Hey, new chapter, and a longer one. Enjoy it, because there might not be another update till either Thanksgiving or Christmas. (Life is going crazy, I'm lucky to be updating it now.)
Plots and Schemes
"!" Shizune jerked as she realized who it was that had been standing in the cornor, she'd been so relieved to see Tsunade, Sakura and Naruto back that she hadn't really noticed anyone else. Hana stiffened and the Haimaru brothers immediately were on edge.
" . . . " Sasuke shifted so he was a little behind Kakashi.
"It's alright, . . . the curse seal is gone." The tension relaxed a little. "See?" Sakura showed them the blank part on his neck where the curse seal used to be. Sasuke blinked as his head was forced down. Sakura must not of realized how close she'd pulled his head to her chest. It was definetly too close for Sasuke's comfort, so he was relieved when she let him go, the tension was now all but gone. Kohonmaru and Sai still looked mad.
. . . Kohonmaru really does look up to Naruto, even after learning about the Kyuubi. That's good, I guess. Iruka out of all the nins in the room, was probably the only one who could briefly push his personal feelings aside and go into his professional, teacher-mode. Which required a non-biased oppinion. He'd been watching how they interacted since most had started the academy, Naruto in particular. So watching them interact now, after everything they'd gone through, the changes to him, weren't surprising. Neither was the fact a majority of them liked Naruto. Sasuke had been the cold aloof loner, while Naruto smiled laughed, and generally made others feel happy. People generally followed the one who made them feel warm inside, and those that encouraged them. His thoughts were broken as Naruto came out of the room, looking like he had a headache.
"Information overload?" Iruka smiled at him, Naruto gave a half smile in return.
"Kinda, Until Danzou's caught, I have to live at the Hyuuga compound-"
"Really? That's great, Naruto-nii-san!!" Hanabi hugged him again. Hinata alternated between rage at Hanabi and feeling faint at the prospect of her crush living with her family. Neji on the other hand:
I will not harm Naruto, Hanabi is a member of the main house, she knows what she's doing, I will not question Hisashi . . . Hell, forget it, WHO THE HELL CAME UP WITH THIS?! The mantra went on for awhile.
"And I have to be with either Neji or Hinata if I leave the compound, or at the least with one of you that has a clan, Sasuke not counting."
Naruto-kun . . . I'll be able to talk to you more . . . (A/N: or faint more often, whichever comes first.) Hinata was starting a list of the good things of having Naruto so close. Neji was only listing the bad.
I'm a jounin, I'll more often than not have to watch the baka . . . I'm going to have a headache. And so on.
"Could you four not stand next to each other? I still get uneasy." Iruka looked at Naruto (who was standing with the Kohonmaru corps to his left), Shikamaru (who was lying on the ground), Chouji (who was sitting next to Shikamaru), and Kiba (who was leaning on the wall on the right side of Naruto, slightly behind Chouji, Akamaru lying at his feet). All four glanced at each other, and Naruto's fox grin was back. Kiba gave a short laugh.
"Like when we glued your desk drawers shut?" Kiba grinned. "Naruto distracted you and Mizuki so Chouji and I could get in, and you knew that somehow Naruto was behind it? That was fun."
"Or the fact the four of you would disapear at lunch and I'd have to track you down."
"You only ever found us at the end of the school day too." Shikamaru commented, closing his eyes. "You'd yell at us for neglecting our education, though we learned how to avoid anyone even mildly connected to the academy, and how to sneak into places."
"Probably the one reason you didn't fail Shikamaru, I was grading them."
"Naruto would've been Rookie then, not Sasuke."
"Here's a question, where did you get the paint to do the hokages' faces Naruto?"
"Wait, you did that?!" Tenten looked at him.
"Yes, I did." Naruto grinned, still proud of it. "As for the spray paint-"
"I gave it to him." Shikmaru opened one eye. "As for the idea to paint them, that was a dare from Kiba, designs influenced by Chouji's suggestions. How he did it, I don't know, we just set up a distraction so Iruka-sensei wouldn't notice he was gone . . ."
"Yeah, that worked until another chunin came in and told him where Naruto was. While Iruka was gone, I left to get some pictures before the paint got washed off." Kiba grinned, remembering. "That was hilarious."
"Try disrespectful." Iruka glared at him. Kiba just smirked.
"To who? People rarely paid attention to the faces, proved by the fact Naruto was almost done by the time anyone really noticed. By the time the Sandaime sent chunins to catch him, he was halfway to the woods."
"Passing the Ichariku's ramen stand and almost stopped to eat. Should've, I bet they would've passed me. They were just all out running." Naruto laughed. "That was fun. Iruka-sensei was the only one that caught me."
