There are millions of ways to take a journey, but only a few destinations.
-Anonymous
Naruto allowed his fingers to skim over the water's surface as the small motorboat slowly took them upstream. They had left Konoha in the early-morning hours and had traveled all day before they hit the river. Neji had been able to find the motorboat that his team and he had taken downriver and now they were retracing his steps.
At first, Naruto didn't see the purpose in taking the boat back upstream, but as night fell he figured out why they were doing it. Ordinarily, they would break for camp to sleep, but with the boat they were able to continue moving up stream while most of them were able to drift off to sleep with the gentle rocking of the boat. That's what he was supposed to be doing, but he found himself unable to sleep. He was tempted to use the sleep jutsu, but that was a technique he never had much luck with. Either he put too much chakra into it and had to be slapped awake or too little and would just feel groggy.
So he just lied there, trying to not rock the boat and disturb the other three sleeping passengers. Still, after a while he became bored and nudged Neji who was steering the boat. "You sure you know where you're going?"
The moon provided more than enough light for Naruto to receive Neji's glare. "Yes, we just have to travel upstream and to the west. Besides, I did make a note of landmarks as I was traveling downriver."
Naruto nodded even though Neji had turned his gaze away. He was quiet for a minute before he asked, "What's it like?"
"What's what like?"
"Being a team's sensei, what's it like?"
Neji was quiet for a minute before he said, "Hard. It's hard, terrifying and wonderful." He paused again and Naruto wondered if he would just leave it at that, but something told him he should be quiet for a change. "It's nothing like I expected. When I first volunteered to do it I went in with all these ideas how I should teach and what I should do, but that didn't last very long. They say one of the goals of a sensei is to bring out the full potential of the Genin under them and there's no formula for that. Each student is different and has to be taught differently. It's scary when you realize that, but when you see them accomplish something," he trailed off for a second before saying, "it feels like when you accomplish it."
He nodded, sort of understanding what Neji was saying. When he had taught Konohamaru the Rasengan it hadn't really been harder than he thought it would be, but the sense of accomplishment was similar. Of course, the two of them were a lot alike so maybe that had made it easy to teach him. He had a hard time believing that there were one, let alone three people out there like Neji. "So is it anything like you thought it would be?"
Again, his answer didn't come quickly and when he spoke, it was carefully. "Yes, but not exactly. I thought I would eventually like them to some extent, but not as much as I ended up caring about them. This last mission we were on, well, it drove that home to me."
For a while neither of them spoke. Naruto looked up into the star filled sky and watched as a small cloud traveled across the sky. He wondered when he would be in Neji's position. On his way to becoming Hokage he would probably be given a team to train or at least that's how he always thought of it. It made him wonder what type of sensei he would be.
After a while, his thoughts returned from the future and came to dwell on the mission. "So you think we can really trust this guy?"
Naruto could almost imagine Neji shrugging as he said, "I can't really say. At first I thought he was a bit crazy, but well we'll see I guess."
He nodded absentmindedly. "Hey, Neji do you want me to take over steering for a while? I won't be getting to sleep anyway."
"All right, but when we merge with another river wake me."
It was late afternoon when it started to drizzle as their small boat rounded a bend in the river, the thick forest suddenly disappeared to reveal an open plain with structures in the distance. Naruto sat up and squinted, trying to judge how far they were away, but the buildings turned out to be so monolithic that they threw off his perception. Where Konohagakure had chosen to sprawl outwards with no buildings larger than five stories, this village had chosen to build upwards until the buildings seemed impossibly tall.
The differences didn't seem to end there, though. Where his home village had been built pretty much in the middle of nowhere, this village clearly was meant to take advantage of the river as it straddled both banks. Of course, that was the biggest difference he only noticed as they slowly came closer to the village itself. At first he had thought some of the monolithic structures had been painted black, but as they got closer it was obviously not an intended color. Many of the larger buildings seemed to have been scorched by fires and many of the smaller buildings were little more than rubble.
As they started to slip into the outskirts of the village, Kakashi asked, "Do you see anything Neji?"
"No, I-" He cut himself off and started again "Yes, I just saw someone in that building over there. It looks like they ran off though." He pointed to a small three-story building that looked only partially collapsed, as if a giant had sat on one end.
"All right, everyone try to look relaxed, but stay on your guard," Kakashi ordered.
"Should we get out of the boat and just walk on the water?" Naruto asked.
"No, just be alert," Kakashi said.
