36

Chapter 36: maybe it's time they meet their dragonNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Raijin approaches his self-assigned mission with a carefully curated calm he hasn't had to employ since the Fourth Great Shinobi War. There is a deep sense of finality that roots itself within him, filling his heart with a heavy weight he cannot shake off. He can't afford the distraction right now, unfortunately. He'll just have to cry about it later.

Solemnly, he gathers his most important belongings and stores them away into the various seals he has inked on himself. It leaves a sour taste in his mouth to do so, but Raijin needs to be prepared for everything, and that includes potentially needing to flee Konoha at a moment's notice.

By tonight, he will have assassinated a village elder and decorated veteran. It will make him a fugitive regardless of how much Danzou deserves it, and Raijin has no interest in spending the rest of his life in a cell, punished and expected to repent for a crime he could never come to regret. So, yeah, he's prepared to become a missing nin if that's what it takes.

It will simply be another price he has had to pay for the sake of bringing about a peace he can be proud of.

As for his brother…Well, Minato is Hokage now. He has big responsibilities to shoulder as it is. Raijin doesn't want to make things unnecessarily hard for him if he can help it. Besides, with such little insight on his father's personality from the future, Raijin can't tell which course of action Minato might take—the one where he futilely tries to help Raijin despite what he is about to do, or the one where he sides with his duty as he is expected to and delivers Raijin's sentence regardless of how he might feel about it.

Things would be easier for all of them if Raijin just leaves of his own accord.

Besides, baby Naruto is on his way now and, this time, there will be no Kyuubi attack that will take his parents from him. Things will fall into place for the Uzumaki-Namikaze family as they always should have. Kakashi will still have Obito and Rin's friendship. Itachi will have his family and be able to help his little brother grow. Everything will be fine.

Raijin just has to do his duty to make sure everything goes right for the people he loves.

He made a promise to himself, after all, and Raijin has always kept his word. He will not fail here.

He has some clones track a few on-duty ROOT agents whose uniforms he could steal for the sake of his infiltration. While Raijin's usual approach is just to go all in right from the start, his hastily thrown together plan kind of requires a bit of subtlety at first.

So, some minor identity theft in the cards there but it's hardly going to be the worst crime he will commit today. They might even look it over entirely in favour of all the other bullshit he's about to pull.

In the meantime, he puts the finishing touches on a seal that he has been working on since January—a counter to Minato's gift. It isn't a particularly difficult solution to come up with since Minato's finished seal serves as an excellent foundation for him to build off; it's just one that he has been putting off purely because of how guilty it makes him feel to tamper with something his elder brother put so much time and though into. But it can't be helped. Minato would wonder what Raijin is doing in the ROOT headquarters and he could literally teleport there within seconds to find out for himself, thereby throwing all of Raijin's plans into disarray.

He can't let anyone interrupt until Shimura Danzou is dealt with.

And after that…Raijin supposes he will find out.

Operation: Curb Stomp Danzou to Death consists of several moving parts that would ordinarily require the participation of multiple highly skilled shinobi. Luckily for Raijin, he's a functional one-man army thanks to his favourite forbidden jutsu.

He has his clones make a ruckus right outside the gated entrance to ROOT and sneaks in when the guards have materialised to investigate the source of the disturbance. As soon as he slips in, he activates the modifications he has laid over Minato's seal, cutting off his brother from his location in the same breath that he fixes the mask over his face.

A fox, because apparently his clones have a dark sense of humour.

Allowing himself to melt into the shadows, Raijin creeps along the walls of the dark cavern that eventually opens into a wide circular chamber. Including the pathway Raijin took, there are four exits leading out of the chamber. This and the floor directly above it seem to be the only two above ground floors of the headquarters. Raijin peers over the railing and grimaces at the seven floors below.

The whole place is terribly industrial looking with its stone walls, wooden platforms and metal pipes and beams. Figures that Danzou would favour such depressing interior design; no wonder he's so fucking miserable all the time.

Now, if only Raijin knew where to find the old fart…

Humming, he forms a one-handed seal and forms five more clones. He's sure someone is going to notice the multiple identical chakra signatures that no one recognises from ROOT agent Fox soon enough, so they'll have to make this quick.

"Two of you, go find the kids," he instructs in an urgent whisper, looking at their masked faces. "The other three get ready to make sure to hold off our target's backup. The others will join soon, so have them help you out. I'm counting on you guys."

"You got it, Boss!"

One of the clones raises its hand. "How do you want us to hold them off? Are we fighting them?"

Raijin shrugs. "Sure, if that's what you want, but I don't want any unnecessary casualties. I don't care how you do it so long as you succeed. Make it good, yeah?"

The clones seem to exchange glances, though how they're doing it through the nondescript masks is lost on him. Which is kind of weird considering his clones are extensions of him, so nothing they're privy to should be lost on him at all, but what does Raijin know. Finally, they nod.

