"You want to put the life of Kaida in danger to catch Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked.
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama, and I am sure you can understand the reason. If there is a perfect candidate for such a role, it is Kaida. Even if not at the same level as the Sannin, he is still more than capable enough to handle himself, especially with proper preparation and help," Shikaku said, not backing down at all.
Jiraiya maintained eye contact with Shikaku for quite some time. Soon, the only movement in the room was the smoke Hiruzen was puffing from his mouth.
"Fine, but I will be with him all the time. I am not going to give my student to Orochimaru on a silver platter, especially since now he really wants him. There is no way Kaida will be able to handle him alone," Jiraiya said.
"As you wish, Jiraiya-sama, but there is no way Orochimaru is going to make his move if you are visibly with Kaida. He is way too patient for that. I am pretty sure he will wait for another time, the time when Kaida will truly be alone," Shikaku said.
"I know that. I assume we are going to do something similar to the outpost mission?" Jiraiya asked.
"I have still not thought this through, Jiraiya-sama. This is just an idea I have at the moment. If we want to really trap Orochimaru this time, then everything has to be perfect," Shikaku said.
"Because he is way too smart to fall for anything even a tad bit lower than perfect," Hiruzen said, finally speaking after all of that.
"Shikaku, I am letting you handle this. Don't make any sudden moves. Handle this spy hunt by catching a few of the spies from other villages as well, and then after at least 2 to 3 weeks, we will start with this plan." Hiruzen said.
With how things were, the whole world was sitting on a thin wire of peace.
A single disturbance and the string would break, plunging everyone into the bloody hell of war and brutality. And if that time came, it would be better to have one enemy less to worry about. That's why Hiruzen was so supportive of Shikaku's idea.
"That's fine. In 2 weeks, he should get his summon sorted as well," Jiraiya said.
"Summon sorted out? He isn't going to make a pact with toads?" Shikaku asked, visibly shocked, because for him it was almost sure that Kaida was going to be the next frog summoner since he was Jiraiya's student.
"No. Toad Sage said he has his destiny tied to someone else, and that's why he is doing this the old way," Jiraiya said.
"Old way? You mean the random one?" Hiruzen asked, a little impressed, at which Jiraiya nodded his head.
"Hahaha, like teacher, like student," Hiruzen chuckled, looking out of his window. Though both Jiraiya and Shikaku looked solemnly towards Hiruzen, they knew Hiruzen always blamed himself for letting Orochimaru run away when he had the chance to end all this years ago.
From that time, Orochimaru went ahead and committed one atrocity after another, some known, some unknown, dragging Konoha and his sensei's name through the mud.
Even after Konoha had titled him as a rogue ninja and would not be blamed for anything Orochimaru did, at least officially, unofficially everyone—from the small civilian villages which were raided by Orochimaru to get some test subjects, to ninja from minor and major villages abducted for the same reason—all blamed Konoha for producing such a rogue ninja.
And all this could have been prevented if Hiruzen had performed his duty as a Hokage rather than the father figure of an orphan he took under his wings.
"Lord Third, are you alright?" Shikaku asked, seeing Hiruzen not moving for quite some time.
"Of course I am. Jiraiya, prepare our best ninja for this mission. Orochimaru has way too many tricks under his sleeve, with some of the forbidden jutsu, even I will struggle against," Hiruzen said, while both Jiraiya and Shikaku noticed a look of resolve coming into Hiruzen's eyes, like he had finally made up his mind.
"Yes, Sensei," Jiraiya said, and left the office, followed by Shikaku. Both of them were now going to be extremely busy with their respective tasks, all to capture a single ninja.
…
"Where is he?" Shisui muttered, pacing anxiously through the empty training grounds. Night had long since fallen, and Kaida was still nowhere to be found. If Hae discovered that Shisui had allowed Kaida to head into such a dangerous place, it wouldn't end well for anyone involved.
Also, Shisui might have understood his brother's strength better than most—but that didn't stop the worry gnawing at him. Kaida was supposed to be gone for an hour at most—if everything went smoothly. But twelve hours had passed, and still, no sign of him.
grab
Shisui suddenly moved forward while his hand went back to grab the hand coming toward his shoulder.
"What are you doing here, brother?" Kaida asked, a cheeky smile on his face.
"I am here searching for my overconfident brother, who forgot how scary my mom can be," Shisui said, releasing Kaida's hand.
"I am sorry, brother. Something really interesting happened, and I forgot to keep track of time," Kaida said.
"Hmm, did you get your fateful summon at least?" Shisui asked, moving toward their house.
"Umm, something similar happened, brother," Kaida followed Shisui slowly.
"What do you mean by 'something similar'?" Shisui asked.
"It is a long story," Kaida said, dismissing the topic.
"So is the way toward home. Go on, give me an overview of the little adventure you had," Shisui said.
"Hah! Okay, so when I used the jutsu, I went to a rock valley....Then the leader asked if I was up for a spar... I won fair and square, but since I didn't want to become the pack leader, I decided to be content with the draw.
Then he asked if we can have some more spars in the future, and since it is a good learning opportunity for me as well, I agreed to it…" Kaida shared the whole story with Shisui till they reached their home, obviously altering some parts where he asked a small house-sized wolf for a spar and all.
But other than that, he shared everything correctly.
"So you are saying, to fight with a Kage-level wolf, you became a summon for a wolf pack? A pack which is constrained in a valley because of how powerful they were?" Shisui asked, visibly bewildered. He was expecting an adventure from Kaida since he took so long, but his expectations were nowhere at this level.
There were many cases of ninjas meeting way too powerful summons during such times, some of whom came back to have rather bizarre stories to tell, but this, this may take first place in all that.
"Yeah, something like that," Kaida said, chuckling.
"Sigh Just don't tell mom anything about this, otherwise both of us will be in huge trouble," Shisui said.
"Don't worry, brother. I am not that dumb," Kaida said.
"So—"
"So?"
"So are you going to continue searching for this fated summon of yours?" Shisui asked.
"Well, I still don't have a summon, so I don't see a reason not to," Kaida said.
"Fine, though make sure you are back in time next time, or take permission from mom directly," Shisui said.
"Sure, brother," Kaida replied.