Disclaimer: Naruto and all associated characters are a property of Masashi Kishimoto. Motoko Kusanagi and all associated elements and characters of Ghost in the Shell are properties of Masamune Shirow.
Jutsu: Original (Translation)
Bijū/Summon/Android Speaking
Bijū/Summon/Android Thoughts
Mental Communications
[Chat Box/Text communication]
Beta v.1.8
VIP Box Poseidon Global Dome
A small group of cloaked individuals huddled over a pile of crates as they spoke in hushed voices with each other. Several of the crates were opened revealing satellite broadcasting equipment, large television camera's and their mobile tripods, and large bundles of various cables that were different sizes, colors, and diameters. The whispered conversation would occasionally rise in volume before another cloaked individual would hiss at his companions to keep their voices down. While this occurred, all the of the individuals were gesturing wildly at each other or the haphazard pile of equipment in front of them.
Across the room, another group of cloaked individuals watched over the assembled Daimyō and their entourages with weapons clearly displayed to keep the unruly lords and nobles subdued. Occasionally, the fussy patricians would test the boundaries of their enslavers before being thoroughly reminded of their impotence in this situation. Already a few of the more vocal nobleman were displaying signs of bruising and minor cuts from where they were forcibly put in place. Now most of them were simply content to glare and mutter at their captors while placating themselves with the remaining beverages within their reach.
At least the brutes weren't preventing them from visiting the lavatories, even if the were forced to bear with the indignity of an armed escort.
The man identified as Yahiko was pacing restlessly as he kept a close eye on the Kage with his ever faithful companion, Konan, at his side. A few more terrorists stood in a line behind the pacing man, seemingly awaiting orders or offering their presence as some sort of comfort to the agitated man.
Hiruzen watched all of this with a calculating gaze and a bit of amusement at the agitated state of the terrorist leader. Usually, people became more frightened or nervous when the terrorists were agitated because they tended to become more violent in that situation. For Hiruzen, however, it was a sign that outside influences were moving against this mysterious group and the leader wasn't capable or determined enough to stop the inevitable from occurring.
Mainly the failure of their "mission" and eventual capture/death at the hands of the interference.
Sarutobi wasn't entirely certain committed the brazen idealist was to accomplishing his goals, but part of him suspected that this "Yahiko" wouldn't be willing to sacrifice the lives of others in the quest for his goal. When the teen began to order an evacuation of the area, that was Hiruzen was confident the worst would come. As long as that blue haired woman and the other terrorists remained, it didn't matter how panicked or unstable the boy became. Hiruzen also suspected that the brash young man wasn't one to come up with multiple contingency plans, having faith that his "righteous" goals would succeed because of some foolish belief that the nobility of his actions would ensure they succeeded.
A lot of idealists failed to recognize reality when it came to their delusions of grandeur. Far too many of them blinded by their morals and zealotry to recognize that the world was in the current state that it was in because those who were "good" in their minds refused to play dirty to achieve their goals. Only the ruthless, the cunning, the relentless were the ones to succeed in establishing a revolution. If one wasn't willing to make hard choices or be insidious to their enemies, one could not hope to succeed in moving their agenda forward.
Suddenly the orange haired young man stormed over to the whispering group and began speaking in a harsh, but low tones. Hiruzen subtly channeled chakra to his ears to listen in, keeping a close eye on the blue haired woman that was watching them warily.
"What the hell is the hold up over here?" Yahiko hissed.
"I'm sorry Yahiko-sama, but none of us have ever set up the equipment without Keiko's help." one of the men replied.
"I kept telling them we should put together what we know, but they don't want to face Keiko's wrath if they start without her." another man replied.
I don't give a damn what Keiko says or does, start putting together what you can now. Nagato is waiting on us!" Yahiko replied.
"But Keiko should have arrived already." another man spoke up before being shushed. When he spoke again, Hiruzen could barely pick up what he was saying.
"-minutes ago. - must be wrong if she hasn't-"
"I'll check to see what the hold up is. You guys just start setting everything up can now. If Keiko has a problem with it, she can take her complaints to Nagato." Yahiko growled out before storming back over towards his blue-haired accomplice.
Hiruzen noticed that both the Raikage and Mizukage were paying close attention to the terrorist leader, confirming his suspicions that they had been listening in on the conversation as well. Ōnoki seemed to be lost in his own world at the moment, something that made Hiruzen very suspicious. While the Tsuchikage was a notoriously opportunistic backstabber if there was one thing that Ōnoki hated more than anything was being disrespected and looked down upon. Hiruzen had expected the short Kage's pride to have been rubbed sore at his capture and imprisonment. Especially when he was forced to have a pair of attendants follow him to the in-suite restroom.
'That old fool must have been warned about this group by his spies within the village. Knowing that old bastard, he simply dismissed the warning as implausible due to his presence alone. After all, no one would dare capture someone of his status.' Hiruzen thought with a huff he concealed behind a ring of smoke.
The agitated leader whispered something into Konan's ear at a volume that was too low for Hiruzen to pick up. The woman didn't have any outward reaction in body language or facial expression but she signaled to a pair of men behind her before quickly leaving the VIP Box.
Taking a deep puff off of his pipe, Hiruzen pondered this turn of events and wondered if an opportunity to escape would present itself. If he could summon one of the lesser monkeys, it would be possible for Enma to reverse summon him out of danger entirely. It would take quite a bit of time to pull off, at least fifteen seconds. During that time, the terrorists might lash out at him or find some other way to subdue him. If he managed to pull it off unseen, he would be leaving his forces at the mercy of whatever group managed to take control after the chaos settled.
Plus the Daimyō would be really pissed at him, but that could easily be explained away if the man survived this mess.
Ultimately, Hiruzen decided that using that option would only be a last resort. He just hoped that the detonator had enough of a delay to allow him to escape with his life. Until then, he would wait for the right moment to convince this young man not to throw his life away on a failed plot. It might work with the right pressure applied, but Hiruzen sensed that now was not the right moment. His timing would need to be perfect and the young man at the very edge of despair so that his alternative would seem like a way out of a fiery death.
After all, it was far easier to make a statement while you were alive than when you were dead.
With Sakura
Sakura and the recon group quickly rounded the long arcing corridor as they dashed away from the latest contact with the enemy. Hitomi stated that they weren't very far from the broadcasting booth when the counter-terrorist force ran into a roaming patrol of terrorists.
Kakashi and Zabuza and quickly engaged the group while ordering them to move on ahead. With a bit of creative wall clinging and a few hastily aimed projectiles, the small group continued on their way. Knowing that time was of the essence, Gai had ordered them to abandon stealth in favor of speed so they could secure the objective faster and bunker down if necessary. If the booth turned out to be useless to their plans, it wouldn't take them long to rest up and return to the larger group.
Hitomi suddenly veered to the left up a narrow staircase, causing the Nadeshiko kunoichi, Kimiko to skid awkwardly before retracing her steps. Gai hung back to watch the flank, and to keep an eye on Ame Jōnin Genjuro; who had fallen back a ways during their escape.
