A/N: Okay, finals are over and the story is ON! ...Actually, nothing really happens in this chapter, but it's still an important one. Only two or three left now. Anyway, thank you again to all my reviewers, old and new: Veve, WhyMustIWrite, iNsAnE nO bAkA, kirallie, jazzy2may, InARealPickle, aquitaineq, Auphora66, Lydia and Rangerfan58. You're all great!
Legal stuff: If I owned any part of Naruto then this wouldn't be fan fiction.
'Dead' Eri thought, heart lodging in his throat as he heard the faint rustle indicating that Konoha's ANBU were moving in fast. 'I am SO dead.' Although… he was still breathing… For the moment. Daring to press his luck, the Rock Chunin spoke around the pulse still hammering in his throat. "I…" – a quick breath, a subtle gulp to try and control his voice – "I bring a message, information that could be of use to Konoha." Barely breathing, he waited, eyes locked on the floor. Forcing himself not to tremble before the frightening power of the Hokage.
After a small eternity, the woman spoke. "Well? This had best be worth my time, Asano-san."
Eri felt a small surge of relief which he immediately squashed. He knew that he was acting like a rookie Genin, but damn it, he had been tense since before he ever left the Rock Village, and there was only so much a man could take. His nerves were shot, trying to avoid detection from his own and Konoha's people, and find two undercover agents in a city of shinobi. And he still wasn't out of danger yet. Not by a long shot. And so, never taking his eyes off of the ground, making absolutely sure that the Konoha shinobi knew he was harmless right now, he spoke.
Eri reported quickly, communicating in the efficient manner that any fairly experienced shinobi was familiar with. "As stated, Hokage-sama, I hail from the Hidden Rock Village. Our Village has recently come under new leadership, as you are undoubtedly aware. The new leader is planning an invasion, preparing to assault Konoha even as we speak. A small number of shinobi within the Hidden Rock disagree with this decision. We are – not quite rebelling, yet – but certainly prepared to do so. We know that our leader has sent two shinobi – one codenamed The Recruiter, another simply called Handler – to infiltrate Konoha and convert as many of its citizens as possible. The pair intends to allow access into Konoha for our shinobi. Unfortunately, we do not have information regarding the identities of this pair or the manner in which they intend to provide access. I was sent to Konoha to attempt to identify this pair and report them to your own people. It… We had hoped that, by identifying the undercover agents, the few of us who disagreed with the plan would be able to prove that we were allies of Konoha, and perhaps beg sanctuary. Our Village… will not be happy when they discover that we are actively working against them."
A heartbeat, a breath of silence, and then the Hokage spoke. "Obviously, you have failed in identifying this pair. Why, then, do you reveal yourself now?"
Eri gathered his courage, daring to lift his head enough to look the Hokage in the eye. "Because, Hokage-sama, this morning I received an update from my fellow dissenters back in the Hidden Stone. Our shinobi have stopped holding drills. They have gathered weapons, and word is that the order to march will be given within the coming two weeks. I believe that we have run out of time, Hokage-sama, and I can no longer justify withholding information from those we had hoped to ally with."
Green eyes dropped back to the carpet, the young Chunin waiting to hear his fate. After an agonizing few moments, the Hokage spoke again. "Stand up, Asano-san. I want to hear everything you can tell me about the Hidden Rock, and particularly about this plot."
-
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, another young heart beat with just as much – or perhaps even more – fear as Eri's had only moments ago. Takeshi drew a breath, glancing over at his teacher before biting his lip, releasing that breath and dropping his eyes to his hands. He wasn't entirely sure that he was allowed to ask questions just yet. The others were, but… 'but they didn't hurt Sensei' the boy thought. So he held his tongue, focusing instead on repeating the exact motions that Iruka-sensei had shown them earlier that day.
