Apologies for the slow progression of KakaSaku – but, as I'm sure you can appreciate – there's [quite a lot of] info which needs to be gathered first before the plot as a whole can progress (and therefore KakaSaku)! Special thanks to 'quarterdark' – as you are an anonymous reviewer, I cannot respond to you directly, so I'll have to say it here; thank you for taking the time to review! ^-^ Tho the thanks extend to everyone who's taken the time – I'm amazed at the quantity!
Storm Cloud – Chapter 04 – Foothills
Uzushiogakure was much as they'd said – rubble covered in rubble covered in dust being grown upon by varying foliage. The old entrance to the village, which Kakashi imagined to have once been a grand archway, had mostly fallen to a barely recognisable heap; but the crests of the Uzumaki clan symbol were still partially visible. Wazishi lead them down the path cleared through of the rubble down towards were the centre of the village must have been,
"As you can see, this village's splendour has long been erased...many of this villages inhabitants were either killed or fled into hiding and some considerable information was left behind – and most likely destroyed, we rescued what we could, but you may still find something of value. My men will be watching you carefully, as always,"
"Thanks Wazishi-ojii-san!" Naruto momentarily lapsed into his instinctive (if not slightly immature) way to address an elder; Kakashi wanted to say something to Naruto about it, but considering the old man's favourable reaction to Naruto and his very unfavourable reaction to himself, it seemed like a bad idea.
His eye caught Sakura's and he could see her thoughts had been along very similar lines to his own; she turned just a smile threatened and shook her head whilst walking down a side 'street'. Kakashi turned himself and walked between the ruins of two large buildings, it was difficult to tell what they once were – the lack of personal items and central location suggested administration buildings.
Nature was beginning to return – although the excessive concrete hadn't made it easy – there was still some forty decades or more worth of re-growth and anything to be examined had to be, first cleared of plant debris. He bent to shift a large lump of rubble, beneath which was a half-crushed saké saucer.
It wasn't difficult to imagine that he was clearing the debris from Konoha after a demon fox attack.
The closest thing the jinchuuriki could liken it to, was an upturned chest full of random objects – a cursory glance brought intrigue, but it was unclear whether anything of value could be found. Naruto walked down the main street, trying to resist the urge to create thousands of clones to scout every square inch at once – so he settled for creating ten clones.
They all immediately darted off not bothering to stop for the spluttering guards who had been watching Naruto and were now unsure how to deal with so many replicas of him; the blonde however, found his eyes caught by something brightly coloured. He bent down for a closer inspection and found it to be a cloth of some description, he gripped the edge and tugged, dislodging a small cloud of dust from it at the same time; it was stuck fast and Naruto tried to shift off some of the clutter holding it.
A clone reappeared at his side and helped him lift some of the heavier slabs of concrete and to rip away a handful of plants whose roots were holding the debris together; soon enough was lifted that Naruto could get a look at the cloth, it appeared to be a sash of some description.
He managed to tug it free and in doing so revealed the end of what looked like a scroll – his interest and anticipation suddenly spiked; he immediately recalled a number of clones back to his side to help him as he stuffed the sash into his pocket and continued to displace the crumbled building.
Before long, he'd managed to free the first scroll he set eyes on, and could in turn see the crumpled corners of what perhaps could be many others, he sat back for the moment, however, and carefully unravelled the scroll; the words were badly faded but still legible. He began to read it, but it seemed odd, somehow;
'...but today I started at the academy – there was lots of boring stuff, lectures about how we have to commit for the rest of our lives, how we have to work hard and study lots and other stuff I didn't get...but then the teacher did some really cool things – he showed us some jutsu – the 'henge' I think it was called...so cool! I'd never seen anything like it! And he could throw a shuriken so far! And right on target! No one I know can do that!'
Naruto couldn't resist the smile that broke out – it must have been the diary of a young girl, just about to being her path as a ninja; the blonde felt the urge to snicker at how his own thoughts had so closely mirrored those of the young girl on his first day; listening to so much information, that he knew now was important, but things he couldn't understand the significance of at that age.
