Spoiler Alert: This story contains information concerning events that occur mid Naruto Shippuden.
One-shot? Two-shot? Epic length? It all depends on the outcome: please review~!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto; all characters excluding OCs are property of the very lucky people who do.
"Where is she?" Danzo asked his most trusted spy, Kei, as they made their way through the jungle of tunnels under the heart of the Hidden Leaf.
"Well, that's just the thing. We don't actually know where she is, precisely." The black haired assistant answered nervously.
Danzo ground his teeth with inpatients. "Why is that?"
"Sir, this is no ordinary child. She's not…."
Danzo turned around to face his anxious comrade. "She's not what?"
Kei looked away, exhaling deeply. "She's not regular, sir."
"What are you talking about? She's Itachi's daughter, correct? The half Sharingan half Byakugan child? Or am I mistaken?"
Kei cringed at his master's hostility. "The child isn't natural,"
"Kei, I have no patients for this,"
"She's something unearthly. Her abilities—"
Danzo scoffed. "Excuses. Quit pestering me with your nonsense. Just capture her and bring her here before I have you killed." And with those heart felt words; he turned and made his way down another tunnel, leaving Kei to his ever-growing worries.
Just then, Hyuga Aiko, another personal assigned to the team of retrieving Itachi's child, appeared behind him. "He didn't believe you." She stated knowingly.
Kei shook his head and started to make his way out of the labyrinth of tunnels that no one but Danzo and his closest spies knew existed. "Did we ever expect him to?"
Aiko crossed her arms. "I guess not."
The hard dirt walls of the tunnel almost seemed suffocating, with them being only narrow enough for one person to walk through at a time. Not only that, but every tunnel looked precisely the same, every minuscule detail of one being replicated in another, leaving no room whatsoever to wonder if you where heading in the accurate direction. Getting lost in this claustrophobic confusion was enough to drive any man insane, but Kei never got lost; he'd been down there so many countless times. Besides, when working with Danzo it proved best to be prepared for the worst.
A while after they'd begun their journey to the surface world, the tunnels suddenly met, all the hundreds of gnarling, twisting branches coming together to form a core, a room with solid ground and a high ceiling, before branching of again on the other side in an ever more confusing pattern. Kei headed into the fifth tunnel to the left as Aiko followed closely behind.
"What are your orders?" she asked as the tunnel began to incline.
Kei sighed and closed his eyes. If Danzo wasn't going to listen, he would lack the necessary troops capable of tracking her down. He'd be limited to his own team of Aiko, Senri, and Rai, who, besides Aiko, lacked any remarkable abilities. The capture was certainly not going to be a simple one, but if they wanted to stay alive they'd have to execute it.
"Gather Senri and Rai at the base on the outskirts of the village. We'll formulate a plan there."
Aiko nodded.
The tunnel stopped abruptly at what seemed like a dead end, but Kei preformed an unbinding jutsu and released the genjutsu disguising the only exit.
"We'll meet at sunset." He said.
"Alright," she paused. "I just can't help but wonder what Danzo wants her for." She mused quietly to herself before setting off to retrieve the others.
Kei sighed. He had been wondering that same thing for sometime now. Yet, knowing Danzo, his motives probably didn't make any sense. The discovery of Uchiha Angel had been something of a shock considering Itachi's long-standing death. But as it seems, the child appeared to have been born a few years prior to his demise, making her conceiving three maybe even four years before his death. At first the rumors that surfaced to Danzo's intelligence personal seemed to be nothing but utter fabrication. But the witnesses of a five year old child with Sharingan eyes continued to surface before Danzo finally decided it was time to investigate for himself. He sent out one of his personal spies to her supposed location at the time, the Hidden Rain Village.
He never returned.
This caused immense suspicion and Danzo sent more personnel to find her. Out of this group of five highly trained shinobi only two returned. They confirmed the reports, that yes there was a Sharingan child, but would say no more of what happened to the others. Because of this lack of cooperation they were put to death.
That's when Danzo decided to make Kei and his team the task force assigned exclusively to this mission. Lately though, Danzo was becoming more and more frustrated and impatient. As well, though he'd never dare admit to it, Kei could tell that he was frightened. No one had dared to try their own skill against his team of highly trained spies. And it made sense, with them being hand picked from those of special jonin rank for their invincibility, and now a girl supposed to be no more than five, a baby, was killing off the best of his best. He couldn't grasp what was happening. And as his fear grew so did his frustration. Kei knew that he and his team had treaded on Danzo's patients long enough; they'd have to make the capture by the end of the week or they would certainly be killed. Danzo showed absolutely no mercy to those who proved no worth to him.
