Previously: Asuma and his team leave to take on a man only known as Dragon for killing his oldest brother, Sasuke. The Hokage has sent Ibiki along in an effort to keep his youngest son and future grandchild alive while he secretly sends another team to hopefully deal with the threat before they get there. Naruto is living with Ibiki at this time and is being watched by Kakashi...who is apparently a terrible babysitter.
"Revenge, at first thought sweet, bitter ere long, back on itself recoils."
-John Milton
Winter in Konoha was never a sure thing; the Land of Fire was usually warm and stable in temperature, but sometimes, a random cold front would sweep right into the heart of their great nation and destabilize everything. Therefore, even now, in the middle of May, the weather was freezing and had been for a week. If it got any worse, Ibiki thought to himself, the trees and plant life would be devastated. Right now, everything was green and freezing cold; ninja could easily deal with that, as it meant they still had plenty of camouflage to hide their movements. But snow would be a problem, something the clouds were threatening to send down at any moment.
That was the least of his worries, however. Ibiki was frustrated. The Hokage had been firm about the schedule he was supposed to follow in order to delay the group, but Asuma wasn't having it.
"Asuma, we're far enough away. Let's stop here and come up with a decent strategy."
"Nah. We'll just talk while we go. Besides, I figure the twins will use their Figure Eight trick, Satomi will swamp 'em out, and you and I will go in for the kill. Simple, really."
Somehow, he doubted that.
Ibiki had tried again...
"Asuma, let's take a break for a moment. We need to check our location and make sure we're still heading towards him."
"Hmm? Oh! Nah, it's ok. We're right on track."
"How do you know that?"
"Innate sense of direction. What? You didn't know? It's why I never get lost."
"..." Ibiki was quite certain the young Sarutobi was lying through his teeth.
"Plus, I know these woods really well. I used to camp out here sometimes with friends."
"That's...good to know."
...and again.
"Hey, Satomi, you doing ok? You look a little tired."
"Huh? No, I'm fine."
"You sure? We could take a short break."
"No, really, I'm fine."
There was only one thing left that he could think of, and it was both reckless and stupid. And he was probably going to slap himself silly for it later, but...
CRACK!
...he purposefully broke the branch he'd just landed on and crashed to the ground below.
At least, he would have crashed to the ground below, had Akira not caught him and tossed—tossed!-him to Gorou, who placed him on a different branch with advice to "watch out for the weaker ones." Ibiki's jaw tightened imperceptibly as he struggled not to slug the man at the subtle insult. But he kept calm and quiet as best as he could and simply tried thinking of a new plan.
'A genjutsu? No, that wouldn't work. They might not specialize in it, but they also aren't slouches. Still, perhaps if it's subtle enough...'
"Ibiki, I want you to go ahead and start setting up a genjutsu."
Well, didn't THAT one fall right into his lap.
"Sure, Asuma. No problem." He knew exactly what his team leader was wanting—something that would hide their movements or displace them by a few feet. However, he was skilled enough in the area that he could make it go both ways.
Ibiki formed the signs needed and, suddenly, the group started veering off their course by a single degree to the right. Then he cast the jutsu that made them all appear to be two feet away from where they really were. It made him grin smugly to know none of the group would notice it now. But the smirk left his face as he remembered why it was so important to keep his team away from Dragon.
The day Sasuke had died, they'd all been there and they'd all seen the same thing: a missing-nin or mercenary—they weren't sure which, because he had no headband—with black hair and a tattoo of a dragon covering his face. The team, with Satomi, Ibiki, Asuma, and Sasuke, had been returning to the village after an A-rank assassination mission when they'd spotted the strange-looking man in a small clearing.
He'd looked ordinary enough aside from the tattoo. He dressed like a civilian and had little chakra; overall, there was nothing threatening about his appearance. Most days, they would've thought nothing of it and gone on their way. However, something had made them all stop this time.
And Ibiki would never forget exactly what that had been. Dragon had been in the process of raping a girl who couldn't have been older than twelve. Fury had filled them all, and they'd immediately attacked in an effort to get the girl away.
Sasuke had flickered right next to the man and kicked him in the face. Dragon had gone flying towards a nearby tree and Ibiki had really thought that had ended it. Few people ever got back up after the Hokage's son had smashed their faces in, so this man would surely be down for the count. He and Asuma had walked over to examine the body.