By the sound of it, she was from civilian parents...or maybe she didn't have any? Naruto didn't know, and he wasn't sure what exactly it was, but he felt some sort of kinship with the girl – even though she was most likely long dead, he carefully re-rolled the scroll for reading later and slotted it cautiously into his pocket, feeling as though it was a precious treasure.
He dived back in, eager to recover more scrolls, he pulled one, two, three – infinitely more, or so it seemed, from the cleared pile of debris just as Sakura appeared at his side;
"Looks like you found something," She grinned as he looked back, matching her smile,
"Yeah, yeah! Take a look at these!" He pointed at the steadily growing pile of scrolls, Sakura picked one up and gently unravelled it, swiftly skimming the contents,
"These look like...journals..." Naruto nodded without meeting her eyes as he yanked away more plant material and he was able to drag out a slat of varnished wood – presumably the case upon which the scrolls were stored,
"Right...isn't it amazing? These were people, Sakura-chan, people...children, learning to be ninja! Its incredible to see evidence of these peoples' lives..." His eyes were literally sparkling, in a way Sakura had seen in her friend for a long time; he reached beneath another lump of concrete and pulled out a few more scrolls. Sakura began to clear away more of the debris and as she tugged away ever more of the disintegrated building, her childhood friend all but disappeared in crawling into the open space;
"Your friend should be careful, he might get crushed beneath all that rubble," Gerimaru's familiar voice drew the kuniochi's attention,
"Displaying concern for potentially hostile unknowns? A clever tactic," She couldn't quite resist a small smirk at the response she got, the Uzu nin's hands resting on his hips and is head averting to the side – a clear display of irritation; Sakura ostensibly ignored him and continued to help the many clones remove the worst of the mess. She handled each scroll or personal item she came across with the utmost care, making sure to pile them neatly out of harm's way;
"Why do you care so much about these scrolls? You couldn't possibly have known the person who wrote them," Gerimaru's voice was as full of disdain as she'd ever heard;
"Don't you care about Uzushio's past?"
"It has crumbled to dust." She turned right around and rose to her feet, looking Gerimaru up and down,
"Its buildings have, yes, but these scrolls are the memories of the people who once lived here...and a village is its people, Gerimaru-san – its physical properties are, at best, a representation," The red-headed Uzu nin's eye twitched slightly as a vein pop threatened on his forehead as he took a step closer to her,
"How have-"
"She's not wrong, Gerimaru-kun!" Wazishi, it seemed, had been walking towards them and caught the tail-end of their conversation, he was grinning as he looked between the two nin, "Uzushio was ruined in many ways – its buildings crumpled, many people murdered and the rest scattered, but we survived Gerimaru-kun, we are still here – and that means that Hidden Eddy was not fully annihilated. And the memories that Naruto-kun and Sakura-san are rescuing are proof of that...thank you for taking so much care with them," Sakura bowed slightly,
"Its my pleasure, Wazishi-san, its truly fascinating to find all of these scrolls...even if they aren't quite what we're looking for," Naruto reappeared with a few small books and a haitai-ate and a grin on his face so bright, Sakura almost couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him so happy.
