Quick note: Naruto and Lee are Chuunin. In fact, most of the Konoha 11 are still Chuunin, with the exception of Shikamaru, Neji, and Sakura, who are all Jounin.
I DON'T OWN NARUTO
Drip, drip, drip…
The sound was eerie in the dungeons below Konoha, and oddly fitting in the gruesome place. While most shinobi saw Konoha as sunshine and rainbows, there were many experienced shinobi from other Hidden Villages that knew that even Konoha had its dark side. Ibiki was infamous in the ninja world after all.
Sakura felt Tsunade's and Ibiki's eyes on her as she entered Sasuke's cell.
"Morning sunshine." She muttered sarcastically.
Behind her, Ibiki chuckled as he placed a fresh torch on the sconce next to the door.
Sasuke refrained from rolling his eyes at his once-teammate. It was odd seeing Sakura this down, she had always the happy-go-lucky type of girl. "Break a nail?" Sasuke asked in an impassive voice, although Sakura knew that was the Uchiha version of sarcasm.
The pinkette frowned.
Ibiki chuckled as he locked the cell door behind her, telling Sasuke through the metal bars, "Sakura is just glum because her fuck buddy is on a mission."
Sakura turned to glare at Ibiki. "Don't ever call him that again or I will refrain from using morphine the next time you end up in critical care in my hospital."
Ibiki waved his hand carelessly, dismissing her threat as he walked away.
"Bastard." Sakura pouted. 'It hasn't even been a day but I'm already missing Neji-kun…'
'Girl you are in deep.' Inner Sakura sighed dreamily. 'Not that I blame you. Neji is a fine man… a REAL man, mmhm.'
Sakura mentally giggled at her Inner self. Sasuke shifted his weight while Sakura became lost in her thoughts, and the rattling of his chains brought Sakura out of her reverie. "Oh yes, I suppose I should get started…" She mumbled.
Nearing Sasuke, Sakura's hands hovered over his chest, her eyes noting every stab, cut, and slice. Her eyes drooped as she worked, extremely tired from her bout with Neji the previous night/that very morning.
'Dear Kami my legs are sore…'
'That's not the only place that's sore, hun.' Inner Sakura quipped, sighing dreamily once more.
Sasuke hissed as the wound Sakura was healing suddenly stung harshly. He watched as Sakura blinked, shaking herself awake from her dozing.
"Oh. Oops." She murmured, cut the cut open with a chakra scalpel (Sasuke tensed but didn't flinch), and then went over the cut with her hand a second time to heal it properly. "Wasn't paying attention…" She muttered.
"What's gotten you so distracted?" Sasuke finally snapped, rather annoyed that the person healing him was not paying attention to whether she was even connecting the right ligaments of tendons.
Sakura glared at him. "Oh hush, you crybaby."
"I am not a crybaby." Sasuke huffed. "You're the idiot not watching what you're supposed to be healing."
This time Sakura deliberately pinched one of his nerves, making the muscles under her hand spasm. Sasuke glared at her. "Suck it up Uchiha. I'm not in the mood today."
"Because you're missing your 'fuck buddy', as I believe Ibiki referred to him as." Sasuke deadpanned.
Sakura's eyes glinted dangerously as she brought her hands away from the Uchiha's body, folding them in her lap as the green glow faded. "You are rather talkative today, Sasuke."
"Hn."
Sakura rolled her eyes and went back to healing him. The two ex-teammates sat in silence for what seemed like forever, the only sound was the dripping water from somewhere in the dungeon and their own breathing.
"Any head injuries?" Sakura asked quietly, breaking their standoff.
"No."
Sakura eyed the bruising around Sasuke's left eye. It looked like Ibiki had given Sasuke a right hook to the face. "You wanna think about that answer, Uchiha?"
Sasuke's eyes flashed with annoyance, and Sakura barely stopped herself from kicking him in the leg. "It's just a black eye." He said shortly.
"You sound like those ANBU idiots." Sakura deepened her voice in imitation of the ANBU operatives she often had to fix up. "It's just a flesh wound, Doctor Haruno-san, no need to worry that I'm bleeding all over the floor."
(Inside the camera room Tsunade nodded her head sagely with what Sakura was saying. "It's true. You would think with all the geniuses in ANBU that they would know better. Instead they are all Kakahsi-clones, with that same phobia of hospitals."
