Making a Difference chapter eleven
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
(One day before the chunin exams)
Nick sat with Sasuke in the Uchiha compound, drinking tea with the boy. In the month that Nick trained Sasuke, Sasuke's skills improved. His skills weren't the only thing that improved though, he had a new-found respect for Nick and others associated with him. He was also nicer to people who he deemed. Sasuke now wore a black trench coat with the Uchiha symbol on the back, which was opened in the front to reveal a simple gray shirt. He also had on ninja pants that were the same color as the trench coat and dark blue ninja sandals. On his back was a katana that he had trained with non-stop for the entire month. "Nick, I have decided. I want to kill Danzo." Sasuke simply said. Nick brought his cup down.
"Are you sure?" Nick asked, receiving a nod from the Uchiha. Nick sighed as he stood up from his spot. "Fine, we will do it tonight. You better get properly equipped, Danzo's no pushover." Nick warned. Sasuke waved bye to his sensei before drinking from his cup again.
'Danzo, I'm going to make you pay for what you did. My blade will not touch anyone else's blood except for yours.' Sasuke thought as he continued to drink his tea. When he finished, he placed the cup down and walked out of his home. From what Nick told him about Danzo, he has a secret group of anbu called Root. Somehow Nick found the location of the headquarters, but it didn't matter to Sasuke. He'd still have Danzo in his grasp at the end.
Nick knocked on the door to the apartment a few times, waiting for his friend to open the door. The door finally opened after a couple of minutes, revealing Naruto with a bowl of instant ramen in his hands. Nick hastily went inside and pulled Naruto in with him. He closed the door and looked to his friend with a serious expression. "Naruto, can I ask you a favor?"
As night descended upon Konoha, Nick found himself crouching outside the Hokage tower. He observed the place with a calculating eye, not letting a single detail escape his sight. Then he let his gaze fall upon two jounin that guarded the entrance. "Now." Nick spoke into his radio. For a few seconds nothing happened, then chaos ensued. Naruto ran in front of the jounin and tried to throw paint at their faces. It hit them head on, the paint being splattered on their uniform as well. The very thought of the 'demon brat' doing something like this to their faces angered them so much that they chased after the blonde, who was now running like a mad man down the street. However, the two jounin didn't notice the shadowy figure that slipped through the front entrance.
Nick rolled into the shadows as three Anbu ninja came inside the tower to check in. He waited until they passed, then crept towards his intended path. He continued sneaking until he reached a door deep within the bowels of the tower, guarded by two members of root. He instantly hid behind a pillar in the area. 'If I'm right, that'll lead to root headquarters. After this I'm getting some ramen though because I didn't even eat dinner yet. Speaking of ramen though...' Nick thought as he reached up to his radio. "Whiskers, have you and Crow infiltrated root headquarters yet?"
Deep down in the sewers of Konoha, Sasuke followed Naruto towards their destination. They'd never know where to even look if it hadn't been for Naruto's map. " Naruto, why do you have a map of the sewers?" Sasuke asked in confusion as Naruto took his attention away from his map.
"It helps with my pranks." the blonde replied, then he went back to his map. Sasuke mumbled for a few seconds until Nick's voice was heard. "Almost there Talon, but we'll meet you where now?" Naruto asked his friend.
"Once you're in, you'll be in a large room. Wait there and I'll find you." Nick answered.
"Alright, see you there." Naruto said as he canceled communications with the boy. He and Sasuke continued walking through the sewer until they had to get into the water to avoid being seen by the two anbu that guarded a metal door that seemed out of place in the sewer.
"Eugh, what's in this water to make it smell so bad?" Sasuke whispered softly. The anbu apparently heard Naruto and Sasuke go into the water because they went over to the water's edge to investigate. The two boys held their breath and drifted to the bottom of the foul-smelling water. The anbu looked into the water for what seemed like hours until they lost interest and went back to their post.
Naruto rose to the surface covering his nose followed by Sasuke, who was doing the same thing. After their little episode, they climbed out of the water and henged into root anbu. Then they walked with confidence towards the two root anbu that guarded the door.
"Halt, state your business." one of them immediately called out as both of them shifted into high alert. "We're here to report our findings to Danzo-sama." Naruto replied. The two guards went into a more relaxed position where they could still leap into action if need be.
"What is the password?" the other guard questioned. It was Sasuke's turn to speak up now. "We are the roots of our flowering village." Sasuke recited perfectly. The two guards looked like they were about to attack until they stepped to the side, allowing the two boys to enter.
