Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry if that took awhile, but believe me – the last year and a half has been extremely busy. I won't go into detail since it that is personal, but I will say that it has been life changing.
I've heard about the "purge" that has been going on for over a year now. Even before this was happening, this story (and likely any future stories) DOES NOT have lemons in it and it never will. Simply put, I read and/or write these fics for the action, alternate universes, and such (with a bit of romance) – not to pitch a tent with my pants.
Putting an age limit on the stories should be more than enough. I won't be surprised if the pressure to delete some of these stories came from a couple of angry parents. Some parents need to be more mindful of what their children are doing in their free time. To these parents I'm referring to: They're YOUR kids. Take responsibility for them instead of laying the blame on somebody else when things go wrong. However, don't misunderstand me: If you're an 11-year old kid, you have NO business reading a M or MA rated fic in the first place. Do a little growing before you start reading stuff like that.
Ok, rant's over. On with the story...
• NO, I STILL DON'T OWN NARUTO, InFAMOUS, OR FRINGE – where I currently live has WAY too many lawyers to pull that kind of crap.
Chapter 12: Liberation of Wave
As the group continued the journey towards Wave, the K'tsuchi twins were questioned about their mission. To nearly everyone's shock, they gave them the answers they wanted without resistance. Inabi questioned whether they were telling the truth at all sense it was very rare that enemy ninja willingly gave up truthful information without being interrogated, but Naruto confirmed that they, in fact, were being honest – having seen Ishigaki's memories. When asked why they gave this information freely, Kurotsuchi only said that it was a very long story and that it would be best if they waited to get to Tazuna's house to explain.
Tazuna's house
"So let me get this straight – you, a 13-year old fresh-off-the-tit genin, killed Ishigaki - Iwa's Stone Wall of Silence?" Kamatsuchi asked skeptically. Kurotsuchi didn't say anything at all. She was too shocked. It wasn't everyday that someone can take on Ishigaki and walk away alive, let alone WIN against him.
"Correct." Kakashi answered. Naruto gave him a look that clearly said that wasn't the entire story, but Kakashi simply ignored it. The boy needed to learn that portraying the image that he is trying to project would likely make potential enemies think twice about coming after him. "Yes, he may have just graduated, but Naruto looks to be an exception since he had been trained well before he entered the academy."
"Hmm...I suppose that makes sense – seeing as how he looked like a seasoned pro..." Kurotsuchi mused. "...although from my short observation, I can't say the same about at least one member of your team."
Kurotsuchi shifted her eyes over towards Ami, who seemed to have caught on to her meaning and began shouting numerous insults at her. Nearly everyone rolled their eyes at her ranting, but ignored her.
"Still, forgive us if we don't believe you, but you're just a genin. Ishigaki is one of our village's best ninja...even if we hated his guts." Kamatsuchi spoke up, with a venomous look on her face when Iwa's now-dead Stone Wall of Silence was mentioned.
"I know," Naruto agreed. "That's why it wasn't just me. Kakashi-sensei was a big part of the plan. Ishigaki may have been a problem...if he hadn't been over confident. However, he was stupid enough drop his guard when he believed that 'I' was incapacitated by that Golem Warrior jutsu of his."
Kakashi groaned. 'Naruto...there's a time to be modest, but not now.'
The twins caught the way he mentioned himself. "What do you mean by that?"
"When he means 'I', he means me." Kakashi sighed. "I used a henge to disguise myself as my genin charge, then used a substitution jutsu on one of his clones while Ishigaki was momentarily distracted. As a result..."
"...he capture you instead of the kid." Kurotsuchi finished. "Impressive plan, copy ninja. You're every bit as wily as the bingo books say you are."
Kakashi scratched the back of his head while giving off his trademark eye-smile. "While I'm flattered, the plan actually wasn't mine."
Everyone turned towards Naruto. Some were shocked (the K'tsuchi twins, Haku, Tazuna, Tsunami), some smiled with pride (Ino, Sakura, Kakashi, Kyubi), one gave him a friendly backslap (Kiba), one nodded in respect (Zabuza), two had a neutral look, but were raging on the inside (Inabi, Sasuke), and the last one just ranted like a fool (guess who?).
"Ok, enough about all that." Naruto cut in, still slightly embarrassed from the looks he was getting. "Gato is still out there and it won't be long before he finds out that he's been had. Once that happens and realizes that he has ZERO hostages to use as leverage...there's no telling what he'll do."
"Is there anything we can do?" Tazuna asked.