However, there in stood the issue. Uchiha Angel was not an ordinary child. Not only, because she possessed the infamous Sharingan which showed fiercely in her eyes even at five years of age. She seemed to have other qualities about her. Frightening, evil, merciless abilities that came with an impossible truth; she was half demon.
At first, this discovery seemed as impossible to Kei and the others as Danzo still believed it was, yet as time passed and more verification of her devilish powers came to light, Kei had sent his own intelligence to research her birth. The mother, who was sent to exile in her youth because of her mysterious origin, was residing in a tiny village for the exiled south of the Sand Country. It seemed that at eighteen she, Shintoyugi Daikirai, or better known to her villagers as Toshi no Kuni no Daikirai, had given birth to Angel. Shortly after her daughters birth she passed away from complications. The child was left alone to be raised mostly by god-relatives.
The relationship between Daikirai and Itachi seemed to be nonexistent, a one time meeting. Truthfully, chances were that he didn't even know he had a daughter.
Kei cringed at the seemingly impossible task before him. He looked up into the sky. The sun was setting, sending shadows across every surface. The tall grass below his feet swayed softly in the timid breeze, as if no harsh wind dared interrupt such a serious situation as the one he was in. He glanced back toward the opening to the monster labyrinth, seeing that the genjutsu had reset itself, the entrance was no more than a patch of grass the same as any other. The only way a person could tell it apart from any other was by the forked tree that stood just behind the drop into the underground.
Grudgingly, he forced his legs to move forward, to take him to the secret base at the village outskirts. It wasn't such a long walk as it was confusing. All three of Danzo's secret bases were at the end of a puzzling journey through an unmarked part of the forest, this one in particular sat atop a cliff on the other side of an ever furious river. The only way to the top of the drop was to cross the river on the single hair-thin wire that ran across it and up to the cliff top. The crossing took such immense chakra concentration that Kei always worried he'd falter and fall to his death at the hands of the white water below.
After slowly, ever so carefully, making his way across the wire he reached the top. A meadow of sleeping flowers gave way to a single stump. The withered marker of another of Danzo's undergrounds. All of Danzo's bases were underground. It said something rather symbolic about his character, Kei had noticed. His underhanded, secretive ways. It made Kei wonder how he had gotten himself involved with such a shady, unjust character.
He should have stayed a teacher.
Once the jutsu had been undone and he was within the large dirt cavern, he had nothing further to do besides wait for the others to make their arrival. He surveyed the area idly. The base housed nothing more then a large rectangular table that stretched from one end of the space to the other, adorned with chairs on each side. On the table were mounds of paperwork, notices, and maps, all concerning Uchiha Angel, the Sharingan prodigal child. The wonder of the world.
"A wonder that's giving me hell," Kei mumbled.
He leafed through the papers, not looking for anything in particular but then his eyes caught something. There was a pattern of occurrences near the Sand village, all close together in date and location. What did that mean exactly? He pondered this as the others began to arrive.
Komijei Senri was the first of the others to make an appearance. He dropped through the entrance, looking sleepy and annoyed as always the case with him, and immediately pulled out a seat and proceeded to shamelessly fall asleep at the table. Aiko descended in not too long after him. She took her own seat and merely glared at Senri disapprovingly, knowing from past experience that awaking him would not prove helpful for anyone. Suzuki Rai was late as per usual. He simply sauntered to his seat almost an hour after sundown as if he had made perfect time.
Kei just took his own seat without a word. An first rate task force, this was.
"What new business?" Kei asked in tradition. But as he was already use to, there was no new business. It was unlike any of his associates to dabble in work outside of the office apart from Aiko who only did so when she wasn't busy with her cover job as the Hokage's assistant.
"Okay, what old business?"
Senri shifted groggily and yawned before he raised his hand. "Patterns around Suna. All within no more then ten miles of each other. Both sightings and killings, I believe. A two to one ratio of either subsequently. Their Kage is going to act on this issue soon, which is only practical. I think it best for us to investigate now before he drives her off."
And with that crucial piece of advice, Senri yawned and returned to his slumber. The teenage boy was by far the smartest and most well-versed of the lot, but his talents were only aroused when he kept awake long enough to form sentences.
"I think that'd be wise," Kei mused. If they acted now, while there was still a small possibility that she actually would be where they thought she would and not disappear just as they were getting close as she had done so may times before, then they couldn't waste it.
"So we head to the Sand?" Aiko whipped her black hair over her shoulder as she turned to gaze at Kei questioningly.
Rai tented his fingers in a contemplative gesture, probably not understanding a word of the plan all the while.
"Yes," Kei concluded. He narrowed his eyes at the map of sightings and killings in front of him, zoning in on the plethora of activity erupting around the Sand village. "At first light, we head to Suna."