Chapter 13.
Find and eliminate the traitors.
Alternative title: success or failure of the mission.
(Inside of the Raikage's office.)
"I refuse to believe it!" Raikage exclaimed which feels like the fourth time to Naruto.
"Why? You are running a ninja village. Why can't you believe that you have some pricks who thought it would be a good idea to go behind your back?" Naruto retorted, Yugito being sent to the hospital for a checkup already.
"But you don't get it. I am running this village, about closer to 20 years, and if something like that happens, do you realize that I will have a massive military revolt in my hand!" the Raikage slammed his hand to his desk, breaking it into splinters, making all of his guards wince due to the fate of the object.
"Not if I do something." The teenage demon said.
"What?" Raikage asked flatly.
"Well, I can always find those who were the part of the conspiracy, and then you can deal with them however you feel like."
Raikage took a moment to thought about it, and also cool his head. The man has some serious anger problems.
"Fine. Uzomaki, I order you to find and bring the conspirators to me." He ordered, as if he was the one to come up with the idea.
"You realize I am not one of your Shinobi?" Naruto remarked.
"Get to the work already." Raikage ignored his remark.
"Fine, fine. I swear you will owe me a drink after this." Muttering various things, Naruto walked out of the office.
(In the Leaf village, Hokage's office.)
"Wait back up a little. So you were barely holding on, then suddenly Naruto arrived to save you?" Tsunade was just getting the details of the mission.
"I really don't think he was there to save anyone. I did questioned him about it, his reply was that the only reason why he was there so he could kill two Akatsuki members." Jiraiya told them.
"Still, two Akatsuki members dead, and we only lost one Jonin." Orochimaru said.
"Sure, if you don't forget the fact that person who essentially killed the said members was also our enemy." The fact that Orochimaru was taking the death of Asuma so lightly was not sitting well with Jiraiya.
"Enough. In short, my order still stands. This is just another proof that we can't take Naruto without a full team of Jonin." Tsunade reasserted her order.
"But the problem is, we have to deal with both him, and Akatsuki." Jiraiya said.
"Maybe we will not have to deal with both of them." Orochimaru said thinking about something. "Remember what he said? He is about to kill all the Akatsuki members."
"And if he doesn't, he is still strong enough that he would weaken the organization for us." Jiraiya caught on.
"Wait and see it is then." Tsunade finished their thought process.
(In the Hidden rain.)
"Kakuzu and Hidan were dead after that." Zetsu was finishing his report.
"And you couldn't retrieve their rings?" Pain asked, displeased.
"No. instead, Uzomaki did something strange with them. He somehow managed to combine both of those rings to another ring on his finger," The plant... thing explained.
"That is concerning." Madara couldn't help but say that.
Then they started to plan about how to deal with this new development, since everyone who mattered in the Akatsuki organization was present there.
"What we need to think about is, I heard Uzomaki mentioning that nine tails no longer exist inside him anymore." Zetsu reported another piece of concerning information.
"There are two possibilities. Either he is lying, or he is telling the truth." Madara gave his verdict.
"Hm, until we can confirm it then, we can't make any conclusions." Pain gave his own thoughts.
"What do you think his next move will be?" Zetsu questioned both of them.
"He most likely will attack us, since we are the biggest threat to whatever future plans he have." Madara answered.
"Hmph! Let him come then. He will finally realize that a demon doesn't defy the god." After saying that, Pain left abruptly.
"I swear, giving him a god complex was the biggest mistake of my life." Madara muttered to himself.
(Three days later, at the Hidden cloud.)
Raikage was doing the paperwork of the day, (as well as lifting heavy paperweight, which was heavier than any paperweight had any right to be,) that suddenly…
"Yo! Raikage, how you're doing?" Naruto appeared, and greeted him in the hammiest way possible.
"What the hell, Uzomaki!" Raikage did not appreciate the greeting.
Why exactly would he do something like that? You might be thinking.
The simple reason was, Naruto kicked the door so hard, that it broke from its hinges, causing various ninjas present in that office to go alert.
"Say, Naruto," his ever curious sword asked. "Why do you call him Raikage?"
Raikage did not react to the question.
