Chapt. 25
Slowly over the day more squads arrived to join up with the three that had gotten there first. Kakashi handed out assignments as the teams arrived and they were ordered to start no fires or turn on any lights outside. Ten teams had arrived by the time Naruto and Hinata lay down for a nap. They were to be part of the two teams assigned to scout close to the fortress.
Ino spent most of her day helping Shizune set up the medical tent. It had been interesting at first, but putting things in exactly the places Shizune had wanted had gotten tedious quickly. Not for the first time she wished she had asked her dad to teach her to sense things.
A small diversion arrived an hour before dark when Haku showed up with three teams of ninja.
"Hi Ino-chan," Haku greeted the blond with a hug.
"You're here too, huh?" Ino stated in surprise. "I thought your team got an assignment to the Land of Eddies."
"We got redirected here since were a stealth and assassination team," Haku replied tiredly. "I got told to rest up while Kakashi and the team leaders decide on strategy."
"Oh, well, you can bunk with us then," Ino smiled. "I have to wake Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan. They get to go on a late night scouting mission."
The two girls continued making small talk until they reached the area where Naruto and Hinata had set up a camouflaged tent. They went inside and found Naruto in his bedroll with Hinata clinging on tightly.
"Okay, rise and shine," Ino said sourly. "You two have a mission."
Coming around too slowly for Haku's taste, she started to lower the temperature inside the tent.
"Oh, dear log," Naruto shivered. "How is it so... Oh, Haku-chan, hi."
"I believe you two are supposed to be on duty soon," Haku pouted.
"Oh, is it that time already?" Hinata asked as she stretched. "We should get going Naruto-kun. You two sleep well."
Haku and Ino sighed in annoyance as they watched the other two leave.
"Did you have to chill the tent out this much Haku-chan?" Ino shivered slightly.
"Huh?" Haku blinked in confusion. "Oh, sorry. Um, we can share a bedroll if you want."
"Sure. Just no fooling around, sensei is in here as well," Ino yawned as she crawled under her blanket.
Haku smiled cheerfully as she followed Ino in and cuddled close.
Naruto and Hinata were grouped with Hana Inuzuka and her ninja hounds, the three Haimaru brothers, as well as Kirin Aburame, who was roughly the same age as Hana since they'd been teamed up together as genin.
"Did Kakashi give us any other orders?" Naruto asked as they walked up.
"No, still the same," Hana sighed. "I'm in charge and we're to get as close as possible so we can get a look around inside. Naruto we'll need you to set some traps while Hinata keeps an eye out."
"What sort of traps?" Naruto asked, his interest piqued.
"Things to slow the enemy down in case were found," Hana shrugged. "Near the bridge probably would be a good place. Also, if you can, Kakashi wants some charges placed on the bridge so we can blow it if needed."
"Good thing you're wearing your stealth gear already, Naruto-kun," Hinata giggled as she looked at the dark gray clothing Naruto was in. "And you didn't think you'd need them."
Naruto stuck his tongue out at the girl. "Anything else, Hana?"
"Not at the moment," she replied before leading the group off.
They moved forward quickly and quietly. After a hundred meters the ninja hounds branched out and took up flanking positions to the front and the sides. Halfway to the outer walls Hana and Kirin split off to do their portion of the mission. Naruto led Hinata and chose his way carefully toward the bridge as she looked ahead.
"Naruto-kun, there's two men just outside the light of the bridge," she whispered.
Naruto nodded his head and slowed down as he reached into a pouch and pulled out two pellets. He handed them off to Hinata who launched them at both targets. She watched as the pellets hit each man in the chest and, with a soft pop, the powder inside burst out. The pop startled each man, who took a quick breath and went down, fast asleep.
"Anyone else?" Naruto whispered.
Hinata looked about and shook her head.
Taking that as his cue, Naruto brought out a spool of wire and several small oblong objects before going towards the closest side of the bridge and getting to work.
Hinata kept her eyes open to what was going on both inside and outside the wall and her breath caught every time someone looked out toward them. It seemed to take Naruto hours as he lay line after line of traps, finally he stood up and came back to her.
"I'm going to need you to hold most of my things Hinata-chan," he whispered to her.
She nodded her head and took hold of most of his pouches. He leaned in to give her a quick kiss before loping off into the dark.
When he reached the moat he had to resist the instinct to walk on the water and slipped into the cold waters instead. Breathing through a tube he stayed just under the surface looking up until he reached the bridge and popped his head above water as he entered the darkness underneath.
