Chapter 11:
They are Called Orks
Sasuke Uchiha arrived at the Konoha forward encampment just after dawn. At his side was Jugo. Behind them, a quiet army.
They were draped in the coarse, off-white garb of penal confinement, none of them trained to cross such large tracts of land on foot in such a short amount of time. Dozens in number, these were the cursed seal experiments from the same facility that had once imprisoned Jugo. Twisted by their own bodies and molded by madmen, they moved as a single, silent mass.
But not for Sasuke. They followed Jugo. And Jugo followed Sasuke. It worked. For now.
The Konoha shinobi had already cleared a space at the edge of the encampment. Cots lined the inside of hastily erected, wallless tents. They were set apart, but guarded nonetheless. The newcomers said nothing as they were gestured toward their quarters. Not a single one broke formation until Jugo gave a slow nod. That was all it took. They settled in like obedient, if exhausted, soldiers.
There was a wooden enclosure, something like a pagoda, and he saw Orochimaru's unmistakable form standing inside it. Sasuke approached.
When he arrived, he found them waiting. Orochimaru stood at the center of a wide-open area, arms crossed in an unnervingly relaxed pose. Kabuto worked nearby, his arms already full of scrolls and illustrations of monstrosities that he was studying. Suigetsu was leaning against a crate of rations, sharpening a cleaver somebody had foolishly given him. Karin stood just outside, as if waiting for him.
"Things are stranger than we even imagined." She warned him. "Tread carefully."
He nodded in thanks and entered. There he found people he didn't expect.
Guren and Rinji's present made sense, he supposed. They stood speaking in low voices by one of the planning tables. But it was the others who caught Sasuke's eye. Strangers crowding around the crystal user.
There was hulking figure who resembled Suigetsu — shark teeth, dead black eyes, and pale skin stretched over dense muscle. Stranger still was a man wore a blue water-suit with a pink-tufted mohawk showing from beneath his hood. Least interesting was a thin and silver-haired man with a heavy gas mask that obscured most of his face who stood beside a tiny, scarred creature with welding goggles and what looked like a rotary grenade launcher fused to one arm.
Sasuke stared for a moment, then turned his attention away. If Orochimaru let them near the planning table, they were either valuable or expendable. Either way, not his problem.
He approached.
"The prisoners from Jugo's prison are exhausted and have orders to rest," he said to no one in particular. "They Jugo, who I have managed to convince to comply."
"Delightful," Orochimaru murmured, flashing that same viper's smile. "You've brought more cards to the table than expected. I thought you might wind up bringing me nothing but corpses from that rambuctious facility."
Thought, or hoped? Sasuke didn't ask.
"I want to be caught up."
Kabuto handed him a freshly inked report.
Orochimaru began.
"Everyone seems to agree that they are, indeed, aliens. Fungal in nature. The eastern tunnel system has been neutralized. The enemy's excavation progress there was halted after significant resistance. The southern tunnels are currently embroiled in battles with Mist forces. Kirigakure's shinobi are... effective. The northern tunnels have gone quiet. No resistance. The scouts are trying to figure out why."
"No tunnel to the west?" Sasuke asked.
"Not yet," Orochimaru confirmed. "But it's only a matter of time."
Kabuto jumped in.
"And then there are the allied forces yet to arrive." Kabuto said. "Land of Springs is sending an armada of airships and ice shinobi. Lightning nations forces should be arriving to support Rain within a few hours. Waterfall and other small nations are handling refugees and supply routes. And then there's the medical and information teams..." Kabuto said, pausing.
He looked to Orochimaru, as if for permission to continue.
"Everyone is trying to capture live subjects for interrogation, but preparing locations for interrogation and safe examinations of the creatures is proving difficult. An abundance of caution is slowing down progress, it seems. Meanwhile information sharing is all being handled by one choke point. Naruto Uzumaki."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"Shadow clones?" he surmised.
"Shadow clones." Kabuto confirmed.
