Chapter 2.
"Now, it's time for you to choose Sasuke. When you left, you took something with you. You broke Sakura's dream, so in turn, I will break one of yours. Choose what you wish to keep, your eye or your virility? How will you defeat your brother with a single eye? How will you rebuild the clan with no testicles? Choose carefully boy.
"Really? Heh, you care about your brother that much Sasuke? Enough to lose your gonads? You know, I wonder about you…
"Well, technically I should obey your wishes and end the Uchiha line here, but a promise was made to Sakura. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't like it much if you came back and you weren't able to sire her children, ne? So I guess I'll just have to do you both a favour and do what's good for you. Little boys shouldn't be allowed to choose by themselves anyway.
"Whoa! Watch out Sasuke, I might gauge your eye out if you keep moving like that!
"Almost… I'm almost done. Aaaaaaand DONE! See, that wasn't so bad, was it?
"Now, if you ever want your eye back… come and get it! You know where to find me."
Sasuke sat with his bare back to the stone wall, the cold relaxing his tense muscles but doing little to appease his misery as he stared at his image reflected in a mirror he'd shattered when he'd entered. His better judgement told him to remove the small mirror shards embedded in his left hand, but he couldn't muster the energy to care. Staring at his disjointed image with mismatched eyes was deemed far more important. He needed answers. What did he do now?
Massive troop recall. Emergency meeting. Worst case scenario.
When the council was informed of the situation, they panicked. Suddenly, what many of them had predicted became reality. The beast was freed, just like they had said. According to the letter, the brat would become the end of them, just like they had foretold.
And yet, they were all caught by surprise. None of them had anything prepared to deal with the situation. In her own humble opinion, Tsunade knew it was because none of them had really believed the words that came out of their own mouths. And that just made her hate them more.
Because it meant that they had treated her adopted little brother like he was the source of all misfortune out of simple bigotry, rather than any sort of fear. Fear she could've at least understood, maybe even pitied a little… but those old fools would only get her scorn.
When Konoha was founded, it was established with two controlling influences. The council, seated by civilians and retired ninja who provided the capital and the Hokage, the best ninja in the village, who led the work force and who had final say in all defence matters. After she became Konoha's kage, Tsunade did some digging about her little brother and found some information concerning him in the old man's personal matters. Before Naruto became a genin, the council had used its authority to circumvent Sarutobi's ability to influence his life. Since he was a civilian, Sarutobi technically had very little to say about Naruto's upbringing and unless he wanted to admit Naruto was dangerous and therefore under his jurisdiction, there was nothing he could do about it.
That is why Naruto was brought up in an orphanage instead of being adopted by a willing shinobi family or even Sarutobi's own. It is why he was left to live on his own when he reached the age of four. It is why he was given so little spending money and it is why those same council members were contemplating leaving the country. Each one of them was remembering their own personal transgressions against the boy and the probability that he would want revenge.
None of them seemed to comprehend the fact that Naruto and Kyuubi were two separate beings.
Ignorant little pricks…
However, since this most certainly was a matter of defence, she could and would remove all council representatives from their seats. She would not suffer through their pathetic squabbling and power games in a time like this. No, now was a time for heroes and sacrifice.
A time for revenge.
Many shinobi came out of retirement for this day, this battle. There would be no fear this time, the battle would be seen through to its natural conclusion. They had sixteen years to prepare for this. They knew what they were up against and a few volunteers had learnt the Fourth's last jutsu.
They had learnt from their mistakes, large numbers, the genjutsu users and the weak were all liabilities. The first wave would consist only of the best and the brightest, to test its capabilities. See if 15 years in a cell had weakened it any.
The ones with the best chance of survival, the beings closest to the defunct cage…
…the royal healer Tsunade and her faithful assistant, Shizune…
…Jiraiya, wise man of amphibians and instruction…
…Copy-Ninja Hatake Kakashi, man of a thousand techniques…
…Last of the blest triad, Haruno Sakura, the heartbroken Amazon of her generation…
And for backup, the combat experts…
…Anko, the redeemed experiment…
…The caged prodigy, Hyuuga Neji…
…The unlikely adept, Rock Lee…
…The springtime of youth, Maito Gai…
…The head of the Hyuuga dynasty, Hiashi…
…And the robust warrior, Akimichi Choza.