"Because half of them were out of breath, be thankful Kyuubi gives you more stamina than most, I highly doubt any of them were actually upset about the spray paint though, most were probably looking for an excuse to hurt you."
"That wouldn't have been new." Naruto rolled his eyes. "Broken bottles hurt more than fists anyway." He blinked. "Er, could you forget I said that?"
"How about you explain it?" Everyone was looking at him.
" . . . I learned the hard way to avoid drunks at night. Change the topic." Sasuke, Sai and Sakura glanced at each other. They weren't going to forget that slip. Hana obliged Naruto by asking how the journey back was.
"Suna will be open to hiding Naruto if Danzou manages to escape. He's liked well enough by the people he's met there, and since he was one of the ones who rescued me, that would secure our council to favor him." Gaara crossed his arms.
"Wouldn't work very well, Kazekage-sama, the council will labor him a missing-nin, then, and there's no way to avoid that short of an assasination of the council." Hisashi closed his eyes a minute.
"Mm, not nessecarily." Shikaku picked his head up from where he had it on his arms, "What if Naruto was a dual citizen? Then the only way to label him a missing nin would be the two councils meeting, and he won't be labeled one if Suna's council does not agree."
"That would work . . . what would work even better is if we knew who his mom and dad were, then we could work with his lineage. The council tends to favor those that have a more impressive background than an orphan with the misfortune of having the Kyuubi sealed in him." Inochi sighed. "I went through Uzumaki's memories, with his permission, you can ask him. Half the reason anyone tried to hit him was because they knew he didn't have a mother or father to protect him. A few memories of the Sandaime have the Hokage telling him his father and mother were heroes, but that was it."
"Inochi that's a false security, and you know it. Uzumaki's pedigree won't change their perception of him."
"True enough, Inuzaka-san, but it'd be worth a shot."
"I'm more concerned about how we'll find Danzou. There are places some of my bugs won't go, and Inuzuka noses and dogs won't pick up much, if anything. The man is next to Orochimaru in deception and manipulating people." Aburame Shibi spoke up. "No offense meant, Inuzuka-san." She waved it off.
"What about cracking down on Root? What's his name could help."
"Maybe, but to kill a snake, it's easier to go for the head."
"But the head would be a bit more guarded."
"Guy has one arm and one eye, Not that hard to catch him off guard."
"Not necessarily true. Copy nin can fight with one eye covered just fine."
And so the debate continued.
"Danzou-sama, what's going on? We heard the Hokage is ba-!" Danzou glared at one of the younger Root nin. Said nin shrank back, terrified.
"I want two of our med nins, now." The nin nodded and took off. "You, Start spreading the word to the rest of Root, we're going farther underground."
"Sir?"
"They'll immediately get someone to try and kill me, I refuse to be defenseless, get moving."
"Danzou-sama-" The med nins arrived.
"You two come with me." Danzou glared through one eye as he moved down the hallway, his agility revealing his appearnce as a sham. The only way to win a war like this one was to keep all cards close to his chest. They knew about Root, that was fine, and the fact that he coined most of the old fools in the council to vote against the Kyuubi brat. That was just two out of five cards he had. He'd lost one when the fool Sai chose to side with the demon, and was then crippled. But that was an easy fix to get someone one else to keep tabs on them, he wasn't worried. You didn't survive an ordeal with out learning what to do to hide your tracks. He couldn't Kill Sai now, that would be a dead give away, and any damage done due to the time Sai spent with them was shallow. He should've killed him while he was in a coma, but it was too late for that now- Yamoto was also a threat, he'd seen the entrance to Root, even if he didn't know it. But they hadn't been able to kill him. Hachibi's chakra was keeping his body temperature down, slowed down the blood so even if they stabbed him it would clot. Fire jutsu's didn't even burn the body, it was too cold. And the bastard's heart still kept beatting.
"Danzou-sama, are you sure you want to do this? It might not work, your arm's been gone for so long . . ."
"That's why I have you, so hurry up and start the procedure." Danzou glared at him. "Where's the eye?"
"Here, but sir, we haven't tested-"
"Just do it."
"Right away, Danzou-sama . . . " As Danzou let them put him under, he couldn't help but smile. Orochimaru had never been alone experimenting on people, who else but Danzou would've had access to the blood of the Shodaime? And who else was able to get the bodies of Root members for experimentation? The Sandaime had made a mistake, and that was in ignoring Danzou's influence on Orochimaru as he grew up. And for not seeing who was the real threat. Orochimaru was a pawn for Danzou, and the snake's actions had helped increased his hold on the council and the weaker ninjas. Too bad Orochimaru hadn't realized he was being used. The snake was so easy to bait with the information he had had Sai give him, and he'd reacted the way Danzou wanted, by hitting the targets presented, and eliminating more oppostion.