But something was wrong. Satomi had gone to the young girl when she found, to her horror, "her" turning into water the second she touched "her." The same thing had happened with the man's body; where there had been a person was now a wet smear on a shattered tree. Both had been water clones the whole time, and that could only mean one thing...
"It's a trap," the sole female of the group had whispered.
And it was. The Dragon-faced man sprang up from the ground where his female clone had lain and drew a tanto, swinging it in a circle around himself to get some room. He landed back on the ground and then stared straight at Sasuke with a smirk.
"Well, well, well! Look what pretty boys I've caught today!" He turned his head slightly so that he could see Satomi. "Ooooh, and what a lovely lady! Don't worry, Love, I'll be gentle," his gravelly voice purred as he addressed her.
She seethed in rage but kept her mouth shut. Instead, she signed, "Can we please kill this moron now before the sun sets?"
Sasuke smirked and signed back, "Ibiki, genjutsu. Asuma, close-range with your knives. Satomi, weaken the dirt under his feet slightly with water." The son of the Hokage drew his own ninjato and his face hardened. "I'm with Asuma."
3...
Ibiki completed his genjutsu without a single hand sign.
2...
Satomi subtly weakened the ground exactly where Dragon was standing.
1!
Asuma and Sasuke sprang forward and attacked, the former from in front and the latter from behind. It was a teamwork exercise they'd used countless times in order to take down numerous opponents. It should have worked, but it didn't.
The next thing Ibiki remembered was Asuma flying away from the man and, where there had previously been a single Dragon-faced man, there were now two. 'Is it another clone?' Ibiki wondered. It didn't quite look like one, as its hair was slightly lighter than the original's and its tattoo was smaller. Clones almost always looked like their creators, and this one didn't. So, if it wasn't a clone, what was it?
Either way, it was no longer four against one. It was four against two, and their opponent was crafty. Sasuke seemed to be the only one who had any clue what was going on.
"I see," he said. "You're from that clan. Strange...I thought they'd all been wiped out." He sounded amused, but his subtle change in stance said that he was alarmed and wary.
"Not all," the first man replied with a dark grin. "And we've improved quite a bit, thanks to a new friend of ours..."
"...and you and your little team don't stand a chance," the other figure finished.
At that, both enemies (which was the real one?) started chuckling as a dark flame seemed to spread across their skins. Sasuke's eyes widened before he turned to his team and started yelling at them to leave, to"Get out of here!"
After that, Ibiki's sight grew blurry as his leader formed hand signs that would transport the three of them out of the area...and would leave himself behind. Asuma noticed and started yelling at him to "don't do it!" But their leader didn't listen, and the world began to fade. But Ibiki caught one last scene that would haunt him to his dying day: One of the enemies, moving at speeds far faster than his eye could see, had grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, and the Hokage's oldest son started screaming as Dragon's hand sank into his flesh as though he were moving through water.
With that, the world around them faded as they found themselves several miles from the site of the battle, but even there, they could feel it as Sasuke's chakra signature wavered before fading out.
"NOOOO!"
Ibiki couldn't remember who had screamed at the end, but he didn't need to; they'd all been thinking it, especially when they'd arrived back at the site, only to see a mutilated body on the ground and the enemy nowhere to be found. He'd never seen Asuma look so defeated or Satomi look so devastated. The twins, when they'd been informed, and simply walked away and refused to speak to anyone for days. And he himself had immediately gone into the Hokage's personal library to do a little research on their attacker.
He'd come up with a few theories and second-hand rumors, at best. One scroll had hinted at a new type of clone that could withstand monstrous abuse, but that had turned out to be a rather ancient thing referring to the then-unknown rock clone. The interrogator had tossed that aside rather quickly. Another one had mentioned a very specialized genjutsu. However, that was his area of expertise; no way was some wacko pulling the wool over his eyes with that type of technique. The only one that had held any promise had spoken of a very rare kinjutsu used solely by one clan from the Mist Village. Supposedly, it allowed its user to fuse with another's body. That Ibiki could believe. It did explain what he had seen, but it didn't explain the strange clone-like creature that had popped up out of nowhere. Nor did that particular kinjutsu have any information regarding the black fire that had spread across Dragon's body. The bald man was confused, and nothing seemed to hold the answers he was searching for.
