Ten Minutes Later
"Holy crap it's Naruto!" Kiba shouts the second he steps into the office, he's the last of the Rookie Nine and team Gai to enter. "Is that why we're all here?"
"No." Tsunade growls out. The ten minute interlude didn't lessen her anger at all. "Now be quiet."
"Yes Ma'am." Kiba instantly rolls over for the alpha, he knows when to remain silent.
"Are we in trouble?" Choji asks as he pockets the rest of his bag of chips. Now is not the time for snacking.
"Not those of you that just joined us." Tsunade narrows her eyes at the team that just came back and the three youngest flinch under her gaze. The older two force themselves to not react. "You're all here because you're the most likely to ignore the capture or kill order we have out on Alvarcus."
"Alvarcus? Did they run into him on their mission?" Neji asks with a forced straight face to not betray how he feels about his missing friend. He's not even sure how he feels about the runaway himself.
"Enough with the questions!" Tsunade yells at the gathered shinobi. "You all will remain quiet and listen! You are not here for a pleasant conversation you are here because you're all liabilities!"
The room falls deathly silent, the late comers finally grasp the seriousness of the situation.
"Alvarcus Mar is currently listed as an A-rank bounty." Tsunade very clearly starts speaking, she will make sure everyone understands this. She will not stand for blatant disregard of her orders again. "You all know how he earned this, by going to Orochimaru. What you all don't know is the latest thing he's done to solidify his place as a threat to Konoha and her interests."
"Just under two weeks ago one of our allies bases was destroyed." Tsunade starts to pace before the group, making sure to look at each face to further sink in her message. "This base belonged to Kusa who we have allied with to keep Orochimaru in Oto. That specific base was the first of many that would help keep Orochimaru limited and confined. It was going to be a grand plan of two countries working together in ways that has rarely happened before. We were going to have half Kusa and half Konoha shinobi man each base. It was the beginning of a truly prosperous unification of the two countries."
"But it will never happen. The base wasn't just destroyed. It was obliterated. Not even a single building was left standing, they were pulverized to dust. Out of the thirty Kusa shinobi there only three managed to survive due to luck. The wounded were left to suffer in agony, the dead were left for the vultures to feast on. Because of this base's utter annihilation Kusa has withdrawn to fortify herself for an assault from Oto. What once was going to be a union of two countries has now vanished forever. It is also the base you told me about in your report Shikamaru, the five of you know first hand what I am talking about."
"This was not the work of Orochimaru. I have no doubt that he ordered it but he did not get his own hands dirty. Nor was this accomplished by a team of his highly trained shinobi. This was done by one individual."
Tsunade takes this moment to make eye contact with each person present. Some individuals meet her gaze confidently, others display sympathy for the unfortunate Kusa shinobi, some are confused as to why Tsunade is telling them this, a few remain stoic and apathetic, only one person has tears of regretful acceptance in her eyes.
Ino has finally decided how she feels about him.
"Alvarcus did it."
That Night, Otogakure
"Are you here to finish the job?" A burned husk of what once was a proud shinobi wheezes out under great duress. He's confined to his hospital bed and is almost completely wrapped in bandages. He smells rank, not because he's dirty but because of the liters of healing balm that are on him. "I always knew you'd come back. A monster never lets its prey survive, they only live until the monster is done playing."
"No. I am not here to kill you." I hang my head in shame. "I am here to apologize. I know that those words sound hollow, that they are meaningless. In reality they are, words mean nothing. But I can't heal you. I can't turn back time to save you from me. I can't do anything for you. Those words may be hollow, but they are the only thing I can offer you. I am sorry, so very sorry. If there is anything I can do to make it up to you I will do it. I know that they are very unequal, what I did to you can never be undone. I can never truly redeem myself from those horrible actions. So I am offering whatever I can, I am not expecting you to accept my apology. I just want you to know that I truly regret what happened."
He doesn't instantly respond. He's laying in the bed looking at me. Weighing what his reply will be.
I patiently wait for him. As much as I do not want to be here this is something that has to be done.
"There is one thing you can do." The burned man speaks, breaking the silence. "Finish the job."
"You wish for your own death?" I calmly ask him. "I will do it but I want to make sure you've thought it through. Speak with the doctors, find out when you will -"
"I won't get better." He cuts me off. "You burned more than just flesh. You melted muscle and bone, seared nearly all of my nerves and charred a fair portion of my organs. The only reason I am alive is because Orochimaru transplanted organs into me, ironically from the two shinobi you two tore apart. He didn't do it to save me, he did it to see if he could. My life is over, I'm just waiting to go onto the next. If there is a next, I hope all that hooplah about paradise is real. Maybe I'm destined for fire and brimstone. Perhaps it's just emptiness. I don't know, but I am ready to take that leap."
"Okay." My surprisingly steady hand reaches into my coat and pulls out a kunai.
"Wait." The burned man stops me. "I am a shinobi. I want to die on my feet with a blade in my hand, not on my back."
"Of course." I flip the kunai 180 degrees and gently place the handle in his hand. His fingers twitch slightly but they're incapable of gripping the weapon.
"Ha." He darkly snorts out. "You really did a number on me, so much for that last wish. Just do it."
"Just a moment." A pool of black threads slowly creeps out of the back of my shirt along with a white mask. The monster doesn't take its usual humanoid form, instead it remains in a bundle and moves over to the burned shinobi.
It gently wraps itself around him, securing a hold on each limb, mimicking all of his joints. Then the shinobi does what he thought was impossible: he grips the kunai.
It's acting as an exoskeleton for him.
"You're a fucking asshole, you know that right?" The shinobi seemingly pushes himself up off the bed and raises himself up to his full height.
"I know." I solemnly tell him as I bury another kunai in his chest.