"Only that they are on time." Ibiki chuckled.
"It makes all the difference." Tsunade agreed. "Could you imagine if Kakashi were in charge of our ANBU training?"
Ibiki looked heavenward. "Tch. He couldn't handle the stress. And my operatives would most likely have aneurisms in their attempt not to strangle Kakashi and burn those books of his."
Tsunade deepended her voice and added a lazy drawl as she mocked Kakashi, "It's fine romantic literature."
"It's porn." Ibiki stated callously.
Tsunade snorted. "That is what everybody else has been trying to tell him for the past thirteen years!")
-somewhere in Konoha a certain Hatake Kakashi sneezed-
Having fixed as much of Sasuke as she felt like healing, since she didn't put her best effort into healing the Uchiha (come on, Ibiki was going to screw everything back up anyways!) Sakura leaned back and pulled a water bottle from her medic pack. Her hand brushed something else too, and she pulled it out to find that she had stashed a packet of fruity snacks in her pack at some point.
Suddenly realizing that she was starving (having skipped breakfast that morning for some *cough* alone time with Neji) Sakura eagerly ripped open the plastic wrapper, inwardly smirking when she saw how Sasuke's gaze followed the food hungrily.
'Take that you whiny little bitch!' Inner snickered.
'That is highly inappropriate and generally frowned upon behavior.' Sakura thought back at Inner, reciting the words her mother often nagged her with whenever Sakura slipped into her coarse shinobi habits at home.
'Eh, he deserves it. And more. I think we should get the Konoha 11 to ban together to make Sasuke's life a living hell.' Inner squealed at her next thought. 'We should totally get Tsunade to outlaw tomatoes in Konoha!'
'That's your grand evil scheme?' Sakura imagined herself making a mocking face at her inner self.
'You're right. Instead, we should have a tomato festival, tie Sasuke at the top of the Hokage tower, and force him to watch as the entire village indulges in tomatoes while he is starved of them. Muwahaha!' Inner clapped her hands together like some demented little child.
'Uh-huh…' Sometimes Sakura really worried about her sanity.
In front of her, Sasuke gulped and wet his lips. Brought back from her inner musings, Sakura glanced at Sasuke, then to her fruit snacks, where there were only four pieces left. She sighed. 'I really am a softie.'
"Sasuke."
He tore his eyes away from the food and looked at the pinkette.
"When was the last time Ibiki gave you something that qualified as food?" she asked him.
Sasuke's face was impassive as he spoke. "I only get bread and some protein pills. And water." He added as an afterthought, grimacing inwardly at the disgusting musty liquid they served in the cells.
Sakura gave another sigh. "Here." She muttered, holding the fruit snacks out to him.
He raised his eyebrows at her. Her actions were unexpected, given the way Sakura had been treating him since she began healing his torture wounds. Sasuke lifted his arm to take the plastic wrapper from her hand, his limb restrained halfway in its movement by the chains. Sakura wordlessly placed the food in his outstretched hand, which was only able to stretch about a foot away from the stone wall at Sasuke's back.
He nodded his head in silent thanks, and quickly ate the four tiny morsels of food. "Arigato." Sasuke muttered.
Sakura froze. "Never say that to me again." She whispered.
Sasuke's head snapped up to look at her, but the medic was already closing the barred cell door behind her, and sweeping down the hall.
Tsunade met her halfway to the exit, and wordlessly fell into step next to Sakura. Her shishou knew every second of that night that Sasuke had left the village, at least from Sakura's point of view. Tsunade knew how much that one moment had hurt her student, and offered only her silent strength to Sakura. And that was all Sakura needed.
"How about I take you out to dinner tonight?" Tsunade said amiably as they climbed the stairs to the ground level and exited the secret passage into the Hokage tower from the Konoha prison. "It will be just like old times."
Sakura smiled lightly at Tsunade. Outside it was about 7 o'clock, and thankfully the sun was still on the horizon, cheering Sakura up. "Sure. Shizune as well?"
"Of course." Tsunade smiled. "Just let me go drag her out of my office."
Sakura giggled. "Thanks Shishou."
~:D~
Tsunade sighed as she signed the paper in front of her. Picking it up, she placed the sheet on the pile to her right, where the other signed and completed papers were stacked. Picking up a sheaf of papers that were stapled together from the stack to her left, the unsigned and uncompleted papers, Tsunade sighed as she began to read through the fine print.
