Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS.
Naruto and Sasuke obediently followed the two agents back to the elevator to the squad room, but they didn't let their guard down. Orochimaru had just launched another attack, with the possible purpose of separating the agents. Then again, he could just be playing the mind games he was so fond of using.
As it turned out, the shinobi and the agents made it back without any further incidents. As the small group walked towards the desks, they saw a man standing there that the shinobi didn't know.
"Director," greeted DiNozzo. Sasuke studied the man surreptitiously. He was a trained fighter when he was younger and probably part of a Special Forces unit but had been doing deskwork for a few years. He was favouring one leg slightly, and Sasuke thought he might have had an injury (probably a gunshot, since that was the favoured weapon of the agents here).
"Agent DiNozzo - status update," he said in a deep voice.
The agent stood up straighter and rattled off the previous event. "We watched the kids spar, then Ziva went up against Sasuke. We were standing around talking when we heard glass breaking and saw a rock flying through the window."
Sasuke looked at DiNozzo. Huh, the agent was actually capable of being serious then. The conversation continued.
"Where are Gibbs and David?"
"Probably talking to security," McGee answered, turning to look at the elevator. At that moment, the bell dinged and the doors opened, allowing Gibbs to exit with David not far behind. Studying the man's face carefully, Sasuke could see a mix of emotions. First, there was worry, probably for either his team's sake or their own, and then there was annoyance although he was trying to hide it. Sasuke though he was probably hiding it because of their presence.
As soon as Gibbs drew close enough he started giving orders.
"DiNozzo, take these two to the conference room, get security to watch them. McGee, pull the security tapes of the training room."
Immediately after, DiNozzo started ushering the shinobi towards the conference room. As they left, David was giving a quick briefing to the director and they could pick up fragments of the conversation left in their wake.
"Rock… snake… carving… not as innocent as they appear…" that was all Sasuke could hear, even with his trained shinobi senses. Glancing to the side, he saw Naruto hadn't heard anything extra, although with his senses he may have caught more complete sentences.
It didn't take long to reach the conference room and DiNozzo left as soon as they arrived and he had told them where to find water. He shut the door, but Sasuke's and Naruto's sharp ears detected the footsteps of a guard standing outside the room.
A quick, subtle scan of the room revealed the location of 3 cameras in the room. After the shinobi had angled their faces to make sure lip reading would be impossible, they commenced a hushed, hurried discussion.
"What did you hear?" asked Sasuke. A tactical discussion would become meaningless if the participants were working off different information.
"A rock was thrown through the window; it had the same snake carving as before but there was a message. The message said 'They're not as innocent as they appear.' I think there was a Japanese message too," Naruto rattled off quickly.
Sasuke nodded, absorbing and analysing the information carefully. So Orochimaru had made the next move in his game. The question was, what was he playing? The message was obviously meant to create distrust between the ninja and the agents, but to what end.
"Is he trying to force us to run?" asked Naruto, obviously coming to the same conclusions as Sasuke.
The raven-haired shinobi considered it. To raise distrust right after they had shown themselves to be experienced fighters could cause the agents to investigate them more closely than they would have otherwise liked. On the other hand, the confusion caused by this may distract the agents from the truth about their skills but this was unlikely.
In response to Naruto he sighed. "Possibly – it's really bad timing for us whether he is or not since we got carried away."
Naruto snickered, but Sasuke ignored him and continued. "Write a note to Kakashi. They need to know what's been happening," he ordered Naruto.
The blonde's confusion showed on his face. "Wont the cameras see?" he asked.
Sasuke shook his head. "Kakashi showed me a jutsu. It's a mix between genjutsu and ninjutsu – it refracts the light so a physical picture is present that is picked up by cameras. It's called the Realistic Illusion Technique."
Naruto nodded, accepting his teammate's explanation. Once upon a time he would have argued and whined, but he really had grown in the recent years. Instead, he asked "How long can you keep it up?"
The Uchiha didn't reply, instead he started weaving seals. "When I give you the signal, write the note," he murmured distractedly. Naruto nodded, and fell quiet.