And now, here they were, trying to face that mysterious monster for a little thing known as revenge. "Justice," Asuma had called it. But justice worked with the law. Revenge worked either without it or against it. How dare that boy shade the truth with his arrogance! Even worse, how dare he think his father would do nothing! The fool had overestimated himself and was now putting all their lives at risk. Idiot! Before her death, Ibiki's mother had always said, "There is no justice in revenge, but there is honor in justice, and without honor, we become less than human. My son, whatever you do in life, never let yourself lose your humanity."
His mother had never lied to him; she had always spoken the truth and spoken it well. And now, here he was, being forced to deal with the results of four people's stupidity and lack of wisdom. At least he was finally distracting them, however! The Hokage's youngest could be such a pain.
Just as he stepped onto another branch as he followed the group's new fearless leader, his senses began screaming at him. Not one to question such things, he quickly leaped high into the air and tossed a kunai at a tree several yards away before wrapping the wire connected to it around his glove-covered hand and jumping. It had all taken no more than half a second, and he noticed that his comrades had taken similar measures.
It was lucky they had, as the area they'd just vacated blew up into a massive fireball. If it hadn't been for the subtle genjutsu, they most likely would all have been killed. As it was, the attack had been just a hair off, giving them enough warning to leap out of the way.
'Shi—where is he? I can't even sense his presence!' Dragon had to be nearby, but where? His eyes quickly and furiously scanned right, left, above, below, and any other direction available to him. Where would he strike first? What would cause the most damage? Ibiki's eyes widened. Asuma! He'd be going after Asuma!
"Asuma, move!" he screamed, and just in time, too, as another fireball had been barreling in his direction. Where was it coming from? He noticed the leaves in the tree to the youngest Sarutobi's left shake ever so slightly. 'There!' He quickly transformed himself into his leader's double and switched places with but a flick of a hand. Ibiki only had to wait for a single second before Dragon, who had clearly not seen the switch, broke cover and lunged at the disguised interrogator.
"YOU!" Dragon screamed. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"
But he never stood a chance. Instead of hitting his target, the man fell to the ground with a shocked expression on his face while Gorou and Akira had their bows pulled back in case the attacker was still breathing. Ibiki took a quick look to see.
He wasn't dead, but the blood didn't bode well for him, unless it was another clone. But no, the blood was red, not clear like water would have been. It really was him, the big, scary Dragon...and then, black fire spread across his skin, the injury seemed to close enough to stop bleeding, and the wounded man stood back up. He was enraged and let loose a roar that made the hair on Ibiki's head stand straight up...and he was bald!
The scarred (and very much bald) interrogator signaled the rest of the team. They couldn't just stand there with their mouths open! They turned their heads towards him.
"Akira, Gorou, formation number three."
In less than a split second, they'd moved into position.
"Satomi, defense pattern number seventeen."
She nodded and leaped from the tree before placing her hand on the ground and scrunching her face in concentration.
"Asuma, attack pattern one."
Asuma's eyes widened, but he flickered over to Ibiki to stand beside him.
The whole time (only a second or two, really), Dragon just watched with furious eyes that were completely black. It was downright creepy. However, if that scroll regarding body fusing had been correct, they merely needed to avoid being touched. Then again, that depended on being faster than their adversary, and Ibiki wasn't certain they were. Still, they had to try. And where was the other one—the clone...thing?
That's when he noticed it: this was not the same guy they had faced originally. Or, rather, it was the clone-thingy, as its tattoo was a bit smaller than its creator's and had dark brown hair rather than black. So...was the other one the clone? Ibiki was confused.
"Hey!" he called out to...it.
It turned black eyes towards him and the bald Special Jounin had to struggle to not shudder.
"Where's your boyfriend?"
The thingy's eyes widened for a brief moment before, oddly enough, the world around him seemed to get a little...blurry. Quickly, he countered the deadly aura with his own rage-infused chakra and the world came back into focus. 'Whoa...that's one heck of a powerful killing intent. Hehe...I think I struck a nerve...'
"You bastard..." it muttered, "that was my BROTHER!" And, with that, the male-thing attacked.