"Sure thing, Boss."

They say it in that tone of voice Raijin knows he himself uses when he's planning a prank that would trigger law enforcement somehow, but considering that is kind of the mission objective, he doesn't call them out on it. So long as it buys him enough time, he won't complain.

He nods at his clones. "Let's get to work then."

And so, they do.

It's starts out as a normal day at work for Boar.

Sure, his colleagues are weird and don't say much outside of mission commands and reports, but he's learning that this is usual for ROOT. There are a couple other new initiates like him around who are just as baffled and intimidated by their seniors, but they're all trying to fit in as best as they can. The faster they adjust, the better they'll start performing during missions.

And Boar is determined to make this ROOT thing work so he can rub it in Shiranui Genma's face for ever doubting that Boar belongs in Councilman Shimura's organisation. He's a part of the most exclusive faction of ANBU who are considered elites as it is. It's not some fluke. It proves that Boar is good at what he does if someone as skilled and smart as Shimura Danzou thinks he has value.

So, yeah, it starts out as a normal day at work. He goes in, finishes his guard duty shift and decides to explore all the training facilities their headquarters boasts.

And then, out of nowhere, he nearly gets run over by a mini tornado of menacingly swirling hot pink glitter that whizzes past him in the corridor at what must be the speed of sound, spewing blindingly sparkly confetti and cat stickers as it carries on down its warpath.

Boar stares from where he is flattened against the wall, heart beating in his throat and uniform winking with specks of glitter under the low light of the hallway. Distantly, he hears screaming from the direction the tornado went in. The walls look like a toddler's fever dream threw up all over them.

He thinks he's shaking.

"What the fuck," he pronounces, voice cracking.

It only gets weirder from there.

He decides that maybe the Sparkly Tornado of Doom is a sign from the higher powers to leave testing out the training facilities to another day, so he heads back the way he came from.

Boar wishes he'd just gone home instead.

The central chamber is in disarray when he gets there. Boar has to pause and physically gape at the state of complete chaos and confusion as his fellow ROOT agents run around like a bunch of headless chickens, their notorious composure nowhere to be seen.

There are shinobi dangling in nets from the ceiling while others work on getting them down, though it appears as though no amount of blades or jutsu are helping. It looks like someone set off a paint bomb in the middle of the room judging by the massive obnoxious green splatters covering much of the floor, walls and quite a few disgruntled agents. Everything is glittering ominously. Boar doesn't think he has ever seen this much colour in the headquarters.

"We're under attack," Jaguar summarises grimly, leaping down to land beside him and take in the scene.

Boar goes to reply when he is cut off by another distant explosion. Far away, someone screams, "It's moving! The slime is—!" The rest of the distressed cry dissolves into a muffled shout and then there is only a threatening sort of rumble.

"Did they just…die?" Boar asks, horrified.

Jaguar's mask should make him unreadable, but he radiates such a grievous air that it's impossible to miss. "We're under attack," he repeats. "The entire building has turned into one massive trap waiting to be triggered. Nowhere is safe."

Boar realises once again with a sinking feeling in his chest that he should have just gone home. "Who could be responsible?" he wonders. "Have we found no one?"

"Not a trace so far," Jaguar confirms, shaking his head. "No one has been able to navigate the traps safely. Panda is our best tracker and he's still lost in the maze of mirrors in the fourth-floor corridor."

"Maze of mirrors," Boar echoes because it needs to be said for it to feel real. "How did someone manage to get in and set all this up without anyone even noticing?"

Jaguar sighs and turns back to examine the central chamber, line of sight lingering upon the glow-in-the-dark graffiti on the stone walls featuring a caricature of some sort of…plant monster? "Almost as though we are being haunted."

And doesn't that just sound horrifying. Boar gulps and studies the frantic shinobi who are trapped in the nets. "Has anyone informed Shimura-sama yet?"

"I'm not sure," Jaguar admits slowly, "although all of this is rather hard to miss. I'm sure he knows."

"Well, if anyone can help us get rid of this so-called ghost, it has to be him, right?"

Jaguar is silent for just long enough that Boar's heart drops like a rock to his stomach. "I sure hope so," he says finally.

In the distance, someone yells out, "TORNADO!"

Inuzuka Naomi—or Recruit 6735 as she is usually referred to these days—can say with utmost surety that she hates her new home.

She doesn't know why her clan head and pack leader gave her away; if it is indeed a reward for Naomi's capability like her trainers tell her or if she is actually being punished for some reason. Whatever the case, she is willing to march to Tsume right now and apologise for everything if that's what it takes for to be allowed back home again. She wants to see the compound again, with its many furs and freely given cuddles to keep her warm, where they are allowed to play outside to their hearts' content and there is always delicious food to go around.