The booth was sealed off with a simple trap and a locked metal door that was adjacent to a large, shattered window. The hallway was slick with the infiltrating rain, and Sakura suspected that the terrorists had run into some resistance in clearing out this section before the EMP wave went off. It was the only reason she could come up with for such a hastily laid and obvious trap being left behind.
Hitomi wasted no time in disarming the trap and scavenging the useful bits while Sakura tested the door. Unsurprisingly, the door was locked, and Sakura could tell that the metal was quite solid when she rapped her knuckles on it lightly. She could overpower it with her strength, but that would be far too noisy. Fishing in her left hip pouch, Sakura pulled out a little canvas bag that contained a slim metal object that looked like a folding knife. Unfolding a few thin metal strips revealed a portable lock picking set.
It took Sakura a few minutes to pick the lock as she hadn't practiced much, but soon the door was carefully opened and the team peeked cautiously inside.
The room was faintly illuminated by the various computer screens and control panels that still retained power. There was a small circular dais on the far end of the room that was separated by a small Plexiglas wall with a large archway carved into it; likely where the anchors or reporters would stand in front of a green screen when reporting on events that were due to start or had just finished. The rest of the room was arrayed in an amphitheater-like fashion, arching along with the rounded outer edge of the massive stadium and having several tiers of levels that were lined with computer desks and chairs.
Most of the chairs desks were still intact, with only a few on the outer edge being upended or broken. A gust of wind rattled the thin metal shutters, revealing one of the massive windows to be broken. Sakura moved closer to study the broken window while the rest of the team filed in and sealed the door shut. Hitomi found the light switch, and a long line of florescent lights sputtered into life and illuminated the room.
Sakura kneeled near the window before following the tracks further into the room. Most of them stopped in the center, but there was still a large amount of water that had been carried into the room towards the reporter dias and the computer mainframe that sat alongside it. Sakura scanned the area with suspicion and curiosity. It almost seemed like something large had been inside of this room only a short time ago, but the door had been sealed and a trap placed. Turning her gaze back to the window, Sakura began to wonder if the window had actually been broken into before or after the terrorists had seized control.
Hitomi had stated that this booth should have been empty, but the window had been broken, the furniture closest to the window had been pushed aside and broken as if there was a scuffle, then the shutters were closed to prevent any water from flooding the room and causing damage to the equipment.
Before Sakura could investigate any further, however, Gai called for her attention and pointed out a computer that he had accidentally woken up from sleep mode. Sakura stared into the reporter area for a few more seconds before turning away and moving over towards the green-clad Jōnin.
Sakura quickly scanned the computer screen before making a slight face of disgust at the operating system. She really hated OrangeX's Feline, and it was bad enough that they were using a very old version of Feline, Cougar 10.0. Cougar was slow, had very few plugins and applications, and was terrible at compatibility with other programs and hardware. If she was forced to deal with a mass produced operating system, the pinkette much rather deal with the various security issues that Nehansoft Doors was plagued with because that operating system was fully customizable and had far better compatibility with third-party programs.
Still, nothing was better than Linxus in her opinion, but it was far too complicated for most users. She tried to teach Naruto how to use it once, but he couldn't remember half of the command codes to run anything. In the end, she had given him a dumbed down version of Doors with a powerful anti-virus and malware removal program.
Removing her link necklace, Sakura plugged it into the back of her neck and extended the cable into the neural interface port. Soon she was parsing through the code directly to find the control software for the broadcasting antennae. It didn't take her long to find what she needed, but she was temporarily dismayed when she saw the system fell just short of the requirements necessary to jam the detonator signal. It was frustrating that the antennae were just out of range of what was needed, but there wasn't anything she could do about that. She was far too unfamiliar with how this system worked to bother hacking it and trying to tweak the values.
If only there was some sort of digital instruction manual for her to scan through, she might be capable of finding what she needed.
Suddenly, Sakura noticed a file folder that had just finished loading its contents. At first, she had disregarded that folder since it was filled with a bunch of video and audio files that seemed to be unrelated, but at the very bottom, there was another folder that contained a document file and an unassuming batch file. Sakura quickly opened the document file and began reading through it, only to let out a silent cheer at her discovery.
It seemed that a few of the technicians had been using this booth as a bootleg television station to broadcast an illegal hacker show. Sakura was a bit excited at the find because she had several recordings of the hosts' more creative approaches to infiltrating datapads and remote terminals. The underground hosts also went into detail on how to protect against ghost hacks and cyberbrain hacks because they felt strongly against such methods of infiltration.
Sakura quickly downloaded a copy of the folder and the batch file as a substitute autograph from the hosts, since the scripting within the file would be akin to having a unique signature applied on an external memory device.
With her fan girl moment over, Sakura began setting up the broadcasting program and following the directions to use the batch file to amplify the antenna's range by overclocking certain processors within the uplink and removing several security protocols. It wouldn't take long to set up and run, but due to the overclocking and disabled security measures, the amount of time she could send out the signal would have to be kept to a minimum. She would have to time the signal with whatever operation Kakashi planned and hope that they could contain the threat properly before the limit was reached. Otherwise, they risked a power surge and possible explosion which could trigger the various explosives planted nearby.
Sakura quickly created a script and, once everything was ready, had it pulled up and ready to run at a moment's notice. Now she just had to update Kakashi on the situation and wait for him to come up with a plan to eliminate the threat to the Hokage and Daimyō. Unplugging her neural interface from the port, she switched the program from optical input to manual input and quickly tested the mouse to ensure that it was functional.
The pinkette stood from the terminal and stretched for a moment before making her way towards the door to update Gai and the other Jōnin on the situation. Soon, Kakashi would rendezvous with them and they could form a new plan of attack.
Unnoticed by the group, a small wire was unplugged from the mainframe in the reporter's alcove. This wire was retracted into a small hole in the center of a large metal three-pronged claw that spun briefly. The subtle distortion faded after a fraction of a second, hidden by the shadowy corner the Tachikoma had concealed itself in.
With Naruto
Naruto grimaced as one of his clones was dispelled by a barrage of metal projectiles. So far, his group had kept their stairwell successfully locked down without the terrorists advancing any further. Unfortunately, the terrorists were being far more cautious than he expected, leaving themselves out of range to be seriously injured or killed once the first few had died to the electrified stairs. Now Suna Tenten and himself were doing their best to keep them at bay while Satoshi kept channeling Raiton chakra into the stairs to prevent any forward movement.
A series of explosions shook the building, and Naruto paused to scan everyone with his senses. The northern group was running back to the elevator lobby to support the central group. The terrorists in the northern stairwells were mostly retreating, but a few seemed to remain behind to try and clear a path through. That would become a problem soon if the stairs didn't get completely destroyed as intended.
Naruto sensed a few large chakra flares from the southeastern group and knew that the terrorists were busy eliminating the boulders to clear a path. Judging from his senses, everything still seemed to be on track, for the most part. The southeastern group had only begun engaging the terrorists, so they wouldn't need support from his group for quite some time. As long as the terrorists continued to play the distance game, Naruto was confident his group could keep them locked down for quite some time. The only problem would come from Satoshi's chakra reserves falling low, but at the rate he was currently dispelling chakra at, Naruto was certain he could keep the stairs electrified for almost an hour before he needed to rest and mold chakra.