Damned that power house of chakra. Having such a unique and versatile Jutsu made him indispensable. No doubt the allied forces were trying to come up with a faster, or at least equal form of battlefield information sharing. But he himself couldn't come up with one.
Which was awful because that meant he would be seeing the blonde maniac no matter where he wound up being deployed.
"So now we're just waiting." he summarized.
"Indeed," Orochimaru said. "The classic shinobi war strategy. 'Hurry up and wait.'"
"And what, exactly, are we waiting for?" he asked. "The reinforcements from abroad? The interrogation and dissection rooms? Intel?"
"For Naruto Uzumaki to regain consciousness," Orochimaru said smoothly. "So he can create more shadow clones to resume mapping and battlefield communication."
Sasuke paused.
"Sleeping on the job as always?" he said, with a trace of dry disdain.
"No," said Orochimaru, his smile faltering just enough to be noticed. "He is on life support. And at death's door."
Sasuke froze mid-breath.
That idiot! Had the aliens truly been that strong? Scratch that, he hated tat thought for the implication of him respecting the jinchuuriki's strength and competence. More likely, Naruto had miscalculated so badly it nearly cost him his life.
Either way he needed to see for himself.
Sasuke turned and left the tent without another word, heading toward the Konoha half of camp.
His former countrymen didn't question his presence, though a few eyes did follow his movements. The truce Orochimaru had made with Tsunade must have offered him immunity from capture for the duration of the war, but he could see teams of Anbu that looked like they very much wanted to cash in his bounty as a missing nin.
He found the medical tent with Naruto in it fairly easily. Sakura was laying asleep just outside of it.
He considered waking her up, but based on her medical apron he knew she was overworked and needed the sleep. And didn't want an emotional reunion in such a public place.
He walked past her and inside.
He paused. The room was full of beds and patients. He spotted Naruto at the end next to Gai and Lee. But there was another person on a fourth cot.
He was visibly missing an arm and much of his shoulder and had an ice pack over his eyes. At first he thought it was Hayate, but then he remembered the guy was dead. Maybe Kurenai had lost weight?
His blood ran cold when he recognized the telltale stress marks on his face, and he knew who the man was.
There Itachi Uchiha lay, helpless and on life support. The machine attached to him beeped regularly, indicating the heartbeat of a man unconscious. The tube going into his nose and down his throat made him look truly pathetic.
Sasuke had trained so hard and for so long to best him in single combat, and all of it had been for nothing, because there would be no fight.
He would deal with the regret of a wasted life later. For now he savored the moment.
A part of him hated that it would it be too quick and painless, killing the wretch in his sleep. The rest of him didn't care. Being rid of this curse, of this mission and the hatred in his heart, would bring enough peace to let him sleep through regretting the lack of a painful death for his brother.
He slowly, ever so slowly, placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, and began to draw it. He stopped after an inch, feeling eyes on him.
He turned around to find three pairs of them. Naruto, Lee and Gai were conscious, watching him with stony expressions.
He hesitated. They weren't in any condition to stop him. More importantly, none of them looked like they would if they could. They all knew the story. They all knew he would be just in doing the thing he was planning to do. Worse, they knew he would happily pay the consequences for going through with it.
Still, he couldn't stop himself.
"Jeez, you look like shit." He told Naruto.
His eyes lingered on the black marks around is face that he recognized as the fault lines of the bones in his skulls. They were bruised and swelling, and just as black as the rings around your eyes. Despite how much it must have hurt, Naruto smiled at him.
"Yeah, I got sucker punched by a fourth gate Rock Lee." He said, tilting his head to the offender. "What's your excuse?"
Sasuke had to stop himself from smiling at the casual familiarity between the two.
He turned back to his brother's unconscious form and rethought his circumstances. Could he really live with himself if he hadn't looked Itachi in the eyes as he did the deed? Would he really be satisfied without them both having the knowledge that he bested the son-of-a-bitch, and the dawning horror he had imagined on Itachi's face he finally ripped the man's still beating heart out?
No. No he would not. He relented, sliding his sword, still not fully drawn anyways, back into its sheath.
