THE FUTURE OF THE LEAF

CHAPTER 18 : CONFRONTATION

At Orochimaru's hideout

Everyone got up early in the morning after a much needed rest.

Kakashi (adult) : now that we are all well rested up, we should get going.

Our nine heroes leave their rooms and meet up with Orochimaru.

Orochimaru : good, I see that you are all awake. Sorry if our Hospitality wasn't upto your liking.

Jiraiya : it was good, though a little sake would have made it even better.

Orochimaru : you never learn, do ya.

Jiraiya just laughs at the remark.

The kids look around and got a better view of the place where they stayed the previous night in. It was dark late last night, so they couldn't see clearly but now with the aid of the natural sunlight, they saw what kind of a  place it really was. The hallways were empty, deserted with blood stains here and there. The atmosphere was eerie and many of the rooms had weird machines operating and conducting weird experiments. Behind Orochimaru, one could see test tube babies as well (like Mitsuki).
It definitely wasn't a place one would want a few 11 year kids to witness.

After examining their surroundings, kid kakashi asked, "where are the other three. They were here yesterday"

Orochimaru : ah, don't worry. I sent them out to run a small errand first. They should be back anytime soon.

Kakashi (adult) : guess we'll have to wait till they get back then.

Minato : Why's that?

Kakashi (adult) : Well that girl we saw yesterday, she is an Uzumaki. So I believe she would be useful to us on this mission.

Minato : an Uzumaki, you say.
He immediately thinks back to Kushina and replies, "in that case, I guess we can use her help".

Sai : since we are gonna be waiting a bit more, let's have someting to eat, in order to build up strength.

Jiraiya : yeah, that sounds good.

Then Jiraiya turns to his old friend and with a heinous smile asks, "hey Orochimaru, you got something we could munch on real quick"

Orochimaru with a slightly annoyed look replies, "just eat some food pills, you idiot".

Jiraiya while pouting, "perhaps he hasn't changed at all. He still has no sense of humour".

Then Sai approached Orochimaru and enquires, "sorry to be pestering but earlier you said that you had Karin and the others run a small errand for you, so what's this errand about"

Orochimaru : I just asked them to gather some supplies that may come in handy for this mission.

Sai : I see.

After a few more minutes, Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo finally arrive, while our main cast munched onto some food pills to built up strength.

Orochimaru : alright then, now that we are all here. We can get going.

Kakashi (adult) : we have wasted quite a lot of our time already. So we should move quickly.

Orochimaru turns to Suigetsu and Jugo, "I'm leaving you two in-charge of this place. Don't let any intruders in, and if I find anyone getting close to my Mitsuki project, then that person can say their prayers, understood?"

Suigetsu with a scared look on his face replies, "got it", while as Jugo just shook his head in agreement.

With those final words our Hokage Rescue squad (now with 11 people - Kakashi, Sai, Orochimaru, Karin, kankuro, Omoi, Minato, Jiraiya and the three kids) departs onto, towards the hidden sound.