The compound that is nothing like ROOT's cold stone walls and dark, oppressively silent hallways, where everyone moves like a wraith and acts like puppets with invisible strings.

They want her to be like them, she knows. All the other kids have been told as much too. On their first day, they are all warned to forget the life they led before becoming one of ROOT's shadows because, from that point on, they are expected to act like proper shinobi worthy of protecting Konoha no matter the cost. There is no more comfort or softness; no more playing, laughing or wasting time.

Naomi has always wanted to be a kunoichi like her mother, but she rethinks this ambition now if this is what it's actually cut out to be.

The routine of it all is so unbearably mind numbing that she can't imagine doing this for even a week more, let alone the rest of her life. They are woken up at 6:30 am every day, marched into breakfast and then training, lunch, more training, break, training, dinner, shower and then it's lights out. There is no deviation, and any rebellion is met with swift punishment.

Naomi has resigned herself to biting her tongue and keeping her head down. If this is her only choice now, all she can do is her best to survive it. There are a few older recruits who look out for them sometimes—kids who have already forgotten their names because their trainers punish them for using anything other than their assigned numbers. Naomi knows with a sinking sense of dread that it is only a matter of time before she becomes like them too.

And then, suddenly, that dreaded routine sees itself derailed on a day that starts out like any other.

They are in the training hall for their evening lesson on weapon handling when the usually deathly still building erupts into loud noises that echo even in their soundproofed hall. The recruits look to the trainers in confusion, but it becomes obvious that their instructors hold no more answers than they do for they immediately assume defensive positions.

Naomi readjusts her grip on the kunai in her hand too, falling into a ready stance. For their instructors to be reacting this way, she's sure something is wrong. A fight is likely to ensue.

And ensue it does. They wait with baited breath as the noise outside dies into a tense silence. The air is charged with the ozone-like smell of anticipation; it makes her nose twitch. Without warning, the silence is shattered by the doors to the training hall being blasted open, giving way to wafts of thick smoke that billow in and fill the room with an unnatural speed.

Everything dissolves into panic as her fellow recruits yell out in the confusion, bumping into one another and falling into scuffles as everyone becomes a potential enemy with their vision so thoroughly impaired by the smoke. The trainers call for order, but their reprimands fall on deaf ears. It's a lawless free-for-all if no one can see.

Naomi hisses as she is roughly bumped into, stumbling over her own feet because of the force. She squints through the smoke, realising abruptly that it has to be artificial because it doesn't irritate her eyes or nose at all. In fact, it smells vaguely of strawberries. How oddly…considerate?

A hand closes around her shoulder and Naomi yelps, kicking out blindly to try and dislodge whoever is trying to grab her. "Let go!" she warns. "I'll bite you, I swear I will."

"Uh, no, please don't," says the owner of the hand on her shoulder. They actually emote through their voice so she rules out the possibility of her biting one of her instructors. That means she's being kidnapped, like, right now.

Naomi snarls and turns her head to try and sink her teeth into the hand, struggling viciously.

"Hey! Can you hold still for a second, dude?"

What kind of kidnapper calls the child they're trying to abduct 'dude'?

There's a shift in the grip and Naomi yells out in surprise as she's lifted clean into the air by the armpits. A ROOT mask greets her through the wisps of thick smoke. She tries to kick her holder in the throat and he yelps and leans back.

"I'm trying to break you guys out of here," he complains. "Is a little cooperation too much to ask for?"

That has her stilling out sheer incredulity. "You're here to…break us out?"

The kidnapper sniffs. "Hardly any of your guardians know you're here, you know. This is all seriously illegal."

"And you're doing this jailbreak by yourself?" So, this idiot is running a jeopardised operation and he's going to doom them all. Hell no. Naomi starts struggling again.

"Technically, yes, but—" He hisses. "Stop squirming! I'm a clone! You're going to dispel me at this rate."

"A clone?" she repeats, scowling. "What kind of clone is this solid?"

"One from a very forbidden jutsu," comes the helpful answer.

Naomi isn't convinced. She'd cross her arms if she could. "And whose clone are you supposed to be?"

A beat of silence. Then a tentatively offered, "You can take a peek beneath the mask if that will convince you faster, because we really have to get a move on."

She blinks. Admittedly, she hadn't expected the cooperation, but she isn't about to question it. Striking out before the offer is revoked, she snatches the mask away.

Electric blue eyes blink back at her, a shock of sunshine hair peeking out from underneath the hood the man is wearing. Naomi gapes. "You're the Hokage's brother."

"And I'm doing several illegal things to try and rescue you guys, so can we please get a move on now?"

Going limp, she nods dumbly. Namikaze Raijin shifts to hold her in one arm, using his free hand to fix the mask back in place before letting out a sharp sustained whistle. The noise in the room picks up, metallic clangs being a telltale sign of an ongoing battle somewhere. Raijin looks unbothered by it all, turning to Naomi. Somehow, though she cannot see his face, she gets the impression that he is smiling at her.

