Grinding On Snakes - 1

A period of silence filled the air between Hokage and subordinate for a few moments.

Hiruzen seemed to be quite at ease with it, but after a minute of the man saying nothing else after the discussion about Lee and Tsunade, Daiki found himself shifting slightly.

He wished the old man would stop beating around the bush and get to the point of why he called Daiki here after the end of the prelims.

"Patience is a virtue you know." the old man commented finally after another minute when he stared to drum his fingers on his thigh, voice casual, idle.

Daiki rolled his eyes, "I'm a shinobi, not exactly a very virtuous person." he replied.

He stole, tortured and murdered as a profession. And he was pretty damn good at it if he did say so himself.

"Perhaps, though taking a few moments to enjoy some peace and quiet every now and then won't kill you my boy," the old man shrugged lightly, "Still, I suppose we're both going to be quite busy this month, so I best get down to business."

"To defeat the huns?" Daiki prodded, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

"Quite," the Hokage nodded, agreeing with him and not at all questioning the reference, "First, let us talk of you training."

'Finally, some good shit.' Daiki uncrossed his arms and leaned forward eagerly, the old man having gained his full

attention.

"I see that caught your attention," Sarutobi chortled a bit, "Well, first things first, I know you no doubt have quite a few things you want to work on yourself already, how long will you need to complete everything you have on your plate already?"

That gave Daiki a bit of a pause.

The old man wasn't wrong.

His clones were constantly hard at work and the list of techniques he'd pilfered shortened by the hour. As it was though, he had over ten techniques still to learn and that wasn't taking into account training the wind element or earth element. Not to mention completing the seal to add Shisui's eyes to his own nor completing the Lightning Release: Chakra Mode.

But taking those last two out of the running and;

"A week, maybe two at the very most." Daiki replied.

As it was, he thought two was a bit of a stretch. Unlike Naruto, he didn't have a bijuu constantly trying to take control of his body and slowing his training down. Also unlike Naruto, he already knew all he needed to, to train both the wind and earth elements.

Sure, the wind was thanks to Naruto's future selves example which he mostly had to puzzle out on just vague advice from Kakashi and a bit from Asuma, but eh, that didn't impact Daiki.

He figured he could train both elements to the limits he knew of in just a few days, two maybe three a piece and then get the elemental jutsu down with his clones within a day. Really, the one he figured was going to take the longest singular jutsu wise was the Mysterious Peacock Method.

'Then again, I've got some things to take care of as well.' he mused. Which could slow him down…a tad depending on his mood.

At his explanation, the Hokage stroked his chin in thought for a moment before nodding, "I see," he mused, "You have eight days."

Daiki blinked.

What?

His befuddlement must have shown on his face because the old man chuckled, "Do you think that's unfair of me to demand of you?" he asked the boy.

Daiki stared at him for a moment, before shrugging, "Not really?" he replied. He was a bit confused, but he thought it was accomplishable.

"Good, if you did I was going to cut it down to six days," Sarutobi's smile spread into a grin, "Sadly, as much as I'd love to take my time teaching you, we're going to have to make it a bit of a rush job, my old student has made it so that I'm going to be very busy, so the time I can set aside for your training is limited."

Ah.

Fucking snake face.

Not only had that bastard made such a big fuss and made it so he'd have to rush everything due to his little hissy fit bitch fest invasion plan, now he was even messing with his gains?

'I should have just bijuudama'd him and damned the consequences.' Daiki growled inwardly.

'You know, blowing everything that annoys you to kingdom come isn't actually an answer to all the problems that ail you.' Isobu commented dryly.

'Clearly you just weren't using enough explosions then.' Daiki snorted. The only time a Bijuudama wouldn't work, was if a bigger Bijuudama blocked it or stupid hax like the Kamui.

There was a limit to how much chakra even the likes of the Preta Path of the Rinnegan could absorb at once. Hell, if someone did try to absorb a Bijuudama, unless the drain rate was monstrously fast, then the Bijuudama would just explode and render the attempt moot and the user erased from existence.