As for himself, well, he still had, at least, a few hundred more clones before he even made a significant dent in his reserves. That meant that Michio had plenty of ammunition to spare, as long as she continued to avoid the metal chunks sent her way. Already the Suna kunoichi had a few close calls, especially when the chunks bounced off the metal railings and were sent flying in different angles.
The only thing Naruto was concerned about at the moment was the fact that the large signature upstairs had moved towards the elevator lobby. None of the other signatures had moved with him, so Naruto wasn't certain if he was waiting for the group coming up, or planning to take the elevators down to join the main assault on their position. The man's movement had clued Naruto to the fact that he was responsible for the strange synchronicity occurring with all the terrorists' chakra flow rates.
Was this the jutsu that he had been warned about by the terrorist in the Arena?
Chōjūrō had also mentioned something about a mind control jutsu being used, but Naruto didn't understand how that was possible through the chakra system.
Naruto was drawn out of his thoughts when Suna Tenten called out a warning.
A large canister bounced off the stairwell above them and landed near the trio of genin before a cloud of green smoke began erupting from the canister. The genin were forced to back out of the stairwell completely as the smoke began to sting their eyes and lungs. Naruto tried to block the advance of the mysterious cloud by using Fūton: Daitoppa (Great Breakthrough) to blow the smoke away from them, but more of it just kept emerging from the canister once he had fully expelled the built up wind chakra in his lungs.
Michio tried using a small wind jutsu to help Naruto disperse the cloud, but that idea was quickly shelved when several more canisters were launched towards them shortly afterward.
"No choice. We gotta blow the stairwell now or we risk them charging through the cloud before we can react." Satoshi said between coughs.
Naruto was too busy coughing to verbally respond, but he held up a hand signal that meant "confirmed" before gesturing for the others to head towards the southeastern corner. Soon, Suna Tenten and Satoshi were running off down the hallway while Naruto primed the explosive tags to go off. With a hand seal and a brief flare of chakra, the time delayed tags were set to blow. Naruto spun around and began dashing away from the stairwell at top speed, stumbling slightly when the tags finally went off and caused the ground to shake violently from the explosion. Without a thought, Naruto created a trio of clones to check all the demolished staircases and keep watch over them.
Before he could draw close towards his second fallback point, however, he ran into the southeastern team along with Michio and Satoshi. They were all running back toward his position at top speed.
"Fall back to the center, they broke through!" The Iwa kunoichi shouted at Naruto as they ran past him.
Naruto cursed before creating one more clone to act as a sentry. The clone quickly ducked into a nearby office and henged itself into a potted plant near the doorway. The blond quickly fell into step with the others as they made their way towards the main group.
"What the hell happened?" Michio shouted as they ran. "You guys barely had contact with the enemy and they overran you so easily!"
"Shut up, air head.!" Mai snapped. "I don't know what they did, but all my boulders just disappeared!"
"What do you mean disappeared?! That isn't possible!" Michio retorted before mumbling under her breath. "Stupid rock head probably got fooled by a genjutsu."
"I have to agree with the weapon user. You guys should have been able to keep that stairwell blocked far longer than our team." Satoshi added. "That was the whole reason the Jōnin had me assigned to cover you guys later on."
"She isn't lying, you guys." the Suna ninjutsu specialist countered, "I literally saw all her boulders shrink down and vanish as if they were erased from existence. I even used up my entire water supply scroll to try and flood the stairwell long enough for her to make more boulders, but all the water just disappeared once it hit that group of terrorists."
"That doesn't make any damn sense, Tatsuo." Suna Tenten growled. "No one can make jutsu just disappear like that!"
"I know what I saw, Michio. Taka would back me up on that." Tatsuo said with a huff.
Michio and Taka both glanced at each other for a moment before Michio grumbled.
"Fine. I'm sorry I didn't believe any of you, but it just doesn't seem possible!"
"Whatever. Let's just get back to Shotsuchi and warn him about it." Mai
While this conversation was taking place, Naruto had been searching that location with his sensory skill out of curiosity. He could still sense the strongest guy upstairs, but now he was feeling a second source of the same exact chakra moving up the stairwell with the rest of the terrorists. If he wasn't busy running at the moment, the blond would be scratching his head in confusion. This was far different from the typical clone jutsu, as he could still feel an underlying layer of the original chakra belonging to that person.
Where at first the man had a chakra flow rate that was synchronized with the "leader", now his chakra had essentially been suppressed or taken over by the leader's chakra. Naruto was at a loss as to how it was possible for that much of a person's chakra to be converted into a completely different person's chakra. If any more of that man's chakra had been suppressed by the leader, Naruto was certain the man would die. No one could survive a flood of foreign chakra in their system because their body would essentially have an allergic reaction to it. It was the main reason that genjutsu specialists needed as much, if not more, chakra control than a medical-nin. If they injected too much chakra into their target, the illusion would fail to take hold because their regular chakra would reject it completely. Only by fooling all the senses and the target's mind completely could they ensure that the illusion remained intact and the invading chakra was mistaken as benign or normal chakra.
Now Naruto was beginning to understand the warning he received. If this Nagato guy injected his chakra system with enough chakra, he could fully control his body and even affect his internal organs. Even though Naruto knew his own chakra reserves were close to the level of the leader, it wasn't enough to safeguard him from whatever jutsu was being used. All Nagato would need to do is flood his system with a bit more than half of his chakra and his body would shut down to try and eject the source. If he tried to resist and help his body purge the foreign chakra, his body would start to purge the invading chakra but he would be forced to endure an increasing level of anaphylaxis. By the time his body managed to purge that much chakra, his lungs would probably be closed and his heart close to stopping.
The only other option would be to relax his chakra system in order to reduce the symptoms and place his chakra system into a sort of hibernation. The foreign chakra would be able to move about without resistance and his body would eventually adapt to it with time. Of course, the blond knew that he would be caught in whatever effects this strange jutsu would have on him. From his best guess, it was a way for the leader to ensure control of his "troops".
Either way, Nagato would win.
With the Kyūbi's help, he might be able to overcome that problem. The only problem with that solution was that Naruto was uncertain if he could survive a flood of three different types of chakra in his body at the same time. In small amounts, it was possible for someone to survive an influx of multiple different chakra types. It was the only way people could learn multiple affinities, after all. With a lot of chakra types actively clashing against one another, Naruto wasn't certain he would survive the encounter.
A grumbling growl from his tenant was the only confirmation he needed to underscore his suspicion.
Naruto also considered converting as much chakra as he possibly could into reiki as a potential counter, but he dismissed that thought almost immediately afterward. Reiki naturally tried to adjust and adapt to whatever chakra source it came in contact with. While Naruto might be able to exert some level of control over the invading chakra, the reiki would also be actively trying to bond and match the foreign chakra as well. If anything, it might make his body succumb faster to the jutsu.
His only option at this point was to avoid that jutsu no matter what. Easier said than done.
Naruto and the others quickly entered the elevator lobby to find the central group already under siege. One of the elevator doors was open and damaged severely. Naruto caught a glimpse of a few corpses inside the metal box before he was forced to evade an attack from one of the terrorists that had managed to take cover behind a large marble counter.