A message had been sent to the sand and if they were lucky, Gaara and a few of his staunchest, most dedicated allies would arrive in time to offer their aid. Until then, they would fight.
They were believed to be ready. Their thirst for vengeance and retribution was only equalled by their skill and resolve.
When the village's ANBU reported one blond haired, blue eyed and whisker marked teenager wrapped in a bloody orange outfit approaching the city gates, their collective hatred was only strengthened. Truly, the beast's cruelty knew no bounds. How dared it use their friend and fellow leaf soldier's body as its tool? How dared it employ their artificial brother to its wicked schemes and diabolical acts?
How dared it subject their raw hurt with such a spectacle? To see the always cheerful visage twisted in hatred! To hear his loud voice whispering in dreadful scorn! How could they bear it! How could they strike him down! Anxiety.
Realization. Resolution. They were ninja. Konoha ninja.
Their purpose became clear as their lingering doubts were crushed by boundless enmity and rationalization. They would not stop. They could not stop. The deaths of many leaf… no human lives would be avenged on this day. Today they fought not only for themselves and their village, but also for the entirety of humanity. They would not lose.
Now, truly, they were ready. They could, they would put his body to rest and end years of strife.
Kyuubi stilled. Instinct blared. Formula: Simple ambient energy survey and analysis, (ALPHA).
Energy detection forms part of the first level, known as simple and is instinctual. It simply scans the surface of energy and is the level most shinobi have access to. The second level, known as complex is energy powered and is therefore an equation. It is capable of determining identity (if you already know the target) and other physical information.
The third level, known as intricate, is a level that Kyuubi doesn't have access to. It enables the user to see and feel your whole surroundings in complex energy form, which can be highly advantageous.
Multiple assailants inbound. Designation: Human. Threat level: Bothersome. Positions… directly ahead. ETA 45 seconds.
Huh… earlier than I'd have thought. Might as well see who they thought could kill me.
Equation activated. Formula: Complex ambient energy analysis, (BETA).
…Huh… this might actually be a problem. The most combat able shinobi in Konoha, the finest. How should I deal with them? I can't kill them or let them get seriously hurt… though I probably shouldn't let them know that. Stun mode it is… Do I even have a stun mode?
Unfortunately, before Kyuubi could seriously contemplate on the existence, in either of his bodies, of an attack pattern distinct from lethal, he found himself surrounded by a number of stone faced shinobi. It was slightly unsettling. Even with all his memories, both human and demonic, this was the first time he'd seen such a display.
The famed shinobi rule of conduct number 25… He'd never seen it applied like he was right now. Even Orochimaru always expressed his amusement or frustration. It was like they'd all simultaneously decided to take a page out of Itachi's book. Regardless of the situation, a shinobi must keep emotions on the inside. The mission is top priority; you must possess a heart that never shows tears.
They reminded him of dolls. He had expected anger, sadness, fear… anything. As far as he could tell, they were completely empty. Emotionless, detached, cold… even their eyes were hollow. No impassioned speeches from Gai, no ardent fury from Tsunade, no hatred from Sakura… not even from Choza and Hiashi.
They were like walking dead.
Their masks… he suddenly wanted to break them. Expose the human inside. Make them feel… anything, everything… something.
He opened his mouth to speak, but they obviously weren't going to give him the chance to plead his cause as he was immediately assaulted by two similarly clothed green beasts. The duo exercised their speed to the fullest and it became apparent that neither bore weights that would handicap them.
The elder approached from the front and performed a flawless flying side kick, the lack of the usual 'dynamic entry!' shout noticeable, as the junior advanced from the side, spun, crouched and extended his leg in a low roundhouse kick, the Konoha reppuu.
Knowing that dodging would get him nowhere and that intimidation would at least interrupt their attack and pave the way for dialogue, Kyuubi stood with his legs braced for impact and reached for Gai's airborne right leg, only to have the man rotate in mid flight and spin his left leg towards his head. The blonde dropped his left knee to the ground, leaving the attack and the man to fly harmlessly above him.