"You see, there is an amusing situation with that." Naruto started to answer, barely restraining a grin.
He did react to this, mainly getting so angry, that he started to heat up like a pressure cooker, with sound effect present as well.
"Narutoooo?" he said warningly.
"His actual name is A." Naruto finished, letting the grin show up on his face.
"Wait really?" Yamato was having difficulty believing that.
"Yeah." Naruto confirmed, still amused.
"Hmhmhm. No need for worrying about the capital mistakes then." Yamato chuckled.
"Haaaahahahahahaha!" both the sword and the wielder laughed.
Apparently, Raikage reached his maximum temperature, and blew up like a pressure cooker, also with the sound effects.
"I did not ask my father to name me as such!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, all while cursing his father for naming him like that.
"Relax buddy, I was just joking. Remember that quest you gave me?" Naruto became serious.
"Don't you mean mission?" Yamato tried to correct him.
"Whatever. They amount to same thing anyway." Naruto dismissed the issue.
"Oh? You found the traitors then?" not at all concern by the terms used by the demon, Raikage asked the question which was more important for him.
"Yes." Naruto confirmed, tossing him a diary.
Raikage opened the diary, to see the list of names, along with their profession, position, and various comments of Naruto.
"Damn it! All these people are at the very high position." He cursed quietly.
"True."
"But just because they hold such places does not mean I can let them go." He continued to mutter to himself.
"Also, true." Naruto kept hearing him, and commenting.
"God damn it. Fine! I order you to kill them, I'll think of something in the meanwhile." Raikage really didn't want to deal with this now, but really doesn't have much of a choice.
"Fine. You do that, say, are Yugito and B in the village?" Naruto asked, gaining an evil glint in his eyes.
"Yes."
"Excellent!" saying that, Naruto teleported in flames.
(In the Hidden leaf village, daytime.)
All three Sannin were present in the Hokage's office, since they were the strongest Shinobi in the village currently, the responsibility of keeping it running was put on their shoulder, not that they asked the responsibility willingly.
Still, they have that responsibility, so they were managing the village as best they can, especially when they were surrounded by enemies.
All three of them have just finished some discussion that Orochimaru decided to spoke out loud about the problem he was thinking.
"Tsunade, do you know how exactly Uzomaki knew that Akatsuki were present in the Land of fire?"
She took a moment to think about it.
"It is not clear. Other than some informants, I can't think of any other way."
"But who could have told him?" Jiraiya spoke out loud, as well as thinking the answer in his mind.
"There were some monks from the Fire temple here to inform me that all the people present in the temple at that time were slaughtered. And they saw two people leaving who were wearing black cloaks with red clouds." Tsunade explained to both of them.
"Trademark of Akatsuki." Jiraiya concluded.
"From that, the monks and I arrived on same conclusion that the people who murdered the monks of the Fire temple were Akatsuki." She finished explaining.
"Then you send us to search and kill them." Orochimaru finished.
"Yes. And I sent specifically you two, because you two are the only one who can stand a chance against them."
"But before we could even manage to find those members, Asuma's team found them first." Jiraiya continued her train of thought.
"That is another thing. Asuma knew that we have come along specifically for engaging with Akatsuki members. So why didn't he called us? The only time he called us when Uzomaki arrived." Orochimaru asked.
"Maybe he was confident that he and his team can take Akatsuki, but he was not willing to take chances with the Naruto's arrival?" Jiraiya puts one of the possibilities.
"Maybe. Still, it was not a great decision." Orochimaru was not happy with the bearded Jonin.
"Ahem. I think we should focus more on how exactly Uzomaki got the information about Akatsuki, rather than what decisions a dead Jonin took." Tsunade decided to get the discussion back on track.
"Tsunade," Jiraiya said, not willing to let go of the argument.
"Not the time, Jiraiya!" she swiftly told him.
"I don't think we should focus on how Uzomaki got the information about Akatsuki, instead, we should focus on how he gets the information in general." Orochimaru suggested.
"A scary thought, but what if he has some people among our forces?" Jiraiya said.
Three seconds of silence.
"Sigh, time to make a spy sweep then." Tsunade said, not happy.