Naruto leaned his head back out of the way of a strange looking senbon that had an attached wire to it. The whiskered blond could see the wire trailing back to the object in the terrorist's hand. A flash of light was his only warning to dodge a second wired senbon that grazed his arm. His hair stood on end when it came in contact with the thicker than normal senbon, alerting the teen that the senbon had Raiton chakra, or something similar, running through it.
Naruto tucked and rolled behind a torn up couch before leaping up to loose a volley of shuriken towards the terrorist that was attacking him with those senbon. Upon landing, the blond was forced on the defensive as a terrorist armed with a stun baton charged out from behind a partition and began swinging furiously at him.
Ducking the initial swing, Naruto charged forward before the back swing could reach its apex. Naruto quickly wrapped his arm around the man's forearm, trapping his elbow in a joint lock. Pivoting to his right, Naruto forced the terrorist to drop his weapon by putting pressure on the elbow and threatening to break the joint. Looking over his shoulder, he saw another terrorist pointing one of those launchers at him. With his hand still locking the first terrorist in an arm lock, Naruto had no choice but to roll forward towards a overturned desk while keeping the pressure on his trapped opponent's arm.
The end result was the terrorist face planting against the ground while Naruto rolled behind the desk, narrowly avoiding another set of wired senbon. The blond breathed a sigh of relief when he was the needles skittering past him on the ground. If those had been the metal chunk launchers, Naruto wasn't certain he would have avoided damage.
Peeking out over his cover, Naruto couldn't help but feel worried at the current situation.
Suna Tenten was on the ground, twitching violently while a pair of terrorists were pointing those strange devices at her. It looked like she was being shocked by Raiton, but Naruto could sense no chakra being used by them or the devices.
Hinata and Neji were back to back, fighting off a bunch of melee users, but they were surrounded and outnumbered. Naruto planned to relieve some pressure off of them once he had a clear path, but it wouldn't be soon enough. Already he sensed three terrorists slowly closing on his position.
Naruto looked back quickly when he sensed a small flare of chakra, only to see Kiba was unconscious against the wall behind him. A large imprint of a body and a smear of blood down towards the ground made it clear the Inuzuka was sent flying backward by a large Fūton jutsu of some sort. Judging from the trajectory, Naruto had to guess it was sent from inside the elevator. The Kumo kunoichi was next to Kiba in a much worse state. She had large shards of wood impaling her body and the limbs were twisted at unnatural angles. Whatever had hit Kiba, had hit that poor kunoichi with more force and sent her flying through debris.
That was when Naruto realized that the flare of chakra he detected was the Kumo kunoichi's final death throe. Her reiki already beginning to fade away rapidly.
Whipping his head back around, Naruto saw most of the terrorists were closing in on Chōjūrō, Satoshi, and Taka who were in a triangle formation at the entrance of a hallway. Naruto could sense there was a group behind them at the other end of the hall, probably being kept at bay by Taka and Satoshi's jutsu. Their chakra reserves were still quite full so they should be able to hold off for a while yet.
Sensing one of his opponents trying to sneak around behind him, Naruto sprung into action. Flipping through hand seals, he sent a volley of water shuriken towards the pair of terrorist approaching him from the front and left. As expected, the flanking enemy from his right charged in with a downward swipe of his stun baton.
Naruto side stepped the attack, sending a palm thrust into the terrorist's nose and breaking the fragile septum and sending his opponent's head rocking backward. Naruto followed up the attack with a left hook to the kidney and a ridge hand strike to the throat. The terrorist clutched at his adam's apple and fell to the ground as he tried to free the blockage from his throat. Sensing an incoming attack from behind, Naruto instinctively ducked and lashed out with a mule kick.
His kick struck a charging terrorist in the stomach, pushing the man back and winding him slightly. Pulling the last of his shuriken from his pouch as he spun, Naruto sent the metal stars flying towards the enemy's head before shuffling forward with a front rising kick to the terrorist's head as he ducked under the short volley. Naruto finished off the falling target by bringing a powerful axe kick down on the terrorist's spine, driving the cloaked enemy into the ground forcefully.
The blond was forced to pull a kunai and deflect the incoming wired senbon from the last terrorist that had come after him. While successful in redirecting the senbon, one of the wires got tangled around the handle of his kunai and begin to shock him. Naruto's arm twitched and his grip loosened on the kunai when the shock traveled through him, but the blond was able to charge forward and close the distance with the terrorist as they tried to prepare the senbon launcher. With a wind enhanced fist, Naruto sent a powerful blast of cutting air along with a chakra enhanced left hook into the terrorist's solar plexus. The terrorist flew back a few feet before crumpling to the ground and spitting out blood.
Shaking his right arm out to try and restore feeling to it, Naruto quickly scanned his surroundings with both his eyes and his senses.
Immediately his attention was drawn towards the Jōnin, Shotsuchi, and his genin student, Katsuo, as they tried to double team the leader in a taijutsu battle.
The red haired male appeared to be bored at the moment, easily evading the well-coordinated attacks from the Iwa duo. Before he suddenly pivoted an attack and simply grabbed Katsuo's face. Naruto sensed a surge of chakra build up within the red haired male before he made a pulling motion as if removing something from Katsuo's head.
A chill shot up Naruto's spine as he saw the reiki leaving the Iwa genin's body as the leader retracted his arm. Naruto could actually see the cloud of reiki surrounding a faint outline in the shape of Katsuo's body. Katsuo simply dropped to the ground dead once the cloud of reiki and the other mysterious essence was "tossed" aside by the leader. Shotsuchi shouted a curse and charged in to try and catch the man off guard, but he was taken down by a few terrorists with those wired senbon launchers.
Naruto stood frozen when the red haired leader turned his gaze on him. The pair locked eyes with each other and Naruto couldn't move or breathe at the sight of those strange ringed eyes staring back at him. The Kyūbi was bashing against the cage while roaring frantically at the sight, stunning the blond even further.
A sudden flare of chakra to his left jolted Naruto out of his dazed state. Naruto felt the incoming jutsu draw nearer and fell backward out of instinct. The bolt of lightning narrowly missed his torso as his body fell and Naruto was quick to use the momentum from his fall to tuck into a backward roll from a follow-up attack by another pair of wired senbon. As Naruto completed the apex of his roll, he eyed another baton-wielding attack charging in. This attacker was a bit smarter than the others or had managed to watch and learn from the mistakes of his predecessors since he was attacking not with the typical overhead swing preferred by the inexperienced. Instead, this attacker was charging with intent to perform an arching downward sweep in an attempt to force Naruto to continue his backward momentum with another roll.
Instead, Naruto quickly channeled chakra to his coiled limbs and sprung forward towards his attacker. Tucking his feet to his chest, Naruto easily cleared the baton attack and lashed out with a snap kick to the terrorist's face. His right foot followed behind the left, landing a chakra enhanced roundhouse kick to the terrorist's neck. Naruto's choice to add his additional body weight behind the follow-up kick ensured that the attacker was permanently out of commission but left him vulnerable to another attack from the wired senbon launchers.