They drifted up stream for a few more minutes before Neji spoke again. "The dock my team and I departed from is up ahead and it looks like there's someone waiting for us."
"Just one," Kakashi said almost to himself.
"Yes, but remember my Byakugan was able to be blocked once before around here and I'm still not sure how they did that."
With that disquieting thought they again fell silent. They slowed as they came closer to the dock and Kakashi jumped out of the boat and onto the water before tying them off at the dock. The man waited for them to disembark and then said formally. "Welcome to Amegakure. Which one of you is Jiraiya?"
Naruto stepped forward and said as officially as he could, "Master Jiraiya couldn't come. I'm his student and can contact him if you need too."
The man's expression darkened. "I will see if this is acceptable. Wait here," he ordered before turning around.
"Friendly bunch," Sakura commented.
"Yeah," Kakashi agreed.
"Well, it was the only detail they were very specific about." Kurenai spoke up for the first time since they entered the destroyed village. "It stands to reason that it's important to them."
"Let's hope it's just not a deal breaker," Neji added.
As they waited the drizzle stopped, but the clouds didn't break. The overcast just made the village creepier to Naruto and he found himself staring into open apertures half expecting to see ghosts lingering in the buildings. He hadn't had that fear for a long time, and although everyone said there was no such things as ghosts he had never believed that himself. After all, he had stared into the eyes of a demon before so ghosts didn't really seem that far-fetched.
Eventually, the man reappeared from a different direction than he had left in and gestured for them to follow him. He led them into a building and down darkened corridors before eventually ending up in front of a metal door. The man knocked on it before opening it and nodded for them to go in.
Naruto assumed this was the same room that Neji had said he had met the leader in last time, but where he had said it had been dark it was now well lit. There was a single hospital bed with a man sitting up in it, but there was also another man who seemed to be standing next to a giant sandbox.
The man in the hospital bed looked over at them and seemed to address his question right to Naruto. "What has prevented Master Jiraiya from accompanying you here?" The man's tone was brittle, but he sensed strength behind those words. Naruto realized that even though this man's body seemed to be failing him, his spirit seemed strong.
"He was injured in a battle," Naruto answered feeling a bit uneasy around the man.
The man gave no sign that he had heard him, but gestured for them to gather around the sandbox. "Let us begin the briefing. Jin when you're ready."
The five of them gathered around the sandbox with the bed on one side and the other ninja, whose name was apparently Jin, on the other. The rest of them gathered on either side as Jin started to make hand signs. Surprisingly, Naruto recognized the jutsu even though he didn't know it himself.
When the man slammed his hand down and when the sand started to move he wasn't surprised. Little mounds formed themselves into buildings while others became a rougher surface. Strangely, the buildings seemed to be forming a semi circle with the terrain completely flat between them. There was one large building that was a little off to itself. All of the buildings seemed to be nestled inside of a hilly area.
"This is Amegakure or at least the new Amegakure," the man spoke up from his bed. "Hanzo has been denied taking back this village so he has decided to build a new home."
Naruto thought he heard contempt in the man's voice, but his tone was brittle, so it was hard to tell.
"That large building there is Hanzo's private residence. It's pretty much a Citadel. For those of you who were involved in that samurai incident several years ago the outside will look familiar. He has managed to incorporate many of the defensive features that were built into the castle particularly over the last year."
Naruto was all-too-familiar with that incident. The walls had only been taken thanks to Gaara creating a sand tsunami that had filled in the moat and created a ramp up to the top of the wall. Of course, when they had stormed that castle they had to fight samurai that had obtained forbidden weapons. Here, they would have to fight ninja, which meant a frontal assault would be out of the question.
"You said you had a way we could assassinate him." Kakashi spoke up easily slipping into his leadership role.
"Yes there is a weak spot." As he spoke, one of the hills that almost backed up to the Citadel started to separate as did some of the ground in front of it. "Hanzo is a very cautious man and he has constructed a tunnel from his residence to an escape point behind this hill. The exit is hidden inside of a small shrine. The shrine is maintained by eight monks, but they're actually ninjas he has hand selected by Hanzo for their personal loyalty to him. Once you get past them you can enter through the tunnel which will allow you to bypass the bulk of his security measures."
There was silence in the room for a minute before Kakashi spoke up again. "Assuming all your information is accurate it's still a tall order. I understand his security is tight and we don't have a way of cutting him off from the rest of the village so we'll only have a very small window of opportunity to take him out." What he had left unsaid, but even Naruto was able to pick up on was the simple fact that the plan seemed too risky with a very small chance of success.