"Help me gather your friends?" he asks.

She thinks about correcting him and saying that there are no friends in ROOT. Would that get him to leave the room faster so they can get out of the headquarters that much quicker? But Naomi thinks about some of the older recruits, kids both older and younger than her who remember only their numbers and have no names or identity to speak of. She swallows.

Closing her fist around Raijin's standard issue cloak, Naomi takes a deep breath and nods. "I'll help."

"There are reports of an attack on the ROOT headquarters," ANBU Commander Takigawa Kanato says as soon as Minato grants him entry into his office. "All available ROOT agents were called in to help deal with it. The activity began roughly two hours ago. No one has been spotted leaving yet. There are reports of the noise of explosions and general struggle. We have received no official word from them despite several attempts at communication. A barrier seal warding the headquarters off is suspected since none of my shinobi have managed to gain entry."

Minato can feel Fugaku's eyes burning into him, but he does not meet the man's gaze. There is no doubt about what the Uchiha clan head suspects, though it is a kindness that he doesn't ask any difficult questions in front of the ANBU Commander.

Closing his eyes, Minato allows himself five seconds to just breathe.

The things he knows: Shimura Danzou openly sabotaged Raijin and Shisui's mission; Raijin was emotionally unstable last Minato saw him; Raijin dropped off evidence that could be used to convict Danzou of aforementioned sabotage with the Police Force; Minato's seal on his brother has been rendered ineffective due to reasons that are yet unknown and inconclusive; His brother refuses to share any useful details pertaining to his past; ROOT is currently under a barrier and potentially weathering an attack that no one has managed to walk away from yet; Raijin is perfectly capable of holding out against hundreds of shinobi by himself for hours.

He exhales and opens his eyes, methodically reciting these facts to himself until he has entered a state of mission-ready calm. Alright. Minato has a job to do.

"Gather your forces and meet me at the entrance to ROOT headquarters in fifteen minutes," he instructs.

Fugaku frowns slightly. "You will go personally, Hokage-sama?"

"If no one in ANBU has managed to gain entry yet, my help with the fuuinjutsu will likely be needed," Minato explains. "I'd like you to gather a team of eight of your own, Fugaku-dono. I suspect an arrest awaits."

Fugaku's gaze is unreadable and penetrative, but Minato meets it unflinchingly. He knows very well what possibility lies ahead. He will not shy away from doing what is required of him.

Regardless of what happens, Minato will face it head on.

"Sir, we have found the intruder."

Danzou exhales sharply and nods. "Bring them to me," he instructs, voice cold.

There is the creaking of his office door opening, and shuffling as the trespasser who has dared to wreak such havoc in ROOT's headquarters is brought in. Danzou turns around, glare fixed in place.

"Take the mask off," he orders. His shinobi comply, ripping off the hood and stolen Fox mask. Danzou freezes as he greeted by a very familiar face. "Namikaze Raijin."

The boy has the audacity to grin at him, his body language perfectly at ease. "Hello, Councilman Shimura."

Gritting his teeth, he regards the insolent brat with a look of open disdain. "Do you think you will get away with this simply because of that brother of yours?" he asks, keeping his voice low. He will not lose control over the childish pranks of some—

"I don't," Raijin replies, inclining his head, dimples showing as he smiles. "But somehow I get the feeling I'm not going to get into too much trouble for doing free community service and taking out the trash."

Without his needing to say it, Sparrow smacks the blond. Danzou watches impassive as Raijin's head snaps to the side with the force of the hit. "I don't tolerate such disrespect, boy."

Raijin licks at the blood from his split lip and grins, something wicked in his eye as the skin knits back together before Danzou's very eyes. "Good," the boy says viciously.

"Curious," Danzou voices. That healing factor could come of great use. He tilts his head and considers the Namikaze. Raijin might indeed be a lost cause, but Danzou has ways of taming such disobedience. Uchiha Kagami's gift has served him well all this time; it will come in handy once again it seems. Perhaps Danzou will turn Raijin into one of his own and hide him until he can pit the boy against their honourable Hokage. He is sure Minato's face will be worth the effort. "Do you understand the position you are in, Raijin-kun?"

"I have the feeling you're going to tell me anyway."

Another smack. Danzou hums.

"You have broken into the headquarters of one of the black op organisations of a village you are not native to," he states. "You have staged a wide-scale assault here. Are you aware that you could be charged with treason? Not even the Hokage's influence would save you, you know."

Raijin's countenance betrays no panic. He only lifts his chin and meets Danzou's eye. "You're pretty confident no one is going to find out about all your little illegal activities here, Danzou-sama. The children you have stolen. The sabotage and assassinations you have ordered. The experiments you have run. You think you will get away with all of it?"