"Not just that, are there any who can be spies in his year group?" Orochimaru asked sharply.
"None in particular stand out; he was not particularly close to any of them." Tsunade couldn't think of anyone who fits the description.
"What about the people who run that ramen stand?" Orochimaru continued to ask.
"I hardly see how they can be useful." Tsunade dismissed the thought.
"True." Jiraiya agreed.
"I guess we have to do some research about it," when he saw Jiraiya's grin, he immediately said, "Not that research you fool! I meant check out some places and people."
"I think I should investigate the public front, since I am quite use to it. You guys can take care of other part." The toad sage suggested.
"Agreed." Both of them stated.
(In a council meeting, village Hidden in the Clouds.)
"Lord Raikage, why have you summoned us?" a man stated, barely hiding the disdain of the Shinobi who have come along with the kage.
"Yes, if the matter is urgent, then wouldn't be important if all the members of the counsel are present?" another council member stated.
"In any other situation, you would be correct. But, recently, one of my Shinobi was assigned a mission, a mission about which I was not aware, this keeping in mind that no one have any right to give missions without my approval, also due to the importance of the said Shinobi, I prohibited the said Shinobi from leaving from this village. Yet, they have that mission; as a result they were almost killed!" Raikage slammed his hand at the end of his speech.
"Lord Raikage, I really don't understand what this have to do with any of us," another council member stated nervously.
After hearing that, Raikage started to sport a positively gleeful grin.
"But you see," he said, much more calm now, "It has everything to do with you."
"What?" every council member present there stated.
Raikage tossed them the copies of list of names which Naruto gave him before this meeting.
"This," some of them said in shock, most of them were too shocked to form any words.
"I tasked one of my people to find out who exactly decided to breach my authority. And these are the names of people who are guilty." The grin was looking psychotic now.
In panic, some members of counsels ripped the list in to pieces.
"There! You have nothing to prove anymore!"
Raikage shook his head.
"Do you honestly think that those were the only copy? I have the original, also several copies hidden as well."
"W-we would like to know who this Shinobi was." More experienced members of council asked.
"I was waiting when you will ask that." Raikage motioned for the door to be opened.
The door opened, and walked in, "Yo! How is it going buddy?" Naruto spoke to Raikage as if they were old friends.
All the council members have their eyes widen, because they not only know who exactly that person is, but the manner he addressed the Raikage.
"Fine. What now?" he said stiffly.
It was one thing to be treated in such a way in his office, it was different here. Couldn't the damn boy understand?
"Hm, looks pretty strait forward to me, the punishment of treason is death." Naruto said, as if talking about the weather of yesterday.
"Not that. How exactly are you going to kill them?" the words of the Raikage were enough for them to realize that their fate has been decided.
Before Naruto could say anything, one of the nobles has enough.
"With all due respect lord Raikage," which he really doesn't have, "You really don't have any right to kill us, not on account of someone like him?" He looked towards the demon, as if he really doesn't belongs the same planet as himself.
"Say one more word, and before killing you I will pull your Tung out of your mouth." Naruto retorted. He had enough of these people in the Leaf; he won't tolerate them here as well.
"Nicely said." Raikage complemented.
"Thanks." Naruto nodded.
"Besides, most of you people are not even the part of the military of this village. The only reason why you were holding on to your positions was because of your fathers and grandfathers." Raikage really didn't give a damn about these politicians.
"Oy! Yugito, Bea, come in." Naruto didn't give any chances for anyone to speak.
"Very nice." Raikage understood how Naruto is going to kill them.
"Yeah, have fun." He said.
Unusually, Bea didn't say anything in his usual rapping style. Naruto promptly left through the door, and Raikage teleported in the lightning.
As Naruto started to walk outside, the screams started.
(In the office of Raikage.)
"What am I going to do now?" Raikage asked to himself.
He was not surprised by the brutality of his brother.
"You can always use your public department for the applications of the empty positions." The demon suggested.
"It would take too long to go through them." he shot down the idea.
Besides, more paperwork.
"Who told you that you have to do all the things? Organize some more team of people who are completely loyal to you and fairly competent in their field. They will be able to do that for you." Naruto suggested again.
