Note: I do not own Naruto
07 – Infiltrating the base
Once the battle was over and team Gai got back to their chambers they started the interrogation of Jugo. Naruto slowly lowered the intensity of the seal he used until Jugo was awake enough to answer the questions but still adequately sedated to stop him from going berserk again.
They learnt that Jugo came from a clan in Kirigakure that was one of the first victims of their bloodline purge. Jugo miraculously escaped that day and ended up being adopted by a surrogate family that didn't know he had a bloodline. But without the specialised training to help him master and control the raw emotions that his ability generated as a side-effect, he easily became overwhelmed and had ended up killing his caretakers in a state of bloodlust that put him on Yagura's radar.
After fleeing the Land of Water he tried to get help and had ended up being found by Orochimaru. Being unaware that the Sannin had betrayed Konoha he trusted him to find a way to help him control his powers, but he soon found himself a prisoner instead. Jugo explained that the snake-nin was already working on a way to recreate his clan's abilities in a seal he could place on his henchmen to make them stronger. But his own attempts were too unstable to be of use and the death-rate was too high to be a feasible weapon. That's why Orochimaru experimented on him to try and find ways to stabilise his seal and make it safer for use.
However one month ago he managed to escape when a new guard had underestimated his strength and thought he wasn't a threat. Using his bloodline he killed the guard and made a run for it. By the time he had regained his senses he found himself wounded from the fight and on the run with the team of three ninja on his tail. Knowing he had little choice he ran for the nearest border, the Land of Fire. And the rest of the story is known.
After hearing this story Gai decided that Jugo was not to be blamed for his actions and he wanted to bring him back to Konoha so he could finally receive the treatment he had needed all this time.
However they still needed to handle the mayor who was insistent that Jugo needed to be tried instead seeing as he was the criminal responsible for the break-ins. His argument was that he paid good money for Konoha to see justice done and the people of his town wouldn't be satisfied with letting him go, no matter what sob story he had. Gai countered by pointing out that the standard contract he signed had a clause that says Konoha reserved all rights towards military assets, which included people with bloodlines, and that the original mission parameters only hired them to solve the crimes and put a stop to them and never spoke of making sure the criminal was actually tried in his courtroom.
Eventually they came to an agreement. In exchange for a 20% discount on his contract the mayor would put all the blame on the three dead ninja that were the talk of the town (after all having a shinobi-battle in the merchant's district tends to be noticed) and he would let Jugo slip under the radar since Naruto's battle took place in a deserted field were nobody saw them. Gai was appalled by this 'most unyouthful behaviour' but didn't press any further. Getting Jugo safe to Konoha was more important than dealing with this haggling bastard. And so team Gai left in the dead of night, to make sure nobody of the town saw the extra person that ran alongside them.
Hokage's office, one week later:
"Hokage-sama, I am here with the report on Jugo."
"Ah, Ibiki come in," said the elderly man, "So what did you find out?"
"We looked into his clan and it seems they were another victim of Yagura's insane crusade. It's only because he wasn't in Kiri when they struck that he survived. There are no other known survivors or if they exist, they are in hiding and won't come out any time soon."
"I see, I will inform the boy myself. And what about my old student? What part did he play in all of this?"
"It seems that Jugo's bloodline has several similarities with the cursed seal he designed and put on Anko. Based on the boy's testimony about the nature of the tests it seems Orochimaru tried to stabilize his own design to increase the odds of success."
"Did he succeed?"
"That's hard to say based on the boy's vague descriptions. But It looks like the tests were still going on when he fled so it would appear that he still needed him. My guess is that he was still working on it and hasn't succeeded yet."
"I hope you are correct. Did he know the location of the lab he was imprisoned in?"
"From what he told me there were several labs and they kept moving him around every few weeks. While he didn't know where he was exactly, he did gave a pretty good description of the environment that allowed our trackers to narrow things down a lot. Kakashi has sent several teams of ANBU to investigate the different possibilities, hopefully one of them will find something that could help us smoke this snake out."
"And what about the boy himself? Do you think we can find a place for him in our forces?"
"From Naruto's report it's clear the boy is quite strong. But he hasn't received a day of proper training in his life and that is holding him back for the moment. And it's already too late to sent him through the academy at his age."
"No, the academy wouldn't be a good idea. But perhaps a Jonin can apprentice him and give him a crash course in being a shinobi? It's not like there is nothing to work with, he just needs to be roughed around the edges a little to make a great assault-type ninja."