The man in the hospital bed seemed to pick up on this too and laughed in his raspy voice. "Well, that's because I have not quite finished laying out the plan. You see Hanzo is security conscious and really he's paranoid at this point. No unauthorized personnel are allowed within his residence even in the case of an emergency. You'll have to deal with the guards that are there, but you won't have to deal with anything in way of reinforcements. Also, I will be using my remaining forces to launch a diversionary attack against the village itself."
Several buildings on the far end of the lake crumbled as the man continued, "That area is still under construction so it'll be perfect for a sustained battle. The village may not even be aware of the attack on the Citadel at first which will buy you even more time."
"And how strong is your force?" Kakashi questioned while still examining the map.
"Thirty-eight, mostly low-level Chunin with a few Jonin level individuals like Jin here."
"And when will they withdraw?"
"When Hanzo is dead. This land will not know peace until that despot is no more."
Naruto had been listening to the briefing with a growing sense of unease and now that feeling transformed into anger. "Where will you be during all of this?" He could almost feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as everyone turned to look at him, but he just stared at the frail man.
Seconds crawled by like minutes before he received an answer. "Most likely dead, I can tell I don't have much time left." The man delivered his words calmly as if he was talking about the weather.
"Naruto, why don't you wait outside?" Kakashi said quietly.
He opened his mouth to say something, but realized he didn't know what he wanted to say. For once, he was speechless and actually had no idea why he was feeling so angry. Without saying a word, he turned and walked out of the room.
A destroyed village was a lot creepier in the rain then when you could just see everything, Naruto thought to himself. He had been exiled from the meeting about an hour ago and while he had calmed down a little, he was still upset. He wasn't exactly sure why he felt that way, which was annoying, but there it was. He heard someone approaching and shifted to see Kakashi coming towards him and braced himself for a lecture.
"Good afternoon," his team leader said as he opened his near omnipresent book. He thumbed through it for a second as if he was trying to find his place and said casually "That got a little too interesting."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Sakura confirmed he probably doesn't have much longer to live. You were right to be concerned about his motives. Considering some of the other things we just learned," he shrugged "well, I doubt we would be here if we had known this stuff in advance. You especially wouldn't be here."
"What! Why?"
"Calm down, Naruto. It's just that man in their claims he was a former member of the Akatsuki."
For the second time that day Naruto was rendered speechless. The mental acrobatics needed to compare that man in the hospital bed with the Akatsuki, an organization made up of S-rank criminals were beyond him. "What?"
Kakashi shrugged in an attempt to make the situation seem like not that big of a deal. "He said it was an alliance of convenience. Basically the Akatsuki would back his war with Hanzo and he helped them with intelligence and the future promise that his village would back them when they made their move."
"So what happened?" Naruto asked shifting nervously. The village around him was no longer just creepy, but had transformed into enemy territory. Anger was also starting to boil in him as he remembered Gaara. The Akatsuki had almost killed him and the fact that one of their members, even a former member was so close was galling.
"About a year ago he was betrayed by them. Apparently he had never trusted them and they betrayed him before he could betray them. He claims to have no idea what they're doing now and I believe him." He paused for a second and added, "By the way, after Sakura determined that he was in bad health, I asked everyone else to leave the room so only you and I am aware of this information."
That last bit of information caught him by surprise and he looked over at the other man who he just realized was at his own eye level. "Why?"
"Initially I asked them to leave as a courtesy to him. However, I have chosen to keep them ignorant of this information because of you. Given your history with the Akatsuki I want to know if you would like this mission to continue or not. I'll take responsibility either way. I need you at your best and if you're uncomfortable, I would prefer to cancel this mission."
Perhaps Naruto should've waited and thought about the matter, but he always listened to his gut. "I'm fine. When are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow, but there is one other thing we need to go over before then."
He let out a sigh, "What now?"
"Given the distances involved, we won't have any communication. Ordinarily we would just have to deal with that, but given the fact that you'll be on this mission with us. Well, do you think you could send some clones with the diversionary force? We won't have two way communications, but at least that way we can launch a joint assault."
"Yeah, that'll be easy sensei." After sending so many clones out on a long-distance recon mission this would be a piece of cake. Still, for some reason he felt a little uneasy. However, as Kakashi turned to leave, he remembered the conversation he had earlier that day with Neji, he smiled. Those two were different in a lot of ways, but he guessed they were similar in a lot of ways too.