Read. Scribble. Sign.
Read. Scribble. Sign.
Read. Scribble. Sign.
The only silver lining to her entire week was her time out to dinner with her apprentices. Tsunade smiled at the memory. It had been far too long since the prodigious medical trio had spent any time together, now that Sakura was in charge (unofficially) of the hospital and Shizune was helping her out with Hokage business.
Read. Scribble. Sign.
Read. Scribble. Sign.
Read. Scribble. Si-
"Tsunade-sama."
Her pen paused in midair as the Hokage looked up to see her first apprentice step into the room, a confused expression on Shizune's face. In one hand she held a file while the other hand shut the office door behind her.
"Yes, Shizune?"
Shizune cleared her throat. "I thought you had sent Yamato-san on the mission with Neji's team, along with Lee-san and Naruto-kun."
Tsunade's brow creased. "I did." She stated.
The expression on Shizune's face became worried. "But Tsunade-sama, I just got a note here from Yamato-san stating that he was feeling ill and requested a leave of absence."
The Hokage stood from her chair abruptly. "Is that Yamato's file in your hand."
"Yes, and I looking at the excuse note that the nurse file- hey!"
Tsunade grabbed the file out of Shizune's hand, smacking the nurse's note onto her desk and nearly tearing out two pieces of paper from the file as she searched for something.
"Uh… Tsunade?" Shizune asked.
"Here it is!" The Godaime exclaimed, extracting a signed copy of a mission scroll from the missions portion of the file. Tsunade's eyes scanned the copy carefully, and her eyes narrowed. She placed the paper next to the nurse's not on the desk.
"This doesn't make sense…"
"What is it Tsunade?" Shizune asked as she watched her mentor glance from one note to the next.
The Godaime held up the mission scroll copy. "This is a copy of the mission I gave Yamato that assigned him to Neji's team approximately ten days ago. Yamato-san signed for the mission here, at the bottom, which, as you know, means that Yamato received the mission scroll and agreed to take on the mission. Plus, the gate keepers from that day reported seeing Yamato leaving with Neji's team."
Now Tsunade held up the nurse's note. "This was filed this last Saturday, correct?"
Shizune nodded. "Around lunchtime."
The Hokage's mouth firmed into a thin line. "That means Yamato would have had to go into the hospital this morning to get his illness checked out. But he was supposed to have been gone on that mission by then."
Shizune frowned as well. "I will retrieve him immediately then."
"No." Tsunade stopped Shizune. The Hokage glanced at the stack of unsigned papers to her left, then at the clock on the wall. It was 10:57 pm. She shook her head. "I will deal with this in the morning."
Shizune bowed and left the room.
Turning back to the mess on her desk, Tsunade stacked the confusion that was Yamato's file and moved it to one of the few clear spaces on her desk. Then she continued her work as leader of Konoha long into the night.
~:D~
"Good morning, Sakura." Yamato greeted as he sat down on the training field where the pinkette and her emotionally stunted teammate were stretching.
Sakura and Sai had woken up early that morning and gone training. A couple laps around the village, some strength-building exercises (where Sakura commented on Sai's thin, waxy arms and the ex-Root member retorted by calling her a 'manly woman'), among other exercises. Of course, Sakura and Sai's verbal jabs eventually ended with a brutal sparring match, which had only ended about five minutes before Yamato had shown up. Now the two were stretching their sore muscles, massaging the tense muscles and Sakura treating any severe bruising.
"Oh hi Yamato-taichou!" she smiled warmly and waved.
"I see you are up early for some exercises." Yamato pulled out a bag of donuts, and immediately Sakura bounded over to him, Sai not far behind.
Sakura grinned. "Arigatou Yamato! Look Sai! Donuts!"
"And this is why you will eventually get fat, grow old, and live alone in a house with forty cats." Sai commented with his fake smile.
Sakura stopped all movement to glare at him. "Sometimes I wonder if your whole 'emotional retardation' is just some act."
Yamato chuckled, eyeing Sakura's glowing fist. "Erm, Sakura, maybe you should lower your fist now…" He smiled nervously.