"Keep building the bridge, old man." Naruto answered. "That's what the people here in this village are relying on. Don't worry – you'll be guarded. If anything, you may be the safest person in this village since Gato no longer has any ninja on his payroll. It's the rest of the village I'm worried about." the blond tailed off, concerned for the citizens that the tyrant may go after as retribution.
"How do we warn an entire village that the local rich guy could go crazy at any moment?" Kiba spoke up.
It was a dilemma – while they could all go out and begin warning people, what good what that do? Even though Gato no longer had access to hired shinobi, he still had ronin, which are still plenty dangerous to unarmed and untrained civilians.
Another idea was that they could try and train a small group of civilians, turning them into a small militia, but even that plan wasn't a great one. First off, there wasn't enough time to get them up to speed. Second, it would draw too much attention since someone from Gato's camp was bound to find out. Last, the village had no access to weapons.
"Kakashi...do you remember the flower garden we were discussing last night?" Naruto asked in a serious tone. Kakashi nodded his head while everyone else looked at them like they had totally lost it.
"You mean about directly pulling out the weeds instead of defending against them?" the copy ninja responded in a equally serious tone.
"Yes, that discussion." Naruto nodded. While everyone else was giving them weird looks, Sakura's eye widened as if she finally understood their code-speak. Kakashi and Naruto both caught her look.
'So she figured it out – guess I shouldn't be surprised. She IS a Haruno, after all.' Kakashi mentally smiled.
Ino saw the look on Sakura's face and then narrowed her eyes. Kakashi also noticed this and mentally sighed. 'I better tell Ino what's going on...or she'll attempt to mind-walk me. Naruto and Sakura may be immune to it, but I'm not.'
"I was hoping we'd have more time, but it looks like we'll have to move up the time table for that plan." Naruto said.
"So, you guys are going to go through with that, eh?" Zabuza said, then smirked. "I take back every comment I ever made about you leaf nins not willing to kill."
"Whatever it is, we'll help, too."
Everyone turn towards the K'tsuchi twins. "And why should we trust you?" Inabi responded snidely.
"I have to agree." Kakashi said. "You were originally hired by Gato. We don't know what your intentions really are. Besides, I believe Iwa sees my student as a criminal – simply because of who he's related to."
"That's because Iwa is ruled by a monster." Kamatsuchi said with a hint of hatred in her tone.
"She's right." Kurotsuchi seconded. "Iwa, as a whole, has gone downhill since our grandfather was removed from his position as Tsuchikage. Granted, he managed to escape, but he is now considered public enemy #1 by order of the 4th Tsuchikage – all because grandfather didn't want to start the 3rd ninja war and take over all of the elemental countries."
"Not only that," Kamatsuchi spoke up. "but our own father was killed by that bastard!" she said, her voice cracked, letting her emotions show. Kurotsuchi rubbed her back, trying to calm her sister down. Even Naruto had a hint of sadness on his face. Nobody deserved to lose a parent the way they had to.
Inabi was about to ask more questions when Naruto stopped him. "That's enough. They're telling the truth."
"And how would you know?" Inabi rounded on him before he could stop himself.
"Mind your attitude, Inabi-san." Naruto said sternly. "I know because I extracted information out of Ishigaki before he...expired. They did not want to work for Gato at all, but they were forced to. Besides, it would seem that Ishigaki received orders from the Yondaime Tsuchikage to kill the K'tsuchi twins after killing the bridge builder."
"I knew it...I fucking knew it!" Kamatsuchi half-shouted. "I knew it the second I saw that our names weren't on the payroll as well as Zabuza's!"
Zabuza raised his eyebrow for a second, but let it drop. It didn't surprise him that Gato was going to kill him and the demon brothers, while possibly taking Haku as a sex slave.
"So? What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Ami blurted out without thinking. Nearly everyone face-palmed at such a stupid question. Sasuke didn't do anything, but his right eye had a noticeable twitch. '...as much as I hate the dobe, if he decides to write her up on report for being annoying and stupid, I'm sure as hell not going to stop him. Even Yamanaka and Haruno are better ninjas...'
Naruto, not surprisingly, asked what was on everyone's mind. "Ijimekko, are really that stupid? If the current tsuchikage ordered Ishigaki to kill them, that means they are no longer rock nins in the eyes of Iwa. Once that asshat finds out that the twins here are still alive, Iwa will mark them as rogue ninja."
"Nobody likes traitors!" Ami continued to blurt out.
"Well, no shit." Naruto sarcastically remarked. "Why else do you think they hate the current tsuchikage? He ordered them killed for no other reason than that they are related to the Onoki. Yes, we ninja must obey the orders of our kages, but only if it is within reason. The second a kage decides to execute a subordinate solely for personal reasons, he no longer deserves to wear that hat."
