Two - History Lesson

"Now, concerning the first question…how familiar are you with the Rinnegan?"

"R-Rinnegan?!" Minato couldn't help but exclaim, though looking around at the group he noticed that only the Sandaime seemed at least as shocked as him. Hashirama was frowning, Tobirama was nonplussed and Sasuke, who was standing a little ways away while watching the others closely, seemed as though he hadn't even heard the question. "But...that doesn't really make sense. From our research, the Rinnegan had completely disappeared, if it had even existed in the first place. There was no trace of it anywhere!"

"Kukuku. Minato, do you doubt me?" Orochimaru confidently asked. "You may have been chosen by Sandaime-sama as his replacement, but my desire for knowledge has always been greater than even yours."

"The Rinnegan. Humph." Tobirama snorted. "I seem to recall Father mentioning it in his stories, as a warning not to mix with the Uchiha." He turned to Hashirama. "Do you remember those, brother?"

"Hmmm..." Hashirama pondered. "Only a little. I probably wasn't very interested in scary stories about the Uchiha!"

"Of course." Tobirama sighed. "You were much too busy making friends with them. Or, at least, with the one who would cause you the most trouble in the future."

"I hope you're not expressing regret at having the Uchiha found Konoha with us, Tobirama."

"Not at all. Just an observation."

"Sure, sure. Now, as for the Rinnegan...I do recall Madara saying something about it before. But I don't know if he ever figured out exactly what it was, or how to use it."

"Unfortunately for you, Shodaime, he did figure it out, and the way he did it was of great benefit to me personally," Orochimaru expressed with something like glee, "though perhaps not so much to Konoha."

"What do you mean?"

"Madara Uchiha unlocked the Rinnegan through the use of your own cells, which he took from your bodily material and then, after growing attached to himself. Initially, this simply allowed him to make use of your Wood Release and extraordinary healing abilities. In time, though, the combination of your DNA with his caused him to unlock the Rinnegan."

Hashriama could only gape at this.

"Brother's cells." Tobirama stated, unamused. "So when you said it was of benefit to you, you meant that you were able to procure them in the same way?"

"Put simply, yes, though it was a much more difficult task for me. I believe Madara used the fight with the Shodaime at the Valley of the End to get some of his flesh. From this, he went on to create a non-sentient clone of the Shodaime, which grew to become a great tree. From this tree came beings known as White Zetsu, whose bodies I used to complete your Edo Tensei – and took for myself."

"Madara's actions seem as disturbing as your own, Orochimaru." Hiruzen stated.

"Why thank you...sensei."

Hiruzen frowned.

"In any case, by the time he gained the Rinnegan, Madara was much too old to make use of them, so he implanted them in a much younger man, who he had hoped would use their power to reincarnate him with the Rinne Tensei jutsu."

"Rinne Tensei?" Minato asked. "So not a reanimation like this Edo Tensei, but an actual restoration to life?"

"Sharp as ever, Minato. The Rinnegan holds greater powers than even the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, including the power to resurrect people from the dead. These powers were used by the man with the Rinnegan, who called himself Pein, to destroy Konoha."

"He flattened the village?"

"Yes. The power of the Rinnegan is divided into seven paths, and includes the ability to divide its power among different bodies. Pein chose to do this by using six bodies along with his own, with each controlling a different path. One of these, the Deva Path, has power over gravity. The use of the Shinra Tensei jutsu in the centre of the village was enough to destroy the village, causing a crater in the centre and all its buildings to be destroyed."

What extraordinary power, Minato thought to himself. But…

"How did Konoha manage to defeat him, then?" Tobirama questioned, saying out loud what everyone was thinking. "We can see a rebuilt village before us."

"I do not actually have a precise record of his defeat. I was dead at the time, after all, and could only see the world through certain curse marks." Orochimaru explained. "But I believe it was mostly due to the actions of one young man: a certain Naruto Uzumaki."

"Naruto?!" "Naruto-kun?!" Exclaimed Minato and Hiruzen simultaneously. Sasuke, seemingly uninterested until that point, had even widened his eyes slightly.

The Senju, on the other hand, had no idea who this person was.

"An Uzumaki?" Tobirama queried.

"Hohoho, if that boy is anything like my wife, it is no wonder he was capable of such a feat!" Hashirama posited.

"He is much more boisterous than Lady Mito. In that respect, he takes after his mother, though as far as looks go...one can see how he was fathered by Minato here." Orochimaru replied.

"Oh?" Hashirama looked at Minato. "This Naruto is your son?"