Sakura huffed and returned her attention to her breakfast. "Fine, no donuts for you then. Cheeky bastard that you are." She muttered, sending minute glares at Sai every five seconds as she angrily bit into the pastries.
Sai turned to Yamato. "Are you feeling better, Taichou?"
Instantly Sakura's eyes were on Yamato as the ex-ANBU member nodded. Now that Sai mentioned it, Sakura could see that there were dark circles under Yamato's eyes, and his expression was slightly weary, if a little dozy.
"Were you sick?" She asked worriedly. "You should have come to me!"
Yamato smiled at her. "Thanks, Sakura, but you do know that there are nurses whose job is to help with the minor health problems, right? Your job is to keep people from dying, not combat the stomach flu. I could hardly bother you when there are ANBU to put back together."
"How long were you feeling unwell?" Sakura asked him.
"I think I got it last Thursday." Yamato grimaced. "I think all that eating ramen with Naruto is finally catching up to me in my old age."
"You can't be older than 30." Sai mused.
Sakura snorted. "You're 26! I've read your medical file! Like you have anything to complain about- Kakashi is older than you and that old man is still kicking it."
Yamato chuckled. "Just don't let him know you called him 'old'."
Sakura gave him a mischievous grin.
They continued to chat away in the morning, Sai occasionally putting in a word or two, usually something entirely inappropriate or insulting (in his ignorant manner of saying such things), and Yamato and Sakura trying to teach the poor boy how to properly interact with some people. It seemed like the rest of Team Kakashi (i.e. Kakashi and Naruto) had given up on Sai.
They all tensed when a presence appeared beside their resting spot under the trees facing the training field.
"ANBU-san." Yamato and Sakura greeted cautiously.
"Yamato-san, the Hokage requires your presence." The ANBU stated, then just a quickly as he had appeared, he teleported in a puff of smoke.
Yamato stood up, brushing the grass off of his uniform. "Looks like I need to take my leave. Have a nice day Sai; Sakura."
The two younger shinobi waved goodbye to the jounin as Yamato teleported to the Hokage's office.
Sai turned back to Sakura. "Ugly, may I have a donut?"
"No."
Sai's stomach rumbled.
"Please, Ugly?"
Sakura slowly placed another donut in her mouth and began to chew. When she swallowed, she replied sweetly, "I'm only watching out for your figure, Sai-kun. I'm making the sacrifice of a lonely, fat cat-lady to you!"
The ex-Root member shut his mouth in defeat.
~:D~
"You called for me, Hokage-sama?" Yamato said as the leaves settled where he had teleported in.
Tsunade held up a little note. "Yamato-san, this is a nurse's note. It says that you have been sick for the past couple day, and requested a couple days off to recuperate."
Yamato nodded. "Yes, I had the stomach flu for a while."
Tsunade frowned, then reached over to the same stack of papers she had retrieve the nurse's note from- Yamato now recognized the stack of papers as his own personal file- and pulled out another sheet of paper.
"Yamato…" The Hokage regarded him coolly. "This is a mission scroll. An ANBU was supposed to delivered it eleven days ago for you to sign. And right here the copy shows that you did sign it."
The jounin's face furrowed in confusion. "I never signed that-"
"Precisely." Tsunade cut him off. "And yet your signature is on here and confirms that you agreed to leave on the mission with Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Uzumaki Naruto."
Yamato shook his head. "I've been sick-"
"So then who signed this paper?" Tsunade again interrupted.
He had no answer.
"Yamato. At any point during your illness were you unconscious? To the point where you were not aware of your surroudings?" Tsunade asked him. "Is it possible for someone to have snuck into your living quarters on Thursday night and posed as you, well enough to fool the ANBU?"
Yamato nodded reluctantly. "Yes, Thursday night was when I believe I contracted the virus."
Tsunade frowned. "What did you have for dinner?"
"Ramen, with Naruto."
"Is it possible someone could have slipped something into your food?"
Yamato sighed. "… Yes, it is possible."
Tsunade growled her displeasure and laced her fingers together in front of her face. "Well even if I sent a message to the team now, it would not arrive fast enough. By now the team has surely noticed that there is an imposter with them. So I'm not worried about the team… But how did this imposter get into Konoha in the first place?"
The Hokage rubbed her temples, muttering curses under her breath. "You are dismissed, Yamato-san."
