Chapter 45: A toad in distress

“There was no bottom low enough for that man it seems.”

That was Tsunade’s comment as she looked around the secret Root lab Karin and Riku had opened. She felt disgusted by the things inside the medical pods. Her eyes landed on Uzumaki Kushina and she wondered what she was going to say to Naruto. He had taken the revelation of his parentage rather well considering it had been hidden from him for so long and on purpose. He was mad as hell but not enough to tap into the Kyubi’s chakra. He was now busy with looking at his parents' mementos and other things they left behind. Except for Minato's journals. Riku had them for study. He had a right to them too after all.

“Hm… Sensei?”

“Yes?”

“This morning, just before lunch Sandaime-sama visited the manor and we talked about some things which included the Edo Tensei-”

“Absolutely not!” Tsunade interjected on the spot.

“I can perfect it without the need to sacrifice someone! And it wouldn’t be a corpse but a true resurrection!” He quickly said, stopping the blonde’s woman's rant sequel.

“You… You’re serious?”

“Yes. My idea was to bring back the Yondaime and Kushina back. The problem I had was that I needed their actual bodies in pristine condition. Now that I've seen this room and that we have Kushina's body. I’m pretty sure that I can bring her back. She’s dead but it’s obvious she’s been well preserved shortly after her death. Honestly the body is in better condition than Sandaime-sama’s arm used to be. We can heal the damage to her body by recreating the organs. Or simply connect her body to someone else's organs to make it function. From there, we can use my Iryoken, the medic-seals or even Karin’s kekkei genkai if she’s willing-”

“I am! She’s my relative!”

“To completely heal her body, then I use the modified version of Edo Tensei and… Tada?”

“That’s insane, Riku.” Tsunade said after a moment. “Insane but… That should be doable.”

“We can do the same for the Yondaime too. I mean, his body must be a skeleton now but if Danzo could recreate parts of the Shodai with just his cells. We may be able to do that to Minato too. And better since we’re actually the best medics around.”

“Except Minato’s soul is trapped inside the Shinigami’s belly.” Tsunade retorted.

“That’s not that much of a problem. In Lady Mito’s notes she spoke of an uzumaki temple in the outskirts of the village. In there, is a mask that allows the summoning of the Shinigami to bargain for the soul of someone he ate. It cost the life and soul of the wearer though.”

“That’s not a problem either.”

“Riku, we’re not sacrificing someone for freeing Minato.” Tsunade interjected.

“No even Orochimaru?”

“That’s… Maybe but he’s dead so the point is moot.”

“He’s not quite dead, actually.”

Tsunade took a deep breath and knew she would regret asking.

“What do you mean he’s not dead?”

“His cursed mark? He put a piece of his soul inside of them so he’s technically still in this world. If we can extract it and put it inside an empty vessel…”

“Then we may free Minato. Shit, I can’t believe this. It’s actually possible. We may bring them both back.”

Taking a moment to think about a plan of action, Tsunade finally gave her orders.

“Alright. I want the two of you to work on healing Kushina’s body first then getting rid of the cursed mark and trapping Orochimaru’s soul. The hiraishin is put on the back burner for a while.”

“It’s fine. My clones dispelled earlier and I have a second working prototype. They can just make more by themselves at this point.”

“Good. Until further notice you’re off duty for those tasks. No more work at the hospital and no more missions. Of course nothing about this leaves your lips.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama.” / “Yes, sensei.”

Tsunade dismissed them and popped in a puff of smoke. Back at her temporary office the real blonde received the memories of her clone and began to massage her temple.

‘This is such a… Ugh. I shouldn’t be dealing with this shit.’

A month and they had removed the cursed seal from Anko, the two Oto-nin they had captured years ago from Orochimaru’s own personal guard and finally Sasuke Uchiha. The last one had to be put to sleep with all the rage, insults and spit he threw Riku’s way when he recognized his voice. His sharingan had been removed and no one bothered with giving him any eyes as a replacement.

