A/N – Another short chapter, but I think a lot of people will be very, very happy with the things at the end of it...
o-0-o
"What did happen?"
That question was one Ibiki expected, yet didn't know how to answer. He was the one that ran counter-espionage and espionage operations and usually knew what was happening in the village. Yet now he was lacking any convincing answer for the man that was one of the most dangerous ninja ever born in Konoha.
"Ibiki, I'm patient," Jiraiya said and sighed. "Yet even I don't like no answer."
"Frankly, we don't know what happened." Ibiki saw the expression of Jiraiya harden and he internally flinched. That was no good for him. "I have theories, but none of them has any evidence to back it up."
"Speak."
"One, one of our abandoned facilities. Someone tripped one of traps and it blew up. Two, someone hid it from us and bribed one of ANBU not to mention it. Three, one of our ANBU bases that I didn't know about."
Jiraiya nodded and turned to look out of the window. The pillar of smoke and dust still rising into the sky. "A single trap wouldn't do it," he said slowly. "The amount of chakra that was used suggests more like a massive bomb mixed with incendiary charges."
"We don't plant such bombs in our facilities inside of the village."
"We long ago used to," Jiraiya said and looked at Ibiki. "Or at least Danzo did it. Orochimaru I think does it now."
"Jiraiya-sama are you sure it is one of them?"
"No, I'm not and won't be until any of my contacts can confirm that Orochimaru has any bases here. Or had." Ibiki flinched at this, but Jiraiya either didn't see it or didn't acknowledge it. "The first one is more probable, Danzo is a snake and a slimy snake at that. Orochimaru for all his cunning and guile isn't insane and is more careful."
"Should I do anything about any of them?" Ibiki asked as he grimly smiled. "I can have my ANBU drag out Danzo supporters and arrest them in the next two hours."
"No, let them live. Danzo will make his moves on his own. We just need to wait. As for Orochimaru, he is planning for the exams to make his big move. No need to make him get rash. Him attacking when we know he attacks is much better than when we don't know. Watch them, record their moves and adjust our plans."
"Understood," Ibiki said with a slight nod. "What about the ninja caught in the explosion?"
"I'll talk with them. If anybody is to give me any answers, it is them." Jiraiya opened the window and was about to jump out when he stopped and looked at Ibiki. "That mission that Yamato and Sasuke received. I didn't authorize it… How did it get authorized?"
"Yamato came asking for a simple C-rank mission for his student. The intelligence I had suggested that it would be it. Quick and easy mission against gangs. Not a run-in with the whatever they ran into."
"I see. Better hope that Sasuke is alive as sensei wants his precious Uchiha alive. Not buried under ruble."
"He is a capable shinobi and Yamato was with him. If anybody was to get them both out of troubles, it is Yamato or Kakashi."
o-0-o
Inoichi dropped onto the street in front of what used to be a warehouse and frowned. The building was simply gone. Collapsed onto itself as if some angry deity smashed it into the ground. Whoever was behind this wanted to make sure that nobody would be able to get out of the trap and wanted to bury them alive.
"And probably all of the evidence they could give us, too," he muttered darkly as he cautiously moved forward. He wasn't normally tasked with investigations, but he was also high enough to be trusted with the data related to what supposedly happened here. He scanned the area and nodded to himself.
The ANBU was securing the site and making sure nobody was close to it. An important thing considering how much in terms of explosives already was set off. It wasn't an uncommon thing to booby trap whole complexes and when one triggered one of their traps they tended to disappear in a massive explosion.
Not seeing anything obviously dangerous Inoichi leaped to the ANBU that was the captain of one of the squads. "What did you find so far?"
"Nothing, Inoichi-sama," the captain said and indicated the rubble. "Until we have one of the Inuzukas I won't start digging through that mess. From what I can tell there can be a bomb right under the first layer of it…"
"And there probably is some," Inoichi said quietly before looking at the sky and the sun in the apex of its daily movement across the heavens. "We suspect that it was done either by Orochimaru or Danzo."
"Their bases are a maze full of traps." The captain looked at one of his operatives on the ground and sent a quick message in the sign language of the ANBU. "The only thing of note so far are few bodies we found outside of the rubble."
"Show me them."
Inoichi followed the ANBU who led him to three bodies placed in the shadows and covered with some cloth. "They all died before the explosion."