By sheer luck, Naruto's follow through allowed him to miss the badly aimed electrified senbon but left him prone on the ground where he received a powerful kick to his ribs. Naruto managed to avoid receiving the full impact of the kick at the last minute by dropping his elbow in a hasty guard, but the force of the attack lifted him up off the ground and sent him flying backward with his breath knocked out of him. As he tried to adjust his body mid-air to reduce the impact upon landing, Naruto felt his backward momentum suddenly halt before he was being pulled forward by some invisible force. Lifting his gaze, the blond saw the red haired leader pointing an outstretched arm towards him and could feel the chakra drawing him towards the leader.
Naruto flailed about in panic as he recalled what happened to the Iwa genin who had been in his grip previously. None of his attempts to slow or stop his forward momentum yielded any results and the whiskered blond began to fear that his death was soon upon him. Shortly before he reached the hand of the leader, the redhead drew a narrow looking spike made of black metal and held it directly in Naruto's path.
Naruto fought harder against the force, flaring his chakra and reiki out of desperation and managed to angle himself to avoid being impaled by the spike directly in his chest. Instead, the thin, narrow blade punctured through his bicep causing the blond to fight back a cry of pain between clenched teeth. Naruto felt a firm hand clamp around his throat, closing his windpipe and forcing him to clutch at the hand choking him. He felt his right arm go numb as it was invaded by a foreign chakra through the metal spike and realized that the spikes were the mechanism the leader used to control the others.
Gripping at the arm choking him, Naruto attempted to lash out at the red head with a kick, only to feel another spike driven into his thigh. Just as the first spike did, his right leg fell numb, and Naruto could feel the invading chakra synchronize with each other before expanding in constant pulses from the spikes embedded in his flesh. Before he could retaliate against his captor, Naruto felt himself get slammed into the ground face first forcing him to let a wheezing cough as he tried to regain his lost breath. Almost instantly he felt two more spikes enter his left arm and leg and felt those limbs go numb as well.
Naruto took a moment to try and push back the invading chakra that was taking over his body, but his theory about having severe adverse reactions to the invading chakra was proving to be true. The more he attempted to control and manipulate his chakra in a method contrary to what the spikes, or their leader, wanted was causing his muscles and organs to scream in pain. The one thing he could take solace in, however, was that his reiki wasn't acting in the manner that he had suspected.
Not only was his reiki ignoring the invading chakra, but it actually countering the effects of the jutsu to some extent. If he had converted most of his chakra to reiki before the spikes were stabbed into him, he wouldn't have lost control of his body in such a way. The other thing the reiki was doing was providing him with a partial understanding of what Nagato was thinking and feeling at the moment. Naruto wasn't certain if it was due to the leader's chakra being channeled through the spikes or for some other reason. While Naruto wasn't receiving a clear image of what the redhead was thinking and feeling at the moment, it was still enough for him to deduce his motivations.
Right now, Nagato was impressed, annoyed, and frustrated. Naruto couldn't determine exactly why Nagato was feeling that way but estimated it had to do with how many people the prisoners had taken out before being subdued. Naruto was a bit put out by how suddenly the tables had turned against the group, but as he discreetly looked around from his position on the floor, he could see that out of the 35 or so terrorists that had attacked his group of 12, only half a dozen were uninjured. Not too bad considering they were practically outnumbered by a three to one margin.
The strongest sensation Naruto was picking up from Nagato at the moment was a sense of relief and vindictiveness. Naruto could tell that Nagato was intentionally flooding his system with more chakra and injecting more of his willpower through the chakra receivers than necessary because it was making him feel more powerful and in control of the situation. Nagato was angry at the loss of so many Akatsuki members in exchange for so few promising "recruits". At the moment he was looking down at Naruto as the only one worth converting to his cause but the vindictive side of the redhead wanted to cause him a bit of pain first.
Naruto didn't know why he suddenly knew what the spikes were called or what name the terrorist group called themselves by, but simply pushed those mysteries aside as just another strange thing that reiki was capable of. Already he could feel the reiki gathering around the chakra receivers, but they weren't reaching out to Nagato's chakra or converting themselves into a similar copy of the foreign chakra like it usually tried to do. That was the main vulnerability of using reiki over chakra.
Reiki was inherently flexible and more durable than regular chakra. Its presence and necessity in every living cell made it able to adapt and be absorbed by everything. Injecting reiki into another shinobi would only be beneficial to them and it would easily adapt and mold itself to its new environment. As a result, reiki could easily be converted into a usable source no matter where it was found.
Normally, a person would have to convert chakra to nature chakra in order to fuel a jutsu. Reiki was capable of skipping that step and converting itself directly into elemental chakra. Reiki also provided a stronger boost to muscles and organs than regular chakra because all affected body parts were actually breaking down chakra into reiki to augment their functions.
A chakra enhanced punch was actually powered on two fronts when it came to chakra. First, the chakra was broken down into components of reiki, spiritual energy, and physical energy. The muscles, tendons, and bone absorbed the extra reiki to provide a temporary increase to their tensile strength, density, and vitality by a very large margin. The physical energy components were added to the momentum and kinetic force created by the tensing of muscles and the power generated from the body when driving the punch forward. Finally, the spiritual energy components were used to gather and control all accumulated power and unused chakra to be expelled in accordance with the user's intent to cause damage to their target. That was why a massive crater could be created from something as narrow as a fist because the final component allowed the user to apply the accumulated force over a wide area or a narrow area depending on their intent at the moment.
This adaptability, however, made the use of reiki inherently dangerous against genjutsu users. Naruto already had a difficult time detecting and removing genjutsu due to his chakra reserves. With a great deal of training and effort, he had managed to be capable of dispelling most genjutsu in the usual way. When he converted a great deal of his chakra into reiki, however, he became powerless against illusions. The reiki naturally adapted and converted itself to the invading chakra and enhanced its natural properties, turning a low ranking genjutsu into something more akin to an A or S ranked genjutsu. Naruto had learned this lesson the painful way when he had first begun utilizing reiki in a widespread manner. The Kyūbi refused to help him remove the illusion, stating it as a lesson in humility and a warning not to become to gluttonous and power hungry over a sacred source of energy.
From that point onward, Naruto carefully moderated his use of reiki to avoid abusing the knowledge that had been granted to him.
"Nagato-sama, we have managed to subdue the rest of the prisoners. Out of the twelve captured, only three were slain." a terrorist reported.
"Bring me the Iwa Jōnin and one of the Kumo genin," Nagato said in a monotone voice.
"Right away, Nagato-sama." the man said before Naruto heard footsteps moving away from him.
Naruto could barely lift his head and look around with how much control Nagato was influencing him at the moment. Each time he tried to move his body, the pulsing waves of chakra he sensed from the receivers would increase until he relaxed his body completely. With great effort, he finally managed to turn his head to the side and look over towards the elevators.
The first thing in his vision was Nagato's sandals, as the leader was still standing over him and looking at him with a bit of amusement. After a moment, Nagato turned away and moved closer towards the rest of the terrorists. Naruto could also see the terrorists binding and dragging the rest of the prisoners towards Nagato before a struggling Shotsuchi and Satoshi entered his line of sight from the right. Both of them were unbound but had two terrorists holding their arms while a third was standing behind them with a senbon launcher ready.