He almost drew it again in surprise when the tent flaps behind him flung open.
"They're awake!" he heard Sakura's shrill voice call out.
The telltale sounds of footsteps moving towards the tent followed her exclamation, as did the sound of fabric rustling.
He turned back to Itachi to see him sitting up. He moved his one good arm from beneath the covers to reveal he'd been holding a scalpal, one he placed down on the nightstand beside him.
Rage boiled within Sasuke. He'd been conscious and ready for him the entire time?!
He looked completely nonchalant about it too, looking at Sasuke boredly.
"Wait... who?" He heard Sakura ask from behind him.
He turned around and saw the recognition dawn on her face. He braced himself for the inevitable moping that would result. It almost arrived, but a moment later her eyes shifted to his hand, still place on his sword, and then to Itachi. Too late did he see the rage in her expression.
One moment he was standing in the medical tent, the next he was flying through the side flap. She had slapped him. She had slapped him so hard it shattered his jaw and cheekbone before skipping him across the slick ground outside like a stone on a lake surface.
Shinobi dodged out of the way of his sliding form in surprise, but he regained his footing.
He cradled his broken jaw with one hand as he tried to stand up, but Sakura came out of the tent after him, and he had seldom seen a woman so angry.
He instinctively tried to draw his sword as he stood up, only for a hand to slam it back down.
He flinched towards the person standing over him to find Kakashi – sharingan flaring, staring him down. Another form appeared ot his left. Tsunade Senju herself.
"You sneak past me and break into my medical tent!" Sakura screamed. "Attempt to murder one of my patients!" Sakura raged, storming towards him.
He tried to say something in his own defense, that it hadn't happened like that, but his injury prevented him from making coherent sounds.
Tsunade held up a hand to stop his former teammate, and it worked. A crowd had gathered around them, seemingly every jonin of Konoha.
"Sasuke." Kakashi said with a tone of finality. "I think now would be a good time for you to leave. While our patience is such as to abide by the terms of our truce."
Sasuke did not need telling twice.
He raised both hands in surrender in a slow, non-threatening motion.
The crowd parted as he walked past them, humiliated.
He returned to Orochimaru, where Kabuto looked amused at his injury. Orochimaru looked and sounded disappointed.
"Based on the fact you returned to us it appears that you failed. I had expected you to succeed." he said.
He seethed internally for the whole time as Kabuto repaired his jaw. If Orochimaru had simply told him Itachi was in the same tent as Naruto, the bastard would be dead. Or maybe he would have made better decisions? He wasn't sure, but he seethed all the same.
Naruto couldn't remember the last time a room felt this cramped—and he'd spent his early childhood sleeping four to a bed in an orphanage.
He was propped up on a stack of pillows, face still tender but finally whole, with a blanket pulled to his waist and an IV drip hanging beside him. To his left, Gai sat with arms crossed, somehow looking both stiff and overprotective. Lee chewed gum with exaggerated focus, legs bouncing restlessly under the cot like a dog dreaming of the chase. And beyond him, Itachi Uchiha sat silent and still, one arm missing, bandages soaked with dried antiseptic. No one stood near him.
The rest of the tent was absolutely packed.
Tsunade stood like a storm front, arms folded, chin tilted, eyes watchful. Jiraiya flanked her, silent for once, thumbs tucked into his belt. Kakashi, Choji, Kiba, Tenten, Asuma, Kurenai, Sakura, Ino, Inoichi, Shikamaru, Ibiki, and Anko had crowded into what little space remained, some standing, others perched on footlockers, stools, or sitting on the ground.
They weren't ignoring Itachi. No one could ignore Itachi. But they weren't acknowledging him either, save for the way they left a careful gap in the circle so that he could hear and speak. Even war criminals earned a margin of courtesy when they nearly died saving one of your own.
"Wow, you almost look worse than when we brought you in here," Kiba muttered, breaking the silence with a crooked grin.
"You're nothing to look at yourself," Choji deadpanned.
"But seriously," Ino cut in, stepping closer. "How do you feel?"
