"Honey! I am home and I am also bringing presents!" Rei shouted as he entered the living room of Tsunade's house in the Senju Compound where Tsunade currently ate her lunch. She lifted her gaze from some documents strewn on the table in front of her only for a small headache to impact her as her eyes landed on the tied-up Sound kunoichi slung over Rei's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Please don't tell me you kidnapped one of the participants of the Chunin Exams." She stated in a dry tone in the hope that her eyes are lying to her. She even inwardly flared her chakra in case this was some kind of intricate advanced genjutsu she couldn't sense but... no such luck.
"Relax. Nobody will know." Rei rolled his eyes as he put the unconscious girl on the ground and sat down behind the table opposite Tsunade, "Besides, you know how hard it is for me to say no to Konan."
"Hmph. Simp..." Tsunade goodnaturedly snarked with a small smug smile, causing a good atmosphere between them for a moment before it fell alongside her smile and she got serious, "And her teammates?"
Rei shrugged, showing how little he cared about them. "Dead. I have discreetly sent my clones to deal with them during my trek here and make it appear as if the beasts got them. The girl was frightened enough as it was. No reason to give her the impression we would kill her anyway. It would simply make the whole interrogation that much harder."
"And just like that, when their bodies are discovered, Kin Tsuchi will be presumed dead, eaten by a wild animal." Tsunade nodded. It wasn't a bad way to deal with the possible repercussions from the Sound Village. "So, are we?" She asked, causing Rei to furrow his forehead in confusion. Seeing that, Tsunade decided to elaborate, "Going to kill her. I reckon she won't be very useful anyway so..."
"Nah." Rei casually said and shook his head, "Her sound Jutsus are valuable and not many can counter it as of yet. The way she was trained in Sound Village is simply shit. That's why she is so weak."
"So you wish to recruit her for our village." Tsunade understood what he planned.
"Yup. Unlike the boys of her team whose strength came from a device that can be easily taken or a failure of a body modification experiment, the girl, or rather, her Jutsus have the potential for development. No need to waste it by killing her." Rei said.
Well, Tsunade had to agree that it wasn't a bad idea. The girl was still just a kid. Unlike Tayuya who changed her loyalties because of selfish reasons and would stay loyal as long as it gave her benefits, this girl, Kin, could still be molded to be 'truly' loyal to the village.
Of course, Tsunade did not mean to blatantly manipulate her. It was also why she was wholly fine with Tayuya's reasons for loyalty. Making people see it is in their best interest to stay loyal to the village was simply much, much better than making them into some kind of semi-mindless drones that could only spout Will of Fire without really even knowing what it actually meant.
Since everything was explained, Rei decided it was time to move on. He took the unconscious Kin and put her on a nearby chair before tying her up to it with a ninja wire and plastering a partial paralyzation seal on her chest.
"There. Now she will be unable to move but still able to talk." Rei spoke, happy with his work and while Tsunade seemed quite unimpressed with his solution, he decided to pay it no mind. It wasn't as if the girl was some kind of magical ninja turtle. Even if she managed to get out of her bindings, there was no way of escaping with him and Tsunade present.
"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead." Rei said as he sent a weak current of lightning chakra into Kin, abruptly shocking her into painful wakefulness.
The girl's body violently flinched, straightening her like a rod before she let out a loud gasp and started to frantically look around, "W-Wha...?" Only then did her eyes land on Rei, causing them to widen as her memories returned with full force and Kin tried to back off away from him. Unfortunately for her, her current state prevented it.
Rei encouragingly smiled at the frightened genin, "Hello, I am sure you probably already have some kind of idea what is happening," He paused, lifting his eyebrow at the girl who after a moment meekly nodded much to his satisfaction. She understood the game! Good! "so, let me just tell you, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. For your sake, I hope you chose the easy way because I have a sudden itch to prove that Orochimaru is just a schoolyard bully compared to me." He pleasantly explained just how fucked she was while activating a storage paper tag on the table, poofing various torture instruments into existence.
They even had dried blood on them... as expected from Anko's tools.
Kin gave Rei an uneasy look before her eyes shifted towards Tsunade... but whatever hope the girl could have gained from her presence, Tsunade quickly shot down.
"Don't look at me. I won't help you." She rolled her eyes before returning to her paperwork. This would not be the first torture interrogation she experienced and it won't be the last. Honestly, Tsunade didn't see what was the big deal. She was in both Rei's and Kin's positions many times so this was not phasing her one bit.