Orochimaru suddenly felt the urge to sneeze at his desk. Even with a mobile hidden village, the paperwork existed. Though with him it was mostly sanctioning experiments to do on people. Kabuto had arrived yesterday, looking the worse anyone had ever seen him. He was still waiting for Kabuto's report, since the memories from the body substitution had been too sketchy. He knew one thing, though, Sasuke was back in Kohona. And it would take a while to get an infiltration plan in place. If they weren't loyal to Danzou, they were loyal to his former teammate. He thought it was amusing how the annoying twleve/thirteen year old he'd seen in the Forest of Death was now becoming the turning point for a war. Danzou wanted him to be a weapon, or dead so no one could have him, Akatsuki wanted the kyuubi, and his teammates were taking care of him so he'd get stronger. Orochimaru gave a small smirk, if he took the boy out of the way, they'd kill each other to get him back. Of course, they could also form a temporary alliance to kill him off and get the boy back. Orochimaru idily flipped through other reports, the snake sannin was more interested in a nin that had pretty much massacred a group of thieves who attacked a village close to Iwa. It wasn't a rock nin, and had been seen in several other towns in different countries. Nins that had seen him had started calling him the Red Storm, and Orochimaru was interested in hunting the nin down.
"You awake?" Kisame entered the small hospital wing of one of Akatsuki's better bases. Itachi glanced up at him. An unreadable expression on his face. Kisame picked up Itachi's medical file, a ninja had to be able to understand what was written in one, because in certain places (coughAkatsukicough) no one ever admitted to being hurt. Which drove the mednins who helped them insane. It also helped the partners know what each other's physical limits were, and how bad of an injury was sustained. Kisame gave a low whistle. "Looks like your little brother is stronger now, huh?" Kisame looked down at Itachi, the file in his hands. "What are you going to do?"
" . . . " Itachi didn't look at him or answer him.
"Would it kill you to talk alittle more?" Kisame looked at his partner.
"TOBI! GET BACK HERE!!" Somewhere in the base, an explosion went off.
" . . . Deidara . . ." Kisame left the file on the desk as he left. Weary charcoal eyes watched him go.
'The jutsu penetrated his side and lightly damaged his lungs. The damage will heal easily. What cannot be healed at this point is the damage to his heart, some of the lighting tickled it, causing several small heart attacks that he did not rest from, and which weakened his heart. It will be at least a year before he is back to one hundred percent physical fighting capabiltiy. Ninjutsu and genjutsu are fine, but taijutsu and kenjutsu is highly discouraged.'
His brother had almost killed him, and he was severally limited in what he could do. Another explosion went off as Itachi closed his eyes, and gave a small smile that no one would see. I'm proud of you, Otouto, Next time, you'd better be able to kill me.
"Leader-sama, what's-" Deidara never got to finish his sentence.
Without our full numbers, We cannot extract the Kyuubi, or the Hachibi, if we do find it.
"Itachi and I-"
Found an eight-tailed ice fox. Foxes gain a tail every hundred years, or so. However they rarely get past three, and tend to go into hiding rather than let someone find them if they do, the Kyuubi is rare because of the huge amount of power it has, Kisame. Pain glanced away for a minute. While the eight tail fox is powerful, and can be considered just under the Kyuubi, it does not equal the power of the eight tailed demon lord.
"Sounds interesting to Tobi!"
"Well, We only have seven people, and I doubt Orochimaru-teme is going to come back and help us, un."
I have already thought of that. Hidan, though his body is spread out, isn't dead. It would be relatively easy to make a false body for him. Zetsui is already working on fingind wherever his heart wound up. Kisame crossed his arms. The one person he didn't want was Hidan. We've already found his ring, However, Kakuzu's is in Kohona's hands, as well as his body. We won't bother with him, but we have to get the ring back.
"That's only eight still, un."
Tobi, I'll need to see you in order to get the ninth member, but that still leaves one more space, as you've realised. Orochimaru was here for the sealing of the biju he had to get, the seven tail, (A/N: How do you say that in Japanese, Shinbi? Tell me in a review.) Deidara, you have to get Orochimaru's ring. But not yet. I first want you and Kisame to pick up a body for me . . .
Dun Dun DUN! Well, that's a lot of plot to write out in one chapter, There was going to be more, but then it felt like too much of a rush. Read and Review, and to those readers who are also reading Dog's Life, I will update eventually. I promise.