Chapter Ten: Confrontation
A number of shinobis were gathered in the Hokage's office when Minato and Jiraiya appeared. The Sandaime was there, along with Shunshu, Pearl, Kousetsu and Tenken. Tenken was standing to one side, refusing to even look at the Yondaime and the members of the FIRE Nine glanced from Tenken to the Yondaime and back again before exchanging worried looks with each other.
Every single person in the room could sense the tension in the air.
Tenken finally broke the silence, turning towards Minato – her bandanna and eye mask that concealed her identity in one of her sealing scrolls. The only thing that could identify her as a member of the FIRE Nine is her trench coat.
"Why?" she asked. "Why did you pick me to seal the Kyuubi in? I know that you're my father. I'm no fool. I could put two and two together. I looked nearly exactly like you and only the Namikaze clan had golden blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes in the entire village of Konoha. My last name is Uzumaki and Uzumaki Kushina is a name quite well-known in the ninja world. She's one of Konoha's best ANBU captains after all. It didn't take me too long to figure it out. I am a shinobi, after all."
Minato shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other as he met the glare of his daughter head on. "I…I couldn't ask another parent to sacrifice their own child," he confessed. "I knew what kind of life Jinchuurikis led. I could only trust my own child to make the sacrifice."
Tenken's famous temper came to the surface just then and anything in the office that isn't standing firm was immediately blown backwards by the force of Tenken's chakra. Papers, pens and pencils went flying and the Hokage tried to keep his paperwork – which is already three feet tall from the aftermath of the invasion – standing on his desk.
"Oh? Well, I got a whole lot of things to say to you, dear father!" she sneered. "One, Kyuubi's summoning to the mortal plane was through demon summonings. You are a master sealer, yourself. You knew that there are other ways to make Kyuubi return to his world, yet you didn't use any of the alternative methods. You instead decided to follow your kind and generous heart instead of your good-for-nothing brain and decided to do the honourable deed of sealing Kyuubi's soul into me! I really applaud you for being so fanatically idiotic!" Everyone present flinched at the venom in her words. Tenken's eyes were simply flashing murder right now. "At least Mum had the brains to know that the village isn't all that they seemed to be – that they are merely narrow minded idiotic fools!" Minato tried to protest, but a glare from Tenken silenced that. "And thank goodness that she at least had the sense to put up some protection against assassination attempts after the sealing that you so idiotically did!"
"I have no other choice at that time!" protested Minato. "I couldn't just ask someone else for their child and I honestly didn't think that the village would take it that far. I thought that they would at least honour my wish."
Tenken laughed bitterly. "At least Mum had the brains to think that far ahead when you went ahead with your idiotic plan for the sealing," she said. "Any chance that you had of being a father to me went out of the window thirteen years ago when you left me in the village."
"Come on, Naru," pleaded the Yondaime. "Just give me a chance? Please?"
Tenken stared at him for a few seconds before sighing. "If you can even lay one finger on me, I'll consider forgiving you," she stated. "In half-an-hour, head to training ground 18. I'll be waiting for you there."
She then disappeared in a flash of silver and Pearl sighed. "You'd better go all out against her if you want to so much as lay a finger on her," she stated. "You are the Yondaime; you know better than anyone how powerful the FIRE Nine are. Tenken is the best among us – even surpassing the commander in strength. The FIRE Nine do not live for the Hokage – we live for the Fire Country, for the village. And anyone we deemed a threat, we eliminate. This goes for the Hokage as well if we decide that they are not worthy of the post. This is the will of the Shodaime Hokage and it is a law that can't be changed."
"What has happened to her?" asked Minato. "I knew that she is going to be pissed when she sees me, but I didn't expect her to be this mad."
The Sandaime sighed and pulled out an extremely thick file from one of his drawers and placed it on his desk. Minato's eyes went wide as he saw how thick the file was. Kami, it is even thicker than most dictionaries!
"This is a list of the number of hospital visits that she's made even before she turned six," explained the Sandaime and Minato's eyes nearly popped out of its sockets. "Number of assassination attempts before the age of six, sixty-nine. Number of hospital visits, three hundred and fifty six. This stopped for a while when she was apprenticed to the FIRE Nine when she turned six. Then, when she appeared in the village again as herself instead of her FIRE Nine self, the attacks begun again. But it soon stopped when Naru fought back and the first time this happened, she sent six men into the hospital with numerous broken bones and concussions. The last that I heard, three of them are still in the ICU unit."