Naruto smiled in surprise as he looked up to see the bridge was already rigged to blow with enough tags to blow it three times over. 'Man and dad thought I went overkill,' he thought as he looked for the priming charges. The sloppy workmanship of the job made it so he had to carefully look under several tags until he finally found them on the end closest to the fortress.
Moving quickly he disabled them before stuffing them into a water tight pouch. From a pocket he removed a similar tag before moving to the cent of the mass of tags and reset the whole thing to blow on his command. Job finished, he slowly made his way back out to Hinata and then they moved back to the rendezvous point.
Several tense hours later, Hana and Kirin returned from their part of the mission. Moving quickly before daylight could catch them, they headed back for the camp.
Kakashi was there waiting for them in the command tent speaking with two squads of ANBU. Looking up he asked the ANBU leader to wait.
"So, how did it go?" He asked tiredly.
"There's a faint smell of her coming from several points of the fortress, so I couldn't exactly pinpoint where she is," Hana relayed before turning to Kirin.
"From what my beetles could determine, she appears to be locked away in the top of the southwestern tower," Kirin's dispassionate voiced droned out. "They detected a high level of fear and stress coming from her as well."
Kakashi turned to look at his exhausted students.
Naruto smiled. "There were two guards near the bridge that Hinata put to sleep," Naruto walked over to the diorama of the fortress. "I laid down a heavy amount of mines between ten and twenty yards from the bridge, here. We got lucky though, the enemy had already rigged the bridge to blow, so I just reset the whole thing and made it mine."
Kakashi nodded his head. "Well, that's good news. Atleast the bridge won't blow on us now. The other team finished ahead of you and is setting up a second camp to watch the other entrance." Kakashi turned back to the ANBU. "Can you move tonight, Crow?"
"I believe so Kakashi," Itachi's voice came from behind the mask. "We'll just need to get a few hours rest first."
Kakashi waved them off and the ANBU walked off tiredly.
"Anything else to report?" Kakashi turned back to Naruto's group.
"The postern gates are exceedingly well guarded," Hana shrugged.
"They must have some idea they're being watched," Kakashi sighed. "I doubt they actually know we're here in force, but we'll be more careful from now on."
"We'll take our rest now," Hana yawned.
Just after dark the two ANBU teams met up at the edge of the forest.
"Tenzo," Itachi's ordered. "Take your team in from the northwest and start a diversionary attack in an hour. We'll be making our move ten minutes after."
"Yes, sir," The man in the cat mask nodded.
Itachi watched the other team move off through the forest's fringe before leading his squad in the opposite direction. It took twenty minutes for them to reach their starting position. He had kept them for ten minutes to allow for full darkness, then gave the signal to move out.
The four ninja darted forward, low to the ground, so as to present as little a picture as possible. It took but minutes to cross the open plain and over the moat. They paused at the shadowed base of the first wall. Hearing no sound of alarm Itachi swiftly ran up the wall with his sharingan activated. Upon reaching the top he slew the guard with his tanto. Kakashi had given orders only to use swords if possible for his team. Signaling the rest of his team he jumped down and moved to the second wall.
Tenzo counted down the last seconds before they started their attack. Taking a deep breath, he gave the order and immediately heard the sound of hundreds of exploding tags burst into life destroying the outer wall in front of them. He focused his own chakra to create an earthen bridge over the moat.
Off to Tenzo's right another ANBU fired a large fireball through the gap in the wall, the cries of pain shrieked high and quickly silenced as men were incinerated.
Horns of alarm rang out from the keep, and the shouts of hundreds of men could be heard coming from farther in.
"Keep an eye out for enemy ninja," Tenzo ordered before taking out two of the tags he'd procured from the Hokage's son. "Where he gets these things from I don't know." He set them down on the ground in front of him and waited for the enemy to charge out from their hole.
Itachi shook his head ruefully. 'I know we rarely get to play in the open, but that is getting excessive,' he thought as the sound of a large automatic kunai launcher went off. 'I really need to talk to dad about this and see if he can't convince Minato to reign in Naruto's ninja tool expenses. No kid should have access to war grade kunai launchers.'
Itachi led his team over the final wall. They slaughtered the few guards they found before moving along the wall to the tower. A blast of water sliced into the wall right in front of him bringing them up short.
Looking around swiftly as he deflected the kunai, he spotted the two enemy shinobi hidden in the window alcoves above the entryway. Swearing slightly at not seeing this possibility, he fingered several kunai and flung them at the one on the right, hoping to disrupt the next jutsu.
Smiling as he saw the enemy quit making hand signs to dodge the first four knives into the path of the last two. The second shinobi jumped out of the way of the two fireballs that slammed into the window.