"Stabbing wounds," Inoichi said quietly as he kneeled and looked more closely at the corpses. "Probably they were thugs tasked with guarding the warehouse. I don't know what kenjutsu style Sasuke knows, but whoever did it was proficient with the blade. Or lucky." He paused and looked more closely at them. "They I think were just roadblocks aimed to slow down the ANBU and keep more curious eyes away."
"They could be also there to just make sure that the warehouse was guarded."
"Which they failed to do," Inoichi commented dryly. "But then Sasuke is more than capable of killing few thugs and Yamato would rip them apart with his bare hands if given an opportunity."
"Whoever did it wasn't subtle. They did it quickly and in an efficient manner, but there was nothing stealthy in it. So whoever did it planned for their presence and had an idea on how to deal with them."
Inoichi nodded and let out a troubled sigh. "Yamato was an ANBU, a darn good one. Sasuke is a capable child that probably learned a thing or two from his sensei. Which means we might have second coming of Itachi," he said and shook his head. "Well, if Sasuke wasn't already a mental mess. But that can wait for later." Inoichi stood up and dusted off his pants. "Get the Inuzukas you need and dig Sasuke and Yamato out. And then make sure that the whole complex is collapsed."
"Hai, Inoichi-sama."
Inoichi nodded and leaped onto the roof of a nearby building. His gaze immediately drawn to the massive form of the Hokage rock. The single thing that kept all of the Konoha together and was a visible sign of its long past. As he looked at it he had a strange feeling that Konoha would need those things very soon.
The clouds were gathering, off in the distance yet. However in the world of the ninja peace could last for the next few decades or it could last for a week. Nobody knew when one of the foreign leaders would make a move triggering the next war between the villages. The chunin exams were the most obvious, yet everybody expected the troubles to happen then. Robbing attackers of the surprise, giving the defender a huge advantage of choosing not only the time, but also the place. Inoichi lived through one world war and he didn't want to live through another, nor he wanted Ino to live through it.
Yet now it seemed that nothing would stop the countries from starting it and killing each other in their quest for power, might, glory and in some cases survival. In a few also out of spite and vengeance. Humans were petty and did things out of very petty reasons.
o-0-o
Shikaku moved a shogi piece on the board and allowed himself a smile as he looked at Hyuuga Hiashi. "Hiashi-dono, can I expect your support with this new idea of mine?" the patriarch of the Nara clan asked and reached for a saucer filled with sake. "Support of your clan would be appreciated and would alleviate much of the tensions and infighting within the village."
"Shikaku-dono, it all depends on what can you offer for the support we can give," Hiashi said, moving a piece across the board. "I know how our world works and I know that an alliance can be broken minutes after it was signed. It happened to my clan in the past and I lost a brother to it."
Shikaku winced in acknowledgement, showing emotions was a risky, but often a useful and good thing in the ninja world. "That one evening was a fault on our part, of not trusting our intelligence and ANBU that reported that Kumo was up to something. We knew that they would do something, yet the Hokage made us dismiss it and assume our agents were wrong," Shikaku said and looked into the eyes of Hiashi. "I cannot return you the life of your brother, but I can tell you how did it happen that Kumo was allowed to slip through our security."
"Hokage-sama never mentioned it," Hiashi said and then added with a malign smile that didn't convey much good. "I wonder why."
"Why do you think he didn't tell you?"
"Because he didn't want to destroy the mood?" Hiashi asked and Shikaku was unsure if the Hyuuga was saying this in jest or was serious.
Shikaku chuckled softly and then shook his head. "No, no. He trusted Danzo more than he trusted us and that old warhawk said there would be nothing bad happening. I understand that Shimura Danzo is an old shinobi, with decades of experience and that he is a comrade of our Hokage…"
"But this was so foolhardy and stupid it doesn't sound like our Hokage," Hiashi said and then his eyes narrowed, veins around them bulging out. "I don't have personally much experience with genjutsu, but such a strange behavior is a sign of one."
"It is," Shikaku agreed with a heavy sigh and noticed the bulged out veins. "Do you expect troubles?"
"They found us," Hiashi said as he stood up and moved. His body moving so fast that it was more of a blur than anything. He struck out and moments later a limp body of a masked ANBU dropped onto the ground next to Shikaku. "That's not ANBU, Shikaku-dono."
