A/N – Another chapter and a short one, but I don't have much time to spare on writing now and that's the state of affairs until middle of June. Internship, working on my thesis, managing one website and few more things take most of my time and then in August I'm going to Italy for six weeks which complicates things even more for me. Updates will be erratic and based on when I can actually get an opportunity to write and don't feel like crawling into bed and sleeping for however long I can.
As a friendly reminder, messages asking me when I'll publish next chapter will land in a trash can and I won't bother answering them. I write because I want and can, not because I need to do it.
o-0-o
Jiraiya stretched in the chair and looked across his sensei' office. The office of the Hokage managed to accumulate quite a large collection of various doodads left by the previous leaders of the village. It was also probably the most secure room in the whole village, outside of the pits of the T&I, but that place was special.
"Jiraiya-sama," Shikaku said.
"Yes?" The Gama Sennin asked, not even diverting his gaze from the manuscript of the next part of Icha Icha.
"One of our friends from Suna sent a message."
"What kind of a message?" Jiraiya asked as he put away that manuscript.
"That a pale and dark-haired man was seen inside of the village," Shikaku said and shifted. "He was supposed to meet with the Kazekage and the meeting was without anybody else."
"They mean business then," Jiraiya said and grimaced. "Or they don't want us to find out about it." He looked at the scarred jonin and then at the portraits of the Kage. "What do we know about their financial situation?"
"They lost another ten million in the contracts from the Daimyo," Shikaku said as he closed his eyes for a second. "Further five they should lose within another month."
"And they never were rich. They had the money to function, but barely and now they're lacking what? Twenty million?"
"Twenty for their usual force level, thirty if they want to mobilize the reserves."
Jiraiya sighed and rubbed his eyes as he thought over those numbers. "Twenty million per month will make them desperate around the time of the chunin exams. They will have little money to promote their rising starts, arrange meetings with the nobles and daimyos."
"Which will hurt them even more in the long run," Shikaku said with a wince. "We could help them arrange those meetings."
"No," Jiraiya said and the jonin commander looked at him. "We won't help them, especially not when we know that they plot with Orochimaru or someone who looks damn close to that snake. Reinforce the patrol along our western border and keep less experienced teams away from Kaze no Kuni. They shouldn't do something as stupid as attack our teams on missions there…"
"But if they're lacking funding some might try to get lucky and collect bounties," Shikaku finished. "More stupid things happened in the past and if they're as desperate as we think they are."
"Yes, they will do even more stupid things," Jiraiya said and shook his head in irritation. "Sensei wants me here to keep an eye on the warhawk, even if there are more pressing issues."
"Like?"
"Yagura," Jiraiya said and smiled at the widened eyes of Shikaku. "He was killed by Terumi Mei, well, that's her official story and while she's capable of defeating him. I don't think he was killed by her. Jinchuuriki are much tougher than many assume they are. Take for example Naruto or Kushina, they have more chakra than the ruling Hokage and are nigh on impossible to kill. I don't think that much outside of the beheading or severe damage to the brain is able of killing them."
"Bijuu don't want to spend ages recreating their bodies," Shikaku said with a frown. "If Yagura was close to defeat his Bijuu would give him all the power he could need just to survive and not be scattered."
"Bingo."
Shikaku got up from his place and walked to the window. "There is nothing in our bingo books suggesting that the Godaime Mizukage has the necessary knowledge of sealing to keep Bijuu out of the fight nor she knows how to fight one."
"The seal that makes bijuu's chakra unable to be accessed is relatively simple and anybody can learn it. The biggest issue is finding where is the actual seal holding the Bijuu and laying it on top of that seal," Jiraiya said and looked at Shikaku. "Take as an example Naruto, he has that seal on his belly as that's the standard Uzumaki seal and close to several major chakra coils. But we know that because we have seen the seal and know the style used by Minato. Tell me, can any random seal master guess where the seal is?"