And he was fast, very, very fast. In less time than it took to blink, Ibiki found the humanoid in his face and barely a centimeter from touching him.
'No!' He couldn't allow any physical contact, if what he'd read about that forbidden technique was true. Hurriedly, he called up medical chakra in his hand and smashed it into the monster's face as he made darn sure to keep from actually touching it. The enemy went down screaming for a brief moment before going silent in death, thanks to a quick chakra scalpel. The odd, black flames on his body disappeared, and Ibiki was both relieved and worried. 'There's no way that could've been it...'
It had been far too easy. Something was desperately wrong, but what?
A tiny burst of chakra next to Gorou alerted him, but before he could speak a word, disaster struck.
It was another trap; the whole thing had been an ambush.
"'Kas'i!" a high-pitched (and surprisingly loud) voice called out.
Kakashi got up from the rocking chair—which he found to be ridiculously comfortable- and looked at the small blonde tugging on his pants. There were a few flecks of something orange on the child's cheek, and the infamous Jounin remembered yesterday's events with some alarm. Quickly, he raised a hand to his hair and sighed in relief when he felt no foreign substances there.
The boy tugged again. "'Kas'i!" he insisted.
"What?" the only adult present blinked. He'd really like to get back to his book, now that he knew his hair was safe.
"Ikki! Ikki! Sommin's w'on wif Ikki!"
Kakashi blinked again...and then a few more times as he struggled to translate the toddler's garbles. He finally came up with, "Something's wrong with Ibiki." Naruto rarely spoke in front of strangers or guests, so it was actually somewhat shocking that the very young child would address him at all, and the man had to wonder why.
"Oh? What's wrong with him? Has he been sick?" What had the kid noticed that he himself had missed?
"Shich?" His adorable face scrunched up in confusion.
"Sick," the Jounin repeated. Obviously, the boy didn't understand the concept just yet, so he'd break it down for him. "Does he sniffle a lot?"
Naruto shook his head no.
"Does his tummy hurt him any?"
Once again, the answer was a negative.
"Does it ever look like his head hurts him?"
This time, he got a nod in response. "Yup! Suh time 'e come 'ome fro' wo'k."
Kakashi immediately translated that to: "Sometimes when he comes home from work." He almost wanted to slap himself; of course he'd get a headache from his job! That wasn't sick (sanity was another issue entirely and therefore irrelevant).
"Bu' tha' ain' it!" the tyke insisted rather loudly.
"Then, what is it?"
"Ikki been stapped!"
Kakashi began blinking again. "What?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk with his head in his hands. Moments ago, he'd just gotten a report on the battle his son—his youngest, only remaining son—should not have been at. As he'd suspected from the beginning, all of it had been nothing more than a trap to lure out his family and kill them.
It wasn't exactly surprising. A Kage of any village always had many enemies, after all, and the family of a Kage was often even more at risk than said leader. It was the main reason the Fourth had been so careful with his own wife. Not that he'd hidden their relationship, exactly, but that he had placed such a protection detail on her that she'd made him sleep on the couch for a month. Still, the Third was very grateful that only a few had known. It had made it much easier to hide their child.
However, things were very different with Hiruzen's own family. His children—all three of them—were...or had been...well-known from the beginning. All of them had been born and practically raised in war and had shot through the ninja ranks as though they'd been tearing through tissue. It was impossible to miss the family resemblance in both looks and strength, and it was also very fortunate that their father, the Third, had been around to keep them safe for a time.
The Kyuubi attack had stripped that safety away, though. His middle child, Enoki, had been one of the ANBU guarding the then-jinchurriki as she'd given birth to her son; he had been the first casualty and his wife had soon followed. Things in their now smaller family had never even come close to being the same. He'd been all but destroyed by grief and his relationship with Asuma had suffered. Sasuke had done his best to fix the damage, but it hadn't worked and they'd simply pulled further and further apart.
It had taken his eldest son's death and the outright disobedience of the youngest for the Hokage to see it, and never had he regretted his lack of insight more. Now, he could lose not only his one remaining child but also his unborn grandchild.
