Meanwhile, Ryuu, Minato, and Jiraiya had made their plan.
"Jiraiya-sensei, are you sure this will work?" Minato asked.
"There's only one way we'll know for sure, right?" He nodded.
We went to prepare for the mission, I'd teleport back to where he was the last time I saw him when it was dark.
After two hours, the whole place started becoming dark, and we started the plan.
"Ryuu, you go first, rile him up then we'll join and take him down, still I don't know why you don't want to kill him yet but I'll just help you out," Minato said.
Ryuu nodded and teleported to where he left his seal last time, he could still feel Roshi's chakra there and he recognized it.
He found him alone, having some food.
"Old man, I suspect you've known I've been following you, so why didn't you do anything about it?"
He put his plate down.
"Simply because you're not a threat to me." He responded.
"Well, you're wrong."
Ryuu said as he dropped from the tree he was standing on.
"Do you know who I am?" I nodded.
"You're a Jinchuriki of the great 4 tails."
He looked at me and said.
"He isn't that great."
"Why do you wear that weird thing on your head?"
He glanced at Ryuu.
"None of your business, stop stalling, I can tell you're not here to talk!"
Ryuu felt an icy chill, he cleared his throat.
"You're right, my mission is to come here and beat the living crap out of the person who came here."
He glared at Ryuu.
"But I'm trying to approach this differently, see recently there was this lady who I had to literally beat the fear out of, I know it sounds bad but-"
"Shut up!" He shouted before Ryuu finished.
"Get to the point before I lose my temper."
Ryuu rolled his eyes.
"See, this is why no one wants to be your friend, so on edge for no reason, anyway I want to talk to Son Goku, not you."
Red chakra started manifesting around his body
I opened my Sharingan and forced myself into his mindscape to see the 4 tails myself.
Ryuu walked next to him, there he saw a red-furred green-skinned monkey with a body built like a gorilla. Locked up in chains, he was allowed more movement than Kurama, and his place looked like a temple with cleaner water.
Just by looking at the seal, I can tell it isn't nearly as powerful as Kurama's.
"Hey, you Brat!" Ryuu looked at him.
"Why do you know my name? Who are you?" He sounded frustrated, but also a little shaken.
"Hey, you can't go around calling people brats just cause you're an old head!"
He was stunned when Ryuu called him out.
"Anyway, my name is Ryuu."
This time he wasn't scared, even though he's a tailed beast, he already met the scariest and most deadly one out of the 9.
"You still haven't told me why you know my name." He calmly responded.
"I know all your names, although I haven't met the others, I've met Kurama, he's a pretty cool fox you know."
He looked shocked.
"Anyway, I just came here to ask for your help, of course, I won't force you. I'm not sure I can without going into extreme measures."
"Hmph." He folded his arms.
"Why would I help a disgraceful human like you?" He asked.
Ryuu shrugged.
"Honestly, I don't have an answer for that yet, but you have shown no hostility to me even after I forced myself into your mindscape. You blocked your connection to Roshi." He nodded.
"The reason is that I'm interested in what you want, you're not like the other idiot humans, you respect my siblings and me, that shocks me, in fact, I don't think I've heard you call me a tailed beast this whole time." Ryuu nodded.
"You and your siblings should've been shown a lot more respect and should be allowed to roam freely but sadly you weren't, instead you were enslaved by power-hungry old men, don't worry, once I'm powerful enough I will free you all."
Ryuu calmly said, this shocked Son Goku and he couldn't believe it.
"He seems to have stopped being tense, that's good," Ryuu said to himself.
"Hahaha" He laughed out loud.
"Huh? What did I say?"
He took a moment to catch his breath.
"You're not actually serious, are you?"
Ryuu tilted his head in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Freeing all tailed beasts, don't tell me you're serious."
Ryuu nodded.
"Why would I lie?" He became serious once more.
"Then why wait, can't you just free me at this moment?" Ryuu shook his head.
"If I free you right now, the village will just capture you again and I'm not nearly powerful enough to stop them, but once I am, nothing is stopping me, right? And after freeing all of you, this world will have peace, but before that ill get stronger, strong enough to protect the peace created."
He remained silent, but he kept looking at me.
"What a weird kid, something is telling me to believe him, what is it?"
He asked himself.
"Fine, what is it you want?" Ryuu smiled.
"It's not what I want now, but in the future, I will need your help, I just wanted to make sure you'll help me that's all, oh and about Roshi, he knows your name so you don't have to be bothered about that but I suppose you want him to say it himself, right?" He nodded.
"How do you know that?" He asked.
"Well, it's difficult to explain now, I don't have time." He nodded.
"I understand." He said.
Ryuu was about to leave when he heard the chains that were locking Son Goku move, he turned back to see a giant fist in front of him.
"Put your fist up." Ryuu did as he was told.
"Right now, that hot-tempered fool Roshi is in version 3, even with your Sharingan you won't be able to beat him, so take this."