"If they're insanely lucky," Shikaku said and laughed. "No, they cannot."
"Exactly," Jiraiya said and turned to look at the village. "Each of the villages protects this as much as they can. And Mei wasn't high enough nor she had any need to know it, so she would need to fight him and Sanbi."
"Or someone eliminated him and she just claimed that she won a duel with him," Shikaku said. "From what we know the Akatsuki has some sick fascination of those beasts."
"They have. But why? Even Karasu isn't particularly talkative about why. He reports on them and we know the rough composition of the group. But why not really."
"Can we slip in a second agent?"
Jiraiya snorted at this. "Yes, we can. Find me some clan that would be willing to organize a coup and someone to slaughter them for carrying out said coup. Itachi was both a curse and a blessing for the village and while we both know that we could have found someone to do it. The cost would be too high. Especially now."
"And eliminating them will be a problem," Shikaku said. "Hidan or Kakuzu are from what we know impossible to kill. Akasuna no Sasori is a puppet master that uses poisons and puppets that are above the ones used by Suna and Hoshigaki Kisame isn't much easier to beat."
"There are also few that I am unable to pin down," Jiraiya added as he pulled out a small book. "We know that there are ten of them. We know of five of them. Anything beyond that is a mystery and nobody likes admitting that some of their shinobi belong to an organization that is a pain in the butt."
"Didn't Orochimaru belong to it?"
"He did. Right before Itachi joined it. After that he forged his own path," Jiraiya said and smiled. "This is actually a decent idea. I would need to get several squads of ANBU. More than that platoon you have watching our friend's hideouts and something to lure him elsewhere. But it has merits."
"You want to raid his hideout and force him to fight you?"
"No, I doubt that even I and Tsunade could kill him and capturing him is beyond reckless." Jiraiya shook his head. "What I want to do is to raid his hideouts and check his research. He is twisted and warped, but meticulous and that might give us some insight."
"I could find few more squads and send them there," Shikaku said with a frown. "It's not that their services are needed."
"Have them sweep the country for any gangs that we know work with other villages," Jiraiya said and then looked at the manuscript of his novel. "Pardon me, Shikaku, but people won't wait for much longer for the next book of the series."
o-0-o
"You know that you got lucky there?" Sanga asked as she and Naruto sat on one of the tree branches and out of the view of Konoha genin. "I could have kill you if I wanted."
"Could doesn't mean you would succeed," Naruto pointed out with a friendly smile. "And I guess that you wanted to use that water to get me wet and then use Raiton to finish it."
Sanga only chuckled and gave him an inquisitive look. "Most boys your age doesn't notice that trap."
"My sensei happily does very sadistic things to prove to me that danger can come in a very strange form," Naruto said and then paused. "Why did you call me foxy?" he asked after few moments of an awkward silence.
"I am a sensor," Sanga quietly said. "Yes, if I focus enough I can sense that ball of hatred inside of you. Frankly, anybody with any kind of a talent for sensing chakra and a bit of common sense could guess the cause. And I know a bit about the history of my clan and yours."
Naruto's head jerked uncontrollably and his eyes widened. Finding anything useful on the history of his clan inside of Konoha was a pain and the things he was given by the Hokage didn't give him that much in terms of actual information and facts. It was a nice thing to read about customs and culture, but he also wanted the history.
"Yes," Sanga said and placed her hand on his shoulder, making him shift uneasily. "Hashirama-sama married an Uzumaki woman by the name of Mito. Who sealed into herself Kyuubi no Yoko and thus she became what you call a jinchuuriki. You being another doesn't surprise me much. Hashirama-sama was said to subdue all nine of them."
"Jinchuuriki?" Naruto repeated, tasting the word. "What is it?"