Ah. Danzou cannot help but chuckle. How terribly naïve. That too will need to be fixed. "Everything I have done has been for the betterment of this village, Raijin-kun," he says, folding his hands together. "Not that it matters. You seem to see yourself as some sort of 'hero' who will receive some great reward for bringing me to 'justice'. Real life is not some sort of fairytale, boy. I have had to make some difficult choices, but I have always done that which needed to be done. I am not some villain, and you certainly are no hero."

"Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night?" Raijin's voice is saccharine and dripping with mockery. "I think it's laughable that you're accusing me of committing treason even knowing exactly what you have done." His gaze sharpens, lips pulled back into a smile that looks more like a baring of teeth. "After all, in Konoha, there is no greater offender than a bloodline thief."

Danzou stills. "Be careful the things you speak," he spits out. Sparrow, dutiful as ever, goes for Raijin's ribs next.

The boy grins even through the wheeze that escapes him. "What—you gonna deny it?" he teases. "I know exactly what's under all those bandages, old man. Bet the Uchiha would just love to find out too. Maybe I should just go tell them."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Danzou snaps back, heart thundering in his ears. How on earth did Namikaze Raijin find out? He has told no one. Not one person knows. Danzou personally ensured that no potential leaks would be left. And yet. "You are outnumbered, your chakra is bound, you are entirely at my mercy, and I am not a merciful man, Raijin-kun."

At this, Raijin rolls his eyes. "Oh, please, like I didn't let these losers catch me," he drawls. "I figured it'd be the easiest way to get to your office. Looking for you seemed like a waste of time." As he speaks, the chakra inhibitor seals wrapped around his wrists and throat begin to glow, first with a blinding blue and then with an angry scarlet.

Danzou stares. "What are you doing?" he demands, alarm bells going off in his head.

Raijin grins back languidly. "Did you know, Danzou-sama? These seals are only designed with regular chakra reserves in mind. The Uzumaki pioneered the design that Konoha uses so these ones can even handle their particularly large reserves." The blazing red hue of the seals darkens to the colour of blood and the seals start smoking, paper beginning to wither away. There is something feral in the gleam of the blond's eyes.

"Knock him out," Danzou snarls. "Quickly, before he can go through with whatever he has planned!"

His shinobi go to do as asked, well-trained as they are, aiming to knock Raijin out by force. Before their attacks can connect, however, the shroud of potent red chakra that is beginning to envelope the blond pulses and lashes out. Sparrow cries out wordlessly as the smell of burning flesh fills the air, stumbling away reflexively. Raven too is retreating, ripping her gloves off to reveal singed skin underneath.

The last of the seals seem to burn right off Raijin and the boy straightens, rolling his shoulders almost lazily. The shroud of red covering him bleeds into a molten golden that makes him look like he is aflame. He blinks his large eyes with feigned innocence, the usual blue in them having become a vivid scarlet with slitted pupils.

"What did you do?" Danzou demands, hissing, tossing his cane away and reaching for the sword strapped to his waist instead. "Who are you?!"

"It's so funny," Raijin muses out loud. "No one ever seems to account for jinchuuriki."

Danzou's eye widens. "No," he breathes. All the jinchuuriki are accounted for; there's no way they missed one. "It's impossible."

And yet, as Raijin's killing intent leaks into the air, his chakra unfurls and settles over everything, crushing in its weight and suffocating in its wrath, and there is no mistaking the sulfuric notes of a tailed beast's chakra leaking through.

"You were wrong, you see, Danzou-sama," Raijin comments. Raven tries to throw herself at him if only in an attempt to dissuade him, but Raijin waves his hand and sends her flying into the wall with pure and shapeless wind chakra alone.

Everything is falling into place now. The healing factor, the reports of powerful jutsu that never seemed to tire the blond out, the many enemies he can fight by simply outlasting them, the endless fucking clones. Danzou bets that's how the boy managed to so successfully turn the entirety of the headquarter on its head. He isn't outnumbered at all, and if the reports of just how much chakra jinchuuriki have to spare are true, then he will never be outnumbered either.

A one-man army and he has come right to Danzou's front door.

"You are the one at my mercy," Raijin says, his voice a dangerous whisper. His eyes are cold, lips pulled into an almost animalistic snarl. If Danzou were religious, he would think some god of retribution himself had come for him. "And I have no mercy to spare for the likes of you, Shimura Danzou."

Sneaking out of an organisation full of some of the village's most well-trained shinobi at their most paranoid is easier said than done. Especially when considering that the party trying to sneak out consists of roughly thirty-something terrified children between the ages of four and thirteen.

"This is a lot harder than I thought it would be," Raijin's clone mutters.

Hand clasped in his, Naomi looks up at him in disbelief. "You can't say that," she hisses. "You're the one who told us you'd help get us out of here."