Yamato, with the help of one of the more amiable guards, shifting a large chunk of wall to reveal a crushed bookcase beneath it, there were a number of scrolls, bent out of shape and a few books beside them. He picked up one which immediately disintegrated, he sighed and tried to pick up the one beside it with a little more care, but it wasn't easy, the next scroll cracked and threatened to crumble – he only just managed to rescue it,
"Yamato-san? Are you alright?" Riika knelt beside the Leaf nin,
"Yes, I'm just trying to lift this scroll – its rather delicate," The kuniochi lifted another slat of wood, relieving some of the pressure on the solid wooden end of the scroll, allowing Yamato to slide it free. He could feel how incredibly delicate it was just through the feel of his fingertips; he tugged gently on the edge of it, careful to put even pressure over the edges, so that he wouldn't snap or rip open the scroll. Riika looked just as amazed as he peeled the edge away to reveal the beginnings of the first sentence;
"'Mission allocation index...'" Yamato murmured, reading aloud from the scroll, "Oh!" He unravelled it further seeing the different ranks and ninja class suitable the number of nin in each class and their current status and location, Yamato looked down to the first of the list,
Index number: 676-29A
Mission Class: A
Mission duration (approx.): Seven weeks
Rank suitable: Jounin
Specialities required/recommended, (gender req.): Tracking, undercover, hand to hand combat specialist, (male),
Number of suitable shinobi: 24
Of whom available for allocation: 7
Assigned shinobi:
There were a number of such slots, ready to be detached as a cover-sheet for mission records, further down the scroll were lower ranking missions and different types of allocation – those for team-related missions of all ranks, genin missions, assassination, retrieval and many other different types, allocated by a lightly change in organisation and symbol at the top right hand corner,
"Oh! I've heard about this system! The Great Tsubimi-sama created it," Riika laughed slightly, "Apparently, there was nothing that she couldn't organise! It used to be joked that even the tides of Giima river used to listen to Tsubimi-sama for when to rise and recede!" The kuniochi continued laughing whilst Yamato hesitantly joined in, slightly confused about who she was referring to;
"Uh...Tsubimi-sama? Who was she?"
"She was the wife of the Uzushiogakure leader way back, at its founding; she was one of the Senju clan, I think, and married Uzumaki Yakushi-sama as a further sign of good faith between the two clans and villages,"
"Aah..." Yamato nodded, smiling lightly in understanding, "I see, this system certainly is effective...did you have a different system for reporting on missions?" Riika looked playfully suspicious for a moment, but smiled as she again knelt to shift more concrete;
"There's a lot of information one could gather by looking at those...but...essentially, yes – she organised a similar layout that was more form-like with specific set of questions about success or failure, casualties, injuries, unknown factors that were encountered, clients, country, their level of preparation in relation to what was demanded of them on the mission – things like that really, as well as a box for any extra comments...a lot easier to digest if you ask me...and to write out!" Riika rolled her eyes at her own final comment, as Yamato cocked his head slightly,
"Then, do you still use this system in your current village?" Riika turned herself to face him,
"No...not really, but then, our outside contact with the rest of the world is really quite limited as you might imagine, so we don't really take on many formalised missions, except general things like protection of the island," Yamato nodded in understanding,
"You know, the world has changed a lot since Uzushiogakure's destruction, why don't you rebuild the ninja village and again begin to take missions?" She shook her head slightly,
"Its not that simple..back then, there was so much fear of us and now everyone assumes that we're dead – there'll be suspicion if we suddenly pop up out of the blue and start growing in military power,"
"That's true, but how long can you realistically survive here with no income? An island's resources are already limited – although its amazing you've survived this long," She offered a rueful smile,
"Something has to be done, I agree but I also agree with Gerimaru-san, that we can't advertise our existence to others until we have enough strength of fight them off,"
"Fight who off? Who are you assuming your enemies are?"
"Lightening for starters – they began the destruction of us all those years ago; paranoid bastards," Yamato felt the urge to suggest that she was the more paranoid one than the current Raikage, but he thought better how to phrase his point,
"After the Fourth War, Konoha and Kumo became fairly close allies and we have some strong trade links with them – if Konoha came out in obvious support of Uzushio, then you'd be unlikely to face too much trouble, especially if you're prepared to be as transparent about your actions as a hidden village is required to be...it needn't be too much, but enough to show some good faith,"
"And then what advantage will they have over us? Nu-uh, no way," An obstinate frown settled itself on her face as she returned to her digging, leaving Yamato to sigh, silently, as he re-rolled the scroll and slipped it carefully into his pocket. If the remaining Uzu nin's were all as paranoid as Riika and Gerimaru, then there really would be no hope for their future.
