For the first time in my life, I understand how stressful and how busy the life of a commander was.
It was been five days since I announce Orochimaru's plans and the whole military force of Konoha was overworking themselves to ensure that the village was prepared for the upcoming war. While I didn't theoretically had that much work to do, other than using my ghosts to scout an area of 20 kilometers around the village, but even then, Zetsu was a cheater and he wasn't detectable by any sensor ninja or any ghost of mine.
While as I said, I wasn't really forced to do anything other than that, Tsunade asked me to go and gather the support of all of the villages that aren't allied with Orochimaru which was easier said than done, but for that, I had to bring two people with me, how I know will definitely help me get the alliance of the other hidden villages.
Our first trip was to the village hidden in the sand, Sunagakure. As I and my two companions, Jiraiya and Shikamaru arrived in front of the village, a familiar face appeared to greet us.
Temari and two Sunagakure Jonins approach us, most likely to greet us.
"What brings one of the Sannins, a Nara, and I'm sorry to say, but I don't know you, here?"
Seeing that her attention was only on Shikamaru, I decided to be a good wingman and with a quick tap on Jiraiya's back, I introduced myself.
"It's a pleasure to meet such a lovely lady as you, my name is Yoshida Haru, one of the leading figures of Konoha and the son of Danzo Shimura. We have something important to speak with your Kazekage."
If I was to say, my mother taught me a way to get in the good book of a woman by just a simple introduction with a gentle and respectful kiss on her hand. That will most of the time give you a better overhaul impression thus making you have an easier time getting what you want.
After that, she told us that Gaara was in his office and I just thank her before I and Jiraiya left Shikamaru with her. I swear that I heard a what a drag from him when he saw that we left him with a girl that has a crush on him.
Gaara was grateful that we decided to speak with him first about the upcoming war and he gladly accepts the alliance, heck he even throws a suggestion that his sister wanted to come to Konoha for something that he didn't know which made me and Jiraiya smile.
By the time we finish discussing the alliance and who he should contact, Temari and Shikamaru entered the office. After leaving a scroll that they could use to contact Tsunade we made our way towards the other villages.
Iwagakure, the village hidden in the rock was our next destination and probably the most dangerous one, but when we arrived there, Onoki greeted us alongside his granddaughter, Kurotsuchi. The old man was already 80 years old, but he was still stronger than quite a lot of the people younger than him.
Jiraiya and Shikamaru were quite skeptical of his intentions, but I on the other hand was interested in what does the old man thinks. For sure he found out something and that's why he decided to greet us first, and I was right.
Onoki told us that his ninjas were ambushed by some of the ninjas that are from the Otogakure, the village hidden by sound. That and the fact that the old man had quite a good team of interrogators, made him realize that something big will happen and his village may suffer and be possibly destroyed if he continues to be a fool and think that he could protect it alone.
This time, he was the one to propose an alliance which we accepted without too much discussion, after all that was our initial plan.
His granddaughter asked us if she could join us so that we could convince the Raikage to join us. I had no problem with her coming with us, neither did Shikamaru, but Jiraiya was being Jiraiya and thus he got beaten by a teenage girl, poor guy, and poor future husband of that muscle brain girl.
By the time we arrived close to the Kumogakure, we saw tens of dead bodies belonging both to the Zetsu and the ninjas of Kumogakure.
I picked Kurotsuchi while Jiraiya picked Shikamaru so that we can speed up and arrived sooner at our destination. At first, the guards were ready to fight us, but thankfully for them, Killer B saved them. He told us that his brother was in his office and that we should directly tell him our proposal of coming here.
Jiraiya decided to be the one that will speak and after an hour or so going back and forth, Kumogakure joined our alliance after a lot of considerations.
Thankfully for us, one of my undead that I left with Tsunade, unsummon itself and send me his memories. Apparently, Mei Terumi, the Mizukage of Kirigakure arrived in Konoha. She spoke with Tsunade about a possible alliance with us, because, her village was the one that was weaker than the other four villages and Konoha was her best option.
To be honest, it wasn't necessary for an alliance with all of the villages, but I thought that it will beneficial to all of us if we stop that pointless hate relationship they had with Konoha, and the best way to do that was to unite them against a common enemy.