The K'tsuchi twins were in awe. The leaf and the rock were by no means allies, yet here was a leaf genin – the son of one their village's most hated enemy, no less – defending them from one of his own. Also, they could have been killed at anytime since the blond knew about them from the start, but chose not to and instead went out of his way to have them captured unharmed.
"We understand why you don't trust us." Kurotsuchi spoke in a soft tone. "We are from a village that you call an enemy. However, please try to understand...a lot of Iwa shinobi and kunoichi never wanted that war to happen. Nearly the entire village was one step away from a revolution. However, he got wind of it and moved quickly, creating CORE – a shadow group within our government, who's members could get to ANYONE in Iwa and kill them at any time. We decided that until we can get access to their NOC list, we have no chance of ending his rule."
Kakashi nodded, understanding exactly what she was referring to. A NOC list was basically a list of everyone who was and/or is a member of a village's special ops branch. The list was not only a roster, but it also had every piece of information about that agent, including their real names, where they lived, related family members, village ID and ninja ID, and so on. A NOC list is also updated every 24 hours, meaning that the list would also show what the agent's current assignment is and where. Should someone get their hands on the list, they could – in theory – take out a village's entire black ops division.
"Before I decide, I want to know one thing: what do you plan on doing after this mission ends?" Kakashi questioned.
The K'tsuchi twins didn't hesitate to answer. "Find our grandfather..." was Kurotsuchi's answer. "...and from there, find a way to take back our village from that bastard that dares to call himself the tsuchikage!"
Kakashi stared at them for a little while...before giving them any eye-smile. "Alright then, we accept any help that you can provide." Inabi, Sasuke, and Ami were about to protest but instantly thought better of it when the copy ninja gave them a icy cold glare warning them to keep their opinions to themselves.
"Good, now that all that is settled, l think I'll start preparing dinner." Tsunami smiled.
To her surprise, nearly everyone pitched in. Naruto made several shadow clones to keep watch outside while he helped Kiba and the K'tsuchi twins look for live stock and ingredients in the forest. Ino and Sakura stayed in the kitchen with Tsunami to help with the preparations. Kakashi, realizing that he wasn't very good at cooking, decided to help Naruto's clones guard the house. Tazuna decided that it was best if he stayed out of the way. Nobody minded, though, since his day job was tough enough as it was.
Later that night in the forest...
Team 7, the K'tsuchi twins and Zabuza met outside in the forest just after midnight when everyone had gone to sleep. They needed a plan to take Gato out of the picture, but felt that "certain individuals" would ruin the plan.
"So...what do we do about Inabi, Sasuke, and Ami?" Naruto questioned. "Because to be honest, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them."
"I second that."
"Kyubi-chan? Where have you been?" Naruto mentally asked, wondering what the vixen had been doing for the past few days.
"Trying to organize the info you got from that stone wall bastard you cremated. Trust me – there's quite a bit of info here and it will take time to sort out. I'm taking a break for the moment." Kyubi answered.
Everyone remained quite while looking at Naruto. They all knew that his silence and slightly unfocused stare meant that he was communicating with his nine-tailed tenant.
"What's she saying, Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked.
"She's trying to categorize all the info I received from Ishigaki." Naruto answered his pink-haired teammate. "Was there something you wanted to know?"
"Actually, now that you mentioned it... I have quite a bit of info on Gato and his gang, but strangely enough, I don't have a map of his mansion."
"Almost nobody knows that piece of info." Kyubi said. "Hell, the only reason Ishigaki knew was because he actually snuck into the bastard's office, gained access to his safe, and memorized the map that was inside. Remember, Gato doesn't trust ANYONE – It's highly unlikely that he would willingly let someone see a blueprint of his abode."
"She said that info is not common knowledge, even to the ronin he employes," Naruto explained, repeating the fox demoness' message back to his teammate. "Up until now, he's kept those blueprints a secret, even from other shinobi. It took that bastard Ishigaki to find that info."
Sakura seemed to accept that answer. Still, she wondered how useful that map would be since it's in Naruto's head and decided to ask him how they were going to make use of it. Naruto grinned as he pulled out what looked like a scroll, but instead of it being made of paper, it seemed to be made of glass...except that it was highly flexible. Realizing that everyone was staring at his unique looking scroll, the blond decided to indulge them.
"This scroll is made out of what's called 'NanoGlass'. When rolled out flat, it looks and feels like gorilla glass. However, unlike other glass, this kind can't 'shatter'. Instead, the nano cells that make up the glass simply disconnect from each other, allowing the scroll to become extremely flexible. Also, unlike regular scrolls, I can transfer information to it via electricity – and as some of you know, all electricity carries information of some kind."