"The council didn't do anything, did they?" asked Minato carefully. He'd kill the council if they so much as touch a hair on his daughter's head!
The Sandaime shook his head. "No, they didn't," he said. "I'd changed a lot of things when Naru became Tenken, Number Three of the FIRE Nine. We disbanded Roots and executed most of the members. Danzo was executed as well and most of the shinobi clans were on her side. They were not aware of her status as an ANBU in the FIRE Nine. They assumed that she's an ANBU captain in the Black Ops division. Only the civilian council was against her."
Shunshu tapped the Yondaime's shoulder. "It's best if you get to the training grounds now," he said. "And I'd advise you not to hold back on her. I trained her myself; I knew what she's capable of. She could take down a bijuu single handedly using her own power. That should speak volumes about her ability. Don't hold back on her. She most definitely won't hold back on you."
The Yondaime nodded nervously before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Shunshu sighed before removing his FIRE Squad guise and turned towards a corner of the office. "What do you think, commander?"
Suzaku stepped out from the shadows of the office, wearing a frown on her face. "I only hope that this won't end up in a repeat of the Yoruichi incident six years ago," she said grimly. "Shihouin Yoruichi was one of the best in the FIRE Nine, like how Tenken was. And when she turned traitor, four members of the FIRE Nine were sent to take her down. Tenken was among them. And when she was killed, her own apprentice, Soi Fon disappeared."
"Tenken won't turn traitor," said Pearl confidently. "I believe in her. She is loyal to the village, no matter what she tells us."
Suzaku sighed before nodding. "I know," she said. "But sensei is going to have his work cut out for him in getting her forgiveness. That girl isn't exactly known for being very forgiving. She can be quite ruthless and cruel, especially to enemies and Leaf traitors."
The mask of the commander of the FIRE Squad fell off, revealing her true face. This was a cue for the members of the FIRE Nine to remove their masks which they did. Haku sighed. "Only time will tell," she said. "Rin-sama."
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In an unknown place:
A pair of arguing voices were quite loud as they argued back and forth, not caring what others will care, and then again, the place where they were in was quite deserted.
"Now look here, Arisawa Kegio!" said one of the men angrily. He was wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it and was looking quite pissed off. "I have no intention of interfering with whatever you intend to do with the Jinchuuriki, but you lay even one finger on Naru and I'll rip you apart!"
A man with spiky black hair and golden eyes rolled his eyes about. He was wearing a black cloak similar to his partner, but with black clouds instead. "Oh sure…and I suppose that this had nothing to do with Namikaze Minato being your brother-in-law and Uzumaki Kushina being your elder sister."
Uzumaki Nagato growled low in his throat as he took a threatening step forwards. "Don't force me to use force," he growled. "You leave my niece alone or I'll send your body back to your organisation."
Kegio rolled his eyes before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Nagato growled low in his throat and three others appear behind him just then, each wearing similar cloaks to his own. The only female of the group spoke. "Shall we alert Kisame and Itachi?" she asked. "They are the ones who had warned us of this group, after all."
Nagato nodded, turning towards Konan. "Do that," he said. "Deidara, Sasori, keep an eye on that organisation."
The two mentioned nodded before all four disappeared in puffs of smoke.
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Naru had headed to training grounds 18 the moment that she had left the Hokage's office. It had been the aftermath of the invasion and everyone was busy clearing up. The council was probably having a field day with Orochimaru's death and the Yondaime's revival.
Thinking back to her past, Naru recalled the former Koneko of the FIRE Nine. Shihouin Yoruichi had been one of the best in the FIRE Nine and was one of her mentors. And she had also been her first mission and her first kill. Four members of the FIRE Nine had been dispatched to take Yoruichi down when she had turned traitor. Naru and Hinata had been made members of the FIRE Nine by then and both of them, along with Itachi and Kisame had been the ones who were sent after her. They had managed to take her down and shortly after that, Soi Fon had disappeared.
The girl was the apprentice of Yoruichi and hunter-nins had been sent after her. Soi Fon was around Naru and Hinata's age then and both knew her as a quiet girl who doesn't speak much. She specialises in assassinations and she was supposed to take the spot of Number Five in the FIRE Nine once she had completed her training, but she had turned traitor like her mentor. The hunter-nins sent after her never returned and two years later, Sai had taken the spot of Raven, Number Five in the FIRE Nine.
