Tsunade's Meeting with Ibiki

Onoki didn't want to discuss anything more for now so he just said "The Genjutsu must have been lifted now…call those idiots in." 

Understanding that her Grandpa wasn't in a good mood, Kurotsuchi subtly nodded and shouted while facing the door "We are in here. Akatsuchi come inside the house." 

Luckily some of the stone shinobis were still around the house so they informed Akatsuchi about this. Within a minute, Akatsuchi and a handful of stone shinobis entered the house. 

"Lady Kurotsuchi…Tsuchikage sama. You guys are in here. We just came here a few minutes ago and didn't see anyone. Where did you guys go?" Akatsuchi asked in an innocent tone. This angered Kurotsuchi more because of how easily Yami played them.

"We were in here when you idiots came in…You all were fooled by a Genjutsu and we had to watch you all walk out." Kurotsuchi answered. 

The shinobis standing behind Akatsuchi were shocked as they heard this. They couldn't believe that they were fooled by an illusion and they didn't even doubt it. Akatsuchi then looked at the old man unconsciously sitting at the table and asked "What happened to uncle? Why is he sleeping?" 

"He isn't sleeping you dodo…he has been knocked unconscious and for your information, me and Grandpa are stuck here paralyzed so get the antidote fast." The tone of Kurotsuchi was getting angrier every second because of how inefficient and laid back her village shinobis were. Onoki was sitting quietly at this point. He would only turn his eyes to glance at the old man from time to time. 

The stone shinobis brought the antidote after a few minutes and injected the two of them simultaneously. 

As they were free Kurotsuchi walked to her Grandfather and asked "Are you alright Grandpa? Should we have our best squads search for him? I am sure we can find him before midnight." 

Onoki looked at his granddaughter with stone-cold eyes and said "A 13-year-old kid came to the village and managed to sit in front of me while incapacitating me. Is this how bad our village security is? And how are you going to find him? Do you think he is roaming the village using his original face? When a shinobi uses Transformation jutsu, he emits some amount of Chakra from his entire body but this kid has complete control over himself. Till the end, he showed only the necessary amount of chakra. For now, just take your uncle to the hospital and tell the entire council to gather at the main building." 

"Alright, Grandpa…should I leave Akatsuchi and a few others here? They will stay inside the house and escort you to the main building." Kurotsuchi asked. 

Onoki shook his head and said "No…I need to some time to think over this. Just keep some of them around the house and take Akatsuchi with you. Fill in the council members as to what happened and the contents of the letter before I reach there. I don't want to spend any more of my time arguing with those idiots." 

After clearing the house within a minute or two, everyone left. Kurotsuchi took the old man with her and had the doctors test him for internal injuries if any. She knew how stubborn her Grandfather was and once he made up his mind about something, there was no turning back.

For the next hour, the moments of the stone shinobis increased throughout the village. Even the real Shin who was lying unconscious in the diner bathroom was brought in. 

Just like one move from Yami was creating commotion in the Hidden Stone…someone similar could be said was happening in the Hidden Leaf.

Hidden Leaf Village (Half an hour ago)

Knock Knock

"Come in" Tsunade said as she was buried in paperwork due to the recent incidents. 

As the door opened, a well-built man with a scar on his face walked in. This man was none other than the Chief of the torture and intelligence division, Ibiki Morino.

Seeing the chief come here himself, Tsunade put her pen down and said "What the matter Ibiki? You look a bit concerned." Ibiki walked close to the Hokage table and placed a scroll.

"Stop playing games Ibiki…what are we looking at?" Tsunade as she picked up the letter and started to read it. She wanted to get angry at first but she kept on reading and in the end, she could only chuckle as she shook her her.

"Oh…this kid. He really creates news every time he leaves the village." Tsunade said as she rolled the scroll. "Lady Tsunade this could really turn out to be a bring problem for us. He hasn't messed with a few no-name bandits but with Orochimaru. He shouldn't have poked a bear at such an important time."

"Ibiki you and I both know that just because we didn't make a move against Orochimaru, he would stop coming after us and the village. In fact, I am sure that one of your main concerns while protecting the venue of the meeting is Orochimaru and his hidden leaf village." Tsunade said. This is the first time she has openly supported Yami's actions and it wasn't for naught. 

She knew with what mentality Yami had taken this action and it wasn't like she had any control over her. The fact that he was still doing continuous missions without saying a word meant that he cared for the village.

"Well, it is true that Orochimaru is a big variable and we were concerned about it and now after what has happened, the chances of Orochimaru intruding into the meeting have decreased to a great extent," Ibiki said in an agreeing tone.

"I feel a 'but' coming." Tsunade said as she laid back in her Hokage chair. 

"But, we have received information that due to Orochimaru's strength being reduced after the fight, he has joined hands with the Akatsuki. The man seeing fleeing with Orochimaru's subordinates was Tobi, the man with the orange mask."

Hearing this, Tsunade sat back straight "What? Tobi was there as well? Did he and Yami fight as well?" 

Ibiki shook his head and said "We don't know that yet but we think that the reason Tobi has reached out to Orochimaru could be because the Akatsuki needs more firepower. If that is the reason then…"

Just as he was speaking, a knock was heard on the door. "Who is it?" 

"It's me, Princess Tsunade…Shizune. We have received a letter from Sasuke Uchiha." Shizune's voice sounded from the door.

"About time these kids gave me an explanation." Tsunade said. 

Shizune entered the room and greeted Ibiki as she passed on the letter to Tsunade. Tsunade read it for a few seconds and said "Sasuke has said that while they were traveling together, they heard about kids from a village going missing so they investigated and found traces of Hidden sound shinobis. They got into a fight and were able to fish them out along with Orochimaru from underground tunnels. Yami fought with Orochimaru, almost destroying his physical body but Orochimaru escaped in the form of numerous white snakes. The 4 sound shinobis around Orochimaru are also injured. The villagers have been relocated to another village and the nearest Leaf outpost has been notified as well."

"Yes, that is right…we did get that information from the Land of Hot Water outpost and we have sent the necessary aid and manpower to rebuild the village." Ibiki said. 

"I guess this gives us a good explanation of their actions so there is no need to discipline them. Give me updates on what you find in those tunnels. I know that you are spread thin right now but it is too important to ignore." Tsunade said. 

"I already have sent two teams of researchers there. We will retrieve what we can and try to find out what Orochimaru was doing in there." Ibiki said as he turned back to leave. 

As he opened the door and was about to step outside, Ibiki turned back and said "There is one thing I found out odd after talking to the villagers and it wasn't even mentioned in the letter."

"What was that?" Tsunade asked as she was about to get back to her work.

"The villagers said that along with Yami and Sasuke Uchiha, there were two mercenaries as well who hid their faces with masks." 

"Mercenaries? Why would the two of them hire mercenaries? Anything that would help us identify who these mercenaries are?" Tsunade asked. 

Ibiki shook his head and casually said "None…it was pretty common. One was a man with a soft woman-like voice while the other was a burly man with a large sword on his back."

Tsunade who was rocking her Hokage chair suddenly stopped and stared at Ibiki for a second or two.

"What's the matter Lady Tsunade? Do you have any guesses as to whom these two could be?" Ibiki asked after seeing the Hokage behave weirdly.

Tsunade shook her head and said "No."

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