Chapter 25 – Night Shift
Poking his head into the administration office yielded quite a find for Shisui. The spontaneous meeting with the Principal had certainly been... educational.
After the dinner with Iruka, the two old teammates went to find Miki to share the latest intel regarding the gecko infestation, initiating an informal staff debriefing. It was the perfect opportunity for Watchmen to slip in a few subtle clues, leading the others to start to be wary of the insidious reptiles. That prompted Shepherd to share the Principal's convoluted, volatile "reprimand" which was atypical of the schoolmaster's usual management style. Miki volunteered to pursue that little path of curiosity, given his clan's expertise in psychology, under the guise of the current records' restructuring project. Shepherd shared a quick review of the main faculty's and staff's normal personalities and behaviors, thus equipping Scribe for his investigations. Watchman mentally took note of the intel for future reference.
Within a fortnight, Miki revealed his findings in the Staff debriefing at the Hokage Residence. Some of the faculty, academy staff and even a few of the students had various signs of mild conditioning to particular trigger words; which manifested themselves in irrational and/or erratic emotional outbursts of different types. Many of those events would normally be dismissed as being somewhat insignificant, except in light of the manipulating geckos. Miki was emphatic, that it wasn't true mind control; it was more like some sort of heavy influencing or light conditioning going on.
Scribe finished with his finding that there seemed to be a correlation between the proximity to the gecko infestation and people's increased risk to being affected. The Sandaime remained stoic as usual, but his killer intent rose slightly, then just as quickly slipped away. The Hokage's eyes focused upon Miki with shivering intensity as Scribe finished his report with a plethora of biological and psychological terminology only the three of them actually understood. Iruka was swept in, raptly following along with the discussion going off on whatever cognitive dissonance intrigued him; Disruptive Mood Disregulation disorder and Borderline Personality disorder. They lost Shisui when the intellectual trio went off into how DMDD should only affect children and early teens between certain ages. Outwardly, Watchman made sure to politely appear to be following along, but the three were caught up within their scholarly lingo land.
Shisui leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes in relief while sipping the last of his tea. The truth had been finally discovered by his teammates.
The rest of the debriefing went on in a more relaxed manner, with the typical exchange of information regarding the different investigations in various stages of development. At the end of the meeting, Sandaime dismissed Shepherd and Scribe, motioning for Watchman to stay.
Miki tapped his chest, signaling to Watchman that he'd escort Iruka home. They had been taking turns on that. Shepherd huffed his reluctant acceptance to being forced to listen to Miki's latest office gossip, gleaned from the School Records reorganization project. Scribe caught the sign from the Hokage to close the door behind Iruka and himself.
Other than a few times since being initiated into The Staff, Shisui was rarely left alone with the Hokage. Due to his duties, the majority of his reports tended to be written rather than oral. The Sandaime snuffed out his pipe and placed it down gently, softly clicking it on the ashtray sitting on the coffee table between them. He then leaned back into his chair, interlaced his fingers, steepled his first fingers together, and stared complacently at Shisui.
The hair on the back of Shisui's neck bristled after the Hokage said, "You've known more about these geckos than you've reported."
There was no escaping this line of questioning, so Shisui nodded, "Yes sir."
With hard eyes and neutral voice, Sandaime questioned, "Why?"
Shisui looked straight into the old leader's eyes with respect, yet could only answer, "I love both my village and clan equally, sir."
There was silence as they looked at each other unflinchingly.
"I could order you to divulge everything."
Slightly pained, "Yes sir, I know."
"Must I?"
Taking a breath, Shisui pleaded softly, "Please don't, sir."
Again silence reigned while both had thoughts churning in their heads. The Hokage moved his steepled fingers to the front of his face, resting his chin on his thumbs when his elbows moved to the arms of the armchair.
"I have a friend who says, 'You can't have two masters.'"
Startled, Shisui's face subtly betrayed his hurt at the insinuation of being a traitor to his village. "Cannot a man respect both his father's friend and his father?"
Sandaime sighed, turned his head to look out the window. Speaking gently, "Very well, I'll overlook this for now. But, I may not have a choice later should things develop which your information could have prevented."
As the Hokage turned back toward the young Chunin who met his eyes with a pained yet fiercely loyal determination, "Sir, I..."