Sasuke finished his seals, and put an ordinary genjutsu in place. As soon as he finished, he started the more complicated combination of the realistic illusion technique. With one seal left, he gave a barely perceptible nod and finished. Sure, it looked like Naruto was standing there looking at him, but Sasuke knew that his teammate was actually crouched on the ground, writing a message.
A minute later, Sasuke could feel his control over the jutsu slipping and frowned. He should be able to keep this up longer… he would need to train even harder when they got back to Konoha. Luckily, Naruto called 'done' just before his control was about to slip completely. He dropped the technique, and once more it was his real teammate standing before him.
"Did you send it?" he asked quickly.
"One of my toads took it," Naruto replied before grabbing a chair and sitting down.
Sasuke, recognising that the strategy meeting was over followed suit.
"I wonder what's going to happen now," Naruto sighed.
Picking up on his teammates plan, Sasuke replied. "I don't know. I want to go home though."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, and see everyone again. I just want this to be over," he said.
The two shinobi fell silent and waited. There was nothing else for them to do right now.
Gibbs frowned as he watched base security and an NCIS team process the scene. He didn't know the agents by name, only by face and reputation. They had transferred to DC only recently, but they were known for thorough processing and evidence collection. Even so, it should have been Gibbs's own team collecting the evidence due to the relation to their current case. However, orders were orders and the directors were clear – let this team collect the evidence, your priority at the moment is the witnesses. So now, Gibbs was waiting for Ziva to take a few photos on her phone before they both returned to the squad room. Speaking of… Ziva came hurrying up to him while tucking her phone back into her pocket.
"All done," she reported. Gibbs just nodded in reply and turned towards the elevator, Ziva falling into step beside him a moment later. She remained quiet, understanding that he was deep in thought and he appreciated it.
As they stepped into the elevator, Gibbs turned over the recent events in his head. First, a marine was killed when a rock hit him in what seemed to be a vandal attack, but then Ducky had found that the blow should have been to light to kill him. Next, two teenagers who acted older than they were and witnessed the attack had a rock thrown at them, nearly identical to the one that had killed the marine. The same teenagers then proved themselves skilled martial artists before another rock was thrown at them. All three rocks had a snake carved into them, but the last one was interesting. Apart from the snake, there were two messages. One in some characters – he thought Japanese, but not knowing the language couldn't be sure and the other in English – "They're not as innocent as they appear." Obviously, it was intended for them, but why? Were the two teenagers part of plot (of what he couldn't be sure – it was a poor assassination attempt and they had found no reason for one anyway) or were they being framed. It wouldn't be the first time someone had attempted to divert suspicion onto someone else, maybe the perpetrator was trying to get the agents to focus their investigations onto the teenagers. Or their teacher, who could just be using his 'students' as a cover for being in the city. He didn't seem particularly trustworthy to Gibbs anyway, who wore a mask like that? In addition, with the eye patch he had covering one eye, most of his face was hidden from view. Not to mention the fact that he barely looked up from his book throughout the interview, and the lack of care he showed. Thinking back on the interview, Gibbs realised that the silver-haired man hadn't told him anything. All of this together was very suspicious and Gibbs resolved to investigate him further.
The sergeant's past would have to be investigated more too, in case this was a bad assassination attempt. However, in the meantime, a closer watch would have to be kept on the teenagers, and Hatake would have to interview again, along with the girl, Sakura.
His planning was interrupted when the elevator dinged, and the two agents stepped out of the silver machine. Glancing around, he saw that Director Vance was standing in the squad room talking to DiNozzo and McGee with Naruto and Sasuke standing off to the side. He didn't miss that both of the teen's eyes flickered over to the elevator briefly before focusing back on the NCIS personnel in front of them.
Gibbs strode over to the group and began giving orders immediately. There was no time to waste.
"DiNozzo, take these two to the conference room, get security to watch them. McGee, pull the security tapes of the training room," he rattled off. The agents jumped into action and hurried to carry them out. Sasuke and Naruto were apparently listening too, for they started moving even before DiNozzo started prompting them.
In the background, Gibbs heard the director ask Ziva for a briefing of what had happened. She ran over the main points quickly and quietly, obviously hoping the teenagers wouldn't hear. Gibbs suspected they still would though, given how sharp Sasuke's (and presumably Naruto's) ears were based on his spar with Ziva. When she was done, the former Mossard officer went to her desk and plugged in her phone.