All too soon, darkness began to fall and Wazishi decided to halt for the night, calling all of the Konoha nin back to where he'd set up a camp for the night, already dinner had been caught and was cooking, in the form of a few large fish and some rice had been carried as well. They were all called around and were grateful for the warmth of the fire and a rest from a long day of awkward work; Naruto, still in his exuberant mood, immediately set out all of the scrolls and other items he found – most of which were personal, journals, family histories and one with a family jutsu in, although it wasn't a fūinjutsu.
Wazishi looked just intrigued with all of the rescued items and happily explained what he could to Naruto about them, leaving Yamato, Sakura and Kakashi to talk for a short while; even though they were still too close to the remaining guards that they couldn't discuss some of the more sensitive issues, they still had a few things to clarify between them;
"Have either of you found anything promising?"
"Hai, Kakashi-sampai, I found a scroll detailing the method of allocating missions and a few others along the same vein – but they're extremely delicate – they wont survive long having been disturbed,"
"You should continue to concentrate your efforts there tomorrow, try and find as much as you can, although its unlikely you'll strike gold...Sakura, anything?"
"Not really...I didn't find anything beyond a few possessions really, a bowl, a few shredded clothes...but I'm tempted to get to the far side of the river, I think we might have more luck with administration buildings over there, considering the surrounding on those sides," Kakashi nodded in agreement, the higher terrain formed a natural barrier that would most likely be taken advantage of;
"Yes, you might be right, the mountains are high and don't look to easy to climb on that side, but we'll have to get over there to check – hopefully we can start making some head-way sooner rather than later...Sakura, you and I will search the far side of the river tomorrow, you and Naruto remain on this side, Yamato,"
"Hai, Kakashi-sampai, one of the guards I'm fairly friendly with has been helping me shift some of the buildings, it should make things go a little faster,"
"Excellent," Kakashi was handed a small bowl of food, just as Yamato and Sakura were and swiftly dug in, neither feeling the need to say much more.
The village must really have been a beautiful place in its prime, Sakura thought as she looked out over it – the high mountains which flanked its eastern and southern sides allowed the setting sun's light to bleed through the gaps in the towering natural barrier. The kuniochi was stood on one of the docks on the side of the river, close by to the camp (she wouldn't have been allowed to go far, anyway) but she'd politely asked Wazishi if she might take a short walk to the edge of the river and, thankfully, since the elder seemed not to have much dislike of her, he allowed it.
She could still sense eyes on her, but their presence wasn't nearly as over bearing as Gerimaru had been during the day so Sakura did her best to ignore them. It was strange, being here, it gave her a sense of peace, but it was not fully restful – a strange inkling that she didn't belong, that as idylic as it was, her time to leave was a red flag in her mind. She folded her arms as she shifted her weight onto her right foot, as...transient as she felt at the moment, she couldn't seem to bring herself to leave; she seemed to hesitate a little too long and apparently company found her all too quickly,
"Were you looking for a quiet spot?" She turned to face her former sensei,
"I suppose so...I was sick of Gerimaru-san breathing down my neck," The Copy-Nin allowed a small (albeit hidden) smile to grace his masked lips as he stepped up beside her,
"I think I understand – we're very lucky that Wazishi-san has taken such a liking to Naruto...and that Yamato is such an amiable character," Sakura turned her head to look at him – he was looking out over the same view she had just been (were he any other another man, she might think him unaware, but not Kakashi);
"You and I seem to have had a knack for pissing-off the locals, ne?"
"Apparently, we do," She could just about detect the sarcasm in his voice,
"Why did Wazishi-san take such a dislike to you?" Kakashi finally met her gaze,
"I'm not sure...but it seems he doesn't hate me so much as my name..."
"Really?" He raised an eyebrow in his classic 'do I look like I'm joking?' expression; "Heh, it seems like you really can't escape your past, can you? When it rains, it pours," Kakashi let out a sharp breath of irritation and returned his eyes to the mountainous silhouette; "...Sorry...I didn't mean-"
"Its fine." He lapsed into silence, but as quickly as his irritation brewed, it dissipated, "I just...wish I had some answers to all the questions..." A small frown of confusion played on her face,
"Questions? What do you mean?"