"Y-Yes." Minato replied, somewhat taken aback by the intense gaze both Senju brothers were now giving him.

"You don't look much like an Uzumaki." Tobirama accused.

"No no, Kushina – my wife – was an Uzumaki. We didn't really have any control over whose surname he took."

"I see. Was this due to the other incident you referred to earlier, the one that came before Saru sealed us away?"

"It was." Hiruzen interrupted. "To think, Minato, that Naruto-kun could do such a thing! He really is your boy."

"How did Naruto do this?" Asked a new voice. "How did he beat someone like that?"

"Glad to have you with us, Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru replied. "But you should already know."

The last Uchiha just glared and returned to his stony silence.

"Well?" Tobirama questioned, impatiently. "What is it about this Naruto that he should already know?"

"Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun have had an interesting relationship over the years." Orochimaru supplied. "But they would not have had any relationship at all had it not been for Naruto-kun's willingness to talk with others. That is how he defeated Pein."

Minato blinked. "My son defeated Pein...by talking to him?"

"Yes."

Tobirama sighed. "Sounds just like you, brother."

"Pein and Naruto-kun had some things in common." Orochimaru continued. "For one, they were both Uzumaki."

"The Rinnegan wielder was an Uzumaki? With chakra reserves like that, he would indeed be powerful." Hashirama stated.

"His name was Pein Uzumaki?" Minato wondered.

"I see your skill with names hasn't gotten any better, Minato." Orochimaru smirked. "They were both orphans. They knew pain – which is why the Rinnegan bearer took on that name. His real name was Nagato."

"Nagato? That name seems familiar." Hirzuen pondered, with Minato thinking similarly.

"So it should, Sandaime. After all, their greatest similarity was that they were both students of Jiraiya."

"Jiraiya?!" "Jiraiya-sensei?!" Hiruzen and Minato again exclaimed simultaneously.

"I think we are a bit out of the loop." Tobirama muttered to the Shodaime.

"This Jiraiya was your teacher, Yondaime?" Hashirama asked.

"Yes, that's right, and of my son as well, it seems. He was also the student of Sandaime-sama, and the teammate of Orochimaru here and your granddaughter, Tsunade."

"Oh ho! Sounds like an important person!"

"He very strongly held the beliefs that you founded the village on, Shodaime, and that you passed down to the Sandaime." Orochimaru informed him. "I always thought he was misguided for doing so, but it seems that he was right in the end." He glanced towards Sasuke. "Or, at least, for the time being. After Naruto-kun went to meet him, Nagato performed Rinne Tensei over all of Konoha at the cost of his own life. He was, I believe, the only casualty that day."

"Ohhhh, amazing! I would very much like to meet this Jiraiya!"

The snake Sannin smirked. "You may also like to know that Jiraiya would constantly hit on Tsunade-hime."

Hashirama flailed. "Is...that so?"

"Unfortunately, he died in battle against Pein in Amegakure, so even if you wanted to meet him, you wouldn't be able to." Looking at Minato and Hiruzen, he continued. "I also believe he was not reanimated, as Kabuto could not find even a trace of him."

Minato and Hiruzen became sombre at this news. Jiraiya was dead, while they were still here? It seemed wrong, somehow, that someone so full of life could have lost it.

Even more that he had lost his life against one of his own students, while Orochimaru, this accursed man, remained forever in the land of the living.

"Was...was Jiraiya-sensei able to spend much time with Naruto?" Minato asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"The Sandaime can probably tell you how much time Jiraiya spent with Naruto-kun in his formative years better than I can."

Hiruzen deflated a bit more. "I believe the first time they met properly was in the lead up to the Exams." He looked at Minato apologetically. "Jiraiya was serving the village as spymaster after your death, and he was afraid of Naruto-kun, I think, because he felt as though he had failed you and seeing your son – who looks so much like you – would just remind him of that."

"That is understandable, Sandaime-sama. Please, don't apologise for him."

"My invasion seemed to be the catalyst for a lot of events I didn't expect." Orochimaru continued. "One of those was that Jiraiya took it on himself to look out for Naruto-kun from that time on. The two of them went to find Tsunade-hime to convince her to come back to the village."

"Tsuna wasn't in the village?" Hashirama interrupted.

"No, she had run away a number of years beforehand to become a drunkard gambler."

Hashirama faulted at hearing this.

"Looks like your gambling habit became a problem after all, brother." Tobirama smirked.

Hashirama's fault became a face-plant.

The Shodaime is so much more emotional than this Hokage Monument shows! Thought Minato.