"Human sacrifice," Sanga said with a strange, faraway expression. "A human babe is used to seal one of the bijuu into it." She sighed and looked at Naruto. "I know the bare minimum because we ran into one not so long ago and hiding the fact that he was one was pointless. So Tou-san, Ryujin-sama for you, taught me about it and how to recognize one when I sense them. If you want to learn more, ask your sensei or your leader, the Hokage."
"I will," Naruto said and shook his head. "Just hard to understand for me. Well, understand and accept."
Sanga chuckled and Naruto arched an eyebrow in confusion. "You're less annoying than my twin brother," she said. "And smarter, not a thing I expected. But honestly, you will be fine and if I'm right about what Tou-san is planning, we will be joining Konoha. Not on the terms the Hokage will like, just in ours."
"That's nice."
"I bet you will be whining when I kick your ass," someone said and Naruto slowly turned. Just to see someone that looked like a copy of Sanga, just in a male body. Same brown hair and red eyes, even the same confident smirk that Sanga had.
"Raiden, I wondered where you were," Sanga murmured in a way that made Naruto arch his eyebrow in an unasked question. "He is my twin brother, younger brother as a matter of fact."
"And the more talented one," Raiden countered with a smirk. "Admin it, sis, I can kick your ass."
"Only when I let you," Sanga said, a bright smile on her face. "But now, be a nicer guy than this."
"Or what?"
"Tou-san might be unhappy," Sanga said with a smirk as Raiden's expression quickly changed. "I thought that you recognize Naruto as the one I fought during that challenge."
Raiden paled and sat down on the branch. None of his confidence and happiness on his face. "I didn't watch the challenge," he said with an embarrassed smile. "I was too busy with more pleasant things."
"Is he always like that?" Naruto asked.
"Showing off, immature, irritating and annoying?" Sanga asked and Naruto only nodded. "Yep, he's my brother and seems he inherited the worse part of the genes. I don't understand how we are related to each other. Sometimes I wish he was not a brother of mine."
"He's a lot like a friend of mine," Naruto said and frowned. "He's just more brooding and sulking, not immature."
"Are there any normal and not irritating ninja out there?" Sanga asked with a groan. "We're all a strange bunch of people and I can't find anybody that's normal."
"Neither can I," Naruto said and groaned. "Do you have anything more comfortable than this branch?"
"Raiden, show him," Sanga said and disappeared in a shunshin.
"Show what?"
"Hot springs where you can laze around and tell me how did you beat my sister," Raiden said.
o-0-o
Sasuke parried a kunai coming towards his face and then let Yamato pass him. The jonin moving forward and easily catching another ninja off-guard. Making the Uchiha only smirk at another corpse on the ground. This one with a kunai thrust between their ribs and towards their heart.
"That's more resistance than I expected," Yamato commented and Sasuke only nodded. Too numb from everything he saw and did to talk. The underground maze was a dark and gloomy place, filled with things that made his stomach turn, wondering how sick someone who owned this place was.
"Do you have an idea who owns this place, sensei?" Sasuke asked as he summoned a small ball of flames and kept above his palm to illuminate the corridor ahead of them.
"It's either Shimura Danzo or Orochimaru," Yamato said. "I wouldn't tell you normally, but considering what we saw. It doesn't matter now. Whether you know it or not is the least of your worries."
Sasuke grunted, his chokuto flashing and slicing in half through a weak Fuuton jutsu. He then stepped forward and thrust. The blade sunk into the darkness ahead and dug into the body of the attacker. He pulled it upwards and then with a twist pulled out, body falling in its wake.
Another kid, their face covered by a featureless mask that didn't reveal anything. He stepped over it and stopped attack of the another fake ANBU, right as Yamato moved forward and killed them. A flash of chakra flew through the ceiling, lightning up dozens of kanji and then Sasuke's eyes widened as he recognized a familiar pattern. A pattern used when making explosives using chakra, this one was just on a much bigger scale and much stronger.