"...Ah...I...came across some evidence suggesting some familial connection to Uzushiogakure,"
"...Seriously? Whoa...I didn't see that coming...how strong are the ties?" Her voice was honestly curious enough that he opened his mouth minutely to answer, but Kakashi caught himself and instead gave merely a nonchalant shrug – he'd already said far more than necessary, why tell her? What benefit could it be? "Did you ever previously suspect any connection?"
He remained stock still, with his hands in his pockets; Sakura remained expectant for a moment, but remembered his private nature, "Sorry...I didn't mean to pry," She turned around ready to head back, "I think I'm going to return to the camp...hopefully Naruto and Yamato-sampai have buttered up the Wazishi-san and the others enough that I can get some sleep without being hassled by Gerimaru," She couldn't help rolling her eyes at the prospect, even though he couldn't see it. Although he remained silent and still, his posture relaxed slightly, telling Sakura enough.
The next day, they proceeded as discussed and Sakura, Kakashi and a number of guards headed to the eastern side of Uzushiogakure to begin searching for more administrative buildings and libraries likely to contain jutsu scrolls. Kakashi wandered off as he made a swift scan of all he could see, following down the paths roughly cleared of rubble he drifted further and further away from where Sakura was.
His eye scanned lazily from one crumpled building to another, this eastern side was more heavily over grown with plants and a number of trees, there seemed to be so much less to discern by sight alone than on the western bank; Kakashi wasn't sure what it was, but something bothered him about this part of Uzu.
He continued to walk slowly, beneath a large tree, it overhanging branches cast long shadows in the bright, but weak sunlight and something caught the observant nin's eye – he stepped further up closer to the crumpled building tucked away at the far side of the village. It took Kakashi a moment to realise what he was looking at, the crest was identical to ones on the back of the scroll from his father's study: that was the Hatake family symbol.
The Copy Nin heard one of the guards footsteps behind him and he immediately swivelled and fixed his eyes on an adjacent building and busied himself, slowly heading away from the crushed Hatake home; his mind was whirring, however, he hadn't thought that there was anything as concrete as a building to find in Uzushio.
He was aware there wasn't really a 'clan' per se, but even so, it was odd seeing the symbol so openly displayed – and what his father must have thought about either the name or himself that Kakashi had never even seen the symbol until he revisited his childhood home? Kakashi was eager to explore the ruins of the house but instinct told him it probably wouldn't be a good idea to advertise its existence – especially since they seemed not appreciate even Kakashi's presence. He wondered what, if anything he could possibly find – an obvious connection to Uzushiogakure?
He found himself cynically expecting to be given only more questions that he couldn't begin to answer but he had at least been given an opportunity to discover more information and – whether it turned out to be helpful or otherwise – the worst he could do would be to ignore it. Having put enough distance that he was comfortable with, between himself and the remains of the concrete bearing his family symbol, he knelt again to begin to dig through another pile of rubble absently clearing aside the roots which had grown through whilst he subconsciously searched for more family symbols.
Wazishi walked slowly down one of the side streets on the south-eastern edge of Uzu, his gait was slow, a result of stiff joints for having to sleep in a hammock the night before – being well into his second century of life was finally catching up to him.
The elderly Uzu nin had to admit, he'd been really quite surprised at the fact that Naruto seemed more enthralled with finding diaries and the remaining personal effects than he was about finding the jutsu he claimed to be searching for. Wazishi wasn't quite sure what to make of it – his instincts telling him not to take it at face value, although Naruto was not an easy boy to dislike – not to mention that his face (although he occasionally tried to hide it) showed all of his emotions clearly, something most ninja had long lost the ability to do.