"I was trying to find Tsunade-hime too, so that she could fix my arms that you had sealed away, sensei. We ended up battling, and as events unfolded Naruto-kun helped Tsunade-hime overcome her fear of blood, and won a bet against her in which he needed to learn the Rasengan. He was gifted your necklace as a result, Shodaime-sama."

"Oh ho, had Tsunade kept that thing after all these years? Did she know what it could do?"

"It could do something?" Minato queried, beaming with pride at hearing his son had mastered the Rasengan.

"Did any of you know what it could do?" Hashirama pleaded.

"She always told us it was cursed, I suppose..." Hiruzen supplied, to Hashirama's anguish.

"Kukuku, I did get to see it in action at a later date." Orochimaru answered, which didn't fill the Wood user with much confidence either. Orochimaru turned towards Minato again. "After this, Jiraiya took Naruto-kun around the nations for three years or so. It seems he passed he beliefs on to Naruto-kun, for him to be able to convince Nagato to undo all the deaths he had caused, at least in Konoha. Having dealt with Pein myself, it cannot have been an easy task, especially as it meant betraying the organisation he was supposedly the leader of."

Minato's megawatt smile was bigger than Hiruzen and Orochimaru had ever seen on the man – reminding them and Sasuke rather a lot of his son. Naruto...it sounds like you have been doing what we always believed you would do! Perhaps you were the Child of the Prophecy after all!

Wait...Child of the Prophecy! That's where I'd heard of Nagato before – he was the one that Jiraiya had first thought was to fulfil the prophecy!

"And which organisation would that be?" Asked Tobirama, picking up on the end of the Sannin's remarks.

"Akatsuki."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at this. "Akatsuki? Jiraiya told us they had been defeated by Hanzō."

"Yes, I was informed of that as well." Orochimaru confirmed. "But it seems that the Akatsuki did an excellent job of hiding what had really happened. Amegakure was never a particularly open village in the first place, but Hanzō's embargo on foreigners meant that it was quite easy for Nagato to take over the nation with the rest of us being none the wiser."

"Weren't the Akatsuki started by Jiraiya-sensei's students, to bring about peace in the land? What happened to them?" Minato questioned. He was genuinely curious as to how one goes from being a student of Jiraiya-sensei to wanting to destroy Konoha.

"One of the orphans, Yahiko, was the leader of the organisation as it was then. But there were other elements at play. One of these I am more familiar with. In fact, I believe all of us have had dealings with him of some sort."

"Him?"

"Yes. I am speaking of Danzō Shimura."

Sasuke flinched slightly. Minato lost his grin, and Hiruzen hunched over, as though hearing of his old friend was enough to tire him out.

Hashirama looked quizically at Tobirama, whose frown became cavernous. "Danzō caused this somehow?"

The Nidaime turned to his former student. "Saru, what was the relationship between you like after you became Hokage?"

"We reached an...understanding." Hiruzen sighed. "I relied on him to do the things in the shadows that I would not do in the light. But if he also had something to do with this, then perhaps I really was too trusting after all."

"Danzō respected you, Sandaime, but he thought you were naive, and was jealous of your position." Orochimaru confided. "In this case, he suggested to Hanzō that the Akatsuki were trying to overthrow him, and encouraged a civil war to occur."

Hashirama palmed his face. "Conflict, no matter the era."

"Events happened in such a way that the Akatsuki won, but at the loss of Yahiko. Nagato took over, though he used the body of Yahiko as the Deva Path, a fact I only understood later. Under Nagato, the organisation became a mercenary group, seemingly convinced that peace was impossible."

"Danzō eh? Perhaps he took your teachings to heart in the wrong way, Tobirama?" Hashirama teased.

"I do not know, brother. He was always criticising himself for his own cowardice, but to know one's weakness is different from trying to overcome it." Tobirama looked to the heavens. "Perhaps he gave up on trying to overcome it, happy to remain in the shadows. That is what it sounds like."

"He was not the only element at play." Orochimaru said, steering the conversation back before it got too philosophical. "There was another person concerned with the Akatsuki, though not as a potential enemy."

"And this was?"

"Madara Uchiha."

"I thought you said Madara was reanimated."

"Yes. I do not believe they are one and the same. At this point in time, there are two people known as Madara. One is the reanimated Madara Uchiha that you know personally, Nidaime, Shodaime. The other-"

"Hangon," Minato interjected, "I think I know who the other one is!"

"Oh?"

"Orochimaru, I don't suppose he would be a man wearing a mask with a spiral shape?"