"No, it is not." Shikaku pulled out a kunai and gently pressed it against the throat of the ANBU, his second hand reaching to the blank mask and ripping it away. "I know all of the ANBU personally. This one is an unknown one. Not a new recruit as he wouldn't have the right to use a mask."
"So our friend decided that he doesn't like us talking about his secrets?"
"Most likely," Shikaku grunted. "I was curious where he was for past few weeks, but now we know he has been watching us from the shadows and listening to our plans." The Nara frowned and then looked at Hiashi. "Do you see anybody else around us?"
"No…. There was one more when I struck down this one, but since then they're gone."
"That's less than ideal… I think we need to finish our meeting on some other time and now I need to drop this one off at T&I and ask Ibiki to crack down on our friend. He gutted out the supportive structures inside of our official organizations, but didn't touch yet those buried deeper."
"He should have also gutted out ROOT," Hiashi said and Shikaku only nodded. "Yet I guess he had other priorities than that."
"Foreign agents and Orochimaru." Shikaku picked up the body and then leaped onto the roof. "I suggest that the next time we meet at your compound, Hiashi-dono. Especially since we tend to attract a lot of attention and yours is closer to the center of the village."
o-0-o
Sasuke grunted as he looked around. Everything around was blurry and dark, even the enhanced vision provided by the Sharingan didn't let him see much. The dust was everywhere and he could see barely anywhere further than his chest.
He tried to move and he found he was unable to do it. A massive chunk of concrete was laying across his legs, keeping them and him in place. A pained groan escaped his lips as the pain finally got through his dazed and shocked mind.
He moved, or tried to move his leg and a pain shot through his lower body. A loud scream ripping out of his throat. He was a ninja, used to pain in all kinds and flavors of it since he was an infant. Yet the training didn't prepare him for the feeling he was now experiencing.
o-0-o
Yamato wiped sweat off his brow as he finished channeling chakra into the wooden wall he summoned to stop the debris and fire. That warning from Sasuke came at the very last moment. Seconds more and they both would be crushed by the pieces of the building that crashed upon them, incinerated by the flames or killed by the force of the explosion.
"That was close," he murmured and rummaged in a pouch he had on his belt. He pulled out of it a flare and lit up. He needed the light, security and the chance of discovery was a secondary issue for him. Especially now when he was pretty darn sure that everybody else in those corridors was as buried as he was. Or dead.
About that second possibility he didn't want to think about because of Sasuke. Yet it was still a very real thing and his experience told him that it was more probable than serious injuries or none at all.
In the bright light of the flare he looked around. Outside of the dome formed by his jutsu everywhere was stone, concrete and steel. Most of it coming from the structures above destroyed by the explosions. Sasuke was somewhere behind it, most likely partially buried in the whole mess and getting to him was a priority for Yamato.
Considering his options for few seconds Yamato placed his hand on his wooden wall and channeled more chakra into it. Extending it towards the direction when Sasuke roughly was. Then he made a couple of handseals and as his fist was covered in rocks he smiled before punching concrete in front of him.
The block shattered into dust, those above kept by the wood that prevented them from falling. "Let's hope it holds," an ANBU turned jonin-sensei murmured as he looked at the wood.
Seeing no bends, cracks or fissures he moved forward and started to move aside and destroy further pieces of debris on his path. Slowly clearing out more and more space that gave him more breathing room and opened him further possibilities.
o-0-o
Jiraiya leaped from roof to roof. Four ANBU around him in a protective detail. Then a hail of kunai came out of nowhere and forced the whole group to scatter. The deadly, howling projectiles making sure they were far apart from each other.
Jiraiya reached out to a nearby branch of an oak tree and grasped it before nimbly landing atop it. Kunai harmlessly flying below him. "That was close," he murmured, his keen eyes scanning the cityscape around him. Trying to see the unseen assailant that dared to attack him.
Dared to attack him in the middle of Konoha. The village that was his home and the place he swore to defend as a shinobi and did for more than forty years. The one that attacked him here of all places was either extremely brave or stupid. Or a combination of both.
Any of the Sannin was a monster of a ninja and killing one required a great amount of resources. An amount so great that most villages had a flee on sight order for all, but their most experienced ninja when coming across him or one of his former teammates. Even Tsunade who was more of a medic and potion maker was a formidable fighter that could kill jonin as if they were civilian thugs.