The seals for the small water jutsu were few and simple, making it a good technique to teach eager children. Not to mention the fact that the worst damage such a small jutsu could do if it got out of the child's control was ruin a few papers. After another half hour – and a few excited squeals as a child got the jutsu to work – class was dismissed. But as Takeshi stood to leave with the others, a calm, familiar voice stopped him.
"Takeshi-kun, a moment?" Iruka asked, reaching out to tap the little blond's shoulder as he passed the child. The boy gulped, dread rising up to choke him. It would be the first time he had been alone with his teacher since… Shaking his head hard to dispel the memory that caused his first real nightmares, he sat quietly at his desk until his classmates filed out, most of them either ignoring him or giving him disgusted looks as they passed. That was nothing new, though. They had been doing it every day for the last week.
Finally – too soon – the room was empty. Silent save for the rustle of paper as Iruka neatly stacked the class's latest work. Once the papers were settled on the teacher's desk, Iruka stepped around and settled himself on the desk beside the boy. His smile was as warm as it had ever been, and that somehow made the child feel even guiltier. Takeshi's eyes nearly crossed in surprise when Iruka reached out and quickly tapped the end of the boy's nose. "Now, now Takeshi-kun. Don't worry, you aren't in trouble. I just noticed during class that you looked like there was something bothering you. Is there something you wanted to talk about?"
Takeshi hesitated, but then shook himself a little. "It's just something about today's lesson, Sensei. There was just a bit I didn't get." Iruka's curious look silently encouraged the boy to go on. "It's just… that seal stuff…" I don't get why we have to do it!" Iruka blinked a little in confusion, but the child was obviously struggling with his words, so he waited for the question to straighten out. And it finally did. "I just don't get… this chakra stuff, it's part of me, right?" Dark eyes grew thoughtful even as a slow nod answered the boy, who blurted out the rest in a rush, confusion and irritation warring in his voice. "Well if it's part of me, then why… why does what my hands do matter?!"
A long moment of silence followed this outburst, and then Iruka couldn't help it anymore. The smile that had been flitting at the edges of his lips during the impassioned query broke into a full laugh. Trying to control his chuckles, Iruka reached out and ruffled the child's hair, laughing harder as the boy squeaked at the action. Once the teacher got himself mostly back under control, he just shook his head, lips still twitching a bit as he answered. "Takeshi-kun, you really are going to be something else. Most of my students don't ask that until after they've graduated. If then. But to answer your question, it doesn't matter." Biting down on another chuckle at the boy's obvious confusion, Iruka explained a little further.
"Seals are just habits, Takeshi-kun. The way you make your chakra flow is what makes the jutsu work, so you could do jutsu without doing anything at all with your hands. It takes a lot of time and practice, and most shinobi who do it only have one or two jutsu that they use it with. But by practicing seals over and over, we teach our bodies to move chakra a certain way without needing to think about it. So instead of thinking 'I need to move this much chakra at this speed to this area for this long' you just think 'Dragon' and your body knows all of that. It's much faster, and in a fight, speed is one of the biggest advantages you can have. Does that make sense?"
Takeshi was still a little confused, but he sort of got the basic idea, so he nodded again and thanked his teacher. He gathered his things as the man sat down at his desk, presumably to grade some of those papers. On his way out, the child paused in the doorway, glancing back at the Chunin. Feeling eyes on him, Iruka looked up. "Yes?"
A little fidgeting, but the blond finally asked what had really been bothering him all week. "Iruka-sensei… are you still mad at me…?"
A warm smile was really all the answer he needed, but the words didn't hurt. "No, Takeshi-kun. You worried me a little, but I was never mad at you." And the boy left with a much lighter heart.
-
It seemed to be a day for nerve-wracked youngsters in Konoha, because nine others were currently deep in discussion, their voices low and, in some cases, distinctly nervous. "Okay, okay, Shika. We get it, there's trouble. The question is, if our teachers don't want to tell us about it, what can we do?" Ino's voice was one of the worried ones, her eyes wide as she unconsciously twisted strands of her long blonde hair around her fingers.