Kyuubi noticed in the nick of time that Lee's attack never connected. The young protégé had set his attacking leg into the ground and rotated his entire body into the right foot currently flying towards his opponent's face, the momentum adding much power into the strike.
Kyuubi literally had to bend over backwards to dodge, the open toed boot passing an inch above his face. Needing to put some distance between them, Kyuubi pulled his upper body back up, planted both hands against the ground and front flipped away from the duo.
Unwilling as they were to give him a chance to breathe, two others immediately broke from the loose circle to engage the demon, the unlikely pair of Choza and Neji. Lee and Gai retreated to the perimeter and joined their allies in the observation of Kyuubi's movements, most notable being Kakashi, his lone sharingan eye swirling as he recorded and dissected the nine-tails' every move.
The Hyuuga boy wonder arrived first, his white robe helping conceal his hands as he thrust his fingertips at various points of his target's body, using his arm speed in an attempt to overcome Kyuubi's defences, only to have each strike deflected as the demon used his greater speed to his advantage. By targeting Neji's wrist, the nine-tails was having little difficulty deflecting the gentle fist and that gave him a slight window of opportunity once the larger and much stronger Choza arrived. Immediately following a deflection, Kyuubi upped his movement to equal the Hyuuga's reaction speed, flew inside the prodigy's guard and pressed his palm against his forehead. He felt Neji attempt a counter, but it was too late. The second was over. His byakugan abruptly deactivated and the expanded veins returned to their normal width after which he dropped out of his stance and fell on his knees, staring, yet watching nothing.
Equation activated. Formula: Spellbind, imposed lethargy.
Spellbinding, a series of commands primarily used by succubae and the like to facilitate the act of feeding upon another's body or emotions. Of course, he'd never actually had a use for that ability before and he was forced to hold physical contact with perfect concentration for a full second in order to achieve the connection. Neji was in a state of dreamless sleep, a near coma that few things would be able to wake him from. Eventually, he'd be able to revive himself, but for now he was out of the fight. But something far more significant is what caught Kyuubi's attention.
Not a peep. One of their comrades had apparently fallen and none of them bat an eyelid. Choza had stopped his advance, but that was only because he knew he wouldn't be able to handle fighting alone.
Don't they care? And they call themselves leaf-nin? They call themselves human?
The impulse to keep things relatively harmless lost much ground while the desire to beat their heads on straight came to the forefront. He probably wouldn't enjoy doing it, but it was for their own good. Before Kyuubi could even begin contemplating congratulating himself on his decision, alpha energy detection warned him that one of the most powerful humans in the clearing was approaching him from behind and fast.
Kyuubi weaved around Tsunade's colossal fist and spun around to face her, dodging her right hook in the process. Her left jab was stepped away from, her right straight was sidestepped, the following backfist was ducked under and the nine-tails front flipped over her left haymaker, meaning that their backs were facing each other and that the whiskered blond was unharmed by the high velocity shrapnel propelled from the exploding earth around the fist.
Instead of using his superior speed to attack the Hokage, Kyuubi turned his attention to the beastly duo approaching him. Out of everyone, those two and Kakashi were the most dangerous. Normal ninjutsu would have little effect on him and none of the heavy hitters were fast enough to touch him. Gai and Lee's extreme lotus would give them enough speed to catch up with him, especially if they worked together… and he didn't put it past Kakashi to have learned the skill at some point.
His worries were proven founded when the two taijutsu experts drastically accelerated as they moved with disorienting zigzags, one obscuring the other as the crisscrossed their way towards him, until he lost sight of Gai on one such crossing.
As the wind shifted violently under him, memories of things he'd never experienced surrendered their information. He sharply jerked his head back so that Gai's boot simply grazed his chin as it tore vertically through the space his head had recently occupied. Irritated by the close call, Kyuubi grabbed a hold of Gai's leg, lifted him off the ground and threw him at the approaching Tsunade. The man with the large eyebrows hit Tsunade before she could react and both hit the ground hard. While Gai quickly got back on his own feet, Tsunade didn't. Or rather, she couldn't, because she had disappeared in an explosion of grey smoke.