Nagato walked over to them casually and placed his hands on both of their heads. Naruto felt that cold chill and closed his eyes to the sight of two more people losing their souls to this monster. He could feel Nagato's cold detachment and dismissive nature towards the people he had just killed. What was even worse was that Naruto knew that he had taken their souls on a simple whim. That their lives were simply ended for no other reason but a passing interest on what knowledge they might have held for their village made Naruto shake in a mix of disgust and fury. His inability to lash out only made his anger grow at the situation.
Naruto knew he was no pacifist, despite his devotion to the teachings in the Fire Temple Scroll. While his goal was to bring forth peace to the world through a combination of Buddhism and Ninshu, the lessons he had learned from Shōrinji Ken made it clear that one needed to reinforce their views with a fist when an open hand was spit upon or slapped away. Simply allowing evil bastards like Nagato to get away with their heartless and tyrannical actions would only further suffering and hatred in the world. The families of Shotsuchi and Satoshi would feel the pain of their deaths, their grief would eventually fuel their anger and eventually lead to a desire to seek revenge. When one sought revenge, sometimes they were willing to go to any length to achieve their desires, even if it was misguided or misdirected. The families of the dead shinobi might simply hate the Akatsuki for killing their loved ones, or they could hate everyone from Ame. That hate could then go further to become a hatred for anyone who was a Naturalist supporter or even anyone who wasn't augmented with cybernetics.
Their actions would eventually spread to the people targeted by their hate and, in turn, the pain and hate would spread to others. As one of the sayings Naruto had read in his scrolls stated" "An eye for an eye will cause the whole world to go blind."
While that could also be read as a statement against taking any action against another person, the author had gone on at length about the intent behind taking action against the spread of misery. The example he had provided was punishment for rapists. It wasn't necessary to rape a rapist in order to punish his actions and prevent the spread of suffering.
As someone who had been delving into the wonders of reiki, Naruto had become more in tune with life around him and the energy it held. For this reason, he was hypersensitive to the death of others and such a waste of life only made him more infuriated. Reiki was precious, which meant life was precious, and to throw it away for something so pointless seemed like blasphemy to the blond.
Naruto forced himself to calm down as he felt his chakra system become agitated with his anger, further exasperating his symptoms of chakra rejection. As long as those spikes remained inside of him, he had to be careful to calm himself and let his chakra flow as Nagato demanded. Closing his eyes and deepening his breathing, Naruto slowed his circulation and relaxed the tension in his body. As this was occurring, he slowly began to convert portions of his chakra into reiki. If he was cautious, he would slowly obtain more control of himself and pretend to be controlled until the time to strike was right. Until then, he would have to play the part of his puppet.
"Did you learn anything interesting from them, Nagato-sama?" one of the terrorists asked.
"Just a better understanding of how this group managed to defeat your men so easily," Nagato said flatly. "I'm still disappointed at how any losses we have sustained because of your failure to train your men properly, but I will be lenient in your punishment because we have a few very promising recruits from this bunch."
"Forgive my failure, Nagato-sama. I'll accept whatever punishment you deem suitable."
"Enough of your groveling. Take the rest of the survivors up to the studio so we can prepare for our broadcast. We are already behind schedule and Yahiko might resort to drastic actions if we do not contact him soon." Nagato responded.
"Is Keiko even alive?" a different terrorist asked meekly.
"No. This bastard over here killed her a while back." the terrorist spat. Naruto heard a shuffle of feet before a muffled cry rang out. "Cut her in half with a jutsu and left her to die slowly." the terrorist added.
"Did any of our broadcasting specialists survive?" Nagato asked in a blank tone, but Naruto could feel the rising anger that was being hidden by the red head. It was making it difficult for him to remain calm, but he was quickly learning how to separate his own feelings from his controller's.
"Y-yes. Tama is still alive and I sent her with an escort to the arena as soon as enacted your plan to recapture the prisoners." The man answered nervously. Apparently, he was quite familiar with Nagato to be capable of sensing his anger as well. Unless Nagato just happened to be extra harsh to his followers for screwing things up. Naruto suspected the latter was most likely closer to the truth.
"Good. At least you weren't stupid enough to send our last technician into combat after losing our main one." Nagato said coldly. "Now quit bothering me with your pointless chatter and move these prisoners upstairs. It is time we spread our message to the world and show them how futile it is to resist the will of the Akatsuki."
"What about the blond kid?" a female asked.
"I will deal with him personally," Nagato answered quickly. "This one will be a challenge, but well worth breaking. It will be fun bending him to my will," he said darkly.
Naruto couldn't repress the shudder at the swell of emotions that came through Nagato's chakra at that moment. It was beyond regular arrogance and maliciousness. It was like a mix of malice, obsession, cruelty, and pride all in one bundle before being amplified by some other feeling Naruto had no understanding of.
"It is narcissism and megalomania that you are sensing from this- trash." the Kyūbi spat with disgust.
Naruto stiffened in shock at the Kyūbi's voice. The Kyūbi barely ever spoke to him during situations like this, and Naruto usually had to approach the bijū for aid before it was given. Naruto was surprised the bijū was in a talkative mood at all, considering the rant it had been on earlier.
"I'm afraid I don't understand those terms, Kyūbi-dono," Naruto replied
"It means that he believes himself to be a Kami destined for greatness and that all others are simply insects beneath him. Considering his skill at bastardizing those eyes for his foul jutsu, it is no surprise to me that this fool has become deluded with the power he has stolen."
"I apologize for not recalling what you said earlier," Naruto replied. "I know you mentioned something about his strange eyes before. Would you help me understand what they are?"
The Kyūbi huffed at Naruto's polite tone but seemed to be placated that his container wasn't calling him out on his panicked rant when first seeing the dojutsu the man wielded. For that reason alone, the bijū decided to enlighten his jailer.
"Those eyes are a manifestation of the Rikudo Sennin's own dojutsu, the Rinnegan. But this fool is not the one who held those eyes originally. From the feel of the chakra he is using to subdue you, I can tell those eyes do not belong to him. Instead, they belong to someone I thought long dead to this world. Someone that I despise among all others and should not have access to such power because of the threat he poses." the Kyūbi replied simply.
"So he has stolen those eyes from someone else?" Naruto queried.
"No. From what I can sense, these eyes have been integrated into this trash's body for some time. Probably since he was young kit based on how the normal capabilities have been altered to such an extent. If anything, I suspect Madara planned on using this fool as a pawn in some other scheme but somehow lost control of him." the Kyūbi explained.
Naruto knew better than to press the Kyūbi for more information about Madara. The topic had only come up a few times and each time the bijū became extremely hostile and uncooperative. Not willing to risk losing a chance to understand more, Naruto switched to a safer topic.
"Would you tell me more about the Rinnegan so I can find some way to free us? I know you don't want to be controlled again and I refuse to be used as a weapon for this man's goals. If he learns about your presence, I'm afraid neither of us will find freedom."
The Kyūbi growled lightly in response and Naruto feared he might have pushed his luck too far until the bijū responded.
