Disclaimers in first chapter. Since you've got to read that first anyway (if you haven't already) why are you asking about a disclaimer here?
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Well, second chapter. I don't think I've updated a fic this fast since well over a year ago. While this fic isn't going to be long (or at least, I don't intend it to be too long, as my muse isn't coping well with writing at all at the minute) it will still probably break the 50,000 word mark sooner or later.
Furthermore, this fic absolutely isn't going to be yaoi. So sorry if you think because of the characters I've place it under that it will be. It won't.
Finally (I don't normally do this, 'cause I forget…) thanks to my reviewers: xXShadowedfateXx, uzumaki misaki, BakaHammerGirl, kma3000, Meca Vegeta and yes, Moonlight black rose as well – although I think that UPDATE in caps about two hundred times is possibly one of the less useful reviews I've ever received…
To be honest, while I've got notes for several overall plot-arcs for this fic, nothing is set in stone. It could get rather dark, or it could end on a high-note (although the likelihood of it being 'happily ever after' is small…) I just act as secretary – my muse is the one with the plan. (grins)
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"Hokage-sama!"
Tsunade looked up in irritation at being disturbed. She had only just gotten into the swing of this paperwork, damn it! It would take her hours to manage to get her brain to that semi-numb state where mindless paperwork didn't make her want to slit her belly open… not to mention another exorbitantly large volume of sake.
"Hokage-sama Hokage-sama! We have a new intelligence report!" The jounin who had been unfortunate enough to be assigned to help her today rushed into her office waving a small scroll in panic.
Tsunade ripped it out of her hands and unrolled it slightly as the jounin halted in front of her desk. "So what does it say that has you so worried…?"
"Oh."
Tsunade continued reading.
"Oh my…"
She unrolled it a bit further, and went pale. She let go of the scroll, and it snapped shut before falling to the paper-mountain on her desk.
"Kuso!" Tsunade screamed and brought her fist down on the wood, not even aware of the splintering sound in her rage at her old team-mate.
She muttered something with a dark expression before stalking to the window and shouting out loud enough for the whole of Konoha to hear, "Jiraiya! Stop peeping at the women's baths and get your butt in here right now!"
Cue a lot of screaming coming from the women's baths as the toad hermit, sannin and self-proclaimed 'super-pervert' was spotted by one of the young women he was staring so avidly at.
Tsunade saw the plume of dust grow as the fleeing form of Jiraiya headed toward his summons.
Whether it was for death or saviour, he did not know.
All he knew was that if he stayed, he would be beaten to within an inch of his life – and there were a lot of young women in that bath that day. It would take a long time for those bruises to heal…
Tsunade looked at her office. The jounin was at the door, trying to quietly exit as unobtrusively as possible.
"And GET ME A NEW DESK!" Tsunade bellowed at the jounin just before the door closed.
-
Five minutes – and about eight miles – later, as he had no intentions of being late in this sort of situation, Kakashi paused for a moment as he felt two strong chakra signatures headed toward him. Flicking his glance to Pakkun, who immediately hid, he did the same. Seconds later, his eye widened in shock as he saw Uchiha Itachi barrel past without so much as a glance in his direction straight toward Konoha. For a minute fraction of a second, he pondered following him; Konoha would need his help if Akatsuki were going to be that brazen in their movements.
He discarded that thought almost as quickly as it had appeared in his mind – Naruto was his first priority right now; Konoha had several ANBU and the large majority of it's chuunin and jounin present at the moment; including the new resident genius of the Konohagakure ninja ranks: Nara Shikamaru. And they had two of the three sannin also present.
Readying muscles to push off from his hiding place, he paused again as the second chakra signature closed, following the first.
Kisame, the second half of the Akatsuki duo. He was moving more slowly than Itachi, however, and seemed almost to be searching for something as he moved. Kakashi held his breath when the Kiri-nukenin's eyes swept over where he was hiding, and Kawarimi'd away as his gaze swept across him for the second time. He let out a slow breath from his new hiding spot as Kisame continued away.
-
Kisame was close to cursing the day he became a member of the Akatsuki. Itachi was fast when he wanted to be – faster than he had expected, and remarkably good at covering his tracks. Even behaving the way he seemed to be as he left, the Uchiha let his skills control his movement.
He was close to untraceable.
Had it not been for the fact that Kisame could nearly guarantee where he was headed, very little in the forest hinted at where he had passed – even jounin left some sort of trail if you looked hard enough for it. Itachi left nothing. Not a leaf was out of place to indicate his passing. The best Kisame could do was head toward Konoha and hope that Itachi hadn't decided to lose all rational thought due to whatever that blonde brat had done to him.
That was another thing that worried the Kiri-nukenin in the back of his mind. The boy had been completely unable to channel chakra – being bound to Samehada would have made that a certainty… and yet fracturing his partners' sanity with mere words?