God he wanted to fire a Bijuudama at a proper target so badly.

Isobu sighed.

Though, putting that thought aside and thinking back to Pedomaru, "Did you find out anything useful from that Kin girl?" Daiki asked.

A bit hopeful.

If she knew of the invasion coming up then-

"Not much I'm afraid, much of what she knew, we already did," Sarutobi replied, dashing his hopes immediately, "The most we have uncovered is that the Sound Village isn't actually any normal village and is in fact a series of bases set up all over the elemental countries by Orochimaru and that he has his own elite guard known as the Sound Four, each apparently having the Curse Seal to empower themselves with."

….Sigh.

There was a limit to how useless people could be.

"The real problem beyond that, is going by your meeting with him at the bottom of the tower alongside Kakashi, my wayward student is prowling around the village," the old mans smile faded away into a frown, "I have no idea what he's up to now, so when I'm not training you, I'll be spending most of my time on vigil for him, though I don't expect him to make a move for a while yet."

Daiki clicked his tongue in frustration.

He was regretting it now. At least a bit.

Not using the excuse of gaining knowledge from the Curse Seal and Orochimaru's soul fragment to let the old man know of the invasion. But, he hadn't changed enough for Orochimaru to alter his plans much.

In fact, going by Orochimaru's attitude, the man didn't feel threatened by him at all beyond needing someone to handle him during the invasion and he seemed to be leaning towards Kimmimaro for that role.

Nobody Daiki couldn't handle. He'd be tough as all hell to put down, but Daiki didn't feel too threatened. He'd prefer if it were Kabuto honestly, he would be even easier to deal with.

The biggest problem to deal with would be Guren if she got called in, but Daiki doubted it.

Come the end of the Konoha Crush, he wouldn't be able to have a handle on things at all, so he wanted at least to use that to his advantage before it came to the real movers and shakers.

Orochimaru for all his abilities and genius, wasn't a true big fish currently, he was just hard to kill, like a cockroach. Without a body able to handle Senjutsu, he'd never become as big a threat as Obito, Nagato and the like.

Granted, Daiki wasn't a big fish himself currently without Isobu's help, but still.

Still, it was regrettable he couldn't have things entirely his way.

But then, he was pretty much used to that at this point. Everything he had now, was due to his own plans, back breaking effort and his own guts to see his desires through.

Sure, he had the memories of his other life that were truly the biggest help of all. But without the guts and will to go through everything he had, they would have been useless to him.

"Thankfully, I've recalled Jiraiya and he should arrive by tomorrow morning," Sarutobi broke him from his thoughts, "Orochimaru might be able to hide from my scrying through the barrier over the village thanks to his intimate knowledge of the village, but with Jiraiya around he won't risk sticking around and the possibility of a confrontation with us both."

Daiki blinked.

"Wait, is that how your crystal ball thing works?" he asked. He remembered there was actually a little debate among the fans about how the mans spy-no-jutsu with that thing worked.

"My scrying jutsu?" The old man asked and Daiki nodded, "Yes actually. My crystal ball is linked to the barrier formed by the barrier corps over the village and with it I can more or less look over any part of the village."

Well, wasn't that interesting?

'Not that I actually need it considering I can see anything in a ten mile radius if I want, but still pretty cool.' he thought.

He wondered idly who came up with the idea for it?

"Now, moving on," Sarutobi waved his hand and sat up fully and stared into Daiki's eyes seriously, and it was quite a testament to the old man that he hadn't been serious at all when discussing Orochimaru, "Beyond Orochimaru and our upcoming training, I have something I wish to discuss with you."

Something more serious than Orochimaru? Instinctively, Daiki found himself straightening up out of his slouched position as well and giving the older man his undivided attention.

"Madara Uchiha." the Hokage said simply.

And involuntarily, Daiki found his senses sharpening and his breath freezing in his chest.