Nick waited patiently at the rendezvous, occasionally tapping his foot impatiently. A couple of minutes later Naruto and Sasuke came in. "Good job, now we can...what's that disgusting smell?" Nick asked in revulsion.
"Sewers." Naruto and Sasuke simultaneously said. Nick shuddered at the thought, then he corrected himself and made the other two follow him. The trio passed by multiple rooms, each of them having lab equipment and test tubes full of some unknown substance. Of course on the way there were lots of root anbu, which the three genin avoided like the plague.
"And here we are. This is it guys, Danzo is in this room." Nick said to the others, who gave him a small nod of Nick opened the door to find Danzo standing in the middle of the room.
Danzo turned around to see Nick, Sasuke, and Naruto stand before him, which shocked him pretty well. "H-how did you get in here?" Danzo asked, fearing that the Root headquarters location was known to the Third.
"We came by ourselves and should I say that you're security here is not the best in the world." Nick mocked. Instead of being angry like the three boys expected, Danzo had a small smile and was even...chuckling?
"So you came by yourselves without any back-up at all and without alerting anyone to where you were going, Nicholas I never thought you foolish but this is a prime example of stupidity. I guess I'll have to tell that imbecile Sarutobi that three genin turned up missing and that no one knew how. I am sad though that I could not turn the kyuubi into a weapon, or make the last Uchiha a part of Root, or even turn 'Konoha's Golden Boy' into my personal assassin." Danzo spoke as he walked around the room with his arms to his back.
"Like I'd ever work for anyone other than the old man, jackass." Nick retorted. Danzo still calmly walked around which, by now, was unnerving the boys.
"Nicholas, why don't you give up, there's no way you can defeat me. Kill those two and be on the winning team." Danzo persuaded Nick. Nick pulled out a kunai and turned to his friends.
"He has a point, maybe I should kill you two." Nick said creepily as he raiseda kunai in the air, making Naruto and Sasuke flinch. Then Nick sent the kunai towards Danzo's feet, making it lay there. "Naw, that would ruin the fun of beating the crap out of you Danzo." Nick said as he and the other two got into fighting stances.
"Wrong choice." Danzo said aloud as he removed his bandages, revealing the Sharingan eyes that lined his arm. Sasuke growled at this disgrace to his family and ran forward, fueled by his rage. He stabbed Danzo with his katana straight in the heart and twisted it. Danzo choked on his own blood, but then disappeared. He re-materialized beside Sasuke and backhanded him to a wall, making his blade fly away from him.
"Always have a contingency plan, that is some advice that I heard from an elderly man in my youth. Seeing as that attack would've killed me, I'm glad I did have a plan." Danzo said calmly.
"Sasuke what did I tell you about him!" Nick scolded. Naruto was next up, already having made some clones for the occasion. He jumped off the back of his clones and gave Danzo a flurry of punches. The old man easily dodged and even blocked some of them, but didn't expect the clone that came from below him with an uppercut. Danzo flew back, skidding on the floor as he corrected himself.
"You have no idea the power I have you arrogant fools." Danzo said as he made hand signs.
"Give us you're best shot!" Naruto yelled as he and his clones got into formation.
"Mokuton no Jutsu." Danzo said. Trees started growing wildly from beneath the floor, forcing Nick, Naruto, and Sasuke to stick to the ceiling with chakra. Before they could jump down Danzo shunshinned to them while making more hand seals.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets." Danzo called out as his attack went towards the three. All of them dodged except for Nick, who received a large cut on his shoulder which made him wince in pain. Danzo didn't allow any break in the fight because he instantly went forward and wreaked havoc on the boy with punches flying at insane speeds. At last Danzo kicked him away.
"Take this!" Naruto and Sasuke said as they sent both a Rasengan and a Chidori towards Danzo's chest, but to no avail as Danzo grabbed their wrist and threw them to the wall.
"Do you see now, you could never beat me like you are now. You could have become strong shinobi, but now...you must die." Danzo said as he approached Nick with a kunai with wind chakra around it in hand. Naruto and Sasuke tried to get up, but they found that they couldn't due to their injuries. They were forced to watch as Danzo picked up Nick with one hand, his wind chakra enhanced kunai ready to stab the boy.
"Any last words?" Danzo asked. Nick brought his head up and said his words.
"Up yours." Without hesitation, Danzo plunged his kunai into Nick's heart and cruelly tossed him away with no remorse.