With the NG scroll completely rolled out, Naruto placed his index finger in the middle before a small current went into it. After a second or two, a blueprint shows up.
"Ok, this is a map of Gato's entire complex..." Naruto started. As the hour wore on, the group discussed how many of Gato's men were in the complex, who was on patrol, where they patrolled, where the barracks were, and where his fortune, bank numbers, and even some top secret info that he somehow manage to snag from other shinobi. The general opinion was that while the number of Ronin was annoying – Gato has at least 200 ronin on his payroll – they were only dangerous to people who weren't shinobi or kunoichi. None of them were a match for a ninja. While wanting to be part of the attack, Zabuza didn't trust Inabi, Sasuke, or Ami to be around his adopted daughter. He even thought that leaving Kiba alone with them was a bad idea since if things went south, Kiba and Haku would be out numbered 3 to 2 with no jonin to back them up. By deciding to stay with the bridge builder as a guard, it would deter team 11 from attacking his daughter and the Inuzuka heir. Once the team had ran through their plan of attack, Kakashi turned towards Naruto.
"You asked earlier about most of team 11?" the copy ninja asked his pupil and second-in-command. Naruto nodded affirmatively.
"Just to be sure they don't try anything, Zabuza, Haku, and Kiba will keep an eye on them. To be frank, only Inabi-san is a potential problem. Sasuke is only on equal footing with Kiba. As for Ami...I actually consider Jar Jar Binks to be more dangerous than her." Kakashi deadpanned the last part.
Naruto nodded, trying not to laugh at his sensei's last response. Naruto did find deadpan humor rather funny and wondered who else he knew or would know that could do it better than Kakashi.
-KRT-
Somewhere out in Suna, a certain red-headed boy sneezed.
"Gaara? I thought you didn't get sick." said a boy with make-u...I mean war paint.
"I don't. Now shut up and keep an eye on the pasta this time, Kankuro. Your 'Blackened angel hair pasta with blackened garlic lemon sauce' isn't what I would've called a Mario Batali masterpiece." Gaara responded.
A blond girl with a giant fan on her back simply shook her head at her two brothers. 'Best genin in the village and we can't even boil water without screwing that up somehow. Maybe we should've stuck to making more traditional food before attempting to fix more exotic cuisine...'
-KRT-
1 NIGHT LATER...
Team 7 was just outside of the Gato's compound perimeter, waiting to put their plan into action. While they came up with a general plan nights ago, Naruto thought it wouldn't hurt to send out some clones disguised as ronin.
It was a good thing he did.
The blueprints to Gato's mansion was spot on, but the mansion was just part of a larger compound. There was a barracks for the ronin, a small prison for people they decided to capture instead of execute, an armory, a security office, and 3 com towers. While most of the areas weren't a real problem, the 3 com towers were. What makes these towers a problem is that the security office uses them to communicate with the ronin who are out patrolling the village.
The team came to the conclusion that if they simply attacked the compound, those ronin would be notified and one of two things could happen: the first was one that would make their plan harder – ALL of the ronin would return to the compound and overwhelm them. They maybe only ronin, but even facing over 200 of them at once could be a major problem for most ninja if they were low on chakra.
The second scenario was what made their blood run cold: those ronin in the field may very well initiate a directive given to them by Gato to do something terrible to the people of Wave in case of attack. Making things more complicated, a Naruto clone found out that the three towers were being constantly monitored by the security office. If one were to go down, the ronin head of security would likely send out a signal that the base was under attack using one of the remaining towers.
The course of action was obvious: all three towers had to go down – at the same time. All three towers were equally distanced from the security office, in a delta formation. This normally would required an ANBU team with excellent communication skills to do this. However, when you have the shadow clone jutsu at your disposal and have mastered it, communication isn't an issue.
Ino was standing still, with her eyes closed. While here telepathy range was good, she still wasn't experienced enough to block out all distractions around her so the team stayed quiet while she did her thing.
"Clone alpha in position."came the mental voice in Ino's head.
"Clone beta in position." came another voice a few seconds later.
"Clone charlie in position." came the final voice.
Ino opened her eyes, looking towards Naruto. "The clones are in position, shushou."
Naruto nodded. "Good. Contact the twins and let them know that we are finished setting up."
-Inside Gato's mansion-
"Where is Ishigaki?" Gato asked the K'tsuchi twins, his eyes narrowed at them. The two rock twins showed no outward emotion, but were slightly nervous since their "boss" was starting to get suspicious.