The first time they removed the seal Orochimaru actually came out of it in the flesh. Was it not for Karin being so shocked that she used her chains as a defensive mechanism to subdue him, the snake may have gotten away. That has been quite the surprise. Anko, who recovered first, lodged a kunai in her former sensei’s head and finally got the satisfaction of killing him. She kissed Riku right on the lips and promise two more fucks for that and the removal of the seal. Afterward, since they were now aware of what was going to happen with the mark, Riku and Karin were ready. In the end, they had three Orochimaru in custody and the look on Tsunade’s face had been priceless when she was told that. Of course to avoid any escape, Riku had completely destroyed the Orochimarus’ chakra network, forbidding them forever to ever mould chakra.

Only two things were left to do. One, was to recreate Minato’s body and that was easier said than done. Riku had let Karin work on that but changed plans when they found out that the Yondaime’s body hadn’t decayed at all in the past 18 years. The redhead theorized that it was because of the Shinigami’s seal on his chest or rather it was the only explanation that made sense. Regardless, with a mostly intact body they could make it undergo the same procedure they did Kushina’s.

The second thing left to do was actually modifying the Edo Tensei. On paper it was simple. In practice, Riku had to reverse engineer the whole thing. His research was put on hold when Tsunade summoned him for a mission. Surprisingly he was the last to arrive.

‘I don’t know what the mission is about but if Kakashi is not the last one to get here, I’m pretty sure it will be a cluster fuck.’ he thought when he saw his cyclops of a teammate.

“Good, you’re all here. Let’s begin then. Jiraiya got intel that Akatsuki was stationed in Amegakure. Apparently Hanzo the Salamander has been dead for years and nobody outside the country knew. At least until now. I ordered Jiraiya to wait for back-up before infiltrating the place but I know he won’t listen. You’re that back up. Help him in any way you can but at the first sign of trouble I want you to bail out with him. Got it?”

She got two “Yes, Hokage-sama” and one “Yes-sensei” for an answer then dismissed them. As was their routine now, they gathered at the gate they would go through to leave the village and went inside Riku’s Botib.

“Ri-kun, do you have any seals for infiltration? Ame has been a dead zone for nearly a decade now.”

“Hmm.. I have sound proof seals? It suppressed any sound in a small area. If you put them on each surface of a room the whole room is mute to the outside but if you apply one on your feet or yourself, you should be totally silent. That also means your own voice. Communication would be done by hand signs.”

“How good are you at them?” Kakashi asked as he picked said seals from its rack and handed a few to Yugao.

“I know the standard and a few words from Anbu by watching them.”

“Good enough. Any other seals?”

“Yes. It’s not for infiltration though it’s for bailing out.”

With that said he pulled out free bracelets from his BoS and gave one to each of his teammates and himself.

“What does it do?” the purple haired woman inquired turning the bracelet between her finger to have a better look of the seal.

“Teleport you back in here.”

“Tele-”

“That’s the Hiraishin?!” exclaimed a shocked Kakashi.

“My version, yes.”

“What’s the difference?”

“By channeling a bit of chakra into the bracelet you’re sending a signal to the matrix over there.” Riku began to explain and pointed at a huge seal against the wall. “The matrix then uses its chakra reserves to teleport you here. That way you can escape at any moment as long as you have a drop of chakra in your body. The original used your own chakra for the teleport. Very limiting in the distance you’re allowed to travel and taxing on your chakra reserves. Sensei, Sandaime-sama and the Elders each have one but it teleports them to a secured bunker with everything they would need in case of an attack. I have one for Jiraiya too.”

“Neat.” commented the masked Jonin.

“Wait till I find a way to incorporate it into a shurifuin. Combined with the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu and shit is about to hit the fan for any enemies.”

The grin he sported on his face and the brief mental picture of such an event made Kakashi laugh.