Naruto smiled, a little off-center due to lingering swelling.
"I'm fine. Face feels more bruised than broken. You ladies do good work." he complimented.
He touched the side of his face lightly, then dropped his hand and shrugged.
"And being a jinchuriki has its plus sides, I guess."
He nodded toward the cot next to him.
"He's the one who should be doing most of the talking today, though." His tone shifted. "Sounds like he went through something interesting."
Everyone turned toward Lee.
Lee, for his part, sat up straighter, still rhythmically chewing the wad of gum he'd demanded an hour earlier. A wad Asuma had gifted after explaining that he wasn't able to smoke on the battlefield. Lee had said he had a "mysterious hankering," and none of the medical staff had the energy to argue.
"Lee?" Gai asked gently. "Are you feeling up to talking?"
"Sure," Lee said. "What's up?"
He said it as if this were a casual team debrief and not the aftermath of a catastrophic near-death incident. The nonchalance sent a few ripples of concern through the group.
Inoichi cleared his throat and took out a scroll and ink.
"What do you remember?"
Lee chewed once. Twice. He furrowed his brow, searching the space just above Naruto's head like the answer might be floating there.
"Fighting," he said. "Just… the joy and exuberance of fighting. Not specific strikes or movements. It was all just—" He closed his eyes for a moment, smiling faintly. "A blur of fists and emotion. And power."
Inoichi wrote it down like a therapist diagnosing something between a berserker episode and a religious awakening.
Then, softly, another voice cut across the murmur.
"Did it show you anything?" Itachi asked. "The waagh?"
A ripple passed through the tent again. This time, it wasn't discomfort—it was curiosity.
Ibiki raised an eyebrow.
"I am sick of that word, and I think I speak for all of us" Shikamaru added, turning slightly to look back at the eldest Uchiha. "Waagh. We all thought that was just some kind of war cry. A chant."
"It's much more than that." Itachi said.
"A name for their god?" Kurenai offered quietly.
Itachi shook his head once, slow and deliberate.
"Not a god. A sort of hive mind without a mind. More like a field. An energy that connects them. Not in the way we imagine chakra networks or telepathy. Closer to a resonance. If I had to give it a metaphor, imagine if all of us were connected to Naruto and drew on the Nine-Tails. All of us, drawing from the same rage, the same impulse."
A silence settled over the group. The weight of what he was saying wasn't lost on anyone.
Inoichi leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowed.
"You used a visual metaphor. You said it showed you things. What did it show you?"
Itachi was quiet. So quiet that the beep of his heart monitor felt too loud.
"My experience in genjutsu tells me none of what I saw can be trusted," he said finally. "Some of it may have been shaped by my own subconscious. My mind giving form and color to things that were otherwise incomprehensible. Abstract forces made visual through a reverse Rorschach—a filter of language and fear."
"But yes," he admitted. "I saw things."
"And what kinds of things?" Ibiki pressed.
Itachi's eyes closed. His breath was shallow.
"I saw wars that spanned stars. Creatures that lived in the heart of suns. Armies that devoured worlds. And I saw those armies shatter, only for the pieces to become their own monsters. Their own nations."
He opened his eyes again.
"I saw madness that wore civilization like a mask. But I doubt any actual knowledge or information could be gleaned from these visions. All I can say with finality is that I saw the id of these aliens."
There was dead Lee spoke again.
"Orks."
The word cut through the quiet like a blade.
Inoichi blinked at Lee.
"Beg your pardon?"
"They are called Orks," Lee said again. "With a K."
All eyes turned to him. Lee kept chewing his gum.
"...I don't know how I know that," he added after a beat.
"Perhaps I was mistaken," Itachi said quietly, shifting in his cot. "Perhaps it did have knowledge to share after all."
Ibiki responded without a word. He retrieved his battered sketchbook again, flipping to a set of pages filled with quick but precise renderings of enemy forms—humanoids, creatures, machines. His tone was all business as he passed it to Lee.
"Names. Classifications. Tell us what you can."