The old leader waved his words off as he put his hat on and stood up, "Come with me, shinobi." Shisui nodded, stood and followed him as they walked through the residence into the tower. Just before they entered the Hokage's office, the Sandaime looked pointedly into Watchman's eyes. "Uchiha, eyes open." After a puzzled blink, the second blink revealed Shisui's awakened Sharigan. Baffled by the rather unusual request, he obeyed and followed as the Hokage walked into the middle of the room.
Shisui halted upon seeing a roomful of chakra-coated geckos, twice as numerous as the ones he'd found in the principal's office. They were everywhere! Tucked into every nook and cranny to blatantly right on every open surface, including the windows that overlooked the village. The lines of the geckos' flickering multicolored chakra strings all led him back to the Sandaime.
Unconsciously, Shisui had pulled two of his kunai out and slid into a basic defensive ready stance. Four chakra flashes diverted his attention to some tendrils leading him to several of, but not all of the four ANBU guards hidden around the Hokage's office. The unmarked ANBU's chakra shifted into another pattern. Shisui had only encountered a few shinobi with this technique to disguise themselves, Saki being one of them.
As the Watchman's focus redirected to the writhing tendrils encircling and wrapping their coils around the Hokage's different body parts, seemingly focusing most of their activities on his core, neck and left arm and leg. Before he launched into warning his leader of this dire state and obliterating the geckos, the Sandaime held out his right hand, palm up, ordering "HOLD!"
The geckos focused only on the Hokage, sending pulse waves through the tendrils towards him. Alarmed, Watchman shivered in terror. Suddenly the tendrils shifted and darted towards the Chunin. Leaping backwards to gain distance and steeling himself, he slashed out at the writhing strands in determination. They dissipated upon being struck. Watchman, with his back to the closed door, complied reluctantly with the Hokage's order, standing at attention, but with his weapons still in hand.
Sandaime, looking deliberately at the direction of each ANBU guard, firmly ordered, "All of you, stand down." All four halted in place, surrounding the Hokage. The one in front knelt on one knee when their leader patted the shortest one's shoulder. The eye holes within his mask directed at Shisui, the ANBU's left fingertips lightly touched the floor.
Questions frantically whizzed through Shisui's head. Is he controlling the geckos or are they controlling him?
"Uchiha-san, state your intentions." The Sandaime still had his right hand remaining on the shortest guard's shoulder.
"To protect you, Hokage-sama, you're-" his eyes darted to the moving chakra pulses trying to grasp words to explain.
The Sandaime nodded slightly. Instantaneously, tendrils began snapping off and dissipating. Counter-pulses were being sent down the senders., stunning a small number of geckos into falling off the walls, windows and other surfaces. But the coils multiplied around his left leg and shoulder lightly.
The ANBU resheathed their weapons as Shisui shifted into a relaxed attention stance, wary and reluctant to speak. Is there a way to discover what level of influence he's is under? Sorely tempted to just start the deprogramming process and destroy the little monsters.
A calm commanding voice redirected his attention back to the Hokage's eyes. "Uchiha-san, Describe to me what you saw."
Cautiously, in a neutral voice, Shisui detailed everything he saw, including all the past and current actions of the chakra tendrils clinging to everyone in the room as well as the absence of tendrils on the one guard and himself. Out of respect to the guard, he said nothing of the ANBU's altering his chakra signature. He probably wasn't supposed to have seen the shift and the Sandaime probably already knew.
Licking his lips tentatively, "Permission to speak freely, Hokage-sama?"
"Request denied. Do not speak of this matter... to anyone." With his left hand. he waved away his guards, "Back to your posts." The tension dropped just as instantly as the guards. Turning back to Shisui, the old leader added reassuringly, "Uchiha-kun, don't worry. This situation is under control. Thank you for your time and input. We'll follow up on this and other matters. Are you available for another meeting? Tomorrow, after your Taiko club?"
Internally incredulous at the Hokage's casual demeanor in the midst of this... situation, Watchman reservedly nodded an affirmative. One does not say, "No" to the Hokage.
Shisui watched as the Sandaime sent pulses out to all the chakra strands and all the geckos collapsed to the floor. This time, the tendrils that had been encompassing the Hokage's left arm and leg dissipated completely.