"He went after the blond boy." Kamatsuchi answered. This caused Gato to get even more suspicious.
"Why would the stone wall of silence waste his time going after some snot nose leaf brat and even if he did, why didn't he tell me?"
Kamatsuchi was inwardly sweating. She didn't think the short little greedy bastard would suddenly ask so many questions. Thankfully, Kurotsuchi – who has a cooler head and thinks better on the fly than her – responded for her.
"That's because the issue involving that boy is an Iwa matter." Kurotsuchi asked.
"That's not good enough!" Gato responded with his voice raised.
"It will have to be." Kurotsuchi responded coldly. "We are under orders not to talk about that to anyone, Gato-san. If we talk about this to you, Ishigaki will kill us for telling you."
"Not my problem." Gato scoffed.
"Oh yes, it is." Kamatsuchi jumped in, playing along with what her sister is saying. "Apparently, you don't understand the lengths our village will go to keep secrets. After he kills us...he'll kill you."
"W-what?" Gato stuttered slightly.
"We know very little about the CORE division, but what we do know is that under no circumstances is any CORE agent to leave loose ends untied. We're Iwa ninja, and even CORE considers us "loose-ends" if necessary. What the hell do you think will happen to you, a non-Iwa civilian, if we tell you something you aren't suppose to know?" Kurotsuchi answered, effectively scaring the hell out of the tyrant.
Seeing that he couldn't get the information that he desired out of the two Iwa Kunoichis without endangering his life, he decided to drop the matter.
"Fine. You have a point. Just make sure to tell him to speed thinks up. It won't be long before that bridge is complete." the midget crime lord waved them off as he went back to some paper work currently on his desk.
Before the twins could say anything else, they heard Ino's voice inside their head.
"Phase one of the plan is complete. Proceed with phase two." Both twins gave Ino a mental nod as Kurotsuchi made a quick hand seal that went unnoticed by Gato. A second later, the ground began to shake.
"An earthquake...out here?" Gato questioned, obviously baffled and slightly frightened. The K'tsuchi twins feigned confusion and alarm.
"You've gotta be shittin' me! I thought the fault line going through here was not active!" Kamatsuchi shouted out.
"Sir, do you have a shelter?" Kurotsuchi asked Gato.
"Yes, but I don't let just anyone-"
"It's not for us, it's for you. Go there, now." Kurotsuchi instructed.
"Wait a minute, why should I-" Gato began to argue, but was cut off.
"We live in stone country, you fool! We know these kinds of quakes, and believe me, it's only going to get worse. Unless you want to be a statistic on some national death toll report, get yourself to that shelter, NOW!" Kamatsuchi shouted.
Deciding that now was not the time to argue, the greedy billionaire took off towards his shelter. Once he was gone, the twins both smirked.
"Hey Dr. Xavier, the plan worked. The midget just ran off like a little bitch to his hiding spot." Kamatsuchi mentally communicated. Kurotsuchi face-palmed at her sister's habit of giving people silly nicknames.
"Roger...AND DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Ino mentally yelled back.
-Back outside-
Naruto looked over towards Ino and raised an eyebrow at the tick mark that sat on her forehead.
"Um, Ino-chan...do I even want to know?"
"I swear, that one sister is like Tayuya." Ino groaned. She saw Sakura giving her a smirk as if she had some idea of what got here all worked up.
"You think it and I'll give you the headache from hell, forehead." the blond half-threatened. "Can you get access or not?"
"Once Naruto-kun disables the security system, yes." Sakura answered confidently.
Naruto nodded at that. "They are in place and ready."
Everyone nodded back. Phase 2 was now complete. It was time to let the chaos begin.
-Inside the security office-
"This has got to be the most boring job ever." complained one of the ronin. "I wanna cut something, not stare at some screen with nothing going on."
"Will you shut up already? This is the 7th time tonight you've complained about this job. Just be glad we're getting paid to do nothing but this shit. It could have been worse, ya know." ronin number two chided.
"C'mon, Man! We're ronin, not rent-a-cops!"
Ronin two simply groaned. Why the hell was he assigned a partner who was young, blood-thirsty, and stupid? He was about to respond to his young partner when he noticed something odd on the security cameras.
"Hey, pay attention. Something's up on cameras 5, 6, and 7."
The young ronin turned to see three figures on the monitors just standing there. It was some blond-haired kid who looked to be in his early teens. He knew for a fact that he was the youngest on the roster – and he was 19 – so he was sure the kid wasn't one of theirs. What really got his attention was that all three figures in the camera were the exact same person.