"Fine. Considering your services Uzomaki, you get to do the remaining paperwork of the day." Raikage stated gleefully.
'That would teach you to talk to me disrespectfully in the public!' he thought in his head, and left for the night of amusement.
"What?" Naruto was too shocked to stop him.
For the second time of the day, Raikage teleported in the lightning.
"Damn it!" and naturally, Naruto failed to stop him.
(At the hidden Leaf village, night time.)
"Weren't you about to investigate public front?" Tsunade asked Jiraiya.
"Well, you know that public sleeps in the night time, right?" he retorted sarcastically.
"Yeah, whatever. Where exactly are we going?" this time, she asked Orochimaru.
"We are going to find whether someone is, or was using one of my old places, and if yes, whether they left anything for us there or not." He explained.
"Looks reasonable to me." Jiraiya couldn't help himself.
"What, you thought I would be raving mad?" Orochimaru asked, not believing his old teammate would have such a low opinion of himself.
"Well, in the past," Jiraiya began.
"Never happened." Orochimaru stopped him, hissing warningly.
They entered his old laboratory.
Well, one of many old laboratories.
"Someone was here." Orochimaru stated.
"How can you tell?" Tsunade asked.
"Look how the clean the place is?" Jiraiya remarked.
Really, for a supposed closed secret lab which is no longer in use, the place was too clean.
"Now that you said that, no one should have come here after I left." Orochimaru said, not liking someone else taking his secret place.
"Except for the snooping ANBU." Jiraiya again couldn't help himself.
"Still, I think after searching the place, they would have left it as it was." Tsunade said.
"Look at the tube." Orochimaru said, while observing a lab tube.
"Fresh water." Tsunade remarked.
"Damn it." they got the proof for which they were looking for.
(In the hidden Cloud, in the building of the Raikage's office, night time.)
"Naruto, find the traitors. Naruto, tell me how am I going to fill their empty positions. Naruto, execute the traitors. Naruto, do the paperwork." Naruto was ranting to himself.
"Continue to do that, and I might shock you." Yamato said, annoyed.
"You can do that?" Naruto asked in surprise.
He was totally not thinking of application of such a sword with a childlike glee. Nope. Totally not.
"I am about to find out!" the sword said sarcastically.
At that moment, a female voice came from the door.
"Lord Raikage? I have completed the mission you have assigned me," the female opens the door.
"Lord raikage?" seeing that her boss was not answering, she called again.
Naruto, luckily, (or unluckily earlier,) was surrounded with so many papers that she didn't even saw him.
Which was odd to her, considering that Raikage always towers over the pile?
Naruto decided to tell her that her boss wasn't here at the moment.
"Unfortunately Jonin," he said, trying to be scary, "Raikage has left the building."
"What? Naruto, is that you?" unfortunately, the female Jonin recognized him quickly.
"Yeah it is me. Just what kind of mission that nut assigned you, Samui?" he asked.
"Do not disrespect—"she tried to say, but was cut off in the middle.
"Yeah, yeah, right now, I really am pissed off at him."
"Where is he anyway?" she decided to ask again.
"Probably with Mabui." Naruto answered with some amusement.
He was sure soon there will be some rumors about the great and powerful Raikage.
"What?" Samui asked again, shocked with his blunt answer.
"You know the boss and secretary relationship? It is classic." He said again, with a same tone.
"Why are you telling me all this? "She really didn't need that information.
"Because I—you know what? Fuck that. I am done working for the day. Say, would you want to come with me?" he asked her strait forwardly.
"Only if you buy a nice dinner for me." Naruto was quite lucky at that moment that Samui wanted to unwind after her mission.
"Deal." With that, Naruto left the mountain of paperwork, and teleported with the girl.
(Next morning.)
"Naruto, wake up, its afternoon." Samui said, what felt like thousandth time to her at that morning.
"Mmm, go away." The reply was always same.
"Naruto, wake up." Raikage ordered.
"Screw you." Even if he was asleep, he was still holding on to the grudge from the last night.
"Naruto! Yo!" B said cheerfully.
Naruto was suddenly wide awake.
"Bea? What the hell are you doing in my house?"