Two days later, all of the kages and their advisors, gathered in the new HQ of the Allied Shinobi Army to discuss the best strategies for defeating the enemy. A the Raikage told us about White Zetsu and his ability to impersonate someone perfectly, which was dangerous to say, not that it mattered to me, but the others didn't know about that.
Once again, I told them that I will be the frontline and the first line of defense while they should remain in the back and just support me without actually fighting alongside me.
What surprised me the most was that after the meeting has ended and all of the Kages were going towards their camps, Karin and Hinata approached me. Now, I should have been excited to see them being on the side, but something keeps telling me that these two aren't my girlfriend and future girlfriend.
Using [Observe] on both of them, my gut feeling was proven to be correct. Both of the girls were in fact, White Zetsus that managed to infiltrate into the camp.
Without wasting any time, I shot one death bolt in the head of the left Zetsu while I summoned Athar to grab the soul of the remaining Zetsu to see where they bought Karin and Hinata.
The whole camp was startled by my actions and some of the Hyuga clansmen tried to attack me, but Neji saved them from being beaten by an angry boyfriend.
"Look at these things, they aren't our friends. They are the things that Raikage-sama told us about"
While the people were getting paranoid, I listen to what Athar found in the memories of that Zetsu.
"My lord, the two queens were brought to a location where Orochimaru and his aide were planning to experiment on them. I have the location and I will send it to you immediately, also it seems that there are quite a lot of people captured and switched with Zetsus in the camp. Do you want me to capture them and eliminate them, my lord?"
"Give me the location and you can do whatever you want with the Zetsus."
After I got to the location where Orochimaru was planning to experiment on Karin and Hinata, I rushed towards that location without looking or waiting for anyone that may like to come and help me.
Unknowing to me, Madara and Zetsu planned this from the start. For Zetsu, I was a dangerous individual and I had to be eliminated or send away from Madara until he was ready to awaken his mother. While for Madara I was an interesting person.
By the time I arrived at the location of the snake hideout, Madara was already wreaking havoc among the alliance ninjas.
Entering into the snake den, the first thing that I saw were tens of failed experiments prepared for me to fight against, and without wasting any time, I summoned my Anubis legion to fight against the experiments. While they weren't that strong, and only at the strength of a jonin, their ability to raise again as soon as they are killed made them the perfect group to deal with the experiments.
Leaving the legion behind, I continue to rush through the facility corridors, occasionally killing an experiment or two that were lost from the main group that was protecting the entrance.
When I found the main laboratory, or at least that what I presume the doors were hiding, I saw the most horrifying thing that I could imagine: Karin and Hinata on a table with a lot of equipment prepared for the snake to cut them and find their secrets.
Fortunately for them, I managed to arrive just in time to save them from being cut into pieces by a crazy failure.
But who would have thought that the snake was waiting for me to save them so that he could get his hands on my body? Just as I was about to untie Karin, a snake jumped towards my neck, most likely a poisonous snake.
Unfortunately for him, I had my undead legion ready to appear, and just as the snake was about to bite my neck, Athar and his group of mummies appeared behind me. One of the mummies grabbed the snake and burned it with his sword. I didn't have to turn around as I was confident in their strength and even if one of them wasn't strong enough to fight against Orochimaru, tens of them would be more than enough to beat and kill him.
Orochimaru didn't expect that his snake summon to be caught and killed and before he could try anything, Athar appeared behind him, ready to strike the sneaky bastard. Orochimaru managed to dodge the attack, but he didn't expect another ten to follow from different directions. He tried to escape using his favorite jutsu, but unfortunately for him, my undead were quite smart, and just as he was about to enter into the ground five swords pierced him from below his feet. With him being stuck, the remaining mummies pierced his body with their swords and if that wasn't enough, the blue flames that covered every single sword of the ancient mummies were used to destroy the soul of the enemy.
After I took both of the girls from the tables, I turned around to look at the snake and I could help myself from smiling seeing him so close to going on a date with death. Athar, my first intelligent undead, kneeled in front of me and offered me something that I didn't even know existed or could exist.