A kage bunshin, thought Kyuubi right before the ground collapsed under him. So surprised was he that he never thought to activate his flight equation: Resolution of gravity's conflict, freedom of movement. However, his surprise was not so great that the incoming fist escaped his notice, the shifting wind helping him determine its path through the blinding dust. He caught the fist with his left hand, but momentarily underestimated the strength behind the blow and by the time he'd adjusted his force, he was in a bad position with his arm tightly bent, his back against the ground and his opponent in a position of great leverage, so that even though he was the stronger of the two, he couldn't push them away.
Only two ninja in Konoha had this type of strength and only one of them wore gloves. That's when Kyuubi really had enough. He enjoyed fighting as much as anyone else, but he would not fight Sakura. It was time for diplomacy, but first, he had to get her off of him. Fortunately, he knew just how to do that.
"Hey, Sakura-chan? Could you, you know, stop that? Please? It kind of hurts…" said Kyuubi in Naruto's special half-pleading, half-endearing and all-pathetic mannerism. The pink haired medic reacted to the aural stimulus and her force abated, like the ritual required. The nine-tails didn't even have to force his way from her as she offered no resistance. In no time, he had climbed out of the cavity and once again stood surrounded by Konoha nin, their numbers reduced by two, one in a catatonic state and the other paralysed by grief. But now he realized that appearances were always deceiving when dealing with ninja and he was quite frankly tired of being on the defensive. Fighting simply lost all pleasurable aspects when he wasn't attacking.
Equation activated.
"You could all stand to cool down," said the experienced old spirit, his voice as cool as the ice that began covering the forest floor, the plants and even the trees until everything was covered in ice blue crystal as far as the eye could see, except for small circles of greenery around each nin. When Lee tried stepping forward to stop the demon, he discovered the fact that his traction had been severely reduced, a problem that did not seem to affect the ice's originator. When the others tried, they found out that their chakra was not helping increase their grip, that all attempts to melt the ice were futile and that all attacks targeted against the Kyuubi itself were intercepted by a thick shield of ice.
They were sitting ducks.
Formula: Absolute zero frost, death of motion in thermodynamics.
Yuki-onna ice. Impervious to changes in temperature as it was a completely isolated thermodynamic system. It could not affect, nor be affected, which is why, when touched, it feels neither cold nor hot regardless of the actual temperature. When the equation is activated, it causes a near imperceptible amount of slightly bluish mist to seep from the user and grants him the ability to create and influence the ice at will.
"I would've stayed with Sasuke if I had wanted to play with toy soldiers."
It was like a nightmare, a horrible dream that toys with perception of authenticity. Wrongfulness on a corporal level, as though you could multiply two by itself and end up with five. The place may have looked like reality, smelled like reality and even felt like reality… but she would never confuse them. She didn't know what the difference was; only that it existed.
One second she was standing with her soldiers, facing down the body snatcher as he manipulated vocal chords to form words that were never meant to be heard in such a way and the next… she was here. A world that was reality, but wasn't. Her nin had accompanied her to this place but they would be no help. She knew that they couldn't tell the difference, not even Hiashi and Kakashi. If anything, relying on their eyes would only hinder them in this place.
"Where did you bring us?" asked the woman of the man-beast. The others looked at her curiously, doubt filling their minds. They couldn't see it and nothing she could say would convince them otherwise.
"You can tell?" asked the man-beast of the woman. The others now looked at their surroundings frantically, searching for what they would never find. She smiled gently, contemptuously, finally able to appreciate the foolishness of humans. They doubted her word, but believed the enemy without a second thought. In a word, foolish. Disdain and hatred coloured her mind for a moment, because she knew that Naruto would've believed her.
But they didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was the doe-eyed monster standing a few feet away. He was the key. He was the lock. He felt the same.
He looked over the others briefly before dismissing them. "Leave us," he said, and leave they did. Not by choice though, they simply disappeared.
And they were left alone.