"It's a trap!" he yelled, turning around and running towards the entrance into the maze.
o-0-o
Anko smiled widely as she entered a building that on the outside looked as if it was about to collapse and was a ruin. Yet in Konoha many buildings looked as such, mainly to keep curious eyes away and allow the occupants of them some kind of peace and secrecy.
"Why are we here, sensei?" Sakura asked as she looked around with widened eyes.
"Because some things the ninja use are hidden from the eyes of the normal people," Anko said with a shrug and shoved open door ahead of her. "And because sometimes we want to have the peace and calm while we discuss our plans. In this case the latter."
Sakura dumbly nodded and followed Anko into dimly lit room clouded in the tobacco smoke. As she passed through the door an invisible force almost threw her out of the room. The stench of the tobacco was so strong. "Eww," the pink haired kunoichi said. "It stinks."
"And keeps curious people out," Anko said as she walked to one of the empty tables in the far corner of the room. "Sit down, pinky." Sakura obeyed and Anko smiled, placing two scrolls on the table between them. "Those two contain information about missions for you. A friend of mine wants those two people gone. He doesn't inquire into how they're gone. They just need to be gone."
"Sensei?"
"Yes, Sakura?"
"What do you mean as gone?"
"Dead," Anko said bluntly. "Ideally in a way that looks like an accident or something that can't be traced back to you. Or at least can make you look as if you acted in self-defense."
"Why?" Sakura asked. "Why can't I simply poison them and be done with it?"
"Because they are also ninja of Konohagakure no Sato and killing them so openly would be a murder," Anko said and sighed. "If you murdered a civilian we would have the investigation end with no conclusion or toss someone else in your place. With ninja, that won't fly because too many people that have power will demand answers and even if ANBU who are the ones that carry out such investigations don't like being forced. They still need to obey those commands from higher ups. Politics in our village are a mess and a chance that someone will want answers is too high to risk. Can I pull you out of a mess if you screw up? Yes, but the cost will be high and if I can I want to avoid it."
"ANBU carries out investigations related to shinobi?" Sakura asked with a frown on her face. "We were taught it was Military Police."
"All of which lies in its graves," Anko said with a roll of her eyes. "Since the Uchiha clan was killed it is a duty of ANBU to carry out all of such investigations. We are working on starting new police force, but for now it is ANBU that does it. Anyways, what do you remember from what I taught you about espionage, assassination and illusions?"
"That the best way for me would be to use genjutsu and make them want to drag me somewhere secluded," Sakura said and swallowed. "Me say smothering them with a pillow or something in an attempt to defend myself will look clean and nice for the higher ups."
"Indeed," Anko said and smiled. "There are some fast acting and very useful poisons I will give you. But the approach with self-defense is the safest one for me and I will be watching you so I can step in when things get out of hand and kill them."
"I understand," Sakura said and swallowed. "When I was enrolled I never expected that I would need to do so much killing, stealing and murdering people when they don't have any warning."
"Well, then you clearly aren't an ANBU candidate," Anko said and reached for sake that appeared within her reach. "We do everything the Kage isn't proud of, murder traitors, trigger wars and so on." Seeing Sakura's expression of shock and confusion Anko only laughed. "Yes, we do things you never find mentioned in the books. The reports that are for the jonin to see are often censored to hide what we did before they could be allowed to act."
"Aren't we supposed to do what the nobles don't want to admit doing?" Sakura asked, her face almost ashen.
"Yes and no," Anko said and took a small sip of the alcohol. Enjoying its burning taste. "You see, there are things that need to be done. But at the same time nobody can known how did they happen. The ANBU are the only part of our forces that stays almost completely off the records and is pretending to be invisible."
Sakura sat there silently for several long moments. Her mind incapable of comprehending what her sensei was telling her.
"Yes, you and most of genin is aware that the ANBU exists," Anko said and sighed. "But for the average civilian and even most of the richer nobles we are a rumor. A scary rumor that's like a Sannin, everybody heard about it, everybody knows it's there, but not many saw it. Yet at the same time hushed whispers of their presence can soothe a lot of troubles before they grow. Nobody wants to lose their heads or have their dirty secrets revealed to the public."