"No." this voice was cool, almost harsh in its abruptness. Neji made a slight negative gesture, stopping Ino's next words before she opened her mouth. "The first question is 'who is most likely to be attacking Konoha'. Which Village it is will have a lot to do with what we should expect."
Some of the others nodded thoughtfully, conceding the Hyuuga genius' point. Shikamaru kept quiet. 'I'm supposed to be a leader now,' he thought to himself, paying only half attention as his friends worked out things he had thought were common sense. 'But part of leading… is making sure your team can function without you. They need to work this out themselves, since we apparently have time for it.'
The other eight quietly discussed different aspects of the current world situation, including travel logistics from Chouji and, surprisingly, Kiba. "Wha-at?" the wolf-like boy glared. "My Clan scouts all over the place. We know distances" Chouji, of course, had a good idea of what it took to feed a large force over said distances.
Political information came, perhaps not so oddly, considering that they were their Clans' heirs, from Hinata and Shino. The two oldest boys spoke of the relative strength of the other Villages, Lee ducking his head but beaming with pride when Neji gave him a startled, but approving nod for being the only other one who knew which Villages had been in major fights – and were therefore less likely to be able to mount an assault.
They came to the hesitant conclusion that the Village of the Hidden Rock was the one most likely to be both able and willing to openly attack Konoha, and Tenten immediately provided the others with a list of the kinds of weaponry Rock shinobi generally favored. Which only left two questions. What did they do with this information and "Why the hell didn't they tell us about this" as Kiba nearly snarled.
That dragged Shikamaru's attention fully back to the group, but still he waited, taking a page from Iruka-sensei's book to see if they could answer it themselves. Six of the group debated likely reasons, but Shikamaru focused on the other two not nearly arguing about it. Shino said nothing, but slight motions revealed that the stoic Aburame was intently following the discussion. Hinata, however, had obviously tuned the others out. She was lightly nibbling on her lower lip, thoughtful eyes locked on the ground. Shikamaru watched her closely, wondering if maybe she had caught on.
The timid girl finally spoke during a lull in the now-full argument. "Um, maybe… they can't…"
"Hinata-chan, what are you –"
"Shut up, Kiba." Shikamaru's quick reprimand startled both prior speakers, but his steady voice and gaze were fixed on Hinata. "Go on."
She fidgeted, twisting her hands together, but she finished. "It's just… I just thought that… m-maybe they can't. Maybe, maybe it could… get back to the Rock Village… and…" she trailed off uncertainly, but blushed when she looked up at Shikamaru. A rare, proud smile showed on his face, and the boy vaguely thought that he finally understood why Iruka-sensei put up with them for all those years. Six of the others were looking at the Hyuuga girl with a new respect, if no little surprise.
Lee, however, looked horrified. "Hinata-san, surely you ARE NOT suggesting that someone in Konoha would… would TELL the Hidden Rock what we planned?! That would be a… a traitor! Surely -"
"Orochimaru." Shino's cool voice broke the teen's disbelieving words. "Kabuto, Sa…" he trailed off, finding himself unwilling to speak the name that brought them all a stab of pain and guilt. But his point was taken. All nine fell quiet, looking anywhere but each other as they tried to force themselves to accept all that they had discussed.
"So we can't say anything either" Ino murmured. "We just… have to keep our eyes open, be ready." The others nodded slowly in agreement, the mood having turned solemn. And in that stillness, they all distinctly heard a very familiar voice calling out. The group shared a quick glance, a silent agreement, as Gai came back into sight. He announced that Asuma and Kurenai had asked him to mix up the teams and have them spar team-on-team, and was rather surprised - but highly pleased - when no one said a word. They just mixed up and waited for the signal.
After all, if a surprise attack hit them, they may not have time to find the team they were accustomed to before they had to fight.