"But Hokage-sama…"
Tsunade shooed Yamato away with a waving motion. "Don't worry, I have ninja that specialize in this sort of problem. Oh, and do you mind if we send an Inuzuka to check for any foreign scents around your apartment?"
Yamato shook his head. "Not at all."
Tsunade nodded. "Good. Now leave and send in Shizune, if you will."
Yamato bowed and left the room, telling Shizune that the Hokage would like to speak with her. Shizune thanked him and reassured Yamato that no one blamed him for this mess. He thanked her and left to find Kakashi- he needed a drinking buddy tonight.
"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune glanced at Tsunade's tired face as she entered the office.
"Summon Team 8." Tsunade commanded. "I need them to find an intruder."
~:D~
It had been three weeks, not counting the days it took to travel from Konoha, since they arrived in the region that was plagued by the rogue ninjas, and still no sign of any of them. The gang of rogues seemed to disappear every time Neji's team came close! It seemed like the missing nins knew when to flee, always one step ahead of the Konoha shinobi. The closest his team had gotten so far was arriving in a still-smoking village, the stench of charred flesh and blood hanging forebodingly in the air. Houses were falling apart, black smoke filled the air as the fires sputtered, and the only life to be seen were the vultures feasting on decaying flesh.
Neji worked grim-faced with his team as they worked to bury the dead, digging unmarked graves for the bodies of the villagers. He paused for a moment to wipe his brow with his sleeve, having tied his hitae-ate around his neck to allow the air to cool his face. The team was silent, Naruto taking his righteous anger out on the ground as he cried for the dead, Yamato shoveling the dirt with a stony façade, and even Lee had lost all his youthful exuberance. It was just one village and yet there were so many dead…
Neji became angrier at the thought of how many other villages had ended up like this one. He swore, when he found the men responsible for the attack, he would show absolutely no mercy.
"Kuso…" Neji looked up to see Naruto burying the last body, covering the seared remains were so mutilated by the fires that it was only vaguely human-shaped. Naruto's eyes burned bright blue with his fury as he slammed his shovel onto the ground. "THEY WILL PAY FOR THIS!" he roared to the sky.
Lee nodded determinedly, a fire lighting in his crying eyes. "Yes Naruto! We will show these unyouthful rogues the true meaning of being a warrior! We shall avenge this village, Yosh!"
It almost made Neji smile. He turned around the patted the grave he had been covering one last time before dropping his shovel unceremoniously to the ground.
"Come on." Neji ordered. "We need to keep moving."
Naruto and Lee quickly took the front of formation, eager to find the missing ninjas responsible for the massacres. Neji was content to guard the rear left flank, Yamato on his right. His cream eyes drifted covertly to the other jounin, narrowing as he studied Yamato. The ex-ANBU had been oddly quiet as of late, but that could easily be blamed on the horrors that Neji's team had seen since trailing the rogues ninja gang. But knowing that Yamato had been ANBU, this excuse was void to him, since Neji had no doubt that Yamato had surely seen worse in his time serving the special ops.
"Wait."
Everyone stopped at Neji's command. The Hyuuga scanned the area with his Byakugan, making sure what he had sensed was not a trick. A smirk appeared on his face.
"I found them."
Lee cheered as Naruto clenched his fists.
"Where are they?" Naruto asked hurriedly. "Just wait until I get my hands on those bastards…"
Neji's eyes focused on the violent chakra signatures he was reading. "North-west of our position, maybe 3 miles from here. Let's move!"
They took off at an impossible speed, Naruto's stamina lending him enough strength to keep up with the lightning-fast Lee, while Neji had no problem keeping up with Lee since the two were teammates and had trained together for years. Much to Naruto's surprise, Yamato seemed to lag behind.
"Ne, hurry up Yamato! What's got you movin' so slow?" Naruto peered over his shoulder.
Neji mirrored the action, except the look he directed at Yamato was one of suspicion. For the hundredth time, Neji scanned the jounin with his Byakugan, but still was unable to find anything out of place in Yamato's chakra system.
"I must be…" Yamato took a deep breath as he ran. "Just getting old."
Naruto let out a bark of laughter. "Ha! Good one Yamato! Like any of us will believe that."
