A strange new life

4.10

Old man Hokage smiled, waved. Turned back to talk with all the assembled shinobi.

I didn't stay there. I couldn't stay there. There was nothing for me to do or see. Not with all those people up there. The noise from the viewer stands had grown a lot in the moments I was woolgathering up here. With one last regretful look at the God of Shinobi, and a glance at Orochimaru's dead body, I left.

From the roof I flickered to the stands. My first priority was to make sure Ino— I mean— the people I knew were safe. A brief look around still reveals none of my teammates. I moved closer to the blonde, popped out my board, wrote. “Are you hurt?”

Ino was still confused. She looked around, eyes wide and slack jawed. “Hinata? What happened?” 

“The village got attacked, Sunagakure and Otogakure.”

“Shit! I slept through it all?”

I nodded, patted her head. She didn't even react to my gesture. I guess the situation was that bad.

“Mom!” Ino jumped up, started to run, stopped a few paces later. Turned to me. Eyes went even wider. “Are you okay? You're bleeding!”

I waved her off, the injury wasn't as bad as it looked. “Go check your family. And stay safe.” I wrote.

Ino looked at the direction she was headed to, then back to me. “Come with me?” 

I looked around. There was a lot I could do to help here. I needed to find Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. I should, by all means, stay here to help. I turned to Ino, nodded. She gave me a small, tight smile. She ran toward her house. I followed, feeling just a bit guilty.

---

Thankfully, Ino's family was safe. The brunt of the attack was far enough from her house that no one there was in danger, even if many nearby places were damaged. Even late at night, people walked about in a state of shock, like they couldn't believe it really happened.

After making sure Ino’s family and employees were safe, I didn’t stay there. For a moment I considered if I should search for Naruto and Sasuke, but dismissed the idea. It wouldn’t be hard to find the place where a giant toad and a sand monster fought, but I was hours too late to be involved in that. I left to help in the village however I could.

Most of the damage happened near the walls, where the giant snakes broke through. Houses and stores and lots of dead civilians. It didn’t help that, to fight the giant snakes, someone summoned giant toads. Their battle wrecked even more damage to the surrounding area. Most of what I could do was grunt work. Carry debris, help people to dig personal things or mementos from the rubble. Rescue trapped pets and toys from under the destruction.

It was late at night. I was exhausted.

I jumped down from Konoha’s highway, entered my apartment. My shoulder slumped. Now that I was alone and with nothing to occupy my mind, the results of the day caught up with me. In the end, all that effort was for naught. Thwarted by my own meddling. I never even considered Shisui could intervene in the fight. I could even guess what happened. A shudder took over my body. I didn’t like looking at the mangekyo sharingan. For all the story lauded Shisui as one super duper good guy, enough fanfic jaded me to what could be accomplished when everyone’s mind was at your beck and call.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were at the hospital. By the looks of it, they fought Gaara. Beat back the one tail. Sakura was hurt badly, Naruto was mostly chakra exhausted, and Sasuke looked sick.

The news soon spread around the village. The third Hokage died due to injuries in the attack. The news reflected on the people’s faces. Kids crying, old men in despair. Even the consummate gossip grandmas whispered without fervor. I sat against the wall, pulled and grabbed my own head. I hated this feeling. Like I could have done more. Changed things for the better. As it stood, I made things worse. Konoha as a whole might have endured the attack better, and we stopped Orochimaru. But the village lost a lot of reputation since a lot of visitors died in the attack. I didn’t know how many, but a lot of civilians and dignitaries were caught in the attack when the barrier broke. I had no idea how that would affect things in the long term.

In the original story, most of the spectators never got hurt, and Konoha could pretend nothing bad happened, while abusing their remaining jounin and stronger shinobi to complete the missions and show a strong face, even if that was far from the truth. But now? I don’t know how things would play out.

There was one good point about this whole situation. Orochimaru was dead. But the man was a snake. I could only hope his soul got sealed away by the Third. Shame Kabuto had escaped. I’d prefer if Kabuto died instead.

I took my diary, the one with the timeline encoded in the form of a silly story. The events on the Land of waves, followed by the exams and crushcrushcrush. The next one on my list, if things were still the same, was the search for Tsunade and Sasuke leaving to join Orochimaru. With Orochimaru dead, would Sasuke still do it? After that was a long list of filler missions from the TV version of the story, the so hated filler episodes. Would they also happen here? What about the many movies?

After that was the timeskip. 

I didn’t consider it before. There was no fade to black and plot returning three years later when Naruto arrived back at Konoha. What would happen to me? To Sasuke? To Sakura?

A slithering sound caught my attention. I tensed, looked about. I felt no chakra that wasn’t there a moment before. The noise came again, this time louder. From beneath the door, a brown snake sneaked inside the apartment. I froze up, trying my best to remain unseen.

Fucking no. Was that Orochimaru? Was this some possession shit? Did that many shinobi really let the murderhobo disguise as a snake and flee?

The snake’s tongue flickered, it turned toward me. Slithered closer. I jumped out, away from it. Took a kunai, threw at the snake. Against all odds, I hit the thing. But instead of piercing the snake’s scales, the clang was like metal hitting metal. The kunai flew away, the snake remained unhurt.

To my utter bafflement, the snake didn’t attack. Instead, it changed shape. The scaled form transformed into the deadly metal blade of Orochimaru’s sword. Oh, shit. The sword could do that. There was that time, when Orochimaru stabbed Sai, it did that. But why was the sword here?

I stared at the sword, that, like any sword, didn’t stare back. It just stayed there, on the ground, threatening me without doing anything. I didn’t know what to do. Was that thing safe? Would it still follow me if I left the apartment? Could I even leave the apartment?

Seconds turned to minutes. The sword didn’t transform back into a snake. I didn’t have the courage to approach it. The sheer tension of it all faded, somewhat. It was hard to keep tense when the sword wasn’t doing anything and exhaustion weighed on my mind. To leave the apartment, I had two choices. Go past the sword, out the front door. Go past the sword toward the bedroom and out of the window. None of those choices were great.

I didn’t feel any chakra or anything that said Orochimaru was hidden inside that sword. I didn’t even know if that was possible. I don’t think the man ever possessed any inanimate object in canon. But the sword clearly wasn’t inanimate. Or was it?

I took a step closer, then another when nothing changed. I flickered past the thing, threw the door open, burst outside. I took the highway, ran further away. My mind raced. What could I do here, who could I seek out? The Hokage tower? I didn't want to go there, not after failing to save the old man. Kakashi-sensei? Where would I find him? Yamato? I also didn't have any way of contacting the jounin.

My steps led me to the hospital again. I passed by Sasuke's room, a brief glance inside and I saw his mother sitting by the sleeping boy's bed. I didn't go in. Sasuke never talked about family, never invited us to visit. Didn't seem right to butt in right now. I kept going down the hallway, entered Naruto's room. I hadn't brought any flowers, or fresh fruits. The room was empty save for the sleeping brat. I pulled a chair from near the bed, sat down.

The stress of the whole day came crashing down. The third was dead. I failed. It started with a scowl, then my throat closed up. I tried to imagine good things, happy things. None came to mind. To disguise the tears, I leaned forward, laid my face on my arms, used the bed as support. I don't remember when I fell asleep.