Which said a lot about ones attacking him. Jiraiya's eyes narrowed when an ANBU with a blank mask and a tanto with a chipped off tip dropped in front of him. "Danzo's lackeys," he commented before striking out with an open hand and smashing the chest of the ROOT in front of him.
"Where are you, warhawk?" Jiraiya asked as he looked at the corpse with most of its chest gone or pulverized. "I want to have words with you."
"I think that the time of Hiruzen is over," Danzo said, stepping out of the shadow of the leaves. "And for the village to reach greatness you also need to be gone."
"Eh, killing me isn't easy," Jiraiya said calmly as he prepared for fight. "There's a reason why Danzo gave us the title of Sannin. And since then I only grew in power and knowledge."
"And I had been trained by the Nidaime Hokage himself," Danzo said before tossing kunais at Jiraiya.
Jiraiya leaped out of the path of the incoming projectiles and landed on the roof of a house below. With danger avoided he considered his options for a fraction of a second before smiling and flashing through a chain of seals.
A ball of flames exploded from his mouth and roared forth towards Danzo. It exploded and enveloped the old warhawk and much of the tree in a fiery embrace. Setting it ablaze and consuming rapidly.
"He trained you well," Danzo said as he appeared above Jiraiya, sword held in his outstretched hands. The blade of the katana sliced through Jiraiya's head and chest, right as he turned into a pile of mud.
He's not toying around, Jiraiya thought as he watched Danzo from a distance away, I can beat him. But Kami only knows what Orochimaru did to him and what he has hidden under those bandages. He certainly isn't the old, infirm elder he poses to be.
Jiraiya stepped into the open. His hands already moving and sending a wave of shuriken and kunai towards his opponent. "Katon – Ryuka no Jutsu!" Jiraiya roared and a dragon shaped ball of flames hurled itself towards Danzo.
Such a Katon attack was not a jutsu any ninja, even a jonin could toss around like it was nothing. Yet Jiraiya was a Sannin, a ninja that was a level or two above the average elite of the world. However the same was true for Danzo, a ninja born in the times when clans engaged in an eternal war and ninja grew up quickly.
"Doton – Doryuheki!" Danzo said and a barrier of mud appeared in front of him. The fire washing over it harmlessly. Only managing to scorch the outside surface and not doing any damage to the person behind it. "Doton – Doryudan!"
Jiraiya's eyes widened as his sensei's trademark jutsu was used against him and in a shunshin he was gone out of its path. Seconds later appearing above Danzo, right leg extended and on the collision course with the head of the warhawk.
"You can't beat me," Danzo said, effortlessly moving out of the way of the kick and responding with his own. One that caught Jiraiya completely by surprise and hurled him flying into a nearby house.
Jiraiya smashed into a wall with a force of a wrecking ball and punched through the wall as if it wasn't there before stopping inside of a room. Pieces of debris scattered around him as he got up and considered his options.
"Time to pull all stops and summon Them," he said grimly and bit on his thumb, drawing some blood.
o-0-o
Naruto let out a happy sigh as he lowered himself into a water that was just the right temperature. Not too hot and not too cold. Perfect for helping him relax his sore and abused muscles after the insane fight with Sanga.
"You realize that my sister has hots for you?" Raiden asked with a bit of a chuckle.
Naruto tensed and looked at the boy with a bit of surprise.
"It's pretty obvious once you know her," Raiden continued, ignoring the startled expression. "Also, you are a pretty decent fighter so that makes us respect you a bit more. I mean, you managed to defeat my sister who's pretty strong…"
"I didn't even try that much," Naruto said and paused, looking for words. "Just until recently I was a dead last of my class at the Ninja Academy and on my team. Until my current sensei started to train me individually. So now I want to show him and our leader, the Hokage, that I'm not a dead last and that I am a strong ninja."
Raiden chuckled at this and Naruto looked at him in some confusion. "You are a strong ninja," he said and then let out a content, relaxed sigh. Submerging himself deeper in the water. "For once, relax and forget about the world. This place is as safe as it can be. Especially since the whole clan is gathering and we have sentries around our whole camp."
o-0-o
A/N – Some bombs dropped, now I can leave you waiting until Christmas for the next chapter or so. On a more serious note, maybe a chapter or two will show up soon, or maybe not.
Reviews – Won't comment on any because denying or confirming anything would spoil the fun for me.