-Outside near Com tower #1, 2, and 3-
The three Narutos stood nearly rock-still, ignoring everything around them. However, a closer look would indicate that the three were building up an electrical charge. After a few more seconds, their eyes shot open to reveal sky blue irises...with sparks of electricity going through them. All three began to go through several hand seals. As this happened, the clear sky suddenly began to get cloudy...
-Back in the security office-
"Hey...what the hell is that brat doing?" the young ronin asked, completely baffled.
The veteran ronin took a closer look at what his partner was talking about. He continued to stare at the blond through the screen, who was moving his hands at a very fast rate. He was about to chalk it up to some crazy villager...until he suddenly realized what the kid was doing, causing the veteran to pale considerably.
He was making hand seals. Only one type of person did this sort of thing. He then noticed that the blond wore a headband, confirming his fears.
"Shit! That kid's a ninja! If he's here, then that means that the rest of his team is here as well and that those rock ninjas failed. Quick, send out a message to the rest of the ronin in the village and initiate the scorched earth policy!" he shouted to his young subordinate. However, before the rookie ronin could do anything, the monitor screens that the blond was on suddenly went white. A couple of seconds later, the control panel in front of him exploded, killing both ronin and destroying everything in the room.
- Outside near Com tower #1, 2, and 3 - just seconds earlier-
All three Narutos finished their hand seals with the ram seal, before lifting his hands up and shouted the name of the performed jutsu loudy.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Crashdown Jutsu!"
The heavens parted ways as three massive bolts of lightning came from out of the sky and struck the the com towers with so much energy that they exploded, taking out everything within 100 yards of them. Smaller secondary explosions could be heard around the entire compound as the surge from the three strikes took out any electronic devices hardwired to the towers themselves, including the security office.
-Just outside Gato's mansion-
The ronin guards that saw the towers explode immediately scrambled inside to go get their boss.
"What the hell was that?!" ronin #1 asked. "I've never seen a thunderstorm like that – and to top it all off, it took out our fucking towers!"
"No way that's a coincidence. We need to let the boss know that we can't communicate with the rest of the ronin through the towers anymore." ronin #2 answered while attempting to stay calm.
Just as they reached Gato's double doors to his office, they were stopped when two kunoichi appeared in front of them. The ronin recognized them as the K'tsuchi twins, two of the Iwa nin that Gato had hired.
"Come on, let us through! This is an emergency!" ronin #1 shouted.
"Yeah, we need to tell the boss that our towers were destroyed!" ronin #2 seconded.
The twins simply gave them a blood-thirsty grin as they pulled out kunais from their weapons poaches.
"We know."
-Outside – around the compound-
The ronin were scrambling around, trying to find out what was going on. However, they failed to notice that their were "extras" with their groups – until it was to late.
-At the barracks-
"Get your asses out of bed and to your stations!" shouted a ronin officer at his subordinates. He then noticed that one of the ronin was still in his bed. Irate at the lack of the awareness this sleeping ronin was showing, he marched towards the bed and pulled the sheets off – and was kicked in his stomach by a Naruto clone, causing him to go to his knees.
Before any of the ronin had a chance to react, the clone took out several shuriken and threw them at the emergency fire sprinklers that were all over the room, causing them to break and shower the entire room. The ronin just laughed at the seemingly wasted action before taking out their weapons and surround the blond.
"Tell me, what happens when you mix water with electricity?" the blond grinned sadistically, as he started to glow.
While most of the ronin weren't really all that smart, the ronin officer went pale as he was the only one to figure out what the clone was about to do. Unfortunately for him, it was too late as the last thing he saw was the clone explode in a wave of electricity, which electrocuted every water-soaked ronin in the room, killing them all.
-Right outside the Armory-
"There he is – he's heading towards the Armory!" a ronin shouted as he and 49 other ronin ran after a Naruto clone.
The clone quickly ran inside the armory, but for some reason, didn't bother to shut the door. The ronin, who were too busy chasing him, paid it no mind as they ran in after him. Once inside, the ronin lost visual contact with the blond.
"Seal all the doors and cut the power," the lead ronin ordered. "That brat doesn't leave this place alive!"
Once the doors to the armory were sealed and the lights went out indicating that the power to the armory had been shut down, the ronin heard a voice that seemed to come from everywhere yet nowhere.
"Wrong move, morons."
The ronin laughed, believing that the blond didn't realize the situation he was supposedly in. "Kid," the lead ronin spoke up. "You're the one who made a wrong decision to run in here. Now you're stuck in here with us. Now then, if you come on out know, I promise to make your death quick and painless."
