A/N: This chapter drove me nuts all day long. Do you have any idea how hard it is to try and pay attention in Lab when there are characters screaming in your head? I had to write this down just as soon as I got home. Anyway, thank you to my reviewers: iNsAnE nO bAkA, ChibiAliChan, micah.n10, Ryu Earth, xdelta_ha-chanx and Rangerfan58.
Note: One of the meanings of "Tetsu" is "iron" like the metal, at least according to my dictionary.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Naruto related, unfortunately. Though I do have a pair of sais. Does that count?
: The little boy trembled, stifling his sobs with both small hands. The six year old's eyes were impossibly wide, the pitiful sight only enhanced by the black bangs framing his pale face.
Lee knew that those bad ninjas had hurt his parents, but mommy had told him to stay here, to stay quiet – "like a little mouse" mommy had said – and Lee was a good boy. So the good boy had stayed quiet, biting his hands until his shirt was stained with blood to keep from making noise when he heard his mommy screaming.
If he was good, mommy would come get him, right?
He didn't know how long he huddled in the closet, but at some point he heard noises outside. Lee scooted further back, freezing completely when the door was yanked open. Something he couldn't make out darted inside, and then the door was yanked closed. Lee hardly dared to breathe.
At some point longer than years but – apparently – shorter than forever, a voice called out softly. "Naruto-chan, Kiba-chan, it's okay, the bad guys are gone now. I'm opening the door, okay? Ramen." Lee blinked, his fear temporarily replaced by his confusion. 'Ramen?' he thought.
As the light seeped in through the open door, Lee could finally see what had been pushed into the closet with him. Two boys, just a little smaller than Lee, tumbled out, each boy wrinkling his nose. "Smells funny in there, Sensei! Smells sharp." the blond one whined. The darker haired child nodded in agreement. "Smells… sharp?" the new person questioned, looking into the closet.
The teen's eyes widened as he spotted the child huddled in the corner. Lee stared in fear – and then in wonder as he saw the headband and the long scar across the teen's nose. He knew this person! "Sensei!" Lee cried, reaching out with both bloody hands.
The teenager quickly scooped the child up in his arms, cuddling the little boy close as he made comforting noises. Both smaller children gaped, taken completely by surprise as Iruka pulled a strange boy from their hiding place. "Lee-kun?" the ninja asked, clearly shocked.
The boy sniffled, burying his face in the older one's shirt. "Mommy" he sniffled. "Mommy an daddy… they were in there and… and I think… those bad ninjas hurted them!"
Iruka's eyes went dark with sorrow as he remembered the two civilian corpses he had passed when he hid Naruto and Kiba. He gently rubbed the newly-orphaned boy on the back, looking down at 'his' boys. "Naruto-chan, Kiba-chan… Lee-chan needs someone to help him now, so he is coming with us, okay?"
Both five year olds, though they weren't quite sure what had happened, sensed that this was important. The pair both nodded seriously.:
-0-
Kakashi grit his teeth, fighting the urge to slam his fist into the desk. It was two o'clock in the morning, and he had been up all night reviewing his team's last patrol logs.
He had been over Drake's account a dozen times, had personally traveled to the site of the battle, and he could only come to one conclusion. Spider had allowed himself to be killed. "Damn it, Eisen!" he hissed, using Spider's given name in a rare display of temper. "What the hell were you up to?"
Going carefully over his underling's paperwork – a project begun two days ago in the wake of realizing that the younger man had been lying to him – he had found a number of inconsistencies. All tiny things, things that you would miss picking up on if you didn't know the agent the way his team had – or at least, thought they had – but inconsistent nonetheless.
Most of the time the discrepancy was in the rounds log. Just the slightest bit more terse than usual, to an investigator it would seem that there had been nothing to report so the man had written less. But Kakashi knew how painstakingly thorough Spider had always been, so to him those slight differences – in hindsight – were obvious.
There was no other answer – Spider had been keeping secrets. He had found something, noticed some fact in those areas that he had kept to himself. There was something there that Kakashi's teammate had felt was so secret that he could not tell his squad, and so important that it was worth dying for.
And whatever it was, Kakashi was determined to find it.
-0-
The blond man strolled casually down the aisles of the store, picking up a few needed items here and there, careful to stay within his budget.
After Danzo had 'stabilized' Konoha, one of the things he had done was to force a number of the Jounin into 'retirement', taking their weapons and threatening to seal their chakra if they resisted. And in the wake of the horrific slaughter of the Inuzuka clan and many other mind-numbing losses, they had waited too long to pull themselves together.
The bottom line of all of this was – aside from the fact that Konoha's older shinobi found themselves being slowly replaced by Danzo's supporters – that there were now a large number of ex-shinobi suddenly forced into finding a civilian lifestyle. Including the reduced pay, and a lingering sense of failure and shame.
Yamanaka Inoichi was thinking sadly about these things and more, when his eye was caught by something out of place. He stepped up to the display rack, running rough fingers gently over the small wooden toys and statues. "Where did you get these?" he asked, knowing that the shopkeeper was watching him.
But he glanced up when the large redhead hesitated, his voice unusually defensive. "They were bartered. One of my customers couldn't afford groceries, so I let the kid trade for them instead."
Inoichi's gaze sharpened, his instincts telling him that his old friend was hiding something. "Chouza, what-"
"Inoichi."
That one word shut him up, the blond finally realizing that his former teammate seemed uncomfortable talking about the matter. "Okay, Chou. …Is everything okay, with the family and all?"