"Are the gossips that dangerous for the nobles?" Sakura asked with a mean glean to her eyes.
"Oh, yes," Anko grinned. "I guess you should get a lesson in them and how deadly they can be for nobles…"
o-0-o
Ibiki climbed to the top of the walls surrounding Konoha and looked off into the distance. A pillar of smoke was rising from one of the less expensive districts, not a thing that was uncommon, but usually he knew ahead of time of any fires there. "Do we know what exactly happened there?"
"Uchiha Sasuke went there with his sensei," one of the ANBU said and Ibiki's eyes narrowed into a pair of slits. "No, it wasn't Kakashi-senpai, but Yamato."
"Which isn't that much better." A grunt left Ibiki's mouth as he tried to remember who exactly had their foxhole there. "Have a squad investigate, dig out any survivors, terminate hostile ones and get Sasuke and Yamato to the hospital."
The ANBU nodded and disappeared, leaving Ibiki with the growing headache of explaining this thing to Shikaku and Jiraiya-sama. Especially Jiraiya-sama. Gama Sennin was not a person that would buy lies and probably would be unhappy that something like this wasn't found and disarmed. A thing Ibiki wasn't too pleased about either and he felt like he needed to have a talk with the people that should have found this thing long ago.
There were two, no, three possible reasons why this slipped his attention and none of the reports about it ever reached him or was even made. One, it was deemed abandoned and slated for disarming the traps and securing the evidence when one of the teams was free. Two, it was undetected, which meant someone would now pay with their head. Three, it was supposedly one of the ANBU bases he didn't know about and someone appropriated it for their use. Last one was the least probable, but in the byzantine and dark world of the ninja stranger things happened. Him not being able to know that there was this base, well, now formed base. Wouldn't be the strangest of things that ever happened.
It being undetected was a worrying thing that meant that someone, somewhere screwed up or intentionally made it undetected. First was bad, but a thing that happened and would continue to happen. For all their training, the ANBU were humans and did mistakes. He could understand that and tolerate as they would learn from his ire and that of those higher in the food chain of how much did they screw up. If it was the second option, he didn't want to be that poor soul once he could get his hands on whoever it was and make them confess who bribed them to do it.
"Now let's hope that Jiraiya-sama is in the listening mood," Ibiki said and leaped off the wall and down towards the roofs of the village.
o-0-o
"Naruto is a jinchuuriki of Kyuubi no Yoko," Ryujin said and the Hokage jerked nervously. "You pretend that he isn't and you are a very good at your game, but any old veteran can tell that some kid is a jinchuuriki when they see one. Which makes me wonder, what made you come with a weapon of mass destruction when you came in peace?"
The Hokage allowed himself a smile and sipped his tea. "Politics and gauging his skills… You can tell that he is most skilled and I knew that you would want to watch a fight with one of the younger generation of our shinobi."
"He is most skilled, indeed, he is. He might surpass his teachers in a couple of years. Or maybe sooner, especially since he has the potential of Kyuubi locked inside of him." Ryujin then suddenly paused and looked at the Hokage. "He doesn't know what that beast of chakra is, does he?"
"I cannot share that knowledge with you, not yet anyways."
Ryujin nodded and let his gaze drift across the Konoha shinobi that tried their best to mingle with his clansmen and mostly succeeded. "I'm curious how well our people will work with each other inside of the village… Most of them got used to being forced to rely on just themselves, not on something else."
"It will be tough," the Hokage said and winced. "We haven't dealt with a new clan for over forty years. And now we have you coming, a thing that will make a lot of people feel as if myths started to walk the earth."
"That's always interesting," Ryujin said with a chuckle. "If we keep a strong hand on our people it should be manageable and hopefully they won't kill each other."
o-0-o
