The Path Of A Ninja : Eyes Of Death & Body Of Life

Location: Hokage Office Time: Night

The 3rd Hokage was sitting on his chair with a very angry look on his face. Everyone inside was tensed due to the suffocating pressure released by the Hokage. The tense atmosphere was broken by the entry of Minato and his team. With their arrival the Hokage's anger became a bit better.

"It seems everyone has arrived."

He looked at all the clan heads and jounins one by one and finally his eyes set on Minato who gave him a nod.

"Then let us begin the meeting. As you all might know that we have been infiltrated by [Hidden Rock] ninjas who have been spotted and captured by me , Minato and one of his students. "

Giving Obito an appreciating look and smiled. Then he continued with a stern face.

"I had really wished that it did not come to this, but this is a direct provocation toward the [Hidden Leaf Village] and we will not stand for this. We are now at War. I want the Aburame and Inazuka Clan to send a few scouts to the Land of [Grass] with the Hyuga Clan on stand-by, while the rest of you to make preparation for the war and cancel all mundane missions and call back every ninja except for those on Year long missions. Shikaku remain here along with Minato and his team, the rest are dismissed till further orders."

Swish* the rest disappeared into the wind.

With almost everyone gone the Hokage seemed to have aged a few years. He looked at the young chunin's faces of shock from his declaration of war, and then towards Jiraiya's student. Minato had a look which he deemed to be one of resolve. They both knew many lives will be lost in this war.

"Just before you guys came in, I received an interrogation report about the spies. The [Hidden Rock] have been preparing for the war for a few months now, so at this point we are at a disadvantage. Since the previous war, every major village's power had been crumbling ; the 2nd generation Kages died and small conflicts happening everywhere. So we cannot let this war go on for long. We'll be heavily relying on you Minato and your team as well. Though it quite sudden, I have a mission for you, it is an investigation type mission. Here are the details."He passed on scroll.

"Yes, we will not fail you." (Minato)

"Yes Hokage-sama! You can always count on me!

"Shup up you idiot. He doesn't expect anything from you."

"What did you say you jerk."

"Mou! Calm down both of you, stop fighting."

Watch the kids getting 'along' brought a smile on everyone's faces and lighten the heavy atmosphere the room.

'It is for these one's future that we must go on.'

____________________________________________________________________

"You guys wait here, I'll go ask for more info from the spies. They might know something about the place we are send to investigate."

""Hai, Minato-sensei""

"Understood"

Then Minato disappeared.

While waiting for their sensei the trio discussed about the upcoming war.

"I can't believe we are at war. Could this be a chance to prove myself to be Hokage?!" Obito spoke with stars in his eyes, day(night?)dreaming.

"Obito! You should not take war lighty, many lives are lost in it. So be careful not to danger yourself and the team." Rin lightly scolded him lightly.

"Don't worry Rin. When the time comes, I'll definitely protect you." Obito said with confidence which came from who knows where.

"Rin is right Obito. All we have to do is not get in Minato sensei's way and follow the rules."

"You and your stupid rules again Kakashi." He glared at Kakashi which Kakashi returned with his own, causing sparks to fly in the air.

'Here they go at it again. sigh*' Just as she was about to stop the glaring contest from escalating further Minato appeared.

"It's good to see both of you are getting along as always"

""Sensei! From with angle does it look like I get along with this jerk/loser."" They said at the same time, causing both Rin and Minato to crack an amused smile.

"Ok-ok, calm down. Though I didn't received much in formation, I got to know about an interesting intel about our misssion in the land of grass. Since we didn't know much of what is happening outside our village unlike the [Hidden Rock] who must have scouted the terrain to an certain degree. I was able to get a lot more clear picture of what we will be dealing with. Ohjust so you know it's an A Rank mission"

"What is it sensei? What is the mission?" Seeing the trio clearly interested and more excited due to it's high rank, be continued.

"Originally, our mission was to investigate some sort of disturbance in the North-East side of the land of [Grass] and not much information was provided about the disturbance itself. But this problem was solved by the [Rock] spies. From the info I received, when someone reaches a certain point the trees starts to move and try to bind you. No matter what you do to them; cutting or ninjutsu they would keep coming. If you manage to somehow get through you are greeted with a beautiful but deadly sight.

"How can something deadly be beautiful at the same time?

"Shii~* Obito be quite, let sensei continue."(Rin)

"Huh, oh sorry-sorry." he said cheekly.

"As I was saying , after a forcing your way through you will see pink petals falling from above which could be seen glowing both at day and night. It was deadly because the petals were as sharp was blades which can cause you to get many cuts and in the end due to blood loss you get caught by the tree roots and branches which has a very intriguing property- Chakra Absorption."

"What? But that's insane. How are we suppose to deal with all that?"

"That's not even the worst part."

"What?! There is more?!"

"Yes, the most terrifying part is that after are bound by the trees, they see a streak of white before they pass out and when they surprising woke up they are given a bigger shock when they found out that they can't use chakra anymore. Even when the Medic said everything look normal. So they began to call the cause the [Ninja's White Death] and deemed that place a forbidden area."

Gasps* 'White Death? That's such an awesome yet terrifying name!'

"How is that even possible sensei? For as long as their chakra coils and points are fine they should be able to use chakra and sensei you said the property of the trees is intriguing. Why is that?"(Kakashi)

"I said that because such an ability is very rare and such an ability possessed by trees is even so that only one person was able to accomplish it history."

"Wow! It must be an amazing person! Who was it Minato Sensei?"

"Geez Obito we were taught this at the Academy."

"I kinda forgot. My bad. So who is it?"

"The 1st Hokage you idiot. But sensei then that would mean..."

"It caught on quick as always Kakashi. I suspect that, for the second time in history, someone who is capable of using Wood-style has been born."