"Will you guys shut up and run faster?" Neji asked from where he and Lee had taken the lead, with Naruto and Yamato both lagging behind now. He had always been easily annoyed at bantering during a mission. Why couldn't the shinobi from his village just run with their mouths shut?
"Geez, you would think that having a sex life would relieve the pole stuck up his ass…" Naruto muttered.
"What was that Naruto-san?" Neji asked dangerously, fixing the blonde with a Byakugan glare.
"Nothing! I swear! Sorry for bothering you, Neji-taichou!" Naruto quickly recoiled from the creepy glare, waving his hands placatingly at Neji.
"That's what I thought." Neji said, turning back to focus on their targets.
Naruto sighed in relief. Neji was a scary man! Especially with those freaky Byakugan eyes (of course they were cute on Hinata…).
"Everyone get ready, we are approaching the subjects." Neji called after several silent minutes of running.
Naruto sped up to make a line of himself, Lee, and Neji, in that order, as the three young men readied themselves to deliver pain. The mental images of burned houses and people dead with their faces twisted in pain filled the heads of the shinobi, who were now more than eager to punish the rogues.
"There they are!" Lee exclaimed, sighting the camp through the trees. "I shall show these monstrous men the true glory of youth! Yosh!"
"YOU BASTARDS!" Naruto fumed as the Leaf shinobi burst through the tree line.
The camp burst into a flurry of activity as the missing ninjas leaped to defend themselves. Neji's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the scene in mere seconds, noticing that the gang had been busy packing their gear before his team had stormed into the clearing. Once again, Neji felt as if the rogues had known that they were coming, and had been about to flee before they arrived. He smirked. These criminals had underestimated the speed of his team.
"Kyaaaa!" Neji ducked as a man swung his battle axe down, and felt the blade whistle through the air above his head. Appearing behind the man, Neji quickly hit the pressure points near his head, severing the chakra and effectively killing the man.
The rest of the battle went in a similar matter. The gang of missing ninjas were chuunin at best, and nowhere near the level of Naruto, Lee, of Neji. Lee was quickly beating men to a pulp left and right, and Naruto only had to make five clones to assist him in destroying the criminals. Neji reveled in the flow of the battle, his Byakugan not missing a thing as he effortlessly dodged and countered attacks, his movements making the fight seem easy. His Byakugan kept constant vigilance throughout that battle- and it did not miss the way Yamato had mysteriously disappeared.
Thunk.
Neji stood from his attack stance as he watched the last man he had dispatched fall to the ground, the man's large body hitting the soil loudly. Naruto's eyes were still glowing with rage, but he did not seem close to losing control. Lee walked up to Neji and cheerfully hung his arms over his teammate's shoulders.
"Another victory for the youths of Konoha!" Lee cheered, and went off on what he apparently thought was an 'inspirational' speech about their strengths. Years of practice allowed Neji to drown out his moronic teammate as his eyes searched for Yamato's chakra.
What he found was not Yamato.
"Naruto, Lee!" Neji called to attention as he dived towards the forest that they had entered from.
Without an explanation, the other two followed Neji without waiting, trusting the Hyuuga's bloodline.
A man with short brown hair and tan skin was ahead of them, running away as fast as he could, probably chuunin level, from what Neji could tell of his chakra.
"Lee, catch him!"
"Yosh!" Lee's body sped by as he easily passed the man they were chasing and flickered in front of him.
The stranger skid to a stop, and attempted to change course, darting left only to run into Neji. The man turned to run the other way, but Naruto was already behind him.
Neji flash-stepped behind the man and quickly dealt blows to his spine, paralyzing the man. They tied the stranger to the nearest tree, Naruto and Lee staring with guarded curiosity while Neji let his cold gaze unnerve their captive.
"I knew something wasn't right about Yamato." Neji began.
Naruto and Lee started.
"What? You mean this was the imposter?" Naruto pointed loudly.
Lee frowned. "How unyouthful…"
Neji ignored Naruto pointedly. "You." He spoke to their prisoner. The man flinched. Neji refrained from rolling his eyes at the sight of such cowardice. "What is your name?"
The man shook his head.
"For Kami's sake, answer the damn question." Naruto muttered. "We knew you were an imposter anyway."
The stranger's eyes widened. "W-What?"
Neji snorted. "Please, what kind of shinobi do you think we are? I suspected right away of course, although I must applaud your Kekkai-Genkai. Whatever it is, it perfectly copied the chakra network of Yamato-san. The only flaw in you disguise was your inaccurate impersonation of Yamato-san."