"And I will," he assures her. "Just the subtlety thing—I'm not used to it for stuff like this. I usually brute force my way out of situations when it gets this tough."

Her eyes narrow. "And why is it this tough?"

The explosion of paint or glitter in almost every other hallway they've passed has been more than telling enough.

Raijin chuckles awkwardly and avoids her accusatory glare. "I wonder," he tries to play off.

One of the other clones chooses this moment to pipe up, "Boss is probably going to get to business right about now."

As if in confirmation, a loud bang resounds through the entire building, shaking the structure seemingly down to its very foundations. Following it is a massive wave of chakra that washes over everything indiscriminately, filling the air with the force of its presence and pressing down until it becomes hard to breathe. It is unlike anything Naomi has ever felt before—filled with rage and hurt so potent, she wonders how anyone could stand to feel so much. It burns in her nose and her lungs, making her cough painfully while she tries to gasp for air that won't come.

There is a hand at her back, warm and soothing. The heavy chakra lifts slightly, batted away by a lighter presence that is the same but different in its power where it tries to wrap around Naomi like a blanket.

"It's alright," Raijin soothes. "I'm sorry about that. You'll be fine. Just try to keep breathing through it."

"What the hell is that?" one of the older kids, who Naomi only knows as 4718, demands. Her voice is full of anger, but her face is devoid of all colour and her eyes are wild with a primal fear that Naomi can relate to.

The clones all grimace. "It's going to get too risky for us to keep moving around like this," one of them says while the others nod. "We're better off waiting this out."

"But what is 'this' supposed to be?" presses another kid—an Aburame by the looks of it.

The Raijins exchange glances. The one holding Naomi's hand bluntly says, "Shimura Danzou will not be left alive for much longer. Do you know a place we can hide until then?"

There is silence for a long moment. Naomi looks blankly at her fellow recruits, just as lost. Shimura Danzou—dead? It is almost incomprehensible.

Finally, 4718 sets her face grimly. "The basement," she says. One of the other older kids sucks in a sharp breath but 4718 does not waver. "Only Danzou-sama and those he approves are permitted entry and exit. It's the most defensible place here. I've never been inside but I know where it is. The whole thing is locked with seals, but you're supposed to be a master, right?"

The clones nod. "Sure," one of them agrees.

"What about the guards?" a Sarutobi boy points out.

"Leave them to us," Raijin says. "I think it's time for our final weapon."

"What is it?" Naomi asks warily. The blond seems to have all sorts of convoluted ideas for what counts as a weapon, she has begun to realise.

The clone holding her hand grins wickedly. Naomi is suddenly struck by the memory of one of those kitsune masks in the festivals. She blinks.

"It's time," he starts ominously, "to release the bees."

It feels dangerously good to let loose and finally stop holding back after nearly a full year of policing his own strength for the sake of his cover.

Raijin lets his chakra swell and settle within his coils with its full presence, the Kyuubi present close to the front of his mind as he enters Kurama Mode and burns right through the flimsy chakra inhibitors, their manic glee at the freedom feeding into each other's until there is one linear thought between them: destroy.

Danzou's personal guards materialise from the shadows as soon as the elder unsheathes his sword in a clear signal to treat Raijin as a high-priority threat. One of them leaps out at him, tanto gleaming under the dim fluorescent lighting.

Raijin meets the tanto with a chakra blade of his own, its metal reinforced with wind chakra, and forces the agent's arm upward before striking with a decisive punch. He knows the effect Kurama's chakra has on human opponents when Raijin is like this; every hit hurts thrice as much with the combination of the Kyuubi's natural chakra signature and how it reinforces Raijin's own strength. He feels the agent's ribs crack under his knuckles and he spins, using his momentum to haul them over his shoulder, intentionally slamming into the fractured ribs as he throws them to the floor.

Recognising that single attacks will be ineffective, the others spread out into a formation, aiming to surround him.

Kurama scoffs in his mind. 'Adorable,' he drawls sarcastically.

Raijin grins in agreement. He is met with a wave of shuriken, the agents using the flurry as a distraction to mask the immediate follow-up attack. Raijin leaps back, dodging most of the weapons and waving the rest away with a lazy gust of wind. Behind the agents' formation, Danzou is opening a secret tunnel, clearly looking to slip away while Raijin is occupied.

Now that just won't do. Raijin went through all this effort to kick the old man's ass; he should at least have the decency to not run away.

Absently forming the signs for an earth jutsu, Raijin slams his palm to the ground and leaps away just in time for the entire floor to give away underneath the ROOT shinobi's feet, swallowing most of them into the fissure underneath. The few that do manage to react in time are too occupied to see him coming. They join their colleagues shortly.

Raijin leaps over the cavity, lips pulling into a grin that is just a touch too wide as he shapes one of the more destructive jutsu in his arsenal, starting with a fire release that he immediately augments with a wind release that is designed to be a less destructive variant of the rasengan. The resultant explosion slams right into the wall hiding the secret tunnel and immediately blows most of it away.

