarified.

Jiraiya was very still for a moment as he processed that before leaving the club so quickly he left the others behind for a second. They quickly caught up to him just outside as he looked at them.

"Point me in the right direction," he told them seriously.

Next up chapter 9: Ghosts of the Past