"Minato, you keep making me envious of your speed. Yes, that is the other man who calls himself Madara Uchiha. But he cannot be the real Madara, though he did an excellent job at hiding it. For a time, he also called himself Tobi, in order to ingratiate himself into the Akatsuki. But by this time, he was already its true leader."

Hiruzen's brow creased at this. "So if he isn't Madara...then who is he?"

"Even I do not know for certain. But he is undoubtedly an Uchiha, with such a powerful Sharingan, as Minato knows for himself, no doubt."

"Yes," Minato nodded, "he was certainly a capable user of the Sharingan. A powerful Sharingan, too, to be able to control the Kyuubi."

"Did you say...control the Kyuubi?" Hashirama repeated with dread, memories of the Valley of the End coming back to him again.

"Yes. The incident I referred to before...it was the breaking of the seal holding the Kyuubi within my wife, Kushina. The masked man calling himself Madara did this on the night my son was born."

"What could he have wanted the Kyuubi for?"

"It is like I said earlier." Orochimaru answered. "This Madara was the real leader of the Akatsuki. His ultimate purpose is to collect the Tailed Beasts, in order to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. In order to do this, he would need the Rinnegan, which the real Madara has implanted in Nagato, who became the official leader of the Akatsuki following the death of Yahiko."

"This sounds like just the kind of political game Danzō would enmesh himself in." Hiruzen mused with some melancholy.

"And I was able to observe him do so first hand. After all, I was his trusted medical advisor." Orochimaru smirked.

"...another working of Danzō that I had no knowledge of until too late." Hiruzen shook his head at this, before looking at the Yondaime. "After your death, Minato, I took over your job. But I just couldn't do enough. I had already prepared myself for retirement, mentally. Evidently, I left too much in the hands of others."

"Please, do not apologise Sandaime-sama. I was the one who chose an early death, to protect the village." Minato replied.

"Did he succeed in taking the Kyuubi, then?" Tobirama asked. "I can sense the fox's chakra from here."

"No, Nidaime-sama. I sealed half of the Kyuubi in my son, and the other half in myself."

"Naruto-kun has entered the battlefield, along with Killer Bee, the jinchūriki of the Hachibi." Orochimaru added. "I do not know if he has mastered the Kyuubi's chakra to the same extent as Bee, but they are fighting against both Madaras as we speak."

"I don't doubt my son. If I was able to befriend Kurama, then my son will have done it as well." Minato smiled. "After all, he is my son."

"How typical of you, Minato."

"Kurama? Is that the name of the Kyuubi?" Hashirama wondered.

"Yes – I befriended him in the Shinigami's stomach. There was, uh, quite a lot of spare time in there." Minato confirmed, scratching the back of his neck.

"Hohoho, right you are! At least you had a companion!"

The Yondaime sweatdropped. "That is...one way of putting it."

"Fascinating." Orochimaru said, curious about 'living' in the stomach of the so-called 'Death God'. "So you can recollect your time in the Shinigami? But not the Pure World?"

"That is one way of putting it, Orochimaru." Tobirama said, narrowing his eyes. "But that is not what we were talking about. You mentioned that this Madara controlled the Kyuubi."

"Well, we do have all the time in the world," Orochimaru countered, "but I suppose we can discuss the Pure World later. The masked man used his powerful Sharingan to control the Kyuubi, which caused the village to suspect the Uchiha clan in the aftermath of the attack. For those of us who wished to be the wind turning the windmill, this was perfect."

"Wished to be the wind...?" Minato repeated, wanting clarification.

"Madara Uchiha wished to weaken Konoha in order to take the Kyuubi, and Danzō wished to strengthen Konoha by removing what he saw as its greatest threat. For this reason, both of them sought to ferment the anger of the Uchiha clan towards planning a coup, at which point Danzō ordered Itachi to eliminate his clan, and the masked Madara helped him complete it. Both of them wanted to turn events in their own favour, as the wind spins the windmill."

"And you count yourself among these men?"

"I did, but being inside Kabuto helped me realise that it is much more interesting to be the windmill than to be the wind. That is why I have put my trust in Sasuke-kun here. Danzō's wind could not hold up against him. The masked Madara has tried to use him for his wind, and is about to find himself facing him in war." Orochimaru put his hand on the Uchiha's shoulder. "I will let Sasuke-kun be the wind that turns the windmill."

"Danzō..." Sasuke interrupted "...what he did was unforgivable. To use the Uchiha in the way he did..."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in question.

"I believe he is referring to the Sharingan that Danzō had me implant – of course it was me, Sasuke-kun-

"Hn."

"-in his arm. An arm composed of your cells, Shodaime."