"Or, at the very least the man claiming to be Madara Uchiha," Sarutobi continued, "I have not been idle since you let me know of this man. Doubtless you already know, but before Naruto, there was another Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi in the village. Years ago, someone interrupted a specific ceremony and released the Kyuubi from her seal and summoned it into the middle of the village."

The older man let that revelation hang in the air for a few moments, staring at Daiki, gauging him for a reaction most likely.

Daiki shrugged, "Obviously," he replied, "I looked into the Kyuubi quite thoroughly for reasons I'm sure you understand and there were no historic sightings of it attacking anyone or anything since the battle between the Shodaime and Madara Uchiha, and considering Hashirama Senju won that battle, it's obvious he had the Kyuubi sealed after it."

The funny thing was, he wasn't lying at all here, just omitting some of the truth. Anyone with half a brain and knowledge of the Bijuu and Jinchuuriki would come to this conclusion.

And it was obvious if the Kyuubi just randomly appeared in the middle of the village, then it must have either been summoned or broken free of its prison.

"Good, it means I won't have to go into too much explanation on the how or why," Sarutobi's lips quirked up into a small smile before it was replaced once again by a frown, "Simply, I'm going to put this out here. That night, this man claiming to be Madara Uchiha, not only got into the village and killed many of our skilled shinobi and extracted a bijuu without anyone able to stop him, he was also capable of holding back the Yondaime Hokage, the events of that night leading to his death."

Daiki said nothing outwardly. Though inwardly he couldn't help but roll his eyes at how pathetic Obito was. Literally causing the death of a man who was like a father to him, his wife who was always looking out for him and then trying to kill their newly born child, just because his crush that never returned any of his feelings died on a mission as a kunoichi.

Honestly, he was like a stupid pathetic mentally weak child that couldn't accept the reality of the world. People lived and people died. Honestly, he was just throwing the worlds biggest tantrum really.

"I will be blunt, I am not as strong as I once was, age has taken its toll," Sarutobi admitted, "I don't believe I have the strength necessary nowadays to defeat someone capable of what this fake has done."

As much as Daiki would like for that to be wrong, he knew it wasn't. Obito was capable of fighting not just Kyuubi Mode Naruto, but him with Kakashi and Gai backing him up.

Daiki knew the weakness of Kamui, but even with that he wasn't confident in their ability to defeat Obito currently. Whiny man child he might have been, but Uchiha seemed to get stronger the more they cried about how unfair the world was and blah blah melodrama blah blah.

"With your potential, you very well may surpass Minato and myself given enough time, but time is something we do not have," the old man sighed, "We do not know where this man is, we do not know when he will strike, only that he has his eyes on the Bijuu and Naruto isn't a well kept secret I'm afraid thanks to my dear old idiotic friend Danzo."

"Well, you're not wrong," Daiki found it in himself to smirk, "I'm kind of the shit, gimme three years and I'll be way stronger than you or the Yondaime."

Maybe.

Honestly, he was sure he could reach that level at least. But Madara and Hashirama's level?

That was where the doubt festered.

Madara was a fucking monster capable of beating down Bijuu Mode Naruto, the eight other Bijuu, Gaara and Sasuke at the same time.

Without his fucking eyes.

That guy was a freaking monster. And Daiki was terrified of fighting him. Even with Bijuu Mode with an amped up Isobu, even with the Sage Mode, even with the sage transformation, even with Shisui's Mangekyou….he didn't think he'd be even close to Madara Uchiha's strength without his eyes, nevermind with his Rinnegan or god fucking forbid Six Paths Madara.

Quite frankly, if Madara wasn't betrayed and ganked by Kaguya, then he highly doubted Naruto and Sasuke could have beaten him. In fact, if Six Paths Madara fought Kaguya, he was sure Madara would have stomped her ass silly and made her his bitch.

"Well, we'll see in time I'm sure, should we have it," Sarutobi rolled his eyes in amusement, "Still, the reason I bring all this up, is to make sure we have that time."