"I do not forgive you. I will never forgive you." The burned man coughs up blood onto me, staining my clothes and splattering against my face.
"I know. It doesn't matter, even if you did forgive me." I pull the kunai out and he slumps into me in a crimson hug. "I will never forgive myself. Today you get the release of death. I must live on with what I have done. My actions will haunt me for the rest of my life, maybe even longer."
"Good." The light leaves the shinobi's eyes, he's dead.
Konoha
"Is it true?" Kiba asks Shikamaru. "Is what Tsunade said true?"
The Rookie Nine and the members of Team Gai are all in a training field. They've gathered to discuss Alvarcus and his actions. They're here to agree on what to do to him. Should they ignore their Kage and try to save their friend? Should they do what society says to and kill or capture their friend?
Is he even their friend anymore?
"The base was destroyed." Shikamaru is sitting down on ground with his back on a tree. He's only halfway focusing on the conversation, he's trying to figure Kiba's question out for himself. "I can confirm that much."
"What of Alvarcus' role?" Shino asks. "Is he capable of that?"
"Yes." Shikamaru easily confirms. "Without a doubt he can accomplish it. I have personally seen him do amazing feats with ninjutsu. He's given me glimpses of what he can do, he expertly utilized three of his minions to save me during the Invasion. On the Snow mission he used jutsu on such an impossibly wide scale, so insane that barely a handful of people could accomplish what he did. He sustained a roughly thirty meter long wind wall for five minutes. Those two instances tell me that he's an expert at using multiple elements together and has enough chakra to make amazing feats seem commonplace. So it's not a question of if he is capable, it's a question of if he would."
"He's definitely changed." Choji speaks up. "After the Chunin Exams in Grass I was the second to last one left standing, on top of that I had an observer's role. He's changed. He's cold. He's calculative. He's manipulative. He's cunning. But I wouldn't call him cruel or malicious. Even when he was fighting against us with Sasuke then he didn't once use a lethal attack. We had ample time to move out of the way of the dragon jutsu."
"Yeah but you all didn't see him lately." Naruto takes this moment to interject.
"Wait aren't you supposed to be hidden away somewhere?" Kiba asks his orange loving friend.
"Tsunade forgot to tell me to go with Kakashi. So technically I'm good? Until she realizes her error and sends him to get me." Naruto shrugs. "Anyways, when we first bumped into Alvarcus on the Snow mission he wasn't in a good spot. He told me some of the stuff that Orochimaru has forced him to do. Guys… it's bad. Really bad."
"How bad? Like helping out in experiments bad?" Tenten asks for clarification.
"That and more." Naruto grimly confirms. "Much more. I won't go in specifics, he told me that in a moment of confidence. I won't betray him like that."
"Even if he was the one who destroyed the base?" Neji monotonously asks. "Even if he has that much blood on his hands?"
"He has much more blood on his hands than all of us put together." Shikamaru darkly drops a bomb on everyone else. "He has killed so many people that he's lost count of how many lives he's taken. He thinks that he's closer to two hundred than one hundred."
"Holy shit." Kiba aptly sums up for everyone present. "Alvarcus? He's killed that much?"
"Yes. He has. I heard the words straight out of his own mouth, there wasn't a hint of a lie in his eye." Shikamaru confirms. "I believe he did destroy the base. All of the facts point towards it. There's no other explanation, there's not even a rumor of someone else in Oto that is capable of doing that."
"He was never one to take those actions before." Lee speaks. "I don't think that he's-"
"Lee." Ino cuts in for the first time, she's been off in her own world for a long time. Not participating, just watching. "I've seen some of his memories, his absolute worst memories. I don't want to say this but it's the truth. Alvarcus did it. But that's not what we're here to talk about, we all know that Tsunade wouldn't lie to us about that. We're here to figure out if we're going to kill him or not. That's why we're here. Quit beating around the bush."
"He's beyond redemption at this point." Shikamaru awkwardly says. "If he surrenders then I'll bring him back. If he doesn't… then I'll bring his head back. He's our responsibility as Konoha shinobi."
"I'm with Shikamaru." Choji speaks how he feels. "If he'll submit then awesome. If not then… yeah."
"I don't want to hurt him." Hinata softly says to the rest of the group. "I'm the only one here who has actually hurt him before, it just felt wrong. But we can't let him continue on. He has to be stopped, I just don't think that I can do it."
"That's alright." Kiba reassuringly pats Hinata on the back. "I'll be the one to fight him if it comes to that."
"You will not have to fight alone." Shino steps forwards. "I've proven effective against him in the past, my beetles are difficult to detect. Especially by someone with a large chakra supply. I will help bring him down."
"Hinata's right." Tenten nods at her. "He's got to be stopped."
"I… I don't want to have to kill him." Lee looks down at his feet. "I'd rather he came back to us on good terms. But I agree with Shikamaru. I will allow him a chance to surrender before ki… before attacking him."
"We should be the team sent after him if at all possible." Neji speaks his mind. "We know that he's weak to the Gentle Fist. We know that Lee is faster than him and capable of making Alvarcus go exclusively on defense. Tenten is familiar with seals, she can bind his chakra and maybe even the Jiongu. We have the best chance of subduing or killing him."
"He's our friend!" Naruto lividly shouts at everyone. "We have to save him! I refuse to kill him! What is wrong with everyone? How can you all say that?"
"Because of what he's done." Ino speaks and everyone looks to her. "I was not lying when I said that I've seen him commit atrocities. He's done terrible things, things that will haunt me forever. I won't kill him, I don't think that I can bring myself to do it."
Ino looks at every person individually to make sure they understand her. They all seem hesitant, particularly Shikamaru and Naruto. They know that she formed something with Alvarcus but not the full extent.
She takes a deep breath to steady herself.
"It's time that you all learn the truth about Alvarcus."