"Foolish. I will never find freedom unless you are willing to end your life painfully." the Kyūbi said with a snort. "But I refused to be controlled again, even if it is through the use of your frail mortal body. I will tell you what I know."
The Kyūbi began to give Naruto a quick breakdown of the original abilities that the Rinnegan held. The Deva path which allowed control over attraction and repulsion; the Asura path which allowed the wielder to behave in a manner similar to the most heavily augmented cybernetic bodies and wield weapons similar to the technology of the foreigners; the Human Path which allowed for one to extract human souls and obtain all their knowledge; the Animal path which allowed them to summon various different creatures; the ability to absorb chakra and jutsu sent towards them with the Preta Path, and the ability to summon the King of Hell which was capable of extracting information or healing damage through the Naraka Path. In addition to those special abilities of the Six Paths, the Rinnegan allowed its wielder an innate understanding of chakra, allowing them to understand and learn jutsu faster. This was the reason why a Rinnegan user had an affinity to all five elements. The ability to understand chakra in all its forms allowed the Rinnegan user to create chakra receivers and chains which they could transmit their chakra through and also allowed them to share vision with anything they controlled or summoned. Finally, the Rinnegan could allow people to restore life to the dead, but at a great cost to the user.
The Kyūbi also added his suspicions about the extra ability to manipulate and control people through the chakra receivers as a unique ability granted to Nagato alone since the Rikudo Sennin himself had stated that each person who gained the "Exalted Eye" would be granted an ability suited towards their goals in life. The Rikudo Sennin had theorized that he could control inanimate objects with enough chakra receivers implanted in them but was certain that the use of receivers on living people with an active chakra system would only result in disrupting their chakra. In Nagato, the chakra receivers seemed to be different from the ones that the Rikudo Sennin had created during his time and were capable of expelling far more chakra than the sage himself could. It was for that reason alone that Kyūbi suspected it was an inherent ability instead of a regular skill because the Rikudo Sennin far exceeded the "impostor" in power and talent.
At the end of the explanation, Naruto was naturally quite speechless. He remembered listening to Sasuke's arrogant rants about the superiority of the Sharingan, especially in the presence of a Hyūga. Naruto had considered the abilities of the Copy Wheel Eye to be quite extensive. The Rinnegan, however, seemed excessive in comparison.
"I don't know how I will be able to counter all of that on my own, but I promise you I won't rest until I have freed us both from his control," Naruto replied with determination.
"You have already discovered a way to free us. You will have to play by this trash's rules until the moment to strike appears. Don't hesitate when that moment comes and strike to kill immediately. If you fail, you may never get the chance again." the Kyūbi warned before cutting the connection off.
Naruto knew the Kyūbi was still watching his every move now, even if the bijū had closed their link. Naruto could always tell when the Kyūbi was focused on his actions or when it was sleeping to stave off the boredom (Which was a majority of the time) When it made the effort to shut him out completely, however, he knew there would be no further words or assistance from the bijū.
A surge of chakra was the only warning Naruto received before he felt something sharp and narrow enter his neck and slide into his spine. Naruto gasped as the surge of Nagato's chakra swarmed through his spinal column and nearly blacked out completely once all five receivers synchronized with each other. By the time Naruto's awareness returned, his entire body was numb but he was standing in front of Nagato. Naruto mentally shuddered as he was forced to stare into Nagato's eyes against his will. With a few subtle motions, the redhead began testing his control over the blond and Naruto could feel a pulse of chakra emit from the receiver in the back of his neck before one of his limbs moved without warning.
Naruto fought off the desire to resist the commands he was being sent and focused more on trying to convert more chakra to reiki to help free himself. It took a great deal of effort now that Nagato had completed his justu, but Naruto was given a lucky break when the red haired male began removing the receivers in his arms and legs.
"Don't get your hopes up about escaping," Nagato said blandly. "Now that I have implanted my receiver into your spine, the others are unnecessary." He rose up from removing the last receiver in Naruto's legs before staring the blond in the eyes. "I know about your tenant, and I am certain he has told you about how futile it is to resist the will of a Kami. If anything, you should be grateful that you have remained pure enough to serve one such as me."
Naruto tried to speak but could feel that Nagato was suppressing his ability to respond or even react to his words. Naruto could only mentally glower at the Akatsuki leader as he continued speaking.
"I can sense your resistance to me and I find it quite amusing that you think yourself capable of defying me. The one sent down from the heavens with these eyes to restore the world to its pure state." Nagato said with a hint of amusement before his tone turned bland once more. "You will succumb in the end. One way or another. I will use you as an example to the world and when you see my power, you will submit like everyone else." Nagato said calmly before turning away and making his way towards the elevators.
Naruto jerkily followed after Nagato despite the fact that he wasn't resisting.
'Tch. For a Kami, you sure don't know how to control your puppets very well.' Naruto thought bitterly.
With Kakashi
Kakashi and the rest of the counter-terrorist group had all assembled in the broadcasting booth as they began planning their final siege on the VIP booth. Not too long ago, Mitsuki had reported a large group of terrorists leaving the stadium. Shino had managed to tag a few of them with tracker insects that reported them splitting up before they left Shino's range and were forced to return. Judging from what little Kakashi had managed to learn about Ame's layout during the Chūnin Exams, one group had made their way towards the main samurai barracks while the other group was heading towards the central broadcasting tower.
With a large amount of pressure being relieved of them to clear the stadium, Kakashi was now confident they could begin scouting and planning an assault on the VIP Box soon. The silver-haired Jōnin had hoped they would pick up more reinforcements as they moved through the stadium disabling the EMP devices, but none of the freed hostages had displayed any skill or desire to fight. The only addition that was added to their group was one of Gai's genin, Tenten, who had the foresight to remain barricaded inside of a restroom until she heard combat.
They would just have to make due with what they had at the moment and hope that whatever distraction had drawn away the terrorists had been concerning enough for them to leave the booth lightly guarded.
While it was always a risk to storm the location where hostages were being held, it was also a known policy that taking the Daimyō or any of their captives hostage was a capital offense. A little-known fact about the policy in regards to Daimyō's being held hostage was that most Kage were more than willing to authorize a complete liquidation of the hostages if it was believed to prevent lasting damage to the system of governance.
While the Daimyō was the ultimate authority, the shinobi villages were far more necessary than most people anticipated during their creation. Originally, the hidden villages were to remain as small supplemental forces to the Daimyō's own standing army. Hashirama's intent had been to allow a gathering place of shinobi clans so that they could establish peace with each other and avoid being forced into the service of the various warlords attempting to establish their own myōden (1) through force while the Shogun and the weakened Imperial Family that once ruled the Genso no Kuni battled each other for control of the lands.
With the current Shogun of the lands being nothing more than a figurehead at this point, the loss of a Daimyō wouldn't result in severe repercussions for the Kage if they were able to back a candidate that held the hidden village in favor at the moment. The current Fire Daimyō, who tended to favor Danzō and the advisory council over the Sandaime, was ripe for removal in Kakashi's opinion. He knew that the old Sarutobi wouldn't be adverse to such an action either, considering how much grief the Daimyō had been giving him since the Kyūbi attack.