"Would an explosion count as quick and painless?" the clone asked as it walked out from a shadow near a control panel.
That caused the ronin all around the armory to raise their eyebrows. What the hell was he talking about? They didn't store explosives in this building.
"Doesn't this panel next to me house a self-destruction initiative?"
The leader's eyes widened slightly. How did this kid know about the self-destruct sequence inside the armory? That's when he remembered something and smirked.
"Nice try kid, but the only people who can activate that are the boss and lead ronin, which includes myself. Even then it requires power, which has already been cut."
The Naruto clone's smirk only got bigger when he held up a finger, which began glowing with a visible electrical current going through it. He then touched the panel and a few seconds later, a monotone female voice could be heard on the Armory's PA system.
"Self-destruct sequence has been initiated. Detonation will occur in 5...4...3..."
All the ronin in the armory froze in terror.
"...2..."
"What the hell?!" shouted the leader, clearly scared shitless. How the fuck did he just activate that sequence just by touching it? That's when it hit him. The brat can control electricity. Not only that, he was smart enough to purposely lead a quarter of the entire ronin army into this place – knowing full well that it had a self-destruct sequence that would take out the entire building.
"...1...have a nice day." the female voice said in a somewhat cheery tone.
"Thank you." the Naruto clone remarked, grinning like a maniac.
-Right outside the Armory-
"How long have they been in there?" ordered a ronin platoon leader.
"Only about 10 minutes. It seems that they have the kid trapped – they've sealed all entrances and cut all power to the building."
"Good," the leader nodded. "Now all we have to do is wai-"
Suddenly, the building in front of him exploded, killing everyone inside, as well as the leader and his platoon that were positioned right outside of it.
-Just outside of the perimeter-
As explosions were going off and screams of the ronin could be heard, the group of ninjas waited patiently as Naruto's super-charged clones continued their reign of chaos all around the base. After 20 minutes, the chaos ceased, with the only sounds that could be heard were the flames and a few buildings coming down due to the damage caused by the destruction Naruto's clones unleashed.
Ino opened her eyes and stood up.
"It's done. All of the ronin outside and around the compound have been eliminated."
Kakashi nodded in approval. His genin charges did a exceptional job with planning the attack and its execution. It was rare that a genin squad pulled something like this off with very little to no issues. It was even rarer that a rookie genin squad performed such a task so flawlessly. He was extremely proud to be their sensei.
"Alright...let's go free the prisoners and meet up with the 'Tsuchi sisters. After that, we will deal with Gato himself, then deal with the remaining ronin in the village tomorrow morning." Kakashi ordered.
"Hai!" All three genin saluted before all 4 leaf nin took off towards the compound.
-Inside the compound-
The two sisters continued to go room to room, killing any ronin they came across as well as searching the room for anything useful. If it was information on them, Naruto, his team, or even Zabuza and his group, they would promptly destroy it. Iwa finding out was bad enough. Kiri getting hold of this information was also bad news since the current Mizukage was a bigot who hated bloodlines. They had heard that the leader of the resistance group that opposed him was a woman who herself had 2 bloodlines, but they didn't know her name since it was extremely difficult to get information of any kind from that region. Even the Tsuchikage was cautious enough towards Kiri to order all non-CORE shinobi to stay away from the war-torn ninja village and even CORE ninja were ordered to observe only and not to make contact with any Kiri nin under any circumstances.
Over halfway through their search of the compound, they heard explosions going off outside. They could only grin, knowing that the plan was going smoothly.
"Boys and their explosions." Kurotsuchi lightly joked.
"Tell me about it. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if they were forced to choose between explosions and sex..." Kamatsuchi wondered.
"Only an Uchiha would take explosions over sex, you know."
Both sisters, hearing the lazy voice, whirled around ready to attack but instantly relaxed when they saw a smirking Kakashi in the doorway with Naruto, Ino, and Sakura behind him, who were trying not to laugh at the comment their sensei made.
"Somehow, that doesn't really surprise me." Kamatsuchi smirked. "I've heard that they don't even smile when a pair of nice ones jiggle in front of them, but they grin like maniacs when they set something on fire – go figure. Anyway, how did it go out there?"
"Better than anticipated." Naruto answered her. "We ended up not only destroying their com towers, but their weapons bunker and barracks as well. We also managed to free some villagers we found in their jail house. However, the cherry on top is that we killed every single ronin in the area. That only leaves the ones in here and the few in the village."
"What about Gato?" Kakashi inquired.
"What about the little asshat?" Kamatsuchi deadpanned.
"I mean where is he and what shape is he in?" Kakashi replied in a equally dry tone.