"Anko did always wanted a team, but until now the council has blocked her application every year because of her former sensei."
"Yes, if it were up to me I'd let her try out a team immediately. Everyone can see that Anko is nothing like my old student, if only the civilian council would give her a fair chance. But then again..."
"What are you thinking, lord Hokage?"
"Technically apprenticeships don't count as being a regular Jonin-sensei. Therefore this is purely a shinobi-matter and the decision rests with me. It's not really a team but I think Anko can finally become a sensei after all." the Hokage said with a smile.
Meanwhile in Naruto's room:
"Hey Naruto, can I speak with you for a moment?"
"Sure thing Kakashi-sensei." said Naruto as he held his door open for the commander of ANBU to enter his apartment.
"Naruto, I'm not your sensei anymore. Stop calling me that."
"You might not be my team leader anymore but you will always be one of my senseis. Anyway what are you here for?"
"Well, I read the report of your latest mission and I have some questions about things I didn't really understood. Especially about the way you captured this Jugo, could you tell me some more about that?"
"Well since we had to detain him for questioning I had to capture him alive so I used a paralysis tag to subdue him."
"Yes the report said you made a tag during the fight?"
"yes, I ran out of paralysis tags so I made a shadow clone to make a new one while I kept him busy. Then after a minute or two the clone stepped back in and used it on him." Naruto said with a smile.
"Let me get this straight: you made a clone?"
"A shadow clone."
"A shadow clone, yes... And while you two were still in the middle of a fight this clone stepped aside and started working on a seal?"
"yes."
"for two whole minutes?"
"That's how long it takes to make a paralysis tag."
"..."
"Huh, Kakashi, is something wrong?"
"Is something wrong? 'Is something wrong?' he asks. Kami! Naruto, that plan is just crazy!" Kakashi said incredulously.
"It worked fine. What's wrong with it?"
You were lucky that Jugo was in a berserker state at the time you fought because there is no way in hell that plan would have worked in any other situation. Real opponents do not just let a clone sit at the side for two minutes creating seals! Any real opponent would have seen through the diversion immediately and would have went straight for the clone."
"oh yeah," Naruto said while scratching the back of his head an giving Kakashi a grin, "I guess I got lucky huh?"
"Naruto, this is not a laughing matter." Kakashi said sternly, "What did I teach you about luck?"
"Being lucky will save you once, being prepared will save you everyday." Naruto repeated one of the lessons the ANBU drilled in his head.
"Exactly, therefore it is crucial that we prepare you properly for these types of missions. I talked it over with Gai and together we found just the jutsu you need to help you out when you ever need to detain a person again without using lethal force."
"Really? A new jutsu? That sounds awesome, what is it Kakashi-sensei?"
"You are going to like this one," Kakashi said while taking a black scroll with the Uzumaki-symbol on it from one of the pouches in his flack jacket, "This jutsu actually belonged to your mother and according to what your dad told me it helped her greatly in controlling the Kyuubi's chakra."
"Really? That seems great, what is it Kakashi-sensei?"
"They are called chakra-chains and the technique allows to user to sprout chains made of chakra from his body, which can be used to hold and detain opponents in a non-lethal way. They also allow you to drain the chakra from your opponent and absorb it. This second function is what allowed her to control the Kyuubi's chakra for herself"
"Oh man, I can't wait to test these things out, can you show me how it's done now Kakashi-sensei?"
"No I'm afraid I can't do that."
"What? Why not?"
"Because I don't know the technique myself. See while the technique is not a bloodline, it is a clan-specific technique much like the Nara's shadow manipulation or the Yamanaka's mind-jutsus. And one of Konoha's laws specifically states that any outsider is forbidden from using these techniques. See a lot of clans were wary to be sharing their techniques in a village with the Uchiha and their Sharingan eyes. Therefore the founding chapter of Konoha protects certain techniques and copyrights them so to speak. And even though I am not an Uchiha myself, I do possess a Sharingan thus I am bound by the same laws."
"So then why am I allowed to learn it then?"
"Because you are an Uzumaki and are therefore allowed to learn your own clan-techniques of course."
"You mean this is one the Uzumaki-clan's certified techniques?" Naruto said excitedly.
"yes, didn't you read all of those scrolls I gave you when you graduated?"