So what if he collapses a tunnel or two? He's finally starting to have some fun after all.

Raijin waves the smoke and debris away, striding into the destruction. "Oh, Danzou-sama," he calls out, tone lilting. "Come on, don't just leave me hanging here. I thought you and I were going to hang out. I have a feeling we're going to get along swimmingly."

The telltale sound of shifting earth is his only answer and Raijin sighs. So, Danzou used an earth jutsu to get away. Man, the old bastard really is like a cockroach.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Raijin sings.

Stillness for a moment. And then the ground gives out in front of him, Danzou leaping out, sword raised and fury on his face. A sharingan spins in the eye that he usually keeps covered. He must be desperate if he's revealing it now despite the undoubted drain it will have on his chakra reserves.

Raijin laughs and lifts his own chakra blade, parrying Danzou's strike. His kenjutsu has never been the best, so Raijin compensates by judicious use of ninjutsu to force Danzou into a state of split focus, keeping the man on the defensive. Danzou tries to lead him further down the tunnel that leads to the basement level of the headquarters, but Raijin refuses to play along.

Instead, he presses in close and pushes Danzou to exit the tunnels, both of them bursting out into a hallway and shattering the mirrors in the maze that Raijin's trusty clones managed to set up out of sheer force of will and a love for causing mayhem. Out of the tunnel and less afraid of structural damage that might accidentally bring down the entire mountain now that they're in a more open space, Raijin gleefully starts shaping a rasengan.

The jutsu rips through the corridor, Danzou just about managing to avoid the brunt of it by diving out of the way in the nick of time. Raijin pouts and leaps out at the man before he can quite recover, using the destruction and debris his misfired rasengan caused to his advantage.

Danzou triggers Izanagi, reappearing at a distance behind him unleashing a wind bullet jutsu. Raijin groans in disappointment and leaps away, dodging. Maybe he should stop playing around and finally get serious.

"Alright, old man," he sighs. "No more fun and games. It's go time."

"You will regret this, boy," Danzou spits back, already fleeing down the hall.

Freed from the maze, there are more agents stumbling around to cover his attempted escape. Raijin rolls his eyes.

He pursues.

The barrier erected around ROOT's headquarters is a particularly sophisticated piece of work that absorbs whatever chakra is thrown at it and converts it to use as fuel for itself. The more someone tries to damage it using ninjutsu, the stronger it gets.

Undoubtedly, it is Raijin's work.

Minato struggles to keep the frown off his face as he works on a seal he could overlay over a patch of the barrier to allow them just enough room to slip through. Ideally, he could directly sabotage the key powering the barrier, but there's no telling where that chink in the armour might be for a barrier this massive. He's better off trying to thin the barricade enough to tear a small hole through.

It's a stroke of luck that he is familiar enough with Raijin's sealing hand that he can guess the arrays his brother might have used enough to counter them to a degree. Minato just never thought he would ever need to be doing this.

Grimly, he carefully sets his own loophole in place on the ground and carefully feeds a tendril of chakra into it, watching as the threads of chakra spread out in a web from the chakra paper, first crawling upon the ground and then spreading up, revealing the shimmering ultraviolet surface of a rippling barrier that stretches out beyond their line of sight.

"By Amaterasu's light, I've never seen anything like this." Fugaku's notorious imperceptibility is nowhere to be found as he openly gapes up at the barrier that stretches over their heads.

Minato swallows. "The only barrier I've seen of a bigger scale is the one installed for the village's defence." That one has multiple keys and uses a complicated formula to power itself using nature chakra. He cannot sense any hint of senjutsu here though. Is Raijin powering this by himself then? Just how much chakra does he have?

Before them, the web of chakra from Minato's seal stops spiralling outwards. For a moment, it is as though everything is suspended in time, and then the patch of the barrier that is covered by Minato's loophole fractures, dissipating as though it is made of mist.

"Let's go," Minato orders, steeling his heart and stepping through, preparing himself mentally for the worst.

And yet, the headquarters look like nothing he could have imagined. Minato falters, blinking. There is drying paint on the wooden ramps, neon graffiti on the walls, scrambling ROOT shinobi trying to free their colleagues from nets hanging twenty feet off the ground. Every surface seems to have glitter and cat stickers on it for some reason.

"Hokage-sama!" one of the Root agents—Boar from the looks of his mask—yelps upon noticing who has arrived in the central chamber. "Oh, thank the heavens you're here. I thought I'd never be free."

From behind him, the ANBU shinobi spread out and immediately get to work, taking stock of what has happened and trying to rescue the trapped ROOT ninja. Meanwhile, the Uchiha take inventory, recording everything with gleaming sharingan.

"Tell me exactly what happened here," Minato orders, addressing Boar.