Lee accepted the book like it was a pop quiz he hadn't studied for, but instead of confusion, his expression lit up with familiarity, even fondness.
He flipped to the first image: the hulking green humanoids, grotesquely muscled and packed with crude armor.
"Orks," he said plainly. "Wit' a K. Dat's important."
Page two—small, vicious creatures, all teeth and wiry limbs.
"Grotz, or grotlings. Right nasty little gits. They don't fight well, but there's always more of 'em."
Page three—blob-like creatures with mouths and stubby legs.
"Squigs. Dat one's a bitey squig."
"I see. " said Ibiki. "And what about this creature."
He flipped to the next page without hesitation. It was one one of the creatures that exploded.
"That's a squig too." Lee said.
Ibiki turned to an image of one of the creatures with a horn.
"Also a squig." Lee said.
"Wait, they're all the same creature?" Naruto asked.
"Well, all one of three. Orks, squigs and grorz. That first drawing was a bitey squig, second was a boomy squig, that one's a stabby squig."
People started to take notes as Ibiki turned the pages.
"Spitta squig. Real nasty. Melts your face."
Next.
"Hair squig. Mostly decorative. Sometimes used for fashion or warmth."
Next.
"Medic squig. Eats infections. Sometimes eats the rest of ya too."
Next.
"Tracker squig. You bite it, it runs off, and then ya follow the blood."
He kept going, rapidly flipping through imaginary or unseen squigs as if reciting a gospel only he understood. And his way of speaking became more crude as they went.
"Paint squig. Squishes out colors."
"Ammo squig. You squeeze 'im and he pops bullets."
"Trumpet squig. For music and signalin'."
"Dinner squig. Delicious, but if it ain't cooked right it eats ya from the inside."
"…Squig-onna-stick. Carnival food."
"…Mascot squig. Has a hat."
Everyone was taking notes as he talked, when the last pen stopped moving Shikamaru piped up.
"Are there other types of Orks or Squigs we haven't seen yet? Can you name them and tell us about them?" Shikamaru asked.
Lee leaned back slightly on the cot, tapping his chin with a thoughtful pop of his gum.
"Oh yeah, loads more types you ain't even seen yet. There's the Kommandoz—sneaky boys what crawl through vents and dirt and love knives more'n guns. Weirdboyz, too, what explode if they think too hard 'cause they use the Waagh like a straw stuck in a lightning storm. Den ya got da Burna Boyz—carry flamers, love settin' stuff on fire, real happy gits. Tankbustas, what live for blowin' up tanks, sometimes with squigs strapped to sticks. Painboyz—dey're da doctors, but like, worse than normal doctors. Den there's da Mekboyz, buildin' all da big stuff, like tanks with wheels made of buzzsaws and rockets that don't fly straight 'cause straight's boring. Flash Gitz, posh gits with big guns and gold teeth what think dey better'n everyone. Then you got da Nobz—biggest of da lot, bosses of da little gits, mean as sin. Warbosses, even bigger, even meaner, dey don't just fight da enemy, dey fight each other while fightin' da enemy. As for squigs… bomb squigs, tracker squigs, lamp squigs, burrow squigs, hat squigs, snot squigs—don't ask, launch squigs, squig mines, flying squigs—yeah, dey got wings—lava squigs for meltin', and even tank squigs that roll like wheels and spit nails. Dere's even squigs that explode into other squigs! Oh, and squigpipes—used for music, terrible music, but dey love it. Dey breed squigs for everything, even soap. Dat one's called a bubble squig. Smells like fungus. Parasite eating squigs, suicide bomber squigs, face eating squigs, which honestly is pointless for a name as all squigs will happily do that. All of 'em just wanna bite, eat, or blow up whatever's nearby. Real friendly lot, if you're green. Otherwise? Not so much."
He stopped, thought for a second, then nodded.
"And… that's about it."
Silence. The room was still. Dozens of pens scratched furiously over paper as analysts and jōnin absorbed the absurdity of what had just been said.