"I skimmed them." Naruto said sheepishly.
Kakashi sighed at his unofficial apprentice's ways "Anyway, you better start training on those chains. Once you are able to summon them without handsigns Gai will see how they can be integrated in your fighting style."
"I will Kakashi-sensei."
"I'm looking forward to it." The ANBU-commander said with one of his eye-smiles.
During the course of the following months Naruto spent his time in between missions training with the chakra-chains technique until he could spawn them from his arms without seals. He was still far from using the more advanced techniques like using them to create a barrier or manipulating multiple ones at the same time, but the simple chains could be easily used by the end of the first month. After working it over with Gai, the taijutsu-expert devised a way to integrate them into his fighting style and Naruto quickly got the hang of it. Even Hinata, who always had been the expert in close combat found the chains pretty hard to deal with since once you got caught they started draining chakra and you had to be fast in your escape or risk chakra-exhaustion.
Eventually the ANBU-teams that scouted the possible locations of Orochimaru's bases returned and the next day teams 7 and 9 were summoned in the Hokage's office for their next mission.
"I'll get right to the point." Kakashi said to the gathered teams and the Hokage, "These last few months the ANBU scouted several of the locations we derived from Jugo's testimony. And while most places turned out to be dead ends or there was a base but it had been deserted for a while, we did find two bases that are still in operation."
"You found my old student's location?" Asked the Hokage.
"That's a negative" sir. Orochimau himself didn't show up at either location, but we did find signs that the bases are in use. So he might still be running some of his experiments there. Jugo mentioned he saw other prisoners from Kiri from time to time, maybe some of them are in one of these bases and we could save them."
"There are more innocent people being experimented upon? That is most unyouthful! We must liberate them at once and restore their youthful spirits!" Exclaimed the always enthusiastic sensei of team seven.
"Take it easy, Gai." Said the Hokage as he took a scroll from the desk and tossed it to Hayate, "Now on to the actual mission. The ANBU reported that one of the bases houses the prisoners and is heavily defended with several known Jonin-level ninja while the other is more of a smaller research site that has only a few grunts guarding it. Therefore we are going to split the teams up a little differently."
"What do you mean Lord Hokage?" asked Hayate.
"I mean that the prison-site is too dangerous for Genin to infiltrate. Therefore you, alongside Gai and the initial ANBU-squad will go there. The research-site shouldn't be too much of a problem so your Genin-squads will handle it alone."
"Understood lord Hokage, cough cough We will carry out our mission."
2 weeks later at the outskirts of Orochimaru's base, 2 A.M.:
The six Genin stood together and went over the plan one final time. Each of them was ordered to forgo their usual attire in favour of a pitch-black outfit with a facemask and a hood to make sure they were as stealthy as possible.
"Now remember: this is a stealth-mission." Said Neji who, as rookie of the year, was appointed as teamleader. "That means no flashy moves, no explosions, and try to take the guards out silently and from behind. Got it?"
Everyone nodded that they understood.
"Good, then move out. Team seven will enter from the West entrance and we will go in from the North."
Five minutes later Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto were in position looking down at their targets. Hidden inside an inconspicuous looking shack was a trapdoor towards the base. Hinata used her Byakugan to look at the guards outside "I see three guards in total, two are outside talking to each other and the other one is inside the shack taking a nap."
"I'll capture them in an illusion, but if they are decently trained then it won't take long for them to notice and break free. So you have about 10 seconds to go in and silence them." Sasuke said while Naruto and Hinata nodded.
Once the guards were captured in Sasuke's illusion Naruto and Hinata moved out. Hinata appeared by the guard on the left and used her Gentle Fist to strike his heart, killing him instantly. Naruto meanwhile appeared behind the guard on the right and used the hidden blade on his combat gloves to pierce through the guard's armour and straight into his inner organs. Unfortunately he missed his heart and the guard wasn't dead yet, he tried to scream out in pain but Naruto raised his other arm and a chain sprouted from his wrist to wrap around the guard's throat and stop the screaming. After struggling for several seconds the guard finally succumbed to his injuries and passed away.
"The guard inside is still sleeping." Hinata confirmed. She silently went towards him and another precise strike at his heart made sure he would never wake up again.
"That was that, now let's go inside." said Sasuke as he approached the hidden trapdoor.
"Wait!" Said Naruto as he stopped him, "There is a seal hidden on the lock over there." while pointing at a small blotch of ink that most people would just glance over.