"Why? Why me? I am just a genin! I know nothing important!" Kin desperately half-shouted, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She saw how utterly he crushed her teammates and didn't have any illusions about their continued existence. Seeing all the bloodied instruments...
"Oh, we know you won't be able to tell us Orochimaru's plans from A to Z. We just need a rough idea from you. If I was in your place, I would start thinking really hard about whatever details you heard and probably deemed unimportant because it just might save your life, ya know? I don't want to hurt you." Rei gently said and cupped Kin's chin and raised her head so she would look him in the eyes. "Do you want me to hurt you?"
Kin fearfully gulped and shook her head before slowly starting to speak everything she knew.
Rei actually marveled at how easily she succumbed to his subpar acting. 'I guess Tayuya was completely right in this case. Zaku would have been too hot-headed and Dosu too stubborn for his own good. They would definitely not crack without torture if only because of their pride.'
Tayuya told Rei everything she knew about Orochimaru and his plans, his hideouts and stuff... but it was not enough. Surprisingly enough, Orochimaru did not keep even his four bodyguards in the loop for the most part.
Nevertheless, since there was a chance to capture some of his subordinates in these Chunin Exams, Rei asked Tayuya about her recommendations and she told him Kin would be an easy target that will sing like a canary without a need of some heavy petting. Though, she did say she seriously doubted the girl will have any kind of useful information.
That didn't matter though. Spying on Orochimaru was pointless. The Sound Village was a deceptive term. No such place existed. The Sound Village was a collective term for all Orochimaru's hideouts. Hideouts that ceased to exist and popped into existence so fast that Konan was getting really frustrated with her attempts to pinpoint Orochimaru's location and get some useful intel about him.
The problem was... the Kages of the ninja villages and Daimyos had fixed places where they could be found. Konan simply had to bug their offices, the council chambers, the ANBU bases and she would get her intel. With Orochimaru, this approach didn't work.
Frankly, it was getting increasingly obvious how the man could stay out of Akatsuki's radar for so long despite them having Zetsu. Orochimaru never stayed in one place long enough. He could state he is going to one hideout only to change his mind mid-way and suddenly order to go to another. He destroyed his bases seemingly at a whim. He loved to do complete sweeps of his bases, throwing away and replacing everything that was not vital for his research. At the first suspicion of an information leak, he would just pack up and disappear, only to pop up again in a different part of the Elemental Nations.
Orochimaru was freaking unpredictable and always on the move to a paranoid degree.
Rei didn't need Kin to tell him what the man planned because whatever it was, there was no guarantee he would not simply change his plans at the last moment as a last fuck you to anyone who got wind of them.
Rather, Rei wanted to hear about her experiences and meetings with the man. Even if Orochimaru never told Kin his plans, his actions and details she noticed would give Rei some necessary puzzle pieces.
Such as when she admitted she briefly noticed a ninja from Kumo meeting with Orochimaru. Kin deemed it unimportant as it was not unheard of for ninjas from different nations to work together occasionally but... Rei had a much better picture of things going on in the world.
For example, the sudden increase in expenses for both Kumo and Iwa. The two villages were gearing up for something. Oh, they were subtle about it, stretching their purchases over many different companies and over a long period of time. Without context, it would not prove as a reason for concern.
But Tayuya's information gave these actions a bit of context and now Kin's interrogation only deepened some of Rei's suspicions.
Hearing all Kin had to say, Rei sent another dose of his lightning chakra into her body, knocking her unconscious before she could start asking annoying questions about what will happen to her.
Tsunade looked at the sleeping form of the girl with her lips pursed into a thin line, "So... he will attack during the last part of the Chunin Exams, huh?" She rhetorically asked, unhappy with the conclusion she reached. "If it's not one thing it is another."
While Rei's canon knowledge told him there would be an attack from Orochimaru, he had to admit he changed quite a bit in the world. For all he knew, Orochimaru might decide it is not worth his time to attack since Hiruzen was no longer the acting Hokage or because Konoha was marginally stronger than in canon or for whatever other reason.
Rei, however, doubted Orochimaru would not upgrade his plans if he decided to attack. After all, Konoha WAS stronger than it should have been. The man was no idiot. He would not attack head-first without a plan that had a high chance for success.
Knowing that there is no way of preventing what is going to happen, Tsunade sighed and decided to focus on something else, "And the kids? How are they faring in the Chunin Exams?"
Rei suddenly blinked, getting out of his thoughts at her sudden question. "Hm? Ah! Don't worry. Last I sensed, they were about to engage Orochimaru." He nonchalantly waved his hand around.
Tsunade facepalmed at that...