"You called for me, Kenjin-san?" Gerimaru appeared at his side,
"Hai, I did...tell me, what are your current thoughts on Naruto-kun?" Gerimaru scrunched his eyebrows slightly,
"Why are you asking? ...Sir," Wazishi met eyes with his subordinate for a moment, noting the momentary lapse in respect from him, but waited nonetheless; "Uh..well...he seems a bit strange, why was he getting so excited about some girl's diary? He sounds like a bit of a f-"
"Easy...But it is odd. Why do you think he'd be so concerned about it?"
"An ulterior motive?"
"It is possible," Wazishi dug around in his pocket for his pipe and tobacco, "I take it nothing unusual was found in their weapons pouches or bags?"
"No, aside from one or two summoning scrolls, but they held nothing untoward – shuriken and other such things – the kuniochi held a lot unusual herbs and potions we couldn't identify," Wazishi smiled as half raised his pipe to his lips,
"Sakura-san is a medic-nin, what do you think they were used for?" Gerimaru barely manage to reign in his eyebrow twitch at the elder's condescending comment,
"And claiming they are all for medicinal purposes is also a very convenient cover," Wazishi sighed lightly as he light the pipe and the first and most satisfying drag, exhaling slowly,
"You know, Gerimaru-kun, I often seek your counsel as I expect you to take over the head of the village in my stead one day, the current Uzuhsiogakure no sato needs a wise and pragmatic leader – one who is not rooted in his insecurities. Do you understand me, Gerimaru?" Wazishi slowed to a halt and turned to directly face the younger, red-haired nin,
"Are you calling me insecure?"
"You are always searching for trouble and faults where often they do not lie...a shinobi and a leader, especially, must be aware of a great many factors in any one situation but nor must he jump to conclusions. Even the Hatake understands this better then you do, I fear, Gerimaru-kun...Haaa," Wazishi turned again to look out over the ruined village, "You must learn how to control yourself...being suspicious is not the same as being aware; swift judgement clouds the mind...Many times have I taught you these lessons, yet you still resist them – am I such a bad teacher?"
"N-no its just..."
"I don't want a lie, I want you to grow up – I know you and many of your generation have already been given a lot to be bitter about, in truth, every shinobi has been given plenty to be bitter about, but you can't rely on that forever...you can't hide behind what the other nations did to Uzushiogakure for the rest of your life. These Leaf nin who've come here to us are good people...even that Hatake is not quite as...distasteful as his name suggested he'd be...but, personal grudges aside, they are still not bad people and let's face it, we could have had to deal with another you!" Wazishi chuckled lightly at Gerimaru's frown;
"They might seem friendly, but its short sighted to begin underestimating them,"
"Well, of course! Why else do you think you and your team is here?"
…
The day was tortuously long for Kakashi and, as he expected, it yielded no further steps towards their goal – many more scrolls, books and varying personal items, but none relating to the Hakke no Fūin Shiki [eight trigrams] – in fact, the only scroll relating to a sealing jutsu relating to a form of the Fūka Hōin [fire sealing].
It was no where near as advanced enough to be on any use (not to mention, they had knowledge of such sealing methods in Konoha) Kakashi wasn't sure whether to feel worried or slightly relieved they were no closer to the jutsu there were after.
For this, in turn, gave Kakashi more time he knew he needed to explore – he did his best to act much as usual that evening at dinner, desperate not to draw any untoward suspicion to himself and by the time they all slowly readied themselves for bed, Kakashi had to physically resist the urge to pace in his anxiousness...as unusual as it was for the generally level-headed nin, he had to admit, he was more excited than he'd been for years.
He had absolutely no idea what time it was, but sleep was nowhere to be found – not that Kakashi had been planning on sleeping, he'd waited for a long time and calculated perfectly the right moment. He was on his feet in seconds and darted over to just behind the guard, waiting for the nin to sense his presence and turn to face it; the second Hishima looked into Kakashi's sharingan eye, the genjutsu was cast.
The Uzu nin, having been fooled into forgetting having seen Kakashi (and now not able to see him at all) looked around for a few moments, confusedly, before turning back to his post; the Copy Nin darted away and made a bee-line into the centre of Uzu to cross the river and then on for the crumbled home bearing his family crest.
..
.