Especially in regards to how Naruto was forced to remain as an unadopted orphan in an attempt to quell the non-existent tension between clans that Danzō had falsely insinuated at. Everyone else knew it was a dirty move orchestrated by the crippled elder to leave the jinchūriki as an isolated and unprotected orphan ripe for Root indoctrination. The only clan that held some tension against the village was the Uchiha clan, and that tension had been inadvertently abated when the clan's dog eat dog mentality forced what little unity Fugaku had cobbled together to fall apart when Sasuke exhibited a muscle disorder. If Fugaku hadn't been plagued by a series of attempts to seize control of the clan from himself and Mikoto, he might have succeeded in convincing the clan to unite for a coup attempt.
Fortunately, that tension had all but faded once Hiruzen gave the Konoha Military Police more jurisdiction and funding from the generous "taxes" paid by the Kyokutō corporation. The various rumors that Itachi was being groomed as the Godaime also helped to placate the Uchiha, even if they weren't actually true. Kakashi knew he was closer to that spot than the Uchiha prodigy, and even then it was still more likely to fall on Jiraiya's shoulders until he, himself, was ready.
The only problem with eliminating the pesky thorn in Konoha's side at the moment was the presence of the other Daimyō. Kakashi had no way of knowing just what the other villages thought of their supreme overlords at the moment. It also was a subject you couldn't simply bring up without risk of causing a fallout or incident about.
One couldn't simply go around and ask: "Hey, how do you feel about killing off your Daimyō and possibly all his heirs?" Especially when you were from a rival village that they could potentially hold a grudge against.
Kakashi cleared his throat to get the attention of the gathered group of shinobi.
"As you all know by now, most of the terrorists have been led away from the stadium due to some other interference. This gives us a very short window of opportunity to secure our Kage and Lords with a decisive strike. This strike will not be without a great deal of risk, however, failing to seize upon this opportunity will only lead to a worse result."
"What kind of risk are you talking about?" Genjuro asked with suspicion.
"If we storm the booth, it is likely that some of the nobles will be injured or killed during the assault. Our priority will be to eliminate the threat to our Kage, but that will leave us to deal with the fall out of our Daimyō's displeasure." Kakashi explained. "I can't speak for any others here, but Konoha has outlined certain- contingencies- in such an event. Contingencies that the Daimyō and his family are well aware of." Kakashi lied.
"Basically, you want to avoid being held responsible if our Daimyō or their entourage get killed because of your plan. Is that it?" the Nadeshiko Jōnin, Sango, asked with a snarky tone.
"I know it isn't really possible for any of you to make any guarantee, but, I will not move forward with any plans without some guarantee that you all will be willing to accept responsibility as well," Kakashi replied coolly. "The last thing any of us want is to deal with the finger pointing and blame game when it comes to the aftermath. Unless we can successfully divert the blame to such an extent that the Daimyō have no choice but to let the matter drop."
"What, do you want us to give you our word or something?" Zabuza said with a scoff. "I thought Konoha trained shinobi, not samurai. There are no words of honor or nobility amongst shinobi."
"Speak for yourself, male." Sango spat. "Kunoichi from our village can be trusted to keep our word to our allies, no matter how temporary they are. Until this mess is settled, I won't be stabbing anyone in the back."
"That doesn't solve the problem that we have." Kurenai butted in. "The problem we have is are you all willing to strike hard and fast at the terrorists in order to eliminate them instead of falling back to secure the Daimyō?"
Pakura of Suna decided to add her opinion. "I can vouch for Suna's ambivalence towards such a strategy. While our Kazekage isn't on the best terms with the Daimyō, we can ill afford to anger his family even more. The prospective heir is young, however, and he was not permitted to attend the exams."
Lee looked unsettled by the direction the conversation was taking, but a stern look from Gai kept him silent. The young taijutsu specialist felt it was wrong for them to essentially abandon their charges just to eliminate the threat, but it was also unyouthful to allow such a group to seize control through forceful means. It must be the same reason why his sensei appeared to be so angry at the moment but was not speaking out in his usual way.
Many of the genin were quietly whispering amongst their teammates about the same topic, if not fidgeting nervously on their own if they had no one to express their concern too. Some of the genin were scandalized that such a conversation was even taking place considering that the Academy had often emphasized the need to swear fealty to the Daimyō over everyone else. Very few of them were privy to the inner workings of how their village worked and dealt with the noble landholders of the continent, so there was no way for them to understand just how much of a hindrance the feudal system of government could be when it came to a separate independent militaristic force like the Shinobi Villages were.
Mitsuki, the Suna puppeteer, didn't seem scandalized or concerned at all. She had seen first hand how people suffered because of the budget cuts the Daimyō had been implementing on the village. In truth, she could care less if their Kage or Daimyō died in this event because both of them had wronged the village in her mind. The Kazekage, Rasa, for forcing the implantation of his forces despite the Naturalist leanings of Suna's populace overall; while the Daimyō was to blame for cracking down on the village for adopting foreign technology without his approval. Even knowing that the Kazekage had enforced the ruling to all active shinobi didn't stay the Daimyō's hand when it came to punishment, despite the fact that no one was going to offer the expelled shinobi asylum or a pension for refusing implantation.
Those who refused to accept implantation were either ejected from the shinobi program with no benefits or pension or were labeled as rogue-nin when they attempted to resign from active duty in order to leave the village.
"If you are asking what is more important to me, I will say saving Hanzō is more important than Daimyō-dono," Genjuro admitted reluctantly. "I'll charge into any mess to secure his safety. More than any others."
Sango mulled over the Ame Jōnin's words for a moment before nodding her agreement.
"Nadeshiko doesn't have a bad relationship with our liege lord, but we also hold our leader in higher regard. When the time comes for fighting, we will focus on the threat and hope that we move fast enough to protect the rest."
Zabuza just shrugged. "I've always said that the best defense is a strong and relentless offense. If any of those prissy nobles happen to be in my path, I won't stop my swing."
"In this task, I will follow your lead my youthful rival," Gai said seriously.
"We can only do our best to eliminate the threat. Sometimes that means sacrifices must be made." Kurenai said softly.
Pakura looked between the other Jōnin before sighing and nodding in agreement.
Kakashi studied everyone for a few moments before making his decision.
"Very well. Here is the plan I have in mind." Kakashi said before going into detail about their impending siege on the VIP booth. It didn't take long for the Jōnin to outline his simple and straightforward plan of attack, and after ironing out a few changes to certain objections by the other Jōnin, a plan was in place.
The group broke up shortly afterward and began to prepare for their assault with a few genin remaining behind to cover Sakura as she was needed to ensure the jamming signal was sent out at the precise time. A shadow clone of Kakashi's would serve as the relay between the two groups to ensure that both groups remained in contact with each other until it was time for the final assault.
Unaware of the hidden observer in the corner, the group's plans were secretly being relayed to the Major and the rest of the special operations group. When it came time for the final assault, the shinobi would be receiving help from a very unexpected source.
(1) Myōden – a large hereditary landholding that granted the feudal lords (Daimyō) their wealth and power.