"Any idea what it does?"
"It seems to be a simple alarm-seal that will alert our presence to the entire base unless a specific deactivation seal is presented. Check the guards, one of them should have the counter-seal on him."
After checking the three dead guards Naruto found the seal he was looking for tattooed on the guard's left hand. "I'm sorry buddy, but I'm going to need this more than you do right now." he said after using his blade to cut of the guard's hand and used the seal to safely deactivate the trapdoor.
"We better alert Neji-niisan about this seal." Hinata said, "Their entrance will probably have one too and it wouldn't do if they missed theirs and alerted anyone anyway."
"Good idea, I'll contact them now." Said Sasuke who was wearing the team's radio round his neck. He pushed a button and started talking into the microphone "team Nine, do you copy? Over."
"This is team Nine, we hear you loud and clear." Tenten's voice sounded from the radio, "What is your situation? Over."
"We dealt with the guards on our side and discovered a seal hidden on the trapdoor. If you find a cross-like insignia on the trapdoor you need to deactivate it with a counter-seal one of the guards should be carrying. Over"
"Good thing you contacted us, we almost missed it. Hang on a minute."
"Roger, send a message once you are ready to enter from your side, over."
After about a minute of silence the radio croaked again "Team nine is ready to commence, We found the counter-seal and have successfully opened the trapdoor on our side. Get ready to begin the operation."
Both teams entered the base simultaneously and started their mission. Using their respective Byakugan-user as a guide they easily evaded the few patrolling guards of the night-shift and silently took them out one by one using the element of surprise. As they went deeper underground into the base they searched every small lab or storage room they entered and sealed away all the documents they encountered for the intelligence-division to analyse later. They also placed several high-grade explosive tags on key-locations to completely destroy the base once they were out. Naruto "accidentally" ruined one of these tags and decided that since it was now worthless he might as well keep it to study later. Hinata and Sasuke both rolled their eyes at his bad acting but didn't comment either way.
Three hours, fifty dead guards, 200 activated explosive tags and one thousand sealed away documents later both teams once again met up at the lowest level of the base. Neji estimated that they must be about 200 metres underground at that point since he could barely see the surface with his Byakugan at maximum range. There was now only one door left. One of the guards they killed earlier was carrying a master key, so getting in wasn't a problem. Yet they decided to not take unnecessary risks and play this one by the book.
"Do you see anything behind the door?"
Neji and Hinata used their all-seeing eyes to look beyond the steel door and into the room behind it "It's another laboratory of sorts. There is no guard or doctor in the room but I do see a large concentration of chakra in one of the tubes in the back."
"Any idea what it is?"
"It's hard to tell. It looks like some sort of fluid but it has a chakra network. I've never seen anything like it."
"Well, we're not going to find out by standing here. Let's go inside."
The six ninjas opened the door of the lab and started searching the place for valuables. Naruto and Neji went straight to the back where a giant canister filled with water was placed against the wall.
"So this is where the chakra is coming from?" asked Naruto.
"Yes." replied Neji while studying the canister and its context with his Byakugan.
"Why would they lace the water with chakra though? What use could that have?"
"They didn't lace the water with chakra. It appears that the water has its own internal chakra-source, almost as if it were alive. I've never seen anything like it."
Neji took a closer look and suddenly noticed something "Hey, there appears to be a seal here. Do you know what it does?"
Naruto looked at the small seal that was placed onto the canister and recognized it immediately. "Yes, This is a standard paralysis seal. It is used to keep prisoners sedated. But why would they put such a seal on water? That makes no sense..."
"That's because it's not water." Lee's voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.
"What do you mean: 'It's not water' ? It sure looks like water to me."
"Take a look at these documents the scientists were working on." The swordsman said while handing him a scroll he found a few minutes earlier. "All of these documents are about the Hozuki-clan. It's another one of the bloodline-clans from Kiri. According to this they were researching something called the 'hydrification'-technique. It's a bloodline that allows them to literally turn parts of their body into water."
"Water? So that means that..."
"... this canister isn't water at all." Neji finished the sentence for him. "If this is actually a living person then that explains why there is a chakra-source in the water."
"So what do we do with him?" Lee asked.
"We wake him up." Naruto said without hesitation.
"I don't know if that is such a good idea though. The Hozuki-clan weren't exactly allies."