Ryuu smiled, he has befriended another one of the tailed beasts.
When Ryuu came out of the mindscape, his body was coated in red chakra bubbling up.
"So this is the power of a tailed beast." He said to himself as he looked at it.
"Lava style: scorching rock jutsu!"
Roshi spouted lava from his mouth, it traveled at a high speed, then solidified into multiple boulders.
Ryuu dodged them with ease, with the chakra from Son Goku and his Sharingan he could move a lot faster.
"Lightning Release: snake lightning!" Ryuu sent a snake of lightning to get him, it barely made a scratch.
"Lightning jutsu will work against earth-style users, but in this case it's futile, I have to do something bigger and stronger."
He said to himself.
"Brother! Sensei! Let's do it!"
Jiraiya and Minato came from the bushes and trapped Roshi in a seal.
"Water style water dragon jutsu!"
The water clashed with him, but still did little damage.
He coated himself in lava and started preparing for an attack, he opened his mouth and chakra formed there.
"Oh no."
Jiraiya and Minato looked at Ryuu's worried expression.
"What is it?"
Minato asked.
"Whatever you do, don't get hit with that bomb, it contains pure chakra and if you get hit by it you're done for." They nodded.
he swallowed the chakra and exhaled smoke.
"Tailed beast bomb!"
He shot it towards Ryuu
"Well, I hope this works out," Ryuu said as he took a kunai.
"Boom!" An enormous explosion sent everyone back and destroyed the area.
Ryuu teleported it back to him.
Ryuu entered Phoenix Flame mode to minimize the damage.
"Aargh." Ryuu rubbed his head as he stood up. He left Phoenix Flame mode and healed.
"Ryuu!" Minato teleported behind him.
"Are you ok?"
Ryuu nodded.
"Is he dead?" Ryuu shook his head.
"At worst, he's wounded pretty badly, but nothing, being a Jinchuriki, won't heal."
He nodded.
"What was that?" Minato asked.
"I deflected his tailed beast bomb with flying Raijin last second, I had already placed a seal on him before our fight."
Minato was stunned.
"You…" Roshi tried to say something, but he was too injured to form his words.
Jiraiya, Minato, and Ryuu had completed the mission and were preparing to go back home.
Meanwhile, Sakumo had finally got back to Konoha, the first place he went was to a hospital to treat his wounds.
It surprised him to see all the villagers eyeballing him badly, after he got healed up, he headed to the Hokage's office.
They let him in.
"Sakumo? You dare show your face in Hokage-sama's office after what you've done?" As predicted, Danzo was the first to mock him.
"Hokage-sama, forgive me, but I had to save my teammates. You must understand if I had let the enemies kill them like that, it would've been the same as killing them myself."
He tried pleading, but nothing happened.
"I understand that but either way you broke the rules and you have to pay for it, Sakumo Hatake, this choice was difficult but it had to be made, I'm banishing you from being a ninja, hand in your forehead protector."
After giving him his forehead protector, Sakumo left the office.
"Was I wrong about saving them? Am I the one who misunderstood the situation?
If I am, doesn't that just mean we're all tools to be used by the village and Kage's? If that were true, then why would the Hokage make such a thing as the will of fire? It doesn't make sense.
Nothing does, this isn't what they taught us the will of fire is, we can't send our friends and family to die freely even if it means we will fail the mission.
But once I save someone, I get harassed for failing my mission…"
Sakumo contemplates his failure before bumping into Akio and his son.
"Hey Akio, what's going on in the village?" Akio ignored him.
"Stay away from us, Scum!" He punched Sakumo and left, clinging to his son's hand
This was like a dagger to Sakumo's heart. All it did was add salt to the wound.
Later, he went to a tavern and ordered a drink, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
"We don't serve scumbags here, leave now before we have to call a real shinobi to get you."
Sakumo left the tavern and went to his home, Kakashi hadn't come back yet.
He grabbed a photo of him, Kakashi, and Ryuu while they were both kids.
"It's not right how things could change so easily, I've done so much for the village, and I've lost more than I've done.
Kakashi, I'm sorry but I don't think I'll be there for your graduation I can't let people know how much your father was a failure, and Ryuu, I'm sorry I have to put you through this again but at this point what's the point of staying alive with no reason."
He said as tears started falling on the picture, before grabbing his blade…
Ryuu and the others teleported back to Konoha and straight into the Hokage's office, where they found him and Danzo discussing something.
"Hokage-sama, we've completed the mission," Jiraiya said.
"Something feels strange, the atmosphere, it's cold just like that night, I don't like this feeling." Ryuu activated his Sharingan and started shivering.
"You're just in time, Sakumo has just come back from a mission he abandoned, at least one member of his family is a real shinobi," Danzo said with a smug look.
Ryuu's eyes widened as he looked up.
Images of Sakumo's suicide started flashing through his eyes.
"I have to go."
Ryuu said before he teleported back home.