Itachi tracked the enemies movements with his eyes and dashed toward where the man would land as he swept his tanto out and sliced clean through the man. He fired another fireball through the door and moved swiftly up the stairs and was surprised by the lack of samurai inside the tower.
Three floors up, the Hyuga in the group stopped them all in front of a door. "She's inside, sir."
"Right," Itachi's impassive voice muttered. "Anyone else inside, or is it vacant like outside?"
"I wasn't looking while we were outside, sir," he could hear the sheepishness in the woman's voice. "However, there is no one else in the room. Uh, we should only allow deer and I to go in though sir." Itachi tilted his head to the side. "She's rather under dressed."
Itachi nodded his head and watched the two women enter the room while he and the other man took up posts outside. It wasn't but a minute later when three females left the room and the group made their way out. "Cat, make your exit."
"Roger," Tenzo said before dropping the earthen bridge he'd made back into the moat. He picked up the used launcher tags. "Everyone pull out." He shouted above the sounds of battle and quickly running through some hand signs he put up a large stone wall.
"... and how is the princess?" Kakashi asked.
"Misa-hime is with the medics getting checked out," Itachi responded. "They're making sure she is, intact."
"Right," Kakashi stretched. "As soon as the medics clear her your teams will take her back to Konoha." The ANBU all nodded. "Tenzo, how many samurai did your team take out in the diversion?"
"Uncertain," Tenzo shrugged. "Four or five dozen. Maybe another ninja or two."
"Right, take up a guard position around the princess," Kakashi sighed and walked over to his messengers and had them encrypt a message to the Hokage.
Hours later in the Hokage's office, Minato was meeting with the Daimyo and Shikaku Nara about the upcoming battle. A knock at the door brought a halt to the current argument.
"Enter," Minato called.
"The cypher core just dropped this off Hokage-sama," his secretary bustled in with a scroll.
"Thank you," Minato replied as he grabbed the scroll from the girl and opened it as she closed the door again. "Good news, your daughter was rescued Lord. She's getting looked at by the medics before the ANBU I sent bring her back here."
"Can Inoichi have a look at her when they get back?" the Daimyo asked, relief heavy in his voice. "Knowing there was ninja from somewhere else there, I want to make sure her mind isn't damaged."
"Very well, sir," Minato made a note. "So with your army ahead of schedule and almost there, we should be able to start the assault in two days."
"Your people will keep them bottled up in the fortress until the army arrives?" The Daimyo asked as he took a sip of his sake to calm his nerves. "Do any of your ninja have experience building siege weapons?"
Shikaku snorted as Minato laughed nervously.
"Naruto," Kakashi groaned. "Why is it always you?"
"Um, entertainment value?" Naruto remarked in confusion. "What did I do?"
"Nothing, yet," Kakashi sighed. "The Daimyo wanted to know if we had anyone who could build siege weapons here." Naruto started to chuckle nervously. "And, while truthfully we don't have anyone with that skill set," Kakashi paused and eyed his sweating student. "We do have you. So tell me Naruto what do you have in your book of secrets that can be used in this situation."
"Hehe, I have no idea what... you're," Naruto sobered up at a look from his teacher before he pulled open his coat and put his finger on a specific seal. "How do they know?"
"It's your father and Shikaku," Kakashi snorted as he watched a large book come out of the seal. "Is that the only one you have?"
"Really?" Naruto groaned as he touched another seal and a larger book popped out.
Kakashi looked at Naruto who growled and brought out a large sheaf of seals. "Anymore?" Naruto nodded his head with tears in his eyes. "Where did you get all these?" Kakashi's eyebrow disappeared beneath his headband.
"In trade," Naruto shrugged.
"In tra...," Kakashi mumbled. "Naruto you have more equipment in these than the village armory."
"That's a lie!" Naruto roared childishly.
Kakashi snorted as he started pulling out several seals from the books. "Against my better judgment you can have these back." He handed the sheaf and books back. "Get me the squad commanders."
"Okay sensei," Naruto mock saluted as he stored his books away. "Anything else?"
Kakashi though had turned to the diorama. "Bring Shikamaru too."
Fifteen minutes and one bound pineapple headed boy later, Kakashi was beginning his newest discussion with his subordinates.
"The Hokage and Daimyo have asked us to begin siege actions on the fortress now that the princess is safe. Thanks to Naruto here, we have the ability to start immediately."
Several of the gathered jonin turned to the blond boy, who looked the other way.
"Anyway," Kakashi coughed. "Shikamaru Nara and I picked out a few locations." He started reading off names and locations to the assembled commanders while Naruto tearfully handed out some of his vast collection. "My team and Asuma's will remain here on standby. If you need more ammo, ask Naruto."
7-15