“That’s about it. I didn’t have much time to come up with new things. Oh! Yes, I forgot! The bracelet actually creates an invisible barrier around you when you use it. As such nothing will be able to stop the teleportation. Not ninjutsu nor regular seals. I mean… blocking a spatial displacement to begin with is hardcore in terms of seals and I don’t think there are many people able to make one but that’s a problem for the two idiots’ version. My version would need an even more complex seal that I doubt anyone but me could make to counter the teleportation. So if an enemy tells you it’s useless don’t bother listening.”

“Well… That’s good enough for me.” Kakashi said and put the bracelet on his wrist and so did Yugao.

Team Yukari left in a hurry towards the west where the Land of Rains and Amegakure was located. Just before crossing the border, Kakashi proposed to bury Riku’s Botib into the ground for a quick retreat just in case. The idea was sound and Riku did so. They did use it to rest before that and crossing the border.

The Land of Rains really deserved its name. The whole country was enguggled in perpetual downpour. Riku rather liked it and wouldn’t have minded living here but only for weeks at a time. How the people of Ame could stand the gloomy atmosphere was beyond him. The country being relatively small and Ame not far from the border they reached the village in a matter of hours without being detected.

Under a henge they passed themselves as inhabitants and searched for Jiraiya in the streets.

“Any idea where he could be?” Riku asked his teammates.

“The first place to look for is Hot Springs but with this weather I doubt they have any. That leaves with the second place to look for: ba-”

A huge explosion coming from the tallest tower caught everyone’s attention. Theirs but also the civilian’s.

“How high are the odds that he’s there?” Riku answered flatly.

“A 100%.” replied Kakashi and signed with his hands a plan of action.

Immediately they shushined away to reach the tower and ran up off its wall. Another explosion surged and they had to dodge falling debris to not be squashed to death. That presented an opportunity for them as the destruction had left a big hole into the tower. Going through it they got inside and saw a very bad looking Jiraiya with two toads on his shoulders and a missing arm, fighting for his life against one Blue haired woman, three ginger head men and one mone.

Team Yukari didn’t even stop for a second to formulate a plan. Yugao drew her sword and attacked the one that looked like a bodybuilder and was definitely a taijutsu specialist. Kakashi began using Katon jutsu against the blue haired woman who was using paper as a medium for her attack. Riku reached Jiraiya’s side. Putting the Hiraishin bracelet on his one arm. Before he could tell the man how it worked, he was sent flying by a blast of powerful Chakra from the man Yugao was fighting. Riku barely had the time to put his hand in a defensive posture to block the hit. It had been so strong that his left arm completely disintegrated, along with it his Hiraishin bracelet. Getting up and using his one good hand to stop the bleeding, he barely dodged out of instinct the hit from a fourth ginger haired man that came out of nowhere.

“We need to bail out! Now!” Kakashi yelled as he was getting overwhelmed by the two women in the group. The ginger headed one had summoned huge beasts to fight for her.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?!” Jiraiya shot back, being attracted forward by an invisible force towards an enemy who had his hand raised.

“Channel chakra into the bracelet!” Yelled Riku as he dodged another strike and used his Iryoken into his attacker as a counter attack. The hit landed but there was no reaction. ‘Shit! They’re dead people! Sensei’s super strength it is then.’ he thought as he crouched down and avoided a roundhouse kick. The punch that followed hit the corpse's abdomen and pulverized it.

Yugao was the first to retreat, followed by Kakashi who would have died had he not.  With his only way out being Jiraiya who had not yet used the bracelet, Riku tried to Kawarimi next to him but just as he was finishing molding his chakra for it. Two blades came from the man Yugao had fought and cut his legs, sending him backward toward the hole in the wall. Knowing it was probably the end of him, Riku would go out with a bang. He picked some explosive shurifuins with his remaining good hand.

“The bracelet, Asshole!” he yelled at Jiraiya who got convinced to use it by the toads and disappeared in a green flash. At the same time he threw his shurifuins right onto the big one that cut off his legs and that was right above him ready to give the coup de gras. It was too close and the explosion sent Riku’s fall down to his death. His insides were completely destroyed or burnt. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes was the rain and the dark clouds in the sky.