Ibiki looked mildly traumatized. Sakura, hunched with a pen of her own, looked like she was rethinking her entire education.
"That's..." Anko finally muttered, "a lot of enemy types."
But Itachi wasn't done. The Uchiha cleared his throat softly, his bandaged form still unnervingly composed.
"That was useful. But I'd like to ask about the other things I saw during the Tsukuyomi."
The room quieted again, this time with focused dread.
"Things?" Inoichi echoed cautiously.
Itachi nodded.
"When I connected to the Waagh, I saw glimpses—visions—of other forces. Entities. Battles beyond this planet."
Itachi watched Lee for a long moment, fingers steepled beneath his chin.
"Who were the star eaters that I saw?" he asked.
Lee blinked, as if surprised anyone else had seen them.
"Oh. You mean da Star Drinkers. Yeah. Dey're gone now. Waagh says they got smashed up real good."
"Star… Drinkers?" Ino echoed.
"Yup." Lee nodded, as if this were common knowledge. "Big shiny gits, look like walkin' statues made o' cut glass and hate. Ain't alive, but not dead either. Real spooky. Used to be gods, or somethin'. Ate suns. Whole ones. Burned out star systems just to warm their feet."
He paused to smack his gum, then continued.
"There was a bunch of 'em. Real nasty gits. One o' 'em was da Night Howla, or maybe da Doom Buzzer—big floaty one with a face like a scream, used to zip through battlefields and strip da skin off ya with its thoughts. Then ya got da Burny Git—always drippin' fire and lightin' up planets just to hear 'em scream. Da Crunchin' God, that one looked like a bug's jaw glued to a moon. Or maybe a throne. Hard to tell. But da worst? Da biggest? Waagh called him da King Git. Real name's Da Void Stompa. Oldest one. Sleeps in metal and dreams in fire. Sits under da dirt of stars and waits. The metal boyz worship 'im."
"The metal ones?" Itachi pressed.
Lee nodded.
"Tin skulls. Real quiet, real mean. Work for da Star Drinkers, or used to. Then the star drinkers ate them. They ate them back. Ripped out da gods' souls and nailed 'em to cubes. Now they got ghost boxes full o' screaming gods and no one's really in charge anymore."
Itachi let that sink in, his face unreadable.
"So they're not gone. Not entirely."
"Nah." Lee shook his head. "Waagh says they're like mushrooms. Chop off da top, roots still wriggle. And if ya listen real close, da stars still scream.
Itachi waited for everyone to finish making notes. He looked notably paler than when he started.
"There was a massive swarm. Insects. They were devouring entire planets, leaving nothing but husks. Do you remember?"
Lee's brow furrowed.
"Ah. You mean da bugboys. Yeah. Don't waagh. Don't fight fair. Just eat and grow and eat some more."
Itachi nodded once.
"And then I saw something else. Vast machines. Silent. Perfect. Armored in gold and black. They disassembled worlds like puzzles and put them back in new shapes."
Lee leaned back on his cot, chewing his gum louder.
"I already told you about them. The shiny gitz. Broke their gods and put them away."
Tsunade and Jiraiya shared a look but Itachi pushed on.
"And the armored giants?" Itachi asked. "Blue armor. Halo symbols. They were fighting on a broken world."
"Smurfboyz!" Lee grinned. "Real serious. Real shiny. Real rulesy. Got a book for everythin'. Gotta ask permission to sneeze. But they punch good. And loud."
Shikamaru looked unimpressed.
"What about the other ones?" Itachi asked. "The ones with… piercings. Long tongues. Faces split open with eyes where teeth should be."
Lee's grin faltered. His jaw slowed.
"…we don't talk about dose," he said.
Itachi did not press him.
"And finally," the Uchiha said after a moment, "there was one more. A throne of gold. Skeleton. Machines humming around him. I felt… gravity."
Lee's expression turned unreadable.
"Da God Empror. Big boss of humies. Real dead. Real thinky. Keeps da bad stuff outta the sky. Barely. He's powerful. Real powerful. But he's slippin'. Got too much thinkin' to do and not enough time to do it."