The man glared at them.
"Naruto and Lee began to notice it too, but it was only by the end second week that we were convinced that you were an imposter and were spying for the gang of rogue ninjas." Neji crossed his arms. "That's how the missing ninjas always managed to disappear before the team arrived."
"Then why didn't you just kill me once you found out?" The man sneered.
Neji shrugged. "I wanted to. Almost did, in fact, although you never noticed how close my hand was to breaking your neck."
Neji enjoyed a small amount of sadistic glee at the sight of the imposter's face paling.
"But then I realized how much of an asset you are." The man gave Neji a guarded look, so he continued. "Every time I mention finding the gang of missing nins, you always glanced in the direction they were in. So I knew where to start my search. But I'm curious…"
The man fidgeted as Neji took a couple menacing steps forward. "How did you get into Konoha in the first place, and how did you take Yamato's place?"
The man gave Neji a stubborn look.
Neji turned to Naruto and Lee. "Search for clues among the bodies. You don't want to watch me interrogate this man."
Naruto looked as if he was about to object, but a pointed look form Neji silenced him, and he followed Lee back to the battle sight. Neji turned to the stranger, his face now impassive and cold. The man began to struggle against the ropes that tied him to a tree.
"It's no use; those ropes are reinforced with chakra." Neji commented emotionlessly. "Now… How did you enter Konoha? And how did you take Yamato's place?"
The man juts out his jaw stubbornly.
Wordlessly, Neji reached out and touch the man's shoulder, and the stranger screamed as a sharp pain lanced into his body.
"My eyes allow me to see into your body." Neji explained tonelessly. "I can do much worse than this. So how about we start with a simple question: What is your name?"
The man glared at Neji. "Hitsuke." He spat.
"Hitsuke what?" Neji asked.
"Adachi Hitsuke."
Neji nodded. "That wasn't so hard now was it? Let's move on. Tell me how you managed to replace Yamato-san."
"How about I don- Gyah!" Neji shot chakra into the man's abdomen.
"How about you do?" He chuckled as Hitsuke doubled over as much as the ropes that tied him to the tree would allow.
"It is not a hard question to answer, Adachi-san." Neji said, his tone deceptively calm. "You are only making things worse for yourself."
The captive growled. "I gave him some weak poison. Not to kill him, since I couldn't risk raising an alarm. The poison was just to make him ill, and while he was resting I copied his body systems."
"I am guessing this is part of your bloodline limit?" said Neji.
Hitsuke nodded. "He never received the message to meet up with your team. It was I who accepted the mission scroll from the ANBU- your friend had no idea that he was supposed to be on a mission."
Neji nodded stoically, having figured as much. "How did you get into Konoha?"
Hitsuke hesitated. Neji quickly jabbed him in the neck, sending blindly pain into the man's skull without mercy. "Tell me."
"F-Fine! Just- Just s-stop!" Hitsuke groaned in pain, his head lolling to one side helplessly as he recovered from Neji's torture.
"We were contracted by someone- don't ask who, I don't know." Hitsuke began, closing his eyes as his head throbbed. "They wanted one of us to get into Konoha… And with my Kekkai-Genkai, I was chosen to do the job. Your friend- Yamato- was the perfect man to pose as: he had no family, little background, few friends… I had just finished replicating his body when the ANBU showed up to deliver the mission scroll. It was a coincidence that the mission just happened to involve my group."
Neji listened with a frown. So someone was attempting to gain access into Konoha? Well- that was nothing new. Konoha had many enemies, but of course he would report this to the Hokage. Hopefully this would be taken care of quickly.
"Hey Neji! Are we ready to leave?" Naruto called as he and Lee approached.
Neji nodded, glancing back at Hitsuke.
The captive opened his mouth. "Please! Don't ki-" Hitsuke gurgled as Neji slid his kunai across his neck.
Naruto looked away and Lee clenched his fists, but the two remained quiet.
Turning to face his teammates, Neji cleaned his weapon and pocketed the kunai. "Yamato-san is fine; he wasn't killed. But I have some information we need to tell the Hokage. Let's go."
EDIT 2018: Don't mind me... *sweeps away the typos*
~Lilithia