"Now to deal with you vermin." Danzo said as he went towards the two defeated boys. They stared at Danzo with deep disdain, not letting him scare them. As he brought up his kunai, Naruto and Sasuke's lives flashed in front of their eyes. Before Danzo could strike however, a sudden movement caught everyone's attention. It was none other than Nick, no wounds on him at all as he punched Danzo away from the two.
Then Nick made the rat hand sign. "Shadow Possession Jutsu!" Nick yelled, his shadow catching Danzo in it's grasp. "You guys finish him, I can't do anymore than this." Nick said with despair as he felt Danzo resisting the jutsu. 'Of all the times that my chakra would be out of order it chose this fight. I knew Jiraiya said that the seal would gradually wear off but this is kind of annoying to fight at half strength.' Nick thought in irritation.
Naruto and Sasuke picked themselves off the floor and charged up their separate jutsus. "Bet I can hurt him more Dobe." Sasuke teased as his Chidori formed.
"Yeah right, that honor would go to me. Naruto Uzumaki, future hokage!" Naruto roared as his rasengan burst to life. They then ran towards Danzo, who was still trapped, with the will to win pushing them forward.
"Rasengan!" "Chidori!" They both screamed as their techniques hit Danzo square on. All of his stolen Sharingan eyes closed from the attack. Unfortunately, Danzo reappeared behind the now tired boys.
"Your power is extraordinary, for children your age. Indeed I would have been killed had it not been for the Sharingan. You have taken my sharingan away from me, all the plans i had for the village wasted because of you. You are now too tired to fight though, which means you're going to die now," Danzo said as he held his Sharingan arm forward. "Farewell, you insolent..." Danzo said before he looked down at his chest.
Sasuke's katana was coming out of his chest, his blood coated all over the blade. "Always have a contingency plan Danzo." Sasuke said hatefully.
"But how..." Danzo questioned. Sasuke viciously directed his attention towards 'Sasuke' which turned out to be a shadow clone. Sasuke finally threw the man off his sword, watching the man take his last breath.
"Why, why did you do this?" Danzo asked as he coughed up blood.
"For the Uchiha, you bastard. Now they can rest peacefully knowing that you are dead." Sasuke said as he sheathed his katana and rushed to Nick, who was being supported by Naruto's shoulder.
"How did you live through Danzo stabbing you, we know you didn't use substitution?" Sasuke asked. Naruto agreed as well.
"I don't know but I felt like I wasn't really dead, like as if I used the Izanagi. But that's impossible, I'm not a Senju and I'm definitely not related to the Sage of Six Paths. Maybe I just got lucky and I didn't really get hit or something." Nick explained. Sasuke nodded at this, not really understanding the Senju and Sage of Six Path's involvement, and grabbed Nick's other arm for support.
Of course the battle attracted all the root anbu in the headquarters. They quickly surrounded the three boys. Nick knew that he didn't have enough energy for another fight, so he accepted this place as his grave. At least he got to take out Danzo.
Miraculously enough, the anbu parted, allowing the three to reach the door. Confused, they walked away from the anbu who were now bowing in silence. Once they reached the exit however, one anbu stood in their path. "Sasuke Uchiha I presume?" the man or woman asked. When Sasuke did step forward, the anbu went to his knees.
"Will you lead us?" the ninja asked, surprising all three boys at once.
"Why? I just killed Danzo, shouldn't you be angry?" Sasuke asked the anbu who then shook his/her head.
"Quite the opposite, some of the men respect you since you have defeated Danzo. Some are angry yes, but they can be dealt with. With you leading us, we may have a chance of bringing peace to the village for good." the anbu said.
Sasuke turned to Nick, only for him to shake his head as well. "Do what you think feels right, I can't help with this decision." He explained. Sasuke then turned back, closing his eyes as he thought about the pros and cons. After a decent minute, Sasuke finally had his answer.
"I accept." He said with confidence. The anbu nodded and walked off to tell the others, leaving Nick and his friends behind. The three then continued their way out, avoiding all of the obstacles they had before. Not long later, they found themselves back on the streets of Konoha.
"Well we better get to bed, the chunin exams are tomorrow," Nick said wisely. "But first...we're getting some ramen, I'm starving." Nick said unwisely as he dragged his friends to the noodle shop, all three of them happy that their mission was a success.
And stop. Good? Bad? In between? I don't know. If having Sasuke lead Root sounds kind of weird, don't judge me! Just kidding. Correct me if something seems wrong. See you later.