And what could he do—declare them all traitors and have them thrown out of the village or executed? How would that help matters? They'd still all end up dead and he'd still feel miserable. But he had to do something. As the leader, Asuma would have to be officially reprimanded and punished. The others, he supposed, could deal with simple demotions, fines, community service, and whatever else he could think of. Ibiki wouldn't be punished at all, since he was just following orders...unlike everyone else on that dratted team.
But what about Asuma?
"Hokage-sama."
Sarutobi flinched. He hadn't even sensed the ninja, due to the amount of stress. "Yes?" he replied in a tightly-controlled voice.
The ANBU, who wore a leopard mask, knelt on the floor. "Sir, a report from the battle," he said as he held out a red scroll.
Hiruzen sighed, stood up, and took the scroll. "Thank you, Leopard. You are dismissed."
Leopard saluted and vanished in a Body Flicker while he busied himself with getting past the security seals in order to open the darn thing. Quickly, he scanned the contents to get to the list of casualties and exhaled in relief when he didn't see his son's name there. Satomi's name, however, was, and that fact made him pale. That didn't mean she was dead, of course, but she was definitely injured. The Hokage didn't even bother touching the rest of the report at that moment, as he could sense the first of his soldiers returning through the front gates. Instead, he stood up without even a pop of his joints (hey, he was old, sure, but he was still the strongest in the village for a reason) and Flickered out into the cold to meet his wayward son and whatever remained of his team.
It didn't take them long to show. As medics rushed out to tend to the wounded brought before them, Asuma, looking thoroughly exhausted, lifted up his head, looked at his father, and smiled. Hiruzen did not smile back; this foolish son of his had no idea what he had done. Instead, the Hokage refused to look at him at all. He was angry—no, furious, and he truly didn't wish to cause more harm to their already-strained relationship by saying something thoughtless.
Asuma's smile fell right off his face, and anger replaced it. He walked past his father without a word or another glance in his direction.
Doing his best to ignore the stabbing pain in his heart, the Hokage turned to the injured in hopes that Satomi was there and wouldn't be hurt too badly. But not matter how desperately he looked for her, she wasn't there. A deep terror took root in his heart.
Then, suddenly...
"MEDIC! I NEED A MEDIC! SHE'S STILL BREATHING!" With that, a lion-masked ANBU agent rushed towards them with a dark-haired woman in his arms. Blood dripped from her mouth and from a hole in her right lung.
"Dear God," he muttered in shock. He knew perfectly well whom the woman was, and if she and the baby died...he didn't know what he'd do.
A medic hurried over and green, healing chakra began pouring out of his hands as he examined her injuries. Sarutobi looked on in hope only to fall to his knees as the doctor closed his eyes and shook his head in sadness. She was still alive, but...there was nothing he could do to save her.
Then, his eyes snapped back open and he gasped. His hands moved the chakra to her abdomen immediately and he yelled to another medic instructions that the Hokage couldn't make out, due to the ringing in his ears. No one was looking at him and all he could do was stare at what would have been his daughter-in-law as she died with his grandchild right in front of him.
Dear God...please, no...
A few other medics gathered around and focused their chakra on Satomi's abdomen, as well, before one—a woman he should have recognized—said, "Let me do it."
"Rin, are you nuts! Even if it takes, the risks to your own health-"
"I said I will do it. We don't have enough time to find another host, so it'll have to be me."
"...But, Rin..."
"Enough! Begin the procedure."
None of it registered in the Third's mind. Nothing mattered to him except that she and the child weren't going to...to...
The woman known as Rin laid herself down on the ground as the other medics gently did the same for Satomi. There wasn't even enough time to relocate to an operating room. Once both women were lying flat, one medic knelt beside Rin, formed chakra scalpels, and cut her open while she used her own medical chakra to numb the area and keep herself alive. To her right, three other doctors were doing approximately the same thing to Satomi.
She nodded at the man helping her and the minty-green of his technique intensified until it was the color of the forest. Then, and only then, Rin began screaming. No amount of numbing could work for this procedure; the doctor was reforming her uterus. Thirty seconds of absolute agony later, the medics working on Satomi stood up with a small pile of what looked to be blood and intestines and hurried over to Rin.
It only took a few minutes after that to seal the tiny life-form into its pseudo-parent, but it took half an hour to connect the placenta to the wall of Rin's womb and get the umbilical cord to where it needed to be, all while keeping the baby alive at the same time. It was a draining, exhausting process for all of them, but they were a team and were dedicated to the survival of their patients above all else. They would not fail this tiny life now depending on them.