The redhead brightened up, relieving a little of the concern in Inoichi's mind. "Yeah, it's great. Chouji graduates this spring, you know. He's real excited." The Akimichi ex-Jounin's cheer was contagious, quickly making Inoichi decide that it wasn't worth pushing his friend over a few small trinkets.
But he did buy a statue of a small rose, thinking that his daughter would probably like the delicate woodwork.
-0-
Iruka's hands carved fine details into the small wooden block, finishing the work his children had begun, but his eyes showed that his mind was far away. In truth, the teacher was exhausted, but he had been unable to sleep. He had been rehashing the previous night's battle again and again in his mind, and he simply could not figure it out.
In the rush of battle he had not thought farther on the defeat of one of his enemies, but after the adrenaline wore off, it would not leave him be. He had thought out every angle he could imagine, and it still didn't make sense.
Two children should not have been able to hit an ANBU officer. The second one, he could understand. That one had probably been slightly distracted by the plight of the first. But that first opponent, the one Iruka himself had killed…
His mind's eye replayed again how quickly the enemy had caught up to them, how fast the man had dropped in front of them, how smoothly he had moved. Iruka simply could not banish the thought 'we shouldn't have been able to win.'
If he didn't know better, Iruka would have almost thought that the man had hesitated to attack them. But of course, that was ridiculous.
…wasn't it?
-0-
Sakura yawned, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. She blinked twice, looking around in blurry confusion. And then she gasped, her eyes snapping wide with shock and fear. "Oh my God!" she whispered. "I fell asleep. I fell asleep in the park – and the sun's down already!"
The pink haired pre-teen scrambled up, leaving her book behind as she raced away, praying desperately that it wasn't past curfew yet. Her green eyes darted up to the Hokage tower, and a small, strangled cry escaped her. Nine o'clock! She was in so much trouble!
Sakura tripped as she ran around a corner, knocking over a trio of trash cans on accident. She jumped up again, ready to run – but a hand wrapped itself around her arm, jerking her into the shadows of a nearby ally as another hand was clasped over her mouth. "Shh!" a voice hissed in her ear. "Don't move!"
Sakura froze, trembling in the grip of her unknown captor. And then she saw movement out on the streets. Two dark forms stepped into view, one of whom began to move towards the ally. 'Calm down, it's okay.' Sakura silently told herself. 'You're strong, you're brave. Don't panic!'
Sakura and her captor both held their breath as the man stopped in front of their ally. And then turned away. "There are trash cans overturned here." The man said. "It was probably just cats."
The second form, smaller than the first, spoke in a curiously flat tone. "This is not a proper investigation. Should we not search more thoroughly?"
The man shrugged. "You can if you want to, Sai, but I'm going back. Don't forget, we have to report to Danzo-sama promptly at ten after nine. Do you want to explain why we are late?"
A brief pause. "No."
After the two had gone, Sakura pulled away from her captor, shifting back into a rough imitation of a fighting stance that she had learned as a child. Her hands up, she glared – at another girl. The brunette, probably a year or so older, had dark clothing on, a pack on her back and her hair caught up in two buns above her ears.
She also wore weapons on her hip and a mask over the lower half of her face.
But the girl held up her hands, palms out in a universal gesture of harmlessness. "It's okay" she said. "If I wanted you hurt, I would have let those two find you. I'm just… going to go now, okay?"
The strange girl turned away, and before she could think about it Sakura blurted out "Wait!"
The masked girl paused, and Sakura spoke hurridly. "You… you're one of those rebels people have been whispering about, aren't you? I… Let me come!"
The other girl blinked. "Um, what?"
Sakura shook her head, her voice nearly pleading. "Let me come, let me help you. I know I'm not a ninja, but I learned some of the basic drills when I was little. I've been practicing, and… and I just can't do nothing. I've been trying to figure out how to help people, wishing that I could do something more than just being one of the Hokage's drones for the rest of my life. Please, please don't tell me to go back, don't tell me to serve that monster!"
By this point Sakura had tears in her eyes, all of her fear forgotten in the face of this one opportunity to reach for her dreams. Somehow, the twelve year old knew that if she messed this up, she would never have another chance.
The other girl hesitated, looking into Sakura's eyes for a long moment. And then she sighed, her voice rueful when she spoke. "I'm such a sucker. Alright, I'll talk to my people. For now, go home. I'll contact you if I can."
Sakura nodded eagerly. "Thank you! You won't regret this, I promise! I'll work really hard… um…"
"Tetsu" the rebel supplied. "And I hope you're right."
-0-
As the sun came up, Kakashi looked into the eyes of his team. "I need all of you to do something for me. It could get us all in trouble, but… I need to do this." His team glanced at one another, but no one voiced any complaints, so he continued.
"As I'm sure you've all realized by now, Spider was not defeated. He allowed himself to be beaten. And I want to know why. With our duties as ANBU, I don't have time to investigate his last few days properly, so-"
"So we will cover for your absence." Kakashi smiled at the interruption, nodding in thanks. Boar dipped his own head briefly to the younger man in acknowledgement.
"I'll try and make up the paperwork when I can, if you'll just leave it-"
"Don't worry about it, captain" the youngest in the squad interrupted, the tone in his voice leaving no doubt that Drake was grinning beneath his mask. "It's not like we haven't forged your signature before, right guys?"
"Drake!" Hare hissed. Even Boar whipped his head around to glare.
Kakashi just raised an eyebrow, his lips twitching slightly. "I see… Well, thank you all. I'll let you know what I find."
And so, the ANBU squad split up without another word.