Daiki raised an eyebrow, "And how will you do that?" he asked, "Unless you've got a hyperbolic Time Chamber hidden in the Hokage Mountain or something?"

Sarutobi gave him a queer look, but didn't comment at all on his quip, "While quality is always appreciated, quantity has a quality in of itself and there is strength in numbers," he stated, "What we need are allies. Powerful allies. Especially with how strained our relations are with Suna. We barely avoided war after the Kyuubi attack when we were weakened with the loss of Minato and many of our shinobi, the only reason we did was thanks to Minato himself doing a number on Stone and Cloud and the sudden loss of the Third Raikage."

"Allies are good." Daiki nodded and said nothing more.

After all, it was a given they'd never be allied with Stone or Cloud.

"Quite," Sarutobi grinned lightly, "Cloud are constantly gathering more strength and Stone will look for any chance to undermine us. Our alliance with Sand is shaky at best, which leaves only one."

…Say what?

"You can't be serious." Daiki gave the older man a deadpan look.

"Oh, but I am." Sarutobi's grin widened a bit.

"…How though?" he asked, gaping at the man and utterly lost, "I've kind of got one of their bijuu stuck in my gut and prancing around like a peacock with a set of their most treasured weapons."

"So you're aware that you prance around that a peacock, interesting." Sarutobi stroked his chin and mused.

He was fucking with him, wasn't he?

"How the hell would we even manage that?" Daiki goggled at the man. Last he checked, Most shinobi villages weren't exactly happy to part with a Bijuu and legendary set of chakra weapons.

Not to say he was against it. He would happily team up with the foxy babe that was Mei Terumi. He just didn't see how it would be possible without handing over his swords and evicting his buddy and then dying in the process.

"Ah, I think you're misunderstanding something," Sarutobi's eyes were positively gleaming now as he corrected Daiki, "Not we, but rather, you."

"….The fuck do you put in that pipe you're always toting around old man, that must be some good shit." Daiki gave him a dry look.

"I get it imported from Kusa actually," Sarutobi replied without missing a beat, "To be exact though, I'm being fully serious here. Think of it, as a test."

"…Making an alliance with a village that will be raging mad at me in particular because of their shit that I've yoinked, is a test?" Daiki was not following the logic.

Honestly, he was about ready to try and dispel whatever funky genjutsu he was in. Had he already lost and was in the Infinite Tsukiyomi?

Well that sucked.

"Indeed," Sarutobi's grin was practically reaching shit eating proportions now, "There is no doubt of your strength for the Hokage position, but others are still in question, I would like to see how you approach a situation like this. Thus, I will assign you this S-rank mission to meet with the Mizukage and gain an alliance with the Village Hidden In The Mist."

Daiki just stared blankly at the man.

That was near impossible to be honest. It would be one thing if it was something approached in the original timeline, but here and now? when he had the Kiba blades and Isobu? They weren't going to be happy at all.

"Of course, this is not a mandatory mission," Sarutobi spoke up breaking him from his thoughts before he spiralled into them, "You can choose if you want to partake in it or not."

…He could choose?

'What do I do here?' he bit his lip. The most logical thing to do would be to turn it down, everything was against him here. What could he even do to convince them? 'They were actually loyal to Yagura initially and knew of the Genjutsu, it's how he died if I remember right after it got dispelled. They might be grateful for confirmation and a common enemy might get some begrudging acceptance.'

Begrudging wasn't a good standing point for allies though, it was shaky and liable to end in betrayal.

Granted, there was Kubikiribocho, Zabuza's blade, he knew where it was and could return it to them as a gift as well. And he did know where a few others were, or at least who had them.

But that still didn't seem like a lot, 'Granted, using my story about Raiga trying to use Isobu could work my favour as well since he was a traitor to their village and make it look like me becoming a jinchuuriki was a necessity…'

His mind whirled in circles, all the while the Hokage and his new sensei just watched him in amusement.

Who knew the old man was such a prick?

Fucking Hokage bullshit, he knew it would fuck him over, he just didn't realise how soon it would do so.