Finally, after what could've been a century for all they knew, all the medics fell back in exhaustion. They were spent—utterly, completely spent. All other injured had been taken care of before the young woman had been brought to them, and then they'd had to engage in a very complex operation/transplant. The doctors all exchanged looks with themselves; a vacation and a nice, hefty bonuses had better be waiting for them after this...
At that moment, each person remembered the Hokage just ten feet away and looked at him.
His eyes were shining and his cheeks were clearly wet with tears. The lion-masked ANBU was standing behind him with his hand on the older man's shoulder.
"Hokage-sama...?" one person asked warily.
But the Hokage just closed his eyes and said, "Thank you" before he stood and walked back into the village. No one would ever know just how close he'd come to breaking that night; he was still devastated at the loss of his daughter-in-law, but at least her child had been saved.
He looked behind him one last time and sent a silent message to the cooling, bloody corpse. I'm sorry I couldn't save you, my daughter, but I will protect your child with my last breath. With that, he turned to the ANBU two steps behind him to his left. "Lion."
"Yes, Hokage-sama?"
"Gather your team and meet me in the office. I have a new assignment for you."
"Yes, Hokage-sama." And with that, the masked man was gone.
Asuma was furious. How dare the old man treat him like that! Ok, sure, he'd disobeyed his instructions, but still! It had been for Sasuke! Shouldn't that mean something? Yes, some people had been hurt, but they'd known the risks and chosen to help take down Dragon, anyway! Besides, they'd all be fine. He knew his team; they'd pull through.
Last time he'd seen them, the twins had been taking apart a small group of four enemies with a tag-team strategy that had served them well in many previous battles. Satomi had been chasing a kunoichi deeper into the trees, which was fine; she could handle herself. And Ibiki had just taken a kunai in the arm—barely a scratch for the scarred interrogator who'd been through ten times worse—right before he'd taken the attacker's head. Everyone was fine! What was the old man's problem?
As things were going, Asuma didn't think he could take much more. The relationship between his father and himself had never been good or strong; at best, it was the two of them tolerating each other being in the same room. His brother had always been the tenuous bridge between them, and that bridge had died with Sasuke. Now, Asuma was at a loss. He honestly didn't have the motivation to salvage anything out of their relationship, but what could he do? The Hokage wasn't exactly easy to get away from, especially for a Jounin. How else would he get his missions, after all? As long as he stayed in the village, they'd have contact.
However...maybe he didn't have to stay in the village at all. It wasn't like he was really all that attached to the place; leaving would be a relief, and with that offer from the daimyo, he had a legitimate excuse to walk away. His father wouldn't even be able to stop him or have any say in it whatsoever.
Asuma smirked. The old man wouldn't be winning this or any other round again.
...and so ends chapter two. I admit, there's not a ton of action in it, and the simple reason for that is this: I'm pretty, er, not good at action scenes. Still, I did the best I could, under the circumstances (my incompetence) and hope the results are satisfactory.
Information regarding the story:
Dragon is not the guy's real name, obviously. It's a nickname and nothing more. Oh, and if anyone remembers the Sound Four...yes, he/they are related to the one(s) Kiba fought. More will be explained later.
If anyone guessed the baby is Konohamaru, congratulations; you are correct. I personally always found it interesting that, in canon, Asuma left about the same time his nephew was born. Coincidence? I say no.
Naruto hasn't had much part in this so far, but he will, believe me. If his strange premonition freaked you out a bit, just imagine what it will do to Kakashi! Oh, and I'll let you in on a little secret: Naruto is not what he seems, and not just because of his weird statements to Kakashi.
On a personal note, my email account was hacked into recently (not this one). I have reason to believe that a message of mine either on this site or another was intercepted, which led to someone else getting to my email. As it was directly connected to the account I have here, I am taking pains to be very careful with this site (and many others) from now on. I managed to wrangle the one account back, so that's not a problem. The issue is the fact that he/she got who knows what kind of personal information on me, so, for the next few months, I won't be doing anything but posting chapters. Sorry for anyone looking for conversation, but it's not going to happen for awhile.