At the same time, McGee stood up and grabbed the remote. "I pulled the security video boss, inside and outside."
"These two cameras give the best view of the area," he informed them and pressed a button, causing a split screen came up on the plasma, showing the outside and inside of the building. The outside screen merely showed people going about their business on the busy base, while the inside screen was showing Ziva's and Sasuke's spar.
"Is the kid blindfolded?" asked the director, surprised.
"Yes he is," replied McGee.
Gibbs studied the scene carefully, now seeing it for the second time. He was watching Sasuke in particular. He must have had some reaction to detecting Ziva's movement but he was disappointed. If the dark haired teen had reacted, it hadn't been caught on camera. He glanced sideways, trying to gauge the director's reaction to the fight but the man kept his face completely blank. Gibbs focused his attention back on the screen and watched the conversation play out. He knew what was going to happen there, so he glanced to the outside screen and watched closely, hoping to see whoever threw the rock. They would have to have been close in order to break the reinforced glass over the window and still get the rock to the centre of the room where it had landed.
He watched for unusual behaviour among the passing crowd, but no one was acting out of the ordinary. A second later, Gibbs caught sight of a flash in break of the crowd. He would have passed it off as a shadow from a bird if he hadn't been watching the other screen and saw the window smash. He stared at the plasma in disbelief. Although he and his team has seen the teenagers spar and seen how fast they moved, it should not be possible to throw something so fast that the surrounding people didn't even notice until it broke the window.
"Rewind it McGee," Gibbs ordered. When the junior agent didn't move, Gibbs tried again to get his attention. "McGee!"
McGee shook his head slightly as if to clear it. "Right, sorry boss," he said and pressed the rewind button on the remote.
"Stop," Gibbs said. McGee did as asked. "Play it again."
As the footage started again, Gibbs watched the teen's reactions carefully. They were facing away from the camera until they turned around, but that wasn't what he wanted to watch. Now that he was focusing on them, he saw that he hadn't made a mistake when he saw them out of the corner of his eye.
As soon as the rock hit the glass, Naruto and Sasuke had spun around, an expected reaction. What was not expected, however, was the movement both made to their right thigh. The movement was almost identical to the agents standing around them as the agents drew their weapons.
"Pause it," he said and the picture froze instantly.
DiNozzo returned from the conference room then and silently walked up behind the agents standing at the screen.
"Why are they reaching for weapons?" asked DiNozzo, confused.
Gibbs didn't reply, but gestured for McGee to play the video again. The group watched the teens closely, but they moved a moment later, seemingly remembering the lack of weapons. Gibbs studied their stances. They were in a battle stance, different to the ones they had used at the beginning of their spar. These stances were similar to their casual stances and could be explained as surprise or adrenalin from the crash but that wasn't what he was focused on. He wondered how often they carried weapons if to reach for one was their first reaction to danger.
"McGee, look up anything you can find on Hatake or his students. DiNozzo, David, search the sergeant's room; interview anyone he's ever talked too. There's more to this then a random attack. Print me a copy of the photos you took before you go," Gibbs ordered his team and they sprang into action. McGee and Ziva both went to their computers and started typing while Tony went to his desk and grabbed his bag and waited for Ziva.
Vance watched the hurried movements of the MCRT before he spoke.
"I want this over with Gibbs," he muttered in a low voice before returning to his office.
'Don't we all Leon,' Gibbs thought as he grabbed the printouts from the printer and shoved them in a folder. The team split, Tony and Ziva heading towards the elevator, McGee remaining at his desk and Gibbs climbing the stairs to the conference room where the teens were waiting. It was time for some answers.
A/N: Wow, nothing happens in this chapter... the plot should hopefully start moving along more in the next chapter, there's just a lot of setting up to do apparently. Hopefully it won't take me another month to write it, I would start now but I have learnt from experience that attempting Netball practice after sitting/lying down all day is much harder work then it should be so I'm going to move around a bit now :P
Thank you to everyone who added this story to favourites, story alerts, communities and/or reviewed. I'm blown away by the positive responses you guys have given me and I can't believe that this story is nearly at 150 reviews! It's really what gets me to write, so thank you for sticking with me, even if I do update about once a month ^.^