Hashirama facepalmed again, while Hiruzen snorted.

"Yet another thing Danzō hid from me," the Sandaime complained, shaking his head, "and yet I trusted him so much?"

"It is odd to see you look so old, Saru." Tobirama said with a smile. "But you mustn't dwell so much on the past, or you will not see the future you can still fight for, here. It is not Danzō who has been used for this Edo Tensei, but you."

Hiruzen returned his smile, thankfulness in his eyes. Tobirama-sama often presented a stern face, but in reality, it only ever seemed so because of Hashirama-sama. They both have the warmth that comes from the Will of Fire.

"You mentioned before that the jinchūriki of the Kyuubi-"

"Kurama."

Tobirama gave Minato a look. "-of the Kyuubi and of the Hachibi were on the battlefield. Are they the only jinchūriki still alive?"

"Yes. The Akatsuki successfully captured the other seven tailed jinchūriki and sealed their bijū away. I was personally involved in some of these before my departure."

"It is unsurprising that a snake such as yourself would be involved in a mercenary group."

"Kukuku, you rival Minato in your speed, Nidaime-sama. I hadn't mentioned it, but you are right. The Akatsuki did become a mercenary group following the death of Yahiko. Their members would work in pairs, and included some of the most fearsome shinobi in the world. It would gladden your heart to know that almost all of their members have been defeated by shinobi from Konoha. In fact, the only ones that haven't are those who have defected, including myself and Sasuke-kun."

"You also joined this group, Uchiha?"

"Tobi allowed me to have my revenge on Danzō. Once I realised his plans for me, I left." Sasuke replied succinctly.

"I see, I see." Hashirama interjected in a thinking pose. Smiling, he continued. "Well, I look forward to seeing these jinchūriki in battle! I have never seen a jinchūriki partnership in action before. My dear Mito never got that far with...Kurama, was it?"

"Your wood release still bothers me, Hashirama." said Minato. Well, it came from his body, but it sure didn't sound like the Yondaime...

"Hoh, is that you, Kurama? Is the Yondaime also a jinchūriki with you?"

"Tch. It figures you'd be happy to meet me. Yes, I am borrowing his body for a second. Let me warn you now – Madara will not be so forgiving as you, nor even as you hope. And nor will that man pretending to be him."

"I know, but...I just can't help myself, Kurama. He is my old friend, after all!"

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you."

With that Kurama disappeared, returning the Yondaime's eyes to their natural blue.

"I must say, Minato, your eyes look much better when they're blue, instead of red." Hiruzen joked.

Minato blinked. "Well, thank you, Sandaime-sama. I wasn't quite expecting that just now..."

"Your wonders never cease, Minato." Orochimaru said with some sincerity. "In any case, I believe this history lesson has now concluded, unless there are any questions."

"I think that will do for the time being." Tobirama asserted. "There are some places I would like to examine, given the destruction of the village."

"Right you are, Tobirama!" Hashirama agreed. "In fact, I shall go to find the Senju clan residence now!" With that, the Shodaime leapt away.

Or, he would've, had Tobirama not flashed in front of him. "What is it, Tobirama?"

"Perhaps you should consider finding out about our clan a stealth mission, brother. There are still some shinobi in the village – mostly kunoichi, I suspect – and they will notice someone with your chakra running around. Especially if they get a good look at you."

"Ah, right you are!" Hashirama laughed.

"Shodaime, I would also add that it may take you some time to find out anything about your clan. For the most part, they integrated into the village a little too well." Orochimaru explained.

"Is that so? Sarutobi?"

"It's true, Hashirama-sama. There are few left among the Senju clan. Many of them simply integrated into other clans, as a way of binding the village together. Even Tsunade-hime does not call herself by the Senju name."

"Ah, well, that is a shame. Nevertheless, I am sure to find something!" The founder of Konoha henged into more civilian attire. "Off I go!"

Tobirama watched him fly away with bemusement. "That brother of mine." He shook his head. "Nothing fazes him, it seems."

Those remaining on the mountain pondered where they could go to next. They could follow after Hashirama, or the young shinobi that had left them before. They could also try to find their old homes, or perhaps just wander around. It was hard to know where to go in a village that should've been familiar, and was in so many ways, but was also completely different to the one you had known.

Not one of them, alive or undead, had been in this Konoha. Where could they go?

But before they could commit to anywhere in particular, the youngest among them broke his silence once more.

"I have a question."

The last Uchiha narrowed his eyes.

"About that man."

"That man? You mean..."

"Yes, Sandaime. That man. Danzō."