Physically relaxing in relief, putting away his weapons, Watchman acquiesced, "Hai, Hokage-sama."
"Oh, and Uchiha-kun?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama?"
Sitting down at his desk, "It appears... we both have secrets that have been entrusted to us." With a whimsical smirk, the Hokage added, "Saki speaks well of you and your club. Your request for your old teammate to be spared from the pranks has been duly noted and approved."
Baffled, Shisui blinked at the turn of topic and revelations. Releasing the Sharigan, still restricted from speaking freely, "I'm... not sure how to respond, Hokage-sama."
With a wizened hand, the Hokage tilted his hat forward, covering his eyes, as he sat back in his chair, dismissing Watchman with an enigmatic smile, "Do bring your Taiko with you tomorrow afternoon." In a warmer tone, he added, "Good night, Shisui-san. My regards to your family."
Obviously Saki's interest in him and his club seemed to be the cover story to report to his clan. Watchman nodded that he understood the excuse of tonight's visit - should any clan members question him. With a bow, he bid a respectful, "Good night, Hokage-sama." Shisui mentally noted it was going to take at least a whole pot of chrysanthemum tea to get any sleep tonight.
After the door closed softly, the Hokage chuckled to himself at the bewildered Chunin who just left the office. Then the Sandaime called out, "Hato." The youngest ANBU in the room knelt in front of his desk, head bowed, fist on the floor. "See to it that Uchiha-san reaches his home safely. Watch for any suspicious activities, persons or geckos trailing him or his clan members. You have permission to assist him if anything develops. Report to me when you return to duty tomorrow. Dismissed." With a nod, Hato slipped out through the private ceiling doorway.
During the next 20 minutes, the Hokage tutored the remaining agents how to remove the geckos' chakra tendrils from themselves; also instructing them to relay those techniques to the ANBU captain and the next shift. The captain would ensure that the rest of the ANBU received the gecko detachment training.
It had been a long day and night. Enlightening but exhausting. He sighed after looking in his desk drawer for some fresh tobacco for his pipe. Finding too little for his next smoke, he left the nearly empty package on his desk for Miki to remedy tomorrow morning. Picking up the pipe he had left behind earlier today, he headed back to his residence for some rest.
Tomorrow would be a mix of boring paperwork and a few meetings. Back in his residence, after tapping out the ashes from his retrieved pipe in his ashtray, he refilled and lit it, internally ruminating on the Uchiha's violent reactions. Mentally working through the information Miki shared. He had grossly underestimated the geckos' purpose. Well played. Misdirection at its finest. Glancing over at the travel-sized shogi game set up for whenever his son visited, noting it was his own turn, Sarutobi moved his center pawn up one square, captured the black pawn. Promoting his own pawn, before putting his captured piece onto the left side of the tea tray beside the board.
Smirking to himself, the "introduction" meeting tomorrow afternoon should prove enlightening to the Watchman. Saki's and Shisui's faces would be entertaining to watch as they observed his secret gecko repellent system "in action". Unfortunately it wasn't permanent, for the geckos came back in droves for his chakra after a few weeks. Tomorrow would be the next scheduled maintenance appointment. From Watchman's violent reaction tonight, Hato's stubborn silence and their mutual subtle clues, something significant happened between the Uchiha Clan and geckos. Of which Sandaime had several hypotheses. Saki had been tight-lipped as well. Expected yet annoying.
It had been rather humorous watching their meeting via his crystal ball, especially when Saki froze up after having his hair mussed by Shisui.
With a final look around at his empty living room, Hiruzen hung his cloak and hat upon the hooks by the door. After a last puff, he turned off the lights and went to unwind in his private quarters.
Author's Notes: Happy New Year's! New subscribers, welcome to the adventures! Special thanks as always to my Mom, the grammar queen!
Guest reviewer on chapter six: Thank you for your review and giving my little tale of a 'fish out of water' a chance. I've read numerous fanfictions written from an alternative religion, philosophy and/or lifestyle I don't agree with. Likewise, I dislike it when an author's shoves their worldview down my throat. So, the courtesy you've shown to Kokoro is much appreciated!