A part from the burned apartment in the Leaf, this was another property Naruto own that anyone was actually aware of.
"Well, I heard that we were going to attack the Akatsuki base, so," he trailed off.
"So you thought that you should come to me." Naruto finished.
"Yeah! But my brother doesn't want me to go just like that. Fool, you fool!" apparently, B forgot that said brother was in the room with him.
"How dare you call your brother fool, iron claw!"
"Yikes!" B ran like his life depended on it.
"It's too early in the morning," Naruto muttered, for which he received a look from Samui.
"Really? Look outside!" the girl said with some annoyance.
After the chaos was over, mainly because a left for his office, and Bea ran away, Naruto decided to wake up.
(Later, in the Raikage's office.)
"So, finally slept enough?" the man asked in some amusement.
"Screw you. Why the hell were you there anyway?" for the second time at that day, Naruto cursed him.
"Because you left the paperwork of the previous day." He answered him flatly.
"No! I worked until the night time. There is no way it could have grown in just six hours or so." Naruto answered, horrified.
"Welcome to hell, Uzomaki."
"Whatever."
"Now, on to more serious topics. Are you planning to assault the Akatsuki?" Rakage asked.
"Correct."
"Well, don't tell me you are planning to do that alone," Raikage said, while giving him a look.
"What, do you think I am stupid?" Naruto asked in return.
"You really want me to answer that?" Raikage hoped secretly that he really want him to do so.
"Yeah, yeah. But to be honest, I am confident that I can take them on, provided no complications arise."
"And by complications you mean…" he questioned.
"Something I really don't know about."
"So you are not planning to go there alone. Who would you take then? I can't really send my ninjas with you, not if you want our plans to be executed properly."
"You are right."
"And what about Yugito? She will insist on going with you."
Naruto's expressions immediately get harden. "No."
"Why?" Raikage really didn't understood why he was not willing to take the second container.
"Give her reason, any reason, to keep her here." He said.
"Yeah right. You expect a fully healed Shinobi to stay out of the operation which they want to be the part of?" Raikage said, while giving him a look.
"You're the Raikage. I am sure you will think of something."
"But you still have some people in mind, despite my warning that I can't send any of my Shinobi with you." A sighed, resigned to the possibility.
"B for one." Naruto answered immediately.
"It would be good if you give me the explanation for why you are willing to endanger my brother, but not the another container we have." At that moment, the temperature of that office went down sharply.
That was enough for Naruto to realize that A was not happy with his decision to take B with him.
"And what can I do? She has already proven that we can't trust her in these situations. Not to mention, in the matters of training, power, and experience, B surpasses her."
"So, just because she was captured once, you are unwilling to take her with you?"
"No. it is her general attitude. Look, when I tell B to get out of somewhere fast, he will listen to me. Yes, he will complain a lot in the process, but he will listen. But Yugito? She wouldn't do anything like that." Naruto explained.
Raikage sighed. "Fine. Good luck for trying to explain all that to her."
"Damn it." the demon cursed.
"So, since you have already decided to take some Shinobi from here, which one do you, want?" might as well go down all the way.
"Tell me, would they be able to perform with their headbands hidden?" Naruto questioned, more than familiar with the attachment of Shinobi with their headbands.
"What kind of question is this? Of course they will perform. Just because the headband is the prized position for a Shinobi, does not mean that they can't go without them." Raikage scoffed at such a question.
"Very good then. Now, I need people who can provide medical assistance, and combat group which can perform the extracting from the battle field." Naruto said, pleased.
"Why?"
"Because while I will take the attention of the most of Akatsuki, including their leader, I will need someone like B who also can manage a battle or two." Naruto explained his plan further.
"Very well. I think C will do as a medic, and Darui and the team trained by B for the combat group." It was example of his familiarity with his shinobi that it didn't took much thought for Raikage to think about the team.
"Good. Now, before the cat girl finds me, I need to hide somewhere until the attack is ready." Naruto said, trying not to show any emotion in his face.
After that, Naruto disappeared.
(End.)
Author's notes:
As per the suggestions of ChibyTala and ReadAllTheWords, the summary of the story have been changed.
Thanks for reading, see you in the next update.