They looked at each other in silence. She knew what she looked like, haggard and hag-ridden with the countenance of stone, so she paid no mind to his scrutiny. She examined him closely, searching for differences with the one whose importance was taken too lightly and whose loss all but destroyed her. She looked, observed and analysed but still she failed in her endeavour, the body was the same. The movements were the same. The facial expressions were exactly alike. The only difference she could see lied in his mood, as though Naruto finally got injected with a long-awaited dose of reality. The beast looked like Naruto only without the boy's eternal optimism.
"Where are we?" asked the war maiden. She had sensed that the moment was done and the beast was about to speak. Unwilling as she was to let him control the pace of the conversation, she moved first but was nonetheless surprised when he answered. It never even occurred to her that her previous desire for purely physical confrontation had gently weakened in order to allow room for dialogue.
"We're in a reality marble. This is the world where the boy's old man put my original body to rest."
A masked glance and a fleeting smile was all the warning she received before the world twisted to the demon's whim and everything turned to darkness. Even as she tensed in anticipation of an attack, another event took place. Her pupils dilated in search of stimulus and ended the search successfully.
Sensation. Perception.
Realization, and yet no fear.
A gentle flame had appeared, its soft light managing to divulge the visual information of a small area, a five foot sphere. The fake peered at her, his gaze sad yet unapologetic, the sight of which slowly disarming her body even as it agitated her mind. What helped stall any action on her part was the fact that the fiend was sitting tailor style on a large furred mound the color of partially washed blood.
"Princess Tsunade, Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure, granddaughter to the founder, you've been accused of assaulting the great and illustrious Kyuubi, an act which may lead to a declaration of war. What do you have to say in your defence?" asked the ancient, his voice cutting through the silence of the void. The lack of any kind of echo revealed the fact that they certainly weren't in any kind of enclosed space.
Her honey orbs narrowed as she thought, her mind as clear as it's ever been, every neuron working towards the answer to two prominent questions: How could she get out of there and what the hell was he talking about?
After a few minutes of silence with no significant changes in her surroundings, she found that Kyuubi wasn't in any kind of hurry and that nothing would happen without her acting in some way. So she tentatively said, "I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean."
"You and your shinobi attacked me and I want to know why."
What?
Its answer was simple, but she didn't understand. Clarification was necessary. "Let's see if I understand. You want to know why Konoha ninja attacked you, Kyuubi, and my answer will determine whether or not we go to war?"
"That is correct," confirmed Kyuubi.
"…war between who exactly?" questioned Tsunade.
"Konohagakure village and its allies against my nation."
Her heart skipped a beat. There were more? They couldn't even handle one! "Your nation? What nation? Where is it? Who's part of it?"
"So far it's just me, but I'm pretty sure I qualify as a nation anyway."
Her anxiety was immediately replaced with annoyance and the rapid shift in temperature caused her mask to crack. A vein expanded and pulsed on the right side of her forehead as she glared at him. "This is ridiculous, I can't believe you have to gall to ask why Konoha nin want you dead. Did you forget what happened circa sixteen years ago? You destroyed over half our active forces and much of our village. You killed thousands of civilians, ruined the daimyo's castle and altered the fucking landscape!" grumbled the Hokage hatefully.
Unfazed by her fervour, the fiend's response left her speechless. "That was an accident… of sorts."
She stared at him blankly for a few seconds, almost as if she were waiting for him to reveal the punch-line, before responding. "An accident? As in, chance, fluke, happenstance?"
"Yeah, but that's not important. That's not what I asked. Why did you attack me?" asked Kyuubi, in the exact same position as when he'd revealed himself.
"Do you really have to ask?" asked Tsunade resentfully as she began to shiver. The void wasn't exactly full of warmth.
The beast appeared to take offence to her insinuation. He grimaced, his first facial change of the conversation, before he contested. "Hey, I had nothing to do with this. If anything, this is all Naruto's fault… or Kabuto's… no, definitely Sasuke."
Again, she glared at him, this time because it dared try to blame the memory of her last relative. "What do they have to do with this?" she spat.