Naru turned around just then as the Yondaime, along with the Sandaime, Jiraiya, Itachi, Hinata and Haku appeared in the grounds. Haku could still walk about in the open as team seven didn't know her real name and face as she had been using her ANBU mask back during the mission in the Wave.
"Are you ready?" asked Naru and the Yondaime nodded. Naru's eyes narrowed considerably. "If you want to so much as lay a finger on me, you'd better come at me with the intention to kill!"
The next moment, Naru had disappeared in a flash of silver and appeared right in front of the Yondaime who didn't have any time to react and was caught with the kick to the stomach and Naru swung her leg about in a roundabout kick, effectively tripping him up, but Minato merely broke his fall with his hands and promptly back flipped before getting to his feet again.
The Yondaime's eyes were wide as he stared at his daughter. 'She's fast! She's even better than the former FIRE commander!'
"I've told you before," said Naru, taking out a kunai and holding it in front of her. "Don't hold back. Because I most definitely won't. You're the Yondaime; you knew better than anyone that the members of the FIRE Nine had power and strength that even surpasses the kages. I'm ending this fight in five minutes. I can't afford to blow my cover as one of the FIRE Nine."
She disappeared again in a flash of silver and a split second later, appeared in front of Minato again. The Yondaime was not to be outdone, however. Streaks of yellow and silver could be seen about on the training ground and Hinata's eyes widened with shock. "S-She's improved on Flash?" she muttered before turning to Itachi and said guy nodded. "You knew?"
"Of course," said Itachi. "I was the one who helped her improve Flash. She doesn't need time intervals between her usages of her Flash technique. In a way, it's even better than Hiraishin as her body just uses it automatically. And while Hiraishin's movements can still be seen, Flash couldn't. All you can see are streaks of silver."
"But still…" said Haku, turning towards the fight. The onlookers could barely catch glimpses of the fast paced battle. They could only hear the occasional clangs of metal on metal and the occasional wind or ice jutsu from Naru and the Yondaime. "The Yondaime is doing pretty well to keep up with her. Only Itachi and Rin-sama could manage to keep up with Naru during spars. The rest of us are lucky if we can even put a scratch on her."
"Rasengan!"
The Yondaime is getting desperate now; how on earth was he supposed to know that his daughter's strength even surpassed that of the former FIRE commander who is the only one who could fight on the same level as the Yondaime himself?!
"I'm ending it right now!" said Naru as she placed her hands together in a seal and the temperature of the surroundings dropped several degrees and ice coated the grounds. "Ice Element: Raining Icicles!"
The next moment, the Yondaime found himself dodging icicle shards which were raining from the sky and with a flash of silver, Naru disappeared again, along with all the icicle shards and the Yondaime found himself facing the sharp point of a kunai in his daughter's hand, her other hand on his arm.
"I've…lost?"
"Not exactly," said Naru, straightening up and letting the Yondaime up. "You managed to land a hit." A tear was visible on Naru's left coat sleeve, a slight trickle of blood streaming down it. "But this doesn't mean that you're forgiven!" she said sternly. "I only said that I might consider forgiving you. It's going to take a lot of work for me to forgive you."
Itachi exchanged glances with Hinata before he nodded and stepped forwards. "Hokage-sama, could you and Yondaime-sama and Jiraiya-sama go and deal with the aftermath of the invasion?" he asked and the Sandaime nodded. "I have some business with Naru." He turned towards Haku and Hinata. "Leave."
All shinobis present took that tone to flee as fast as they could and Itachi turned towards Naru.
"What, sempai?" asked Naru and Itachi raised an eyebrow; Naru never call him 'sempai' like how Hinata or Haku sometimes did. She only did that if she's really pissed off.
Itachi sighed and drew his wakizashi. "It's been a while since we had sparred against each other," he stated. "Come at me, Naru. Let all your anger out. You seemed to have forgotten your shinobi training. And as a member of the FIRE Nine, emotions are a dangerous thing. Let's see if you have surpassed me."
Naru looked at Itachi for a few moments before she shrugged and took a ready stance. "This won't be just a normal spar, will it?" she asked and Itachi shook his head.
"No," he said. "Take this 'spar' as you would when fighting an enemy." His eyes then took on a dangerous glint. "Because trust me, I won't go easy on you as well. Don't hold back on me. Show me why you're called Tenken, Number Three of the FIRE Nine, the best ninja in all of Konoha."