Sakura raised her hand while Inoichi wrote down Lee's exact words.
"Humies?" she asked.
"Us." Lee said. "Humans. The god emperor rules all of us. Or those that don't slip through the cracks."
More people raised their hands. Lee actually called on Gai.
"Are you saying there are other humans out there?" he asked.
"Loads! Tons of worlds full of us. Orks love you because we always have good fights with you." Lee said.
People shared concerned glances at Lee making the distinction between himself as humans, and the insinuation that he was an Ork instead of one of them.
Before anybody could comment on this Tenten returned. None of them realized she'd left. She moved quietly, balancing a tray of hot soup bowls, steam rising from them in gentle curls. Without saying a word, she handed one to Naruto and Gai, then stepped over to Lee's bedside and held out the last one for him.
"Thanks, Tenten!" Lee said cheerfully, taking the bowl in both hands.
Then, without hesitation, he reached into his own mouth, yanked out one of his molars with a sickening crack, and placed it on the tray before her.
The room went silent. Lee didn't react to the pain he just caused himself. He just smiled through the blood seeping from the corner of his mouth as he lifted the soup to his lips and began sipping with gusto.
Even Itachi stared at the young man, flabbergasted. His stoic mask was well and truly broken. Naruto caught the moment and immediately slapped a hand over his own mouth to stifle the laugh building in his chest. The slack-jawed look on a dumbfounded Itachi Uchiha was too much.
Tenten just stood there, frozen, tray in hand, her arms wobbling slightly as she stared in horror at the bloodied tooth resting on the lacquered wood. Naruto could clearly see the pink nerve still dangling from the root.
"Lee…" Gai asked slowly, cautiously.
"Hm?" Lee asked.
He was still slurping the soup, unbothered by the taste of blood or pain that the hot meal must have been causing the fresh wound in his gums.
"Why did you just hand Tenten one of your teeth?"
"To pay her, of course," Lee said brightly, as though the answer were obvious.
Tsunade sighed, giving Sakura a nod. Without a word, Sakura leaned forward and gently pressed two fingers to Lee's temple, a flare of chakra sparking at her touch and lee's eyes rolled back and he fell unconscious instantly, slumping sideways with the now empty bowl in his hand.
"Put that thing back into his head," Tsunade ordered, pointing at the tooth. "And file all of this new information under speculation. But the details on new ork and squig variants? Confirmed or not, they're worth sharing. We're officially calling them that."
Someone from the back—Kurenai, maybe—raised a hand.
"And the rest? The other aliens? That… god on the golden throne?"
Tsunade gave her a firm shake of the head.
"All of it should be treated as the ravings of someone under intense genjutsu strain. There's no proof of any of it. We'll waste valuable energy chasing ghosts and aliens on distant planets when we have plenty to deal with right here."
Ibiki, arms crossed, finally spoke up again.
"If Lee's information about orks and squigs proves accurate we'll re-evaluate. Only then can we begin considering the rest of his so-called visions."
"Agreed," Jiraiya said, voice heavier than before. "For now, get the descriptions of any new ork or squig types out to all divisions and allied forces. Everyone needs to be ready for what they might face."
The room slowly began to empty, conversation dying off as people filtered out with their notes and orders. Soon, only Jiraiya, Kakashi, Sakura, and the patients remained.
Jiraiya moved to Naruto's bedside
"Think you're up for making more clones yet? Your old ones won't hold out for another day."
Naruto rubbed his neck and winced.
"Might need another day. Then I can start the info relays and the storage toad circuit again."
"Fine." Jiraiya leaned back against the wall, arms crossed. "Rest while you can. This war doesn't slow down for anybody."
There was a pause. Then, quietly from the cot across from him, Itachi spoke.
"Oh right," he said. "I forgot to ask Lee about the toad gods."
Both Jiraiya and Naruto turned to him, blinking.
Itachi just shook his head faintly.
"It's probably smarter to wait until Inoichi and Ibiki can get in my and Lee's heads and translate everything visually." He told them.