Kyuubi continued to ignore her anger as he clarified. "Well, Naruto freed me, but that wouldn't have happened if Kabuto hadn't killed him. And none of this would've happened if Sasuke wasn't an idiot, so he's basically responsible for all this."
She could've sworn her heart stopped beating. "Kabuto killed… Naruto freed you?"
"Yes… or at least he tried to. He didn't fully succeed… probably because he had no idea what the hell he was doing. He didn't manage to free my body and I think he might've somehow managed to bond my soul with his body as a side-effect… even though it shouldn't have been possible… Tsunade, we should probably take this discussion elsewhere. I need to have words with your council and some others," said Kyuubi, strangely solemn as he observed her.
"I can't let you enter the village," said the middle-aged leader steadily, even as she attempted to warm herself.
Kyuubi shrugged dismissively. "You can't stop me. Not if I start attacking. You guys don't have any defences against my kind of attacks, you wouldn't last a minute. Consider it a diplomatic meeting between leaders. As such, I'll only act in self-defence and unfortunately this isn't up for discussion… You're cold?"
She didn't get a chance to deny the fact before it went up in flames. A wave of toasty warmth hit her and immediately ceased her shivering, but she paid it no mind. Instead, she found herself captivated by the Kyuubi's true form. A huge head with closed eyelids, closed mouth and long ears lay between two proportionately huge legs and huge claws. The rest of its body rested on the 'ground', its nine lengthy tails curving behind it, with every part of its body covered in white and red flames. Naruto's body sat on the muzzle of the sleeping beast, unharmed by the flames. Suddenly, a fact surfaced in her mind. He looked magnificent, even with the damaged and dirty clothing.
He grinned and asked, "Shall we get going?"
Somehow, she couldn't find it in herself to refuse.
The only sound in the room was the reverberating sound of the sole of Kyuubi's shoe rhythmically striking the stone floor. He had been brought to a hidden underground chamber near the Hokage monument, to wait until the clan heads and the council gathered. The problem was he'd been waiting for over 4 hours and that wasn't counting the time it had taken him to convince Tsunade's companions of his relative innocence.
Finally, sheer boredom prompted him to go looking for them. He moved off his chair and swiftly walked to the exit.
When he opened the door, the room exploded with more than enough force to dislodge the earth above. He was quickly crushed under many tons of soil.
Danzou was what could only be described as jubilant as he stood over his old rival's stone head. Finally, after so many years and failures, he had achieved his goal.
He was Hokage.
When Tsunade and her chosen returned from their battle unharmed and in company of the beast, it quickly became obvious that the demon had tempered with their minds. The ANBU guarding the border had followed through with her wishes and brought the beast into the village and to a hidden conference room. It was then that he made his move. With the entire village behind him, there was no challenge at all. Tsunade and most of the jinchuuriki's friends (with the exception of Jiraiya) were brought in for questioning, while Hiashi and Choza managed to convince the council of their soundness of mind. When Ibiki's examination failed to find a trace of any kind of manipulation that supposedly took place, he had been the one to convince the troops of the beast's threat level.
If its tampering couldn't be detected, then it had to be eliminated quickly and without contact with attackers. Since the demon hadn't bothered to leave the meeting room, the plan was simple. They rigged large amounts of explosive to the chamber's door and waited. It was a resounding success, literally as his hearing hadn't stopped ringing yet.
It was an image for the history books, he believed. There he stood, they would write, the newly elected Rokudaime Hokage, solemnly but peacefully watching over buildings damaged by the many sinkholes and charred by the roaring flames that lit the night, clouded the moon and represented the fall of their greatest enemy. A true hero, he bravely hid his grief as he smiled gently for the citizenry's sake and began planning for reconstruction of the destroyed areas…
Fortunately, fire had no effect on him. Unfortunately, his clothes were another story. He had more than enough time to cover his necklace and his forehead protector with zero frost, but Naruto's favourite jumpsuit was an unfortunate casualty. Since Naruto's apartment had almost certainly been vandalized, he had no way of ever getting another one. He could probably have one custom made, but it simply wouldn't be the same.
One thing was for sure. When he finished digging himself out of the hole, somebody was going to pay.
