Chapter Six: A Meeting of Shinobi

Sarutobi waited anxiously in his chamber. He was waiting for Ibiki Moreno to come to attend this meeting. Kanna Myubi and Sakura Haruno had already arrived. Now they only need Ibiki to show up so they could start the meeting.

"Where is he already?" Saukra wondered, "Trust a Jonin to be late. He's just like Kakashi-sensei!"

"Please be patient, Sakura," Sarutobi said, "Ibiki is quite a busy man. He will be here."

"Patient?" Sakura asked, "Do you have any idea what it's like to have to wait on Jonin all the time? It's infuriating."

Before Sarutobi could respond, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," he said. The door opened and Ibiki Moreno entered.

"I apologize for my lateness," Ibiki said, "I was in pursuit of Inari, but I could not find her."

"That is all right," Sarutobi said, "I trust the three of you have each prepared a full report?"

"Yes," Kanna said. Ibiki and Sakura nodded in response.

"Good," Sarutobi said, "Sakura, would you please begin?"

Sakura grumbled a little about Ibiki being late, then began her report. "This morning, I was heading to train when my squad mate, Naruto Uzumaki stopped me. He told me that Kakashi-sensei had assigned the squad a new mission. A shipment of goods was on it's way here, but it hadn't arrived yet. Upon our investigation, tandem with Squad 51, we discovered that the cart carrying the goods destroyed and the goods themselves had been taken." She nodded toward Kanna, indicating that she should began speaking.

Kanna took her cue. "While we were observing the scene, we heard a high frequency sound. When the sound faded, we were faced with two ninja from the Hidden Sound Village. Shikune identified the first as Dosu Kinuta. The second was named Inari, who, according to Shikune, is Orochimaru's daughter. Inari declared that their purpose was to kill Shikune, as revenge for betraying the village. Inari then used a genjutsu to gain control of Anuri Tenera and Kakashi Hatake, who proceeded to attack us. I managed to free them by blinding Inari. Sakura then finished the battle by putting Dosu and Inari to sleep with a Genjutsu. We brought Inari back to our village, in hopes of gaining information about Orochimaru's plans from her."

Sarutobi nodded. "And what did you learn from your interrogation, Ibiki?" he asked.

"Nothing," Ibiki said, "I attempted to convince Inari that Orochimaru would betray her and that she could stop him by giving us information about what his plans. My methods in this included the use of mere words, combined with a genjutsu to plant thoughts in her head. However, Inari has evidently been trained to recognize and resist such techniques, as she told me nothing of use."

"I see," Sarutobi said, "I guess there's nothing for it then. We will have to make another attempt to track down Inari. If she is captured, we may be forced to utilize more forceful interrogation techniques."

Ibiki grimaced slightly. "I am not used to inflicting physical torture," Ibiki said, "My methods of interrogation normally involve psychological influence."

"I'm having a thought," Kanna said, "Inari and Dosu attacked us because they saw Shikune as a traitor. If we were to capture Inari and have Shikune interrogate her, to play into Inari's preconceived image of her, she might be able to draw information from her."

"That just might work," Sarutobi said, "I will order our scouts to begin searching for Inari immediately. You are all dismissed." The three shinobi nodded and left the room.