"I didn't say we should trust him immediately but we can't let him stay here when we are going to blow up this whole place! Besides, now that Kiri no longer welcomes bloodlines he is bound to re-evaluate his loyalties. Konoha won't sound so bad to him now I bet."
Seeing as the other two weren't convinced he decided to compromise "Look how about this: we get him out of here and bring him back for the Hokage to decide what to do with him. Konoha could always use a powerful clan like the Hozuki."
"That's not a bad idea, let's do that." Neji decided.
And so half an hour later the six Genin stood on the hill overlooking the base with the still unconscious man they just rescued on Lee's back. Naruto used the handseals Kakashi showed him and detonated all the explosive tags they placed around the base simultaneously resulting in a giant tremor as the entire underground structure collapsed. Afterwards they went back to the meeting spot were their senseis would be waiting for them after they finished their own mission.
Hokage's office: mission debriefing.
"So Hayate, I take it your mission wasn't a success?" Asked the Hokage.
"No sir, by the time we arrived at the base it was already abandoned. We went inside to look for clues they might have left behind but it seems they were very thorough. We didn't find anything."
"I see, that's too bad. But if you don't mind me asking: where is Gai?"
Naruto stepped forward with an embarrassed look on his face and explained their sensei's weird behaviour "Gai-sensei was so upset about failing his mission that he is running three hundred laps around Konoha on his hands. He should be done with that shortly."
"..."
"So anyway," Kakashi said to break the uneasy silence that had fallen over the room, "your base wasn't abandoned yet, am I correct."
"Indeed, Kakashi-sama" said Neji, "our base was still in operation when we broke in. Together we have secured over 1000 scrolls and documents with various research on it. It is currently being looked at by the intelligence-division. We also managed to liberate one prisoner."
"Another bloodline-user being experimented upon?"
"Yes sir, he is a member of the Hozuki-clan. When we found him he was in a bad shape. He is currently in the hospital being treated from severe chakra-exhaustion and other signs of malnourishment. But he seems to recover quite well and Ibiki is talking to him as we speak."
"Very well, I will hear from him soon then. Anything else to report?"
"No sir, after rescuing the prisoner we blew up the base and made our way to the meeting point."
"All right then. You are dismissed. The payments for the mission will be deposited in your bank accounts as usual."
Everyone gave a small bow and left leaving only the Hokage and Kakashi behind.
"They handled that mission very well, don't you think so, Kakashi?"
"Yes, sir. They grew a lot this past year."
"I still don't understand why Gai and Hayate didn't sign them up for the Chunin exams. I believe they were ready for it."
"Knowing Gai he probably likes to make sure all of them were absolutely ready. He isn't the type to sign them up just for trying or to give himself a holiday, like some teachers do. I'm sure he will let them participate next time when it's being held in Konoha. And when he does I have a feeling they will make Chunin on their first try."
"And Hayate's team?"
"I don't know. He probably didn't want to be the only one who sent a rookie-team." Kakashi shrugged.
"Good something else now. As you know the academy will have another batch of graduates ready next week. Do you still think Mizuki will be up to something?"
"We found his name in one of the scrolls we took from Orochimaru. Apparently he contacted him three months ago. He promised he could get the forbidden scroll in exchange for power. He plans on framing some academy student while he runs off with the scroll."
"Do we know who?"
"No, he hasn't given any specifics. At this point it could be anybody. Without knowing the specifics it'll be hard to gather the evidence to arrest him."
"Maybe we can force his hand towards a specific student." The Hokage pondered while handing Kakashi a file.
Kakashi read the file and pondered about its contents "You think it will work?"
"Mizuki never did manage to let go of the past. This will be a target he can't refuse if we set things up right."
"Now all we have to do is convince him to play along." Kakashi said while looking at the file.
A/N: Well, I'm back from my holidays and have started writing again.
This chapter takes place over the course of many months, so just imagine that all the downtime is spent training and doing regular missions. I only focused on the important parts since all the things I wanted to do in the extra year are now done.
As you can see starting next chapter we will catch up with the start of canon, beginning with the rest of the rookies graduating and Mizuki planning his defection.
Now something else: I have some special plans for the Chunin exams (3-4 chapters from now) to shake things up. If you have an original idea for a possible test or exam write it down in your review or sent me a PM. If I like your idea I will use it and give you an honourable mention.
Anyway, next update is planned on monday in two weeks.
Please R&R