As though he had been waiting to be asked, Boar immediately starts rambling, "Everything was totally normal at first, but then, out of nowhere, there was this pink tornado in the halls, right? I barely managed to avoid it and I came here to see if anyone was doing anything to contain it but then this place is an even bigger mess, and Jaguar said there's a maze of mirrors somewhere and someone was screaming about slime." Gesturing wildly with his hands, Boar emphasises, "It's absolute madness here, sir! No one could get out and the weirdest stuff just kept happening, and I don't even know if they've found who is responsible yet. Jaguar went to go see what the others are up to so we could rally and, like, fight back or something but then he never came back. A couple others that tried to leave just came back and they keep saying something about bees but, honestly, I have no idea what they're on about, but they're all refusing to leave again so now we're all just stuck here, biding time."

Minato blinks, trying to process all of that at once. Tornado, mirrors, missing shinobi, bees(?), and traumatised ROOT agents. Okay. "Anything else?" he asks.

Boar hesitates. "There was this massive wave of chakra twelve minutes ago. It felt like killing intent. We've felt a few tremors since. I think it might be a large-scale fight."

Frowning, the Hokage nods. "Right. Well, we'll have to split up and find out."

It has been a long time since Danzou has felt fear for his life like this.

He had thought there would be no reason to worry at first. The brat might be a jinchuuriki, but Danzou has ten sharingan at his disposal and a lifetime of experience. The battle would be difficult, yes, but Danzou has survived everything that has posed an obstacle in his path for over fifty years now. He refuses to be stopped today by some greenhorn child with delusions of grandeur.

But Namikaze Raijin proves himself to be a methodical predator, showing off a level of strength that not even Danzou could have ever hoped to account for.

He pursues relentlessly, ripping through everything in his path with no more than a passing glance, throwing around jutsu powered with so much chakra that the air remains charged with the smell of ozone and salt even after. Most of the damage he suffers is healed too quickly for it to take enough effect that it might disadvantage him.

On the other hand, every trick in Danzou's arsenal is pulled and it's all he can do just to stay alive. He is forced to rely on Izanagi as a crutch, blowing through the sharingan he has acquired through great effort over the years. That isn't even beginning to cover the drain on his reserves from the cursed eyes. He has only just managed to exercise tenuous control over the Shodaime's cells in his arm, though he can feel how mokuton tries to rip right out of his skin now that he doesn't have the seals and gauntlets helping him keep it under control.

Not even kotoamatsukami helps him despite never having failed before. It only manages to ensnare Raijin for half a minute at most before the genjutsu is shaken off, and even in that brief window, Danzou cannot get close enough because it is as though the chakra shroud surrounding the boy has a mind of its own. It corrodes any blade Danzou takes to it and lashes out if he gets too close.

They are in the level below the main chamber now and Danzou knows that if just manages to make it up this one floor, he will have his loyal shinobi at his aid once more. But he can no longer be sure if even they would do any good. None have managed to stand in Raijin's way for long enough before. And that is only if he manages to make it that far anyway. His options are looking slim.

The dust and smoke from Danzou's last wind jutsu are still wafting in the air but Raijin's chakra coated blade cuts through them, a blazing blue that contrasts his golden shroud as he steps through the haze.

"Decided to stop running, have you?" he asks, tilting his head and smiling sardonically.

Danzou grits his teeth and lowers his stance. The humiliation churns in his gut and burns on his skin. His reserves are running worryingly low, but he still scrapes together the chakra, painstakingly moulding it into shape.

"You will not get away with this," he promises, seething. "There will be no walking away from what you have done. You will not get your life back."

Something sad passes over Raijin's face. "I know," he says, "but I will have finished what I started. A new future will be worth the sacrifice."

So that's how it will be. Then he will endeavour to take his enemy down with him at the very least.

Grimly, Danzou presses his fingers into the hand seals. "Fuuton: Vacuum Wave."

Raijin counters, "Fuuton: Rasenshuriken."

It is as though the entire world is screaming in the aftermath, the winds howling in Danzou's ear and threatening to sweep him away. He tries to leap out of the fray, almost blind with the debris and smoke still filling the air, but it is no use and a part of him knows this already. The jutsu follows him—a massive shuriken made of volatile wind chakra—and he knows that this is the end.

Everything is too loud and then all at once, there is nothing. The world is quiet. He is weightless. Floating.

Belatedly, he realises he can see his own body falling, headless. 'Ah,' he thinks, 'so this is how it feels.'

And then he is no more.

Shimura Danzou is dead.

Notes:

Nearly 8000 words and I barely like any of them but it is what it is. I couldn't even tell you what happens here aside from that Danzou gets beheaded but I think that's the only part that really matters anyways.

Raijin's mission is finally over, so everyone start preparing for our goodbye because it's not far off now. I'll miss you guys :(