Iburi Clan

"Old man! I'm back!" Jiraiya pushed open the Hokage Office window from outside and stumbled in, reeking of alcohol.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was sitting in the Hokage's chair handling documents while lost in worried thought, was startled awake by Jiraiya's sudden arrival. When he turned around, he saw Jiraiya staggering off the windowsill and falling to the floor.

The Anbu shinobi hidden nearby and responsible for protecting the Hokage held back their reactions and silently looked away.

"Ah, Jiraiya, you've returned at just the right time." Hiruzen Sarutobi turned his chair, picked up his pipe, and caught the scent of alcohol radiating from Jiraiya after only two puffs.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's brows immediately knotted together. "Where have you been all this time?"

In Konoha's fifty-first year, after the Third Shinobi World War ended, Jiraiya and Tsunade had both chosen to leave the village for their own reasons, traveling and training abroad.

Of the Sannin, only Orochimaru remained in the village, but he was busy with all sorts of experiments and had even gotten involved with Danzo.

Before Orochimaru's use of Konoha shinobi for human experimentation was exposed, he had already lost his qualification to become the Fourth Hokage.

Because he had chosen the wrong side and cooperated with Danzo, he had gradually drifted away politically from his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi's faction.

Thus, Orochimaru's defeat to Minato in the election for Fourth Hokage had actually been inevitable from the start.

"Haven't I been gathering inspiration in the Land of Hot Water?" Jiraiya scratched the back of his head and got up from the floor.

After the war between Konoha and Kumogakure broke out, Jiraiya had not gone to the battlefield. Instead, he had traveled along the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water, making it easier for him to appear immediately if the situation changed or Hiruzen Sarutobi urgently needed him.

After Cloud Village and Konoha signed a ceasefire agreement, Jiraiya returned once.

"Come to think of it, I've got something to discuss with you too, old man." Jiraiya muttered as he casually picked up a pot of tea from the desk and poured himself a cup.

"The Great Toad Sage prophesied that the Shinobi World will face an unprecedented disaster. The entire world will be shrouded in darkness!" Jiraiya said gravely after finishing his tea.

"I see. So you want to find the Child of Prophecy who can save the Shinobi World, right?" This was not the first time Hiruzen Sarutobi had heard Jiraiya talk about things like a "disaster in the Shinobi World" and the "Child of Prophecy."

He had long since grown used to it.

For someone like him, the leader of a village, any so-called prophecy was bound to conceal secrets unknown to others.

After all, the rulers of the Three Great Sage Regions were not human. As if they would truly care about humanity's future. Hmph, how could that be possible?

"No! This time, the situation is even more serious!" Jiraiya's face was slightly flushed as he tried hard to argue.

One moment, he spoke of a "Child of Darkness who will destroy the Shinobi World," and the next, of "a disaster the Shinobi World has never seen in a thousand years."

Hiruzen Sarutobi neither agreed nor disagreed. He merely nodded lightly and handed Jiraiya a scroll from the desk.

"Orochimaru has defected." Hiruzen Sarutobi's casual words left Jiraiya frozen in place.

Once he recovered, Jiraiya exclaimed in shock, "Old man! What kind of joke is that?! How could Orochimaru—"

Before he could finish, Jiraiya saw the testimonies in the scroll Hiruzen Sarutobi had handed him, given by Konoha shinobi who had survived human experimentation.

His hands trembling, he took the scroll and read it carefully.

It detailed the shinobi rescued from Orochimaru's secret laboratory during this operation, the large amount of experimental materials discovered there, and the horrifying experiment logs.

After reading the materials, Jiraiya's expression turned grave, and he remained silent for a long time.

Even the prophecy of the "Child of Darkness" was cast from his mind.

"I'll go bring him back right now!" Jiraiya slammed the materials onto the desk and leaped fiercely out the window.

Pipe in hand, Hiruzen Sarutobi rose from his chair and stood before the window, watching Jiraiya's afterimage race across the village rooftops. He let out a deep sigh.

Northern Land of Fire.

Deep within a forest.

Kinoe, wearing a tanuki mask and later known as the Wood Release shinobi Yamato, had arrived at the place arranged with Orochimaru under Danzo's orders.

Beneath the largest towering tree in the forest, Yamato slowly came to a stop and approached its roots.

A bottomless tree hollow appeared before him, and Yamato slowly walked inside.

Within the tree hollow was a long tunnel. Oil lamps hung along both sides, illuminating the passage. It was clearly not naturally formed.

Tap—

Tap—

At the end of the tunnel lay a suddenly open underground space, supported by tangled roots all around it.

Oil lamps flickered along one wall. It seemed to be a gathering place, perhaps even a place of worship.

As Yamato warily observed his surroundings, mist began to spread through the underground space, obscuring his vision.

Yamato immediately sensed that this mist was anything but ordinary. It carried a dangerous aura.

"Who are you? Why do you know about this place?" A hazy voice came from within the mist.

Yamato immediately identified himself. "I am one of Lord Danzo's subordinates! I have come regarding Lord Orochimaru!"

At those words, a mass of mist gathered into a human shape and gradually drifted over to Yamato, circling him once.

The surrounding mist also gathered into vague human forms, appearing like ghosts and surrounding Yamato in his tanuki mask.

One patch of pale red mist circled Yamato several times.

"This is Lord Danzo's letter." Yamato took a scroll from his clothes and handed it to the tall figure made of mist before him.

The latter accepted the scroll and inspected it, murmuring, "It is indeed Lord Danzo's seal."

Then, he dispelled his mist form and transformed into a tall adult man dressed plainly, with two small mustaches.

The surrounding mist also dispersed, returning to human form. Men and women dressed in simple short garments appeared throughout the underground space.

"An ability I've never heard of... Is it a Kekkei Genkai?" Yamato stared in shock at the more than twenty figures around him.

"Tenzo! Is that you?!" A little girl's delighted cry made Yamato's numb emotions tremble slightly.

He turned to look. The pale red mist that had circled him several times had transformed into a girl about his own age, with freckles across her face and curly hair. Her large, bright eyes were fixed on him.

"Yukimi, he isn't Tenzo." Gota, the Iburi Clan's leader, shook his head slightly while holding the letter scroll.

"Then explain the situation." Gota returned the letter to Yamato and asked, "So long as it is for Lord Orochimaru, our Iburi Clan will spare no cost!"

"Consider it repayment for Lord Orochimaru saving our lives back then." Gota's words drew agreement from the other clan members.

If not for Orochimaru's Cursed Seal back then, their clan might have been wiped out entirely.

"Oh? Is that so?" A slightly disdainful voice came from the tunnel.

"Who is it?!" Yamato abruptly turned around and raised the kunai in his hand.

He had clearly not sensed anyone following him when he came!

The Iburi Clan also became vigilant.

From the dim tunnel entrance, a mysterious figure wearing a three-eyed Fox Mask and a fur-collared robe slowly approached.

"How tragic..." Uzumaki Menma's mask let out a sorrowful sigh as he looked over the Iburi Clan before him. "A clan that was nearly wiped out after being used by Orochimaru for human experimentation."