Kamatsuchi was about to give the copy ninja another wise-guy remark when Kurotsuchi reach across and smacked her sister in the back of the head.
"Stop being a smart-ass and just tell him where that greedy little turd is." Kurotsuchi scolded, slightly annoyed by her sister's antics.
"Fine, fine," Kamatsuchi huffed. "The greedy little midget waddled towards his safe room and locked himself inside."
"Does he know that you guys are in on it?" Kakashi asked. Both twins shook their heads. Kakashi nodded approvingly. The plan has gone even better than they anticipated. Originally, they were simply going to surround the compound and storm it, but with Gato locked in his own panic room and unaware of what was going on, it was certain that he would not escape. You had to come out sometime.
Sensing what his jonin-sensei was thinking, Naruto spoke up with a dark smirk on his face while lifting his index finger that visibly showed electricity going through it. "We won't have to wait very long..."
-Inside the panic room-
Gato sat a desk that was in the corner of the room, visibly nervous. All he knew was that I major earthquake had occurred and had no other choice but to go someplace were even a 9.0 couldn't do any damage. The room really was built to withstand almost any natural disaster. He imagined that the only destructive force on earth that could compromise it was a bijuu and even then, it would have to be one closer to the 4-tails since that particular tailed beast had control over lava. However, something was bothering him.
'Earthquakes normally last longer than this. Something's wrong...'
Unfortunately for Gato, his suspicions came too late as the door to the panic room unexpectedly began to open.
"The hell...?!" Gato exclaimed. A panic room is only suppose to be opened from the inside, after all. When the door stopped opening, the greedy billionaire was puzzled when he saw that no one was outside. Noting that the building was no longer shaking, he simply chalked it up to a technical malfunction. 'I paid all that money for this thing and it opens when it isn't suppose to. Looks like I'll have to have my boys go into town and 'fire' that tech that built it.'
However, right as he stepped over the threshold, he suddenly felt slightly lightheaded. After a moment or so of slight dizziness, the symptoms disappeared. 'Must've been the change of pressure...' Gato mussed as he mentally waved off the strange occurrence.
His first thought was to re-establish contact with his hired men, but something...or maybe someone...he couldn't tell, told him that he should go check his safe and all of his accounts to insure that nothing was missing. After all, the thugs he hired only did his biding because he was paying them. Nothing other than business sense and intelligence was keeping them from simply robbing them. Ronin were rogue samurai for a reason.
As he walked down the hall towards his office, he noticed that the rooms he had passed were in shambles. 'What a mess...damn earthquake. Now I'm going to have to pay someone to clean this up...' he thought, somewhat annoyed. If it weren't for the damn natural disaster, he would have sworn that someone had raided and searched these rooms.
As he finally entered his office, he was even more annoyed at what he saw. Apparently, the roof had caved in and smashed his desk, but it wasn't the desk that had him upset. He noticed 2 sets of limp hands sticking out of the rubble. Both were female.
'Shit! The two rock bitches are dead...that's a major problem. Without them, I can't hope to stop those leaf nins and kill that damn bridge builder. Guess I'll have persuade Iwa to send more ninja. If they refuse, I'll have no choice but to hire those new sound ninjas... Kami, I hope I don't have to deal with that silver-haired guy with glasses, Kabu-what's-his-name, for too long... he makes my skin crawl.'
Deciding to deal with that problem later, he stepped over the rubble and over to his vault. He typed in the password and pushed the door open. He noticed that nothing seemed out of place...but that same feeling he had when he left the panic room was telling him to check his bank accounts anyway. He never really did trust Iwa's Stone Wall of Silence, seeing that the rock shinobi was casually asking questions about the security of his vault. He walked up to the laptop computer that was stationed in the corner and started typing in the account numbers and passwords to all of his bank accounts and going through them, one by one. After half and hour, he had finally checked the last account... and found nothing out of place.
'Good. Not a red cent is missing. Guess I was worried for nothing. Now to go find Ishigaki and inform him that he will have to go back to Earth country and bring in replacements.' Gato mused. As he stepped outside of the vault, that strange dizziness he felt earlier came back... but this time it was much more noticeable. Just as he was about to ask himself what was happening to him, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. As he raised his hand to clutch his chest, he felt something hard near his chest... and something warm and sticky. He looked down... and his eye's widened in horror before they froze.
The last thing he would ever see was a sword sticking out of his chest.
First chapter in almost TWO YEARS... I can't believe I couldn't find time to get to this sooner. Don't worry – the canon story won't affect this fic very much. You'll see why at some point.
Anyway, Read and Review please and thanx!