Odd… the fire's not spreading…and the smoke appears to be clearing… what?
He was knocked out of his dreams of pride and glory when he saw it. It. The demon, floating, unharmed and naked over the conflagration. It looked entirely unconcerned as it simultaneously broke the laws of physics and searched its immediate surroundings for signs of movement.
No, it's impossible! Nothing could've survived that blast! We sacrificed three city blocks! The explosion was strong enough to shatter every window in the damn village! How!
So caught up was he in his own panic, that he failed to notice the approaching entity until it spoke to him.
Kyuubi flew over to the obviously preoccupied one-armed, one-eyed, heavily scarred man and asked in a methodically nonchalant and forcibly non-threatening manner, "Danzou, right? Quick question. Where's the Hokage?"
The old man visibly gathered every trace of scorn he felt towards the demon and only then did he reluctantly reveal, "You're looking at him, you filthy…" The remainder of his self-righteous insult remained lodged in his throat as Kyuubi's demeanour turned from practical tameness to unrestrained and natural intimidation. The change was physically undetectable, yet unmistakable and would've been apparent to anyone, even civilians.
In the silence that followed, Danzou's fight-or-flight response shot into overdrive as he scrutinized his foe for signs of aggression. His expectations concerning the demon meant that his surprise at the fact that the Kyuubi would bother to make an attempt at verbal communication resulted in a temporary lack of corporal control when it broke the silence. His twitch would've meant little if he were a chuunin, but it was unbearably embarrassing for a kage. The current Hokage couldn't help but feel as though the beast was mocking him as he continued his speech uninterrupted.
"You're telling me, that Tsunade is no longer the leading ninja in Konohagakure?" asked Kyuubi innocently.
Unable to assure that his voice wouldn't tremble and reveal more of his fear, the old man merely nodded.
Kyuubi nodded thoughtfully before turning to face the controlled inferno. The beast stood silent, basking in the warmth of the flames while Danzou struggled to gain some control over his rampant fear. He had managed moderate success when it spoke again.
"You see, Danzou, I just realized something. I previously believed that Naruto's protection extended to all of Konoha… but I was wrong. You've just shown me that he protected Tsunade's and Sarutobi's Konoha. That makes a world of difference.
"Regardless of what you may believe, I am not stupid. I know that there is no possible way that you became Hokage with Tsunade's consent. You must've used Tsunade's attitude towards me against her… which must've led to one short civil war. Unfortunately for you, I refuse to acknowledge your authority and as an allied nation of Konoha, I have that right. Since I refuse to recognize your authority as legitimate, it means that your little civil war was an act of treason against your village. You and every single one of the soldiers that participated on your side are traitors and are therefore not Konoha shinobi. Since you are not Konoha shinobi, you must be missing-nin… and that means that I am obligated to exterminate every single one of you."
By now, Danzou's heart was pumping bitter blood. The realization that he would be the downfall of his village was a hard pill to swallow and he had lived long enough to realize that the demon was more than strong enough to do as much. He may not have been the most benevolent of leaf-nin, but his loyalty had never been in question. It was simply fixed towards the village rather than its leader.
"But if I did that, Konoha probably wouldn't have enough ninja left to defend itself, let alone handle missions. So here's what you're going to do. You will gather the council, the clan heads and Tsunade and we'll meet in front of the kage tower. We'll let your rightful leader decide your fate. You have fifteen minutes. If you refuse, then I'll be forced to remove the infestation… lethally."
At this point, the salient points of the Kyuubi's words were suddenly perceived as Danzou's expectations were broken and allowed room for understanding. Previously, he had listened but lacked comprehension. Now, the truth that accompanied the speech was perceived. Tsunade and her companions were innocent, and there was no way for him to atone for his mistakes before he was struck down and cast out.
Somehow, he doubted Tsunade would be feeling particularly merciful.
Here's chapter 2 in all its glory. Again, you know the drill. Notify me if something is wrong with it and I'll do my best to either fix it or convince you otherwise.
Read and review. You know you want to... and you definitely know I want to. Thanks to those who did review.