Kisame had known from the first time he met Uchiha Itachi that brining up the circumstances that brought about his obliteration of the Uchiha clan and subsequent fleeing from Konoha was going to be a very bad idea. Unquestionably a mistake that would be the last the person who made it ever made in their lives – but for the Uzumaki brat to have done so and lived was… astounding.
The boy had been right in one thing, though: Uchiha Itachi had never left anyone who had been in his sights alive for the whole of his career as a ninja. He killed without fear, without mercy and without any thought for the consequences beyond whether or not it would complete the mission.
Konoha had been stronger than they expected for them to have to retreat as they had the first time they had reconnoitred the village. Itachi's intelligence on village life and layout could no longer be considered accurate, as it had been many years before that he had fled. Among other things that had changed, the village no longer had a standing police force; now relying on squads of chuunin and jounin to patrol, with the occasional ANBU squad who were on enforced downtime.
'Itachi…' Kisame growled in his head, 'if you risk our goals for some mindless quest, Akatsuki will hunt you down like a dog.'
Fingers flexed underneath the dark cloak as he continued toward Konoha.
'Or as the weasel your name brands you.'
-
Jiraiya appeared in front of Tsunade with a sheepish expression – and several bruises – on his face. He bowed deeply – too deeply; it was a mocking bow.
"You bellowed for your humble servant and he is here, Tsunade-hime."
Tsunade growled at him, but decided that the security of Konoha was more important than teaching the pervert a lesson that he would not soon forget. She thrust the scroll into his hands.
Unrolling it and glancing at it, Jiraiya had almost the same reaction that Tsunade had first had. He went pale.
"How up to date is this?"
"It was brought to me minutes ago."
"Kuso…" Jiraiya said it so quietly if there had been a wind you would have missed it.
"My thoughts," Tsunade agreed, and then because since becoming Hokage she had tried to be basically honest, added, "Although mine were rather louder."
The toad hermit looked up, "I'll get my Oto agents on to this as fast as I can. Although… if they haven't caught wind of it, chances are that they have been found out." He paused, "Or are dead."
Tsunade grimaced, "I don't care. Find out. If Orochimaru and Otogakure move now, we are vulnerable. And if they move in the numbers that report suggests, we are dead. Akatsuki hounds our every step, we cannot afford to split our focus between the two. And we cannot afford to send you and Naruto away to keep the village safe."
Jiraiya started, "But…"
"I know that was your intention, Jiraiya, but we cannot afford to let one of our strongest nin's – you – to leave now. Likewise, we cannot afford to allow the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki out of our sight. What if he was captured… not by Akatsuki, but by Orochimaru?"
Jiraiya closed his eyes.
Tsunade continued relentlessly, "Orochimaru wants the Sharingan. But what if he decides the power of the Kyuubi is a greater prize?"
Jiraiya nodded, "We cannot allow Orochimaru to hold thrall over both."
"And furthermore," Tsunade persisted, although she was obviously near tears at even thinking what she was saying, "if the worst happens and we lose them both… we must… we must kill them… both."
-
Naruto looked up as he heard footfalls near him, but collapsed to the dirt again almost as quickly as he lifted himself off it. His eyes slid closed as exhaustion closed in once again.
He had no idea what that sharks' sword had done to his chakra - aside from drain it – but the only reason those two Kage Bunshin appeared at all was the sheer adrenaline-fuelled terror that his situation had placed him in. Worse, he couldn't call on the Foxes' chakra; something was blocking it from being used.
"Boy," Pakkun padded up to Kakashi's student and pawed him gently, trying to get his attention, "Kakashi-san will be here momentarily."
"Ka… kashi-sen… sei?" Naruto mumbled the name into the dirt, as if dreaming.
"Hai," Pakkun sat down and stared pensively at the blonde genin.
"Naruto!"
Kakashi landed in a crouch next to his student and looked around the area to check for further activity – be it friend or foe. He could neither see of sense anything. He looked at the blonde in concern tinged with amazement.
Naruto twitched, but did nothing else.
Kakashi's eye crinkled up as he smiled, but it was a worried one. "Now, Naruto… I knew you were never the most… elegant of ninja – but this breaks all of my expectations…"
Naruto cracked open an eye and mumbled something as he looked at Kakashi. No, not at him, Kakashi realised, but through him, as if he wasn't there.
"Chakra depletion," he said gravely, before nodding to Pakkun who got to his feet and started heading back to Konoha at a slow trot. Kakashi picked Naruto up and followed at an even pace. Rushing would tire him out for a fight with Akatsuki, but moving too slowly could mean the difference between Naruto recovering or not. Despite his internal 'guest'.
"Pakkun?"
"Hai?"
"Did you catch what Naruto mumbled at me just then?"
"Hai," the pug nodded, and walked on three legs for a moment so he could scratch an itch on the back of his head with the other. "He said, 'Number one surprising ninja…"
Kakashi's eye crinkled deeply as he grinned.
Pakkun sniffed the air and looked round worried. "I smell fire."
"Where?"
"Konoha."
The two picked up the pace and took to the trees.
It was now for certain a race against time…
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EOF.
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